TWYW C12

Inside the store, Yuhyeon quickly finished paying first, so the wallet Gyeoul had taken out had to go back into his pocket. Gyeoul, who got into the car following Yuhyeon, knew that he was heading toward his house even without him asking. However, Gyeoul felt a sense of disappointment welling up in a corner of his heart for some reason. Moreover, it had been a really long time since he had eaten with someone.

Have I been too lonely all this time?

While Gyeoul was briefly lost in thought, a familiar neighborhood came into view, and Yuhyeon’s car came to a stop in front of a large gate.

“……Goodbye.”

Unbuckling his seatbelt and opening the passenger door, Gyeoul uttered a farewell in a small voice.

“I can’t believe I’m getting a goodbye from Lee Gyeoul first.”

“I’m usually good at greetings.”

“Then why haven’t you said it to me until now?”

“W-well, just because.”

Yuhyeon let out a laugh at Gyeoul’s stubborn-like reply. Gyeoul felt a tickle in his chest at the sound of Yuhyeon’s low laughter and closed the passenger door. He then stood still, watching the back of Yuhyeon’s car until it started moving again and completely disappeared from his sight.

₊˚｡⋆❆⋆｡˚₊

Today, on his busiest day with a schedule packed with morning lectures, a part-time job at a café, and a tutoring session, Gyeoul got off the bus and walked towards Yuhyeon’s house. He hadn’t seen a single strand of Yuhyeon’s hair since they had watched a movie and had a meal together last weekend. On top of that, the liberal arts class Gyeoul took with Yuhyeon was canceled this week due to the professor’s personal circumstances. So, Gyeoul stopped in front of the large gate, secretly hoping he might run into Yuhyeon at his house. When he pressed the doorbell next to the gate, the door opened right away. Stepping inside, Gyeoul couldn’t help but be amazed every time he saw the size of Yuhyeon’s garden, no matter how many times he had been there. Furthermore, as the weather grew warmer, the trees and grass became greener, and colorful flowers bloomed, making it more splendid by the day. Gyeoul’s eyes scanned the vast garden as he arrived at the front door, took off his shoes, and went inside.

“Hello.”

Just as Gyeoul was about to go up to the second floor where Yuho’s room was, he ran into Yuho’s mother coming out of the kitchen and greeted her.

“Is Yuho keeping up well with his lessons? Midterms are coming up, so I’m counting on you.”

“Yes. I’ll pay extra attention and teach him well.”

After the brief greeting, Gyeoul went into Yuho’s room quietly with a weight on his shoulders. If there was any consolation, it was that Yuho was a smart student, so teaching him wasn’t very difficult. However, he was worried about what he would hear from his foster parents if Yuho’s midterm exam scores were to drop. To make matters worse, Yuho’s midterms and Gyeoul’s midterms were back-to-back, so he was concerned about the tight schedule ahead. Since he couldn’t neglect the café and tutoring, Gyeoul had no choice but to cut back on sleep and work hard.

After finishing the two-and-a-half-hour tutoring session, Gyeoul was seen off by Yuho, put his shoes back on at the entrance, and went outside. Contrary to his subtle hope of meeting Yuhyeon, it seemed he hadn’t returned home even late into the night, as he couldn’t see his face. Gyeoul turned with slightly dejected steps and sat down on a bench at the bus stop. After blankly letting one bus pass, Gyeoul looked around, wondering if Yuhyeon might happen to pass by. Gyeoul wasn’t even fully aware of why he was acting this way. In the end, Gyeoul couldn’t just sit at the bus stop indefinitely, so he got on the bus heading home and found an empty seat. Feeling an extra wave of exhaustion today, he leaned his head against the bus window and closed his eyes.

Arriving at the bus stop in front of his house in no time, Gyeoul rubbed his weary eyes and dragged his heavy feet toward home. When he reached the front door, he opened it and took a careful step inside, hoping his parents wouldn’t hear any sounds and come out. Just as he was about to go up the stairs to his room on the second floor, a loud voice coming from the master bedroom on the first floor made Gyeoul’s shoulders flinch. His father’s angry, harsh voice, seemingly on a phone call with someone, pierced through the door and echoed loudly into the living room. Since he was a child, his father’s loud, yelling voice had always been a source of terror for Gyeoul. Just hearing that voice was enough to make his palms start sweating. As he nervously wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and placed his foot on the next step, he unfortunately heard the sound of the bedroom door opening.

“What time is it that you’re crawling home now!”

Gyeoul, who had his back turned to climb the stairs, slowly turned his body toward his father. His father’s face, when their eyes met, was flushed red, and even without getting close, the reek of alcohol made it easy to tell he was heavily drunk. And on days he faced his father like this, there was never a time he wasn’t beaten.

As Gyeoul had expected, his father’s hand, as big as a pot lid, flew and struck him on the temple. Although Gyeoul instinctively braced his body, he was knocked over by the sheer force. Unable to collect himself from the sudden impact, Gyeoul clutched his face. And immediately, his father’s kicks began.

For Gyeoul, being beaten by his drunk father had become such a natural occurrence that he didn’t even think of stopping him or resisting. When he was younger, his father would at least give some semblance of a reason, but now, even that was gone, and it had become a natural rite of passage. Pushed into a corner of the staircase, Gyeoul curled up his body, enduring his drunk father’s kicks. Just wishing for this moment to pass quickly, Gyeoul squeezed his eyes shut.

“You piece of scum.”

Khaaak, ptui. His father’s beating ended with him spitting on Gyeoul’s head. Gyeoul pushed his aching body up, climbed the stairs, and entered his room on the second floor. He immediately threw off his clothes, went into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and held on to his fading consciousness as the cold water poured over his head. Only after washing off the parts of his body his father’s feet had touched and shampooing his hair, where the filthy saliva had landed, several times did he step out of the shower booth and dry himself with a towel.

His reflection in the mirror showed marks all over his body that would surely turn into blue bruises by tomorrow. He usually only hit areas that could be covered by clothes, but he must have been very angry and drunk to have laid a hand on his face. Even Gyeoul was more worried about whether the bruises on his face would be severe than the wounds on his body.

After coming out of the bathroom and changing his clothes, Gyeoul finally felt the ache all over his body. Gyeoul let out a small groan and lay down on the bed. The violence that had continued since he was a child had become all too familiar to Gyeoul. He recalled his mother saying that this too was an act of love, but knowing it wasn’t the truth, he tried to rationalize it and stoically accepted his reality.

“Gyeoul.”

His mother, who had burst into the room without a sound, came over to Gyeoul who was lying in bed.

“It seems your father had a bad day today. I’m sure my good son understands.”

His mother, whose presence in the house he hadn’t even been aware of, spoke as if it were nothing.

“Apply the medicine well before you sleep, and be careful not to get scars on your face. You might hear bad things from outsiders. Got it?”

“……Yes.”

“Good, go to sleep now, my son.”

A sigh and a laugh escaped Gyeoul’s lips at the same time. A father who beat him for no reason while drunk, and a mother who, knowing full well what was happening, called it love. Gyeoul chose to laugh rather than cry. He had realized from a very young age that crying changed nothing, to the point where he couldn’t even remember the last time he had shed a tear.

Getting up from the bed, Gyeoul took the ointment his mother had brought and went to the mirror. He lifted his T-shirt to apply medicine to the marks left by his father’s kicks, and he put an extra-thick layer on his face where the bruises were starting to show. Looking at the state of his body in the mirror, he could already picture how much he would suffer tomorrow. After applying all the medicine, Gyeoul lay back down on the bed, turned on only the small lamp on the nightstand, and closed his eyes.

However, as he tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep easily, a message notification sounded from Gyeoul’s phone. Feeling curious since he didn’t usually keep in touch with anyone, Gyeoul unlocked his phone to check. The name “Psycho” appeared on the screen, along with the picture he had taken with Yuhyeon at the movie theater last time. Gyeoul stared at the picture for a moment and placed his finger on the save button. At that moment, the phone suddenly started ringing. Gyeoul cleared his throat once and pressed the call button.

“……Hello.”

—Lee Gyeoul.

Yuhyeon’s low voice resonated in Gyeoul’s ear.

—If you saw the message, you should have replied.

“……I have to have something to say to reply.”

—You could’ve just said, ‘I saw it.’ Or sent an emoji or something.

“I… saw it.”

Yuhyeon let out a laugh at Gyeoul’s reply.

—By the way, Lee Gyeoul, you are planning to do our group project, right?

“Yes. Why would you even ask that?”

—Then I guess you’re working on the report.

“……Ah……”

—Ah?

With one more tutoring session added to his schedule, Gyeoul had been busier than usual and had completely forgotten that he had to write a report for the group project with Yuhyeon.