NOVEL NEXT 40.
40.
Two pairs of eyes fell on Seong-jun, whose face had turned as red as a carrot. Sehun stared at Seong-jun with an unreadable expression.
Hyunsu silently prayed for Seong-jun’s well-being, sensing Sehun’s vigilance beginning again.
“Who is this hyung? I haven’t seen him before.”
Belatedly, Hyunsu asked about Seong-jun’s identity. Since Sehun’s kidnapping incident, Jian had become close with Dark Net guild members, particularly Hyunwoo, Leo, Jihwan, and Jungsu.
He greeted others in passing, but these were the only ones he invited home.
With a new face at a gathering that had had fixed members for years, it was natural to be curious. Sehun only noticed Seong-jun’s presence after seeing him blush while looking at Jian.
“Ah, hello. I’m Oh Seong-jun, I just joined Dark Net recently.”
Seong-jun introduced himself. He wanted to look cool in front of Jian, but he had been dazed and stuttering since earlier. It was happening now too.
He had rarely trembled even during presentations in his life, but his heart raced whenever he made eye contact with Jian.
“Nice to meet you, hyung. I’m Hyunwoo hyung’s brother. His real brother. My name is Yoo Hyunsu. This is Jian hyung’s brother.”
Hyunsu pointed at Hyunwoo sitting next to him with his thumb as he spoke, and then introduced Sehun. Seong-jun had been curious about Sehun, who seemed unusually close to Jian.
The relationship between the two, who were hugging like lovers and whispering to each other, seemed unusual and had been bothering him, but they were brothers. This newly learned fact put one corner of his mind at ease.
“Hello.”
Sehun made eye contact with Seong-jun and extended his hand. Seong-jun politely knelt and grasped Sehun’s hand. Although he found it a bit strange that Sehun didn’t resemble Jian, he thought he must make a good impression on Jian’s brother no matter what.
“Let’s be close friends from now on! My brother just entered high school this year too.”
“…Yes.”
Unaware of what Sehun was thinking as he looked at him, Seong-jun smiled amiably. Hyunsu watched the two with chopsticks in his mouth, only to receive a slap on his thigh from Hyunwoo.
“I told you to break that habit.”
“It was just for a very short moment…”
Although grumbling, Hyunsu obediently put the chopsticks down on the table.
“Can we eat now? I feel like my stomach is sticking to my back.”
Leo, who had been eagerly anticipating the moment to eat, turned to Jian with a haggard face.
“Please eat quickly. The food will get cold.”
At Jian’s words, everyone, starting with Leo, moved their chopsticks frantically. Jian’s cooking skills, which improved day by day, were no less than those of a famous traditional restaurant chef.
With added sincerity, every spoonful of soup elicited hearty exclamations from here and there.
“Sehun, do you not have much appetite?”
Jian, who had been watching everyone with a pleased expression, noticed Sehun nibbling. He was barely touching the soup and just counting rice grains with his chopsticks.
If an older adult had seen it, they might have scolded him for such behavior at the dinner table, but to Jian’s eyes, it only looked pitiful.
“…My stomach doesn’t feel very good.”
“Really? Let me see.”
Jian fell for Sehun’s act as he blinked with a sorrowful face. Putting down his chopsticks, he took Sehun’s right hand and pressed firmly with his thumb on the acupressure point between the thumb and index finger.
“Jian-ssi, you seem very close with your brother. My brother won’t even let me into his room since his voice changed.”
Seong-jun spoke to Jian, half envious of Sehun receiving Jian’s attention, and half envious of Jian having a brother who was still affectionate even as a high school student.
Sehun’s brow furrowed as he silently felt Jian’s touch.
A cold gaze fell on Seong-jun, who had been irritating him since earlier. He had just returned from playing boring games all day long, caught up in Hyunsu’s suggestion to play one more round before going home.
The air in the PC room was stuffy, and the rough swearing and shouting from all directions agitated his sensitive hearing.
The kids Hyunsu brought along all showed interest in Sehun. On top of that, they only asked questions he didn’t want to answer.
Responding halfheartedly only worked for so long. Because of the guys who kept bothering him, a red aura occasionally flickered over Sehun’s eyes, hidden in the darkness.
Feeling like he might cause trouble, at some point Sehun stopped playing games and opened his phone’s photo gallery to look at the pictures and videos of Jian he had diligently collected.
Just having that graceful face fill his eyes was enough to clear his mind.
Jian had bought Sehun a phone when he turned thirteen, so he had pictures of Jian from age twenty-three onwards.
Whenever he saw Jian’s younger face, Sehun lamented not having recorded photos of Jian from even earlier.
He should have found a way to get a phone or camera and capture many images of Jian in his twenties.
Back then, he was so young that just seeing Jian and being held in his arms felt like having the whole world.
Not realizing how quickly time was passing by.
On the way out of the PC room, grabbing Hyunsu’s nape as he showed no intention of leaving, Sehun felt hurt that Jian hadn’t contacted him even though he was coming home late.
Did Jian want him to get along with other friends that badly? Lost in complicated feelings, he hurried his steps, ignoring Hyunsu’s groans as he bumped his knee against a telephone pole.
Seeing Jian’s bright smile as soon as he arrived home, it felt like all the fatigue from earlier melted away like snow. But that bear-like guy had been pestering Jian since earlier.
It hadn’t been long since he had caught Jian’s attention by saying he didn’t feel well. He wanted to smash the face of that guy trying so hard to strike up a conversation.
A cruel violent impulse quietly boiled inside him. It was a secret Jian should never know.
People showing interest in Jian appeared almost every other day, but unlike previous opponents, he couldn’t carelessly deal with the one before him now.
The fact that he had newly joined the Dark Net guild meant Sehun couldn’t drive him away with mind control like he had done to others before.
Was it because of the unknown drug injected into his body on the day he was kidnapped at age ten? Sehun’s abilities weren’t recovering well.
He had aged only regaining less than a tenth of his power from when he escaped after blowing up the laboratory. Still, it was enough to use mind control on those who wouldn’t leave even with physical methods.
Now he really felt tight in the middle of his chest. Sehun collapsed into Jian’s arms with a groan. If he couldn’t drive the guy away, he had no choice but to keep Jian’s attention focused on himself.
“Sehun, what’s wrong? Does your head hurt?”
“Yeah… After smelling cigarette smoke for so long…”
“Cigarette smoke?”
Surprised, Jian patted Sehun’s back while silently asking Hyunsu with his eyes what had happened.
“Ah, well, you see, the PC room we went to today happened to have a smoking area inside. But the smell wasn’t that strong…”
With his brother also putting silent pressure on him, Hyunsu spoke honestly. Hyunwoo immediately buried his face in Hyunsu’s shoulder and sniffed.
“So this smell isn’t coming from Jihwan hyung, but from you? Yoo Hyunsu.”
“No, we didn’t smoke, the PC room was just full of cigarette smoke, I’m telling you!”
Despite his indignant voice, Hyunwoo even brought Hyunsu’s hand to his nose and smelled between his index and middle fingers.
Hyunsu quietly glared at Sehun. He could clearly read the psychology of the guy pretending to be sick over nothing.
‘That bastard is playing the fox again…’
If he was going to do this, he could have just said he was sick, why bring up the cigarette smoke?
Though not as much as Jian, Hyunwoo also tended to overprotect Hyunsu. Thanks to this, Hyunsu had only visited a PC room for the third time today, while his peers had probably been dozens of times.
The gaming chairs not found at home, the flashy keyboards, the comfortable headsets. The space optimized for playing the MOBA game he had recently become addicted to made an hour feel like a minute.
He had rejected his friends’ suggestion to eat dinner and play games until late at night, only to be forcibly dragged out by Sehun. Fearing he might be banned from PC rooms altogether, Hyunsu watched Hyunwoo’s reaction.
“I really didn’t smoke… I just played games quietly with the new friends I made today…”
When his brother’s eyes turned up at the corners, talking back only backfired. Putting on the most pitiful expression he could muster, Hyunsu managed to get Hyunwoo to sigh deeply and pat his head.
“Next time, play in a healthier way. I saw a basketball court just ahead with lots of kids your age. Exercise is better than games, right?”
“Okay. Next time, I’ll take Han Sehun and play ten rounds of basketball at the court for sure!”
Although he felt extremely unfair that a PC room even elementary school students visit had become an unwholesome place, Hyunsu inwardly looked for a chance to get revenge on Sehun.
“I’ll put Sehun to bed in his room and come back.”
But that detestable guy was already heading to the room, clinging to Jian’s shoulder.