It was funny getting into a childish argument with a brother seven years younger. But this wasn’t the first or second time this had happened. Even between brothers, there was a limit to how self-centered one could be. Last time when he trashed the room and ran away was the same pattern. Even if they were family, even if they were brothers, there were lines that needed to be respected. But Kang Yeonghwan seemed to have no understanding of those lines and kept crossing them.
When he was young, Chaehun had been indulgent and let things slide, but now that Yeonghwan was older, no amount of nagging seemed to fix him. If it were a stranger, Chaehun could just distance himself, but because they were family, it didn’t work that way. So he was trying to call him out on things properly to at least make him pretend to understand.
“Ah, I was wrong. I was wrong, so just let it slide this once. Jingyu hyung-nim is really great, I’m telling you. I already contacted him saying you were here. But what am I supposed to do if you disappear? I’ll get chewed out. And how am I supposed to face Jingyu hyung-nim after this?”
“That’s your problem.”
“Hyung. I won’t do it again from now on. Okay? Just let it slide this one time.”
Kang Yeonghwan clung to him with a tearful expression. Chaehun wanted to tell him to clean up his own mess, but even so, his heart softened at times like this. Really, he wasn’t a brother but an enemy.
“I’ll just say hi and leave. From next time, there’s no hyung-nim or anything.”
“Uh, yeah. Got it.”
“Contact me when he arrives. I’ll be wandering around on my own.”
Chaehun turned away from Kang Yeonghwan. Heat was boiling up inside him and he felt like he needed to drink another beer.
*
*
[How did you end up there?]
Checking the message from Seunggeon, Chaehun let out a sigh. He was in the mood to complain to Seunggeon that he didn’t want to be here either.
[It’s complicated. I’ll tell you about it later.]
Chaehun pressed the send button while looking up at the second floor. From where he was standing, he couldn’t see the second floor properly. He wondered if Seunggeon would actually laugh if he explained how he followed his brother here because he said he’d buy him something nice, only to end up on a blind date.
He was clicking his tongue internally and shaking his head when some drunk person bumped into him. Bad luck. Beer spilled from the bottle Chaehun was holding, soaking his jacket. The drunk person apologized and disappeared, and Chaehun went to look for the bathroom.
A large stain appeared on his neatly dressed jacket, making his effort pointless. After washing away as much of the beer smell as possible, he left the bathroom. But an unexpected person was waiting outside the door.
“Let’s have a talk, shall we?”
Park Gwangho approached him in a confrontational tone. A man around the same age was standing beside him. It wasn’t a situation for a pleasant conversation, but Chaehun spoke as politely as possible.
“What’s this about?”
“Your brother seems to be an omega?”
“That’s my brother’s personal information, so I can’t tell you. Also, you’re being too informal.”
“Do we need to be so stiff when we met privately? This ‘-yo’ thing is ridiculous too. But I’m curious about something. Your brother is an omega but you’re not? Isn’t that strange? Are you really not hiding it?”
Chaehun thought, what the hell is this guy doing? The way he’d been mixing in casual speech to get under people’s skin from the start wasn’t even funny. And it was also laughable how he was jumping to conclusions about hiding being an omega.
Up until now, typical alphas had shown interest in Kang Yeonghwan, a dominant omega. There had often been cases where people tried to get on Chaehun’s good side to get introduced to Kang Yeonghwan. But Park Gwangho was picking a fight.
He wasn’t even curious about the reason why Gwangho suspected him of hiding being an omega. It was obviously going to be some ridiculous reason anyway.
“I’m telling you for the second time, I’m not.”
“Really? Sounds like a lie though?”
“Further conversation seems meaningless. Believe it or don’t, do as you please.”
“If you’re saying I can believe what I want, then it must be true.”
The conversation with Park Gwangho felt like talking to a wall. Since they were already on bad terms anyway, Chaehun turned around instead of responding.
“Hey, I’m asking if you’re really not!”
Park Gwangho, who had yelled out, grabbed Chaehun’s right wrist. But instead of letting himself be caught obediently, Chaehun grabbed Park Gwangho’s hand in reverse. At the same time, using the momentum from turning his body, he twisted Park Gwangho’s arm behind his back and pressed down.
“Ugh!”
Park Gwangho, subdued by Chaehun in an instant, let out a groan.
“Are you going to attack cowardly from behind?”
“Fuck. The coward is you. Ack. It hurts!”
“Seems like you don’t know that grabbing someone’s wrist is clearly an aggressive action. Be careful from now on. If this were abroad, you’d get shot.”
Properly pissed off, Chaehun shoved Park Gwangho hard. Park Gwangho, whose body had been bent forward, couldn’t maintain his balance and tumbled forward. People glanced their way at the small commotion but soon lost interest and turned their heads away.
Chaehun also left Park Gwangho’s companion floundering and turned around. He’d acted on impulse without thinking things through. He felt dizzy wondering what kind of retaliation the silver-spoon Park Gwangho might take, but he couldn’t undo what had already been done.
Thinking he should just go home, forget the introduction and everything, he was striding away when Kang Yeonghwan happened to call out to him.
“Hyung. Over here. Here.”
He was right next to him, so he couldn’t pretend not to hear and just leave. Chaehun clicked his tongue internally and approached Kang Yeonghwan. Standing next to Kang Yeonghwan was a man he’d never seen before.
“Hyung. This is Park Jingyu hyung-nim. Hyung-nim. This is my hyung. Chaehun. Pretty name, right?”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Park Jingyu.”
“I’m Kang Chaehun.”
Chaehun shook the hand Park Jingyu extended for a light handshake. As Kang Yeonghwan had said, Park Jingyu was tall and handsome. His atmosphere wasn’t bad either. But those were things that should be confirmed under bright sunlight, not in a club.
“I’ve heard a lot about you from Yeonghwan.”
Just as appropriately polite conversation was beginning, the club bell rang out loudly again, naturally drawing everyone’s gaze toward the floor. The DJ shouted about another battle.
Like everyone else, Chaehun was turning his head toward the floor when he was shocked. Park Gwangho was standing there under the spotlight.
“You, you come up here. You bastard!”
Park Gwangho pointed precisely at Chaehun with his fingertip. The surrounding people’s gazes converged on Chaehun.
Chaehun swallowed a sigh internally. Still, he understood just a little bit the feeling of making a big scene to get revenge for being humiliated.
“Hyung. You have to do this. Otherwise you’ll get kicked out. Your whole party, I mean. Win or lose, you have to do it.”
Kang Yeonghwan came over and whispered. Actually, Chaehun didn’t care if he got kicked out. But Park Gwangho was the problem. Having come this far, their relationship was finished anyway. Rather than being called a coward for avoiding it, it seemed more comfortable to fight and crush him flat. It was also a desperate mindset that if worst came to worst, he could just quit the hospital and look for another job.
As Chaehun walked unhesitatingly toward the floor, people made way like Moses’ miracle. Facing Park Gwangho, Chaehun roughly gauged the distance.
“Cowardly bastard. Fuck. Let’s settle this today. I’ll smash you to pieces!”
Park Gwangho shouted loudly while taking off his jacket and throwing it on the floor. Chaehun unfastened his wristwatch strap and said a word.
“Let’s end it with this.”
“What?”
“Win or lose, let’s end it with this.”
“Hahaha. Right. Let’s end it with this. You won’t be able to hold your head up anymore.”
Chaehun didn’t think they could end it with this. Still, just in case, he created an out for himself and took off his jacket and watch, entrusting them to Kang Yeonghwan behind him.
“Now, let’s begin. Everyone scream!!”
As the DJ hyped things up, the spectators responded with cheers. When the start was announced with loud sound effects, Park Gwangho raised both arms and put up his guard. His stance and footwork looked like he’d learned boxing. Chaehun also assumed a suitable sparring stance.
The first to move was Park Gwangho. He threw a jab, the basic punch of boxing, but since he was just checking the distance, Chaehun easily dodged it.
Chaehun, who had won a medal in taekwondo at the National Sports Festival during his school days, was what people commonly called a dan holder. Because he’d applied to the National Police University, he’d consistently exercised. The same was true even after becoming an adult.
Chaehun hadn’t just built up stamina but also regularly sparred without fail. So he knew exactly what his weaknesses were. He was smaller in build than Park Gwangho and weighed less. In a brawl, heavier weight was always advantageous.
Since there was nothing good about dragging it out, Chaehun planned to end it in one go. The moment Park Gwangho threw his fourth jab, he closed the distance in one move, struck his chin with the heel of his palm, then followed with an elbow swing to the cheekbone.
Not missing the moment Park Gwangho staggered, Chaehun threw a roundhouse kick. As soon as he felt it deflected slightly by Park Gwangho’s guard, he immediately connected with a spinning back kick. This time it landed properly. Park Gwangho, hit squarely in the head, collapsed with a thud.
“Amazing. It ended in one shot. One shot!!”
