“They say you’re trash if you dump a lover who waited for you in the military, Haeyoung-ah. So… when I get discharged, you have to marry me. Promise me now….”
“Stop crying and talk.”
Anyone watching would think he had dumped Cha Seonwoo here. People passing by had stopped in their tracks to stare at him silently dropping tears from his reddened eyes.
Geez. At those gazes, Haeyoung quickly took off his outer jacket and covered Seonwoo’s face. Because he didn’t really want to show other people Cha Seonwoo crying with such a pretty face.
“Crybaby Cha Seonwoo.”
He stretched out both hands again to cup Seonwoo’s cheeks. Haeyoung, who wiped away the moisture pooled in his eyes with his thumbs, smiled as if grimacing.
Seonwoo rubbed his face against Haeyoung’s hands.
“You’re going to marry me, right?”
Toward him who wasn’t even a parrot yet kept asking the familiar question again, Haeyoung nodded.
“Yeah, if circumstances allow….”
“After you get discharged and return to school, you can’t dump me because you met a young, pretty junior. …I imagined it and I want to die, Haeyoung-ah.”
“Why would you even imagine such a thing. What the hell did you see and where?”
An empty laugh burst from Haeyoung’s mouth. He was a person completely incapable of empathy. It seemed he’d completely forgotten the past when he eagerly pursued him as a freshman.
Haeyoung, pouting his lips, stuck his head inside the outer jacket he’d draped over Seonwoo’s head to hide him. Even in the darkness, Seonwoo was watching him with moist eyes. The tears beading at the tips of his long eyelashes looked like they would fall at any moment.
Looking at such a lover, Haeyoung, who firmly suppressed his sadness, raised his head. He briefly kissed Seonwoo’s lips with a peck, then emerged from the clothes and smiled brightly under the sunlight.
It wasn’t only Seonwoo who felt reluctant. He felt the same way, but if they both cried here, they’d attract twice as much attention from people. Yoon Haeyoung raised the back of his hand and roughly rubbed and wiped his eyes.
“Hyung, I really, really love you. I’ll write letters and call right away when I can use my phone. These days the military is just like camp. Don’t worry.”
The voice flowing from his mouth was spirited. Haeyoung embraced Seonwoo while hiding his anxious heart.
This parting was only temporary. If they could meet again, Haeyoung could endure it. Even if enduring the wait until they met again would be an extremely difficult thing.
And when Haeyoung returned to society, everything was going smoothly.
In the last contact that came before going to the military, his father had asked, isn’t there something called a living expenses loan these days? So he’d worried about what to do if his father contacted him while he was in the military, but during that time he received only one contact.
Dad
「I’m sorry for everything. My son..
The money I borrowed.. I put it in your account.
I always love you,
Stay healthy..」
He’d been puzzled when he received a text saying the loan repayment was complete when there was no way he had the money. Seeing that text, Haeyoung burst into tears he’d been holding back for a long time.
It would be a lie to say he hadn’t been anxious every time contact came from his father. It wasn’t that he hadn’t imagined indirectly refusing, saying he didn’t have money right away either. So he felt sorry, and guilt, self-loathing, and an inexplicable affection mixed and boiled inside him. However, it wasn’t as simply painful as before.
Because in any case, one of Haeyoung’s biggest worries had been lifted.
After discharge, there was no contact from his father at all. Occasionally there were contacts from his mother asking how he was, but he couldn’t know where his father was or what he was doing.
So when he thought of his father, worry naturally came first, but Haeyoung tried to deliberately cover up his anxious thoughts. A year after returning to school passed quickly. He was now facing his fourth year, and like most college students facing graduation, his head was complicated with just worries about his career path alone.
After his father’s business failed and the family scattered to live separately, Haeyoung’s only goal was to earn money quickly. Because he thought that if he did that, somehow the family could gather and live together like before.
So although he entered the business administration department with employment in mind, Haeyoung actually wanted to study law. Even knowing that the greed to study more was a luxury, Haeyoung couldn’t stop worrying. The scales didn’t tip easily.
The things he needed to prepare kept increasing. However, instead of reducing his part-time job a little, Haeyoung began spending a lot of time at cafes. Because coming out early in the morning and finishing everything he needed to do outside before going home was the way to use time efficiently.
Haeyoung’s designated seat was the bar table attached to the cafe’s glass window. When he buried his head in books and studied, he often didn’t easily notice the sun setting.
Then when he heard the sound of someone tapping on the glass window, he immediately raised his head. And in front of it stood Seonwoo, whom Haeyoung had been waiting for.
Watching Seonwoo, who smiled wonderfully and waved his hand toward him, Haeyoung also lifted the corners of his mouth in a grin. When he gestured with his head at the seat next to him as if to say come in quickly, Seonwoo entered the cafe.
“Haeyoung-ah, did you wait long?”
Seonwoo, who approached from the side, called him and poked his cheek with his finger.
At that playful touch, Haeyoung also playfully glared at him. Then he raised his hand and clasped Seonwoo’s hand that was poking his cheek. Perhaps because it was winter, his hand was quite cold.
“Did you walk, hyung? What about Secretary Kang-nim?”
“Secretary Kang-nim had something to do today. It’s okay, it’s right nearby.”
“Still, it must have been cold….”
Cha Seonwoo entered his father’s company right after graduation. Although Haeyoung had known before that Seonwoo was quite well-off, he only then finally realized that he was even better off than he’d thought. No, it wasn’t just a level of being well-off.
Hanje Group had been continuing its influence through family management like other chaebols, and Cha Seonwoo was the son of Chairman Cha Gihyeon, who occupied one of the Hanje Group affiliates. Haeyoung still vividly remembered the shock he received the day he learned that fact. No wonder the house he lived in alone was so nice….
“Were you studying?”
“Yeah. Let’s go eat in 10 minutes. I just need to do a bit more of this.”
Haeyoung roughly organized the area around him and gave Seonwoo the seat next to him. And when he sat down, he smiled at him, then lowered his gaze back to his books and notebook.
In the notebook, the worries he’d had all day were densely written like doodles. Haeyoung, who briefly cast his eyes over it, grumbled like a sigh.
“I wish money would just fall from the sky….”
“Should I prepare it?”
Prepare what? Haeyoung turned his head with an incredulous face. And when his eyes met with Seonwoo, who was looking at him, he couldn’t help but let out an empty laugh.
What’s with that serious face again? No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem like he was joking. It was an atmosphere where if he accidentally nodded, bundles of money would immediately fall over his head.
“Hyung, it’s really fortunate you’re with me. Otherwise you’d have already been stripped of your entire fortune.”
“It’s okay if you strip it away.”
“Ah, seriously, what are you talking about?”
It was funny for him to worry about his financial power, but anyway, that’s what Haeyoung thought. Cha Seonwoo had a tendency to give too much to others, so if things went wrong, he’d definitely even pull out the pillars of his house.
Whether he knew of his worry or not, Cha Seonwoo only giggled softly at his words. That’s right, and he readily nodded. Then he stretched out his hand and fiddled with his cheek as he spoke.
“You do what you want to do. Hyung will support you.”
A gentle voice reached Haeyoung. Though it would be frustrating that he always groaned alone every time he had worries without saying anything, he always gave only this kind of tender encouragement without asking. His warmth made Haeyoung’s heart soft.
A person who noticed his problems even without him saying what he was worrying about. Cha Seonwoo had such a meticulous ability. So all the moments with him were like dreams. Too sweet, so he didn’t notice the fact that he had to wake up someday from the dream he was having.
He didn’t know when it started, but Haeyoung sometimes thought he was too good for him. Nevertheless, he grew to like him more as time passed, to the point where sometimes facing the size of his own emotions was overwhelming.
