45.
#Kiss Mark
Feeling strangely uneasy, Dawoon raised his eyes to check Hayun’s face. As their eyes briefly met, Hayun smiled gently as always. Dawoon quickly lowered his gaze again.
“I guess I was being oversensitive. As you know, Grandfather isn’t an ordinary person. I was worried you might be swayed by his wishes.”
“…I know.”
Hayun was just worried about him. That was certain. And here Dawoon was, doing this to such a caring brother.
“I’m sorry.”
The words slipped out unintentionally, and Dawoon could feel Hayun staring at him. Unable to ignore the gaze, he lifted his head to meet it, and Hayun smiled faintly. Hayun’s large hand lightly ruffled Dawoon’s hair before withdrawing. Dawoon could almost hear Hayun’s unspoken “It’s okay.”
Maybe this was enough. Maybe they could just return to normal as if nothing had happened.
The anxiety that had been churning inside him all day yesterday finally seemed to be subsiding. Whatever had happened, Hayun was Dawoon’s only “brother.” Even if something unpleasant had occurred, they could move past it because they were family, brothers. Dawoon thought that’s probably how it worked for everyone.
As Hayun watched Dawoon’s tense face relax, he inwardly suppressed a laugh. He could clearly see what Dawoon was thinking and what he was finding relief in.
Whatever reason Dawoon came up with to convince himself, Hayun had no intention of denying it for now. There was plenty of time. Compared to how long he had already waited, waiting a little longer was nothing.
***
The morning lectures ended exactly at noon. Since Ui-hyeon hadn’t contacted him yet, it seemed his lecture wasn’t over. Usually, Ui-hyeon would come to find him, so today Dawoon decided to go to the Business Administration building to meet him.
“Jeong Dawoon!”
Feeling a pat on his back, Dawoon turned to see Na-eun catching her breath, having apparently run to catch up with him.
“Where are you going?”
“To meet Ui-hyeon.”
“To the Business Administration building? To have lunch together?”
She seemed to assume he would be eating with Ui-hyeon as usual. She was so sure that Dawoon didn’t even need to nod in confirmation.
“Can I join you? My usual friends left for a club meeting today.”
It was hard to refuse when she said she’d be eating alone otherwise. When Dawoon agreed, Na-eun grinned and fell into step beside him.
“The weather is really nice. It feels like spring today. So warm.”
As they sat on a bench near the Business Administration building waiting for Ui-hyeon, Na-eun stretched her arms wide, took a deep breath, and smiled contentedly. She was right; today was exceptionally warm. Just a couple of days ago, it had been unseasonably chilly for March, but today the temperature had suddenly risen. Still, it was the kind of weather perfect for catching a cold, with temperatures dropping again in the morning and evening.
Sitting in the sunlight, Dawoon’s jacket started to feel hot. Since he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt underneath, he took off the jacket, rolled it up roughly, and stuffed it into his bag.
“Uh…”
Na-eun, who had been looking at Dawoon, let out a short groan as if she had noticed something, and furrowed her brow.
“What…?”
“Jeong Dawoon! Kim Na-eun came along too.”
Ui-hyeon approached, having spotted the two. At his choice of words, Na-eun stuck out her tongue at him.
“Am I carp poop or something? Always saying I’m following Dawoon around.”
“When have I ever followed you around! Today was a coincidence!”
“Yeah, right.”
As the two bickered over trivial matters, Ui-hyeon turned his gaze to Dawoon and made an “Oh?” sound.
“What’s that?”
He pointed at Dawoon’s neck. Na-eun, as if suddenly remembering, muttered “Ah, right” and turned her eyes to Dawoon as well. Ui-hyeon and Na-eun’s gazes simultaneously focused on the same spot. It was the area Na-eun had been looking at earlier when she was about to say something.
“What is it?”
“On your neck. It’s all red. Did a mosquito bite you?”
Ui-hyeon pointed directly at the area where Dawoon’s neck met his shoulder. Dawoon raised his hand to touch the spot Ui-hyeon was pointing at, but he couldn’t feel any itchiness or swelling. Usually, when Dawoon got bitten by mosquitoes, the area would swell up more prominently than for others, so it didn’t seem like an insect bite.
“Are there even mosquitoes in March?”
Na-eun dismissed the idea as nonsense.
“Rather than that…”
She started to say something but stopped, frowning.
“What does it look like?”
Curious because he couldn’t see it himself, Dawoon asked. Na-eun took out a small cosmetic case from her bag, opened the lid, and held up the mirror inside. The mirror was small, so Dawoon had trouble locating the spot at first, but eventually found where they were talking about.
There really was a red mark just above where the neckline of his t-shirt would cover. Unlike the round, swollen red marks left by insect bites, this mark was elongated.
“No way…”
Ui-hyeon frowned as he looked, then exchanged glances with Na-eun. When Na-eun nodded, Ui-hyeon let out a groan. Then they both turned to look at Dawoon again. Their conclusion didn’t seem to sit well with either of them, as they both wore serious expressions.
“What? What is it?”
Dawoon couldn’t understand their reactions at all. As he looked back and forth between them with a blank expression, Ui-hyeon let out a small sigh.
“It looks like a kiss mark.”
A kiss mark? Dawoon blinked at the unexpected answer. How could there be such a thing? He was more confused than surprised.
“What did you do yesterday?”
Na-eun asked, narrowing her eyes.
“I drank…”
At the mention of drinking, her eyes narrowed even further.
“With whom?”
Instead of answering, Dawoon looked at Ui-hyeon. Following Dawoon’s gaze, Na-eun turned her head and made a strange sound.
“Was it you?”
“What nonsense are you talking about!”
Ui-hyeon was aghast at Na-eun’s accusation.
“Am I crazy?”
He waved both hands, absolutely denying it, but Na-eun still glared at him with suspicious eyes.
“Choi Yu-na was there when we were drinking yesterday, so why are you accusing me!”
“Why was Yu-na unnie there?”
At the mention of Choi Yu-na’s name, Na-eun became even more agitated.
“Don’t tell me Yu-na unnie did this?”
Na-eun turned to Dawoon and asked. It seemed like all hell would break loose if he said yes. The problem was, he couldn’t say yes or no. He remembered Choi Yu-na joining them, but he truly couldn’t remember anything after that.
Dawoon looked at Ui-hyeon with an expression seeking help. Ui-hyeon shrugged as if to say, “What do you want me to do?”
“Weren’t you with him the whole time?”
Ui-hyeon was the only one Dawoon could ask. At this question, Na-eun whipped her head back to glare at Ui-hyeon.
“I was with him the whole time. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom. Until his brother came and took him away.”
Finding himself being interrogated despite having done nothing wrong, Ui-hyeon defended himself with an aggrieved expression.
“Then it couldn’t have been Yu-na unnie.”
It was an absurd assumption from the start. If the mark on his neck was really a kiss mark, it was even more impossible for Choi Yu-na to have done it. Dawoon quietly swallowed, covering the spot with one hand.
If there was a possibility, it wasn’t Choi Yu-na, but…
As the image of Hayun’s face, acting completely normal this morning, flashed in his mind, Dawoon felt his breath catch.
Wasn’t he trying to act as if nothing had happened? Could it really be that this kiss mark was left by his brother? Why?
“What’s with that expression?”
Ui-hyeon looked at Dawoon with suspicious eyes.
“It’s like you’ve figured something out.”
“Really? Jeong Dawoon, you…!”
Na-eun couldn’t finish her sentence and twisted her face. Soon, tears welled up in her eyes. Ui-hyeon, flustered, demanded to know why she was crying, but she just turned away and rubbed her eyes with her arm.
Unlike Ui-hyeon, who was fidgeting at Na-eun’s reaction, Dawoon kept his mouth shut and stared at the ground. The moment he thought that Hayun might have left the kiss mark, the uneasiness that had barely subsided started again.
I really don’t know. Why is this happening? Is it just a prank? If it’s a prank, isn’t it too malicious? Why would he play such a prank?
Questions piled up haphazardly, but he couldn’t find a single answer to any of them.
“Did I really get a girlfriend without realizing it?”
Ui-hyeon asked with a sigh, looking back and forth between Na-eun and Dawoon. Dawoon took a long, quiet breath and slowly shook his head.
“You didn’t get a girlfriend?”
Na-eun asked, quickly changing her expression. When Dawoon confirmed again that he hadn’t, she smiled broadly, seemingly having forgotten that she was on the verge of tears just moments ago.
“Then that is…?”
Ui-hyeon muttered to himself, then frowned as if a thought had occurred to him.
“Is it possible that one of the women working at your house snuck into your room…?”
At Ui-hyeon’s speculation, Dawoon let out a frustrated sigh and turned his head away. Remembering that Ms. Lim, Haram’s former tutor, had wanted to enter Hayun’s bedroom, he felt even more frustrated because he couldn’t outright deny the possibility of such a thing happening.
“Wow, is there really someone like that? For real?”
Na-eun asked with wide eyes.
“Even if there was, they wouldn’t come into my room with Hayun around.”
At Dawoon’s answer, Na-eun made a fuss, saying that meant there was still a possibility.
Possibility, huh. Which possibility was higher? Dawoon couldn’t help but smile bitterly, unsure whether it was strange that Hayun was the first to come to his mind, or if Hayun was strange for doing something that would make him think this way.
