Chapter 119 – Lee Junseo (Son) – Commotion Always Comes Suddenly (8)
It was awkward at first.
Me, laughing heartily while having a drink from the afternoon.
And then, my younger brother barging in with a kitchen knife.
“Give me Narin-noona!!! Now!!! Before I kill you all!!!”
Those words were enough to turn my face, which had been beaming with the thought of welcoming my brother, into stone. I had no idea why he was wielding a kitchen knife, and both my subordinates and I were so dumbfounded that we didn’t know how to react. But the moment my brother’s gaze landed on Yoo Narin, who was sitting in front of me, the serious atmosphere was shattered.
“W-what the heck?! In front of the young master… are you, are you crazy?!”
“Noona! You’re okay! You weren’t hurt?!”
“Hurt? Uh, who? Me?”
“You were kidnapped!”
“Who said that?! You’re the kidnapper!”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
““Huh?””
Conflicting gazes. The atmosphere deflating. It felt like some kind of skit, but I didn’t want to break the mood, so I quietly took a sip of my drink. The sound of the bald guy at the counter scrubbing dishes, echoing throughout the coffee shop, seemed to express the awkwardness of the moment.
“Hyung?”
“Yeah, little brother.”
“……………”
Unlike me, who had become relaxed after a drink, my brother awkwardly averted his gaze. He had thrown the kitchen knife on the floor and raised both hands in a surrender. My subordinates and the bald guy blinked, as if wondering what to do with this idiot.
Ah, this is a bit much.
I realized why he was acting like this from his previous words…
If I want to break this atmosphere, I guess I have to open my mouth.
“Junhyuk, was it? If you have nothing to say, let me ask you one thing before we start.”
“W-what is it?”
“It’s nothing big.”
I gestured to Moon-young with my eyes and then motioned towards Junhyuk with my chin. She slowly grabbed my brother’s wrist and guided him to the seat in front of me. My brother didn’t seem to resist and came quietly, looking at me awkwardly.
“Let me ask you just one thing. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. Whether you’re my brother or not depends on your answer, but I promise I won’t harm you.”
“What is it that’s so important?”
“What do you think of a bastard named Lee Moon-san?”
“Ah…”
My sudden question made everyone else open their mouths and echo “Ah.” Especially the bald guy, who had been quiet until now, dropped the dish he was holding with a crash and stared at us. He was still wearing sunglasses, so I couldn’t see his eyes, but he was clearly bewildered, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Can I just be honest?”
“Sure.”
“It might be unpleasant for you to hear, hyung?”
“Just say it.”
“I think he’s a total piece of shit.”
The atmosphere froze again at those words. No one intervened except for the bald guy, who smacked his own forehead. On the other hand, I couldn’t help but smile, forgetting my poker face.
“That guy, he not only abandoned our mother and was always wandering around, but he didn’t even care about me. On the day our mother died, he didn’t even show his face, and I felt like my eyes were going to pop out, but they said he was already dead? I really… And when I heard that I had a brother I didn’t know about, I was like, what the heck… I’m still dazed…?”
“You’re my brother from today.”
“Huh?”
I cut him off and declared it out of the blue. I didn’t care if the others were awkward at my sudden words. I didn’t care if Yoo Narin was gaping beside me. A brother with whom I could share this shittiness was like a one-of-a-kind jewel, not just a brother.
“Wait, can you just decide that? Do you even know who I am?”
“I don’t know who you are, but you just cursed the trash that came from our family, isn’t that enough?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I hadn’t done a test, but that alone was enough to prove that this guy was my brother. To think he had sown his seed in another family and didn’t act like a father there either. The thought that I might have more siblings I didn’t know about made my head spin.
“I heard that you, hyung… were living well with other noonas, thanks to the woman our father saved…?”
“I’ll tell you what that crazy bastard did to our family, so come with me quietly! Hey, hey, hey, Moon-young! Did you hear me?!”
“Yes!”
“Prepare the car, we’re going to the place we went to last time with my brother!”
“Uhm, young master!”
“What?”
“Is it okay to just decide like this? It’s not certain that he’s your brother… Wouldn’t it be better to take some more time to confirm it for sure…?”
“We can confirm the blood relation later with a DNA test or something.”
“That’s true, but…”
I know better than anyone that I’m being reckless. I’m also aware that someone might be trying to trick me on purpose. But even considering that, I couldn’t hide my joy.
“That noona is right. What if I’m not your brother? Or, is my hyung always like this? You seem different from the last time I saw you?”
“Bring the goods too! Isn’t today a joyous day! Let’s party! Let’s party! Hahahaha!”
“You shouldn’t have let him drink…”
I stood up abruptly and grabbed my younger brother Lee Junhyuk’s shoulder, pulling him up. Yoo Narin still looked like she didn’t understand the situation, but she got up from her seat anyway. I was tipsy, and I acted more lively than usual, as if erasing my younger brother’s embarrassing past. I might be a little embarrassed later, but considering my brother barged in with a kitchen knife, it wouldn’t be that bad.
“Hyung?”
“What now? I’m your hyung, you idiot.”
“No, it’s not that. Is it really okay to just decide like this? Really?”
“If it’s not, it’s not.”
We stood side by side. I was taller and older. Seeing this, Bokryong’s subordinates took pictures, saying we looked exactly alike. The bald guy told them to stop, saying it was rude, but I was okay with it, so I let them be. I had the first picture of me and my brother sent to my phone and looked at it closely.
What should I say, uh, um.
It’s not a bad feeling.
I heard that siblings usually fight a lot, but are we a bit different because we’re unique?
My brother seemed to feel the same way, smiling awkwardly.
After that, we moved to another place in the car that Moon-young had prepared. Inside the car, I heard about my younger brother’s home, what he had been eating, and how he had been living. Unlike me, he seemed to have a lot of female friends, and he told me everything from how he had been hanging out with his friends until just now to the companies that had contacted him. I thought he would hide that part, but he answered every question I asked, which was unexpected and made me realize that he didn’t have any ill intentions towards me.
Usually, you know?
I lost my mother and lived without a family, so why is my hyung living so well…
Wouldn’t it be normal to receive such dramatic resentment?
“But still, dramas are dramas. I wasn’t raised without love from my mother.”
“That’s different from me.”
“You didn’t have a good relationship with your mother, hyung?”
“I don’t contact her even now. I used to sometimes, but now I doubt she’s even alive. Looking at her, it wouldn’t be strange if she was found dead somewhere.”
I never cared about her in the first place, so I’ve been treating her like she doesn’t exist, but maybe because that’s different from me, he doesn’t seem to be twisted. However, he seems to have some kind of affection deficiency like me, and he seems to be slightly obsessed with Yoo Narin. Even in the car, he was glancing at Yoo Narin, and since he just became a high schooler, I guess he’s at the age where he’s aware of the opposite sex.
‘He’s looking at Yoo Narin more than his brother, whom he just met for the first time…’
His gaze was so blatant that even Heo Cho-yeon, who was in the car with us, frowned. I thought about setting them up, but I also haven’t been in this life for long since I lost my virginity, and it’s just as awkward for me with my brother, whom I just met. I’m not in a position to show off to anyone, but it’s in the nature of men to want to feel superior or help with such trivial things, so my mouth was itching.
“Young master, I’m saying this again, but don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“I know.”
“I’m telling you because you don’t know. It’s okay to talk and enjoy yourself at the shop, but your brother can’t touch the goods. Once the blood relation is confirmed, I’ll treat him accordingly, so please be patient today. You too, understand?”
“Yes, I understand.”
“So picky…”
Moon-young glared at me and my brother. Her reaction was unusual, and it made my crotch tingle. She was putting the brakes on me, meaning, “I know you’re happy to have a brother, but you might get backstabbed.”
‘Ah, that’s that, and this is this.’
While Moon-young was still suspicious of Junhyuk, I sent the picture I had just taken to my sisters, including Yeo-won’s mother. Without any explanation, I sent a message saying, “I think I’ll be late today for this reason,” and my phone started ringing loudly.
‘I’ll have a lot to talk about when I get back.’
The sudden appearance of my brother. I knew it was a sign that my life would become noisy again, but I tried to ignore it. I kept chatting with my brother about everyday things in the car and getting scolded by Moon-young, trying to pretend I didn’t know, but the sobriety that had flown away whispered to me in my right mind.
‘But… why would a place famous for advocating women’s rights… have my younger brother…’
The story about the conglomerate that protected Junseo was irrelevant. I knew that those people were protecting Junhyuk, telling him about the village, and supporting him. But then, one name that suddenly popped up bothered me.
A women’s rights center? That’s the last place that should be related to our village.
Why is that suddenly popping up…
“Hey, you bald guy. What do you think about what we just talked about?”
“Hmm, the former is a place that is closely related to our village, but I don’t know about the latter. At least as far as I know, that family has no reason to be at odds with the young master. The old man who is the head now has a gentle personality and thought well of the young master. At least until the last time I met him. He’s in the shipping business, so he’s closely related to us, and I don’t think I misjudged him.”
“Junhyuk, what did those people say to you?”
“The president of that shipping conglomerate… well, the wife of Grandpa Kim Yong-shin…”
“How did you meet her?”
“When I went to the company last time… I was hanging out with Grandpa Yong-shin, eating sashimi, and he happened to introduce me to his wife… I thought she was an old woman, but she was a young woman…”
“That wife is from the women’s rights center?”
“She’s the director.”
“Come to think of it, I did hear that he recently remarried a young woman. He’s not the type of old man to do that, so something’s strange. And a young director of a women’s rights center and our village? Isn’t that a very unpleasant combination?”
“It’s beyond an unpleasant combination, it’s like a bomb with a lit fuse stuck to a powder keg.”
“That’s right. These days, there’s a lot of talk about that kind of thing. I can’t help but suspect it’s intentional.”
Something, that.
Isn’t that, like, really weird?
It’s a dangerous combination to anyone…
It was too obvious that the story was going in a strange direction…
