PHUW 19

The direction the car turned into was far from the new city apartment complex. The whole neighborhood had low roofs, so the ridgeline of the distant mountains was clearly visible. However, it wasn’t a row of small, cramped single-story houses.

On spacious lawns stood sleek two- and three-story luxury country homes, the kind you might see in an architecture documentary. Gardens were arranged like picture postcards, with exotic streetlamps, parasols, and wooden swings. Beyond beautiful wrought iron fences and gates, large pedigree dogs, the kind you’d only see on TV, were wagging their tails lazily. The parking lots looked more like luxury car showrooms.

At the end of the road that cut through the center of the village, there was a house at least one and a half times larger than any they had passed so far. That had to be the destination. Rounding a marble retaining wall over two meters high, a heavy wood-toned bunker-style garage door came into view.

A short beep sounded, and the door lifted on its own. For a private home, the garage was impressively large, comparable to the parking area of a multi-story villa.

Inside were the sports car seen before, the black imported sedan they had just arrived in, a large domestic SUV, and a blue one-ton truck. How had such a mix of four vehicles ended up in one household? It was a strange combination.

“Let’s get out.”

Jeong Mok parked the car and stepped out first. Haeri figured out Jeong Mok would open the door again, he quickly got out on his own this time. As expected, Jeong Mok, who had been about to come around, glanced at him closing the door and smiled faintly. Then he opened the rear driver’s side door and took out the paper bag and medicine packet they had brought from the hospital. Haeri realized too late.

“I’ll carry it.”

He quickly reached out his hand.

“It’s not even heavy.”

Jeong Mok lightly declined and entered a glass door to the building, punching in a code. Inside, a marble staircase led up three steps to an elevator.

Ding.

When the small chime sounded and the elevator slid open, Haeri’s mouth hung slightly open.

What kind of house had an elevator? Was this just a private home on the outside but actually a multi-unit building? Maybe there were different families on each floor.

Since Jeong Mok was waiting, Haeri stepped in quickly. Whether it was because the elevator was small or because Jeong Mok’s build was especially large, even with just the two of them, the space felt a bit cramped. Haeri stood naturally facing the door. The control panel had only two buttons, labeled not with numbers but with Korean.

Parking and Entrance. It seemed the whole building belonged to one household.

‘Perhaps getting hit by that hyung’s crowbar was the turning point of my life.’

From the garage door to the glass entrance, from the metal gate before the elevator to the vestibule before the main entrance, five doors to pass just to get inside. It reeked of wealth, but Haeri’s first thought was how much of a hassle deliveries must be.

Ah, if they were this rich, maybe there were people working here. It would make sense if someone came out to greet them.

Jeong Mok pushed open a sliding door framed in thick metal and fitted with heavy glass.

“Go on in first. These work boots take a while to get off.”

Unlike him, Haeri was still wearing the hospital slippers. He hesitated a moment and stepped inside as told, though he stayed at the entrance and glanced in.

“Excuse me.”

“No one’s here.”

He thought the whole family must be out during the day.

Jeong Mok put one arm on the doorframe, bent down and untied his boots with one hand. The top of his head barely reached Haeri’s chest. His thick, densely packed black hair hardly showed his crown at all. The slightly overgrown hair at the back, left untrimmed, paired with his strong neck to give him an even rougher, more masculine look.

‘No matter the angle, he was a man’s man.’

Haeri found himself admiring him again.

Compared to his black hair, Haeri’s brown hair hair was thin because of how much he permed and dyed it. The back of his head, hastily shaved for surgery, was a ragged patch like a mouse had chewed at it.

He hadn’t been able to wash his hair properly during his hospital stay, only wiping at his scalp and hair with a wet towel when he could. But there were limits. The oil running down from his matted scalp made his forehead and nape shiny, and the smell from his crown was strong. He probably looked exactly like a wet poodle.

It would have been nice to wear a hat, but the hospital had forbidden covering his head to keep moisture from the surgery site. He was embarrassed walking into someone else’s home in this state.

“This way.”

Even without the work boots, Jeong Mok was still tall. Taking them off barely made a difference in height.

Inside was a vast living room. One wall held a TV so big it looked like it belonged in a theater.

Aside from that, the room was a soft white space, almost milky in tone, with a bright oversized sofa set and wooden furniture placed around the edges. Thick noise-dampening mats covered the marble floor completely. With no coffee table in the center, the room felt oddly bare.

“Have a seat. I’ll get you something to drink.”

Jeong Mok crossed the wide living room and headed toward the kitchen, which was sectioned off with an island counter and matched the spaciousness of the living room.

Haeri perched awkwardly on the huge sofa, which was about the size of one and a half hospital beds. Up close, the leather was worn in several spots, with small punctures and frayed patches. Judging by the wear, it looked like someone had eaten, slept, dressed, undressed, worked out, and done just about everything else on it.

Whirr.

The sound of a coffee machine came from the kitchen, and soon Jeong Mok returned with two glass cups.

“Here.”

“Thank you.”

Haeri took the cup, expecting the modern Korean’s barley tea equivalent, an iced Americano. But the color looked strange.

“It’s barley tea. Caffeine is forbidden for the time being, you know that, right?”

He himself was holding coffee so dark it could have been mistaken for poison. Haeri gratefully drank the barley tea he was given. The cool barley tea, with its ice, gently soothed his worn-out body and mind.

“Haeri-ya.”

Jeong Mok, seated one space away on the sofa, spoke.

“Yes.”

“Do you mind if I call you Haeri?”

Haeri thought he’d already been doing that. If not, then he always had a bad habit of asking things too late.

“Go ahead.”

With how naturally he spoke casually, it hardly mattered whether he called his name more casually. To be honest, even “Ahn Haeri” still felt awkward to him, it sounded more like a nickname or a stage name.

Jeong Mok smiled faintly at Haeri’s ready consent, then said something even later than the question about how to address him.

“I want to apologize properly. I should have checked more calmly.”

His gaze shifted to the back of Haeri’s head.

His gaze and slightly furrowed brows held both regret and guilt. A thirty-something hyung with default settings of thoughtfulness and kindness was rare enough, but when you added in this emotional side, it left Haeri unsure how to react.

“It’s fine.”

The seriousness of the apology was a bit much, so Haeri shook his head to wave it off.

“There are wild boars in the nearby mountains. They normally don’t come down near the houses, but a local once took his dog up there, and the dog got badly hurt. I guess I got startled and… ended up hitting someone innocent…” He sighed.

“That happens. And it’s not like I was entirely innocent.”

Anyone loitering at a construction site trash heap at dawn had at least a little responsibility. Feeling awkward, Haeri reached for the back of his head, but quickly lowered his hand. Touching that matted hair would only make his hand smell.

“Of all places, it had to be the head. Not just surgery, you even lost your memory. That must be so hard.”

Jeong Mok rubbed his face with the hand not holding his coffee.

He looked so stricken that Haeri almost felt guilty for not dodging and taking the blow from that tool.

“It can’t be helped. It’s not like you did it on purpose. I was just unlucky.”

The flow of consolation between them was going the opposite of normal. If they’d been closer, Haeri might have reached over to pat that broad back.

“I’ll take full responsibility.”

Finishing his face rub, Jeong Mok declared it like the lead in a drama.

“Don’t worry about anything. Just focus on getting better. The house is big enough for one more person.”

“Thank you. But… where are the people you live with?”

Trying to change the subject, Haeri glanced around the living room.

“No one lives with me. I live alone.”

“What? Alone? Then do you meet your family on weekends?”

“Not every weekend. They’re busier than I am. I usually see them on holidays.”

Them? So he really was the secret child of some chairman.

“Then are you married?”

“I’m thirty-two.”

Jeong Mok suddenly narrowed his brow, emphasizing that he wasn’t even at marrying age yet. He looked just short of annoyed.

“Oh. You are single. Then about a girlfriend?”

“……”

It may be rude in other countries, maybe, but in Korea it was just a normal round of personal questions. But, Jeong Mok pressed his lips together and turned his gaze away, clearly displeased. Whatever the reason, it was obvious he didn’t have one.

This wasn’t what Haeri had hoped. He’d thought it would be nice if Jeong Mok was a father with a fox-like wife and a rabbit-like child. He should have realized back at the hospital, what kind of woman would let her husband or boyfriend look after some stranger who’d been in an accident?

“No one but you will be coming into this house.”

Jeong Mok stated the unwelcome fact outright. Did he really have to confirm it that firmly? Haeri’s eyes darted around the room in embarrassment, and a he started to feel anxious.