Chapter 50
“Hyunjae.”
“Hyunjae?”
“Yeah, let’s go with Hyunjae.”
The little boy’s dark eyes sparkled, wide and bright, as if they might overflow with tears at any moment. Dohyun straightened his knees and looked directly at his little brother.
“Why Hyunjae?”
“Because he misses Mom and Dad so much.”
At the mention of their parents, the small boy clinging to Dohyun’s side began to sniffle.
“Hey! I told you not to cry!”
Chanhee scolded, pointing a finger at him. The boy shrank back under Chanhee’s fierce glare. Chanhee sighed in exasperation, looking like a tiny, frustrated adult. Dohyun gently placed a hand on the trembling child’s shoulder and spoke softly.
“From now on, your name is Hyunjae.”
“…”
“Yu Hyunjae. Got it?”
The boy didn’t answer right away. He just stared at Dohyun, his eyes filled with a depth and clarity that seemed to drown out everything else. Dohyun finally looked away from Hyunjae and turned to Chanhee, his voice earnest.
“Don’t bully him. Be nice to him.”
“Do you think I’m some kind of monster?”
“I hear a lot of things. They say you fight all the time at preschool.”
“That’s because those kids are idiots!”
“Idiots? Where did you learn that word?”
Chanhee pouted, clearly displeased. Dohyun took Hyunjae’s hand and carefully passed it to Chanhee. Even with his lips still jutting out, Chanhee snatched Hyunjae’s hand and ran off. Dohyun slowly stood up and looked down the dark hallway of the house. It was time to face his parents, who were waiting for him in the room.
***
“First off, you can’t cross into this area.”
Chanhee ducked inside the plastic fence he’d set up and spoke. Hyunjae awkwardly nodded, still shy. Excluding the area inside the fence, there wasn’t much space left to move around in the room. Chanhee gathered all his toys inside the fence and closed the plastic door.
“What happens if I touch them?”
Hyunjae asked in a trembling voice. Chanhee thought for a moment before answering firmly.
“You’ll have to pay the price.”
“Price? What’s the price?”
“Money.”
“Money?”
“You have to pay money for snacks, right? It’s like that.”
Hyunjae didn’t respond. Chanhee went inside the fence alone and started playing with his toys. Playing alone wasn’t much fun. After about ten minutes of playing with a doll, Chanhee glanced at Hyunjae. He deliberately made noise as he played. Hyunjae just sat in a corner of the room, watching Chanhee.
“Don’t you want to play too?”
Finally, Chanhee couldn’t hold back and spoke to Hyunjae again. Hyunjae, who had been quietly listening, slowly shook his head.
“Why? Don’t you really want to?”
“I don’t have money.”
“Then I won’t charge you, so come here and play the villain’s role.”
Even though Chanhee pretended to be generous, Hyunjae’s expression remained stiff.
“No. It’s okay.”
Chanhee, who had grown up as the young master of the mansion, wasn’t used to being rejected repeatedly. He furrowed his brows and shouted.
“Why don’t you want to?”
“I don’t not want to. I just don’t feel like it.”
“Then why don’t you feel like it?”
Chanhee’s persistent demand for a reason made Hyunjae look slightly flustered. He didn’t seem like he was about to cry this time, but he looked like he didn’t know how to explain himself.
“…Because it’s sad.”
Chanhee tilted his head at the unexpected answer.
“Why is it sad?”
“Because I can’t see Mom and Dad anymore.”
“…They passed away?”
“Yeah. And Dohyun told me never to talk about Mom and Dad again.”
“Why?”
“He said it’s for my own good.”
“For your own good?”
“Yeah. So I have to keep it.”
Chanhee still looked confused. They were both too young to understand eternal separation. But he soon nodded as if he understood and looked at Hyunjae.
“I won’t talk about your mom and dad either.”
“…Okay.”
“So come here and play the villain’s role.”
Chanhee shook the doll he was holding. It was a black bear doll wearing a black cape—clearly the bad guy. Hyunjae hesitantly stood up and approached Chanhee. He reached out beyond the fence and took the doll Chanhee handed him, staring at it.
“What’s this doll’s role?”
“It’s you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Just you. We just have to fight. You’re the one attacking our castle from outside the fence.”
“So I’m the bad guy?”
“Bad guy?”
Chanhee looked at Hyunjae with wide eyes, as if he’d asked something strange.
“There are no bad guys.”
“…”
“We just fight.”
“I see.”
That’s when the door opened. A large man, so tall he nearly filled the doorway, stood with his arms crossed, watching them.
“Yu Chanhee.”
“What?”
“You’re not bullying Hyunjae, are you?”
“No, we were just playing.”
“Really?”
Dohyun looked at Hyunjae for confirmation. Hyunjae nodded instead of answering.
“Get along from now on. You’re going to live together.”
“Live together?”
“What, don’t you like that?”
Chanhee’s eyes widened in surprise. He looked so much like a five-year-old that Dohyun couldn’t help but smile. Hyunjae sat quietly, blinking as he looked at Dohyun.
“You two will live together until Hyunjae gets his own room.”
“So now we’re brothers?”
“What?”
“If I live with you and you’re my brother, then if he lives with us too, is he my brother?”
Dohyun pondered the unexpected question before answering simply.
“Not brothers, but think of him as family.”
“What’s that?”
“Just think of it that way.”
Chanhee put down the doll he was holding and thought hard before speaking to Hyunjae.
“That’s good.”
“What is?”
“We have family again.”
Chanhee smiled brightly. The child who had been throwing a tantrum just moments ago now looked pure and innocent. Hyunjae smiled slightly in response. He still couldn’t go inside the fence, but his anxious heart settled just a little.
***
Setting up a place for Hyunjae in the large mansion wasn’t difficult. An empty room on the second floor was transformed into a proper child’s room, filled with picture books, colored pencils, and crayons.
“Your room is cleaner than mine.”
While furniture like bookshelves, beds, and dressers were being moved into Hyunjae’s room, the owners of the house—Chanhee’s father and mother—didn’t show their faces even once. Dohyun handled everything in his spare time. Chanhee occasionally eavesdropped on the loud arguments coming from the study. The content was usually similar, but the intensity of the anger grew stronger each time. Whenever Dohyun left the room, his face was noticeably calm, so even young Chanhee couldn’t easily ask about the problems.
Every time Dohyun saw Chanhee, he repeated the same thing: “Get along with Hyunjae.” Chanhee looked at the small boy sitting next to him. They were similar in height and build, but Hyunjae always seemed smaller. Why was that? Chanhee kept thinking about it.
“Lying is bad, right?”
Hyunjae put down the block he was holding and looked up at Chanhee’s sudden words. The plastic fence was still between them. Chanhee carefully placed the block he was holding on top of Hyunjae’s stack.
“Then is pretending not to know something you do know also bad?”
Hyunjae thought hard. It didn’t seem like he could easily find an answer.
“Are we doing something bad?”
At the word “bad,” Hyunjae faltered. Chanhee watched him.
“Dad and Dohyun keep fighting in the room, but I’m just pretending not to notice.”
“…”
“It doesn’t seem like our family is happy, but I have to pretend not to know.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Aren’t you happy either?”
Hyunjae looked at the floor, his face on the verge of tears. Chanhee waited patiently for his answer.
“…Yeah.”
“Then none of our family is happy.”
A tear dropped from Hyunjae’s eyes as he blinked. That was the breaking point—Hyunjae burst into tears. Chanhee, startled, quickly wiped Hyunjae’s eyes with his sleeve.
“It’s my fault. I’m a bad person.”
“No, you’re not.”
Chanhee answered firmly.
“There are no bad people.”
“…”
“There are just people who fight.”
That was a phrase Dohyun often said around that time. Chanhee was like a carbon copy of his brother. Though they looked different and had different personalities, Chanhee often mirrored Dohyun’s behavior in strange ways. It was odd for a five-year-old to frequently say things that were hard to understand, but sometimes, Hyunjae found comfort in those adult-like words from
