“Say it all.”
“Ha…”
Kwon Jae-jin let out a deep sigh. He didn’t particularly want to bring up the story of the first Seo Ui-woo, but he also didn’t want to appear as if he was hiding something from the second Seo Ui-woo. So, after a brief hesitation, he decided to respond truthfully with the facts as they were.
“Mr. Seo Ui-woo… you cried too much.”
“What?”
“Crying and sobbing, clinging and pleading… really… why did you kneel so often.”
“You’re saying I did that…? Me?”
“As if you knew it would weaken my heart, time and again… Really, each time Mr. Seo Ui-woo did that, it put me in an awkward and troublesome situation.”
“……”
“When someone says they need time, it’s not a figure of speech but that they truly need time. But Mr. Seo Ui-woo, you couldn’t even bear that short moment, and kept badgering me until I… whew, ultimately had no choice but to give in to your demands.”
“That’s impossible.”
Seo Ui-woo lifted his head incredulously, his eyes wide open like that of a rabbit. Seeing his face, Kwon Jae-jin swallowed a laugh.
Although it seemed unlikely, he thought it would be interesting to have a confrontation with both of them. To bring together the first Seo Ui-woo and the second Seo Ui-woo in the same place and sit them side by side.
“That’s the thing. It makes no sense, right? And yet, Mr. Seo Ui-woo, you always did things that made no sense.”
“……”
“Do you want to hear more?”
Kwon Jae-jin quietly reached out and held Seo Ui-woo’s cheek, tapping it lightly and then brushing back his black hair that the sea breeze elegantly ruffled.
“It’s getting quite chilly. Let’s go inside.”
Seo Ui-woo didn’t move. Not a flash of light, nor did the scenery around him change.
Instead, he lifted his hand similar to what Kwon Jae-jin had done and ran his hand up Jae-jin’s cheek, tenderly soothing his slightly stiff face, then tracing each feature as if drawing the contours with his fingertips.
“I’d love to see what Kwon Jae-jin looks like four years from now. I’m curious to scrutinize how you’ve changed.”
“……”
“And your face from four years ago, too. I wonder… what expression you had when we truly met for the first time.”
He swept his index finger across the eyebrow and traced the outline of the face along the cheekbones. After tapping the lips, he smiled with an expression even Kwon Jae-jin hadn’t seen before.
“There’s so much about Kwon Jae-jin I don’t know. It feels a bit… unfair, don’t you think?”
Seo Ui-woo had thought he’d seen all there was to Jae-jin’s expressions, so he was surprised there were still new ones to discover.
“I’m already six, no, ten years younger.”
“……”
“When will I ever catch up?”
With these words, spoken in a languid, heavy voice, light spread in all directions.
They returned to the burnt living room and the kitchen of Seo Ui-woo’s mansion blackened with soot. His feet slowly descended to the ground, and from toe to heel, he softly landed on the wooden floor.
“Jae-jin, I want to cook. Please teach me.”
Seo Ui-woo rolled up the sleeves of his hoodie as he flung open the refrigerator door. Kwon Jae-jin just stood idly by, watching his back.
***
It seemed that Seo Ui-woo really wanted to learn how to cook. It was both absurd and adorable that he was asking to be taught, even though he usually wouldn’t eat the food himself.
‘Well then. If the kid wants to learn, I should just teach him… What else to do?’
It would be breakfast time soon enough. He decided to make use of Seo Ui-woo as an assistant to set the table. He would start with teaching him the easiest thing. Kwon Jae-jin had Seo Ui-woo wash his hands and handed him a glass bowl and an egg.
“Try cracking the egg into the bowl, like this.”
Kwon Jae-jin demonstrated first, tapping the egg on the bowl and cleanly splitting the shell in half. The bright yellow yolk and the clear egg white slid into the bowl.
“Like this?”
Seo Ui-woo held the egg and, upon tapping it on the bowl, the shell crumbled and cracked apart.
“Oh, why is this happening.”
“Mr. Seo Ui-woo, you’ll need to learn how to control your strength. Yes, controlling your strength. Once you master that, it will also be easier for me. Try breaking all those eggs.”
“……”
And that’s when Seo Ui-woo began to battle the eggs.
✧˚·̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥·̩̩̥͙✧·̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥˚·̩̩̥͙✧ 𝑔𝓇𝒶𝓋𝒾𝓉𝓎𝓃𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁𝓈 ✧˚·̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥·̩̩̥͙✧·̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥˚·̩̩̥͙✧
