Pig Government Official Side Story

-2-

During the four years Jeonggwan and Junjae were dating, it wasn’t as if they had no problems. Like any couple, they had their fair share of arguments, and naturally, they came close to breaking up. Although it happened only once, the incident was so ridiculous that people around them still talked about it.

It was two years ago, shortly after Jeonggwan returned to Korea from France.

Junjae, who thought they would just be lovey-dovey after Jeonggwan’s return from France, had to once again realize Jeonggwan’s popularity. As if he was planning to meet everyone he hadn’t seen in nearly two years, Jeonggwan didn’t have a single weekend date with Junjae for two months straight.

Junjae couldn’t understand where all these friends were coming from, why he was attending an elementary school fourth-grade traditional music club reunion, or why he was going to an online fan meeting for an idol group he had stopped following in high school. He couldn’t comprehend why he was being pushed aside for these people and couldn’t have weekend dates with Jeonggwan.

Thinking that only short weekday evenings after work were allowed, Junjae’s disappointment grew immeasurably. After more than eight weeks, he was on the verge of exploding with complaints. Fortunately, Jeonggwan noticed this just in time that Friday and managed to placate Junjae by promising, “I’ll definitely go on a date with you tomorrow, hyung!” However, that evening, Jihoon called, cursing profusely about a big fight he had with Juhwan, and Jeonggwan ended up drinking with him all night to console him…

It was nearly 8 PM, with only four hours left of Saturday, when Jeonggwan finally came to his senses.

[Contact me when you wake up.]

When he woke up and saw five missed calls from Junjae and just one message, Jeonggwan was startled and immediately called Junjae back. But instead of a “Hello” or even an “Mm,” there was only a long silence on Junjae’s end. That’s when Jeonggwan first understood what it meant to feel chills all over his body.

Sensing that this was really serious, Jeonggwan apologized profusely to Junjae, but Junjae must have been extremely angry because he maintained complete silence for 10 minutes, without a word or even a sigh, as Jeonggwan begged for forgiveness.

Finally, realizing that Junjae’s anger wouldn’t subside like this, Jeonggwan decided he needed to go see him in person. He told Junjae, “Hyung! Wait!” before hanging up and hurriedly throwing on whatever clothes he could find to leave the house. But that’s when his oldest and second oldest brothers, who only got into serious fights once every few years, chose that day to start one of their infamous brawls. Unfortunately, their parents had gone to the countryside, and Jeongyun had gone out to meet a friend, leaving Jeonggwan as the only one who could intervene, which turned out to be the root of the problem.

“Did you just call me a blockhead? Your hyung?”

“Don’t you feel any guilt about wanting to be treated like a hyung?”

“What? What did you just say?”

“I knew you were stupid with only muscles in your head, but do you have muscles in your ears too?”

Although the oldest was physically stronger than the second, he was far weaker in verbal spars. The second, while physically weaker than the oldest, was not only good at insults but also skilled at turning anything in his hands – be it a pencil or a spatula – into a weapon, making their fights truly dangerous. Jeongyun, being a bodyguard, could easily subdue Jeonwon even if he grabbed a weapon, but that wasn’t the case with the oldest.

Jeonghyun would charge at Jeonwon regardless of whether he got hurt or not, which meant their fights only ended when one of them was seriously injured. Sometimes it was the brothers themselves who ended up with black eyes and bruises, and once their father’s arm was broken along with a large old pumpkin that had been decorating the living room for five years when he tried to intervene.

And today, as Jeonggwan was hurrying through the living room to get to the front door, he tried to stop the second brother who was pulling off the towel around his neck to charge at the oldest. But as he intervened, the oldest suddenly lifted the glass table in the living room to block the towel, and Jeonggwan ended up being hit in the chin by the table’s corner and collapsing.

At first, not realizing the severity of the situation, the brothers continued fighting, pointing fingers and blaming each other for unfairly using the table. But when the youngest, who should have gotten up angrily saying, “Ah! Hyungs, stop it already!” showed no reaction, they finally realized something was wrong and approached Jeonggwan, only to find him unconscious with a gashed chin.

Shocked, they were about to call 119 (emergency services), but fortunately, Jeonggwan quickly regained consciousness. They hastily secured the house and left for the hospital. Jeonggwan, unaware that his chin was cut, sat in the back seat of the car driven by Jeonghyun, mumbling that his face hurt. Sensing that Jeonggwan might cause quite a scene if he became aware of the current situation, Jeonwon sat next to him, restraining Jeonggwan’s hands as he kept trying to touch his chin, repeating that it was nothing until they arrived at the hospital. In the end, Jeonggwan walked into the emergency room on his own feet, looking confused, and only realized how deeply his chin was cut when the medical staff said they needed to stitch it up and began local anesthesia.

“Hyungs are always like this.”

After getting eight stitches and having a large bandage placed on his chin, Jeonggwan, now receiving IV fluids, shouted incredulously at Jeonghyun and Jeonwon. This wasn’t the first time these immature oldest and second oldest brothers had tried to cover up their mistakes. When Jeonggwan was in second grade, he had gone on a trampoline (a.k.a. bouncy house) with his brothers, and Jeonghyun, who was in middle school at the time, had accidentally bit down on Jeonggwan’s crown while coming down from a high jump.

At that time, even though Jeonggwan was in pain, his brothers dismissed it so nonchalantly and continued jumping that he couldn’t even show how much it hurt. It wasn’t until he got home and tried to wash his hair, seeing the water turn pink, that Jeonggwan realized he was really hurt and started crying in frustration. Jeonghyun and Jeonwon, who heard him first, came into the bathroom to ask what was wrong, but upon seeing blood trickling from the dent in Jeonggwan’s scalp, they covered up the crime by silencing the crying Jeonggwan, fearing they might get in trouble with their parents for skipping academy to play on the trampoline.

Even after more than ten years, his two brothers were still the same, which both amused and exasperated Jeonggwan. He looked for his phone to tell Junjae about this story, but his brothers said they had left it at home, leaving Jeonggwan disconnected from the world for about four hours before leaving the hospital.

When Jeonggwan got home and opened his brand-new phone that had just been released by Won Jae Electronics, which was lying on the living room floor, he found that those four hours of being out of contact had brought more devastation than he had anticipated.

[-Missed Call (1)-]

[Jeonggwan, are you sleeping?]

[-Missed Call (2)-]

[Are you really sleeping?]

[-Missed Call (2)-]

Seeing the messages that conveyed Junjae’s anger even without saying much, along with six missed calls, Jeonggwan was startled and immediately called Junjae back, but-

[The customer’s phone is switched off-.]

Junjae must have been seriously angry as his phone was turned off. However, Jeonggwan knew that Junjae never turned off his phone. People in important business positions like Junjae never turned off their phones, and when they really wanted undisturbed time, they would put it in airplane mode and only check messages. Knowing this, and knowing that Junjae would still see messages, Jeonggwan sent a message to explain what had happened.

[Hyung, I’m sorry, I just saw my phone ㅠㅠ]

[I was really about to come to you, but my brothers suddenly started fighting terribly ㅜㅜ So I tried to stop them and ended up getting my chin cut, went to the hospital, and just got home ㅠㅠ I left my phone behind too…]

[I just checked now ㅠㅠ]

But even though Junjae must have seen the preview mentioning the cut chin, there was no response, which Jeonggwan found a bit strange. Huh? This isn’t like him. Is he sleeping? Looking at the time, it was already approaching 1 AM, and Junjae usually went to bed early, so it was the right time for him to be asleep. But knowing that Junjae wouldn’t sleep if he couldn’t contact him, Jeonggwan tried calling a few more times, but the phone was still off. Eventually, after waiting for Junjae’s reply for over an hour, Jeonggwan, with his aching chin and lack of energy, fell asleep.

“…Huh?”

But when he woke up the next morning and saw that the ‘1’ on his message hadn’t disappeared and the phone was still off, Jeonggwan sensed that something was seriously wrong. Despite his brothers’ protests that he should rest at home, he caught a taxi and headed to Junjae’s house. What if Junjae had gotten into an accident while coming here in the middle of the night because he couldn’t contact him? What if there was a fire at Junjae’s house? Or what if Junjae had been struck by lightning while outside? All sorts of worrying thoughts raced through his mind as he nervously bit his nails and called Secretary Oh.

[Yes. I’ve answered the phone.]

“Secretary Oh!”

[Yes. Jeonggwan-nim.]

“Hyung isn’t answering his phone. Nothing’s wrong, right?!”

[…Uh, well.]

“Did something happen? Where is hyung right now?!”

[…The Managing Director is in the office right now.]

“…But it’s Sunday today?”

[…Yes, it is.]

Jeonggwan sensed something off in Secretary Oh’s tone. If Junjae had been busy enough to go to the office on a Sunday, Secretary Oh would have explained in more detail according to the five Ws and one H. But this somewhat irresponsible “Yes, it is” meant “It’s because of you, why are you asking me?” Which meant that Junjae was deliberately ignoring his contacts and had gone to work out of anger towards him.

He probably thought Jeonggwan had fallen asleep when there was no contact and he didn’t show up after saying “Wait!” yesterday. So this time, to show that he was really angry, he wasn’t answering Jeonggwan’s calls either. If it had been Jeonggwan, he would have thrown a fit, saying something like, “How could you break your promise with me to drink with a friend until dawn? If you like your friend so much, why don’t you date them! And you told me to wait, but then there was no contact for over four hours! Let’s break up!” So he completely understood why Junjae was this angry.

But still… Jeonggwan couldn’t help feeling hurt that Junjae showed no reaction at all and didn’t even read the message saying his boyfriend’s chin was cut. While he understood that Junjae was very angry, he couldn’t help feeling upset. And then he suddenly felt scared. What if Junjae was this angry because he was prepared to actually break up?