Stranger

When I finished eating and brushing my teeth more thoroughly than usual, Yeon Woojeong, sitting on the sofa, tapped his side. As I walked over and sat next to him, he opened my mouth and immediately pushed his finger inside.

His index finger slipped over my molars. My shoulders tensed at the oddly creepy sensation. His index finger reached the end. The fingertip that touched my gum softly came into touch with a tooth. It didn’t feel like my tooth.

“I think it’s a wisdom tooth.”

I frowned as I listened to the small muttering. Yeon Woojeong pulled out his wet finger. I quickly pulled out a tissue and wiped his hand. 

“Wisdom tooth?”

“Yeah. You have to remove it.”

“… Do I have to?”

“I don’t think it grows normally. And it hurts, right?”

I used to have my teeth pulled at home when I was young. I still remembered the feeling of winding the thread around a wobbly tooth and tugging on it. At the dentist, they use a tool to pull it out in one go, which is better than thread… but I’ve never had a healthy tooth pulled. 

“Are you afraid?”

“No.”

Yeon Woojeong scanned my face with smiley eyes. I knew that he sometimes treated me like a child, so I relaxed my expression.

“Go tomorrow. I’ll make an appointment somewhere I know.”

“Okay.”

“Do you want me to go with you? If you’re afraid of going alone.”

The latter was a clear provocation. I stared at the giggling face and asked.

“Are you afraid of the dentist?”

“I am. I hate dentists.”

I couldn’t say anything because he said it casually without looking afraid. I touched my cheek, which suddenly felt throbbing again, then I got up and brought my bag over.

“I have to study.”

“So study.”

Yeon Woojeong stood up after ruffling my hair. I sat on the floor, my back leaned on the sofa, and opened my book on the coffee table. I had to memorize 100 words today because I was going to take an English vocabulary test tomorrow. 

He, who went to the kitchen, poured his coffee and asked.

“Do you want juice?”

“Mhm.”

Yeon Woojeong put down a cup with juice on the table and sat on the sofa, holding a cup of coffee.

I felt a watching gaze. When I glanced at the wriggling white feet next to me as I memorized the remaining words, he took the vocabulary lists from me. 

“Okay. Let’s have a test.”

At his words, I flipped to a blank page in my notebook.

“I say a word, and you write down the spelling and definition.”

“Okay.”

When I was studying, Yeon Woojeong would sit next to me and teach me something I didn’t know or share a trick. Sometimes I got bored when I had to study alone, but when I had Yeon Woojeong next to me, I tried harder because he was looking at me. 

“terrible.” 

I tried to write the spelling, but I paused. Yeon Woojeong’s voice as he spoke English was colder than usual.

“terrible.” 

Yeon Woojeong repeated it again. Terrible. It was a word that really did not fit his voice. I slowly moved my pencil and wrote the spelling and definition. I was confused for a moment if the ‘r’ was one or two, but I wrote two.

“optimistic.”

I slowly recalled the spelling I saw on the vocabulary lists. I had memorized it from writing it so many times that my hand moved on its own.

When Yeon Woojeong spoke, I wrote. And just like that, I filled in nine words.

“insert.”

I wrote until ‘inse’ and stopped. I couldn’t think of the definition, and I was also confused about the spelling. Wondering between ‘l’ and ‘r,’ I wrote down ‘l,’ and then I looked at Yeon Woojeong. He was expressionless. Then I added ‘t,’ but it felt somewhat weird, so I changed ‘l’ to ‘r.’

I couldn’t think of the definition at all. Yeon Woojeong closed the vocabulary, put it down, and took my notebook.

“You got everything right. Except for the last one.”

“What about the spelling?”

“It’s right. You don’t remember the definition?”

“Yeah.”

“Insert.”

“Aha.”

That’s right. It was that. I fiddled with my pencil out of regret, and he touched my hair.

“I guess it’s hard to memorize seeing that you put a star on this?”

“Yeah.”

“I find that when I memorize a word, I have to associate it with something to make it stick.”

“Associate?”

“Because ‘insert’ is insert…”

Yeon Woojeong’s hand slid down and caressed my nape subtly.

“You can think of when you put it in me.”

“…”

Yeon Woojeong’s finger slipped through the hole in my hand, which was formed as I was holding a pencil. He laughed when I dropped the pencil and hid my hands.

“Insert.”

My upper jaw throbbed again. I pushed on it with the tip of my tongue and glared at Yeon Woojeong.

“What if I remember it when I’m taking a test?”

“Then it means you succeed.”

He took his hand off me and drank his coffee with a happy face. I held back the desire to bite Yeon Woojeong, opened the vocabulary list back, and erased the star I put on the ‘insert’ word. I didn’t think I would ever forget this word ever again.

“Now, let’s start again.”

Yeon Woojeong took the vocabulary list back. I folded a page of my notebook in half, wrote numbers in the blank spaces, and prepared to write down the words.

“like.”

I snorted and wrote it down. This was a word I knew without having to memorize it. 

“love.”

Again, it was an easy word and I could have written it right away, but I paused. I looked back at Yeon Woojeong. He was looking down at the vocabulary with an expressionless face. Was there any easy word in the vocabulary list? It seemed like he was playing a joke, but I felt like he would say he was serious and make fun of me if I said something, so I just wrote the spelling and definition.

Yeon Woojeong looked at the words I wrote on my notebook and continued.

“cute.”

I put down my pencil and looked at him. Yeon Woojeong flashed his brows.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s too easy.”

“You also need to check on the easy words.”

“You’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you?”

“Why do you think so?”

I took the vocabulary lists away from him. The words he spoke were not on the sheet he was looking at. I spread it wide and showed it in front of Yeon Woojeong, and he shrugged.

“Don’t disturb me.”

“Disturb? You’re making me upset.”

“… You weren’t really disturbing.”

I mumbled, and Yeon Woojeong kissed my head, smiling. Feeling fluttery, I touched his foot, which was on the floor. He picked up his cup again and drank a sip of his coffee.

“Is it good?”

“Do you want me to pour you a cup?”

“No.”

“Why? Do you hate coffee because it’s bitter?”

“Yeah.”

“Then should I buy you some tea? The one without caffeine?”

“No. I prefer water.”

I just preferred watching Yeon Woojeong drink his coffee and the scent that lingered in the room afterward. When I rested my chin on Yeon Woojeong’s thigh and looked up at him, he tickled my cheek with his fingers.

“Do your study. I won’t disturb you anymore.”

“Later.”

“Lazy ass.”

I got speechless. As I frowned, he brought his lips to his cup. Yeon Woojeong caressed around my eye and put down the emptied cup.

He stroked my hair. Being like this reminded me of the dream I had.

“Mr. Yeon.”

“Mhm.”

“Smile.”

He didn’t hesitate in the slightest at my request and smiled. Even though he smiled because I asked him to, it felt natural and not forced.

I made him smile. I. I did it.

I muttered to myself, and I felt better.

“Do you like it?”

Yeon Woojeong rubbed the corner of my lips with his thumb. I didn’t answer him and leaned my cheek on his thigh.

“Think of what you want to do after the exam.”

“What I want to do?”

“Yeah. Let’s do it one by one.”

Thinking of all the things I want to do, one by one, rather than picking and choosing from the rest of the things I don’t want to do. This was the biggest change in my life. I nodded. I liked the cloth felt on my cheek and Yeon Woojeong’s legs. He didn’t take his hand off my lips, and I closed my eyes, feeling relaxed.