MW 63

His chest heaving as if his excitement wouldn’t easily subside, he rubbed the corners of his mouth to hide his smile and muttered to himself.

“Seo Yijae. Just you wait. I can never let you be happy. Even if it means I have to die.”

Seo Yijae, who had taken everything from him, must never be happy. His face now cooled as if he had never smiled, Dohae ground his teeth, krrk, and exited the main gate with a bang.

⁺₊❆₊⋆

Yijae, having returned from a short trip in Jeju Island, looked out at the darkening window and flopped onto the bed.

“I can’t believe tomorrow is a school day…”

Yijae was a little surprised after saying it himself, but then he chuckled, phuhut. So he could say things like this too. It was a very entitled complaint compared to his past. He continued to watch the clock’s hour and minute hands move as he gazed at Jaeha lying next to him.

“You’re so lucky, sunbae-nim.”

He didn’t know before because he had been dropping him off and staying with him every day until school ended, but it turned out Jaeha was in his last semester and didn’t have many classes to take. Was it just two liberal arts classes in total?

Receiving Yijae’s envious gaze, Jaeha let out a small laugh, turned over, and gently patted his head.

“You don’t want to go to school?”

“It’s not that I hate it… I just want to keep hanging out with you, sunbae-nim.”

Unlike Yijae’s honest words, his cheeks were warmly flushed. Jaeha rubbed the back of his neck, which was as red as if a red flower petal had been placed on it, then slid his other hand under Yijae’s t-shirt.

“Heut…”

At the hand slowly stroking its way up, Yijae straightened up as if he had never been sprawling.

“N-not today.”

Yijae, who had been tormented by Jaeha every day in Jeju Island, pushed his hand away. Of course, it was good, but the difference in their physical stamina was so great that he was always the one to collapse first.

“I have a class from the first period tomorrow.”

And above all, he had to be busy running around tomorrow, and he felt like he would mess things up if he let it go on like this today. Yijae very difficultly removed Jaeha’s hand, got up from the bed, and hurriedly fled to the bathroom.

“He’s getting more and more lewd…”

Yijae, who checked twice that the door was locked just in case, entered the shower stall and muttered to himself.

“Still, it’s an important day…”

It was a fact he had newly learned a few days before going to Jeju Island, but tomorrow was Jaeha’s birthday.

Seeing as he hadn’t said anything until today, it seemed he wasn’t telling him because he thought he would feel burdened, but he couldn’t just let it pass.

It was Jaeha’s first birthday with him, so he wanted to surprise him with a surprise.

Yijae, who had been searching the internet for a suitable gift for Jaeha whenever he had a spare moment, saw his plain fingers and decided to gift Jaeha a couple’s ring.

Since he had money saved up from his part-time job, he thought he could buy a pretty decent ring, even if it wasn’t incredibly expensive. He had also pre-ordered a cake and made a reservation at a restaurant, so all the preparations would be perfect once he bought the gift. With a face full of anticipation for tomorrow, he rubbed his face in the pouring stream of water, his earlobes turning red.

⁺₊❆₊⋆

“Contact me when your class is over later.”

“Okay. See you later.”

The day of Jaeha’s birthday finally dawned, and thanks to a class that happened to be canceled, Yijae was able to buy time to go buy a gift without Jaeha knowing.

Yijae parted with him, hurried out the opposite side of the building, ran to the school’s main gate, and got into a taxi.

“Please take me to JS Department Store.”

Although he had two hours, it wasn’t much time considering the travel and the shopping. Yijae, who diligently organized his route in his head, leaned back against the seat, thankfully seeing that the roads were not congested.

⁺₊❆₊⋆

“Thank you. Get home safely.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Yijae carefully placed the purchased ring deep inside his bag, bowed to the kind staff, and turned around. He still had a little less than an hour, so it seemed okay to take the bus on the way back.

He took out his phone to find a way to get to the school, and his gaze fell on the call that came in just then.

“Gu Dohae…?”

It was an unsaved number, but he knew who the other person was even just by seeing the 13 digits. Yijae, who had been hesitating with his lips pressed tightly together, let out a heavy breath at the disconnected call.

Realizing he had been holding his breath without knowing it, he turned on the screen to block Dohae’s number with a trembling hand.

“…Oh, Mom…”

A photo sent by Dohae filled the screen, and he saw his mother in an unfamiliar place, seemingly not at Gangmyeong Hospital.

There was nothing wrong when he went to see his mother this morning, so how could Dohae… At that moment, he felt an ominous premonition approaching him and hurriedly put the phone to his ear at the incoming call.

—Hi Yijae. Have you been well?

“You, wh-what are you doing… How could you do this to my mom…”

—Surprised? Hey, why are you so surprised already? I haven’t even started yet.

Dohae’s voice coming from over the receiver was cheerful, with a rising intonation at the end of his words, but Yijae was not unaware of the anger it contained.

—You know what I’m going to say, right?

“Don’t…!”

—If you don’t want to, come to the address I sent you right now. If you say even one word to Kang Jaeha, it’s really over that day. Our Yijae doesn’t want to become an orphan, right?

Yijae, who bit his lip tightly, opened his eyes, clenching his trembling hands into fists. Right, he just had to endure Dohae’s tantrum just this once. He was scared and worried about how much it would hurt, but since his mother was in his hands, there was no other way.

“I’ll go…. So don’t touch my mom.”

—There’s a penalty added for every 10 minutes you’re late. We’ve done this a lot, so you know, right?

If I had known this would happen, I would have just wished him a happy birthday instead of putting it off for a surprise…

Yijae looked down at the blackened screen and shed tears, plop, plop.

⁺₊❆₊⋆

Yijae, who took a taxi to the place Dohae had told him, looked at the photo he had taken with Jaeha and shed tears, drip, drip.

Wiping away the moisture spreading on the screen, he pressed his lips together as he took in the little time left until the class ended.

After contemplating for a moment, he went into his chat with Jaeha and typed a message with trembling fingers.

Happy birthday. I wanted to surprise you, but something urgent came up, so I don’t think I can celebrate with you today. I’m so sorry that I’ve only ever received things from you. I’ll finish up quickly and come back to celebrate with you. Don’t worry about me too much, and don’t wait too long. Jaeha hyung. You know that I love you a lot, right? See you at home later.

He had never once said that he loved him before, but for some reason, he really wanted to say those words to him now.

As soon as he sent the message, a call came from Jaeha, but if he found out about this situation, his mother would be in danger.

Yijae, who bit his lip to hold back his tears, turned off his phone with a heart that was bleeding tears of blood. Just then, he arrived at the address Dohae had told him. Getting out of the taxi, he stood in front of the building that exuded a gloomy aura and took a breath.

“I’m sure this is the address Dohae wrote down…”

It looked more like an abandoned building than a hospital. Yijae, who was looking back and forth between the address written on his phone and the completely broken neon sign, decided to go inside for now and slowly took a step forward.

⁺₊❆₊⋆

“Hey, Kang Jaeha!”

Jaeha, who was leaving the club room after printing the photos on the SD card, turned around at the sound of someone calling him from behind.

“Happy birthday, you bastard. But how could you not say a single word to me after that?”