I Became the Lousy Side Top - Chap 70
Jaewoo didn’t know how he made it back home. When he came to his senses, he saw the old familiar gate in front of him. He didn’t know why he was acting like this. In times like these, he couldn’t afford to lose his head.
Even though he was dressed appropriately, he felt strangely hot. When he entered the house, no one was there. It seemed that the kids hadn’t returned from school yet.
‘I’ll just rest my eyes for a moment.’
Jaewoo spread a blanket out on the floor. As he lay down, he felt dizzy, like the floor was dropping out from beneath him. It looked like he needed rest more badly than he’d realized. The instant he closed his eyes, everything went dark.
“… … -cle!”
Someone was calling Jaewoo.
“Uncle!”
At the sound of that earnest voice, Jaeoo’s eyes blinked open and he saw Hyeonu’s face.
“Hyeonu?”
His throat was so dry that his voice wouldn’t come out properly. Still, Hyeonu recognized his name.
“Uncle, are you okay?”
Looking closer, Jaewoo could see that Hyeonu had tears in his eyes, and his expression seemed desperate. Had something happened? Jaewoo tried to get up, but collapsed midway. His body felt heavy, as if he was weighed down by iron shackles.
“Don’t try to get up. You’re really sick right now.”
“Your forehead is hot!”
Woohee added on to Hyeonu’s explanation.
“It’s really hot.”
At the same time, their cute, tiny hands tried to press Jaewoo back down onto the blanket.
‘I’m okay.’
But the kids seemed worried, so Jaewoo decided to remain lying down for a little bit longer.
He didn’t realize it until now, when it was too late, but there was a damp towel on his forehead. Because it hadn’t been wrung out properly, water had dripped down his head and soaked his pillow. If this continued, rather than helping him get better, it might actually make things worse.
Despite that, Jaewoo didn’t want to move. He was too touched by the children’s concern.
Now that he was more awake, he realized that even his fingertips hurt. When he looked down, he saw a band-aid wrapped around his injured nail. It was clumsy-looking and wasn’t wound around his finger properly, as expected of a kid, but overall it wasn’t bad.
A smile appeared for the first time in a while. It was faint and fleeting, but it was undoubtedly a smile. It wasn’t clear whether the children knew or not – they were busy piling up all the medications they could find in the house.
Hyeonu was good at reading, so he chose some painkillers and cold medicine from the bunch.
“‘After eating,’ it says to take them after eating.”
“After eating what?”
“After eating some rice?”
At those words, Woohee got up and ran to the kitchen.
“Brother! We’ve got rice!”
“Thank goodness. But sick people should eat porridge, right?”
Hyeonu muttered to himself as he followed his younger brother into the kitchen. There was rice left in the rice cooker, but no porridge. After hesitating, Hyeonu eventually decided to try making it himself. Remembering the last time Jaewoo had cooked it for them, he took out a pot first.
He’d been told not to use the stove, but this was an emergency. With that in mind, Hyeonu turned on the gas burner, put the rice in a pot, and poured in some water.
“I think we’re supposed to add something else too…”
“Sesame oil!”
Fortunately, Woohee remembered. Hyeonu poured sesame oil into the pot, along with the water and rice. He wasn’t sure how much to add, so he ended up pouring in a lot. A layer of oil floated on top of the water.
‘Is this right?’
Hyeonu hesitated, then picked up the ladle and stirred the contents together. After stirring for about ten minutes, it finally began to resemble a proper porridge. He put the warm food into a bowl and filled another small bowl with soy sauce.
“It’s done.”
Hyeonu wiped his sweaty forehead. Woohee did the same, imitating him. Afterwards, the two worked together to carry the tray with the porridge into the room.
“Uncle!”
Jaewoo was lying flat on the blanket again. When Hyeonu saw that, a shiver went up his spine. Hyunjin wasn’t here, and now Jaewoo was sick. The thought that he might lose the only adult he could rely on made Hyeonu anxious.
“Uncle, please eat some porridge.”
Hyeonu reached down and gently shook Jaewoo. Only then did his eyes open again.
“…Porridge?”
“Yes, Woohee and I cooked it.”
“That’s amazing.”
Even though Jaewoo had praised him, Hyeonu wasn’t happy at all. All he wanted was for Jaewoo to get better quickly and act like his normal self again.
“Eat quickly.”
At the children’s urging, Jaewoo got up and scooped up a spoonful of porridge. Even though he had no appetite, he felt like he needed to eat something.
He took a bite of the porridge. It was poorly cooked, lumpy and greasy due to too much sesame oil. Despite that, it was strangely delicious. Jaewoo ate half of the porridge without even adding any soy sauce.
“I’m stuffed.”
“Can you try to eat a little more?”
“That was more than enough.”
“Then take your medicine!”
Hyeonu handed Jaewoo a glass of water and the medicine. After watching Jaewoo swallow it down, he urged him to lie back down again.
“You need to sleep a lot in order to get better quickly.”
“What do you guys have for dinner?”
“We can make something ourselves!”
“That’s right!”
The kids answered him courageously before covering Jaewoo with a blanket. Their warm, loving touch made Jaewoo almost want to cry.
After eating the porridge and taking his medicine, Jaewoo fell asleep again. Hyeonu stayed next to him. He had homework to do, but he didn’t dare to look away.
“Should I have called 119 after all?”
“Hyeonu, is he really that sick?”
Woohee looked at his brother, a scared expression on his face.
“I don’t know.”
Hyeonu looked down. At times like this, he wished his older brother was around. At some point, Hyunjin had stopped answering his phone; he’d even texted him, but got no reply. Still, he had to try.
Hyeonu took out his kid’s phone and sent a text message to Hyunjin.
[Uncle Jaewoo is really sick.]
A part of him wondered if maybe he was being a nuisance to Hyunjin, but he still kept going. No matter how grown-up he acted, Hyeonu was still only in elementary school. In a situation like this, where he had no one he could rely on, he had no choice but to ask for help.
‘I hope my brother sees it.’
Hyeonu prayed desperately. A long time passed with nothing changing.
“We need to eat.”
Even if he didn’t eat anything himself, he had to feed Woohee. Hyeonu scooped the leftover rice into bowls and took out a few side dishes from the refrigerator. Even like this, the meal was better than any they’d eaten before meeting Jaewoo.
“Thank you for the food.”
The kids glanced at Jaewoo, said a sincere thank you, and started eating. Even though they usually loved to eat, neither of them had much of an appetite. In the end, both Hyeonu and Woohee had food left on their plates.
Hyeonu put the leftover rice into a bag and washed the dishes. He felt like he needed to be doing something, and so was constantly looking for new tasks. But doing that only made his anxiety worse. Just then, the kid’s phone let out a quiet noise.
Woohee quickly reached out and looked at the phone first.
“Brother! You got a text!”
Hyeonu abandoned the dishes, half-cleaned, and came running up to him.
[What’s wrong with him?]
Hyeonu felt like he was about to cry. His older brother, who he hadn’t spoken to in a long time, had responded. Hyeonu rubbed his eyes hard and typed in an answer.
[His fever’s really high and he can’t get up.]
Hyeonu was so worried.
[Wait.]
He waited patiently, like his brother had told him to, but no more texts arrived. He tried calling just in case, but Hyunjin didn’t pick up. The tears he’d been holding back with all his strength finally flowed forth. He knew that he shouldn’t cry, because if he did, Woohee would start crying too. But strangely, he couldn’t seem to stop.
“Brother?”
He knew it. Once Hyeonu started crying, Woohee also started. Meanwhile, Jaewoo still hadn’t opened his eyes. Normally he would have reassured them that everything was okay. Hyeonu was really scared.
After crying and crying, the children fell asleep leaning against each other. They didn’t even have the energy to crawl under a blanket.
In the middle of the night, Woohee’s eyes blinked open. When he looked at the clock, it was almost dawn.
Woohee struggled to get up from his seat. He gently set Hyeonu back down and found a blanket, intending to cover him with it. Just then, a scraping noise was heard outside.
Was it the sound of the wind? Thinking that, Woohee opened the door a crack. A large shadow appeared from beyond the front gate. Woohee’s eyes went wide when he saw it.
He was about to scream when the shadow raised its hand and put a finger to its mouth.
‘Shhhh.’
Understanding what it meant, Woohee quietly went out the front door.
“Brother!”
Woohee’s face, which had been red from crying, brightened. His brother was home! He didn’t know how long it had been since he’d last seen him. Woohee leaped into the air like a puppy and clung to his brother’s shoulders. Hyunjin didn’t even shift at the weight.
As expected, his big brother was the strongest. But Woohee’s relief only lasted for a short while. Soon, the happiness passed, and a feeling of sorrow crashed down on him like a wave. Woohee began to sob.
“W-Why did you only come back now?”
“Sorry.”
Hyunjin gave a brief apology, a small smile on his lips. He hesitated for a moment, then asked Woohee.
“Is your brother asleep?”
“You mean Hyeonu? Yeah, he’s asleep! Should I go wake him up?”
“No, it’s fine. Let him sleep.”
“But Hyeonu wanted to see you too.”
“Alright.”
“He missed you too.”
“I know.”
Woohee clutched at his older brother, rubbing his wet face.
“What about Jaewoo?”
“He took some medicine earlier and then went to sleep.”
Hyunjin hesitated for a while at the front door. Then, as if he had made up his mind, he entered the house. In his hand was a plastic bag with medicine in it.
“Brother, have you eaten?”
Woohee asked, fiddling with Hyunjin’s hand.
“A bit.”
Hyunjin’s response was shorter than normal, but Woohee didn’t notice. He just smiled, happy to see his brother after so long.
“Want me to prepare some food for you? I checked earlier and there’s still rice left in the rice cooker.”
Hyunjin hesitated, but finally shook his head.
“It’s okay.”
After pausing outside the front door, Hyunjin hesitated once more in front of the door to Jaewoo’s room. Woohee waited patiently, even as he silently wondered what was wrong.
Hyunjin’s trembling hand touched the door. When he finally opened it, the brightly lit room inside was exposed. Unlike usual, today the room was a mess. Hyeonu was asleep, curled up without a blanket, while Jaewoo was wheezing and looked sweaty.
“You said that Jaewoo took some medicine earlier, right?”
“Uh huh. This one, and this one.”
Woohee quickly picked up the medicine boxes and showed them to Hyunjin.
