MBFWM 01

Chapter 1

My older brother died in a sudden accident.

It was a hit-and-run caused by a drunk driver. He had been on his way home late after his farewell party, having handed in his resignation at the law firm that very day to prepare for opening his own private law office.

“AAAH! Hwan! My son! My precious son!”

Listening to her mother’s heart-rending screams, Lee Jin desperately swallowed back her tears. Everything that had happened felt like an unreal dream.

She prayed again and again that this was just a nightmare that would disappear when she woke up, but she knew perfectly well that it was a futile wish.

“Please come this way. Yes, just put that there.”

Her father had passed away twenty-three years ago, leaving behind a simple household of three who had relied solely on one another. They didn’t even have any close relatives they could properly turn to for family matters.

So at least she, as the chief mourner, had to keep her head straight.

“Thank you for coming. Please get home safely.”

She mechanically repeated the process of greeting and seeing off the visitors. Her friends and people from her university club had come to pay their respects, but they couldn’t take over the role of chief mourner for her, so she sent them home early.

“Hwan…… My son……”

The main reason was that she honestly didn’t want anyone to keep seeing her mother like this.

Even in a situation like this, it was ridiculous that she was still clinging to such a petty sense of pride.

While she was bitterly mocking herself, her mother’s sobbing continued. What if she collapsed from crying like that?

Lee Jin knew all too well what her brother had meant to their mother, so she couldn’t bring herself to tell her to stop crying.

To her mother, Hwan had been her entire life, the light that illuminated her existence.

Lee Jin stared blankly at the portrait of Lee Hwan.

It was a photograph taken on the day he passed the bar exam. His face was smiling so brightly, without a trace of darkness, which made the photograph all the more heartbreaking.

It was while Lee Jin was staring blankly at Hwan’s portrait that a heavy presence suddenly filled the funeral hall.

A man far taller and broader than anyone who had come before him immediately dominated the space. In a low, subdued voice, he called her name.

“Seo Lee Jin.”

Startled, she snapped out of her thoughts. Then she turned toward the man who had called her name.

“Hyun-oppa……”

His name escaped Lee Jin’s lips like a moan.

Moon Kang Hyun, her older brother’s friend, who had practically lived at their house throughout their school days.

It had been five years since he had suddenly cut off all contact with them.

“It’s been a long time.”

His casually spoken greeting was exactly the same as it had been before.

But the older brother who used to playfully slap his back beside him was no longer in this world.

The realization struck Lee Jin like a disaster. She bit her lip, then belatedly returned his greeting.

“You heard the news too, oppa. I didn’t know you would come. Still, thank you for coming. I’m sure Hwan-oppa would be happy.”

As she forced herself to speak calmly, Kang Hyun’s gaze lingered heavily over Lee Jin’s face.

Then, without saying anything, he turned his head toward Hwan’s portrait.

The sorrow he couldn’t completely conceal pooled deeply in his eyes. After staring at the photograph for a long while, he placed a single chrysanthemum before it and prayed for the deceased’s peaceful rest.

“Hwan…… my son……”

Go Myeong-sun had lost the strength even to wail. In a heavily hoarse voice, she murmured Hwan’s name like a groan.

Kang Hyun took her hand.

Perhaps because the firm hand clasping hers felt almost like her son’s, Go Myeong-sun abruptly stopped crying and raised her head.

“Mother, it’s me, Kang Hyun.”

“K-Kang Hyun?”

Focus gradually returned to Go Myeong-sun’s eyes. She tightly grasped her son’s friend’s hand as though he were her own son.

“Kang Hyun, Hwan…… He wasn’t a child who was supposed to leave like this……”

Unable to withstand the grief that surged through her once again, Go Myeong-sun broke into sobs.

Kang Hyun silently patted her shoulder.

After crying for a long time, Go Myeong-sun eventually fell asleep as though she had fainted. Lee Jin put her to sleep in a room at the side of the funeral hall and came back out with a long sigh.

Then her eyes met Kang Hyun’s.

He hadn’t left immediately after paying his respects. Instead, he had stayed and helped with everything the entire time.

As though he were family.

It was almost absurd that she had sent everyone else home while accepting Kang Hyun’s help.

But because of him, she realized something.

Maybe this is too much for me to handle all by myself.

There were no mourners coming at this late hour, so the funeral hall was empty.

“Sit down for a bit.”

Kang Hyun gestured with his chin.

The two of them sat side by side on the floor, their backs against the wall.

“Thank you for helping.”

“Of course I should help. Hwan wasn’t a stranger to me.”

If he wasn’t a stranger, then why did you cut off contact for five years?

The question flashed through Lee Jin’s mind, but she didn’t ask.

Since Hwan himself had never said anything about it, she figured there must have been something between them that she didn’t know about.

The two remained silent for a moment.

Lee Jin didn’t find the silence awkward.

Perhaps that meant Kang Hyun was still as comfortable a presence to her as a real older brother, despite the fact that they were meeting again after five years.

As she sat there quietly, exhaustion began to wash over her.

Her head throbbed from forcing back her tears all day long so that she wouldn’t cry.

Seeing Lee Jin pressing her temples with both hands, Kang Hyun asked,

“Are you okay?”

“Ah…… I’m okay. I’m a little tired, but if I rest, I’ll be fi—”

“I’m not asking about your body. I’m asking if you’re okay here.”

He lightly tapped his chest.

His action was utterly casual, but the meaning behind it was anything but.

He was asking whether her heart was okay, not her body.

Once Lee Jin understood what he meant, her eyes began to tremble.

“You haven’t cried even once yet, have you?”

How could he know that?

Lee Jin’s mind went blank for a moment.

“Th-that’s because I…… I have to keep my head together, at least for Mom……”

“Seo Lee Jin, you haven’t changed at all. You still think you have to face the world all by yourself.”

“What do you mean?”

She bristled at his words, but then a large hand was gently placed on top of her head.

“You’re not alone. So it’s okay to grieve.”

Why did those words affect her so much?

Why did that large, rough hand affect her so deeply?

The sorrow she had been suppressing all this time overflowed like a dam bursting open.

Tears spilled down her cheeks.

She had been holding them back so well, yet they burst forth with such heartbreaking ease.

“Sniff…… Oppa…… They said my brother died. They said I’ll never be able to see him again. But none of it feels real to me. What am I supposed to do?”

“Yeah. I can’t believe it either.”

“He had his whole future ahead of him. He was so happy because he was going to open his own office soon. But……”

Why did it have to be my brother? Why did it have to happen to him?

Overcome with despair and devastation, her sobbing grew deeper.

Kang Hyun’s hand remained on top of Lee Jin’s head.

Perhaps because his large hand shielded her face, she was able to cry as much as she wanted.

How long had she cried?

She had probably never cried this much in her entire life.

She had grown so accustomed to smiling and telling her hardworking mother that she was fine that she hadn’t realized until now that she was capable of crying for this long.

Once she came to her senses, embarrassment washed over her.

“Thank you, oppa. I’ve cried enough now.”

She reached up to take his wrist down from where his hand rested on her head.

But instead of immediately moving away, his hand gently brushed across her tear-stained cheek before pulling back.

Through her tear-filled, blurry vision, his face came into view.

Moon Kang Hyun looked slightly different from the older brother’s friend she remembered.

Lee Jin blinked, wondering if she had seen something wrong.

The tears that had pooled in her eyes finally spilled over, clearing her vision.

And there he was—Kang Hyun’s ordinary face, looking just as it always did.

Ah, I knew it. I must have imagined it.

Lee Jin didn’t think much of it and spoke.

“It’s really late. You should go now. Don’t you have to go to work tomorrow?”

“I’m off tomorrow, so it’s fine. I’ll stay here and keep watch. You get some sleep.”

“Huh? Really?”

Lee Jin hesitated for a moment, surprised by his unexpected answer.

“As Hwan’s best friend, I think I can at least do that much.”

Since he wanted to stay and watch over the funeral hall as a friend, there was no way for her to refuse him.

Honestly, she wasn’t in a position to turn down his kindness.

“Thank you. Then I’ll get some sleep over in the corner for a little while. Wake me up right away if anything happens.”

When he saw her roughly settling down on the bare floor, Kang Hyun clicked his tongue.

“What am I going to do with you?”

“Why?”

“Even if you’re only sleeping for a little while, sleep comfortably. Go get a pillow and a blanket.”

Lee Jin pouted.

It was a habit of hers whenever something happened that she didn’t like.

“Fine.”

She went into the room where Go Myeong-sun was sleeping and brought out a pillow and a thin blanket.

“I’m really only going to sleep for a little while. If you get tired, wake me up. Okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Got it.”

Kang Hyun waved his hand, telling her to stop talking and go to sleep.

“Thank you,” Lee Jin murmured in reply before closing her eyes.

She had spent two days without getting a wink of sleep, enduring the sudden devastating news, and she quickly fell asleep.

Wrapped in the blanket up to her neck, her body curled up into a ball, she looked so small that she seemed barely bigger than a handful.

Her eyes were red from crying all day.

Kang Hyun gently brushed away the loose strands of hair clinging to her cheek and tucked them behind her ear.

Then he let out a long sigh and murmured the name of his best friend.

“Seo Lee Hwan, you bastard. Who told you that you could leave this soon?”

You said you’d keep your ironclad defense, didn’t you? You said you wouldn’t allow it until the very moment your eyes were covered with dirt.

Then you should have kept that promise until the very end.

He continued muttering resentful words to the friend he would never be able to see again before adding,

“I’m better than some random bastard, aren’t I? So this time, you’d better let me have a chance.”

His eyes sank into a dark, gloomy expression, revealing all the complicated emotions swirling within him.