INFB Ch 17

He wiped down his mother’s body, checked her urine bag, trimmed her fingernails, and kneaded her arms and legs firmly. Because her feet were cold as ice, he held them tightly with his hands to pass along his own body heat.

After finishing the tasks he had to do like that, he sat on the folding chair and opened his book. There were school assignments, and he also had to check his progress on the academy learning materials. Because if he didn’t solve difficult problems well in advance, he would make mistakes.

Seobin focused for two hours without raising his head even once. The mechanical pencil held in his hand moved busily. Since he couldn’t buy his major textbook because it was expensive and had borrowed it from the library, he had to take pictures or write down necessary paragraphs in advance.

It would be nice to have a laptop, but that had disappeared together when red tags were being slapped all over the house in full force. So whenever a time came when he absolutely had to use a computer, he used to go to the school library or a PC room.

Seobin raised his head only when the fingers holding his mechanical pencil felt stiff. He checked on his mother once, looked out the window, and aimlessly looked around the hospital room once as well.

“…”

When he sat blankly out of his mind like that, numbers came to mind out of habit. To be exact, thoughts about money.

Seobin turned to the very last page of the workbook he was solving. Right in front of where the answer key was attached as a booklet. There was a blank single sheet where notes could be made. Seobin began listing numbers there one by one.

Gosiwon 150,000

Academy 1,600,000

Meat restaurant 600,000

Tutoring 1 800,000

Tutoring 2 700,000

Day labor 1,050,000

After writing down the numbers that he could memorize like a phone number in a row, he glared at them for a moment, then began fixing a few of them. This month, because he took a whole week off from work, a lot of money was missing.

Gosiwon 150,000

Academy 1,600,000 1,200,000

Meat restaurant 600,000 480,000

Tutoring 1 800,000 (Supplementary lesson on weekend)

Tutoring 2 700,000 (Supplementary lesson on weekend)

Day labor 1,050,000 840,000

In fact, both the academy and day labor at the construction site had relatively high daily wages, but he only went to the academy on weekends, and for day labor, working four hours from four in the morning to eight in the morning due to school was all, so he couldn’t receive all of the 150,000 won that general laborers usually received. So Seobin received only half of that, 70,000 won. Even then, because there were many applicants for general labor, going out more than half a month was considered going out a lot.

“This is bad…”

The money had decreased too much. Chewing on his lower lip, Seobin pressed down hard to write a name he had been hesitating to write or not for a while.

Jaegyu

“…”

Pondering for a moment, Seobin drew a line straight through it and wrote again.

Jaegyu

Gil Jaegyu hyung

Looking at that, he drew a line straight through it again.

Jaegyu

Gil Jaegyu hyung

CEO Gil

Only now did it become a name worthy of going into the table. Seobin wrote in the numbers after that.

CEO Gil 2,050,000

“2.05 million won…”

It was an unrivaled amount. On top of that, one day. In just a single day. Having written it down like this, it finally felt real.

Seobin drew over the zeros attached to 2.05 million won several times with his mechanical pencil. Then, moving his hand to the side, he began listing the money that had to go out this time.

Mother’s hospital bill, caregiver auntie’s monthly salary, Jeongho’s living expenses, Jeongho’s pocket money, Jaegyu’s loan money, his transportation fee, food expenses…

His transportation fee and food expenses were written again after drawing lines over them several times, but since they had already been at the absolute minimum long ago, they couldn’t be reduced any further. A sigh came out on its own. His eyes felt stiff and his chest felt congested.

Someone might say, What kind of school are you attending in your position, can’t you just take a leave of absence and only make money?, but Seobin couldn’t give up on his future. He didn’t want to live like this, in this kind of way, for his whole life. It wasn’t that he wanted to hear the title ‘young master’ again, but still… he wanted to live somewhat normally.

Not having money was such a desperate thing. Just looking at how he was making these meaningless money calculations every single day like this showed it.

Neither yesterday nor today did the money in hand, the money to come in, or the money to go out change. Calculating, and calculating again, and again. Meaninglessly eating up time like that, and crushing his own heart with his own hands.

Seobin stared vacantly at the number that became negative as a result of the calculation while spinning his mechanical pencil round and round. The sharp tip of the mechanical pencil moved drawing a circle.

“When will he call me again…”

Seobin muttered those words carelessly, then snapped his mouth shut. His eyes opened wide. It was a voice small enough that no one could hear, but startled, he looked at his mother and looked around his surroundings as well. Then, confirming the hospital room that was still quiet, he slumped his shoulders.

His whole body still hurt. With Jaegyu’s bite marks remaining here and there as they were, he had even showered like a thief in the early hours of the dawn, yet to think about spending the night with him again. He wondered if he had gone crazy.

However, Seobin couldn’t stop his eyes from being continuously drawn toward [CEO Gil]. If it was like this, he felt like he could pay back the money he borrowed from Jaegyu even if they met just five or six times a month.

Seobin wanted to pay back Jaegyu’s money.

Whether he wanted to save face in his position, or wanted to stand on his pride, or had shameless decency, he didn’t know, but he wanted to pay back the loan money somehow. Because every time he took absurd amounts of money, he felt like one side of his sanity was being crushed.

No, in fact, he was scared.

That he might never be able to pay back this debt forever.

So that he might have to keep living in this shape and state.

‘Debt’ was like that. It was such a heavy and terrifying word. Foolishly, he hadn’t known when borrowing.

“Haa…”

Seobin tilted his neck back over the chair and let out a long sigh. He could see the sign attached to the wall. It was a sign written with things like quiet conversations, phone calls outside, respect for nurses, and the like.

Looking at it with dry eyes, Seobin straightened his waist. Then he pulled out his cell phone and pulled up Jeongho’s messenger profile.

He came to want to hear Jeongho’s voice. He felt like if he confirmed his existence, this gloomy mood would clear up a bit.

Seobin thoroughly knew the time difference between LA where Jeongho was and Korea, but just in case, he checked the LA time once more. 2 PM in Korea. 10 PM in LA. At this time, it didn’t seem like Jeongho would be sleeping.

Hesitating, Seobin’s thumb pressed firmly on the call icon. After that, he came out into the hospital hallway with a tense expression.

The lively signal sound unique to internet calls continued. However, Jeongho didn’t answer the call. It was a familiar thing. Because he had never answered in a single try even once. At least three calls. If many, he had tried up to fifteen calls.

This time, fortunately, the call was connected in just two tries.

[Why, what, why.]

At the blunt words, a smile seeped into the corners of Seobin’s mouth. His eyes softened smoothly and color returned to his pale cheeks.

“What are you doing?”

[Just hanging out.]

“Did you eat dinner?”

[Roughly.]

“Did you go to school fine?”

[Yeah.]

At the single-word answers continuing in a row, Seobin let out a soft laugh. It was a conversation without a single corner to laugh about, but he didn’t know why it was this enjoyable. It seemed to be because he was the only one with whom he could exchange news of how he was doing.

“Are you outside? It’s noisy.”

Beyond Jeongho’s voice, the sound of heavy, thumping music could be heard. It wasn’t a particularly welcome sound.

[I came out to play with my friends.]

“…You’re not drinking alcohol, right?”

[Just a little.]

At the answer that seemed to have no intention of hiding it, the space between Seobin’s eyebrows narrowed sharply.

“What do you mean a little? You’re a high school student.”

[Ah, fuck… seriously…]

“Cha Jeongho.”

[I’ll take care of it myself. If you keep bullshitting, I won’t answer your calls.]

At those words, Seobin snorted. Jeongho used to make this kind of ridiculous threat every time, but unfortunately, Seobin was not easygoing enough to be swayed by that. Leaning obliquely against the hallway wall, he threatened Jeongho softly and calmly.

“If you don’t answer my calls, I won’t send money. Can you eat and live there without my help?”

[Hey.]

“Call me hyung.”

Seobin had an obligation to take care of Jeongho, but he also had an obligation to educate him. Although he would embrace Jeongho as far as his strength reached, he couldn’t keep messaging and calling like he was doing now until he became an adult, right? He had to educate him so he could live on his own.

Over the receiver, huffing, anger-filled breathing could be heard. The sound of the thumping music also grew distant. It seemed Jeongho had escaped from that unidentified space.