Unrequited Love Thresher-Chapter 61: The Reason You Must Not Take It

It felt like his body was floating.

That strange sensation—like flying through the sky, or drifting in space—kept Ha Giyeon’s eyes closed. Suddenly, his body sank deep, and a sensation like being soaked in something made him slowly open his eyes.

He could tell it was water from the splashing sounds, but he couldn’t feel whether it was cold or warm. For a while, Ha Giyeon simply stared at the white void. Then, as his vision adjusted, he raised his upper body.

A blurry space, like it was covered in clouds.

There was no one around, and the place was so vast he couldn’t see its end. Ha Giyeon pushed himself to his feet. He had no memory of where this was or why he was here.

‘Is this a dream......?’

It felt similar to a place he had once seen in a dream. That unplaceable sense of familiarity made him slowly take a step forward.

Splash, splash. Every time he walked barefoot, water droplets scattered. As he walked through the shallow water—

“What is this......?”

The space began to shift, colors bleeding into it as the hazy light warped. What had been blurry slowly came into focus, transforming the space into something else, creating unrecognizable elements one by one.

Ha Giyeon stood still and blankly watched as forms took shape. Soon, the surroundings changed into something he could recognize at a glance: people dressed in suits and gowns holding wine glasses—it looked like a party scene.

On a sofa sat a child, small in frame and wearing a suit, their face still blurry. But unlike the children running and laughing around them, that child sat curled up and alone.

He couldn’t see the face clearly, yet he felt that the child looked sad. The deeply bowed head and trembling body made that clear enough.

After a long while of glancing this way and that, the child slowly stood from the sofa. Just as they began to take a step, as if heading somewhere—

Clatter. They bumped into another child holding juice, and it spilled all over their clothes. The child, now soaked and stained, looked down in shock. One by one, the other children gathered around and began to laugh. Annoying, shrill laughter filled the space as the child pressed their hands over their ears and furrowed their brows.

Tears falling in drops, the child cried. Seeing the reaction, the surrounding children found it amusing and pushed the child, throwing food and mocking them loudly. Yet even as they were treated that way, the child only trembled and couldn’t say a single word.

Then someone approached the child. Someone taller than the rest.

“......!”

Ha Giyeon couldn’t look away. It was their father and mother, dressed in suits and gowns. The two of them looked coldly down at the child, who was so much smaller than they were. Not like they were looking at a person—no, like they were looking at something far more bothersome and useless. Clicking their tongues in contempt, they turned their backs.

The child frantically ran after the mother and father who were walking toward the door. But their strides were too fast, and the child tripped and fell. The mother and father didn’t look back, simply continuing to walk away. The child was saying something, their voice choked with tears.

Ha Giyeon couldn’t hear it, but he knew.

‘Please help me. Please save me.......’

Watching the child cry out alone, Ha Giyeon finally moved. He knelt in front of the child, who was left all alone, crying so terribly and painfully. Reaching out his arms, he embraced them.

How could he not know this child? There was only one child who could be treated like this, discarded by their father and mother.

“It's okay.”

As he gently patted their back and spoke, the child’s blurred face slowly came into focus. Their eyes were red and swollen from crying.

It was him.

“......It’ll get better soon.”

This child, too, would soon find the courage to stand up. They wouldn’t cry while chasing after those people anymore. They wouldn’t fall again. They would quietly get up and walk another path. That’s why, for now, he had to hold their hand.

“Where do you want to go?”

Ha Giyeon asked the child. The child had a choice. The direction where the parents had walked, and the opposite direction. But the child couldn’t decide, and after hesitating, finally pointed with a small hand.

It was the direction their parents had gone. Looking up with an expression that still couldn’t let go, the child gazed earnestly that way. Blocking their view, Ha Giyeon couldn’t bring himself to lead them the other way. Even knowing what would happen if they followed, he couldn’t say anything.

All he could do was hold the child’s hand.

“Let’s go.”

Ha Giyeon took the child’s hand and walked in the direction the mother and father had gone. And like that, Ha Giyeon vanished with the faint light.

***

Click.

In the quiet hospital room, Ha Ilwoo and Lee Mihyun stepped in.

Ha Dohoon, seated beside Ha Giyeon’s bed, didn’t respond at all to the sound. He only kept his eyes fixed on Giyeon. Ha Ilwoo watched him with a complicated gaze.

From the day Giyeon collapsed until now, Dohoon had stayed awake through the night and hadn’t slept, even after daybreak. Maybe from exhaustion, Giyeon hadn’t even gotten up for breakfast. And Dohoon, too, had eaten nothing.

Ilwoo had told him to at least eat breakfast, but Dohoon didn’t budge from Giyeon’s side. Watching him now made Ilwoo recall the moment Giyeon had collapsed.

‘Don’t touch me.’

The way Dohoon had slapped his hand away and looked at him with hate-filled eyes. Had he ever seen his son look like that before? Those eyes, filled with possessiveness as he stared at Giyeon, didn’t look like the eyes of a brother.

Looking into those bloodshot eyes, Ha Ilwoo thought again.

‘Was it really...... Giyeon who clung to him? Or was it the opposite?’

If so, then since when?

In his entire life, Ha Ilwoo had never seen his son obsessed with anything. If anything, it had always been the opposite—Dohoon wasn’t the type to get emotionally attached to something, let alone to someone.

And that someone wasn’t even an object, but his own younger brother, Ha Giyeon. Ilwoo couldn’t begin to understand what it was about that boy that had caused Dohoon to become so fixated. All he could do was watch.

“Dohoon-ah, at least have this lunchbox.”

Lee Mihyun placed the lunchbox on the table and tried speaking to him, but Dohoon gave no reply. Ha Ilwoo sighed as he watched his son.

“Staying like that won’t make him wake up.......”

“Father.”

Dohoon’s low voice rang out.

Ilwoo’s eyes widened. Since yesterday, no matter how they called him, Dohoon hadn’t responded—as if he were lost in another world. Now he had spoken to them.

His gaze, which had been fixed solely on Ha Giyeon, now turned toward the two of them. It was not the same gaze he wore when being polite.

“Why do you call me Dohoon, but call Giyeon Ha Giyeon?”

“What are you—”

“Giyeon said his knee was hurt during PE class. He said he fell.”

He sounded dazed, like he wasn’t entirely there, but Ha Ilwoo and Lee Mihyun didn’t interrupt him. They had been wondering, too, how Giyeon had hurt his knee.

Dohoon opened his mouth again, then clenched his teeth as he spoke.

“There was so much blood that it trailed across the floor. But he went to the nurse’s office and only got a band-aid. When Choi Mujin asked him why he wasn’t going to the hospital, he said it was because he was afraid our parents would be contacted.”

“......!”

Mihyun and Ilwoo, who had been quietly listening, froze.

Dohoon hadn’t known until recently. A few hours ago, Choi Mujin had called, having noticed neither he nor Giyeon had come to school. At first, Dohoon ignored the calls to stay by Giyeon’s side, but eventually, after the calls kept coming, he picked up.

Dohoon had tried to hang up quickly when Mujin started asking what was wrong with Giyeon. But then Mujin said something that made him freeze.

“You sick bastard. I fucking knew it. I should’ve dragged him to the hospital that day.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He hated you so much ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) he didn’t even tell anyone his knee was split open.”

“How the hell would you know that?”

“Idiot, he came to the nurse’s office during PE, bleeding all over the floor. I tried to take him to the hospital, but he refused. Because of your damn parents.”

“He looked like he’d rather die than let your parents find out. What the hell kind of treatment is he getting in your house? How fucked up do they compare him to you that he can’t even say he’s hurt?”

The phone slipped from Dohoon’s hand and crashed loudly to the floor. He stood there like he’d been nailed in place, then turned toward the sleeping Giyeon and asked.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Even when Secretary Kim ignored him, even when he was forced to eat food he couldn’t stomach, even when his knees were hurt, even when their parents treated him so cruelly—why had he stayed silent?

So he asked.

“Father, Mother...... why do you hate Giyeon......?”

“......!!”

Their eyes widened as if stabbed, then their expressions twisted in pain.

Why did they hate him? Why? Had they hated him because he ruined their careers? Because he didn’t resemble them? Because he was a nuisance? Because he was frustrating? Because he was useless? Just because he was Ha Giyeon?

None of those were reasons to hate a child. Any child born to them was their child from the moment of birth—was their family. To try to find a reason to hate a child was nothing but empty rationalization.

For the first time, they truly confronted that pain.

Only after the child collapsed in front of them. Only after their other son bit into them with that question.

There was no reason they could find. And even if they did, it wouldn’t matter. The child had already collapsed in exhaustion. What could they possibly want from a child who had already let go of trust?

‘Ha Giyeon...... what kind of child is he?’

Just as Ha Ilwoo and Lee Mihyun began to look back on everything—

“......!”

Ha Giyeon woke up.