“They’ve decided to lock him up at home for the time being. Dongha’s ahjussi and ajumma were raging about killing him, and the other adults had to stop them. It was chaos.”
Listening to Lee Seyeong click her tongue and add that they should’ve just let them kill him, Yugeon thought to himself: Why on earth did he do that? The Lee Jaeyeong he’d seen up until now didn’t seem like someone who would pull something like that.
Lee Seyeong, who had been grumbling and badmouthing Lee Jaeyeong, turned around to look at Lee Migeon’s room.
“But why isn’t Lee Migeon coming out?”
“Ah, he’s asleep. Should I wake him?”
“Huh? No, no. Just leave him be.”
Lee Seyeong waved her hands and shook her head, but her gaze wouldn’t leave Migeon’s room. It was a look filled with worry. Yugeon stared at Lee Seyeong intently. She said they weren’t siblings, but just maybe…
“Hey, Seyeong.”
“Mm?”
“By any chance… are you and Geon dating? Or did you used to date…?”
Before the question was even finished, Lee Seyeong made a face like she’d eaten shit.
“Where did you pick up such ridiculous nonsense?”
“Uh… oh, you’re not?”
“Don’t say such horrifying things. Look, I’ve got goosebumps!”
Lee Seyeong showed him her arm. She really did have goosebumps all over it. Lee Seyeong even shuddered and scratched at her arm furiously.
“I saw you two talking the other day and… I wondered if you might be dating.”
“Ah, that was…”
“Then has Geon ever dated a girl?”
Lee Seyeong let out an outright snort.
“A girl? That blockhead?”
“Blockhead…?”
“Oppa, as a chromosomal ‘male’ he’s pretty decent, but as a romantic ‘man’ he’s absolutely the worst.”
“Huh?”
“The only things worth looking at are his build and his face. Is his personality good? Is he sweet? Is he considerate? He’s destined to grow old alone as a solitary senior.”
“……”
Yugeon blinked.
He thought that was bordering on slander.
What’s wrong with my brother? His personality is good, he’s sweet, and he’s very considerate…
Unable to show his displeasure and suppressing it inside, Lee Seyeong stretched her arms behind her, leaned back, and muttered like a sigh.
“I wish he at least had an interest in women, or no, any sexual interest at all.”
“?”
When Yugeon looked at Lee Seyeong with a puzzled expression, Lee Seyeong narrowed her eyes as if gauging something.
“Oppa, you heard about the offering, right?”
“Huh, what?”
“Judging by your reaction, well… In three years, I have to give birth to the offering.”
“…What?”
“So I asked Lee Migeon to have it with me. We’re relatives, but we don’t share a single drop of blood anyway.”
Yugeon’s eyes widened to their limit.
“But he says he’d rather die than do it. He insists on his own that the offering won’t be needed anymore. How does he know that? How can he guarantee it?”
“……”
“And then when I say I want someone who doesn’t share blood, he tells me to have it with Lee Jaeyeong. That crazy bastard. He thinks just saying it makes it so. I’m disgusted to death by him and the other guys, but Lee Jaeyeong? Lee Jae-yeong? I’d rather work hard and reproduce asexually than have it with Lee Jaeyeong.”
Not a single word of what Lee Seyeong was saying registered in his ears.
His younger brother and Lee Seyeong making a child?
“Lee Seyeong.”
Just then, a heavily sleep-laden voice came from behind. Yugeon and Lee Seyeong turned around simultaneously. Lee Migeon stood there with his face not yet clear of drowsiness, his expression deeply furrowed.
Lee Seyeong swept her eyes from Migeon’s feet to the top of his head once, then got up and dusted herself off.
“You really are fine. Oppa, I’m going to go now.”
Yugeon also got up from his seat.
“Huh? You’re, you’re leaving?”
“I confirmed he’s fine, so that’s enough.”
Lee Seyeong opened the windbreak door without hesitation. And just before leaving, she turned to look at Yugeon.
“If possible, oppa, try to convince that guy. He might listen if it’s you saying it.”
Yugeon stood frozen stiff, only watching Lee Seyeong’s retreating figure. Migeon watched his hyung’s back and clicked his tongue. It was obvious even without looking what thoughts were swirling around in that small head. Migeon approached Yugeon and gripped his shoulder.
“Hyung, don’t take it to heart.”
Yugeon’s body flinched and trembled as he creakily turned around to look at Migeon.
“Is it… true?”
“……”
“Really, you and Seyeong…?”
“I’m not going to do it. The offering won’t be needed anymore.”
Even with Migeon’s denial, Yugeon’s eyes shook pathetically. If the Imugi were to demand an offering again, would the two of them end up having a child?
“Does it bother you?”
Migeon asked. Yugeon, who had been lost in thought with his head lowered, slowly raised his head to face his younger brother. Then he honestly nodded without hiding anything.
“Yeah…”
“Is that because Seyeong noona wants to have a child with me? Or because the child between me and Seyeong noona would become the offering?”
“I don’t really know… It’s complicated and confusing.”
“I hope it’s the former.”
“Why?”
Migeon took one more step closer to Yugeon.
“Because it seems like hyung is jealous.”
Along with the answer, he felt the face drawing near, and then their lips overlapped. Yugeon unconsciously grabbed onto his younger brother’s collar. He couldn’t say anything, nor could he push him away. Just accepting the kiss—he couldn’t do anything other than that.
* * *
Click.
Whether he had been in a light sleep or not, at the small friction sound ringing out in the silence, Yugeon opened his closed eyes. Staring blankly at the ceiling, Yugeon groggily sat up. His waist felt heavy. Yugeon checked on his younger brother sleeping while hugging his waist and turned his head. He’d definitely heard something like a lock being released from outside the room.
He thought it might be a thief, but there probably wasn’t such a thing as a thief on this island. After hesitating for a moment, Yugeon carefully removed and pushed aside his younger brother’s arm, got up from his spot, and went out of the room. He didn’t want to wake his brother who was sleeping soundly.
Coming out to the wooden floor, Yugeon began looking around to see where the sound had come from, and he was able to find the source without difficulty. The door to his own room, which had been firmly locked, was slightly open.
“……?”
He hesitated for a moment, but Yugeon approached as if possessed and pushed the door open. With a creak and the sound of old hinges, the door opened wide without resistance.
“Why is this…”
Muttering as he looked at the door in bewilderment, Yugeon peered into the room and his eyes widened. Unlike what his younger brother had said about it being a mess with unused furniture inside, the room was neat and tidy. Though darkness had fallen, he could tell clearly just from the outlines. There had only been one wardrobe to begin with.
Yugeon fumbled along the wall feeling for the switch and pressed it.
As light stretched long through the crack in the door, Migeon slowly opened his eyes. His vertically slit bright yellow eyes gleamed brilliantly in the darkness. Migeon, who had been quietly staring at the light seeping in through the crack in the door, closed his eyes again.
Having turned his head away from the light and squinted hard, once Yugeon had adjusted to the light somewhat, he opened his eyes and examined the inside of the room.
“……”
The interior was exceedingly neat. As if it had been swept and wiped down every single day, there wasn’t a speck of dust. Looking around the room with a bewildered face, Yugeon stiffened his expression, went to his younger brother’s room, and shook his sleeping brother awake.
“Migeon, Migeon. Wake up.”
At the rough touch, Migeon frowned and groggily opened his eyes.
“…Hyung?”
As the heavily sleep-laden voice called to him questioningly, Yugeon tapped his younger brother’s shoulder and urged him.
“Get up.”
Migeon expressed his confusion with one eye squinted, then moved his stiff body and sluggishly got himself up. Without waiting, Yugeon went out of the room and gestured for him to hurry out.
Even then, Migeon paid no attention at all to the light seeping into the room from the doorway. Coming out of the room unable to even open his eyes properly, Migeon was asking “What on earth is going on?” when he froze.
It was because Yugeon’s room had its light on with the door wide open.
“How…”
Muttering blankly, Migeon looked at Yugeon urgently.
“Did you open it, hyung?”
“It was open.”
“…What?”
“In my sleep I heard something opening, so I came out and it was open. More than that, you said there was lots of unused furniture and it was dusty so you locked it.”
Finishing his words, Yugeon pointed at his room with his chin. It meant to explain himself.
Migeon bit his lower lip as if troubled, then soon answered in a dry tone.
“I just cleaned it up bit by bit.”
At Migeon’s answer, Yugeon let out a “Ha!” and an empty breath.
“Bit by bit? When did you have time to do it bit by bit when we wake up together, go out together, and come in together?”
When Yugeon snapped at him questioningly, Migeon let out a long sigh.
“When hyung was sleeping.”
“…When I was sleeping?”
When Yugeon asked blankly, Migeon just silently nodded. Certainly, if he had cleaned it up bit by bit while he was sleeping, it was something he might not have known about.
“Why, why… secretly at night?”
“If I cleaned during the day, wouldn’t you also step in to help?”
That was true.
“Then why… didn’t you tell me you finished cleaning it?”
“……If I said I cleaned the room, you’d say let’s sleep separately.”
“……”
“I wanted to keep sleeping with hyung.”
“……”
“If we’re going to keep talking, let’s do it in the morning. I’m tired.”
Migeon turned off the light that was on and closed the door, then took the hand of Yugeon who was standing there blankly and led him to his own room. And then he lay down again while embracing Yugeon.
Lying once again in his younger brother’s room, in his younger brother’s blanket, held in his younger brother’s arms, Yugeon had a bewildered expression. It felt like his younger brother had beaten him to the punch before he could say he’d go to his own room.
He wanted to say something, but his younger brother’s words about being tired really bothered him. There had been the stabbing incident during the day, after all. Yugeon swallowed his anger along with a sigh and closed his eyes.
Right, let’s talk in the morning.
As Yugeon closed his eyes, Migeon quietly opened his. His gaze, coldly sunken as he looked outside the room, was full of doubt and wariness.
Quietly biting his lower lip, Migeon pulled his hyung even closer into his embrace and closed his eyes again.
