By Zephyria The next meeting was the summer vacation when Lee Yoon-san was 10 years old and Hwang Hae-kyung was 11 years old.
This camping site was Jeju. Both Lee Yoon-san’s parents and Hwang Hae-kyung’s parents were very interested in backpacking, and they preferred the metropolitan area or areas close to the metropolitan area for smooth commuting, so they rarely crossed the sea. But the situation changed when they bought camping cars side by side this spring. The two families agreed to load their cars onto a ship and enjoy camping in various parts of Jeju Island.
For that reason, Lee Yoon-san and Hwang Hae-kyung were once again dragged by their parents and had to face each other’s faces that they didn’t want to see. It was the first time they had seen each other since the arm wrestling incident last winter.
After the arm wrestling, Hwang Hae-kyung had blue bruises on the back of his hand and wrist, but he never said how it happened. It seemed like he was ashamed of losing to his younger brother, but it was fortunate for Lee Yoon-san. He was worried that even his parents, who loved him so much, would scold him for hurting Hwang Hae-kyung.
“Hey.”
When the two families arrived at the car camping site in Aewol and parked their camping cars side by side, Hwang Hae-kyung called Lee Yoon-san with a sulky face. Lee Yoon-san, who was just getting out of the car, widened his eyes at Hwang Hae-kyung, and Hwang Hae-kyung scanned Lee Yoon-san up and down and asked with a seemingly angry expression.
“How tall are you?”
“Me…?”
Hwang Hae-kyung, who turned 11 this year, was even prettier than when he was 10 years old. Thanks to his pretty face, slim figure, and small face, he was said to be taking children’s clothing pictorials from the beginning of this year.
The reason why Hwang Hae-kyung started working as a children’s clothing model was simple: he posted a review of the clothes he wore from an online shopping mall that his mother had bought for him.
A few days after posting the review, the shopping mall directly offered him several times to be a model. After taking a few photos of the clothes from the online shopping mall, an agency that recruits and manages child models contacted him.
Hwang Hae-kyung’s parents were both good at contracts and negotiations, and Hwang Hae-kyung was just an elementary school student who liked to earn pocket money, so he signed a short-term contract with the agency. Since then, he has been working as a model for children’s clothing brands or children’s clothing lines of clothing brands that have quite a name.
And the fact that all these processes were done in just 3 months was a great advantage and disadvantage.
Lee Yoon-san heard all these facts from his parents. When his parents took Lee Yoon-san, who had become even more chubby and potato-like this year, to the hair salon, they showed him Hwang Hae-kyung’s picture in a magazine and explained it to him step by step.
Lee Yoon-san’s parents sat down with their son, who was frowning at the unfamiliar Hwang Hae-kyung in the magazine pictorial, and laughed as if it was fun.
Hae-kyung Hyung is handsome, right? Now the whole world knows that Hae-kyung Hyung is handsome, right? They said.
Lee Yoon-san, jealous of his parents’ attention, simply retorted, “He’s like a girl.”
It was the first time he’d seen Hwang Hae-kyung in person since then. The scrawny Hae-kyung, whom he’d given bruises on his wrist and the back of his hand during an arm-wrestling match last winter break, was now a kid model appearing in magazines, his good looks recognized by the whole world.
Lee Yoon-san felt strangely uncomfortable about it. So, while he was still hesitating even after the camper van was parked, Hwang Hae-kyung came rushing over and asked him without any sign of unfamiliarity. How tall he was.
Lee Yoon-san didn’t know his exact height, but he did have a record from the health checkup he’d gotten at the elementary school last spring. So Lee Yoon-san went back inside the camper van and asked his mother.
“Mom, how tall am I?”
“Yoon-san, you’re 161.2cm.”
And with a small smile, his mother told her ten-year-old son the height she remembered exactly.
Lee Yoon-san had been growing taller than usual lately, even complaining of knee pain at times, so he was sure he was taller now that it was summer.
But the confident, tall Lee Yoon-san didn’t need to consider such details. He was already more than 10cm taller than his peers.
“I’m 161 point 2!”
“What?”
So, when he told Hwang Hae-kyung exactly what he’d heard, a question mixed with emptiness came back.
Only then did Lee Yoon-san get out of the camper van and stand in front of Hwang Hae-kyung. And he tilted his head. He could see the top of Hwang Hae-kyung’s head even better than last winter. The angle of Hwang Hae-kyung’s face, red with anger as he glared at him, was also a little steeper.
Last winter, he’d only had to lift his eyes a little to glare at him, but now he had to lift his chin to glare into his eyes. In short, Hwang Hae-kyung was small. Much smaller than Lee Yoon-san.
“How tall are you, Hae-kyung?”
So he asked out of pure curiosity, not knowing that it would further infuriate the 149cm Hwang Hae-kyung.
“Never mind!”
Hwang Hae-kyung glared at Lee Yoon-san for a moment, then turned his head sharply and ran to his parents’ camper van.
Lee Yoon-san stared blankly at the sight, then tilted his head. He’d been secretly glad that Hwang Hae-kyung had suddenly come to talk to him, but he’d only asked about his height and quickly left. Lee Yoon-san couldn’t understand Hwang Hae-kyung, and soon he felt a little disappointed.
Even though he originally disliked him, he must have had some expectation the moment he was spoken to.
Lee Yoon-san’s parents, watching the scene, simply smiled at their son’s sullen expression.
“Yoon-san, come here.”
“Okay…”
His parents called their sullen son over, hugged him, and carefully applied sunscreen.
The summer sun was hot. Lee Yoon-san usually had fair skin, but he tanned easily. So, while he maintained a moderate tan in the winter, his skin would turn into a healthy, glossy milk chocolate color in the summer, as if he’d been sunbathing.
This was partly because he spent many summer vacations doing outdoor activities thanks to his parents, who loved camping, and partly because his skin was naturally healthy.
“Our Baby’s become a little chocolate potato!”
“Eek!”
The one who snatched Lee Yoon-san, who had come out of the camper van with sunscreen carefully applied, and lifted him up was Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother. She rolled up the sleeves of her short-sleeved shirt to her shoulders, exposing her entire arms, and lifted Lee Yoon-san up with a flourish, laughing when Lee Yoon-san reacted in surprise.
“The kid’s heavy.”
“It’s okay. I have to hug our Baby a lot while I still can. I won’t be able to hug him when he gets bigger.”
“Auntie…”
“Oh my, look at him leaning on me.”
Lee Yoon-san’s parents tried to stop Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother, but she ignored them and hugged Lee Yoon-san tightly. Lee Yoon-san, who was tall and chubby, was quite heavy, but fortunately, Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother was also strong.
She was delighted, looking touched when Lee Yoon-san, whom she was holding in her arms, leaned his cheek against her shoulder. It was even more touching because it was an act of affection that she couldn’t expect from her only son, Hwang Hae-kyung.
“How long has it been since our Baby’s summer vacation started? You’re already this tan? Did you go somewhere nice?”
“I went to a water park!”
“Really? That’s where you got tanned? You must have had fun!”
“Yeah!”
As Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother swayed Lee Yoon-san back and forth and headed toward the camping chairs set up nearby, Lee Yoon-san’s parents, who were watching the scene, shook their heads and laughed with a sigh. They understood why Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother had brought up their son’s skin first.
“Hae-kyung, did you apply sunscreen carefully?!”
“Yeah!”
“Don’t come crying to me again saying it stings! You have to apply it properly!”
“Ugh, I said I applied it!”
And beyond them, Hwang Hae-kyung reappeared. Hwang Hae-kyung, with his curly hair fluttering as he ran out of his parents’ camper van, looked like a porcelain doll. His fair, slender, and pretty appearance was so delicate that it was enough to captivate Lee Yoon-san’s parents.
As soon as Lee Yoon-san’s parents spotted Hwang Hae-kyung, they waved and called the child over. Then Hwang Hae-kyung, who had been glaring at the camper van his father was in, fluttered over to Lee Yoon-san’s parents. The sullen expression from his father’s nagging had disappeared.
“Our Prince is even more handsome now?”
“Did you get a perm for a photoshoot? It’s so cute.”
“Yes, Auntie.”
Hwang Hae-kyung smiled brightly as he answered the kind words of Lee Yoon-san’s parents, who hugged him and patted his back. Since starting as a kid model, Hwang Hae-kyung had met many adults who treated him kindly.
As his photos were released online, the parents of other kid models followed him on social media or invited him to join friendship gatherings, receiving numerous favors and attention.
But the adults Hwang Hae-kyung liked the most were still Lee Yoon-san’s parents. He liked their familiar kindness and comfortable smiles, which he had seen since he was young, and he liked their arms that unconditionally adored him.
“Our Prince, Auntie bought you a present.”
“A present?”
“Yes. I bought you a hat and a robe~”
What Lee Yoon-san’s parents showed Hwang Hae-kyung, who was excited to be receiving so much affection, was a cute children’s bucket hat and a thin, long-sleeved robe. They were all for Hwang Hae-kyung, who had sensitive skin.
Unlike Lee Yoon-san’s strong skin, which tanned easily in the sun, Hwang Hae-kyung’s pale skin was weak to the sun. His pearly skin would quickly turn red even with the slightest carelessness in applying sunscreen, and it was common for it to peel. So, even though he played well with other children, he uniquely suffered the aftereffects severely.
Knowing this about Hwang Hae-kyung, Lee Yoon-san’s parents also took care of Hwang Hae-kyung every summer, and this time they had even prepared a hat and a robe.
“You shouldn’t have bought something like this.”
“We don’t want our Prince to get sick after playing well~”
As Hwang Hae-kyung’s father walked over to Lee Yoon-san’s parents and said gratefully, Lee Yoon-san’s mother responded wittily and put the hat and robe on Hwang Hae-kyung. The hat and robe, made of cool material for the summer, seemed quite satisfactory to Hwang Hae-kyung as well. A smile bloomed on the child’s face and didn’t fade.
Hwang Hae-kyung’s father felt the same way. He was grateful that Lee Yoon-san’s parents always cared about his son. Moreover, he liked the reason why they had prepared the hat and robe this time.
He was even more grateful that it was a gift prepared not because his son’s skin, who was working as a kid model, might be damaged and interfere with photoshoots, but because he was worried that his skin would burn and peel and hurt.
Hwang Hae-kyung’s parents currently supported Hwang Hae-kyung’s activities as a kid model, but they planned to stop it at any time if their son showed any intention of quitting.
He was lucky enough to be working as a kid model because he had a good opportunity and that opportunity led to even better opportunities, but they didn’t think that beauty care and receiving people’s attention suited their son well.
“Hae-kyung, go play now. Take good care of Yoon-san.”
“Ugh, it’s always Lee Yoon-san, Lee Yoon-san…”
“Hey, it’s Hae-kyung’s dad. Don’t be like that. Hae-kyung, just go play. You don’t have to be too stressed about taking care of your younger brother. Yoon-san’s Aunties will take good care of him.”
“Okay!”
At his father’s words, who carefully checked the brim of his bucket hat, Hwang Hae-kyung’s mouth stuck out a foot, and Lee Yoon-san’s mother added a word when she saw him.
Hwang Hae-kyung answered cheerfully to Lee Yoon-san’s mother’s words and started running off to find the group of other friends over there. It was only natural that the adults smiled at his back, which looked like an excited puppy.
“Is it hard?”
And around the time when the remaining adults started setting up the car camping space, Lee Yoon-san’s Alpha mother first opened the conversation. The kind question contained many words. To Hwang Hae-kyung’s father, who was setting up the car camping space together, and to Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother, who had sent Lee Yoon-san off to play and joined them.
“Being a kid model is not something to do. Don’t make Yoon-san do it.”
That’s why comfortable words burst out with a sigh. Lee Yoon-san’s parents just smiled bitterly at Hwang Hae-kyung’s father’s words, which sounded like a complaint.
They only met twice a year during vacation for long-term camping, but the two families often contacted each other.
Both families had switched from being salaried workers to their own businesses around the same time. The two families sometimes gave each other advice on their respective fields, so they were maintaining a group chat room. And many things had changed while that group chat room was maintained.
Most notably, each of their businesses had grown through ups and downs, and the children had also grown.
And the biggest issue recently was Hwang Hae-kyung’s activities as a kid model. Usually, when a child started to become famous as a kid model, there were people who flocked to them. The ‘kid model parents’ in the same industry were like that, and so were the people from agencies or the kid brand industry.
Also, the attitudes of the parents who used to camp and hang out together were gradually changing. As the child’s recognition increased and the corresponding income came in, most of them were trying to build friendships to match.
But Lee Yoon-san’s parents were on a distinctly different path. They didn’t add any special words about Hwang Hae-kyung’s activities as a kid model, his fame, or his income. They didn’t get jealous or subtly encourage Lee Yoon-san to play with Hwang Hae-kyung more.
They just often asked about Hwang Hae-kyung’s well-being. As if they had been doing so ever since Hwang Hae-kyung was very young.
Hwang Hae-kyung, who had entered the life of a kid model with his pretty face and unique atmosphere, was sometimes subjected to inexplicable checks and balances from other kid model parents, and sometimes received excessive attention. He also said that the attitudes of his friends at school seemed to have changed a little. All of these were side effects of becoming too famous in a short period of time.
But Hwang Hae-kyung was too young to understand such things. He took photos in pretty clothes with a pretty face and a knack for catching expressions in front of the camera, but Hwang Hae-kyung was just a child who liked to run around and liked soccer.
To such a child, the adults’ demands, such as ‘Please refrain from outdoor activities because your skin shouldn’t get tanned for the next photoshoot’ or ‘Please don’t let him do rough sports because he shouldn’t get hurt and have scars,’ were incomprehensible.
The same was true for height. Most of the malicious words that checked the rapidly rising kid model Hwang Hae-kyung picked on his ‘height.’ Since they couldn’t find any fault with his pretty face and his knack for catching expressions in front of the camera, most of them pretended to worry about Hwang Hae-kyung’s height and made scratches.
‘How tall is he, by the way?’, ‘No matter how pretty and handsome boys are, it’s useless if they’re short.’, ‘Did you go to the hospital and measure his expected height? How tall is it? Are his mom and dad tall? Then we can roughly estimate it.’ Such words flew like daggers at the young child and his parents.
Instead of Hwang Hae-kyung’s social media, which they didn’t run separately, people left such words on Hwang Hae-kyung’s parents’ social media. Even though they were just using social media personally to record their camping trips, they couldn’t help but be bothered by the fact that they kept leaving such words.
Hwang Hae-kyung, who was in the upper grades of elementary school, now read the comments on social media quite well. It wasn’t a problem that Hwang Hae-kyung’s parents could solve by turning their social media to private.
The day Hwang Hae-kyung’s parents temporarily turned their social media to private for the sake of their child’s emotional well-being, the kid model parents’ community chat room was turned upside down as if something had happened. They started making numerous speculations just because they had turned their social media to private.
They said that they were going to stop the kid model activities, that the child had hurt his face, that he wasn’t getting any more castings because he wasn’t growing any taller, that the child had manifested as an Omega and they were hiding him to protect him, that the parents were too greedy for money and had been caught doing something wrong.
All of them were not only groundless, but they were not words to say about a child who was only an elementary school student and his family.
The biggest problem was that the child was hurt by the keyword ‘height’ that they had taken out to make scratches. Hwang Hae-kyung’s height was 149cm, which was only about 2cm taller than last winter.
This was shorter than the average height of 10-year-old boys, and it was a whopping 4cm shorter than the average height of 11-year-old boys, which was Hwang Hae-kyung’s age. He had been like this when he was 10 years old, but the fact that the gap with the average value was widening even as he went up in grade was making Hwang Hae-kyung despair.
‘Mom and Dad, am I very short?’ Hwang Hae-kyung had started asking this question more and more often since some time ago. He also wondered, ‘How tall is he?’ when he saw other boys his age passing by.
It was a change in the child, who had lived with a sense of self-importance and didn’t know how to compare himself to other children. And since last winter, he had often wondered about Lee Yoon-san’s height as well.
‘How tall is Lee Yoon-san?’ Hwang Hae-kyung had often asked after his parents had talked to Lee Yoon-san’s parents.
“If Hae-kyung loses interest in taking pictures, I’ll make him quit right away.”
“Yeah. It’s not something to do if it’s going to stress the child out.”
“I don’t know if the parents’ community would have been a good fit, but it wasn’t a good fit at all. We only have Yoon-san’s family after all.”
Hwang Hae-kyung’s parents laughed as if they were feeling empty, and Lee Yoon-san’s parents shook their heads and laughed. The two couples had many things in common as they had known each other for a long time.
“Is Yoon-san doing well in school?”
“Well, yeah. It seems like the kids tease him and act mischievous because he’s chubby.”
“Yoon-san, it’s all going to go to his height. Don’t stress him out about his weight, just feed him well with what he wants to eat.”
“I’m worried that the child will be stressed out by the kids his age. He’s slowly getting to the age where he cares about his appearance.”
“Yoon-san is good-looking enough. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Don’t you think our sons have switched?”
Laughter finally erupted between the two couples at the continuing conversation. Hwang Hae-kyung’s parents were excited and proud, saying that they had prepared various skewer meal kits to feed Lee Yoon-san, and Lee Yoon-san’s parents said that they had prepared both sunblock and sunscreen to apply to Hwang Hae-kyung, so they should apply it one more time later.
“By the way, there are fewer people this time? Is it just the two of us?”
“No, it’s not like that. We just came a day earlier. It’s about time some families start dropping out.”
“…Ah.”
“It’s the children’s Heat cycle.”
Around the time when they were setting up the table and grinding coffee beans, Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother looked around and expressed her doubts. And the answer that came back to her question was unexpected.
“Tae-ho manifested as an Alpha and can’t come.”
“Yeah, it’s about time for the kids to go through puberty.”
It was the time when the secondary gender, which manifested during puberty in addition to the primary gender revealed by the external genitalia from birth, was slowly manifesting. Most of the children who participated in camping with the two couples were Hwang Hae-kyung’s age, and it was not easy for Lee Yoon-san, who was one year younger than them, to manifest.
Usually, secondary sexual characteristics in boys occur after the age of 13, but in the case of those with a secondary gender of Alpha or Omega, they experience earlier changes than ordinary Beta children. The time when the secondary gender manifests along with secondary sexual characteristics is most commonly from the age of 11, and it is at this time that a specific gender such as Alpha or Omega manifests.
The majority of the world’s population is classified as Beta. These are also those who are irrelevant to the secondary gender, and the Jacobson’s organ, an auxiliary olfactory organ that detects Pheromone, is degenerated and does not exist in them. Therefore, they cannot smell Pheromone and are irrelevant to the Heat cycle triggered by it, and are ordinary humans.
However, Alphas and Omegas are a little different. They have a very developed Jacobson’s organ, an auxiliary olfactory organ that detects the unique body odor and Pheromone secreted from the apocrine glands, and this is usually expressed as knowing how to smell Pheromone.
This Jacobson’s organ exists around the middle of the nasal bridge and enables pheromone reception and communication between animals or insects. This is possible because everyone’s auxiliary olfactory organ, which can detect Pheromones, has not degenerated but has developed.
Also, those with secondary genders like Alpha or Omega have their own unique scent and Pheromone like fingerprints. These are also body odors and Pheromones secreted from the apocrine glands, but their composition is different from that of ordinary people (Beta), giving off a unique scent.
This unique scent can only be detected by the auxiliary olfactory organ, the Jacobson’s organ, and because it is different from ordinary body odor, it is often expressed synaesthetically.
So, usually, if a scent is perceived synaesthetically, such as a scent being ‘heavy’ or ‘cool’, it means that it is not a normal smell but the scent of body odor or Pheromone possessed by an Alpha or Omega.
The secondary sexual characteristics of Alphas and Omegas begin when the auxiliary olfactory organ, which can detect these Pheromones, is fully mature and becomes sensitive. At the same time, the secretion of sex hormones in Alphas and Omegas becomes active, the reproductive organs that have been dormant inside the body grow rapidly, and the body settles down. And usually, from this period, detailed education and management regarding the Heat cycle are carried out.
In other words, the secretion of sex hormones becomes active in Omegas, and the dormant uterus grows and matures. In Alphas, the reproductive organs develop significantly due to the secretion of sex hormones.
“Alpha….”
The vast majority of humanity is Beta. Even when Alphas and Omegas are combined, they account for only one in 1,000 people. That means 999 out of 1,000 people are the majority classified as Beta.
And the sex ratio within that minority of Alphas and Omegas is close to 140. This means that there are 140 Alphas for every 100 Omegas. Considering that the natural sex ratio of ordinary Beta men and women in a natural state is 105, this is a very extreme figure, but that was the reality.
Alphas and Omegas, especially Alphas, have inherently superior physical conditions because their hormone secretion levels and feedback mechanisms are different from those of ordinary Betas. They have evolved rapidly, leaving behind only superior genes, as if they exist for superior reproduction and survival.
Therefore, most people wanted to give birth to Alphas. Even though they all look the same at birth, the gap that widens with ordinary people as they go through secondary sexual characteristics is not negligible.
And this preference of the majority has created an extreme sex ratio of 140 over generations. —In the case of Alphas and Omegas, the possibility of secondary gender expression can be inferred through hormone production and its levels after 12 weeks of pregnancy.—
Moreover, Omegas, regardless of their primary gender (male or female), have bodies capable of pregnancy and, like Alphas, even have a Heat cycle, which is why they experience various prejudices and preconceptions.
Unlike Alphas, whose sex hormone development greatly affects the entire body, Omegas are more affected by the restoration of internal reproductive organs, and they are also affected by those reproductive organs, which is why they are less intimidating in appearance.
Since there are reproductive organs capable of having children from the first gender, women are generally more likely to develop as Omegas, and conversely, men with reproductive organs capable of impregnating are more likely to develop as Alphas.
However, there are also cases where the opposite occurs. There are cases where women are born as Alphas, and men are born as Omegas.
Since secondary genders like Alpha or Omega are mostly inherited traits, genetic factors are common in cases where the first and second genders are mixed. This is often the case when there are many Omegas or many Alphas in the ancestry.
Anyway, it was the time when such stories were coming out. The children, who were busy running around happily at the campsite, were growing up day by day, and there were often Alpha or Omega parents in the social gatherings of families in similar environments.
“The kids are growing up little by little.”
The time for children to grow up has come. And depending on that expression, groups will be divided again. Alpha children will gather with families with Alpha children, Beta children with families with Beta children, and Omega children with families with Omega children. Schools were also divided in this way.
Even if the majority of Beta children are left alone, immature Alpha and Omega children need clear separation and education in adolescence, so this camping gathering will probably be divided into groups before long.
Even in a society where people live together, invisible lines exist, and gaps are bound to arise. Moreover, in an era like today, where children are becoming more and more precious, the boundaries are likely to become even clearer.
“…I hope our kids can grow up well together.”
“I know, right.”
The time for children to gather and play happily, regardless of whether they are Alpha, Omega, or Beta, was coming to an end.
✧✧✧
“Hae-kyung!”
“What.”
Lee Yoon-san, who had run up to Hwang Hae-kyung, who was picking up pine cones under a pine tree around the parking spot, looked a little excited. He seemed excited not so much because he wanted to talk to Hwang Hae-kyung, but because of the scenery around him.
Hwang Hae-kyung looked at Lee Yoon-san with a sulky expression. The tall Lee Yoon-san was twice his size. So he felt a sense of inferiority for no reason. ‘Do adults ask him about his height too?’ He thought that first because he had been suffering too much lately.
“What are you doing?”
Meanwhile, Lee Yoon-san was a little excited as his expression showed. He liked the fact that this was Jeju Island, and he liked the sea in the distance. He also liked Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother, who had held him and cooed at him for a long time, and most of all, he was a little gleeful and excited that Hwang Hae-kyung was alone this time. He was surprised that Hwang Hae-kyung, who was always surrounded by friends, was picking up pine cones alone for once.
“Picking up pine cones.”
“Why this?”
“Dad told me to pick them up. He said he’s going to use them to light a fire.”
“Me too! I want to pick them up too!”
“…Do as you please.”
Hwang Hae-kyung ignored Lee Yoon-san, who was following him closely, and picked up pine cones. Lee Yoon-san hated Hwang Hae-kyung a little, but he still devoted himself to picking up pine cones. He was sure that his uncle would like him if he picked up a lot of pine cones.
Lee Yoon-san was excited and hummed a tune as he looked around for pine cones. The pine forest, where the hot wind was blowing, was a little dark, but it wasn’t scary because it wasn’t too far from the parking spot.
Besides, although he was a person he hated, Hwang Hae-kyung was over there picking up pine cones and putting them in a small net. Of course, Hwang Hae-kyung would abandon him and leave as soon as his friends arrived to play with him….
‘I can play alone too!’
Well, then he would play alone too.
He hadn’t told his parents, but Lee Yoon-san spent quite a lot of time playing alone at school. This was especially true at the beginning of the semester, because no friends approached Lee Yoon-san, who was chubby and shy. It wasn’t like Lee Yoon-san could take the initiative to make friends either.
When he was a kindergartener or a first grader, he used to approach his friends and get along with them with his unique cheerful personality, but after the second grade, his cheerfulness didn’t work well with the children.
This year, when he became a third grader, was especially unusual. As the children began to receive education about the secondary gender, they began to judge each other based on ‘appearance’. Of course, not all children judged their friends based on appearance alone.
However, children were just more proactive in approaching children who were pretty or handsome in their eyes. Besides, 10 years old is the age when they experience dating in their own way.
As the children learned about the secondary genders ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega’, they praised children who were handsome, tall, or good at sports, saying that they would become ‘Alphas’, and tried to protect or adore children who were pretty, thin, or small, saying that they would become ‘Omegas’.
Because they are young children, visual elements are the only criteria. That’s why children just before puberty tend to be more interested in popular friends.
Lee Yoon-san’s school, which is considered a peaceful and quiet school district, also had only a few names mentioned by the children. And if they couldn’t become one of those ‘few’ or couldn’t join the group that ‘talked about and hung out with’ those few, there were often children who were alienated.
If you had to classify him, Lee Yoon-san belonged to the ‘alienated group’ since entering the third grade. The children didn’t bother or ostracize him, but they didn’t bother to come and show interest in him first. The children weren’t curious about whether Lee Yoon-san would develop as an Alpha or an Omega, and they weren’t particularly interested in whether Lee Yoon-san was good at sports or not.
He had been popular with his friends until the second grade because he was strong and always won at arm wrestling, but the children’s interests had changed since the third grade. In a word, the children didn’t approach Lee Yoon-san, who looked outwardly ‘chubby’ and ugly, first.
Lee Yoon-san also didn’t actively try to make friends because of his memories of being constantly rejected by Hwang Hae-kyung and his group.
As a result, Lee Yoon-san had fewer friends he hung out with closely than before, even though he wasn’t an outcast. The fact that his capable parents were too busy to actively participate in the parents’ community also had some influence.
Anyway, Lee Yoon-san became used to playing alone since becoming a third grader. Naughty children in the class sometimes teased him for being fat, but he didn’t dare tell his parents because he thought his mothers would worry. And the source of all this patience was Hwang Hae-kyung and his group. He seemed to have developed an immunity to their teasing and treatment without knowing it.
Of course, unlike at the campsite, there was no one to stand up to the children’s teasing at school, but he thought it was bearable because the teasing didn’t develop into bullying.
And Lee Yoon-san thought that he was quite ‘grown-up’ and proud of himself for being able to think that way. He learned that he didn’t say things that would make his mothers sad because he was ‘considerate’ of his mothers, and that ‘consideration’ was cool.
There were times when he felt sad or upset and wanted to cry, but Lee Yoon-san would remind himself of his ‘coolness’ and endure it. It was okay because he had parents who loved him more than anyone else when he went home after enduring the children’s neglect or teasing at school.
“Huh?”
After glaring at Hwang Hae-kyung’s back for a moment, who was ignoring him again and moving alone, Lee Yoon-san widened his eyes as he looked at a tall pine tree over there. There was something black like a squirrel attached to the bottom of the pine tree. It was a red squirrel that he had seen in the animal encyclopedia he had been looking at recently.
In fact, it was an animal he had often seen while camping. However, he had never seen it this close, and he had only seen it slightly when his mothers pointed it out to him when it was on the tree above.
Anyway, Lee Yoon-san was fascinated by the sight of the red squirrel. Hwang Hae-kyung didn’t seem interested in him anyway, so a subject that aroused his curiosity appeared in a situation where he had to pick up pine cones and play alone.
“Hey, don’t go!”
So he lowered his body quite a bit and carefully approached the red squirrel, but the red squirrel, noticing Lee Yoon-san’s presence, quickly climbed up the tree. Lee Yoon-san ran after the red squirrel, and the red squirrel began to jump and move around on the tree.
“Ah, damn it!”
Lee Yoon-san was a little annoyed and cute at the red squirrel. On the one hand, it was fun to see a living wild animal jumping around and running away in front of him.
So Lee Yoon-san also tilted his head up and looked at the red squirrel on the tree and started running with it. He hit his head on the trees here and there because the red squirrel was changing trees and running, but he ran without knowing it hurt. He almost hit his shoulder against a big tree after running until he was out of breath.
“Hey!”
“Huh?”
Before Lee Yoon-san’s shoulder touched the rough pine trunk, Hwang Hae-kyung pulled on Lee Yoon-san’s clothes. Only then did Lee Yoon-san, who had lowered his stiff neck, look down at Hwang Hae-kyung, and Hwang Hae-kyung looked up at Lee Yoon-san with a scowling face.
In fact, Hwang Hae-kyung had tried to pretend not to know Lee Yoon-san, who was running while looking only at the sky like an idiot. He also thought that he looked a little pathetic, running around in a dull and stupid way, wondering if there was something on the tree. But he was worried about Lee Yoon-san’s precarious gait.
If he falls and gets hurt, Dad will make a fuss at me again, Hwang Hae-kyung thought, and held the net full of pine cones in one hand and watched Lee Yoon-san again. His staggering gait, running while looking at the sky instead of in front of him, was uneasy, and the way he kept hitting his head on the trees made him frown.
So he ended up running to Lee Yoon-san. Pulling on his clothes before Lee Yoon-san’s shoulder touched the thick trunk of the pine tree was an action that came out without him knowing it. But this time, Lee Yoon-san was a little faster. Lee Yoon-san said to Hwang Hae-kyung, who was about to get annoyed, in an excited voice.
“Did you see it? There’s a red squirrel!”
“What? Where?”
“Up there on the tree!”
Hwang Hae-kyung raised his head and looked up at the tree at Lee Yoon-san’s words. The annoyance he was about to show to Lee Yoon-san disappeared in an instant. Even Hwang Hae-kyung, who was only 11 years old, was quite curious about the red squirrel.
“It’s not there.”
But there was nothing on the tree he looked up at. There were only pine needles that densely covered the sky and rough branches that stretched out. Hwang Hae-kyung lowered his head with a disappointed expression, and in that instant, he found a creature in front of him and his eyes lit up.
This time it was two squirrels.
“Hey, there’s a squirrel over there!”
“Huh? It’s real!”
“Let’s go, quickly!”
This time, Hwang Hae-kyung, who was hooked on the squirrel, started running first. Then Lee Yoon-san also started running with an excited expression, and the squirrels, noticing their presence, quickly climbed up the tree and started running.
“Ah, I’m going to miss it!”
“No, it’s over there!”
The voices of the two children chasing the squirrels, who were jumping around and moving trees, were full of laughter. Hwang Hae-kyung laughed and shouted as if Lee Yoon-san was one of his friends playing with him, and laughed and told him to run faster.
When Lee Yoon-san missed the direction of the squirrel, he pointed it out with his finger, and when Hwang Hae-kyung was about to trip over a tree root, Lee Yoon-san grabbed him. It was the first time that their laughter was mixed together.
But their laughter didn’t last long.
“Where is this…?”
After chasing the squirrels for a long time from the pine forest, the two children had arrived at an unfamiliar place. They thought they wouldn’t get lost because they kept running forward, but before they knew it, there was a coastal road behind them, and a coast full of black rocks and stones in front of them.
It was fortunate that it wasn’t dark, but Lee Yoon-san was already frightened by the unfamiliar scenery and made a tearful voice. Hwang Hae-kyung turned around and looked at Lee Yoon-san once, then glared at the road they had run along as if retracing it.
“We’ve been running forward, so we can just go back the way we came.”
“Then can we go back to the campsite?”
“…Yeah.”
In fact, Hwang Hae-kyung couldn’t guarantee anything. However, Hwang Hae-kyung felt a little sorry for the big younger brother who looked scared. And at the same time, the words he had heard like a mantra seemed to be heard in his ear.
‘Hae-kyung, you have to take good care of Yoon-san because you’re the Hyung.’
It was what his mothers and father had been telling him day and night whenever it was camping season.
In fact, Hwang Hae-kyung was suddenly thrown into an unfamiliar environment as well. He had just been running around excitedly as he did with his friends, but he was just as embarrassed to see a place he didn’t know appear. Of course, this was something he had often experienced while running around with his friends at the campsite. It was common to get far away from the campsite when running around in the mountains or rivers near the campsite.
But at that time, there was a trail in the nearby mountains, and it was a mountain or river managed by the campsite. It wasn’t like they went camping in a faraway place like Jeju Island, and there were no cars running on the coastal road right behind them like this.
“Ugh, a car…!”
As expected, as soon as a car passed by on the coastal road right behind them, Lee Yoon-san widened his eyes and shouted as if he was frightened.
Lee Yoon-san had always been more timid than his size suggested. He would be terrified by a grasshopper smaller than his palm, and he couldn’t jump down from a tree he’d been placed on, even if it wasn’t that high. He seemed strong when he won at arm wrestling, but overall, his movements were clumsy, and it was obvious he wasn’t used to bugs or rough play.
To be afraid of bugs while camping.
For Hwang Hae-kyung, that was beyond comprehension. That was another reason why he didn’t play with Lee Yoon-san.
Hwang Hae-kyung’s way of playing with his friends was mainly catching insects or running and tumbling around on mountains, dirt floors, or low trees.
“Hey, come here.”
Hwang Hae-kyung gestured to Lee Yoon-san, who seemed frozen with fear at the cars passing behind him. The fact that cars were driving by and the boundary between the coastal road and where they were standing wasn’t clear seemed to have frightened him even more. Even if he was young, he knew cars were scary. So, it seemed better to go to the coast just ahead.
After all, Hwang Hae-kyung had his cell phone in his pants pocket. His parents had switched him from a kids’ phone to a smartphone when he moved up from third to fourth grade. He didn’t know if Lee Yoon-san had a cell phone or not, but seeing him so scared and on the verge of tears, it seemed necessary to soothe him. Crying was annoying.
“I have a phone.”
“Huh?”
“I can call my mom or dad and tell them to come.”
“Ah…!”
When Hwang Hae-kyung took out the cell phone he had carefully kept in his cargo pants pocket and showed it to him, Lee Yoon-san’s expression brightened. Lee Yoon-san did have a kids’ phone, but it was in the camper. Seeing Hwang Hae-kyung’s cell phone seemed to give him hope that he could call his family.
“Should I call them now?”
“Huh?”
“Call Mom and Dad to come?”
“Um… uh….”
“Or do you want to play more?”
Hwang Hae-kyung pointed to the coast and asked Lee Yoon-san, who was glancing around as if he was wary, perhaps because he was scared of the road with cars and now somewhat awkwardly conscious of himself. It was the first time Hwang Hae-kyung had asked him to play, and Lee Yoon-san’s eyes widened.
“Play? With… me?”
“Then who else would I play with?”
It wasn’t as if Lee Yoon-san had suddenly become likable just because he had been lured in by a squirrel and ran around a bit. Lee Yoon-san, who was slow at running and bigger than him in both height and build, was still an annoying presence to Hwang Hae-kyung.
Lee Yoon-san also hadn’t suddenly thought Hwang Hae-kyung was okay just because he had smiled and run around for a while. As proof, as soon as the pleasant atmosphere ended and he became scared of the cars passing on the coastal road and the unfamiliar environment, Lee Yoon-san couldn’t hide his awkward and frightened expression.
In other words, he was worried that Hwang Hae-kyung might abandon him or treat him like a stranger.
“You’re the only one here.”
But they were the only two in an unfamiliar environment. In fact, Hwang Hae-kyung, who had the cell phone, was also a little scared of this unfamiliar environment.
The place where they were standing was like that, and cars were passing quickly a few steps away, and even though he had often encountered various environments while touring unfamiliar filming locations, this place was completely deserted.
If he called his mom or dad, they would come right away, but he had no idea how to describe this place. All he could see around him were mountains, roads, and the sea.
But if Lee Yoon-san got scared and started crying in this environment, he felt like he would want to cry too. So, Hwang Hae-kyung’s first thought was to prevent Lee Yoon-san from crying. Even if he was a Hyung and a higher grade, Hwang Hae-kyung was still just an 11-year-old boy.
“Play.”
“You won’t cry, will you?”
“No.”
Hwang Hae-kyung asked for confirmation in response to Lee Yoon-san’s belated answer. Hwang Hae-kyung also needed a definite answer that Lee Yoon-san wouldn’t cry. Only then would he feel less anxious.
“Then let’s go. Follow me.”
“Okay!”
Just do what he usually does. He would take Lee Yoon-san and play like he usually did, leading the other kids around and playing without a care, and when Lee Yoon-san was soothed enough that he really wouldn’t cry, he would call his parents with his cell phone. He figured his parents wouldn’t scold him if he said he wasn’t lost but had just come too far while playing.
But if his parents found out that Lee Yoon-san was scared, crying, and lost, he would probably get scolded. 11-year-old Hwang Hae-kyung hated being scolded by his parents the most, and he was willing to tell a few lies if it meant he wouldn’t get scolded.
In the end, the two went to the coast and down to the coastal rocks. Shallow waves were coming in, and a beach could be seen in the distance where the coastal rocks were connected. It was the vacation season, so there were quite a few people on the beach in the distance.
“Eek, I almost fell!”
Following Hwang Hae-kyung, who had climbed onto the coastal rocks like a nimble squirrel, Lee Yoon-san also stumbled and climbed between the rocks. Then, he swayed and almost fell over, placing his hand on his startled chest and shouting.
Hwang Hae-kyung just found Lee Yoon-san funny. So he laughed, and Lee Yoon-san, seeing Hwang Hae-kyung’s laughter, grinned and laughed along. The somewhat scary feeling disappeared with Hwang Hae-kyung’s laughter.
“Look at this, here, a crab!”
“Aaaah!”
Hwang Hae-kyung grabbed a small sand crab from a crack in the rocks where the waves were coming in and showed it to Lee Yoon-san, startling him with a shout. Lee Yoon-san fell backward in surprise. This time, he landed on his butt on the rocks, so it seemed quite painful, but he was so distracted by the crab that he didn’t complain or cry.
Hwang Hae-kyung showed Lee Yoon-san the crab in detail, and when Lee Yoon-san was relieved after looking at the crab wriggling between Hwang Hae-kyung’s fingers with a curious expression, he threw the crab toward Lee Yoon-san. Then Lee Yoon-san screamed again and collapsed, and Hwang Hae-kyung laughed as if he found the sight amusing.
The two played like that for a long time. As if proving why he was so popular among his friends, Hwang Hae-kyung continued to discover and move around with amazing things in the surroundings. He moved well between the rocks where the waves were coming in and told Lee Yoon-san that that looked like seaweed and that there were actually incredibly grotesque sea slaters living in places like this. Lee Yoon-san was fascinated by everything Hwang Hae-kyung showed him and told him about.
Lee Yoon-san was amazed by how he ran around excitedly on the rocks with thin legs and body like a girl, and how he grabbed and touched things that Lee Yoon-san found too disgusting to even pick up without any hesitation.
Of course, Lee Yoon-san couldn’t help but get annoyed when he threw grains of sand like they were bugs or picked up some trashy seaweed and tried to get him to eat it as a mischievous prank, but it was still an amazing and fun experience. They had so much fun playing that they forgot the sky had darkened.
“Let’s have Mom come now.”
“Wait a minute.”
The darkened sky and the deeper waves created another scene. Lee Yoon-san was smiling and walking around, but when he came to his senses, he seemed scared again by the surroundings, which had become dark and unfamiliar again. Hwang Hae-kyung took out the cell phone from his pants pocket. It was wet in various places from playing pranks, but it wasn’t enough to turn it off.
“Hae-kyung, I’m scared….”
“Okay, just wait.”
The sky, which had been gradually darkening, was now completely dark. Lee Yoon-san was sitting on a rock, exhausted from playing, and Hwang Hae-kyung, who was standing in front of him, was pressing buttons on his cell phone to make a call. It seemed like he couldn’t get through, as the signal was taking a long time. This was a common occurrence at the campsite.
It was common for Hwang Hae-kyung to come back late from playing with his friends, and the campsite was a place where there were many things to pay attention to, and the atmosphere was such that there were even more things to prepare when it was mealtime, so it was common for people to miss calls.
It was just that Hwang Hae-kyung and Lee Yoon-san’s situation wasn’t good right now.
“Let’s go up first….”
“Hey!”
That was why Lee Yoon-san shook Hwang Hae-kyung’s clothes with a frightened expression, looking around. The waves seemed to be getting closer, the surroundings were getting darker, and the people he had seen on the beach in the distance were now hard to see because it was dark, so fear rose up.
But Lee Yoon-san’s actions led to a disaster. Hwang Hae-kyung, who was operating his cell phone to call his mom this time because his dad wasn’t answering, dropped his cell phone due to the force of Lee Yoon-san’s shaking.
The two were stunned and froze at the cell phone that had fallen into the sea between the rocks and disappeared.
“Oh, what do we do….”
Lee Yoon-san’s voice began to be mixed with tears. Hwang Hae-kyung looked at Lee Yoon-san as if he was annoyed, but he couldn’t get angry. Perhaps because the waves had gotten higher, the seawater from the waves crashing against the rocks suddenly soaked Hwang Hae-kyung’s arms and back. The splashing waves were fast, high, and threatening. It was clearly different from the daytime just a few hours ago.
“Hey, get up.”
“Oh, what do we do… the phone….”
“Get up first. We have to go up.”
Hwang Hae-kyung said in a somewhat annoyed voice and tried to grab Lee Yoon-san’s arm to lift him up. But perhaps because the difference in size was so great, Lee Yoon-san’s body didn’t budge at all.
Hwang Hae-kyung felt another surge of annoyance there. He had been told several times that he had to protect him as a younger brother, but Lee Yoon-san was bigger than him. The friends he met at the campsite every vacation all teased Lee Yoon-san, calling him a pig, but at some point, Hwang Hae-kyung was just envious of Lee Yoon-san for being big and tall, whether he was a pig or not.
“Ah, get up without crying!”
“I wasn’t crying?!”
So he was even angry that he wasn’t moving at all even though he was pulling him up so hard now. Even though he had been happily joking around with him just a moment ago.
In the end, Hwang Hae-kyung grabbed Lee Yoon-san’s wrist and forcibly pulled him. Lee Yoon-san’s arm, who couldn’t get up properly, was pulled forward sharply, and Hwang Hae-kyung’s body swayed greatly from the reaction.
“Hey!”
And the two fell together between the coastal rocks.
✧✧✧
“Yoon-san!”
“Are you okay, son? Are you awake?!”
The place where Lee Yoon-san opened his eyes was the emergency room of Halla Hospital. Lee Yoon-san had a bewildered expression on his face at the sight of his mothers calling his name while looking at him next to him, and soon he remembered the situation before he lost consciousness.
“Mom….”
“Yes, Mom’s here. Are you okay, Yoon-san? Does anything hurt?”
“Yeah, I’m okay….”
Hwang Hae-kyung’s cell phone had fallen into the sea between the rocks because he had grabbed and shaken Hwang Hae-kyung’s clothes. And Hwang Hae-kyung’s back had gotten completely wet because the waves were crashing so hard, and he had fallen into the sea together while awkwardly getting up due to Hwang Hae-kyung, who was trying to force him to stand up.
He had been terrified while submerged in the water after falling together into a very narrow crack in the rocks, and he remembered Hwang Hae-kyung shouting and getting angry at Lee Yoon-san, who was struggling out of fear. And after that….
“Is Yoon-san okay?”
As Lee Yoon-san was being held by his mothers and staring blankly, the curtain next to him opened and he heard the voice of Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother. It was a very cautious and worried voice. Only then did Lee Yoon-san’s mothers let go of Lee Yoon-san from their arms, and they could see Hwang Hae-kyung lying on the bed right next to him.
“Mom, Hae-kyung….”
“He’s okay, honey. It’s just a scratch.”
He could see the bandage covering Hwang Hae-kyung’s forehead and eyebrows. Tears began to well up in Lee Yoon-san’s face at the sight of Hwang Hae-kyung, who seemed to be more injured than he had thought, and Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother stroked Lee Yoon-san’s head and said soothingly. She said that his left eyebrow area was scratched and injured, but the bandage was just wrapped around it largely.
Of course, there were also minor bruises on Hwang Hae-kyung’s arms and legs. They seemed to be injuries caused by falling together with him, or injuries caused by struggling in the narrow crack in the rocks after he fell into the water.
In the end, tears burst from Lee Yoon-san’s eyes. He felt sorry and scared because it seemed like Hwang Hae-kyung was lying down injured all because of him. He was sorry that Hwang Hae-kyung was hurt, and he was scared that Hwang Hae-kyung’s parents would hate him.
And as if to dispel Lee Yoon-san’s fears, Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother swept back Lee Yoon-san’s bangs and smiled at him.
“Honey, Hyung is okay. You have to stop crying now. You’re hurt too, aren’t you?”
It was still a gentle and warm touch. So Lee Yoon-san hugged Hwang Hae-kyung’s mother and cried loudly. Hwang Hae-kyung’s father, who was sitting holding Hwang Hae-kyung’s hand while he was still asleep, also smiled awkwardly at the sight.
It was a dizzying situation when they found the children. As they were worrying about the children not returning to the camper even though the sky had darkened, Hwang Hae-kyung’s father checked Hwang Hae-kyung’s contact on his own cell phone, which was the beginning.
He checked Hwang Hae-kyung’s cell phone location because of a strange feeling, and fortunately, he was able to roughly find the children’s location thanks to the cell phone not being turned off.
The children were barely holding on while submerged in a narrow crack in the coastal sea, and Lee Yoon-san, who was large, was stuck in the crack, and Hwang Hae-kyung was patting Lee Yoon-san’s back while holding Lee Yoon-san’s head in his arms.
At the time of discovery, Lee Yoon-san was unconscious, and both children’s body temperatures had dropped sharply, so it was a situation where they had to be rushed to the ambulance. Hwang Hae-kyung seemed to have been barely holding on to his senses to calm Lee Yoon-san, and as soon as the adults arrived and pulled them up, he lost his mind and fainted.
Throughout the ambulance ride, the paramedics explained the wounds on Hwang Hae-kyung’s arms and eyebrows and the situation at the time of discovery, guessing what had happened. They said that Hwang Hae-kyung’s wounds seemed to have been caused by trying to calm Lee Yoon-san, who was struggling in the water, and that the scratches on Lee Yoon-san’s arms and back were also presumed to be caused by being stuck in the rocks.
For that reason, the range of scratches on Lee Yoon-san’s arms and back was wide, but if Lee Yoon-san’s large size hadn’t held Hwang Hae-kyung, something terrible could have happened to both of them, submerged in the water in the crack in the rocks.
They didn’t know why they had gone there, but the children were found quite far from the campsite, and since the cell phone had fallen into the sea, they were in great danger. At that point, the children’s parents and both sets of parents had to experience a moment of heart-stopping shock.
Fortunately, the children’s breathing and pulse were alive, and both of them vomited in the ambulance on the way to the emergency room. After arriving at the emergency room, they focused on raising the children’s body temperatures, which had dropped due to hypothermia, and conducted other tests, but no abnormalities were found. It was the moment when the children’s parents and both sets of parents breathed a sigh of relief.
The two families were able to leave the hospital with their children late at night. Both families had left their campers at the campsite, so they each took a taxi back to the campsite, and they wanted to return home, worried about the children’s condition.
But the children’s opinions were different. Hwang Hae-kyung, who had regained consciousness, expressed that he wanted to continue spending his vacation here because he wasn’t very hurt, and Lee Yoon-san, who had been cowering on the camper’s bed all along, also expressed his opinion that he didn’t want to stop the vacation camping because of him.
The children’s parents and both sets of parents sternly scolded them, saying that this was a big incident where you could have been hurt, but the children’s opinions were consistent. Judging from that, it was fortunate that this incident didn’t seem to have left a trauma on the children.
In the end, the camping was not canceled, but the two children were punished to stay in their respective campers. In fact, even if it wasn’t an outing ban, the two of them didn’t have the energy to play any more today.
As a result, Hwang Hae-kyung, who was originally weak, eventually caught a severe cold, and Lee Yoon-san also had to suffer from body aches, perhaps because he had gone through a big ordeal.
However, Lee Yoon-san, who was lying sick on the camper’s bed, became even more sullen at what his parents said. Hwang Hae-kyung, who was working as a kids’ model, had a scratch on his face, and he was the cause of that scratch.
No matter how much he retraced and retraced the situation he remembered, Hwang Hae-kyung didn’t hit his face on a rock or anything, so he was the only cause. He knew that he had been flailing his arms and legs in all directions because he was so scared and frustrated after falling into the water. And he remembered that Hwang Hae-kyung had hugged him. He also clearly remembered the voice repeating the same words as if to reassure him.
However, Lee Yoon-san didn’t have the courage to tell the adults about these specific memories himself, so he kept his mouth shut. —Of course, Hwang Hae-kyung’s parents and Lee Yoon-san’s parents already knew the facts.
“Mom.”
“Yes, honey. Does anything hurt?”
“No…. Hae-kyung got hurt because of me….”
“Hae-kyung saved Yoon-san, didn’t he?”
“…Yeah.”
Lee Yoon-san’s eyes drooped again as he peeked his head out from under the blanket his parents had piled high on him. His already narrow, drooping eyes seemed to fall endlessly downwards, naturally eliciting a feeling of sorrow. Lee Yoon-san’s Omega mother stroked her son’s hair back, recalling what she had heard from the paramedics.
They had said that Hwang Hae-kyung seemed to have been holding Lee Yoon-san, who was in a state of panic after falling into the water, to calm him down.
“Hae-kyung is really like a Hyung.”
“……”
“You have to make sure to thank Hae-kyung later, okay?”
“Okay…”
“And apologize for hurting his eyebrow, too?”
“Okay.”
Lee Yoon-san’s anxiety subsided a little at his mother’s gentle, soft-spoken voice. When he was with his mother, who told him what to do in a relaxed and affectionate voice, it felt like nothing scary could happen, at least for the time being.
“Mom, hug me.”
“Okay, my Baby.”
Lee Yoon-san fell asleep in his mother’s warm embrace. Whether it was the effect of the antipyretic he had taken before lying down, or because of the exhausting day, he couldn’t tell.
He slept like that for a long time, and it was around dawn when he woke up feeling something strange. The adults seemed to have had a drink and were sleeping in the outside tent, and Hwang Hae-kyung was standing in front of the awakened Lee Yoon-san, wrapped tightly in a blanket despite it being summer.
“Oh, Hae-kyung?”
Lee Yoon-san felt like Hwang Hae-kyung in front of him was like a dream. That was because the last time Lee Yoon-san had seen Hwang Hae-kyung, he was being held by his dad and put into the car, not even fully conscious, whether it was from sleepiness or fever.
Chapter
But now, Hwang Hae-kyung was standing right in front of him. He had entered the camper where Lee Yoon-san was sleeping, a large bandage on his left eyebrow.
“I told you to call me Hyung, didn’t I?”
“No way…”
“Whatever, anyway.”
Hwang Hae-kyung spoke to Lee Yoon-san with a hint of annoyance, then paused. He seemed to have something to say, or perhaps his throat hurt. Indeed, Hwang Hae-kyung’s voice sounded very strange, and he looked to be in a lot of pain.
Lee Yoon-san was convinced that Hwang Hae-kyung had come to scold him and squeezed his eyes shut.
He had fallen into the water, gotten hurt, and Lee Yoon-san had accidentally dropped his phone into the sea while shaking his clothes.
Judging from Hwang Hae-kyung’s usual attitude of getting annoyed and angry at him over trivial matters, it seemed clear that he would be really angry this time. Moreover, the whole thing had started because Lee Yoon-san was chasing a chipmunk and Hwang Hae-kyung was chasing a squirrel.
The more Lee Yoon-san thought about it, the more he felt like it was all his fault. The root cause was one thing: the scar on Hwang Hae-kyung’s eyebrow, as a child model, was too noticeable.
This was a different level of problem compared to the bruises he had given him on his wrist and the back of his hand during arm wrestling last vacation. No matter how clueless Lee Yoon-san was, he knew how important the face was, especially to a child model.
Besides, weren’t his classmates sensitive about ‘faces’ and ‘appearances’ these days? So Hwang Hae-kyung must have come to get angry and argue with him.
However.
“Thank you.”
Hwang Hae-kyung said in a hoarse voice, as if his throat hurt. Lee Yoon-san stared blankly at Hwang Hae-kyung, about to ask what he was thanking him for. Indeed, he couldn’t understand Hwang Hae-kyung’s words.
But Hwang Hae-kyung seemed to have said all he wanted to say, turned around, and quickly left the camper. As Lee Yoon-san was about to get up to follow Hwang Hae-kyung, he heard Hwang Hae-kyung’s father scolding him from outside.
“Hwang Hae-kyung, you little rascal, didn’t I tell you to lie down and not move?!”
“I will lie down!”
“You’re grounded! If you’re still sick in the morning, don’t even dream of going out to play!”
“I really hate Dad!”
Hwang Hae-kyung’s voice was full of annoyance this time. The bickering with his father, who was nagging him out of concern, continued for quite a while, and their quarrel ended with the sound of Hwang Hae-kyung slamming the camper door shut.
Of course, right after that, he heard Hwang Hae-kyung opening the camper door and saying, as if making an excuse, ‘The wind made it close.’
Anyway, Lee Yoon-san, feeling dazed by the unbelievable reality, lay back down on the bed. It was the height of summer, but the camper was quite comfortable with the air conditioner running weakly. The yellow light of the interior garland and the string of lights that Mom had decorated cozily filled Lee Yoon-san’s eyes.
His stuffy nose made him uncomfortable, so he turned to his side and sniffled, and he thought he could smell the unique scent of summer grass and the salty smell of the sea. He could also hear the bitter smell of the mosquito coil hanging in the incense holder and the quiet conversations of the adults outside.
He had a fever and his body ached, but he could see, hear, and feel all of it. These were all things he hadn’t properly recognized until Hwang Hae-kyung came and went. Including Lee Yoon-san’s own feelings.
He thought Hwang Hae-kyung would be angry, but he said thank you and left. He fell into the sea with Hwang Hae-kyung but was safe, and even though he had scratched Hwang Hae-kyung’s face, no one was angry. It was as if Lee Yoon-san hadn’t ruined anything. Moreover, as he slowly went back in time, there was something even more unbelievable.
“…I played with Hae-kyung.”
Today, he had chased squirrels with Hwang Hae-kyung, played with small crabs and seaweed on the beach—though Lee Yoon-san was entirely on the receiving end—and hung out together. Just like Hwang Hae-kyung’s friends, who were a year older than him.
“I want to play again tomorrow…”
Lee Yoon-san smiled bashfully with flushed cheeks and covered himself with a blanket. He had played with Hwang Hae-kyung. Now that he had played with him, he understood why Hwang Hae-kyung had so many friends.
Playing with Hwang Hae-kyung was fun. They ran together, exchanged jokes, and explored amazing things. Hwang Hae-kyung led all of it, and Lee Yoon-san was too busy reacting to Hwang Hae-kyung’s jokes to feel awkward.
It wasn’t awkward at all, and it was full of fun and amazing things. Hwang Hae-kyung participated in everything Lee Yoon-san was curious about, and he enjoyed exploring things that Lee Yoon-san had missed.
And in every moment, he included Lee Yoon-san with the words, ‘Hey, come here.’ It was the first time he had experienced this since entering the third grade, and it was attention.
I hope Hwang Hae-kyung’s friends don’t come to the campsite tomorrow. I want to play with him alone.
Mom said she would hang a net hammock on the big tree, so I have to show it off to Hae-kyung. I’m going to take a nap in the hammock. I also bought powder that changes the color of the fire, so Hae-kyung will be surprised if I show it to him, right? I also bought sparklers for fireworks, so it would be nice to play with those too!
So I hope Hae-kyung’s friends don’t come. If his friends come, they might not include me again. Hae-kyung’s friends only like Hae-kyung. It feels like they’re going to take Hae-kyung away….
Even as Lee Yoon-san thought that, he reflected on the memory of playing happily with Hwang Hae-kyung today. He hadn’t played like this with his school friends since becoming a third grader, so just thinking about it made his heart flutter and feel full. It finally felt like this camping trip had become a place for ‘adventure’ or ‘play’ or ‘exploration.’
“I have to ask him to play together again.”
Lee Yoon-san muttered that resolution and closed his eyes tightly. He couldn’t be sick if he wanted to play with Hwang Hae-kyung tomorrow. He had to go to sleep quickly and wake up to play with Hwang Hae-kyung again. He repeated that thought countless times.
But unfortunately, Lee Yoon-san’s wish was not fulfilled. As soon as the day dawned, Hwang Hae-kyung’s family dismantled their camper and returned home. They left so hastily that they didn’t even manage to pack up the table and some of the props they had left out at the campsite.
And after that, Lee Yoon-san couldn’t meet Hwang Hae-kyung in the next vacation, or the vacation after that, or the vacation after that. The family vacation camping came to an end.