Hoseok gazed at the solitary stalagmite of calcified chewing gum six inches in front of his face and wondered whether this was such a good idea. The column of gum sprouts incongruously out of the carpet, a tiny grey phallus. Nearby lie two chocolate covered raisins, an old Fruit Pastille, and a sprinkling of spilled popcorn. The carpet burnt his cheek as he contemplated this eclectic menu.When the lights went down fully, he gingerly pulled himself from his hiding place on the floor, and sunk silently into his seat. A stark, sombre cord echoed through the cinema and the dirty wooden sign materialises on the screen, barely legible in the half-light: No Trespassing. The ghostly silhouette of Xanadu emerges from the fog as the music rose to a strident crescendo. Then those famous lips fill the screen and whisper their anguished elegy to a lost childhood. Rosebud.
As the film's opening images crash onto the screen, instead of the usual shiver of delightful anticipation, Hoseok felt nothing but cold, gnawing anxiety. Upturned empty seats stretched out on either side of him; easy escape routes in both directions. The auditorium is almost deserted. He watched the solitary figure ten rows ahead of him. Yoongi's arm stretched into the carton between his knees as he rhythmically shovels handfuls of yellow popcorn into his mouth. Hoseok stared at his flickering silhouette.What is he doing here?Hoseok was introduced to the delights of 'Citizen Kane' on his first date with Yoongi, whilst they were still at university. He didn't suspect then that they would eventually marry and do all that happy-ever-after stuff. (Hoseok, he knew. He'd already known for months.) Yoongi was a big film buff back then, and he told me, half serious, that he couldn't go out with anyone who didn't love Orson Welles. Hoseok had nervously confessed that he didn't know any of his works. Shocked, Yoongi insisted on taking him to see 'Citizen Kane', which was showing in a small repertory cinema just a few blocks from the University. He had agreed, blinking in disbelief. This boy had even spared him the anguish of asking him out, that ritual dance with the spectre of impending humiliation.After the film, Hoseok lavished extravagant praise on it's radical camera angles, the playful chronology, the myriad techniques which Welles had borrowed from his earlier experiments in radio. This spontaneous and instinctive criticism was delivered in a breathless, hurried monologue, and poached verbatim from a film guide that he had anxiously studied that afternoon in the Library. It didn't fool Yoongi for a moment, of course, but something about the nervy 'Chutzpah' of his performance persuaded him to accept his dry-mouthed invitation to dinner later that week.Once he had decided that Hoseok was going to be worth the effort, Yoongi launched me on a crash-course in film history. He dragged me to countless screenings of old films, all fabulously obscure and exotically subtitled. He went along in a haze of ecstatic bewilderment. They could have been watching paint dry for all Hoseok cared; he just wanted to be with Yoongi.Still, he paid attention.After a few months, Hoseok was able to spot abstruse cinematic references at fifty paces, with one eye on the screen and one hand down Yoongi's briefs. He could distinguish 'Kurosawa' from 'Kubrick', 'Peckinpah' from 'Polanski'. But he still loved 'Citizen Kane' the most. Its story of a vain, lonely man in search of love pinned him back in his seat every time. And, of course, it was the flame that first welded their lives together.
Hoseok watched Yoongi as he impassively guzzles popcorn, his face tilted towards the screen like a flower to the sun. By now, Hoseok thought he'd be shadowing him through the infernal misery of a Daegu street Sunday afternoon. But when he left the apartment, rather than turning towards the Tube station, he strode purposely in the direction of Deabak Plaza. Yoongi had arrived in front of the cinema exactly ten-minutes before the movie was due to begin, and stepped inside without a moment's hesitation. It was all too neat to be a coincidence, too convenient to be excused as a sudden change of plan. Besides, Yoongi is hardly the impulsive type. Which means his story about the shopping trip was a considered, deliberate lie.
Suspicion and fear clouded Hoseok's thoughts.
This was a mistake. He should not be here. Forgive his trespass.But what's done is done: the past slams shut behind him.
