PEN Vol 2 Ch. 24

His cold, steady gaze pierced through Sejin.

Listening to Cheon Sejoo’s subdued voice, Sejin kept his mouth shut.

There was no room for doubt. Cheon Sejoo had protected him, and under his care, Sejin had been living comfortably. At first, even being in the same room as Cheon Sejoo had been uncomfortable, but now, that was no longer the case. Sejin had grown accustomed to their daily life together, and in Sejin’s daily existence, Cheon Sejoo occupied a large part of it.

The fact that Sejin could visit his mother without any worries was because Cheon Sejoo was looking after him, and it was the same when it came to the meals and Sejin’s overall well-being. They had both given each other the right to look after one another equally. Who had given that role first no longer mattered. Whether it was him or Sejoo, the fact still remained—Cheon Sejoo was Kwon Sejin’s true guardian.

Sejin realized he needed to give Cheon Sejoo the chance to understand him. He had the right to know. Realizing this, Sejin glanced at him, then spoke in a small voice.

“Money….”

His face grew hot as he felt his cheeks flush. It felt as though his chest was burning up, but Sejin forced the words out and managed to reveal the truth.

“I needed money. When I become an adult, I’ll have to leave your place… And when that happens, I want to live somewhere bright and sunny with my mom.”

Despite feeling embarrassed before, once he started talking, it wasn’t as difficult to express his true feelings as he thought. Sejin steadied his voice and met Cheon Sejoo’s eyes.

As he looked into his deep black eyes, which seemed to hold a bit of melancholy, Sejin no longer felt ashamed of the poverty he had never revealed to others. For once, he wasn’t embarrassed by his circumstances. He had a strange sense of confidence welled up inside him that Cheon Sejoo wouldn’t mock his poverty or simple desires.

With a slightly firmer voice, Sejin continued.

“I’ve been living in a basement apartment all this time. There’s no sunlight, and it’s poorly ventilated, so there’s a lot of mold. But since I’ve been living in your house, I’ve loved how much sunlight comes in…. The fresh air, the warmth of the house… I want to live in a house like that with my mom when she gets out. I know I’ll be joining the military as soon as I turn 18, but the military savings alone won’t be enough to afford a place like that. As for the part-time job, I actually passed the interview when you didn’t come home that one night. I got hired in December, when I was mad at you…. And after that… I thought if I told you I’d already started working without your permission, you’d be…”

Sejin, with a slight blush on his cheeks, finished his explanation.

“I couldn’t tell you because I was afraid you’d be mad….”

It was an awkward confession, as he admitted that he hadn’t told the truth because he was scared of ruining his relationship with Cheon Sejoo. After his short explanation, Sejin fell silent.

As they sat in the darkened city, watching the road illuminated by streetlights and car headlights like a flowing river of stars, Sejin focused all his attention on Cheon Sejoo’s reaction who was sitting next to him.

“…”

Cheon Sejoo, listening to Sejin finally open up, couldn’t help but smile slightly. He was relieved to realize that he wasn’t the only one who felt closer to Sejin. That Sejin had finally confided in him which filled him with unexpected warmth.

Dreams.

He had once asked Sejin about his dreams.

At the time, Sejin hadn’t answered, but the story he just shared—was, in essence, Sejin’s dream.

Dreams didn’t have to be grand. They were often made of simple things—what you wanted to have, what you wanted to become, and the kind of life you wanted to live. That’s what makes up a dream.

It was the same for Cheon Sejoo. When he lived at the orphanage, he hadn’t known what he wanted, but going to university exposed him to new things, allowing him to dream more concretely. His desire to give Hye-in good food, nice clothes, and a beautiful home had all come from his own experiences.

Knowing that the things he provided Sejin had sparked a similar kind of ambition made Cheon Sejoo feel satisfied. It’s those kinds of desires that make life worth living.

People say that on their deathbeds, what comes to mind are the things you never got to do. The more Sejin wanted—whether it was possessions or experiences—the more likely he would be able to hold on to life when faced with its inevitable challenges.

With that thought, the once-empty space that had gnawed in Cheon Sejoo’s heart began to fill.

The disappointment he had felt toward Sejin disappeared entirely.

“Then, let’s do this.”

A warm, sunlit home. Sejin’s dream was still small and modest, but in reality, even such simple dreams were often the hardest to achieve. As Sejin had said, finding such a home in the middle of Seoul, he would need to save diligently because it would require a lot of money. But working part-time alone wouldn’t be enough.

However, Cheon Sejoo couldn’t bring himself to let Sejin keep working at the restaurant.

It wasn’t just that the job was hard—what really concerned him was that someone had touched Sejin inappropriately. The life of a good-looking person without means was often dangerous in the hands of those with power.

Cheon Sejoo didn’t want to throw Sejin into places constantly frequented by such people.

“If you need money, I’ll give it to you.”

“…Are you kidding me?”

When Cheon Sejoo, after much thought, finally said this, Sejin’s voice shot up.

He had just bared his heart out, and the best Cheon Sejoo could offer was to hand him money?

What did Cheon Sejoo take him for, a beggar?

Sejin hadn’t confessed all that just to get some charity. A surge of anger flared up in an instant, and he glared at Sejoo with sharp eyes.

Seeing this, Cheon Sejoo shook his head, as if to tell him to listen, and began to explain.

“If I say this, you’ll probably yell at me, asking if I think you’re some kind of beggar, but your whole approach is wrong from the start. Let me put it this way—you’re basically living in my house, working as a live-in housekeeper, so it’s only fair that I pay you. Instead of just doing chores in exchange for staying at my house, you should be getting paid like any live-in housekeeper.”

“What…?”

Sejin’s face twisted in disbelief, but to Cheon Sejoo, it made perfect sense. In fact, he felt foolish for not having thought of this earlier.

The monthly salary for a live-in housekeeper was over three million won^[1]. While Sejin wasn’t constantly cleaning the house top to bottom every single day, the whole house had been spotless ever since Sejin came to live with him. He definitely deserved to be compensated well.

“You only work 4 hours a day at your part-time job, right? Let’s say your hourly wage is 10,000 won.”

“It’s 12,000^[2] won.”

“…Fine, 12,000 won.”

Cheon Sejoo glanced at Sejin, mildly exasperated at how meticulous he was about this detail and continued.

“So, that’s only 48,000^[3] won a day. About 250,000^[4] won a week, which would be just a little over a million won^[5] a month. But if you worked as a housekeeper for someone else, you’d earn more than 2 million won even if you commute. Of course, since you don’t do full-time housework at my place, I won’t pay you the same amount but instead, I’ll pay you twice as much as what you’ve been making from your part-time job. The condition is that you listen to me and study hard during the break.”

“…”

Sejin looked at Cheon Sejoo with a strange expression. His eyes narrowed, one side of his cheek was puffed out, and his lips moved as if he had a lot to say. Cheon Sejoo let out a sigh as he saw his reaction.

Sejin always struggled to immediately accept something good for himself. Whereas others would have readily nodded and agreed, Sejin couldn’t help but question, doubt, and resist.

Cheon Sejoo hated that about him.

He hated to think Sejin’s rough upbringing had shaped him this way—making a nineteen-year-old kid so suspicious and couldn’t easily accept even simple kindness.

“What else is the problem now?”

If Cheon Sejoo were in Kwon Sejin’s shoes, he would have accepted immediately and asked how many hours he needed to spend studying. But in response to his question, Sejin squinted his eyes and shot back with another unexpected question.

“Are you a sociopath or something?”

“…What?”

“Just think about it.”

“…”

Cheon Sejoo, who never thought he’d hear the phrase “think about it” from someone who ranked 21st out of 21 students in his class, remained speechless and stared at Sejin in disbelief.

Watching Cheon Sejoo’s incredulous reaction, Sejin sighed and continued.

“Put yourself in my position for a second. Out of nowhere, some thug-like guy appears and says he’s going to help me, gives me a place to stay, feeds me, sometimes even drives me to school, helps me study, and now says if I study hard, that person would give me money! How could I not be suspicious of that? Doesn’t it seem shady to anyone who looks at it? Wouldn’t it be weirder if I didn’t wonder what kind of ulterior motive that person might have? The only one who’d blindly accept all that would be a real idiot, don’t you think?”

After hearing Sejin’s words, Cheon Sejoo finally saw things from his perspective. Sejin had a point. Indeed, if he looked at the situation objectively, it did seem highly suspicious. Just as Sejin had said, anyone might assume this was part of a scam, human trafficking, or worse.

However, Cheon Sejoo knew why he was offering Sejin all this, why he was being excessively generous.

That’s why, from his perspective, it seemed perfectly reasonable.

He began to explain in a defensive tone.

“That person is your guardian. A guardian is like a parent. Think about your mom. She fed you, gave you a place to sleep, helped you with your studies, and even gave you allowance sometimes. How’s that any different from what I’m doing? Doesn’t it make sense that this is something I’m naturally supposed to do?”

Hearing Cheon Sejoo’s explanation, Sejin found it reasonable. However, it was only reasonable on the surface. No matter how much he thought about it, Sejin still couldn’t accept it easily.

“Even so, you’re not my parent. My mom didn’t even do the things you’re doing. I hardly ever got any allowance. And no matter what, you and I aren’t blood-related. So, how does it make sense for you to give me money?”

“Why doesn’t it make sense? It’s not like you’re just taking the money for nothing. You clean the house, cook, and even do the laundry, so why shouldn’t you get paid?”

“But it’s not like I’m doing that much work around the house.”

As Sejin continued to resist accepting the offer, Cheon Sejoo felt his patience running thin.

Ha.

He let out a short sigh, ran a hand through his hair, and looked at Sejin with growing frustration before retorting back.

“So what, are you demeaning the hard work of the 300,000 live-in housekeepers in South Korea right now? Are you saying that they don’t deserve that much money for just doing housework?”

“What? When did I ever say that?!”

As Cheon Sejoo started to twist his words, Sejin who had gone frustrated, raised his voice. But after thinking it over for a long while, he realized that Cheon Sejoo was right. To Sejin, he had thought of cooking, cleaning, and doing the laundry as responsibilities he did naturally. It was because he had always done those things when he lived with his mother.

But, as he had just said himself, Cheon Sejoo wasn’t his family.

If he were to provide his labor for free, it was entirely his loss, and it was as if he was devaluing the work of those people who did this work professionally, like cleaners, cooks, or laundry service workers. The more people who offered their labor for free like him, the more those professionals would suffer!

Having grasped this startling truth, Sejin nodded quietly to himself.

Everything Cheon Sejoo had said was right, from beginning to end. Sejin deserved to be compensated for the work he did in the house. But then, feeling somewhat wronged, he turned to Cheon Sejoo and spoke.

“Fine. I get it. But studying? It isn’t something I want to do, it’s something you’re making me do, so that should count as work too. That means I’m working at least ten hours a day during the break, so you’ll have to pay me more.”

“…”

To be fair, Sejin was right. Studying wasn’t something he wanted to do, and since it wasn’t voluntary, it could be considered part of his “job,” and an extension of his labor.

Cheon Sejoo had probably hoped to slyly dismiss studying as labor, but Sejin wasn’t about to let that slide. Sejin was impressed with his own logic and let out a self-satisfied chuckle before issuing a playful threat to Cheon Sejoo.

“If you don’t pay me fairly, I’ll report you to the police for violating labor laws. So better do the math right.”

Not to the “Labor Department,” but to the “police”…

Cheon Sejoo stared at the audacious kid making absurd threats, and finally couldn’t hold it in anymore, letting out a low laugh.

“What are you laughing at?”

Sejin, who had been saying he should be suspicious of him, was now changing his stance and shamelessly demanding more money in less than five minutes. Sejoo found it so cute and he couldn’t help but chuckle. Holding onto the steering wheel, Cheon Sejoo turned his gaze out the window.

As he laughed for a while, Sejin, with his cheeks flushed red, seemed to realize how brazen he was earlier and shouted at him to stop laughing.