บท 19: Chapter 18
I can't use a private agency.
I didn't trust such a place because it could be prone to information leaks. I arrived home and began pondering on this for a while.
Human beings were inconsistent. At first, I felt out of place as if I was wearing clothes that didn't fit me, but as I grew used to this lifestyle, so did my level of comfort.
Now, the mansion felt more familiar to me than the palm-sized house in Dal-dong where I once lived.
After returning to the room after splitting off from the group, I enjoyed a leisurely bath in the en-suite bathroom. Usually, I would opt for a quick shower and head to bed, but I wanted to have a soak in warm water for a while because I felt dirty after meeting Ki Sung Yoon.
"This is the benefit of being Ki Yoon Jae."
I laughed, threw in a bath bomb, and made ripples in the water that turned cloudy with my finger. This bathtub was made so that even if two or three people came in, they could still happily soak themselves in.
It was a lifestyle that was unfathomable before I possessed this body. There was no room for a bathtub in the palm-sized house where I used to live. I could barely fit a basin in there, so it was only possible to have a good soak in a public bath.
Even though I earned money from a part-time job, it was difficult to justify paying 6,000 won1 every day just to wash up. You could buy a meal for 6,000 won, so it was wiser to just have a good meal than to take a bath.
"…Why did Ki Yoon Jae turn wicked?"
A spacious house.
A warm room.
Delicious food.
Wealth.
A life that everyone aspired to have.
A life that someone might call a luxury.
"…But he receives no affection."
I felt this while living as Ki Yoon Jae for a few months; that no one gave him affection. No. Ki Hyun Joo seemed to treat me with some affection, but…
What I meant was familial love – the love of parents, the love of a grandfather…
Ki Yoon Jae had no guardian.
I am still 16 years old.
Although he would soon be 17, Ki Yoon Jae was still young. In truth, I was actually 23 years old, but Ki Yoon Jae was much younger than that.
Several months after becoming Ki Yoon Jae, his father did not contact him. If calling was difficult, he could have sent me a KakaoTalk message instead, but I was never contacted. There was no sign of communication even before I possessed Ki Yoon Jae.
Is this really a family…?
The family I knew of was nothing like this. I lived a life without a guardian like him. However, people like my foster parents and the director of the orphanage helped me to grow into a respectable person.
However, for Ki Yoon Jae… there was no one.
"If that's why you turned wicked…"
He was pitiful. Of course, this didn't suddenly mean that his actions in the novel were excusable.
I took a bath to clear my mind, but my thoughts became more complicated instead. I got out of the bathtub, wiped dry, and put on my robe. I then left the bathroom and spent time lying on the bed in my robe.
Can I just sleep like this?
There's no one looking anyway… I decided to sleep in a robe, not in pyjamas, and covered myself with the blanket in bed thinking that it wouldn't matter if I'd worn it a little sloppily…
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on my door.
I glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost 11.
At this hour?
I was wondering who the hell it was; I stood up and asked them to come in and the door opened.
"Hyung…"
Standing at the doorway was Ha Hyun Seo, hugging a pillow about the same size as me. He didn't come in but rather hesitated by the door.
"Oh, Hyun Seo? What's wrong?"
"Hyung…"
Hesitating, he approached me. Waiting by the bedside, he whispered:
"Can we… sleep together?"
Looking at me with his head tilted, Ha Hyun Seo was like a little dog …I mean like a puppy.
I could feel that Ha Hyun Seo was gazing at me intently.
My neck wasn't about to be snapped off, right…?
His face turned sullen due to my lack of response as I agonised over his request.
"Of course you can."
Alas, my mouth moved by itself. Thanks to that, Ha Hyun Seo's face brightened.
I couldn't take back the words I had already said, so I lifted the blanket, and Ha Hyun Seo climbed up onto my bed. It was a queen-sized bed that wasn't too narrow, so there wasn't any problem with two people lying down together.
"Hehe…"
Ha Hyun Seo squeezed into my arms, causing his hair to brush against my chest that was exposed through the gap in my robe.
Hmm… I'm sure it's okay.
He was a kid, and we were both guys anyway. I didn't think that merely exposing some of my skin would be a big deal.
"Wow… Hyung. Your skin is really pale."
"Is that so?"
"When I first saw Hyung, I thought an angel had descended."
Ha Hyun Seo shyly said that it was because I was so white and pretty. I was grateful for the compliment, but it was rather embarrassing to hear him compare me to a descending angel.
Oh? Come to think of it…
Wasn't there another person who would know more about Ha Eun Seo's phobia of men? There was no better person to ask than Ha Hyun Seo, who had been with her for a long time.
I thought about what words to say for a moment so that Ha Hyun Seo would not be offended.
"Hyun Seo."
"Yes, Hyung."
"How were you living before you met me?"
"At the orphanage"?
"No, before that…"
I wondered if he could talk about his parents. Ha Hyun Seo hesitated and paused for a moment but otherwise didn't seem to mind the question. After thinking for a while, he began to speak about himself.
"Actually, I don't remember much about my parents…"
Ha Hyun Seo was still young, but when he was much younger, he lived with his parents. His parents were ordinary people, and Ha Eun Seo was not timid whilst her parents were alive.
"Then when I was 5 years old… My parents died in an accident."
Ha Hyun Seo and Ha Eun Seo were four years apart, so Ha Eun Seo was nine years old at the time. Younger than the current Ha Hyun Seo. However, she needed to protect her younger brother at that young age.
Seeing that she was still afraid of me but tried to protect Ha Hyun Seo, it seemed she felt a strong sense of responsibility for her brother.
"My sister said that our maternal uncle would become our guardian. It was after that that he appeared."
"Your uncle?"
"Yes, but I only saw him for the first time at the funeral. We'd never met before."
Their maternal uncle was to be their guardian, but the two siblings ended up in an orphanage? I wondered what the hell happened.
"So I ended up living with my maternal uncle…"
Their maternal uncle didn't seem like a great person, although he didn't have a bad temper or anything like that; strangely, his sister Ha Eun Seo said that she felt afraid. Therefore, Ha Eun Seo always tried to stick with Ha Hyun Seo. As soon as I heard that, I could roughly conclude that the cause of Ha Eun Seo's phobia stemmed from him.
Piece of shit bastard…
It was just a guess, but there was nothing else that could explain her phobia; as Ha Hyun Seo said that she was a cheerful person in the past.
People who abused children deserved to be eradicated. I asked Ha Hyun Seo while grinding my teeth internally,
"So, where is your maternal uncle now?"
"In prison."
"Prison?"
When I asked in surprise, Ha Hyun Seo nodded his head.
"My sister said… uncle gravely injured a passerby."
"Our uncle was an alcoholic."
Ha Hyun Seo whispered as if he was sharing a secret.
"I heard that he drank and quarreled with a passerby, and he eventually resorted to violence."
I'll have to look into this.
I thought I should find out the length of his sentence and whether he had returned to society already if he had fulfilled his sentence.
Although Ha Eun Seo wasn't famous now, as gifted people were just known as mutants with strange powers, it was only natural that she would become famous when the world changed.
She was a gifted person chosen by Sungwoon's successor himself. Even if she wasn't at the level of a celebrity, her face was quite pretty.
When one became famous, opportunists were bound to appear. Even a relationship that had withered would be brought to the forefront for reconciliation.
Moreover, in the case of blood ties, it would have been worse, but it wouldn't be normal.
Ha Hyun Seo's maternal uncle never worked. Then, where did the money for living expenses come from? Perhaps it was the insurance money or the property owned by the parents of the two siblings.
I thought I should find out about that, too. Once the money dries up, wouldn't he go after the money the siblings earned at Sungwoon? If I went ahead and claimed guardianship over the still underaged siblings, I could end up making things awkward for Sungwoon. Perhaps, the situation might blow up.
Thinking about that, I told myself that I should find out quickly while I comforted Ha Hyun Seo.
"It must have been hard for you."
There was no answer from the child who had buried himself in my arms.
Did he fall asleep already?
I kept as still as possible so as not to wake up Ha Hyun Seo.
Gradually, I fell asleep too.
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