After dropping Haeseong off at his house, it became late as he also dropped the remaining three off in front of their homes. He was fortunate that the initiation ceremony, which wasn’t really an initiation ceremony, ended relatively lightly.
Euiju, who had been a manager for only one person but now had three more going through their turbulent adolescent years added to the mix and had been tormented by them all day before getting off work, got off the bus with his exhausted body. He entered a mart just before closing, bought side dishes with clearance sale stickers attached, and headed home with heavy steps.
When he pressed the keypad, he felt small vibrations of pitter-patter from inside. Euiju, whose corners of his mouth, which hadn’t moved at all when he was outside, lifted up uncontrollably, quickly opened the door. It was such a bright and pretty smile that if someone else saw it, they would doubt whether it was the same person.
“Hyung!”
“Oppa!”
Because it was so late and the ahjumma had left work, the twins and the youngest, who had been scared being alone without any adults, were waiting at the door. Euiju embraced his younger siblings who instantly threw themselves into his arms. The baby smell was wafting profusely from the children’s bodies.
‘I feel like I can live.’
Euiju, who became happy in an instant from the cozy baby smell, lifted up the youngest’s warm body and playfully left kisses all over his cheek. Roun giggled as if it tickled. Euiju asked Euiseong.
“Did you eat dinner properly?”
“Yep. Today I made fried eggs! I did way better than yesterday! Ahjumma made kimchi stew so we ate that with seaweed and ham.”
Euiju had recently taught the twins how to make simple dishes. Euiseong and Euiho, who were about to become fourth graders in elementary school, were mature and gentle beyond their years.
“Wow. What’s this? You even did the dishes! Who did this?”
“I did! Me!”
As Euiseong raised his hand high and made a fuss while holding his waist, Euiju almost dropped the youngest he was holding for a moment. Startled, Euiju put down the youngest who didn’t want to be let down.
Although the area around the dish rack was completely flooded with water and the dishes weren’t properly cleaned, leaving traces of red oil, what did that matter? They were such lovely children who washed the dishes and even finished bathing on their own so as not to trouble their hyung and oppa who came home tired from work.
“You’re so lovely. How can you be so good? Hm?”
Euiju generously kissed the children clinging to him and didn’t spare his praise.
Although he pretended to be fine, Euiju, who had been tormented all day, found this time extremely welcome. The children poured out stories they had saved up all day without reservation. When Euiju listened to their stories with big reactions, the children got excited and bounced around.
Holding these kind and lovely children, Euiju even felt like he could endure anything without breaking down.
“I’ll wash up and come out quickly, so get ready for bed. Got it?”
“Okay!”
After washing up quickly, Euiju kept his eyes wide open as they kept drooping, laid his siblings down on both ends, and laid Roun down in the middle to put them to sleep. Roun, lying on Euiju’s arm and clinging to his chest, started burrowing into his embrace as if feeling good.
After losing their parents, his siblings, who had become afraid of the dark night, couldn’t fall asleep without their hyung or unnie. Moreover, the youngest Roun followed Euiju the most, so he must have waited until his hyung came even while dozing off.
Euiju, who was patting the children who must have waited only for him without sleeping until this late hour, looked at Euiseong who fell asleep last, and unable to bear the fatigue, fell into sleep just like that. The sight of the four siblings sleeping side by side was warm and affectionate like a single painting.
***
The eldest, Euiyeon, who worked day and night to feed her siblings after their parents died in an accident. She recently had an accident where her finger was sucked into a factory machine and was completely crushed. Without even a chance to reattach it, Euiyeon’s left hand was left with an empty space just like that.
She smiled cheerfully at her siblings looking at her with sad eyes and acted strong.
Just as she had done until now.
When Euiju returned to the hospital after dropping the children off at home, she was crying in the multi-patient room as if screaming with her face buried in her pillow, worried about being a nuisance since there were many people around. Euiju hugged her tightly and thought.
Now it was his turn.
—Euiju-ya. Taking a leave of absence… you don’t need to do that. I have some money saved up so if we just hold out with that for a while, it’ll be fine. They said I might be discharged in three weeks, so as soon as noona’s wound heals, I’ll immediately…
—I already processed the leave of absence.
—What? This bastard. Who told you to do that without even consulting with your noona! What kind of school do you go to, if you want to help, it’s not too late even after you graduate. Why did you decide so urgently!
Despite the desperate situation, she tried to throw herself into the role of sacrifice once again. Lee Euiyeon, who had just turned twenty-eight, acted as if it was a terrible thing for her endlessly young-looking younger brother to go out to work, as if she had forgotten that she too was young.
—Back off. Go to school, Lee Euiju. Noona is sick so don’t make me angrier here and listen to me!
—No. My choice is unchanged. It’s noona’s turn to rest now.
She wouldn’t know how pitiful and tearful it was to live only looking at a back smaller than her own. Euiju no longer had the courage to watch that.
Euiju, who woke up early in the morning, picked up his phone wondering if he should contact his noona as soon as he woke up.
‘She’s probably still sleeping.’
It wasn’t even 8 AM yet. Euiju, who had been lost in thought, put the phone back down, prepared breakfast for his siblings, and finished preparing for work. He grabbed his wallet and phone and was about to leave when—
“Hyung! Just stay here… Don’t go!”
Roun, who had woken up at some point, ran over and clung to Euiju’s thigh as he was about to leave for work. Flustered, Euiju knelt down and met the youngest’s eye level.
“When did our Roun wake up? Hyung really has to go to work today. Euiyeon noona is coming tomorrow so let’s just endure today. Okay?”
“I don’t want to… Can’t hyung not go? Huuuu…”
Roun trembled his lower lip and burst into tears with his face that hadn’t even had the sleep wiped from it. It seemed he had been very sad about being neglected all this time, as Euiyeon was in the hospital and Euiju had been repeating a life of leaving early and coming home late since joining the company.
Euiju made a sad face at the youngest’s tears and wiped the child’s soaked face while coaxing him.
“Hyung will take you to an amusement park next week when I have a day off. I’ll let you play all the things you couldn’t play that day, so can our Roun let it slide just for today?”
At those words, the child stopped sniffling and perked up his ears. Then he slowly clung to Euiju’s neck and asked.
“…Then, will you buy me everything I want there? The bear headband and the flying balloon, will you buy all of those too?”
“Yes. I’ll buy you everything you want to buy and everything you want to eat. Now, promise!”
When Euiju held out his pinky finger, the child wiped his tears with clumsy hands and giggled while hooking his finger. Euiju carried his sibling who threw himself into his arms back into the room and laid him on the bed, telling him to sleep more and carefully covering him with the blanket. When Roun waved his small hand saying goodbye, Euiju’s eyes curved as if finding it cute.
Since today was a day with meetings and interviews, Euiju arrived at Haeseong’s house right at 9 o’clock. Standing in front of the entrance, Euiju kept looking at his wristwatch anxiously.
The watch pointed to 9:28. If they didn’t leave within 10 o’clock, they would be late.
‘Let’s wait just 5 more minutes.’
Euiju, who was silently waiting while leaning his body against a pillar next to the lobby entrance, walked step by step toward the entrance when 5 minutes passed. He pressed the front door keypad he had memorized in advance and entered inside.
Since it was his first time entering Haeseong’s house to wake him up, Euiju, who was extremely tense, let out a deep sigh.
[This is the 42nd floor. The door is opening.]
Room 4201. Standing in front of Haeseong’s house and hesitating for a moment, Euiju finally put his hand on the sparkling, shiny keypad and pressed the password. The small system sound of the door opening somehow seemed to pound his heart.
After passing through the long entrance hallway, a spacious living room appeared. The house decorated in white and brown tones had one side made entirely of windows presenting an amazing open view, but it was too large in square footage to be suitable for living alone. Euiju scanned the inside of the house with an indifferent expression.
Unlike his blunt expression, he was inwardly surprised.
‘He lives alone in such a spacious place?’
This house, which was larger than the house of Euiju’s family who had once been well-off although that was in the past, was not an exaggeration to call a penthouse. This house with a high ceiling that couldn’t be reached even with outstretched hands, a spacious living room with one entire wall made of windows, and long hallways didn’t seem to be worth a value that a mere child actor could afford. Euiju, who had been lost in doubt, suddenly remembered something.
‘Come to think of it, the director said she was his aunt.’
Euiju, who understood in an instant, looked around the house in earnest. The vast interior space was luxuriously yet simply decorated giving a calm impression, but for some reason, most of it was empty without furniture.
‘…It’s quite awkward.’
Was it because of the empty spaces? It created an extremely desolate atmosphere for a house where people lived, and moreover, it was excessively, very excessively large to be a house where a young kid who was just becoming a high school student lived alone.
He said it had been 3 years since he lived alone, so Haeseong must have lived here at least since middle school. Just the thought of the twins entering middle school and then becoming independent to live separately gave him chills, so Euiju couldn’t understand Haeseong’s parents at all.
Haeseong’s parents and the company seemed to have no particular interest in how Haeseong was living.
‘Isn’t this too much neglect?’
He didn’t know what it was like in the old days, but in modern society, 17 years old is a young age. Since his birthday hasn’t passed yet, he’s 15 in Korean age. An age that needs parental care, an age that can’t take responsibility for anything.
He thought there should be at least one person to take care of the child.
Euiju, who had briefly forgotten his duty and was looking around here and there in the house, came to his senses with a flash and checked the clock before heading to the room on the inner part of the first floor. It was Haeseong’s room.
Knock knock.
When no answer came back, Euiju carefully opened the door. He could see Haeseong sleeping buried in the middle of a large bed.
The moment he approached to wake him up, Euiju detected something strange.
“Ugh…”
Furrowed brows as if having a nightmare, a face wet with cold sweat.
Haeseong’s condition was strange.
