“…Could there not be any?”
“Hey!”
Cha Ihyun, who shouted sharply, pulled his clothes down once more. But in doing so, he couldn’t cover the sink, and Cha Dobum was able to easily take out the clothes from the sink. He stared intently at the soaking wet pajama pants and underwear.
“Aha.”
“Give it back, what are you—!”
“Our Ihyun’s all grown up now?”
Looking at the frozen Cha Ihyun, Cha Dobum raised the corner of his mouth in a smirk.
“Who was it?”
“Wh, what are you talking about.”
“I’m asking who made our Ihyun come.”
Cha Ihyun bit his lips tightly. His neck, stained with shame, was reddish.
“I told you not to make such dirty jokes.”
Thinking back, Cha Dobum’s influence was also responsible for the strange dream. If he hadn’t discovered that thing in his wallet in the first place, he wouldn’t have had such a dream.
‘I’m worried you’ll be badly influenced. He’s a kid with no roots.’
Hyung was right. He’s not that bad of a kid my ass…
Leaving aside whether he was bad or not, he shouldn’t have hung out with Cha Dobum. A promiscuous bastard who rolls around with women couldn’t possibly be a decent guy. The gaze glaring at Cha Dobum was full of resentment.
“I really fucking hate you.”
His naive heart, stained with shame and embarrassment, looked for someone to blame. At that sharp reaction, Cha Dobum frowned.
“Did puberty hit you?”
“Is everything a joke to you? Well, yeah. That’s why you’re living such a pathetic life right now.”
It wasn’t the first or second time he’d heard the word pathetic, but at Cha Ihyun’s contemptuous gaze, Cha Dobum’s expression also hardened.
“Why are you suddenly acting crazy?”
“Don’t talk to me. You’re disgusting.”
Cha Ihyun, who shot back coldly, passed by Cha Dobum. But his body, caught by Cha Dobum’s arm, swayed helplessly.
“Ihyun’s really got a talent for pissing people off?”
“Let go.”
“They say you become like who you like, you’re fucking exactly like Cha Minhyun.”
“I told you not to insult hyung.”
“Then don’t act like a fucking asshole. Cutting out all the context and only saying what you want to say, do you think I’m pissed or not pissed?”
The face speaking as if chewing was menacing. This was the first time Cha Dobum, who always grinned, became this serious. But Cha Ihyun raised his neck even more stiffly and glared at him.
“I said let go.”
“Why. Can’t stand it because a dirty bastard is touching you?”
When he consistently ignored the sarcastic words, Cha Dobum spat out curses. For a moment, the scene of making Baek Seunghoon lick the floor came to mind, but he wasn’t afraid of that or anything. There was a vague certainty that Cha Dobum wouldn’t do that to him. It was more data than trust.
As soon as Cha Dobum threw his arm away, Cha Ihyun left the laundry room immediately with an attitude of not even wanting to exchange words.
As soon as he closed the door, a bang— sound echoed shortly and sharply from behind. Cha Ihyun, whose shoulders flinched unknowingly, glared at the door.
Why is he taking it out on me? What did he do so well.
The fuming Cha Ihyun didn’t realize that he too had taken it out on Cha Dobum.
- Variables
There was a change in the classroom scenery.
First of all, Cha Dobum and Cha Ihyun were sitting apart again. From Monday morning, Cha Dobum went back to his original seat saying, “I’m a dirty bastard so sitting in front of the trash can suits me.”
Since the seating went back to how it was before, there really wasn’t much of a change. But the problem was that Cha Dobum had been in a low-pressure state since that day. Everyone held their breath to avoid becoming the second Baek Seunghoon, and thanks to that, the classroom was quiet like the calm before a storm.
For Cha Ihyun, it was rather fortunate. Because he didn’t have to force himself to hang out with Cha Dobum anymore.
He did think about what if Cha Dobum told his hyung everything, but contrary to his worries, he didn’t leak the secret. Whether he didn’t leak it, or whether he was so upset that it wasn’t even worth leaking, he didn’t know.
With his desk against the back door of the classroom, Cha Dobum was lying face down. Around him, Baek Seunghoon and Kim Hoyoung chattered more diligently than usual. It seemed like they were trying hard to cheer up the low-pressure Cha Dobum in their own way.
“Uh, Dobum-ah. I think this vibration is yours?”
When Cha Dobum didn’t budge, Kim Hoyoung took out the phone for him instead.
“Long-haired shooting noona? You got a call from this person.”
“Wow, who’s that noona? Is it Ferrari noona by chance?”
When Cha Dobum just moved his hand, Kim Hoyoung handed over the phone with both hands. Whether interpreting the silence as affirmation, Baek Seunghoon made a fuss.
“I’m so fucking jealous, really. Will a day come when I save names like that too? Today Ferrari, tomorrow an idol, keu.”
Cha Dobum silently just tapped the screen. Annoyance dripped from the hand inputting the message. Kim Hoyoung, who was watching that with envious eyes, carefully asked.
“But Dobum-ah, if it’s too big… do they really hate it?”
“Say it so I can understand.”
Cha Dobum replied irritably and then closed his phone. Baek Seunghoon immediately caught the meaning and giggled.
“Before, when Kim Hoyoung that bastard was envious after seeing yours, Dobum, you said. Ah, what exactly did you say.”
Kim Hoyoung suddenly cut in.
“‘They find it uncomfortable when it’s big.'”
“Yeah. You said exactly like that. I was like, wow, so in life you can feel defeat and respect at the same time, you know?”
Cha Ihyun furrowed his brow at the lowly conversation.
Both flattering him with such things and experiences with women becoming badges of honor were vulgar. It was also pathetic to advertise being in a bad mood all day, and Cha Dobum, who made the class atmosphere like this and let such low-level conversations echo, was the most irritating of all.
Playing the old piano in the music room would be more productive. Cha Ihyun, who was disgusted, pushed his desk and stood up.
At that irritable sound, the classroom was instantly engulfed in silence.
Cha Dobum silently stared at Cha Ihyun. At the gaze that just stared blankly without any reaction, Baek Seunghoon and Kim Hoyoung busily rolled their eyes.
Ignoring that suffocating gaze focused on him, Cha Ihyun walked toward the back door with his head held high. He could have gone around to the front door to avoid Cha Dobum, but he didn’t want to do that out of pride. Without even giving a glance in that direction, he left the classroom while looking straight ahead. It seemed like a burning gaze followed even the back of his head, but he didn’t look back either.
Baek Seunghoon and Kim Hoyoung exchanged glances. The two, who had noticed the cold air between them from earlier, somehow looked pleased. Baek Seunghoon slyly tested Cha Dobum’s reaction.
“Why is he leaving like that? Making people feel embarrassed.”
“Fuck. That’s what I’m saying.”
Cha Dobum reacted immediately.
“His expression too, fuck, like he’s looking at trash… Ah, it’s fucked. Fucked. Fucking fucked, I’m saying.”
The foot that kicked the desk leg with each “fucked” still seemed upset as it stomped on the classroom floor.
This was the first time Cha Dobum had poured out emotions like this. The corner of Baek Seunghoon’s mouth twisted up. Cha Ihyun, who had been acting up relying on just being relatives, had already been getting on his nerves. He helped out while moderately testing the waters.
“Right. He looked at you kind of like you were dirty.”
“That’s what I’m saying, fuck! Why is he looking at people like he’s looking at a slut?”
Having been utterly humiliated in the middle of the classroom before, solidarity with Cha Dobum was all the more important to Baek Seunghoon. Baek Seunghoon opened his itching mouth.
“Hey hey, Dobum-ah. But you… did you hear that?”
Meanwhile, Cha Ihyun was returning to the classroom again. It was because he stupidly left the music room key behind.
It was embarrassing to go back in after leaving like that, but he couldn’t wander around the hallway for the remaining time either.
When he almost arrived at the classroom, he heard his name through the open door.
“My friend saw Cha Ihyun over the weekend. At a hotel.”
Cha Ihyun’s footsteps stopped abruptly. The stomping sound of Cha Dobum that had been filling the hallway also stopped. After a brief silence, Kim Hoyoung’s dissuading voice followed.
“Hey, Seunghoon-ah, that’s…”
“A hotel?”
But Cha Dobum’s voice, full of interest, made the cut-off story continue.
“Yeah, you know Yang Gitae from class 5, right? He works part-time at a bar, doing errand work. Anyway, last week he went on an errand to a hotel and there was our school uniform there.”
“So?”
“Well, he said it was Cha Ihyun when he looked.”
People passing through the hallway glanced at Cha Ihyun who had stopped abruptly. Whether they were looking because it was strange for him to just stand there, or whether that rumor had already spread throughout the school, Cha Ihyun couldn’t tell.
“It was also a weekend morning and it seemed a bit strange, so he looked and saw him following some man and getting in a car together. And it was a really expensive foreign car. The man was really young too.”
He could immediately tell which day they were talking about. But he never imagined that he and his hyung would look ‘that way’ to someone.
For a moment, Cha Ihyun discovered his own contradiction. Even though they were family, just as the casual actions with Cha Dobum could seem strange, why didn’t he know that such an appearance with his hyung could also look weird. They might be lowly, but right now he only felt stupid himself.
As a meaningful silence continued, Baek Seunghoon quickly backed out.
