Struggle Chapter 129

“Your uncle has no reason at all to be uncomfortable with you. He really cares about you, and…”

The sun was setting. Lee Nanyoung, to avoid him again today, would already have finished dinner early and shut himself in his room, or be at the study room.

“He likes you.”

Taerok decides to give Nanyoung a little room to breathe. Because right now, Lee Taerok wasn’t trying to make Nanyoung unable to breathe.

Then what is it that he wants to do?

It put his own advice to shame—having told Nanyoung that kids his age lacked self-control and to be careful of the one who confessed—Taerok, too, was acting impatient.

Before he had even gotten an answer, Taerok was sending a message to Nanyoung.

Dad’s Younger Brother

I’ll be busy for a few days, so I’ll be coming in late. Make sure to take care of your meals on your own.

∞ ∞ ∞

The day before the college entrance exam.

Nanyoung, following the daily routine he had set, came to the kitchen around 9:50 PM to take his nighttime supplements in order to sleep by 10:00. However, his gaze was directed toward the firmly closed-off area that was Taerok’s domain.

Taerok, who had said he’d be busy and coming in late for a few days, had been late from that day right up to today. Not just a little late—it seemed he wasn’t coming in until around midnight. Didn’t he get tired? Wasn’t his health suffering?

No, does he even know that my exam is tomorrow?

“…It’s not something he needs to know anyway.”

Nanyoung admitted it sullenly.

They were too distant to call themselves family living under one roof. They were uncle and nephew, but at the same time, they were strangers. Before September, had Lee Taerok ever had any interest in him?

“Wow. I really must have a full stomach…. To be thinking these kinds of thoughts right before the exam.”

Shaking his head wildly, Nanyoung put his water cup in the sink and slowly moved his feet.

Just then, the sound of the front door opening was heard. At the sound that echoed emptily through the large house, Nanyoung froze on the spot like a startled water deer.

Naturally, there was only one person it could be. It was as if he could see him, even without seeing him—taking off his shoes, putting on his slippers, stepping slowly, and brushing back his hair. And once he turned down the hallway… his eyes would meet mine, standing here….

“What’s this.”

They would run into each other like this.

“You weren’t sleeping?”

Taerok pushed back his hair. In his hand was a small shopping bag. It was from a confectionery famous for its chocolates—the kind Nanyoung loved, but only bought occasionally because they were so expensive.

While Nanyoung peeled and ate the chocolates, Taerok washed up and came out. Nanyoung killed time nibbling little by little at each piece. He needed to sleep early, but it didn’t look like sleep would come.

Having washed up, Taerok didn’t go straight to his room but instead took a seat across from him. Nanyoung sensed the scent wafting from him before his appearance. Having seated himself in front of Nanyoung, Taerok divided the chocolate, wrapper and all, and offered a calm bit of encouragement.

“Tomorrow, just do as you’ve been doing and come back.”

“…”

“I’ll come pick you up when it’s over.”

“You don’t have to. It’ll be crowded out front.”

“So, you have no family in Korea, and you’d come out after finishing on your own? Won’t you be a little lonely?”

“You coming as family… it’s unlike you and it’s awkward.”

Taerok rubbed his face and then chuckled.

“I didn’t say I was coming as family.”

“…”

“We should eat something good. After all your years of hard work.”

Had he worked hard? Truthfully, Nanyoung liked studying. It seemed to suit his aptitude.

“What do you want to eat tomorrow?”

It seemed he really did intend to have dinner together. Nanyoung found himself already waiting for the exam to be over. More intensely than before.

Behind Taerok, who had gotten up from his seat and was preparing something, Nanyoung murmured.

“Risotto… with egg.”

“Risotto with egg?”

“You made it for me at my elementary school graduation.”

“I did?”

“Yes. I thought back then… you’re good at cooking, too.”

What Taerok remembered from that time was nothing but taking the photo. Nanyoung was recalling, one by one, things that Taerok himself didn’t even remember. It felt a bit different from simply saying that because they had met so few times, there were few memories to recall. It felt a bit different.

Taerok, whose hands had paused momentarily, finished what he was doing. He poured warmed milk with a spoonful of sugar into a cup and held it out to Nanyoung.

“Don’t lose sleep over me, and get a good night’s rest again today.”

“…”

Knowing full well that he is thinking of him enough to lose sleep….

Nanyoung resented Taerok, and disliked him, and yet at the same time, he liked him.

At the graduation, he had thought his uncle was handsome, tall, and cool, and that he was good at cooking, too. He kept ruminating on that image, over and over. Because he wanted to grow up to be that kind of person. Because he wanted to become that kind of person.

Now, with adulthood just ahead, he had regrettably not grown up to be like Taerok. Compared in absolute terms, he wouldn’t even reach his feet. The two of them were far too different in nature, different in appearance, and perhaps even had many points where their personalities could clash.

And yet, instead of being disappointed and letting go of those feelings, they were, on the contrary, flowing in a different direction.

“If you do well on the exam, I’ll make you something delicious, so make sure you can go to a school near here. Even if it’s not near, just stay here.”

Taerok is a wicked wind pushing at his heart.

∞ ∞ ∞

On the day of the college entrance exam, a cold wave warning is invariably issued. This year was the same.

Nanyoung puffed out white breaths as he slowly climbed the uphill road to the designated school. He could hear cheers from all around, but it felt like someone else’s business. Even though it was more his own business than anyone else’s.

As he sat in his seat and organized his thoughts, Nanyoung was back in this morning.

Taerok, who he had thought would have left for work, had been home. He had held out a high-quality lunch box, saying he had bought it. Wearing comfortable clothes with his hair down, Taerok was unfamiliar, yet he couldn’t take his eyes off him.

‘I’ll give you a ride.’

Picking up a car key, Taerok ushered Nanyoung out ahead of him.

The entire car ride was warm, but Taerok said nothing in particular. He didn’t say the usual things like “do well” or “don’t be nervous,” but to Nanyoung, that was actually more comfortable.

‘Let’s see each other when it’s over.’

Catching Nanyoung as he got out, thanking him for the ride, Taerok barely managed that one sentence. Without any burdensome words, just “let’s see each other when it’s over”—carried lightly by that, Nanyoung had floated all the way here.

“Let’s do well.”

He murmured. Because there was something waiting for him at the end.

∞ ∞ ∞

Today, Taerok checked the time unusually often. Seeing him check the clock yet again, Mr. Kim Saon, who had come to have lunch together, finally asked, “Do you have some kind of appointment?”

“Today’s my nephew’s college entrance exam day.”

“Ah, that cute nephew?”

“It seems he looked cute in your eyes too.”

“He’s got a pretty face. Unusually for kids these days, he has a clean look. Is he a bit stubborn?”

“Yeah. He’s got an old-man-child side to him, too. He’s rigid.”

“He looked that way when I saw him arguing with you before. But isn’t that just like you?”

Mr. Kim Saon chuckled.

“The rigid part is different from you, but the stubborn part is exactly you.”

“Hyung is plenty stubborn, too. It runs in the family.”

“He was cute. Once he goes to college, he’ll be really popular.”

“He seems popular enough already. I heard he got confessed to right before the exam.”

And by a guy at that.

Taerok could guarantee that after the exam, the number of people confessing to Nanyoung would only increase. In the time after the exam, when excitement and elation coexist, there would be immature kids who would act, thinking they might never see him again after graduation. So how would Lee Nanyoung answer?

It wouldn’t just be now; it would be even worse after he became an adult. Lee Nanyoung’s clean aura and rigid side would draw as much dislike as it drew attention, but it would also just as surely draw people’s hearts.

A wider world was waiting.

Taerok crossed his legs.

“I’m not that broad-minded a person.”

“Huh?”

“No. I was just wondering if the reason I’ve lived well up to now, without doing drugs or committing crimes, was all for the sake of pulling this kind of thing.”

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

“It’s just, that kind of thing.”

Taerok checked the time again.

Lunchtime was nearly over.

∞ ∞ ∞

Because Nanyoung took the second foreign language exam as well, he came out of the testing site much later than the others. The sun was already setting outside. It was clearly going to grow dark in an instant. The school grounds were quiet, and a few others who, like Nanyoung, had taken the second foreign language test were running down the slope that had been an uphill road in the morning, their faces either gloomy or joyful.

Nanyoung’s expression was complex and subtle. Excitement and tension coexisted. Had anyone seen him, they would have thought he was someone heading in to take the exam, not someone who had just finished.