Mother Tape Chapter 8.2

“Mr. Seon Wisoo, about when do you think he’ll wake up?”

It was a question that showed he knew they wanted to finish their work before then.

“Three hours.”

And this was precisely why Jaekwon and Hwang Gujo had worked together for so long.

❖ ❖ ❖

Before three hours had passed, Wisoo woke up. He had slept for about two and a half hours. Still groggy, Wisoo had a dazed look on his face.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“…I’m not hungry, but I’m hungry.”

Wisoo replied in a drowsy voice.

Jaekwon brought Wisoo over and showed him the pancakes. His eyes instantly sparkled. Like a child. Jaekwon smiled and fed him a piece of bacon soaked in maple syrup first.

When Wisoo had finished about half of it, Hwang Gujo arrived.

“Mr. Seon Wisoo, I bought your medicine too.”

Hwang Gujo looked completely exhausted.

“How did you get all these scrapes. They look exactly like wounds from a fall.”

“I fell….”

Unfortunately, Wisoo had no memory of it.

He didn’t even know how he had gotten here in the first place.

Hwang Gujo gulped down the orange juice. His throat was parched. Even though it was the tail end of summer, the heat was still fierce. The sun was so glaringly bright that his head felt hot. Wisoo shot a resentful glare at Hwang Gujo, who had downed his portion of the orange juice.

“I paid for the taxi fare, so cut me some slack. You have a lot of money anyway.”

“……”

I should tell him that’s not the case anymore.

Wisoo mumbled evasively. Jaekwon, using the excuse of changing his clothes, went inside and called for Hwang Gujo.

“Huh? Why are you calling me when you’re changing clothes!”

“Because I bought clothes for you too. Don’t be jealous, I’m just doing my gopher duties, alright?”

Hwang Gujo lightly tapped Wisoo’s shoulder and went inside.

Jaekwon tossed the gown onto the bed and held out his hand. Two cell phones were placed in his palm. One was a cloned phone, the other a twin phone.

“And about the cameras.”

Hwang Gujo began, his tone now serious and completely different from when he was with Wisoo just a moment ago.

“There were some. There was one on the ceiling of the shoe closet, but it’s custom-made. Checking the serial number shows it was made a long time ago, but it’s very small for its age. If we hadn’t called someone in, we would have never known.”

“The bathroom?”

“It was inside the mirror. It turned out to be a two-way mirror.”

“Ha….”

“How did you know?”

Jaekwon replied while handling the cloned phone.

“I went there during the construction before, and the atmosphere felt strange. I didn’t know they would pull a trick like that so quickly even after I made changes midway through.”

“Ah….”

“Kwak Jaekyung….”

Only one corner of Jaekwon’s mouth lifted into a long smirk. It was a sign that he was very, very angry.

“This bastard is the snitch, isn’t he.”

“I was hoping he wasn’t… The situation is getting fucked up.”

As if to say he should see for himself, Jaekwon handed the phone over. Hwang Gujo let out a strange sound of admiration, a sort of heo, as he looked at the text message history.

“And Na Hakyoung. They contacted each other recently too.”

Hwang Gujo, who knew something about it, avoided his gaze.

“It seems he gave up the trust fund. I can’t think of any other reason.”

That bastard’s intuition is beastly. Hwang Gujo shook his head. I told you it was something that would be found out quickly anyway, Mr. Seon Wisoo. And it was because it was bound to be found out that Hwang Gujo had cooperated in the first place. It wasn’t as if he was doing anything harmful.

The fact that he couldn’t smoke indoors was tormenting Jaekwon. In the end, instead of a drink, he had no choice but to drink the complimentary-grade whiskey provided in the bedroom.

“What will you do if he did give it up?”

At that question, Jaekwon let out a sneer. It was so cynical it was almost off-putting. It was a good thing Mr. Seon Wisoo hadn’t seen it, and perhaps that’s why the real Kwak Jaekwon-like side of him came out….

“Does anything have to change?”

“……”

“I will still remain Seon Wisoo’s guardian. Any action that would disqualify me as a guardian….”

He recalled how he had held Wisoo until his entire body was a mess and corrected the last words he was about to say.

“Those actions haven’t been discovered.”

“Cloning the phone and finding the cameras, it feels like things are getting serious now.”

“I know. …I should have done this from the beginning.”

However, contrary to his own mutterings, Jaekwon knew. If it had been the beginning, he wouldn’t have paid much attention to such a message. If it seemed like it would become a hassle, he would have confirmed whether the trust fund was really given up and then handed Seon Wisoo over, or if he felt a sliver of pity, he would have sent him abroad.

“What should we do. Should we check with Na Hakyoung first?”

Hwang Gujo was a person whose faith in humanity was close to zero. It was precisely that quality that made him a good match for Jaekwon. Even if he had come to regard Seon Wisoo as a much younger brother, he couldn’t completely erase the fundamental suspicion of whether someone could just give up such a huge fortune.

Jaekwon narrowed his eyes as he fiddled with the whiskey glass. He was planning out the order of operations, but no matter how he looked at it, the man called Teacher was an obstacle.

“I really should have just registered the marriage first.”

“Come on….”

While his reaction was lukewarm, Hwang Gujo also didn’t feel entirely at ease.

“Just wait for now.”

Jaekwon grabbed Hwang Gujo’s shoulder with a sharp thwack and headed for the living room.

“Mr. Seon Wisoo, are you enjoying your food?”

As if the previous conversation had never happened, Jaekwon’s voice was full of playfulness. But Hwang Gujo’s heart was heavy. Was the anxiety that something was about to happen due to learning things he hadn’t known? Is ignorance truly bliss?

❖ ❖ ❖

Jaekwon was the one who went through a rut, but it was Wisoo who couldn’t get a grip. If he didn’t even remember how he had overworked him, Jaekwon would have shamelessly wondered if Seon Wisoo had caught some kind of illness.

Jaekwon had Wisoo, who kept nodding off, lean completely against him.

“Are you going to tell him?”

Hwang Gujo, who was watching the two of them through the rearview mirror, asked.

“I have to.”

Jaekwon answered calmly. His hand was fiddling with Wisoo’s thin, downy hair. It was subconscious.

“There must be a reason why he didn’t tell you that Kwak Jaekyung contacted him and even came to visit.”

“Even if there is, I can guess what it is, and the reason I can guess is no big deal to me. So it doesn’t matter, right?”

While Wisoo took another nap before they checked out, Jaekwon and Hwang Gujo watched the CCTV footage he had removed. Despite being old, its performance was good. It was clearly custom-made. The memory wasn’t accumulating but was being deleted at regular intervals, and its capacity was quite large. The person who installed it must have been either Kwak Bonyoung or the Teacher. To think they even monitored the door like this, on top of having only a few windows that were woefully inadequate for escape.

“It’s probably because of me anyway. And that kind of worry is pointless, so it’s fine.”

“……”

“It’s actually for the better. I can just teach him that if he has secrets, he should be scolded.”

“If you were going to do this anyway, you should have just done it from the start. Waiting like this just made it a bigger deal for no reason.”

At Hwang Gujo’s grumbling voice, Jaekwon also laughed.

“I know. I regret it too.”

That you never know what’s right around the corner in life—Jaekwon, too, was realizing this after a very long time.

❖ ❖ ❖

By the time they arrived home, Wisoo had also woken up. Still, he couldn’t sit properly and kept flinching. It was because of his buttocks and perineum, which were chafed raw from Jaekwon’s pubic hair and crotch. With a tearful face, Wisoo shuffled awkwardly into the house. When Jaekwon offered his support, his dejected refusal of, “It’s okay,” was his only sign of resentment.

The house was, naturally, quiet. With Wisoo in front of him, Jaekwon slowly looked around at the scene that now included Seon Wisoo. And then he realized. A sense of unease disguised by an unidentifiable feeling of comfort and familiarity. It was only because the structure of the house was a bizarre mix of the house he had lived in with his mother and the house his maternal grandfather had lived in. If you peeled it back, hidden, sinister camera lenses were watching.

“Mr. Seon Wisoo.”

The door had not yet fully closed behind Jaekwon. So, from Wisoo’s perspective, he was silhouetted against the setting sun, looking like a giant shadow. It was dazzling.

“Will you marry me?”

“…What?”

“You hate it all, don’t you? Kwak Jaekyung threatening you over yourself, and storming in when I’m not here.”

Wisoo was deathly shocked that Jaekwon knew everything about the things he had hidden. Soon, the door closed completely, and Jaekwon strode inside.

“If you have no more secrets from me, shall we get married?”

“……”

“Then I think I could block things like Kwak Jaekyung contacting you, or the Teacher asserting his ownership over you, things like that.”

Only then did Wisoo realize that Jaekwon’s voice was very matter-of-fact. He didn’t sound like someone proposing. It was the same as his attitude as a guardian.

For a moment, Wisoo’s feet, which felt like they were filled with helium and about to float up to the sky, touched the ground again. He returned to reality.

“Come on….”

Wisoo laughed awkwardly.

“You don’t have to do all that for me.”

He deliberately spoke cheerfully and turned around. Jaekwon almost snatched his wrist but stopped himself. Instead, he followed his more hurried steps than usual and asked.

“Why. Mr. Seon Wisoo, you covet me, don’t you?”

Wisoo was flustered as Jaekwon stabbed at him directly without mincing his words. He didn’t think he had hidden it skillfully, but he hadn’t known he had been noticed so accurately.

“We-well, that’s true, but that doesn’t mean I’m trying to possess you.”

“That’s strange. Isn’t it that when you covet something and it’s within your reach, you want to have it?”

“No, I’m….”

“Why? Are you afraid the Teacher will take me away if you have me?”

With a trembling hand, Wisoo took a bottle of water from the refrigerator door pocket. The hand pouring it into the glass was shaking. His wrist, just as he was about to gulp down the water he had barely managed to pour, was caught.

“Or is it because you don’t like me enough to want to have me?”

“That, stop… can’t you stop talking about that?”

“No matter how I look at it, this is the best way, and the one who stands to lose more is me, but you keep pushing me away.”

It might have been a joke, or he might have been genuinely twisted out of shape by the constant rejection. Whatever the case, there was a nasty edge to Jaekwon’s words. He was like the Kwak Jaekwon from when they first met. Perhaps because he had grown used to the kind Mr. Kwak Jaekwon, this side of him was bewildering and painfully sharp.

Wisoo’s eyebrows drooped sadly.

“Is this how you treat people who say they like you, Mr. Kwak Jaekwon?”

“What is ‘this’?”

“It’s cruel…. Mr. Kwak Jaekwon, you don’t have any feelings for me at all….”

Wisoo wrenched his wrist free from Jaekwon’s grasp. The water even seemed to smell fishy. He felt nauseous. It was a natural consequence of enduring a rut while his body was already sick.

“I’m going to go up….”

“You can’t even stay alone on the second floor because you’re scared.”

“It’s okay.”

Stopping midway up the stairs, Wisoo looked down at Jaekwon, who was looking up at him. He gripped the landing rail tightly.

“I don’t see them anymore, even without you, Mr. Kwak Jaekwon.”

❖ ❖ ❖

To give Wisoo some time alone, Jaekwon did not go up from the first floor. No, that was a cowardly excuse. In truth, he was the one who needed time.

Instead of the complimentary-grade whiskey from the hotel, he rummaged through Kwak Bonyoung’s collection and drank, choosing the order arbitrarily and at his own whim, without any thought to the pairings. What Jaekwon was staring at with half-lidded eyes was a silver ring he was rolling on the table with his own hand.

The ring, found in Kwak Bonyoung’s dressing room, was dirty, as befitting something made of silver. The stains were considerable.

“Did they say to clean it with something like toothpaste….”

Jaekwon gripped it tightly between his index finger and thumb and brought it close to his eyes. For some reason, the stains had an artificial quality rather than a natural one. It didn’t look like mold had grown or the color had faded over time, but rather like something thick had stained it and then hardened.

It felt unsettling for some reason. Jaekwon, who had considered scratching it with his fingernail, put it back into the ring case just as it was.

“A woman’s size….”

However, it would probably fit Wisoo’s pinky finger, or maybe, if he was lucky, his fourth finger.

‘Mr. Kwak Jaekwon, you don’t have any feelings for me at all….’

At this rate… even if he were given a hundred years, it wouldn’t be enough. What he’d said about being the one who stood to lose was, in a way, true. Only Kwak Jaekwon was taking, and only Kwak Jaekwon was alone in digesting this sentiment that was difficult to even explain. Only me, without even knowing what you are doing.

“Do you ask people to marry you when you have no feelings for them, Mr. Seon Wisoo?”

Jaekwon muttered, his cheek pressed against the cold table.

Inside the open ring case, the dirty silver ring lay, emitting no light, holding its breath.

“Do you… stay with someone you have no feelings for like this?”

Jaekwon closed his eyes.

Pathetic. He felt like a stranger to himself, muttering such things.

A moment later, Jaekwon opened his eyes again, downed the remaining alcohol in his glass, and headed to the second floor.

The door to the room was slightly ajar. If it had been locked, he would have given up and gone back. Opening the door, Jaekwon found Wisoo, who was also not asleep. A cell phone was clutched in his hand.

“If I say that I like you, Mr. Seon Wisoo, will you marry me?”

Jaekwon asked crookedly. His tongue, thick and slow from the alcohol, produced an even more off-putting sound.

“Or are you in contact with Kwak Jaekyung right now? Asking what the Teacher thinks about Kwak Jaekwon asking you to get married….”

A pillow came flying at him. A mere pillow, not even a cell phone. Jaekwon squeezed his eyes shut and let out a dry laugh at the sensation of the pillow landing on his foot. He could have blocked it, but he didn’t. It’s not like he would get hurt by something so soft anyway.

“Do I need to get permission from that bastard, who I can’t tell if he’s a crazy cult leader or a professor, to be with you?”

“When I told you about the Teacher, it was because I trusted that you wouldn’t care about it, Mr. Kwak Jaekwon….”

“People change. And to be honest, I’ve wanted to rip that bastard Teacher to shreds since back then. You saw me wrong. Sorry for being this kind of bastard.”

Even though he said he was sorry for being this kind of bastard, Wisoo was still not angry at Jaekwon at all, nor was he disappointed.

“…You shouldn’t say things like that so carelessly. Later, someone who suits you better and is more your type might appear, Mr. Kwak Jaekwon. Then you’ll want to break up with me, what will you do then?”

“This time you’re just stating it as a fact that people change. How admirable.”

Kwak Jaekwon scoffed.

“I’ve already met several people who were my type. But what am I supposed to do when you, who are the furthest from my type, are the one I like the most. I must be completely blinded by love.”

“That’s just… lust? Something like that.”

At a word he never expected to hear from Wisoo’s mouth, Jaekwon burst out laughing.

“Ah. Where did you learn a word like that? A book? It must be. I was wondering where you learned it, since you weren’t completely ignorant about sexual acts. So you’re a man of letters, our Mr. Seon Wisoo.”

Wisoo’s face turned bright red. As if it didn’t matter at all, Jaekwon retorted.

“We haven’t even done it enough to develop feelings, have we.”

“Still, seeing how much you like it when you sleep with me….”

“Compared to other people, I lose my mind and fuck you the hardest?”

“Where would I have anyone to compare you to.”

“Right. You don’t have anyone, Mr. Seon Wisoo. I know very well that your life experience is sorely lacking.”

Wisoo smelled alcohol on Jaekwon as he strode toward him. He’s drunk. No wonder. He seemed different from usual. Similar to when he was in his rut.

“So before you fall for some other bad bastard while you still don’t know the world, I, a slightly less bad bastard, will take you in advance.”

“…I’ll think about it. Right now, I’m not even sure if you really are a less bad person, Mr. Kwak Jaekwon.”

It’s sad. The truth is, there has been no one in his life as kind and good as Kwak Jaekwon. Even at this very moment as he says this.

At this rate, he was about to be foolishly swayed by his face and voice and give in again. Wisoo tried hard to pull himself together, thinking of the Teacher, who made all his desires plummet.

It was only yesterday that he gave up the trust. How could he break the connection to Kwak Jaekwon, only to become a leash around his neck by connecting with him again. He couldn’t do that, not even if he died.

Jaekwon sighed as he watched Wisoo stubbornly avoid his gaze. Should he have just drunk until he was completely wasted? In his vision, blurred and hot from the heat, Seon Wisoo looked even softer and more fragile than he remembered. Maybe this was the real Seon Wisoo.

“Look at me.”

Jaekwon called to Wisoo.

“Quickly.”

At his urging, Wisoo finally lifted his head. His own reflection in those large eyes was dark and hulking, a sight that couldn’t be called harmless even with empty words.

What are you doing, Kwak Jaekwon. Jaekwon mocked himself and ran a hand through his hair. Well, well, if this wasn’t the spitting image of a loser throwing a tantrum after being rejected flat out.

“And now Seon Wisoo is playing hard to get.”

Jaekwon smiled bitterly and gently scratched under Wisoo’s chin with his finger. At the soft, ticklish sensation, Wisoo’s eyes squeezed shut.

“How admirable….”

“……”

“From now on, you should clearly say what you like and dislike like this, and take plenty of time when you’re deciding something…. Understood?”

As he nodded his head, the touch of his fingertips felt stronger.

Wisoo let out a thick sigh.

Fortunately, Jaekwon was only soaked in drunkenness and not so intoxicated that he had lost his reason, nor had his rut returned, so the unfortunate incident of him knocking Wisoo down and fucking him like a dog did not occur.

Everywhere his skin was exposed, it was a mess. Nothing brought Kwak Jaekwon back to his senses as much as that. He had been childish and cruel to this boy. Jaekwon, clicking his tongue, headed to the bathroom.

When he came out after washing again, his hands held a moisturizer with a powdery scent.

“Take off your clothes.”

When Wisoo, who had been watching him warily, only took off his t-shirt, Jaekwon gestured downwards with a hand full of cream. The bottom too, he mouthed without a sound.

He stripped down completely, even his underwear. Only a small, old desk lamp was on in the room. The brightness was too sharp to be a mood light, and it flickered a little with the passage of time. It felt like time had suddenly jumped back to the 80s or so.

“I’m sorry. I was being mean.”

“…I should say it’s okay, but honestly, it hurt a little. This time.”

“That’s because you’ve become much softer, Mr. Seon Wisoo. It’s a good thing. At first, you didn’t even get angry no matter what I said.”

“……”

“I’m not saying it’s less than back then. I was the same bastard back then too, and I acted just as mean. I’m sorry. You did well to say you’d think about it. Think about it for a long time. Don’t feel pressured.”

Jaekwon carefully applied the moisturizing cream to every scraped part of Wisoo’s body.

“I’ll apply new ointment tomorrow.”

Wisoo nodded without a sound.

He applied it especially meticulously to the groin area He applied it especially meticulously to the groin area. At that touch, only he became tense, while Jaekwon’s expression remained solely serious. He was so embarrassed that he kept bringing his knees together and pushing him away, and only then did his hand fall away.

“Can I lie down next to you?”

Wisoo flinched at the question. It was because that was usually something he was the one asking for permission for. He was enveloped in a strange feeling. Wisoo nodded his head, and Jaekwon climbed up beside him.

“I won’t touch you until what I put on your body has dried.”

Those words meant that he would touch him once the moisturizing cream had dried. Wisoo hesitated, then moved a little closer.

“It’s okay if your clothes get dirty, right?”

At the slightly forced, not-quite-permission, Jaekwon, who had had his eyes closed, opened just one. He glanced down, then closed it again and nodded.

“There’s a washing machine, and you bought me a lot of clothes, Mr. Seon Wisoo, so what would I say about throwing one pair away.”

Those clothes….

Wisoo now thought he knew who had made him buy those clothes.

He had mostly bought them when he was dazedly captivated, and there were many times he didn’t even know when he had bought them, but they were in his hands. He now understood Kwak Bonyoung’s strange gaze as she looked at him when he was bewildered.

“That… Your mother bought them, Mr. Kwak Jaekwon.”

“……”

“I know you don’t like talking about this. Still, I thought your mother would be upset if you thought I bought them.”

“I don’t know if she liked me enough to be upset. My memories are also clumped together in chunks, like yours, Mr. Seon Wisoo.”

When there is a sick person in the house, it is bound to be that way. And that person was even his mother, who should have been his guardian. Furthermore, he couldn’t say that he himself was alright either. On top of that, unluckily, the cause of the sickness was Kwak Bonyoung, and Kwak Bonyoung was vicious when tormenting someone weaker than himself.

Jaekwon admitted it calmly. That his childhood and adolescence were meticulously horrible without a single part to spare.

However, in front of him was a person who had spent a more horrible childhood and adolescence than he did.

Jaekwon suddenly hugged Wisoo’s slippery body.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. She’s the person who abandoned me. The fact that I wasn’t enough of a reason for her to want to live is something I’ve ruminated on so much that it no longer has any taste.”

Wisoo caught a glimpse of Jaekwon’s deficiency.

At the same time, he also remembered Jaekwon’s mother, who had screamed at him like a demon.

His insides turn cold, as if he had swallowed a large piece of ice whole. Was she talking to me? No, probably not…. It couldn’t be. She must have been talking to Kwak Bonyoung. So….

And yet, Wisoo couldn’t erase his anxiety, so he gripped the hem of Jaekwon’s clothes tightly.

❖ ❖ ❖

“I’m thinking of sending some money to Kwak Jaekyung.”

The next morning, Jaekwon did not hide the fact that he had snooped through the records on Wisoo’s phone.

“He said he’s in a hurry, and whether the movie fails or not is none of our business, but we can wire him some money.”

“Ah….”

“You can just contact Na Hakyoung and tell him. Ah, was that why you contacted Na Hakyoung?”

“Ah, no.”

Wisoo swallowed the piece of bread he hadn’t finished chewing and shook his head.

“Ho-how did you know all that?”

“You should have asked that yesterday. I cloned your phone, Mr. Seon Wisoo.”

Jaekwon took out another phone from his pocket that looked exactly like Wisoo’s.

“Is this okay?”

“It’s not. It’s illegal.”

“But how….”

“The law just defines what you can do but shouldn’t. I did it because I could.”

It was shameless sophistry.

“If I get caught, I’ll just pay a fine, whatever.”

“…I was trying to hide it, but it wasn’t….”

“That’s right. You were trying to hide it.”

“That’s true, but… it’s not because there was something….”

“Is that person called Teacher that scary? He just seemed like an unimpressive middle-aged man.”

“I don’t know….”

Wisoo shook his head helplessly.

“I’ve been scared of him for so long, ever since I was very young and we grew up together.”

“Even while seeing things scarier than that?”

“The scariest thing is the Teacher, who isn’t scared of the things I see and instead tries to use them to his advantage.”

Wisoo shivered as if the mere thought was horrifying.

“People see me and they kneel, they cling, they cry, they beg, they confess their love, and they apologize. Sometimes they get angry, hate, and curse me.”

Even though it was directed at someone borrowing his body and not at him, the emotional aftereffects lasted for a long time, so even when Wisoo returned to being himself, they did not see Seon Wisoo. Seon Wisoo was everywhere, but he was as good as a non-existent being to everyone.

Wisoo, who had been staring blankly into space, lightly furrowed his brow.

“I didn’t understand those people before… they’re people who have already left. The dead don’t get over their anger just because they hear an apology, nor are they moved by a confession of love. They either float around with only their strongest emotion or wander around with nothing, in oblivion. But now….”

“……”

“Now I understand. I think I would act that way too if you died, Mr. Kwak Jaekwon. Knowing, I would still search for you, and if I could just reach you….”

Wisoo hung his head low again. His fingertips fiddled with the crust of the bread.

“But I hope there isn’t another person like me. Then who would I have to go find.”

Jaekwon, who had been listening intently to Wisoo with his chin propped on his hand, shook his head.

“No, why are you imagining a perfectly living person dying. I’m right in front of you.”

“Ah…. Right. I’m sorry.”

“And there won’t be another person as strange, peculiar, and special as you, Mr. Seon Wisoo. Don’t have unnecessary thoughts and eat more, or if you don’t want to eat the crust, give it to me.”

After hesitating, Wisoo held out the hard crust. Jaekwon, with his chin still propped, just leaned his head forward and chewed on it. A crunch crunch sound was made. And crumbs got on Wisoo’s hand.

“Mm. This is good bread. Should we try making rusk with this next time?”

“Are you going to ask the housekeeper to make it?”

“No. I fired her. We can just look at a recipe and try making it, the two of us.”

At those words, the look in his eyes when he saw him as Kwak Bonyoung died comes to mind vividly. When, why did he fire her? But before Wisoo could wonder further, Jaekwon stood up from his seat, collected the empty plates, and pressed his lips against Wisoo’s.

“I really don’t like meaningless talk, but what should I do when the idle chatter I have with you is so fun, Mr. Seon Wisoo.”

“Huh…? Was it meaningless?”

“It was tasty. So that’s all that matters.”

It was an incomprehensible thing to say, whether he was talking about the bread with jam or their conversation.

❖ ❖ ❖

Now that everything about Kwak Jaekyung was out in the open, there was nothing more to hide. Wisoo thought that the fact he had postnaturally changed into an Omega was something that had already happened, so it wasn’t something to report in detail, and giving up the rights to the trust was like a surprise gift for Jaekwon, so it was natural to keep it a secret, he gave himself that justification.

“You look like you’re in a good mood?”

Jaekwon, who had taken out sugar and butter to follow the rusk recipe, asked.

“Yes. I am. This is sweet, right?”

“I would think so. A lot of sugar goes into it.”

The result was simple to look at and eat, but looking at the process, it was indeed a bit bothersome. He supposed this was why people bothered to buy it.

It’s becoming a hassle. Should I suggest we just quit now? However, Jaekwon spotted Wisoo’s face, full of expectation, and smacked his lips.

“Let’s keep it simple.”

He found the simplest recipe possible. He gently melted the butter in a pan and dissolved the sugar. There was no parsley powder. He figured it was for looks rather than taste anyway.

“Like this?”

Wisoo cut the bread with scissors. Jaekwon had instructed the housekeeper to leave the scissors and knife at the house when he let her go. He cut the bread as if it were paper and dipped the resulting crusts into the butter.

“You cut so skillfully.”

“Should I cut more?”

Praise makes Seon Wisoo dance too. Wisoo asked excitedly. Jaekwon answered, “Later,” and put the bread crusts soaked in butter water into the oven.

“Now we just have to wait.”

“Without doing anything?”

“Sugar burns easily, so while watching to see if it burns or not. Don’t stick your face too close. It’s probably not good for your body.”

“Why?”

Why, why. It felt like he had a child attached to his side who was curious about everything in the world. But it wasn’t bothersome. Not that he explained it kindly either, so Jaekwon just said, ‘It’s just one of those things,’ and pulled Wisoo back a little by the shoulder.

Wisoo waited patiently until the finished product had cooled. However, when the first finished product was presented to him, his expression turned bad.

“Why. Is it strange?”

“No….”

Wisoo, with a slightly flustered expression, soon shook his head.

“No. I think I’m still full.”

“Then eat it a little later. You have a small stomach, Mr. Seon Wisoo, so that can happen.”

Wisoo nodded quietly.

It seemed he was quite full. Wisoo, as if even looking at the bread was a torment, scurried out to the living room. It was strange, since just a moment ago, he had enjoyed and had fun making it.

Still, one of Jaekwon’s many strengths was that he didn’t say anything no matter how Wisoo acted. Even when he found him strange and peculiar, he didn’t tell him to stop or make any kind of judgment.

“You were holding your phone yesterday too. What are you looking at?”

Jaekwon, who had washed the cooking utensils, also came out to the living room. Wisoo was now using his phone much more comfortably, perhaps because he knew there was nothing more to hide about Kwak Jaekyung, and that Jaekwon would find out anyway. Just like when he first received it.

“This.”

At Jaekwon’s question, Wisoo turned his phone around to show him.

In the photo was a blurry image of Jaekwon. He didn’t know when it was taken, but it had captured his form passing through a crack in the door at night. Because of that, even though it was the latest model, it was blurry.

“There’s this too.”

His heel, anklebone, Adam’s apple, and jawline, the jawline with stubble in the morning, were visible. He could tell it was all him. Jaekwon felt awkward and embarrassed by the parts of himself captured by another person.

“What’s the point of looking at things like this.”

“I imagine which part of you this is, Mr. Kwak Jaekwon, and how the lines extend from here, and eventually how you are completed, Mr. Kwak Jaekwon, and time passes quickly.”

“You’re a strange person….”

“You already know I’m a strange person.”

Wisoo grinned.

Even though they were just parts of a body made of bone and flesh, Wisoo found it so interesting that he couldn’t take his eyes off them.

And Jaekwon, unable to take his eyes off of Wisoo, also impulsively raised his phone and took a picture of Wisoo, who was grinning foolishly while looking at his own photo.

“Huh?! You just took a picture of me, didn’t you!”

At the click sound, Wisoo shot up his upper body. Jaekwon, who had placed Wisoo’s legs firmly on his own thighs to prevent him from putting them down, played innocent.

“I don’t know.”

“You took it!”

“You’ve taken a lot of me in secret too, so why are you getting angry?”

“It’s because I’m curious…. About how I look in the picture you took, Mr. Kwak Jaekwon.”

“It’s the same as what you see in the mirror.”

“No, it’s not. It’s different. They said the more you like the subject, the better the photo comes out. I’m curious. How did I come out in your photo, Mr. Kwak Jaekwon?”

“If what you’re saying is true, Mr. Seon Wisoo, then am I just an elbow, a heel, some kind of bastard, not even a whole person? I’m disappointed.”

As was to be expected, Wisoo’s words were twisted by Jaekwon.

Wisoo, flustered, said that was absolutely not it, and then said, “Do you know how much prettier the photo is than the real thing?” only to be counterattacked with, “So you’re saying the real thing is that ugly?”

In the end, he couldn’t even manage to see his own photo, and he even forgot to bring it up again.

After bickering like that, in the evening, Wisoo ended up eating only a few pieces of rusk and some stir-fried noodles.

“Why has your appetite shrunk again?”

At Jaekwon’s question, Wisoo used the late summer heat, which clung on viciously as if refusing to leave, as an excuse.

“It’s because it’s still hot. Because it’s hot.”

❖ ❖ ❖

‘It seems you will have to speak directly with Lawyer Na Hakyoung.’

Jaekwon ended the call with Hwang Gujo and stared blankly at the dead screen.

If it was a matter that even Hwang Gujo hadn’t heard about, then the reasons for Seon Wisoo to have met with Na Hakyoung become very narrow. It must be a very private and personal matter. It must be related to his assets.

In truth, Jaekwon didn’t care if Seon Wisoo had Kwak Bonyoung’s assets for the rest of his life. He had thought the same even before their relationship had grown this long. Of course, back then it was, ‘He must have suffered quite a bit playing the role of a young mistress, so he deserves compensation,’ and now it was a desire to apologize somehow for the disgusting things Kwak Bonyoung had done.

He had already prepared enough wealth for himself to live and play for the rest of his life. So, if Seon Wisoo used Kwak Bonyoung’s money for himself, to protect himself, there was no reason to stop him.

However, the Seon Wisoo he had observed so far had no interest in money. He didn’t even seem to be aware that a trust fund was tied to him. In that case, the reason for suddenly meeting a lawyer was obvious. He’s probably trying to give it back to me.

Is it trusting Seon Wisoo too much to come to this conclusion?

“Ha….”

Jaekwon sank deep into his chair and chewed on the filter. He didn’t light it.

Even if it might be called too rash a belief, he wanted to think of it that way. Jaekwon, while knowing that he was becoming progressively softer towards Seon Wisoo and acting uncharacteristically naive in regards to him, was secretly enjoying this situation.

“Mr. Kwak Jaekwon. Let’s make this.”

Just then, Seon Wisoo popped into the room.

“I told you not to come in when I’m smoking.”

“You’re not smoking. I know you don’t light up in the house even if you say that.”

Wisoo, who had been listless from the last late heatwave before it broke, was bouncing around for the first time in a while.

“What do you want to eat.”

Whatever the result, the two of them had been cooking for themselves on a small scale lately. Jaekwon had a knack for it, and Wisoo was disastrous. Jaekwon thought it was probably because the things they had eaten so far were different.

He looks at what Wisoo held out while still holding the cigarette in his mouth. He uses his phone quite well these days. The things he searches for are small things. Cats, dogs, snacks, things like that. Small, cute things that Jaekwon knew about because he was openly committing an illegal act in front of Wisoo. Looking at the cloned phone had become Jaekwon’s new hobby.

“Peaches? They’ll be out of season now and won’t taste good.”

“Will there be none at all? Not even the hard ones?”

“You like the hard ones? That’s unexpected.”

Jaekwon, who had been chewing on the filter, readily stood up from his seat. Whether it was because of the heat, or because the quality of the food had suddenly dropped since they started cooking themselves, the fact that Wisoo, whose chopsticks had been sluggish lately, wanted to eat something for the first time in a while, made him overcome his innate laziness and get up.

“Then since we’re on the subject, shall we go grocery shopping?”

Wisoo’s eyes sparkled.

❖ ❖ ❖

They stopped by a supermarket run by the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation. Wisoo didn’t even go near the seafood section. He was so repulsed by it that Jaekwon nodded his head. The fishy taste is a high difficulty level for a baby’s palate.

He put beef that could be cooked quickly without getting tough, some standard vegetables like bean sprouts, and soy sauce in the cart. Only after that did they go to their final destination, the fruit corner.

Fortunately, there were still some left, but their condition didn’t look particularly excellent.

“I guess we should be thankful for what we have.”

Jaekwon lightly lifted a box and placed it in the cart.

Things like mascarpone cheese weren’t here. Jaekwon put a sweet, thick yogurt and honey in the cart instead.

“Is there anything like snacks you want to eat?”

“No. It’s okay.”

“That’s surprising for someone who likes sweets so much.”

Although Wisoo said it was okay, Jaekwon put a few things in the cart that seemed similar in texture and taste to what Wisoo ate well. He, too, didn’t know much about Korean snacks.

As soon as they got back, Jaekwon tried the recipe Wisoo had seen. Unfortunately, the result was close to a failure. It seemed the problem was that the peaches were the mushy kind.

“What a shame.”

Still, the combination with sweet yogurt and honey wasn’t bad, so Wisoo’s plate was empty for the first time in a long while.