GGAS 19

When he came out of the building, he saw Seo Taerim hiding at the corner of a nearby alley.

“Haa…”

Kim Abang let out a low sigh. From above, he had only roughly understood the seriousness of the situation, but seeing it right in front of him made him feel just how grave it really was.

Even from far away, only Taerim-ssi stood out…!

Seo Taerim was incredibly conspicuous. And even though it was the time to be running away, he stood rooted to the spot like he was nailed there, staring fixedly at something.

‘What is he looking at?’

Following Seo Taerim’s gaze, Kim Abang saw a wide main road with almost no obstacles. From the looks of it, Seo Taerim seemed to be considering that as his new escape route.

What, he’s really planning to go into a place where there isn’t even anywhere for someone tall like him to hide? Is he serious?

From the resolute look on Seo Taerim’s face, it seemed he was serious.

‘Ah…’

Kim Abang suddenly felt like a parent who had left their child by the water’s edge. He covered his face with his hands, lowered his head, and let out a heavy sigh. But soon he rubbed his face, slapped his own pale round cheeks a few times, and pulled himself together.

This is no time for that…!

Anyway, within 500 meters, the only person who could save that naïve man was Kim Abang himself.

‘Let’s go, the original Bangbang is on the move!’

Kim Abang shouted inwardly, then took a breath and ran toward Seo Taerim.

Before Seo Taerim could even let out an “Uh” sound, Kim Abang grabbed him by the back of the neck and leapt swiftly into the bushes behind the alley.

“Ah…!”

But as always, he didn’t land skillfully. He staggered heavily once, and with Seo Taerim’s nape caught in his grip, both of them rolled twice across the ground.

“Ugh… I, I don’t do interviews! Let me go!”

Even after rolling two full times, Seo Taerim still had enough strength left that he mistook Kim Abang for a reporter and struggled, thrashing to break free. If he had just turned his head he would have seen it was Kim Abang, but since he was trying to run in the opposite direction, he didn’t think to look back. The way he just flailed like that looked exactly like…

“Taerim-ssi, right now you look kind of like a handsome flying fish.”

When Kim Abang easily shared the beautiful image that popped into his mind, Seo Taerim stopped struggling and turned his head.

“…K-Kim Abang-ssi?”

Kim Abang saw the emotion in Seo Taerim’s light brown eyes shift slowly from surprise to relief, and he let go of his nape.

“Yes, it’s me.”

Kim Abang kept his gaze on Seo Taerim’s wavering eyes and answered slowly.

‘From surprise to relief, from relief to… worry?’

Yes, Seo Taerim seemed to be worrying now.

‘But what is he worrying about?’

Since Kim Abang worried every day about whether others were eating three meals but had never once worried about his own life, he failed to notice that Seo Taerim was worrying about him.

‘Hm… I must have been mistaken.’

Even though anyone could see Seo Taerim was looking at him with eyes full of worry, Kim Abang hastily drew his own conclusion, then reached out and plucked a leaf stuck to Seo Taerim’s cheek. He then held the leaf up right in front of Seo Taerim’s nose.

“Taerim-ssi, do you want to have this?”

Kim Abang asked while gently shaking the leaf. Since he himself always picked up leaves, acorns, or similar things as trophies whenever he ran away somewhere, he wondered if maybe Seo Taerim did the same, so he asked. It was certainly a considerate gesture, trying to understand the other person’s heart. But because he just had to wave the leaf right in front of Seo Taerim’s nose, the result wasn’t good.

“No, I don’t nee—Ahhhchoo! Ahhhchoo, ahhhchoo!”

Seo Taerim waved his hand frantically while sneezing over and over.

“Don’t nee—Ahhhchoo!”

“Oh? Did you catch a cold?”

Kim Abang asked with concern, still waving the leaf gently.

“No, just, Ahhhchoo! If you would just, Ahhhchoo! put that away, Ahhhchoo!”

“Maybe it’s because your clothes are too thin…”

Kim Abang muttered while looking at Seo Taerim in only a cardigan, then as if something occurred to him, he snapped his fingers.

“Ah, but sorry, could you lower your head a bit?”

Thanks to the leaf flying away when Kim Abang snapped his fingers, Seo Taerim miraculously stopped sneezing. He caught his breath, then did as Kim Abang asked and lowered his head.

“Mm…”

Kim Abang hummed. He thought lowering the head might make Seo Taerim look a little smaller, but because he was tall to begin with, it wasn’t nearly enough to make him properly hidden. Kim Abang scanned him for a moment, looking like a utility pole folded in half, then picked up a branch thick with leaves from the ground and used it to cover Seo Taerim’s head.

“Ah, I’ll hold it.”

When Seo Taerim took the branch and held it himself near his head, Kim Abang’s gaze naturally drifted toward his face.

‘Oh…’

Kim Abang felt sorry. Maybe because they had rolled on the ground earlier, Seo Taerim’s face was smeared all over with dirt and dust, and he was in a terrible state. Kim Abang hesitated about whether to say it, then simply wiped the dirt off Seo Taerim’s right cheek with his sleeve. Seo Taerim looked at him with eyes asking why he was doing that.

“There was something on your cheek…”

Kim Abang couldn’t bring himself to say, “You look grimy all over,” so he explained indirectly.

“Ah… thank you.”

Seo Taerim said thanks, looking awkward. Kim Abang thought that even though wiping wouldn’t fix it completely, he should at least try his best. So he focused more than before and carefully wiped Seo Taerim’s face.

‘Hmm… this is much better than before… huh? But Taerim-ssi’s face looks redder than usual?’

As Kim Abang considered various causes for Seo Taerim’s flushed cheeks, he suddenly gasped.

‘Wait, don’t tell me… just from running a little?’

He wondered if Seo Taerim was out of shape, and a sympathetic feeling rose in him.

‘How’s he supposed to survive in such a harsh world like this…’

Perhaps because of this sympathy, Kim Abang’s hand wiping Seo Taerim’s cheeks grew even more careful, and because of that, Seo Taerim’s face grew redder and redder.

“I-I think that’s enough now.”

Seo Taerim stammered, suggesting he stop, but Kim Abang was overflowing with consideration at the moment.

“What do you mean enough? You have two cheeks, Taerim-ssi. I have to wipe both sides. If only one cheek is clean, it’ll definitely look funny.”

“That reason sounds a bit strange…”

“Uh-uh, don’t move.”

Kim Abang spoke gently but firmly, then turned his sleeve to a clean spot and this time rubbed Seo Taerim’s left cheek. Seo Taerim looked around at the air in confusion, then finally chose to close his eyes. But Kim Abang was focused on scrubbing and polishing him, so he didn’t notice, and even tidied up Seo Taerim’s messy bangs.

“But Taerim-ssi, from now on, if you accidentally come outside, just open the door and go back inside your house.”

As he shaped Seo Taerim’s bangs into a neat perilla leaf shape, Kim Abang finally said what he had wanted to say earlier. Seo Taerim opened his eyes.

“Accidentally?”

Seo Taerim asked.

“Didn’t you come out of your house by mistake?”

While trying to tuck one or two stray hairs into the perilla leaf shape, Kim Abang asked again.

“…? No, I came out by my own will…”

“Really?”

Kim Abang replied habitually, not really believing his words. But when Seo Taerim nodded and said, “Yes, I struggled very hard to get out on my own will,” Kim Abang faltered and couldn’t help but look into his eyes.

“You struggled to get out?”

Kim Abang asked again.

“Yes. The reporters didn’t even leave the front gate and just camped there… but luckily, there was a dog hole in the back yard. My mother hates the hassle of house repairs, so she left it as it was, which turned out to be fortunate…”

Listening further, it seemed the hole hadn’t originally been that big, but Seo Taerim, insisting on passing through it, broke more bricks and cleared them out, so now it wasn’t a dog hole anymore but practically a back door.

“Well, I did at least block it with some boxes for now, so it shouldn’t be too obvious.”

Seo Taerim wrapped up the story with what he thought was a warm ending, and Kim Abang lowered his hand from Seo Taerim’s bangs. He had never heard of such an actively destructive “mistake” before, so he began to think that Seo Taerim really had come out by his own will.

“…But for what?”

Unable to understand, Kim Abang blinked and then voiced his thought.

“Why did you come out…?”

At his question, Seo Taerim brushed some dirt off his hair, as if wondering why he would even ask.

“Of course I came out to help you, Kim Abang-ssi.”

“……!”

At Seo Taerim’s answer, Kim Abang flinched, stepped back quickly, and picked a leaf up from the ground to aim at Seo Taerim.

“…?!”

Caught off guard by the sudden situation, Seo Taerim froze mid-motion while brushing his hair. But then, seeing only the small fragile leaf in Kim Abang’s hand, his head filled with question marks.

“…Kim Abang-ssi, what are you doing?”

“I-I’ll throw this if you come closer.”

“……”

Seo Taerim, going along with Kim Abang’s act, slowly raised both hands in surrender. But whether before or after raising them, he still couldn’t understand, so his eyes darted around.

“You’re free to throw it or not, but… why would you throw that?”

When Seo Taerim asked, Kim Abang gripped the leaf tighter in his hand.

“O-of course, to keep you in check.”

“What? Me? What are you going to do by keeping me in check?”

When Seo Taerim looked puzzled, Kim Abang lowered his hand slightly.

“…Didn’t you mean you came out to help me get caught?”

At his guess, Seo Taerim opened his mouth slightly in disbelief.

“Why would I help with that? I came out to help you hide.”

Seo Taerim spoke like it was absurd, but the one whose disbelief shot even farther into another world was Kim Abang.

“What? You mean you, not just hiding alone, not just running away alone, you came out to help me hide? You, Taerim-ssi? You, with that tall frame that looks like you’d get caught just by standing next to me?”

In his life, Kim Abang had never heard nonsense worse than this, and he was about to tell Seo Taerim that right away.

But…

Kim Abang stopped with his mouth half open. In all his twenty-seven years, had anyone ever helped him escape? No. For some reason, Kim Abang had always been stuck in the lonely position of being chased alone. Not only was there never anyone to run away with him, but even when he managed to hide, the people there would always spill every detail of his whereabouts to the pursuers.

“Yeah, Gwanggong-ah. Your brother went that way… I don’t know the details, but I hope you catch him this time and get compensation… Well, don’t take too much though… Ah, you don’t even plan to get compensation? Just looking for him…? Oh, this is the shoe Abang left behind? He ran off crying in this weather without even a shoe? Ah, you said you hate him? Goodness… what did he say to make you hate him… Hm? No, I’m not blaming you… Yeah, yeah, he did go that way….”

Suddenly, tears welled up in Kim Abang’s eyes.

‘But Taerim-ssi… came all the way here to help me…’

And in no time, those tears fell heavily.

“Y-you’re crying? Why are you crying?”

Startled by the sudden tears filling Kim Abang’s eyes, Seo Taerim asked. When Kim Abang only let tears fall without answering, Seo Taerim panicked, hastily picked up a new leaf, and showed it to him.

“Are you sad because you couldn’t hit me? Do you want to hit me?”

Seo Taerim asked. At that, Kim Abang shook his head.

“…I’m a pacifist….”

At those words, Seo Taerim panicked, quickly threw the leaf away, and lowered his head to look at Kim Abang’s face.

“I’m sorry. That’s… not what I meant, but I can see how it could have been misunderstood.”

“It’s okay… I was the one who first threatened you with a leaf…”

When Kim Abang lowered his head and spoke sorrowfully, Seo Taerim, though still flustered, shook his head.

“No. It wasn’t even a speck threatening.”

“…That’s a lie…”

“It’s true.”

“…You don’t have to sugarcoat it for me…”

“I was really being honest… No, forget it. If we keep talking about this, we’ll be here all night. Just tell me why you’re crying, and I’ll somehow… I don’t know how, but I’ll do something. Why are you crying?”

Kim Abang remembered what Kim Gwanggong always said whenever he cried.

“Don’t cry. Start from the beginning and explain how you ended up crying. Why did you run out? No, I don’t mean tell me what you ate this morning… Tell me what you were thinking just before you started crying. Yeah, in order.”

Trying hard to recall what he had just been thinking, Kim Abang slowly opened his mouth.

“So… Taerim-ssi, when I’m with you, it’s like advertising that I’m here… It’s the same, the same as walking around at night wearing glow-in-the-dark clothes…”

As Kim Abang stammered, tears like chicken droppings dripping from his eyes, Seo Taerim didn’t know what to do.

“S-sorry.”

Seo Taerim clumsily apologized and wiped the tears from Kim Abang’s eyes with his fingers, but Kim Abang cried like a faucet had been turned on, so in the end both Seo Taerim’s hand and Kim Abang’s cheeks were soaked.

“What… what should I do? Should I stop coming to see you from now on, Kim Abang-ssi?”

When Seo Taerim asked nervously, Kim Abang shook his head slightly.

“Nooo…”

“Then what should I… Ah, should I go crouch in that corner over there? So I won’t be seen?”

Seo Taerim tried to comfort him, but Kim Abang kept crying, and Seo Taerim’s thoughts started veering to the extreme.

‘Wouldn’t just not being seen be enough? Is my breathing bothering him? Should I stop breathing?’

But before Seo Taerim could waste his one life on an unwanted death by suffocation, Kim Abang grabbed his collar.

“That’s not it…”

Sniffling and hiccupping, he swallowed his sobs back and continued.

“It’s that… I don’t care if I get caught, I don’t care if it’s advertised… If you keep coming to see me… I’d be so… so… happyyy…”

Though he had tried not to cry, the sentence ended in full-on wailing as Kim Abang suddenly threw himself into Seo Taerim’s arms. Seo Taerim, feeling two spots on his chest grow steadily wetter, panicked, then awkwardly put his arms around him in return.

“Um… So what you mean is… you’re crying because you’re happy?”

Seo Taerim asked doubtfully.

“Yeees…”

When Kim Abang nodded with his head buried in Seo Taerim’s chest, Seo Taerim relaxed and let out a long breath.

“But if you cry too much, you’ll wear yourself out. Just cry a little.”

Seo Taerim whispered as he patted Kim Abang’s back. In response, Kim Abang, who was still sobbing and hiccupping, dutifully raised his finger and wrote a small “Yes” on Seo Taerim’s back.