RCKS 3

9 Years Old vs 10 Years Old

Nine-year-old Lee Yoonsan still had his plump cheeks and eyes that had become straight lines crushed by those cheeks. And he still could not escape the diagnosis of childhood obesity.

So the child’s nickname was still pig or honey bun, but Lee Yoonsan had come to show an attitude that no one knew whether it was resignation to the teasing or indifference to it. It was all thanks to the Hwang Haekyung group he met every vacation.

“Let me down!”

“You were asking to be lifted up earlier!”

At the campsite they visited for winter vacation, Lee Yoonsan’s scream echoed once again. Lee Yoonsan was currently in a state of having climbed up a thick and large tree trunk, and it was a disaster that happened when he stepped forward to imitate Hwang Haekyung climbing the tree while playing with his same-age friends.

Of course, there had been an incident before that too. It started with Lee Yoonsan throwing a snowball at Hwang Haekyung, who had arrived at the campsite first and was making and playing with a snowman with his same-age friends.

But Lee Yoonsan was just annoyed at Hwang Haekyung for not even making eye contact with him despite his arrival and playing only with his same-age friends, and since it was snowing heavily at the moment, he just thought of a snowball fight. So he packed snow and threw it at Hwang Haekyung as a prank, but of all things, that snowball hit the head of the snowman that Hwang Haekyung had piled up.

Hwang Haekyung was in the middle of a bet with his friends about who would make a taller snowman, so he became greatly furious at Lee Yoonsan’s destruction of the snowman. But since Hwang Haekyung’s mother had been watching all of that scene, Hwang Haekyung could not get angry at Lee Yoonsan.

It was because he had been hearing like brainwashing the words to take care and protect the ‘little brother’ as a ‘responsible hyung’ right up until just before arriving at this campsite. No matter how wild a ten-year-old he was, the database accumulated over several years made Hwang Haekyung realize that the moment he got angry at or yelled at Lee Yoonsan, the repercussions could come back to him in reverse.

With such resentment built up, it just so happened that Lee Yoonsan saw Hwang Haekyung and his friends playing around the tree and asked to be lifted up too. Hwang Haekyung’s friends all deliberately made sounds like ‘Heeek?’ and said they could not lift him up because Lee Yoonsan was a pig, but Hwang Haekyung ignored those friends’ words. And with a word that he understood, he lay down at Lee Yoonsan’s feet.

He even willingly told Lee Yoonsan to step on his back and climb up. Lee Yoonsan felt a little dazed at such an attitude from Hwang Haekyung. Wasn’t he angry earlier? Is throwing the snowball okay? Is he finally trying to act like a hyung for real? Such thoughts passed behind Lee Yoonsan’s round shaved head.

And with a bit of hesitation, he placed his foot on Hwang Haekyung’s back. At first, he put his foot up with his shoes on, then hurriedly took off his shoes and placed his foot up again.

His own chubby foot going up on the skinny back felt a little embarrassing. What if Haekyung’s back breaks? He even thought such a thing for a brief moment.

Still, Hwang Haekyung endured Lee Yoonsan’s weight without even a single groan. In that way, he lifted Lee Yoonsan up to a tree branch about 50cm away from the ground and got up from his spot. His face was red all the way to his neck from enduring the weight that was much heavier than his own.

Lee Yoonsan quietly looked down at such a Hwang Haekyung and then became a little excited. It was because he felt like he was playing with Hwang Haekyung. Of course, nine-year-old Lee Yoonsan still hated ten-year-old Hwang Haekyung very much, but still, the fact that he had properly joined the group of the one-year-older hyungs was a little satisfying and uplifting.

So he grabbed the tree branch and climbed a little higher. Perhaps because the tree trunk was thick, the thick branch that had Lee Yoonsan’s plump body on it also looked sufficiently sturdy.

And when he had climbed up to a height of about 1m from the ground like that, Lee Yoonsan suddenly looked down below and became terrified. It was because he confirmed that he had climbed higher than he thought.

So Lee Yoonsan demanded to Hwang Haekyung, who was looking up at him, to let him down, but Hwang Haekyung did not listen. Hwang Haekyung’s friends were far away, just looking at him and teasing and laughing. There was no one to help Lee Yoonsan.

“You’re mean….”

“It’s not that high there?”

“I’m scared, let me down…!”

“No, you idiot.”

“I’m not an idiot!!”

“Yeah, you’re a fatty!”

The last shout was a tease that came from the mouths of Hwang Haekyung’s friends far away. Hwang Haekyung turned his head once toward the friends who were looking at them with interested eyes from afar, then looked at Lee Yoonsan again. And with a sullen expression, he said.

“Say hyung.”

“No!”

“Then you’re the mean one.”

“I wasn’t mean, they said I was good!”

“Who?”

“Auntie and uncle and moms and teacher…!”

“They’re just saying that!”

“No!”

The confrontation continued for a long time. Until Lee Yoonsan and Hwang Haekyung’s mouths turned blue from the winter wind. But even by then, Lee Yoonsan did not surrender to Hwang Haekyung, and in the end, Hwang Haekyung turned his back on Lee Yoonsan. It was around the time when the sun was setting and it was getting dimly dark because it was a cold winter with short days.

Lee Yoonsan made a shocked face as he saw Hwang Haekyung turning his back on him. Lee Yoonsan had grown up in an environment where no one hated him that much.

Although he had a plump body and features buried in it, so much so that even empty words could not call him pretty, the surrounding adults always only gave Lee Yoonsan words like he was pretty, cute, like a little prince, and the teachers also adored the extremely gentle Lee Yoonsan.

And that was the same for Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents too. They always said they loved him, and even when taking Lee Yoonsan to school, the adoptive parents never showed their backs to him first.

So Lee Yoonsan was neither familiar with nor accepting of Hwang Haekyung’s turning his back on him and his prickly attitude toward him.

“Huuuuaaaang~!!”

So Lee Yoonsan ended up bursting into loud sobs from that shock. It had been a long time since the tips of both hands and the backs of his hands, which were barely holding onto the tree, had become rough from the cold wind. Still, Hwang Haekyung did not look back at Lee Yoonsan. Even though he was crying loudly as if to show him, he did not come back and say he would let him down.

So Lee Yoonsan’s crying sound could only become even more aggrieved.

In the end, that day Lee Yoonsan caught a severe cold. Lee Yoonsan was only rescued by Hwang Haekyung’s father about an hour after Hwang Haekyung had left the spot, and by then Hwang Haekyung had already hidden behind Lee Yoonsan’s mother.

Even at the scolding of why he did that to his little brother, Hwang Haekyung glared at his dad and said ‘He doesn’t even call me hyung!’. Lee Yoonsan’s mothers tried to soothe such a Hwang Haekyung and talk to him well, but ended up startled. It was because the cheeks of Hwang Haekyung, on which they had placed their hands to soothe him, were hot as if on fire. It seemed that Hwang Haekyung had also caught a cold after running around excitedly outside.

In the end, the two children lay sick in each other’s tents that day. It was because Hwang Haekyung had first thrown a tantrum saying he hated dad and would not go to his own tent, and the sick Lee Yoonsan, whose spoiling had become severe from the pain, had clung to Hwang Haekyung’s father’s arms.

The two children lay in each other’s tents, groaning with their feverish bodies and repeating crying and such from the events each had gone through, as if they were extremely aggrieved. The children’s parents could only go to meet their respective children after some time had passed.

“…Dad is sorry, Haekyung.”

“Why does dad always, always only like that fatty… “

“Yoonsan is cute and pretty. It was because Haekyung seemed like a little brother. I thought it would be good if Haekyung became an even cooler hyung by taking care of Yoonsan like a little brother.”

“I don’t need a little brother….”

“Okay. Dad was wrong. Sorry for getting angry.”

Hwang Haekyung’s father held his son, who was crying as if aggrieved, in his arms and apologized all night. It was a bone-deep tear because he knew well that his son was the type who would stand up to him but never cry even at normal times. Perhaps because his son had that kind of temperament, Lee Yoonsan, who was someone else’s child, seemed even cuter.

Lee Yoonsan was truly the very essence of being good-natured.

Lee Yoonsan was a child who ate well whatever the adults gave him, greeted well, and although shy, spoke softly and well. Because he had a different charm from the son he saw every day, he could not help but be pretty separately from his son.

Of course, even so, it was natural that his own son came first. No matter how pretty Lee Yoonsan was, since he was someone else’s child, he could adore him more comfortably.

“If our son felt aggrieved because of dad, I am so, so sorry.”

“I was really pissed off earlier….”

“Pissed… you should say you were angry, Haekyung-ah. Where did you learn such a word?”

“All the kids use it. Dad doesn’t know.”

“……”

In any case, that was how it was.

Meanwhile, in the Hwang Haekyung family’s tent where Lee Yoonsan was lying sick, a tearful mother-son reunion was taking place. Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents, who had not been able to see their son because Hwang Haekyung would not let them go, had come.

In fact, Lee Yoonsan’s adoptive parents felt a little sorry for Hwang Haekyung. It was partly because the small, pretty, and skinny Hwang Haekyung looked fragile compared to Lee Yoonsan, and the sight of Hwang Haekyung clashing with his own father only stuck in their minds. So they could not help but pay even more attention.

They felt very sorry that the only child Hwang Haekyung seemed to be growing up receiving eldest son stress because of their son, and since he always looked skinny and small no matter when they saw him, they ended up taking care of him with more of anything.

And in the meantime, it seemed that Lee Yoonsan had also felt aggrieved knowingly or unknowingly.

“Why come when playing with Haekyung….”

At Lee Yoonsan, who spoke with a voice cracked all over while sniffling his runny nose, the alpha mother almost let out a laugh from her mouth. Although the expression and content were full of feeling aggrieved, the stuffy-nosed sound and the way his speech was mushy with his cheeks full of flesh was only cute.

“Go be Haekyung’s mom….”

“Our baby potato is going to be mom?”

“Don’t say baby potatooo….”

“Why, who teased our baby potato?”

“They said pig potato… Haekyung’s friends….”

“Kuh.”

“I hate potatooo…!”

The adoptive parents had to hurriedly grit their teeth because their son, who was tattling as if aggrieved while sniffling his nose, was too cute. The adoptive parents knew well the fact that their son had a plump build and could not escape childhood obesity.