ETVC C34

Chapter 34

“See you then. Until that hour, if you value your life, remain quietly at home. Your younger brother may not match my calibre, yet he is not without his uses, is he not?”

Kang Gwonhoo spoke of himself and Baek Soohyuk as one might speak of mere tools. The ease with which he did so left me incredulous.

“Then I shall take my leave for today.”

With a glance at his watch and a curt parting word, he departed without a shred of hesitation. A man like the wind.

“Yet he will not even trouble himself to mend the ruin of the car…”

I stared blankly at the wreckage left in the storm’s wake. The thought of walking home from here filled me with weary dread.

“I have summoned a company that specialises in road repairs. Come, let us return.”

Since the advent of hunters, such occurrences had grown so common that restoration firms had sprung up in droves. No doubt the moment he had touched his phone, he had been arranging the aftermath.

“Family—or no, it is but a trifle. Think nothing of it.”

“I have no wish to owe you. And do not cling to me.”

I had thought he would speak of family once more, but Soohyuk changed his words. In the game I remembered, he had ever pressed the matter of kinship with Woojin. Now, he did not.

And though I had told him I disliked being supported, he only drew me closer still. For all his righteousness, he was not one to bend wholly to others’ desires. Rather, he was prone to clash with those whose values opposed his own.

“You cannot even walk properly. Endure it. I shall support you.”

Yet now, he was uncharacteristically docile—almost gullible. I spat sharp words, yet he coddled me nonetheless.

“Do not overstep. Do you take me for a child?”

Though I meant no such thing, the burden of it pressed on me. I pushed at his broad chest. He could easily have resisted, yet he yielded without protest. And scarcely had I taken a few steps before my knee buckled. The irregular pangs of the curse robbed me of balance.

Shame flooded me, heating my face. To have railed at him for treating me like a babe, only to stumble as one learning to walk—mortifying.

“Did I not tell you? It is fifteen minutes’ walk. Do not waste yourself in stubbornness.”

His heated, calloused hand gripped my arm and raised me up. By the time we reached home, I was near slung across him, clinging weakly, while he bore even the cage of Meow without strain.

“We have arrived. Release me now, and cease holding me so offensively.”

“I shall see you inside. Else you will stumble again like a foal newly born.”

Did he just call me a foal?

The humiliation stung, yet I had no defence—my earlier fall proved him right.

“Meooow.”

At last, meek and subdued till then, Meow gave voice. I had thought it strange, his silence since yesterday—was he unwell?

“We are going in.”

Still supporting me, Soohyuk thrust open the door and led me straight to the bed.

“I shall give you the draught. Stir not until it takes effect.”

From his inventory he drew a syringe and administered the injection with practised ease, as deftly as any nurse. No doubt it was of the highest grade. The man squandered wealth even upon his so-called foal.

“It will take thirty minutes. Thank heaven, at least the draught takes hold.”

The nightmares were beyond remedy, yet the pain, at least, might be dulled. It was only because the curse struck more keenly at the mind than the body that medicine availed me at all. Else I should have been chained to the bed.

But then, as he moved to cast the needle aside, Soohyuk froze.

“What is this?”

“What?”

I had been leaning back upon the bed, waiting for the drug to work, when I saw what he held. I shot upright at once. It was one of the letters I had forgotten to discard.

“Do not touch my things! How dare you—”

I lunged to snatch it back, ignoring the agony lancing through my body. I even rose on tiptoe and darted quick as I could, yet his strength was far beyond mine.

“So it is not nothing, after all.”

With rare mischief in his smile, he unfolded the paper. But as his eyes ran across the words, his face grew ever more grave.

I had warned him not to look! The thought of those foolish, failed letters laid bare seared me with shame. If he had found them tucked away in a drawer, it might have been less humiliating. But raw and unpolished, they reduced me from a brother with mere adolescent pride to something pitiable and lacking.

Yet then came enlightenment: my image was already in tatters—what more could be lost?

But Soohyuk was not finished. He searched the bin and read through them all. Just as I steeled myself to protest, a droplet fell from his face.

“That I did not even know…”

Even his voice shook.

Tears? Is he—crying?

The letters’ effect was far beyond imagination.

“Brother, I shall do better. I thought you truly hated me now.”

Soohyuk wept like a wayward son receiving a long letter from his parents upon Parents’ Day.

Since finding the letters, Soohyuk grew ever more relentless. If he left the house, he forbade me to stir; at meals, he fussed as though he had starved of it all his life. I had no intention of leaving, and I must eat regardless, so I bore it—for it was, indeed, convenient.

But soon his fretting reached its peak.

“Delivery!”

“Delivery?”

Ordinarily parcels were left at the door, but this courier rang the bell and waited. When I checked the intercom, I saw why.

“Where shall I set this?”

Into the house came a parcel so vast it scarcely fit the door.

Indeed, such a thing could not be left outside.

Whatever Soohyuk had ordered, it gave me a most foreboding sense it concerned me.

“Just here, please.”

The courier set it before Soohyuk’s chamber door, then handed me the pen.

“Please sign.”

“May I use my own name?”

“Yes, in the recipient’s name, if you please.”

Once he was gone, I turned upon the box with suspicion. Upon its side was an image of a bear reclining comfortably upon a bed.

That is surely a cot or folding bed…

Yet what use had Soohyuk for such a thing? He already had a fine bed. There was but one reason to send it here, and I shuddered to think it.

Perhaps his height outstripped the frame?

I forced the thought aside and returned to my room.

“Meow.”

Since yesterday, Meow had been sulking. He sprang toward me, then turned his back again, still pouting.

“See here, Meow.”

To soothe him, I played with his toy for fifteen minutes, until at last he pretended indifference no longer and joined the game.

“Is it fun?”

“Meow.”

I teased him by making the toy harder to catch. His tail puffed with vexation as he crouched to spring.

Bang!

At that very moment, the front door swung open with a crash.

“Has someone come?”

Soohyuk searched every corner, his suspicion so fierce one might think I hid a stranger within. To avoid stirring needless trouble, I only gestured toward the parcel at his door.

“Ah, it has arrived already.”

His air eased. He set a paper sack upon the table, rich aromas escaping—surely supper. All the food he had brought before had been delicious; I could not help but wonder what tonight might hold.

Truly, man is a creature of adaptation.

It was hard to keep my gaze from the bag. Yet I would not seem greedy, caring more for food than for people. So I forced out careless words.

“The bed in this house is fine. Why buy such a thing? If you plan to sleep outdoors, I welcome it.”

The cursed status mark flickered mockingly above. I should have held my tongue.

“Of course not. I bought it to sleep in your chamber.”