HYUNG 53

“…Hyung.”

“Let go of me first.”

Ham Dowon just blinked at me with a dazed expression. His eyes were so swollen.

“Who exactly is ‘so cute’?”

“I, I thought it was Saja. He usually climbs onto my bed… For Saja, though, it felt a bit too big…”

The Saja I saw earlier today was on the plump side, but despite his name, which means ‘Lion’, his body was small. Even ten Sajas put together would be smaller than me. I decided to be understanding, given how frantic he must have been.

“Your eyes really swell up easily. You have so many tears, too.”

“I don’t have many tears!”

“You cry all the time.”

I made an ice pack and tossed it lightly toward Ham Dowon.

“Put it on your eyes. You look like a frog right now.”

“…I really don’t cry that often…”

Ham Dowon grumbled while icing his eyes.

“Sure, sure. You’re quite the manly man.”

It was 3:37 AM. A truly awkward time. Since we had fallen asleep before dinner, we’d slept enough that we couldn’t go back to sleep. I felt a bit hungry, too.

“Want to go to the studio?”

“The studio?”

“Yeah. It’s nice to go at dawn. It’s quiet, and no one’s there. Since there’s nothing else to do here. Want to go?”

“…I’ll go.”

“Then I’ll brush my teeth first, so you wash your face.”

While Ham Dowon got up unsteadily to wash his face, I leaned against the sink and brushed my teeth. Every now and then, our eyes met in the mirror through the open bathroom door. When I chuckled because his red, puffy eyes looked so pathetic and funny, Ham Dowon knit his brows slightly.

“Hyung, don’t laugh.”

“I can’t even laugh as I please in my own house?”

“Hyung, you’re completely patriarchal.”

“Good grief.”

I don’t even have a family, so why bring up ‘patriarchal’ in a house where I live alone? Ham Dowon let out a “Hmph!” with his swollen eyes, shot me a haughty glare, and patted his face dry with a towel.

This time we switched; I washed my face while Ham Dowon brushed his teeth. There was a bit of white foam around Ham Dowon’s mouth as he brushed.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“…I think I’m okay.”

“That’s a relief.”

Ham Dowon mumbled with the toothbrush in his mouth. I laughed softly.

I rummaged through the closet and pulled out two sets of tops and pants. One for me, one for Ham Dowon. Seeing it yesterday, my clothes fit him quite well. Since they were jogger pants, they would fit even if the sizes were slightly different.

“Ham Dowon, what’s your shoe size?”

“…It’s 285.”

“I wear 275 to 280, but I have a pair I bought by mistake. They were too big. They might fit you.”

“…”

I had my back turned to Ham Dowon as I took off my short-sleeved T-shirt and was about to pick up a hoodie when I paused. Ah, right. I shouldn’t change my clothes so casually in front of him. Because it was such a familiar space, I didn’t realize it and felt like I was alone even while talking to him. When I turned around, slightly stiff, Ham Dowon was looking down at the floor.

“…What kind of… shoes are they?”

Ham Dowon hurriedly turned around and yanked the shoe rack open. I quickly put on my top and, ignoring Ham Dowon’s bright red ears, went to stand behind him.

“They’re white with green stripes.”

The entryway was narrow, so when the two of us stood side-by-side, the space was full. As I reached for the misbought shoes, it ended up in a posture that looked like I was hugging him from behind. It was strange, but I acted as if it were nothing and closed the shoe rack. Thud. The mirror attached to the door clearly reflected Ham Dowon’s red face and his glancing eyes.

“…Try these on. Keep them on…”

I quickly backed away. It was only after Ham Dowon shouted, “They fit perfectly!” that I regained my senses.

“Then you wear them. You can have them. They don’t fit me anyway and I can’t return them…”

“The clothes first… Let’s put the clothes on first. And socks, too…”

“Oh. Right…”

“Hyung, but please treat the wounds on my feet. The bandages all fell off.”

Ham Dowon sat on the edge of the bed and looked at me. At the voice urging me with “Hyung, please?”, I approached and knelt in front of him. I carefully held his ankles, disinfected each wound again, applied ointment, and put on bandages. When I looked up to signify that I was finished, Ham Dowon gave a beaming smile.

“Thanks to Hyung, I think they’ll heal completely without a single scar.”

Seeing Ham Dowon, who had been crying non-stop, give a proper smile for the first time in a long while made me feel relieved, so I smiled back.

We ate sundae soup at a 24-hour restaurant and headed to the studio. Ham Dowon, who looked like he wouldn’t be able to eat a single piece of sundae, must have been hungry because he ordered a plate of blood sundae and devoured the whole thing. He even ate the egg-battered pork liver that came as a side dish all by himself. When I just stared at him, he smiled bashfully as if embarrassed. This made his swollen eyes look even puffier.

At the studio, Ham Dowon did look gloomy while looking at the canvas with the sketch of Saja on his easel, but he didn’t cry again. His eyes were just a bit reddish. He stared at the photos of Saja on his phone for an excessively long time, but he managed to start painting, getting paint on his face and hands. His clothes were clean. That’s a relief. Since those are my clothes.

After we each attended our elective classes and had lunch together, we attended our major class. Ham Dowon kept his eyes down with a melancholy face throughout, but whenever our eyes met, he would lift his lips again. When I told him he didn’t have to try so hard, Ham Dowon shook his head and said:

“I just wanted to smile at least when I’m looking at Hyung.”

For the afternoon major class, except for the initial roll call where everyone gathered in one place, the rest was just painting alone, aside from the one-on-one feedback from the professor at each person’s studio spot. Having spoken with the professor early, Ham Dowon and I left the studio ahead of time.

I had to go to my part-time job and Ham Dowon had to go to the veterinary hospital, so we sat side-by-side on the same subway train. I had been in a car driven by Ham Dowon before, but this was the first time we took public transportation together. Ham Dowon, sitting at the very end seat with his head leaned against the pole, looked so depressed and listless that I struck up a conversation every now and then.

“Do you want to have dinner later?”

“Dinner… I’m not hungry… What do you want to eat, Hyung?”

“I want noodles. Want to eat rice noodles?”

“Yes. Let’s eat. Rice noodles.”

We decided on the dinner menu, and

“Have you tried using Liquin? I heard paint dries faster if you use it.”

“It’s hard to blend once the paint dries, so I don’t use it much.”

“That’s true. I like the smooth feeling, too.”

We also talked about painting, like Liquin, which is a drying accelerator that makes oil paints dry faster.

“Are the shoes okay? When I wore them, they were flopping around. It was uncomfortable even if I tied the laces tight.”

“They’re fine. They fit perfectly. Do you like the color green, Hyung?”

“Yeah. I like it. Dark green.”

“Me too.”

We also just talked about idle things. Before we knew it, we had arrived at our destination.

Since there was some time left, I went to the veterinary hospital with Ham Dowon and saw Saja. Saja, who was yawning with a drowsy face, began whimpering the moment he spotted Ham Dowon and had a touching reunion with him. Ham Dowon sniffled again. He didn’t cry as much as the day before. Just enough to wet his eyes a little. He recovered to some extent while eating rice noodles.

‧₊˚♪ 𝄞₊˚⊹

“Hwanoh Teacher, be careful today. The Director is in a terrible mood.”

“Why?”

As soon as I entered the academy, Wonkyu Teacher, whose eyes met mine, whispered to me. The reason was simpler and more complex than I thought. It was a money problem. Recently, the Director had started investing in stocks, and while the stocks he bought were soaring, he was waiting for them to go up just a bit more when an issue broke out and they plummeted just yesterday. It was said there was no sign of them rising again.

“So I’m saying, why did he get in when the market is bad like it is lately? I tried to stop him, but you know. The Director is a real stubborn bull.”

“Ah, yes…”

“He was even fuming about Hwanoh Teacher changing your hours yesterday. So be as careful as possible.”

Changing hours among assistant instructors or covering for each other was something that had already been done before. I couldn’t say the Director’s personality was outstanding, but it wasn’t bad either; it seems the stocks got to him and he’s taking it out on the wrong person.

“Moreover, that kid in the entrance exam class threw a fit yesterday, and the atmosphere in that class got weird, so the Director’s mood is even worse. I told him to just take a day off and rest, but he ended up coming in anyway.”

“What happened with the entrance exam class?”

The ‘kid’ in the entrance exam class was the student on his fourth attempt.