Yang’s Master Chapter 12.3 - Abnormal Climate

He did not know what had become of him. When Yang Euijoo last saw the chaotic pharmacy, the man who had rushed in like a beast, bare-bodied, was twisting and breaking Kwon’s arm at a bizarre angle. The Browning caught in the old man’s gaunt fingers, which were like winter branches, fell to the floor, and the old man let out a scream.

Amidst the scene of violence and murder, Shanghai remained silent. It was a dreadful time, as if the night itself was falling from above.

At some point, when he came to his senses, Cheon Yeomyung was holding Yang Euijoo’s hand, covered in blood, and smiling confidently.

“I came to get you, Euijoo-ya.”

It sounded simply like he had come to the pharmacy, but it also sounded like he had come all the way to Shanghai to get him.

The man’s expression seemed relaxed the entire time, yet he was slightly tense. He even looked like a boy waiting for an answer to a confession.

“I’m late.”

Was he a little…… late? Or had he returned right on time?

Yang Euijoo belatedly remembered that the wall clock in the broken Shanghai apartment was about ten minutes fast.

🐑

It was after he returned to the five-story apartment in Shanghai that he fully regained his senses. Due to the firearm-related incident and his distinctive appearance, he could not go to a hospital. Cheon Yeomyung underwent surgery without any anesthesia. The bed mattress was soaked with blood.

While the doctor performed the surgery alone without an assistant, Cheon Yeomyung’s subordinates cleaned up the pharmacy. After cleaning up the blood and clearing away everything that was broken or scattered, they gave the lame excuse that fireworks had misfired to the people who belatedly wondered if there was a problem. In this district, the death of a person, or an unlucky foreigner, was not even considered a crime anyway. Yang Euijoo had been living in such a place.

Only then did Yang Euijoo realize why Cheon Yeomyung had tried to send him away from Shanghai time and time again.

The most frightening thing in a reign of terror is not oppression or violence, but indifference.

……Just as Yang Euijoo had rightfully treated Cheon Yeomyung.

He sat blankly at the dining table, staring at the closed bedroom door.

“Sir, you should leave the country.”

Linlin said to Yang Euijoo as she handed him a passport. Yang Euijoo stared blankly at his own unfamiliar passport that Linlin was offering him.

“Go to England. The weather is gloomy, but it’s not an unlivable place.”

With a dark expression, Linlin smiled awkwardly and made a joke.

“It’ll be better than Yirang.”

Anywhere was better than Yirang. But just as Mei had said that she sometimes thought of that place, Yang Euijoo also always felt that Yirang was the first home he had to return to. Even though he did not want to get on a boat again, Yirang was like that.

“……If you go to England, there’s someone to help you get settled. There’s a very beautiful town called Edinburgh. The Boss has bequeathed his mansion there to you, sir. The original plan was to tell you along with the passport, but I postponed it just in case. I’m sorry. If you feel uncomfortable accepting it, you can dispose of it after you go……. It won’t be difficult to live there. The mansion grounds are quite spacious. He said you could think of it as alimony.”

Alimony. Yang Euijoo silently looked at the passport handed to him along with Linlin’s words. If that terrible time he had endured since the basement was worth British citizenship and a huge mansion, then yes, for a person like Yang Euijoo, it might be a profitable deal. For someone like Yang Euijoo…….

“Is Cheon Yeomyung in danger?”

“The Boss will be fine. It’s not the first or second time he’s been shot, and it’s not a fatal wound, so he should recover quickly. But the overall atmosphere is dangerous. I don’t want to see you get hurt again, sir.”

Linlin smiled freely, without even properly wiping the bloodstains on the end of her sleeve. The shape of her bashfully smiling mouth resembled Zhang Xuan. Yang Euijoo realized why he had grown a little fond of Zhang Xuan and had been able to give his affection so quickly.

“The Boss said the same thing.”

Linlin said, clenching her fists and looking at Yang Euijoo with her hands behind her back.

“He said that if it came to a point where you would never stab him again, sir, he would go back to Hong Kong…….”

As expected, it was impossible. Linlin said, lowering her head. She looked dejected. He remembered her somber face from the basement as she apologized for Cheon Yeomyung’s wrongdoing on his behalf. He had lost so much in the basement. He had lost his humanity and his dignity. Yang Euijoo recalled what Cheon Yeomyung had forced him to eat.

It did not take long for the man who had been passionately enraged by Yang Euijoo’s betrayal to wish for his life. It was a matter that had become entangled over just a few seasons.

“Did Cheon Yeomyung say such a thing?”

Yang Euijoo fumbled with the passport, still in the shirt spattered with the blood Cheon Yeomyung had shed.

“It was a secret, but everyone was on edge the entire time you two were together in Shanghai.”

Linlin, who was like a small girl, made an expression that seemed her age and faced Yang Euijoo.

“The Boss is actually a huge coward…….”

At her small whisper, Yang Euijoo quietly blinked his eyes. Although there was no trust in their relationship, the man was one to keep the promises he made himself. He often postponed things because he was busy, but sometimes he would indefinitely put off even that busy work to spend time with Yang Euijoo. When the man who left the mansion early in the morning and returned only at dawn suggested they spend two full days together on a date.

Wouldn’t it have been natural to fall in love so late then…….

And that was why he felt a deeper betrayal. He could only guess that Cheon Yeomyung must have felt the same way towards him. Even so, the choice Yang Euijoo had made and the choice Cheon Yeomyung had made would not be the same.

“I won’t stab him.”

“Sir?”

“Having been stabbed by a knife myself, I realized it’s not something you do twice.”

Yang Euijoo gave a bland reason. But it really was not something to be done twice. It was incredibly painful, and the sensation of his torn skin splitting open with every step and gushing hot blood was beyond imagination. So this time, as Cheon Yeomyung had suggested, he would stab him if he had to, but he would not stab himself.

“I will stay here. Aren’t you busy? You can go.”

“Sir, just in case…….”

“I won’t run away without saying goodbye to Linlin, so it’s alright for you to go.”

“Really?”

Linlin asked him hesitantly. It seemed that in their lack of trust, Cheon Yeomyung and he were similar. Only after getting confirmation from Yang Euijoo several times did Linlin rush out of the apartment. She still had a busy look on her face, without even having wiped the blood from her cuffs. Yang Euijoo waited for the long surgery to end. He did not know how successful a surgery performed on a bed without proper sterilization would be, but considering that people in Yirang also had surgeries and somehow lived, he thought Cheon Yeomyung would wake up just fine.

The doctor, wearing only his surgical gown, went in and out of the bedroom a few times to get blood packs, and only after three more hours did he come out carrying the blood-soaked sheets. He took off his blood-covered gloves, mask, and disposable gown all at once, stuffed them into the trash can prepared in front of the door, and said he would sleep for a bit in the small room. Yang Euijoo watched the doctor lie down flat on the bare floor and then entered the bedroom.

Surprisingly, Cheon Yeomyung was awake. This meant he had kept his eyes open the entire time his raw flesh was being torn, the bullet extracted, and his flesh stitched up without anesthesia. He was using the drug he always carried with him. The bitter and sticky smell filled the entire room.

With a hollow face, Cheon Yeomyung was receiving a blood transfusion in one arm while holding a water pipe to his lips with his good arm, deeply inhaling the smoke that rose from within. It seemed he had deliberately muddled his mind, as it must have been difficult to undergo surgery fully conscious. Yang Euijoo slowly approached Cheon Yeomyung, who was sitting directly on the mattress without a single sheet. Cheon Yeomyung stared blankly at Yang Euijoo with bloodshot eyes and then asked, puzzled.

“You didn’t go to England?”

The man seemed to have completely lost his sense of time, either because of the surgery or because he was smoking the anesthetic herb. Instead of explaining that not even half a day had passed, Yang Euijoo replied.

“I didn’t.”

“Why?”

“You seem to really want to send me away. Do you hate me?”

Cheon Yeomyung, who had been blinking, answered in a slightly foolish voice.

“Yes.”

At the plain response, Yang Euijoo, also with a foolish expression, silently gazed at the man. Cheon Yeomyung put the water pipe back to his lips and slowly inhaled the smoke.

“Not much has gone right since I met you, sir.”

“……”

“I should kill you but I can’t, I can’t even get angry at Kwon……”

The man, as if his wound was very uncomfortable, grimaced and moved towards Yang Euijoo. Yang Euijoo was about to tell him not to, but he held his breath at the man’s action of reaching a hand toward his cheek.

“I couldn’t even use you properly, and it’s not like we had a very passionate love affair either.”

Cheon Yeomyung’s flat complaints were utterly childish. Yang Euijoo quietly listened to his grievances. He deliberately did not speak, even though the complaints and resentment he held towards Cheon Yeomyung were much deeper.

“I was even plagued by an inexplicable sense of guilt.”

An inexplicable sense of guilt. He was still a man who was shameless about his own actions. Yang Euijoo smiled feebly.

“What about me, whose life was ruined by being bitten by a son of a bitch?”

“Ah.”

Cheon Yeomyung whispered in a voice that was hoarse and low, worn out by fatigue.

“There’s no way around that one……”

The man, who had a bullet removed while fully conscious, found it increasingly difficult to stay lucid. With hazy eyes, he held onto Yang Euijoo and asked without restraint.

“But you’ve never seen such a pretty son of a bitch before, have you?”

Why say something like that while crying. That provoked a hollow laugh from Yang Euijoo.

The man, high on the pain of surgery and the drug, was more out of his mind than when he was drunk. It was only natural, having lost so much blood. Cheon Yeomyung, high on hallucinations, might even be thinking that the Yang Euijoo next to him was a fantasy. It did not matter either way. The words that needed to be said were the same, whether from a fantasy Yang Euijoo or the real Yang Euijoo.

Yang Euijoo reached out and caressed the cheek of Cheon Yeomyung, who hadn’t cried even while his raw flesh was being cut open for surgery, but was now on the verge of tears. Maybe he was crying because of the pain. Yang Euijoo remembered Cheon Yeomyung, who, despite being pierced by a bullet, had grabbed him, blocked the way, and sent him behind the pharmacy cabinet. He had acted as if the wound was nothing. Even though the smell of gunpowder and burnt skin was palpable, Cheon Yeomyung had not even moved his lips. Instead, he had smiled and faced Kwon. He had acted as if the muzzle of the gun in his hand posed no threat at all.

Why did he do that now of all times.

“There’s a limit to how foolish one can be……, I never thought you would do something like that.”

The son of a bitch, who had been crying, sniffled. A child. Yang Euijoo wiped Cheon Yeomyung’s eyes.

“I agree. Stupidity must be contagious.”

His words were still harsh. But it was funny that he had gotten used to this way of speaking. As Yang Euijoo chuckled in disbelief, Cheon Yeomyung stopped sniffling and asked.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because we’re both so fucking pathetic……”

He felt pathetic for himself, for having human pity for such a man even after all that had happened, and he felt pathetic for Cheon Yeomyung, who had been cruel but then threw everything away and rushed all the way to Shanghai, committing all sorts of embarrassing acts. But it seemed that even if they were to go back to that time, their future would not change. Yang Euijoo would run away with Mei time and time again, and Cheon Yeomyung would grab Yang Euijoo who had fallen into the sea in front of the dirty harbor and pull him up.

There was a relentless side to the man who would not permit death.

“Doesn’t it hurt? Just finish smoking that.”

“Who’s pushing me to smoke something like this?”

“You sell it, yet you say strange things.”

The golden eyes were wet. Yang Euijoo sighed as he forcibly brought the water pipe in the man’s hand to his lips.

“……Stop crying. Does it hurt?”

The man nodded his head frantically, then threw the pipe in his hand carelessly onto the floor and hugged Yang Euijoo. He should have told him that moving like that would open up his wound, but Cheon Yeomyung did not seem to understand even if he was told. That’s what all addicts who are not in their right minds are like. Yang Euijoo had no choice but to wipe the cheeks of the incessantly sniffling Cheon Yeomyung.

Yang Euijoo’s hand got soaked along with them. He silently watched the man who seemed like he would never cry in his life, cry.

“Why did you have to interfere. You should have just let me die.”

Cheon Yeomyung blinked. Yang Euijoo saw the man, who had finally stopped crying, hanging onto him halfway. Blood was faintly spreading from the bandage wrapped around his abdomen, and the man’s body was drenched in sweat. His once clear eyes were hazy, intoxicated by the anesthetic.

“If you had gotten hurt.”

He had the illusion that sweet, golden champagne was flowing from the man’s eyes. His eyes, their focus blurred by pain, blinked slowly.

“Would I have been able to open my eyes again. You, you don’t even know what state your body is in. So weak……”

“But still, who takes a bullet for someone?”

In such a situation, it was natural for Cheon Yeomyung to feel more fragile than usual. The scent of perfume mixed with blood lingered faintly. The perfume he wears as Joseph and the perfume he wears as Cheon Yeomyung are still different. Yang Euijoo remembered the way he had held his wrist and rubbed it gently. When his pulse was firmly caught, did Cheon Yeomyung feel relieved, feeling the heart that was beating just fine? Or did he feel regret?

“Like you said……”

A rough voice mumbled in his ear. Yang Euijoo let Cheon Yeomyung pull him by the hand.

With his lips buried on the slowly pulsing wrist, Cheon Yeomyung spoke slowly. It seemed like his tongue was stiff and couldn’t even move properly, but the man’s eyes shone more clearly than just a moment before. It was a brilliant golden light.

“Like you said, if you are my first love.”

“……”

“Didn’t I do the natural thing?”

The reason he had continuously held the pipe during surgery seemed to be because the pain would set in as soon as the smoking stopped for a bit. Cheon Yeomyung, while dripping with cold sweat, tightened his grip on the wrist holding Yang Euijoo. Yang Euijoo could not scream that it hurt.

“Like you said, I am a cruel, shameless, lying, and selfish person, but.”

Only when a situation like this arose did Cheon Yeomyung bring up a proper conversation. Yang Euijoo looked at Cheon Yeomyung, smelling the bitter, sticky, and unpleasant sweet scent. The man moved his heavy body.

“I’m not stupid enough to lose the person I like.”

Yang Euijoo knows. Cheon Yeomyung is a man skilled at lying.

“Because that’s how my father taught me.”

Apart from his terrible family history, the man was a twisted human being by birth. Yang Euijoo had no reason to pity him. Just for blocking Kwon’s way that one time, Yang Euijoo had no reason to forgive Cheon Yeomyung. It was an act that did not even merit the value of forgiveness. If he had died by Kwon’s hand then, Yang Euijoo would have succeeded in his revenge against Cheon Yeomyung in the most certain way.

“So, was my consent included in that matter?”

For the first time, Cheon Yeomyung smiled as he answered.

“Since you are my first love, there’s no need to ask, is there.”

“……That’s just an opinion you asserted on your own a long time ago.”

“That’s right, Euijoo-ya.”

Cheon Yeomyung slowly smiled as he looked at Yang Euijoo, whose face tensed up every time his name was called. A rough, bloody smell was mixed in his breath. Every time Cheon Yeomyung spoke, he swallowed the blood rising up his throat and forced his lips to move. He felt his body stiffening up like a board. His blood vessels throbbed as if they would tear all his limbs apart.

“I regret what I did.”

Yang Euijoo held his breath. The hazy golden eyes tried their best to look at Yang Euijoo and let out something similar to a laugh. The smile, distorted by pain, looked as if he were crying. It was a confession long postponed since they had faced each other unprepared in Shanghai.

“I cherished you quite a lot, so I hated you more……”

Cheon Yeomyung’s body trembled finely as he gasped for breath.

“I shouldn’t have done it when everyone told me not to.”

“……”

“I really shouldn’t have done it.”

Saying so, Cheon Yeomyung closed his eyes. Yang Euijoo belatedly realized that the fever coming from the man’s body was not ordinary.

“Doctor, Doctor-!”

Yang Euijoo shouted. Cheon Yeomyung, who was clutching his wrist and not letting go, convulsed intermittently. Dark red blood flowed from between the man’s beautiful lips. It was shock. At his heart-wrenching call, the sleeping doctor instantly kicked open the door and rushed out.

“Get away right now!”

The doctor tried to pull Yang Euijoo away from Cheon Yeomyung, but Cheon Yeomyung would not let go of Yang Euijoo. He was persistent, as if he needed to check the pulse that touched his thumb. Yang Euijoo held his breath as he watched Cheon Yeomyung having a seizure. In the cold, damp basement, he had only counted numbers, not even knowing if time was passing. There was no end.

In those days that felt like he was going mad, he had endlessly hated the man, praying for revenge.

But had it really been only hate? Was Yang Euijoo truly the only one who had lost something precious?

To dream of things like hate or revenge, just enduring a single day was overwhelming for Yang Euijoo. The emotions he had postponed, being so preoccupied with the mere act of living, were now surging.

“Live.”

Yang Euijoo begged, tears streaming down his face.

“Live, you son of a bitch.”

He had always faced the sun, which he could rarely see, ecstatically in his eyes. Below the damp and humid deck where bugs crawled over his body, when it felt like he was submerged in the churning sea, there was a small child who would hold his breath and gaze at the giant sun that occasionally rose above the water’s surface.

Cheon Yeomyung cannot die like this. He had to live, and apologize properly. He had to atone for everything Yang Euijoo had lost, and Yang Euijoo had the right to take revenge on the man, just as he had prayed to the goddess. All this resentment could not be left unresolved, scattering like the winter wind. Cheon Yeomyung could not distance himself from his sins with just a single sacrifice. That was something that should not happen.

“Don’t die.”

Linda had told him to live like a human being. She had advised him to be faithful to his desires, to be selfish and despicable. Yang Euijoo had failed to live like that and had ruined his life.

So Cheon Yeomyung must not die. Yang Euijoo had not yet been able to gift him with death.

“My revenge isn’t over yet.”

Yang Euijoo had not even gotten to stick a knife in his instep once.

🐑

Like a fool, the man fell ill. Having lived in Hong Kong and then spending the winter in Shanghai, it was natural to get sick.

This place is colder than Hong Kong.

With Yang Euijoo’s shallow knowledge, he could not tell how much of a problem there was after Cheon Yeomyung’s shock. The doctor explained the situation to Rose Rock and Li Ziliang with a serious face, but Yang Euijoo could not hear. He acted like a person for whom nothing had happened at the pharmacy where the shooting took place. He woke up early in the morning, went to work at the pharmacy, and then returned home late in the evening to watch over the unawakened Cheon Yeomyung.

Cheon Yeomyung’s injury was severe, but the hand that had been shot through was a bigger problem. The gunshot wound, which had properly crushed and shattered the hand that had given him an old trauma, made Cheon Yeomyung unable to fall back asleep, and he writhed in agony.

The man, thrashing and dry-heaving even after taking anesthetics, was unsightly and dreadful, and gave a glimpse into his twenty-three-year-old self. Since the subordinates, under any circumstances, were prevented from giving Cheon Yeomyung narcotic painkillers, Yang Euijoo had to stand by and watch Cheon Yeomyung gasp through the mental shock and physical pain with his eyes open all night.

After a proper hospital was found, there was nothing left for him to do. Cheon Yeomyung was secretly transferred to a hospital that had been heavily paid off. After that, both Linlin and Rose Rock were busy. Li Ziliang went back and forth between the apartment and the hospital a few times to handle things instead. He found it strange that Yang Euijoo did not leave for England even with a passport and money in hand, but he did not force him to leave.

“Oppa, is something wrong?”

Zhang Xuan worried about Yang Euijoo, who had been in a daze lately. Yang Euijoo simply stroked his young sister’s head and replied that it was nothing.

“It’s okay, nothing’s wrong. I’m just a little tired.”

“If it’s really nothing, then let’s go have dinner together.”

Zhang Xuan acted grumpy. It was more of a worry than a grumble. Yang Euijoo stopped his hands that were trimming dried medicinal herbs and looked at Zhang Xuan. Zhang Xuan, with her hair braided on both sides, swung them and made a sad face.

“Alright.”

“Really?”

“What’s so difficult about having dinner. I’ll buy you a meal on a day I get off work early.”

“I’m going to eat something expensive.”

He did not know what kind of expensive things a young girl would eat, or how much, to be making threats like that. But he wasn’t going to make a girl almost ten years younger than him pay for dinner. Yang Euijoo smiled slightly and said to Zhang Xuan.

“Eat something expensive and have ice cream too.”

“Really? I’ll go get permission from my dad!”

Zhang Xuan, who had been doing her homework, jumped up from her seat. Father! Her energetic figure ran off, shouting loudly. Yang Euijoo watched Zhang Xuan’s swinging braids and diligently moved his hands. Today was the day to trim and store all the medicinal herbs that had come in, so he had to stay until the streetlights went out. Yang Euijoo trimmed the medicinal herbs and carefully packed them into wooden boxes to prevent moisture.

He wrapped the dried angelica root and bitter melon in several layers of paper, put them in the box, and then attached the weight and name on top. The angelica root was five geun, and the bitter melon was three geun. There were various types of rehmannia root, but when he opened the ones that had arrived, they weren’t steamed rehmannia root. Yang Euijoo carried the entire box of rehmannia root and went to find Zhang Jun.

“Mr. Zhang, the rehmannia root came in wrong.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Zhang Jun, who had been writing in his ledger, looked at Yang Euijoo. Yang Euijoo unconsciously glanced at the counter where Zhang Jun was sitting. A bullet had definitely been lodged there, but he did not know how they had managed it overnight. The pharmacy had not changed at all from before. Even the broken glass shelf was back to how it was. If they had replaced it with a new one, the difference in the glass should have been noticeable, but the glass shelf in the pharmacy that Rose Rock and Linlin had fixed was just as old, cloudy, and covered in rough scratches as the one in Yirang. The shape and location of those scratches were exactly the same, which gave Yang Euijoo a bit of a chill.

“It seems the amount of fresh rehmannia root and steamed rehmannia root got switched.”

“Ah, these guys are always like this……”

Steamed rehmannia root, which had to be soaked in liquor and then steamed, was more expensive than regular rehmannia root. Zhang Jun scratched his head once more, put down his pen, and rummaged through the rehmannia root.

“Can’t be helped, I’ll have to steam this myself. It’s just going to create more work.”

He complained that he would have to buy some liquor on his way to work tomorrow and closed the ledger.

“You can come in early tomorrow, right? Let’s steam some rehmannia root together tomorrow.”

“Sure.”

“Don’t you dare let my daughter lay a finger on it!”

“……Sir, you heard me say I like men, didn’t you?”

“About that, you.”

Zhang Jun asked, looking at Yang Euijoo suspiciously as if he were looking at a thief.

“Why hasn’t that suspicious fellow been coming around lately?”

“Ah.”

Yang Euijoo was so flustered at that moment that he was at a loss for words. Zhang Jun glared.

“Did you break up?”

“……No, it’s not…, we weren’t in a relationship to break up or anything.”

“You need to date one person for a while, you shouldn’t keep breaking up. When I met my wife, we dated for exactly eight years before getting married. We went through the war together. We even survived cannonballs flying at us, so now that the country is in this state, I just feel indifferent about it. I guess once you experience something, it doesn’t seem like a big deal anymore.”

Zhang Jun held onto Yang Euijoo and tiresomely droned on about his love story. It was a story he had already heard more than a dozen times. Wei Lan, unable to bear it any longer, slapped her worthless husband on the back and scolded him.

“Why are you blabbering on about the story of how I was tricked by you? Stop harassing an innocent person and just let him go home already!”

“What do you mean, tricked. How can you say that? When you were young, you said you liked me.”

“That was all when we were young. Did I know I would suffer like this?”

Zhang Jun whined and clung to his wife. Wei Lan coldly pushed Zhang Jun away and, with a kind face, told Euijoo to go home. Zhang Xuan, as if she had been waiting, quickly clung to Yang Euijoo’s arm.

“Oppa, do you want to go eat today?”

“The restaurants have probably all closed by now.”

“Aww, then you have to go with me next time for sure.”

Zhang Xuan, looking disappointed, let go of Yang Euijoo and gathered her homework notebook. Wei Lan, who had finished nagging her husband, saw Yang Euijoo off.

“You worked hard today. Go home, get some good rest, and see you tomorrow.”

“Thank you. You rest as well.”

Wei Lan sent Yang Euijoo off as if pushing him away, telling him to go home quickly since it was cold. Despite Wei Lan’s efforts to take care of him, Yang Euijoo did not listen and trudged along the riverside. Luxurious lights and tall buildings sparkled. It was a scene that was not common in Hong Kong. When he first came here, he had felt like it was a completely different world just by looking at the height and appearance of the buildings. It was hard to smell the salty tang of the sea in this city, to the point where it was unbelievable that it was by the sea.

Yang Euijoo walked alone along the water. Shanghai was very different from Hong Kong. There were no beaches made of artificial sand here, and the port was too far away. It was not like Hong Kong, where children in crumpled, dirty clothes could run from home and play with a ball made from a pig’s bladder at the pier just ten minutes away. Unlike the musty, thick dust and the fishy smell of the sea in the Kowloon Peninsula, an orange light emanated from the buildings that were lined up at perfect angles, as if tailored to a standard. Yang Euijoo stared blankly at the light illuminating the river.

The river in the center of the city, with not a single boat in sight, swayed slowly. Yang Euijoo hunched his body against the cold wind and stared at the turbid, yellow river, then paused. His crouched body slowly stood up and looked at the city’s scenery. The winter wind blew fiercely through his thin jumper.

“Ah……”

Yang Euijoo sighed.

Snow fell over the shimmering river. It was snow that should not have been falling.

It was definitely an unusual climate.

He blankly stared at the slushy white snow falling over the silent city. It had been a long time since Christmas, and the 2nd month was also coming to an end. The snow, seen in a city at this time, was beautiful despite the abnormal temperature. Perhaps the snow he had seen like a hallucination back then was not a lie. Unbelievably, it was snowing in this city, a little further away.

If this is what snow is like, it might be nice to visit a country with a long winter. Yang Euijoo, with a foolish thought, shoved his hands into his jumper pockets and turned his back.

“……Shall we go back?”

His frozen hands would not get warm just by being in his pockets. Yang Euijoo, his hands stiff from the cold, exerted strength in the back of his hands and looked at the man. Cheon Yeomyung was standing with his unhealed left hand fixed in a cast and hung in a sling, a thick coat draped over his shoulders. The muffler, untied and hanging loose, was a cold gray color. He had been informed today that he had been discharged from the hospital. Linlin had handed Yang Euijoo his passport and plane ticket and said.

‘Do as you wish, sir, whenever you want.’

And as the night deepened, only the lights spewed by a large airplane flying across the Shanghai sky could be seen. The plane that Yang Euijoo should have been on by now would have taken off.

Yang Euijoo is foolish. He hated boats, but he loved the sea.

He had become a sheep that feasted on pasture to become a sacrifice, even knowing he would die. He cannot forget the taste of the sweet fruit. He was tired of living a shabby life.

“……”

Cheon Yeomyung, with a stern face, looked at Yang Euijoo. The rigidly upright man and the falling snow under the unstable climate went well together.

“If we go back, will you lock me in the basement again?”

“……”

“And I’ll stab myself again?”

Cheon Yeomyung was capricious and a good liar, so not long after returning to Hong Kong, he might throw a tantrum again and send Yang Euijoo somewhere, or throw him in the basement and torture him. Yang Euijoo shrugged his shoulders, picturing his ordinary future.

“But still, yes. Let’s do that.”

He did not think he could forgive him. He could not trust the man either. He would have to live forever doubting his change of heart, his abandonment, his anger. But still, Yang Euijoo…….

“Are you sleeping well?”

He only offered a single concern.

The body that embraced him was hot. Yang Euijoo, while worrying that he might accidentally press on Cheon Yeomyung’s injured hand. He saw the man finally pull his frozen hand and shove it into his own pocket, and he let out something with a gush.

🐑

It was not like they could go to Hong Kong quickly. The body of the man who had undergone surgery for over four hours in an unsanitary environment was weakened, and he recuperated for a few more days in Shanghai to prepare for any possible additional infections and shock. The executives who supported the Blue Sea Triad said that since things had turned out this way, they might as well do some business openly in Shanghai, and they nonchalantly went off to do some ‘business’.

Even in Shanghai, where ideological screening, gangsters, and oppression were rampant, they skillfully sold drugs and even coaxed the back-alley thugs to come and do business in Hong Kong. The place for that business was Cheon Yeomyung’s ridiculously expensive apartment. The man let his subordinates bring gangsters into his living room to sell opium, and even call in guys with a bit more money and power, and swear friendships that were like jokes with words like ‘friend’ or whatnot.

Of course, that did not mean he just left Yang Euijoo standing in the living room where gangsters were sniffing around to check the quality of the products. Cheon Yeomyung would wait for Yang Euijoo to get off work, have dinner alone with him, and then, suggesting they go for tea, they would visit the old French lady’s house across the hall.

The old lady said that unless Mei came to visit periodically, she was mostly alone, and she happily welcomed Cheon Yeomyung and Yang Euijoo. The old lady, who was getting senile due to old age, still thought that Yang Euijoo was a woman with slightly short hair. Yang Euijoo was dumbfounded, but he could not say anything to Cheon Yeomyung’s schemes, who was smiling slyly and citing things like ‘respect for the elderly,’ and had to endure the old lady’s excessive misunderstanding.

After having tea with her for about an hour to an hour and a half, when they got up, the living room would be neatly cleaned up. Cheon Yeomyung would not stay in the impure living room where someone had visited, and would immediately take Yang Euijoo into the bedroom. The mattress that had been soaked in blood had been replaced, so it did not feel that uncomfortable.

The routine was almost fixed. After washing up in the bathroom attached to the bedroom, he would disinfect the man’s wound, and when he closed and opened his eyes, it would be time to go to work again. The pharmacy was busy every morning, steaming and drying rehmannia root.

Yang Euijoo was sleep-deprived, and he would be dozing off sitting on the bed by the time Cheon Yeomyung came out of the shower. Then, he would barely open his eyes and disinfect the wound for the man whose hand was inconvenient. Cheon Yeomyung just smiled foolishly, even with the new scar on his palm that had once been pierced by a large nail.

Yang Euijoo poured disinfectant liberally on the wound that was still far from healing. Cheon Yeomyung said nothing, even looking at the scar that must be engraved on his soul. Only Yang Euijoo was anxious about the wound on his palm. He was scared, so he could not ask any more if he was sleeping well. But when he forced himself to get up to go to work at dawn, Cheon Yeomyung would also get up and whine about sleep like a child, which made him think that he was worrying for nothing.

“Do I really have to go out this early?”

“There are still three boxes of rehmannia root that haven’t been steamed yet.”

“That’s taking a really long time.”

The man, who did not even know that it had to be steamed and dried nine times, grumbled childishly. Yang Euijoo had decided to quit the pharmacy after he finished preparing all the rehmannia root. The couple understood him magnanimously, but as soon as Zhang Xuan heard the news, she got extremely sulky, and even the appeasement of going for dinner at a nice place did not work. She just burst into a flood of tears and then did not show her face at the pharmacy at all.

Naturally, Yang Euijoo considered appeasing Zhang Xuan more important than taking care of Cheon Yeomyung.

“No matter how long it takes, it will probably be finished faster than your wound heals.”

“Hmm.”

Cheon Yeomyung, seemingly having no intention of refuting that, simply wrapped a muffler around Yang Euijoo’s neck. Then, with eyes still puffy from lack of sleep, he slowly followed Yang Euijoo to the entrance to see him off. The medicine Cheon Yeomyung was taking had strong sedative properties, and no matter how strong and capable a man he was, he could not prevent his eyelids from getting heavy. Yang Euijoo had to leave for work each time, peeling off Cheon Yeomyung who seemed on the verge of falling back asleep at the entrance.

“See you in the evening.”

Cheon Yeomyung said with a yawn. He still had his arm in a black brace, and he waved goodbye lightly with only one hand. With his hair disheveled and his eyes closed, the man leaning against the front door and seeing him off like a child sometimes felt younger than Yang Euijoo. Yang Euijoo pushed his hands into the pockets of the coat that was much too big for him and quickly ran down the stairs.

It was a morning with nothing particularly special. As soon as Yang Euijoo arrived at work, he took out the rehmannia root that had been soaked in liquor overnight, put it in a steamer, adjusted the heat, and after checking if the rehmannia root that had been steamed and dried in a cool place yesterday was drying well, he cut it into appropriate sizes and stored it again in a woven bamboo container. That was all. By the time Yang Euijoo had cut and organized about two boxes of rehmannia root, the couple arrived at work.

“Did you do a lot?”

Zhang Jun asked, checking the rehmannia root box.

“About one box left……”

“When are you leaving the country?”

Yang Euijoo glanced at Zhang Jun and replied.

“In a week.”

“You’re leaving sooner than I thought. By plane?”

“By boat.”

“Huh? A boat is unexpected.”

Yang Euijoo shrugged at Zhang Jun, who looked puzzled as if he had naturally assumed he would be taking a plane. Yang Euijoo had thought so too, but Cheon Yeomyung’s wound was the problem. The frightening news that the stitched wound could reopen due to the air pressure on a plane had led to their return journey being by boat. So, he was finally going back on a boat, which he hated so much.

Yang Euijoo stopped his hands that were trimming the medicinal herbs and said.

“I know, it’s unexpected for me too.”

All of these decisions were still unexpected. It was not that he had not considered staying in Shanghai. He wanted to look for Mei if he had the chance, and since he had acquired a nationality, he even considered going to a completely different country to live. But in the end, his destination was Hong Kong. It was a strange feeling that that place, which was not even his hometown, had become the place he would return to.

“You have to have a meal with my daughter before you go!”

“……Alright.”

“How dare you make my daughter cry? You ungrateful brat.”

Zhang Jun, whose love for his daughter was extreme, grumbled as if he wanted him to hear. Yang Euijoo, a little worried about when Zhang Xuan would come around and have a meal with him, chopped the blackened, steamed rehmannia root into thumb-sized pieces.

After that, he sold some medicine and did some odd jobs for Zhang Jun before preparing to leave work. Yang Euijoo rubbed his tired eyes and got up. The door of the pharmacy, which had a sign hung up indicating it was closed, opened, spreading a tinkling bell sound.

“Yang-oppa.”

Zhang Xuan was hesitantly entering the pharmacy. Yang Euiju, who had been momentarily surprised and tense, relaxed his shoulders and reached out his hand towards Zhang Xuan.

“Xuan.”

“Oppa, can’t you not go?”

Yang Euijoo could not bring himself to say yes. Zhang Xuan, sensing from his silence that the oppa who had given her so much affection was really leaving, cried out loudly. Not knowing how to comfort a still young girl, Yang Euijoo was at a loss and flustered.

“Xuan, don’t cry. I’ll come again.”

“It’s my fault.”

Zhang Xuan cried with a sad face, stomping her feet.

“If I hadn’t taken you to that store, you wouldn’t have left Shanghai, oppa!”

“No, Xuan.”

Yang Euijoo comforted the incessantly crying Zhang Xuan. Lately, he had been in the difficult position of having to comfort people a lot, but it was not a bad feeling.

“Come to Hong Kong when you’re all grown up.”

He had a light faith that he would probably still be there by the time Xuan was all grown up and could freely visit Hong Kong. Zhang Xuan sniffled and, with her nose completely stuffy, replied in a foolish voice, “Okay.” Then, with tears streaming down her face, she said words laden with lingering attachment.

“Let’s have dinner together today.”

“Sounds good. Should we eat just the two of us?”

Watching Zhang Xuan nod her head repeatedly, Yang Euijoo felt proud on one hand and worried on the other. Cheon Yeomyung had said he would come to pick him up, and he was worried sick about what that ill-tempered and shameless man would say to needle him if he said he was having dinner with Zhang Xuan. But it was not right to leave without keeping a single dinner date promise to the girl who had mustered up the courage to come find him.

“Just a moment, I’ll change my clothes and just talk to him. Wait here.”

“Uh-huh.”

Zhang Xuan nodded, the tip of her nose red. Yang Euijoo, unable to even put on his coat and carrying it on his arm, quickly slipped out of the pharmacy through the back door. Cheon Yeomyung, who had been waiting for a while, took the cigarette out of his mouth and looked at Yang Euijoo.

“You’re here? Let’s g……”

“Go alone today.”

At the abrupt words, Cheon Yeomyung’s face hardened slightly. Before the man who had not shed his temper could start rambling, Yang Euijoo quickly spat out what he had to say.

“Zhang Xuan, you know Xuan, right? The pharmacy owner’s only daughter. A little fourteen-year-old lady. I promised to have dinner with Xuan, but because of some trash, I haven’t been able to keep it yet. So, I think I have to have dinner with Xuan alone today. You have some money, right? Lend me some yuan. I’ll pay you back someday. You should eat your own dinner. You’re old enough, you’re not unable to eat alone, are you? Then call Linlin and eat with her. I don’t think you’d have any strange thoughts about a girl who is less than half your age. Is there any problem? If you’re going to get angry, do it at home.”

Cheon Yeomyung, who had been watching Yang Euijoo speak rapidly without taking a breath, dropped the cigarette butt on the floor and laughed.

“I almost forgot that you, sir, are surprisingly talkative. No problem, I’m not angry, and I can eat just fine on my own. Take this money.”

Cheon Yeomyung readily offered his wallet to Yang Euijoo. He had an expression that said it would be no problem even if he gave him the whole wallet. Yang Euijoo, unlike himself who did not even have a wallet, carefully tucked Cheon Yeomyung’s wallet, which was stuffed with fat yuan bills, into his inner pocket.

“Where are you going to eat? I’ll wait nearby.”

“The steamed lotus root shop on Nanjing East Road……”

“Ah, there.”

Cheon Yeomyung nodded as if he knew where it was just from the description.

“I’ll be waiting nearby, so go eat with the little lady.”

“……What about you?”

“I’m going to eat the dumplings they sell at a street stall with the five yuan in my pocket.”

Cheon Yeomyung grinned and said he would eat cheap dumplings. He was like a mischievous boy. The man, with one arm still unusable and his black hair disheveled over his forehead, looked into Yang Euijoo’s eyes and made his own bright eyes shine.

“Have a good time.”

It was a strange feeling. Yang Euijoo went back to Zhang Xuan, who would be waiting for him, without saying much.

“Oppa!”

Zhang Xuan smiled brightly.

The little princess of the pharmacy, at a late hour when she was normally not allowed to go out, sat in a bustling restaurant on a fancy street, ate sweet steamed lotus root with sticky rice and osmanthus, and soft tofu egg soup, and wore a happy expression. She was still at an age where she could be happier than anyone else just by eating delicious food. The two of them even had dessert at the restaurant. Zhang Xuan ate the pudding and even the vanilla ice cream that Yang Euijoo had ordered, and then giggled cutely, expressing her satisfaction.

Since Zhang Jun had not yet left work because of the rehmannia root steaming, Yang Euijoo took Xuan back to the pharmacy. Zhang Xuan held Yang Euijoo’s hand tightly and then, standing in the alley where the pharmacy was, she wore an expression full of belated regret.

“It would be nice if you lived with us.”

“Xuan.”

“You’re going with that gentleman, right?”

I really shouldn’t have taken her to that store. In the end, Zhang Xuan burst into the tears she had been holding back again. He was trying to comfort the sniffling Xuan, who was still weighed down with regret even after eating a lot of delicious food, when the man who was the object of the little girl’s greatest hatred in the alleyway slowly walked over without any guilt.

“You made her cry? That oppa is a bad person.”

At the shameless and carefree voice that passed the blame onto him, Yang Euijoo was at a loss for words and glared at Cheon Yeomyung.

“Yang-oppa is not a bad person! The gentleman who is trying to take oppa away is the bad one.”

But Zhang Xuan quickly stopped crying and took Yang Euijoo’s side. Yang Euijoo looked at Zhang Xuan with a slightly touched feeling. No matter how he thought about it, Zhang Xuan was in many ways more mature than Cheon Yeomyung.

“Why did you come here? If it weren’t for you, sir, oppa would have continued to live with us.”

To the tearful Zhang Xuan, who was so sad that her oppa was leaving, Cheon Yeomyung smiled a very gentle and warm smile and whispered as if it were a secret.

“I came to court my first love.”

Zhang Xuan, who had been crying, opened her eyes wide. The teardrops collected on her damp eyes sparkled under the dark night sky.

“Uh……”

And then, Cheon Yeomyung quietly raised his index finger to his lips. As if it were a very secret and precious secret.

“I did something wrong, so I came all the way here to get him.”

At that quiet whisper, Zhang Xuan breathed heavily. Yang Euijoo, who was flushed red to his fingertips with bewilderment and embarrassment, finally came to his senses in a panic. He pushed Zhang Xuan towards her father as if shooing her away, then came back out, grabbed Cheon Yeomyung by the collar, and pressed him.

“Are you really crazy? What are you saying to a child?”

Cheon Yeomyung shrugged his shoulders very shamelessly, as if he did not know what he had done wrong.

“You said it, didn’t you? That I was probably your first love.”

“Shit, are you really out of your goddamn mind……”

“Is there anything wrong with what I said?”

According to his claim, damn it, Yang Euijoo is Cheon Yeomyung’s first love. Damn it all, if one were to accept Cheon Yeomyung’s argument, the chase all the way to Shanghai is part of his courtship.

If that’s the case?

What Cheon Yeomyung said to Zhang Xuan was not wrong. Moreover, the instigation had clearly come from Yang Euijoo. Yang Euijoo, at a loss for a rebuttal, shut his lips tight. In the dark alley, the man who had to empty out the coins from his pocket to settle for a dinner of five dumplings and trudge back, patted him on the shoulder with a very satisfied face.

“Do well.”

“Is that what you should be saying to me right now?”

“There’s no reason I shouldn’t.”

“Ah, yes……”

Yang Euijoo grumbled with a very insolent attitude. The furrowed brows and pouting cheeks were painfully familiar.

“I wonder how long you’re going to milk that whole first love thing.”

To Yang Euijoo’s sarcasm, Cheon Yeomyung held his hands, which were still a little frozen from the cold winter wind, and nonchalantly recited a decision he had made for his life.

“Probably forever?”

“……”

The word forever is not spoken easily. When Yang Euijoo was growing up on a ship as a child, even a sailor who had been on a ship for fifty years did not utter words like forever. Just like the sea’s weather which changes in an hour, in a life that is originally tumultuous, saying something like forever was a carefree bluff. But Cheon Yeomyung spoke the bluff as if it were a matter of course.

“I plan to woo you for a lifetime.”

“What about my feelings?”

“……I wanted to say they’re not important.”

The man put a cigarette in his mouth and let out a faint laugh.

“But I think they’ve become a little important now.”

He is always good with words. At the words of the man who seemed like he would never lose a verbal fight anywhere, Yang Euijoo 괜히 lowered his head and pretended to estimate the length of the long shadows. But he still felt embarrassed.

“Acting like they’re important, you can’t even ride a plane because of your wound. I’m so sick of boats now.”

He grumbled 괜히, but Cheon Yeomyung said one thing in a low voice.

“Sorry.”

“……”

This is the first time he had ever felt awkward receiving an apology. Yang Euijoo readjusted his grip on the man’s compliant hand, took the lead in holding it, and walked the slow path back. Walking side by side with Yang Euijoo, Cheon Yeomyung had a strange expression. Yang Euijoo glanced at him and 괜스레 added one more thing.

“We haven’t made up yet.”

“I know.”

“……”

“I’m just making a pass at you.”

Still.

The expression of the man confessing to making a pass was fresh and cool.

The winter in Shanghai, where the abnormal climate had visited, would soon end as if nothing had happened. And on the day the 3rd month begins, they will leave for Hong Kong. To the place where airplanes take off from low places and the abnormal streets of jumbled alleys exist together. And Yang Euijoo will clean the dust-covered chimney house and open the pharmacy’s door again.

Whether Cheon Yeomyung’s courtship would really last a lifetime was something he would have to wait and see.

But it seemed that they could at least be together until enough time had passed for him to be able to fall asleep without medicine.

By then, a day would come when even Cheon Yeomyung would say, just once, that he likes Christmas.

Guessing at the distant future, Yang Euijoo headed for the not-so-far-away home. For some reason, he had the illusion that it was snowing.

Snow that should not be falling.