I was sitting still, but Seongheon hyung put down the paper cup with soju and handed me an empty paper cup.
“Here, I’ll pour you a drink.”
“No, hyung. I’ll pour it myself and drink.”
“The first glass is supposed to be poured for you.”
“But this isn’t even alcohol… why.”
I went along with Seongheon hyung’s joke and received it with both hands as if receiving alcohol, and when drinking, I turned my head to the side and took a sip. Seeing that, Gangjin hyung said “You guys are having fun,” and Seongheon hyung said I was cute and urged me to drink more.
“Hey, Gam Seongheon. Stop that and go out and grill the meat.”
“Daesu is my lackey today. I’m making Daesu do everything I need done.”
I clicked my tongue watching Daesu hyung moving more diligently than usual.
“One Goldmess egg changes a person like that.”
“Huh? Kkakdugi, you know about the Goldmess egg too?”
Ah… My big mouth is always the problem.
Gangjin hyung looked at me with a surprised gaze and I was flustered, but Seongheon hyung briefly summarized the conversation we’d had instead of me. Since this incident had spread widely on the official website bulletin board, Gangjin hyung didn’t doubt anymore that I knew about it.
I was going through such hardship, but seeing Daesu hyung’s face blooming with laughter, I felt spiteful and added a comment.
“My hyung is janatkoe.” (A child born of fire/disaster – insulting way to say troublemaker)
Even though I was bad-mouthing Daesu hyung, my hyungs pretended not to know and overlooked it. Gangjin hyung even shouted outside, “Daesu! Janatkoe, watch out for fire!”
Since the barbecue drum was burning brightly at that moment, Daesu hyung understood it as a warning to be careful with fire and raised his hand in acknowledgment. I don’t know where Gangjin hyung picked up such words, but when I giggled at that, he was pleased thinking his joke had landed.
While I was suppressing my laughter so Daesu hyung wouldn’t hear, Seongheon hyung held out a piece of grilled meat to my mouth. When I readily ate it, Gangjin hyung, who had been looking at that scene disdainfully, warned me.
“Seongheon, you’ve really mastered playing with people. Daeyoung, this guy. At school he—”
“Hey. Don’t say things like that to the kid.”
Seongheon hyung, holding lettuce, slapped Gangjin hyung’s mouth with it.
“Ow, it’s cold!”
Gangjin hyung dodged the lettuce and said something in fragments, but I couldn’t hear it clearly.
From what I could roughly hear, it was about how Seongheon hyung was popular in his department and something about what happens when they go to MT. Actually, I don’t really understand college life even when I hear about it.
When Gangjin hyung finished speaking, Seongheon hyung put down the tattered lettuce and looked at me again with gentle eyes.
“Daeyoung, just eat today. I’ll do everything for you.”
“Okay.”
Gangjin hyung, who was eating soybean paste stew, asked in a meaningful voice, “You will?” and Seongheon hyung pointed at Daesu hyung standing outside.
“He’ll do it all.”
“Sure he will.”
I didn’t care who did it as long as it wasn’t me, so regardless of whether my hyungs bickered with each other, I wrapped the grilled meat in lettuce and ate.
“Gangjin hyung, you really cook well. The soybean paste stew and steamed eggs are all delicious.”
“I worked hard to master it so I wouldn’t have to eat the food our noona makes.”
I remembered the chaotic kitchen from the day I went to find out about my hyungs’ hideout, and could understand Gangjin hyung’s hardship.
Only after grilling both packs of meat and piling them high on plates did Daesu hyung finally join us, and the table became even more boisterous. I haven’t often seen my hyungs drink, but every time I do, they pour it down their throats as if there’s no tomorrow.
So naturally, the bottles they’d brought at first quickly became empty bottles rolling on the ground. When I tried to get up to bring more alcohol, Seongheon hyung secretly grabbed my finger to stop me.
“Daesu, bring alcohol.”
“Ah, shit. Fine.”
Seeing Daesu hyung grumbling as he went inside the house, I smiled slyly, and Seongheon hyung smiled along with me. He seemed to have drunk quite a bit, but Seongheon hyung’s face was fine and his chopstick handling was as neat as usual.
“But Seongheon hyung, you must have a really high alcohol tolerance. You don’t seem drunk at all.”
“Really? That’s how it looks to you, Daeyoung?”
To me, Seongheon hyung was the same as usual except that he smiled more than normal. When drinking alcohol, your face should turn red like Gangjin hyung’s or Daesu hyung’s, but only his cheeks were slightly flushed while his face remained snow white.
When I nodded yes to Seongheon hyung’s question, hyung looked at me with his chin resting on his hand, then reached out. While pushing the hair that had fallen down behind my ear, he caressed somewhere around the back of my ear with his fingertips.
“Daeyoung even has fine hair here. Why are you so baby-like? It makes my heart weak.”
Feeling awkward, I raised my hand to cover my ear, but instead of my ear, I ended up covering the back of hyung’s hand. It seemed like I’d grabbed hyung’s hand, so I quickly lowered it and continued speaking as if nothing happened.
“Hyung, how old am I for you to call me baby-like?”
“Seongheon, Daeyoung even has hair on his dick now, isn’t it a bit much to call him baby-like?”
Then, Gangjin hyung blurted out something crude as if taking my side. I, who had been holding a chili pepper about to dip it in ssamjang, put the chili pepper back down because of Gangjin hyung’s words. My appetite had completely disappeared.
Instead of just letting it slide, Seongheon hyung looked at me with surprised eyes saying “What? Really?” The hyungs had heard before that I didn’t have hair there yet, so I felt awkward for no reason.
Just then, Daesu hyung who’d brought the alcohol pointed at me folding perilla leaves for no reason and brought up that incident again.
“Isn’t it amazing? The three of us don’t have any, but only Daeyoung does?”
“Ah! Hyung! I said stop it!”
“Stop what. I’m proud of my younger brother so I’m bragging.”
“Ah, jeez!”
I hadn’t even drunk alcohol but my face turned redder than my hyungs’.
Puberty passed who knows when, yet they’re talking about this as something to brag about. We’re all men but isn’t it a bit much to say it outright? And spreading it around is even funnier.
But my hyungs all had very excited expressions over one pubic hair. Somehow they seemed more excited than when talking about getting the Goldmess egg back.
“Really? Daeyoung, awesome! You’ve grown up.”
“Right, shouldn’t we be calling you hyung?”
“Hey, let’s applaud first.”
At the end, when Gangjin hyung put down his chopsticks and started clapping, all the hyungs clapped in unison like seals. Clap clap clap clap.
‘Ah, I’m getting applause again. What even is this situation?’
My old instinct was warning me that my hyungs were teasing me, so I didn’t let my guard down.
Hair growing is a natural phenomenon, but none of my hyungs have any—doesn’t that not make sense? I did see Gangjin hyung back then, but maybe only that hyung is like that and the other hyungs might not be.
“I guess Daeyoung doesn’t believe us?”
Daesu hyung, who’d caught my distrustful gaze, pointed out my expression and tapped Seongheon hyung’s shoulder sitting next to him.
“Seems like it. Seongheon, show him. If he sees yours, Daeyoung will probably believe it.”
When I swept over them with a distrustful gaze, Seongheon hyung, who’d been silent, suddenly stood up and took off his padding.
‘…Wait, he’s really going to show me?’
I was so surprised I couldn’t say anything and just exchanged glances with Seongheon hyung. Then hyung smiled meaningfully, unbuckled his pants, and really pulled down all the way to that dangerous area.
“Gasp!!”
Oh my god, there really is nothing!
Like Gangjin hyung, there was nothing at all. It was just a barren field.
“See, we told you we don’t have any.”
Even though I’d seen Gangjin hyung’s lower hair situation, the reason I was more flustered was because of Seongheon hyung’s white bare skin—it looked somehow lewd.
Seongheon hyung, not embarrassed at all, showed it triumphantly and pulled down even more to the side to show his hip bone too. The pants and brief band were precariously caught on hyung’s fingers.
Literally, if his finger went down just one more knuckle, I felt like I’d see hyung’s main area, so I unfolded the perilla leaf I’d folded and covered my eyes.
“Ah! Hyung!! Stop pulling down! I get it!”
“Look at Daeyoung, kuhahaha.”
My hyungs’ laughter filled the tent. If the tent hadn’t been sagging, the laughter would have echoed all the way to the front mountain.
But Seongheon hyung had no shame—he snatched away the perilla leaf covering my eyes. I held only the torn end of the perilla leaf with my eyes wide open, looking up at Seongheon hyung.
“What’s there to be embarrassed about between guys? Since you’re acting like this, it makes me want to show you more.”
Even if we’re both guys, that area of hyung’s without hair felt more like being naked and was obscene.
I gave up on covering my eyes with the piece of perilla leaf in my hand and turned my gaze, when the end of my field of vision caught hyung’s iliac bone area. And also the small letters engraved there.
“Huh? But what are those letters?”
“Letters? Ah… this tattoo?”
When I glanced there, Seongheon hyung came in front of me and pulled down his brief band to the side so I could see it clearly.
“If you guess what this word means, hyung will build you a high-spec computer.”
“Really? With a ××× series graphics card?”
“Yeah.”
As the younger brother of janatkoe, at the mention of a high-spec computer, I endured the awkwardness and stared intently at that area. The foreign language was clearly visible along the curve of the iliac bone, but no matter how much I looked I couldn’t figure it out, so I pulled my head back and raised my gaze.
At that moment, Seongheon hyung looked down at me intently and moistened his lips with his tongue, and even that small action made my heart shrink. Even though hyung didn’t do anything threatening, I felt awkward and abruptly stood up from my seat.
“Ahaha, I really don’t know. Anyone eating rice? Rice and meat together tastes better to me. Aren’t you hyungs eating?”
“……”
“You’re not eating, I see. Then should I just bring my rice?”
“Daeyoung.”
Seongheon hyung waved his phone and called me to stop.
I know why hyung is giving that signal. He’s telling me to carry my phone around. When I nodded, only then did Seongheon hyung straighten his clothes and sit down.
Anyway, I didn’t know Seongheon hyung had another tattoo on his body. I don’t even know what country’s language it is, so how would I know what it means?
When I leaned my face slightly closer to hyung’s lower body to see it in detail earlier, a fabric softener scent wafted from somewhere. Was it because it was a baby powder scent instead of the usual perfume smell, so it felt unfamiliar? Is that why I felt strange?
