episode_0209

January 1st. The end of the year has come, and it is time to start a new year.

You might think that the days go by without much incident, and that the next day comes, but the moment when the numbers change in the year always feels special.

And at the same time, Jimin came up to me and handed me a gift.

“Happy New Year!”

I opened my eyes wide at the voice and picked up the box in my hand with a bewildered heart.

“… What is this?”

“Open it.”

A New Year’s gift out of the blue, to be honest, I didn’t really get it, so I just made a puzzled expression.

I would have thought it would be better if it wasn’t packaged, but since it was packaged, there were no clues other than the size, so I just made a subtle expression.

Since it was impolite to just sit there and think about the gift, I quietly held it and headed to the living room.

He placed the box on the low table between the TV and the sofa, then held the neatly folded ribbon on top in his hand.

I glanced at Jimin’s face, but he just snickered and slowly walked up to me, as if he had no intention of giving me a clue.

Was there any gift worth giving for the New Year?

Well, I have no idea what it is.

After mumbling like that, I finally reached the very end and put aside everything I was trying to infer, grabbed the ribbon I was holding in my hand and pulled it.

After a thud, it came undone, leaving behind a smooth wrapping paper.

I tried to hold it and shake it, but nothing happened except for the rattling sound.

To be honest, I couldn’t understand why I kept trying to guess instead of opening the packaging when I could have known right away.

“… Hmm. What is it.”

As he muttered, he carefully removed the tape that was playing around on the packaging, grabbed the gap that was gradually widening, and pushed it apart. There was a box between them.

No, I already knew there would be a box.

It just took me a moment to realize which product the box inside was for.

“… Smartphone?”

The box inside the packaging had the brand logo and product name simply written on top.

Just by that fact alone, I could tell it was a smartphone.

It was a box that looked neatly made on the outside, so I thought it couldn’t be helped that it was impossible to tell what was inside.

But as I was thinking, “Why the smartphone?”, Jimin’s smiling voice followed.

“It’s been a week since you came, but we still have no way of contacting each other, so I brought you one.”

“Oh, oh… But, when is it open?”

“Actually, I received it in my name, but I’m just going to change the SIM card and use it.”

“Huh?”

“I’m Han Ji-min, so I need a Han Ji-min phone, too. The new SIM card I received is mine.”

As he said that, Jimin, who had already taken the SIM card out of his smartphone, handed me the SIM card that was originally his.

Oh, that’s right. It’s natural for this to happen since we use each other’s names.

After belatedly realizing the reality, I turned on my smartphone for a moment, but then I was so overcome with emotion that I couldn’t speak properly.

“Ugh,” I groaned, and immediately Jimin’s expression turned into one of embarrassment.

“Uh, uh. What’s wrong?”

“Ah, no, I, I was wondering if it’s okay to accept something like this… ”

“Of course it’s okay! Honestly, I don’t think there’s much chance that we’ll ever be apart, but I’ll have to contact you when I go to throw out the trash.”

“… Yeah. Yeah.”

I nodded and kept fiddling with the square machine.

I tried leaving fingerprints on the screen on purpose, and I also tried wiping it with the sleeve of my kangaroo pajamas to make it clean.

As I was fiddling with it, thinking, “This is my smartphone,” a subtle emotion came over me.

Although I was happy to receive it, I didn’t really know how to use it.

No, but I thought it would be okay since it was roughly similar, so I turned on the screen.

However, since I was using a SIM card, the wallpaper came right up without telling me to set it separately, but after that, I had no idea what to do first.

It was a shame that even though I had been using computers for so long, I quickly became a machine idiot just because of a new machine.

Well, I guess that could be because just because you’ve played a lot of games doesn’t mean you’re good at handling machines.

Anyway, as I was feeling lost and wondering what to do next, I heard Jimin’s voice behind me.

“Ah, I’m done setting mine up. Should I save your phone number?”

“Oh, yeah. Okay!”

I nodded and readily agreed, feeling as if a lifeline had been lowered to me, who had been at a loss as to where to start.

Following his words, I pressed and held down the button with the shape of a receiver on the lower left of the screen.

Even if you are a mechanical person, you can’t not know this. As I was proudly walking towards the dial button, I heard his voice calling out the number.

“Uh, wait, what did you say?”

“Should I write it for you?”

“Uh… No! If I’m going to memorize it, I should write it myself.”

“Can you memorize it for me?”

“I’ll try… ”

Honestly, if you use it often, won’t you memorize it? It’s just eight numbers.

Even though I thought it was easy, when I actually thought about it, I had a strong feeling that it would be difficult. Even if I used it often and gradually memorized it, I couldn’t be sure because I didn’t know how much time it would take.

But he just smiled and called my number, probably feeling good that I was making an effort.

Even though I hesitated and stuttered, he repeated the same number over and over again without rushing me.

I felt a bit sorry for making you do something a little annoying, but I was more grateful.

“Ah, I’m done! I’ll just save it.”

When I was proud of myself for doing well, Jimin just looked at me with a happy look.

I just watched quietly without saying anything, so I unconsciously felt embarrassed and hunched over again.

Let’s save it. I clicked the Save as New Contact button and was taken straight to the profile window where I could write down the other person’s personal information.

The number was written down, and underneath it was something like my affiliation or position, but it seemed like this had nothing to do with me.

Then just write your name…

As I was typing out each letter of the name Han, Ji, Min, awkwardly on the smartphone keyboard, Jimin’s gaze, who had been keeping his mouth shut, came at me with a slightly creepy feeling.

I bit my lip, wondering if I had done something wrong.

But I didn’t have the courage to raise my head and make eye contact, so I quickly moved my hand and erased the completed letters.

Since I had never thought about what name I would like to use, I had a hard time figuring out what to do in this confusing situation.

I wrote my name because I was told to, but if that doesn’t work, does that mean it’s a nickname?

But I don’t know Jimin’s nickname. I’ve never called him by a nickname.

Jimin♥

“Hmm.”

My shoulders shook with a start.

I briefly wondered if there was something better between us, then I looked up and said, “Ah, ah.” and looked at Jimin.

An expression that seemed both satisfied and regretful caught my eye.

“How is it?”

I immediately tapped on the keyboard to erase Jimin and write Honey. Then, in the name box, the word ‘Honey♥’, which did not contain a single letter from the name Han Ji-min, took its place.

Then, after staring at it for a long time, he chuckled.

“Honey?”

“Oh, huh!”

“I liked Jimin’s heart too.”

“… Lie.”

I thought, “Oops,” but I couldn’t take back the words I had already said.

Jimin also looked embarrassed and tried to cover it up by looking away and asking that.

“… … How do you know it’s a lie?”

“I could see it all in your expression… ”

“… Well, Minhee reacts right away if he likes something, so I guess they resemble each other.”

“When did I?!”

“Didn’t you know? When you’re in a good mood, you hum along and wag your tail.”

“There’s no tail… ?”

“That’s what they say. If it were a dog, it would have waggled its tail right away, right?”

“… … .”

Am I the type of person who expresses my emotions easily?

With such doubts in mind, I tried to touch my face with my hands, but there was no way I could tell that I was touching my face. In the end, it ended in nothing, but since I looked like Jimin, it didn’t sound so bad.

“Um, by the way, I don’t know what my number is.”

Tail or something, it was more important to move on to the next step than to talk about something that didn’t exist.

I relaxed my expression and glanced at Jimin, who quickly told me how to get his number.

“Call me that number again. It will show up on my phone.”

“Oh really?”

As soon as I heard that, I clicked on the contact number.

There were the numbers of my dad, mom, and Jimin, who I wrote down earlier.

They aren’t my parents, but I guess they’re there because I’m Minhee. As I was thinking that, I soon let out a groan.

“Why?”

“No, you…don’t you have this number in your original contacts?”

“Ah, I deleted everything.”

“Yeah… ?”

“Nothing is required. Call me quickly.”

“Okay.”

I nodded at those words and made the call.

Thump, thump. A dry sound came from beyond the machine. I carefully put it to my ear.

When I realized that there was a sound where I was putting my ear, I let out an exclamation of admiration, but the sound quickly died down.

[hello?]

“Hello?”

Jimin’s voice, who had been on the phone nearby, was heard twice.

One is a real voice, and the other is a voice flowing through a machine.

I pulled my ear away in surprise and saw Jimin looking at me with a grin.

“Are you surprised?”

“… … Hello.”

I didn’t respond to those words, just put the smartphone to my ear again and mumbled.

Then I heard my voice leaking out from the smartphone Jimin was holding.

[Yes, it’s you, honey.]

“Yes, it’s honey.”

The sound of the two rings didn’t sound that good, but since it was my first time making a phone call with a smartphone, I wanted to keep trying, so I kept opening my mouth.

“Yes, honey, what do you want me to save it as?”

[Um, should I do it for you?]

“Um, should I do it for you?”

It was a bit weird hearing the voice twice, but when I actually heard those words and looked at the face, my face felt hot.

Finally, I spoke to the machine in a crawling voice, as if declaring surrender.

“Yes, please do that.”

When the machine stopped working, there was no longer any sound.

Even though the situation was already over, Jimin continued talking to the machine, which he wasn’t going to tell anyway, with a playful grin.

“I’ll put a heart on you and do it for you~”

I guess he’s just saying it because he can hear it from close by.

He bit his lip and turned his head away to hide his feelings of embarrassment.

As I crawled up onto the sofa, Jimin’s voice came quickly behind me.

“Where is our baby.”

“Ah, surprise…! When you come near, speak up and come near… ”

Jimin seemed to enjoy surprising me, as if he was hiding his presence when he approached me.

I was barely able to calm my pounding heart, but after thinking about it deeply, I realized that this wasn’t a surprised heart.

It wasn’t that my heart was pounding because I was surprised.

“쨘. Saved as ‘Honey♥’.”

Jimin showed me his smartphone screen and told me so.

I was watching it quietly and nodded as if I understood.

“Yeah, I checked.”

“That’s it?”

“…Honey?”

“Yeah. Yeah.”

Jimin seemed to want something more.

I wondered what he wanted, and then I quickly realized that I had received a gift, and there was no need to think about it any further.

“… Honey, thank you, I love you?”

“Yeah, I love you too.”

The weight of Jimin embracing me came over me.

I felt some kind of comfort from the pressure and hugged him tightly.