His mother’s eyebrows trembled. A moment later, her eyelids fluttered weakly open. Her dry, cracked lips slowly parted.
“W-where am I...?”
There was no strength in her hoarse voice. Even in its sound, Hayeop could hear how hard her life had been, and his heart ached.
“Mom, are you awake?”
Hayeop carefully wiped away his tears with his fists and approached her. He explained everything gently, so as not to frighten her.
“You’re in the hospital. You’ve been admitted for a little while.”
It was something called shingles. They said her body had been exhausted. She had suffered from the heat too, and lately she had been helping the other women with their work so much. But she had received an injection and was all right now.
“The hospital?”
“Yes. Young Master brought you here.”
His mother’s gaze followed Hayeop’s words. The instant she saw the man standing behind him, her eyes went wide with shock.
“Y-Young Master....”
As though she had seen a ghost, her frail body scrambled to its knees on the bed, and she began begging him for mercy.
“Mom, what are you doing?”
She had not even recovered yet. She must still have been dizzy, but she kept rubbing her palms together in supplication.
“I’ve committed a terrible sin. I had no shame, secretly bringing my son into the house....”
The sight of her begging Young Master with her hair in complete disarray was shocking beyond words. His mother’s delicate body swayed as she bowed her head before a man far younger than herself.
“Ma’am, you don’t have to do this.”
Young Master wrapped a hand around her thin arm, but she continued pleading with her palms pressed together.
“Please forgive me just this once. If we’re thrown out now, we truly have nowhere else to go....”
With her painfully thin, pitiful body, she begged for forgiveness without tiring. Her hospital gown fluttered like the Korean flag.
“I’ll beg you like this, so please....”
Hayeop’s eyes went blank at the horrifying sight. He hurriedly seized her bony shoulders.
“M-Mom, what’s wrong with you? Don’t do this. Don’t kneel.”
Young Master looked thoroughly flustered, unable to conceal his discomfort. “Ma’am,” he said, lightly grasping her shoulder.
“You don’t have to worry. I’ll keep it a secret from my mother. For now, you need to lie down and get complete rest....”
Young Master’s voice was kind, and he was trying to reassure her, but Hayeop had already been shaken to the core.
“It’s all because of me.”
Mom had warned him not to let Young Master discover him, yet now she was going through this because of him.
“If I hadn’t been caught....”
Hayeop muttered to himself as regret overwhelmed him. He should never have entered Yoonwon’s room. He should never have carried the barley tea upstairs. He should never have knocked on Young Master’s door.
Then none of this would have happened.
His chest throbbed. He could not stand there and watch this any longer.
“Hayeop.”
Young Master called after him, but Hayeop could bear no more and fled. With the eyes of a wounded animal, he ran off to hide.
His feet pounded against the floor. He moved blindly, without even knowing where he was going. Yet he could not bring himself to go far, afraid that something might happen to his mother. He barely made it into the emergency stairwell before curling into a miserable ball and sobbing.
“Ugh... ngh....”
It’s all because of me. How terrified must his mother have been to beg Young Master like that while she was still ill, without sparing a single thought for her own condition?
Hayeop’s pale cheeks were drenched with tears. His enormous eyes brimmed with them. Anyone who saw him would have found the sight heartbreaking.
Creak. Bang.
At that moment, the sound of a door closing echoed from the landing above.
Step, step, step. Someone was coming down the stairs. A pair of long legs appeared first. It was Young Master. Hayeop could feel him looking down at him.
“You’re barefoot.”
Hayeop curled his toes. His slippers had torn on the way there, leaving him barefoot. Even his dirty, shabby feet looked unbearably pitiful.
Hayeop mumbled.
“I’m sorry, Young Master.”
He timidly studied Yoonwon’s face through his own grubby expression, then spoke in a voice scarcely louder than an ant’s.
“For what?”
“For being so stupid.”
Tears rolled from his round eyes one after another, dripping onto the tops of his dirty feet.
“All I had to do was call an ambulance. But I was so frightened that my mind froze. I wanted to ask someone for h-help, but you were the only person I could think of.”
Hayeop sniffled. He felt guilty for letting Yoonwon see him cry yet again, so he rubbed the corners of his eyes with his fists.
A large hand settled atop his head.
“Have you been crying this whole time?”
Yoonwon slowly crouched in front of him until their eyes were level. His black eyes were gentle.
“The truth is, I-I made the cold soybean noodles....”
Fresh tears came spilling down.
“I think Mom got sick from eating them. Maybe they made her shingles worse too.”
Yoonwon could find nothing to say. Hayeop must have been so anxious that he had picked all the skin around his fingernails raw, leaving beads of blood behind.
Yoonwon clicked his tongue and closed his hand firmly around Hayeop’s fingers. They were pretty hands, yet calluses had hardened them, jutting out here and there.
If he had been born into a good family, he would have been raised with care, shining like a flower sheltered in a greenhouse. How pretty and adorable would he have been then?
He would have grown up knowing nothing of grueling work, receiving nothing but love. The traces left by years of hardship stood out all the more starkly on those tiny hands. As Yoonwon studied the slender fingertips, his eyes turned cold and still. A strange silence settled over him.
“Here.”
Young Master smiled softly, took off his shoes, and slipped them onto Hayeop’s feet. Hayeop hesitated, unable to bring himself to wear them.
“Young Master, I’m all right.”
“You’ll hurt your feet.”
“But then you’ll be barefoot. You’ll hurt yours.”
“Then you can blow on them and make them better.”
If someone threw Young Master into the water, surely his mouth would be the only thing left floating. Hayeop could never hope to defeat him with words. Yoonwon took hold of his ankle and put the shoe on for him himself. Hayeop’s thin white foot disappeared neatly inside the enormous sneaker.
“The cold soybean noodles must have been smooth and delicious.”
Yoonwon tipped his face up and grinned. At the unexpected remark, Hayeop slowly raised his head.
“...What?”
“You’re so young, yet you know how to make those?”
Apparently caught off guard by the question, Hayeop’s eyes darted around.
“Yes. I learned by watching Mom make them.”
Hayeop sniffled. The small wings of his nose had turned bright red, making them look like a strawberry.
“You soak the soybeans in water.”
Then he continued explaining in a hoarse voice. His eyes were damp and glossy, like a little puppy’s.
“Then you grind them in a blender. You’re supposed to take them to a mill, but we had a blender, so I used that.”
Thinking about something else seemed to make Hayeop feel a little better. Perhaps it was also the gentle warmth of Young Master’s hand against his own, but the tightness in his chest gradually eased.
“Will you make them for me too?”
“Make what?”
“Cold soybean noodles.”
Hayeop lowered his bloodshot eyes. There was no way Yoonwon truly wanted to eat something so humble. He was a rich family’s young master.
“They must be sweet.”
Yoonwon gently wiped Hayeop’s cheek. His large, warm hand comforted him with tender care.
Creak. The door above them opened. When other people began descending the stairs, Yoonwon pushed Hayeop into the corner and raised an arm to shield him from view. His solid forearm braced against the wall, naturally trapping Hayeop within his embrace.
Ah... I think this is much too close.
In that narrow space, Young Master’s scent washed over him like the rising tide.
His clean scent. His broad embrace. His warm hand.
His high-bridged nose, eyebrows sleek and graceful as a snake’s tail, and those infuriating lips curved in a smile.
“Are they gone?”
“What?”
“The people. I asked if they’d gone.”
He meant the people who had been coming down the stairs. If Hayeop told the truth now, Young Master would say it was time to go back. This warmth would leave him. Hayeop had never wanted anything for himself in his entire life. But right now, there was one thing he wanted—to keep this warmth for just a little longer. Even a moment would be enough.
“No, not yet.”
His heart began pounding for no reason. Why did Yoonwon’s lips keep catching his eye at a time like this?
“They’re gone now.”
“Are they?”
Young Master smiled knowingly. Hayeop realized then that Yoonwon had indulged his lie. There was no way he had failed to notice that the footsteps had already faded, especially in a stairwell.
“Then shall we stop crying and go back?”
“Yes....”
The reply, faint as a mosquito’s whine, barely slipped between his trembling lips.
Still holding Yoonwon’s hand, Hayeop returned to his mother’s hospital room. His heart grew heavier with every step. How could he possibly face her again? Guilt seemed to shrivel his heart inside his chest. But when they returned, his mother was already waiting for them at the door.