Sitting properly with nowhere to place his hands, he suddenly wiped his face with dry palms and hunched his back. He leaned his upper body toward the table as if in prayer, or perhaps enduring abdominal pain.
Spiderweb-like tendons stood out on the arm gripping the corner of the narrow table.
"Whenever I think of Yi Yeon-ssi's ex-husband, I feel nauseous."
His behavior of drawing lines even at the cost of his life was fastidious.
At that moment, Yi Yeon recalled him bursting into suppressed tears while sleeping.
The sobbing was still present even now. Yi Yeon had to periodically wake from sleep, and her sleeves never had a dry day. Without realizing it, her expression darkened.
"Still... aren't you curious about the past? What happened to Kwon Chae-woo-ssi that made him make such, such a decision...?"
However, the man only slightly hardened his face and shook his head.
Kwon Chae-woo had absolutely no desire to bring up their unhappy married life. That was time that should rightfully be discarded, and he wished Yi Yeon wouldn't recall it anymore.
He deliberately stopped using his chopsticks and slowly lowered his eyelashes.
"I just know because we're using the same body. He tried to die because of regret."
"...."
"Don't know where the bastard rolled in from, but he was a stupid fuck who couldn't come up with anything better than such a low move."
Yi Yeon groped around her neck area, struggling to swallow her complicated feelings.
"Did that bastard at least bring home money well?"
He suddenly lifted his head and asked quite sharply.
"Um... it's hard to say he earned money particularly well..."
As she scratched her head and trailed off, Kwon Chae-woo sneered fiercely.
"That bastard, I knew it."
So... you mean yourself?
"Yi Yeon-ssi's strong sense of responsibility is the problem. You don't seem to know how to play tricks, so who benefits from you enduring and holding on?"
Yi Yeon stopped eating, feeling pricks of conscience for no reason.
"Don't do charity work anymore."
At that, the man recited with a pale, fierce expression.
That benefit was enough if it was Kwon Chae-woo himself. Others shouldn't wear her honey-like patience.
"If you let in a hollow-headed man, you should use him to your heart's content."
Kwon Chae-woo suddenly folded his fierce eyes in half. His mouth opening refreshingly as if sincere was surprisingly pure.
Yi Yeon forgot even trying to test him. His expression changing completely was gentle, just as he said, like a new person.
"It's unfortunate that I have the same outer skin as that fucking bastard, but I'm not even human without Yi Yeon-ssi. You're the only one who wakes me, makes me think, and makes me move."
Unlike his submissive words, a chill hovered around him.
She was the one whose throat was choked at the mention of memories returning, but the man desperately groaning was pitifully funny instead. Yi Yeon quickly rolled her lips inward and bit them.
"But they say people don't change easily."
"I'm completely empty, who are you comparing me with? I understand well that Yi Yeon-ssi is wearing colored glasses. Do I look the same as that dead bastard scum?"
"Um... well..."
"If you can't push out even one piece of trash like that from your memory, I'm going to lose my shit."
Yi Yeon scooped a spoonful of rice and put it in her mouth. Her relieved face was reflected in the table glass.
Whether she was relieved that she still stood at the top of his head, or at ease with the man's unchanged faith. She herself didn't know.
"Since I'm a fool who knows nothing, I can become whatever, whoever Yi Yeon-ssi wants."
Just watching Kwon Chae-woo getting heated up alone, she pushed back the laughter trying to bubble out along with the rice.
* * *
"I formally see the director's male."
In Kwon Chae-woo's vision as he did push-ups while standing on his hands, some child appeared upside down.
He lowered his legs that had been stretched straight and stood in place. It was an incredibly small boy who barely reached his pelvis.
"Who's the little kid?"
"I am Lee Gyubaek, a first grader at Willow Elementary School."
The child had jerked his head far back and was looking up at him with an ardent gaze. Gyubaek shaped his lips into an 'O' and examined the sleek abdominal muscles exploratively.
Just then, Yi Yeon was wandering around beyond the large window. Gyubaek looked back and forth between the two people and clapped his hands.
"There is a smell."
"What?"
The child plopped down on the dirt ground and took out some book from his bag. The pages turning busily looked urgent. He crossed his arms and quietly watched what the child was doing.
"Male ring-tailed lemurs secrete floral scent to attract females. They throw glances through scent and court."
"...."
"So the male, you smell now."
Gyubaek's two fingers pinched his tiny nose like tweezers. His glossy eyeballs dodged his gaze here and there, but his eyes looking like they found the correct answer were triumphant.
Kwon Chae-woo scratched the end of his eyebrow with his thumbnail at a faintly stirring wariness.
"I don't know who it is, but it's just sweat."
"The male must be younger than the director."
"No, I heard he's the same age."
"That won't do. Big trouble. Then the smell spoils."
"What?"
"Disadvantage. Younger monkeys emit pheromone substances more strongly and longer than older monkeys."
"...."
"The male is now in big trouble."
Gyubaek stomped his feet and touched his forehead.
Kwon Chae-woo roughly wiped the sweat gathered at his chin with the back of his hand and let out a laugh. He was about to dismiss the child's way of speaking as just a joke, but the following words made him pause.
"Our director is very popular."
"...How much?"
"The lumber mill carpenter uncle, nursery owner uncle, environment ministry reporter uncle who sometimes visit here all have a similar smell."
"...."
"The male needs to try harder."
Before he knew it, Gyubaek had already lost his attention to the swarm of ants crossing the ground. Only then did Kwon Chae-woo seem to realize who the little kid in front of him was.
'There is another insect doctor... but these days he visits rarely because he goes to school.'
'He must be someone who stands at the podium too.'
'Elementary school.'
An amateur doctor who attends elementary school, I see.
Kwon Chae-woo bent his knees and matched his eye level with the child's. When he extended his hand as if asking for a handshake, Gyubaek stared blankly at the large hand then bowed his head.
"That is correct, male. From now on, the male is my assistant."
Thus the hierarchy fight began.
* * *
A quiet afternoon.
Yi Yeon drank warm tea and savored the sunlight coming through the wide window. Today was the day for Kwon Chae-woo's sleep examination and a house call for trees toward Dongak Mountain.
With the mug at her lips, she suddenly glanced at the man exercising.
Kwon Chae-woo, doing a handstand on the tree stump, did push-ups without disturbing his posture. His arm and back muscles were bulging particularly tight, and his legs stretched long toward the sky were....
"...!"
No, no.
Yi Yeon shook her head for no reason, reminded of a towel that had been protruding. A male's body has parts that stand out like a giant mushroom, and if one doesn't regulate oneself, one keeps getting curious.
"Female peacocks look at the upper part of the male's tail from afar, and the lower part intensively when close."
"...Ack!"
Yi Yeon started and turned toward the source of the sound. Expressionless Gyubaek was staring fixedly at the window. She offered a greeting as if nothing happened, quite nonchalantly.
"When did Gyubaek arrive? Did you eat?"
"The director is staring piercingly at the male's reproductive parts."
"G-G-Gyubaek."
"Females consider the color or length of male feathers important. Shape and pattern cannot be left out either."
Yi Yeon frowned and chewed over the child's words.
"That's a quite picky peacock."
Color, length, shape, pattern? Were feathers that important?
"The director also steals glances only at males with excellent traits."
"What?"
"Picky indeed."
"...."
Dumbfounded, she soon put a cookie in Gyubaek's mouth. And as if by habit, she checked behind the child's ears for dirt and poured him milk.
Gyubaek took out a thick encyclopedia from his bag and looked up at Yi Yeon again. His utterly clear eyes were lovable.
"Director. Beware of the elephant."
"Hmm?"
"Be careful."
A tension suddenly settled on Gyubaek's face, which normally had no particular expression. The child tapped a page of the book with his finger.
"The Mating Season of Beasts."
It was the table of contents Gyubaek had been reading lately. A giant elephant with its ears fully spread occupied half the page.
"A male elephant hungry for love becomes a monster."
"What?"
"Male elephants become violently wild when their mating season comes. At that time, not approaching them is the zoo's rule."
Gyubaek continued speaking as if he were a person being chased. His gesture of tapping the book like a vending machine looked quite urgent.