#114

Just then, the man was pushed out of the kitchen.

“Ji-hye’s father! Stop it and go sit down.”

Because of that, Tae-heun, who had been loitering in front of the kitchen, became a set with Man.

“Let’s eat too.”

When Tae-heun spoke, the man nodded in agreement. He stopped in his tracks.

“Are you leaving already? What about the food?”

man asked this to the man in a black suit who was coming out to the porch. It was Kwon Yong-joon. He, who always wore clothes popular among twenty-somethings, looked like a different person in a suit. He was a small but good-looking man, well-suited to the word ‘sleek.’

“Oh, Hyung. I had a few spoonfuls.”

“You should have eaten everything before leaving.”

“I have a lunch appointment.”

Kwon Yong-joon frowned as he looked at Man’s face.

“Are you okay? You’re badly hurt.”

He was worried about Man.

“No, it just looks that way, I’m not really hurt much.”

man smiled awkwardly and stroked his face.

Just as Kwon Yong-joon was about to open his mouth to say something more, he met Tae-heun’s eyes. He seemed very embarrassed, as if he hadn’t known he was there. He quickly turned his head and pretended to look for his shoes under the porch.

“Hyungnim. Are you leaving already?”

When Tae-heun greeted Kwon Yong-joon, he flinched.

That bastard, he’s the one who brought Nam Ji-hoon.

He was sure of it.

Man, who knew nothing, saw Kwon Yong-joon off with a friendly voice.

“Be careful going. See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Hyung.”

man couldn’t wait and followed the neighborhood association lady who was carrying watermelons, offering to hold the tray for her. He was a diligent man, no matter what.

Only after the man had completely disappeared did Tae-heun bring up the next story to Kwon Yong-joon.

“I met Ji-hoon, no, Ji-hoon Hyung, well. The house is a mess, but he even stayed there overnight.”

“Yes? Ah, yes…. Yes? Ji-hoon stayed there overnight?”

It seemed Kwon Yong-joon didn’t know about it either. He was so flustered that he made a mistake while speaking.

“Hyungnim didn’t know either. I was surprised to see him coming out of that house this morning. I thought he was a ghost.”

Tae-heun joked.

“As Hyungnim knows, that’s where the shaman died.”

“Ah, yes… well.”

Kwon Yong-joon couldn’t find the words to say and just rolled his eyes. He stepped on other people’s shoes trying to find his own.

“By the way, it seems you came yesterday afternoon.”

“…Yes.”

“Oh, you should have waited a bit. We also left work early yesterday.”

“Ah…, Father was waiting.”

“I know. Ki-beom also left work early to come here. You’re not strangers, it would have been nice if you had waited and gone together. Ki-beom will be very disappointed if he finds out.”

Tae-heun said this while looking at the room the man had entered.

With every word Tae-heun spoke, Kwon Yong-joon’s face grew redder and redder. He thought he was shameless like his Father, but it seemed he wasn’t that bad. After finding his shoes, he didn’t even put them on properly and ran out the gate as if fleeing.

“Tae-heun, come eat.”

man called out from inside.

“Yes, I’m coming.”

Tae-heun answered and went down to the porch. Among the shoes scattered haphazardly, he picked up a shoe that seemed to belong to Kwon Yong-joon. He must have been in a hurry. Not like Cinderella, he abandoned an expensive shoe and wore someone else’s shoe instead. He set it aside in a corner under the porch to take later.

Thinking of Cinderella, he remembered what he had guaranteed to the man yesterday afternoon. There must be another fairy tale where the prince puts the shoe on the princess. He should have read fairy tales. He thought he should stop by the bookstore when he went to town later and slowly moved towards the main room.

“Not there, over there.”

Ms. Hyun-sook, who had come sometime, gestured for him to follow her with a small dining table.

No matter how he looked at it, it wasn’t a place for a room, but she guided him there. Tae-heun reluctantly followed, looking for Man. Just then, the man came out of the main room and naturally walked towards Tae-heun.

“What’s this?”

Tae-heun chuckled as he looked at the space where the dining table was placed.

“Don’t complain and eat. There’s no space in the main room, and the young men’s association members are in the small room. We can’t go to the other room because Yong-pil’s uncle’s mother is lying down.”

There wasn’t even room to step on the porch.

Still, to give a dining table in a place where fermented soybean cakes were laid out, a place that couldn’t even be called a room, was too much.

“You’re too much.”

“Then who told you to fight? Ki-beom, sit down quickly.”

“Yes, Nuna.”

man didn’t seem to mind and quickly sat down. Even with the man and the small dining table the size of a palm, the space was completely filled. Tae-heun could barely sit down after clearing away the haphazardly placed items.

“If you need anything, get it yourself.”

“Yes, Nuna.”

man answered well.

“What is this?”

Tae-heun stuck out his mouth a foot as he looked in the direction Ms. Hyun-sook had disappeared.

“I’m sorry. I asked for it to be brought here.”

He only said he was sorry, but the man didn’t look sorry at all.

“Why? Why did you specifically ask for it to be brought here?”

“I’m embarrassed to see the chairman, and I’m sorry to the Hyungs.”

man answered as if it were obvious and picked up his spoon. He scooped half of his rice and mixed it into the bright red soup. Tae-heun also scooped rice into the spicy beef soup following Man.

“What’s there for Ki-beom to be embarrassed and sorry about?”

He stirred the rice with his spoon, grumbling.

Just as he was about to put a spoonful of rice in his mouth, he heard ‘Ki-beom.’ It was the eldest Hyung.

“The chairman wants to see you.”

Perhaps because of his age, the eldest Hyung looked more gruesome even though he had been hit the same amount.

Did I hit him that hard?

Tae-heun was startled even though he was the one who had hit him.

The eldest Hyung turned his back without even glancing at Tae-heun.

man put his spoon back down and told Tae-heun, ‘Eat first.’ He was about to stand up when his knee got caught on the dining table, and he almost overturned it. Tae-heun and the man grabbed the dining table at the same time.

“Just say it, why are you trying to overturn the dining table? Ki-beom, you have a hidden temper.”

When Tae-heun joked, the man let out a puff of laughter.

It was obvious what Kwon Il-taek would say. He would sit the eldest Hyung and the man down and say something like, ‘Family shouldn’t fight,’ which was just lip service.

I’m the one who did wrong, so why is he calling the innocent the man to lecture him?

No matter how he thought about it, it didn’t seem right, so he was about to get up when Man, who had eyes in the back of his head, turned around and shook his head.

Later.

He said with his lips.

Since the man was coming out like this, what could he do but wait quietly?

Without Man, he had no appetite. He stabbed the battered pollack pancake with his chopsticks, killing time. It was only when the plate full of battered pollack pancakes was tattered that the man returned.

“Nuna! Give me new spicy beef soup here. It’s all cold.”

man shouted towards the kitchen before even sitting down. There was no answer. It was noisy and such a remote place that they probably couldn’t hear him.

“Ah, you told me to get it myself, right?”

Tae-heun quickly got up. He went into the busy kitchen, scooped soup for the man and himself, and returned to the small room.

“Eat quickly. You’re hungry, right?”

He said, putting it down on the dining table.

man said, ‘I’m okay,’ and mixed the remaining rice into the hot soup.

He somehow looked relieved.

“Did you get scolded a lot?”

Tae-heun asked, watching him carefully.

“No. It’s not like that.”

“It’s not. You weren’t called in to be praised, were you?”

“That’s true.”

“I’m sorry.”

man shook his head. He said it wasn’t, that it was all his fault.

“Ki-beom, you have a hidden protagonist complex. You blame yourself for everything.”

When Tae-heun chided him, the man smiled.

“We made up.”

He said somewhat awkwardly.

“With the Hyungs?”

“Yes.”

“Without me?”

“Tae-heun, later.”

He said, leaving a lingering feeling.

man stared at Tae-heun quietly. Tae-heun preemptively protested, even though he hadn’t been told to apologize.

“I don’t do things like apologizing. No, I can’t. Because I’m not sorry to the Hyungs at all.”

As if he expected it, the man smiled faintly. ‘I know.’ he said.

“It’s okay if Tae-heun doesn’t apologize.”

“Is it really okay?”

“Yes.”

“Ms. Hyun-sook told me to? That I’m making Ki-beom uncomfortable?”

He tattled. Then the man nodded slightly.

“It would be uncomfortable. But what can I do.”

“What, Ki-beom’s words are scarier than being told to apologize.”

“I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Yes, you did.”

Tae-heun glared at Man.

“I’ll do it. I have to if Ki-beom is uncomfortable.”

He said as if doing a favor.

If the man wanted it, he would even kneel.

“If you tell me about the persimmon tree house in Angol, then I’ll do it.”

He was curious. Ms. Hyun-sook wouldn’t have brought it up for no reason.

man looked troubled.

“Ms. Hyun-sook said that the way I talk is just like the son of that house.”

“Nuna really says all sorts of things.”

man grumbled. That was all. He closed his mouth tightly.

“Anyway, I have to give you credit for being tight-lipped.”

Tae-heun smiled, glaring at the man with an unresentful gaze. That’s why he liked Man. He was sometimes frustrating, but how elegant he was compared to the humans who blurted out anything. He was a person who was fundamentally different from himself, who was endlessly vulgar.

man was very hungry and stuffed his rice in his mouth.

“You’ll get indigestion. Eat slowly.”

“Yes.”

He only answered like that, but he had already finished a bowl of spicy beef soup in no time. Even though it was difficult to move because the space was cramped, he diligently brought more rice and side dishes to eat.

The two ate their fill, even dessert, and left the mourning house. Ms. Hyun-sook packed battered food and spicy beef soup for the child to eat and handed it to Man. She belatedly recognized Tae-heun’s fingernails dyed with balsam water and casually threw out a word, ‘You do all sorts of things. It’s pretty.’

Tae-heun went down under the porch before the man and found his shoes and handed them over. Then he took Kwon Yong-joon’s shoes that he had hidden earlier. the man was about to put on his shoes when he looked at the shoe in Tae-heun’s hand and raised his eyebrows.

“Whose are those?”

“Ah. These? Yong-joon Hyung’s.”

He shook the shoes.

“Yes?”

Man’s eyes widened.

“Earlier, Yong-joon Hyung said he was leaving in a hurry and wore someone else’s shoes. Only one of them, too. So I’m keeping them. In case he looks for them later.”

“Ah, I thought.”

man seemed to think Tae-heun was playing a prank.

“Did you think I hid them on purpose?”

“You might have.”

“Hey, I have some manners too. I don’t do that at a mourning house.”

When Tae-heun grumbled, the man laughed.

“Then why are you taking them instead of leaving them there?”

“It’s fun. I’ll take this opportunity to show off a bit.”

“You’re like a the child.”

“Should I call Ji-hye Nuna?”

“No.”

Unlike his curt tone, he still had a smiling face. the man had already taken the lead. Tae-heun easily caught up with Man.