VDN Ch 143

Before long, the sun set and the sky turned a yellowish hue. Seo-oh slowly climbed up the alley he had walked through several times during the day. His right pocket, where Nam-woon had left him the money, felt as heavy as if he were carrying a stone.

When he saw the green gate with its paint peeling, Seo-oh’s heart started to pounded with anxiety and anticipation. Could Hyung be back? Could he be lying in his room, rolling around, playing a game on his phone, saying he had gone out for a bit to do something?

Seo-oh moved his feet, vaguely imagining things. He arrived in front of the house with a very nervous look and pushed open the gate. With a creaking sound, the gate opened to reveal the yard. In the yard, where vegetables had been spread out and were now neatly organized, two figures ran around.

“Haha, Sundol, you can’t have this! If you eat this, you’ll get a stomachache. I just fed you your dinner!” 

Se-han, with a snack in one hand, was chewing and playing with Sundol. When Seo-oh entered the yard, his face lit up with excitement.

“Hyung!”

Ta-dat. Se-han ran quickly and hugged Seo-oh’s waist. Sundol, who ran after Se-han, also panted and scratched Seo-oh’s clothes with his front paws. Seo-oh smiled faintly and gently stroked Se-han’s round head and Sun dol’s face.

“Did you have a good time?”

“Yeah! It was so much fun!”

Se-han wrapped his arms around his brother’s waist and looked up. His pump lips moved without stopping.

“We had a water gun fight and our team won! I think it’s because I practiced with Wooni Hyung before going!”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh! And we finished the survival training really quickly, and Yeong-jun and I got third place! The first and second places were the fifth and sixth graders.”

“Good job! Were you scared?”

“Not at all! It was fun!”

Hahaha, Se-han smiled brightly and rubbed his head on his brother’s stomach. Seo-oh warmly hugged Se-han. Se-han, who had been hugging his brother and rubbing his body here and there for a while, asked with a flushed face.

“Hyung, did you see my pictures? The instructor said he would send the pictures to Mom and Dad when I came home today.”

“…Yeah, I saw them.”

The truth was, he hadn’t really checked the messages from other places because he was focused on finding Nam-woon. He had only been waiting for messages from him. Not wanting to disappoint his younger brother, Seo-oh quickly checked the messages. As Se-han said, there were several photos from the Taekwondo instructor.

There were pictures of Se-han smiling and shouting with his mouth wide open, looking startled, drenched with water, and puffy-cheeked while eating with a spoon in his mouth. As Seo-oh flipped through the photos, a small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. Yet, the lingering sorrow he couldn’t shake off made his smile tremble slightly.

Se-han, who didn’t notice it, made a playful expression and whispered into one of his brother’s ears.

“You know, the instructor asked me to write down Mom and Dad’s phone numbers, so I put your number for Mom and Wooni Hyung’s number for Dad.”

Se-han covered his mouth and giggled as if he found his behavior amusing. Looking at his smiling face, it seemed that he wasn’t thinking about his parents not being around. However, Seo-oh’s heart ached when he heard the child say that he had written Nam-woon’s contact information as his father’s contact.

While Seo-oh was unable to continue speaking, Se-han grabbed the cell phone from his brother’s hand and quickly searched for Nam-woon’s contact information.

“Our Wooni Hyung”

Se-han pressing down on the name he had saved for Nam-woon, held the phone close to his ear. The child wiggled his bottom to the slow sound of the ringtone, eagerly waiting for Nam-woon to pick up the phone. However, even after waiting for a long time, there was still no answer on the phone.

Se-han said, with a slightly gloomy face,

“Is Wooni Hyung very busy with his business trip? I really want to tell him about the survival training we did.”

He told Se-han that he was going on a business trip. It seemed that Nam-woon couldn’t bring himself to tell Se-han that he had left home entirely. With his eyes drooping, Se-han clung to his brother and asked,

“When is Wooni Hyung coming back from his trip?”

“…I’m not sure. When do you think he’ll come back?”

“You don’t know either, Hyung? Did Wooni Hyung not tell you before he left?”

As Seo-oh nodded, a loud voice came from the direction of the gate.

“Have you not found young man Nam-woon? How many times will he run away from home, tsk tsk. He’ll come back on his own soon, don’t worry too much…”

As Nam-nam Grandpa entered the yard, he saw Se-han and Seo-oh embracing each other and fell silent. Se-han blinked his large eyes and fixed his gaze on Grandpa Nam-nam. His face was filled with questions.

“Run away?”

Se-han blurted out. Grandpa Nam-nam quickly changed the subject.

“Oh, Se-han is here? If you’re here, you should see your grandpa’s face and greet him first before rushing home! You looked like you had gained a bit of weight. You look like a loaf of bread that just came out of the rice cooker!”

“……”

However, Se-han didn’t laugh or respond. He just widened his eyes and stared intently at his grandfather. Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Grandpa Nam-nam fell silent again.

Se-han swiftly turned his head to look at his brother.

“Hyung, Wooni didn’t run away, right? He’s just on a business trip?”

“……”

“Right?”

“Se-han-ah.”

Seo-oh hesitated. Was it okay to be honest with Se-han? He knew he would search for Nam-woon every day, but he had no idea when he would be able to bring Nam-woon back to this house. Moreover, even if he did find Nam-woon, there was no guarantee that Hyung would return home.

Judging from Se-han’s current demeanor, he would definitely call Nam-woon hundreds of times a day, but Nam-woon didn’t bring his cell phone and all his belongings with him. Naturally, he wouldn’t be able to answer any of Se-han’s calls, and if that continued, the child would think it was strange.

…Wouldn’t it be better to tell him the truth now rather than let him get hurt later?

My younger brother is young, but he’s quick-witted. After his father disappeared, he must have naturally learned how to read the mood while living alone with Seo-oh. Seo-oh stroked Se-han’s cheek and quietly opened his mouth.

“Se-han, when Nam-woon comes back from his business trip… he might not come to our house.”

“Why?”

Se-han stood up straight and asked back instead of acting cute to Seo-oh like before. Seo-oh grabbed Se-han’s small hand.

“There are times when Nam-woon wants to be alone, so he’ll go back to his own house.”

“But Wooni Hyung’s house is here!”

Se-han shook off Seo-oh’s hand and shouted, pointing to the front door of his house. Tears were already welling up in Se-han’s eyes.

Se-oh couldn’t say anything in response to the child’s words. Grandpa Nam-nam also didn’t talk as usual and kept his mouth shut like a clam. Se-han shouted with tears filling his big eyes.

“I’ll call Wooni and ask!”

Then he lifted the cell phone he was holding tightly with his small hand. Seo-oh gently held Se-han’s hand and tried to continue speaking.

“Se-han, he might not be able to answer the phone from now on.”

“……”

Se-han, who saw his brother’s trembling lips, realized that all of this was true. Seo-oh lowered his head, unable to face Se-han’s bewildered face.

“…Se-han, you’ll be in the third grade next year. You’re growing up, so maybe it’s time to stop calling Nam-woon so much…”

“I’ll call him every day!”

Se-han shouted with his tearful eyes wide open.

“I’m going to call Wooni Hyung every single day, and I’ll tell him everything! I’ll tell him everything I did with my friends at school and everything I learned in taekwondo! And I’ll listen to everything that Wooni Hyung says!”

With a determined expression, Se-han broke free from Seo-oh’s warm embrace and ran into the side yard. “Se-han!” he heard his brother call from behind, but he didn’t look back. Arriving at the front door, Se-han pressed Nam-woon’s contact again on his phone.

“Wooni Hyung, why aren’t you answering? Please pick up my call….”

Tears filled his eyes to the point where everything in front of him became blurry, leaving transparent tracks down his soft cheeks. Drops of tears gathered under his chin and fell to the ground. He tried calling again with a desperate heart but once again, Nam-woon didn’t pick up this time either.

I’ll keep calling until he answers. Se-han rubbed his eyes hard with his palm and moved his fingers again. When the automated voice came, he would hang up and press Nam-woon’s contact number again…

It was while he was repeating this that a familiar melody reached his ears from somewhere.

Se-han’s gaze turned to one place. A corner far from the door where everything was overgrown with weeds. The small sound was coming from that exact place. As Se-han hung up the phone, the sound stopped, and when he dialed again, the sound came back as if it had been waiting for him.

Se-han cautiously headed there. There was a large black bag lying in the grass. He knew it was Wooni Hyung’s as soon as he saw it. It was the bag of clothes that Nam-woon had brought with him a few days after he came to Seo-oh and Se-han’s house.

Se-han rubbed his reddened eyes with his bare hands and opened the bag.

“….!”

His tear-filled eyes widened. The bag was full of Nam-woon’s belongings. Clothes, underwear, socks, hats… all sorts of items were crammed inside.

“Why is Wooni Hyung’s bag here…?”

All of Wooni Hyung’s things should be at home… His large eyes began to contort, and tears began to flow freely. The corners of his mouth trembled and turned downward. Se-han thrust his hand into the bag and started rummaging through it. Soon, he felt a hard object at his fingertips. He pulled it out with force.

It was Wooni Hyung’s phone. On the back of the phone, there was a sticker of yellow bul-kong that had a discontent look on its face, which he had given Nam-woon.

“Hyung, we’re matching!”

He remembers Nam-woon smiling at his words and ruffling his hair as if he found him cute.

Then, the words he had just heard echoed in his ears. 

“Se-han, when Nam-woon comes back from his business trip… he might not come to our house.”

“Ugh, sob… waaaah….”