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#Side 1. Small Changes in Daily Life (1)
Daily life was more monotonous than expected. About a month after arriving in London, Dawoon had become accustomed to the routine, which wasn’t much different from when he attended university in Korea.
“Dawoon!”
Turning at the feeling of a tap on his shoulder, Dawoon saw Theo, who was taking the same class.
“Why are you bothering Dawoon again? Just leave him alone, Theo.”
Lily, who had come with Theo, scolded him for his meddling. Theo bristled, asking when he had ever done such a thing, but Lily was right – Theo did tend to interfere in others’ affairs. More accurately, he couldn’t leave alone anyone who seemed isolated. Because of this personality, he had approached Dawoon, who had joined the class late and was initially on the outskirts, offering various advice. Now he acted friendly whenever he saw Dawoon.
“People might think you’re interested in Dawoon.”
At Lily’s remark, Theo’s face turned bright red as he vehemently denied it. Dawoon watched their bickering and smiled faintly, shaking his head. Somehow, it reminded him of Na-eun and Ui-hyeon’s relationship.
“I don’t think it’s me Theo’s interested in.”
Both turned to look at Dawoon’s comment. Lily asked who it was then, and how he knew, while Theo couldn’t say anything, his face red to the nape of his neck.
Why couldn’t they just honestly confess if they liked someone, instead of bickering unnecessarily? Ui-hyeon had been the same in his first year of university. He and Na-eun eventually became a couple, but they had bickered quite a bit in the beginning.
“Good luck.”
As Dawoon got up after packing his bag, he patted Theo’s shoulder and spoke. Theo’s eyes widened, asking what he meant. But contrary to his words, even his earlobes were now bright red. The idea that all foreigners were more direct compared to Koreans was clearly a misconception. It ultimately depended on the individual, and Theo, a native Englishman, was someone who, despite his tendency to meddle, was actually poor at honestly conveying his true feelings.
“Oh, wait a moment.”
As Dawoon was about to turn away, leaving the two to sort things out, Theo grabbed his arm.
“I wanted to ask you something. Would you like to try a part-time job?”
“A part-time job?”
It was an unexpected suggestion. Dawoon wondered if he had ever mentioned, even in passing, that he needed money. He was puzzled by the sudden mention of a part-time job.
“Someone I know is looking for a Korean part-time worker. They’ve just opened a Korean-style dessert café.”
A Korean-style dessert café. Dawoon wondered what they would sell. While he couldn’t immediately think of specifics, it did pique his curiosity enough to want to visit if he had time.
“They say the hourly wage is quite good. You don’t have anything else to do after classes, right?”
There were quite a few graduate students who worked while attending classes. Compared to them, Dawoon only attended lectures, so he did have quite a bit of free time.
“Living expenses must not be cheap. Wouldn’t it be good to earn some extra money?”
Theo asked, his eyes sparkling. Quite a few international students took on simple part-time jobs to earn pocket money. Of course, this didn’t apply to Dawoon at all. A part-time job? It was obvious how Hayun would react if he said he wanted to do such a thing. He would ask why Dawoon needed to work part-time when he already had a credit card with no limit. For the same reason, he had never allowed part-time jobs during university either.
“It doesn’t take much time. They say they can adjust to your circumstances as much as possible. What do you think? Don’t you want to do it?”
Theo, unable to imagine that Dawoon was living with the vice chairman of Haedo Group, tried to persuade him, saying there couldn’t be better conditions than this.
“Well…”
A flat refusal didn’t come out. In fact, Dawoon was somewhat drawn to the idea. Not because he needed money, but because he had quite a bit of free time after classes. Even if he returned home early, Hayun wouldn’t be back until evening. Perhaps because Hayun had forcibly made time to spend with him right after coming to London, it seemed he could no longer postpone his accumulated work. At first, he brought work home, but in recent days, his return time had been getting later and later.
Dawoon didn’t mind that Hayun was busy. He was used to it, as Hayun had often worked overtime and gone on business trips in Korea too. However, being alone at home was boring. In Korea, Haram had been at home with him, and he had often been dragged out to watch movies with Ui-hyeon and Na-eun. Now all of that was gone, and sometimes he felt really bored.
“Where is it?”
Seeing Dawoon’s curiosity, Theo’s face brightened.
“It’s nearby. Five minutes from here!”
Thinking Dawoon would agree, Theo’s voice was already full of excitement.
“I’ll think about it.”
Dawoon felt sorry if he had raised Theo’s hopes unnecessarily, but he couldn’t give a definitive answer yet. There was something he needed to resolve first before he could take on a part-time job.
***
Dawoon placed his mobile phone on the living room table and stared at it intently. It was a new phone Hayun had given him when they came to London. Since he only used it for simple internet searches and calls, there were hardly any apps installed. The only one was a video editor app he had recently installed for a class.
Although it wasn’t visible, he felt sure there must be something more.
He was suspicious but couldn’t find anything. If he were skilled with programs or this field, he might be able to find some clues, but he was a complete novice when it came to engineering. No matter how much he searched, he couldn’t find anything strange.
Location tracking program and wiretapping or phone cloning program.
That’s what Dawoon suspected. The phones Hayun always provided usually had a location tracking program installed by default. When directly asked, Hayun didn’t deny it either. He was the kind of person who had even installed CCTV in Dawoon’s room to monitor him. It seemed unlikely that this habit would have disappeared just because they came to London.
He’s quite skilled. How does he make it completely undetectable? No matter how much he searched, Dawoon couldn’t figure out how the program had been installed. He seriously considered showing it to someone in the engineering department, wondering if they might know, but decided against it. The important thing wasn’t whether he could find and delete it. The problem was that Hayun still hadn’t stopped monitoring him.
In Korea, he had suspected the location tracking program but left it alone, thinking it didn’t matter. If anything were to happen, the location tracking program could be helpful. He had considered it a safety measure, as he had nothing to hide.
But was it necessary even in London? In Korea, he had tolerated it because he knew about the power struggles within Haedo Group and feared he might become Hayun’s weakness, but there was no one like that here. The incident with the car rushing at him in the company parking lot was still chilling to think about, but Hayun had personally guaranteed it would never happen again. If he made such a guarantee, it meant he had found a fundamental solution. If so, wouldn’t the location tracking program be unnecessary now?
He needed to remove these programs to consider the part-time job Theo had recommended. If he brought up the part-time job to Hayun, he would surely refuse without even listening. But Dawoon was no longer a child who needed a guardian. He could make such decisions on his own without Hayun’s permission.
Starting the part-time job wouldn’t be a problem, but if the location tracking program was installed, Hayun would find out within days. If he had to quit midway because of that, it would be inconsiderate to the café. If he timed the part-time job well, he could return before Hayun got off work, so it seemed possible to do it without being caught. If only the location tracking program wasn’t installed on his phone…
“What are you doing?”
Dawoon had been so absorbed that he didn’t hear Hayun come in. Hayun entered the living room, hung his suit jacket on the sofa, and sat down opposite Dawoon. He tilted his head curiously after seeing where Dawoon was looking.
“Is your phone broken?”
Seeing Dawoon staring intently at his phone, Hayun seemed to think there was a problem with it.
“No.”
Shaking his head, Dawoon looked at Hayun.
“Do you know where I was today?”
Hayun tilted his head at the sudden question. He seemed puzzled as to why Dawoon was asking such a thing out of the blue.
“Answer me.”
As Dawoon pressed for an answer, Hayun smiled gently and said, “Well…” It wasn’t a ‘no,’ but it felt like he was subtly avoiding the answer.
As I thought.
Dawoon was convinced that there was indeed a location tracking program installed on his phone.
“Why are you suddenly asking that?”
Hayun tried to steer the conversation casually.
“The location tracking program installed here.”
As Dawoon gestured towards the phone with his eyes, Hayun’s gaze followed. His expression didn’t change even at the mention of the location tracking program.
“Remove it. And if there are any wiretapping or cloning programs, those too.”
At this clear demand, Hayun’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“This is sudden.”
It was a reaction that suggested he hadn’t expected Dawoon to make such a request. Dawoon was astounded by his brazenness, but then realized that Hayun probably didn’t even understand why this was a problem. Perhaps his own tacit acceptance had contributed to Hayun considering this normal.
He had let it slide because he thought of Hayun as his brother, not his lover, and considered him his guardian. But not anymore.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
