# Chapter 18
Yeomin couldn’t understand Jiho’s jealous expression.
Actually, the guy called Seol Jiho himself was full of incomprehensible things.
“Hey.”
Yeomin sternly called out to Jiho. Now Yeomin was starting to become curious, beyond simply not understanding Seol Jiho.
“Why are you outside? Stay inside.”
Jiho reached his hand out to Yeomin. Yeomin flinched unconsciously. As if to show that he had been standing outside for quite some time, Jiho’s rather cold hand caressed Yeomin’s cheek.
“I was just waiting for you to come back, hyung.”
“…”
“But how could you show up riding in someone else’s car? That hurts my feelings.”
There he goes again. Seol Jiho, always making him feel uncomfortable and uneasy with his sharp words.
“What are you?”
Yeomin snapped.
“Why do you keep making people feel uncomfortable?”
“This isn’t uncomfortable, it’s called feeling fluttered.”
Fluttered, my ass. It gives me the creeps.
Just a moment ago he was sending messages saying he couldn’t sleep because of hyung and acting coy, and now he’s showing his sharp teeth.
“Fluttered my ass… I don’t believe anything you say anymore. Who knows what lies you’ll tell next.”
“Hahaha. That’s funny. I never asked you to believe me.”
Jiho laughed cheerfully as if it was really funny. Facing that expression, Yeomin had to admit it.
That he had been enchanted by something. Whether it was this guy’s money, his face, or something else about Jiho…
“You’re not the kind of innocent person who would trust anyone carelessly, hyung.”
He must have been slightly out of his mind. The fact that I thought, even for a moment, that you might be someone I could… rely on, is ridiculous.
“…You’re right. How could I have been like that?”
“Exactly.”
Yeomin, now calm, swatted away Jiho’s hand.
“So when are you moving out?”
“Suddenly I don’t feel like leaving.”
This guy, really!
“If I leave here, it’s vacation so I won’t go to school, and you won’t meet me separately either…”
“Why would I meet you separately? We’re not even close.”
“You’re going to pretend not to know me after sleeping in the same bed?”
Why do you phrase things like that? Anyone who heard would think we had done something in that bed.
“Won’t you miss me if I leave?”
“Not at all.”
“I think I’ll miss you terribly…”
All they did while living together was cook ramen and sleep crammed in a tiny house. That was definitely all. They were certainly not anything more than that.
Of course, there was no reason to miss him.
“Stop talking nonsense and pack your things.”
Just as Yeomin was cutting off the conversation, a large car suddenly appeared in the alley and stopped in front of the two of them.
Yeomin recognized the car immediately. It’s not common for such an expensive car to frequent a student rental area near the school.
It was the same black sedan that had come looking for Jiho before, and from which he had fled not too long ago.
‘Why is it suddenly appearing at this timing?’
Previously it had only watched from afar, but today the car door opened. And two men in black suits got out.
They bowed respectfully to Jiho.
“Young master. We’ve come to escort you.”
What is this? Some kind of gangster movie? Yeomin’s eyes widened at the interesting scene.
Jiho coldly said to them.
“I never said I was going.”
“We were told to bring you today no matter what.”
The man, who looked inflexible, apologized. “Sorry, young master.” After asking for understanding, they grabbed Jiho’s arms from both sides.
‘What is this, some kind of 8 PM melodrama?’
Yeomin was internally shocked. Even though Jiho wasn’t someone who would be physically overpowered easily, there seemed to be no way out with strong guards on either side.
No, it looked like he had no intention of resisting at all. Jiho, with his arms held, looked at Yeomin pitifully.
“Hyung… are you going to let them take me like this?”
With that one sentence, Yeomin could feel the guards becoming wary of him. Yeomin flinched.
‘Why are you suddenly saying lines like that? What am I supposed to do!’
Yeomin had absolutely no intention of getting involved in Jiho’s affairs and becoming tired. This was the perfect chance to get rid of him.
Yeomin tried to reason with Jiho in a gentle tone.
“Jiho. It’s time to go back to your parents, right?”
“If I go, I don’t know what will happen to me. What if they lock me up?”
What does that have to do with me? This has nothing to do with me from the beginning. Who told you to run away from home?
“In this day and age, I’m sure nothing bad will happen. If something happens, make sure to report it.”
“If something happens, I’ll contact you, hyung.”
“No, not me, contact the police.”
“You really need to come now, young master.”
“…Hyung. I don’t want to go. Please.”
‘Why are you asking me what to do? Talk to those people!’
Jiho’s plea for help made Yeomin very uncomfortable.
He’s a guy who might stab me in the back again while pretending to be pitiful like that. This must all be an act too.
‘You’re not the kind of innocent person who would trust anyone carelessly, hyung.’
You said it yourself, right? That I’m not that innocent.
So now I will never believe or sympathize with someone like Seol Jiho.
“Please… okay?”
“Jiho.”
“Hyung…”
“Yes.”
A guy who answers so nicely at times like this.
“When you go home, listen to your parents well, and don’t leave home again. Oh, and fix that broken personality of yours too. Got it?”
“…”
“You’ll be in big trouble if you go around lying again.”
As Yeomin spoke as if teaching a child, Jiho’s expression gradually hardened. Like Siberian ice, cold in temperature.
Yeomin gave Jiho a bright smile for the first and last time.
And then he greeted Jiho and the guards.
“Please don’t release this crazy guy again. And especially don’t let him come to this neighborhood.”
What’s the point of wagging your tail all the time? You shouldn’t let someone who hides sharp teeth and claws walk around freely like this.
Whether you lock him up or teach him a lesson, anyway, let’s not create a situation where we’ll see each other again, okay?
“So it was dirty being with you, let’s never see each other again, Jiho.”
With those final words, Yeomin turned away without hesitation.
Just imagining what expression Jiho might be making behind him was enough to feel cathartic, almost to the point of wanting to cheer.
I’m finally free from Seol Jiho!
* * *
After Yeomin went inside, Jiho spoke coldly.
“What are you doing? Open the door.”
“Yes.”
At Jiho’s words, the guard hastily opened the back seat door. Jiho got into the car and lowered the window.
Yeomin, who had gone inside without even looking back, even closed the window of the house.
Jiho watched the lit window for a long time.
“Where… should we go?”
The attendant asked cautiously. For someone who had come to fetch Jiho on someone’s orders, he seemed not to have a destination in mind.
Jiho, with an expressionless face, stared out the window and spoke to the attendants who were waiting for his answer.
“Let’s go to Director Ahn for now.”
“Yes. Understood.”
At Jiho’s word, the car started immediately.
As they left the narrow alley that had now become quite familiar, Jiho merely took in the scenery with his eyes.
As if slowly recollecting the time he had spent there.
* * *
Four hours and 37 minutes after Jiho was taken away. Yeomin cleaned the messy house for the first time in a while.
He threw away everything from the snacks Jiho had left half-eaten to the toothbrush Jiho had used. He even washed the blanket Jiho had slept under.
After finishing such intense cleaning, the place had returned perfectly to the state of when he lived alone, as if no one had ever been there.
Yeomin looked around the cleaned room with satisfaction.
“…”
What remained after Jiho left were the trash he left behind, the cup holders he had given, and the money left from selling the watch he had given. That was all.
‘I guess this was a profitable business. Don’t think about it anymore, Joo Yeomin.’
Yeomin came out tightly tying up the standard garbage bag. Then he stopped abruptly at the entrance.
There was graffiti on the slippers that Yeomin used to wear around the neighborhood every day (actually, he sometimes wore them to school too).
<Jiho’s>
It was obvious who had written it without even looking.
‘What a ridiculous guy. Why is this yours? Do you think the whole world belongs to you? Huh?’
Maybe he could think that way. He might think the whole world belongs to him.
Judging by the fact that three employees were attached to the car that came to pick him up.
Indeed, Ian Group was on a different scale.
‘Will they really lock him up?’
Scenes from the melodrama he had watched before flashed through Yeomin’s mind.
If he left home because of harsh treatment and now was taken back forcibly… will he be able to attend school next semester?
“Aish. Who am I to worry? This is good for me.”
I didn’t want to see that guy’s face anymore anyway. Yeomin came out, erasing the thoughts that were surfacing.
As he was throwing away the trash bag in front of the house, his phone rang in his pocket.
Yeomin naturally assumed it would be Jiho. He was the one who used to flood Joo Yeomin’s chat room daily.
But the sender was someone else.
[Lee Taeyang: What are you doing Joo Yeomin]
[Lee Taeyang: Let’s drink]
Lee Taeyang? I thought he went out with his girlfriend…
[Lee Taeyang: I broke up]
[Lee Taeyang: With my girlfriend]
I knew it. Yeomin shook his head.
Yeomin exited the chat with Taeyang. Then he saw the chat with Jiho right below it.
The name <Sundoli> that was occupying the recent chat list.
“Sundoli, what the…”
Yeomin looked at that name with discomfort and then hurriedly went back into the villa.
If only memories could be thrown away like these standard trash bags.
If only someone could neatly collect them, that would be really convenient.
