Chapter 264
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 264
I used to think my life was easy.
"Seo Ho-yun! Ugh, this guy. Living life all on his own again."
"Ho-yun! What are you doing tomorrow?"
I came from a relatively wealthy home with a reasonably close-knit family.
My grades were always good with minimal effort, I made friends without trying, and my face wasn't exactly hard to look at.
Because of that, I thought earning people’s favor was no big deal.
Well, at least until I turned twenty.
"Ah... Mr. Seo Ho-yun, are your parents not with us?"
Living in Korea without parents turned out to be incredibly difficult.
The relatives I had been on good terms with were the first to turn their backs. Not a single thing they did was out of pure kindness.
I couldn't bring myself to touch the insurance money, thinking of it as the price of my parents' lives.
I went through rehabilitation like a madman and struggled desperately to earn money.
By the time I snapped out of it, I was already twenty-four.
"Ho-jin."
My tattered body and mind had finally recovered a little.
Only after I could breathe again did I truly look at Seo Ho-jin, and the kid was in a strange state.
Since I hadn't heard him throw a tantrum in a long time, I asked if there was anything he wanted me to buy him. In my memory, the younger Seo Ho-jin had always been honest about what he wanted.
"Is there anything you want?"
"Mm, no. Not really."
But the Seo Ho-jin of that time only said he was fine.
He handled the studies he used to whine about on his own, and he stopped looking for Mom and Dad.
It looked as if he were desperately trying to act like an adult.
Where did it go wrong?
Was it when all the relatives pressured him while mentioning the insurance money? Was it when the relative I trusted to look after him told him the bullshit story that his brother had abandoned him?
No, no...
It was when I left Ho-jin with that son of a bitch...
Damn it. I had stormed out of that house after flipping the place upside down and cursing them out, but in truth, it wasn't nearly enough.
I have to do so well that he doesn't feel even a single gap.
I attended every event related to Ho-jin and tried to do everything for him so he wouldn't feel the absence of our parents.
However, every time I went to his school, his homeroom teacher said the same thing.
"Ah, so you're Ho-jin's older brother?"
They said the boy seemed mature because he watched his brother working so hard.
Even though it was meant as a compliment, to my sensitive and sharp ears back then, it sounded offensive. I felt the underlying premise was always the fact that we didn't have parents.
And even if I didn't want to hear it, the moment I turned my back, people's gossip would drift toward me.
"It's tragic. Life is hard when you don't have parents, after all."
A hollow laugh escaped me. I didn't want Ho-jin to realize the same things I did.
So, we moved to a different neighborhood.
"Hey. Seo Ho-jin. Never let it show that you don't have parents."
I told him very firmly.
Society was a place that would take even the smallest speck of dust and use it as a major weakness.
"Okay, I get it."
The young Ho-jin of that time nodded resolutely, as if making a grand vow.
When else was it?
Once, I returned home in the early hours of the morning after working overtime. Ho-jin, who had just entered university, was sitting on the sofa waiting for me, completely drunk.
"Hyung."
At that time, I was slowly establishing my position at the broadcasting station. It was also around the time when the fact that I had been in a major accident and lost my parents had started to spread.
That day, I saw Ho-jin’s tears again, which have since become a blurred memory.
"I hate it when people talk about you however they want..."
He didn't wail like he did when he was a child, but his face overlapped with the one from those days.
I didn't want Ho-jin to be mentioned negatively by anyone.
I wanted only Ho-jin to look as if he had grown up in abundance, receiving nothing but love.
[Is that really his brother? Isn't he just a friend?]
[Just because they both have 'Ho' in their names doesn't mean they're biological brothers... lol, the assumptions are too much.]
[I don't like it when celebrities' families keep getting mentioned, but this guy's gonna be talked about constantly, haha.]
I hate it when people talk about you, too.
However, Ho-jin's personal information had already spread.
Complex thoughts swirled in my head.
Beep, beep, beep.
I shook my head slightly to scatter the intrusive thoughts, punched in the passcode to the front door, and swung it open.
"—Oh, hello. This is the celebrity of the Political Science Department, Seo Ho-jin."
"..."
I was greeted by the sight of Seo Ho-jin lying diagonally on the sofa, wearing sunglasses and a mask.
I immediately kicked off my shoes, strode over, and snatched the sunglasses off his face.
"Ow, take it easy, Hyung. Why the scary face?"
"...What are you doing?"
"Just because. My popularity is skyrocketing lately, so I thought I should at least wear sunglasses."
Ho-jin gave a sly grin.
I thought he might be flustered or at least wary of my reaction, but he seemed perfectly fine.
...In fact, he looks like he's in a good mood?
"Hyung, how did you get here?"
"Taxi."
"Really? I could've picked you up."
"As if you even know how to drive..."
I followed Ho-jin as he stood up and moved to the kitchen. The dining table was covered in so much food it looked like the legs might buckle.
"What's all this? You ordered this thinking we could actually eat it all?"
"Hey, Hyung. This is the time to flex. Thanks for the credit card."
It seemed he had been influenced quite a bit by hanging out with Kang Yi-chae.
I watched Ho-jin nonchalantly take a seat first, then sat down across from him.
As he pushed plates toward me and rattled off explanations about what was delicious in this house and what the main menu was at that place, I asked him directly instead of picking up my spoon.
"Were you okay? Did anything happen?"
"What do you mean, 'did anything happen'..."
Eventually, Ho-jin spoke as he took the first sip of dried pollack soup with fluffy clouds of egg.
"...I just thought, 'What was bound to happen finally happened.'"
"What?"
"I actually think it's for the best, Hyung. Honestly, I can count the number of times I see you in a year on one hand. I have to check if you're doing well through the TV."
Ho-jin, who had taken a few more sips of the soup, set his spoon down and let out a small sigh.
"I can clearly see you're on edge every time you come to see me. I'd rather just reveal everything and see your face more often."
"Aren't the people around you bothering you?"
"Not really. I'm going to be stuck in the library studying from now on anyway."
Ho-jin answered dismissively. He pushed a plate toward me as I sat there motionless, then picked up his spoon again.
"What about your friends?"
"They asked if Seo Ho-jin is a celebrity now and told me to give them an autograph. Those crazy bastards..."
Ho-jin stopped himself abruptly mid-sentence.
I chuckled a little at the sight of him checking my reaction, worried he'd get in trouble for swearing.
I guess his friends are fine.
Seeing me, Ho-jin's expression relaxed, and his eyes crinkled into a smile.
"And they said my brother is incredibly handsome."
"Right. Tell them thanks."
"So shameless."
Watching him grumble while inhaling the food with a healthy appetite, I felt the weight that had been clogging my chest finally lift.
While I poked at the dishes with my chopsticks and scrutinized Ho-jin, he finished his meal first, cleared his own dishes, and sat back down.
"But you know, Hyung."
At that cautious call, I set down the chopsticks I hadn't even used and looked at him.
"I don't know what you think, but I really don't care about the stuff with Mom and Dad anymore. I mean, it's not that I don't care at all... but I'm really okay. I'm more worried about you, Hyung."
He gave me a faint smile.
"What I have left isn't Mom and Dad, it's you."
The now fully grown Seo Ho-jin filled my vision.
And suddenly, the thought occurred to me that I might have been worrying over nothing.
I thought these situations would gouge out Ho-jin's pain and turn it into a bigger wound, but he had already healed his own scars, overcome them, and was moving forward.
"...Seo Ho-jin."
Regardless of my efforts to make him happy.
I took a sip of water and spoke.
We had to leave.
"We need to move."
Since it was a house the two of us had lived in for a long time, I felt a sense of regret proportional to the memories embedded there, but since the address had been leaked, it was for Ho-jin's safety.
Despite the sudden statement, Ho-jin seemed to know the reason and simply smiled brightly.
"Okay. Let's do that."
...The kid's all grown up.
Yeah, maybe I was reacting too sensitively.
Looking at Ho-jin's cheerful face, I felt like a fool for taking everything so seriously until now.
Thinking about it, I was an idol with a decent image, and Ho-jin was just an ordinary civilian. Even if people were buzzing with curiosity now, it would soon settle down as a temporary interest.
"—Actually, the situation is better than when I was a QBS PD."
I wasn't a PD with a bad reputation anymore, so maybe my worries were unnecessary.
"...As long as it's not uncomfortable for you, we can meet outside even if it gets a bit noisy."
Thinking that way made my mood lift slightly.
"I'll take this chance to regularly monitor if you're eating well, too."
Suddenly, I wanted to do everything for him that I hadn't been able to do before.
Whether it was because I lacked money or lacked time.
I would slowly give him everything I couldn't provide when I didn't have the means.
"It's okay if it's something really expensive, I'll buy—"
"What are you talking about?"
Just then, a frowning Seo Ho-jin interrupted me.
"What?"
"No, you said you were a PD earlier."
A strange sensation washed over me.
Something I had felt from Seo Ho-jin once before.
"Hyung, are you filming Season 2 of Please Take Care of the Camera?"
The conversation was creaking, misaligned somewhere.
The corners of my mouth stiffened.
I forced a smile.
"...Seo Ho-jin, that's not funny. Stop it."
"Stop what?"
Ho-jin tilted his head slightly as if he truly didn't understand.
"Is filming a drama confidential or something?"
"Hey, fuck. Stop it."
I stood up abruptly, and the table rattled loudly as my foot hit it.
Ho-jin's shoulders flinched.
I was barely holding onto the thread of my sanity—
"Don't play these shitty jokes on me. I'm sensitive right now."
"Did... did I do something wrong?"
—And Seo Ho-jin snapped it.
Seeing Ho-jin looking at me with questioning eyes, I unconsciously took a step back.
It felt strangely ominous.
"...Hyung?"
I needed certainty.
Certainty that Ho-jin was okay.
That he was the 'Seo Ho-jin' I knew as my brother.
Where this place was, what mobile game he enjoyed playing, what my original job was, and when our parents' accident happened.
"...Hey."
The words took shape but couldn't leave my mouth, crumbling into fear inside me.
"You..."
Instead, I asked the safest question I had left.
"—How many years apart are we?"
"...Huh?"
Ho-jin blinked in surprise, his lips parting a few times. Then, he answered simply.
"We're the same age."
I could only stare at Seo Ho-jin, unable to say a single word.