Held by the caregiver ajumma, Seoha screamed. When Wooyeon raised his head while smoothing out his grabbed hair, his eyes met with his mother’s surprised gaze behind the raging Seoha. As if thinking he couldn’t get through, Seoha shook off the caregiver and clung to their mother’s legs again.
“What, what is all this about…”
“…”
“Student Wooyeon, is he really your younger brother?”
Wooyeon helped up the caregiver who had fallen with her bottom hitting the floor. The aloof appearance of the attractive pianist seen in the media was nowhere to be found.
“Why should I be kicked out, I don’t want to be kicked out…! If I go like this, I’ll just be buried. Mom, let me meet Jeonghan. Why, why do I have to lose to Lee Yooha again? Mom, I feel like I’m going to die… Let me meet Jeonghan, let me meet Jeonghan.”
Over the back of the sobbing Seoha, their mother’s eyes shook as she embraced him and looked toward Wooyeon. Without knowing what was going on, Wooyeon felt as if he had committed some great sin.
“You, do you think I’ll just get kicked out quietly like this? Do you think I’ll back down like this! Aah! You, I’m going to fucking ruin you, damn it!”
Seoha continued to curse while calling Wooyeon’s old name.
“Why did I, why did I… Lee Yooha ruined everything.”
In the end, Seoha collapsed under the bed as if fainting, and soon people who appeared to be security guards came in and took him away.
And Wooyeon came to understand the meaning of Seoha’s words the next day, after his study abroad in Germany was reported in the media.
15.
Only a few days had passed, but now it was full-blown summer. Wooyeon, sitting in the passenger seat of Jeonghan’s car, took in the lush greenery running alongside him.
The sound of cicadas crying as if to tear one’s ears brushed past with the wind. At the air conditioner breeze touching his skin, goosebumps rose over Wooyeon’s arms. Each time Wooyeon rolled his eyes and blinked, summer approached with a changing landscape.
“Don’t drink too much.”
“Okay.”
The MT location, which looked closer to a retreat than a pension, began to appear in the distance. He wasn’t originally the type to enjoy drinking anyway, and it was an event he wouldn’t have participated in if it weren’t for Jeonghan in the first place.
“Um, Jeonghan.”
“Yes?”
Wooyeon hesitated, then carefully spoke up. It was because Seoha’s raging face kept coming to mind for several days.
“Did something happen with Seoha?”
“Ah, Lee Seoha.”
Jeonghan let out a chuckle and leisurely turned the steering wheel.
“What do you mean something happened?”
Jeonghan seemed unbothered, but thinking of Seoha’s face from a few days ago, there was definitely something that had happened.
“Did Lee Seoha perhaps come looking for you, sunbae?”
“…”
Perhaps thinking Wooyeon’s silent non-response was an affirmation, Jeonghan continued speaking.
“Even when he was in America he suffered from something like homesickness and depression, so before going abroad to study, his depression must have flared up a bit.”
With Jeonghan’s calm attitude contrasting with Seoha’s face he’d last seen, Wooyeon couldn’t tell what was real.
“Seoha… said it like he was being kicked out because of me. That you, Jeonghan…”
“You don’t need to worry about it. It’s not something for sunbae to worry about.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“Isn’t it a blessing for a pianist to go abroad to study for their own development? Poor people doing art would probably think it’s a privileged complaint.”
Jeonghan’s fingers drummed on the steering wheel. He looked to be in a good mood. Right. What did Seoha going abroad to study have to do with Jeonghan? It must be an unnecessary feeling arising from Seoha’s unreasonableness.
Wooyeon buried the unease that kept arising deep in his heart. There was nothing good about continuing to recall Seoha’s cries.
“Ah, did you take your medicine?”
The medicine Jeonghan was asking about meant suppressants. At Jeonghan’s words, Wooyeon just nodded silently without speaking. Since Jeonghan had started managing his medicine, Wooyeon had never skipped it. Every time they met, Jeonghan attentively took care of it first.
The shadow of tree leaves passed over Wooyeon’s white face. Jeonghan skillfully parked the car in the quiet parking lot.
“I’ll carry everything.”
Jeonghan opened the trunk and held bundles of beer pitchers in both hands. Jeonghan’s arm muscles and veins protruded beneath his short sleeves. Wooyeon looked down at his own arms for no reason and fidgeted with his hands, then just followed Jeonghan into the building. They had come separately by car from the others saying they’d buy more alcohol, but since this was the College of Economics integrated MT with so many people, he didn’t know if there would be enough for even one sip per person.
When they entered the building, people were moving around messily in the long corridor. Wooyeon opened his eyes wide and only rolled his eyeballs around. This was because it was actually Wooyeon’s first time coming to such an event. He’d never been to a department MT, of course, nor even orientation-type things. At the feeling different from the scenes he’d vaguely seen in dramas, Wooyeon hesitated a bit.
“Oh, you’re here! The group assignments are here, so go in on your own, okay?”
The Club President standing in the corridor said this while picking up one of the beer pitcher bundles Jeonghan was holding. On the corridor wall, large paper was attached like a big-character poster.
College of Economics Integrated MT.
Each group had Economics, Statistics, and Trade department students mixed together.
Wooyeon turned his head and read the paper carefully. Jeonghan was in Group B, and he himself was in Group F.
“I speeeecially put you and Chu Seonyoung in the same group. I’m such a thoughtful sunbae, junior.”
The Club President patted Jeonghan’s shoulder, even winked, and passed by them. Jeonghan turned his head to follow the Club President’s back, then looked at Wooyeon again. A chill passed over his briefly glimpsed face.
Did I see it wrong? In the time Wooyeon blinked a few times, Jeonghan’s face held a faint smile again.
“Sunbae, you don’t want to go in alone, right? I’ll go try to change groups.”
“Huh? No, you don’t have to go that far…”
That’s when it happened. From the second room, a female student wearing short shorts came out with slippers on and ran toward Jeonghan. It was Chu Seonyoung. With a brightly smiling face, she linked arms with Jeonghan and greeted them.
“Sunbae, you’re here!”
With her brightly smiling face, her long wavy hair was pretty. After greeting Wooyeon, her gaze naturally went up to Jeonghan’s face, and Wooyeon’s gaze followed. When their eyes met with Jeonghan’s, Wooyeon was engulfed in a feeling as if he had done something terribly wrong.
Chu Seonyoung still had a bright face. For a moment, his chest throbbed and ached. What exactly was this emotion he was feeling? Was it guilt? Or if not that…
“See you later. Oppa, our group is over there.”
She, who had smiled brightly at Wooyeon, led Jeonghan’s arm toward the room she had come from. Jeonghan didn’t move, and Wooyeon’s heart rushed again, worried that she might think something was strange.
“Y-yeah. See you later. Have fun. You too.”
“Sunbae.”
When Wooyeon greeted Seonyoung and Jeonghan and turned around, Jeonghan stopped him from behind. When Wooyeon met eyes with Jeonghan again, he pulled out his caught arm with force.
“You don’t need to change groups. I’ll go in and hang out.”
Just in case—though it probably wouldn’t happen—worried that Jeonghan might grab him again, Wooyeon hurriedly went to find Group F. Above the door at the end of the corridor, ‘Group F’ was printed large on A4 paper.
Before entering inside, when he turned his head again to look at the corridor, Jeonghan and Seonyoung’s figures had also become back views. Wooyeon, who let out a small sigh, entered the room.
“Hello, welcome.”
The people sitting gathered in a circle on the floor bowed their heads to greet Wooyeon when they saw him. Since the Economics department had more people compared to the other two departments, almost half were faces he’d seen coming and going.
Someone pushed their bottom to the side to make space for Wooyeon to enter, and Wooyeon sat in that spot while awkwardly bowing. Inside where people were gathered, snacks and side dishes were messily scattered, and it seemed drinks had already gone around even though night hadn’t deepened yet.
“Now then, introduce yourself! We all did already.”
“Ah, thank you.”
When a student sitting nearby handed Wooyeon a paper cup and poured beer, Wooyeon nodded again and received the drink. When Wooyeon stated his name and student number, students from other departments opened their eyes wide at his age, which was more than they’d thought.
“Oh, you look totally young for your age. I thought you were a freshman.”
A student sitting across from him said this while chewing on a squid leg. The surprised eyes were fixed on Wooyeon, and Wooyeon touched the nape of his neck for no reason at the attention focused on him.
“But we… for the College of Economics Beauty Contest later, we’ve totally got it in the bag, right?”
“Huh?”
When Wooyeon rolled his eyes in his large eye sockets without understanding, a deflating laugh sound of “pfft” came from beside him. Wooyeon still had a face that didn’t know what they were talking about.
“No. I actually, this sunbae, I’d seen him coming and going sometimes, but I didn’t know he’d be in our group.”
“Thank you so much for being in our group. I didn’t want to go on stage as a comedy character.”
“It’s really going to be fun. Does it start at 8?”
“Cheers, let’s do it once.”
Wooyeon inadvertently raised his glass again, clinked it with the others, and drank the beer. The slightly lukewarm beer went down his throat. A slightly tipsy feeling spread.
“But what are you talking about…”
“Ah, you can speak comfortably.”
“Don’t you know about the College of Economics Beauty Contest in the hall at 8?”
“College of Economics Beauty Contest?”
