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Chat
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Tae-hyun, did you get home okay yesterday?
I heard Yun-woo Noona was really drunk, haha.
We’ll be seeing each other often from now on,
Let’s get along well!
2:01 AM
Joo Tae-hyun rubbed his eyes hard, feeling dazed. Even after looking again, it was definitely a message from Seo Baek-han.
“Young Master, are you awake? You need to eat breakfast.”
Unlike usual, the nanny found it strange that he hadn’t made a sound even by 8 o’clock, and came to look for him. Until then, Joo Tae-hyun read the message, which didn’t really contain anything special, over and over again.
“I’m going now!”
He almost fell as he got out of bed, his eyes fixed on the phone screen.
‘We’ll be seeing each other often from now on, let’s get along well.’
It was a formal greeting that wasn’t much different from before, but it was still the first time he had sent a message first.
Of course, this message probably wasn’t sent only to him. It was right to see Seo Baek-han’s greeting as a favor sent to the DH Group, not to Joo Tae-hyun personally.
But it was still good.
It was so good that he couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from rising.
“Ah……!”
Joo Tae-hyun, who had been grinning foolishly, suddenly frowned slightly at the tingling pain deep inside his mouth. What was it? It was an unfamiliar and unpleasant pain.
“Since the youngest is here, let’s all eat.”
Chairman Joo didn’t hide his discomfort at the meal. It seemed he knew about the big trouble Joo Yun-woo had caused last night. It was fortunate that Director Yoo Young-hwa had an appointment and left early in the morning.
At first, Joo Yun-woo’s pronunciation was slightly slurred as if she was just drunk, but after that, she talked to Joo Tae-hyun quite well, and by the time they got home, she was just sleeping quietly. So he thought she was okay.
‘Heuk, Tae-hyun, I, I……’
‘Noona? What’s wrong?’
‘Tae…… Heuk!’
He really thought she was okay until Joo Yun-woo threw up everything she had eaten that day in the car seat as soon as they entered the parking lot.
He thought this shouldn’t get to his parents’ ears, so he tried to clean it up secretly with the driver, but it seemed they knew everything after all.
“……I’m sorry.”
“Huh?”
Chairman Joo, who had just taken a spoonful of dried pollack soup, looked at Joo Tae-hyun as if he was puzzled. Joo Yun-woo, who was exhausted from her hangover, looked like she was about to bury her nose in the soup bowl, and Joo Tae-hyun, feeling guilty, lowered his head. It was Joo Tae-hyun’s mistake that he didn’t notice his Hyungs’ desperate head-shaking.
“I thought you seemed to be sleeping, and you seemed very angry, so I tried to clean it up quietly with the driver……”
“What are you talking about?”
“Huh? Ah, Noona threw up in the car……”
But Noona only poured alcohol yesterday, so there wasn’t much to clean up, and the driver said that if he left it for interior cleaning, it would be solved quickly…… He was about to ramble on with excuses like that.
“Joo Yun-woo, you really!”
“Aah! Dad, you’re making my head ring!”
Chairman Joo raised the spoon he had used to scoop up the soup and hit Joo Yun-woo’s back mercilessly.
“You made other people’s daughters drink and pass out! You even made a young child clean up the vomit in the car at night? Huh?”
“Ah, I didn’t do that! Cha So-jin made me drink!”
“His Highness Second Prince is here, and you’re thinking of drinking there? That’s a great thing to do, a great thing to do!”
“No, Cha So-jin dragged me, heup, heuek……! Dad, I’m going to, heuep! Stop!”
Even though Joo Yun-woo showed signs of vomiting again because she was repeatedly hit on the back, Chairman Joo’s hand showed no mercy.
“Dad! It’s true! Noona didn’t want to drink, but So-jin Noona dragged her, ah……!”
Joo Tae-hyun, who was about to jump up from his seat to stop Chairman Joo, suddenly grabbed his jaw and stopped abruptly, feeling a sudden pain.
“Tae-hyun? What’s wrong?”
“Ah, no…… Here, here……”
Chairman Joo, knowing that the siblings had a special affection for each other, glanced at Joo Tae-hyun with eyes like a flounder, wondering if the youngest was trying to help his Noona avoid being scolded.
“Tae-hyun, you’re only learning bad things from your Noona-.”
However, when Chairman Joo saw tears welling up in Joo Tae-hyun’s eyes, he was startled and threw the spoon he was holding down haphazardly. Only the second Hyung, who was unfairly hit by the spoon that flew in the wind, had to swallow a shrill scream.
“Where does our baby hurt so much that he’s even crying, huh?”
“Ah, I didn’t cry! When did I ever cry…… I was just a little surprised.”
Joo Tae-hyun touched his lower jaw with his fingertips as if he couldn’t believe the pain he had just felt. But it seemed to hurt, as even that light touch drew a line between his eyebrows.
“Oh my, baby.”
From some point on, the youngest tried not to show his emotions well. Especially when he went to school or was with his peers at gatherings, he would just shut his mouth with a cold face that was like no other in the world.
Sometimes it seemed like he was holding back laughter or annoyance, but it was only a very subtle movement that only his family, who had been watching Joo Tae-hyun by his side for his entire life, could notice. The only time Joo Tae-hyun showed a reaction was…… when Seo Baek-han’s name came up? Other than those moments, Joo Tae-hyun maintained such an expressionless face that it was difficult to even talk to him carelessly.
Of course, he often talked to his family about this and that, and he still acted childishly like a child of his age.
But he never talked about being sick or having a hard time, so all the family members were even more concerned about the youngest, who was entering puberty.
For such a youngest to cry and say he was in pain.
“Oh, baby. Maybe your wisdom tooth is rotten?”
The third Hyung, who was wiping the dried pollack soup that had splattered on the floor, poked his head over the table and offered his opinion.
“Is that…… so?”
“What does it feel like? Is it hot and cold? Or does it feel throbbing and feverish?”
“I don’t know…… It just hurts so much that I’m out of my mind.”
Chairman Joo carefully examined the area where the youngest said it hurt, and only then was he a little relieved.
“Okay, let’s eat breakfast first and go to the hospital with Dad.”
“Are you going to eat before going to the dentist?”
“Of course. It’s just a wisdom tooth. There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s something everyone goes through, and if you get it extracted at a good hospital, it’ll be over in an instant.”
The Hyungs also added a word each, as if agreeing, and encouraged the youngest. Everyone agreed that the anesthetic injection was the most painful part.
Something everyone goes through, something that will be over in an instant……
Just a wisdom tooth.
“It’s nothing much……”
“Of course. Our youngest just has to wait nicely at the hospital, and then bravely get it extracted.”
His parents’ words, and his Noona’s words, are right.
But his thoughts last night wouldn’t be wrong either.
No matter how his heart changes later, it won’t change the fact that Joo Tae-hyun’s first love during his puberty was Seo Baek-han. Even if this excruciating pain that everyone suffers from disappears someday.
Since he started liking Seo Baek-han without his permission in the first place, wouldn’t it be okay if he just didn’t get caught? Once he burns it all, once it all rots and is extracted, it might even become clean.
So while his heart is drawn to him, he should do his best to like…… him.
Seo Baek-han.
After eating and going up to his room, Joo Tae-hyun hesitantly sent a reply to Seo Baek-han. Tap, tap. Joo Tae-hyun’s fingertips, which had been hovering over the screen for a long time, finally ran forward vigorously. As always, filled with anticipation and excitement.
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Chat
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Hyung, did you get home okay?
Our Noona got scolded a lot, haha.
9:13 AM
I have to go to the dentist to get my wisdom tooth extracted today 😔
He knew that no matter what he replied, Seo Baek-han wouldn’t show much reaction, but he didn’t care.
It wasn’t like he started liking Seo Baek-han because he wanted something, or dreamed of having some kind of relationship with him.
Thinking that way, he felt much more comfortable than before, when he was anxious without knowing why. Joo Tae-hyun smiled to himself, and firmly controlled the corners of his mouth that had risen as he pleased. Then, after much deliberation, he rattled off words that were not in his heart.
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Chat
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Hyung, your girlfriend is so pretty.
9:35 AM
You look good together 🙂
It’s not that he wants to talk about this kind of thing to the person he likes without any ulterior motives. But he wanted to continue the conversation with Seo Baek-han even if it was like this. He thought that if he talked about his girlfriend, he might get a friendly, trivial reply.
But there was no reaction from Seo Baek-han.
He didn’t know when he had checked it, but it was certain that the “read” mark disappeared only after a day had passed.