I became more and more flustered. This guy’s more brazen than he looks?
“Wait. I’m telling you it’s true! Ask Kwon Jukyung, ask the homeowner! No, go ahead and call security. I know the security guard’s face. I just greeted him. Who are you anyway?”
“…Wait a moment.”
The intercom turned off. Of course the door didn’t open right away. I thought the boy must be calling Jukyung. But he’s in a meeting so it won’t connect. What’s he planning to do?
But the boy hadn’t called Jukyung. Around when I thought the call was getting long, a young security company employee in uniform got off the elevator. The brat had really called security.
“Hello. What’s the matter?”
And as if he’d been pressed against the entrance watching the situation all along, the entrance door immediately opened and a small face poked out.
“Hyung, is it true this person lives in this house?”
The boy called the security employee familiarly and asked bluntly.
“Yeah, it’s true. They’ve lived here for quite a while. Why? You don’t know each other?”
The employee instead made a puzzled expression. His casual speech revealed familiarity. The boy had apparently been coming and going quite a bit. Though I hadn’t seen his face once in the past half year. Hmph, the boy let out a breath and looked me up and down with a disgruntled expression. Then he politely apologized saying there must have been a mistake and sent the employee back. And then without saying anything further, he left the door open and swoosh went inside.
I couldn’t tell if he had manners or not. Anyway, I sighed and finally stepped inside the house.
“Who are you, ahjussi?”
He suddenly asked, calling me ahjussi. I bristled. If it were a kindergartener five or six years old I’d gladly understand, but for a kid who’s at least middle school age to call me, who’s only twenty-four, ahjussi. The security employee he’d just called hyung also looked three or four years older than me.
“Who are you anyway? Are you Kwon Jukyung’s younger brother?”
Whether he was the homeowner’s brother or whatever, I asked grumpily with my stomach twisted.
“I’m….”
The boy stared at me unpleasantly and paused.
“I’m Kwon Jukyung’s lover.”
And then with impertinent eyes he lifted his chin and looked at me challengingly.
Ha!
I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even speak.
“Don’t joke around.”
The boy raised his round eyes like a cat.
“I’m not joking. We promised to get married since we were little.”
Hearing him speak as if about to stomp his feet, I snorted. I’m hearing all kinds of ridiculous things.
“When you were little, what, you five years old, Kwon Jukyung fifteen years old, like that? While hyung played with a baby he couldn’t say such things? If we count like that, I have several fiancées too.”
“Wh-what do you mean baby… No, the age difference is… how old do you think I am….”
The brat stammered, his face turning red and blue.
“How old are you anyway.”
I looked him up and down disagreeably. Like the brat had done earlier.
“At best middle school second year? Third year? Kids shouldn’t grab just anyone and say lover or such nonsense. It’s a bit much to say that bastard Kwon Jukyung is an upright adult with good character, but he’s not someone who would engage in compensated dating. He definitely has some pervert tendencies but he’s not that kind of pervert….”
The brat’s mouth dropped open. He looked flabbergasted.
“Wait, middle school second year? What exactly do you see me as… I’ll have you know I’m a proper high school student. What about me looks like a snotty middle schooler?”
The brat surreptitiously raised his heels and waved his arms above his head. I wasn’t doing it to tease him, honestly as a human being I was a bit surprised. This kid’s really in high school?
“Whoa… you’re really in high school? Ya, what are you going to do? You must be worried about being short.”
“I’m not that short!”
The little guy’s face turned red as he yelled again. Actually, it wasn’t really short enough to say that. It’s just that his face looked so young. But since it was annoying, I swallowed those words inwardly and just pretended to pick my ear.
“Well, by my standards you’re short.”
I said languidly and moved to the bathroom. I was thinking of washing my hands and eating lunch. Having had a pointless battle of wills with a kid, I suddenly felt hungry.
“I’m seriously above average height. Even in my class, if you split in half, I’m on the tall side!”
By the way, I must have really hit a complex because the boy followed behind me insisting adamantly.
“Okay, okay, let’s say that’s true. So, Mr. Student who’s above average height, I’m going to make a baguette sandwich, do you want to eat too?”
“Ah seriously! It’s not ‘let’s say,’ it’s really true!”
Whether the boy was barking or not, I entered the kitchen and started taking out sandwich ingredients one by one. The boy looked into the refrigerator over my shoulder.
“Whoa, amazing. There’s food in Kwon Jukyung’s refrigerator. Is he sick or something?”
I laughed at what the boy muttered as if surprised. I was surprised too when I first bought groceries, so how much more so if he’s his real younger brother?
“Are you making it yourself, hyung? What ingredients are going inside?”
As I cut the bread and buttered it to toast, the boy who’d been hovering behind spoke again. The form of address had changed to hyung at some point. I smiled victoriously inwardly. See? So originally he was thinking of me as hyung inside.
I hid my smile and put the bread on a plate with a blank expression.
“Well, who else is here besides me? I’m going to put ham, tomatoes, cheese, onions, lettuce and stuff like that in the baguette.”
The boy slightly scrunched up his face.
“Don’t you have anything besides ham?”
How picky.
“It’s annoying to touch other things. Salmon or chicken breast maybe?”
“I’ll have chicken. If you grill it and put it in.”
Honestly it was a bit annoying, but he was cute chirping away after getting hooked on food right away, so I decided to let it pass. He was wary like a hedgehog, but in an instant he was acting like a clingy cat. You just treated me like a pervert and a thief, you know? Not even a few minutes have passed and you’re sticking close like we’re super close, placing orders and everything. Like hyung, this guy has quite an unusual personality too, I thought.
While I took out additional ingredients from the refrigerator and made sandwiches, the boy watching from the side tilted his head as if it was strange.
“But does Kwon Jukyung know you use the kitchen freely like this, hyung? If he knew he’d have a fit.”
I looked down at the boy’s white face. It was a face that felt similar somewhere. It’s a face that might come out if you made Kwon Jukyung’s face cuter, softer, and puppy-like. The reason I felt somehow familiar when I first saw him must be because he resembled Jukyung.
“You’re Kwon Jukyung’s younger brother, right? But is it okay to talk so rudely about him?”
At my words, the boy shut his mouth for a moment. His large eyes glanced at my face as if being cautious.
“Will you tell on me?”
“Well. Depends on how you act.”
The boy sullenly stuck out his lips. He was cute after all. Even though he calls him by name freely, Kwon Jukyung doesn’t seem to be that easy of a hyung. Well, it would be a bit funny if Kwon Jukyung had a brother complex with that personality. By the way, was Kwon Jukyung like this when he was young? I don’t think he would have been like this in middle school, but maybe around elementary school it would be similar.
“What’s your name?”
He just glanced at me with widened eyes, then when I handed him the finished sandwich and kiwi juice, he mumbled and opened his mouth as if he had no choice.
“Kwon Yukyung.”
“Real younger brother?”
“Yes.”
“But why did you say you were his lover?”
“……”
His mouth that had been moving well munching stopped abruptly. And then he slyly looked at my face again.
“Then who are you, hyung? Why are you living with my hyung? That guy’s not the type to live with anyone.”
“Uh… first, we’re Leroy alumni… and I left home due to circumstances and had nowhere to go, so I’m temporarily staying here.”
“College alumni?”
Yukyung frowned.
“What’s your name, hyung?”
“Kang Doyun.”
Yukyung tilted his head.
“Never heard of it. Honestly, if I don’t know you, you’re probably not that close. As far as I know, even when Heechan hyung, who’s closest to him, got kicked out of his house, hyung didn’t take him in and sent him to a hotel, and he complained to me for a long time. That hyung really hates being alone in hotels, but the other close hyungs weren’t in Korea either, so he had no choice but to stay in a hotel and cursed like crazy. Kwon Jukyung honestly isn’t the type to live with anyone. Even leaving home as soon as he came of age and living like this… So does hyung do all the housework for Kwon Jukyung? No, that can’t be either. He can’t trust others cleaning so he got a small place to live alone and does his own cleaning.”
