BHB 24

“Hey, why’d you come out? Just go back inside,” 

“Isn’t it heavy?” Yeowon scoffed. 

“Please, this? It’s nothing.”

“Take a taxi home. You might spill everything if you’re not careful.”

“Alright, alright. Thanks. Let’s have dinner with your mom sometime. My treat.”

“Oh, now you’re offering to pay?” Youngjae teased.

“What, you don’t like it?”

“Are you kidding? I love it. I’ll talk to Mom about it.”

Youngjae grinned, playfully throwing an arm around Yeowon’s shoulders.

“By the way, what was that earlier?”

“What was what?”

“Don’t play dumb. You stormed out of the lecture hall like some attention seeker.”

Reminded of the incident, Yeowon’s face soured, and he swallowed his response.

“You still haven’t made up with Lee Taegang?”

“Nope.”

“Man, you two are something else. Anyone would think you’re having a lover’s quarrel.”

“What the hell, that’s disgusting,” Yeowon grimaced, causing Youngjae to click his tongue.

“Why are you guys so stubborn? And what’s with Taegang? I was seriously shocked when he started kicking your chair. So childish.”

Yeowon silently agreed. The chair-kicking was indeed childish, but he knew Taegang well. He knew exactly how to get under his skin.

As they reached the first floor, a muscular man suddenly burst through the glass doors. Youngjae, ever the social butterfly, immediately brightened.

“Oh, hey there, hyung!”

Curious about this ‘hyung,’ Yeowon turned to look—and froze. It was a familiar face, one he hadn’t expected to see.

“Hyung?”

It was Baek Seungha, someone he hadn’t crossed paths with in years, yet here he was for the second time this year. What were the odds?

“Wait, you know Seungha hyung?” Youngjae asked, surprised.

“How do you know him?” Yeowon countered.

Youngjae glanced at the equally startled Seungha before leaning in to whisper, “He lives in the semi-basement of our building.”

“Ah…”

“Mom usually doesn’t rent it out, but his situation was pretty dire, so she made an exception.”

Yeowon let out a small sigh at Youngjae’s words, spoken quietly so Baek Seungha couldn’t hear.

“Are you two friends?” Seungha asked, gesturing between them.

Youngjae answered proudly, “Yep. Classmates. Best friends, actually.”

“What an interesting coincidence,” Seungha mused.

“Right? It’s crazy! How do you two know each other?” Youngjae pressed.

Snapping out of his daze, Yeowon replied, “He was my senior in high school.”

“No way, that’s wild!”

Yeowon was surprised at first to see Baek Seungha, whom he hadn’t expected to meet, but then felt glad. He had momentarily forgotten because of Taegang, but he had been planning to meet up for a meal soon anyway.

“Hey, you go in first.”

“Why? What are you up to?”

“Just go. I need to talk to hyung about something.”

Youngjae pouted but complied, heading back upstairs with a reminder to call him later. His grumbling echoed until he was out of sight.

Once they were alone, Yeowon spoke casually, “I was actually planning to contact you.”

“Really?” Seungha’s face tightened, his smile strained.

Yeowon faltered, sensing the sudden tension. An awkward silence descended.

“Funny how things work out,” he continued. “Couldn’t find a trace of you when I was looking, and now here you are.”

“…I haven’t been back in Seoul long,” Seungha replied, clearly uncomfortable with their chance encounter. He seemed eager to avoid this place, as if he had shown a side of himself, he didn’t want to reveal or display.

“You left Seoul?”

“Yeah. Came back so the kids could go to high school here.”

“Why did you—” Yeowon started to ask why he had left in the first place but caught himself. It felt too intrusive. It didn’t seem polite to pry into someone else’s circumstances so easily.

“The kids must have grown a lot.”

“They are. Big heads too—never listen to a word I say.”

Seungha’s face finally softened, a wry smile appearing. Yeowon relaxed as well, chuckling.

“If they take after you, I bet they’re a handful.”

“They don’t, thank goodness. At least they’re not getting into major trouble.”

“That’s a relief.”

“It’d be a disaster if they turned out like me.”

“What’s wrong with being like you?”

“…A pathetic guy, a high school dropout, an ex-delinquent, scraping by on part-time jobs. Not exactly role model material.”

Yeowon frowned at his self-deprecation. Despite his casual tone and shrug, he felt a pang of sympathy.

“What’s with the sudden self-hate?”

“No point hiding it now. You even found out where I live.”

“…I’ve never thought of you that way, hyung.”

“I know. You’re not that kind of person.”

“…”

“Still, I didn’t want you to see this side of me right away.”

“I can pretend I didn’t see anything.”

“I didn’t particularly want to show you that I’m doing delivery part-time jobs either.”

“We can pretend not to know about that too, right?”

“Pretending doesn’t change the fact that you know.”

“I’ve known about your situation since high school. Why does it matter now?”

Yeowon had been aware of his difficult home life and financial struggles back then. He even knew he had lived in a shack before redevelopment. His current defensiveness puzzled him.

“Maybe it’s because it’s been a long time.”

“……”

“Maybe because after all this time, I’m still like this… I guess I’m embarrassed.”

Yeowon remembered how invincible Seungha had seemed in high school. His reputation as a one-man army kept even the toughest neighborhood thugs in check. Few people in his life had ever made him feel so protected—certainly not his parents. Even Taegang was more of an equal than a protector.

But it wasn’t just his strength that Yeowon had admired. Seungha lived with intensity and purpose. He might have looked like a typical delinquent, but after school, he cared for his siblings and worked any job he could find. Sometimes he’d show up to class exhausted from early morning shifts. In a world where most relied on their parents, Seungha’s independence had made him special in Yeowon’s eyes.

“I liked you for who you were, hyung,” Yeowon said matter-of-factly.

“Just working hard, no matter the circumstances.”

He adjusted the shopping bag on his shoulder. Seungha remained silent, his expression unreadable.

“I guess fate is fate after all.”

“…”

“We couldn’t meet for so long, and now we see each other like this again.”

“…”

“Let’s have a drink sometime when you’re free.”

Everyone has things they’d rather keep hidden; he thought. As adults, they had to respect that. While he couldn’t fully understand his embarrassment, people change. The once larger-than-life senior no longer seemed so invincible.

That’s what made time so terrifying. It could extinguish even the most intense feelings.

As he turned to leave, a hesitant voice stopped him.

“That drink…”

The words carried a hint of courage.

“How about today?”

Yeowon saw no reason to refuse. While his feelings might not burn as brightly as they had in his teens, he was genuinely glad to see him again.

***

Yeowon hadn’t immediately recognized the infamous senior when they first met.

His high school had a reputation as the worst among the schools surrounding more prestigious institutions. It had a low college admission rate and was known for its troublemakers. But that lack of academic pressure suited Yeowon perfectly. There was no push from teachers about grades, and even when problems arose, they rarely escalated. With troublemakers on both sides, there was an unspoken agreement to keep things quiet.

However, this environment also bred some truly unsavory characters. Choi Youngdoo was one of them—a year above Yeowon and part of Baek Seungha’s notorious group. Seungha’s reputation as the scariest student in school, coveted even by local gangs, meant that his associates like Youngdoo commanded fear and respect from underclassmen.

While Yeowon enjoyed his fair share of rule-breaking and didn’t shy away from confrontations, he drew the line at people like Youngdoo. He might smoke, drink, and get into fights, but he had his own moral code. Do mischief, but not true harm. Some might argue it was the same thing, but for Yeowon, the distinction was clear.