“…What?”
He wondered what he’d just heard. Thinking he’d misheard, he looked at his brother, and his waistband was pulled down with a tug.
“Hik!”
Yugeon hastily grabbed his pants.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
“I have to take them off to put in the medicine.”
“No, no! A sup-suppository, really? You’re not joking? If you’re teasing me, stop right now.”
Migeon stared intently at Yugeon’s face, which was starting to flush, then let out a low sigh and took out the medicine to show him. It really was a suppository.
“No! Why would you buy a suppository? You could’ve just bought medicine to take!”
“They said this works better.”
“Crazy, even if it works better…!”
“Hyung, if you keep getting angry like that, your fever will go up more.”
“You’re the one making me angry!”
“When did I?”
Migeon asked back with an innocent face as if he had no idea. It was so absurd that he was at a loss for words. As he just gaped in bewilderment, his brother tried to pull down his pants even more, and Yugeon desperately clutched his waistband and shouted.
“I’m not even a child, what suppository…! I’m not putting it in!”
“You’re not a child, so why are you throwing a tantrum about not wanting to take medicine?”
“Is this a tantrum?”
“It is a tantrum. You must be really sick, hyung. I’ll put it in quickly. Let go.”
“L-let go! I’d rather put it in myself, give it to me!”
“…You have to put it in deep. It’s better if I put it in for you.”
“I-I said no!”
Yugeon roughly swatted away his brother’s hand, but the large hand didn’t budge. Rather, the force trying to remove his pants only grew stronger.
Finally, unable to bear it, Yugeon squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.
“You’re weird!”
“…?”
“Y-you’re weird! What kind of younger brother puts a suppository in his hyung? People would criticize you if they saw!”
“What does that matter? Let them criticize.”
“What?”
“Isn’t it weirder to neglect a sick hyung? There’s no hospital on our island, so what if hyung gets even sicker?”
“Then I can just go to a hospital outside the island tomorrow, can’t I?”
“What if there are high waves tomorrow? And if you go outside the island…”
“?”
“You might say you’ll just go back like that…”
“…Do you want me to stay on the island that badly?”
“Yeah. I want you to live with me. We’re brothers.”
Migeon, saying this, looked somehow deflated. He really seemed to fear him leaving the island. It was puzzling. They say being apart makes family relationships more affectionate, but isn’t that only for families who have some degree of interaction? They’d spent 17 years apart without even seeing each other’s faces or hearing each other’s voices. Why on earth is he like this…
He couldn’t continue his thoughts. Because Migeon suddenly pulled down his pants. Before his mind, which was a beat slow in assessing the situation, could make his body move, his brother’s body came pressing down on him.
He was trapped helplessly under that large body. Migeon slipped his arm under Yugeon’s neck, who had raised his head in surprise, embraced his shoulders, and extended his other hand between Yugeon’s legs.
A cold, large palm cupped his buttocks. Yugeon held his breath with his eyes wide open, and cold fingers began feeling around between the mounds.
“W-wait! Geon, wai…!”
As he rambled incoherently in panic, he began to hear rustling sounds near his ear. When he turned his gaze, the hand that had been around his shoulder was unwrapping something’s packaging. It wasn’t hard to figure out that it was the suppository.
As Yugeon, who had turned pale, tried to push his brother’s shoulder away, his brother let out a small sigh. At the same time, the fingers that had been feeling between the mounds traced around the entrance as if they’d found what they wanted.
Warning lights flashed wildly in his head. Yugeon hastily pushed his brother’s shoulder away. He shouted something frantically, but he couldn’t even tell what he was saying. Perhaps because of that, his brother looked at him. The face looking straight down at him from the front was particularly unfamiliar. Perhaps because it was in shadow, even his eye color looked a bit different.
“Geon…”
Before Yugeon’s call could even finish, Migeon, who let out a sigh, withdrew the hand that had been tracing the entrance. Yugeon brightened, thinking he was giving up, but the hand that left Yugeon’s buttocks came up to his shoulder, grabbed the suppository, and went back down. Then something invaded inside with a poke.
“Hup!”
Yugeon unconsciously held his breath and curled up.
A long, thick finger pushed the suppository and dug deep inside.
Yugeon twisted his toes that were curling on their own and tensed to push out the foreign object. But far from being pushed out, his brother’s finger only stubbornly pushed in further.
“Ngh!”
He thought he’d feel ashamed, but before that, it was painful.
“Does it hurt?”
At his brother’s question, Yugeon just nodded with his eyes squeezed shut. Then he pressed his forehead against his brother’s shoulder and muttered.
“Quickly, quickly…”
Just put it in quickly.
Miegen quietly watched his hyung pleading with him, then embraced his shoulders more tightly and kissed his head.
“Okay.”
The suppository pushed in as if being shoved slid inside with a slip once it passed a certain point. Migeon confirmed the sensation leaving his fingertips, then withdrew his finger, and Yugeon trembled while letting out a low moan.
Migeon released Yugeon, sat up, and wiped his finger with tissue. Then he raised his head to check on Yugeon’s condition. Yugeon was lying panting on the thoroughly crumpled blanket.
“Hyung?”
He called out but there was no answer. Thinking he might be angry, Migeon looked at his face and realized Yugeon wasn’t angry. He’d lost consciousness and gone limp.
“Oh dear…”
Migeon sighed softly, then tore off more tissue to wipe between Yugeon’s buttocks, and dressed him again in his underwear and pants. Then he felt his forehead.
“Mm…”
Migeon, who had been contemplating while checking his fever, got up and went to the kitchen, then brought back a glass of water. Sitting beside Yugeon and setting down the water, Migeon took something out of his pocket. It was fever medicine and body ache medicine he’d bought along with the suppository. Migeon sat Yugeon up and leaned him against himself, then tore open the fever medicine and body ache medicine, put them in Yugeon’s mouth, took water into his own mouth, slightly parted Yugeon’s lips, and kissed him.
Through their connected lips, the water in Migeon’s mouth flowed into Yugeon’s mouth.
As he poured the water in, before long there was a gulp as he swallowed. Migeon separated their lips and looked inside Yugeon’s mouth. The medicine wasn’t visible. It seemed he’d swallowed it well. But Migeon took water into his mouth once more and kissed him. Again and again, until the water he’d brought was all gone.
When the water cup was empty, Migeon picked up Yugeon along with the blanket and moved him to the room. Then he went to the bathroom, filled a washbasin with hot water, grabbed a towel, and headed back to the room.
Migeon took off all his sleeping hyung’s clothes and began wiping down his body that had become soaked with cold sweat. Cold hands felt along the thin skin, and the hot, wet towel swept over intimate places without hesitation.
Looking at the cleaned-up Yugeon with satisfied eyes, Migeon lay down beside his naked hyung and embraced his body. He smelled his hyung’s scent, felt his hyung’s skin, and buried his lips on his shoulder.
His two eyes, dyed yellow, sank into ecstasy.
* * *
When Yugeon opened his eyes in the morning, he blankly stared at his brother’s face, who was again sleeping stuck firmly to his arm. Then he raised one arm, dry-washed his face, and made a distressed expression. It was because he remembered last night’s disgraceful behavior.
Even in the midst of this, he couldn’t move the arm his brother was clinging to, worried he might wake his soundly sleeping brother.
After swallowing about five hundred sighs inwardly, he quietly sat up. But strangely, his body felt refreshed. Looking down, there was no trace of having sweated, and his clothes had been changed into new ones. Yugeon looked at his brother with bewildered eyes.
“Should I blame him for this… or thank him…”
Do all ordinary brothers live like this? Yugeon shook his head briefly. He’d never grown up rubbing elbows with a sibling so he wasn’t sure, but this was definitely strange somewhere. As he looked at his sleeping brother’s face resentfully, he sighed and got up. But his brother, whom he thought was asleep, suddenly grabbed his hand.
“Where are you going…?”
A heavily sleep-laden voice asked. He couldn’t even open his eyes properly in his drowsiness.
Yugeon couldn’t bring himself to look at his brother’s face, so he averted his gaze and answered curtly.
“…Bathroom.”
Only then did the hand let go.
Yugeon hurriedly entered the bathroom and closed the door. Then he sat on the toilet tearing at his hair in distress, then showered in ice-cold water and came out.
When he came out of the bathroom, his brother was standing right in front of the door. Startled, Yugeon unconsciously stepped back, but Migeon, as if unconcerned, reached out and felt Yugeon’s forehead.
“Your fever’s down.”
“Huh? Huh?”
“I guess it does work well.”
At Migeon’s words, Yugeon’s face immediately flushed. A faint laugh rang out from above his head, but Yugeon couldn’t raise his head to look at his brother.
Migeon turned his body to let Yugeon pass, and as Yugeon hurriedly slipped away, he entered the empty bathroom and said.
“I’ll wash up and come out too. Let’s eat together.”
When the sound of water began coming from the bathroom, Yugeon looked back at the bathroom with somewhat disgusted eyes. His brother was definitely strange somehow.
The two brothers sat facing each other at the well-prepared breakfast table on the wooden floor and began eating silently. Occasionally Migeon would start a conversation and Yugeon would answer, making for a generally quiet meal.
“Doesn’t it taste good?”
At the sudden question, Yugeon quickly raised his head.
“Huh?”
“You’re not eating very enthusiastically… Or do you still hurt somewhere?”
“No, nothing hurts… The food tastes good too.”
“…Okay.”
Migeon nodded without asking further and lowered his gaze. Yugeon looked at his brother with a complicated expression, then bit his lip once and opened his mouth.
“Geon.”
“Yeah?”
“If I… said I wanted to leave the island again, what would you do?”
Migeon’s eyes widened.
“……”
“……”
“Are you going to go?”
“…I don’t know.”
Yugeon’s answer was filled with all kinds of hesitation. Migeon’s gaze, which had been blankly staring at Yugeon, slowly lowered.
“If hyung… said you’re leaving the island, if you said you’re leaving me again… I… would probably cry.”
