“M-medicine, I’ll apply the medicine first. Sit down.”
Wonyoung desperately searched for the first aid kit, trying to calm himself down. He knew this kind of medicine wouldn’t be enough, but since Siyeon refused to go to the hospital, there was nothing else he could do.
“Hyung, there’s something I need to talk about.”
“Apply the medicine first. Did you eat? You didn’t, right?”
“Hyung, I have to leave soon.”
“……What?”
Wonyoung, who had been hurriedly opening the ointment cap, stopped abruptly at those words.
“……Leave? Where are you going in this condition?”
“The organization must be looking for me. Actually, I shouldn’t have even come here…… I was worried you’d be concerned.”
At those words, Wonyoung couldn’t hold back his anger and shouted.
“If you knew I’d worry, you shouldn’t be doing this! Go where?! What happened?! Why is the organization looking for you? Don’t tell me……”
Siyeon hesitated until the very end. The ‘him’ who helped him told him to go to Wonyoung and lay everything out…… but wasn’t that man also not laying everything out?
……No, was that why he wanted him to be different?
Siyeon, who had been looking at Wonyoung’s flushed face as if he was about to burst into tears at any moment, opened his heavy mouth.
“I tried to leave the organization, but I was betrayed.”
“What?”
“The boss tried to kill me…… I barely survived, but they’re probably chasing me.”
“S-so?”
“I have to hide. Somewhere no one can find me.”
“……”
Siyeon drove the final nail toward Wonyoung, who couldn’t continue speaking from shock.
“I came to say goodbye to hyung.”
“……What did you……?”
In that moment, Wonyoung’s eyes welled up with tears. Goodbye? Like this? We haven’t even seen the ending yet. So why?
“D-don’t say such nonsense. I’ll hide you. Let’s run away together.”
“Hyung.”
“How can I let you go alone? Am I crazy? Your wounds haven’t even healed yet! How old are you to be running away? Are you going to live like that forever?”
“……I have to. Because that’s the price for my sins.”
“Ki Siyeon!”
Even at Wonyoung’s scream-like cry, Siyeon’s expression remained calm. Wonyoung grabbed his arm.
“No. I can’t let you go like this. I’ll…… I’ll talk to the System. It said it would help you leave the organization. That’s why I……”
“Offered up even your memories?”
At those words, Wonyoung’s heart sank. Then does that mean what happened to Siyeon was because…….
“That’s exactly why I can’t. Because I don’t want hyung to sacrifice anything more for my sake.”
“Si, Siyeon-ah.”
Siyeon lowered his eyes. Then slowly, he revealed his innermost thoughts.
“After hyung disappeared…… I was the only one who couldn’t help at all. If it weren’t for Ki Siyeon and Kyung Taerim, I would have lost hyung back then.”
“What kind of stupid thing to say!”
Wonyoung grabbed Siyeon’s collar, then flinched and let go when he saw the red wounds visible between the collar. Siyeon continued bitterly.
“It wasn’t just then. I’ve never been able to do anything all along. Kyung Taerim is needless to say excellent, and Baek Heegang too…… anyway, he comes from a well-off family and has abilities, but I’m poor, don’t have a proper job, and I’m not even smart.”
Wonyoung swore he had never once thought Siyeon was lacking compared to others. Rather, he thought Siyeon, who had lived so diligently, was amazing and admirable. He couldn’t understand at all why he was saying such upsetting things.
This whole situation itself didn’t make sense.
“If I hadn’t been so weak, if I had been a more normal guy, hyung wouldn’t have had to force yourself to come back, even losing your memories.”
“……Siyeon-ah. Listen to me. Look at me.”
Siyeon slowly lifted his head and met Wonyoung’s eyes. His pupils were full of regret and apology. Wonyoung felt his heart ache at those eyes and spoke sincerely.
“I don’t regret my memories at all. Even if I went back to that time, I would make the same choice again. You also gave up all your affection points for me. You tried to give up even your life.”
But Wonyoung’s sincerity didn’t get through to Siyeon.
“Because that’s all I have.”
“Ki Siyeon!”
“That’s exactly the problem. Because hyung cares too much for someone like me. So at least…… I wanted to become someone who wasn’t lacking for that.”
Soon Siyeon laughed self-deprecatingly.
“That’s why I tried to leave the organization. Even though deep down I knew it wouldn’t work. I couldn’t give up.”
“……Siyeon-ah.”
“Because if I gave up on that, it would mean giving up on hyung.”
For Siyeon, the fact that his memories had disappeared seemed to have been quite a shock. He hadn’t thought that far. He didn’t know Siyeon would care so much about that. He had been foolish.
He regretted it. He regretted it again and again. That’s why even more so, he couldn’t let Siyeon go.
But he was an adult compared to Siyeon. No matter how much he suffered from the guilt of making Siyeon like this, he had to properly, maturely persuade him.
Wonyoung put aside his painful heart and calmly spoke.
“Siyeon-ah. I don’t care what kind of person you are. If I lose you…… what happens to the memories I offered?”
“……That’s……”
“I’m not trying to burden you with guilt. I’m trying to say that you’re that precious to me.”
“……”
Wonyoung very carefully took Siyeon’s hand. His cold body temperature hurt his heart, but he resolutely continued.
“Last time, the three of you thought about it together for me, right? This time let’s do it together, just the two of us. There must be a way.”
“……Wonyoung-i hyung.”
“No, even if there isn’t, I can’t let you go. Don’t even think about leaving.”
“Why? What am I worth? Why do you only give to me, hyung?”
At Siyeon’s question, overcome with grief, Wonyoung shook his head. He had never once thought of giving something to Siyeon. Because he was the same as the past ‘Heo Wonyoung’. Everything he gave to him was the same as giving to himself. It wasn’t precious or unpleasant at all.
“Because I like you. Because I like you so much, even if I keep giving, it’s not enough.”
“……”
“And you also gave a lot. You really gave so much. Because of you I became a good person, because of you I learned that I didn’t do well alone, and because of you I’m not lonely anymore.”
“……”
“So still, do you absolutely have to leave me?”
At Wonyoung’s question, tears streamed down Siyeon’s cheeks. How could he want to leave hyung’s side? He had definitely never thought such a thing.
But, because he’s no help. Not only no help, but only harmful.
That’s what he thought.
“Then, can I not go?”
Siyeon asked desperately with a trembling voice.
“Can I stay by hyung’s side?”
Wonyoung pulled Siyeon into his arms. He too was shedding tears before he knew it.
“You don’t need permission for that. Because you’re my family.”
Because to me, who has no family, you’re my first younger brother.
“When things are hard, just ask for help.”
Words he himself had never been able to say all along, Wonyoung was now conveying them to Siyeon. He wanted to give Siyeon the warmth he himself had never received.
Soon, Siyeon said, crying.
“Help me, Wonyoung-i hyung.”
* * *
“Does it hurt a lot?”
A nearby motel they hastily found together with Siyeon. Wonyoung asked worriedly while applying medicine to Siyeon’s wounds.
“I’m not sure. I’ve been beaten up so often, my sense of pain seems to have dulled.”
“……That’s something to brag about.”
“I was saying it so you wouldn’t worry.”
“Yeah, I’m not worried, just heartbroken. That’s so much better.”
The two laughed with their eyes red from crying. The future was dark, but being together, there was nothing to be afraid of.
Soon, Wonyoung, who had finished applying medicine to all of Siyeon’s wounds, brought up the topic seriously.
“Siyeon-ah, I’ve been thinking……”
“Yes.”
In front of the tense Siyeon, Wonyoung mentioned an unexpected name.
“What if we ask Heegang for help?”
“……The psychopath, I mean Baek Heegang?”
Wonyoung nodded once.
“Heegang is good at wiretapping, eavesdropping, and stuff like that. He swings spanners at gangsters, and last time when I was captured, he brought bodyguards and helped.”
“I have heard that Baekil Group is implicitly connected with gangsters.”
“Really? Then even more so……”
“But hyung.”
Siyeon quietly looked into Wonyoung’s eyes and continued.
“It’s Baek Heegang. Baek Heegang would do anything to have hyung. He wouldn’t hesitate to do cowardly things, and he’s not the type to give up just because hyung says no.”
“……”
“He’s the guy who tried to kill hyung. He might really think it’s better to kill you than to have you taken by someone else.”
“If you’re worried about Heegang getting a hold on me, already……”
“No. It’s different from that.”
Siyeon, who cut off Wonyoung’s words, said with a slightly bitter face.
“Hyung, you like Kyung Taerim, don’t you?”
“!”
In that moment, Wonyoung was flustered and lost for words. Siyeon continued rather calmly.
“The day you disappeared the second time, you were actually going to confess to Kyung Taerim, weren’t you?”
“……Th-that’s.”
He never thought Siyeon had been thinking that. Even Wonyoung himself didn’t know what he was trying to say back then. But being told this by Siyeon was unbearably embarrassing, so Wonyoung’s face turned red. At that sight, a corner of Siyeon’s heart ached, but still, Wonyoung’s feelings were more important to him.
“Actually…… the one who saved me from nearly dying was also Kyung Taerim.”
“What?”
“I was betrayed by the boss, got stabbed, and was about to be thrown into the sea, but Kyung Taerim appeared and helped me.”
“Taerim-ssi…… came?”
But he clearly said he went on a business trip……?
“I think he was watching my movements from the start. Well, more accurately, he probably learned about my situation while watching hyung’s movements. He was also the one who advised me to go to hyung and lay everything out instead of just leaving.”
“……”
At the unexpected story, Wonyoung was dazed. He didn’t know whether to be grateful to Taerim, or wonder why he didn’t appear before him.
