The Male

“The granddaughter of the soup restaurant? Yeon, was it? You’re really pretty.” In the summer of nineteen, a boy I’d never seen before appeared in the neighborhood. “Don’t go on about pretty this, pretty that.” “Why?” “I don’t like hearing it.” “Why?” “How would you like it if someone you barely knew suddenly started pestering you, saying you’re handsome?” “Yeah. I’d like it.” “……” “I’m handsome, right? I hear that a lot.” A delinquent at nineteen, not going to school but hauling bricks at construction sites. A good-for-nothing. A dimwit. My first impression of Kang Hee-baek wasn’t great. But the more he grinned and followed me around, the cuter he started to look. “I’m nice, ri...