episode_0028

Before the storm. The shortest word that can describe this situation right now.

After swearing in front of my senior’s older sister, whom I was meeting for the first time, I was racking my brain until my logic circuit was about to burn out in order to overcome this situation.

Hong Seol’s expression goes beyond embarrassment to astonishment. A voice that cannot be heard through the receiver. The silence emanating from the two women actually sounded like silent cries to me.

“Hmm. First of all, I apologize for cursing you, sister.”

Let’s calm down. They say that even if you go into a tiger’s den, you will survive as long as you come to your senses. This is what Park Ha-eun’s mother, who always taught her proverbs as a saying maker, said, so it will never be wrong.

It’s not too late. If you turn the steering wheel and immediately make a U-turn, there is definitely a situation in which you can turn back…

“But fuck, it’s too much. What kind of pet is your little brother? Don’t do that to your pets. They grow up receiving even one-sided love, so what you are doing now is just torture.”

[…….]

“Are you sure this is your biological sister? No, even my half-sister wouldn’t do something like this. I heard that a child called my younger brother collapsed and was hospitalized. Instead of rushing over to check on his condition, he only called me on the phone. Even I, a stranger, took him to the hospital and waited for him to wake up, but where the hell have you been and what have you been doing all this time?”

The freestyle DNA that was dormant inside me was alive and wriggling passionately. Has the power he previously received from Eminem finally been unleashed? Maybe, in my current state, I might be able to run 80 miles instead of 8.

“Is school that important? Hongseol is weak? Is it really right to judge everything by your own standards and treat anyone who deviates from those standards as a loser? Do you know how much that girl is recognized at school, and how much she struggles because of that recognition?”

[you…]

“Please come to your senses. The person who needs to be admitted to the hospital right now is you, not Hong Seol. Come here right now and see a psychiatrist, take Hongseol home with you, or do something!!!”

Pop-

After filming an intense morning drama, I handed the phone back to Hong Seol with a refreshed expression. Her face was frozen as if what was happening in front of her was really real. Thanks to this, it was very comfortable to put the phone back in my hand.

“I guess it was a car that started suddenly. The brakes didn’t work.”

“……..”

“I’m sorry, senior.”

There was nothing more to say. Anyway, the damage to me will be much greater than the damage to Hong Seol. Still, I had to apologize for giving an unwanted blow to his dark family history. Because everyone has something they want to hide.

“……Phuheuk.”

“…Senior?”

“Sigh…! Phew… It’s really… big…! You’re amazing, you.”

Laughter leaking out from behind the dumbfounded face. Hongseol’s laughter, which started like a deathly laugh, soon began to explode with such force that it was called a roar of laughter.

What kind of emotion is contained in that smile? What is its true meaning? Before thinking about such things, can the girl with that beautiful smile really diagnose the reason she is smiling?

“I’m kind of amazing.”

As my thoughts reached that point, before I knew it, I was laughing along with Hong Seol.

In the midst of such conflicting emotions of anger and joy, we started laughing as if we were bipolar patients. The laughter that started like that continued until just before the nervous patient in the next room started pounding on the wall.

* * *

“Is it okay for you to be discharged from the hospital?”

“It’s close to home anyway. If you want to rest, home is better.”

“No, I mean, can you walk home?”

“What if you help me?”

“You’re really blatant.”

“You made me like this. I have to take responsibility.”

“Please refrain from saying things that others may misunderstand.”

Because of the snow naturally sticking next to me, I had to pay attention to those around me again today. If I keep going like this, won’t I end up getting reported to the police one day? Still, I wasn’t particularly worried because Hongseol would defend me well when that time came.

We were able to leave the hospital only when the sun was setting and the dim moonlight was falling. Anyway, everything that could be done at the hospital had been done, and this was because he respected Hong Seol’s opinion that if he wanted to rest, it would be more comfortable at home.

My sister didn’t show up until the end. Later, when I was told the reason, they said it was because they were busy with work, but it was something I could never understand by my standards. Because the answer to the weight of work and family was too clear to compare on a scale.

“But isn’t it a bit close?”

“Then, did you think that being a support person means you can stay away?”

“I think it would be better to just find one more person and carry them on a stretcher.”

“In that case, it’s better to just take a taxi.”

“Why aren’t you riding now?”

“….Secret.”

“She has a lot of secrets, senior Lee.”

Hongseol placed her hands on my waist without hesitation and leaned her body against me. The sound of her heartbeat and the warmth coming from her body temperature couldn’t help but touch my heart.

Hongseol doesn’t know if she doesn’t know that, or if she knows it and is still doing this, but Hongseol still shows no signs of falling.

“The fever has gone down a lot.”

“Can you feel it?”

“Then you can’t feel it when it’s stuck like this?”

“I feel a bit embarrassed after hearing those words.”

“If you twist it, it will fall.”

For some reason, Hongseol’s body temperature seemed to rise again. If you’re going to be this embarrassed, don’t say anything in the first place. Still, he was a senior and pretended like nothing was wrong, but in the end, it seemed like Hong Seol was just like the other kids in not having male tolerance.

“You won’t come to school tomorrow, right?”

“……Yes.”

“The answer is late.”

“I’m not going, don’t worry. I don’t think I’m in a physical condition to do that anyway.”

Hongseol must have been influenced by something while attending my freestyle rap battle, and with a determined expression, Hongseol announced that he would be sick. You might wonder what’s so big about illness, but didn’t Hong Seol live the same life as us?

I hoped that because of that decision, Hong Seol would be able to escape from her sister’s shadow even a little. At least until Yoon Dong-gun saves him, or so that he can live entirely on his own without necessarily hoping for salvation.

Of course it wouldn’t be easy. Hong Seol’s family history, which became twisted after her father passed away, had been going down the wrong path for over 10 years.

But the most important thing was that I realized it now. Some people say that when you think it’s late, it’s the fastest, but if you think about it the other way around, it means that there’s no day that’s earlier than that.

Be sure to overcome this, Hong Seol. That way, I can prevent your sister from coming to visit me. Please…

“…Thank you, junior.”

“If I’m going to say something unfamiliar, I’ll just throw it on the ground.”

“That’s strange. They say men like it if you express it without twirling around.”

“Where on earth.”

“Popular on Netflix…”

“Atflix took care of all the kids, really.”

It was Atflix that captured men’s romance so well that it gave me goosebumps. Women, pay attention, because that statement is true a hundred times over.

Especially if a woman like Hong Seol were to strike his heart, there would be no man who could escape it. I almost got trapped in the maze that is Hongseol. I heard they had to send a rescue signal to Yeji Lee?

“Enter.”

“…Wasn’t it supposed to take you to the front of the house?”

“I’m not showing you opening the door in front of a man, senior.”

“Ah, I feel like I’m going to collapse. If no one catches me, I might end up sitting on the cold street like this.”

Hong Seol performed with all his might while leaning on a telephone pole, but compared to his appearance, his acting skills were very terrible. At least learn how to move your facial muscles, Hong Seol-ah…

“Senior, you’re really bad at acting. Just in case, never become an actor or performer in a play in the future.”

“There is no one who will do it for you?”

“It may happen later.”

“?”

With Hong Seol’s looks that would turn the jaws of most idols upside down, she might still be able to get a scouting offer from time to time. Or at least I could appear as a guest actor at the school festival.

I didn’t want to go there and see the audience’s expressions harden. Hong Seol has a somewhat mystical concept and is someone who puts up walls around people, so wouldn’t it be a blemish on his character if he showed off his acting skills?

And as someone who had to watch the miserable acting from the perspective of a junior, I absolutely did not want to see that acting again.

Sincerely, even if you force the current AI robot to act, it will do better than that, so I hope you don’t do such a complacent thing when you stand on stage, Hong Seol-ah.

“It’s because I wasn’t feeling well just now. Should I show you again?”

“Are you protesting by saying they won’t take you home?”

“No, I’ll show you again. Even after all this, when I was in first grade, the theater club asked me to appear as a guest…”

“Oh, please. I’ll just take you there, so please be patient.”

I thoroughly suppressed Hong Seol’s protest and had no choice but to go to her house.

* * *

Building forest.

In the city center where such words fit, the light in one window was brightly lit.

A woman who had just finished a meeting and returned to her seat was sipping coffee and looking at the monitor.

A man approaches a woman who seems to be concentrating on something. Although her curved waist was impressive, the woman seemed not to care about the man and was only focused on the monitor.

“Boss?”

“……”

“Um… boss? The payment I mentioned earlier…”

“Oh, I’ll leave it behind. I’ll see you later.”

As if preoccupied with something else, the woman waved her hand and encouraged her employee to leave. Of course, there was no employee here who would ignore the coercion, which was not coercion, so the man had no choice but to leave the place with his head down.

sniffling-

Declining coffee. A peaceful yet strangely heavy breathing sound. The woman’s seemingly fixed eyes were looking at a CCTV screen beyond the monitor.

The screen showed a man and a woman who were close to each other, as if they could be seen as lovers. On one side is a man with a stocky physique, blond hair, and a tanned, dark skin tone.

And the other one had long black hair and a beautiful appearance that anyone could see. The man and woman, a seemingly incompatible combination, talked across the front door of the house, and eventually began to go their separate ways.

Whoop-

The gaze of the woman drinking coffee was directed towards the man. She observed the man as closely as possible, and only after he disappeared from the screen did she stretch and get up from her chair.

“Our Seol. My taste in men is a bit more unique than I thought.”

The face with a subtle smile clearly resembled Hong Seol. The difference with her is that she has a more voluptuous body and a look where time has passed a little more, as if she was in a time machine.

She got out of her seat and put her hand on the window next to her. A cold wind hit the woman along with the friction of the hinges, and her flowing hair looked very similar to someone’s, reminiscent of strands of black thread.

“It’s fun. It’s fun.”

Hong Yul.

Hongseol’s older sister said this and enjoyed the blowing wind.