Summer Vacation.
Yoon-seo recovered faster than expected after that day, but she developed a pretty serious dislike of men.
A touch of misandry mixed into her behavior, let's say?
She'd just become an adult and had that happen with her first real boyfriend—it'd be weirder if she didn't develop trauma, so I get it.
The rest of us got to the restaurant, ordered earthenware-pot bulgogi, and sat down.
I sat there messing with my phone, and Yoon-seo kept staring straight at me.
Even after the food arrived I ignored Yoon-seo's continuing gaze and watched Da-yeon eat.
Who's going to end up taking our increasingly gorgeous Da-yeon—that's what worries me a little.
The man who takes Da-yeon is going to have to deal with me, Park Ji-hoon, and Tae-oh...
One of the things I think I got a little wrong in raising Da-yeon is that she knows nothing about men and is way too innocent and pure.
The last time we watched porn together, Da-yeon wore an expression like she was committing some enormous sin.
Worried she might get corrupted by some weirdo at this rate, I started thinking about ways to teach Da-yeon about men.
Tae-oh would probably be good for it...
But Kim Tae-oh not only has a girlfriend, he's also out of the running as a man.
Still, as recklessly as he fools around with his junk, he isn't crazy enough to do that sort of thing to Da-yeon.
Da-yeon is like a daughter to the three of us—if he ever did, I'd personally see to his castration.
So then... Ji-hoon... He's too much of a dumbass, so he won't work.
There's a high probability Da-yeon would end up with the image that Men = Dumbasses.
We can't have that...
Cho-a...?
The hell... No way in hell am I handing her over to that bitch.
Right then, Na-gyeong conveniently asked Da-yeon a question.
"Da-yeon."
"Hmm?"
"What kind of guy do you like?"
"Huh... huh!? All of a sudden?"
Da-yeon chewed the food in her mouth and pondered for a moment, then swallowed and said,
"Mmm... Robert Downey?"
"Isn't he married?"
"Still, he's cool~"
I'll grant that...
Honestly... Iron Man is cool.
"Or maybe, Christopher...?"
"You do go for faces, huh, Da-yeon...?"
At Na-gyeong's remark, Da-yeon cupped her own cheeks with both hands.
"You... think so?"
"Da-yeon, you've been a face-chaser for ages."
"No, I haven't..."
"Eyy~ who do you think you're fooling~"
A man with a gorgeous face and a good heart is hard to find...
Da-yeon's in for a tough love life.
That evening.
The next day was the day Park Ji-hoon had to report back to his unit.
We headed to the campsite we'd reserved for Park Ji-hoon, who was returning to the army.
We used Da-yeon's Urs for the car—it's nice because the storage space is roomy.
While we were zoning out staring into the fire and grilling sausages, Da-yeon cut a well-done sausage into small pieces and popped them into my mouth.
"Ah~"
Nom.
Seeing Da-yeon out here casually playing around even though final exams were right around the corner,
odds were good she'd already finished studying.
"If you go back tomorrow, when do you get out?"
"Huh? No plans for that. Why, think you're gonna miss your big bro?"
"...?"
Da-yeon pulled a look of contempt like she'd just glimpsed something filthy.
While tossing more firewood into the flames I glanced over at Park Ji-hoon.
"Hey, come out once every two weeks."
"Why?"
"Let's go back to that valley we went to with Min-ji and Jun-su back in the day."
"Oh... not bad. I'll mention it to my platoon leader."
Kim Tae-oh, who'd been gaming with Park Ji-hoon since morning, was grilling meat in a daze.
Then, as if something had suddenly occurred to him, he looked at Park Ji-hoon.
"Didn't you want to go to a club?"
"That G-Spot place or whatever?"
Tae-oh nodded and popped a piece of meat into his mouth.
"Is that place actually fun, though?"
"Lots of pretty people."
"You, you have a girlfriend."
"......"
"You're a piece of trash, you know that?"
Da-yeon and I both nodded along with Park Ji-hoon's statement.
""He's trash.""
After gauging our reactions for a moment, Tae-oh answered.
"Fine... I'll bow out."
""He's sulking.""
Crackle.
As I listened to the firewood burning, Park Ji-hoon appeared with beer at some point.
Da-yeon likes wine, and if she has to choose, she's on team soju over beer, but ever since she acquired a taste for dark beer she'd started drinking canned beer fairly often too.
Crackle.
Da-yeon paused mid-drink and leaned her head against my shoulder.
"Being in the mountains definitely means a crap-ton of mosquitoes."
"You get bitten?"
"One hit right here."
Da-yeon showed me her calf.
A raised, swollen mosquito bite.
Park Ji-hoon, apparently still hungry after all that, pulled out the tomahawk steak he'd bought from the icebox.
He spent a good while grilling it diligently, then sank his teeth into the still-bloody meat with a huge chomp and chugged his beer—Park Ji-hoon.
"Kyah~ good stuff~"
"You said you were playing futsal with the high school kids earlier."
"They were the ones who wanted random teams, but the second Tae-oh and I ended up on the same team they totally freaked out."
Da-yeon must have been curious about something regarding Tae-oh—she tilted her head and asked,
"It's exam period; are you allowed to be out playing?"
"Park Ji-hoon is on leave. I consider that sufficient reason to be out playing."
"Heh."
Pleased with Tae-oh's answer, Park Ji-hoon bumped fists with him playfully.
Da-yeon and I grabbed one of the tomahawk steaks Park Ji-hoon had bought and sliced it up with scissors to eat.
And for dessert we brushed sauce over the shrimp we'd set aside to let the seasoning soak in nicely.
"Man, what did he even do—already heading back."
"Three nights, four days is short no matter what you do, dude."
"Next time you're out, you should go fishing with Dad or something."
We sat around the fire grilling this and that and chatted for a long while.
Only after cracking six cans of beer did Da-yeon finally start to get tired, leaning against me and nodding off intermittently.
"Should we go to sleep?"
"Hm? Mmnn... just a little bit longer?"
In the end, Da-yeon and I went into the tent to sleep.
The moment you go in, zipping it shut so mosquitoes can't get in is an iron rule.
I turned the flashlight on for a moment and carefully checked for mosquitoes; once I'd confirmed there weren't any, I slipped into the sleeping bag laid out for me.
"Si-yoon."
"Yeah?"
"Night night~"
"Yeah, night."
Outside, I could hear Park Ji-hoon and Kim Tae-oh talking, and most of it was about Su-ho.
I lay down and watched Dubu's Neotube for a bit before falling asleep.
The next morning.
I got up carefully so as not to wake Da-yeon and headed outside.
The morning air in the mountains was definitely refreshing—more than just cool, I'd call it crisp.
The cold air and a touch of dampness put me in a good mood.
While I was stretching, I spotted Park Ji-hoon, who'd forgone the tent and was sleeping outside.
Beer bottles scattered across the ground. Looked like he'd polished off all the alcohol we'd brought.
The campfire was dying down, so I arranged the remaining firewood and started coaxing the fire back to life.
Pprraaap!
"......"
That bastard doesn't snore, but the second he goes to sleep his asshole apparently comes unsealed because he rips farts like his goddamn life depends on it.
Still, I was thinking it was a relief he seemed to be enjoying his leave while I worked on reviving the fire, when...
Once again, a racket of a fart rang out.
Pprraaaaaap!
"Ah, you psycho... smells fucking foul."
How long until the refreshing morning turned rank—that was only a matter of time, really...
I scowled and prodded the fire with the tongs I was holding.
Pprraap! Pprraap! Frrrrrrrrt!!!
I flung the tongs in my hand as hard as I could and scuttled backward in a frantic retreat.
"Ah! Fuck!"
Wasn't that him shitting himself?
The lunatic definitely took a dump inside his sleeping bag.
Unable to muster the courage to breathe, I put about thirty meters of distance between me and Park Ji-hoon.
Once I figured the smell must've cleared out to some extent, I approached the campfire again.
Park Ji-hoon had quieted down.
I'm pretty sure this bastard wasn't like this in his past life—his anal sphincter clearly has a problem.
Harboring thoughts that I needed to make him undergo a full-course intensive examination, I tried to sit back down in my chair.
Pprraaap!
In the end, I threw a rock at Park Ji-hoon.
Thwack!
"Aagh!"
Park Ji-hoon shot up in alarm and looked around.
I pretended I'd been zoning out staring at the fire.
He sat there blinking vacantly for a moment, then opened his mouth.
"Whoa, maybe it's 'cause I'm a soldier... I dreamed I was firing a howitzer."
"What, out of your asshole?"
"The hell's that supposed to mean."
"What d'you mean 'the hell's that supposed to mean,' you son of a bitch."
"???"
We dropped Park Ji-hoon off at his place, then each headed home.
I killed time lying on the sofa with Dad, and when I gradually got hungry, I called out to him.
"Dad."
"Yeah?"
"I'm hungry."
"A lot? Or a little?"
"Enough for a snack?"
"I'm in the mood for a hamburger, that okay?"
"Sounds good~ lots of fries."
Dad fiddled with his phone from behind me, placed the order, and went back to watching TV.
"That girl really is a fun friend. Uncle Jang Seong-man was eyeing her greedily."
I looked at the female rapper who was the same age as me.
Lee Ji-yeong, who'd confidently taken first place in the program that selected high school rappers.
She definitely seemed to have a ton of star quality.
On the program hosted by MC Yoo Yeon-seok, while Dad and Ji-eun were doing their evaluations, she said she was confident she could dance well, too, and showed them one of my dances.
She danced it with even less shame than a comedian and that killer expression of hers was the highlight.
"Kkhhmp... that's my dance, you know?"
"She kept saying she's a huge fan of mine, but somehow it didn't put me off the way other people do."
To be like that at twenty; this was someone destined to hit max level in social maneuvering.
Her knack for reading the room to avoid creating awkward situations was no ordinary skill.
While we were watching the variety show Dad had appeared on, the hamburgers he'd ordered arrived, and we sat and ate them.
It's one of the restaurants on the first floor—the handmade burgers are good, so we use it fairly often.
Once I'd eaten about half my burger, I wrapped it back up, drank my cola, ate my fries, wiped my hands, and lay back down.
"Keep doing that and you'll gain weight."
"I won't."
"Nobody knows what the future holds."
"Even if I gain weight I'll still be pretty."
"...Well, that's true..."
Dad told me I'd get fat, then finished the hamburger I'd left.
"Ahh~ I was saving that to eat later~"
"Don't bullshit me."
"Teehee."
Dad finished his food and cleaned everything up except for the fries.
"You closing the lid on the cream cheese sauce?"
"Yeah, I'll probably eat it in like an hour or two."
"When summer vacation starts, wanna go on a trip with Dad?"
"Where to?"
"Mmm... just wherever our feet take us? For about a week?"
"Sure~"
"I want to try riding a cruise ship, too."
"Not a bad idea."
"So shall we really splash some cash around on that trip?"
Dad spending money...
Honestly, maybe because I'd never once seen him seriously go all-out with spending, I was kind of curious.
Just how far Dad's limit went.
So much for the person who said I'd gain weight—Dad flopped down behind me and started petting Alpha.
The peaceful weekend passed. On a day when my lower abdomen hurt a lot, I made Da-yeon drive and we headed to school.
It's not as if we weren't a little late, but the school had been turned completely upside down.
Not just the school—the entire Republic of Korea.
It had all been flipped on its head because of the people connected to Yoon Hyeong-seop.
Drugs, sexual favors, and all kinds of things you rarely saw in Korean society were cited as reasons.
Even on the news, they kept repeating that Yoon Hyeong-seop and his remnants had cut ties and that everyone involved had fled Korea without a word or a trace.
The anchor reported that they were investigating and working to locate their current whereabouts...
Well... if they go looking, they'll probably find them at the bottom of the sea...?
Among them was Han Seo-jun, who they said they were currently searching for.
And people from the same group as him started appearing on the news more and more.
Wearing expressions that said they felt wronged to be associated with this incident.
—"To uncover the truth behind all of these allegations, I will submit to a thorough investigation."
The odds are good he'll vanish without a trace before long.
Since all the connections that should be helping him will be too busy protecting their own turf...
More celebrities were tied up in it than I'd expected.
Maybe because CEO Jang Seong-man had spent a long time eating shit and walking on eggshells—even if I hadn't gone out of my way to leak the data,
not a single person from JSM, Korea's mega-sized entertainment company, was ever mentioned.
No matter which network's news you turned on, the central figure in the sensational scandal being called Korea's national disgrace was the class president from our school—that alone said it all.
There was even talk that the student council president was involved.
And while Hanguk University was already getting shaken up, two people were hammering it hard enough to break it—
namely, Dad and Lee Jin-seok.
They started going on the attack, demanding to know if this was really such a filthy school and declaring they'd pull the two of us out.
As for the political world, too busy tearing each other apart, they'd somehow managed to expertly sever their own tails again—the data I had was packed with evidence on many people and showed them as interconnected, but no one was ever mentioned.
Maybe because both the left and right wings are implicated, they don't seem inclined to use each other's lifelines as weapons.
After finishing the final exams that heralded summer vacation, while I was waiting for Da-yeon, I got a call from Tae-oh.
"Hello?"
"I'm enlisting."
"When?"
"Sixteen days from now."
"Okay, is there anything you want to do?"
"Tomorrow... shave my head for me."
"Seriously, you and Park Ji-hoon both—why do you guys want me to shave your heads?"
"...You don't want to?"
"What are you talking about, I'll shave it so clean and pretty it squeaks. Look forward to it."
"...That's fine."
I snorted a little laugh and hung up the phone.
Da-yeon came out after finishing her exam, beaming brightly as she walked up to me.
"Si-yoon~ I did really well on my exams~"
Given how much she studied, it'd be weirder if Da-yeon got things wrong, but I praised her anyway.
"Really? Looks like you aced everything?"
"Mm-hm, there were a few things I was a little confused about, but I think I got them all right."
"Break starts tomorrow~ Should we go to the valley this week? Or next week?"
"Mmm... haven't Min-ji and Jun-su started summer break yet?"
"From what I heard before, aren't they both skipping the college entrance exam?"
"Really?"
I nodded at Da-yeon's question and looked toward Yoon-seo, who was coming out late.
Yoon-seo spotted us and came trotting over with quick little steps.