By Zephyria 
Life had been so busy just trying to keep food in his mouth. He had lived like an illiterate, unaware of how the world turned.
But lately, whenever he woke up in the morning, he made sure to read the newspaper.
Shall I go find today’s copy…
Eun-myeong quietly pushed back the covers and got up. He stepped out into the hallway dressed in his patient gown. He wouldn’t have dreamed of it if the man were by his side, but the man had received an urgent call at dawn and had stepped out for a while.
Wondering why he was being left alone, he cautiously looked back, and sure enough, there were men quickly averting their eyes.
“Oh.”
Eun-myeong narrowed his eyes. Black suits, crew-cut hair, and tattoos etched into their napes.
Judging by the vaguely familiar scent, they seemed to be gangsters. He wondered if they were people the Boss had sent. In the past, he would have been terrified, thinking they were debt collectors coming for money.
But now, knowing they were people protecting him, he felt relieved instead. Eun-myeong trotted over to the lounge.
As he slid the door open, he saw the caregivers whispering in one corner.
“I just thought he was some thug playing with money, but Kangsung? Who would’ve thought?”
“What did I tell you? I said he had too much money for a neighborhood thug. Even his accent was pure Seoul.”
Then, one of them inadvertently turned their head and locked eyes with Eun-myeong. With a gasp, they shut their mouth and jabbed the person next to them in the ribs with an elbow.
“If it’s Kangsung, then that place is just gangsters too. Ow, that hurts!”
The other person snapped, asking why they were doing that, but upon discovering Eun-myeong, they also gasped and shut their mouth. They immediately looked away and pretended to be busy.
“Oh my, look at me, it’s time to change the diapers.”
“I—I have to go quickly to prepare the snacks too.”
The caregivers hurriedly scrambled away. Regardless, Eun-myeong picked up the newspaper lying in front of him. Since everyone these days talked about nothing but Kangsung whenever they gathered, it wasn’t particularly surprising.
Eun-myeong frowned deeply as he read through the paper. There were many Chinese characters and difficult words scattered throughout.
However, the gist of it was this:
Now that Chairman Kang was dead, who would succeed him?
This was exactly why the man had become so busy. His outings increased gradually, and Bear Mister brought him piles of documents. The man spent his time in the hospital room scribbling signatures with a bored expression.
Opinions on whether Kang Pyeong-won or Kang Chang-hee would succeed him were split roughly 8 to 2. Naturally, the man was the favorite.
Then, a few days ago, something else happened. He recalled hearing that the sashimi restaurant owner had received some “bad injections” while undergoing a dermatology procedure. Furthermore, it was said she had secretly embezzled a huge amount of company money.
When requested for an interview by reporters while appearing at the prosecution’s office, CEO Kang Chang-hee replied:
‘I was simply played by Kang Pyeong-won. Those who study the law will uncover everything.’
Claiming that justice would prevail and asking people to watch, he haughtily tilted his face, wearing sunglasses.
He entered the prosecution office with confidence, but the situation was very grim.
‘Not just milk-drugs, she had practically set up a pharmacy.’
The reason was that a very important witness had appeared. An Omega, claiming to be her ex-lover, held a press conference. Dressed neatly in black clothes with a pale face, he shed tears.
‘She fed me Omega estrus inducers and enjoyed a promiscuous private life.’
He exposed her sordid private life like that. Sob, sob! He burst into exaggerated tears, dabbing them with a handkerchief. Camera flashes went off incessantly.
Eun-myeong was quite bewildered by the turn of events. How could the timing align so perfectly?
Though he didn’t know the details, he could feel that the tide was turning in the man’s favor. And it was turning excessively so.
Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine. What if he’s doing something bad again? It would be a disaster if he were pulling strings behind the scenes. If someone noticed and reported it…
He had already experienced the hardship of being in prison once. The thought of the man ending up there made his heart ache and grow heavy.
This was a happiness he had fought so hard to obtain. He couldn’t let it slip away like sand through his fingers. No matter what, he would protect the man. If the man were in danger again, he would be the one to step forward.
He was stronger than before. Since he had done it once, a second time would be easier. Eun-myeong clenched his fists and made a firm resolve.
Thus, day by day, he trembled with anxiety while following the news through papers and reports. Finally, the day before yesterday, Detective Ji Jun-il visited the hospital room. As soon as he saw the man’s face, he thought, The time has come.
‘W-why are you here?’
Fearing that the detective might take the man away from him, Eun-myeong hid the man. It was a small gesture, like a chipmunk trying to hide a giant boulder behind its tiny body, but Eun-myeong was earnest.
‘It was all my fault, so please don’t touch a sick person.’
Hugging the man’s body tightly, Eun-myeong glared with a fierce look in his eyes. Of course, the man let out a long sigh and bit the crown of Eun-myeong’s head firmly, as if eating a delicious piece of fish cake.
‘I’m so touched I’m about to cry.’
Jun-il looked down at the sight, but kept his gaze only on Eun-myeong as he spoke carefully.
‘I came because I wanted to tell Eun-myeong I’m sorry.’
He spoke gently as he set a fruit basket aside.
‘I wondered if Eun-myeong made that choice because I pushed too hard… I kept thinking about it.’
In short, he had come to apologize. Hearing this, Eun-myeong felt sorry in return. He had acted too bravely under the guise of protecting the man. He was practically trembling at a breeze blowing through a leaf.
‘O-oh, no, you don’t have to do that.’
He felt embarrassed and awkward. There was really no need to be sorry. He was already healing from that pain.
‘It’s really okay, so you don’t have to visit again.’
Instead, he felt sorry for the detective. He didn’t want to waste the time of such a busy man.
Moreover, Eun-myeong had a truth he had to hide. What if he acted like a fool and stuttered, and the detective figured everything out?
‘Hmm.’
Jun-il looked as if he had something more to say. He seemed to hesitate, which was unlike him, but he soon shook his head.
‘You look good. When you were away from that guy Kang Pyeong-won, you always looked spaced out or like you were about to cry.’
At those words, Eun-myeong thought, Is that so? and touched his own cheek.
‘I wanted to tell you that I hope you’re happy.’
Saying he really wanted to convey that message, Jun-il smiled with crinkled eyes. He offered his farewells, telling him to continue doing well. Eun-myeong also bowed his head deeply, thanking him for everything.
Then Jun-il left the room. Eun-myeong stared silently at his retreating back. He had a vague feeling that he would never see him again.
Then, the man’s hand covered his eyes.
‘That’s enough. Even if it’s fucking annoying, I’m putting up with it.’
The voice lingered in his ear. Of course, the man ruthlessly threw the fruit basket Jun-il had brought into the trash can.
With the man, who had been monitoring him every waking moment, gone, Eun-myeong’s time was empty. He returned to the room alone and worked on his workbook. English, in particular, looked like an alien language.
Since it took three or four minutes just to solve one problem, it was a great way to kill time.
‘To-infinitive…’
When he first heard it, he wondered if it meant “denying TO,” but it was a very complex piece of English grammar.
Gosh, my head hurts. While Eun-myeong sat on the bed with a serious face, leaning over his desk and nursing a headache, he heard a knock.
“Who is it?”
“Who do you think it is?”
As he looked up while asking softly, he heard a grumbling voice. With a creak, the door opened, and it was none other than…
“Noona!”
It was his sister.
Eun-myeong quickly climbed off the bed and trotted toward her. In her hand, she held a bundle, and judging by the sweet scent, it seemed to be fruit.
Noona scanned Eun-myeong’s room. Seeing the mountain of fruit baskets, she stealthily hid her bundle behind her back. She was acting unusually distant.
“What’s that?”
Only after Eun-myeong reached out did she reluctantly hand over the bundle.
“It’s nothing much, you just liked ripe persimmons.”
When he peeked inside, there were plump, orange ripe persimmons. His mouth watered instantly. He had received plenty of fruit baskets, but this was his first time seeing ripe persimmons.
Does the Boss like these too? Thinking he should put them in the fridge and give them to him chilled, he picked out the ripest ones.
Since the man ate several times more than he did, he stocked up on three large ones. Looking at the plump fruits made him feel full. He placed the rest on a plate in front of him and his sister.
Eun-myeong opened his mouth wide and bit into the soft fruit. Because it was a large, plump one, it tasted delicious.
“This is so good. It’s perfectly ripe.”
“I heard this place is famous, so people line up to buy them. They’re really cheap too.”
Eun-myeong let out a small “oh” of admiration and wiped his moist lips with the back of his hand. Then, an awkward silence fell for a moment. While wiping his hand with a tissue, Eun-myeong asked softly.
“Noona, do you really have no intention of going to Seoul?”
A lukewarm answer came back.
“Yeah, not really. I’ll attend when you go and get married.”
“Married…”
Eun-myeong’s face flushed red like a well-ripened sweet persimmon. He found it fascinating that his sister spoke as if it were a given that he and the man would enter a marriage covenant. It felt as if she finally acknowledged the relationship between them.
Still, Eun-myeong felt a lingering regret. If things stayed this way, he would be far apart from his sister…
“You wanted to go to Seoul so badly.”
Noona was someone who always talked about Seoul.
Eun-myeong, I heard people in Seoul eat meat every day. I heard the people there wear such pretty and cool clothes. I heard they’re so smart they easily make three or four million won a month. So Eun-myeong, let’s go live in Seoul too…
So he naturally assumed she would go with him, but surprisingly, she expressed her refusal.
“Eun-myeong, Noona…”
“You know,” she trailed off.
“It wasn’t that I wanted to go to Seoul, I just wanted to escape the debt.”
His heart sank. Hearing her 100% honest feelings made his heart ache.
The movement of Eun-myeong’s cheeks slowed. Noona’s shoulders were slumped. With a face that looked as though fatigue were plastered on it like rags, she gave a small smile.
“Go and do everything you want to do. If you find someone you like, just go ahead and cheat, study hard, and spend the man’s money lavishly.”
As she spoke, she surprisingly looked relieved, as if she had cast off all her worries. She looked as light and free as the hair she had chopped off.
“We don’t have any debt anymore. You should fly away like a seagull.”
Fly away? That was a word Eun-myeong had never considered his own. He and his sister had always felt like people tied down somewhere.
He felt as if he might cry. Not tears of sadness, anger, or frustration, but tears that overflowed because his heart was filled with joy.
Eun-myeong pulled the sleeve of his patient gown long and secretly wiped his tears.
He laughed while sharing the sweet persimmons with his sister. The sweet-smelling juice moistly stained his cheeks.
“Yeah.”
Then he answered softly. He nodded several times, promising he would. The flesh filling his mouth crumbled, releasing a lovely sweetness.
It was truly, incredibly sweet.
Perhaps because his smart sister had hand-picked them, they were the most delicious he had ever eaten.