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#Side 2. 5 years later (4)
“Ah…”
Dawoon opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say. Strictly speaking, the documents that came were for Hayun, so it wasn’t his business to be concerned about. But why did it bother him so much?
“If you want to open it, you can.”
As Dawoon couldn’t continue speaking, Hayun approached and took out what was inside the envelope. Dawoon’s eyes wavered as he looked down to see what Hayun was holding out.
There was a picture of a boy who looked about fourteen or fifteen years old. Even though he hadn’t seen him for five years, Dawoon could guess who it was. It was Haram. Only five years had passed, but his face had changed a lot. His face, which had lost its childish features, resembled Hayun in his mid-teens, as Dawoon remembered. That’s how he recognized Haram.
“Is that Haram?”
It was a meaningless question. Anyone could see it was Jeong Haram. He looked surprisingly similar to Hayun, and their late father. Dawoon let out a hollow laugh, thinking that this must be why they say blood doesn’t lie.
“He’s grown a lot.”
While he couldn’t really tell that he himself was aging, why did it seem like children grew up so fast? He slowly checked and flipped through several photos one by one.
“High school?”
The background behind Haram wasn’t clear at first, but as he looked closer, it seemed like a school.
“Choate Rosemary Hall.”
Hayun briefly mentioned the school name. At his answer, Dawoon checked the sender’s address on the envelope again. The sender’s address was listed as New York, but the school Hayun mentioned was one Dawoon had heard of before. It was a famous private boarding school located in Wallingford, Connecticut, northeast of New York.
The reason Dawoon knew the name of this school, even vaguely, was because when he was young, he often heard his grandfather nagging Hayun to go to that school. Back then, he was too young to know where the school was located.
‘I don’t want to. There are plenty of good schools in Korea.’
Hayun stubbornly refused, and eventually went to a famous private school in Seoul.
‘If it’s a good school, why don’t you go?’
Everyone said it was a good place, so Dawoon was curious why Hayun wouldn’t go.
‘If I go there, I won’t be able to see our Dawoon often. Would you like it if hyung went, Dawoon?’
At the mention of not being able to see each other often, Dawoon had clung tightly to Hayun’s clothes, his eyes brimming with tears as if he might burst into tears at any moment. He remembered saying he didn’t want them to be apart, so Hayun shouldn’t go.
Recalling that memory now made his face flush hot. Although he was still in the lower grades of elementary school then, he felt embarrassed by how attached he had been to Hayun. It seemed even more intense than Haram’s attachment to him.
When he got a bit older, around the time he was going to high school, he suddenly remembered the school name and looked it up. It was described as a place where not only domestic but also international wealthy families sent their children, good for building connections in that circle.
He belatedly understood why his grandfather had wanted to send Hayun there. While he failed to send Hayun, it seemed he had finally managed to send Haram to that school as he wished.
“Isn’t he still too young for high school?”
Haram was now fifteen. His Korean age was fourteen, so Dawoon thought it might be too early for him to enter high school.
“He skipped a grade.”
Hayun didn’t explain further. That one word was enough to understand. Haram had always been smart, only acting childish in front of Dawoon. As his brother, Dawoon felt proud, but also a bit sad and worried that he was growing up into an adult faster than his age.
He had always felt guilty about leaving him behind…
Fortunately, Haram’s expression in the photos was bright. He seemed to be getting along well with friends and participating in various activities. This lightened Dawoon’s heavy heart a little.
Even after placing the photos on the desk, he couldn’t take his eyes off them. As he traced the outline of Haram’s face in the photo with his finger, he felt a pang in his chest. He had deliberately tried not to think about it all this time. He had tried to focus only on the tasks at hand and not consider anyone other than Hayun. Only by burying it deep in his heart and thoroughly ignoring it could his relationship with Hayun remain undisturbed.
He hadn’t expected to suddenly see Haram’s photos like this. This unexpected attack caused all the emotions he had forcibly suppressed to burst out at once, disrupting his inner peace.
Would Haram have cried, saying he missed him? Would he have hated him a lot for leaving without a proper goodbye?
Even when he ran away from Hayun, he couldn’t ignore Haram completely, so he bought and sent postcards from everywhere he went. However, after coming to London, he stopped doing even that. He thought that even the smallest connection would make things harder for both of them.
And so, five years had passed. For Dawoon, it was only five years, but seeing how much the child had grown, it seemed it wasn’t such a short time after all.
“He looks like you.”
As Dawoon muttered without taking his eyes off the photo, Hayun approached and covered Dawoon’s eyes with his hand.
“That’s enough. I’m starting to get jealous.”
What kind of jealousy was he talking about, being jealous of Haram? Dawoon let out a hollow laugh at the absurdity and pulled Hayun’s hand away from his eyes.
“How can you be jealous of a child?”
“You said he looks like me. I think he does too.”
It was an absurd complaint. Although their appearances were indeed similar, Dawoon had never superimposed Hayun’s image onto Haram.
“Are Haram and hyung the same to you?”
Dawoon was about to tell him to stop talking nonsense, but Hayun looked at him intently. He didn’t seem to have any intention of letting this go.
“How are they different?”
Dawoon almost let out a sigh at the follow-up question.
“What’s different about Haram and me to you?”
When Dawoon didn’t answer immediately, Hayun asked again. At times like this, Jeong Hayun’s persistence was tiring. It was also irritating how he tried to get verbal confirmation for things he already knew.
“Haram is my younger brother.”
“I’m your hyung too, you say.”
“That’s…!”
Dawoon opened his mouth in agitation but couldn’t speak when their eyes met. Although he still called Hayun “hyung,” it was just a title he couldn’t change because he had used it since childhood. At this point, he couldn’t imagine calling Hayun by his name or using a nickname.
“Jeong Dawoon.”
“Who’s the one stubbornly refusing to let me change the family register?”
When Dawoon retorted that Hayun was still legally his brother, Hayun just stared at him with cold eyes. His expressionless face seemed to say that wasn’t what he meant.
What was the point of arguing uselessly?
Dawoon took a deep breath and stepped closer to Hayun. He put one arm around Hayun’s neck and pulled him closer, and Hayun naturally leaned his upper body slightly. Dawoon tilted his head and pressed his lips against Hayun’s. When he licked Hayun’s lips like a cat, Hayun opened his mouth as if he had been waiting for this and entangled Dawoon’s tongue with his own.
After a brief kiss, Dawoon separated their lips but maintained a distance where barely a sheet of paper could pass between them.
“I don’t do this with Haram.”
“Only with Haram?”
What kind of answer was he looking for? While Dawoon was pondering this strange question, Hayun’s arms wrapped around his waist. The pull was so strong that their lower bodies pressed against each other.
Ah, to think he can get it up again after what we did last night, he’s really not human.
As Dawoon swallowed a sigh, Hayun buried his lips in Dawoon’s neck. The feeling of his skin being sucked made Dawoon’s body tremble.
It seemed that Dawoon himself wasn’t normal either, reacting again to just this much stimulation after what they had done the night before.
“Not just Haram, but with anyone else.”
The low, growling voice sounded distant due to the hand that had slipped inside Dawoon’s shirt, caressing his back.
Hayun’s fingers grabbed the waistband of Dawoon’s sweatpants, trying to pull them down. If they really went further, it felt like they would have to spend another day in bed.
“Okay, I get it. I get it.”
Coming to his senses, Dawoon firmly pushed Hayun’s chest with both hands, separating him from himself.
“You said we were going out for lunch.”
After creating some distance between them and making it clear that he had no intention of continuing, Hayun seemed to understand and raised both hands with a smile.
“I’m going to New York next week. Want to come with me?”
As Dawoon turned around after fixing his disheveled clothes, Hayun asked.
“New York?”
“A business trip to the New York branch.”
“Ah…”
For a moment, Dawoon thought Hayun was suggesting they go to meet Haram, since it wasn’t far from where Haram’s school was located.
“It would be nice if you could do some photography there too.”
While Dawoon wondered why Hayun wanted to bring him along on a business trip, the mention of photography made him consider it.
“I heard the area near Choate Rosemary Hall is nice too.”
At these words, Dawoon looked at Hayun with a stiff expression. Hayun was looking at Dawoon with a nonchalant expression, as if he had just recommended a good shooting location. Dawoon felt that if he reacted sensitively here, it would seem stranger.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Try to consider it positively.”
Seeing him speak like that, it seemed Hayun was determined to bring Dawoon along on the New York business trip.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking.”
When Dawoon expressed his honest thoughts, Hayun chuckled, then approached and pulled the back of Dawoon’s head to rest on his chest, patting him. That was all, with no further words.
New York… Even though he hadn’t decided to go yet, Dawoon’s heart was inexplicably stirred.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
