Taeon wasn’t a fool. It was just that Taeon quietly accepted their blatant words. If Taeon had been in their position, he might not have hesitated to say such things for the sake of his beloved son.
Nevertheless, every time they called Taeon “son” without reserve, Taeon’s heart withdrew a little more.
Because before meeting them, no one had ever called Taeon that.
Because he had never once imagined that there would be someone who could call him that.
“Taeon, but why did you come today? It can’t be to see Sunjeong.”
What woke Taeon from his thoughts was Hyejin’s clear voice.
It can’t be to see Sunjeong. Do they know that the relationship between the two of us isn’t good?
“I came to see Sunjeong.”
At Taeon’s words, Hyejin and the housekeeper briefly looked at each other’s faces before opening their mouths in surprise.
“Sunjeong? Sunjeong should be at his own place right now.”
“…His own place?”
“Yeah, he recently said he’d live on his own with one of his alpha classmates, said he’d try being independent, so we told him to go ahead. It seemed like it was time for that.”
“…”
At the words ‘alpha classmate,’ Taeon’s heart began to tingle painfully.
It was a pain he’d never experienced in his life.
Apparently, a few weeks ago, Sunjeong found a place with an alpha classmate in a residential area a bit away from Hanguk University.
If it was a residential area away from Hanguk University, it was definitely what they call an affluent neighborhood.
Naturally, there was no way Sunjeong would live in a studio or two-room apartment.
“The kids were so resourceful, they went Dutch on the deposit. Actually, his mom and I each paid half. Anyway, it’s a house with four rooms and two floors, so by now it must be their own world.”
Hyejin’s face as she said this looked truly happy.
“Oh my, ma’am, but I’m still worried.”
“Ah, neither of them are imprinted, right?”
“Right, that alpha friend, was it Jinhyeok, anyway that friend is also dominant.”
“If that was a concern, I wouldn’t have let him go.”
Taeon vividly felt the delicious meal he’d just eaten completely giving him indigestion. His stomach was already becoming stuffy. It seemed they didn’t see Taeon very slowly hitting his chest a few times.
“If it’s Jinhyeok, he’s still a friend Sunjeong has known since childhood, and his family is close to ours too. If they cause trouble, his parents and we can breathe a sigh of relief together. I was wondering if Sunjeong would even get married properly the way he was going.”
Now Taeon felt like a goldfish trapped in a small fishbowl. Even though there was clearly a person with eyes and ears right in front of them, the two people’s conversation cheerfully continued.
No, perhaps it could even be a little performance meant to inform Taeon.
“Ah, Taeon.”
To Taeon, who felt like vomiting right away, Hyejin spoke in her always very gentle voice.
“When you go home, I’ll pack some braised mackerel and bulgogi for you. I made a lot to take to Sunjeong’s place, so this worked out well.”
“Ah, no, it’s okay.”
A good idea flashed through the mind of Taeon, who had answered politely.
Taeon’s face suddenly brightened as he smiled and said,
“The luggage will be heavy, so I’ll take it to him. I can see Go—no, Sunjeong and talk with him too.”
Though the delivery driver would handle the delivery anyway, Taeon threw out the comment for no reason. Then he quickly gauged Hyejin’s reaction, but somehow Hyejin was wearing a lukewarm smile.
“Taeon…”
Just from her calling him this way, Taeon could already guess what Hyejin was going to say.
“Um, seeing that you came today, did you fight with our Sunjeong? You two usually keep in touch well.”
“It’s not that we fought…”
Go Sunjeong seems to dislike me now. Taeon couldn’t bring himself to say these words aloud and kept his mouth firmly shut.
“Anyway, there must be a reason why Sunjeong didn’t tell you about starting to live on his own or becoming independent. It doesn’t seem like Mom should rashly tell you in the middle, right?”
There wasn’t a single wrong part in the words filled with kindness. That’s why Taeon could only quietly nod his head.
No matter how much he declined, Hyejin stubbornly put two boxes of hearty food in his hands, and Taeon left the mansion.
Even though it had already been evening when he arrived, the surroundings still weren’t completely dark.
It was such a familiar road, but Taeon walked out slowly through the wide alley with the feeling of being lost, hesitating with each step.
The place he had to go was decided. It was Taeon’s one and only studio apartment.
In fact, Taeon had always wished for this kind of situation himself, so there was no need to be so shocked. He just needed to go home, sigh a few times, empty a bottle of alcohol he didn’t usually drink, sleep deeply and wake up, and live the life Taeon always had to live. The life Taeon had so desperately hoped for.
And yet Taeon’s footsteps wouldn’t come off easily, as if nailed down. Taeon’s face, repeatedly walking a little and then stopping, had no color.
‘Yoon Taeon, it’s okay. You have me.’
Ridiculously, Taeon’s mother and Taeon were from the same facility.
One teacher who had looked after children there for a long time stared intently at Taeon’s face and would say that Taeon’s face looked exactly like his biological mother’s, telling him not to live relying on his face value—words impossible to distinguish as curse or blessing.
Feeling like that teacher would know, before leaving the facility, Taeon had asked for his biological mother’s contact information.
He didn’t particularly plan to keep in touch, just wanted to see the face he supposedly resembled once.
Now that Taeon was an adult, he thought it would be a contact that wouldn’t burden that side. Maybe it could even be a welcome contact because of the self-reliance settlement money.
If someone would abandon even their own child, their living circumstances were obvious without looking, and since Taeon had money saved from part-time jobs, he intended to give it if she wanted.
But the reply Taeon received was an unfamiliar man’s voice.
A warning not to contact his wife who was living well, saying that Taeon’s contact caused anxiety symptoms to the point that if he contacted her even one more time, legal action would be taken.
Standing blankly before the man’s voice, Sunjeong linked arms with Taeon for no reason and said,
‘You have me. You have me.’
That day, for the first time, Taeon didn’t deny Sunjeong’s words.
‘Yoon Taeon, it’s okay. You have me.’
Recalling Sunjeong’s voice that kept coming like a hallucination, Taeon gauged the path he had to take with confused feelings.
Even without Sunjeong, Taeon’s daily life flowed along without incident.
He woke up early in the morning, simply prepared a meal and went to work.
While working, he no longer thought about other things but focused only on work and came home.
On the way home, he bought a bottle of soju at the convenience store near his house. Half a bottle was just enough to fall asleep pleasantly. After gulping down half a bottle like a sleeping pill, he fell into sleep with a languid feeling.
Of course, there were other plans. When the weather warmed up a bit, he would enroll in a technical certification academy, and no matter how young he was, since it was a body he’d have to use his whole life, he wanted to properly take care of the food going into his mouth from now on, and besides eating, sleeping, and commuting, he also wanted to do something meaningful.
But whenever he tried to do something, strength would drain completely from Taeon’s body and mind.
Days when just living and breathing was the best he could do.
At times like this, Taeon would become troubled. Clearly, this was everything Taeon wanted. He thought he ought to live this kind of life.
As expected, when I can’t sleep, my thoughts deepen. Because he had cold symptoms and had to take medicine, he couldn’t drink soju, so all kinds of thoughts whirled around inside Taeon’s head. His mind, where miscellaneous thoughts floated around, was always murky as if a sandstorm was blowing.
When he recalled just one person’s face, that sandstorm would die down and everything would become clear.
But he thought he couldn’t keep thinking of Sunjeong.
The day he trudged out of Sunjeong’s house without any results, standing on that familiar yet unfamiliar main street, Taeon put together the pieces of information he’d just heard.
Sunjeong had become independent from his family home and was living with a close alpha friend. And he hadn’t told Taeon that information.
It was the same attitude as the resolute rejection he’d seen on Hanguk University campus.
If only Taeon had been Sunjeong’s good friend…
Or even if he’d been an unrequited love interest who was even slightly kind to Sunjeong…
At this moment, Taeon could feel just a little bit of hurt toward Sunjeong.
But what tormented Taeon’s heart the most right now was the fact that Taeon was someone who couldn’t feel any sense of hurt toward Sunjeong. He had no right to.
So this confusion that seemed to shake without center day by day was something Taeon had to endure entirely on his own.
In the small one-room, the only one in this world where Taeon could be most comfortable, Taeon curled his large body, buried his face in his knees, and struggled to gather his murky thoughts.
