SPW 4

‘Aren’t athletes usually good at recovering?’

‘What are you talking about, Maria. Our team is full of injury-prone players. Should I list them for you?’

‘“Our team,” my foot. Shut up for a bit, Tom, you’re noisy. If worst comes to worst, we’ll just have to put makeup on him. We’re only taking a few pictures, so it’s no good if he has a blemish.’

Maria, who had answered with annoyance, suddenly stared down at Sarang.

‘He is a boy, right?’

‘Should I get you a magnifying glass? Where would you find a girl this sturdy? Ack!’

‘These days with alphas and whatnot, you can’t even tell the gender just by looking, honestly.’

Tom, who was kicked hard in the shin by Maria’s pointy-toed shoe, squeezed out a tear and this time answered properly.

‘He might look pretty, but he’s a boy, alright.’

‘Where did they find another one of these.’

As Maria clicked her tongue, muttering about how they always managed to find them, John, who was drinking a beer with a defiant attitude beside her, needlessly added a comment.

‘They say he’s a promising prospect. It’s a shame for him, too.’

‘Is that how they manage their prospects?’

‘It’s a power struggle now that their finances are wrecked. Thanks to them, we get to kill two birds with one stone. It’s always best to ruin the other team’s prospects.’

‘He’s just an Asian kid, how good can he be?’

‘I’m telling you, he’s the one those stupid Rhinos raised like their precious treasure.’

‘That’s enough. He’s a kid who’ll be gone in three years anyway.’

Maria cut him off sharply, then threatened them not to make any idiotic mistakes like last time and to guard him properly, before turning and leaving abruptly.

And so, Sarang spent two weeks with the three men in a cheap motel room. In that time, he came to understand why the woman named Maria treated the three men like idiots. Even though they were supposed to be watching Sarang to prevent him from escaping, they drank alcohol every day while watching league games or passed the time playing cards. They didn’t even pay any attention to Sarang, who was shoved in a corner.

Perhaps if Sarang had been a little less intelligent, he would have succeeded in ditching them and running away. But unfortunately, Sarang was on the smarter side. His judgment was also quick. The Saman Debussy who had stormed in as if he had been waiting for Colin to die and seized the position of Sarang’s guardian had to be ‘that’ Saman. The cousin’s house where Colin, who had been moving between foster homes after his mother died from suppressor side effects, had finally managed to settle down. All he knew about them was what Colin had mentioned in passing.

Colin, who usually had more to say about Sarang’s biological parents than himself, didn’t really talk much about his own life. In fact, the neighbors told him more about him. Colin Debussy, born to a Recessive Omega mother. His father, a Recessive Alpha, had been stabbed to death in prison, and his mother, who had been taking cheap suppressors, died on the streets from an overdose. The cousins who took in Colin, who had been shuttled between orphanages and foster homes, seemed to have been even worse people than he thought.

‘It was the first time I had stayed in one place for a long time, so I liked it.’

Colin.

From inside the door, Colin was talking to someone on the phone. It sounded like a call demanding money. Sarang, who had returned home after practice, found himself stopping in front of the door. The front door of the very old apartment often didn’t close properly, and that day was one of those days. Colin’s voice could be heard through the open crack in the door. He was trying to stay calm, but his trembling voice was laced with anger.

‘If you’re trying to blackmail me with that, you’d better listen up. The police will know what you did first.’

‘Kim! What are you doing not going in? Is Colin doing something naughty in there?’

Sherine, who lived next door, giggled as she passed down the hallway. Colin, who finally put down the receiver, looked very flustered.

‘Sarang.’

‘I just got here, Colin. I didn’t want to interrupt your call… But who was that?’

‘…A cousin. My aunt’s son who I was indebted to when I was young.’

‘Then he’d be my uncle, right?’

He had never seen Colin’s face turn ashen like it did then. For a moment, Sarang froze with the realization that he had made a big mistake, but it was Colin who salvaged the situation.

‘Not an uncle, a cousin once removed. You can just call him your grand-uncle if that’s easier.’

Colin, his face looking particularly pale, came closer and took Sarang’s bag and soccer ball, then firmly closed and locked the old door. It was a door that would easily open with a single kick, but Colin never neglected to lock it every day. As if he was trying to save only Sarang from dangers he couldn’t control. Colin always protected Sarang in that way.

‘She raised me when I was alone after my mom passed away, my aunt did.’

‘Were you happy, Colin?’

‘…It was the first time I had stayed in one place for a long time, so I liked it.’

He wanted to say something to Colin, who was changing the subject with a slight smile, but in the end, Sarang kept his mouth shut. He didn’t know what to say, so he just hugged Colin tightly. Thinking back now, he thinks he wanted to comfort him. But Sarang was only a 9-year-old child back then.

Saman Debussy.

Did that man curse at, kick, and a**ault Colin too? Colin had said that the day Sarang was born was the happiest day of his life. For the birth of someone who wasn’t even his biological child to be the happiest.

Colin.

What kind of life did you live, really?

Colin, who was small and thin even for an adult, had been even smaller, paler, and thinner when he was young. That’s what Grandma Linda from the fruit stand said. She said she was surprised when that little kid came back after 10 years with an even smaller child than himself.

Colin had lived in this old apartment until his mother passed away. After his mother’s death, he had been shuffled through various institutions until he settled at his cousin’s house. She said it wouldn’t have been strange if he had died on the streets somewhere, but he brought back a baby who resembled him only in his pitch-black hair, calling him his own, and lived each day so, so diligently. Grandma Linda often told him stories about Colin like that. At the fruit stand, and in Grandma Linda’s old apartment that always smelled of butter when it closed at 9 p.m.

Colin, who had gone to work and only returned at dawn, would pick up Sarang, who was dozing off next to Grandma Linda, and head upstairs to their home. But no matter how hard Colin worked, their financial situation didn’t improve one bit. In fact, when Sarang’s heat cycle began at 14, it only got worse as they had to cover the cost of expensive suppressors.

The unrealistic sum of 5.6 billion won was understandable if it was to obtain suppressors for a Dominant Alpha. Compared to the relatively common Recessive suppressors, the supply of Dominant ones was absolutely insufficient. The reason was simple. The license for Recessive suppressors had been released, whereas Dominant suppressors were under a monopoly.

A Dominant’s heat cycle generally lasted ten days and came in a cycle of twice a year. The recommended dosage was one pill a day, and the price of one pill was seven million won. In other words, nearly 140 million won was spent on medication per year.

However, most Dominants did not have difficulty taking suppressors. This was because most were descendants of wealthy or prestigious families. Occasionally, there were mutant individuals like Kim Sarang, but being poor, they lived unhappily, unable to afford the medication, or died before they could become unhappy. To put it another way, the Dominant secondary gender was like a privilege for the few, passed down like a lineage of wealth.

‘It’s enough until you become an adult.’

He meant the inheritance left by Sarang’s parents. Saying that the inheritance they left behind was more than enough to cover Sarang’s suppressors, Colin began to return home late more often. He must have increased his workload until his body could no longer handle it. Foolish Colin.

Sarang wished he would become an adult quickly. If he became an adult, he would be able to legally use the systems supported by the state. Individuals with a secondary gender who couldn’t obtain suppressors could be assigned a heat cycle partner at a state-supported management center.

Most of the center’s users were Recessives, but there was also a small number of Dominant individuals like Sarang who had barely survived their adolescence. The idea of spending his heat with a stranger was unappealing and repulsive, but he couldn’t continue to be a burden to Colin even after becoming an adult. Even if he were to obtain suppressors, he wanted to do it with his own strength, and if he couldn’t, he planned to use the various support systems.

‘When I make my pro debut, I’m going to give Colin the biggest bouquet of flowers in the world.’

Sarang was happiest in the world when he was playing with a soccer ball. And the time he spent with Colin was just as happy and precious. There would be no happier life than being able to earn money with the soccer he loved and use it for the Colin he loved. It was Sarang’s dream.

‘Of all things, why a bouquet of flowers?’

‘Because Colin likes flowers!’

Sarang hadn’t forgotten how Colin would sometimes squat in front of Sherine’s flower shop and gaze at the potted plants. Colin, who had been looking at Sarang with a bewildered expression, soon burst out laughing, his face as bright as a flower.

‘They say that sometimes, a child gets accidentally caught in a fisherman’s net. That child is a good swimmer, a good fisherman, and laughs a lot, but when the time comes, they ask to be taken back to the sea. That story suddenly came to mind the day I first registered Sarang on my family register. You would smile so brightly whenever our eyes met, and you were like a gift sent to me by God’s mistake. Now you’ve grown up so much, you’re good at soccer, and you even make dinner for your dad who comes home late like today. To me, you still seem like a mermaid’s child. I’m sometimes—no, often—afraid that you’ll suddenly ask me to take you back to where you came from.’

‘Silly Colin. There are no mermaids in the world. I’m not going anywhere, leaving Colin behind.’

And yet.

And yet, Colin, who left first, made Sarang cry once again.