Seolheon blinked as if startled and hesitantly opened his mouth.
“Hyung….”
“Yeah.”
At length, staring at me, he said,
“You were upset the other day because you got a math problem wrong.”
“…Huh? Math?”
“So I brought your textbook. In case you felt like studying while you’re resting.”
“Ah, no. How did you know that.”
I almost let out a scream but held it back.
I’d been silently howling into my pillow out of embarrassment over missing a middle school–level problem—how did he see that?
“I saw through the crack in the door. You were kicking the blanket.”
“…”
Shame surges in.
“Se-Seolheon. I’m really grateful you thought that far for me. But still.”
Grateful is grateful, but some things need scolding.
“Don’t go off on your own without telling me. What if you run into some weirdo like today?”
“I didn’t know that hyung was a bad person. But he had your pill bottle… I’m sorry, hyung.”
“You’re not the one who should be sorry. Haah.”
My feelings tangled.
Seolheon may look blunt, but he’s thoughtful enough to take care of things for me.
When I got Jaeuk’s message that Seolheon had come all the way to my school, my heart nearly jumped out of my chest, and when I saw him get hit by Im Heechan and roll on the floor, I thought I’d stop breathing.
Thankfully, Seolheon wasn’t badly hurt, my chastity is intact, and now that Im Heechan has been forcibly transferred, the incident is wrapped up.
Then I should be at ease… but something kept snagging in my mind.
Not knowing why only made it more unsettling.
‘Y-Your little brother threatened me so scarily I did it without thinking!’
Im Heechan’s excuses were mostly nonsense and lies.
But his eyes bothered me.
‘With his eyes wide open he just grabbed my arm out of nowhere and threatened me—do you know how scared I was?!’
His trembling pupils alone would have told any bystander how terrified he was.
Back then I thought he was just rattled from being called in over the school-violence case….
All of a sudden, Kim Jaewook’s voice surfaced.
Back in elementary school, while eating Big-Kachu pork cutlet, Kim Jaewook once told me this.
‘That kid’s kind of scary.’
‘Who?’
‘Your brother.’
Having run into Baek Seolheon a few times, Kim Jaewook went on with a dark look.
‘He was friendly with me just now, but he totally ignored Youngu Lee.’
‘What? He did?’
‘You should’ve seen your brother’s eyes when he glared at Youngu Lee. I nearly pissed myself. Did the two of them fight or something?’
‘…No, they’ve never even met.’
At that, I felt a twinge.
After I fainted from Youngu Lee’s Pheromones and was hospitalized, he’d gone out of his way to avoid me out of consideration. But not only at school—he ignored my texts, and in the game chat room, if I logged in, he’d bolt, and I’d been quietly hurt about it.
But if it wasn’t just because he felt sorry to me—if there was some other reason….
I shook my head hard and cut the thought short.
‘Don’t slander Seolheon. A kid can forget to say hello. Is this the military? Are you trying to straighten out my little brother?’
‘Ugh. Freaky little brother-otaku bastard.’
After that, Kim Jaewook never brought up Baek Seolheon again. I didn’t either.
I’d promised myself from the day I saw that baby white as snow nine years ago that I wouldn’t doubt Seolheon.
…So why am I recalling a conversation from so long ago now?
[The reason I’m this broken… is all because of you, Geonho Baek!]
A shadow I’d forgotten suddenly stuck its head out.
“…Hyung.”
That shadow, wrapped in clammy darkness….
“Hyung. Are you okay?”
Then, with the warm heat I felt at my lips, the shadow retreated.
“Your lips are blue.”
Small white fingers pressed down on my lower lip.
“Are you cold?”
“…”
“Do you have a cold?”
Staring blankly at my face, Seolheon pulled my hand.
“If you’re cold, sleep with me.”
Before I knew it, I was lying down next to Seolheon.
Looking into those blue eyes as he lay on his side facing me, I felt déjà vu.
‘If you’re sick, sleep with me.’
When I was suffering from the stench brought on by that sudden change in constitution….
Six-year-old Seolheon was looking at me with a warmth that didn’t fit his expressionless face.
Just like now.
“Warm, right?”
I parted my lips and asked him.
“…Seolheon.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re my little brother, right?”
“Yeah.”
Even at the sudden question, he nodded without hesitation.
“I’m your little brother, Seolheon.”
Then he told me,
“Hyung, don’t be sick.”
“…You too, Seolheon.”
“I don’t like it when you’re sick.”
“I don’t like it when my little brother is sick either.”
The words circled back on themselves, and in the end I couldn’t help but laugh.
Baek Seolheon lifted the corners of his mouth and snickered too.
“What are we even doing.”
“Seriously.”
At that small, guileless laugh, my view seemed to open wide.
The room brightened, and Seolheon’s soft, white face filled my sight.
‘Right. What am I doing doubting a kid like this now. He’s this cute and gentle.’
“Thanks for bringing my textbook, Seolheon.”
“Mm. Study hard so you get 100 in math this time.”
“You’re not teasing me, are you?”
“I’m serious. When I think about you suffering alone in your room out of embarrassment….”
“So you are teasing me. Do you want to get scolded by hyung?”
“I don’t.”
With that, Seolheon ducked under the blanket, and I rolled the blanket up like a straw mat and scooped him up.
We wrestled and played like that for a while, when the hospital room door swung open.
“Dad’s here! What are you two doing?”
My adoptive father, carrying a giant sushi set, blinked at us.
“Don’t tell me… you were having fun without Dad?”
“Ah. I was just talking with Seolheon.”
“The kids get big and start leaving Dad out…. I’m telling your mom.”
By the time I soothed my adoptive father, who was about to put through an emergency call to my adoptive mother, it had grown late.
In the end, that night three males slept in a row in the hospital room.
A darkness with not a single ray of light.
[One.]
The boy moved his lips and murmured in a frayed voice.
[One. One. One….]
He had long since forgotten what number he’d reached.
So he decided to count only one.
While he was repeating that who-knows-how-many-th time one,
a narrow door opened and light poured in.
[Good job.]
The boy was pulled down from a narrow shelf.
With legs so tingling they were numb, he couldn’t even stand properly and collapsed.
The tall boy who had dragged him down smiled proudly.
[See? You played hide-and-seek just like I told you.]
[Mom and Dad…?]
When the small boy finally voiced the question he’d been harboring, the tall boy nodded.
[Yeah. They were in an uproar when you were gone for two days.]
[Then….]
[Both of them were so delighted.]
The tall boy spoke, trying not to laugh at whatever he found so funny.
[Said it felt so refreshing now that the nuisance was gone.]
[…]
[Sorry. I shouldn’t say things like that. But they were just so happy.]
After that, he followed the tall boy somewhere.
There, the small boy got a hard slap on the cheek from his mother.
He was sternly scolded never to pull anything like that again, never to cause trouble anymore.
And then she turned her back and walked out of the house.
[It seems being a parent doesn’t automatically mean you love your child.]
The tall boy cupped the small boy’s cheek.
[I’ll cherish you and love you instead.]
[…]
[I’m the only real family you have.]
A large palm pressed hard on the stinging cheek.
[Got it, Uheon?]
The boy couldn’t answer.
Was it because his cheek hurt, or because he didn’t want to accept it?
That much, we can’t know.
“…”
Baek Seolheon opened his eyes.
In the dark hospital room,
beside his sleeping biological father lay Geonho Baek with his eyes closed.
A school-uniform shirt, black hair in a wreck.
Staring at that defenseless face, Baek Seolheon zoned out for a long time.
He reached out and covered Geonho Baek’s right cheek.
Then he pressed, hard—
just like the small boy had suffered in his dream.
“Got it, hyung….”
The answer no one heard scattered into the void.
After the Im Heechan incident, Sanok Middle School was turned upside down.
It was shocking enough that a boy everyone thought was a quiet Omega had attempted rape, but an even bigger, overwhelming scandal exploded.
“Geonho Baek—knew it.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
Because of me.
“I figured he was born with a silver spoon, but… ultra-alloy platinum spoon?”
“Baekil Group. Insane….”