After my hyung left, I kept worrying about his hand. I had Namjoon hyung arrange an appointment with a doctor. Later after my hyung was done with work, I'd capture him and send him to the hospital.
Namjoon hyung took the opportunity to chat with me, asking me how my emotions had been recently and whether I had made my hyung mad. I definitely had to lie to cover up the extreme fight we had had, but Namjoon didn't dig too deep. He said quite a while ago, my hyung had left something in his care but never took it back. He was moving houses soon and was afraid he'd lose it so he wanted me to take it back.
My ass really hurt, but I still just applied some medication inside and suppressed the pain, going anyway because my hyung had to go to the hospital later at night and I wouldn't have time to take the item. If I didn't take it, that item would give Namjoon hyung more trouble and I knew that my hyung really didn't like troubling people (when my hyung asked people to do something for him, he never let them be at a disadvantage, and he never took advantage of his friends either).
When I arrived, Namjoon hyung was very interested in my face which had been beaten until it was swollen and my neck was covered in marks of strangulation. He helped me ice it to let the swelling go down and confirmed repeatedly I wasn't experiencing school or domestic violence. In reality, it was just my girlfriend who was too violent.
He passed me a small wooden box. I had thought that it would be some big thing, but it was just a box the size of a palm. How much space could this take up?
Namjoon hyung watched as I fiddled about with it, lightly reminding me, "Don't break it, this thing is extremely expensive. I remember this was something your hyung bought on a business trip a number of years ago. He was foolish with too much money, spending a few hundred thousand won on it. After buying it, he abandoned it here and didn't take it back. Moving houses is messy, I'm concerned I might lose it."
There was a vague idea in my mind. Sure enough, when I opened the box, my guess was confirmed.
There was a red sandalwood beaded bracelet inside, exactly the same as the one around my wrist. I had always been puzzled about why the incantation on mine was only engraved halfway. I even thought that the tourist area was using crudely-made crafts to cheat tourists' money. I hadn't expected that there would be two bracelets, forming a pair that could be put together.
My hyung was a bit pitiful. He had bought couple bracelets but didn't dare to tell the truth. He didn't even dare to bring it home, afraid that I would laugh at him. I would never write the word 'pervert' on his face anymore; he'd take it seriously.
I suddenly recalled that I had given this bracelet to Chaewon before and my hyung even saw it. I wondered what he had been thinking then. I felt very guilty; I had casually tossed a part of his feelings away to someone else. Luckily, she had returned it to me, otherwise, I could only shamelessly ask for it back. But no matter what, I would definitely have found a way to get it back.
I carried the box downstairs and saw that there was a cluster of wild berries next to the rubbish bin outside the apartment. The berries were covered in some spoiled juices and plastic bags. When the weather was hot, the rubbish bin would become very smelly. The residents of the estate all pinched their noses as they hurriedly walked past. I stood next to the rubbish bin, admiring it. It was foul and dirty, yet fresh and alive.
I caught up on some sleep when I got back home and went to school in the afternoon. A few brothers from Class Four called out to me, asking me to play basketball with them, but I didn't go, carrying my school bag as I entered the classroom. It was Ugly Liu again, explaining a mathematics paper.
This was probably my first time seriously listening to Ugly Liu teach a class. He always exerted himself a lot as he taught, the flesh on his face moving with his wild gestures at the teacher's desk.
I couldn't help but let out a laugh. Ugly Liu hardened his face and glared at me. I sprawled out on the desk with my head slanted, revealing the top of my head as I said 'equal to 2 times square root 2'. He then quickly became amicable, pushing his glasses up to explain the next question that many people had gotten wrong.
During the two periods of self-study that came after, I buried my head in a general science paper. From start to end, there was basically not a single question that I knew how to do, so I had no choice but to start from the top, flipping through my books and exercise booklets. During the entire two periods of self-study, I had only finished the physics multiple-choice questions.
But it was almost time. I had Chaewon help me ask for leave to not attend night self-study and picked up my bag, leaving. There was a florist shop near the school gates. I bought a bouquet of roses and hid it in my bag, then took public transport to my hyung's office to pick him up from work.
The security guards at the office recognised me and let me into the carpark to wait for my hyung. I squatted for a while next to his BMW. My hyung slowly walked over, still talking endlessly on the phone.
His face was very pale and he was in a bad mood too. The other party hung up the phone first. My hyung abruptly threw all of the files in his hand onto the ground, gripping his phone tightly as he cooled himself down. He clenched his teeth for half a minute before finally calming down. He squatted down and pulled at his hair, silently cursing 'fuck your mother'. I saw the shape of his lips coarsely swearing, blue veins popping out of his temples, his expression extremely irritated. I wanted to immediately go over and hug him, but at the same time I felt like that wasn't a good idea, so I fished out my phone and gave him a call.
Jungkook angrily picked his phone up. The moment he saw the name on the screen, his expression magically calmed down. He leaned against the car door and answered my call.
Just when I crawled to the car park entrance on my hands and feet, the call connected.
"Hm?"
"I came to pick you up. I'm reaching in about thirty seconds, have you gotten off work?"
"Mn."
From afar, I saw my hyung hang up and quickly smooth out his wrinkled tie and messy hair, pick up the files off the ground and pat the dust off. When I reached him, he was already glowing, revealing two cute canine teeth to me.
"You just wanted to skip class, didn't you?" He raised his chin, gesturing for me to get into the car. "Let's go and eat some good food."
Of course, it wasn't because I wanted to skip class. I snatched the driver's seat and my hyung didn't fight for it with me either. The lighting in the car was dim. I took out the bouquet of roses, its petals and ribbon wrinkled, from my bag and gave it to him.
He was very surprised, the corner of his lips curving upwards. He rubbed his chin and coughed a couple of times before accepting the flowers and putting them on his lap. I could tell that my hyung wanted to pretend that this was nothing to him, but he kept glancing at the flowers from the corner of his eye and at last, he couldn't hold back anymore and started flipping through the bouquet. He found the complimentary card provided by the florist shop inside. When he saw that it only had a printed line in English, 'Love you every day', which came with the card, he looked a bit disappointed.
Oh no, I had made a wrong move. Next time, I would remember to write him a card.
I started up the car and asked him nonchalantly, Did today's work go smoothly?
My hyung raised an eyebrow, relaxed, "It went pretty well."
I didn't expose him, but I knew that the old fogeys who held shares in the company had definitely bullied my hyung again.
I reached a hand out towards him. He gave me a light sneer, "What are you doing?"
I grabbed his hand and held it.
My hyung stayed silent for a long time before laughing softly, "Fine, it didn't go very smoothly, but it'll get better sooner or later. I'll work overtime later tonight at home."
"It will get better," I replied to him.
I took advantage of when he wasn't paying attention to drive the car to the hospital. My hyung kept his two legs in the car, not getting off, "Is there really a need to go to the hospital? Applying a bit of ointment is enough, I'm in a rush to get home and work. Let's eat first."
I dragged him out of the car. Namjoon hyung had already gotten an appointment. When we got to the doctor, I pushed my hyung into the seat and told the doctor, "I'm his hyung, if he cries from pain later, don't laugh at him."
The doctor glanced at my school uniform, then at my hyung's suit, promptly laughing. My hyung laughed along with him, licking his lips as he smiled while quietly telling me, "Darling, too much, too much."
He was telling me in a roundabout way that my current actions were a bit too overboard. I didn't think so. When I got the chance to fuck him, then he'd know what overboard really meant.
The doctor scolded him for not coming earlier to treat his wounds. At the same time, he helped my hyung to wash the pus in his wounds and disinfect it. My hyung lowered his head and played with his phone, not making a sound. I was so nervous that my hands were dripping with sweat.
In the end, my hyung's left forearm was wrapped in a thin layer of breathable gauze. I finally let out a sigh of relief. When we walked out of the hospital, I groped about for his hand to hold it. Right as my fingertips touched him, my hand was pulled into his.
He pushed me against the car door and trapped me between his two arms. He raised his chin slightly, looking me up and down, "Where did the sun rise from today? Are you still my Taehyung? Give me back the rascal Taehyung who makes me angry, stirs up trouble and gets up to no good."
I couldn't give that Taehyung back to him.
I realised that actually, people didn't grow up gradually. Perhaps it was on a certain stormy night when one was startled awake by thunder and wanted to be wrapped in someone's arms, yet realised that the person who had always served as their protector was also covering their own ears and trembling, did people suddenly grow up.
I drove him home. He leaned against the glass, sleeping in the front passenger seat. His suit was wrinkled and he held my flowers on his chest. I secretly pulled out the card inside the bouquet and wrote on it with a pen, 'For my dear Jungkook hyung.'
I thought about it for a moment, then scribbled out that line and wrote instead, 'For my baby Jungkook.'
After pondering for a while, I scribbled it out again.
In the end, the card became a scribbled-out mess. The only words left were squeezed in the corner--
"When you're tired, just make out and make love with me."