#107
Gyo-ha also suffered from Korea’s half-open mindset. What was that “line” all about… As punishment for returning to Korea early, Gyo-ha had to listen to Jung-hye telling him to go on blind dates every time they met.
Saying he would handle it himself when the time came with someone he liked was completely useless. Why was Korean society so serious about creating a normal family… Gyo-ha thought this would be a social phenomenon worth writing about in a graduate thesis.
“Don’t you have anything to talk to me about besides drugs or marriage, Noona?”
“Then what else should I talk to you about here?”
“You want to marry off your beloved brother that badly?”
“Why do you think I love you? ‘Younger brother’ is just an abbreviated term for a mortal enemy from a past life who happened to be born in the same era.”
“Lee Sung-ha is your younger brother too. Tell him to go on blind dates.”
“I can’t ruin another woman’s life to that extent.”
“What about my life? Is it okay to ruin my life?”
“Your life can’t get any more ruined than it already is.”
Gyo-ha pulled at his hair in frustration because of his sister with whom logical conversation was impossible. Lee Sung-ha, that useless jerk! Why didn’t his older brother get married and save him from this ordeal?
“I heard you’re taking a week of unpaid leave to play around? Take this opportunity to go on some blind dates. It’s hard to set aside time separately.”
“I told you I’m taking time off because of personal circumstances.”
“Fine. I heard everything from Marcia. The person you’re seeing is a man, right?”
“…”
“I knew from the time you went to America. That you’d come back doing something—whether drugs or homosexuality.”
“Those damn drugs, really…”
“Homosexuality? Well, that won’t make the front page of the social section. It’s not a crime. But Gyo-ha.”
“What?”
“Still get married. You can have a wife and a boyfriend separately.”
“…Have you been doing drugs, Noona?”
To others, Jung-hye might seem like a tiger, but to Gyo-ha, she wasn’t normal either. Sometimes Jung-hye seemed more extreme than Sung-ha.
What did she mean by being able to have a boyfriend and a wife separately? For some reason, she seemed to have taken seriously the nonsense some ordinary women who liked her had said about how you could have a girlfriend separate from your husband.
“You can’t marry a man in Korea anyway. If your boyfriend knows your background, he’ll understand if you get married.”
“I’m telling you I’m going to marry that person! I don’t want to have a wife and a boyfriend separately.”
“Then what are you going to do? Even if you get papers in America, you can’t register it in the family registry.”
“Marriage isn’t only about registering in the family registry.”
“Isn’t it? In Korea, you need to be able to register in the family registry for it to be a marriage.”
“Hah…”
“Listen, no matter how much the world has improved, don’t forget that Korea is still conservative.”
“I’ll adopt that person if I have to, just to get them in my family registry.”
“Nonsense.”
To think that avoiding forced marriage was harder than saving lives. Gyo-ha wanted to flee to America with Hwi-kyung right away. He was only twenty-nine physically, and couldn’t believe he was being told to go on blind dates.
Jung-hye held the escaping Gyo-ha and presented several candidates. The second daughter of Construction Company A, the eldest daughter of Foundation B, the youngest daughter of Group C. The women Jung-hye presented varied in terms of conditions and age. To think there were so many chaebol daughters around his age… Gyo-ha felt the corruption of Korean business circles with his whole body.
“Father has high expectations since you’ve completely returned to Korea this time.”
“I keep telling you I’m not interested in management rights. And I’m on a leave of absence from school, so I’ll be going back.”
“For someone who says that, you’re doing well with the entertainment business. You’ve successfully completed ‘Number One on Trot’ this time too.”
That was because I used my regression advantage… Gyo-ha felt a bit sad. Though he would be successful in business if he got lucky, he didn’t particularly enjoy working.
But if he stayed in Korea like this, he’d end up going on blind dates and working. Yet he couldn’t just take Hwi-kyung and flee to America, as the big task of Kim Tae-pung’s concert still remained.
He couldn’t pressure Kim Tae-pung to hold a concert within days either. Gyo-ha fell into deep thought, holding his head.
“Behave yourself. At this rate, Lee Sung-ha will come looking for you.”
“Why would he come looking for me? I haven’t done anything yet.”
“With his personality, do you think he’d be happy that you’ve returned to Korea? Plus, while he’s struggling, you’re doing well.”
What if he’s not happy about it? Gyo-ha now felt bad just thinking about Sung-ha. The interest Sung-ha had shown in Hwi-kyung still bothered him no matter how many times he thought about it.
They say siblings have similar tastes even when they don’t appear to, and that seemed true.
Just as Gyo-ha got excited when Hwi-kyung scolded him, Sung-ha must also enjoy being beaten by Hwi-kyung.
Isn’t there a saying that when I do it, it’s romantic, but when others do it, it’s disgusting? Gyo-ha didn’t like even the slightest interest Sung-ha showed in Hwi-kyung. It felt even more annoying because Hwi-kyung had given Sung-ha a chance or two just because he resembled Gyo-ha.
“It’s a miracle he’s stayed quiet until now. If you leave him alone, he’ll trespass into your studio apartment soon.”
Gyo-ha reflexively stood up at the word “trespass.” Come to think of it, in the iteration before last, it was around this time that Hwi-kyung had punched Sung-ha’s nose.
Now the forced blind date was no longer such an important issue. The scattered information about potential marriage partners no longer registered with him.
“Hey! At least set a date for the blind date before you go!”
“Those damn blind dates! You go in my place, Noona!”
“I’m already married!”
An important event was coming soon. He had to prevent Sung-ha from trespassing into the studio apartment and getting beaten by Hwi-kyung.
Removing the system window only to have his own brother as a rival? Even Gyo-ha didn’t want that. One strange entity circling around Jung Hwi-kyung was enough.
* * *
With just one day of unpaid leave remaining, Hwi-kyung was finally able to return to the studio apartment. Though Ok-ja’s private hospital room that Gyo-ha had arranged was comfortable enough to have an attached shower room, the hospital was still not a good place for a long stay.
Without the hospital’s accommodations, it would have been difficult to stay with Ok-ja for long. The temporary bed was just that—temporary, no matter how soft—and the patient bed was hard, being designed differently from a home mattress.
Even for Hwi-kyung, who had experienced much hardship, voluntarily acting as a caregiver and staying in the hospital for a long time was arduous. If it was this uncomfortable for a young person like himself, how uncomfortable must the hospital bed be for his grandmother? Even in the midst of it all, Jung Hwi-kyung, a filial grandson rare these days, worried about his grandmother.
The problem was that he was distracted by his phone, searching online shopping malls with plans to gift a warm water bed when Ok-ja was discharged from the hospital. Only after taking off his outer clothes did Hwi-kyung notice that there was someone else in the house besides him.
“What’s this?”
It was a familiar confrontational tone. There was no need to guess who it was. He could immediately see shoes stepping on the white carpet. Who would step on a carpet with shoes on when there were perfectly good home slippers available? Among the people Hwi-kyung knew, there was only one such person.
“Are you Lee Gyo-ha’s lover?”
“…”
“So you really are a man?”
It was about time for Lee Sung-ha to go crazy since Gyo-ha had returned to Korea without warning. However, Hwi-kyung, who had completely forgotten about him, was taken aback by this intrusion.
Sung-ha strode toward Hwi-kyung, unconcerned about dirtying the floor. His attitude was still rude as he reached out, grabbed Hwi-kyung’s chin, and examined him from various angles. Hwi-kyung reflexively knocked away Sung-ha’s hand that was holding him.
“You’ve got quite a temper, more than I expected.”
“…”
“Why aren’t you saying anything? Say something.”
Despite his hand turning red from being hit squarely on the palm, Sung-ha kept poking at Hwi-kyung. He was like a large dog still approaching a cat that had just hit him. Though the touch on his shoulder was unpleasant, Hwi-kyung didn’t respond immediately as he was considering how to handle the situation.
If he made a mistake here, he wouldn’t be able to move forward. Unlike before, when it didn’t matter if he failed since he could just move on to the next iteration, now he had to be careful with all his actions.
So breaking Sung-ha’s nose outright wouldn’t be a good decision. Even if deep down he thought “hasn’t this guy been hit enough?”, he needed to avoid anything that might get him summoned to court.
“Hey, why aren’t you talking?”
Sung-ha’s index finger lightly pushed Hwi-kyung’s forehead. Hwi-kyung mentally drew the character for “patience” about a hundred times. Don’t hit people carelessly! Now you can’t move to a seventeenth iteration if you break your superior’s nose!
But life doesn’t always go as planned. After dwelling on patience for a while, Hwi-kyung couldn’t hold back and opened his mouth.
“Would you take off your shoes?”
“What?”
“You’re dirtying the carpet. Are you going to pay for the cleaning?”
He could tolerate everything else, but this was absolutely unbearable. Lee Gyo-ha was the one who lived in America, so why was Lee Sung-ha walking on the carpet with his shoes on?
Before Hwi-kyung could strike Sung-ha again to avenge the white carpet, the sound of the front door opening was heard.
Gyo-ha, who had hurriedly returned to the studio apartment, just held his forehead. He had prayed they wouldn’t meet… but Sung-ha and Hwi-kyung were already facing off.
Gyo-ha approached the two standing close together. Though it was obvious to anyone that Sung-ha was one-sidedly picking a fight with Hwi-kyung, the gap between Sung-ha and Hwi-kyung was too narrow because Hwi-kyung had stood his ground instead of avoiding him.
Gyo-ha grabbed Hwi-kyung from behind in a hug, isolating him from Sung-ha. No broken nose this time! If this jerk gets hit in the face again, he’ll end up being attracted to you!
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
