“…I’m sorry.”
“…You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
Migeon slowly bowed his head with a truly apologetic face, then even let go of the hand he was holding and muttered weakly.
“Yeah, but I’m still sorry.”
Yugeon was flustered by the atmosphere becoming more serious than expected. Until this morning, he seemed to firmly push him away, but now why was he so apologetic? It was to the point where he felt more sorry. It seemed better to change the subject to ventilate the air. Hurriedly searching for various topics in his head, he instinctively blurted out something that suddenly came to mind.
“Um, um! By any chance, is Jaeyeong ostracized because… he’s someone who came from outside the island?”
“?”
Migeon looked at Yugeon with a puzzled face. It was a face asking what that meant.
Only then did Yugeon realize his mistake. He’d asked as if confirming that Jaeyeong was someone from outside the island without even verifying the facts.
As the embarrassed Yugeon muttered “Isn’t that it?” again while scratching the back of his neck, his brother asked back in a surprised voice as if unexpected.
“…How did you know?”
“Hm?”
“That Jaeyeong isn’t an islander.”
“Huh? Ah, because he resembles you.”
“?”
Migeon’s face became distorted beyond measure.
“No, no. Not the face… The point that he doesn’t resemble anyone.”
“…Ah.”
Migeon sighed as if he understood, but still let out a sigh with a displeased face and opened his mouth.
“There have been questions a few times since long ago. Sanghoe ahjussi got angry every time saying he was his real son, but all the villagers tacitly think about it. That he’s probably not his real son. Because they look too different. Not only both parents, but also grandparents or any of the villagers.”
“Ah, now that you mention it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jaeyeong’s mother…”
Before he could finish speaking, Migeon answered.
“There isn’t one.”
“There isn’t?”
Yugeon asked back while looking at his brother.
There isn’t one without any context? Does that mean she passed away? Or is this also related to internal island affairs?
“Anyway, Jaeyeong isn’t ostracized because he came from outside the island. If he was ostracized for that, people like uncle’s wife, aunt’s husband, and aunt’s husband would all be ostracized too.”
“I… suppose so…?”
“But why did you think that?”
“Well, if by any chance… he was ostracized for not being an islander… I wondered if you might have experienced the same situation…”
“You were worried about me?”
“Of course. You’re my only family.”
“All these islanders are your family though?”
“…That’s not what I meant.”
“Then say I’m your only younger brother.”
Yugeon looked at his brother, then shook his head briefly as if he couldn’t stop him and answered.
“Yes, because you’re my only younger brother.”
Migeon smiled brightly as if he was very pleased with Yugeon’s answer.
“I didn’t have anything like that, so don’t worry.”
“That’s a relief, but… couldn’t you have… stopped Jaeyeong from being ostracized? It’s not just a few people doing it, it’s like the whole village is bullying one person.”
Yugeon recalled the scene he saw in the morning. No one extended a warm hand to someone who was in despair, screaming, and collapsing because their parent died. Did they need to be that cold-hearted…
“……”
“I know there are circumstances I don’t know about, but from what I saw, you don’t seem very interested in Jaeyeong, so if everyone just remained indifferent like you…”
“Hyung.”
“Yeah?”
“If there’s anyone on this island who hates Lee Sanghoe and Lee Jaeyeong the most, it’s me.”
“What?”
Migeon slowly reached out to Yugeon who asked back and embraced him. He could feel the shoulder he wrapped his arm around and the chest that touched his flinch and stiffen. But Migeon didn’t care and muttered while burying his face in Yugeon’s shoulder.
“I was also the one who missed you the most, hyung…”
* * *
“Huk, heu, hueong… Dad, heu, Dad…”
Jaeyeong was lying face down crying at a secluded pier on the island. This pier, surrounded by untended, overgrown bushes, was also where the people of Imokdo were given sea burials. When someone died on Imokdo, they dressed them in clean clothes and put them in a coffin for sea burial, but Lee Sanghoe was given a sea burial in his dead state without even being put in a coffin. Rather than a sea burial, it was more like trash had been dumped into the sea.
He appealed to Migeon many times while coming to the burial site. To give him a proper sea burial, to at least observe minimum courtesy since he was a dead person. But Migeon just rolled his dead father in a straw mat and threw him into the seawater.
“Kkeuk… kkeuk…”
Jaeyeong made sounds as if his breath would cut off and wildly scratched the floor of the pier. Because of whom? Because of whom did Dad pass away? Lee Woongin who threw stones at him? Himself who showed the result of his head splitting because of that?
No, no… No. It’s because of his father. Because he touched Lee Yugeon.
“Why… why!”
Jaeyeong slammed the ground. Resentment with nowhere to go roughly hit the ground and bounced up.
Why did he take out his anger on Lee Yugeon of all people? Why didn’t he go find those who usually harmed him, why Lee Yugeon of all people!
“Why did you come back… why!”
Jaeyeong, who had scratched and hit the pier floor until his hands were all scraped, raised his head with a face covered in tears and snot. His half-unfocused eyes were bloodshot red.
“Why… why…”
Muttering while grinding his teeth, Jaeyeong turned around and looked at the far top of the island.
Right, it’s all because of this island.
Because of this island, because of the islanders, and… because of the Imugi.
Jaeyeong sat alone at the pier until the sun set low. His two eyes looking into the distance were empty. As dusk fell around him, the surroundings gradually darkened. The forest that had been dark with shadows became pitch black to the point where you couldn’t see an inch ahead. And hidden in the pitch-black darkness, something was staring intently at Jaeyeong with a pair of eyes. At the empty Jaeyeong.
* * *
‘If there’s anyone on this island who hates Lee Sanghoe and Lee Jaeyeong the most, it’s me.’
‘I was also the one who missed you the most, hyung…’
In the mind of Yugeon lying in bed, his brother’s words were floating around everywhere.
Looking back at his conversation with his brother, it sounded as if the reason he had to leave the island was precisely because of Lee Sanghoe and Lee Jaeyeong. He definitely knew it was because of pneumonia. Because there were no medical facilities on the island, he who had severe pneumonia had no choice but to be treated outside the island.
Pneumonia was an easily contagious disease. Perhaps Jaeyeong got pneumonia first, and it was transmitted to him? Because of that, he had no choice but to go outside the island, but Jaeyeong was treated on the island, so his brother and the islanders…
“……”
No, that’s too far-fetched. They wouldn’t all ostracize him just for something like that. There would be no need to hide the reason from him by bringing up internal island affairs.
Yugeon stared intently at his sleeping brother’s face. His neatly sleeping face was turned toward him.
Why do you want me to stay on the island?
I don’t know how to farm, I don’t know how to operate a boat. Even if I stay on this island, I’d only have to depend on you and live causing you trouble.
Just because we’re brothers, because we’re family, didn’t seem like enough reason. What’s the real reason?
Yugeon’s eyes that were blinking drowsily soon closed smoothly. Before long, the sound of deep sleeping breath echoed evenly.
How much time had passed, when Yugeon, who had been sleeping soundly, opened his eyes and quietly sat up. After sitting for a while with half-closed eyes as if intoxicated, he soon got up and left the room.
Passing through the wooden floor, Yugeon who came down to the foundation went out through the windbreak door without even putting on shoes.
When Yugeon opened his eyes in the morning, he lowered his gaze at the heavy feeling around his waist.
“?”
He saw a white, thick arm. His brother was sleeping stuck close to him, tightly embracing his waist. Yugeon, who had been blinking his blank eyes while looking at his brother, soon made a troubled face.
“Why is he like this…”
Yugeon tried to sit halfway up and remove his brother’s hand, but it didn’t budge. Yugeon had no choice but to grab and shake his sleeping brother’s shoulder.
“Geon, hey, Lee Migeon. Wake up.”
At the touch and call, his neat brow seemed to furrow, then soon Migeon drowsily opened his eyes.
“You’re up? Then let g…”
Migeon’s eyes that had been slowly opening soon widened, then he pulled Yugeon’s waist and embraced him even tighter.
“Ugh! Hey, that hurts!”
Yugeon screamed without realizing it. Only then did Migeon seem to realize something, snapped to attention, and hurriedly released his arms.
“Hyu-hyung?”
“What are you doing?”
“Sorry… sorry… Are you okay?”
“I’m okay, but… why do you sleep clinging like this?”
“……”
“Hey, forget the TV, buy another blanket. How long are two grown brothers going to sleep stuck together?”
Migeon nodded stiffly with a completely frozen face.
“…Okay.”
His brother’s reaction was strange somehow, but Yugeon got up while patting his waist that had almost broken.
“Ugh… I’m washing up first.”
Migeon stared intently at Yugeon’s back as he got up, then soon swept his gaze from head to toe. Then he fixed his gaze on his toes and asked.
“Hyung, are your feet… okay?”
At the sudden question, Yugeon turned around to look at his brother.
“Feet?”
Then he checked his feet this way and that and answered as if puzzled.
“What about my feet?”
Migeon seemed to stiffen his face for a moment, then smiled as if nothing had happened.
“Nothing, go wash up.”
“?”
Yugeon made a bewildered face, but soon turned around and entered the bathroom. When the sound of water began to be heard inside, Migeon dry-washed his face with a complicated expression.
