Separation Anxiety

21.

#Caught

Dawoon carried the sleeping Haram inside and laid him on the bed in Haram’s room.

“Shouldn’t we wash him?” Hayun asked, standing at the doorway.

“We should, but he’s already asleep.”

Even though Haram was now seven years old, Dawoon still treated him like a baby.

“You’re too soft on Haram. If you raise him like that, he’ll develop bad habits,” Hayun warned.

Dawoon had no rebuttal. To him, Haram still looked like a three-year-old.

“Even if he’s a child, you need to teach him to do things on his own,” Hayun said, more seriously than usual.

“You should start becoming independent from Haram too. He’s starting school next year. How long are you going to do everything for him?”

Something seemed odd as Dawoon listened. Wasn’t it usually said that Haram should become independent from Dawoon?

“You don’t want to turn Haram into a fool who can’t do anything on his own, do you?”

Dawoon frowned slightly at the word “fool.”

“Haram is smart. Teacher Lim praises him every day.”

Teacher Lim was the live-in tutor who had been taking care of Haram since last year.

“That woman would only say nice things anyway.”

Hayun’s reaction was strange. Even the smile on his face disappeared when Teacher Lim was mentioned.

“Did something happen?”

Dawoon asked, feeling uneasy. Hayun stared at him silently before letting out a low sigh.

“Maybe you’re old enough to know now.”

The muttered words, seemingly to himself, were even more concerning.

“She acts oddly friendly, and it’s uncomfortable.”

It took Dawoon a couple of blinks to understand the abrupt statement.

“Towards you?”

Hayun frowned at Dawoon’s question, brushing back his fallen bangs with one hand.

“The other day, she even tried to come into my bedroom.”

Dawoon was shocked by the unexpected statement.

“Teacher Lim?”

It was truly surprising. The woman Dawoon knew was always kind and had a gentle demeanor. Even when Haram threw tantrums, she never raised her voice. When she occasionally spoke with Dawoon, she always did so with a soft smile and a gentle tone. It was hard to believe that such a woman would try to barge into Hayun’s room.

“She said she came to bring tea, but she wore a dress that exposed her shoulders. Even when I told her to leave it at the door, she insisted on coming in to place it on the table.”

“And then?”

Did you let her into the bedroom? The follow-up question seemed too explicit, so Dawoon didn’t ask. Instead of answering immediately, Hayun glanced at the sleeping Haram and pushed Dawoon’s shoulder to lead him into the hallway. He seemed to be considering the possibility of waking Haram.

Dawoon stared intently at Hayun’s face, waiting for an answer. Noticing Dawoon’s gaze, Hayun chuckled and lightly flicked his forehead.

“Of course not.”

Only then did Dawoon let out a sigh of relief.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Dawoon didn’t know when this had happened, whether it was a one-time incident or if there had been other occurrences. Hayun never shared the details of what happened in his life. Despite understanding the age difference and Hayun already being a working adult, Dawoon sometimes felt left out.

If only he would rely on me as much as I rely on him.

As he grew older, Dawoon increasingly had such thoughts. Who did Hayun turn to when he was struggling? There was Grandfather, but he was far from an affectionate person.

“You were still a minor until now. It’s not really appropriate to talk about such things with a child, is it?” Hayun replied in a playful tone. Minor. Of course, that was true.

“I’m not a child anymore.”

Dawoon was now twenty and had graduated from high school. Although still far behind Hayun, he was different from yesterday.

At Dawoon’s words, Hayun reached out to pat his head. Dawoon dodged the hand and looked up to see a strange expression on Hayun’s face.

“You’re right. When did you grow up so much?”

His expression seemed both amused and somewhat wistful.

“There was a time when you were as small as Haram.”

Come to think of it, when Dawoon first met Hayun, he was even younger than Haram is now.

“I don’t think you’re in a position to say I’m overprotecting Haram.”

Although not all memories were clear, in the fragments that remained, Hayun had practically lived carrying Dawoon. Until he entered elementary school, Hayun was present in every moment of his life.

This time too, Hayun just smiled quietly without saying much.

“I need to wash up.”

He lightly patted Dawoon’s shoulder before turning away. After watching Hayun go to his room, Dawoon entered his own.

As he took off his school uniform jacket and hung it on a hanger, he heard a notification sound. Checking his phone, he saw a message from Ui-hyeon.

– I got you something good as a graduation gift. Check your email.

Graduation gift? It seemed out of the blue. Checking on his phone, there really was an email from him with an attachment. It seemed suspicious. Could this be an illegal hacking program or spam? With all the news articles about such things, Dawoon was immediately skeptical.

He hesitated as he was about to open the email on his phone. It was the new phone he had just received today. It would be troublesome if it broke right after getting it. Although a bit inconvenient, he searched for his tablet PC to open his email. The larger screen allowed him to see the attachment name properly.

The file extension was .mp4, suggesting it was a video. Ui-hyeon had mentioned going to a karaoke with their classmates; could it be a video from there? As he clicked to download the file, another message came from Ui-hyeon.

– Just in case, watch it when you’re alone.

Alone? Dawoon tilted his head, wondering why he would say that, as the download completion window popped up.

He clicked the file, and the video started playing. The expected scene of his classmates didn’t appear. There was no music either. Instead, a white screen appeared. As he watched, wondering what it was, a white curtain fluttering in a window came into view, and soon a person’s voice was heard. The camera moved to show the owner of the voice. A woman wearing a tight dress that revealed her figure and a man with his upper body bare, wearing only pants, entered the room. They seemed to be having a conversation before immediately starting to kiss.

Is this someone I know? What on earth did he send?

Thinking there must be a reason Ui-hyeon sent this, Dawoon narrowed his eyes and focused on the video. Then, as the man’s hands moved from the woman’s waist up to grasp her protruding breasts, Dawoon flinched.

This is…

His eyebrows furrowed as he suspected the nature of the video. Sure enough, the man’s hands delved into the woman’s clothes, and soon her dress was easily removed and fell to the floor. In an instant, the woman’s lewd moans filled the video.

Ha!

A gasp of disbelief escaped him. So this was why he said to watch it alone. It was clearly a prank by Ui-hyeon and the other boys, using the excuse that he was now an adult.

Shaking his head, he turned off the video. As he picked up his phone to give Ui-hyeon a piece of his mind about this childish act, he froze. His eyes met Hayun’s, who was standing at the door.

How long had he been standing there? Had he heard the sounds from the video? Although Dawoon had turned it off quickly, quite intense moans had escaped in that short time.

Under Hayun’s steady gaze, Dawoon found himself at a loss for words. So this is how it feels to be caught watching an adult video. His mouth went dry, and he swallowed hard.

“Your door wasn’t closed properly. I came to talk to you, but…”

Hayun’s eyes moved towards Dawoon’s tablet PC.

“This, well…”

Dawoon had never once sought out such videos before. Therefore, he had no prepared excuse for this situation.

Hayun’s silence made the situation even more tense. If only he had said something like “What strange thing are you watching?”, Dawoon could have explained that Ui-hyeon had sent it and he didn’t know what it was when he played it. But Hayun just quietly looked at the tablet PC and then at Dawoon.

Hoo. The sound of Hayun taking a deep breath seemed exceptionally loud. Feeling as if he had committed some terrible mistake, Dawoon just chewed on his lip.

“Porn?”

Hayun asked bluntly. Dawoon blinked rapidly and then averted his gaze from Hayun’s. He couldn’t bring himself to say that he didn’t know what it was. He wished there was a mouse hole he could hide in. He never expected to be caught by Hayun of all people.

Step, step. Hayun’s approach seemed to happen in slow motion. As the distance between them decreased, Dawoon hurriedly flipped the tablet PC face down, but it was a meaningless action.

Hayun came to the desk, turned on the tablet PC, and launched the video playback app. He clicked on the most recent item in the history, and the video Dawoon had just been watching continued playing.

The woman’s panting filled the quiet room. Even without looking at the screen, Dawoon felt his face burning with embarrassment. Now that Hayun had confirmed what it was, couldn’t he just turn it off? Dawoon wished he would turn it off quickly, but Hayun was staring intently at the video.

Does he watch this kind of thing too? As Dawoon was having this strange thought, Hayun called out in a low voice, “Dawoon.” It was just his name being called, but Dawoon felt his heart sink.