CH 25

“Please tell me the benefactor’s phone number, at least. How could I simply accept the offer and not show my gratitude?” Joongho had asked.

“You don’t need to feel guilty. The requestor wants to stay anonymous,” Sangsu answered.

“I’m not sure if I can continue to accept the favor shamelessly.”

“Please accept it. It’s for Yiyoung’s sake, so don’t hesitate.”

“Then…” Joongho had reluctantly said, “please deliver my words to our benefactor. Please tell them that I’m extremely grateful.”

“I will,” Sangsu had assured him.

Joongho raised his thin, twig-like arm, stroking Yiyoung’s hair as he changed the subject. “Is Sangsu treating you well?”

Yiyoung sighed, deciding to let go of her anger. She didn’t want the last thing Joongho saw before leaving to be her childish tantrum. “Yes, he is.”

“That’s good,” Joongho beamed.

“But, you know…” Yiyoung hesitated, “it seems like Uncle has no job.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, I see him everywhere I go. On the way to school. On my way back home. Even on my way to the market!”

Hearing that Sangsu was keeping an eye on Yiyoung all the time, just like he promised, Joongho was relieved. “Are you still working at the gym every night?” he asked.

“Of course. The instructor loves me! I think it’s because I clean very well.” 

Yiyoung had tried asking him to teach her some moves.

“Master, please teach me some of your killer moves,” she had asked.

“Killer moves?” the instructor asked, bewildered by her request.

“You know…” Yiyoung continued, “a one hit move that will knock someone down in an instant.”

Yiyoung’s request had been ridiculous, and he let her know that. “You punk! I’ve never seen anyone as non-athletic as you. Killer moves? Forget about those, just run for your life when you get into trouble!”

The instructor probably felt bad for Yiyoung because although he did not teach her anything that night, he did raise her wages.

Yiyoung’s mind returned to the present when her dad spoke. “Of course, my daughter is great at everything! I’m sure you’ll do a great job no matter what. I believe in you.”

“That’s not true,” said Yiyoung.

“You’re just too humble,” he replied.

Soon, it was time for Joongho to leave.

“Yiyoung, if something happens, make sure to tell Uncle Sangsu, okay?”

“Don’t worry about me,” Yiyoung said, “Just take care of yourself.”

“Okay, I know you can. I’m going to leave now.” Joongho turned to leave.

“Okay,” Yiyoung repeated, alone once again.

The next day, Yiyoung stared at her reflection in the mirror, face bloated from the lack of sleep. This always happened whenever her father left for work; she wasn’t able to get a wink of sleep. 

“You can do it,” Yiyoung assured herself as she fixed the bow on her uniform, “Let’s not cry. It’ll be fine.”

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to be energetic. As she climbed down the stairs and left the house, she noticed someone standing outside the door. “Hi, Uncle Sangsu.”

“Oh, Yiyoung! Are you headed to school?” asked Sangsu.

“It’s Monday,” she replied, a bit snarky.

“Okay. Have fun.”

‘He really must not have a job,’ Yiyoung thought as she hurriedly stalked away.

The moment she got to school, Yiyoung went to her classroom and looked for Muyeol, smiling when she spotted him at his seat. She was worried about him after that awful fever he had had, but it seemed like he was fine today. He was ardently writing something in his diary. It was weird, everything was stored on electronics nowadays, but Muyeol preferred keeping a handwritten diary.

“Hey,” she greeted, “do you feel better now?”

Startled, Muyeol’s eyes shot up to meet her, one hand slowly closing the diary.

“My face is all swollen because I couldn’t sleep properly last night,” Yiyoung added brightly. She raised an eyebrow, trying to silently tell him something. Muyeol blankly stared at her swollen face.

“Where is it?” she finally asked.

‘Where is what?’ thought Muyeol. 

Yiyoung opened her bag and pulled out all the performance assessments she had completed for the others last night. “I’ll only say it once. The $50. If you don’t give it to me, I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth!”

Money, money, money… The importance of money was only realized in the most difficult, desperate of times. Yiyoung was only 14, yet she was in a desperate need for money. Perhaps that was why her voice was so loud when she asked him; the self-imposed compulsion to earn money got to her. All eyes were trained on them, but Yiyoung didn’t appreciate the attention.

“Pay me before the end of the day,” Yiyoung said. Muyeol didn’t respond, only stared at her with that arrogant face of his, which only made her feel awkward. But after a long pause, Muyeol nodded, and satisfied with that response, Yiyoung smiled and left to collect payments from the other kids as well.

‘Yay! $50!” thought Yiyoung.

Sunah watched Yiyoung smile at Muyeol; she thought Yiyoung was quite cunning for doing something that the others wouldn’t even imagine doing. She wondered if Yiyoung was trying to take advantage of Muyeol, though she knew it wouldn’t be possible. It was ridiculous how Yiyoung was trying to use the brothers. If Jaeho hadn’t told her about it, Sunah would have never been able to see through the girl’s intentions.

Because of the infamous incident on the first day of school, everyone was aware of the awful relationship between the two brothers, and most of them took Jaeho’s side. Though they were unaware of what had transpired between the two that led to the incident, from their point of view, Jaeho did not deserve to be treated so violently, and what Muyeol did was extremely unfair. 

“How could he beat him up like that?” a student had said.

“Isn’t Jaeho the older brother? He was waiting for Muyeol so they could come to school together. And he was so happy about being able to see his younger brother more often, too…” another chimed in.

“What do you mean, ‘more often’? Aren’t they brothers?”

“You didn’t hear it from me, but I heard those two are half-brothers. Their grandmother doesn’t even treat Jaeho as her grandson…”