Vol 3 Ch 8

With the belt on, the boy asked what he should do now, and Philip asked him to locate the nearest repair shop. The boy looked very frightened and asked again and again if that was all he could do.

 

It made him laugh out loud at that pitiful stupid sight.

 

Fortunately, the repair shop was not far away. He could change the wheels himself, but he didn’t want to get grease on his hands, so Philip took the car to a mechanic.

 

When the tire is nailed or stabbed by something sharp from the road, a hole in the center of the tire was bound to occur, but when the side of the tire was torn, Philip laughed silently when the mechanic said that it must have been done on purpose. It reminded me of Chloe, who disappeared after leaving a line like a third-class movie line.

 

He really only chooses things like him.

 

Phillip went out with a cup of coffee at a small convenience store next to the repair shop. The boy, who had disappeared for a while, was holding a handset in a public phone booth in the corner.

 

“I’m sorry. The battery ran out, I didn’t know. I’ll be there soon. Do not worry.”

 

Even though he was standing right behind him, the boy continued the call, apparently not recognizing the presence.

 

“Don’t wait, go to sleep. Yes. I love you too.”

 

What kind of face did he have when he had such an unfamiliar conversation?

 

Philip went to the front of the phone booth and checked the boy’s face. The boy, who was talking on the phone with the receiver in his hand, found Philip and gasped and swallowed his breath.

 

“Oh, no. Suddenly a raccoon passed by… .”

 

Philip, who suddenly became a raccoon, drank a sip of coffee and smiled.

 

“Yes. I’ll hang up. See you later.”

 

After the call, the boy came out of the phone booth. Philip handed him the coffee.

 

“How much?”

 

The boy rushed through his pockets to pay for the coffee.

 

“It’s fine. Because of me, you ended up going home late.”

 

The boy took the coffee and said thank you.

 

“How long will it take?”

 

“Well. Two hours?”

 

He was told that it would be completed in thirty or forty minutes, but he answered that way. Did the boy have a couple of hours? he asked, expressing his displeasure. Seeing the boy’s troubled expression, he smiled softly.

 

He shouldn’t have bad habits.

 

Philip pretended not to know and asked why?

 

“Oh, no. I thought my parents will be worried.”

 

“It’s Friday night, they wouldn’t.”

 

Proper parents should not be worried about the late arrival of their kids on Friday night, but rather when they’re early.

 

“… I am not well.”

 

“Where are you hurt?”

 

Philip asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

 

The skinny body and pale face showed that the boy was not very healthy. However, it was not enough for the parents to be overprotective.

 

“I have a bad heart. I’ve had surgery a few times. I think they were worried because I had a seizure after going out once before.”

 

As he spoke, the boy did not know what to do, as if he had committed a major mistake.

 

“Can you do this now?”

 

Philip’s voice suddenly lowered when he asked that question.

 

“I, I’m fine now. As long as I avoid strenuous exercise, I’m just like a normal person. I fell down a few years ago.”

 

Philip glanced at the boy. It’s real, the boy added with a serious face.

 

“Okay.”

 

Philip turned his head and answered.

 

In fact, he didn’t know anything about the boy’s health. It was enough just to pass the time in moderation.

 

He heard a small sneeze next to him. The boy quickly took a sip of his coffee, rubbing the tip of his red nose. The early summer night breeze was cold. Philip took off his jacket and handed it over.

 

“No. It’s okay.”

 

“Wear it. You can’t catch a cold.”

 

So, this was the one thing that bothered him even if he did it.

 

Philip again ignored the boy’s refusal and put the jacket around his shoulder.

 

“… Th, thank you.”

 

Because of the difference in size, the boy looked like a kid in adult clothes. The sleeves were so long that it seemed difficult to hold the coffee cup. The boy held the coffee cup in one hand and tried to roll up his sleeve with the other hand. Philip rolled up his sleeves.

 

“No, I… .”

 

“You’ll drop the coffee.”

 

The boy eventually left the sleeves to Philip. It was only after folding the sleeves twice that the fingers were visible. As he rolled up the sleeves, his the figure became even more ridiculous. Philip smiled slightly and shook his head.

 

There was no conversation between the two of them sitting on the bench for a while. There was only the occasional sound of sipping coffee. Meanwhile, the boy checked his watch several times.

 

“You must be on good terms with your parents.”

 

“Yes! Very good.”

 

Even though he said it out loud, the boy replied that way as if he had been waiting. It was a sin to say that the family was at peace at this age. A naive boy like an idiot spoke like he didn’t know that.

 

“My parents are really nice people. All my brothers are nice too. Unlike me, they exercise well and study well.”

 

The boy’s eyes lit up, and his cheeks were red. It was the face he saw when he  was talking about things he liked.

 

Phillip took a sip of his coffee. It tasted like cheap coffee. ‘How about philip?’ he asked innocently.

 

“One of my younger brothers is on a football team, did you know? His name is Aaron.”

 

“Uhm.”

 

“He’s a wide receiver, but he’s still a candidate for the second team. Brown hair and tall… .”

 

“I didn’t know. He looks completely different from you.”

 

It was an unspoken call to stop. However, the boy blushed as if in a bit of embarrassment and stuttered in reply.

 

“Ah yes. Because my parents are different… . He looks different from me. Because I was the only one adopted.”

 

“… … .”

 

So, was that why he kept emphasizing that his parents were good people?

 

Recognizing Philip’s gaze, the boy suddenly raised his head and waved his hand and continued.

 

“My parents are really nice people. They know that I am sick, so they deliberately adopted me. Without my parents, I would not be alive today.”

 

“So it’s like that.”

 

It seemed that he could not disagree with that. If he had been in that situation, he would definitely pick the good ones, and he wouldn’t have gone to the other side of the sea to bring in the bad ones.

 

“My younger brothers are really nice too. I am lucky.”

 

The boy said with a shy smile.

 

Looking at the clothes he wore, it didn’t seem like his adoptive parents were very wealthy. He doesn’t hesitate to say that he’s lucky enough because he had a heart that was so bad that he needed surgery, and his parents abandoned him as soon as he was born.

 

Philip looked at the boy as if he were dealing with a strange creature. When their eyes met, the boy sighed.

 

“I’m sorry. Because I’m only talking about myself… .”

 

“No. It’s fun.”

 

Phillip drank his coffee with a light laugh. Rather than being exactly funny, it was interesting because it was his first time with this type of person.

 

“How old were you when you came here?”

 

Asking that, Phillip thought it wasn’t like him. It was a question that he would not have asked if it had been normal.

 

“When I was three months old. A person who knows my parents told me that they reached an abandoned orphanage and decided to adopt me after hearing my story.”

 

Philip recalled the scene of a child abandoned as soon as he was born, flying into a distant land. There was no feeling.

 

As expected. Once a b**t**d, always a b**t**d.

 

Phillip felt relief, no not relief, and gave a pretentious response, saying, “It was like it was a pity.”

 

“So I have no memory of Korea. I like Korean food, but… .”

 

The boy laughed a little. Small fangs were visible between his upper lip, which was slightly curled upwards. He felt a strange thirst. Phillip drank coffee. Then suddenly, he asked, ‘What’s your name?’

 

“Mine?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Then he tried to ask if there was anyone else here but him.

 

“Peter… .”

 

“Korean name.”

 

At the word of his Korean name, the boy blinked his eyes in surprise and replied, ‘Choi Inseop’.

 

“Choi Inseop.”

 

When Philip spoke the boy’s name with the correct pronunciation, the boy’s eyes widened in surprise.

 

“I’m Korean too.”

 

“… I know.”

 

There was no one in the school who did not know that Philip Levin was of Korean descent. Even the bad guys who subtly ignore and ridicule Asians did not even dare to pretend in front of Philip Levin. He just didn’t expect him to pronounce Korean so accurately.

 

The boy asked while fiddling with the cup.

 

“… What’s your name? Korean name.”

 

“‘Lee Wooyeon’.”

 

The boy tried to pronounce the name ‘Lee Wooyeon’ out of his mouth once. It was a sweet name.

 

“It’s a pretty name. Oh, pretty doesn’t mean that… .”

 

The boy stuttered gibberish, thinking he had made a mistake. Philip didn’t say anything because it was funny, he just watched the boy with his arms crossed.

 

“… I’m sorry.”

 

The boy eventually concluded with an apology. Philip asked, bowing his head, making eye contact with the boy.

 

“Is my name pretty?”

 

“… I’m sorry.”

 

“Then isn’t it pretty?”

 

“Oh, no. pretty! Very pretty!”

 

The boy replied. Phillip let out a laugh he had been holding back.

 

“Ha ha ha ha ha.”

 

The boy, who did not understand, looked up at Philip with only the cup of coffee in his hand.

 

“That’s right. It’s a pretty name. It actually means the same in Chinese characters.”

 

‘Does Philip know Chinese?’ asked the boy, roughly.

 

“And yours?”

 

“Me, me?”

 

“Chinese character. How do you write your name?”

 

Korean names were usually made of Chinese characters. There were some names that were made only in Korean, but the meaning of such names was different.

 

“I do not know.”

 

The boy replied with a shy smile.

 

“When I was thrown in the baby box, the paper said it was just Choi Inseop. I don’t even know if that’s my name or my father’s. I found out because my parents who raised me later told me about it. It’s a bit of an old-fashioned name.”

 

As if embarrassed, the boy gently touched the back of his nose and smiled slightly.

 

It was old fashioned. It was a name that was old fashioned enough to be ridiculous. But it was also a name that subtly suited the boy.

 

“I think you’ll write it like this.”

 

Philip broke a branch and drew Chinese character strokes on the floor.

 

“What does it mean?”

 

The boy looked down at the Chinese characters written on the floor and asked.

 

“Search for it later.”

 

The boy nodded eagerly and learned the Chinese characters written by Philip over and over again. Then, out of curiosity, he looked at Philip.

 

“Have you lived in Korea for a long time?”

 

“No. Just a few years”

 

“But how do you speak Korean so well?”

 

Accurate pronunciation and knowing Chinese characters were two different things. Perhaps the boy was genuinely amazed at Philip’s savviness.

 

“I’m still studying because I need it.”

 

He didn’t dare say that he was studying because he thought it would be necessary to wipe out the wealth of his Korean-American family.

 

“Have you been to Korea?”

 

“Many times.”

 

“How is it?”

 

The boy asked with his eyes wide open.

 

“Well, fine.”

 

Philip replied indifferently.

 

He has no memory of visiting Korea. In fact, it was the same wherever he went. He never thought that the scenery was beautiful or felt any special emotions.

 

“I definitely want to visit later. So these days, I am studying Korean hard.”

 

The boy said as if he was going to get on a plane and fly to Korea right now.

 

It was strange. An unpleasant aura radiated from the area below. It was the same feeling he felt when he remembered the scene where the boy was next to the person he liked.

 

“So these days, I’m also reading novels in Korean, and if you like it, I’ll recommend a few.”

 

When the talk about Korea came out, the boy was very excited.

 

Philip felt a bit nauseous for no apparent reason. Every time the boy smiled brightly, a cruel emotion suddenly lifted his head. It was like a childhood impulse to trample on the white snow with dirty muddy feet.

 

“As an interesting book, I… .”

 

“What are you so curious about?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“That is the country where the parents who abandoned you live.”

 

A gentle, gentle voice uttered cruel words. The boy was startled, unable to speak and only blinked. His face almost looked like he was about to cry. It felt like tears were pouring out of him. Strangely, he couldn’t take his eyes off his face.

 

As tears fell on the back of his hand, the boy quickly turned his head.

 

F**k, why the h**l was he doing this?

 

Philip shook his head and sighed. The moment he opens his mouth to say something.

 

“It’s all done. You can check it out.”

 

The mechanic’s cheerful voice came from behind him.