I Became the Lousy Side Top - Chap 45
“Brother?”
Hyeonu ran over and hugged Woohee tightly. Then he pulled back and stepped away a little bit, scanning Woohee from head to toe. When he spotted the bruises that had been treated at the hospital, his expression turned mournful.
“Are you hurt badly?”
“No, it’s not too bad. And I’ve already been patched up at the hospital.”
Woohee spoke as bravely as possible, but Hyeonu didn’t seem to fully believe him. After gritting his teeth and standing there silently for a moment, he barely managed to get his voice out.
“Sorry.”
These brothers were all the same. Jaewoo, who’d been watching him, lightly patted Hyeonu on the back.
“Why don’t you go in first. And again, no one did anything wrong here.”
Hyeonu seemed like he wanted to say something more, but eventually he just quietly went inside the house. It seemed like he was still guilty over Woohee being hurt.
“Okay then.”
Jaewoo took off his suit jacket. Once he was only in the button-up shirt, it became easier for him to move around.
‘These sorts of clothes really are uncomfortable.’
Still, it had served its purpose of turning the tides, so there was nothing to be done about it. Why did people judge others based on how they were dressed? Jaewoo smiled bitterly to himself and said to Hyunjin and Woohee.
“You guys head to the room first.”
“What about you, Uncle?”
“I’m going to stop by the kitchen for a second and then meet you there.”
“Okay.”
Woohee nodded and went into the room with his brothers. Everyone looked exhausted, probably because the day had turned out really stressful. After watching them leave, Jaewoo turned and headed to the kitchen.
It was getting darker outside, and dinner time was approaching. Jaewoo wasn’t sure if anyone would have an appetite after what had happened today, but they still needed to eat something. Jaewoo rolled up his shirt sleeves, took out some glutinous rice, and soaked it in water. It needed to sit there for thirty minutes to an hour. There was nothing he could do to speed it up, so he headed back to their room.
The children and Hyunjin were still just sitting there. They hadn’t even changed their clothes.
“What are you doing? Go wash up and get changed.”
Jaewoo washed Woohee himself. When he saw the marks on Woohee’s body, he nearly wanted to cry, but he held it in with great effort. He should have tormented that woman more. He’d been more understanding than he’d wanted to be for the sake of Woohee’s future school relationships, but now it was feeling like he’d done it for nothing.
“Woohee, does it hurt a lot?”
“No, it doesn’t. I’m okay now.”
Woohee smiled brightly, bath foam piled up high on his head. Seeing him smile made Jaewoo’s heart ache even more. He wondered if this was how Hyunjin had felt. Even though Woohee wasn’t his brother by blood, he still couldn’t help feeling guilty and pained, blaming himself.
Jaewoo washed him as carefully as possible and then helped him pull on a loose t-shirt. He easily applied medicine to his wounds, then led him back inside and kicked Hyunjin out to use the bathroom.
“Go wash up first.”
“Yes.”
Even though Hyunjin was lethargic, he listened well. Jaewoo was pleased to see the three of them all washed and put together like that. Unfortunately, all three of them still looked downtrodden, although surprisingly Woohee seemed a little more cheerful than the others. Jaewoo was about to say something more, but he quickly shut his mouth again. It would be hard for them to accept anything he had to say right now.
Instead, Jaewoo got up again and headed to the kitchen. He strained the soaked glutinous rice through a sieve to remove any moisture, then he added it to a blender, along with a cup of water, and let it blend! After that, it was back through a sieve again, discarding the coarsest parts.
He poured it back into a pot and added water before bringing it back to a boil. Up to this point, he’d been following the general process of making porridge. But what he was going to make today was no ordinary porridge.
Milk porridge1. It was a smooth, savory, and nutritious porridge that was said to have been a favorite of kings in the past.
“Perfect.”
Now that the rice was incorporated, it was time to add the milk little by little and then boil it again. For seasoning, you could add a small amount of salt or sugar, whichever you preferred. Since Jaewoo didn’t know what the boys would like, he split the porridge in two and did one of each.
“It’s done.”
The milk porridge, which sort of looked like mayonnaise, had been completed. Hot steam rose off the top, giving a faint, pleasant aroma. He grabbed the sweet porridge for the kids and the salty porridge for Hyunjin and brought them to the room.
“Let’s have dinner.”
“I’m okay.”
“Nope, you have to eat. You need your strength for work.”
Jaewoo spoke sternly and put down the bowls. Looking at the steaming porridge, Hyunjin suddenly felt hungry.
There was the sound of stomachs growling.
Woohee reacted first. Now that Jaewoo thought about it, Woohee hadn’t eaten anything since lunch, so that was completely natural.
“Can I have some?”
Unlike a normal night, Woohee asked for permission, and only after Hyunjin nodded did he pick up his spoon. The gently rising steam smelled vaguely familiar to him. He scooped up a spoonful of porridge and blew on it to cool it down, before popping the now-lukewarm porridge into his mouth.
His small cheeks puffed out and then quickly shrunk again. The porridge was so silky smooth that it disappeared without Woohee even realizing it. The taste was great as well, a slightly bland sweetness followed by a hearty, savory flavor. It was delicious.
Woohee wrapped his small hands gently around the bowl of porridge, feeling the warmth through his palms. As the porridge slid from the bowl, past his throat, and then down to his stomach, the feeling of warmth followed in its wake. Maybe that was why the more Woohee ate, the more relaxed his body felt. It was only now that Woohee realized his hands had started to tremble slightly.
He hadn’t acted like this even when Taeho’s mother was scolding him, but now… As he ate, Woohee started to cry. His brothers looked worried, but strangely, he couldn’t bring himself to stop.
“Woohee?”
His embarrassed brother called out his name, but Woohee didn’t stop eating the porridge.
“Uncle.”
“Huh?”
“I really like the porridge. Brother, you should have some too.”
With Woohee’s encouragement, Hyeonu pulled his bowl of porridge closer.
‘Is it okay if I eat this now?’
That thought passed through Hyeonu’s mind, but when he looked at Woohee, who was still eating his porridge even with tears and snot running down his face, he felt like he had to. Hyeonu also picked up his spoon.
“What kind of porridge is this?”
“It’s milk porridge. It’s a simple porridge made with rice and milk, but it used to be served at the royal court.”
“Milk porridge…”
“Yep. Hyunjin, you eat too. You probably didn’t eat properly today.”
“I’m fine.”
“That’s what you always say. If you don’t want to eat it yourself, should I feed it to you?”
Only after half-threatening him like that did Hyunjin even start to eat his porridge. Unlike the children’s, his wasn’t as sweet, but it was more savory. As he was eating, his mind and body slowly relaxed as well. The flavor on the tip of his tongue made him want to cry. Even though it was just food, it felt like his heart was being soothed.
No one had ever worried about them, helped them, and been so considerate of them. Absolutely no one. So to protect himself, he’d locked his heart and thrown away the key. But somehow Jaewoo had casually circumvented all his barriers and made a place for himself inside his chest.
“I can’t do this.”
“Huh? Do what?”
Jaewoo could be happy by himself. Since that was the case, Hyunjin shouldn’t stick around. That way he wouldn’t have to be inconvenienced again, like he was today. But Hyunjin’s greed kept raising its head. He felt like crying because he had no way to ever repay the favor Jaewoo had done for him. Could he really accept it unilaterally like this?
Hyunjin ended up lowering his head.
“What is it? Are you feeling sick? Was it too hot?”
Embarrassed, Jaewoo lowered his head and asked, but there was no answer. Instead, Hyunjin lifted his head and smiled.
“No. It’s really delicious.”
Were these turbulent feelings of his possibly a good thing? Even though he’d resolved to throw their relationship away, he couldn’t bring himself to let go.
“It is? Then have another bowl. I boiled a lot of it. Do you want to try some with sugar?”
“Yes. I’d be grateful for anything you’d give me.”
Was it alright for someone like him to dream of catching him? Hyunjin remembered what he had thought about dozens, or even hundreds, of times. Today, too, he covered his emotions with a smile.
The meal time passed, and Woohee spoke first.
“But how did you know to come to the school?”
When he heard those words, Hyunjin finally wondered the same. How on earth had Jaewoo known to come to the school and help? What was his relationship with the principal? Questions that he didn’t know the answers to came to his mind.
“Okay, let me explain step by step. First of all, how did I find out? Hyeonu called me.”
“Hyeonu did?”
“Yep. It looks like he borrowed his friend’s phone and made the call. So that’s how I found out that something had happened to Woohee. It’s obvious what I did next, right? I quickly put on a suit and rushed to the school.”
“And then?”
“I went straight to the principal’s office.”
“The principal’s office?”
“Yes, he actually knew my grandmother a bit. I guess she donated a lot there in the past. So, thanks to that, he listened to the case in more detail, and helped me secure the CCTV tape and the witnesses.”
“That’s incredible. I didn’t even think about that.”
When it looked like Hyunjin was about to sink back into depression, Jaewoo shook his head and patted him on the back.
“No, you did a great job. You did everything you should as Woohee’s guardian. Sometimes you just need to have a third party look at things like this to judge them. It just happened that this time it was me. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But, if only I had done a little better…”
“Let’s not second guess ourselves after the fact.”
Jaewoo smiled mischievously, then grabbed Hyunjin’s nose and shook it playfully.
“Let’s think about everything we did right today. And if the same thing ever happens again, you won’t make the same mistakes, right?”
“Yes. I won’t let this happen again.”
“That’s settled, then.”
That was really enough for Jaewoo. Hyunjin didn’t need to know about the unexpected help he’d received in order to solve this problem. When the incident happened, he’d been working at Mujin’s apartment.
He couldn’t refuse Mujin’s offer. He’d been so determined not to increase the amount he owed Mujin, no matter what, but his resolve had broken in the face of the children’s troubles.
The whole story was like this…
Earlier that day, it had been around lunchtime. After finishing his work, Jaewoo was looking blankly at the pickled garlic he’d made earlier, when his phone suddenly rang. It was an unknown number, but he’d answered it just in case.
“Who’s calling?”
─ Uncle! It’s Hyeonu!
“Uh? What’s going on, Hyeonu?”
He’d been both surprised and happy to hear from him, but when he asked that, Hyeonu had whispered back to him.
Footnotes
타락죽. Tarak juk. A Korean porridge made from milk and glutinous rice that used to be part of the royal court cuisine. Wikipedia, Recipe
