Knowing Brother-Chapter 30

That night, Won Daeyoung got scolded. It happened after the iron gate was slammed open and shut so violently that it shook the house. The sound of an adult man's shoes clanging against the stairs came in a disjointed rhythm.

Who is it?

After that, it felt as if a meteor had fallen, or that an earthquake had occurred.

Thud. Thud. Bang... Thunk. Loud noises kept erupting. Even though the neighbors could hear it, the neighborhood was eerily quiet. Seolwoo thought it must be the sound of Daeyoung getting beaten by his father.

He had grabbed the home phone, thinking about calling the police, but he dozed off.

However, after a short while, after Mrs. Choi came back from work, the gate creaked open again. The sound of the door opening and closing gently was Daeyoung.

That meant Daeyoung wasn’t home earlier. So, who had been scolded, and who had done the scolding? Could it be that the elegant lady, always in stylish clothes, had hit her well-behaved son?

There were so many things to be curious about.

For a few days, the noise didn’t happen again. Seolwoo thought maybe the diligent and studious Won Daehyun had been exercising at home, and he forgot about the sound of the footsteps thudding on the floor.

When he forgot about that noise and about Daeyoung’s disregard for him, Seolwoo was on his way to the local bookstore to buy some study materials.

The gate was wide open. Before he could even lift his head to check, he made eye contact with a man sitting on the stairs.

He had never seen the man before. Before Seolwoo could even begin to guess his age or identity, he froze upon seeing the man’s eyes. The man’s eyes were yellow. The whites of his eyes were yellow. If there were actually monsters created like Frankenstein, this is probably what they’d look like.

The yellow eyes climbed up from Seolwoo’s bare legs, still in shorts. Seolwoo quickly calculated the distance from the front door to the yard. There was no door lock on his house’s door. While unlocking the padlock, he thought the man might grab him. His heart raced and his legs shook with fear.

The moment the yellow pupils reached his face, Seolwoo acted swiftly. He turned and bolted toward the alley. His arms and legs trembled violently as he ran for his life.

He tripped and fell heavily in the middle of the road. He didn’t have time to worry about his knees. Without looking back, Seolwoo ran to the main road and spotted Daeyoung, who was walking across the street, and yelled at him.

Daeyoung crossed the street against the light, running toward him.

“There’s a strange man at my house! He’s weird, his eyes are yellow! He’s really strange, he only stared at my legs!”

Daeyoung didn’t ask questions or probe further. He quickly hid Seolwoo behind a car illegally parked in the alley near their house, then entered the house. The open gate felt ominous. It seemed like those yellow eyes, which had been lurking somewhere, might suddenly appear behind him.

Then, Daeyoung’s voice echoed from the yard.

“Get out.”

The dangerous man must have been underestimating Seolwoo, continuing to sit on the stairs. But this, in itself, was still dangerous. Daeyoung could also be in danger!

Seolwoo rushed to the public phone. He dialed 112 and anxiously scanned the surroundings. As he was explaining to the police about the intruder, he saw Daeyoung running from a distance.

“What are you doing?! Don’t call, stop it.”

Daeyoung reached him at a terrifying speed, snatched the phone from his hand, and abruptly hung up.

“No, it was a misunderstanding. Not a report, sorry.”

“Why?”

Seolwoo was confused. When he protested loudly, Daeyoung replied with a look of irritation.

“Ugh... That bastard from the second floor gave sperm to that woman.”

It took Seolwoo a /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ moment to understand. It wasn’t so bad that Daeyoung mentioned the woman on the second floor, but when he talked about sperm, Seolwoo furrowed his brows.

“What? Dad, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying it the way I want to.”

This meant that Daeyoung didn’t want to mention the words “mother” and “father.”

He couldn’t bring himself to ask, "Why are your eyes yellow?"

And that night, it was as if a meteor fell in the second-floor house.

“You married me with the intention of inheriting my wealth, didn’t you? You wouldn’t have even looked at me if it wasn’t for the inheritance! Tell me! After seducing me and having two kids, who did you sleep with? Who is it?!”

The elderly voice Seolwoo heard for the first time was certainly the man with the yellow eyes. That night, Daeyoung opened the iron gate. There was a creaking sound as the door slammed shut. Daeyoung quietly dragged his shoes.

The sound of slow footsteps ascending the stairs could be heard. Meanwhile, the second floor was in chaos with screams, pounding footsteps, and the sounds of glass and dishes breaking.

“What did I say would happen if you showed your face to me again, you bastard?!”

Daeyoung’s voice was filled with rage. His low, menacing voice reverberated, vibrating through the floor where Seolwoo lay.

“You think you can’t do anything? Don’t drink so much and stop acting like you’re tough. Look at your yellow eyes.”

The loud crashing of glass and pottery echoed, mixed with Daeyoung’s curses. The pounding footsteps continued for several more moments, until, suddenly, everything became eerily silent.

The cold sweat drenched Seolwoo’s body, making the ground beneath him feel wet with fear. As he reached for the house phone to call the police, Daeyoung came down the stairs.

The sound of the door slamming shut as he left was completely different from usual. It sounded like an enraged bull. Seolwoo couldn’t sleep, worrying about where Daeyoung would spend the night. Would he go to the room where his friends gather, or would he wander the streets and appear again with a crutch?

When Mrs. Choi fell asleep, Seolwoo took the opportunity to dial Daeyoung’s phone number. Daeyoung, knowing it was Seolwoo calling, answered the phone in a way that only he could recognize.

“Hey, Seolwoo. Go to sleep. Why are you calling?”

Once he confirmed it was quiet on the other end, Seolwoo felt relieved.

“I called by mistake. I was collecting game coins.”

“Is that so?”

“....”

“...”

“Uhm...”

“Go to sleep, Seolwoo. I have to hang up.”

“...Are you coming home?”

Instead of asking "When are you coming home?" or "Are you coming home today?", the simple "Are you coming home?" was asked. Despite the odd question, Daeyoung kindly responded.

“I’ll come if you sleep well and do your homeschooling like usual. Hang up.” freewebnoveℓ.com

“Don’t you hurt?”

“Why would I be hurt?”

“Really? Are you really not hurt? If you are, I’ll come see you now.”

Daeyoung was silent for a moment. The silence that passed through the early dawn made Seolwoo anxious.

Still, Seolwoo could sense that he wasn’t annoyed. The conversation, which lasted without a single word, was already approaching the third minute. Seolwoo would remember that call for a long time. The silent conversation they had that day felt like a truly special experience.

Some people, he realized, could communicate without words. He thought that such a person must be a rare, extraordinary presence in one’s life.

Daeyoung’s breathing gradually calmed. After a long while, he finally spoke and hung up the phone.

“Thanks.”

Why didn’t he report it to the police?

Seolwoo had thought about reporting it instead, but felt it might be better not to, considering Daeyoung had decided not to do it. He also remembered the police officers who had tried to persuade the young Seolwoo to go home, despite being in such a difficult situation.

The next late afternoon, Daeyoung opened the iron gate again. When Seolwoo heard the familiar footsteps, he was already holding the gate handle. Daeyoung ran out to the yard and playfully shoved Seolwoo around.

Thank goodness. Daeyoung had come home. It seemed like the man had left while Seolwoo was sleeping. Seolwoo couldn’t hide his joy, feeling like everything had been resolved.

“...Seolwoo.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve never seen you smile so wide.”

Daeyoung’s warm gaze touched every part of Seolwoo’s face. Daeyoung smiled lazily.

“You look good.”

Even at his young age, Seolwoo occasionally felt uncomfortable with his smile. It was a dry smile that seemed to make his heart uneasy, hitting deep in Seolwoo’s chest. Daeyoung was the person who required the most complicated interpretation of any adult Seolwoo had met.

“Hyung. Did you win against that man yesterday?”

He had a habit of not answering affirmatively. Daeyoung, who swallowed his response, crouched down under a withered magnolia tree.

“They say children who grow up seeing domestic violence are more likely to repeat the same behavior when they grow up. Even if you grow up like that, would you still hang out with me?”

Seolwoo desperately tried to convince him, fearing that Daeyoung might leave home to escape learning the violent habits of that man.

“No. Hyung won’t be like that. They say it’s a high probability, but it’s not 100 percent.”

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t look like a criminal. You look normal, and also, you’re good at track.”

Until last year, Daeyoung was part of the track team at Hyungil Middle School. He had been picked as a representative of the school when he was in elementary school and went to the Seoul Youth Athletic Championships, where he was recruited by a coach and entered Hyungil Middle School.

“Track...”

Daeyoung scoffed weakly. Seolwoo felt that their conversation wasn’t matching, so he asked seriously.

“Why did you quit running?”

“It was boring.”

“Boring? Why does it have to be fun?”

“You’re talking nonsense today, Seolwoo.”

“You just do things. After doing it, it gets fun. I don’t want to do homeschooling every day either, but I do it anyway. It’s not about having fun. Not everything can be fun. Out of the millions of species on Earth, humans are the only ones who live to have fun.”

Daeyoung, who had been resting his chin, watched Seolwoo for a long time before saying lazily.

“You. Why are you studying so hard on your own?”

“Well, I have no one to give my knowledge to.”

“That’s not it. You have to take medicine all your life, watch out for the sun, stress, low blood sugar, blood pressure, and live like a fugitive. Honestly, it’s all shitty.”

You’re the one whose life is shitty. That’s what it meant. If this had been last week, Seolwoo would’ve gotten angry at those words. But today, it was different. He wanted to hold on to Daeyoung.

“Just make money. Money can solve everything.”

Daeyoung laughed again, and that laugh made Seolwoo feel uncomfortable, digging deep into his heart. Seolwoo felt like he was about to burst into hiccups as he rambled on.

“I’m going to make a lot of money. In our country, to make a lot of money, you have to go to SKY.”

That day, Seolwoo realized Daeyoung was acting strange. Maybe he spoke more than usual because he had sensed that something was off. That’s probably why he didn’t push Daeyoung to the second floor and instead talked excitedly.