14
Was it that person from earlier? Taein spent more time just staring at the screen. Whether they had attempted to call until it went to voicemail, the long vibration that had been ringing briefly stopped and then started ringing again. It was a second connection attempt. Taein hesitated, then moved his thumb over the screen. It was an impulsive action.
“Hello…”
He had planned to say that person from earlier called again, or that someone else had called. He answered the phone hoping things would work out well, but from the other end of the phone came profanity that gave him a headache.
– “Hey you fucking bastard. Who the hell are you to curse at Yeojun, you dog-like son of a bitch. Yeojun took that money purely to help with investment, but you twisted it like that? Anyway, you inherited all the fucking negativity from your mother. If the money disappeared, you fucking bastard, you should have just asked me for it. You’re going to harass the kid because it’s gone? You bastard…”
He couldn’t listen anymore. Taein just pressed the end button, roughly understanding the situation. One more call came after that, but the vibration didn’t ring all the way through. This time they didn’t try until the end. Maybe they got it out of their system with that round of cursing. Taein left his phone on the floor and got lost in thought.
I shouldn’t have answered.
Ah.
It was sufficiently predictable that the man who just called was Gu Wanjae’s father, that an Omega named Yeojun had taken the money, and that this Yeojun person was in that kind of relationship with Gu Wanjae’s father.
“Haah…”
Taein sighed and held his head.
After a while, he heard the sound of entering a password and the front door opened. Gu Wanjae, whose face had turned bright red, came this way saying “Ah, fuck” as if he had seen something disgusting. Taein pretended not to have answered the phone and spoke to Gu Wanjae.
“Hey, it’s cold – did you go out like that?”
“……”
Gu Wanjae didn’t respond and checked his phone first. It seemed like he was trying to do something on his own.
“……”
Then, seeing something, Gu Wanjae suddenly turned his head toward Taein.
“You bastard, did you answer the phone?”
The “this bastard” that Gu Wanjae pointed to had a record of a phone conversation. Tapping a number that wasn’t saved with his finger, Gu Wanjae demanded an answer from Taein. Taein looked at Gu Wanjae like that and answered as if nothing had happened.
“Ah, I did answer but it hung up right away. I barely heard the voice.”
“Bullshit. He’s not the type to do that.”
“Well… who was it?”
“You’re using honorifics when you don’t even know who it is? I called him a bastard.”
“…Ah.”
Taein could see Gu Wanjae lowering his chin and testing him. There was nothing to test. Everything was already exposed. Taein just opened his mouth in an “uh” shape, hesitating about what to say. It was an issue Gu Wanjae hadn’t explained in detail. He had only cursed about his father or parents collectively, never acted like he needed to know what had happened or like it was okay to know. Just when Taein was trying to soften what he had heard as much as possible, Gu Wanjae opened his mouth first with something like a bitter laugh.
“It’s not like I spent your money.”
“Yeah, I know.”
What came next seemed uncomfortable to say. He opened his mouth to say something, then just said “Haah” and licked his lips with his tongue.
“…That, fuck…”
“You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to.”
“…There’s this bastard called Gu Jongyeol who’s fucking around with my mom.”
That seemed to be how he described his father. Taein managed his expression as much as possible.
“That bastard’s lover seems to have taken your money. There’s this bastard called Lee Yeojun, three years older than us.”
He spoke with great difficulty. Many words were added as if he couldn’t bear to put words like dad or father in his mouth. Plus Lee Yeojun? It seemed like he was talking about the person named Yeojun he had heard earlier. Taein nodded after understanding everything one by one. He also raised his hand and patted Gu Wanjae’s shoulder.
“Hey, it’s okay. That was management fees anyway.”
“What management fees. I was going to bundle it up nicely and give it back to you later.”
“Give what back. I have no intention of receiving it.”
“I have no intention of receiving it either?”
“Then what… what am I supposed to do?”
“Stop talking nonsense and take it when I give it to you. I’ll fill all that back up next month.”
“You don’t have to…”
Worried that Gu Wanjae might cause trouble for those two people and that something big might happen, Taein trailed off as if to say don’t do that. Gu Wanjae was burning with fighting spirit in front of him.
“These fucking bastards. I’ll beat the shit out of them someday.”
“Hey… first take a breath.”
“What breath?”
“Something like diaphragmatic breathing.”
Taein, mobilizing all the knowledge he had, brought his hand to Gu Wanjae’s stomach.
“……”
“Try inhaling.”
“……”
Gu Wanjae looked briefly at Taein’s hand touching his stomach, then raised his head. His eyes asked what he was doing.
“First your anger needs to calm down before you can do anything.”
“……”
“Have some good thoughts and… try breathing with your stomach.”
“…What is this?”
“Diaphragmatic breathing.”
He didn’t know well but said it anyway. Taein only knew that you had to breathe with your stomach – nothing else. He just put his hand on Gu Wanjae’s stomach and told him to put air into his stomach.
“…My chest is rising.”
“Yeah, not your chest. With your stomach.”
“Do you know how to do it?”
“Well, I…”
“Try it.”
As if to say how could you do what I can’t do either. Gu Wanjae looked at him with disbelieving eyes and put his hand on Taein’s stomach. Taein frowned at the suddenly cold hand touching him, but quickly regained his composure and tried to put air into his stomach as much as possible. He pushed Gu Wanjae’s hand out with his stomach by exerting force until his stomach hurt.
Then Gu Wanjae said with interest, “Oh, it’s sticking out a bit.”
“I told you I know how to do it.”
“Your chest seems to be coming out too.”
“Hey, look properly. It’s not.”
Taein straightened his upper body and inflated only his stomach as much as possible. His chest came out a little too, but not as much as Gu Wanjae’s. Gu Wanjae’s hand was still touching his stomach.
This is why amateur scammers are scary.
He found it amazing that he was talking as if he knew everything when he knew almost nothing.
Taein continued to talk about diaphragmatic breathing as if he had been doing it all along. If only your stomach comes out like this, you’ve completely learned how to do diaphragmatic breathing. Gu Wanjae didn’t know that he was taking small breaths in between and only sticking out his stomach. He just kept his hand on Taein’s stomach and said “Oh, it’s really coming out.” Before he knew it, his anger had subsided and only a curious expression remained on his face.
Whether it was a scam or whatever.
Seeing Gu Wanjae’s face like that was better anyway, so Taein continued the scam.
* * *
December 31st. Gu Wanjae’s birthday. Taein, who had bought a gift at the last minute the day before, spent over 300,000 won just on that. It was because he didn’t research well beforehand and didn’t know perfume would be so expensive. What kind of perfume costs nearly 200,000 won? He had originally planned to buy a jumper too, but his budget was exceeded so he had to hurriedly turn his attention to a padding vest. It was a trendy style these days, but would Gu Wanjae wear it…? Even while worrying about that, he finished the payment thinking he’d wear it at least once.
Gu Wanjae looked at the gifts while saying “This is fucking awesome” repeatedly. He even tried on the padding vest right there. When asked if it was okay, Taein nodded saying “Yeah.” The perfume also seemed to be to his liking. It was strong to Taein’s nose, but it was a scent that suited Gu Wanjae. He sprayed it once and said it had good taste, then sprayed it two more times into the air.
It was around evening.
Gu Wanjae had gone to where his hyungs were during the day, then spent his birthday with Taein in the evening.
They ordered pizza, pasta, chicken, and even braised chicken and had something like a party.
For the cake, they chose one from the six cakes Gu Wanjae had received and placed it in the center of the table.
They reached for the delivery food more than the cake, but since it was a birthday, they kept it on the table.
The bell rang on the TV that was turned up loud.
12 o’clock, the sound of the new year dawning.
* * *
How could one describe the two years spent with Gu Wanjae? A lot happened, and we laughed a lot. I got along surprisingly well with someone I thought was incompatible, and time flowed to this point. Third year. Gu Wanjae couldn’t become a third-year student, but age-wise he had turned nineteen. Nineteen. Just one more year and he’d be twenty. It was crazy time. Taein thought the relentlessly flowing time was crazy, but he was also excited. It was amazing how numbers that had only been vague were penetrating through life.
Life was an unpredictable genre. Taein, who had only known the dark side of the world, could suddenly come to look forward to birthdays, or make friends and laugh often. It was something completely unexpected just a few years ago. And this kind of thing was also unpredictable.
As Taein became a third-year student, he frequently went in and out of hospitals. He didn’t really want to go because it was a waste of money, but he often had stomach aches or felt dizzy, so he had no choice but to get hospital medicine. Because he would get medicine for as long as two weeks at a time, he hid most of the medicine at the facility. If Gu Wanjae saw so much medicine, he might be surprised, and it seemed like he might tease him for being sickly.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
