Sin ||KookV||

31

After my hyung left, I kept worrying about his hand. I had Namjoon hyung arrange an appointment with a doctor. Later after my hyung was done with work, I'd capture him and send him to the hospital.

Namjoon hyung took the opportunity to chat with me, asking me how my emotions had been recently and whether I had made my hyung mad. I definitely had to lie to cover up the extreme fight we had had, but Namjoon didn't dig too deep. He said quite a while ago, my hyung had left something in his care but never took it back. He was moving houses soon and was afraid he'd lose it so he wanted me to take it back.

My ass really hurt, but I still just applied some medication inside and suppressed the pain, going anyway because my hyung had to go to the hospital later at night and I wouldn't have time to take the item. If I didn't take it, that item would give Namjoon hyung more trouble and I knew that my hyung really didn't like troubling people (when my hyung asked people to do something for him, he never let them be at a disadvantage, and he never took advantage of his friends either).

When I arrived, Namjoon hyung was very interested in my face which had been beaten until it was swollen and my neck was covered in marks of strangulation. He helped me ice it to let the swelling go down and confirmed repeatedly I wasn't experiencing school or domestic violence. In reality, it was just my girlfriend who was too violent.

He passed me a small wooden box. I had thought that it would be some big thing, but it was just a box the size of a palm. How much space could this take up?

Namjoon hyung watched as I fiddled about with it, lightly reminding me, "Don't break it, this thing is extremely expensive. I remember this was something your hyung bought on a business trip a number of years ago. He was foolish with too much money, spending a few hundred thousand won on it. After buying it, he abandoned it here and didn't take it back. Moving houses is messy, I'm concerned I might lose it."

There was a vague idea in my mind. Sure enough, when I opened the box, my guess was confirmed.

There was a red sandalwood beaded bracelet inside, exactly the same as the one around my wrist. I had always been puzzled about why the incantation on mine was only engraved halfway. I even thought that the tourist area was using crudely-made crafts to cheat tourists' money. I hadn't expected that there would be two bracelets, forming a pair that could be put together.

My hyung was a bit pitiful. He had bought couple bracelets but didn't dare to tell the truth. He didn't even dare to bring it home, afraid that I would laugh at him. I would never write the word 'pervert' on his face anymore; he'd take it seriously.

I suddenly recalled that I had given this bracelet to Chaewon before and my hyung even saw it. I wondered what he had been thinking then. I felt very guilty; I had casually tossed a part of his feelings away to someone else. Luckily, she had returned it to me, otherwise, I could only shamelessly ask for it back. But no matter what, I would definitely have found a way to get it back.

I carried the box downstairs and saw that there was a cluster of wild berries next to the rubbish bin outside the apartment. The berries were covered in some spoiled juices and plastic bags. When the weather was hot, the rubbish bin would become very smelly. The residents of the estate all pinched their noses as they hurriedly walked past. I stood next to the rubbish bin, admiring it. It was foul and dirty, yet fresh and alive.

I caught up on some sleep when I got back home and went to school in the afternoon. A few brothers from Class Four called out to me, asking me to play basketball with them, but I didn't go, carrying my school bag as I entered the classroom. It was Ugly Liu again, explaining a mathematics paper.

This was probably my first time seriously listening to Ugly Liu teach a class. He always exerted himself a lot as he taught, the flesh on his face moving with his wild gestures at the teacher's desk.