“Right?”
In the end, Hongdan had to put down the utensils he’d barely lifted.
After biting his lips tightly for a moment to choose his words, Hongdan slowly opened his mouth.
“……There are some circumstances.”
“What circumstances? No, but to begin with, wasn’t he hit by a dump truck or something and in America? Honestly, when I saw that news, I just hoped he’d died, but he survived remarkably. Anyway, his lifeline is fucking long too, that shitty bastard. Fuck, is this happening because I keep cursing? Right. I’m the one who extended that bastard’s lifespan, damn it.”
The gentlemanliness that was Hyeonchan’s pride was immediately erased by the single existence of ‘Yeon Seonha.’ The mature adult approaching thirty was bullshit—right now Hyeonchan was in the sealed-away fighting dog mode of the past. Though even this was limited to Yeon Seonha.
Hongdan let out a long sigh without the other person knowing.
“Um…… first calm down a bit.”
Hyeonchan sometimes seemed to hate Seonha even more than Hongdan did.
No, he actually hated him more. No matter how you looked at it, at least five times more.
Hongdan at least had the affection built up as friends, but Hyeonchan didn’t even have that, so it might have been natural. If you considered even the fighting like mortal enemies as a process of building camaraderie, the two could be said to have a bond so deep that even Hongdan couldn’t dare touch it, but a maxim was only a maxim. In reality, one shouldn’t wish for such crazy affection.
Yeon Seonha and Jung Hyeonchan were simply irreconcilable enemies. To the point where they really threw punches at each other whenever they opened their eyes, incomprehensible to Hongdan.
After spending all their school days like that, it ended with the common conclusion of Hyeonchan, who was a relatively ordinary commoner, transferring schools.
Recalling that dizzying past, Hongdan coughed a few times. Now that it had come to this, he had to hide at least the fact that he was not only clinging to him but was taking care of him again. Hongdan wanted to prevent his one and only friend from becoming a murderer.
“It’s not meeting again, first……”
“Of course it shouldn’t be!”
However, the moment he met Hyeonchan’s murderous eyes, the question arose: ‘Why should I break out in cold sweat like this for someone like Yeon Seonha?’
Anyway, he decided to keep trying for now.
“Uh, it’s not……”
“Don’t tell me he’s going to sue for adultery now? Fuck, tell him to go ahead. We’ll spread it all over the media as a chaebol heir stalking his ex-husband.”
“Ah, that’s also not……”
“Or did you contact him because you wanted to do it? Then you thought well. I told you to do it ages ago.”
He couldn’t continue speaking at all.
Hyeonchan had already abandoned reason just from the fact that the existence called Yeon Seonha had interfered in Hongdan’s life again.
Hongdan ultimately decided to pick something from among Hyeonchan’s words that had at least some room for consideration and somehow package it.
“Ah…… well, something like that, yeah. Not going as far as a lawsuit, just trying to settle roughly on financial terms.”
Well, there had been a financial settlement, so this also wasn’t completely a lie if you got technical about it.
“That’s why I said to get all the alimony you could get and leave. You’re feeling a bit cheated now that you think about it, right? You were stuck for only three years and got your body ruined and your heart ruined, but what’s three years for that piece of trash, he’s eating well and living well just like before he met you in high school. Even if you don’t want to stick with him for even one more second right now, enduring and securing one more thing is definitely profit. Don’t you remember I was bedridden when I heard you left without getting alimony?”
“Uh…… sorr…… No. I was ashamed, dude.”
Hongdan was about to say “sorry” out of habit, but uttered an appropriate word that didn’t contain an apology. Then Hyeonchan’s eyebrow, slightly visible through his parted bangs, twitched small.
“……Anyway, you’re good at dodging. Annoyingly so.”
Still, for Hongdan, that petulant remark was more welcome than the brow furrowed with worry about him. Thanks to that, he could pick up the chopsticks he’d put down for a moment. A faint smile hovered around Hongdan’s lips again.
“I do have some quick reflexes. In that sense, looking unlucky is welcome.”
“You’re so fucking great that you’re fucking unlucky, Mr. Choi Hongdan.”
Fortunately, Hyeonchan also didn’t continue the uncomfortable conversation and matched the atmosphere Hongdan was leading. He too faithfully performed his role of coming out here today to cheer up Hongdan. Hongdan’s smile deepened a bit more.
“Oh my, such excessive praise. Thank you, Assistant Manager Jung.”
“I’m a deputy manager now.”
“Ah, right! I heard last time but forgot already.”
“Funny.”
Soon a smile similar to Hongdan’s began to bloom on Hyeonchan’s lips too. The tone that had been momentarily elevated also completely found its place, and he began to bring his chopsticks to the food he’d only been watching the whole time. Of course, that didn’t mean it went into Hyeonchan’s own mouth.
The one who had rushed the order saying he was hungry filled not his own stomach but instead deboned the meat nicely for Hongdan and placed it on his plate. That consideration continued until Hongdan showed signs of being full.
Normally Hongdan would have stopped him at an appropriate time, but today he somehow wanted to act spoiled. Hyeonchan also folded the corners of his eyes once every time their gazes met, as if fully understanding that feeling. Thanks to that, Hongdan could slowly get drunk while thinking only of himself.
As his mind got tipsy and heat rose in his body, Yeon Seonha’s image was erased from his head. As the childish word games exchanged with Hyeonchan piled up, even the anger that had remained faintly began to fade.
Hongdan hoped time would flow a little slower.
Since by nature he couldn’t be someone who sought out Hyeonchan every day to whine, today’s meeting would probably have to be savored for a long time.
Thunk-
“Huu…… I really should have just become your younger brother.”
Hongdan muttered as he banged his head, heavy with intoxication, on the table. At that moment, Hyeonchan’s laughter stopped.
“……Suddenly?”
“Yeah. Back then I rejected the adoption proposal thinking ‘if not me, who’ll take responsibility for my dad,’ but. Even if you share blood, affection falls away more easily than you think, and without a single won, a person’s life gets much more fucked than you’d think.”
Was it just entering middle school, or a bit after entering?
Hongdan’s father Choi Sangmun’s business, which had been precarious for three or four years, finally closed its doors. The declining fortunes were almost buried in the ground. After even his mother left home, his father’s alcoholism worsened and small bruises on Hongdan’s body increased one by one. Then finally, on the day Hongdan’s patience ran out and he raised his voice for the first time, Hongdan had to spend the night under a slide with a large piece of soju bottle lodged in his forearm.
Hyeonchan had discovered him in that shabby state.
The guy who, when Hongdan didn’t come to school, just climbed over the wall and went AWOL, stupidly kind.
The adoption proposal was suggested by a warm couple who closely resembled Hyeonchan back then. They said if you want, we’ll take care of the legal issues ourselves, so how about becoming siblings with Hyeonchan?
Until that point, Hongdan had been worried about his father who’d swung a soju bottle at his arm. Moreover, he couldn’t quite abandon the shame to lean on that warmth, so he rejected the proposal. After that, they asked his intention two or three more times, so he’d even cut off visits to Hyeonchan’s family home.
Actually, even if he could return to that time, he didn’t think he’d make a different choice. It was a family too perfect for Hongdan to dare be greedy about. If he thoughtlessly interfered and marred that flawlessness, he felt he’d despair more greatly than when he first learned of Seonha’s affair.
So this was just pointless talk using intoxication as an excuse.
Right. It meant it was half a joke.
But from above his head, the expected nonchalant answer didn’t return, and only an incomprehensible silence continued. Hongdan slowly raised his head.
“What? Back then you also followed me around for a whole month begging.”
Though he rolled his eyes for a moment pretending to be hurt, this was also a joke. But Hyeonchan’s face was somehow subtle.
“Hey, do you hate it that much?”
Hongdan was starting to get serious.
Bastard, what the hell.
Until last year, when was it that you were just saying let’s live together? Does a person’s heart change before even mountains and rivers do?
Though he knew it would look childish, he couldn’t hide his hurt feelings. Hongdan tried to hide his petty self in the 500cc beer glass that was half the size of his face. So the moment he reached for the almost empty glass.
“Of course I hate it. Then I would have even become family with that bastard Yeon Seonha.”
A tone no different from usual popped out. And Hyeonchan’s complexion was examined.
Ah, this is my Chan.
Hongdan changed the direction of his right hand that had been heading toward the beer glass. He crumpled up a couple napkins and threw them at Hyeonchan. It was punishment for making him needlessly tense.
“Idiot, if I were your younger brother, would I have married that bastard? Don’t you know I reluctantly got married because I didn’t want to get dragged onto an anchovy fishing boat?”
Even so, the lips that were about to pout were drawing a smooth arc. Of course, Hyeonchan was the same. As if he’d never hardened his face, he mirrored Hongdan’s smile.
“You should have just gotten dragged away. That would have been similar to married life too—you come back in two or three years.”
“No, but this bastard.”
After that, the crumpled napkins went back and forth a few more times, and the finger ordering additional beer also waved about three more times.
During that time, an awkward atmosphere like before didn’t return.
It might have been because he didn’t notice due to the alcohol, but anyway, there was no longer an unfamiliar Hyeonchan in Hongdan’s view. Hongdan burst into laughter really ceaselessly, like someone for whom time spent not laughing was a waste. His cheekbones stung. When was the last time he experienced a moment like this…….
Thunk-!
Hongdan’s forehead was buried in the table once more.
