LLU 42

“Mr. Junghan, thank you so much. You’ve been taking such good care of Oonie. I heard Oonie even canceled the dormitory. I’m not sure if that’s too much of a burden.”

“What burden? Oonie’s not a child; he’ll manage fine on his own. Come on, let’s all go in. We should eat dinner.”

“But what about the baby…?”

My voice rang out awkwardly amid the bustling atmosphere. My mother smiled at my question like a fully bloomed flower.

“Mmm, the baby is sleeping with the sitter in the room right now. I’ll bring him out when he wakes up. He just fell asleep, so even if you want to see him, hold off a little and see him later, okay?”

“…Yes.”

Honestly, I did not want to see him. Seeing the baby’s face would only weaken my resolve.

As we all moved toward the dining room in a noisy group, my mother held my hand tightly the whole time. Naturally, the complaints I had heard earlier resumed automatically. Her worried nagging—that no matter how busy I was from now on, I should at least keep in touch—finally stopped only when we reached the long dining table.

“Come on, sit down, sit. You too, Junghan. Eat a lot before you go.”

“You must have worked hard preparing the meal.”

Choi Junghan’s gentle greeting was directed at my mother. She smiled bashfully.

“No, I… didn’t really do anything. The ladies here did everything…”

“Still. Thank you for the meal, Mother.”

The age difference between my mother and him was only about ten years, yet his voice was excessively sweet and polished.

That single word, so utterly mismatched, created no small ripple. My mother opened her eyes wide and blushed, Chairman Choi looked surprised, and I nearly gagged from disgust.

Right after he had picked me up from the hospital, he had mocked me by saying he would call my mother “Mother” too. He had spewed filthy words about the eldest and the second fucking each other, making me want to tear out my own ears. The fact that he was deliberately reminding me of it now was utterly repulsive.

“Haha, Junghan must have opened his heart a little now that the baby’s born.”

“That’s only right.”

He turned toward me with a fresh, bright smile.

“Now we’re truly family.”

Watching his eyes curve gently made my stomach churn. My appetite plummeted instantly, but I calmly picked up my chopsticks.

This charade would end today anyway. How many times had I shoveled food into my mouth with my ankle chained in Choi Junghan’s house? I could endure this final supper in human form as many times as needed.

Aside from the few times Choi Junghan’s disgusting provocations repeated in that manner, the meal proceeded relatively peacefully.

The main topic of conversation was, of course, my university life. How were the classes? Had I made friends in the department? I seemed busy with club activities—what club was it, and what did I do there?

Every time my mother or Chairman Choi asked about these things one by one, my chest tightened painfully. They teased me playfully, asking how immersed in university life I must have been to not even contact them, but if they knew even a little about my reality, they could never have said that.

I had not even stepped foot on campus. Instead of attending classes and listening to lectures, I had spread my legs and taken Choi Junghan’s cock. Instead of meeting countless people, I had faced only Choi Junghan in an empty house. Far from going to club meetings and being busy with activities, my ankle had been chained, preventing me from taking even one step outside. So how could I possibly know anything about university life?

Suppressing the rising sorrow and frustration, I squeezed out the vaguest possible answers. Offering only pitiful short responses that were neither this nor that, I had to repeatedly fight the urge to leap up from my seat and scream that because of the stepbrother sitting right next to me, I had not even gotten to see the university.

Thanks to Choi Junghan artfully changing the subject, the topic shifted to company matters. After enduring various questions, I was finally able to lift my spoon and actually eat properly.

I realized for the first time how grateful it could feel to be in a position where I could not join the conversation and simply listened quietly. But the peace was fleeting. While I absentmindedly let Chairman Choi and Choi Junghan’s conversation flow past my ears, I soon felt an inexplicable anxiety quietly casting a shadow over my heart.

What is it?

Why does it feel so uneasy?

My mother, who occasionally chimed in to agree during the back-and-forth, showed no difference from before. Despite her earlier words about having suffered greatly because we had not been in touch, her complexion was excessively good. That much was fortunate. But…

I could not explain it precisely, but the atmosphere coming from Chairman Choi seemed slightly different.

“……”

For a moment my heart chilled, but I soon tried to calmly settle the agitation. It was probably just because I was overly tense. Above all, right now I had no room to be sensitive to such tiny signs.

Between anxiously worrying that the topic of university life might come up again and observing the strangely changed Chairman Choi, I was completely drained by the time the meal ended.

“Junghan, you don’t have to leave right now, do you? Let’s have some tea.”

“Please bring us some tea, ma’am.”

My mother’s manner of calling the staff had already become natural. As we moved to the living room, refreshments were soon placed in front of us.

I planned to gulp down the tea quickly and somehow lead my mother outside to talk to her. My mind raced. The moment I hastily reached for the hot mug was when a soft “waaah—” sound came from the room.

“He must be awake.”

My mother smiled with a brightened face. Before I could even mentally prepare myself, the door opened and the sitter walked out holding the baby.

My mother stretched out both arms and took the baby into her embrace. Seeing her flushed face and wide-open mouth, I blankly recalled the image of my mother in the hospital room, armed with maternal love. Her eyes, sparkling with excitement, soon turned toward me.

“Oon-ah, how is he? Isn’t he pretty? Your little brother.”

My little brother.

My throat closed up completely.

I simply stared blankly at the baby quietly nestled in my mother’s arms. The words “my little brother” that my mother had just said, and the living, breathing existence of the baby right in front of me, felt utterly unreal.

“Oon-ah, what are you doing? Come closer so you can see.”

At my mother’s urging, my feet moved as if under a spell. I felt like I would die from fear of looking properly at the baby’s face, yet somehow I was already standing in front of him.

The eyes, still heavy with sleep, looked up at the unfamiliar people and seemed gentle. The fair, clear skin and tiny lips shaped like a sparrow’s beak were so cute and delicate that anyone who saw them would involuntarily let out a gasp of admiration.

The fine, wispy hair swaying like delicate threads, the small nostrils flaring slightly, the tiny ears—smaller than my thumb yet intricately formed—all vividly proved that the baby was alive.

Thump, thump, thump… Somewhere, an unfamiliar heartbeat echoed. Enduring the overwhelming vibration that made my chest ache, I simply stood rooted in place.

My expression was probably frozen beyond description. Yet I could not even manage to fake a plausible normal reaction. Once again, it was Choi Junghan’s hand that gently touched my rigid back and brought me back.

“Cute, isn’t he? Your little brother, I mean.”

He said with a leisurely smile.

The moment I heard those words, I could not control the rapidly spreading tremor. It felt like a huge gust of wind was raging inside me. Clutching my trembling fist tightly, I looked at my mother.

“…Mom.”

I barely managed to squeeze out my choked voice.

“Right now… I want to go out with you.”

My overturned reason devoured all context and words, forcing only the main point out. Not only my mother but Chairman Choi too opened their eyes wide in shock.

“Why, Oon-ah? Is something wrong? We’re finally all together—can’t you stay here?”

“Yes, Oon-ah. You can have some private time with your mother another day soon…”

“…No.”

Amid everyone rushing to stop me, I gritted my teeth and forced the words out. The tremor I could not control finally shook my voice.

“If not today… then it won’t work.”