.

Shaking his head with a smile, Kwon Eun Hyung raised his head again to look at her.

Ban Yeo Ryung tiptoed toward the coffee machine like a ballerina. Her low ponytail swayed near her neck. Staring at her overall look, Kwon Eun Hyung opened his mouth again. It was quite an impulsive reaction.

“Yeo Ryung.”

“Huh?”

Ban Yeo Ryung turned around to this side again. Sending his usual, light grin to her, Kwon Eun Hyung continued to speak.

“The coffee…”

“Yeah?”

“Can I have it hot instead of iced?”

Ban Yeo Ryung’s eyes grew bigger then reduced to normal. Tilting her head in wonder, she asked him, ‘Would it be okay in this weather?’ Kwon Eun Hyung gently nodded his head. She tipped her head to the side again but soon accepted his order, saying yes, and left the spot. Only then did Kwon Eun Hyung look back to glance around the nearest tables.

He tried to sit closer to her so that Ban Yeo Ryung could feel comfortable to come over; besides, he was about to kick some strangers whom Ban Yeo Ryung could hardly refuse when they appeared in front of her. Still, the seats close to the counter were full of guys trying to grab her attention.

Heaving a sigh, Kwon Eun Hyung slowly bent his steps to the empty table near the entrance. He then raised his hand to touch his Adam’s apple.

There seemed to be something still stuck inside his throat and wouldn’t go down. He murmured with downcast eyes.

“Once I drink something, it’ll be washed away.”

However, for some reason, he felt that it wouldn’t happen. It was not a hunch, but a conviction.

Burying himself deeply into the rattan chair, Kwon Eun Hyung stared at the table for a while. Suddenly, the fancy chandelier light in the party overlapped with the fluctuating sunlight on the wooden pattern of the table. Although nothing was in common between the two except for their brightness, he couldn’t get over the thought.

Lifting his elbow slowly to place it on the table, Kwon Eun Hyung fastened his gaze at the empty surface and spoke to himself.

“There’s no one.”

‘For real,’ he added in a small voice at the end of his remark. Kwon Eun Hyung stretched out his hand to sweep the grain carefully.

He then thought about the people who were smiling brightly at him as he entered the party venue.

“You’re also a part of their family!”

“Chun Young really looks good, maybe because he is with a friend his age?”

“You must keep being nice to him.”

The adults always acted nice. They never treated him unkindly in front of the Yoo’s; however, when Yoo Gun, Yoo Shin, or Yoo Chun Young, the three of them, were all gone, Kwon Eun Hyung always heard something different.

“Doesn’t he feel ashamed at all?”

“He’s nearly a homeless.”

Kwon Eun Hyung didn’t mind listening to those words. He already went through them too much in Yoo Chun Young’s mansion that he just got sick and tired of them. Instead, he wanted to laugh out loud if he could dare to do so.

‘Did they really think they could hurt and oppress me by blurting those words? I’m just a helpless kid who has nowhere to go. Just because I heard those words, are they expecting me to run away from the house, hurting my pride?’ he thought.

To do such a thing, Kwon Eun Hyung, however, already lost his self-esteem and had nothing left at all. Instead of those words, he was in fear of becoming nothing to Yoo Chun Young or being kicked out of the house and starve to death.

None of them in the party was friendly to Kwon Eun Hyung; besides, the kids were even crueler than the adults.

Among the three brothers of the Yoo’s, especially, if Yoo Gun wasn’t a very attentive character, Kwon Eun Hyung would’ve been dragged by other kids and fallen into a lot of troubles. Whenever those things happened, Yoo Chun Young always looked mad and upset, but Kwon Eun Young, strangely, didn’t care about those happenings at all.

‘Perhaps, I might’ve given up most of the things already from that time,’ he murmured.

Someone having good feelings or crush on him… Kwon Eun Hyung had already given up on such things for a long time, but he had to be kind to other people or else his mother, who passed away, and his father, the only family, might get blamed for him. From this way of thinking, he always behaved generously, which eventually led him to become the class president every year and created a reputation as a reliable person. ‘How hilarious it is,’ Kwon Eun Hyung sneered.

‘You’re so mature…’ He never felt appreciated for that comment. It just sounded like he was good at holding back tears. Very occasionally, it sounded like they were saying, ‘Even this would not make you cry?’

Strangely, he was now agitated by a word, which was too unfamiliar for him to accept the situation; however, he didn’t feel upset about this unusual feeling at all. Kwon Eun Hyung, therefore, put a faint smile on his face involuntarily and mumbled to himself.

“Yeah… now there it is.”

Feeling so unfamiliar, Kwon Eun Hyung took a deep breath and slowly murmured.

“People who are waiting for me, now.”

At least for today, there would be people waiting for him. Eun Jiho, Yoo Chun Young, Woo Jooin, Ham Donnie, and… Ban Yeo Ryung.

Going over their names one after another, Kwon Eun Hyung gradually smiled. Someone then touched his shoulder out of the blue.

“Oh.”

“Here’s your coffee as warm as my heart.”

After a moment of surprise, Kwon Eun Hyung burst into laughter at Ban Yeo Ryung’s sly remark. Staring at his giggle, Ban Yeo Ryung also chuckled after him. She then asked a question, looking a little shy.

“You’re not saying that I have no conscience?”

Showing a swiveling smile, Kwon Eun Hyung answered back.

“Why? It is warm as you said.”

“Ewww….”

Ban Yeo Ryung responded with a furrow.

“Looking at you after Eun Jiho, I can’t get used to it.”

When they had eye contact again, the two began to giggle even more.

After a while, Kwon Eun Hyung met Ban Yeo Ryung’s black eyes. With a smile, he averted his gaze onto the floor. It felt a little difficult for him to look into her eyes, which seemed nothing special just until now. Ban Yeo Ryung then left the spot, holding the tray.

Staring at the view of her back, Kwon Eun Hyung grabbed the cup of coffee in his hand. It wasn’t so hot than he expected, but at a comfortably high temperature to have a sip. He didn’t enjoy coffee that much, so after taking a small mouthful, he spoke quietly.

“It’s warm.”

It was around six in the evening when Ban Yeo Ryung and Kwon Eun Hyung left the café. The sun in the midsummer sky didn’t seem to decline that the sunlight reflected from the asphalt poked all over their bodies. In the meantime, the two hurried out of the café.

Thankfully, there was a black car, which Yoo Chun Young called for them, standing in front of the shop. Looking at the long black car, people, who walked pass by, talked in whispers. So was Ban Yeo Ryung’s uncle who got surprised at the luxurious vehicle.

Furrowing his eyes, he muttered, “Yeo Ryung, didn’t you say it’s just your friend’s house party?”

He also wanted to add, ‘What kind of friend calls a sedan for you to come to their house?’

Ban Yeo Ryung and Kwon Eun Hyung, however, rushed into the car and closed the door. It has been a long time since the short distance felt so hard from the cafe entrance to the car. Leaning on the back of their seats, they soon fetched a sigh.

After catching their breath for a while, Kwon Eun Hyung first brought up the story of Yoo Gun and Yoo Shin brothers. Ban Yeo Ryung had a puzzled look on her face, but there wasn’t much time to explain further. Telling her about all kinds of eccentricities the two brothers had made, Kwon Eun Hyung put emphasis on how uneasy they were to deal with when meeting without preparation.

‘I guess it’s better to make her get a little ready for them than to explain all that,’ he thought, heaving a sigh involuntarily, ‘Anyway, since we’re all Yoo Chun Young’s friends, they won’t be treating us so harshly as they do to others…’

If those who only knew Yoo Gun and Yoo Shin partially heard Kwon Eun Hyung’s concerns, they would hit his back, saying, ‘What do you mean? Both are such great guys! Aren’t you being too coward?” and laugh out loud; however, Kwon Eun Hyung, who has been closely watching their growth, couldn’t think like that at all.

Frankly speaking, the Yoo family’s mansion was, currently, like a devil’s castle to Kwon Eun Hyung. Well, as the devil’s castle didn’t have Yoo Gun and Yoo Shin, Eun Hyung would give a higher score to that place.

‘Geez,’ leaning on the seat, Kwon Eun Hyung sighed in silence. The last time he saw the two brothers were about a few years ago, so he was also concerned about how much they would have changed in the meantime.