PHUW 93

When Jeong Mok came home, Ahn Haeri was panting heavily and drenched in sweat. If not for the wheelchair, one would have thought he had just played a full game of basketball or soccer.

“What did you do at home to be so out of breath?”

“I worked up some sweat playing with Gom-i.”

At that, Jeong Mok looked at the dog sprawled in the middle of the marble floor. Even though his feeder had come home, he did not bother to get up, only wagged his tail in acknowledgment.

“What kind of game indoors wore him out so much he looks like a sled dog after crossing Siberia?”

“Soccer.”

“Really?”

Looking at the completely collapsed dog, the answer made sense, but looking at the owner with a metal pin in his foot sitting in a wheelchair, only questions arose.

“How?”

“Watch this, I’m a wheelchair master now.”

No sooner had he spoken than Haeri’s wheelchair shot forward. He sped past Jeong Mok down the hall to the very end, then pulled off a perfect drift at the last moment, turning 180 degrees, and charged back at full speed, rushing right past Jeong Mok to the other end. He was so fast that even a faint wind blew. It was not a wheelchair, it was a leisure cart. That was not the intended purpose of the fully automatic wheelchair he had bought. But if the user was enjoying himself, that was enough.

“Tomorrow’s a holiday, should we go out somewhere?”

“Sounds good. Let’s shower and eat and decide where to go.”

Haeri approached and stood from the wheelchair. Since he dangerously put weight on his injured heel, Jeong Mok naturally stepped closer and held out an arm. Holding onto his forearm, Haeri stared silently at him.

“What?”

The gaze was awkward.

“Is there something on my face?”

Jeong Mok instinctively touched his own face with his hand.

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Here.”

Haeri pointed with his index finger at the corner of Jeong Mok’s mouth. Did something from lunch still stick there? The secretary, who had faced him all day, said nothing. He had even had a video meeting with a European client in the afternoon. And yet, if something had been on his mouth the whole time? That was serious. Flustered, he rubbed the corner of his mouth, but nothing came off.

“Maybe it’s a pen mark.”

If it was just a tiny dot, no one would have noticed. He inwardly hoped for that, but Haeri shook his head.

“There’s something like a piece of seaweed stuck here.”

“I don’t see it. Take it off for me.”

Seaweed?

Executives had to meet a monthly quota of using the company cafeteria, supposedly to mingle with staff. He did not know which senior came up with such an idea, but personally he thought it only made digestion harder for headquarters staff. Still, it had been company culture for over ten years, so he quietly complied. Today he had few external appointments and had used the cafeteria, where seaweed had been served.

Should he ban seaweed from the cafeteria from now on? Or should he replace the secretaries who let such a big piece of seaweed stick to the vice chairman’s face without noticing? While he pondered solutions that felt trivial to him but would not be trivial to headquarters staff, his head tilted downward.

Haeri, who had been peering very intently near his mouth, suddenly puckered his lips and pecked him. Surely he did not try to take it off with his mouth?

“Did you get it off?”

“No. I think I need to do it again.”

This time Haeri pressed his soft lips right on the center of his mouth, then pulled back. Only when he saw the barley-tea-colored eyes curve playfully did Jeong Mok realize he had been tricked.

“What is this. Was there really something?”

“There really was.”

Haeri denied.

“Liar. Open your mouth, let’s see if there’s seaweed.”

“Here.”

He parted his lips slightly and stuck out his healthy pink tongue. The soft flesh, like an old sausage, bore not a speck of anything.

“Liar.”

“It’s true. I ate it.”

“Are you teasing the hyung who came home from work?”

Jeong Mok pulled him into a rough hug and tousled his hair.

“I’m not lying. There really was seaweed, and I took it.”

“There wasn’t.”

When Jeong Mok furrowed his brows on purpose, Ahn Haeri put on a serious face and jabbed his finger at the space between them.

“Uh, there’s another one here.”

“I’m not falling for it.”

“There is, really. Seaweed.”

He kept going on about seaweed to the very end.

“What seaweed.”

“Handsome-weed. It’s really here. And here too.” It’s a wordplay where the 김 (gim) sound is used both as “seaweed” and as the ending of “handsomeness.” 김 (gim) = seaweed 잘생김 (jalsaeng-gim) = being good looking

“……”

The embarrassment lasted only a moment. Then he felt it was all absurd, and he let out a hollow laugh. Jeong Mok brushed down his startled heart and deliberately put on a stern face, but since the laughter would not go away, it had no effect at all.

“Where did you even learn such childish jokes. You startled me.”

“Your whole body’s covered in seaweed. Handsomeness is dripping all over. Don’t tell me you’re actually from Wando?” County in South Korea, seaweed fulvescens production is almost 60% the total production in Korea.

“So young, and yet a master of dad jokes, I see.”

“What do you mean jokes. I’m serious.”

Haeri, who took offense, was scooped up like a giant teddy bear. Now used to being held, he did not even flinch, only stuck out his lips in a pout.

“You don’t believe me? Is our relationship really that shallow. We’ve already done everything, and now you don’t even believe what I say.”

He grumbled with otherworldly logic, and Jeong Mok tapped him lightly on the butt with his palm.

“You, you’ll get punished.”

It was meant as a warning not to embarrass him further, but Ahn Haeri flinched as if lightning had struck the crown of his head. He had not hit hard at all. Anyone would call it a pat. Yet Haeri whimpered like a puppy feigning hurt, then finally wrapped his still-damp arms around Jeong Mok and lowered his head.

It must be playacting. Surely it was. But what if it really hurt. He had only just come out of surgery. What was a pat to him might have felt like a slap to the other. All kinds of thoughts ran through his head. He felt disappointed at himself for not being able to take a silly dad joke and instead reacting seriously, intimidating him.

“I was wrong. I may have been born in Seoul, but my estranged grandparents supposedly lived in some coastal town. Maybe that’s why. They said when I was born, I came out holding seaweed in both hands. Handsome-weed, I mean. Even now, if I lose focus, seaweed suddenly pops up like dots….”

He strung together one ridiculous nonsense after another, apologizing. Just then, Ahn Haeri raised the head he had lowered and whispered in his ear.

“I… like that a little.”

His voice was a little trembling. No way, did he cry? He didn’t, right? Don’t cry. If you cry, hyung won’t be able to sleep a wink tonight.

“What part did you like?”

Instead of laying out his own feelings, Jeong Mok swallowed dryly and asked seriously. Which part of his childish rambling had he liked? He strained his frontal lobe, trying to catch a clue to ease the sulky boy’s heart.

“Being scolded by hyung.”

Shit.

“I wish hyung would scold me often.”

As he whispered, warm breath spilled out, and Ahn Haeri’s ear turned red like a tomato. On top of that, Jeong Mok felt a hard presence that hadn’t been there before from Haeri’s groin pressed against his lower belly.

Ahn Haeri was insane.

No one in their right mind would dare to provoke like this again after being ravaged the night before.

Song-i had been a peculiar child too. But compared to this punk who had suddenly flown into his life, she was a mature and wise girl.

Haeri was much older, so what was the problem? Was it because, unlike a girl, he was a boy, bright in a good way, lacking in a bad way? Or was there another reason?

‘It must be the amnesia.’

He was still on psychiatric medication. It was the time when it could have been reduced, but Jeong Mok had triggered his trauma of abandonment, then he had nearly been killed by a lunatic who attacked him under the excuse of some incomprehensible grudge. A string of events that would drive even a healthy person to a psychiatrist meant that rather than lowering the dosage, it had been increased. The seizure he suffered at the hospital had been a major factor.

So was this why he could not control his impulses? Psychiatric drugs came with a wide range of side effects depending on the person, so it was possible. Or perhaps even with medication it was too difficult to control the deep-seated emptiness and fear of abandonment.

‘He’s wearing a mask. He doesn’t even realize it himself.’

If it was hard, he could just say it was hard. If he was anxious, he could just ask to stay close a little longer. But Ahn Haeri could not. Even when he happily took scolding as a form of attention, he could not recognize his own state. That left Jeong Mok filled with pity, and with guilt, since he himself had largely caused it.

“You don’t need to do this, Haeri.”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t have to pretend to like it when you don’t. Whatever you say, I’m fine.”

Haeri tilted his chin and cocked his head.

“You are talking nonsense all of a sudden, something bad must’ve happened at work, huh?”

“No, it’s not nonsense. I mean you don’t need to act overly cute, I’m fine with that.”

“Overly cute?”

His eyes narrowed, then glanced up again, his lips pursed and sticking out in a mock pout, looking exactly like a comedian trying to act sexy in a skit. It was ridiculous. Cute, yes, but it cooled sexual desire rather than stirred it.

Paradoxically, though pity only deepened in his chest, his lower body had a separate reaction. Against his will, his arousal swelled in size. Since he first recognized the sexual stimulation he got from Ahn Haeri, his instincts had begun moving on their own, apart from the rational head that followed reason.

“You’re not fine at all, are you?”

Annoyingly, Ahn Haeri knew about his lower body’s response.

“Don’t provoke me. You cried from the pain.”

“That was the first time, I didn’t know. This time I won’t cry. How about it, want to test it?”

His disbelief must have shown on his face, because Haeri grinned from ear to ear as if delighted.

“Well? I am annoying, right? It’s makes you want to scold me, doesn’t it?”

“……Yeah.”

He really did want to scold this brat until he was crying his eyes and nose out.