I gulped down the juice, and Daesu hyung looked at me with displeasure.
“Why are you grinning like that with your lips all red? Like the Joker.”
“What does it matter to you whether I smile or not?”
I was pouting my lips and pouring the last cup of juice down my throat, when Gangjin hyung tilted his head slightly and looked at me.
“Daesu-ya, doesn’t it seem like Kkakdugi is talking back to you these days?”
“Yeah, now that he’s got hair on his pepper, he’s talking back to me.”
“Wow─ you got hair on your pepper? That’s cool?”
“Guh-urk, kuh! Cough, cough.”
It was fortunate I’d finished drinking or what was left in my throat would have come back up. Just because mom wasn’t nearby, the hyungs openly asked about what was going on inside my pants.
Before, they told me “if you have a wet dream, you’ll die within 3 months,” so I’d cried alone in the morning while washing my underwear. But a few days later, during sex education class, I heard that phenomenon was very natural, so I vowed never to be swayed by the hyungs’ words again. So now I let their chatter about hair go in one ear and out the other.
“Why are you asking that in the middle of eating? Please observe table manners.”
“We’re asking because we’re impressed. We don’t have any hair. Gangjin-ah, do you have any?”
“No. I don’t have any either. Seongheon doesn’t either. Wow─ you’re a man, a real man. Applause.”
Clap clap clap clap.
Gangjin hyung and Daesu hyung stopped eating their ribs and started clapping. No, why is this something to be congratulated for in the middle of eating ribs?
“Wow, Daeyoung became an adult before us. Congratulations.”
“That’s right. Shouldn’t we be calling him hyung?”
I can’t fall for it. I’ve never openly asked peers “Hey, did you grow hair?” but I was always average in height, stamina, and grades. So I thought it was natural to have hair at my age…… Could it be, do I have superior genes?
No, I couldn’t be fooled again.
“I don’t believe it. I absolutely don’t believe what the hyungs say.”
At my words, Daesu hyung went a step further and started provoking me.
“Show us once?”
“I absolutely refuse to show hyung.”
“Why, does it feel immoral?”
“Ah! That’s gross, really!”
I almost cursed right in Daesu hyung’s face. Ignoring hyung’s nonsense, I was picking up and eating another rib, when Gangjin hyung asked while sucking on his sauce-covered fingers.
“Kkakdugi, then should I show you mine?”
“Yeah, go ahead and show me.”
When I looked at him with distrustful eyes and didn’t believe him, Gangjin hyung stood up from his chair with a scrape. Then he looked around, confirmed that mom wasn’t there, and slightly pulled down his pants and underwear.
“……”
I froze while eating the rib. It was because Gangjin hyung pulled it down past his hip bone until just before the bottom showed, revealing his bare skin.
But…… really! Really! There wasn’t a single hair. Thud, the rib I was biting fell back onto the plate in front of me.
“You saw, right? I told you I don’t have any.”
“Right. I don’t have any either. Want to see?”
“No. Stop it. Please just stop!”
Because we were blood relatives, I hated seeing it even more. We bathed together when we were young, but from upper elementary school on, we did it separately. We didn’t particularly like each other, and I just hated touching Daesu hyung’s body itself. My appetite was ruined, so I waved my hands and adamantly refused.
“Do you believe me now?”
If I said I didn’t believe him, he’d probably insist, so I hurriedly nodded.
“Yeah. I’ll believe you.”
I blinked my eyes and tried hard to quickly erase the glimpse I’d gotten of Gangjin hyung’s tanned private skin. How could he have a more complete body than anyone else yet have absolutely no hair there…….
It was too shocking. I thought everyone grew hair when they became adults, but my hyung and Gangjin hyung were completely barren, which made me feel a bit sorry for them.
Then I suddenly remembered that Seongheon hyung also said he didn’t have any.
‘He really doesn’t have any? What about hyung……’
I felt a tiny bit of sympathy for the hyungs. So that’s why my hyung acted crooked toward me. It’s natural to feel anxious if your younger brother has it but you don’t.
Feeling like I’d suddenly become an adult, I ate quietly without showing off too much. Gangjin hyung and Daesu hyung saw me eating even the spicy food without complaining and gave me a thumbs up, encouraging me.
“As expected, a real man!”
“Our Kkakdugi is admirable! A man with hair is different indeed!”
Because the hyungs were like that, I had no choice but to endure and eat even the spicy food.
After enduring the hyungs’ fawning and finishing the meal safely, we all cleared the table together. When Gangjin hyung came over to play at our house, he and Daesu hyung would always head to the room, but today for some reason they both stayed in the living room.
‘Is there something interesting on TV?’
I went to the sink and was about to put on rubber gloves to do the dishes when I heard Gangjin hyung ask “Should we go see Seongheon?” and then I saw him and Daesu hyung secretly walking toward the front door together.
I couldn’t let them leave without me. I urgently threw off the rubber gloves I’d put on, turning them inside out, and hurriedly followed the hyungs.
“Daesu hyung! Take me too.”
“Where?”
“To Seongheon hyung’s place.”
“Who’ll watch the house?”
“There’s Ddanji.”
“Ddanji wags his tail even at strangers.”
“I like strangers too! I’ll totally open the door for them!”
While I was answering, the hyungs slipped into the light green car. Not to be outdone, I quickly ran over, opened the back seat door, and got in.
Thud! I closed the door and sat up straight, and Daesu hyung in the passenger seat turned around and nagged.
“Get out.”
“No.”
“We have things to talk about among ourselves.”
“You said I’m an adult too. Let me join.”
“No. You threw up in Seongheon’s car before. Get out.”
Hyung unfailingly exposed my past shame. Then Gangjin hyung started the engine and looked at me with suspicious eyes, saying “Ah, right. That happened.”
So I appealed even more intensely.
“Gangjin hyung, back then I threw up because I was lying on my side. Now I’ll sit up straight, and if I feel sick I’ll jump out of the car.”
“Hmm…… Anyway, that was the first time I saw Seongheon that calm. When I spilled snacks on the floor, he nagged for an hour.”
Daesu hyung also nodded at Gangjin hyung’s words, agreeing by saying “That’s why I don’t ride in Seongheon’s car.”
When I kept holding out without getting off, Gangjin hyung looked at me through the rearview mirror without saying anything, then quietly shook his head. Seeming to half give up, he started the car as is.
“Let’s just go.”
“Hey. If we include him, we won’t be able to hang out.”
“Well…… Seongheon will handle it. Right?”
Gangjin hyung grinned and made eye contact with me once again. I raised the corners of my mouth and nodded up and down to say yes. Only Daesu hyung looked back at me, then let out a long sigh pulled up from his core like a goldfish’s poop and turned to face forward completely.
“I don’t know anymore.”
I’m excited. First, I broke Daesu hyung’s stubbornness, and I was recognized as an adult.
On top of that, I felt superior knowing that Seongheon hyung answered my contacts better than the hyungs’, and I was happy to be going to see that hyung’s face. Gangjin hyung often came to our house even just to mooch dinner, but Seongheon hyung rarely came, so it had been almost a month since I’d seen his face.
And another good reason was that tomorrow was Sunday. If the hyungs said they were sleeping over at Seongheon hyung’s house, I could join them and sleep over too.
“Seongheon, still not answering the phone?”
Gangjin hyung turned the steering wheel and asked Daesu hyung sitting next to him, and Daesu hyung put the phone to his ear again and shook his head.
“Gangjin-ah, isn’t he just sleeping?”
“Would he be sleeping at this hour?”
“True.”
“What’s he doing these days that we can’t reach him every weekend?”
“He’s always busy. Lots of people calling him from here and there. Juniors are always asking me because they want to see Seongheon’s face once.”
“What kind of requests?”
“Well, to bring him out. To include him when drinking.”
“Daesu-ya. Didn’t you say there was someone in the same department stalking Seongheon?”
“Ah…… That person took a leave of absence.”
“Why?”
“Seongheon really tore into them. Their ears probably bled.”
“I can tell without seeing. When he’s determined to speak, it really turns me off.”
“Me too.”
Gangjin hyung nodded as if he knew without hearing more.
Then, swoosh, Gangjin hyung, who had been stroking the steering wheel once, glanced at me sitting in the back seat through the rearview mirror. Feeling like I was openly eavesdropping on the hyungs’ conversation, I pretended to be on my phone and played dumb.
‘Seongheon hyung had a stalker? I didn’t know because he didn’t show it at all……’
Whether he thought I wasn’t listening to their conversation, Gangjin hyung continued.
“Still, Seongheon really keeps quiet since coming to college.”
“He’s naturally taciturn, so if you don’t provoke him, of course he’s quiet.”
“Not that, doesn’t he say anything to seniors and juniors?”
“He doesn’t. He’s not even interested. He hardly attends drinking gatherings…… Gangjin, did you break up with the noona you were seeing?”
“I broke up with her a while ago. What about you?”
“I just exchange contacts.”
“By any chance, is Seongheon seeing anyone?”
“I doubt it?”
“I think I heard once before that he had a girlfriend, but there’s been no word since then so I don’t know. Doesn’t he tell you either?”
“He doesn’t. I guess meeting someone is just bothersome for him.”
“True…… He doesn’t have the personality to date anyone.”
“Then he’s definitely at home.”
“Then why isn’t he answering?”
“How would I know.”
Just roughly listening to Daesu hyung and Gangjin hyung’s conversation, I could tell that all the hyungs were currently single. I didn’t know about the other hyungs, but the idea that Daesu hyung was exchanging contacts with a woman seemed like a lie.
Soon we left the national road and entered a private property road, and the path became much darker. At times like this, it felt more real that I lived in the countryside.
Following the wall built along the winding road, a firmly closed heavy gate appeared. When Gangjin hyung pressed the intercom attached to the pillar, the gate slowly opened. It felt grand, like entering a dungeon entrance.
Unlike the outside, the mansion’s garden was truly spectacular enough to be called a feast for the eyes—gorgeous and tasteful. Pine trees had been transplanted throughout the garden, and it was dazzling following the ground lighting. It also looked eerie like monster shadows, reminding me of running dungeons with Seongheon hyung today.
‘If he finds out I tagged along, Seongheon hyung will be really surprised, right? Won’t he hug me saying he’s glad?’
Cute Gangjin hyung’s light green car was parked next to a black matte SUV. That car was Seongheon hyung’s, and unlike its owner, it was a very menacing-looking foreign car. Every time I saw it, I thought it might have been switched with Gangjin hyung’s.
When we reached the front door, I saw Seongheon hyung who had come out to greet us. He must have opened the gate.
‘Seongheon hyung isn’t even wearing a t-shirt. He’ll catch a cold like that……’
I deliberately stuck close behind Gangjin hyung and crouched down even smaller to surprise hyung. As intended, whether Seongheon hyung didn’t see me yet or not, as soon as he opened the front door, he immediately turned around and went in, complaining.
“Ah, you crazy bastards. Why are you crawling in at this hour of the night?”
“We came to see what you were doing. You weren’t answering.”
“Fuck, so fucking annoying. Why are you showing up without contact, what the hell. Did your brain rot?”
I was following behind Gangjin hyung when my body froze solid.
