#053
“Name.”
“……”
“Name!”
The police officer slammed the glass table with a bang.
“Jung Siyoon.”
“Age.”
“Twenty-one.”
The police officer’s hands typing on the keyboard stopped for a moment. He turned his gaze from the computer to look at Jung Siyoon.
“…Twenty-one?”
“Yes.”
“Young thing doesn’t know how scary the world is. What were you doing that at dawn! That’s property… yes, that…”
“Property damage.”
“Right! Property damage and trespassing!”
Jung Siyoon grumbled while arranging her beautifully done nail art.
She said that spraying graffiti on someone else’s wall in broad daylight would obviously get her caught. Just as she was about to give up, she looked around here and there until night fell and the thought occurred to her, and since her accommodation was nearby, she did it for fun.
“Then why did you come during the day again!? Do criminals return to the scene of the crime? Did you come to follow that theory?”
“I was going to take a selfie and post it on StarStar.”
“……”
The police officer was flustered by this novel reason for crime and blinked like a fish opening and closing its mouth.
She was confident. That she would get away with doing something like this. After all, wasn’t she a celebrity? Since they were in a profession that was visible to the public, they had to be careful about everything they did.
She was certain that they wouldn’t report her for such a trivial matter.
That’s why she was rather relaxed and anticipated that actually meeting these three people – Kang Dojun, Shin Gihyeon, and Lee Yeonwoo – whom she had only encountered on TV, would be an unforgettable experience.
When would she get to see these three people with her own eyes? Yesterday while spray painting, there was a moment when she heard some presence and hid her body.
Since they came out of Yeonwoo’s house, she guessed one was Yeonwoo, but the other one was too dark to distinguish.
Thinking that the other one was either Kang Dojun or Shin Gihyeon, she only felt regret that she should have taken a photo, but wasn’t scared at all about the current situation.
‘Should I take a photo?’
To this shameless woman having such pathetic thoughts, Yeonwoo flew like a bee and stung like a bee.
“Why are you sitting there so relaxed? You won’t even apologize for doing wrong.”
“Agh! Why are you hitting me? Can a public figure do this?”
Jung Siyoon glared with sharp eyes at the person who had struck the back of her head. He didn’t budge.
If there was a calculation error here, it was that Kang Dojun and Shin Gihyeon were veterans who had experienced this kind of thing countless times, and if anything, their agency could step in to take legal responsibility for celebrity protection.
And lastly, Yeonwoo – though he was currently popular from the variety show, was ultimately just a regular person. Since he wasn’t going to live as a celebrity, things like image weren’t a problem at all.
It meant he had nothing to be careful about.
“Public figure my ass. Do you have some money?”
“…Money?”
“Are you some rich family’s daughter or do you have money saved up?”
“Neither.”
Yeonwoo slammed the mountain of documents he had brought onto the table with a bang. Though they were just sheets of paper, being in a police station, their effect felt significant.
Jung Siyoon swallowed nervously at an inexplicable fear.
“But why did you do it? Officer, don’t go easy on her just because she’s young. Please file all possible reports and make her pay all possible fines. If there are any missing documents, I’ll come get them.”
“Uh… yeah.”
“Oh right, that Ber guy from before? I was too flustered then so I just let it go, but can I still report or sue him?”
“Yeah yeah. You can.”
Only after hearing the police officer’s confirmation did Yeonwoo look relieved. Indeed, for mental treatment, money was perfect, not medicine.
“W-wait a minute. Are you really going to report me? Just for drawing one graffiti on a wall?”
“Yeah, I’m going to. What if it had been a knife instead of spray paint in the middle of the night?”
Jung Siyoon realized the situation was going strangely and worried he might really report her, so she jumped up from her seat and grabbed Yeonwoo’s arm, clinging to him. He shook her off coldly as if annoyed.
“It was spray paint! I… I’m only twenty-one!”
“So what? Should I tell you my age too?”
She begged desperately, confessing her wrongdoing.
“P-please forgive me just once. I’ll never do it again.”
“Just once? Do you think this is a game where you can try again? Life doesn’t have that kind of thing. It’s real. Didn’t you learn that in school? Your graduation was wasted.”
“I’m still learning in college. Please, just forgive me this once.”
“…What major?”
“V-visual design.”
A little hope appeared in Jung Siyoon’s eyes. However, Yeonwoo mercilessly shattered even that hope.
“Then you should learn visual design. Life lessons are learned in elementary, middle, and high school and you graduate from them.”
“……”
Jung Siyoon thought she couldn’t communicate with Yeonwoo and looked at the police with desperate eyes. They were writing documents on the computer and didn’t even glance at her.
In that case…
“…The coffee tastes good.”
“Y-yes, coffee is definitely instant coffee!”
Kang Dojun and Shin Gihyeon awkwardly filmed a coffee commercial and didn’t get involved.
‘They were watching until just now! Can celebrities do this?’
They weren’t looking at Jung Siyoon but watching Yeonwoo relentlessly push her, responding with ‘Right, what’s with spray paint in the middle of the night? That’s right, well done.’
“Siyoon-ah.”
Suddenly Yeonwoo changed to a gentle tone and called her name.
Jung Siyoon turned her head toward him with a joyful expression.
‘He was just trying to scare me after all…!’
“If you don’t have money, want to board a deep-sea fishing vessel? Or take out a loan.”
* * *
After the incident was settled, Yeonwoo clenched his fist and said determinedly.
“Officer, I’m definitely going to sue that Ber bastard too, so keep that in mind.”
“Why are you telling me that? You should go tell that Ber bastard!”
“But when I looked up Ber, he deleted all his videos?”
“What!?”
At Shin Gihyeon’s words, Yeonwoo’s eyes flipped. Damn, he should have reported it right when it happened, but back then it was his first time experiencing such a situation and he was too unfamiliar to respond properly.
What to do, what to do. While he was worrying, Kang Dojun gently consoled him.
“I recorded the video and captured all the comments too.”
“Really!?”
“Yeah. I’ll send them all to you.”
Even when Kang Dojun first suggested suing, Yeonwoo had said, “I’ll just think of it as stepping in poop and move on.”
Back then, just thinking about that incident must have been painful.
Someone said they would plant an apple tree even if the world ended tomorrow. Kang Dojun wanted to widely publicize Ber’s evil deeds even if the world ended tomorrow.
That’s why he learned how to record by searching for functions he didn’t even know well. Hoping that someday this apple would reach the future Yeonwoo.
And now was exactly that day he had been waiting for.
He couldn’t hide his joy. There was no longer a Yeonwoo who would just cower in confusion when people approached him. He would bark and sometimes even bite.
He had grown even more. No, he had returned to his former self. Whether it was the effect of the hospital or something he realized himself, either way it was a good thing.
And to the person he liked, he still stuck out his tongue and rolled over showing his belly.
“Hyung!”
Yeonwoo was so moved that he hugged Kang Dojun. For a moment, he stopped breathing. He worried his heartbeat might be heard. Unfortunately, his heart continued to beat rapidly.
When Kang Dojun couldn’t do anything and just stuttered, Shin Gihyeon, who couldn’t watch anymore, stepped in.
“Stop that and let’s go quickly. Even if we go to Seoul now, it’ll be evening.”
“Uh…”
After Yeonwoo let go of Kang Dojun, he hesitated and delayed. He mumbled his lips, hesitating to speak.
“Yeonseok-ah, the actors are saying to hurry up and go!”
The police officer who came out to see them off pushed Yeonwoo’s back, but he didn’t budge. Kang Dojun, sensing something strange, looked at him.
“What’s wrong?”
Yeonwoo hemmed and hawed, then glanced up at Kang Dojun apologetically before speaking.
“I don’t think I can go.”
“What?”
“I don’t know when something like this might happen again, and everyone’s elderly so they’re weak, Cheolsu only comes on weekends, so I think I need to stay.”
Kang Dojun blinked. He hadn’t expected this kind of farewell.
“I’m sorry you came to pick me up.”
“…There’s luggage I left in Seoul anyway, so to get it…”
“Ah, by delivery…”
“What delivery? Stop talking nonsense and hurry up and go!”
The police officer scolded while giving Yeonwoo a light knock on the head.
“Where do you get off doing police work! Don’t encroach on my authority! That’s infringement, infringement.”
“But…”
“But nothing! We’ll strengthen patrols and if you’re here, more people will gather! You staying in Seoul until this is resolved is helping!”
Yeonwoo’s gentle eyes filled with tears. His nose turned bright red and he stuck out his lower lip. He stretched his arms straight toward the police officer.
“Officer-ssi.”
The police officer embraced him and patted his head.
“Oh, you little cutie. Right, shall I give you a bottle of Bacchus?”
“Isn’t it expired?”
“You really only pick things that deserve a beating…? Huh?”
“…It’s time to go.”
Kang Dojun unconsciously pulled Yeonwoo out of the police officer’s embrace. The excuse he blurted out afterward was pathetic even to himself.
“Ah right. If you go to Seoul it’ll be dawn.”
The police officer agreed, comparing late evening to dawn. Unlike Seoul, nights in the countryside fell early, so it wasn’t entirely wrong.
“Yeonwoo-ya, let’s go.”
“Right, let’s go quickly. Sunbae-nim, I’ll drive. You must be tired, so please rest.”
“We can take turns.”
Yeonwoo stared blankly at the two of them. Lately it seemed like Kang Dojun was avoiding him, but maybe that was all just his imagination.
He still woke up with a start even in his sleep when he heard someone calling his name.
Could it be that in the cold, dark room where he had found peace, grandmother had come? Was it a voice congratulating him on graduation? If his bed was even slightly uncomfortable, it would rise up like a nightmare, unforgotten.
After his biological grandmother passed away, Yeonwoo had lost his place to go and was anxious.
He settled in the countryside that warmly welcomed him after going through deep-sea fishing vessels and the military. It was a neighborhood with many kind people like grandmother, and he could open his heart without difficulty.
It was a peaceful, even boring rural village. However, he felt a sense of belonging in the repetitive daily life of doing their respective work and greeting the neighborhood residents as they came and went.
He never doubted he would stay here for life. Well, he had nowhere else to go and thought this was the only place that would accept him.
Even the daily life of playing pranks and being pranked was always enjoyable because he thought they had opened their hearts to each other.
However, without knowing it, he had gained one more place to stay. It was a place where a chair was always prepared for him to sit.
Kang Dojun and Shin Gihyeon called him.
“Let’s go now.”
“Come quickly. At this rate we’ll really arrive at dawn.”
Yeonwoo smiled prettily, his eyes crinkling.
“Okay.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
