When Hae-wan opened the front door and entered, Yu-jun, who had been sitting in the living room anxiously biting his nails, jumped up.

“Hy… hyung, you’re back…?”

Hae-wan didn’t answer. Without even taking off his shoes, he just stood in the entryway staring at Yu-jun. Yu-jun’s face turned bright red as he immediately recognized what that silence meant.

“Hyung… I was wrong…”

“…”

“I didn’t plan to take that money either. But I think I went crazy from drinking too much. I don’t really remember what happened, but I only found out the next day when I checked my account that Kang-hyun hyung had given me that money too.”

“…”

“I still tried to return it. Really. But… they said if I didn’t pay the settlement money, I might go to prison… so I was too scared…”

Yu-jun, who had started crying at some point, wiped his tears with his fists like a child. Hae-wan spoke quietly toward such Yu-jun.

“Why didn’t you tell me about the accident?”

“…”

“If you had at least told me… we could have found some way to handle it.”

Yu-jun, who hadn’t been able to look at Hae-wan’s eyes the whole time, glanced up slightly and spoke in a crawling voice.

“I know hyung is already struggling without me, so how could I tell you…”

It was the answer he had expected, and Hae-wan quietly bit his lip.

When he heard from Kang-hyun about the amount Yu-jun had received, the first emotion that welled up was bewilderment so intense he couldn’t think rationally. And after inevitably accepting Kang-hyun’s proposal, he became so angry his head burned with heat at being dragged into this situation.

However, during the bus and subway rides home, his anger easily subsided. If getting angry was also an ability, Hae-wan certainly wasn’t born with that talent.

In the place where his brief flare of anger had died down, guilt easily settled in. This came from the fact that the timing when Yu-jun began showing behavioral changes was clear.

Until he had pushed Yu-jun away for Hae-eon’s sake, though Yu-jun had been prone to complaining easily and being overly clingy, he had been far from committing any delinquent acts. Hae-wan knew well that even the occasional harsh words he spat out were actually to hide his timid inner nature.

The miserable feeling of failing to protect someone once again, following Hae-eon, filled his heart completely.

His throat felt tight and his head throbbed. He knew this couldn’t end here, but right now he didn’t even have the energy to say another word.

Hae-wan ran his tongue over his dry lips once and barely managed to speak.

“This is the last time.”

“…”

“If you do something like this one more time… I’ll never see you again.”

At those words, Yu-jun nodded frantically with tears welling in his eyes. Hae-wan silently took off his shoes, passed by Yu-jun, entered the room, and carefully hung his coat on the wall hook.

He knew Yu-jun had followed him in but ignored him and took out underwear and clothes to change into from the drawer. Today he just wanted to wash up and sleep without thinking about anything else.

Unaware of his feelings, Yu-jun asked anxiously.

“Did Yeo Kang-hyun… ask you to return that money…?”

Hae-wan just shook his head and left the room. Yu-jun, who had followed closely behind, continued asking restlessly.

“No? Then he said you don’t have to give it back? Without any conditions?”

Without answering, he entered the bathroom and tried to close the door, but Yu-jun grabbed the door firmly.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Did Yeo Kang-hyun really ask hyung to do something instead of that money?”

“…”

“What, what did he want you to do?”

That was exactly what Hae-wan most wanted to know. Hae-wan muttered harshly.

“What does it matter now?”

He shook off Yu-jun’s stammering hands and slammed the door shut. Though Hae-wan knew the water was still nowhere near warm enough, he raised the showerhead over his head as soon as he undressed. When the cold water poured down, his head rang sharply and his body contracted like his heart might stop.

After enduring the bone-chilling cold, warm water slowly began to pour out. Only after the warm stream calmed his body’s trembling did Hae-wan slowly open his eyes.

Even the harshest moments were bound to pass.

Without even having time to surrender his body to the hot water, Hae-wan sniffled and scrubbed his body clean.

* * *

The next meeting with Kang-hyun was exactly one week later.

It was Wednesday, the only day Hae-wan had off. When he entered the cafe they had agreed to meet at, he saw Kang-hyun sitting askew with his long legs stretched out from under the table, arms crossed.

He was wearing a black mask on his face like when they first met, and despite it covering half his face, his dissatisfied mood was obvious.

When Hae-wan stood in front of him, Kang-hyun spoke in a sarcastic voice.

“Finally gracing me with your precious presence. Have you been well?”

The overly polite tone was clearly mocking. Since Hae-wan had requested he use formal speech, Kang-hyun had been like this the whole time. He sighed inwardly and sat down.

The contact with Kang-hyun over the past week had been a continuous series of tedious arguments.

The first was about speech patterns. Kang-hyun tried to use casual speech familiarly, but Hae-wan insisted on formal speech, asking hadn’t he said he would treat him like someone he was meeting for the first time.

Whatever Kang-hyun wanted from him, Hae-wan had firmly resolved that he absolutely must not let this relationship continue beyond one month. Formal speech was one of the rules for that purpose. If they used casual speech, they would treat each other familiarly and might unnecessarily close the emotional distance.

Up to that point, Kang-hyun seemed to reluctantly give in, but regarding meeting times, they could hardly narrow the gap in their opinions.

Hae-wan insisted that since Wednesday was his only day off, having one meal then would be the most reasonable meeting, but Kang-hyun got irritated, saying that would mean they’d only meet four times total, and they could barely accomplish anything with just four meetings.

Honestly, even he thought it was shameless. They had agreed to meet for one month instead of twenty million won (though he questioned whether meeting with him was worth that much), so it was natural to be annoyed if he suggested meeting only four times and ending it.

But debt was debt and making a living was making a living, so not having time was unavoidable.

This was Hae-wan’s second rule. Not letting meetings with Kang-hyun affect his daily life in other ways.

In last night’s phone call, after hearing Hae-wan’s schedule, Kang-hyun immediately suggested he would give him that money, no, double or triple it, so he wanted him to quit work and meet with him in the free time, but Hae-wan rejected it as soon as the words finished.

That was exactly why Kang-hyun was now sitting in front of him with an angry face.

“Why on earth can’t you quit work? You don’t want to take my money or something?”

Kang-hyun, who had abandoned the pretense of pleasant greetings, spoke in a blunt voice. Though Hae-wan didn’t like pointless arguments, he had something to say about this issue.

“No, I want to take it too. Because it’s easy money.”

Perhaps it was an unexpected answer, as Kang-hyun hesitated.

“But stability in life is more important to me than the easy money I’d receive for one month.”

Hae-wan took a breath and quickly spat out the words he had prepared.

“After one month, when I won’t be meeting with Mr. Yeo Kang-hyun anymore, I’ll have to find new part-time work anyway, and you probably don’t know since you haven’t tried it, but finding part-time work isn’t easy these days. And the places I’m working at now have good bosses, decent hourly wages for the work intensity, and they’re good positions. So I don’t want to lose them.”

At those words, Kang-hyun made a disgruntled sound.

“Who said we won’t see each other after one month?”

When Hae-wan didn’t answer and kept his mouth firmly shut, Kang-hyun, who didn’t even try to hide his sigh, said.

“Then at least don’t do the evening designated driving. That’s something you can take a break from without it mattering. If you meet me during that time, I’ll give you the equivalent of what you earn driving for others instead. Deal?”

That was acceptable enough. Hae-wan nodded.

“Then what kind of work should I do?”

“Work?”

“Yes. You said you’d employ me instead of the work I’m doing now.”

“Do I have to give you work? I’ll just give you money. That works, doesn’t it?”

Hae-wan said firmly.

“I don’t like that. If that’s the case, I’d rather just do the work I’m doing now.”

Kang-hyun closed his mouth like he couldn’t believe it, then shook his head.

“Don’t most people get really happy when you say you’ll just give them money? And you said you liked easy money earlier.”

“I like easy money but I don’t like free money.”

“What’s the difference? Money is money.”

At Kang-hyun’s voice of incomprehension, Hae-wan unconsciously smiled bitterly to himself.

Right, someone like Kang-hyun wouldn’t understand. He probably lived a life where he could just glance at money as numbers printed on bank statements or records and move on.

But Hae-wan was different. Every bit of money that came into his hands had a purpose, and he had to prioritize them according to their importance. Besides money that had to be spent immediately for essentials like monthly rent, living expenses, and food costs, he also had to think about whether it would be money he wouldn’t regret spending.

This applied not only to money going out but also to money coming in, and there was a clear difference between money he could earn honorably and claim as entirely his own versus money he couldn’t.

That there was no money given for free in the world was a lesson Hae-wan had learned painfully during the eight years he had to endure after coming up to Seoul with nowhere to rely on.

Unable to explain all those things in detail, Hae-wan just said quietly.

“Easy money is money I can at least make excuses for later, but free money doesn’t even have that excuse, so I don’t like it.”

Kang-hyun still looked unconvinced but said reluctantly.

“Fine. After your convenience store work ends, come to my shop to clean and help with odd jobs. The salary will be triple whatever you’re getting now, no matter what. Deal?”

The word ‘shop’ that came from Kang-hyun’s mouth was unexpected, so Hae-wan hesitated briefly before answering.

“What kind… of shop is it?”

At Hae-wan’s curious voice, Kang-hyun smiled slightly.

“You’ll find out when you come.”

At the puzzling answer, Hae-wan blinked.