Lee Jaeyeong had been hiding near the ferry dock where the water burial was being held all night. The villagers searching for him had come as far as the dock, but since they hadn’t thoroughly searched the surroundings, he hadn’t been caught.
He had a vague idea why the villagers were looking for him. In fact, he’d been hiding here precisely because he knew they would come searching for him.
Lee Jaeyeong clutched at his hair as if frustrated.
“Why did I do that…? What possessed me to do such a thing…?”
After being bullied and going to the store to buy medicine, he’d had a direct conversation with him. After that encounter, he kept wanting to see him. He became curious about what he was doing, wanted to talk to him, to have a conversation. Whenever he came to his senses, he would invariably find himself at the store, watching him from afar.
But from a certain point onward, he had absolutely no memory. As if he’d fallen asleep. He only regained consciousness while in the middle of doing that to Lee Yugeon.
Thinking about that situation for a moment, Lee Jaeyeong trembled with a pale face and scratched his arms roughly as if getting goosebumps. He couldn’t understand himself for having felt attraction toward Lee Yugeon, even briefly. That unlucky bastard who’d gotten his father killed and sent his life into ruin. And to do that to another man? It was disgusting.
“Fuck, am I catching some weird disease?”
Looking at his lower body and muttering uncomfortably, Lee Jaeyeong carefully got up from the bushes and looked around once more. Fortunately, there were no human shadows. As if relieved, he crouched back down into the bushes and rubbed his stomach.
“I’m hungry…”
He hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday. He wanted to go home to eat and wash, but going home while avoiding people’s eyes would be impossible. No, even if he made it home safely, someone would surely be guarding his house. If he got caught, there was no telling what would happen. In the worst case…
Lee Jaeyeong bit his lower lip, anxious even at the mere thought, then raised his head to look at the vast ocean visible behind the ferry dock.
“I need to run away… I have to get off this island by any means necessary.”
***
At the sound of a doorknob turning behind him, Lee Migeon, who had been sitting leaning against the door, lifted his back and turned around. Yugeon, who was coming out of the room, seemed surprised to see his younger brother sitting in front of the door and hesitated.
“…Are you done?”
When Migeon asked, Yugeon seemed flustered for a moment before nodding, but his gaze remained fixed on the floor.
Truth be told, he hadn’t done it. Even if he’d somehow managed to apply it on the outside, he couldn’t reach the inside. He’d struggled for quite a while, but even pushing in just a little made it sting and hurt, so he couldn’t bring himself to insert his finger.
But he couldn’t very well ask his younger brother for help with that, so he’d just given up and come out. Surely it wouldn’t kill him.
Migeon looked at Yugeon suspiciously before standing up.
“Then, let’s eat.”
Migeon prepared breakfast alone, not letting Yugeon, who offered to help, set even one foot inside the kitchen. The breakfast he brought out was porridge.
When Yugeon looked at his brother as if to ask why porridge, Migeon placed the spoon in front of Yugeon and answered.
“In case it might strain your throat… Let’s eat porridge until all the bruises are gone.”
“No, but why should you eat porridge too? From next time, just make rice for yourself.”
“……”
Migeon said nothing. But his expression read, ‘How can I eat rice when hyung is eating porridge?’ At his younger brother’s resolute expression, Yugeon shook his head and picked up his spoon, saying,
“I’ll make my own porridge from now on, so you eat normally. There’s no need to go to the trouble of preparing mine separately…”
“I don’t want to. I’m going to make hyung’s meals for the rest of my life.”
“…Is cooking your hobby?”
“I don’t have any hobbies.”
“If you say it’s a hobby, I was thinking of freeloading for life.”
“It’s a hobby.”
At his younger brother’s quick reversal, Yugeon finally burst into a small laugh. The laughter made the atmosphere much more relaxed. When Yugeon started eating, Migeon barely touched his own portion, constantly placing well-chopped salted squid onto Yugeon’s spoon.
After finishing the meal, Yugeon put down his spoon and checked the time. Then, hesitating, he carefully opened his mouth.
“Um, for a while I…”
“For a while, I’ll leave the store to Grandma Gageum again.”
“Huh?”
Yugeon quickly raised his head to look at his brother. His brother had intercepted what he was about to say. As if he’d known. Yugeon’s face softened as he asked again.
“Is, is that okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll say hyung is sick. You’re actually sick anyway…”
He wasn’t sick enough to be bedridden. But he didn’t want to go to the store. He didn’t yet have the courage to look into that small room again.
“I feel so bad for Grandma…”
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. There are many times when she just leaves the credit ledger open and doesn’t come out.”
“Okay…”
“I’m going to lend my boat to Dongha and rest for a while too.”
Yugeon looked at his brother in surprise. But he didn’t ask why. He just nodded, saying he understood.
Perhaps because Migeon didn’t show up at the dock without notice, Lee Byeongchan and Lee Dongha came by one after another during the morning. Migeon had a brief conversation with the two men in the yard, and they nodded and left. He seemed to have told them about lending the boat to Dongha and leaving the store to Jin Gageum again.
Having the conversation in the yard rather than inside the house was also a consideration for Yugeon. If he’d brought them inside, they would have questioned various things about Yugeon’s appearance.
The two brothers spent their time leisurely. During the hottest part of the day, they sprinkled water in the yard and read books Migeon owned on the porch. Then they napped, woke up again, and ate. They had trivial conversations like what to eat tomorrow, whether there was anything he wanted to eat.
“Hyung, tonight… where are you going to sleep?”
When night came, Migeon asked while holding his pillow. Yugeon looked at Migeon’s pillow and chuckled. It seemed like he planned to sleep together wherever they slept. Yugeon raised his hand and pointed to his brother’s room.
“Let’s sleep in your room.”
Right now, familiar places were better than strange ones.
Imugi stood in the darkness at a distance outside the window, staring intently at the two brothers entering Migeon’s room side by side.
After that day, Yugeon stayed holed up at home with his younger brother. He spent most of each day either at home with his brother or sitting on the cliff above the hill. Time passed slowly and peacefully, but there was something else that was also slow besides time.
Yugeon’s wounds weren’t healing easily. It was as if his body’s recovery rate itself had dropped significantly. Moreover, if he ate anything other than porridge or watery food, he couldn’t digest it. Even though it was midsummer, he felt cold, had fevers at night, and his persistent cough became noticeably worse.
Click—
The bathroom door opened and Yugeon walked out with a large towel draped over his shoulders, along with steam billowing out. Migeon was right behind him.
Migeon made Yugeon stand in front of the bathroom door and began meticulously drying off the moisture with another towel. As he was drying between his legs, a heavily tense voice came.
“You two… what are you doing?”
Both brothers turned their heads toward where the voice came from at the same time.
Lee Junghyeok stood with the storm door open, his face deathly pale.
Yugeon flinched as if startled, but turned his head away as if he didn’t have the energy to react, and Migeon stood up with an expressionless face, adjusted the towel draped over Yugeon’s shoulders, and blocked Junghyeok’s view with his own body.
“What’s going on?”
Migeon asked, but Junghyeok just stood there with a still-shocked expression.
“Cough!”
Just then, Yugeon burst into a coughing fit. Yugeon, who pulled the towel to cover his mouth and coughed several times, soon turned around.
“I’m cold, so I’m going in first. Talk and come back.”
Yugeon, who entered the room with quick steps, closed the door and let out several more suppressed coughs. The towel covering his mouth slowly turned red. After quite a while, Yugeon finally stopped coughing and slid down against the wall, panting.
He still hadn’t told his brother about coughing up blood.
After confirming the door had closed, Migeon looked back at Junghyeok. Junghyeok was looking at the room Yugeon had entered, not at him. Migeon frowned and moved to block Junghyeok’s line of sight.
“I asked what’s going on.”
Only then did Junghyeok’s gaze hesitantly turn to Migeon.
“You, what are you doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“What are you doing with Yugeon?”
At the sharp question, Migeon tilted his head as if puzzled.
“What did I do?”
“What? What did you do…!”
Junghyeok flared up. He glanced at the room Yugeon had entered as if concerned, then gritted his teeth and lowered his voice.
“I clearly saw you running your hands between his legs while he was standing there with just one towel covering him!”
“So what if you saw?”
“What?”
“Whatever I do with hyung, what’s it to you?”
Without even taking off his shoes, Junghyeok stepped up onto the porch and grabbed Migeon’s collar, pulling him close.
“Are you in your right mind? I thought it was strange when Yugeon said something weird before…!”
At that moment, Migeon’s eyes changed. Instead, he pushed back against Junghyeok, looking down at him as if pinning him down.
“Something weird? What did he say?”
