WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Malfoid
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Dynamics of Pure Love and Overprotection ◈
Chapter 16
──────
* * *
I was late to school. Even though I had gone to the trouble of washing my hair that morning, I attended the rest of my classes with a hat over it. I literally only listened. I didn't want to look around the classroom for no reason and let anyone notice how swollen my eyes were.
“Hey, Uihyeon. You're still practicing for the presentation later, right?”
I was taking out the books for my next class from my locker in the hallway when I heard a familiar name. No, it wasn't exactly welcome right now. Half of me wanted to avoid him, while the other half wanted to show him where I was hurt and cry.
So instead of looking at Kang Uihyeon and saying hello, I stared into my locker and waited for him to come over.
“What happened to your hand?”
Kang Uihyeon's sharp eyes caught the wide bandage on my palm. My loose shorts covered half my knees, so he didn't seem to have noticed those injuries yet.
“I fell.”
Kang Uihyeon immediately took the book I was holding. Then, like he was conducting a hygiene inspection, he made me spread both hands wide. Blood showed faintly through the bandage.
“How did you fall and hurt your hand this badly?”
“Some glass broke at home, and I fell on it.”
I had left out the word Mom, but of course Kang Uihyeon must have quickly figured out the hidden subject. He knew that Mom started bothering me around the time summer began to settle in. It happened every year, so it wasn't anything new, but this was the first time she had hurt me.
Kang Uihyeon bent down. He spotted the same bandages on both my knees. When he straightened up again, his face had gone cold.
“Did you treat them properly?”
“Yeah. I put ointment on them too.”
“Let's go to the hospital.”
Honestly, it wasn't bad enough to need a hospital. It wasn't like there was glass stuck in me. I looked at the friends waiting behind Kang Uihyeon.
“You said you were practicing for the presentation. I have class too. I'll go to the hospital afterward.”
When I held out my hand with that excuse, Kang Uihyeon reluctantly gave my book back. I turned away without dragging things out any longer. I could feel him watching me, but his gaze didn't make me feel proud. Nor did I feel secretly pleased that I had gained his concern.
There were a lot of firsts today. Mom had laid a hand on me. I had been the first to push away Kang Uihyeon's attempt to take care of me. And seeing Kang Uihyeon's face hadn't made me feel better.
I deliberately kept my mind blank so I wouldn't think about anything. I wished time would pass all at once and the injuries on my hands and knees would heal in an instant.
After my one-hour lecture, Kang Uihyeon was waiting in the hallway. I couldn't tell whether he had practiced with his friends or waited here the entire time. I hoped it was the latter. Even when his presence wasn't welcome, I still liked that I was his first priority.
“You don't have any more classes, right? Let's go to the hospital.”
Kang Uihyeon didn't trust the bandages I had put on myself. It seemed he wouldn't be satisfied until someone with a medical license had seen these minor injuries. I followed him without complaint. The day had already drained me since morning, and I didn't have the energy to argue with anyone.
After getting disinfected at the hospital and having new bandages applied, we headed to my house. The words I don't want to go home rose to my throat, and I almost asked if I could sleep at oppa's house. I wanted him to take me to the home where his parents lived too. If I had even a little energy left to persuade him, I would have done it.
As usual, Kang Uihyeon dropped me off by car, but he didn't leave right away. I didn't even say, out of politeness, that he didn't have to come in with me. There was no need to pretend to be nice in front of a man who knew my temper inside out.
The house was silent. Mom was still occupying the same spot as always. An uncontrollable resentment surged up, and I had to quickly look away. I couldn't believe the peace we had maintained by disguising it as indifference had been so easily shattered that morning.
Instead of entering my room, Kang Uihyeon opened the door to Yu Dogyeom's room. He set his bag on the floor and rummaged through the closet without asking its owner's permission. Soon, he pulled out a light short-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of shorts.
“What are you doing?”
“I'm staying here tonight.”
Kang Uihyeon explained calmly as he set the clothes he would change into on his friend's bed.
“What do you want for dinner? Oppa will cook for you.”
He was staying over? And he was going to cook too?
I had spent the entire day practically like a corpse, but one of Kang Uihyeon's unilateral announcements made my eyes fly open. I held my breath, unable to believe it, and only watched him. My heart ached from too much excitement.
When I stood there blankly, Kang Uihyeon walked past me into the kitchen. He easily found a rag and wiped the floor. I had already cleaned it that morning, but he clearly didn't trust it and had to check with his own hands.
Once he confirmed there was no glass left on the floor, he opened the refrigerator as freely as he had Yu Dogyeom's closet. Since I practically lived alone, there was nothing that could really be called ingredients.
“Do you want to shower first?”
Kang Uihyeon asked as he took out mozzarella cheese that was close to expiring. I had just come home, it was nearly dinner, and I needed to change clothes, so it was a perfectly ordinary question. Still, the rims of my ears grew hot.
“Yeah.”
“Come here.”
Kang Uihyeon personally replaced the bandages over my injuries with waterproof ones. The cuts weren't even deep enough for water to matter, but he treated me like a critically ill patient. I didn't dislike it, so I stayed completely still and let him take care of me.
When I had run into Kang Uihyeon at school earlier, I thought I just wanted to be alone. That had been a complete lie. More than anyone, what I needed right now was Kang Uihyeon.
I hesitantly entered the bathroom. When I was alone, I would walk around wearing only a bathrobe, but this time I carefully brought pajamas and underwear. It was a bathroom I knew well enough to use with my eyes closed, yet today it felt unfamiliar and made me nervous, as if I had come to someone else's home. I kept getting distracted, listening for sounds beyond the door.
I took a little too long in the shower. It was entirely because I was conscious of the man in the house. I dragged things out as long as I could because I was afraid that if I came out too quickly, I would have to awkwardly linger in the kitchen.
I had known Kang Uihyeon for over ten years, yet I was worrying about being left alone with him and feeling awkward. What a ridiculous luxury. I had once even used my dead mother as an excuse just to spend a little more time with him, and now I was suddenly acting shy.
When I opened the bathroom door as quietly as possible, the smell of delicious food greeted me. Kang Uihyeon had rolled up his shirt sleeves and was moving busily. It had been a long time since all three blue flames on the gas stove were lit.
“Wow, that looks good.”
I forgot to dry my hair and watched Kang Uihyeon cook. Kimchi fried rice loaded with cheese, spicy soybean paste soup, and neatly cooked tuna omelet rolls were waiting to fill my stomach.
“Dry your hair first. You'll catch a cold.”
Kang Uihyeon worried as he ran his hand over my dripping hair. He was probably the only person who would scold me for having damp hair in weather this warm.
“Take off the waterproof bandages and put on fresh ones, okay? If you can't do it, come to oppa.”
More nagging followed me as I carried my laundry to the basket. Kang Uihyeon definitely still had a tendency to see me as a baby in diapers.
As I turned on my heel to go back to my room, I stopped at the sight of the house, which looked completely different from before. Mom, who should have been sitting on the sofa, was gone. The person who had guarded the living room like a stone statue had vanished without a trace.
I hurried into my room, but there was no sign of Mom there either. I strained my ears over the sound of the soup bubbling. But I couldn't find the chilly presence that usually came from Mom anywhere.
...She had disappeared for a little while that time too.
The day I threw up after eating sundae-gukbap, Kang Uihyeon came to our house with digestive medicine. Mom disappeared for a while, then showed herself again as soon as the guest left. Had she hidden again this time? Was she hiding so she wouldn't frighten Kang Uihyeon?
I couldn't understand whether a dead person could make calculations like that before acting. If Mom had made a decision of her own, that was funny in its own way. She had already hurt her daughter that morning, yet stepped back for her son's friend.
I dried my hair thoroughly and changed my bandages like Kang Uihyeon had told me to. Then I quietly looked around the house, checking everywhere from Yu Dogyeom's room to the master bedroom that had been left empty for three years.
“What is it?”
Kang Uihyeon noticed something was off as he set out the spoons at the table. I quickly shook my head and said it was nothing. He came and went to take care of me even though he knew a ghost lived in this house, and I didn't want to make him more uneasy. It wouldn't be too late to tell him once I was more certain.
“Chew carefully. Don't get indigestion again.”
Kang Uihyeon pushed the side dishes toward me. I took a large spoonful of the appetizing kimchi fried rice and glanced at him. He looked as comfortable as if he had come to his own home. He didn't seem particularly conscious of either the living or the dead people in this house.
“Why are you staying here tonight?”
“Because I'm worried.”
Unlike my cautious question, Kang Uihyeon's answer came without hesitation.
“Dogyeom isn't coming home anyway. And I can't leave you here alone.”
So he was sacrificing himself. Kang Uihyeon was the only one suffering because he had gotten caught between an unfortunate pair of siblings who didn't get along. But shamelessly, I wanted to stir up even more of his sympathy.
“One night won't make a difference.”
Feel sorry for me. Think I'm pathetic. I look lonely, don't I?
“Mom will probably keep acting like that until her death anniversary.”
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
