YHP 40

The light green stem stretched straight, and the small leaves formed a gentle curve overall. Occasionally, there were leaves with edges that rippled as if trimmed with lace. The clear contrast between the straight lines and curves was strangely captivating. It was neat yet fancy, elegant and refined, but on the other hand, the way the small leaves were gathered together was also cute.

Ho-jin passed through the aisle between the shelves and returned to Jeong-in. The leaves fluttered as he moved.

“Would you like to touch it?”

In fact, he had only ever looked at the one in the consultation room, never touched it. Jeong-in slowly reached out and touched the leaves. The texture was strange. Unlike the shiny, seemingly tough front, the back was so soft that it seemed like it would be damaged if touched even slightly. In any case, it looked much fresher than the one in the consultation room.

“…This one lives in soil.”

“Do you know this plant?”

Jeong-in nodded and replied.

“I’ve seen one growing in water. It gets really big after a long time.”

“It will grow even better in soil.”

With those words, Ho-jin held out the pot.

“It’s called a Syngonium. Put it on your desk.”

“…You want me to raise it?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t raise something like this, it’ll probably die soon.”

He had accepted it without thinking, but he really didn’t have confidence. All the plants that Jeong-in had raised had died before they could even last a month. Burying things in the ground that withered away just as he was getting attached to them was a surprisingly emotionally draining task.

He didn’t want to do that again. He reached out to return it to Ho-jin, but he didn’t take it and handed the plant back to Jeong-in.

“It won’t be this time.”

“What won’t be? Everything I’ve raised so far has died in less than a month.”

Jeong-in followed behind Ho-jin, who was leading the way towards the seedlings. Ho-jin knelt down in front of a shelf full of chili pepper seedlings and began to examine the small pots one by one.

“Why do you think they died?”

Ho-jin, who had picked out a few healthy seedlings in that short time, suddenly asked. Jeong-in replied curtly.

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t have killed them.”

Ho-jin silently began to examine other things. It seemed like it was the blueberries’ turn this time. He thought he would pick out small ones like the chili pepper seedlings he had picked out earlier, but unexpectedly, the pots that were being pulled out one by one from his fingertips contained ones that had grown to the height of an average adult man’s shin.

“If I take something like this, they’ll probably say I’m cheating. The condition is that I have to plant it, raise it, and harvest it.”

Then Ho-jin looked up at Jeong-in.

“That’s strange, what kind of part-time job is that?”

“…I know.”

“It has to be about three years old anyway. You can’t do it by raising it for a year or two.”

He seemed to have picked out about thirty chili peppers and blueberries combined. Ho-jin, leaning over the shelf, asked the CEO to pack them.

“I’ll come back to pick them up in about 30 minutes.”

He started walking busily somewhere again.

“Where are you going?”

Following behind Ho-jin with the pot clutched tightly in his arms, not knowing anything, made him feel like a decorative animal character in a game.

“Now I have to buy supplies. I have to buy soil too.”

“You said the soil wasn’t bad.”

“Blueberries are a bit picky, so they have to be done separately.”

Ho-jin’s steps headed towards a store selling gardening supplies. He seemed to be talking to the owner and going inside, but soon he appeared with a few steel stakes in one arm and several tightly tied bags of soil on his other shoulder. They looked incredibly heavy.

“Let me hold some.”

“No, it’s okay.”

“Still.”

“…Then hold a few of the stakes.”

He pushed his hand into the slightly opened arm and grabbed the stakes. They were heavy even though Ho-jin was still holding half of them. He carefully took out three or four and held them in his arms, and started walking after him.

Ho-jin, who walked to the car without showing any signs of difficulty, lightly tossed the luggage into the back seat. Then he leaned against the car and looked at Jeong-in.

Jeong-in was doing his best not to lose the battle with the heavy stakes. However, his pathetic body just couldn’t keep up with his mental strength.

Ho-jin didn’t rush his slow pace. He didn’t rashly offer to help. He just stood there quietly watching Jeong-in get closer little by little, and when Jeong-in finally reached the door, he simply took the stakes without a word and threw them into the car.

“Should we put the pot in the car for a while?”

“Yeah… No, I can’t raise this, I’m telling you?”

He had to try pretty hard not to let his trembling arms be seen. Ho-jin, who had been watching him for a moment, chuckled and reached out his hand.

“You can do it.”

“Ah….”

The large hand pressed firmly under Jeong-in’s elbow. It was subtly painful, but Jeong-in didn’t avoid it in the end. He had unconsciously come to believe that this person would never hurt him.

“The plants that Hyung has raised so far.”

Ho-jin asked, slowly massaging him.

“You loved them a lot, didn’t you?”

“…”

“You looked at them morning and night and gave them water every day, right?”

He glanced at him, wondering how he knew. Then Ho-jin chuckled softly.

“Good intentions can sometimes be poison. If there’s too much water in the soil, the roots can’t breathe.”

“…”

“Good soil and water help plants grow well, but sometimes they kill plants with their weight. That’s called overwatering.”

The pressing touch continued for a while.

“You can’t really tell at first when overwatering happens. It’s just as pretty as yesterday and just as fresh as the first time.”

“…”

“But it’s rotting inside. The heart that loves it is grateful, but in reality, it’s suffocating and can’t do anything, can’t go anywhere, and at some point, even the hand that touches it and says it’s pretty hurts, making it difficult to even produce new leaves…”

The hand gradually slowed down. Jeong-in looked at Ho-jin’s downcast eyes. The eyelashes that had been still for a moment, wondering what he was thinking, blinked.

“Then, when it’s finally driven to the edge of a cliff, it sometimes wilts its leaves or drops leaves that have changed color to beg for help, but at that time, people usually give it more water. So it won’t hurt and will be pretty again.”

“…”

“Then it barely survives for a few more days with the roots that are still left…. Clenching its teeth and living a little longer.”

Ho-jin’s face looked a little lonely as he said those words.

“…Eventually, even the last breathing hole is blocked, and it dries up overnight. Beyond saving.”

For some reason, he couldn’t just stand by and watch. His heart was pounding with a sense of impatience.

Jeong-in opened his mouth hastily.

“Then I’ll let it breathe.”

Ho-jin raised his head. Their eyes met through the brilliant sunlight.

The sunlight was too bright. Everything was too clear. He could see that something had mixed into Ho-jin’s eyes, which had always been unwavering and firm.

It was like a crack in a smooth jade stone, or like a single reverse scale hidden between hard scales. The noise of the world that flew across the brief silence and crashed faintly in his ears the moment he read that subtle imperfection. He felt as if he was separated from everything in the world by a layer of film over his head. Jeong-in swallowed hard.

“…If it looks like it’s hurting, I won’t give it water, and I’ll wait until it’s fresh again.”

Ah, why am I doing this right now.

Is he hurting?

“You can just leave it alone and admire it with your eyes.”

Ho-jin looked at Jeong-in with eyes as black and gentle as a cow’s. Then he suddenly raised the corners of his mouth and smiled.

“Will you do that for me?”

Jeong-in pulled his arm out of Ho-jin’s hand.

“…Yeah.”

But he didn’t forget to answer.

***

“Is it done?”

Ho-jin asked, standing beyond the fence. Jeong-in, who had retreated a long way, shouted loudly, “Yeah!”

“The soil is going over!”

A sack of dirt, easily weighing 20 kilos, flew in a high arc and landed on the ground. Predictably, it burst open messily upon impact. It was exactly the scene that had flashed through Jeong-in’s mind the moment he heard Ho-jin’s plan.

He had insisted on transferring the load this way, saying that even if the sack tore, they could just scoop it up with a shovel later. He didn’t say it directly, but it seemed he was considering Jeong-in’s terribly weak physical condition. Even though he felt uneasy about it, he had no choice but to follow Ho-jin’s suggestion because Jeong-in himself knew very well that he couldn’t possibly carry all that through the main gate and back to the garden with his own strength.

“I’m going to throw the stakes now, please step back a little further.”

“Okay.”

“Step back further, it’s dangerous. Go back until you can’t even hear my voice.”

The sound of heavy metal clashing against each other was loud. At the repeated urging, Jeong-in moved further away. Soon, stakes flew one by one and stuck into the ground.

If he got hit by one of those, it would really put a hole in his skull. Alarmed by the deadly force, he took a few more steps back. At that moment, one of the stakes narrowly grazed the top of the fence.

Clang— A metallic sound rang out, and sparks flew instantly.

“Yoo Ho-jin!”

Jeong-in called out to Ho-jin in shock. The things that had been flying continuously stopped at once.

“Yes?”

“Anything you have that’s wet, anything at all, throw it over that decoration.”

“Um…. Just a moment.”

An unidentified white object soared up and pierced the sharp part of the decoration. A popping sound erupted along with bright blue sparks.

“Crazy…”

Smoke rose from the chicken breast chunk sizzling and burning. It seemed like a high-voltage line was on after all.

“Yoo Ho-jin, don’t do anything for now…”

He was about to tell him to stay still when Taffy barked loudly in the distance. Taffy was definitely supposed to be inside the mansion, he thought, and Jeong-in turned around, gasping. The door of the mansion opened, and Hyun-wook slowly walked out.