#089
At Yeonwoo’s words, Kang Dojun blinked his eyes. That sound just now was a roe deer’s sound?
While he was trying to understand the situation, Yeonwoo called him.
“Hyung, ignore the roe deer and come here to eat some royal jelly.”
“Royal jelly?”
Startled by a sound rarely heard in Seoul’s city center, he quickly approached at Yeonwoo’s call.
“Yes, please try some here.”
What he had received last time was powdered royal jelly. However, this time it was truly natural, freshly extracted.
Kang Dojun moved his lips slightly. He wasn’t a picky eater and didn’t have anything he avoided, but for some reason he wasn’t particularly eager to put this in his mouth.
“I gave this to Kkamie and her puppies too.”
“Kkamie and her puppies? The ones that were born last time?”
“Yes. Should we go see them at Grandma Suni’s after this? They grew so much after eating royal jelly.”
Yeonwoo muttered that they would definitely live long lives. He briefly took off his gloves and hung them on his shoulder, then held out the royal jelly on his index finger.
Kang Dojun swallowed his saliva at the reluctance toward this first-time experience.
Royal jelly was known to be good for health and have beneficial effects, but…
Soon, deciding to eat it all at once if he was going to eat it anyway, he put the index finger in his mouth and then let it go.
“How is it?”
A slightly bitter taste lingered in his mouth.
“Yeah… It tastes healthy.”
Yeonwoo laughed at his taste description, muttering “It does taste healthy” in an amused tone, then put on his gloves again to inspect the bee farm.
Since Kang Dojun said he had no schedule for a while, he planned to feed him consistently every day while he was here. Hyung, Kkamie and her puppies… he wanted everyone to live long and healthy lives.
***
After fighting a battle with hornets, the two went to pay their respects at Grandma Suni’s house.
Kang Dojun sat on the wooden floor and listened to Yeonwoo’s explanations.
“This is Kkamie that we saw last time, this is Spotty, that one is Brownie. The one lying over there is Whitey. Easy to remember, right? The other two must have gone for a walk to the field with Grandpa Jongsu.”
“Yeah.”
“This troublemaker comes by without any notice, popping up here and there. Come on, eat some fruit.”
Grandma brought out fruit while scolding Yeonwoo.
“They say no news is good news. I’ll peel it for you.”
Yeonwoo took the fruit knife from Grandma Suni’s hand and picked up a red apple.
“I’ll peel…”
Just as he was about to reach out thinking it would be better if he peeled it himself, thunk, Yeonwoo struck down on the apple with tremendous force using the fruit knife. The knife was buried deep into the apple. Then he looked at it and nodded.
“Knocked out.”
Smack! A wrinkled hand flew toward Yeonwoo’s round back of the head.
“Ow! That hurts. Why are you hitting me?”
Grandma Suni clicked her tongue.
“This is me being gentle. If Kyeong-i had seen that, you would have been hit hard enough to actually faint.”
Yeonwoo stuck out his lips looking aggrieved and quietly focused on peeling the apple. Kang Dojun worried that he might peel his own flesh and flinched.
Contrary to his concerns, he showed the skill of peeling without breaking the skin.
Kang Dojun looked at Yeonwoo with somewhat surprised eyes. When they were in Seoul, he had personally peeled fruit for him like it was precious gold or jade, cutting it into bite-sized pieces.
Looking at it now, it seemed Yeonwoo could do it but had silently accepted Kang Dojun’s care because he liked receiving it.
But both were satisfied. It was good to be cared for and good to take care of someone. Later on, he would become unable to do anything without him, but he rather liked that idea.
“Grandma, but who’s that one? Did someone else have puppies?”
Yeonwoo pointed to a small puppy that was tapping Whitey with its little paws as she lay down, begging to play. Its body was black fur, but only its paws and feet were white as if wearing socks.
“Ah, that one? Don’t know. It’s been coming here to get food for a while now.”
Hmm, as if interested, Yeonwoo called the puppy.
“Socks, come here. Tsk tsk tsk.”
He even clapped after the instantly given name and incomprehensible sound effects. The puppy, as if knowing it was being called, toddled over to Yeonwoo.
“Was it born recently?”
“I don’t know.”
It appeared only at meal times but now seemed to have settled in completely, playing with Kkamie and her puppies. Grandma Suni, who now had one more dog she never wanted, patted the little one that had come up to Yeonwoo and flopped down showing its belly.
“It knows it’s cute… tsk.”
Her tone was gruff, but her words and the touch of her hand patting the puppy’s belly were full of affection.
The puppy, perhaps not liking where it was lying, looked for a comfortable spot and laid its body on Yeonwoo’s foot.
“Socks, I’m going home now. Get up.”
Yeonwoo bent down and gently poked the puppy’s belly with light pressure.
‘There are two puppies.’
Kang Dojun etched that scene in his eyes so he wouldn’t forget it. Soon he turned to Grandma Suni and asked.
“Do many outsiders still come visit these days?”
“Yeah, there are fewer these days?”
“That’s a relief.”
It seemed like the buzz was gradually dying down. Most importantly, many of the village tourists had come to see Yeonwoo, but the fact that he was currently in Seoul played a part.
“Right. Grandma. I’ll be on TV tomorrow evening. For about 10 minutes?”
Yeonwoo said while holding the puppy that had climbed onto his foot.
“It’s mainly focused on Dojun hyung though. Please watch it if you have time.”
Our hyung rolls kimbap well, skips stones well, and is good at art too…
The more Yeonwoo’s praise continued, the lower Kang Dojun’s head went. It was to hide his reddened face.
“I got it, so just eat your apple.”
Grandma Suni pushed an apple into Yeonwoo’s mouth. As his lower lip, which had ointment applied to it, hurt, Yeonwoo swallowed a short groan.
Kang Dojun, who immediately noticed Yeonwoo’s condition, began cutting the apple into bite-sized pieces.
“What’s this troublemaker doing squeezing apple juice again? Just eat it!”
“I’m sorry.”
Despite Grandma Suni’s objections, Kang Dojun had no choice but to cut the apple into pieces before handing it to Yeonwoo.
“Oh my, so stubborn.”
Grandma pinched Kang Dojun’s ear.
It wasn’t a strong grip, but it was the first time his ear had been grabbed by someone other than Yeonwoo. No, Yeonwoo only bit it, so strictly speaking, Grandma Suni was the first to grab his ear with her hand.
Yeonwoo grabbed the paw jelly of the puppy now named Socks and knocked on Grandma Suni’s knee as if knocking.
“Grandma, you’re hurting hyung if you do that.”
“That’s the point.”
What did hyung do wrong to deserve being hurt? All he did was take care of me. While feeling upset about that, from grandma’s perspective it wasn’t wrong behavior either, so he couldn’t just speak up thoughtlessly.
As a result, he didn’t know what to do between the two and chewed his lips. If it had been Kim Haseon or Shin Gihyeon, he would have stopped them immediately, but he unconsciously became weak when it came to elderly people.
Soon, when Grandma Suni let go of the hand pinching his ear, Yeonwoo felt relieved and relaxed his facial muscles.
He couldn’t bear to see Kang Dojun in pain, even though he himself had been hurt by Kang Dojun to the point where his lip was torn and bleeding.
Just with his hand, when his own fingernail had dug in and caused a wound, Kang Dojun immediately treated it and even peeled the fruit himself that Yeonwoo usually begged him to cut, worried that water might get in.
Also, worried that Kang Dojun might get pinched, he hastily ate the apple. After swallowing all the fruit in his mouth, he said to grandma.
“Grandma, we need to go greet other places too, so we’ll get up first.”
“Alright.”
“We’ll take our leave.”
The two got up from where they were sitting. Yeonwoo put the puppy that had been lying on his knee down on the floor and reminded her again.
“You must watch the broadcast tomorrow.”
“It’s not going to bring crowds of people again, is it?”
“Don’t worry. That was filmed in Seoul, so it’s fine.”
After giving their final farewell, the two headed to Uncle Cheolsu’s side dish shop. It was on the way home, and they wanted to greet the uncle and aunt.
Kang Dojun grabbed the arm of Yeonwoo who was walking steadily.
“Does it hurt a lot? Should we go to the hospital?”
“What hospital for something like this?”
He was still worried about the wounded flesh inside his lip. Yeonwoo turned his lower lip inside out to show him for confirmation. This made Kang Dojun even more pale.
It’s really fine… Yeonwoo made a joke to reassure him.
“Then hyung can suck on it later.”
It might have been half serious.
“Me?”
“Yes. Saliva has antibacterial properties too.”
“…Wouldn’t there be more germs?”
Yeonwoo frowned. Just say you understand. Sometimes when he says realistic things like this, there’s no romance. Romance.
‘I need to understand.’
He nodded as if making a big resolution.
Just then, a figure in the distance approached at a frightening speed, filling his vision completely before rushing at Yeonwoo as if to overwhelm him.
Ugh, Yeonwoo made a small groaning sound and stood in front of Kang Dojun. It was a gesture to protect him from the dogs running toward them.
Kang Dojun hugged him and turned his body around. Soon he felt a heavy weight on his back and heard panting sounds.
“Hey hey, get down. You’re heavy for our hyung.”
Just like before, he reached behind Kang Dojun’s back, flailing about, saying he would talk to the dogs again. Despite his gestures trying to stop them somehow, the dogs didn’t understand and rushed at them happily.
“Ah…!”
“Are you okay?”
At the scream he heard, Kang Dojun quickly examined Yeonwoo’s wrist. Blood was coming out, apparently scratched by claws. He frowned, feeling like he was the one hurting.
Yeonwoo sighed and broke free from his embrace.
“Sigh, I’m bleeding several times today. Hyung, can you let me go for a moment?”
As Yeonwoo’s full size was revealed, the dogs got even more excited and rushed at him.
Were these the two that Grandpa Jongsu had taken for a walk?
Since Kkamie was a large dog, all her puppies were quite big too. It was hard to call them puppies now. When they stood on two legs, their front paws reached Yeonwoo’s chest.
“Shh-! No! Sit! Wait!”
Yeonwoo commanded with three short words. Pant pant. The dogs were still in an excited state.
“…Sit!”
Yeonwoo glanced at Kang Dojun.
“No, they usually listen well. They just don’t recognize me because it’s been a while… Ah, really. Don’t get saliva on me.”
He ran away from the dogs that kept licking him. In the end, the safest place was Kang Dojun’s back.
The dogs calmed down their excitement somewhat and, recognizing that Kang Dojun was a stranger, began to explore him instead of attacking.
“Hey, go away. I know you’re happy to see me. Sit, wait, go away. Go away.”
Yeonwoo muttered almost like chanting a spell. Then, as if by chance, the dogs actually turned around and left.
“Hyung, did you see? When I said ‘go away,’ they really went? These are kids who usually listen to me well.”
He was proud that his command finally worked.
“What, the troublemaker came back again?”
But when Grandpa Jongsu appeared leading the dogs, it was revealed that they hadn’t listened to Yeonwoo’s words but had briefly left to find their owner.
Kang Dojun listened to Yeonwoo’s hollow laughter from behind his back.
“Ha, well I never. These little rascals?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
