BHB 76

“What is this?” Do Youngjae must have also witnessed that smile, as he immediately questioned it.

“What?”

“Just now, you smiled very meaningfully like you know everything?”

When Do Youngjae pressed further, Baek Seungha avoided answering and instead turned his gaze to stare at Yeowon, who was sitting across from him, with a subtle look. “I told you I wasn’t on good terms with Lee Taegang.”

At this repetitive answer, Yeowon frowned again. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t remember. 

The fact that the two weren’t on good terms wasn’t in his memory. 

‘Why?’ 

If the relationship between the two people who were closest to his back then was bad, he couldn’t have missed it.

But it was certainly true. Recently, Lee Taegang had been hostile toward Baek Seungha, and whenever Baek Seungha saw Lee Taegang or when his name came up, a unique ruthlessness appeared in his eyes. Since men with aggressive tendencies aren’t skilled at hiding their  emotions, even someone as oblivious as Yeowon could tell that much.

“So I don’t know much, but I did know a few things.”

“What is it, what is it?!”

When this busybody ghost, eager to learn something new about Lee Taegang, asked with wide eyes, Baek Seungha continued to look at Yeowon as he spoke, “That he had a lot of money.”

His answer was so trivial that Do Youngjae’s face fell. 

But it wasn’t over yet, as Baek Seungha’s voice continued to flow into his ears, “That he couldn’t get his head straight around him.”

He pointed at Yeowon while speaking casually, but Yeowon could clearly tell. That it wasn’t said with simple intent. He could tell because there was force in the fingertip pointing at him, and after folding his finger, he clenched his fist so tightly that veins popped out on the back of his hand.

With an uncomfortable feeling, Yeowon wanted to question him this time, but Do Youngjae, who took the answer lightly, said he knew that too, and agreed with a voice full of disappointment. 

Suddenly, another question arose, ‘Why weren’t the two on good terms?’

‘Where are you going?’

It was the school’s foundation day. Despite not having to go to school, Yeowon was up early in the morning, standing in front of the full-length mirror checking his appearance. Lee Taegang, who knew better than anyone that he rarely paid this much attention except when meeting a girl, asked with a disheveled look after waking up.

‘Going to meet hyung.’

‘Hyung?’ At the familiar term, the sleepy corner of Lee Taegang’s eyes twitched with irritation.

‘The hyung I told you about before.’

‘Since when do you have a hyung?’

‘Ah, I told you about that hyung who has Choi Youngdoo wrapped around his finger.’

‘That’s what I’m asking, where the fuck do you have a hyung?’

At this childish nitpicking, Yeowon stopped fixing his hair and turned to Lee Taegang, ‘Are you bragging that only you have a hyung?’

He had once felt unfair that everyone else had brothers, sisters, and he alone didn’t. When Lee Taegang deliberately pointed this out, he looked at him irritably, and Lee Taegang got up from the bed sluggishly, half-naked.

‘Didn’t you say we’d go watch the game today?’

‘When did I say that?’

‘I don’t know, whenever.’

‘What nonsense is this?’

‘I don’t know, maybe I’m just annoyed by you making a fuss first thing in the morning.’

‘Why are you picking a fight?’

‘I’m hungry.’ Lee Taegang said, completely ignoring his words while lingering around.

‘Heat up some pizza.’

‘I’m tired of it.’

‘Then let’s go out to eat.’

‘Your answers are shit.’

As he kept challenging him at every turn, Yeowon’s temper started to rise, ‘You woke up with a dirty mouth today.’

‘Third year?’ Lee Taegang asked naturally, as if flowing water, while putting a cigarette from the scattered pack on the shelf into his mouth. 

As the conversation topic suddenly returned to Baek Seungha, Yeowon let out a laugh at the jumping conversation and answered honestly, ‘Yeah. I heard he’s famous around our school.’

‘For what?’ Lee Taegang asked, flicking the lighter he’d stolen from his brother. 

It was a rectangular lighter that fit in his hand, and the point was that all four sides were covered in gold. It was an item that Kim Myungjoo had coveted as soon as he saw it.

‘For what? For fighting. But isn’t that your brother’s?’

‘What brother?’

‘Who else do you have as a brother? Taejoo hyung, right?’

‘You really call anyone hyung, don’t you?’

‘Then what, goddamn it, Taejoo hyung is my hyung, not my friend.’

‘Must be nice having so many hyungs everywhere.’ Lee Taegang said sarcastically, exhaling a long stream of smoke. 

As the smoke quickly filled the room with closed windows, Yeowon waved his hand as if bothered. ‘Ah, I just sprayed perfume.’

‘Perfume my ass. Are you going to date that hyung?’

‘Even your jokes are shit.’

Lee Taegang sat leisurely and looked Yeowon up and down. He seemed puzzled by his dressed-up appearance despite not going on a date, so Yeowon answered before he even asked, ‘Somehow I want to make a good impression on this hyung.’

‘…’

‘He is the first person besides yourself.’

‘…’

‘Someone I really want to become friends with.’

‘…’

‘You know, someone you want to keep seeing for a long time.’ Yeowon said while pressing down his side hair and looking in the mirror. There was no more response, but Yeowon continued speaking as if used to it, ‘He really gives off this senior vibe, and seeing how Choi Youngdoo can’t move an inch around him, I think it would be good to become close with him.’

‘…’

‘His back is completely covered in tattoos, but they don’t look tacky, you know? Plus, he works three part-time jobs. He says he has many younger siblings that he supports, isn’t that amazing? He lives much harder than he looks.’

‘…’

‘I don’t know, I guess you could say he feels different from guys like us….’

Yeowon chatted to Lee Taegang about the unique aspects of Baek Seungha he had discovered, as he usually did. It was an honest impression. He seemed different from the pathetic delinquents who, like themselves, had nothing better to do than pass time drinking and partying. He seemed like someone who could be obviously rough and extremely mean when needed, but he was living more diligently than anyone. After witnessing him falling asleep throughout class because he’d been working at a warehouse until dawn, he even felt sorry for him. To the point of wanting to cover his living expenses for him.

Although there was no response to his detailed chatter except for thickening cigarette smoke, Yeowon didn’t mind and, remembering one more thing, rubbed his chin, ‘Also, he doesn’t bother juniors without reason… and the way he prevents people outside from messing with kids from our school is pretty cool too.’

‘…’

‘Maybe that’s why. That huge tattoo actually looks kind of badass?’ Yeowon said dramatically while stroking his own back. 

When he turned to look at Lee Taegang, he was just staring at him without answering. Only then did he realize he had been babbling alone, and embarrassed, he moved his lips while gathering his wallet and phone, ‘Anyway, I’m going. Oh, are you meeting the guys tonight?’

‘What’s his name?’

At the response to his question, Yeowon asked back, ‘Huh?’

‘That fucking cool hyung, his name.’

‘Oh, Baek Seungha.’ He casually replied and added, ‘Actually, I already mentioned you to hyung.’

It was a time when he was quite excited. The idea of his two favorite people becoming friends made him even more excited to talk about it.

‘Let’s hang out together next time. It’s better when my two favorite people become friends, right?’

Yeowon said goodbye with his usual bright smile and left the room. Thinking about it now, he might have heard Lee Taegang muttering something through the door as he opened it and left. What did he say? He seemed to recall his blank stare.

Yeowon thought deeply on his way home, but no matter how much he thought, he couldn’t remember. 

Clearly, he had said something…

All the way down the elevator of his apartment building, Yeowon couldn’t erase the wrinkles between his eyebrows, like someone lost in deep thought. The subtle hostility between Lee Taegang and Baek Seungha had been bothering him for a while. Of course, the intensity was more apparent on Lee Taegang’s side. Conversely, Baek Seungha seemed to be hiding something. 

What had happened between those two without him knowing? 

As his thoughts reached that point, Yeowon realized once again that there were many more things Lee Taegang was hiding from him.

“Every time you go to school, you come back drunk.”

After unlocking the door, passing through the entrance hallway, and entering the living room, he saw Lee Taegang already sitting on the sofa watching a baseball game like he owned the place. Even with a beer opened.

Yeowon frowned even more at the sudden appearance of Lee Taegang. “What? When did you come here again?”

Lee Taegang had been disappearing and reappearing without a word for several days now. When he’d try to find him while he was gone, he’d be unreachable, and then he’d suddenly reappear again.

“Three hours ago.”

“Who asked for the time?”

“Who did you drink with?”

“I asked first, didn’t I?”

“Do Youngjae?”

“I told you I asked first.”

“Kim Myungjoo?”

Instead of answering, Yeowon took off his coat and threw it at Lee Taegang’s face. Then he opened the beer can he had set out for himself and emptied about half of it in one go, “Are those my only friends?”

“Yes.”

“That’s ridiculous. I’ve got friends everywhere.”

“Jo Suchan, Lim Yoona, Jin Youngchae. And?”

It was a pitiful number compared to his school days. Back then, everyone in his class except for a few studious ones were his friends. Kids from other classes were in his group too, and he was close with seniors without hesitation, to the point where he once had well over 700 friends saved in his contact list.

Yeowon unconsciously turned on his phone and scanned through his contacts. He had boasted a decent network even in college, but after going to the military, taking a leave of absence, and returning to school, there weren’t many people he kept in touch with. He couldn’t even remember when things had become so shabby.