66.
#I’ll come pick you up
“There’s only Korean melon.”
Ui-hyeon, who was entering with a tray of nicely sliced Korean melon, let out a gasp when he saw Dawoon asleep. Except for when he had collapsed drunk recently, Ui-hyeon had never seen Dawoon sleep. Even in their senior year of high school, when everyone else would nap during lunch break due to lack of sleep, Dawoon would be the only one awake.
For such a guy to fall asleep in someone else’s house, on someone else’s bed…
He put down the melon he was carrying on the desk and approached, waving his hand in front of Dawoon’s face. After confirming he was completely asleep, he carefully pulled at the shirt covering Dawoon’s neck to check inside. He had only glanced earlier, but looking again, it was indeed serious.
He really did a number on him.
Even though it wasn’t his business, Ui-hyeon felt like cursing. Is this what they call teaching how to relieve urges? Even if it was excessive meddling from an older brother with a big age gap, this didn’t seem right. No matter how much he thought about it, the marks on Dawoon’s neck weren’t from Hayun helping Dawoon relieve his urges, but Hayun satisfying his own.
There must have been more than what Dawoon had told him. But Ui-hyeon was too scared to imagine or to press Dawoon to tell the truth.
His suspicions hadn’t been wrong after all. He had been right to feel that Hayun’s gaze towards Na-eun wasn’t kind. Back then, he had tried to ignore it, thinking he was just having unnecessary thoughts…
What kind of brother looks at his sibling with such intense eyes? If a stranger had seen it, they would have thought he was guarding against someone trying to steal his lover.
It was something he had thought about before but never dared to ask Dawoon.
Is it really like that? Is that the kind of emotion Hayun harbors for you?
Even in this situation, he couldn’t bring himself to ask. Although they had different mothers, Dawoon and Hayun were blood-related brothers. While being of the same gender wasn’t a big issue in this day and age, being brothers was a serious problem.
Perhaps the time Dawoon had silently downed alcohol was also because of Hayun. Thinking about it now, it was strange that Dawoon had suggested drinking first, and he had started with “Your brother…” but then changed the subject saying it was nothing. Maybe what he wanted to say then was about Hayun. If it was about this, it was understandable why it would be difficult to bring up.
“What are you going to do?”
He wanted to persuade Dawoon to run away even now. But there were too many practical issues. Dawoon had just become an adult and was still financially dependent on Hayun for everything. Other chaebol children usually have their own savings and stocks, but does Dawoon have none of that? He couldn’t tell since Dawoon never showed any signs of it.
Above all, Dawoon wasn’t trying to leave that place because of Haram. It was unsettling that Haram had become Dawoon’s shackle, but it wasn’t easy to tell him to ignore a seven-year-old child and leave.
Even as an outsider, Ui-hyeon couldn’t think of a good solution. At times like this, the absence of Dawoon’s parents was deeply felt. If his parents were alive, things wouldn’t have come to this…
Although he felt sorry for Dawoon and his heart ached, Ui-hyeon had no way to help. He too was still powerless.
As he looked down at the sleeping Dawoon, he couldn’t help but sigh. Jeong Hayun, the heir to the Haedo Group, was like an insurmountable wall for someone like him to deal with.
Bzzt. Bzzt.
A vibration sound repeated. Looking for the source, he found Dawoon’s phone buzzing on the side.
Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this…
After glancing at Dawoon’s sleeping face once more and hesitating, he picked up the phone to check the caller. Seeing Haram’s name instead of who he was thinking of, he let out a sigh of relief. After pondering what to do, he decided he should at least let them know that Dawoon had fallen asleep here, so he pressed the answer button.
“Hello?”
[……]
“Is this Haram? This is Ui-hyeon hyung. Dawoon hyung’s friend.”
Thinking the child might be scared because it wasn’t Dawoon’s voice, he added an explanation.
[Dawoon?]
The soft voice that came back almost made him drop the phone. It wasn’t Haram, but Hayun’s voice. Even though he hadn’t done anything wrong, his heart started racing, and he pulled the phone away from his face, stroking his chest with his other hand.
It seemed like the phone had been ringing several times since dinner, but Dawoon hadn’t even checked who it was and kept ignoring it. He must have guessed it was Hayun and avoided it. I shouldn’t have answered either. But it was too late for regrets now.
Looking at the phone, he swallowed a groan. What would happen if he just hung up? Would he come all the way to our house? Somehow, it felt like Jeong Hayun would do just that and more. Rather than unnecessarily startling his parents, it would be better to explain properly at his level.
Taking a deep breath, he put the phone back to his ear.
“Dawoon had dinner at our house, but he fell asleep while I was away for a moment. He must have been tired.”
He explained the current situation as briefly and simply as possible, but the other side remained silent. Clearly, there was something he didn’t like. But what could be done? He was already asleep.
[Huu……]
A long exhalation could be heard through the phone. It was just a simple breath sound, but it unnecessarily made people tense.
[I’ll come pick him up. No need to wake him up.]
In that brief moment, all sorts of thoughts ran through Ui-hyeon’s mind. He says he’s coming to pick him up but doesn’t even ask for the address. I guess he already knows it. And there’s no need to wake him up? Is he planning to carry him out while he’s asleep?
He glanced at Dawoon. Although he was on the thin side, he was still a man. Was he planning to carry out a guy over 175cm tall? And he’s already twenty years old?
He wasn’t sure if this should be called overprotection or obsession, and he couldn’t even sigh.
“I’ll just let him sleep here.”
If Jeong Hayun barged in here and carried this guy out, wouldn’t even his parents find it strange? It seemed to cross the line of overprotection to anyone watching, and he hoped Hayun would just restrain himself.
“He’s not a child anymore, he’s an adult now. It should be okay for him to stay out for one night. It’s not like he’s somewhere unknown, he’s with me, so there’s no need to worry. Oh, if you don’t trust me, should I put my mother on the phone?”
Fearing what Hayun might say, he deliberately spoke faster, stringing his words together.
[……]
Whether he agreed or disagreed or picked a fight, Ui-hyeon wished he would say something, but all he heard was a long silence and heavy breathing.
Even though I can’t see you, your intimidating presence is still suffocating.
Ui-hyeon really found Jeong Hayun uncomfortable. He had felt that way since he first met him in middle school. Whenever Dawoon would say that his brother wasn’t a scary person, that he was kind, Ui-hyeon couldn’t understand. Since it didn’t directly affect him, he would just assume that maybe Hayun was different only to Dawoon.
See, my instinct was right. How is this a kind person?
He glanced at Dawoon’s nape and swallowed a sigh.
[I’ll be there in 15 minutes.]
The response made him want to groan internally. After all his explanations about how it would be fine to let Dawoon sleep here, it seemed Hayun hadn’t listened to a word he said.
“Isn’t this strange?”
Feeling that communication was impossible, he felt a surge of frustration. Not being face to face made him a bit braver than usual.
“It’s just sleeping at a friend’s house. It’s not like it’s a stranger’s house, can’t he stay over at his best friend’s place for one night? Even elementary school kids these days have sleepovers at their friends’ houses.”
His tone became a bit sharp due to accumulated frustration. Even to his own ears, it sounded sarcastic. There was indeed such an intention underlying his words.
[Ha……]
It sounded like Hayun let out a dry laugh. It wasn’t a loud sound. If the phone hadn’t been right against his ear, he might have missed it, it was so quiet.
[Lee Ui-hyeon.]
Hearing his own name, he swallowed hard.
[What’s strange is only by your standards. Besides, it’s none of your business.]
There was no intonation in his voice at all. He was just quietly murmuring, but that made it sound even colder. If he had been face to face, Ui-hyeon probably would have wanted to turn and run away immediately.
“Why is it none of my business? We’re friends. His best friend, in fact!”
In response, Hayun let out a snort.
[Friends. That’s as far as it goes. I’m allowing that much.]
Although he spoke lightly, it was a clear warning. Don’t cross the line of friendship.
But that’s strange too! Usually, people think there might be something more than friendship, right? Is it because you harbor strange feelings that you see others that way too?
Many words rolled to the tip of his tongue out of frustration, but he couldn’t say them carelessly. If he provoked Hayun any further here, he felt he might not even be able to remain as Dawoon’s friend.
[I’m Dawoon’s family. Since our parents are not here, I’m also his guardian. It seems stranger to me that you find it odd for a guardian to come pick him up.]
It wasn’t wrong, so Ui-hyeon couldn’t refute. If he thought of Hayun not as a brother but as a parent, whether to allow a sleepover or not was entirely their issue, not something for Ui-hyeon to interfere with.
Still, he didn’t want to let it go like this. Although Dawoon hadn’t said everything, Ui-hyeon could imagine how confused he must have been these past few days, and he wanted to let him rest comfortably, even if just for today.
As he was pondering how to respond, the phone was suddenly snatched from his hand.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
