S Chapter 13

Chapter 13

‘I want to die.’

Three skull bombs exploded around Shin Jukyeong’s face.

“Shit…”

Of course, Cha Jae-min was the same.

“Seriously, bad luck from the morning. Hey, aren’t you going to move?!”

Cha Jae-min bounced Shin Jukyeong off him with a ‘tyong’ sound. He even shouted, asking why he was sticking to him like a dirty thing. His prickly nature was like a hissing cat.

‘How could this be…’

Shin Jukyeong, having fallen, curled up like a pill bug. The space between his brows was darkly shadowed. Because of the curses? No. Though he was an old fuddy-duddy, he was infinitely soft when it came to his younger brothers, so he wouldn’t be shaken by something this trivial. Then, because something that shouldn’t have touched did? That wasn’t it either. It was unpleasant, but… it was fine because it was his younger brother.

Shin Jukyeong’s reason for digging a hole (feeling despair) lay elsewhere. Something even worse… something he had said he hated so much he would foam at the mouth and scream, that is.

‘…Me?’

Rumble! Lightning struck above Shin Jukyeong’s head. It was utterly electrifying.

He had long known that they found him awkward and didn’t like him. However, the extent of such overt hatred was genuinely shocking to him. Moreover, Shin Jukyeong was currently unable to think normally due to a cold. The damage he was taking was almost at a holiday event level, much worse than usual.

‘They say a man cries three times in his life… if I get neutered, can I cry more?’

Unfortunately, Shin Jukyeong had gone slightly insane.

Listening to what was said next to him during the entire walk (98% swear words), it seemed like misunderstandings had piled up in many ways. To summarize, his stepmother Cha Hee-yeon had made a mistake, a very firm one at that. She thought Shin Jukyeong was being bullied at school. That’s why she seemed to have asked Cha Jae-min to go to school together.

He had a slight inkling as to why such an absurd rumor had started… but he decided to pretend not to know. It wasn’t just because explaining would be troublesome. Since it was a misunderstanding he had already received, he thought it might be better to make good use of it.

‘Thanks to this, I even get to go to school with Cha Jae-min.’

Calming his dizzy head, it wasn’t bad. The shock of eating his fill had also been digested by now. Shin Jukyeong simply decided to enjoy the present. Yes, what if they hated him? It was better than indifference.

“Hey.”

Cha Jae-min abruptly called Shin Jukyeong. Shin Jukyeong, fully absorbed in ‘me, going to school intimately with my younger brother,’ reacted half a beat late.

“…Huh?”

Turning his head, he saw his younger brother standing in a defiant posture. His face was still full of complaints. He was completely different from Yang U-dam, who used to hide his emotions well. Cha Jae-min was honest and straightforward. While finding him cute, the precocious Yang U-dam came to mind.

‘Whether eighteen or seventeen, they’re still both young.’

Just as his thoughts were about to drift elsewhere, a sharp voice was heard.

“Do you think I’m a joke?”

Cha Jae-min, striding closer, suddenly grabbed Shin Jukyeong by the collar. Before he could even retort, he was pushed against the wall. Shin Jukyeong winced one eye. The pain slowly rose.

‘I almost threw him down out of habit. Be careful.’

Shin Jukyeong’s fingertips twitched. Putting aside his poor condition, he couldn’t carelessly lay a hand on Cha Jae-min because he was his brother.

“Ignoring me? I don’t care about that. I don’t give a damn about your or Shin Taekyung’s attention. But you shouldn’t mess with our mother. What kind of dirty trick are you pulling! Especially when you usually don’t even bother with her.”

He changed his posture and pressed down tightly on Shin Jukyeong’s neck with his forearm. It was much better than grabbing his collar, but… hmm. There were too many openings. Shin Jukyeong subtly twisted his neck to secure an airway, then discreetly observed. Cha Jae-min was angrily grumbling with a hardened expression, close enough for their noses to touch.

‘…Hmm.’

Seeing him seething, it seemed he shouldn’t remain so calm.

“Ah… cough… cough?”

Was that not enough? After a brief thought, he decided to add a bit more spice. Shin Jukyeong instinctively held his breath. Until his face turned bright red and his eyes became bloodshot. All the while, he also tested how much his rejuvenated body could endure.

“Gasp, cough! Cough! Haa, ha! Cough!”

What a shame. He could have held out longer, but he failed because of the cough. However, there were two overlooked facts to regret.

One was the fact that no matter how tough he acted, Cha Jae-min was still a seventeen-year-old kid, and the other was that Shin Jukyeong’s reaction was incredibly realistic, to the point of being stimulating. Cha Jae-min was startled when Shin Jukyeong’s face turned red and he even shed tears, though he had only intended to scare him a little.

[Shin Jukyeong was made to cry.]

▷ By whom? By me.

[Shin Jukyeong cried.]

▷ …(Loading…).

▷ … .

‘Shin Jukyeong cried?!’

Was that a realistically possible sentence? Cha Jae-min froze, unable to utter a word. Despite his tough exterior, a massive earthquake was occurring inside him. Because it was Shin Jukyeong, after all. Shin Jukyeong, who was two years older than him, good at studying, and annoyingly perfect… but he cried. And because of him.

Only unfinished letters like ‘Wha…’, ‘Huh…’, ‘Rwa?’ floated in his mind. Beep-boop-bop-beep-beep-beep. Was this what a broken hunk of scrap metal, abandoned in space, felt like?

“Hmph…”

“…”

Cold sweat poured down him like rain. At most, he expected one, to grapple together. Two, to get into a fistfight. Three, to exchange curses. He expected this much, but he never considered an example like ‘Shin Jukyeong cries.’ He hadn’t even imagined it. It was a situation as absurd as watching a shonen manga where the protagonist and rival suddenly kiss.

So, what now? One, wipe away his tears? Impossible. Two, comfort him not to cry? He’d rather bite his tongue and die. Three, pretend not to know and just hit him? He wasn’t such trash as to hit someone who was crying.

‘I’m going crazy.’

No way to break through the situation came to mind at all. And why? Because, to emphasize again, it was Shin Jukyeong! It was truly maddening. Now, he even resented Shin Jukyeong for showing tears.

In fact, if he had to be precise, Cha Jae-min was someone accustomed to others’ tears. His mother, or his ex-girlfriends, or… hmm, was the problem that they were all women’s tears? …No. There were male guys too. Friends he’d made cry with harsh pranks, or club seniors who’d sobbed during a movie.

Then what exactly was the difference?

‘Damn it, how many times do I have to say it? It’s Shin Jukyeong!’

That’s right. This was a matter of the subject. The situation or gender didn’t matter.

Had someone said that when a person encounters something beyond their limits of tolerance, they become calmer? No. That was wrong. It wasn’t calmness; it was the collapse of reason. Therefore, one reaches a state where they cannot take any action. And thus, they become like Cha Jae-min now.

“You… uh, ah… ah! R-right! Do you… l-l-like Yang U-dam… say, say, like him?”

Spouting nonsense to escape the situation! A voice crack as a bonus!

“What I heard? Heard? No, not… that, U-U-dam hyung consulted me about a problem, and in the infirmary, you, um, hyung, no, not hyung but…”

He literally fumbled for words. He probably didn’t even know what he was saying. His eyeballs were spinning, so that said it all, really.

However, unfortunately, the world wasn’t so easy for a seventeen-year-old to gloss over things carelessly. Shin Jukyeong, seeing Cha Jae-min babbling incoherently, wiped his damp eyes and replied.

“I love him.”

“Yeah, okay. …Huh?”

A chill. A confession flew and pierced his heart.

“Love…”

“Ho-ly-”

“And…”

“shi-”

“it.”

“S-hit-”

It was one problem after another. The words meant to turn the atmosphere around had instead become poison. Cha Jae-min was overwhelmed by the urge to wash out his ears. Had he just heard a coming-out, along with a confession of forbidden love, from his not-brother? Crazy, is this real? Cha Jae-min’s lips parted. He had a lot to say, but he didn’t. More accurately, he couldn’t.

‘Calm down, Cha Jae-min.’

Though he had heard something disgusting, it had nothing to do with him, so it wouldn’t matter. Yes, things couldn’t get any worse than this.

“And just as much as Yang U-dam, I also… cough, love you, Cha Jae-min.”

…It did!

‘C-crazy… what is he confidently spouting? Is he trying to ride a homosexual cult frenzy train or something?!’

Cha Jae-min was aghast. He couldn’t take it anymore. To deny reality, he left Shin Jukyeong behind and ran to school. No, ‘fled’ would be a more fitting word.

‘Did he get an upset stomach?’

He was worried about his brother who had suddenly run off and considered following him but decided against it. If he poked at him while he was upset, he’d only get hurt for no reason. He decided to find him later with some tasty dessert.

‘First, I need to resolve Yang U-dam’s matter.’

He loved all his younger brothers equally, but Yang U-dam was a slightly more tender spot. It was probably because he had killed him with his own hands. The sensation of that time still remained. It would be impossible to erase it for a lifetime.

‘…It’s been a long time, Hyung.’

When that day came to mind, an inexplicable irritation surged up.

‘It’s suffocating.’

Shin Jukyeong frowned and pulled down his tie. His breathing became unstable.

‘It’s okay. Nothing has happened yet.’

He resumed his steps, which had stopped.

“Don’t be foolish, Shin Jukyeong.”

Don’t be foolish. Words he hadn’t realized spilled from his lips.