Chapter 38: Some Family History
Oh Ryujin sat in front of the laptop with a serious expression. He was very much worried because... well... he had a writer’s block.
I’ve no inspiration at all.
Part of the reason, was that his muse had left that morning.
Cha Jihwan had left the penthouse that morning to resume his work at Millenium Corporation as Jang Song-rik’s secretary.
The decision was made after the awkward confession by Ryujin last night.
Jihwan declared that morning that he would like to leave as per the promise by Ryujin.
The novel remained untouched until the part Ryujin had written before Jihwan left and the cursor blinking in his face was driving him insane.
Few things brought Oh Ryujin... ah no... Yoon Sarang joy.
From childhood, Sarang had to share everything with her younger (asserted by dominant violence) twin brother.
Let’s call him Nitwit.
Nitwit was like a more premium version of Sarang in every aspect of life.
Like if she drew something, Nitwit would draw it 100x better and hog all the attention.
He didn’t seem particular interested or driven, he was just better at everything than Sarang.
And for a child who experienced each emotion very intensely, this drove quite a wedge between Sarang and Nitwit.
And then came their third birthday, when their father died in a car accident with a truck while bringing their cake to them.
The funeral was over in a daze. Sarang remembered crying a lot and being comforted by Nitwit.
He was pretty bad at it.
But after that, Sarang and Nitwit knew that they were all they had.
Their mother’s family forced her to remarry and she lost custody of the children to the paternal grandparents.
And that was the last of their mother they saw.
Sarang and Nitwit had never actually seen their grandparents much as their father hated their shamanic background and their grandfather was quite the Orthodox believer.
They were then raised back in the traditional house in the countryside by their grandparents.
While the grandpa was very strict and disciplining, the grandma was very sweet and warm.
From the age of four, Sarang and Nitwit saw them as their parents.
Their life in the countryside was quite peaceful and lovely.
Their grandpa would teach them about shaman rituals and rules that they must follow in the shrine.
They would learn to perform rites and learn the shamanic dances as there wasn’t really much to do in the countryside during vacations.
And as always, Nitwit was way better than her at those and this time, instead of infuriating her, it made her joyous as Nitwit would always get stuck assisting the grandpa during rituals because he was so good at it.
They grew up quite well.
But when they entered high school, their grandpa passed away.
Sarang remembered crying again. And Nitwit, well this time he took it quite hard. He was very close with their grandpa after all.
There was quite a while when Nitwit didn’t speak at all. Sarang was taking care of their grandma and just couldn’t comfort him as much.
And that was also when she found out that Nitwit was in love with a boy in his class.
The reason grandpa’s sudden death made him so was because it coincided with the time that boy moved away.
He suddenly lost two most important people in his life, so he was surely quite up in the doom zone.
Come to think of it, didn’t he meet that boy again later?
Oh Ryujin sighed as he looked the cursor blinking.
"This won’t do."
Ryujin declared.
Writing was our noona, Yoon Sarang’s only joy. And not being able to write now was very excruciatingly painful.
Just looking at Cha Jihwan was enough to fill his mind with ideas. (Lewd ideas, of course.)
But now the lack of a source of motivation was eating him up.
"Is this... a writer’s block?"
Ryujin finally made the shocking discovery.
Yeon Soohi had already had a pretty shitty day.
She saw the man she had a crush on with another person. Got into a brawl over and was dumped without even dating.
Then she headed over home only to find her mom worried because the person who pre-dumped her had called her mother to tell her that her brother had not come in to work at the bar.
Said brother was not at home.
This raised another number in Yeon Soohi’s list of shitty things that happened that day.
Calls were going through but not getting picked.
They decided to trust Yeon Doha and wait for him to answer... until 10 pm.
"Why is a sick person even out this late in the night?" Soohi asked her mother as they sat on the dining table in front of each other.
"You think something happened with Song-rikki?" The mother made a proposition.
"It can be possible but it’s highly likely because I can still feel oppa’s bubbly happy pheromones in a track from his room to the front door. He went out plenty happy."
"Maybe the reason he’s not answering then is .... THAT , right?"
"..."
"..."
"Yeah, you’re probably right. Oppa is probably having the time of his life with his boyfriend. Damn it!! I’m jealous."
And then Yeon Soohi’s phone rang.
It was the supposed son of the house who was out having fun with his boyfriend. Well, he did have fun, but right now.... was not the situation they were assuming it to be.
And that’s how, Soohi came to the graveyard to pick up her older brother who looked like he had seen a ghost.
After calming him down and getting seated in the cab, they start their way back home.
Yeon Doha noticed that the cab driver was the same, whom he had asked to drop him off at the graveyard.
What kind of sick coincidence is this?!
There was an awkward silence for a while, then Yeon Doha suddenly turned his head towards Soohi and asked.
"Hey, were you crying?"
"..."
Well, Yeon Soohi did cry. But the reason was something else than having her oppa gone missing.
"No, I didn’t."
"Well, if you say so."
"Did you have fun with Long-jik?"
"What?! Ahem! I mean yeah. Since we’re together and all, you know."
"... fuck."
Doha turned towards Soohi and looked at her face. She was pouting like a jealous child.
"Seriously, what’s the matter? Who made my sister cry like that?! I know you didn’t cry because I went mia for a few hours."
"I was worried about you, okay. But crying was... another thing."
"So tell me. What’s happening?"
"Oppa.... How do you hate someone you love?"
"Is this about Yohan?"
"HUHHHHH!!!??!"
Yeon Soohi was quite shocked at the sudden bullseye her brother had shot.
Since when did this doofus become so perceptive!?
She looked away in embarrassment at first. But a thirsty person longs for whatever that wets the tongue.
"Yeah... It’s about Yohan oppa. But how did you guess.... wait... did you know about Yohan oppa being a masochist?!"
*screeech!
The car suddenly skidded. Then it kept driving on smoothly.
This was also the moment, the siblings noticed that the driver was listening to their entire conversation from the start.
"I’m sorry. You can continue." The driver said pulling out a poker face.
Sorry, mister. But it’s too obvious that you are curious about what happened next!!!
The siblings thought in sync as the driver’s ears poked up with interest.
Doha decided it was pointless to worry about anything else when they won’t even see the man again after this.
"Well, of course I did. I’m his colleague and we work at an evening bar. We get hit on all the time. You think I wouldn’t notice his peculiar preferences? And..."
"And what?"
"And after he found out that I knew, he would just use me vent his frustrations whenever he met a real asshole while having a fling."
"..."
"And all the times he was over at our place to drink with me in my room, it was usually to drink away his breakup frustrations."
"That’s like every week, oppa."
"Yeah. Exactly."
"..."
"I know it might come off as rude but I never stopped you from going after Yohan because I knew he would never date you."
"..."
"You’re like... too pure for him."
"..."
"Yeon Soohi, say something."
"You know what, it didn’t hurt as much when Yohan oppa dumped me as it did right now when you basically called me a virgin."
"Well, aren’t you?"
"...."
"??"
"Fuck you, oppa."
"Say that to Han Yohan’s face and you might get a chance."
"I can never say that to him. And hey, answer my question."
"What question?"
"How do you hate someone you love?"
"Hmmm. Well, people hate loved ones all the time. It’s more like knowing what irks you about them. What about Yohan do you not like?"
"Yohan oppa is perfect. There’s nothing to hate about him."
"Then project your hate. Like how I hate it when Song-rik hyung avoids me without any explanation. I hate the act. So I project that hatred onto him. And that’s how get my fill of teasing him to tears."
"You didn’t have to share that, oppa."
"So, think, what does Han Yohan do, that you absolutely hate?"
Yeon Soohi wondered about the answer to that question the entire way back to home.
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