ITDW 8

Jaeri’s biological mother, Luna Min—Johanson (Korean name Min Moonah), the second wife of Han Young Group Chairman Kim Joohoon, passed away suddenly at the age of 38 when Jaeri was 13 years old.

In contrast, Madam Gye Sookyoung, the first wife of Chairman Kim and biological mother of Jungyoon and Yoonjae siblings, had been separated from Chairman Kim for a long period but firmly maintained her position as the legal spouse like an impregnable fortress. It was a political marriage without love between them, and each had found their own love, but as long as Madam Gye opposed divorce, Chairman Kim could not force a divorce while turning his back on Madam Gye’s family, which consisted of legal heavyweights.

Madam Gye nailed it down that there would be no divorce during her lifetime unless Chairman Kim gifted 30% of his personal assets to her. This was not simply a matter of assets. It was an issue tied to the succession of her son Jungyoon.

Of course, considering Jungyoon’s exceptional intellect from a young age, the pretext of being the eldest son of the first wife, and even the directors remaining in the group from Madam Gye’s line, the possibility of Jungyoon losing succession to Jaeri, who was ten years younger than him, converged to zero. However, one never knows. As Chairman Kim aged and his mind became erratic, it was possible he might repay Ms. Min, who had been by his side throughout his life.

Above all, if his hot-tempered son fell out of Chairman Kim’s favor at just the right time, it would not be entirely impossible. Madam Gye was thorough enough to factor in such distant futures into her calculations.

In that way, by Madam Gye maintaining her position as legal spouse, the review concluded that the reserved portion of inheritance she would receive after Chairman Kim’s death would be sufficient to solidify Jungyoon’s succession without any issues.

It was because of this that the boy could see the light of the world. Otherwise, Madam Gye would have ensured in some way that the boy was not born. She was quick on her feet, having begun the review immediately after learning that the gender of the child Ms. Min was pregnant with was a boy.

Madam Gye did not particularly welcome Ms. Min but did not hate her either. Seeing that Ms. Min had borne one son and lived well with Chairman Kim for over ten years, she even thought it fortunate that Ms. Min kept Chairman Kim’s attention well occupied. Chairman Kim was not the type to be promiscuous by nature either, but if he grew tired of the woman living with him, he would scatter his seed unnecessarily here and there like other corporate leaders usually do. Madam Gye hoped her children would not encounter undeserved misfortunes in life. She wanted to let them walk a well-paved path and even lay a red carpet on that path.

When Ms. Min met a different fate due to a traffic accident, the grief shown by Jungyoon, Yoonjae, and Jaeri was similar in degree. Madam Gye, upon receiving the news of her death, felt a little pity for Jaeri inwardly, but seeing at the funeral hall that the child did not cry much and even occasionally smiled while saying something to his half-brother, she thought he was not a scary child.

This was a strangeness also felt by Jaeri’s distant maternal relatives, so the many mouths did not leave the boy alone. Unknown maternal elders called the boy aside and scolded him harshly several times. When the boy silently listened to the scolding shouted by some drunken adult, his half-brother would come and take the child away.

In fact, that day Jaeri kept pleading with his half-brother. To take him to his hyung’s house.

The eldest son of the family was serving his alternative military service at the time as a public health doctor at a health sub-center in Chuncheon. He commuted to and from the health sub-center in his daily life, and of course, he lived in a house prepared near the sub-center. It had been three years since he became independent from the main home.

He dismissed the young youngest’s plea outright, telling him not to say such nonsense. It was already an exhausting vaccination period with an extremely heavy load, and he was driven mad with fatigue, so he had no leeway to have patience for empty talk.

‘There’s a reason.’

Even at the boy’s plea, Jungyoon did not listen. For a child of that age, the reason he himself thought was rational was very likely not rational to Jungyoon. Jungyoon pressed firmly on his bloodshot eye area and temples, then rested his chin on that large hand and closed his eyes.

Having finished work and come straight to the funeral hall, he was excessively tired. He had handled preliminary examinations meticulously while administering vaccinations to several hundred people alone in a day. Other public health doctors usually just gave the injections in such cases, but he did so because of his extremely thorough personality. With no time and much work, he could not rest even a few minutes during duties, and this harsh routine had already continued for two weeks.

Jaeri sat a little closer to his hyung, but he did not move a bit. If Jungyoon had soothed him with kind words, he might have seized that gap to say what he wanted to say, but seeing him this tired, he could not bring himself to say anything.

However, Jaeri needed to draw Jungyoon’s attention. If not this time, he did not know when he could meet him again.

Jaeri approached Jungyoon closely and, with his small hand, pressed on his feverish hyung’s eye area and temples just as his hyung had done. At that cold body temperature, Jungyoon opened his eyes and muttered, “What is it…,” and Jaeri knee-walked to his back and began kneading his shoulders. It was familiar, as it was something he often did for his father. That touch was unexpectedly deft, and as the husks of fatigue peeled off one by one, Jungyoon just left the child alone.

He felt others glancing furtively. It might seem a bit ridiculous in a place that was not anywhere else but the funeral hall, but what could they do, he thought, about a younger brother giving a massage to his hyung who looked like he was dying of exhaustion.

Amusingly, Chairman Kim, who watched that sight, thought along the same lines. He was about to tell them to stop because it was not a good sight, but seeing the dark shadows under his eldest son’s eyes, he left them alone.

As his body relaxed, his mind seemed to loosen refreshingly as well. At that moment, Jaeri, while continuing to massage his shoulders, came right up to his back and said softly just loud enough for Jungyoon’s ears.

‘If hyung takes me with you, I’ll listen only to hyung’s words. I won’t cause trouble or be a bother, really, hyung.’

Why on earth is the kid like this. It was absurd. What is this. It is not something a ten-year-old kid living well at the main home should say. Bewilderment was the first reaction as a person of common sense.

And even before that first reaction of the person of common sense, there was an instinctive reaction. At the maknae’s extremely obedient attitude, his exhausted feeling cleared up in an instant.

In any case, since the kid was going this far, he had to see what words he would bring out.

‘What on earth is wrong. Tell me the reason.’

Jaeri began to speak. It was a desperate reason for the child, and it was something the family members would not even care about, and it was also a reason Jungyoon had not paid attention to. After Jaeri said everything, he asked to make a decision now, and Jungyoon could not pretend not to know his younger brother with half shared blood.

Looking at the deep color of Jaeri’s pupils, he suddenly thought that unlike when he was little, now the pupils were not visible.

Jaeri woke up to the alarm set for 6:40 and went to the bathroom attached to his room to wash up. He sat at the dining table before 7 o’clock. It was winter, so outside was still dimly bright. The beaten spot touching the chair back hurt, so he sat with his back straight without leaning against it.

Soon, Jungyoon came out from the kitchen holding a plate.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, hyung. Did you sleep well too?”

“Jaeri’s eyes are quite swollen.”

“Yes….”

When Jaeri roughly rubbed his own eye area with his hand, Jungyoon grabbed Jaeri’s hand to prevent it and brought it down.

“Let’s eat breakfast.”

In front of Jaeri, strawberries, mango, banana, and a few blueberries were prettily arranged on one plate, and a glass of milk was placed to the right. Jungyoon’s portion was two croissants and one latte. It was a simple breakfast.

“Hyung… I, I’m hungry. Give me some bread too.”

“Ah. Sure.”

Jungyoon smiled, which was rare to see.

“Baguette, croissant?”

“Baguette.”

Jungyoon quickly sliced the baguette, toasted it, and placed it in front of Jaeri. While waiting, Jaeri had been hesitating over whether to ask if he could eat some of his hyung’s croissant, but he immediately picked up one warm side of the baguette and bit into it with a crunch. It had been a long time since he had sought out grains on his own. For a while, Jaeri had not consumed grains unless Jungyoon forced him.

“Butter or jam.”

“I’ll eat it with the fruit.”

Jungyoon smiled contentedly again. Jaeri was already placing banana and strawberry on the baguette. And he drank the milk.

“How long will it last this time. It’s good to see you eating well.”

“This is too delicious.”

“I need to fatten you up a bit.”

“Yes.”

He was busy eating while responding one by one even to his hyung’s words that were like mutterings. Jungyoon sipped his coffee while quietly watching Jaeri eat the food.

He had thought he was eating commendably well, but now he had gone beyond eating enjoyably to stuffing food into his mouth wa-gu wa-gu. His cheeks puffed out because his mouth was full of food.

It was not simply eating well because he was hungry or the food was tasty. It was a strange impulse that was hard to call appetite, just an urge to force something down his throat swarming inside. Besides that, various impulses were probably setting off sparks in that small head of his.

“Eat slowly.”

“…Yes.”

“You have to chew sufficiently and swallow.”

“Yes.”

Even as he answered, he stopped him from swallowing without chewing.

“What did you buy at the department store yesterday?”

“Ah, um… um.”

While chewing the food packed full in his mouth, he indicated his mumbling mouth with his finger to show that it was difficult to speak because of what was in his mouth right now. Jungyoon nodded slightly. He must be itching to say something, no matter what, and this would become a very good conversation topic.

“Full suit set and shoes. I bought quite a lot of perfumes. It seems over forty. Around forty-something, but it was heavy to bring them, and I placed orders for perfumes I wanted to buy but weren’t there, so they will come tomorrow. There won’t be space left in the perfume cabinet. This time I bought a lot of the chypre series.”

“That must have been fun.”

Jungyoon responded appropriately. He thought he should fabricate the perfume cabinet to fill an entire wall of Jaeri’s room. It was already the third time making a newly fabricated larger perfume cabinet because a bigger one was needed.

“Yes. It was fun because the feeling was a bit different when testing the scents. But it ended quickly. After that, it was just no fun. I thought hyung wasn’t looking for me….”

“Was that so? There’s no way I wouldn’t look for you.”

“Yes….”

“What to do with the suit and shoes.”

“I have to throw them away.”

If he bought shopping items that were not permitted, he had to throw them away with his own hands.

In fact, Jaeri really had words he wanted to say, but he was scared that a negatively definitive answer would come back, so he could not ask at all. Since he could not know in which direction he was thinking, he had made up his mind to just not go against his hyung as much as possible.

Jungyoon took one more sip of the latte.

“If you could go to university, which department would you want to enter.”

“……”

With the university issue, he had thought he needed to look good to hyung, and to bring up those words at that moment. Jaeri could not catch his breath for a moment, wondering if his hyung really read his innermost thoughts down to the smallest detail.

“…Department?”

“Yeah. The department you want to enter.”

“…Any department that hyung decides will be good, I think.”

Hearing Jaeri’s answer, in which not even a shred of subjective thought about the future could be found, Jungyoon responded with a “Yeah?” that was barely audible. Jungyoon sipped his coffee leisurely as if organizing his thoughts.

Jaeri did not drink coffee, but he enjoyed the morning coffee aroma. Every morning came together with the coffee aroma, so now smelling the coffee aroma felt like smelling the scent of morning energy.

Both finished their meals. Jungyoon stood up, and Jaeri brought the cups and bowls to the sink. Then, he went over and sat next to him on the living room sofa where he was reading the newspaper.

“Hyung, I, here… Since I woke up in the morning.”

“It hurts, right. Let’s apply the ointment.”

Jungyoon felt sorry seeing that throughout the time he applied the ointment with Jaeri lying prone on the long sofa, Jaeri was groaning and scratching the sofa leather with his fingers.

The red marks from the beating were cruel, and the skin was slightly raised. Bruises had formed around them. As Jaeri said, if he had hit more, the skin would have torn and blood would have come out. After applying all the ointment, he gave Jaeri one painkiller pill.

“Is this extended-release? …I have to wait about thirty minutes for the effect to come in?”

Jungyoon wiped the slight beads of sweat on Jaeri’s forehead and tidied up the disheveled hair strands. As he soothed him by saying to endure just a little, Jaeri leaned his head against Jungyoon’s broad and firm shoulder and relied on it.

They stayed like that peacefully for a while.

While reading the newspaper, Jungyoon saw a message on his cell phone notifying Jaeri’s clinic visit reservation and said.

“I’m going to change your primary physician.”

“Yes.”

Even though it was the primary physician he had seen for over three years, there was no particular emotion. It was a place that had revealed that his illness was bipolar II disorder rather than depression, so it was a place Jungyoon had trusted for a while. However, no matter how much he was the director of the largest-scale neuropsychiatry research institute in the country, he could not compare to a doctor who formed rapport with the patient and devoted his full heart to caring for his younger brother.