TWELVE 47

“Are you saying you’re going to cut ties with your parents?”

Gi Seoin nodded without a moment’s hesitation.

“Is it okay to do that…?”

“I have to.”

“But you…”

I started to say, ‘You’ve received so much from them,’ but I kept my mouth shut.

He had both received from and been robbed by his parents. Perhaps the things taken from him were more precious than the things given.

It wasn’t something I could judge carelessly.

“I realized that if I resign myself to it, it ends up hurting even you.”

Gi Seoin had an expression that seemed to know exactly what I was about to say.

“I know what you’re worried about. But you don’t have to be.”

I stopped my hand, which had been fidgeting with the teacup like a compulsion.

“I received an offer to move to another law firm.”

“Is that allowed?”

“Why wouldn’t it be.”

“But, it’s the law firm your grandfather founded…”

“That’s all the more reason to leave.”

It clicked for me then. I see. In order for Gi Seoin to completely break free from his parents, he had to leave the firm he currently belonged to.

“Won’t it be disadvantageous for you?”

Regardless, I was worried. I couldn’t bring myself to ask, but I was afraid that Gi Seoin was deciding to cut ties with his parents and change jobs solely because of me. I feared I might be blocking his future path again.

Wearing a soft smile, Gi Seoin shook his head.

“It’s disadvantageous for them. Think of how much effort they put into me.”

I couldn’t tell if that was a declaration born of confidence or just words meant to reassure me. Since it was difficult to distinguish whether Gi Seoin’s decision was right or wrong, I couldn’t easily voice my concerns.

Gi Seoin leaned back against the chair. It was a posture unlike him, as he usually kept his back pin-straight.

“The only thing I’m losing is the inheritance. Don’t worry.”

“No, isn’t it strange to talk about inheritance and tell me not to worry in the same breath?”

“I earn enough to make a living even without an inheritance.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

I instinctively looked around Gi Seoin’s house. It was a home that someone born into an ordinary family couldn’t easily buy at our age—a dream home for some.

“Still… wouldn’t this level be impossible?”

At my question, Gi Seoin chuckled as if it were ridiculous.

“I didn’t know Woo Seungkyung undervalued me that much.”

“No, it’s not that…”

“Even if I quit being a lawyer right this second, I have enough to support you for the rest of your life, so don’t worry.”

I looked at Gi Seoin with narrowed eyes.

“Gi Seoin, you don’t have to put on a bluff for no reason.”

“If you want to think of it as a bluff, I can’t help it.”

Gi Seoin had a composed, leisurely attitude. At this point, I started to think he must have something to back him up.

After all, the things he had achieved so far wouldn’t have been possible simply by receiving them from his parents. His parents couldn’t take the bar exam for him, after all.

“Anyway, don’t worry and be happy for me.”

“You’re saying you’re going to get yourself kicked out of the family register, and you want me to be happy?”

“The family register system was abolished, so there’s no such thing as a family register anymore.”

Look at him.

“That’s not the point, is it? Ha… anyway.”

Looking at Gi Seoin’s demeanor, I became certain that he had finished all the arrangements long ago and was simply notifying me now. No matter how sharp he was, settling his current position couldn’t have been easy. How did he manage not to show it even once all this time? I felt a bit slighted, and also felt sorry for him.

“Even if I say anything, nothing changes, right? It’s all settled, isn’t it?”

Sure enough, Gi Seoin nodded his head.

“I wanted to keep talking about it.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I couldn’t because Woo Seungkyung said he didn’t want to talk to me.”

The way he spoke as if taddling was absurdly funny.

Feeling somewhat embarrassed for some reason, I held out my hand to him.

Gi Seoin glanced down at my hand and then gave me his. I wrapped his hand with both of my palms.

“…You worked hard.”

“It wasn’t even that much work. It was easy once I made up my mind.”

Gi Seoin grinned. When he smiled like that, I caught a glimpse of the boy he was in our childhood.

I started kneading Gi Seoin’s hand instead of the teacup. I intended to warm it up because his fingertips felt cold, but the soft texture felt so good that I couldn’t let go.

“But…”

A couple who married solely for the firm and gave birth to a child for the sake of the future. How did they react when the child they raised with such calculated effort said he was leaving?

“Do your parents just… tell you to go ahead?”

“They aren’t the type of people to do that.”

“Then?”

“It was a mess. They looked frustrated because they couldn’t hit me like they used to.”

Gi Seoin, who giggled so brightly it felt unfamiliar, spoke calmly with lips that still held a trace of laughter.

“At the end, they told me to at least stay at the law firm.”

“Huh? Why?”

“They mean that even if we become strangers, let’s remain business partners. They gave birth to me for that purpose anyway, so it’s not a proposal they’d lose out on.”

Since it was a situation I couldn’t understand with my common sense, I didn’t have much to say. I just listened quietly to his voice.

“I refused. Nothing changes if I stay there. I didn’t even go to work while you were hospitalized, so they must have been anxious because they even sent someone to the house.”

As soon as I heard that they sent someone to the house, I was suddenly struck with fear. Whether my anxiety showed on my face or not, Gi Seoin rubbed my hand as if to reassure me instead.

“The thing you’re worried about didn’t happen. And it won’t happen in the future either.”

“How do you know? By any chance…”

“It can never happen. I don’t belong to them anymore.”

It sounded as if he had been their property until now, and since that was actually the case, my heart ached. Yes, Gi Seoin had lived his life being treated like that.

I grew up without parents and always longed for the nest that is a parent, but for Gi Seoin, the existence of parents was a prison. So, I had to be happy with him for the freedom he had won. Only now did I fully understand the reason why he asked me to be happy for him.

“Congratulations, Seoin-ah.”

I smiled so that he could be heartily happy too.

Then, Gi Seoin rewarded me with an even more radiant smile.

“I won’t hurt you anymore, Woo Seungkyung.”

I wondered what he meant by saying that so out of the blue while celebrating himself, but then I remembered that this conversation had started while talking about the meetings Gi Seoin had.

“…Don’t worry about it. It’s okay. I know now that you couldn’t help it.”

“Still, I shouldn’t have done that.”

“No, back then, well…”

The thought, ‘It’s not like we were in a special relationship,’ was about to flow out of my throat but was swallowed back down. It was because the question, ‘Then are we in a special relationship now?’ had occurred to me. It didn’t seem like the right time to ask, either.

I barely managed to change my words.

“I didn’t tell you about working at Benwood either.”

“Right, about that. Do you plan to keep working there?”

“I want to recover first, and if they say I can work again, I’d like to. Why?”

“Can’t you just not work?”

Gi Seoin took my hand and rubbed it against his cheek as he asked. I almost said okay without realizing it. He probably didn’t intend it that way, but this sudden beauty attack was too much. I swallowed hard before bringing out an answer.

“I still have to work.”

“I’ll support you.”

The theme we had bickered over many times came up again. Since it was the day it was, I wanted to let it slide as pleasantly as possible, so I replied playfully.

“Give me a chance to support you instead.”

At that, Gi Seoin’s eyes widened. He had a face as if he had heard something completely unexpected. I may have nothing to my name, but was it really something to make that kind of expression over?

“Are you serious?”

“It’s a joke, of course…”

“It’s a joke?”

“Then, how could I support you?”

“Right…”

Gi Seoin, who rested his cheek on my hand as if it were a stand, murmured while softly closing his eyes.

“My heart almost fluttered.”

“What. Gi Seoin, did you want something like that?”

“Then why wouldn’t I?”

He opened his eyes and looked at me.

“Woo Seungkyung says he’ll support me.”

“How would I support you? Instead, we might have to live on only one meal of ramen a day.”

As soon as the word ‘ramen’ came out, Gi Seoin turned serious.

“That won’t do.”

“See. You’re not ready yet. Go back.”

When I moved the hand Gi Seoin was holding and pushed his shoulder slightly, he laughed silently and gripped my wrist even more tightly. For someone who looks so delicate, how is he so strong?

“Hey, it hurts.”

“It hurts?”

He immediately loosened the strength in his grip and massaged my wrist. Honestly, giving the disease and then the medicine is his specialty.

“You really need to realize the fact that your strength is great.”

“Woo Seungkyung is just weak.”

“What are you talking about. Even so, I don’t get pushed around physically when I go out somewhere.”

“I guess there are only anchovies when you go out.”

“…Do you really want to fight?”

I gave Gi Seoin a light poke. He was grinning continuously.

“Gi Seoin, looking at you, I think you’re happy while teasing me.”

“Did you just realize?”

“It’s irritating.”

While grumbling, the corners of my mouth kept twitching too. We exchanged light jokes, having cast aside heavy emotions. It was a familiar peace.

It was the atmosphere that floated like the very air when we stayed together for a week at my house when we were much younger. A time for just the two of us where we could laugh comfortably without a single worry…