Yugeon sat at the register, chewing on his lower lip.
His little brother had lied to him.
“Why did you lie?”
Yugeon muttered to himself, then shook his head vigorously.
No, no. It might not be a lie. He could have died as a result of an accident on the boat. Then saying he died after going out on a boat would somewhat make sense.
But what if that’s not the case? What if father’s death has no connection whatsoever to the accident on the boat?
Yugeon seemed confused as he ruffled through his hair, then raised his head.
What’s the point of worrying alone? It’s faster to ask his little brother directly.
Yugeon opened the store door, went out, and looked down at the dock. It was quiet. Even looking around the open sea, his little brother’s boat was nowhere to be seen.
“Lee Yugeon…”
As he was blankly staring at the sea, he heard a voice calling him from behind. It was a familiar voice he hadn’t heard in a while. Yugeon quickly turned around in delight to check who it was.
“Jaeyeong…?”
The delight was brief—Yugeon froze at the sight of Jaeyeong. He looked a mess, as if he’d been beaten and dragged somewhere. Yugeon hurriedly approached Jaeyeong.
“What happened to you?”
Jaeyeong had no answer. He just kept his head deeply bowed. Yugeon first looked around the area. It was to check if there were other people around. Fortunately, there was no one nearby.
“First… let’s go inside, let’s treat you first.”
Yugeon led Jaeyeong inside the store.
After seating Jaeyeong in a chair, Yugeon took out first aid supplies and began examining Jaeyeong’s wounds. Though Jaeyeong let Yugeon do as he pleased with his body, his mouth remained tightly shut and his head still bowed.
Jaeyeong’s silence made people strangely uncomfortable. Yugeon asked while applying medicine to a wound on his arm.
“Why… haven’t you come these past few days?”
Only then did Jaeyeong slightly raise his head to look at Yugeon.
“They wouldn’t let me…”
“? Wh… Ah.”
Yugeon was about to ask “Who?” but sighed softly. Who else could it be? The islanders, of course.
He just wanted to get along comfortably with Jaeyeong, but it seemed the islanders didn’t like that. While he was wondering what to do and taking out bandages, Jaeyeong’s hand suddenly approached and covered Yugeon’s hand.
“?”
When Yugeon flinched at the unexpected touch, Jaeyeong’s voice rang out softly.
“Will you… run away with me?”
“What?”
Yugeon asked back and raised his head. Jaeyeong’s face had suddenly gotten close.
When their eyes met, Jaeyeong gripped Yugeon’s hand tightly and said once more.
“Let’s run away from the island together.”
Yugeon couldn’t understand what Jaeyeong was saying. So he just stared blankly. Until Jaeyeong called him “Yugeon-ah” in a tender voice.
The voice calling his name somehow gave him chills. It felt like throwing a stone into a calm water surface and being splashed with cold water droplets scattering in all directions. As if coldness had splattered all over, Yugeon involuntarily shook off Jaeyeong’s hand.
“What are you talking about?”
A sharp voice came out defensively. Not stopping there, he clutched the hand he’d pulled away as if protecting it and backed away warily.
Jaeyeong stared blankly at Yugeon with wide eyes, then soon frowned and slowly stood up from his seat.
“You don’t want to go with me?”
“……”
“Why?”
“What do you mean why…”
“You like me too.”
“…What?”
“That’s why you were so nice to me and protected me, wasn’t it?”
“……”
Yugeon just opened his mouth and gaped. He was so dumbfounded no words came out. In the meantime, Jaeyeong, who had stepped closer, grabbed Yugeon’s hand again.
“I’m confident I can do well. Really well…”
An intense feeling of rejection arose.
“Don’t touch me!”
Yugeon let out a scream-like shout and roughly shook off his hand. Then he opened the door as if fleeing and shouted.
“G-go! You, go!”
Jaeyeong just stood still inside the store, staring intently at Yugeon. For a moment his pupils split into two and then returned, but his face was hidden by the shadow cast inside, so Yugeon didn’t see it.
“I said go!”
When Yugeon yelled angrily, Jaeyeong let out a sigh, then slowly walked out. At the same time, Yugeon also backed away hesitantly.
Jaeyeong, who had completely come out of the store, let out a sigh at the sight of Yugeon keeping his distance and being wary of him.
“I don’t understand why you’re so angry…”
“What?”
Jaeyeong stared intently at Yugeon’s chest area and muttered.
“It’s mine anyway.”
“?”
The small muttering didn’t reach Yugeon. Yugeon, who didn’t hear what he muttered, frowned deeply and expressed his question, but Jaeyeong said “I’ll come again next time” with an indifferent face and walked away.
Yugeon just stared vacantly at Jaeyeong’s back. Then he stroked the forearm revealed below his sleeve. He felt somehow eerie and uncomfortable.
He had felt sorry for him being ostracized by the islanders, and he also felt a faint sense of debt about him being treated that way, so he tried not to wear colored glasses. Just because everyone else did it didn’t mean he had to join in. Besides, when he actually talked to him, he seemed like a decent person. But he thought it might be better not to stay close anymore.
Being tense and on guard all day because of Jaeyeong made the day feel even longer. He was startled every time people opened the store door. Perhaps because of that, he found himself waiting desperately for someone.
Yugeon repeatedly checked the time and went outside to look down at the dock, then brightened at the sight of the mint-colored boat entering the dock, locked the store door, and started heading down toward the dock. And before long, he encountered Migeon coming up the road.
Migeon, who had been trudging up the slope, spotted Yugeon coming down toward him, stopped walking, and made a puzzled face.
“Hyung?”
At the voice calling him, a terrible sense of relief washed over him.
“Did you have a good day?”
“Yeah… What brings you all the way here, hyung?”
“Just, I wanted to come meet you.”
When Yugeon approached with an awkward answer, Migeon smiled happily and extended his hand in case he might fall, and Yugeon took his hand without much resistance.
“Nothing happened?”
“Uh…?”
It was a habitual question. Normally he would have answered casually, but Yugeon unconsciously hesitated instead of answering readily.
In that single moment, Migeon, who sensed something wrong, stopped walking and looked at Yugeon.
“Hyung?”
“…No.”
Yugeon couldn’t decide whether or not to tell him about Jaeyeong. As Yugeon hesitated with a flustered face, Migeon stepped right in front of him, swept back his disheveled hair, and asked soothingly.
“Did something happen, hyung?”
The gentle voice and touch put his mind at ease. He had a premonition that his little brother would be the only one who could give him this sense of relief.
“Jaeyeong…”
“?”
“He told me to leave the island together with him.”
“…What?”
Migeon’s face visibly hardened. And he looked at Yugeon as if afraid.
The moment he saw his little brother’s expression, one side of his chest inexplicably tingled.
Jaeyeong’s proposal was also like putting his little brother and Jaeyeong on a scale to weigh them.
But which way the scale would tip was obvious without weighing. It wasn’t even a comparison.
“Hyung…”
Migeon called Yugeon in a voice full of trembling. His face had turned pale.
One would expect him to be angry at Jaeyeong for making such an absurd proposal, but his little brother was busy trying to gauge his feelings rather than being angry at Jaeyeong.
Seeing his little brother like that…
“How unpleasant…”
“…Huh?”
“How much has he seen me to make such a proposal to me?”
“……”
“It’s not even you. Right?”
It was a statement that clearly divided Migeon and Jaeyeong’s positions. Migeon stared blankly at Yugeon.
“You’re saying… if I had asked, you would have left together?”
“Why are you asking something so obvious? I stayed on the island because of you.”
Yugeon, who answered as if grumbling, lightly pulled his little brother’s hand and walked ahead, saying “Let’s just go home.”
Migeon walked as if being dragged, unable to take his eyes off Yugeon. But before long, he slightly bowed his head and smiled happily. A nice flush rose to both his cheeks.
Yugeon, who had arrived home, was about to climb onto the porch but stopped and turned around to his little brother. At the unexpected action, Migeon also looked at Yugeon.
“I have something I really need to ask you.”
“?”
“Sit down first.”
Yugeon sat at the edge of the porch and patted the seat next to him. Migeon sat down without question though puzzled, and Yugeon was silent for a moment as if choosing his words, then opened his mouth.
“I met Jeongyeon today.”
“Ah.”
“We were talking about this and that… and we ended up talking about father.”
“?”
“You… said father died after going out on a boat.”
“Yeah.”
“But Jeongyeon said father died at home?”
“……”
Migeon frowned without hiding it. And he avoided his gaze with an expression that seemed both troubled and unpleasant.
“Geon-ah.”
At his little brother’s action of avoiding his gaze, Yugeon became anxious, but calmly called his little brother, and Migeon clasped his hands together, looked at the floor, and opened his mouth.
“…At first it was a net hauler accident.”
“?”
“A wire that broke off from the net hauler snapped back and hit father…”
“What?”
“He was badly injured in the head. We tried to go to the mainland and get to a hospital, but suddenly the waves got rough so we had no choice but to return to the island. And a few days later…”
“Then… he died because of that accident?”
Migeon paused for a moment, then nodded.
“…Yeah.”
His gaze was still directed at the floor.
Yugeon, who had been waiting tensely for his little brother’s answer, finally let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness. You… didn’t lie…”
At Yugeon’s muttering, Migeon slowly closed his eyes.
* * *
Father, who had injured his head and couldn’t get to a hospital, just lay at home for several days. They gave him emergency treatment as best they could, but what could be done on the island was limited. He needed to go to a hospital, but the rough waves wouldn’t stop at all.
On the morning of several days like that, when Migeon opened his eyes, he was standing in the middle of the porch. He remembered lying down to sleep at night, but he just wondered why he was standing in the middle of the porch. Then he realized it was morning. He had to check on father’s condition.
Since he happened to have his back to the main room, he was about to turn around and head to the main room when his body felt strangely tired and heavy. So much so that it was difficult to take even one step. But he had to check on father’s condition, so he forced his body to move toward the main room.
When he opened the door, he saw two legs.
Migeon stared blankly at the middle of the room, then gradually raised his head upward.
Feet, knees, waist, chest, a long stretched neck.
Hanging in mid-air without a rope with a neck stretched long as if someone had pulled it, it was his father. With his tongue sticking out long, crying tears of blood and dead, it was Lee Jonghak, the father of Lee Yugeon and Lee Migeon.
