KEG 73
“It cost a fortune. But I’m so relieved they’ll let them live as long as I pay up.”
It had been nearly three weeks since I’d come to Taebaek, resolved the case, and been bedridden.
During that time, Lee Yuksam kept going on about his family member who’d been temporarily hospitalized. He said they hated hospitals and he needed to go see them himself as soon as possible.
“Why didn’t you go first?”
“How could you say that? Ho-hyung is sick too.”
So annoying.
I resented my sense of responsibility, which was trying to assert itself toward Lee Yuksam. If I hadn’t known, I wouldn’t be sticking my nose in, but now that I knew a little, it was a pain in the ass.
“…I’ll try to talk to the ward.”
In the end, I meddled. I’d voluntarily kept this airhead – who only made me furious when I was around him – by my side.
I’m the biggest problem. Me.
“Wow! Thank you!”
The bastard grinned like a fool.
Whatever, I won’t think about it. If I think too much, it’ll shorten my life.
“Private Ha~! Private Haaa!!”
Just as the car was about to pull out of Taebaek, I heard someone calling out from outside.
“Please give me a ride too~!!”
It was my junior.
He ran toward the truck like a madman, carrying a suitcase and a duffel bag. I rolled down the window, looked at him, and said,
“Get a taxi.”
“Oh, I’ll pay for the gas~”
“It’s not my car.”
“Huh~? Are you upset?”
Lee Yuksam went ahead and opened the car door for him. I told him not to get in, but the junior shoved his head in and forced his way inside.
“Phew~ I almost missed you!”
“Why did you have to leave today of all days?”
“What’s the big deal, Ho-hyung! The more, the merrier!”
Lee Yuksam and the junior actually got along well.
Their excited, loud voices filled the space. With two high-energy guys like that in the car, my energy was being completely drained.
When the junior went so far as to blast the latest idol song through the car stereo, I wanted to abandon everything and walk all the way back to Seoul.
My eardrums were in agony.
“Ah~ So you’re leaving to get married?”
“That’s right! I’m setting off to find my soulmate!”
“Will you come back once you find them?”
The junior hummed thoughtfully for a moment at Lee Yuksam’s words. It seemed he hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“I’ll do whatever future my spouse says!”
Looking out the window, I saw a bird with an orange belly and black head fluttering down from the mountain. It was a refreshing splash of color against the otherwise pure white snowfield.
“Ah, that’s a Eurasian wren.”
When he noticed that I had been momentarily captivated by the bird, my junior tactfully pointed it out.
“It’s so round and cute.”
My junior cheerfully imitated its call, “Cheep, cheep.”
“Is it a bird that only lives in Taebaek?”
“I don’t think so. It’s a resident bird. You’ll find them in mountains all over the country.”
A Eurasian Wren, with its vibrant plumage, flying energetically even in the depths of Taebaek’s winter cold.
With that kind of vitality and adaptability, it could probably build a nest and thrive anywhere.
“I’m looking forward to life in a new place!”
My junior smiled brightly.
A bird took flight from the snowy landscape outside the window.
And just like that, we left Taebaek behind.
***
When I arrived home, the tension melted away. I barely managed to take off my shoes before falling face down in the entrance.
Pain surged simultaneously from the wounds and bruises that hadn’t felt like much before. I was too exhausted to move.
“You’re back?”
It was 8:00 p.m.
After returning the truck, sorting out the Lee Yuksam case at the hospital, and shoving food down my throat while dealing with the guys pestering me to eat, it ended up getting this late.
“You’re late.”
“Don’t talk to me. It’s giving me a headache.”
“Then who am I supposed to talk to?”
I was getting run over by work outside, and by Baek Yejun inside. Trying to think things through even at home was draining.
I’m just going to stop thinking.
“I want a cigarette.”
“Should I light it for you?”
“I want to take a shower.”
“Should I wash you?”
For a while, that was the only conversation we had.
I’d mumble that I wanted to do something, and Baek Yejun would just say he’d do whatever I wanted. A silly back-and-forth.
I wasn’t even sure if this counted as a conversation.
“You have to get up before you can do anything. Are you just going to lie there?”
“Help me up.”
Baek Yejun slipped his hands under my armpits and lifted me up. My feet didn’t touch the ground; I was just dangling in midair.
I stared blankly down at his face.
“LiXn King….” (Lion King)
“Haha, Hyung, are you still out of it?”
Maybe I am.
My brain felt like a soggy sponge. My body started to ache from the armpits down, and as I struggled to break free, my back hit the wall.
“Do you want food first? Or me first?”
That bastard’s mouth must have some kind of quota for spouting nonsense.
Will he die if he doesn’t say stupid things?
“It hurts. Let me go.”
“Huh? Oh, sorry, sorry~”
But Baek Yejun didn’t let go; he supported my hips with his arms and pulled me close. I was trapped between the wall and his white head.
Why does he love cornering and trapping people like this?
At this rate, I wouldn’t even be surprised if he eventually tried to lock me up.
“Why are you touching me all the time?”
“Think of it as guiding ~”
“I can’t do it.”
“I don’t think so? I’m feeling good right now.”
Rustle.
He rubbed his head against my chest. I’d had the medical staples removed this morning and confirmed the surface skin had healed, but the muscle was still damaged.
“That hurts.”
“Sorry.”
He apologized, but he didn’t pull away. Since I couldn’t shake him off, I just let him be.
“Why is this house so quiet?”
Baek Yejun asked.
I stared around the house and replied.
“Because I hate noise.”
I hate chaos. I don’t enjoy music either. If I listen to anything, it’s only the news.
That’s why I chose this place – just because it was quiet.
“I don’t like noise either.”
Come to think of it, Baek Yejun was generally quiet, aside from the occasional nonsense he’d say.
The sounds of eating, sleeping, walking barefoot, all of them.
He was the type who lived like a ghost.
“But because this house is so quiet, it was really scary.”
Baek Yejun buried his head in my chest.
It stung.
I told him it hurt, selfish little bastard.
“I’m scared. Hold me.”
I have to go out of my way to hold him just because he’s scared. I’m already doing him a huge favor just by staying still.
“Hah…”
I let out a long sigh.
Then, I gently rested my cheek on top of his head. It was white and soft, reminding me of my bed.
“For a bastard who told me to kill someone, you sure are scared.”
Baek Yejun rubbed his head against my chest and smiled selfishly.
He stayed like that for a while.
It hurt.
***
The seasons were slowly changing.
February on the Korean Peninsula, showing signs of moving from the cold winter toward spring.
The accumulated snow melted, and rain fell from the sky. That was how it erased its traces. As if the cold days were just a dream, it changed its attitude and forced change upon us.
A mere individual cannot stop the world from changing. Resisting doesn’t make it any easier. It’s like a wet twig swept away by the torrent of the world.
By something far greater than myself.
“I guess the Earth really is going to hell~”
Lee Yuksam said as he removed his coat.
Around his neck was a newly issued collar. A collar made of a special, glossy black material, inlaid with a red mana stone.
“Is it really okay for February to be this hot? This climate change is too much~”
The world remained in chaos, and the climate crisis had not been resolved.
“It feels like it’s around May.”
Developing and developed nations no longer pretend to be noble. They pursued aggressive development and implemented policies solely for their own citizens.
“I wonder if the word ‘spring’ will disappear at this rate.”
Green spaces were shrinking, and carbon emissions were rising.
To what extent was this the fault of individuals?
“It’s sweltering. I’m roasting.”
“That’s because you’re cleaning the building’s exterior bare-chested.”
The climate is the climate, and Lee Yuksam is Lee Yuksam.
Lee Yuksam was hanging from the building’s exterior, cleaning the windows because he found the dead bugs stuck to the ward’s glass windows annoying. He’d solved a task that would’ve cost time and money if we’d called a cleaning company, all on a whim.
Even though it was just simple cleaning, it was efficient when an Esper did it.
I thought he was way too overqualified for a place like this, but having such a skilled worker around was definitely convenient and nice.
“Ho-hyung! Aren’t I a total gem? Hahaha!”
Come to think of it, what exactly is “a place like this”? Is this a place where skilled workers aren’t supposed to be?
Here I am, someone who’s only ever taken on lowly jobs, yet I’m judging the prestige of professions.
“Man, it’s hot~ I bet everyone else is hot too, right? Should we just rip all the window panes out?”
There may be no hierarchy among professions, but there sure are lowlifes.
His way of thinking was fundamentally different from that of ordinary people. Lee Yuksam placed his hand on the windowpane as if he were really going to rip it out.
“If you don’t want to die, take your hand off.”
“Yep.”
I felt like smoking a cigarette and rummaged through my pockets.
The paper pack felt uncomfortably light in my hand. Without even opening it, I crumpled it up in my pocket and tossed it into the trash can.
“I’ll go buy some cigarettes.”
“Skipping work~?”
“If you shut up, no one will know.”
“Hey, Hyung! Bring me some bread on your way back!”
When I retorted, “Am I your personal bread delivery guy?”, Lee Yuksam blinked with a completely confused expression.
“Can’t you just pick some up on your way? If you’d asked me to buy it, I would’ve gotten it for you…”
Now I finally understand why Lee Yuksam gets on my nerves. It’s because his cheerful disposition highlights just how jaded I am. It shines a bright light on the twisted mess inside my head.
I feel like a cockroach scurrying away when the light is turned on.
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