GBH 59

In Hong Jae-min’s 19 years of life, this was the first time he’d seen a meal that could be described as “a table so full it might break.” Whatever Song Yi-heon had said, the housekeeper had prepared a lavish spread despite it being past regular mealtime.

Jae-min couldn’t believe this steaming meal was really prepared for him. Even ramen with kimchi would have been a feast, but the table was set with rice, soup, and neatly arranged side dishes on plates. In a situation where he’d be grateful for pig slop or cattle feed, receiving such generous treatment left Jae-min unable to maintain his usual rebellious attitude.

Hong Jae-min quickly swallowed the saliva threatening to spill from his mouth. He called out to the homeowner who was pulling out a chair across the table.

“Song Yi-heon.”

“Just eat. They say even a ghost looks good if it dies after eating.”

As Yi-heon cut off further conversation, Se-kyung sat down next to him and asked brightly:

“Are we feeding Jae-min before killing him?”

“We’ll bury him in the front yard, so help me dig the hole.”

While Yi-heon certainly had enough motive to kill him, judging by Se-kyung’s expectant look, he’d probably hum while digging. Jae-min felt a chill and dropped his spoon. Only the housekeeper, bringing in prepared fruit from the kitchen, took it as a joke.

“Oh my, you two are so mischievous. Se-kyung, eat plenty.”

He placed fruit plates in front of the two who had already eaten dinner outside, patted Se-kyung’s shoulder, nodded at Jae-min, and returned to the kitchen.

“Somehow you seem more like this family’s son than me.”

Se-kyung didn’t deny it as he served fruit onto Jae-min’s plate. It hadn’t taken long for Se-kyung, who frequented the house under the pretext of studying with Yi-heon, to monopolize the housekeeper’s affection. The territory Se-kyung’s kind capture had invaded wasn’t limited to just the housekeeper.

“About what I mentioned before. You wanted to get your mother’s medical certificate, right?”

“Is that possible?”

“Our family doctor says he can do it. So the previous doctor who was looking after your mother was bribed by that woman, Lee Migyeong?”

“Yeah, I don’t expect anything from that side. We need to look into the pharmaceutical company the doctor deals with. Hey, can you maybe look into hospitals for me?”

As the two became engrossed in a conversation Jae-min couldn’t understand, he watched carefully before sneaking a spoonful of soup. The warm broth seeping into his stomach, which had shrunk from two days of eating only scraps of bread, spread warmth to his fingertips and toes. He hastily mixed rice into his soup.

It wasn’t until he was finishing his meal that Jae-min realized it had been a very long time since he’d eaten warm rice. Moreover, he couldn’t remember when he’d last had a proper meal besides school lunch. The rice grains became sweeter the more he chewed. It was a taste that comforted his tired body and mind. Jae-min, who had become sharp from living on the streets, let down his guard as if disarming.

Like the soft flesh protected by a crustacean’s hard shell, Jae-min’s heart, its pretentious shell cracked, became soft and defenseless. Jae-min had always liked Song Yi-heon. Though his personality had changed, Yi-heon still came to him with those herbivore-like lips, encouraging him to go to school and making sure he ate. Jae-min was helplessly swayed.

At that moment, Song Yi-heon stood up.

“Kid, you’re spilling.”

At those words, Jae-min thought he had spilled food and licked around his mouth. He tasted sweet seasoning and was about to take the tissue Yi-heon had pulled out, but Yi-heon passed by Jae-min and wiped Se-kyung’s mouth himself.

“Geez, how old are you?”

Despite his scolding, Yi-heon seemed happy for the chance to take care of Se-kyung, wiping his mouth as if he were a three-year-old child. Enjoying the rough yet attentive touch, Se-kyung stuck out the other corner of his mouth too.

“It’s here too.”

“You’re so meticulous, but you need a lot of looking after. Come here.”

Though they sat at the same table in the same space, Jae-min felt a great distance. He could call out to Yi-heon and try to wedge himself between them, but he wasn’t sure Yi-heon would wipe his mouth with the same care. Suddenly, his appetite vanished.

Song Yi-heon could spare a meal for Jae-min, but he wouldn’t give him even a grain of genuine affection. Jae-min knew why, and he couldn’t finish the rest of his food.

‘Wash up.’

Though Jae-min had intended to just eat and leave, he couldn’t disobey Song Yi-heon’s single word. After showering, he changed into clothes Yi-heon had lent him. While changing, his mood had plummeted, but as he left the shower room and began to walk with a waddling gait, his mood turned as muddy as stirred-up muddy water.

Jae-min reached into the back of his shorts to pull out the underwear that had wedged between his buttocks.

“The clothes are fucking huge, but the underwear is damn small.”

Yi-heon, believing his growth plates hadn’t closed yet, had bought large-sized clothes, but wore his underwear fitted. He’d given Jae-min spandex underwear, saying it would fit, but being new and unopened, it clung to his buttocks rather than stretching. Jae-min had to pull out the wedged underwear every three steps, as if performing a Buddhist prostration.

Entering Yi-heon’s room, the early summer night breeze of June rushed in through the open window.

Choi Se-kyung, who had showered first, sat at the desk chair solving a Rubik’s cube. Like Jae-min, he wore borrowed clothes from Yi-heon, with damp hair falling over his forehead. His heavy, wet eyelashes shaded his focused eyes. His long fingers with neatly trimmed nails turned the cube. After just a few simple movements, the cube’s colors began to align.

It’s actually getting solved…

Jae-min, who had only ever “solved” a Rubik’s cube by taking it apart and reassembling it, watched in amazement before recognizing it was Choi Se-kyung and promptly changing his thoughts to “that fox bastard is just showing off by solving a cube.”

Se-kyung was completely ignoring Jae-min, and Yi-heon, who said he’d shower downstairs, hadn’t returned yet. Wanting to charge his phone but not knowing where the charger was, Jae-min awkwardly stood looking around the room for it.

The room he surveyed was ordinary except for the abundance of exercise equipment. Curious if Yi-heon had used that equipment to train during the winter break when contact had been cut off, Jae-min closely observed the dumbbells and barbells of various weights.

“You’ve got some nerve.”

A gentle baritone interrupted Jae-min. Se-kyung, leaning back in the chair, opened his lips while rolling the solved cube in his hand. His hair, darkened from being wet, created a subdued atmosphere.

“This was the one space where Yi-heon, after being beaten by you, could catch his breath, yet here you are casually looking around.”

“Song Yi-heon dragged me here, you know?”

“Sure, whatever. Everything’s someone else’s fault with you. You walked here on your own two feet, but Yi-heon dragged you. You ate well, but Yi-heon forced you to eat. You washed off your stink and changed into new clothes, but that’s Yi-heon’s fault too.”

As Se-kyung dismissed him as an ungrateful complainer, Jae-min bristled. You’re talking without knowing how uncomfortable this underwear is, wedging up with every step? But the problem was that it was underwear. He swallowed his anger, not wanting to seem pathetic by mentioning how the tight underwear was killing him front and back.

Jae-min glared and looked for something to pick a fight over, then held out his palm.

“Give me the cube, you bastard. It’s mine.”

Suddenly remembering how Choi Se-kyung had boasted about his friendship with Song Yi-heon, Jae-min wanted to provoke him by emphasizing his own special relationship with Yi-heon.

“I was playing with it last year and got bored, so I put it in Song Yi-heon’s bag. I didn’t know he’d still have it.”

To be precise, the cube had been tossed into Song Yi-heon’s bag just before he passed out from being bullied. Yi-heon, unaware of the cube in his bag, had thrown the bag in his room, and the cube had rolled out and under the bed. A few days ago, the housekeeper had found it during a deep clean, dusted it off, and placed it on the desk.

Jae-min knew the cube’s journey into the room as well, and he realized his boasting was wrong. But he knew Choi Se-kyung couldn’t know the detailed backstory of the cube’s presence. With Yi-heon absent, there was no disadvantage in lying.

Se-kyung immediately swung his arm. The cube was thrown like a baseball.

“…!”

With a sharp whistle, the cube narrowly grazed Jae-min’s ear before hitting the wall. Or perhaps it had scratched his ear as it passed. Jae-min touched his ear with a pale, stiff hand. It burned.

“I’m sorry, Jae-min. It was an accident.”

Se-kyung apologized, his brow furrowed in an expression of distress. With a face so innocent it seemed incapable of harming even a blade of grass, he regretted the mistake caused by his carelessness.

“I was aiming for your face.”

Usually, Se-kyung was just holding back; he had a violent temperament no less than Jae-min’s. Se-kyung’s nature was sadistic and violent to the point that Jae-min’s reckless outbursts seemed cute in comparison. He was by no means inferior to Jae-min.

If only a shred of reason hadn’t remained, preventing him from throwing the cube at someone’s face, he might have imagined stabbing an eye with the cube’s corner. It wasn’t impossible to kill someone with a fist-sized cube.

Now, in the same space as Jae-min, Se-kyung maintained a calm facade, but inside he was twisted to the point of nausea. He was furious at Jae-min for brazenly crawling into this house, at himself for only now trying to get rid of Jae-min, and at the reality that Song Yi-heon wasn’t here to hide behind and protect him.

“You crazy bastard…!”

Jae-min, deceived by the incredibly kind smile, turned a sickly blue with shame. He lunged at Choi Se-kyung. Se-kyung also pushed back his chair to stand up and fight, but he had to dodge Jae-min’s fist first.

Se-kyung’s back hit the desk as he dodged the fist that grazed his nose. The bookshelf shook violently. Se-kyung leaned back to avoid another punch coming from the same direction. Dodging the relentless punches, Se-kyung ended up practically lying on the desk. With his rounded back against the desk, Se-kyung grabbed the desk edge and kicked up at Jae-min with his feet.

“Ugh.”

As Jae-min stepped back, clutching his abdomen, Se-kyung grabbed his collar and pushed him towards the desk. Jae-min winced as his lower back hit the desk edge with a thud. But he didn’t just take it. Jae-min also grabbed Se-kyung’s collar and pushed back.

Like a beast about to bite into a neck, Jae-min wrinkled his nose and pushed hard, reversing their positions. Something on the desk cracked, and this time Se-kyung grimaced from the impact on his back. Gritting his teeth, Se-kyung pulled on Jae-min’s collar, trying to get him underneath.

Their physical struggle, at the boundary between boyhood and manhood, sparked with a fierce heat like dry kindling catching fire.

Their positions flipped several times. Each time, the desk shook violently from the impact, causing workbooks on the shelves to half fall out.

Realizing there was a large window at the end of the desk, Se-kyung gritted his molars. Jae-min, noticing Se-kyung’s protruding jaw, grew suspicious and resisted, but Se-kyung was stronger. As they grappled and moved to the end of the desk where the wall ended and connected to the wide-open window, Se-kyung pushed Jae-min.

“Whoa…!”

Jae-min, pushed over the windowsill, flailed his arms in the dark void.