“Socrates said, ‘Know thyself.'”
“Classes even before vacation, isn’t that totally crazy?”
“Yeah.”
Seongyeom answered halfheartedly to his best friend Shim Hyeon sitting next to him. His head was completely complicated with last night’s events.
“What are you thinking about so much?”
“Yeah.”
Even when he tried to recall other memories, the last memory was rubbing his face against Siwon’s waist in the car.
Did I walk into the house on my own two feet? Or was I carried by the President?
“The fact that Mom and Dad know the President means he definitely came up to the house with me.”
“Who came up?”
He asked with a pen wedged between his nose and philtrum. He was the very person who had passed on the million-won-per-hour tutoring job. Seongyeom watched his friend’s pathetic appearance and suddenly became curious.
“There’s something like that. Hey, but.”
Hyeon has the same major, so why did he pass the tutoring job to me?
Seongyeom narrowed his eyes and asked accusingly.
“Did you happen to know?”
“Know what?”
Acting coy was Shim Hyeon’s specialty.
“Tell me honestly. You already knew, didn’t you?”
“So what?”
“About the tutoring! That the tutoring student’s guardian is a gangster, you knew, didn’t you! If not, then why on earth did you give it to me?”
He suppressed his rising voice due to that frustrating bastard Shim Hyeon and smacked his own thighs. Hyeon looked indifferently at Seongyeom getting worked up alone, then grabbed and lowered the pen he’d placed above his philtrum.
“I told you, didn’t I? That I’m immigrating to Canada.”
“Ah, immigration.”
Then he really didn’t know about the ‘gangster tutoring’ thing.
Seongyeom, who had been nodding as if in agreement, hurriedly turned to Hyeon.
Wait.
“Immigration?!”
“You there, quiet.”
The professor reading an old-fashioned textbook pointed at the two of them. Seongyeom quickly covered his mouth, apologized, lowered his body, and whispered to Hyeon.
“You’re immigrating!?”
Hyeon stared at Seongyeom, then nodded. Seeing his reaction, he really must have forgotten. Hurt flashed in his eyes with deep double eyelids.
“That’s why I said I’d send you pictures of hot hyungs when I go to Canada.”
“When did you ever say that?!”
“Last week when the three of us drank with Miyeon noona.”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, he seemed to have said something like that. Because he’d heard it while drunk, he’d brushed off his best friend’s immigration news along with the joke about sending pictures of handsome men.
“What, this idiotic reaction? I’m seriously fucking hurt.”
“I love you.”
Hyeon made a disgusted expression and gently raised his middle finger.
“Now, please pay special attention to this part…”
Hyeon stared at the professor passionately lecturing about Roman philosophers, then casually asked.
“But do they really give a million won per hour?”
“Yeah. And in cash.”
“Fuck, in cash. Then what do the parents do?”
“Gangsters.”
“Gangsters? …Ga, gangsters?!”
“Yeah.”
“Crazy…”
Seongyeom quietly raised his finger to his lips showing it to Hyeon, who was staring at him in shock. Hyeon, who nodded as if intrigued, closed his textbook entirely. Supporting his chin with one hand, his eyes sparkled.
“If it’s a gangster family, there must be a lot of men there?”
“I wondered when you’d ask that.”
“Is my ideal type also in that family?”
When Seongyeom glanced at him with an ‘here we go again’ look, Hyeon began pestering him in earnest.
“You know my style!”
Hyeon had a tall body reaching 189cm, and had liked machos since childhood. The reason Seongyeom could remain friends with Hyeon for so long was because they had the same sexual identity but their ideal types didn’t overlap.
Rolling his eyes while recalling the men in that house, Seongyeom suddenly thought of Teolbo. Unusually for a Korean, he had a thick beard and hair tied in a ponytail, two piercings only on his right earlobe, and geometric tattoos covering from his shoulders to half his hands.
“Crazy. His name is Teolbo?”
When he told him about Teolbo hyung, Hyeon’s eyes lit up.
“It’s probably a nickname. I don’t know his real name either.”
“How old?”
“I don’t know! I only went there for the first time yesterday?”
“Hurry up and work hard, my friend. Go ask for more information.”
At Hyeon’s urging, Seongyeom scratched his neck while trying to gauge Teolbo’s age.
The President looked roughly around my age, so Teolbo hyung is probably in his late 30s or early 40s, right? Then, the age gap between us would be at least a full zodiac cycle? Does he like people with that much age difference?
Hyeon seemed fascinating in a new way.
After finishing the last exam of the semester, Seongyeom, who finally met the end of term, packed his things at home and called a taxi. Standing with two 5-tier jumbo lunch boxes that Ms. Na had packed since the crack of dawn and a suitcase, it looked like it was Seongyeom immigrating, not Hyeon.
After loading the luggage in the taxi trunk and getting in the back seat, he looked up at the apartment where he’d lived with his parents. It was just a move to a place a stone’s throw away, but it felt like a permanent farewell, making him feel strange.
No, wait a minute.
Originally, I started the tutoring part-time job to become independent because my parents wouldn’t accept my sexual orientation. But thinking about it, not only Dad but even Mom called the President son-in-law.
Then, don’t I not really need to leave home?
“Ha… what on earth happened yesterday?”
He leaned back in the back seat with a troubled mind. Like Seongyeom’s mood, the sky was full of dark clouds. It looked like it would rain soon.
“Phew…”
Anyway, even though it bothers me that it’s a gangster family, the work I have to do is just tutoring and housework, so what could happen? Let’s just endure a little. With that mindset, he headed back to that house.
Alright. I’ll apologize first for yesterday, and start fresh!
***
Though he returned with a firm resolution, the reaction of the hyungs guarding the front gate was very strange. As if seeing a ghost, they looked at Seongyeom, turned pale, rubbed their eyes, and alternately checked each other’s faces.
“Why did you come here again…?”
“What do you mean why, I’m this house’s housekeeper starting today?”
Seongyeom smiled amiably and pointed to the trunk containing the 5-tier food containers, suitcase, and backpack. The two organization members looked at Seongyeom’s luggage with wary expressions.
When there was a thud, the organization member who had been resting while watching TV in the living room was startled and looked back.
“What. Weren’t you buried yesterday?”
“Excuse me?”
What was buried?
Seongyeom found it strange that they kept looking at him like a ghost, but first reached out his hand to greet them. Then, the mountain-sized hyung who had come in carrying luggage together and the sharp-featured hyung sitting on the living room sofa all without exception gasped and distanced themselves from Seongyeom.
“Who the fuck buried this bastard yesterday?!”
When the sharp-featured hyung shouted from the living room, the sound of doors bursting open came one after another, and at least ten hyungs came pouring out into the living room. Suddenly facing a large number of fierce-looking hyungs, Seongyeom froze in place.
“This bastard! We thought the Boss personally took you away and buried you yesterday!”
“Buried… me?”
I want to say there seems to be some misunderstanding, but his mouth wouldn’t open easily. While he was frozen like a herbivore surrounded by predators, Yi Cheong’s voice was heard from upstairs.
“What is it, what’s going on?”
“Cheong…!”
Seongyeom called Yi Cheong’s name happily and sent him a look requesting rescue. Yi Cheong watched the hyungs who looked ready to start a brawl at home right now, then raised his eyebrows at Seongyeom’s voice.
“Oh, Teacher. You’re here.”
Cheong greeted him while picking his ear and leaning against the railing. Suddenly, the organization members stood in front of him as if to protect him.
“Young master, be careful! This bastard, he’s a crazy guy who came back alive even after the Boss personally buried him yesterday!”
“No he didn’t? Hyung dropped Teacher off at home with Daerim hyung.”
Cheong replied dryly and returned to his room. The organization members, who belatedly realized they had misunderstood, scattered to go about their own business with deflated expressions.
Only a few who had witnessed the atrocities Seongyeom committed against Siwon yesterday were still looking at his existence with disbelieving faces.
“You’re the first to survive after doing that.”
The big guy who had put Seongyeom’s luggage down on one side of the sofa gave a thumbs up.
“Be careful. It wouldn’t be strange if you were buried anytime.”
“Yes, I’ll be careful…”
“And hey, the Boss likes women. He doesn’t like men rubbing up on him.”
“Yes…”
At the words of the big guy and sharp-featured hyung, Seongyeom nodded with a sullen face like a child being scolded.
“But Teacher, what’s all this?”
The big hyung asked, kicking the large lunch box with his foot.
“Ah, this! Have you hyungs eaten?”
Seongyeom, who had put down his bag, separated the jet-black 5-tier lunch boxes and spread them out on the living room table. Inside were kimbap, crab marinated in soy sauce, and beef bone soup that Ms. Na had made with rare effort, carefully packaged.
Seongyeom looked at the rolled omelet, which had a different appearance from the one he made, with a proud smile.
“My mother runs a restaurant. When I said I was indebted to you, she told me to bring this.”
“Wow, you’re a better kid than you look!”
“Ahem.”
The organization member who had just picked up a crab leg hurriedly licked the seasoning off his hands and stood up at the coughing sound from upstairs. Seongyeom watched the organization members blankly, not knowing why, then spotted Daerim coming down to the living room and stood up to greet him.
“Hello.”
“You’ve arrived.”
Daerim, who gave a plain greeting, looked at the food containers spread out on the living room table and narrowed his brow.
“What’s all that?”
“My mother told me to bring it.”
“I see.”
“I’m truly sorry about yesterday!”
Seongyeom bowed deeply and apologized politely. Watching him, Daerim showed a warm smile.
