ITDW 2

“…Noona, I was wrong. I won’t let my emotions get the better of me and act impolitely in the future.”

— Kim Jungyoon made you say that. You poor thing.

“That’s not it…”

— What isn’t? The former, or the latter?

“…It just is.”

— Our youngest is so dispirited. Noona will have to give you a card.

“…”

“Kim Yoonjae.”

The man suddenly cut into the conversation. There was a moment of silence. Soon, Yoonjae answered in a deliberately brighter voice.

— Huh? Oh, it was on speakerphone. Haha, I was just joking. Because our youngest is so cute.

In front of Jungyoon, Jaeri always had to have his calls on speakerphone. There were no exceptions. The family knew that the eldest son of the Kim family was a bit controlling, but the reality was that he was beyond just a bit controlling.

“Let’s talk again next time.”

— Ah, well… okay.

“Noona, see you next time.”

— Yeah, see you next time, our youngest. Oppa, take care.

The call ended.

Jaeri noticed that several messages had come in. In the dark car, only the light from his phone twinkled. He wasn’t in the mood to check the messages, so he put the phone down, then asked Jungyoon.

“Hyung, …should I read them?”

He, who never wasted time, would often have him inspect his messages while driving. He gave no particular answer, but the boy began to read the messages that had come for him. It was a routine thing, so if he wasn’t told not to, he had to do it. Just like brushing his teeth three times a day.

“7:53 PM, Ye Seonyeong. ‘Kim Jae, did you do well on the CSAT? I think I bombed… Mom says I have to retake. If that doesn’t work, retake again. You probably did well. Contact me when you see this.’”

He read the messages in order of time received, sender, and content. Jungyoon was usually very busy, only getting a little bit of leeway after his promotion to Vice President in July. In front of his hyung, who would come home from work in the evening and face a mountain of documents, Jaeri had to read his messages aloud, thereby having his friendships and overall communication supervised.

Of course, he had deleted some rather troublesome messages and had also changed the wording before. However, he was caught every time, and he learned thoroughly through his body that doing so only resulted in a bigger scolding. And now.

“8:02 PM, Park Jinsu. ‘Jaeri, the CSAT is over, so we…’”

Jaeri hesitated for a moment. He couldn’t speak.

“…Continue.”

“Hyung, …I…”

“Read.”

“…”

Jaeri’s lips trembled. Even if he didn’t read it, hyung would find out everything anyway, but this message was very difficult to say himself.

“I said read. I’m driving.”

He wished his hyung would just take his phone and look at it himself, but as if reading his mind, Jungyoon snapped irritably.

Jaeri felt his mind turning completely, tightly white. Pushing aside the space in his thoughts that felt stuffed with dense cotton, leaving no room, he opened his mouth that wouldn’t move.

“…‘we… should drink. …The place where we drank, that premium liquor before.’”

Screeeech—!

With the tearing friction sound of the tires, there was a sudden right turn. And then another screeeech— like before, and the car came to a rough stop. He almost hit his head on the window.

His heart pounded wildly, and his hands began to tremble.

Jungyoon, who had been staring straight ahead for a while even after stopping, turned to gaze directly at Jaeri. His eyes were fierce, as if fireballs were blazing brightly within them.

“We almost got into an accident, didn’t we?”

“Hyung…”

Jaeri tried to hand his phone to Jungyoon with his trembling hands, but Jungyoon slapped his hand away.

“Open that mouth of yours properly, and read it correctly.”

Jaeri squeezed his eyes shut once, then opened them, steeled himself, and began to read.

“‘Not the place we drank that premium liquor, but a better place… let’s go… let’s get a room, today.’ Hyung, I’ve, I’ve never partied in a room, it was just one time.”

The man’s fiery eyes had, at some point, turned cold, and even somewhat languid. He silently gestured toward the phone with a light tilt of his chin. At the unspoken command to continue, Jaeri had to carry on with his forced confession.

“…8:07 PM, Yang Hyunjun, ‘Jinsu says he’s getting a room today, are you coming? …Our pretty boy has to be there.’ …9:11 PM, Park Jinsu, ‘I knew you were so damn aloof you’d just ignore the text. We’re gonna start running from ten, so come even if you’re late…’”

He was in a daze, not knowing what state of mind he was in as he read. Jaeri’s face was flushed red with bewilderment, shame, and fear. A current seemed to run down his back, and sweat beaded on the nape of his neck. In the short time it took to read the messages, a compressed weight pressed down on his head, and even as he read, he was so afraid and ashamed of the content that he tried not to register it. Only the afterimage of the spoken words floated around in his head.

He couldn’t understand how this had happened. Was it a betrayal? For Park Jinsu and Yang Hyunjun to contact him by phone about ‘important bad things’ was, to be seen as an accident. What is this? We don’t even meet often because our personalities don’t match, how could this. His thoughts were a jumbled mess.

“Next.”

“That’s, that’s all…”

Jungyoon buried his face in the steering wheel and, in that position, spoke to Jaeri. The voice, vibrating and echoing through the gaps in the steering wheel, sank even lower, sounding unfamiliar. His bowed posture was also so unfamiliar that it felt unreal. This was not the hyung he knew.

“The one that just came in from Yoonjae.”

The boy came to his senses and looked at his phone again to see a message from his sister glowing. He hadn’t known.

“…9:28 PM, Noona, ‘Jaeri, noona will… give you a card without oppa knowing. …Our youngest, for the first time in a while, do whatever you want to do. You worked so hard. My pretty little brother.’”

He lifted his body, which had been bent over the steering wheel. He even let out a smirk.

“Ah, you’ve gone crazy.”

His hyung’s low voice, like a curse, clawed at his chest. He had been made to confess two major wrongdoings, without any mental preparation.