Since this had already happened once, Eunyul went inside feeling a little scared.
Without having to go all the way to Kang Ha-jun’s room, I found the two people through the slightly open door of the playroom and breathed a sigh of relief.
The two people sitting across from each other at the desk were busy studying and didn’t even know I was there.
Eunyul was curious about what they were studying, so she went inside.
“Minus, no, this subtraction means to subtract, which means to subtract 6 from 9.”
“I don’t know.”
Haneul put the pencil to her plump lips and shook her head.
And as I was looking at my workbook with serious eyes, Kang Ha-jun also had a serious look on his face.
Recently, Haneul started to become interested in arithmetic, and even though he only started doing addition not long ago, he seemed to be moving on to subtraction.
If you went to an academy and studied, the teacher would tell you right away, but Haneul didn’t do that. He was still young, so I didn’t ask him to do anything, so he studied what he wanted to do on his own. Therefore, if he doesn’t know something, he asks people around him, and this time, he chose Kang Ha-jun as his partner.
I am in a position where I have to explain the definition of minus to a child who does not know much about it. For some reason, I thought Kang Ha-jun, who had such bright ears, didn’t even know I was opening the door and coming in.
“So, in the Suna way… … .”
“This number?”
“no. I’m not talking about numbers, but numbers. “Numbers refer to the form of expressing numbers.”
“form?”
As the conversation became more complicated the more he spoke, Kang Ha-jun couldn’t help but think about how to explain it.
And it seemed like Haneul was worried about subtraction in her own way.
Eunyul was about to laugh because the seriousness of the two seemed strangely similar, but a sudden thought occurred to her and she wiped it away.
〈Right now, it seems like I’m just lying down and watching the owner’s thoughts, but I don’t know when that will change. It looks like they are trying to take Haneul away, but can they live like they do now even if they take you away? … .〉
Namgoong Hyuk was confident that Kang Ha-jun would not give up on Haneul. If you hadn’t heard it, you wouldn’t have noticed. He said it with such confidence that it shook Eunyul’s mind as she forced herself to reassure him that it was okay.
I barely pressed it down, but it shook again so easily. Unable to hide her frustration, Eunyul sighed and raised her head as she felt her gaze.
“When did you come?”
Kang Ha-jun and Haneul were looking at each other. Eunyul moved her hands dizzyingly as if she felt burdened by the gaze of both people at once.
“I just arrived. “I called him but he didn’t recognize me, so I came back and found that he was studying.”
“But why is your face like that? “Was it hard?”
“My face? no. “It wasn’t difficult.”
Eunyul rolled her cheek with both hands to show that that was not the case at all. I didn’t want to bother Kang Ha-jun by bringing up what Namgoong-hyuk said.
So Eun-yul, who had to hide what had happened earlier, looked around to change the subject and pointed out the arithmetic that Haneul had not yet solved.
“subtract. How can I solve this… … .”
Haneul, who was looking at Eunyul’s face just like Kang Ha-jun, immediately turned his attention to the workbook when he heard the word subtraction. Kang Ha-joon also immediately paid attention to the topic that Eun-yul was talking about.
While Eunyul was trying to explain something, she suddenly went to the kitchen and came back. He turned his back so as not to show what he had in his hand, but then he put it on the table.
“look. There were nine chocolates. If Dad ate six of them… … .”
Eunyul kept what she said she had eaten in her left hand and what was left over in her right hand, preventing Haneul from seeing the number.
“How many are left?”
Haneul answered Eunyul’s question in just one second.
“three.”
“answer.”
Eunyul moved his right hand away to show that there were three left.
“Let’s do more. There were ten chocolates, and Dad ate nine. So how many are left?”
“one.”
When Haneul answered right away, Kang Ha-jun gave him a curious look.
“that’s right. Subtract the number of chocolates you ate and see how much is left. got it?”
“huh.”
Haneul wrote down the answers one by one, as if she could now do subtraction.
Haneul, who had not been able to understand when expressing things with minus, subtraction, numbers, etc., gave and accepted the answer so easily, Kang Ha-jun watched with his mouth shut.
“But Dad… … .”
Haneul, who had just finished writing down the answer to one of the calculations, looked at Eunyul to see if something came to mind.
“Why does Dad eat so much chocolate?”
“uh? “I was just giving an example.”
“still. Even when there were ten, Dad ate nine. “My uncle and I made a salad for dad.”
When Haneul said that it was too much, Eunyul put down all the chocolate she was holding in her hand.
He taught her how to easily subtract, but Eunyul couldn’t answer Haneul’s other thoughts.
* * *
Twelve months later, Namgoonghyuk returned to the store, still unable to control his excitement, flapping his front comb and brushing his hair roughly.
He placed his hand on his waist for a moment and tried to breathe to calm down, but the expression on his face when Eunyul was glaring at him came to mind and his fever soared even further.
“He just spits it out because his mouth is open. what? Are you not qualified? under.”
Namgoonghyuk was so dispirited that he couldn’t even breathe properly. How much have I done for Eun-yul by pretending to be someone else?
“older brother?”
“Park Joo-hwan, tell me. “Am I that mean?”
Namgoong-hyuk stayed until the end and caught Park Joo-hwan, who was about to close the door, and complained.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but to me, you look like a mean person on the outside.”
“So you’re saying I’m so fucking mean?”
“If you take it that way… … yes.”
Park Joo-hwan scratched the back of his head and answered honestly. Namgoonghyuk’s eyes sharpened at that sincere reaction that felt so foolish.
“Honestly, you’re not that kind. You’re approaching it like you’re bullying me. … … “It’s different from the inside.”
The words he added were too small to reach Namgoong Hyuk’s ears.
“So, if something happened, I think my brother would have done something that would have been misunderstood first.”
“Aren’t you my younger brother? “Why are you taking someone else’s side and not me?”
“When I open the store, I will call you boss.”
I originally called him the boss, but since he never opened the store, I called him my brother again.
“That means I am.”
While Namgoonghyuk was muttering to himself, Park Joo-hwan noticed someone entering the store. Perhaps because of the unique atmosphere, I felt like I knew who it was even without looking closely at the face.
“older brother.”
Park Joo-hwan couldn’t take his eyes off him and called Namgoong-hyuk. However, Namgoong-hyuk, lost in his own thoughts, did not properly recognize the reason for Park Joo-hwan’s call.
“No matter what, you can’t do this to me. What have I done so far? I told him to pay off his debt while working as a chef, and he didn’t separate him from him. “If that’s all there is, there’s nothing to say.”
Namgoonghyuk listed one by one the consideration I showed to Eunyul. The more I did, the more my stomach boiled, but I couldn’t stop.
I only thought about myself from beginning to end, without even considering the fact that he had scared Eun-yul so much.
“Do you know that it was easy not to say anything to Jeha? To be honest, I’m at a loss for what I want to say… … .”
Namgoong Hyuk turned his body as if to look at Park Joo Hwan and hit his neck. Then, Park Joo-hwan pointed to look in a direction other than himself, and Namgoong-hyuk turned around with his hand on her neck.
“What did you not tell me?”
While Namgung-hyuk froze after discovering Hyeon Je-ha, he asked why he heard my name.
It was an extremely calm and calm voice.
As Namgung-hyuk’s silence became longer, Hyun Je-ha noticed Park Joo-hwan. Park Joo-hwan retreated under the unspoken pressure that it was not his place and glanced at Namgoong-hyuk. While he was talking to himself earlier, he seemed to have said something that Hyeonje-ha shouldn’t have heard, and I was worried about whether he would be okay. Because he is not someone else, but someone he likes.
Anyway, there was no help for Namgoong Hyuk if I stayed, so Park Joo Hwan quietly left. The door was closed tightly so that no one else could hear, so only Namgung-hyuk and Hyun Je-ha were left inside.
“There are things you can’t say to me.”
Hyun Je-ha spoke without the slightest sign of excitement, but strangely enough, that further drove Namgoong-hyuk into a corner.
“It’s not that I can’t tell you, it’s just that I didn’t need to.”
“Do you know how to think about things like that?”
It seemed like he was ignoring Namgung-hyuk, but it was Hyun Je-ha’s own joke.
“You’ve been telling me everything that comes to mind. When you came and went, it felt like a storm had come and gone… … .”
“I talk a lot, though.”
As Hyun Je-ha said, Nam Gung-hyuk used to say many things to him. He was also right in saying whatever came to mind. Since Hyunjae listened to everything he said without hesitation, Namgoonghyuk became more and more troubled. When he gets into trouble, he wants to run away. Following his instinct, as Namgoonghyuk’s eyes kept glancing at the door, Hyunjeha went next to him and sat down on a random chair.
“If you don’t want to talk, you can leave.”
Hyun Jae-ha, who said he would not catch Namgoong-hyuk wanting to leave, took the menu from the table. As he was flipping through the new menu one by one as he had not yet received any customers, he frowned at the stinging pain.
“you… … .”
Since Hyun Je-ha won’t catch me, should I leave? Namgoonghyuk, who was lost in the urge to do something, noticed his bleeding finger and approached it. As she hurriedly pulled out the napkin and squeezed his fingers, Hyeonjeha muttered as she looked at the menu.
“It’s been a while since I got cut by paper.”
“How on earth were these made?”
Namgoong-hyuk was upset and took out his anger on the employees who created the menu, but the only person who listened was Hyun Je-ha.
“Still, I’m glad I found out before we had guests. “Remake the menu.”
“What’s a good thing? It’s better for customers to get cut. no. “It’s better if I just get hurt.”
Namgoonghyuk put the menu aside and checked to see if Hyeonjaeha’s index finger was still bleeding. Hyun Je-ha’s eyes became complicated as he looked at that scene.
I had someone who needed this kind of attention. Everything about me should have been my top priority to him, but I couldn’t.
“That person wasn’t like you.”
“what? What happened suddenly… … .”
When Namgoonghyuk raised his head and made eye contact with Hyun Jeha, the end of his words became blurred. Hyun Je-ha said, still expressionless and somewhat gloomy.
“At first it seemed like it would go well.”
Namgoonghyuk kept his mouth shut because he knew that it was Kang Ha-jun’s story even if he didn’t say it.
“I thought you would have a love that would slowly seep into you.”
Namgoonghyuk forced himself to swallow when he saw a faint excitement appear in Hyeonjeha’s eyes as she thought of Kang Hajun. Otherwise, it felt like his throat would get clogged and he wouldn’t be able to breathe.
“I thought I would fall in love with that person because I definitely felt like we were connecting… … Since when did it start? “What we did wrong.”
“Jeha.”
“You were worried about me when I got hurt, but… … I don’t think I was looking at it. “It’s really sad, but the funny thing is that I couldn’t take care of him when he was sick.”
Namgoonghyuk was even more impressed when he saw Hyunjeha’s melting smile. He did so because he knew that his smile wasn’t really because he was at ease.
“I think I made the excuse that I was having a hard time and couldn’t look after that person.”
