Should I just leave the side dish container and disappear forever? I bit my lip and pondered for a moment.
“Ah, seeing you reminds me.”
I don’t know if he knew what I was thinking, but thankfully, hyung-nim changed the subject.
“What’s Yoo Jeongyeon been up to? I haven’t seen him in his room since yesterday—where’s he been and what’s he doing?”
“Huh? Jeongyeon? Jeongyeon’s at the dorm.”
“……”
At my words, Jeongwoo hyung-nim suddenly looked at me with a strange expression. I quietly averted my gaze and blinked.
Though his gaze lingered only briefly, it was enough to take in hyung-nim’s appearance.
Whether he had just woken up, even with his disheveled hair, hyung-nim looked like a handsome adult man. If anything, his messy appearance was even sexier than usual.
It was completely different from how I looked when I woke up. I’d be lucky if my eyes weren’t all swollen like an idiot.
Seeing hyung-nim’s bedhead hair, I could realize that the reason his thing was standing erect was exactly the same as last time. If it wasn’t that, and another omega had come out of hyung-nim’s room… I didn’t even want to imagine such a thing.
“Right, of course. I completely forgot.”
After being frozen for a while, Jeongwoo hyung-nim finally seemed to understand what I said. What did he forget? I stared at hyung-nim with a sinking feeling.
“You guys are adults now too.”
“……”
“Sorry, I had some drinks yesterday. I’m not in my right mind right now.”
With those single words, my mood became gloomy again. As expected, to hyung-nim I was still just the little kid from next door.
Now that I think about it, he must have just looked at me with eyes that said, ‘What’s this kid doing not going to academy on the weekend?’
I found myself opening my mouth blankly. Suddenly, I felt a strong sense of rebellion.
“Hyung-nim, I’m twenty years old now.”
I emphasized “twenty years old.” Then hyung-nim looked surprised.
“That’s right? Twenty years old. You really have grown up.”
“I can drink alcohol now.”
“Then it would be a big problem if I called you a kid, even as a joke.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. I nodded confidently at the obvious statement.
“At twenty, I’m old enough to be called hyung-nim.”
“That’s right.”
I felt satisfied, as if I’d been acknowledged. Seeing my smile, hyung-nim grinned.
“Now I get that you’re not a kid but a hyung-nim. But what’s wrong with your face?”
“Huh?”
“Something’s strange, your eyes.”
At that moment, my eyes widened.
Right. Having forgotten about my swollen, reddened eyes, I quickly covered my face.
Then hyung-nim’s eyes sharpened.
Even with a face not fully awake and just dry-washing his face, hyung-nim seemed to notice something was wrong with my eyes. Because I’d made such a pitiful fuss yesterday, my eyes were probably still swollen and blotchy.
“Ah, this? This is nothing.”
“How is it nothing?”
“…!”
The moment hyung-nim took a step forward, I hurriedly stepped back.
“Something got in them earlier, so they swelled up a bit. That’s why.”
I ducked my head low to hide my face and made up an excuse.
“I-it’s true though……”
Even now, I rubbed my eyes excessively as if they were itchy. If I said I’d been crying, knowing hyung-nim’s persistent personality, he’d ask why I cried until the very end, and I, who had particular difficulty hiding my emotions in front of hyung-nim, would inevitably end up spilling all the truth. I wasn’t mentally prepared for that yet.
Hyung-nim, who had seemed ready to come right over and check my face, nodded more calmly than I expected.
“……I see.”
For a moment, I worried I’d put on too serious a face trying to hide the fact I’d been crying, so I glanced at hyung-nim’s face. Fortunately, hyung-nim didn’t seem to mind.
Of course he wouldn’t. To hyung-nim, I’m not someone worth worrying about that much.
“Tell your mother I’m grateful for the side dishes.”
“Yes…… Then I’ll be going now, hyung-nim.”
I answered awkwardly and bowed my head.
“Not even making eye contact.”
The muttering voice made me stop my movement. Because in truth, even as I bowed my head, I was stealing glances at hyung-nim’s thing, faintly visible through his loose robe.
After that, I fled from hyung-nim’s house as if escaping.
Returning with even redder eyes, I leaned against my door and whispered a confession no one could hear.
“……Hyung-nim, I might die now.”
The words still left in my throat remained in my chest.
The truth is, I love you very much, hyung-nim.
I’m going first, but I hope you live a long and healthy life, hyung-nim…….
***
This is a story from long, long ago, from a time before I was even born.
After Lee Cheolwoo-ssi and Han Myeongsuk-ssi got married, they eagerly waited for a baby that didn’t come for a long time. When the child they’d been waiting for finally revealed its existence in Han Myeongsuk-ssi’s womb, they decided to build a new home and bought land in Songnim-dong, a wealthy residential area in Seoul, where they built their house directly.
And right next door in a detached house lived Yoo Jaehan-ssi and Kim Hyeyoung-ssi, who were raising one son.
Lee Cheolwoo-ssi and Han Myeongsuk-ssi couldn’t help but be mindful of the couple next door. The two houses were close together, almost like a set.
A house about to have a baby born would inevitably have noisy incidents.
There would be noise, and there would be many confusing moments with first-time parenting. In such cases, they thought it would be best if they could get advice from the couple next door who were already raising a son.
The Lee Cheolwoo and Han Myeongsuk couple went to visit their neighbors with moving rice cakes, and the person who opened the door to greet them was Kim Hyeyoung-ssi.
Seeing Han Myeongsuk-ssi’s belly, Kim Hyeyoung-ssi was so delighted that she pulled her into a tight embrace. They were both in their final months.
Han Myeongsuk-ssi and Kim Hyeyoung-ssi gave birth two months apart, and that was me and Yoo Jeongyeon.
Thanks to this, the two families have lived as closer than family until now—that’s the end of the story.
This was the history of the two families that I’d heard so many times since childhood that I’d memorized it by heart.
Naturally, the name of the eldest son who was there at the time was Yoo Jeongwoo, the man I’d fallen into a terrible one-sided love with. Hyung-nim was already growing up as the proper eldest son of the house next door even before I was born.
“……Hyung-nim?”
When I came out to the living room before going to school, Jeongwoo hyung-nim was eating at our dining table. Looking around, Mom wasn’t there either.
Hyung-nim was a very busy lawyer—why was he here like this?
“Oh, you’re going to school now?”
“Yes, good morning, hyung-nim.”
“Yeah.”
I greeted him politely, but something else was coming to mind.
After accidentally encountering hyung-nim’s naked body, his thing wouldn’t quite leave my mind. This time too, I was knowingly and unknowingly avoiding going in and out of the house next door.
“Breakfast?”
“I was going to go early and buy something.”
“Why buy food? Home-cooked meals are the best.”
At the gesture that seemed to tell me to hurry up and sit down to eat, I made a reluctant face but had no choice but to sit obediently at the table.
“Go get some rice and sit down.”
“Yes.”
This is my house though…….
“You liked mackerel, didn’t you?”
After opening the rice cooker and scooping rice, as I sat down, hyung-nim immediately deboned the fish as if he’d been waiting and placed it on top of my rice. I was naturally pleased by the kindness I hadn’t experienced in a long time, but outwardly I spoke calmly.
“I eat it if it’s there.”
“……You eat it if it’s there? You don’t like it?”
I couldn’t understand what kind of fortune this was, waking up to this. Eating breakfast with Jeongwoo hyung-nim and having him debone fish for me.
However, the memory from last time was still too vivid, and I needed time before I could face hyung-nim with an unbothered expression.
“No, I’m pretty sure you liked it.”
“Me?”
I don’t know what memory hyung-nim was talking about based on, but I wasn’t particularly fond of fish.
“Still, it’s not that I dislike it.”
Worried he might not debone it for me again, I added that and quickly scooped up the fish hyung-nim had personally deboned along with rice and ate it. Since hyung-nim deboned it, it wasn’t fishy at all and was so delicious.
Even while diligently chewing my rice, I wondered why busy hyung-nim was eating alone at our dining table.
At that moment, hyung-nim answered as if he’d noticed my curiosity.
“It’s lonely with no kids at home.”
Did he forget about the graduation, and now he’s feeling his younger sibling’s empty space?
For that, hyung-nim was a really busy person. He was at a fairly famous law firm that even I knew about, so there were often days when he didn’t come home for several days. He’d even been living alone in a separate apartment until recently.
Come to think of it, he cleaned up that place and came back home around the time of the college entrance exam.
The hyung-nim who had definitely been busy had been coming in and out of our house much more frequently since then. The fact that he was eating such a late breakfast on a weekday like today meant…….
“Hyung-nim, did you get fired from your company?”
“What?”
I was worried that hyung-nim might have lost his job.
But hyung-nim coughed repeatedly for a while, as if something went down the wrong pipe.
“A-are you okay, hyung-nim?”
When I quickly poured water and held it out with both hands, hyung-nim saw that and coughed repeatedly once more.
What should I do, did he really get fired from his company?
