“No, it’s fine. He must be busy.”
Seonwoo headed for the stairs. He went up a few steps and stopped. He took a photo of himself holding the zipper bag while leaning against the wall. He even made an effort to avoid backlighting so the toothbrush would be clearly visible.
Without adding any words, he sent a text with just the photo attached. After confirming the message that said it was sent, he slowly climbed the stairs. Wondering how long it would take, he counted the time in his head.
It was when the number exceeded 10. His phone vibrated. It was much faster than Seonwoo had expected. Before he could touch the call button and bring it to his ear, he heard a voice.
— Who the hell are you.
The heavily sunken voice neither shouted loudly nor spoke quickly. The chilly tone contained both wariness and aggression. But Seonwoo answered without batting an eye.
“The owner of the toothbrush you stole.”
— …….
Not even the sound of breathing could be heard. It seemed like he could see the face turning pale in real-time beyond the phone. Seonwoo let out a sigh.
“Where are you?”
ლ
The content of the text Taejeong sent was brief.
It was just the hotel name without an address. When he searched for it on the internet, it was a 4-star hotel. It was only one night, but he was living well enough to make Seonwoo’s concerns seem pointless.
Before the call ended, the place Taejeong designated was the first-floor lobby. There was no explanation of where it would be located. But there was no need to wander. It was because of the presence of someone sitting in a corner of the sofa with a hood pulled down over their head.
Seonwoo headed for the single-person sofa in front of him. It was a formation where they faced each other with a table in between. Taejeong, who noticed the approaching footsteps, raised his head.
“……You’re fucking late.”
“Ah. I ate before coming.”
The main menu was blue crab doenjang-jjigae. For some reason, his appetite had returned and the rice went down smoothly. It was also because he walked instead of taking the bus since he couldn’t digest because of that.
At the words that he leisurely ate before coming, Taejeong’s expression looked more absurd than annoyed. If he had come down to the lobby as soon as the call ended, he probably had been waiting for nearly two hours.
“……Isn’t it normal common sense to come right away?”
“You’re talking to me about common sense? While stealing other people’s toothbrushes?”
“……”
He put the Boston bag he had been carrying on his shoulder on the floor. Just from the sound of it being set down, you could feel its heaviness. Seonwoo immediately took out the zipper bag from his coat’s inner pocket without preamble.
In an instant, Taejeong reached out his hand immediately. But Seonwoo lifted the zipper bag upward one beat faster. Taejeong’s hand, which narrowly passed by, grasped at empty air.
“……”
Taejeong, whose expression hardened in an instant, gritted his teeth. It was to the point where his jaw muscles stood out. Taejeong, who leaned his upper body forward, narrowed the distance. The smell of being soaked in pool water hit strongly.
“What are you relying on to be so defiant?”
Taejeong was clenching his fist tightly and pressing down on the back of his hand with his opposite hand. It was a posture of suppressing something that seemed about to burst at any moment. What Taejeong was enduring wasn’t just violence. He was suppressing all the emotions surging in his chest.
“You should explain why you stole it.”
“……”
“Are you a pervert? Do you do weird things with this?”
“What if I do?”
“Well…… It’s not like there’s anything I can do about it.”
But he didn’t think that Taejeong, who freaked out just from shoulders accidentally brushing, was a pervert with such abnormal sexual desires. Seonwoo was just curious about what he was plotting while enduring such humiliating misunderstandings.
At times like this, it was effective to reveal sincerity appropriately. Seonwoo honestly said the thoughts that came to his mind right away.
“Isn’t it better than being misunderstood as a pervert who masturbates with other people’s toothbrushes? Just tell me. No matter how weird it is, it’ll be less shocking than that, won’t it?”
“……”
Taejeong, who lowered his gaze, fell silent. He really had a lot of useless thoughts too. Seonwoo, who felt a sense of kinship, generously gave him time to organize the chaos in his head.
“I was curious if you were that bastard’s son.”
It was an answer that came out after repeatedly dry-washing his face several times. Seonwoo tilted his head.
“Who? Your dad?”
“……”
Taejeong really hated it when he called the Vice Director like that. Anyway, Seonwoo was about to ask what connection that had with stealing the toothbrush when he realized it himself.
“What…… Were you thinking of doing a paternity test or something?”
“……”
As if he thought it was excessive even to himself, he slightly averted his gaze. Seonwoo was just dumbfounded. That he had actually tried to do something that would only appear in makjang dramas.
“Why not take hair too?”
“……”
“Did you take that too?”
It was something he said to be sarcastic, but it was true. Seonwoo was now beyond flabbergasted and let out an empty laugh.
“You must have been really busy. Stealing toothbrushes and picking up hair……”
“……”
“Hey, just tell me. Then I would’ve given it to you directly.”
“I’m not a crazy bastard like you……”
“But it’s okay to creepily go through someone else’s bed?”
Taejeong, who had been muttering while avoiding eye contact, looked at Seonwoo. It was a look that asked how he knew that.
“Where else would you pick up hair if not the pillow?”
“……”
Seonwoo was now starting to doubt how Taejeong got those grades. If the college entrance exam results weren’t fabricated, he had no choice but to believe that academic brains and intelligence were separate things.
“You’re really sloppy. With that kind of mindset, what are you trying to accomplish……”
“……”
Taejeong neither got angry nor defended himself. He just closed his mouth, pulled back his body, and put both hands in his hoodie pockets.
Seonwoo quietly looked over Taejeong in that frozen state. Right now he looked really lost in thought and troubled, but what he was doing was absurdly sloppy, so watching him made his chest feel stuffy.
“I’m not his son.”
In that instant, Taejeong looked straight at Seonwoo. Even wearing a generously sized hoodie that couldn’t hide his large frame, he looked precarious enough to make it seem useless, yet only those eyes were clear.
“……How are you so certain?”
“I look exactly like my dad.”
“……”
“Really. I’m at DNA replication level.”
Seonwoo said it thinking it was definite proof, but since it didn’t seem persuasive to Taejeong, his reaction was lukewarm. So he placed the zipper bag in front of Taejeong.
“But if you’re still uneasy, do as you please. I don’t know if there’s a place that does that kind of thing, though.”
But the two hands in his pockets didn’t move. Instead, he lightly kicked the Boston bag that Seonwoo had brought with his foot.
“Why is this here?”
Since it was brought from Taejeong’s room, it was natural for the bag’s owner to recognize it. Thanks to that, Seonwoo was reminded of the bag’s existence, which he’d forgotten for a moment.
“A rolling stone displacing a stationary one. I’m going to try doing that.”
The contents weren’t much. It was luggage packed from Taejeong’s room. There was nothing but clothes. Since it was the changing season, he’d only brought thin and light clothes, but it had been a pointless act. Judging by the hotel’s scale, things like clothes could be solved with money and more.
Taejeong seemed to be doing well in his own way. His dark circles had faded compared to before, and it seemed he was living a life where he swam enough for the pool water smell to permeate his body. Seonwoo easily guessed that all of that was possible because he’d come out to live away from home.
“You hate being in that house, don’t you?”
Seonwoo stated the real purpose of coming to find Taejeong.
“That’s why you wander around outside every day.”
“……”
“Even when you happen to come home, you hold your breath like a mouse. I know it’s all because you don’t want to be caught by other people.”
That’s when it happened. The front of his shirt was pulled as if the upper part of his chest was being squeezed tight. The taut clothes stuck to his back like leather. Along with it, even Seonwoo’s body was dragged, lifting his buttocks from the chair.
“Who are you to pretend to know me?”
Taejeong, who’d grabbed his collar with one hand, spoke in a voice that was low to the point of cracking. Seonwoo, who was standing in an awkward posture, batted it away with the back of his hand. That action carried a bit of annoyance.
