Chaegong, sniffing from the cold wind, blinked when something warm suddenly touched his cheek.

“It’s warm, right? I bought it on the way out when you went to open the bank account.”

Chaegong took the hand warmer Woojin handed over and broke into a bright smile. One palm-sized hand warmer wouldn’t make him that much warmer, but strangely enough, it felt like the chill had eased a great deal compared to earlier.

After they returned home and finished eating and washing the dishes, the two of them sat on the living room floor, where the boiler was running, and watched TV together. Sitting on top of the blanket Chaegong hadn’t folded that morning while watching the little TV was unbelievably cozy and fun.

After sitting like that for a while, Woojin got up, saying he had something to bring, and went to his room. What he came back with was a pile of odds and ends Chaegong couldn’t quite make out.

“As a celebration for getting a job, I’ll pierce your ears for you.”

Chaegong’s round eyes drifted to Woojin’s ears. He wasn’t wearing any earrings now, but if you looked closely, you could still see the marks.

Chaegong watched blankly as Woojin went to get ice and disinfect the cotton, then cautiously opened his mouth.

“I think it’ll hurt.”

Said the same Chaegong who could inflict much worse wounds without batting an eye. Woojin grinned at his act of weakness.

“It doesn’t hurt as much as you’d think. It just stings a little. Don’t worry. I’ve pierced more than a hundred ears by now, probably.”

At that overconfident look, Chaegong snorted before he knew it and shuffled closer to Woojin’s side. The cold ice pack rubbed over his ear, and in the brief moment when the numb chill dulled his senses, a sharp needle touched his earlobe. Just a moment ago he had been fine, but the instant he realized his skin was being pierced, his shoulders stiffened on their own.

“You okay?”

With a soft pop, an earring was placed in Chaegong’s ear. There wasn’t as much bleeding as he’d expected. Still, the prickling pain made Chaegong scrunch up his face.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“It hurts, but… more than that, it feels kind of awkward.”

“Looks good to me. I’ll pierce the other side too.”

“Can’t we do that later?”

Chaegong slept on his side, curled up tight like a shrimp, and of course if his ears were pierced he wouldn’t be able to lie on them. The wound would get pressed and hurt. Woojin, who had seen Chaegong’s sleeping habit while going back and forth to the bathroom in the early morning, nodded and said they could do it next time.

Unlike Woojin thought, Chaegong hadn’t refused because sleeping would be uncomfortable. It was because he felt painfully stupid looking at himself in the mirror.

The face staring dazedly back at him with an earring dangling from his ear looked horribly awkward. To be honest, it didn’t suit him at all. He didn’t look cool like Woojin. It just felt like some nobody had copied everyone else and put on earrings to act impressive.

Chaegong was very happy right now, but sometimes he still found himself hating who he was. Even though there was no one left to treat him badly. He stared blankly at his reddened, swollen earlobe, then squeezed his eyes shut.

After some time, the factory where he started working for the first time was physically tiring, but that also meant he could work without pointless thoughts. Lunch wasn’t provided separately, but cups of instant ramen were laid out for anyone to eat, and while the people weren’t especially kind, they weren’t rude either.

There, Chaegong was able to become friends with a beta his own age. Seyeon said she was a year younger than Chaegong, but had started at the factory two years earlier.

“I hope you can stay a little longer, oppa.”

“Why?”

“I just think we get along well.”

In this factory, where many people came in to make money fast and leave, Seyeon was among the few who had worked there for a long time, and thanks to that, she knew all sorts of tricks. More than that, because of Seyeon’s bright, honest personality, Chaegong found himself smiling more as he worked.

Chaegong worked from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., so when he went home, he had to eat a very late dinner. Woojin was the same, and Chaegong felt bad about that, so on weekends he would make a lot of side dishes and tell Woojin to eat first. But Woojin still said food tasted better when they ate together and waited for Chaegong until the very end.

After getting close to Seyeon, he slowly started becoming friendly with the other workers too. Since they gave out several bags of dumplings as an employee perk, Woojin ended up eating dumplings until he was sick of them as well. His work was simple manual labor, but the more he did it, the better he got, and other workers would sometimes praise him for doing well.

And then a month passed. Chaegong stared at the numbers printed in his bank account for a long time. Thinking that it was money he had earned by working on his own, that small number looked unbelievably amazing.

Useless brat. What kind of work could someone like you possibly do? The father who had said that was wrong. Out of all the cruel things he had said, only one had been false, yet the joy that welled up in him was almost too much to contain. He even found himself feeling a strange confidence that someday, perhaps, there would come a day when he could deny every single one of those words.

Chaegong withdrew a little money and headed home. He was thinking of ordering delivery food with Woojin for a change.

“Hyung, I’m home.”

Woojin, who always welcomed him while sitting on the sofa, asking if he’d come back again, was nowhere to be seen. After taking off his coat and looking around, Chaegong heard a small voice seeping out from the one and only room in the house.

Though he knew it was wrong, Chaegong slowly approached to find out what was being said, only to hear the voice cut off abruptly and footsteps coming toward the door.

“Oh, you’re back? It’s cold outside, isn’t it?”

Woojin forced a smile, but the corners of both his eyes were red and flushed. Chaegong looked at him for a moment, then lowered his head as if straightening his clothes.

“Not that cold. You must be hungry, right? I’ll fix dinner quickly.”

“No. Hyung’s fine. I ate a bunch of stuff earlier, so I’m not hungry. You eat by yourself.”

When Chaegong put a hand in his pocket, he could feel the money he had carefully carried home. He had wanted to buy something delicious with it, but the timing didn’t feel right now. In the end, Chaegong halfheartedly got through dinner, then knocked on Woojin’s bedroom door. There was no answer, so he opened it, and the room was already dark with the lights off.

“Hyung, are you asleep?”

“……”

“I don’t know what happened, but if you ever need my help, just tell me anytime.”

The bundle under the blanket shifted slightly. Taking that as agreement, Chaegong carefully closed the door and came out.

The next day, as Chaegong was getting ready to go to the factory, he saw Woojin’s bedroom door open later than usual. Woojin, standing beyond it, looked terribly worn out.

“I’ve got plans today, so don’t wait for me and eat dinner first.”

“What time will you be home? I’ll wait.”

“I’ll be late, so don’t wait.”

With him saying it that far, Chaegong couldn’t bring himself to say he would keep waiting. He nodded. Chaegong wanted to make Woojin happy.

“You know, when you come home today, pierce my left ear too. The right side’s healed already.”

Touching the earring he had now grown fully used to, he barely felt any pain at all. Woojin, silent for a moment at Chaegong’s words, nodded firmly.

“Got it. Hyung will do it for you.”

Relieved by the smile that rose as usual, Chaegong left the house with a smile on his face. After 12 hours of labor and returning home, Chaegong first flipped on the fluorescent light switch. After cooking a simple meal and washing the dishes, it felt a little awkward, even though it had only been two months since he quit being a housekeeper.

Feeling unfamiliar with the quiet house, Chaegong awkwardly decided to go to bed earlier than usual. Blinking at the orange glow of the streetlights, Chaegong forced his eyes shut.

In the pre-dawn dark, before the sun had even risen, Chaegong sensed a faint stirring nearby. The thought that it might be a thief drove the last traces of sleep from him in an instant. Pretending to toss in his sleep, he cracked his eyes open to slits, and almost immediately saw the other person’s face. With the streetlamp light filtering in through the window, there was no way to pretend not to notice.

Woojin was rummaging through Chaegong’s luggage. With trembling hands, he took out the bankbook and cards that had been hidden deep inside the bag. Chaegong could not bring himself to open his eyes. Yet he could not keep pretending to sleep like this either, and just as he was agonizing over what to do, a tiny whisper reached him.

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, Chaegong-ah.”

Chaegong had almost never been apologized to in his life. He knew very well that he was being foolish, but even so, he could not stop himself from speaking.

“Hyung. The password, I actually lied.”

“……”

“It’s not my birthday. It’s Hyunjo’s birthday. August 26. He doesn’t celebrate his own birthday, so I thought at least I should remember it for him….”

A small sob sounded. Chaegong wanted to comfort Woojin like a grown-up, the way Woojin had comforted him, but he himself was sniffling too hard to even sit up.

“I’ll pay it back, I will, I really will. I’m so sorry.”

“When are you coming back?”

“……”

“Make sure you eat properly. Don’t just eat carelessly.”