UR Chapter 123

Chapter 123

Up until now, he had thought his grandmother was pitiful.

A son who had left behind nothing but debt after starting a hopeless business, a daughter-in-law she couldn’t trust, and a favored eldest grandson who only inspired pity. A younger grandson who wasn’t much help and a youngest granddaughter still too young to contribute. In a house on the verge of collapse, it must have been unbearably hard for an old woman barely able to care for herself to shoulder it all alone.

He had hoped she might one day escape that endless cycle. That’s why, even if it wasn’t much, he helped with housework and worked part-time jobs. He had believed her real suffering came from the mental strain of having to carry it all alone.

“…What?”

I-bom stepped inside without hesitation, taking off his shoes. He grabbed a dusty backpack from the coat rack inside, then opened a dresser drawer. Leaving the worn-out underwear and socks where they were, he scooped up only the new clothes Beom-ho had bought him and stuffed them all into the bag at once.

“…What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m leaving. Thank you for raising me all this time. Even though you never thought of me as your real grandson, you still kept me here.”

He bent down and closed the zipper on the bag.

“I won’t say I’ll repay you for raising me. I’ve already done my share.”

The mind that had always calculated every penny in consideration of the family’s situation was, surprisingly, perfectly clear now. He lightly shook the dust off the bag, slung it over his shoulder, and gave a small nod in farewell.

His grandmother stood before him, trembling.

“What, you’re leaving? You’re going to defy me now? Just because you don’t want to apologize, you’re going to walk away from the people who fed and cared for you all these years?”

Her words no longer worked on him. Once, hearing that voice would make him cower like a frightened puppy, his shoulders drooping. Now he felt nothing.

Her shrunken lips twitched as she muttered, her eyes cloudy. Once, that face had only filled him with fear; he couldn’t even meet her gaze, skirting around her while reading her mood. Now he remembered how he had tried so hard to please her, even after he’d grown taller than her, still holding on to a small hope she might warm to him.

“You may not be my real grandson, but I didn’t throw you out. I looked after you, treated you like family!”

A flicker of confusion crossed her face, as if she wasn’t sure how to sway him now that her usual tactic of guilt and pressure wasn’t working.

“You said ‘like family.’ You never said ‘real grandson.’”

“Where are you getting ideas like this? Wake up. I guess you think that chaebol’s grandson you call Soo-hyun’s fiancée’s suitor is serious about you—but do you think a pureblood beastman could truly mean it with some half-breed like you? Don’t get cocky. Half-breeds have nowhere to go but their own villages. No one else will welcome you!”

He couldn’t breathe.

It was something he’d heard so often it had worn calluses into his ears. Half-breeds have nowhere to go but their own villages. We have to live among our own kind. And “Kang I-bom” was the child they had been ready to throw away, of uncertain origin, taken in out of pity. So he was supposed to live in gratitude, smiling through injustice at work without a word of complaint. That’s how he had lived.

But now—

“It’s fine.”

He thought maybe it was fine to walk out of this house entirely, to open the door to a farewell. He had come to say he would live with Beom-ho, but perhaps ending the relationship completely would be better. No—he should leave this village entirely. Why had he never thought of trying to face the wider world?

“…I’ve managed here in this village, after all. Even if I’m not welcomed elsewhere, I’m going to live without fear.”

Slowly, I-bom turned to face her directly. He pulled the new padded jacket Beom-ho had bought him tight around himself. The faint scent of Beom-ho on the fabric was warm and comforting.

“I’ll be going now. As for the debt I-jun hyung owes, you’ll have to settle it with him when he comes back. I heard he even asked the son of the lady next door for money—find out who else he borrowed from. Oh, and please take good care of I-seol.”

His feelings toward his grandmother were not something that could be resolved in an instant. Half of it had been shaped by his own misunderstandings and lingering attachment. But time would resolve it—sorrow always needed time. The only thing that weighed on him now was I-seol. After all… she was still a child of this house.

“And where do you get off acting so high and mighty? I raised you out of pity…! Have you lost your mind? What about your brother?!”

Her voice rang out behind him. The quiet neighborhood echoed with her shouting until the door opened and the pale-faced lady next door rushed in. She glanced between I-bom with his bag on his back and his grandmother sitting on the floor, then hurried over to help the old woman up.

“I—I-bom… oh dear, what is going on here?”

The neighbor called out, but I-bom didn’t look back.

Bang—

“Why did I even bother picking something like that up and raising it! Should’ve thrown it out from the start!”

Her angry voice rang out as something struck his leg. It was a plastic basin left standing in the yard. He glanced at it briefly before turning his head away.

“Calm down! Why are you taking it out on the boy…?”

The startled neighbor held his grandmother back.

With an expressionless face, I-bom stepped outside. Behind him, the noise continued, loud and chaotic.

* * *

“……”

I-bom stepped out of the house and walked up the road. Passing the steep village entrance that ran alongside Manwol Mountain, he followed a narrow dirt path until a small wooden bench came into view. He craned his neck to check if someone was already sitting there, but luckily, the spot was empty.

“Huuh…”

Wiping the light sheen of sweat from his forehead, I-bom sat down on the bench. The steep village rest area overlooked the entrance to Manwol Mountain, the open view alone making him feel refreshed. It was the perfect place to soothe his stifled heart.

Why did they even bother picking something like that up and raising it!

He wasn’t crying, but those barbed, stinging words tangled through his mind. His chest sank heavy, his whole body aching like he’d caught the flu. He wondered if there was a real link between heartache and physical pain. Letting out a sigh, he carefully took out his phone and pressed the power button.

He hadn’t expected much, but there wasn’t a single missed call from his grandmother or his brother.

“……”

He debated putting the phone away again—or calling Beom-ho. He wanted to see him, to know what he was doing. His fingers reached toward the screen, but somehow, in the black reflection, a shadowed face stared back—his own. His brow was slightly furrowed, his lips faintly trembling. He hadn’t burst into tears, but with a face like that, his voice was bound to sound gloomy. Beom-ho had told him he could lean on him anytime, but he needed time.

…Let’s sort my thoughts first.

The scenery before him seemed especially quiet today. A piercingly blue sky with no trace of clouds, snowy peaks dusted in white here and there. Staring blankly, he felt as if his thoughts might settle and the sad memories clouding his mind might fade away. He wished the bad memories bubbling up could be smoothed over.

“Hey!”

The crunch of footsteps in the snow was followed by a sharp, loud voice from somewhere nearby. I-bom turned his head toward the sound from his seat on the bench. Standing there was Soo-hyun, face flushed red, glaring straight at him.

“……”

I-bom stared back at him, expression flat and silent. Normally, in the face of a loud voice and intimidation, he would have squeezed his eyes shut once, but now… nothing. No reaction at all.

“Why aren’t you answering?”

“I did answer.”

He replied to Soo-hyun’s sharp, sarcastic question. Perhaps it was the unbothered, calm demeanor that grated on Soo-hyun—his eyebrow twitched ever so slightly. Then, without hesitation, he revealed what was on his mind.

“You little… I’ve been looking all over for you. Making me go through all this trouble?”

Soo-hyun’s long shadow stretched across the ground in front of I-bom.

“…I’m sitting here, looking at the village. Can’t you see?”

I-bom turned his head away as if the conversation wasn’t worth having. Seeing the stiffness in I-bom’s expression—so unlike his usual self—Soo-hyun seemed briefly unsettled, but he tilted his chin up and asked casually,

“Ahem. Didn’t your grandmother tell you to come straight to our place?”

I-bom lifted his shoulders in a shrug, then let them drop.

“I heard her.”

Soo-hyun’s eyes narrowed more and more. The clipped, final tone of I-bom’s answers was getting under his skin—like he wouldn’t give an inch in this exchange. Kang I-bom, who usually stayed low and avoided conflict, wasn’t lowering his head or flattening himself this time.

And with Soo-hyun’s notoriously short patience, he snapped almost instantly.