The Scent of Beer and Charcoal Smoke

We executed a neat U-turn and hopped out of the parked taxi. Kyung stretched his arms toward the sky, looking as though he had been terribly suffocated during that remarkably brief ride.

“Ughaaaa!”

Letting out an utterly bizarre noise, Kyung whirled around to face me as I stepped out a second behind him.

“Do not reply to them. Let’s pretend to be asleep.”

“Why?”

“You explicitly agreed to eat fried chicken with me.”

“Will replying somehow prevent us from eating chicken?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Kyung marched right up to me and abruptly grabbed my head between his hands.

“Hey, what the…”

“You didn’t hit your head anywhere back there, did you?”

“I am perfectly fine.”

“Then why on earth are you asking such obvious questions?”

Despite completely lacking a medical license, Kyung began forcefully pressing around my cranium as if conducting a thorough examination. I bent my waist and slipped my head out from his grasp, taking a step backward to secure a proper distance.

“I have every right to ask.”

As I roughly shook out my disheveled hair to straighten it, Kyung countered with a thoroughly dissatisfied tone.

“Because those punks absolutely detest it whenever you hang out with me, senior.”

“Why?”

“If I actually knew the answer to that, do you think I’d be standing here like this? I would have set up a fortune-telling stall immediately.”

Pulling out the smartphone whose screen had already gone dark, I illuminated the display and accessed the messaging application. Right next to Sibling 2’s chatroom at the absolute top of the log, I inspected the tiny profile picture.

The person leaning far too close to the camera lens, revealing only the eyes and the bridge of the nose, was undeniably me. However, the face of the individual standing right behind me was far too small to discern properly. I tapped the chatroom to enter.

[Sibling 2: Are you currently working?]

A fresh message arrived instantly. Instead of typing out a response, I tapped the thumbnail image to expand it fully.

Standing behind my dazed self, who was grinning like an absolute fool for some unknown reason, was a man with a beverage straw clamped between his lips. While his facial features were partially obscured by the plastic cup, he was, without a shadow of a doubt, a complete stranger.

Who on earth is this? Who exactly is this guy to be taking photos like this with me?

[Sibling 2: Brother]

[Sibling 1: Should I come pick you up?]

No matter how much I zoomed in, zoomed out, or rotated the smartphone screen, the face remained entirely unfamiliar.

Staring at my intensely vibrating phone, Kyung extracted a cigarette and placed it between his lips.

“Give me one too.”

Reaching into the pack Kyung extended toward me, I pulled out a cigarette. Just as I slid it between my lips, the phone rang with a call from ‘Sibling 1.’ I answered. Slipping the tip of my cigarette over the flame of the lighter Kyung held out, I brought the phone tightly against my ear.

“Hello.”

Whoever this person was, his voice was remarkably handsome. Taking a deep drag from the cigarette, I exhaled a thick cloud of smoke before uttering a quiet, “Yeah.”

• Are you smoking?

“Yeah.”

From the other end of the receiver, the faint sound of a heavy sigh blended with the distant rumble of a vehicle driving down a road. The sudden influx of nicotine made my head spin instantly. I removed the cigarette from my lips and held it between my fingers.

• You’re with Seo Kyung.

“How did you know?”

• …I will head over to your location.

Having caught the audio leaking from the receiver, Kyung let out a deep, resounding sigh. I stared at the disconnected call before slipping the cigarette back between my lips.

“We will have to order an entire additional chicken.”

Staring at the glowing embers of the burning tobacco, I kept the cigarette resting between my lips and questioned.

“But Kyung-ah.”

“What is it?”

“Who exactly is this guy?”

Kyung turned his gaze to look at me, his expression perfectly mirroring someone who had just heard something entirely preposterous.

My father passed away when I was in middle school, and my mother departed this world while I was serving my mandatory military duty. Because I became completely solitary at an age where I was fully capable of taking legal responsibility for my own body, life wasn’t overwhelmingly agonizing… yet there were moments when the reality of being left entirely alone felt bone-chillingly lonely and exhausting.

During those exact moments. Whenever my heart sank into deep sorrow, the person who stubbornly remained by my side was Kyung.

Seo Kyung. An incredibly bizarre junior who possessed absolutely zero interest in writing prose and significantly preferred kicking a soccer ball over reading books, yet willingly submitted an application form to join a literary club that was on the absolute brink of disbandment. The very same junior who would read my highly pretentious, superficial poetry and shower me with praise, claiming it was miraculous that I could formulate such concepts and that I was truly a magnificent person. The junior who silently, faithfully anchored himself beside me while I was utterly intoxicated by my own depression and emptiness.

After I transitioned into ‘Kaian,’ Kyung was the individual I envisioned and missed the absolute most.

Because he was the single, solitary lingering attachment I had left behind in this world.

After scanning Kyung’s studio apartment—which I was stepping into for the first time in ten long years—I plopped heavily onto the floor. Shucking off his heavy outerwear to hang it up, Kyung hurled a pair of sweatpants directly at my face, instructing me to change my clothes first. I caught the fabric deftly before it could strike me, rolling it into a tight bundle to utilize as a makeshift pillow instead.

“Good grief, honestly.”

Clicking his tongue as if he had fully anticipated that exact response, Kyung proceeded to change his clothes. Watching his movements, I let out a low groan while executing a deep stretch before turning my head. A tightly rolled duvet sat in the corner, looking as though he had rushed out in the morning without tidying his bed. I dragged it over and blanketed my stomach.

“You’re claiming those two are my ‘siblings’?”

Just as he was about to slip his head through the collar of his t-shirt, Kyung froze mid-motion, pivoting his upper body to stare at me with an incredibly awkward posture.

“Do you genuinely possess no memory of them?”

There was absolutely no way I would forget. If I had actually possessed siblings—a family of my own—I would never have been consumed by such a devastating, hollow loneliness.

I stared at Kyung with a perfectly level gaze.

“For real?”

“Yeah.”

“But you remember me perfectly fine?”

“Yeah.”

Tilting his head in sheer bewilderment, Kyung let out a soft ahaha laugh before finally pulling the t-shirt completely over his frame.

“What am I supposed to do if he decides to murder me?”

“Who?”

“Your younger brothers, senior.”

I pulled the duvet tightly against my chest before spreading it out properly to ensure my stomach remained fully covered. We were supposed to be eating fried chicken, but the moment I lay down, an intense drowsiness began to wash over me. Considering it was well past three in the morning, it was only natural for sleep to claim me… Squeezing my eyes shut, I murmured quietly.

“I will protect you.”

“Yeah, right.”

Kyung let out a sharp snort. Realizing he wouldn’t believe me even if I insisted it was the absolute truth, I refrained from offering further explanation.

“Senior Eun-chan.”

At the sound of the calling voice, I forced my eyes open. I must have drifted off into sleep while resting in a daze. Letting out a low groan while burying my face into the duvet, I finally lifted my head. Kyung stood before me, clad in his padded winter coat while holding a black plastic bag. Catching a glimpse of a plastic beer pitcher cap poking past the opening of the bag, I roughly shook off my sleepiness and sat up.

“You should have woken me.”

“You were sleeping so peacefully.”

Kyung deposited the bag containing the beer right next to the cardboard chicken box. Letting out a massive yawn, I vigorously scratched the back of my neck.

“Then you should have simply allowed me to keep sleeping.”

“Consuming food entirely by oneself makes it taste utterly wretched.”

“Well, that much is true.”

Watching him drop onto the floor and dismantle the paper wrapping of the wooden chopsticks, I scurried forward on my knees. The exact moment the chicken box flipped open, a intensely sweet fragrance wafted heavily into the air. Scanning the contents—which were precisely half soy sauce flavor and half garlic flavor—I picked up a small piece with my bare fingers and popped it into my mouth. Kyung grabbed the container of pickled radishes and headed toward the bathroom to drain the liquid before returning.

As I had repeatedly deduced while enduring that prolonged dream, this scenario was entirely too detailed for a mere illusion. Was there truly a structural necessity to implement such meticulous details? Kyung snapped a pair of chopsticks apart and extended them toward me. I accepted them and casually set them down on the floor.

“Do not eat with your bare hands.”

“What does it matter?”

Feigning ignorance toward his nagging retort, I picked up another piece of chicken with my fingers and brought it to my lips. While pouring beer into a paper cup, Kyung used his foot to nudge my knee. My body slid backward slightly from the pressure. Just as I was about to utter a sharp hey you, the doorbell rang. Kyung deposited the half-filled paper cup right beside me before standing up.

“Who on earth is visiting at this hour?”

“Who else could it possibly be?”

Well, I certainly wouldn’t know. Instead of offering a verbal reply, I used my chopsticks to spear a piece of radish, crunching down on it before lifting the paper cup.

The exact moment I brought the foam-filled cup to my lips, the early morning visitor stepped across the threshold. I downed the remaining contents of the cup in a single, continuous gulp.

“Brother.”

An individual who possessed an appearance so perfectly, impeccably handsome he looked as though he had been drawn by an artist, called out to me.

A burst of absurd laughter escaped my lips. I had almost been completely deceived by the fairly plausible narrative structure suggesting that my transition into ‘Kaian’ upon death was merely a fabrication and that I had actually survived… but now, I knew with absolute certainty.

This was undeniably not reality. There was absolutely no structural possibility that a creature so inhumanly handsome could share ‘my’ bloodline.

Staring intently at the face of the ‘sibling’ who had seated himself directly opposite me, I set the paper cup back down onto the floor.

“Why are you here?”

As he questioned me with an intensely gentle, well-mannered tone befitting a compliant child, a faint crimson light flickered momentarily within the depths of his eyes. A manifestation of Capre’s power—an impossibility in the world to which the true, original version of myself belonged.

“Because I wanted to eat fried chicken.”

“You could have easily eaten at home.”

Kyung stepped forward, murmuring, “He has every right to desire eating outside,” before settling himself right down beside me.

Deciding to process the exact mechanics of this bizarre situation at a later time, I resolved to focus entirely on enjoying this combination of chicken and beer for the first time in ten long years. Ah, but before that.

“Would you like a drink?”

At my sudden proposal, the fellow extracted a paper cup and extended it toward me. I promptly filled his cup to the absolute brim with pure foam.

“Hey, Jung Eun-ho.”

Kyung addressed the fellow directly. Repeating the name internally—which shared two identical syllables with my own name, ‘Jung Eun-chan’—I observed him intently. His docile-looking brown eyes shifted away from Kyung, who had just called his name, to lock directly with mine. I gestured toward Kyung with a flick of my chin before picking up another piece of chicken. The fellow slowly turned his head toward Kyung and questioned.

“What?”

“Is Eun-soo coming as well?”

“Probably not.”

The first sibling was Jung Eun-ho, and the second sibling was Jung Eun-soo. Combining their names yielded Eun-ho and Eun-soo—Lake.

“Do not hand cigarettes to our brother.”

He was addressing Kyung without any honorifics. Are they perhaps the exact same age? Resting my elbows against my crossed knees, I propped my chin in my hands and shifted my gaze back and forth between the two of them.

“I refuse. I intend to smoke alongside him until the day we die.”

The fellow turned his gaze back to lock with mine. Despite his entirely expressionless face, the fact that his underlying dissatisfaction was completely visible struck me as highly amusing. Letting out a soft laugh, I offered an excuse on Kyung’s behalf.

“It’s only an occasional thing, so what does it matter?”

“You explicitly stated you were going to quit.”

“Since I was the one who originally taught him how to smoke, it feels somewhat irresponsible to simply leave him to smoke entirely by himself.”

Kyung chimed in instantly, echoing my sentiment. “Exactly.”

“Because of a certain someone, I am currently in my eighth year of smoking. You need to take proper responsibility.”

Kyung was a first-year in high school and I was a third-year when we secretly lit up our very first cigarettes behind the annex rooftop building, and to think that was already eight years ago. Just as I had frequently realized while living as ‘Kaian,’ time truly flows with terrifying speed.

Observing Kyung lift the plastic beer pitcher, I instantly extended my paper cup toward him. The fellow narrowed his eyes slightly while trained on my form. Feigning utter ignorance, I lifted the completely filled cup to my lips. Finding it structurally difficult to direct harsh words toward me, the fellow shifted his target back to Kyung.

“Then you should quit as well.”

“The moment you actually address me as brother.”

At Kyung’s sharp retort, the fellow opened his mouth to speak before firmly clamping his lips shut. Ah, so they weren’t the exact same age after all. In that case, it was structurally correct for him to address Kyung as an older brother… but I didn’t feel inclined to force the matter. Within this specific domain, he might manifest as ‘my’ younger brother, Jung Eun-ho… but fundamentally, he wasn’t.

Isn’t that right, Kallios?

Catching a brief glimpse of the fellow lowering his gaze while I covered my mouth to conceal my laughter, I lifted my cup. I quickly extended my own cup, clinking it lightly against his.

But if Sibling 1, ‘Eun-ho,’ was actually Kallios… then who on earth was Sibling 2, ‘Eun-soo’?

“Ugh… Senior Eun-chan…”

Kyung called out to me while letting out a deathly groan. Squeezing my eyes shut before forcing them open, I muttered a low, “Uuugh…” in response.

“Are you awake?”

I pulled down the duvet that had been dragged completely over the top of my head. Kyung came into view, curled into a tight ball on the bare floor while huddled beneath his padded winter coat. Whether it was because he hadn’t fully recovered from the alcohol, his face remained heavily flushed and his eyelids were thoroughly swollen. The absolute state of him was so amusing it provoked a quiet chuckle out of me.

“Wow, you look incredibly ugly right now.”

“You happen to look profoundly ugly yourself at this exact moment, senior.”

“Not true.”

A denying voice drifted over from the absolute foot of the bed. Fully extending my curled-up limbs, I shifted into a proper lying posture to verify the source of the sound. Unlike the absolute disaster that Kyung and I embodied, the fellow—whose physical appearance was completely immaculate, practically radiating a brilliant sheen—was sitting propped against the wall while looking at his smartphone.

Staring at him intently, I questioned.

“What time is it right now?”

“Two o’clock.”

Vigorously rubbing my eyes, I bolted upright into a sitting position.

“Kyung-ah. Sleep properly over here on the bed.”

“Are you leaving?”

“I have to. Back to my house.”

My stomach was churning violently and my head throbbed with a persistent ache, making me desire nothing more than to rest a bit longer, and I genuinely wanted to grab a bowl of hangover soup with Kyung. However, considering the fellow who had been patiently sitting there waiting entirely for me, returning quickly felt like the structurally correct choice to make.

Crawling on all fours, I slid out from beneath the duvet. Kyung let out another deathly “Uuuugh…” groan before rolling entirely over to lie face down on the mattress. I delivered a light pat to Kyung’s rear before executing a massive stretch. A sharp crack echoed from my spine. Ah, I feel like I’m going to die. Shaking my head vigorously like a wet puppy, I stood up.

“Let’s go.”

“Okay.”

The fellow rose from his spot instantly, reaching over to retrieve my outerwear hanging from the wall. Looking up at the younger brother who stood an entire head taller than me even within this specific domain, a soft smile spread across my face. After giving the fabric a few casual shakes to dust it off, he carefully draped the coat over my shoulders.