# Chapter 14
Yeomin cried for a long time in Jiho’s arms. Jiho, who was trying to soothe him asking what was wrong, seemed quite mature.
“My noona, my noona is crazy…”
Yeomin sobbed incoherently.
“Noona? You have a noona, hyung?”
“I do, but I might as well not… hah.”
Yeomin finally stopped crying. As soon as he came to his senses, the first thing Yeomin did was pull out his phone.
Without hesitation, he pressed 112 [police emergency number]. But Jiho stopped Yeomin from making the report.
“Calm down first. You said it’s your noona.”
“She’s not my noona anymore. No. She never was.”
“Even so. You seem really upset right now, hyung.”
That was true. It was the first time he’d had something so expensive stolen.
Yeomin tried to calm himself by taking deep breaths. Then he suddenly asked Jiho.
“Seol Jiho. How much was that watch?”
Jiho responded vaguely.
“Hmm, I can’t really remember.”
“It’s super expensive, right? It must be. I really can’t let this go. I’m going to report it.”
That talk about getting a job in America was probably a lie too. She must have come to scan for things to steal.
As Yeomin picked up his phone again, Jiho stopped him once more.
“Hyung, if you’re crying because of the watch, I’ll give you another one.”
Yeomin was tempted by Jiho’s bold offer. But then he muttered with a sad face.
“You don’t have that kind of money right now…”
Since you’ve left home. Eating only ramyeon at my place. Yeomin sniffled.
Jiho, looking bewildered, made excuses saying, “I can just receive money.”
But that was no consolation at all.
Even if he got a new watch, it wouldn’t change the fact that Yeojin had run off with his.
This was a knot that wouldn’t be untied until he caught Yeojin and recovered the watch.
“First, I need to check the CCTV. There’s one at the entrance, so it should show which way Joo Yeojin went.”
“Hyung, you look really anxious right now. Let’s rest for a moment.”
“It was a gift from you.”
“…”
As if it was an unexpected answer, Jiho’s eyes widened.
“Are you like this because you lost something I gave you?”
Yeomin, in his mental breakdown, barely heard Jiho’s shy question.
“Is it precious because I gave it to you?”
“If you gave it to me, it’s definitely not fake but real… when would I ever own something like that again.”
“…”
“I would take it out whenever I got annoyed after cleaning up your messes…! Hah!”
How many times had I calmed myself down looking at that watch whenever you annoyed me. Hearing Yeomin’s muttering, Jiho seemed somewhat disappointed.
But soon he met Yeomin’s eyes as if to calm him.
“We’ll be able to find it. I’ll help you.”
“Joo Yeojin is so high-level. She’ll definitely sell it right away.”
“…”
“…I’m sorry, Seol Jiho.”
It was something you gave me. Yeomin sniffled again. His reddened nose made him look just like a child.
Jiho pulled Yeomin into an embrace. Then he slowly patted his back. Like comforting a child crying over a dropped candy.
“This is the first time I’ve seen you cry, hyung.”
“So what… you think it’s funny?”
“It’s cuter than I expected.”
Is that supposed to be comforting? Yeomin was dumbfounded. Truly, this young master lacked empathy.
* * *
As luck would have it, the CCTV at the villa entrance was under repair due to a malfunction. Even though he’d asked for it to be fixed so many times, they ignored him. Yeomin deeply resented the landlord.
He couldn’t tell where Yeojin had gone. Did she really leave for America, or was that a lie too? What was her purpose in coming to see him in the first place? Had she come to rob her brother’s home from the beginning? Everything was suspicious.
Yeomin couldn’t even remember how he managed to take the rest of his exams. These days, he was truly in a dazed state.
Even at his PC bang job, he made mistakes several times and got cursed at by customers.
When he lay down to sleep, the watch would flash before his eyes, and even seeing Seol Jiho’s face reminded him of it, making him feel like he was going to develop a stress-induced illness.
‘If it had never come into my possession in the first place, I wouldn’t feel this regretful…’
Having had it and then lost it made it more painful. Is this what loss feels like?
After his last exam, Yeomin trudged home. Even though it was the end of the semester, he didn’t feel happy.
He ignored Taeyang’s messages asking him to come to the end-of-semester gathering.
Taeyang was very worried about Yeomin, who had been consistently depressed lately.
[Lee Taeyang: Just come and eat, then leave]
[Lee Taeyang: The seniors really want you to come]
[Lee Taeyang: You don’t have to pay]
[I just want to go home… not in the mood]
After refusing again, there were no more messages. Taeyang probably felt this was truly a serious matter since Yeomin was refusing something free.
By the way, Jiho had been unusually quiet today. He had definitely said his exams ended yesterday.
Normally, Jiho would have been sending messages all day, but their chat had stopped yesterday.
“I wonder if he’s at home…”
Yeomin pressed the door lock code with a gloomy heart. And as soon as he turned the doorknob, Yeomin was startled.
Because of Seol Jiho standing at the entrance.
“What’s this?”
Yeomin looked suspiciously at Jiho, who was standing with his hands behind his back.
He was always a strange guy, but why was he standing at the entrance?
“What are you doing?”
“Hyung, are you still not feeling better?”
How could he be feeling better? Joo Yeomin’s mood had been consistently at rock bottom these days.
“Yeah. Not good.”
“I’m telling you to forget about it.”
“How can I forget. About that.”
Especially after looking up how much it cost, he couldn’t sleep at all.
He had even made plans to go after Yeojin as soon as the semester ended.
“I’m bored because you have no energy every day, hyung. You barely even smile.”
“…How could I smile?”
After having such an expensive thing stolen.
But Jiho truly couldn’t understand Yeomin’s feelings that were burning up. He probably thought, why all this fuss over just a watch?
At times like this, Yeomin felt the inherent difference between himself and Jiho.
“Stop that and look at this.”
Jiho held out something in front of the depressed Yeomin.
Something bundled together in paper like a bouquet. It would have been nice if it was a yellow gold watch, but it was a bundle of yellow cup holders. The very things Yeomin used to collect every day.
Come to think of it, he hadn’t been collecting them lately because he’d been thinking only about the watch.
“You like these, don’t you, hyung?”
“Seriously.”
It was laughable that he thought that.
What he liked was the coffee he could drink for ‘free’ by collecting these. Jiho seemed to think that he liked the ‘cup holders’ themselves.
Yeomin received the bundle of cup holders without thinking.
“Did you spend all day collecting these?”
“Yes.”
So that’s why there had been no contact. Thinking of Seol Jiho going around alleys collecting cup holders, Yeomin almost regretted missing such an amusing sight.
‘This is enough to have robbed a cafe, isn’t it?’
There seemed to be at least twenty cup holders.
“Do you feel like smiling now?”
Of course, he couldn’t compare the watch stolen by his biological sister to these free cup holders. That would be an incredibly unbalanced trade…
And yet, Yeomin found himself smiling. Just because. This situation was funny, wasn’t it?
“Thank you.”
It seemed like the first time he was thanking Jiho. He had always thought of him as a nuisance… he never expected Jiho’s existence to be a comfort to him.
“Hyung.”
Jiho suddenly hugged the hesitant Yeomin. Yeomin froze at the unexpected embrace.
“I told you not to hug me suddenly.”
Despite the complaint, this time Yeomin didn’t push him away and remained quiet.
Jiho, resting his chin on Yeomin’s shoulder, comforted him.
“It’s okay to lose it. It’s okay to lose everything, as long as you don’t lose me, hyung. Understand?”
“…What are you saying?”
Everything Jiho said was strange, disorganized, and oddly off-point, making it difficult to understand. No, perhaps it was better not to understand.
When Yeomin responded gruffly on purpose, Jiho’s voice, mixed with a sigh, echoed in his ear.
“I think I really like you, hyung.”
“Let go now, Seol Jiho. I can’t breathe.”
Yeomin struggled at the suffocating feeling. But Jiho wasn’t one to let go easily.
Instead, Jiho held Yeomin more firmly. His breath tightened like being bound by a snake.
Of course, more than that physical discomfort, what made Yeomin nervous were the words Jiho was saying.
“You can’t go anywhere. I’ll never let you go.”
“…Like you have anywhere to go yourself.”
Yeomin thought. Perhaps without even knowing it, he had had something stolen by this guy.
Otherwise, his heart wouldn’t be beating as wildly as when Yeojin stole his watch.
