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Lee Jun-ho was immensely proud of his friend, Han Joon-hwi, whom he considered a brother in everything but blood. When the two of them were younger, Junho's father — now a retired Prosecutor — had been close friends with Seo Byeong-ju, Joon-hwi's late uncle. They were only several months apart, with Joon-hwi being the older of the two. Despite this, it was Jun-ho who often looked out for Joon-hwi, especially when it came to matters of the heart.
For all his intellectual prowess, Han Joon-hwi was hopeless at love.
“‘Grateful?’ You're grateful for Kang Sol A?”
His voice rang across the basketball court, which was near-empty save for the two of them. Jun-ho deftly passed the ball to Joon-hwi, who caught it and pinned his childhood friend with a steely look.
“Why? What is wrong with being grateful?” he demanded, sounding defensive.
Jun-ho smirked. “That's a funny way of saying you love her.”
“Love?” The ball slipped from Joon-hwi's hands, and bounced off in Junho's direction. He stared, mouth open and posture rigid, at Jun-ho . “Who said anything about love?”
“Sorry,” Jun-ho deadpanned. “You're not in love with her. You're just grateful.”
Laughing at the grimace his friend made, Jun-ho expertly scooped the ball from the ground and aimed it toward the ring. It whizzed past their heads, shot through the basket, and landed to the ground before it bounced into Joon-hwi’s hands.
“I don't know what you're talking about,” he retorted, knuckles white as he gripped the ball tightly.
“Look, hyung. You're a smart guy. But you can be so dense.”
Quickly, while his friend was distracted, Jun-ho took the ball stealthily from Joon-hwi's hands. There was a yelp, and the younger man broke off into a peal of laughter.
Lips pressed in a thin line, Joon-hwi said, “Sol and I are friends. There's nothing between us.”
“How could there be when you're too scared to tell her how you feel?” Jun-ho teased.
“I — It's complicated.”
“Complicated. Aigoo, Mr. Second Round Judicial Exam Passer. I didn't even know that word existed in your vocabulary.”
“Ha, ha. You're hilarious . No wonder you're such a hit with women.”
The ball darted toward him suddenly, and Joon-hwi caught it with a grunt. His scowled deepened at the large grin creeping onto Jun-ho’s face.
“Is Kang Sol-ssi seeing someone else?” Jun-ho asked.
“No, she isn't.”
“Are you seeing someone else?”
“Obviously not.”
“Then I don't get it, hyung.” Jun-ho tilted his head to the side. “You're single. She's single. You guys have been friends for two years, so you're already halfway there.”
“ Babo-ya. Do you really think it’s that easy?”
He pursed his lips, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Joon-hwi could be unbearably stubborn. Add that to the fact that he was a law school prodigy and it was enough to give Jun-ho a migraine.
“Well, based on what you've told me and what I've seen, it seems like Sol cares about you a lot.”
There was a flash of hesitation on Joon-hwi's expression. “I care about her, too. Probably more than she cares about me,” he confessed, voice suddenly becoming quiet.
Jun-ho placed a comforting hand on his hyung's shoulder. He sensed the mood shift. It was typical of Joon-hwi to be brooding and secretive, but Jun-ho had rarely seen him as vulnerable as he was in that moment.
“Then what's the problem, hyung?”
“What if I tell her how I feel — that I care,” he flinched, “that I care about her, and it turns out to be a huge mistake? Being friends is easy; it's stable. Nobody ends up losing anything.”
“That's true,” Jun-ho nodded.
He met Kang Sol when she spent a few months doing a summer internship at Hanbada Law Firm. It had come as a surprise to Jun-ho to learn that the Hankuk intern was close with his childhood friend. The Han Joon-hwi that he knew was friendly with everyone, was generally easy to be around, but Joon-hwi seemed to be a different person when Sol was around. With Sol, his smiles were sincere, his laughter was louder, and his presence more comfortable. With Sol, Joon-hwi was at home. It reminded Jun-ho of the Han Joon-hwi from the past, before his parents' untimely deaths.
It was a Han Joon-hwi who didn't quite feel so lonely. A Han Joon-hwi who was happy.
“Sol is… she's just amazing, Junho-ya,” Joon-hwi went on. Something in his voice made Jun-ho's head turn. A smile was dancing at the corner of Joon-hwi's mouth, half-pride and half-astonishment, as though he couldn't quite believe someone like Kang Sol existed. “She's like… the sun coming out of the rain. When I'm with her, everything is brighter. Warmer. Clearer. There's nothing I wouldn't do for her.”
Then he fell quiet. His eyes grew wide, struck by a startling epiphany.
“Nothing…” Joon-hwi repeated in a whisper.
“Hyung,” Jun-ho said, smiling softly. “Don't the people we love deserve to know how much we care? You know, before it's too late?”
Joon-hwi said nothing. He was gazing out into the distance, expression pensive. Their basketball game was left forgotten.
Moments later, the sound of a phone ringing interrupted them.
It was Young-woo.
The instant Jun-ho saw her name appear on his screen, his face softened into a grin. The clock read half past 9 in the evening. Was she working late tonight?
“Woo Young-woo byeongsanim, annye—”
In true Young-woo fashion, however, he barely finished his greeting when she launched into a monologue, speaking a thousand words per minute.
“The mouth of a humpback whale can reach up to 10 feet long but its throat is roughly the size of a human fist and can only stretch to about 15 inches in diameter.”
He could hear her eager enjoyment crackling from the other line. By now, Jun-ho had become familiar with Young-woo's quirks and habits and knew better than to interrupt. If there were a list of things in the world that were capable of filling Woo Young-woo with this much joy and spirit, whale talk was at the top of that list.
“Do you know what that means?” Young-woo was almost breathless with excitement. “It is scientifically impossible for a humpback whale to swallow a human whole.”
“Interesting,” was Jun-ho's thoughtful reply once she reached the end of her spiel. “Does that mean I can't be eaten by a whale then?”
Joon-hwi was giving him a weird look. Whales? he mouthed, confused.
Young-woo, Jun-ho mouthed back. A look of understanding dawned on Joon-hwi's face.
“Not necessarily,” Young-woo said in response, in the same eager voice that made him smile. “Sperm whales, which measure to roughly 65 feet long, are the only ones among 90 known whale species on Earth to possess throats large enough to fit a human. But statistically speaking, there is a one in a billion chance of encountering a sperm whale in the flesh. So, you would have higher chances of getting struck by lightning than to ever be eaten by a sperm whale.”
“Well, that's too bad,” Jun-ho said. “I would love to meet a sperm whale in my lifetime.”
"That would be impossible. Unless you can dive over 10,000 feet in the open ocean.” Then, before Jun-ho could sneak in a reply, Young-woo said, “I'm going to bed now. Good night, Junho-ssi.”
“Good n—”
A click, then the line went dead.
“So, Lee Junho-ssi. Woo Young-woo byeongsanim, huh?”
“She, er, does that every now and then.” The evening breeze was chilly but Jun-ho’s face was warm. “Talk about whales, I mean… with me.”
“I didn't know you liked whales so much, Junho-ya.”
He could not look Joon-hwi in the eye. “I — I do. I like… whales.”
The confession served to broaden the smile Joon-hwi directed at his childhood friend.
“I can see that. So, have you told her yet?”
“Told what, exactly?”
Joon-hwi wagged his eyebrows.
“That you like her, of course.”
“W-what?” Jun-ho blinked. “Like — like who?”
“The girl who's crazy about whales… Does she know you're crazy about her?”
His fingers slackened against the ball he was holding. “I don't know what you're talking about,” Jun-ho retorted, though his face turned an even darker shade of red.
“Aigoo, Lee Junho-ssi.” Joon-hwi's eyes twinkled. “You're a smart guy. But you can be so dense.”
Without waiting for a rebuttal, Joon-hwi swatted the ball away and deftly pushed it into the net, smirking as Jun-ho stood rooted to his spot in stunned silence.