Delusive Fate

#103

Choi Tae-hyuk regrets it. He should have seriously taken to heart the advice his younger brother once gave him.

“Hyung, do you know what personal information is?”

“My brother… why are you suddenly saying that while eating? You’re all grown up, how can you ask what personal information is… Personal information is, well, personal information. Social security number, passwords… you know, words with numbers at the end?”

“I’m speechless… do you think I’d ask that because I don’t know such basic things? I’m concerned because these days there are all kinds of scams like voice phishing and romance scams. In my opinion, you’re probably next, hyung. Living so carelessly, I think you’ll get your accounts and everything cleaned out.”

“Since everything with numbers at the end is personal information as you say, don’t blurt out anything except your phone number. Got it? Bank passwords, house passwords, everything. I believe this isn’t beyond your IQ to understand. Let’s stay alert, okay?”

It was just before a family gathering, and the brothers had met early for lunch. His brother, who was fiddling with his phone instead of eating his meal at the table, suddenly said that to him. Judging by the way he looked at him with suspicion, he must have read something about scam victims.

At that time, Choi Tae-hyuk just laughed. He knew that no matter how rudely his brother behaved, he was ultimately saying it out of concern for him. Well, beyond that, Tae-hyuk was already used to his brother who would casually say outrageous things anywhere as if he had no home training. Because they were family. For that reason, he habitually half-listened to whatever his brother said, and that day was no different.

“Okay, I’ll never tell anyone my passwords or anything like that, so hurry up and eat.”

Choi Tae-hyuk giggled and took a spoonful of the omelet he had made. His brother sitting across from him seemed quite displeased with him and didn’t stop his nagging and rambling for a while. How his brother couldn’t trust him because he was careless as if his brain was missing, how people generally shouldn’t be trusted, how he shouldn’t think about clinging to him after getting everything stolen… Choi Tae-hyuk didn’t really pay much attention to what his brother was saying. And now he regrets it.

Ah, I should have valued my personal information. Even if someone threatened me to give up my house password, or even if I wasn’t cautious because the person was family… anyway, a password is a password, so I should have kept it secret to myself. If I had done that, our house wouldn’t have turned into a plaza, no, a battlefield where anyone can freely come and go.

Choi Tae-hyuk sighed and rubbed his face. It was ridiculous. Lee Han-sol coming in and out of his house like it was his own. Just when he had opened his heart to him and finally gotten used to it, now his brother was breaking in as he pleased. And not just simply coming in….

Choi Tae-hyuk briefly reflected on what had happened just now. It was five minutes to chaos, no, pure chaos itself. The situation made him shudder, causing him to rub his arms.

So, before his brother appeared without warning, there had been rare peace filling Choi Tae-hyuk’s living room. Ppomi was taking a rest, curled up between Lee Han-sol’s legs, and Lee Han-sol was concentrating intently, poking wool with a needle. And Choi Tae-hyuk was sitting on the sofa, watching the quiet scene. Ppomi’s moist, black nose peeking out beyond Lee Han-sol’s side, the white nape of Han-sol’s neck exposed by his loose t-shirt. Even the round back of his head with hair sticking up straight from the crown. Choi Tae-hyuk was relaxed and thought the scene before him was a bit cute.

‘What should I give for a snack…? Han-sol surprisingly eats well whatever I give him. That’s why I don’t really know what he particularly likes… Even when I ask, he just says he doesn’t know.’

After accepting Lee Han-sol like Ppomi, a river-like peace had returned to Choi Tae-hyuk’s heart after a long time. Just as he was enjoying that comfort and thinking about what snack to feed Han-sol, it happened. Beep, beep, beep, beep – suddenly the mechanical sound of the door lock intruded. Choi Tae-hyuk didn’t know. That sound was an evil force that had appeared to shatter his peace….

Anyway, at that noise, Ppomi jumped up and started barking, Lee Han-sol’s concentrated hands stopped, and Choi Tae-hyuk got up, a bit surprised. Did someone mistake the house? Before he could react as the homeowner, the front door flung open.

“Getting cozy, are you?”

A man appeared through the door gap, speaking not just confidently but sarcastically.

“Tae-hyuk, what are you doing here without any notice?”

The man was Choi Tae-hyuk’s younger brother, Choi Tae-hyuk [sic]. After taking off his shoes and entering, he looked at the living room scene and spoke mockingly.

“I was skeptical, but I was right. Sometimes your stupidity is helpful, hyung, and sure enough, people’s affairs are unpredictable. If you hadn’t sent that photo, how would I have known that he was stuck here?”

Choi Tae-hyuk couldn’t quite grasp what was suddenly happening. It wasn’t a family gathering, nor had they made any prior plans. They had even seen each other’s faces last month, so it wasn’t even time to be curious about each other’s well-being or safety. In this situation, it was really strange for the busy and self-important Choi Tae-hyuk [sic] to visit first.

After awakening as an S-class hunter and moving to Zone A, Choi Tae-hyuk [sic] had never done anything like this. Moreover, because he was the type who loved to show off and be treated well, he was the sort who always rang the doorbell and waited, even when he came to the family home in Zone B. For such a person to suddenly, even breaking into Choi Tae-hyuk’s house on his own…

Why is he doing something he never does? Why did he come?

While Choi Tae-hyuk was blinking in confusion at the situation that made no sense in many ways, something even more incomprehensible happened. Choi Tae-hyuk [sic] was acting as if he knew Lee Han-sol.

“Hey, trash. What are you doing here? Living the good life? With a dog by your side, and now another guy. You have no ability but sure know how to weasel your way around. Right?”

Choi Tae-hyuk became even more confused by Choi Tae-hyuk [sic] chattering as if he knew Lee Han-sol well. Choi Tae-hyuk [sic] was S-class, Lee Han-sol was C-class. Even though they were both hunters, they operated in different regions, so it was strange for the two to know each other. Moreover, Choi Tae-hyuk [sic]’s already nasty personality doubled when dealing with hunters, making him almost subhuman. Simply put, he was someone who wouldn’t even associate with, let alone talk to, anyone lower in rank than himself. Yet here he was, chattering at Lee Han-sol one-sidedly as if he had followed him here.

Choi Tae-hyuk, perplexed by his brother’s behavior that he’d never seen before, stood in front of him.

“Tae-hyuk, what are you doing suddenly coming here?”

“Suddenly? Ha, do you know what that guy is, keeping him by your side? Where did you meet him?”

“Are you talking to Han-sol like that? Why are you barging in and acting like this? Don’t scare Han-sol!”

Han-sol hits people! Why are you provoking someone who’s become docile by being absorbed in wool felting…! Choi Tae-hyuk screamed internally, keeping an eye on Lee Han-sol who was strangely quiet. But the situation didn’t get any better, and Choi Tae-hyuk [sic] snapped in an extremely irritated tone.

“This is ridiculous. If you hadn’t sent that photo, I wouldn’t have had to come here. If you alone got trapped by that gold-digger and ruined your life, who would care? But why did you send the photo so I could recognize him?”

“Photo? What photo…? You can’t mean the one I deleted right away last time?”

“It’s not like he has a common face, and you think I couldn’t recognize him just because you sent it and then deleted it? You deliberately let me know that fox was here by sending that, so that’s why I came all the way here.”

Choi Tae-hyuk [sic] exaggerated as if Lee Han-sol was a nine-tailed fox that bewitched people and ate their livers. And Choi Tae-hyuk was stunned by such nonsensical expressions. Gold-digger? Fox? While Han-sol was pretty, he wasn’t the type to seduce anyone—he was more likely to beat them to death if he wanted to take their liver. Choi Tae-hyuk couldn’t understand what his brother had seen to speak so confidently. Moreover, despite being slandered to his face, Han-sol was uncharacteristically keeping his mouth shut. Choi Tae-hyuk was a bit anxious about Han-sol, who was just sitting quietly and glaring at Choi Tae-hyuk [sic].

‘Save me, I don’t want to live. I hate him.’

Choi Tae-hyuk briefly recalled Lee Han-sol whimpering like that while drunk. That image overlapped with his pale face now. But Choi Tae-hyuk [sic] didn’t seem to find such a Han-sol pitiful. He kept talking without stopping.

“If you’ve caused such a shitty situation, you should clean it up before getting involved with someone else. Hey trash, weren’t you dragged out when that bastard Ki Baek-woo was about to die alone in his house?”

“…What?”

“How can you not know that? You really are a heartless bastard. You were dying to be with him before, but once you dumped him, you never looked back? The man almost died.”

“Stop talking nonsense. Why would he almost die?”

“He didn’t show up, didn’t answer calls. Because Ki Baek-woo has no conscience, kindhearted hunters like me had to work without holidays. But there’s a limit to that too, you know? What could we do? We had to break down his door and drag him out. And then we found him collapsed in his house, unable to even eat gruel.”

“We brought him in and all kinds of people worked hard to save him. Since he’s an S-class and his body is precious, we specially called in the healer Jung Yi-dam, but he’d gone so completely insane that he didn’t even know to be grateful and just caused a riot… Though it was a bit funny when he broke a flower pot and stabbed himself with it. Like he was making a movie by himself. Anyway, I thought hard about why he would act like that. Is it because you’re sulking over the scandal between him and the healer Jung?”