Beggar Bastard (2)
From the very beginning, Sihyun had never hated being called pretty all that much.
No—if anything, he might have even liked it.
Back in elementary school.
"Kim Sihyun, get lost! Go play with the girls over there!"
"Heh, yeah. You're a girl too, aren't you?"
Even when the boys his age teased him for looking like a girl and shut him out—
It was fine.
"Come on, Sihyun. Don't hang around with those losers. Come play with me!"
Because that girl, Lee Suhyeon, was there.
"Wow, Sihyun, you're so pretty!"
Those words felt good to hear.
They sounded completely different from the fussy compliments his mother and the neighborhood aunties always piled on him.
He used to scowl and tell those people he didn't want to hear it.
But with Suhyeon—
"Ugh... don't say that."
His face would flush, and he couldn't even manage a proper protest.
And after the "pretty" came the words he had always hated most.
"Kyaa! Sihyun's so cute!"
Even those somehow made his chest tingle in a way that felt very, very good.
It was probably first love.
They stuck together at school like a pair of inseparable friends.
Suhyeon herself was quite a pretty girl, so of course Sihyun ended up drawing every bit of jealousy the other boys his age could muster.
"Hey, Kim Sihyun! Stop hanging out with Lee Suhyeon!"
"Looks like a girl and only plays with real girls!"
As if they hadn't been the ones inviting him to play in the first place.
Their shameless turnaround left Sihyun speechless.
And it wasn't just him they picked on.
"Stop it!!"
"'Stop it~' Heh!"
"Pfft, I don't wanna~"
"S-Sihyun—!"
They went after her, too.
So Sihyun taught them a lesson on the spot.
His face might have been delicate and his frame slight, but he had inherited more than just his mother's looks—her physical ability, too.
"Ow! Cut it out!"
"We're sorry, we were wrong!"
No matter how many of them there were, he had no trouble thrashing every kid who had laid a hand on Suhyeon.
And then—
It was only a kids' fight in the end, but—
"Wow, Sihyun! You're so cool!"
He got to hear the words he wanted most from Suhyeon's mouth. If anything, he was grateful to the brats who picked the fights.
Time passed—
Sihyun and Suhyeon entered the same middle school.
Classes were split by gender, so they couldn't stick together the way they had in elementary school, but the two of them still spent every free moment side by side.
Every day spent with Suhyeon made Sihyun happy.
There was just one problem.
Even after he hit his growth spurt, Sihyun's height barely budged.
He had wanted to overtake Suhyeon; instead he was at risk of falling even further behind.
This can't go on!
At this rate he wouldn't be able to protect her properly.
Day by day she only grew prettier, and more popular.
So Sihyun joined the school Taekwondo club.
It was the sport his mother had been good at—no, better at than anyone—so he picked it up without much trouble. Fun came easily, and before he knew it he was sinking deeper and deeper into the practice.
Which meant, naturally, that the time he and Suhyeon spent together had to shrink.
One day, fed up with that, Suhyeon grabbed him and demanded an answer.
"Hey, Kim Sihyun!"
"Is that damn Taekwondo more important than me!?"
"N-No! Of course not!"
"Hmph!"
"I-I'm sorry... What do I have to do to make you stop being mad?"
Watching him flounder, Suhyeon pretended to relent and gave a little snort of laughter.
"Well then~"
"Yeah?"
"This time I really want to come over to your house!"
"Huh?"
Sihyun couldn't help but freeze.
Even as kids, he had only needed one look at the clothes Suhyeon wore to understand.
The world she lived in and the world he lived in were completely different.
A brand-new pretty outfit every single day, the school supplies she carried—everything about them was different.
Young as he was, Sihyun knew his mother worked herself to the bone alone, so he never really resented how poor they were.
But that didn't mean he could stand tall about it either. Every time Suhyeon said she wanted to visit, he had always found one excuse or another and dodged.
He meant to do the same this time, too—
"If you say no again, I'm really going to get mad!"
The thought of her sulking hard if he refused again made him give in.
"F-Fine..."
Sihyun could only nod reluctantly.
And that choice was one he would come to regret for a long, long time.
"Oh, it is you!"
At the sound of Suhyeon's voice recognizing him, Sihyun squeezed his eyes shut.
He had never once expected they would run into each other again.
Not only the café he worked at, but the whole neighborhood he lived in, was far enough away that he had believed there was zero chance of any overlap with her world.
"Suhyeon, you know this guy?"
One of the friends standing beside her asked, puzzled.
Suhyeon flashed a wide grin.
"Yeah, I know him real well~ This is..."
Her gaze raked him up and down, thick with contempt, and she spat the words out.
"...a beggar bastard."
"What—?"
The friends around her reacted as if they must have misheard.
Suhyeon snorted a laugh at them and said it again.
"What do you mean, 'what'? I said beggar bastard."
"Pwahaha! That's way too harsh!"
Her friends clutched their stomachs and howled with laughter.
The worst possible reunion, the naked insult—Sihyun's insides twisted.
But he didn't let it show on his face.
Slowly he opened his eyes again.
"What can I get for you today, customers?"
He kept every emotion locked down and spoke in a flat, professional tone.
Those empty eyes looked as if they held nothing at all—not a single feeling.
As if even his first love from long ago, even every fluttering memory he had shared with Suhyeon, had already been wiped clean.
At the sight of him, Suhyeon's brow furrowed.
"...You were always like that."
She muttered it so low no one else could hear.
The friend next to her tilted her head.
"Hm? Suhyeon, what'd you say?"
"Nothing."
She shook her head at the question, then fixed her eyes on Sihyun again.
"You said order, right?"
The tone was pure mockery.
"Yes. What would you like to order?"
Sihyun answered the same professional way.
Not a flicker of recognition. As if they were nothing more than customer and server.
"..."
Suhyeon stared at him with an expression of pure disbelief, then leaned deliberately against the counter like she was baiting him.
"What should I get~"
"I really can't decide~ Mind recommending something?"
Then she added with a sweet little smile—
"Oh, wait—you're just a beggar bastard who only knows how to work, so you probably don't know anything about coffee, huh?"
"Pffft! Lee Suhyeon, you are so mean!"
"Hey, cut it out! You're gonna get reported for customer abuse! Heh!"
The friends around her broke into loud giggles again.
But—
"..."
No matter how hard she provoked him or clawed at him, Sihyun didn't so much as twitch. He simply waited in silence for the order.
Faced with that attitude, Suhyeon tried again, voice colder still.
"Hey. Beggar bastard."
"..."
Sihyun still gave no answer.
He was only waiting for the "customer's" order.
"Haa...! Fine. I'll order. Listen carefully."
Suhyeon finally opened her mouth, grudgingly.
"Yes."
"Six Americanos."
"Yes, six Americanos. Iced or hot? And what size would you like?"
"Aaaah~ Regular, iced."
"Understood. Six iced Americanos, regular size..."
Sihyun started keying the order into the POS.
"Oh, sorry~ Switch that to hot and large, will you?"
Suhyeon smiled nastily and reversed the order.
It would have been perfectly normal for anyone to lose their temper at such blatant harassment—
"...Yes. Six large hot Americanos..."
Sihyun kept his face blank and re-entered the order.
But Suhyeon reversed it again.
"Oh, wait! Ah, sorry! Really sorry~"
"..."
Even Sihyun's expression cracked a little this time.
Satisfied, Suhyeon smiled and needled him.
"Don't tell me you're mad?"
"...No. Is there anything else you need?"
Sihyun forced his face back into professional blankness and asked evenly.
"Well, see, I ordered without asking the others. Just a second~"
"...Yes."
Suhyeon turned and pretended to consult her friends.
"Dude, Lee Suhyeon, you are seriously evil, hahaha!"
"But this is so fucking funny—classic Lee Suhyeon, heh!"
"I don't care what it is! Order whatever messes with him the most... I mean, whatever tastes good! Pffft!"
Her friends snickered and egged her on, openly mocking Sihyun.
Then Suhyeon turned back to the counter.
"Okay. Ordering again."
"Yes."
"Let's see~ One vanilla latte, and..."
She made as if to order—
Crash! Sploosh—!
She deliberately knocked over the water pitcher sitting on the counter and dumped the whole thing on Sihyun.
"Oh my~ Sorry! But you're the one who left it there. You should keep your station neater."
"Pwahahahaha!!!"
The friends behind her exploded into the laughter they had been holding back for.
Soaked through by the icy water, Sihyun—
"..."
—simply stared at Suhyeon for a moment in silence, then opened his mouth again.
"So the order is one vanilla latte?"
His uniform was completely drenched, and he still acted as if it didn't matter in the slightest.
At that, Suhyeon's face twisted with pure disbelief and fury.
No matter how much she provoked or insulted him, nothing worked.
Even angrier now, she yelled—
"Hey! You beggar bastard!!!"
—and lunged for his collar.
In that exact instant—
Glug-glug-glug....
Suhyeon felt something cold running down over her own head.
"Kyaaah!! What the—!?"
Startled, she whipped around.
And standing there was—
"Ah, sorry."
—Yuri, looking down at her with cold blue eyes, empty coffee cup in hand.
"I mistook it for the dump station for leftover drinks."
She lifted the cup a little higher and let out a short laugh.
"You fucking bitch."