#9
“Uuugh…”
Heewoon put his hand on his stomach and crouched down. It felt like his stomach was tearing apart. The pain was so intense that his vision momentarily blurred.
He could see the slippers on Kangwoo’s feet approaching leisurely. He tried to run away, but Kangwoo’s hand was faster.
“Aaack!”
Kangwoo grabbed Heewoon’s hair and forced him to look up. Heewoon closed his eyes tightly at the sight of the large hand in the air. Kangwoo clicked his tongue when he saw the gauze on Heewoon’s bruised cheek. He let go of Heewoon’s hair and knelt down. Then, he said.
“Sit properly.”
“Hmph… okay.”
Trembling, Heewoon brought his body up and sat on his knees. His back arched due to the pain in his stomach. Staring at the rounded crown of his facing-down head, Kang-woo sighed.
“I’ve been really nice to you today. Haven’t I?”
“Y-you’re right.”
“But why do you keep pushing my buttons, hm?”
Kangwoo tapped lightly on the gauze. With each touch, Heewoon’s neck gradually shrank further and further, his eyes closed tightly. It was even more terrifying not knowing when he would get hit since his eyes were closed. It would have been better if he could see him directly.
Heewoon opened his eyes. He tilted his head and made eye contact with Kangwoo, who was looking into his face.
“Hiccup!”
He was so startled that a small hiccup popped out.
At that moment, Seo Kangwoo stretched out his hand. Heewoon closed his eyes tightly and spoke.
“Hic, Don’t… don’t hit me… Kangwoo… Now… Hiccup! I won’t do that again.”
The hand that he thought would give him a strong blow on his cheek or somewhere else only brushed against his eyelids. He opened his eyes, trembling and the fingers that were touching his eyelids lightly grazed his lower eyelashes before moving away.
“……”
Hic. Hiccup. Every time he let out a hiccup, Heewoon’s whole body jerked and his head flinched to the side. Kangwoo watched silently and then said.
“Why are you acting cheeky if you’re going to be trembling and begging after getting one hit?”
Heewoon hugged his stomach while listening to his low voice.
“Hiccup… hiccup…”
His body shrank with pain with each hiccup. For a second, he wondered if his organs got injured. He was terrified. Even if his organs were ruptured, he didn’t think Kangwoo would take him to the hospital. Tears welled up in his eyes at the thought of possibly dying.
With his head down, Heewoon swallowed his saliva. His stomach felt strange. He felt dizzy, like he was going to vomit even though he hadn’t eaten anything.
“When I speak, Sunbae, you just need to answer ‘Yes, I understand’.”
“Yes, yes… I understand.”
Heewoon didn’t even think that the words he was using were those from a younger junior. He just didn’t want to get hit.
I thought you said you weren’t crying today. Kangwoo looked at Heewoon’s tear-stained face and then casually glanced at his hand clutching his stomach.
“Why is your hand over there? Are you hungry?”
“No… Because it hurts.”
Kangwoo kicked his stomach hard enough that it felt like his body was about to fly off, yet he still asked if he was hungry. Heewoon felt upset, but lowered his gaze.
“People would think you’d been punched several times.”
“I-I’m having hiccups… so it hurts…”
Feeling unfairly accused of being whiny, Heewoon raised his head to argue.
“It, really hurts.”
“….”
Kangwoo, who had been silently staring at Heewoon for a moment, stood up.
“Get up.”
“No, no! I-It doesn’t hurt at all…”
Heewoon held out his hands, thinking that Kangwoo was going to hit him again. Kangwoo laughed in disbelief.
“It doesn’t hurt at all?”
“No… uhh…”
Heewoon’s small face wrinkled, not knowing what to say. Kangwoo sighed deeply and spoke.
“You really don’t listen. Just how many more times do you want to get hit?”
“I’ll get up.”
Heewoon’s face was instantly soaked with tears as he sobbed. He stood up, grabbing his aching stomach, and his face became determined. His hands, each finger smaller than Kangwoo’s, clenched into fists.
Kangwoo turned his head and let out a short laugh.
“Clench your teeth.”
Heewoon’s neck, which had been bracing for the violence that was about to come, was pulled back. When he reflexively closed his eyes, something soft touched his lips. Startled, he opened his eyes to find a beautiful face right in front of him.
Kangwoo smiled softly, still pressing his lips against Heewoon’s.
He gently stroked the back of Heewoon’s head a couple times before pulling his waist towards him. From the way he licked Heewoon’s lips slowly, there was no sign of violence. He slipped his tongue between his parted lips, tapped his front teeth, and gently tickled his stiffened tongue. It was a soft, affectionate, lover’s kiss.
Kangwoo withdrew his head and let out a languid sigh. Heewoon was gasping loudly for air. Their breaths mixed in the close distance.
“My heart keeps growing softer, this is a big problem.”
He scratched the back of Heewoon’s head scalp as he spoke. Looking at Kangwoo, tears streamed down Heewoon’s eyes, which had been pooling since earlier.
Kangwoo smiled and furrowed his brows as he wiped the tear away with his lips. Running his finger along Heewoon’s cheek, he then gently kissed his slightly reddened lips.
“Now you don’t have hiccups anymore, right?”
He sweetly asked. Heewoon nodded slightly, and the hand that wrapped around his waist retreated.
Let’s eat. Kangwoo said calmly and returned to the dining table. Heewoon briefly looked at him, before pulling up the overturned chair and sitting down.
From then on, Seo Kangwoo didn’t touch Heewoon anymore. Of course, Heewoon was so nervous that he didn’t know whether he was eating through his nose or his mouth. He only felt relief after leaving the house and taking the bus. The throbbing pain in the pit of his stomach, combined with the pain in his kicked stomach, made it even more painful.
It seemed like the storm had passed. Seo Kangwoo’s quick-changing attitude was terrifying. He became more dreadful when he realized that this kind of life would continue, more so than when he first found out that he was in debt.
***
“Heewoon, Mom’s going to the hospital.”
He felt like he had replied to that in his sleep. In his sleep, he also felt like he had heard an alarm.
When he opened his eyes, it was dark around him. Heewoon quickly got up and opened the phone lock button. It was 4:50.
“Ah…”
He buried his face in his hands. He had lectures from 1 to 6 pm. Even if he left home right now, it would still take him 30 minutes to get to school. In other words, this meant that he would be marked absent for all of today’s classes.
Yesterday, he stayed up until past 2 am making up for the class he missed last Friday. When he got home, it was already 3 am. It was an unusually long day. However, despite his tired body, his mind stayed awake, so he drank a bottle of soju alone in the kitchen.
And that resulted in this.
Ziiing-
A message came.
[This is Sunghyun’s mother. I apologize, but Sunghyun will stop his private tutoring. Please refund the remaining amount of the tutoring fee.]
Heewoon closed his eyes tightly. His stomach felt sick during his tutoring job yesterday, so he went to their bathroom and threw up. Even though he tried to keep quiet, the mother must have heard everything. The mother’s gaze, when she saw him coming out of the bathroom, was fierce. His face obviously looked like he had been beaten up, so her trust in him must have plummeted.
Yesterday was only their second class, so the student’s mother was already evaluating him with a cold gaze.
Heewoon’s mind was racing. He would have to return 500,000 won… How much was left in his account? 648,000 won. If he subtracted 500,000 won, there would be 148,000 won left. This was only the second week, and just the transportation cost alone would make it difficult to survive for almost three more weeks.
The sudden absence of the three tutoring jobs per week was a big blow.
His head was throbbing. He lay back on the pillow again. But he still had other students, whose mock exam scores had improved and had been tutored for a long time, so they wouldn’t be quitting.
‘Have lunch together with me from tomorrow on.’
As Kangwoo’s words came to mind, his face stiffened. Heewoon closed his eyes tightly and pressed his temples. Come to think of it, he had a nightmare. It was a dream where he received a message from Seo Kang-woo asking,
[Where are you now?]
Those four words gave him, goosebumps even in his dream. When he realized that he had never given my phone number, it gave him even more chills.
As he closed his eyes, a rush of sleepiness once again overtook him.
The one good thing was that the scheduled 8:30 pm tutoring job today was canceled. And to top it off, that student only had one subject today.
When he opened my eyes again, it was already 5 am the next day.
He wondered if his body was breaking down, but then he realized that it might be natural since he hadn’t slept since last Friday.
Heewoon quietly glanced at his sleeping mother and carefully got out of bed, pulling the covers aside before heading to the kitchen. He was very hungry.
He boiled some ramen and rolled up some cold rice to eat. It was the most delicious thing he had eaten recently.
As he was leaning against the wall and patting his stomach, the door with the taped-up broken glass window creaked open.
“Are you already up? You went to bed early yesterday.”
“Mom, what time did you come in yesterday?”
“…Around 8 pm.”
His mother opened the refrigerator door and he asked.
“Wasn’t your doctor’s appointment at 2pm? What did you do until 8pm?”
Heewoon’s eyes widened, and the wrinkled hand holding the refrigerator door tightened around it.
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