The doorbell rang, and Jeong Taeui stopped in his tracks. The bean fell off the chopsticks he was holding and rolled onto the plate. It only took a few seconds for it to roll off the plate and leave a long, sticky trail on the table, and at the same time, the doorbell rang again.
Jeong Taeui gently put down his chopsticks and cautiously turned his eyes towards the entrance. He had a bad feeling when he heard faint footsteps coming up the stairs.
No, to be exact, he had been feeling uncomfortable since he woke up, because whenever it rained, his knees would ache. Whenever the weather changed and there was a drizzle, his knees would scream. But it had never hurt as much as it did today, which was a bad omen.
Jeong Taeui had just prepared a simple breakfast and had a few drinks in his mood, as bad as the harsh weather with drizzling rain. The footsteps coming from outside became even clearer.
With this old apartment building that was built more than 20 years ago, just a cat walking in can make the sound resonate all the way to the top floor.
And on the third floor right below the rooftop, someone came to Jeong Taeui's house at 7am in the early morning. From the moment he heard footsteps coming up the stairs, he had a bad feeling.
And the moment the doorbell rang, that omen became reality.
Hardly anyone comes to his house. The only person who lives with him here is his brother, but he left four days ago, and he won't ring the doorbell because he has the key.
The heavy footsteps stopped outside the door. The person rang the bell again while he was deep in thought. The knocking and footsteps came again. It was a heavy sound. It sounded like military boots.
The moment he remembered the three words "military boots", his premonition became even stronger, this time the doorbell rang three or four times in a row. He had only eaten a few bites of rice but his appetite had already decreased, so he put down his chopsticks once more.
The man standing outside the door, carrying the ominous omen, showed no signs of backing down. He felt even more depressed when someone refused to knock or say anything, just stood there and rang the doorbell repeatedly.
When the doorbell rang for the twelfth time, Jeong Taeui helplessly stood up and walked towards the door. The person standing outside the door took a step back when the door opened. The shoes that made the heavy sound were clean military boots without a speck of dust on them. The man was wearing a neat, wrinkle-free, tailored military uniform, no, no, not a military uniform, just a uniform. But the place where this man worked was not much different from the army.
The small silver badge pinned to his collar was particularly obnoxious. After all, it was a badge that many people in the world drooled over but could never get their hands on.
Nothing good ever happened to this man in his house, wearing a neat uniform and that badge. It must be said that this was the third or fourth time he had seen the man in this uniform.
The black gloves removed the hat he was wearing. The man looked at Jeong Taeui and smiled gently.
"Long time no see. Anything special happened?"
It had been about three years since he had last seen this man. A lot had happened in that time.
He almost died while defusing bombs and almost died from a drug reaction during surgery, he almost killed someone and was discharged before serving half his required time.
Jeong Taeui stared at the man for a moment with a complicated expression and then sighed.
I don't know if there's anything special about me that you don't know. But what's the matter that you came here at this hour without contacting me… please come in."
No wonder I have such a bad feeling.
It wasn't that Jeong Taeui didn't like this man, but he felt uncomfortable seeing him come to visit him in this outfit. Then again, it was possible that he had come to look for his brother, not him, and he didn't bring any bad news, Jeong Taeui let out a sigh of relief.
However, as Jeong Taeui stepped aside feeling like he was welcoming a plague into his home, the man's face was filled with joy, without a trace of displeasure. Jeong Taeui asked after closing the door.
"When did you come back?"
"Two hours ago. I just got back from the airport."
"Ah, I see… but you should have contacted me before coming. I wasn't home."
The man threw himself onto the sofa in a comfortable position that didn't match his unwrinkled uniform, and as soon as he heard Jeong Taeui speak, he stopped for a moment and looked at him.
"No? So when will it be back?"
"I don't know. He left four days ago and I couldn't contact him. Did you come back to Korea just to see him? If so, you wasted your time."
"Is there no way to contact it?"
"If it was that easy to contact him, he wouldn't be Jeong Jaeui. You know it, so why are you asking?"
Jeong Taeui sat on the chair opposite the man and responded indifferently.
His brother was an erratic person. If he had to go out for a day or two, he would let him know and leave. But there were times when he would leave without a return date. Sometimes he would come back for three to five days, and sometimes it would be more than two months without any news from him. Now he didn't know when he would come back.
But this time he had a feeling that he wouldn't see him for a long time. Four days ago, while walking on the road, his brother said something incomprehensible and then left.
"There is no fun in living a life filled with nothing but good luck. I also want to experience the so-called bad luck."
Jeong Taeui was lost in thought for a moment as he recalled the image of his brother who had left with a smile as meaningless as those words. He was originally considered a difficult person to understand, but no matter how hard he tried to guess what he meant by that, he was helpless.
But…
"Um, what to do now…"
Looking at the way he was muttering something incomprehensible while tapping his forehead with his fingertips, Jeong Taeui remembered what his brother had said, 'I want to experience the so-called bad luck again'. He was someone who could turn bad luck into good luck in an instant. At this rate, he wouldn't be able to experience the so-called bad luck for the rest of his life.
Jeong Taeui has an older brother born on the same day and hour as him. Even though they are twins, his brother looks nothing like him, and he is also frighteningly intelligent. Even the word genius is not enough to describe his intelligence.
If his brother wasn't a person with an indifferent and somewhat indulgent personality, and if he wasn't a person who had no interest in the surrounding society, and didn't have even the slightest ambition, then to put it exaggeratedly, he could have blown a continent off the face of the earth.
Even the United Nations human resource training organization coveted him for his exceptional talents ranging from social sciences to engineering and even arts.
On the contrary, Jeong Taeui was a very ordinary person. Or rather, a little better than ordinary. No matter what he did, he never fell below average. There were also times when he heard others say that he was excellent in certain areas.
However, if Jeong Taeui was praised as excellent, it must have been the result of his relentless efforts. Unlike his brother who could easily achieve the highest score without even half the effort of others.
But Jeong Taeui never envied his brother for that. He thought it would help him in some ways, but he never wanted that kind of talent.
What Jeong Taeui envied about his brother wasn't his intelligence or ability. What he envied was his brother's rare luck.
His older brother, Jeong Jaeui, was an extremely lucky person. So much so that even his genius brain, which was said to be the genius of geniuses, could not compare. His luck was so great that it was not enough to say that he was born under a lucky star. Even if he was caught up in a major accident, luck would keep him safe and sound without a single scratch on his body. When he was a student, he never received any pocket money. Because there was no need for it.
He is a person who has no material desires so he doesn't need much money. But if something unexpected happens and he needs to spend money but doesn't have any, he will borrow a few coins from people around him and buy a lottery ticket.
If so, then that day's lottery brought him exactly the amount of money he needed.
It always works out that way.
While Jeong Jaeui took luck for granted as a normal part of life, Jeong Taeui experienced normal luck and misfortune just like a normal person. It would be a lie if he didn't envy his brother's luck in having such a life.
When I was little, I was very jealous of him. It was the jealousy that anyone would have towards the wonderful and good things that they could not have. But when I grew up, it was not that much anymore.
He likes his brother though.
He had an extremely wrinkled brain and the ability to use it was unsurpassed, despite his extremely good luck, his personality was not hateful at all. Although he was a bit unusual and cold, as a younger brother, he found it completely normal. His brother was simply trustworthy.
I still consider him as a good brother.
… … Even though they have lived together for 20 years now, he is still a person with many difficult points to understand, but it seems that all geniuses are like that, he doesn't know either. But he feels that maybe his brother doesn't like him very much.
Four days before he left home, the night before.
As usual, he was staring at a complicated blueprint of something that Jeong Taeui couldn't understand, and occasionally wrote chemical formulas and molecular model drawings next to it. Jeong Taeui thought to himself that he was probably lost in his own 'unknown world' as he looked at those unfamiliar numbers and chemical formulas. He climbed onto the sofa next to him and took out a normal literature book that he could understand and read it.
It was a quiet and comfortable night like any other. His brother stared at the papers for a long time, not knowing if he was tired or not, he pushed them aside and lay on the floor with a blank expression as if he had lost his soul, staring up at the ceiling.
Then, a tired sigh was heard. He suddenly went to Jeong Taeui's side and sat down, holding his pinky finger and said.
"Here…"
Then he spread his pinky finger out and continued speaking.
"There is a red thread tied between these two fingers. We were born on the same day, at the same time, so perhaps it is natural, there is no other way…. so, let's cut it."
"... …What?"
His words were difficult to understand. He was the type of person who always did things that I couldn't understand. But he never said anything that I didn't understand.
It was true that he had an abnormal brain, but now Jeong Taeui really doubted whether his brain was actually normal in the conventional sense.
However, his brother just looked at him with a calm gaze and opened his two fingers to form a pair of scissors, pretending to cut the invisible red 'thread' between his pinky finger and Jeong Taeui, as if he was cutting off an invisible relationship.
And then, he looked up at the ceiling again as if nothing had happened. Jeong Taeui kept his pinky finger in the same place and stared at it before suddenly asking.
"You… You actually hate me, right?"
Or maybe he had done something recently that made him hate him, Jeong Taeui searched his memory but couldn't remember doing such a thing. What was the problem? What was so serious that he would suddenly say to cut the thread that connected them like that? (Even though he didn't see it)
When Jeong Taeui asked that question, Jeong Jaeui turned to look at him with a surprised look.
"Why you?"
His brother said so. Jeong Taeui tilted his head and stared at his brother. But he didn't know what he was thinking. He turned back to look at the book in confusion without saying another word.
But if I think about it now, maybe the meaning behind that sentence was, 'Then why should I like you' right?
No matter how much he wondered now, the only person who could answer that question had left without a return date. He left saying that he wanted to endure the surrounding misfortune.
Jeong Taeui thought he had said everything on his mind, but seeing him leave like that was very, very lucky. He left before this troublesome guest could arrive and bring trouble with him.