“He’s a minor who’s just entering high school now. If you hit this child, it’s group assault, assault of a minor. I won’t hold you responsible for hitting me, so please calm down and stop.”
“Th-that’s right… Do you know who our dad…”
To Jang Yeonguk, who was uselessly butting in, Euiju threw a cold gaze as if telling him to shut his mouth. Jang Yeonguk, completely frightened, had tears welling up and shut his mouth just like that.
With his face swollen and bruising blue-black, Euiju calmed the men down. As if they also didn’t want the matter to escalate, they left after giving the trite warning to be careful in the future.
At the time, Euiju inwardly thought it was fortunate that it passed quietly. Despite how he looked, Jang Yeonguk’s father was no ordinary person, and if an article came out, not only Jang Yeonguk’s father but also himself, Jin Haeseong’s manager, might be talked about by reporters.
Euiju approached Jang Yeonguk, who was flopped unsightly on the ground. He must have been quite scared, as his lower lip was trembling and tears were dripping down. Honestly, since Jang Yeonguk had been acting tough in every way possible, Euiju couldn’t understand him showing tears over just this. However, Euiju realized again that he was also just a boy who had just become a high school student, and extended his hand to him.
“Get up.”
“……M-my legs have no strength.”
“What?”
He thought he was being ridiculous. Having no choice, he knelt on one leg and presented his back toward Jang Yeonguk.
“Wh-what are you doing? I can walk by myself.”
“If you don’t get on my back quickly, I’ll leave you here and just go by myself. Is that okay?”
“……”
“Okay. Then get home on your own.”
When Euiju was about to get up indifferently, Jang Yeonguk quickly grabbed onto Euiju’s leg and clung to him.
“C-carry me on your back. I’ll get on.”
Jang Yeonguk, a thoughtless and stupid teenager who had been raised permissively, had no pride. He also had no reluctance at all about getting on the back of a man he had disliked.
“Huuuk……”
Rather, as if he felt reassured being carried on his back, he even started bawling and soaked his clothes. However, perhaps knowing it was embarrassing even for himself, he tried not to show that he was crying, but as if that could be hidden. He felt a bit sorry for him making sniffling sounds to hide his crying.
“…It’s okay, so cry comfortably.”
“Fuck. I’m not crying! Why would I cry!”
Due to him stubbornly insisting, Euiju momentarily turned his head to look at his face. Jang Yeonguk’s face was completely covered in tears.
“I won’t tease you for crying. It’s okay.”
Euiju patted Jang Yeonguk’s thigh as if comforting him. Jang Yeonguk, who had been acting snappy while maintaining his pride, finally buried his face in Euiju’s nape and cried pitifully while sniffling.
Like that, Euiju had to walk for a long time carrying Jang Yeonguk until the attendant secretary who would take Jang Yeonguk came.
***
“So, it wasn’t enough that you got hit instead of that bastard Jang Yeonguk, you carried him on your back too?”
“…At that time, I had no choice.”
Haeseong, who had turned around at some point, was staring at Euiju with an absurd expression. That gaze was as if asking what kind of sucker exists in this world, so Euiju awkwardly averted his gaze.
“Lie back down. I’ll finish kneading.”
Haeseong lay back down without releasing his disapproving gaze. Euiju started kneading Haeseong’s calves again.
“Well. Since you’re so uselessly meddlesome like that, that’s why you’re here doing this even now.”
“……”
Since it was true, he had nothing particular to say. Euiju, feeling awkward, coughed unnecessarily.
It was around when the massage was almost finished.
“Ahjussi.”
“Yes.”
“…Those parents you mentioned back then.”
Euiju, who was about to squeeze out more lotion, stopped as he was and turned his head. Haeseong’s hesitation came into view.
“…When did they pass away?”
At the heavy question that suddenly popped out, Euiju’s complexion rapidly darkened. Though he hesitated for a moment on how to answer, since it was an uncommon personal question and Haeseong had already experienced a misunderstanding with him once, he didn’t want to hide the facts.
“In my second year of high school, both of them died on the spot in an accident. Since the family’s financial situation had only recently turned bad, they were people who had never done rough work before. To feed their children, they even did manual labor they’d never done. They went like that, only working until the very end.”
“……”
A heavy silence flowed. Euiju didn’t stop his hands and went down to the ankles, putting strength into his fingertips to rub the Achilles tendon.
Since he answered because he was asked, but there was no response in return, he thought he must have fallen asleep. However, not long after, Haeseong’s voice, lowered even more, was heard.
“I don’t have them either. Parents.”
Euiju’s hands paused again.
‘What… does that mean?’
Team Leader Kim Jaeho had clearly said that Haeseong’s parents were just too busy with business to take care of Haeseong. No parents. Then was there a reason he was living alone? Then what about relatives? Do his relatives also know Haeseong lives alone and just neglect him?
Euiju’s head became complicated. That was only for a moment, as if Haeseong had noticed that feeling, he continued speaking again.
“My mom is dead. And my dad exists but it’s the same as not having him.”
For a moment, Euiju, who was about to ask where his dad went, paused. Because asking that seemed like too private a territory.
He moved his stopped hands again. Not knowing what to answer, he focused more on the massage. He watched Haeseong’s reaction and carefully spoke.
“…Isn’t it lonely living alone?”
At that question, Haeseong lowered his head to look at Euiju. Soon he turned to the other side with a quick motion and continued speaking as if it was nothing.
“I lived with my aunt for a bit before and it was really uncomfortable. And what is loneliness anyway? Life is originally all lived alone anyway.”
If he doesn’t know loneliness, why does he hold onto me every evening? Why does he look at me with such desperate and lonely eyes on days when I happen to refuse?
Haeseong acted as if he didn’t even know he was being swept up in the first warmth he’d encountered, even while being completely swept up in it. Even while gradually opening his heart, he tried hard to deny it and wouldn’t acknowledge it. Euiju, who had already experienced a lot through his younger siblings, noticed Haeseong’s contradictory heart. He couldn’t not know something so childlike.
After 20 minutes passed, Euiju brought a towel soaked in warm water and wiped Haeseong’s legs. Usually when receiving a massage, Haeseong would fall asleep as if he’d catch up on all the sleep he’d missed, but for some reason today Haeseong wasn’t sleeping and was just silently watching Euiju.
“I’ll be going now.”
“…Wait a moment.”
Haeseong suddenly got up from his seat. He passed over a large paper bag that had been placed beside the bed to Euiju as if throwing it.
Euiju, who ended up embracing the paper bag unexpectedly, was flustered and only blinked.
“Where should I organize this?”
Haeseong’s brow wrinkled beautifully.
“No, geez….. I didn’t give it to you to organize. It’s for ahjussi, so just take it.”
“……Excuse me?”
Though Euiju asked back, Haeseong only left the room with a face red as if about to burst.
It was truly an out-of-the-blue situation. If he didn’t give it to organize, didn’t he give it for him to use for himself? Euiju, who had been standing with a dumbfounded expression, looked inside the bag.
‘What is this?’
Inside were two boxes of the same size. Both were shoddily wrapped, so he couldn’t even grasp what the contents inside were, and the volume was quite large.
‘If I follow him, he’ll hate it.’
Since he fled with a bright red face, if he followed him he definitely wouldn’t hear anything good. After leaving Haeseong a text saying thank you, he left the house.
“Woooow!”
When he came home and looked, what was in the paper bag was none other than toys. Two Mimi dolls. They were quite expensive products.
“Hmph. I’m past the age to play with dolls now!”
“And I don’t like these Mimi dolls!”
Euiho and Euiseong, pretending to be grown-ups saying they’re all grown up now, acted haughty and put the dolls down.
“Really? Prince Wonho hyung-ah gave these to give to my younger siblings, so I brought them. It can’t be helped. I’ll have to go return them.”
“……Really? Really?!”
The twins, excited beyond measure, each took a doll in their arms. Euiju looked with a complicated face at the children hugging them, throwing them high, and making a complete fuss.
The shoddy wrapping paper that the children had randomly torn off was rolling around here and there on the floor. The wrapping paper with transparent tape messily stuck on was shoddy beyond comparison, like the work of someone wrapping for the first time.
How on earth did he get something like that without a manager? Since he’s a celebrity, he couldn’t have wandered around outside alone.
The answer to that could be found quite simply.
[What else? Haeseong asked me a few days ago how to order things. I just taught him how to buy online. These days everything can be ordered from home, but Haeseong wouldn’t know since we buy and bring things for him. When I said I’d buy it for him, he got so furiously angry. Anyway, what a tremendous temper.]
He ordered it himself and wrapped it himself. That Jin Haeseong.
“…Haha.”
Euiju, who finished the call with Kim Jaeho, raised one corner of his mouth mischievously while watching his younger siblings running around here and there tightly hugging the Mimi dolls.
His gaze was lingering beyond his younger siblings. That gaze looked strangely affectionate.
