Ding.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, a message arrived.
Gyeonwoo
Don’t ring the doorbell, just enter the passcode and come in
It was a message sent by Gyeonwoo.
Even between family members, there exists proper etiquette and privacy. Even though he knew the front door passcode, just opening the door and walking in felt completely awkward. That’s why he always rang the doorbell, and Gyeonwoo would grumble every time, complaining it was annoying.
Today too, knowing his hyung would do that again, he’d sent a text in advance.
‘Don’t tell me he put a location tracker on my phone? How did he know I was almost here?’
Or was this what people commonly call twin intuition? Finding it curious, he read the message once more as he walked down the hallway.
The hallway lighting was darker than when he’d come before. It was clearly a place where people lived, but today he couldn’t feel a single sign of human presence. The moment the familiar place felt unfamiliar, the memories of that day quietly raised their head.
A space where no one lived, where there was no one. The cold floor. Violent hands.
Just as sensations he didn’t want to recall were about to crawl up the back of his neck, faint sounds of daily life coming from beyond the walls pulled Hyowoo back to reality.
‘Right. This isn’t that place, it’s Gyeonwoo’s home. Nothing’s going to happen, so there’s no need to be scared.’
He gripped the items in his hands tightly and quickened his pace.
At the end of the hallway, having arrived in front of his younger brother’s studio apartment, Hyowoo followed the request and didn’t ring the doorbell, instead entering the door lock passcode.
Beep. As the lock released, the sound of the TV flowed out through the door crack.
After taking off his shoes and passing through the entrance into the living room, he saw Gyeonwoo perched at the end of the bed. He just waved his hand lightly at his hyung, then turned his gaze back to the TV screen.
“Is that all the greeting you have for your hyung you’re seeing after so long?”
“The chicken? Did you buy it?”
Regardless of what Hyowoo said, Gyeonwoo seemed to only have eyes for the bag in his hyung’s hands.
‘How precious, my younger brother…’
Whatever he said wouldn’t even reach his ears anyway. Deciding not to waste his energy for nothing, he quietly held out the chicken bag.
“You bought both seasoned and fried, right?”
“Yeah. As you wished, one whole chicken of each.”
“Well done. I don’t deal with half-and-half nonsense.”
Receiving the late-night snack he’d been yearning for, Gyeonwoo smiled brightly like a general who’d reclaimed his lost kingdom. They were twins with only a 20-minute age difference, but at times like this, he really looked like a child.
“My chicken~ It’s been three days since we met, right? I’m damn happy to see you.”
“…And you’re not happy to see me after two weeks?”
“The face I see in the mirror every morning is my face, and my face is your face. How could I be happy to see you?”
“Really? Then since you’re not happy, give me half the chicken money.”
At those words, the kid’s indifferent attitude changed completely.
“Oh my, why is our beloved hyung-nim acting like this~ You know your younger brother is poor~”
He hadn’t even given him a glance just moments ago, but Gyeonwoo suddenly acted cute in a way that didn’t suit his build and clung to his hyung. It was an attitude change Hyowoo could never pull off.
“Hey, that’s disgusting. Stop it, you bastard.”
“If I stop, does that mean hyung is treating me to chicken?”
“Only at times like this am I your hyung?”
“Please take pity on this poor and pitiful younger brother and show mercy. Our hyung-nim~”
“Ah, fine. I’ll treat you, so stop it and hurry up and eat.”
“Ooh~ Our hyung is the best! I fervently love you!”
Only after barely peeling off his younger brother who clung to him again saying thanks was Hyowoo able to set down the bag he’d been carrying on the floor.
This officetel where Gyeonwoo lived alone was quite spacious for a studio apartment. Even with a queen-size bed, desk and bookshelf, large TV and game console, the space didn’t feel cramped at all.
Moreover, how thorough was his organization. On the bookshelf, books were neatly inserted without a single one out of place, and the bed covers were also tidily arranged. Even the TV remotes were lined up in order of size.
‘Anyway, this bastard’s one thing you have to acknowledge is his germaphobia.’
It was hard to believe that the kid sitting on the floor tearing into chicken like someone who’d starved for three days was the owner of this room.
“You texted Mom that you arrived, right?”
Gyeonwoo asked while making short work of two chicken legs as if hiding them from crabs.
“Yeah, I sent it from the elevator.”
Before he knew it, the second round of the certified public accountant exam was right around the corner. It was a time when he needed to study, cutting into even eating and sleeping time. Despite that, the sole reason Hyowoo came to his younger brother’s studio apartment in the middle of the night was one thing.
To watch Lee Seohee’s last match of this season, the UEFA Champions League final.
His parents went to bed by ten o’clock at the latest. Considering his mother who was sensitive to even small sounds and his father who woke up at five in the morning for morning consultations, watching soccer in the living room was impossible. There was also the method of quietly watching on a tablet or laptop in his room, but this was a match with his five-crown achievement on the line. His heart was pounding, and he was nervous enough for his fingertips to tingle.
Judging it was too much to handle alone, he’d ended up making the expedition all the way to his younger brother’s place.
“Weren’t you supposed to watch with your friends? You didn’t cancel because of me…”
“As if. I was going to elegantly tear into chicken alone and watch leisurely.”
Seeing Gyeonwoo respond nonchalantly, his heart felt heavy.
Unlike himself who was quiet and introverted, Gyeonwoo had always been bright and sociable. Thanks to playing soccer quite seriously until middle school, he had many friends who did sports too.
‘With a final this huge that the whole country is buzzing about, he would’ve naturally planned to watch it with friends…’
Hyowoo knew well that this time too, he’d canceled his plans for his hyung’s sake.
He was grateful for such a younger brother, yet endlessly sorry.
‘Now that I think about it… that person and Gyeonwoo really resemble each other a lot.’
In reality, Lee Seohee and Gyeonwoo had many similarities. Both were bright, considerate, had good personalities, and smiled often.
If he had to pick a difference, would it be that Lee Seohee was a bit more refined and calm?
‘If they met, they’d become close quickly, right? I think they’d get along well too…’
The thought suddenly crossed his mind that if Gyeonwoo had been an omega, he might have suited Lee Seohee better.
‘Not a broken defective product like me, Gyeonwoo should meet a good person…’
His gaze unconsciously turned toward his younger brother’s wrist.
Though he now lived in a studio apartment near school, until a year ago Gyeonwoo had commuted from home.
After that incident, for over two years Gyeonwoo left his own room as it was and every night slept next to Hyowoo. He even tied his own wrist and Hyowoo’s wrist with a string while sleeping, sleeping lightly in case his hyung had bad intentions during sleep.
It would have been college life when he’d want to play with friends, go on trips, and do all sorts of things. But for four years straight, Gyeonwoo stayed by his hyung’s side without a single complaint.
Kind and smart Gyeonwoo. He couldn’t erase the guilt that such a younger brother had given up and sacrificed so much because of him.
“Why are you standing there blankly? You sit down and eat too.”
Noticing Hyowoo standing still in that spot without moving, Gyeonwoo spoke first.
“Huh? Ah… yeah, let me wash my hands.”
He barely composed his expression and quietly headed to the kitchen. While washing his hands, Gyeonwoo shouted.
“Since you’re going that far, grab some beer from the fridge.”
He wiped his wet hands with a kitchen towel and opened the refrigerator door. The inside was packed full with beer and soju. How tightly had he filled it that even the internal light couldn’t be seen properly.
‘I feel this every time I come… just how much does this bastard drink?’
The only things that weren’t alcohol were a few side dish containers pushed into the corner of the bottom shelf, and two bottles of cola bought for his hyung who didn’t drink.
“You haven’t even touched the side dishes Mom made, have you?”
“That’s not true. I ate the dried squid and the braised nuts~?”
“…As snacks?”
“You know me well.”
The kimchi packed full in a large plastic container looked so old that it seemed beyond revival even as kimchi stew.
Deliberately pretending not to see the side dishes that had turned into mush, he took out beer and cola and closed the refrigerator door.
“I know you won’t listen to me anyway, but still, drink in moderation.”
His younger brother originally had a high tolerance and liked alcohol, but these days he drank excessively.
“It’s summer right now, hyung-nim. It’s hot and I’m thirsty, so I have to drink.”
“If you’re thirsty, drink water.”
“Our hyung is smart at studying but has no sense. When there’s beer, why would you drink water?”
Every time he heard nagging to reduce his drinking, not to stop drinking entirely, Gyeonwoo would vaguely brush it off saying he didn’t drink every day.
‘Gyeonwoo drinking so much might all be my fault…’
He was worried and couldn’t relax, wondering if he was relieving the stress from all the difficult times with alcohol.
In the end, unable to scold him at length, he just briefly told him to drink moderately, then looked at the clock hanging on the wall.
The clock hands were just passing ten-thirty. The match started at 4 AM, so there was still a long time left.
“Gyeonwoo, you’re going to sleep a bit, right?”
“I took a huge nap this afternoon, so I think I’ll be okay?”
To his younger brother asking back ‘What about you?’, Hyowoo also answered that he thought he’d be okay.
Deciding they’d each sleep on their own if they got sleepy, the two watched the American drama Gyeonwoo had put on together. A mystery horror that was popular these days. It wasn’t a genre he liked, but it was reasonably entertaining.
After watching three episodes of the drama in a row, Gyeonwoo went and got new beer from the refrigerator. Hyowoo quietly turned his head toward his younger brother who’d plopped down next to him.
“Yesterday… I got a call from Woosung.”
