109
“Eundo, don’t you want to see the teacher?”
When the teacher who had come inside seemed to particularly cherish him, Eundo’s expression, who had been sitting on the sofa, brightened.
“I want to see her… Teacher, Eundo will, come to see teacher…?”
“Really? Will you do that?”
“Yes…!”
“Alright. Teacher will wait for you.”
“Yes!”
His answer was particularly loud. Taein wrote his name in block letters on the signature line of the last paper. Throughout filling out the documents, he had been continuously talking with the pastor and teacher. Before that, he had been hearing about how Eundo had been doing and what kind of child Eundo was. After finishing all the discharge paperwork, there was nothing more to do.
Taein left the cold green tea and stood up from his seat. Then Eundo also jumped down from the sofa. After sitting like a king on the single-person sofa, he quickly approached his hyung.
“Hyung.”
“Eundo should say goodbye too.”
“Goodbye. Next time Eundo and teacher will play at the playground together, right?”
Perhaps familiar with the child’s random words, the teacher smiled broadly. She even lightly pinched the child’s cheek with her hand, saying she wouldn’t know what to do without seeing this little cutie. Since it hurt a bit, Eundo immediately touched his own cheek. His mouth was smiling. Though it hurt, the child also knew she wasn’t doing it because she disliked him.
After saying goodbye and coming out, the world was bright as if nothing had happened.
Taein walked down the road while tightly holding Eundo’s hand. The road between the church and the nursery extended all the way to that end. Though restaurants and low buildings could be seen occasionally, it wasn’t originally a bustling area. He could also see a dusty restaurant that seemed to have failed and just closed its doors.
“Hyung, you came because Eundo asked you to come, right?”
“…Huh?”
“Eundo told the moon he missed hyung.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. So hyung called and said he was coming. To Eundo.”
He was telling the process in his own way. That he had begged the moon to make hyung come, and so hyung came. Taein just silently patted Eundo’s head. You’re really just the same. Though such a child was cute, his heart also hurt a lot. He felt like he’d go crazy from being so pathetic for only making Eundo wait. What sin did Eundo have to come to someone like him?
When there are so many decent people in the world, why him of all people?
Recurring thoughts. And at the end of those thoughts, there was always something that needed to be done.
Like going to work, or finding work, anyway he had to do something.
But now he didn’t know where to go with Eundo.
Should he take Eundo to his shabby motel room?
Though the bed had been changed and there was an air purifier that had been used at Ilsim, and designer clothes that Yoon Donghwan had given him like charity in the room, it wasn’t a home-like home. And he couldn’t go to the house where they originally lived even more. The landlord said to just pay compensation and leave the house, and even if the owner had been considerate, he couldn’t take the child back into that dangerous house.
Would it be better to stay at a motel for a few days? The 300,000 won was almost entirely left.
Taein just listened to the child’s soft voice saying “Hyung, Eundo…” and telling him about what had happened during this time. He was moving forward but had no destination.
* * *
“Kang Eundo, is it delicious?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Eundo answered with one side of his mouth greatly puffed out. When they came out to the roadside, there was a pork cutlet restaurant. He had come in thinking to fill their stomachs first, but it tasted better than expected. He had snacked and eaten jjajangmyeon since morning, but hadn’t eaten much. Eundo had also come out without eating at the facility.
“How delicious is it?”
“This much.”
Eundo raised and lowered both arms high as if drawing a rainbow. His mouth, which had said “this much,” was covered in sauce. Though he was quite good at eating with a fork, there was a limit to how much he could open his small mouth no matter how hard he tried to put in large pieces of pork cutlet. Taein just snorted once in front and wiped Eundo’s mouth.
“Is there a hole in your mouth?”
Taein asked playfully and kept making a laughing face by himself.
Eundo went “No?” then thinking there really was a hole in his mouth, immediately turned around to check his face. There was a wide mirror attached to the back wall. After confirming only his intact face there, the child looked at his hyung with puzzled eyes.
“Hyung, there’s no hole in Eundo’s face.”
“There is, only hyung can see it.”
“Huh? Really?”
Then the child turned around again worriedly to check his own face.
This time too, apparently not finding any abnormalities, the child looked forward with a slightly tearful expression. He even made a sad face asking “Hyung look at Eundo, is it really?” When he occasionally played pranks on Eundo, he always stopped around this point. Taein slowly closed and opened his eyes and shook his head.
“No, there isn’t. I must have seen wrong.”
“Phew~! Eundo’s heart hurt.”
“What’s a heart hurting? The little guy is saying all kinds of strange things…”
While looking at Eundo with one corner of his mouth raised, a short notification sound was heard from behind. Every time a customer entered, a short bell sound would beep and stop repeatedly. He had been hearing it since earlier, so it wasn’t strange. Taein quickly focused his gaze on Eundo.
“Eep.”
It was the sound of Eundo closing his mouth in surprise while trying to say something.
Wondering what he was surprised to see, Taein also turned around. His gaze went past the large window toward the entrance.
The one who opened the door and entered was Yoon Donghwan. Daejeong was also right outside the glass door. Daejeong didn’t come inside, just nodded once and returned to the car that had been stopped beside. It seemed like he had temporarily parked the car on the roadway where parking wasn’t allowed.
“What could be delicious, I wonder?”
Yoon Donghwan looked around the entire restaurant, made eye contact with him, and said such words. Mixing sounds like humming “what could be delicious, I wonder,” somehow he wanted to avoid his eyes. Taein just slightly tensed his brow and turned his head. In front, Eundo was still stiffening his body. Earlier there had been Daejeong too and the surroundings were noisy so he seemed to have had an eye-fight with Yoon Donghwan, but seeing such a large human indoors seemed a bit scary. Taein extended his hand and spoke to Eundo.
“Kang Eundo, what’s wrong? That ajusshi isn’t such a bad person.”
It was Yoon Donghwan who answered those words.
“What do you mean not such a bad person?”
He could see the man standing with his lower body pressed against the table. Taein slowly raised his eyes and made eye contact with Yoon Donghwan.
“Huh? If he’s a good person, then he’s a good person. What do you mean not so bad?”
“This is a restaurant, what are you doing…”
His voice was actually quite loud, so the person next to them was looking at this table. He could see such gazes in the mirror. Eundo, who had been slightly intimidated, was also frozen with only pork cutlet in his mouth. Since he had been speaking as if something displeased him from earlier, was he expressing it like this? Taein became troubled by Donghwan’s sudden appearance. Whether he knew such feelings or not, Donghwan seemed to be looking around as if wondering who dared to look at him.
“Please eat, please eat. Yes.”
He extended his arms forward telling them to just eat their meal. He could see the person next to them immediately lowering their eyes and focusing on eating. Yoon Donghwan said “please eat” several times then turned back. He thought he might be leaving, but that wasn’t it. He went around and pulled out the chair next to Taein to sit down.
“Can’t you fix that thing where you just whoosh away somewhere when people aren’t finished talking?”
Yoon Donghwan reduced his decibels and spoke so only he could hear.
Taein glanced at Donghwan once and took care of Eundo first. Clear drool had pooled at the corner of his mouth because of the pork cutlet he was holding in his mouth.
“Kang Eundo, eat. This ajusshi is hyung’s friend.”
“Friend, my ass.”
Yoon Donghwan, who added “I don’t raise such things,” spread his hand and raised his arm.
“Here, give me one of the most delicious things.”
A passing employee could be seen leaving with a dazed face saying “Ah, yes.”
Taein just quietly sighed.
“What? Want to be friends now?”
“…No.”
“You and I aren’t friends. I decided that clearly today, you know?”
He wouldn’t feel sorry either. What regretful feelings could he have toward a man who would catch his words whenever they met and make remarks looking down on poor people? Taein picked up a piece of cut pork cutlet with dry-ended chopsticks. When he put it in his mouth, one cheek puffed out round.
“Hey, little guy.”
Yoon Donghwan, who had been just saying “I clearly…” suddenly called Eundo.
Eundo had been tense since earlier, his shoulders stiff. Both shoulders were raised up as if they would stick to his ears. Taein stayed still for now. He didn’t know what words would come out of that mouth, but for the child to eat, he needed to know that Yoon Donghwan wasn’t that scary. He thought exchanging a word or two would be okay.
“Don’t you have a dad? What about mom?”
“What?”
The reaction was Taein’s. While living with Eundo, they had hardly talked about dad or mom. When Eundo had just learned the concept of parents, he would ask where they were, but since he started attending kindergarten, he hardly said such things. Taein had lived so frantically that he had sometimes told Eundo different locations for his parents. He mainly said they were in America, but some days he said they were in Seoul. He had also said they were making money there. Eundo, whose speech was clumsy at the time, would just nod saying “uh-huh.”
A child erasing his parents because he had no parents.
On one hand it was pitiful, but if he didn’t do that, he felt he wouldn’t be able to handle the aftermath.
To a child who had been living like that.
Taein looked at Yoon Donghwan with displeased eyes. Donghwan just stuck his face forward and didn’t care about Taein’s gaze. When he went “Huh? Little guy” and extended his hand, Eundo turned his face to the side.
“You don’t have a dad, right? Should I be your dad?”
“Stop it.”
“I’ve devoted things to your hyung too.”
“Yoon Donghwan-ssi. If you say one more strange thing, I’ll report you.”
He thought he turned his eyes at the threat to report, but Yoon Donghwan seemed to have heard something else.
“Yoon Donghwan-ssi? Call me Donghwan-ssi.”
“…I said stop it.”
“Kang Taein.”
Taein stared at Donghwan with a face contorted by complex emotions.
“You’ve hidden more than one or two things.”
“……”
“Do you want to say the rest with your own mouth, or should I find out more?”
“What are you talking about?”
“That kid isn’t your younger brother.”
Fortunately, the door opened at the same time and a short notification sound rang. Eundo, who had quietly muttered “hyung,” didn’t seem to hear that sound. Taein quickly checked on Eundo first, then bumped Yoon Donghwan’s shoulder with his own shoulder. It was a gesture warning him to shut his mouth.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
