HPK 98

Exactly three weeks had passed since Hyojun left the country.

Summer was racing towards its peak. Heatwaves and tropical nights decorated the news headlines day after day, and the day before yesterday, Seoul recorded a high of 35 degrees Celsius. It was the season when all sorts of public complaints arose as vacationers flocked to the sea to escape the heat. Wooseung compared the weather in Bangkok and Seoul and wondered just how much hotter it must be there.

Taejung’s house was always cool with the air conditioner running 24 hours a day, but still, if you got close to the window, you could feel a subtle heat. Finding that gap fascinating, Wooseung often stood by the window and looked outside. The news of the rainy season was late, so the sky was blue and clear.

Wooseung sat with his back against the cool window, fiddling with his phone. Perhaps because his activity level had dropped sharply, he couldn’t sleep deeply and often woke up like this at dawn.

“…”

While Taejung was asleep, he contemplated sending a text message to Director Jeong. It was getting close to 4 o’clock, so the bar wouldn’t be that busy. The fact that Taejung had the text message history between him and Director Jeong could only be explained by Director Jeong sending it to Taejung. Because it certainly wasn’t him.

[Hyung, are you busy?]

He stared blankly at the text he had written on the screen. He hadn’t pressed the send button yet. He wasn’t a bad person, but in any case, since he was someone who worked under Taejung, he couldn’t ignore the possibility that he would report even a text message like this to Taejung.

It was the moment he was scratching under his eye, deliberating, and had just decided to send the text. Suddenly, the ringtone blared loudly. It was because, from some point on, Taejung hadn’t allowed silent or vibrate mode, so the sound was always on. He was startled by the ringtone that rang out as if it would rip through the quiet space.

[Dad]

And his heart dropped at the name that appeared on the screen.

He has no reason to call at dawn… His heart pounded, thump, thump, as if he had run at full speed. A sensation mixed with displeasure and anxiety rushed through his entire body. He didn’t even know what was wrong, but the memory etched into his body instantly devoured his mind. Wooseung barely managed to press the call button.

—Wooseung!

His dad, Heehoon, called out to him with a desperate voice.

♡

Taejung gradually woke up to the sudden bustling around him. Seeing that the surroundings were dark, it was still dawn, but a rustling sound kept coming from somewhere. He blinked his eyes slowly while lying on his stomach. His eyes, now adjusted to the darkness, soon caught sight of a figure moving busily around.

“What is it…”

He pushed himself up from his prone position. Then he swung his legs down to the side of the bed and bent his waist. His head spun as he was still not fully awake. He rested his arms on his knees and rubbed the nape of his neck and his forehead.

“Ah, you’re, you’re awake. I’m sorry. The thing is, I have to go out now…”

“What?”

He was wide awake in an instant. Taejung looked up with a contorted face. He wondered if he was losing his mind and making a fuss about going to work again, or what. Wooseung, holding a backpack in one hand, was standing awkwardly in front of the dressing room.

“I’m not going to work. I just have to go to Daejeon for a bit.”

“Daejeon?”

A rough voice cut through the darkness.

“What do you mean, Daejeon, all of a sudden?”

Taejung, unable to easily understand, asked as if to say, what kind of nonsense is this at this hour of the morning. Wooseung checked the time once more. It hadn’t even been five minutes since he received the call from Heehoon. It was a far too short amount of time for a major incident to occur. Even so, Wooseung was so anxious his fingertips were tingling.

“I think I need to go home for a bit.”

Unable to hide his anxiousness, he repeatedly licked his lower lip.

“You’re fucking lying again, aren’t you.”

Taejung growled, recalling the lie from some time ago. His deep, sunken voice was full of disbelief.

In the end, Wooseung had no choice but to tell him exactly what he had heard from Heehoon.

“…My mom, my mom isn’t at home, he says.”

Taejung still looked like he didn’t understand.

“So what.”

“He says she’s not in the bathroom either, it seems like she went out completely.”

“So what about it.”

Now, his voice was even tinged with irritation. At Taejung deliberately dragging out the end of his words, Wooseung ultimately had no choice but to bring up his mother’s situation.

“…My mom is sick.”

Taejung’s eyebrows shot up slightly.

Wooseung rolled his lower lip inward, holding back the nausea that felt like he was about to vomit. Inside the backpack, which was wide open because it wasn’t zipped, were underwear and a few articles of clothing for a few days.

“Wait.”

A moment later, Taejung rubbed his forehead and got out of bed. He went to the bathroom and appeared less than 10 minutes later with his bangs wet. He roughly swept his hair back with his wet hands.

“Is that all your luggage?”

“…Yes.”

Taejung snatched the backpack from Wooseung’s hand and looked inside. Then he zipped it up haphazardly and walked ahead. Carrying the backpack, which was sagging at the bottom, for him.

Wooseung stared at his receding back with an unreadable expression. At the same time the entryway light turned on, he heard a voice calling, “Are you coming?” Wooseung moved his feet that felt rooted to the spot and went toward him.

“…I don’t know when I’ll be back up.”

“…”

“I have to go to the hospital, and also, and…”

Taejung, who was arranging his hair again with the hand holding the car keys, looked this way.

“You’ll have to come back up alone after dropping me off.”

From here to Daejeon, it takes about 1 hour and 50 minutes, give or take, if you drive. Wooseung, who didn’t have a car, was naturally planning to go to Seoul Station and take the first train at 5:02.

“And so?”

“…”

“Ah, you want me to come pick you up later?”

“That’s not it…”

Taejung let out a chuckle and gestured with his chin to put on his shoes. He added a comment, which could have been a joke or serious, that they needed to get out of Seoul before the roads got fucked up with traffic.

“…”

Wooseung was utterly confused.

Because of Taejung, who, while yawning and rubbing his eyes from sleepiness, was still insisting on taking him.

“What is she sick with?”

Taejung asked while speeding down the highway. Wooseung, who had been repeatedly talking on the phone and texting with his dad, belatedly heard his question and moved his lips.

“Just…”

His mouth wouldn’t easily open to explain the detailed circumstances.

“Is it a mental illness?”

“…”

“Depression, something like that? Or menopause?”

Taejung said indifferently, rubbing below his chin. If being able to say something that could be offensive so casually was a talent, perhaps it was a talent.

“She’s just a little sick.”

“So what is it. If she ran out of the house at this hour, it must be a mental illness.”

“It’s not a mental illness.”

When Wooseung snapped, Taejung, on the contrary, seemed pleased as if he had gotten the right answer, saying, “So it is a mental illness.” It was truly dumbfounding.

He was always reluctant to tell others about his mother’s situation. His acquaintances and neighborhood residents all found out one way or another, but still, he had almost never brought it up himself.

Taejung brought up the topic that had always weighed on his shoulders so heavily, as if it were nothing. To the point where it was Wooseung who was flustered.

Still, he was about to firmly refute Taejung, who was being an ass by concluding it was a mental illness and being happy about it. But the phone in his hand rang loudly. It was a call from his dad.

“Oh, Dad, yeah, yeah. Ah… she’s not at Mijeong’s auntie’s place either?”

His dad, Heehoon, was asking around among the acquaintances his mom had been close with before she got sick, trying to find out her whereabouts. Given the time, the places his mom could go were limited. In the past, when his mom had disappeared a few times, she had often been at Mijeong’s auntie’s place, who ran a small tavern, so he had held out hope…

“Haaah… no, Dad, why didn’t you know that?”

But when he heard that his mom wasn’t at the place he had pinned his hopes on, the arrow of blame naturally turned toward his dad. He was sleeping in the same room, so how could he not have sensed someone leaving? Wooseung didn’t hide his frustration and let it all out. Heehoon repeatedly apologized, saying that he had been keeping his grandmother company and had only managed to fall asleep after 2 in the morning. Hearing that he was with his grandmother again in this situation made him even angrier.

“I’m on my way now. Yeah, yeah. Ah, what about there? There’s that 24-hour bean sprout soup restaurant in front of Mega Mart. Yeah, the one that sells rice wine. Go check there. No, if not, at least call.”

The call ended with an “I will” response. Wooseung sighed, rubbing his throbbing forehead. His fingertips were trembling slightly. In the distance, the dawn light was breaking. When he checked the time, it was well past 5:30.

“You know how to blame others too, I see.”

Taejung said abruptly as he was searching for 24-hour restaurants near his house on a map. When he turned to look at him with an expression that said, “What are you talking about?”, he chuckled.

“…I wasn’t blaming my dad.”

Wooseung mumbled his refutation.

“Wow, you’re so shameless.”

“…”

“Why didn’t you know that, Dad?”

Taejung exaggeratedly mimicked Wooseung’s tone of voice.

“What are you doing not going there, huh, I told you to go check there.”

As the impersonation continued, Wooseung stopped him, saying, “Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do that.”

Taejung even copied that.

“See, when you’re not pretending to be nice, even your voice is different.”

The light voice flew over, carrying a meaning that was anything but light. Wooseung rolled his lower lip inward and bit down hard. He was afraid Taejung would hear his heart hammering away.