Stranger

It didn’t look fun at all, but Yeon Woojeong was smiling. I couldn’t say I didn’t want to. Likewise, I didn’t hate the idea.

From the route, it looked like this place wasn’t far from the last stop. I wondered if it’d take around 30 minutes, and not long after, I saw a bus approaching. When the bus stopped, Yeon Woojeong got on the bus first.

“Two people.”

There were only a few people on the bus. Yeon Woojeong stopped by the two rows from the last seat and bobbed his head.

“Sit down.”

As I sat by the window, he sat next to me. He just thoughtlessly let his hand down, and the tips of his fingers fell on my thigh. I glared at him, but Yeon Woojeong didn’t move his hand as if he didn’t know about it. I gave up and looked outside the window.

The glass window that moved past the black landscape showed Yeon Woojeong’s face sitting next to me. He slightly leaned back his head and looked up at the ceiling. The line that went down a bit under his forehead and went up again looked more prominent if I looked at it like this.

Why are we taking a bus? As the bus passed by a few stops, one or two people got off, and we were the only ones left on the bus. Yeon Woojeong’s eyes that only looked at the ceiling as if he was thinking about something turned to me. He leaned his head a bit and then scanned me. My nape felt stiff.

“It’s quiet, right?”

The voice with a weak reverberation rang right next to my ear. The tips of my fingers flinched. Soon, a faint laugh stimulated my ears. 

“There’s fine hair here.”

He smiled subtly as I turned my head and brushed my ear.

“Don’t make me annoyed.”

Yeon Woojeong shrugged his shoulders as he leaned backward at the words I spitted angrily.

“Seems like it’s already the time to cut your hair.”

“…”

“You keep blinking your eyes.”

I swept my hair up as I heard the comment that I didn’t even think of. Only then I realized that my hair was pricking my eyes. As I roughly put my hair aside, Yeon Woojeong’s gaze stayed on my forehead.

“Why are we taking this?”

“Sometimes I take the bus; when I want to empty my head. Isn’t this good? Staying in an empty bus, and to the destination that we don’t know.”

“Doing nothing like this?”

“Yeah, just looking at the outside. Even though they look somewhat similar, there’s no same scenery. Every time you pass a scenery, throw out one of your thoughts. Make it so that there’s nothing left when you arrive at the last stop.”

Yeon Woojeong’s gaze was directed beyond the window. I, too, turned my head and looked outside. I always thought that the scenery of this city, Seoul, was the same, but just like what he said, there was no same scenery.

Thought. What kind of thought should I throw out? Even though I didn’t try to empty my head, I felt like I was getting blank. It felt like everything that I always held in my head unintentionally scattered along with the scenery I passed by.

It was quiet inside the bus, and as the bus got closer to the last stop, it ran faster without stopping. Only some announcements noticed the next stops occasionally filled the bus. We said nothing, and we reached the last stop.

The bus stop was silent. Because the last stop was also a garage, there were no people around, and it was deserted. There was a schedule for the bus we took at the bus stop, and there were still around 10 minutes left for the last bus. 

“Wait.”

Yeon Woojeong took a cigarette from his pocket and walked away from me. Looking at him putting the cigarette in his mouth, lighting the cigarette with a lighter, I asked him. 

“Can you smoke here?”

He inhaled the cigarette and blew out the smoke as he smirked after my question.

“No. Smoking is prohibited within 10 meters.”

“But why are you smoking?”

“The punishment is too light. I don’t feel alert.”

“You’re so brazen. Shouldn’t a prosecutor set a good example?”

“I at least have the conscience to not smoke when there’s another human. Isn’t that enough?”

“Am I not a human?”

“I can’t leave you alone, can I? In this night.”

Yeon Woojeong sucked the cigarette again and blew out the smoke in another direction. I was dumbfounded by how he treated me as a little kid and used that as a reason, but the smoke coming out of his lips caught my attention. 

He blew the smoke for a long time and took out something from his pocket. It looked like a silver lighter, and he opened the lid, then put the ash there. It was my first time seeing someone bringing along something like that with them. He was a man who did as he pleased and wasn’t completely well-mannered.

When he sucked the cigarette, Yeon Woojoeng’s eyes lowered down halfway. When he took out the cigarette from his lips, his eyes looked up at the air, and the hand holding the cigarette went down and tapped the ashes. Soon, he turned his head and looked at me. Our eyes met, but I didn’t avoid him. 

Yeon Woojeong brought back his hand holding the cigarette to his lips. The moment he put the cigarette and sucked it, his gaze felt more intent, so I clenched my fingers. I put my hands inside my pocket, and my lips felt stiff. It was watering under my tongue.

The time felt like stopping, but the cigarette got shorter. The sound of the bus coming from the garage and the sound of Yeon Woojeong blowing the smoke were vivid. The wind was cold, and Yeon Woojeong, who didn’t button his coat and suit jacket, had no difference in his face as if he didn’t feel cold. I glanced for a second at the appropriately fit pants that show the line of his thighs, and when Yeon Woojeong’s hand moves, I turned my gaze.