After brief thought, he decided to visit the ICU tomorrow without the vice director’s accompaniment. About this stubborn personality of Seonwoo’s, Mom had once exclaimed that he was just like Dad.
[Of course, he’s Dad’s son.]
Was it so amazing for a child to resemble their parents? Seonwoo had only stated facts as they were. But Dad was noticeably delighted each time. Though he didn’t express his happy feelings in words, when Seonwoo woke up in the morning, there would be flowers he hadn’t seen before decorating the living room.
Dad often bought flowers for even trivial things. To the point where seeing flowers at home when it wasn’t an anniversary meant something good must have happened to Dad.
When anniversaries or celebratory occasions overlapped, sometimes the house would be filled with flowers. Dad getting carried away with joy and making a big deal of things was an annual occurrence in Seonwoo’s house.
But Mom never scolded him to stop buying flowers, not even as a joke. Somehow, space for new flower vases kept appearing. Thanks to Dad’s diligent care, without flower petals lying around messily, Seonwoo’s house was always full of life in any season.
In comparison, the vice director’s house was much larger than the house Seonwoo had lived in and the design was sophisticated, but strangely it didn’t feel alive like a house where people lived. It was a house with no corner to attach one’s heart to.
When Seonwoo opened the front door with a listless face, there were shoes he hadn’t seen before.
Today was Tuesday, so they weren’t the housekeeper couple’s shoes. Besides, there was only one pair, and those running shoes weren’t a design a middle-aged couple would wear.
“……”
Seonwoo lightly placed his foot next to them. His foot size was 270mm, but they were bigger. Just like the size athletes would wear.
He remembered him being large, and with that height, his hands and feet must all be big. There was no need to think further. The vice director’s son was home.
Since he had something to say anyway, it worked out well. Thinking that he might get grabbed by the collar again this time, he walked down the corridor when someone was coming down the stairs.
The person he was seeing after several days was wearing a windbreaker with a brand logo drawn largely on a white background. The sports bag crossed over it looked quite heavy.
A gaze brushed past through the wavy bangs. For a moment, the other scrunched up his face, then strode over and passed by Seonwoo. As if he didn’t even want to touch him, he deliberately widened the distance so their shoulders didn’t even brush.
“Hey.”
On top of that, he completely ignored Seonwoo’s call. Seonwoo briefly chewed over his memory and recalled the name the housekeeper had mentioned.
“Baek Taejeong.”
That was the moment. The large back stopped abruptly in its bent position trying to put on sneakers. The body that honestly reacted just from having his name called slowly turned around.
Seeing him again in a bright place, he had a strikingly handsome appearance all over again. But the feeling was completely different from the vice director. The two were like opposite categories, not resembling each other in a single aspect.
This one was handsome too, but how should he say it. With dark circles and wavy hair thickly covering his forehead, the impression of gloominess came across more strongly.
While his attention was caught by the face where handsomeness and gloominess coexisted, the distance closed. Approaching with a terrifying face while even throwing the bag from his shoulder to the floor, Seonwoo just had the carefree thought of ‘why is he coming so close?’
Standing there blankly like that, his head turned. The force that struck his jaw seemed to travel through the bone to his head. While grabbing his collar, the large mouth moved saying something, but Seonwoo couldn’t hear it because of the ringing in his ears. But he figured it was profanity.
“Who told you to call me that way. Fuck, my name is Ju Taejeong, Ju Taejeong, you crazy bastard.”
One punch, two punches. He kept getting hit until the third. The moment Seonwoo’s vision swayed greatly, he grabbed the arm to stop it.
“Wait, just—”
“What wait, I’m not stopping.”
“You can’t hit, the face…”
“Bullshit…”
Taejeong was about to sneer, asking if he thought he was some celebrity or something. But contrary to his thoughts, his mouth shut tight, and one of his eyebrows darker than Seonwoo’s rose up. Why is he panting like this?
“What the…”
Taejeong muttered with a flustered face. He let go of the collar as if fleeing and stepped back. He’d clearly only struck the jaw, but the sight of him suddenly bleeding from the nose was ominous.
Anyone would be surprised. Unable to properly hold his head up, he slumped to the floor and his upper body swayed this way and that. After a moment, Seonwoo regained his balance and roughly wiped the area under his nose with the back of his hand.
That sight looked just like someone who’d suffered a group assault in a back alley with bad public safety. But Seonwoo’s expression was calm. In fact, his head was so dizzy he didn’t even have the strength to get angry or be surprised.
Anyway, it was kind of funny how he was flustered after hitting first. Has he never thrown a punch before? For that, he hits pretty well though. Seonwoo belatedly rubbed his stinging jaw.
His ruined sleeve caught his eye. Was it because he was on the verge of fainting? His head thought simply. He’d seen blood too. A guy with a mountain-like build who didn’t know what to do—he felt like teasing him. In fact, it was also venting anger about father and son both grating on his nerves.
“You, this is attempted murder…”
As expected, the face turning pale was quite satisfying. He tried to raise the corners of his mouth, but before that, starting from his head, his body fell to the side.
Someone’s face passed through his mind like a revolving lantern. Not Mom or Dad, but the attending physician whose features were too blurry to see properly.
[…so since there’s no external injury, you unconsciously become careless. Especially when lying down on the bed or getting in a car, you must be careful not to bump your head… Patient-nim? Are you listening? If you listen halfheartedly, you’re the only one who loses.]
It was the moment when he’d been warned to be careful of his head just as much as his injured hand. However, regrettably, less than ten days after discharge, he’d been punched.
It was on a different level from the few times he’d gotten into fistfights at school. Seonwoo personally experienced what it felt like for his skull to shake. It was a completely different sensation from getting motion sick on a recklessly driven bus. It was also subtly different from the sensation of being pressed down by a ride’s safety bar and shaken in all directions.
It felt like what was inside his head was violently churning mercilessly in all directions. He was clearly closing his eyes, but it seemed like he could see beyond his eyelids how those things were moving.
No matter what he compared it to, it was hard to convey 100%. The feeling of one’s skull shaking from being punched—it was a sensation you couldn’t understand for life unless you were directly hit with ignorantly strong force.
Seonwoo half-lost consciousness. He even saw a meaningless revolving lantern. Even the content he recalled being the words to be careful of his head was trivial. Getting punched and collapsing without knowing why—all of it.
“……”
Seonwoo, who came to his senses, slowly blinked his eyes. Still, seeing that he opened his eyes properly, he must not have died. His body felt languid. He was lying somewhere, but it wasn’t the hospital. The area around his nose and mouth felt unpleasant, and the blood on his hands remained as it was.
“What attempted murder… You’re bullshitting.”
A low voice was heard. No matter how many times he heard it, it was an impressive bass. The very person who’d knocked him out was sitting on the edge of the sofa. Now that he looked, the place Seonwoo was lying was the second-floor living room sofa.
“It’s not bullshit though? I almost died.”
His voice didn’t come out nicely. It was because he didn’t like Taejeong’s handling of things. If you’re going to move me anyway, at least lay me on the bed. The distance isn’t even much different.
“But why are you sitting next to me?”
“I have to see you open your eyes, don’t I? Who wants to end someone’s life…”
“For your size, your guts are small.”
“You just go to the hospital. Because I’ll hit you one more time.”
Taejeong clenched his fist tight and stood up. The veins that rose above the back of his hand were visible even from afar. Was it really just an empty bluff or was he serious? Seonwoo’s curiosity arose and he just quietly stared at what Taejeong was doing. More than anything, he had no strength to move his body.
