Chapter Text
“I heard your brother’s going to found his own guild.”
Yoojin tries not to think about his baby brother, which is hard, cause for the past fifteen years Yoohyun occupied most of his thoughts.
“I’m sure you’re worried sick about him, but he awoke as an S-class, I’m sure he’s gonna be fine. And he has you, thick as thieves the two of you, I’m sure there’s no hardship you can’t face together.” the Ahjumma’s kind voice cut like a knife.
“I’m gonna move away Hyung. I don’t want to hear anything about you anymore, better yet never show your face in front of me again.” what happened to his kind and loveable younger brother? Where is the boy who showed his test results proudly, speaking of how he will help his Hyung retire early? Who’s this cold stranger staring at him?
“You took such good care of your brother after your parents died, but now that he’s gonna become a Hunter you can relax and cut down on work.”
“What do you mean Yoohyun, you’re seventeen, you can’t just take all this responsibility on your own. You don’t have to, let your Hyung help you, I know I’m not awakened but...”
“Exactly, you’re not awakened, you’re weak, you’re only going to stand in my way. I don’t need you anymore Hyung. If you know what’s good for yourself you’re gonna live as if you’re a dead rat.”
“We were always worried about you, seeing you work yourself so much for your brother. You didn’t even get to finish school. Even now, your head is split open, from one of your jobs again no doubt. You won’t have to struggle so much anymore.”
“Yoohyun, how can you say that, we’re family, we’ve always been together!” Yoojin yells, desperately, trying to reach brother.
“Not anymore, we’re not. If people find out about you, I’ll be a laughingstock. From this point, I have no brother.”
“Yoohyun, no!”
Yoojin grabbed his brother’s arm as he was leaving. He couldn’t let Yoohyun abandon him like this, his baby brother is still there, he just has to reach him. If he lets Yoohyun leave right now, they’re never gonna be the same ever again, he knows it. Yoojin just has to remind him of their time together.
But in that moment, due to a foolish misjudgment of his newfound power, or an actual malicious act against his older brother, Yoohyun pushed his brother away, harder than he intended. Yoojin loses his balance and falls, his head knocking against a dresser they keep in the livingroom. The pain doesn’t even register at first, there’s a lot of blood, but Yoojin knows from experience that head wounds bleed a lot so he doesn’t worry, more than the injury, what really caused him pain was the cold look in his brother’s eyes when he turned around without giving him another glance. Who was that man? What did he do to his brother?
“Your brother’s probably going to be busy for a while, it’s a shame we’re not gonna see him anymore.” the old woman keeps prattling away, why, Yoojin doesn’t know, she’s lying anyway, his brother was never liked by their neighbors. “How about you go back to school, money shouldn’t be a problem anymore, and you were always such a smart young man.”
“What?” Yoojin breaths, the first word he says in this conversation.
“Well, your brother’s obviously not gonna have time for college, and it would be a shame if none of you got to go.” oh yeah, college, he worked his ass off for years to send Yoohyun to medical school, all that money’s gonna go to waste now. Why did he even try that hard? “You know...” oh, when will this Ahjumma shut up? “... I always thought you would make a great teacher.”
“Teacher?” that surprised him. Him, a teacher? He didn’t even finish high school.
“Yeah, my brother’s a teacher, and he always said that the best teachers are the ones that care about the children, as if they are their own. And you’ve always been such a bright and kind young man, and so good with kids, you would excel at it, I’m sure.”
Empty words only said in the hope that the Han brothers would remember their neighbor when become successful, she would have never said such a thing if she knew what had transpired the night before. Yoojin was a rotten rope, abandoned by his own brother. But still, the words stayed with him.
The next year Yoojin lived like his brother told him to. It was hard, the first few months, he would wake up in the morning expecting to see his brother in the kitchen, getting ready for school, but the apartment was empty apart from him and an increasingly moldy pile of dirty dishes in the sink. He took to drinking, for a while he was drunk most days, he doesn’t really remember those months, he knows that he was a mess. The neighbors that used to expectantly follow his every move started to avoid his gaze; his jobs started to let him go one by one due to him going to work drunk or hangover and causing problems. Yoojin started to live out of his savings, which, meagre as they were, were enough to keep him afloat, he was not spending much. Most of the money went towards bills, the little electricity and water he was using, the rest went towards soju, cigarettes and the occasional food order. Even in those days, when he was at his lowest, Yoojin never touched Yoohyun’s college fund, not because he thought his brother would come back for it, he simply couldn’t. Using those money would mean accepting that his brother was really gone, that this stranger wearing his face killed him on that fateful day when he awakened. So he kept it, added money to it until he didn’t have paychecks anymore, holding on to it while watching that stranger on tv, the dozens of news stories about the rising star who, even as a teenager, was proving himself even when compared to other S-classes. Yoojin should be proud, but he just feels empty. Yoojin planned to live the rest of his pathetic life like that, drinking his savings away until he has no more. On some days he was wondering if his neighbors are gonna find his rotting corpse one day or if his unpaid bills are gonna get him first and he’s gonna lose the apartment.
The one who plunged him into depression and the one who took him out of it were the same person. And if Yoohyun’s first betrayal brought him despair, the second one brought him fury.
One afternoon, about six months after Yoohyun left, Yoojin was sorting through the bills he would soon be unable to pay when he found a letter addressed to him, from World’s Edge. Just a month ago that letter would have made his heart jump, but now his heart was frozen solid, just like Yoohyun’s stare. Inside was a short message, penned in his brother’s neat handwriting. He remembered the days when he hovered over the kitchen table with Yoohyun, teaching him how to write simple but beautiful characters. Yoojin never had the time to improve his handwriting, but he spent hours making sure that his brother’s was just perfect.
I heard you were let down from all your jobs. Stop making troubles for yourself. This should be enough to pay for everything, I will send this sum every month on this day. When the cost of living rises I will adjust the sum accordingly. Don’t embarrass yourself any further.
World’s Edge Guildmaster
Han Yoohyun
Inside the inconspicuous white envelope, alongside the letter, stood a check signed by Yoohyun. It was worth far more than what he needed, and Yoohyun knew this damn well. That was his plan now? Yoojin was embarassing him too much so he resorted to bribe his own brother
“Hyung, I’m gonna become so rich, you’re gonna retire at forty.” Yoohyun told him one day, after his high school admission.
“I’m sure that my Yoohyun can do it, you’re so smart and great.” Yoojin hugged his brother, something so natural, he never thought he would miss it.
Yoojin started crying. Where was his brother? Where was the little boy he gave up everything for? He gave his youth, his education, his childhood, all for Yoohyun. He was just twenty-two, but he already felt like a parent who had to bury his child.
He stared a lot at that letter. It felt like a final nail in the coffin, and after a while it didn’t fill him with anger anymore, but with resolve. His brother obviously washed his hands clean of him, so he will do the same. The very next day he took the envelope to the post office and send it back, with his own message inside.
I don’t need your money
Yoojin didn’t sign himself, why would he? Yoohyun knew who he was. Or maybe he didn’t, because if he did he would know that Yoojin would never accept hush money. And to make sure his point lands, he makes sure that any letters addressed to him from World’s Edge would go right back to them.
That day Yoojin cleaned his apartment for the first time in months, all the while thinking about his neighbor’s words, all those months ago, “How about you go back to school...”, yeah, how about? And that’s what he did. He took down all the pictures of his brother; and dug in his room for all the books he threw his hard-earned money on without a second thought. And for what? That bastard didn’t even go to college.
The next few months flew by faster, and this time Yoojin actually remembered them. He used the little money he had left to support himself just a few more months. All his time was dedicated to studying, he was long out of practice at that, but Yoojin was good at adapting. He barely ate or slept and almost completely gave up soju, he refused to be the screw up his brother considered him to be.
After about three months he got another letter from World’s Edge, with an even bigger check. Yoohyun probably realized that his payments were not received and found another way to bribe his worthless brother. This time Yoojin didn’t even read the letter that came with the check, simply send it back with a message written on the back of the envelop:
If I receive any more, I’ll burn them
Life went on, his CSAT scores were not amazing, far from what Yoohyun probably got, if he even bothered to take the exam, but he passed, and for the first time in a long time he felt proud. He didn’t get into any fancy colleges, but he didn’t want to, he chose a small one, a bit outside of Seol, where no one knew him or his connection the World’s Edge Guildmaster. And so, for the first time in his life, Yoojin moved, it was strange, to put his entire life in boxes, and even stranger when he realized that he didn’t have a lot of possessions. He had no hobbies, and only a few well-kept clothes. The entire apartment was wiped clean; the pictures kept in Yoohyun’s room were put away alongside all the things he didn’t deem important enough to take when he left almost a year ago. Yoojin put everything in storage and rented out the apartment, it was too big for him anyway.
When he moved to the small town, he got himself a small one-room apartment, just big enough for a person to live and not do much else. He got another job, just one this time, no ungrateful brothers to take care of anymore. Nobody knew him there, nobody asked about his brother, nobody looked at him like he was gonna cause scandals because he was too drunk or too moody. And he did something he never even dared to dream, he started going to college, not studying medicine like Yoohyun would’ve, but education. That Ahjumma was right, he really could see himself working with kids, he was not the smartest, but he always liked taking care of small children. Maybe that’s why he managed to raise Yoohyun, despite the difficulties. But he had no brother anymore, obviously he was pretty bad at it, considering Yoohyun’s personality, but he can learn.
Yoojin would love to say that he’s living the life he envisioned for Yoohyun, having friends, going to parties on the weekends, even getting a girlfriend or two, but who is he kidding? He joggles college with a full-time job as a barista; he spends his free time in bars and the girls in his year call him a squid to his face. But he’s happy, as much as he can be considering the circumstances. He’s dipped a bit into Yoohyun’s (now his) college fund, but usually the money from his job and the rent from the apartment is enough for him. He even managed to treat himself to some luxuries, a new phone, new clothes and shoes, the occasional fancy meal. He stopped receiving letters from World’s Edge too, they probably lost his track after he moved, the only person he still keeps in contact with is the tenant from his old apartment, an A-class hunter that just got affiliated with a small up-and-coming guild, Yoojin never met him but from their messages he seemed like a polite, well-raised, guy, unlike some others.
To be fair, it’s not like he doesn’t have any friends, he has one friend, which is better than before, well, friend and roommate.
In his last year he met Myeongwoo in his favorite bar doing the same thing Yoojin was doing, drinking his sorrows away, and because Yoojin prefers listening to other people’s troubles rather than thinking about his own, they started talking. Myeongwoo was failing a Business Degree he never even wanted and was stumped for cash. After a lot of drinks and encouragement, his new friend told him about his dreams of creating things with his hands, and Yoojin convinced him to switch to an Art’s Degree instead. That’s how Yoojin ended up sharing a mattress with Myeongwoo in his cramped apartment, seeing each other between jobs, cooking and drinking together, alongside Myeongwoo’s increasing number of small sculptures. It was an awkward fit, and sometimes it caused funny conundrums, but those were the freest years of his life. For the first time, Yoojin was allowed to be young and dumb, and he loved it.
The years passed, and Yoojin celebrated his graduation alongside Myeongwoo and a homemade cake. A small part of him was sad that he had no brother to celebrate this with, but he didn’t dwell on that. Myeongwoo gave him a silver bracelet, made by him after discovering that he had a real knack for being a blacksmith after a particularly weird school project. In the last year, Myeongwoo occupied some of space left behind by Yoohyun, obviously nothing will fill the gaping hole in his chest, but Myeongwoo became a brother of sorts, not a younger one he has to raise, but one he could fool around and relax with.
With all credentials on point it came the time for Yoojin to make his new dream a reality. He emptied the college fund and sold his Seol apartment to get a downpayment for a modest two-story building with a small yard in a working-class neighborhood back in Seol, but about half the town away from where he used to live with Yoohyun. He was lucky, his longtime tenant offered to take the apartment off his hands at a bit more than market value, saying that his Hunter work was going really well and the rest was a graduation gift for Yoojin, such a well-mannered and kind guy. He wanted to thank the guy in person for such a generous gift when he handed over all the paperwork, but he just happened to be in a dungeon at the moment, so he sent his lawyer, Yoojin still offered to take him for drinks when he got back.
Myeongwoo helped him revamp the house, new paint job, new furniture, a new living space upstairs, a bigger kitchen and yard changed into a playground with a small garden and even a cage for rabbits. Yoojin got all possible documents in order, got himself a pretty substantial loan, and Hatchling Kindergarten was opened, with its only employee being Han Yoojin. Myeongwoo wanted to move in with him and help, but Yoojin told him that he has to finish his studies first, so sadly he remained in their old apartment, coming over on weekends and holidays.
Life was good, better than he could have ever hoped. The kindergarten was a success with people from the neighborhood and low-ranking hunters who were looking for a cheap but trustworthy kindergarten for their children while they were in dungeons and their spouses or family were working regular jobs. It was hard working with so many children by himself, but it was rewarding. Each day when he saw the kids some of his heartbreak was going away. World’s Edge didn’t try to contact him either, probably they saw no need. Some people asked if he was related to the Guildmaster, but Yoojin always brushed it off saying that Han is a common name. Yes, life was perfect.
Until an A-class dungeon broke in his neighborhood.