The door closed with a bang. After pushing Yujeong inside the front door, Seongjo roughly took off his shoes. Though Yeongbeom had long since disappeared from sight, the anger hadn’t disappeared with him.
Seongjo openly revealed the fact that he was displeased. After watching that appearance silently for a moment, Yujeong soon opened his mouth and asked.
“Are you angry?”
When he turned his head toward him after hearing the question, his split lip came into view once again. Yujeong might have said it to calm Seongjo’s anger, but seeing that appearance made another wave of fury boil up instead.
However, in either case, it wasn’t anger directed at Yujeong. That’s why Seongjo barely managed to adjust the sharp voice that couldn’t help but come out.
“That’s right. I am.”
After spitting out those words, Seongjo belatedly added, thinking Yujeong might misunderstand.
“…But I’m not angry at Teacher Jeon.”
Then was he angry at Yeongbeom? Of course he was angry at him, but he couldn’t say it was 100% that.
Seongjo was also quite angry at himself. The regret that he might have been able to prevent this situation if he’d paid a bit more attention kept raising its head.
Still, what was immediately important wasn’t Seongjo’s own angry feelings. Seongjo asked Yujeong, who was still just looking at him without saying much.
“Do you have a first aid kit at home?”
“It’s not a wound worth that.”
Yujeong answered calmly, but there was no way Seongjo would be convinced by those words. When he looked at him with triangular eyes, Yujeong reluctantly told him where the first aid kit was.
He sat him down on the sofa, and Seongjo also sat next to him.
Ironically, Yujeong was the second person to receive treatment from Seongjo. The reason that fact was ironic was because the first person had been none other than Jo Yeongbeom.
Until then, he’d never had occasion to apply medicine to anyone else, so he’d essentially learned that method to treat Yeongbeom.
But to think that the method he’d learned back then to treat Yeongbeom’s wounds would now be used to treat a wound Yeongbeom had inflicted.
Though they say you never know what will happen in life. Seongjo applied disinfectant to Yujeong’s face with a complicated expression. Because it was a wound on his lip, Yujeong’s expression contorted wildly each time the medicine touched it. Seongjo said sternly to Yujeong who subtly flinched and tried to turn his head.
“Even if it hurts, bear with it.”
“You said you weren’t angry at me… but just looking at this now, you seem not just angry but very angry.”
Instead of whimpering about pain, Yujeong calmly only said that. Seongjo avoided his gaze for no reason.
“I’m being careful.”
Seongjo’s touch, which he’d muttered awkwardly, became slightly gentler than before. After even putting on a bandage, Seongjo, who had closed the first aid kit, stared intently at Yujeong’s face.
The bandage on his lip was particularly noticeable. He was someone who had to go back to work tomorrow—would this be okay? It wasn’t a deep wound, but it wasn’t light enough to heal instantly by morning either. Imagining Yujeong going to work with a bandage made him greatly concerned.
Did his upset feelings show too much in his expression? Yujeong smiled as if a bit troubled.
“If you make such an expression over just this much of a wound, I won’t know where to put myself…”
“Even if you’re not badly hurt, being hurt is being hurt.”
Yujeong was slightly joking, but Seongjo’s voice was firm. Looking at his face without a smile, Yujeong continued to smile faintly.
“Should I act spoiled to the point of exhausting you… so I can make you tired quickly?”
Yujeong said with an expression that was unclear whether it was a joke or serious. Though it was a bit flustering as he’d never expected such words to come from Yujeong, Seongjo answered outwardly without any wavering.
“Do you think I’d get tired from that much?”
“You haven’t even experienced how I act spoiled, have you?”
“There’s a reason for the saying ‘you don’t need to see it to know.'”
Seongjo answered with an expressionless face. That was actually what he thought. He couldn’t imagine what Yujeong acting spoiled would look like.
Yujeong seemed like someone who wouldn’t even know how to rely on others. Had he ever acted spoiled to his heart’s content even in front of his parents? In his imagination, even young Yujeong had done everything on his own.
Thinking such thoughts, his mood improved a bit compared to a moment ago. However, it wasn’t enough for his expression to completely relax.
Perhaps noticing that change in mood as he quietly watched Seongjo, Yujeong reached out and pressed down on Seongjo’s slightly furrowed brow.
“Relax your face now. It’s okay.”
Seongjo let out a small sigh. As he said, it was time to manage his expression now. The one who got hit and was hurt was Yujeong, so the situation of him trying hard to improve Seongjo’s mood didn’t make sense. Seongjo made an effort to calm his anger toward Yeongbeom.
He relaxed his expression without furrowing the brow Yujeong had smoothed. After completely leaning his body against the sofa where he’d been sitting only on the edge, he opened his mouth and asked.
“What did you talk about?”
In the end, he couldn’t completely avoid asking about the matter with Yeongbeom. Yujeong seemed to fall into thought for a moment while facing Seongjo. Why couldn’t he say it right away? Had he heard words so harsh they couldn’t be conveyed?
Soon the words Yujeong brought out were these:
“We talked about something only the two of us know.”
Seongjo’s face contorted as if puzzled. As far as Seongjo knew, Yujeong and Yeongbeom had never even met each other. If Yeongbeom hadn’t arbitrarily come to see Yujeong today, they would have had no occasion to face each other in the future either. What secret conversation could there be between such people?
To Seongjo’s ears, Yujeong’s words could only sound like they were meant to lessen Seongjo’s own guilt. Even if he glossed over it that way, there was no way his mind would be at ease.
“You didn’t hear terrible words?”
Seongjo asked with a sigh. Once he’d voiced the words, his concern grew deeper. All that came to mind were the bad things Yujeong must have experienced.
“You weren’t threatened or anything, were you?”
“You worry a lot.”
“Of course I’m worried. He even threw punches, so what else wouldn’t he have done?”
Not knowing what was so funny about those words, Yujeong laughed out loud. Soon he looked at Seongjo with a gentle face and spoke as if to reassure him.
“Don’t worry. I sent him back well enough in my own way.”
“…”
“He probably won’t come looking for a while, I think.”
It didn’t seem like just something he was saying to get out of the situation. There was somehow a confident tone to it.
Seongjo realized while facing Yujeong. Seeing that he wasn’t explaining what he’d said, there must definitely have been words he wanted to hide. Perhaps he wasn’t hiding what Yeongbeom had said, but rather Yujeong himself had done something worth hiding.
Had he said harsh words enough to make Yeongbeom get so worked up he threw punches? Even if that were so, there would be nothing for Seongjo to be disappointed about in Yujeong. Apparently Yujeong didn’t realize that fact.
“If you don’t want to say it, you don’t have to right now.”
Seongjo, who had been thinking about what to say, finally opened his mouth. If he didn’t want to talk about it, he had no intention of pressing further.
“But no matter what you say, I’m going to take Yujeong-ssi’s side.”
Still, he wanted to give him that much certainty.
“Even if I secretly threw the first punch?”
“Of course. Wouldn’t he have done something to deserve getting hit first? It’s that guy, not anyone else.”
Yujeong smiled slightly and asked again.
“Even if I said terrible things?”
“I am curious what terrible things you said. You act so proper in front of me that I actually want to hear it.”
Yujeong’s smile deepened a bit more. This time he asked once more in a slightly more meaningful voice.
“Even though that person was once Lee Seongjo-ssi’s lover?”
Seongjo paused for a moment. He couldn’t grasp Yujeong’s intention clearly. What was the reason for bringing up the fact that Jo Yeongbeom was Seongjo’s ex-lover so pointedly? Was he simply really curious, or was it a kind of jealousy?
Should he give an answer ‘worth being certain of’ here to reassure him?
After a deliberation that was neither long nor short, Seongjo opened his mouth. His expression was quite serious.
“Teacher Jeon, about that friend…”
But before Seongjo could finish his words, a vibration sound came from inside Seongjo’s pocket as if to interrupt.
