RCKS 2

“Haekyung told me to go away… huuu….”

“Hyung was just playing a prank, Yoonsan-ah. Don’t cry, son. Let’s stop now.”

The sounds of soothing and defending each other’s sons were loud and boisterous. Lee Yoonsan’s mother lowered her posture and sat down in front of Hwang Haekyung, who was hiding behind her, blew on a well-grilled piece of beef, fed him one bite, and smiled. And then, in a very gentle voice, as if saying it for Lee Yoonsan to hear, she said.

Hyung was playing a prank on Yoonsan, right? But if Yoonsan doesn’t realize it’s a prank and cries, the kid feels embarrassed, right?

At that, Hwang Haekyung, who had chewed and swallowed the meat, nodded his head and stretched out his arms as if asking to be held. Lee Yoonsan’s alpha mother gladly picked up such a Hwang Haekyung and took him toward the table. And Lee Yoonsan, who had been watching that scene with aggrieved eyes, turned his head away sharply, saying he hated mom. It was an event that happened twice a year, like an annual ritual.

The meal also proceeded in the manner of each couple taking care of the other’s son. Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents piled up meat and rice in front of Hwang Haekyung for the reason that he was skinny, and Hwang Haekyung’s parents carefully picked out only the tender meat that Lee Yoonsan liked and held it right up to his mouth. Then the two children glared at each other and nibbled away at the food that the adults gave them bit by bit.

After the meal, which was no different from a scene of chaos, the adults started lighting a bonfire and opening a can of beer each. The children had gone into their respective tents and were playing by watching videos on their cell phones or tablets, and Lee Yoonsan was also sprawled out inside the tent, completely absorbed in watching the Wink Pong videos that the moms had turned on for him.

Then, suddenly, a tapping sound came from knocking on one corner of the tent, and Lee Yoonsan’s head lifted up.

“Hey, open this.”

The owner of the voice was Hwang Haekyung. Lee Yoonsan put down the video he was watching and tilted his head. The voice coming from outside the tent window was clearly Hwang Haekyung’s, but it was not the usual grumpy tone, so that was why. Lee Yoonsan made a puzzled expression but still went to the tent window and opened the zipper. Through that gap, Haekyung appeared.

“Haekyung?”

“I told you to call me hyung, you pig.”

“I’ll close it then….”

“No, hey! Wait!”

To Lee Yoonsan, who reacted suspiciously with the tent window’s zipper only slightly open, Hwang Haekyung, who was standing right in front of him, let out his grumpy voice again. Then, to Lee Yoonsan, who seemed scared and was about to close the zipper again with his eyes welling up, the flustered Hwang Haekyung knocked on the tent once more. In the end, Lee Yoonsan opened the tent window’s zipper a little more again.

“Why are you here?”

“Want me to give you a present?”

“A present…?”

“Yeah, a present.”

Hwang Haekyung, whose nose bridge was already starting to peel from running around so much during the day, said with a mischievous grin. Since he did not often see him smiling with that expression, Lee Yoonsan’s expression was colored with curiosity. So, without even knowing what the present Hwang Haekyung was offering was, Lee Yoonsan stuck his hand out through the tent window.

“Here.”

“Close your eyes.”

“Okay.”

Hwang Haekyung stared fixedly at Lee Yoonsan’s chubby arm and palm that he had extended to receive the present from him. And on that palm, which was so plump that even the joints were not clearly distinguishable, he placed something down. It was something he had been clutching tightly in his fist the whole way here.

“Ta-da!”

“Eeeeeek!!!”

It was a Jerusalem cricket. And a huge, thick one at that, as big as Lee Yoonsan’s palm. The moment Lee Yoonsan made eye contact with the giant Jerusalem cricket that landed on his hand, he freaked out and shook his hand vigorously, and seeing that ridiculous sight, Hwang Haekyung burst into loud laughter, clutching his stomach.

The Jerusalem cricket hopped into the tent due to Lee Yoonsan’s flailing, and following that, an even louder crying sound came from inside the tent. It seemed like the Jerusalem cricket had stuck to Lee Yoonsan’s clothes.

Hwang Haekyung ran away at the sound of that, and even while running, he laughed loudly. Because the potato-like face of Lee Yoonsan, which had crumpled up comically, was so refreshing and funny.

He would get scolded. He knew for sure that he would get a big scolding from his parents. So, going back to the tent right now would be asking for punishment.

So Hwang Haekyung jumped into the group of new friends he had made at the campsite. They were kids who had come out saying they wanted to watch, even from afar, Hwang Haekyung teasing Lee Yoonsan.

The little kid who had been so startled and at a loss as if the giant Jerusalem cricket he had caught during the day and put in the insect collecting jar was some enormous monster was still hilarious.

Serves him right, who told him to be so annoyingly clingy? Hwang Haekyung thought such things while telling the story of scaring Lee Yoonsan to his friends like it was some heroic tale.

“Hwang Haekyuuung, you rascal!”

Of course, not long after, he did get a tremendous scolding from his parents for the crime of making Lee Yoonsan cry. Every time this happened, Hwang Haekyung resented his parents for always taking Lee Yoonsan’s side.

But since Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents would without fail come running over whenever he was getting scolded, stop the parents, and take Hwang Haekyung’s side, it made life bearable. He was an only child with no little brother, so he did not know why his mom and dad always turned strange whenever Lee Yoonsan was around.

So Hwang Haekyung hated Lee Yoonsan. He hated his ugly face, his fat and pig-like body, his slow-as-molasses actions, and even how he kept calling him by name instead of calling him hyung.

Above all, the thing he hated most was how his parents kept forcing him to look after and protect Lee Yoonsan at the campsite.

I just want to play with my friends only. Hwang Haekyung had said such things several times, but it did not really work. It was because of the reason that Lee Yoonsan was a friend too. To Hwang Haekyung, Lee Yoonsan was a kid one year younger, not a friend.

The adults said he was cute, but he could not understand at all where Lee Yoonsan was cute. He was ugly. The expression he always made when glaring at him was ugly, and he was fat and slow as molasses.

Whenever his parents took Lee Yoonsan’s side, Hwang Haekyung countered inwardly like that.

In any case, eight-year-old Hwang Haekyung hated seven-year-old Lee Yoonsan.

Just as, seven-year-old Lee Yoonsan hated eight-year-old Hwang Haekyung.