Passion Novel - Volume 1 - Chapter 1

Scene 1

The doorbell rang, and Jeong Taeui hesitated. Soybean grains fell from the chopsticks he was holding. It took only a few seconds for the dark beans to roll off the plate, leaving a sticky trail, but before they stopped, the doorbell rang again.

Jeong Taeui tapped the table with the end of his chopsticks, nervously glancing toward the entrance. He’d had a bad feeling ever since he heard the faint sound of footsteps climbing the stairs.

Or rather, to be precise, he’d felt unwell since waking up this morning to the sound of rain, his knees aching. His knees always ached when it rained or the weather was bad, but today’s pain was particularly intense, suggesting a bad day.

He’d set out a simple breakfast in a mood as gloomy as the overcast sky spitting a light rain, and had just taken a couple of bites when he heard the sound of footsteps outside.

The dilapidated apartment building, over 20 years old, was such that even a cat entering the building would make a sound that echoed to the top floor.

And on the third floor, directly below the attic, Jeong Taeui, at just after 7 AM, felt a bad premonition the moment he heard the footsteps entering the building and climbing the stairs.

And the moment the doorbell rang, that bad feeling became a stark reality.

Few people ever visited this apartment. His brother, the only other person living here, who had left home four days ago without a word, had a key and wouldn’t ring the doorbell.

The hard, heavy sound outside paused, but then the doorbell rang again while he was pondering. *Thump*, another footstep sounded. A sharp, heavy sound, reminiscent of army boots.

The thought of “army boots” intensified his ominous premonition, and the doorbell rang three, then four times in rapid succession. He hadn’t even taken a few bites of his meal, and his appetite vanished; he put down his chopsticks.

The individual outside, who had brought this ominous premonition, showed no sign of leaving. He didn’t knock or call out; he just relentlessly rang the doorbell, and Jeong Taeui’s heart sank as he thought of someone specific.

“…”

Jeong Taeui went to the entrance, removed the safety chain, and opened the door precisely after the doorbell had rung twelve times. The person standing outside took a step back as the door opened. The angular sound was from perfectly clean army boots.

And above those boots were perfectly aligned, crisp, black military boots. To be precise, it wasn’t a military uniform but rather a formal or official uniform, but the man’s organization wasn’t that different from the military.

The small silver badge on his collar somehow seemed particularly hateful. It wasn’t just because countless people desperately wanted to wear such a badge.

Every time this man had visited this house in his official uniform, it had never been good news. Even so, this was only the third or fourth time he’d seen this man in uniform.

Black gloves removed the black hat. The man smiled smoothly at Jeong Taeui.

“Long time no see. Everything alright?”

It had been about three years since their last meeting. A lot had happened since then.

He’d almost died clearing mines, almost died again from a rejection reaction during surgery, endured a triple dose of torture from a man who almost killed someone and got a fourth chance only to end up causing someone’s death himself, and was discharged from his mandatory service without even serving half his term.

Jeong Taeui looked at the man for a moment with a complicated expression, then sighed.

“What kind of trouble could I possibly have that Uncle wouldn’t know about? Maybe Uncle has some important business that requires him to come see me unexpectedly at this hour… Come in.”

He had a bad feeling about this.

He didn’t dislike the man, but it was still unsettling to see him in that uniform. But thinking it over, he likely came to see his brother, meaning there was nothing to worry about for Jeong Taeui.

Nevertheless, Jeong Taeui stepped aside with the feeling of welcoming a plague god into his house. The man’s eyes, upon seeing his face, curved slightly with a pleasant, rather than unpleasant, light. Closing the door behind the man as he entered the house, Jeong Taeui asked,

did you get here?”

“Two hours ago. I came straight from the airport.”

“Oh, I see…. But you should have contacted me. Hyung’s not here.”

The man, whose impeccably tailored uniform didn’t quite match his careless posture as he threw himself onto the sofa, paused slightly at Jeong Taeui’s words and glared at him.

“Not here? When is he coming?”

“I don’t know. He left four days ago and hasn’t contacted us. Did he only enter the country to see Hyung? Then he made a long and pointless trip.”

“Aren’t there any places to contact him?”

“If it were easy to contact Jeong Jaeui, he wouldn’t be Jeong Jaeui. You know that.”

Jeong Taeui sat on a stool opposite the man and said nonchalantly.

Jeong Taeui’s brother lived a relatively regular life. If he stayed out overnight for a day or two, he usually let them know beforehand, however briefly. However, sometimes he would suddenly leave without warning and not return for days, and this was one of those times. Sometimes he’d return in three or four days, but other times he’d disappear for over two months without a word, making it impossible to guess when he would return this time.

But this time, he might be gone for a considerable length of time. Four days ago, when he left, his brother had said something cryptic.

‘It’s no fun if a person’s only ever lucky. I need to experience some bad luck.’

Recalling his brother’s departure, accompanied by an equally enigmatic smile, Jeong Taeui fell into thought. He had always been a bit difficult to understand, but even now, he couldn’t figure out what his brother meant by that.

But….

“Hmm, what to do….”

Watching his uncle tap his forehead in a troubled manner, Jeong Taeui muttered under his breath. He likes experiencing bad luck, huh? This human, who conveniently disappeared right before this unexpected misfortune arrived, bad luck, my foot. This brother of mine will never see bad luck in his entire life.

***

Jeong Taeui has a brother born on the same day and at the same time as him.

Though they shared the same blood, Jeong Taeui’s brother was unlike him, almost a stranger. He possessed an unnervingly sharp intellect, so brilliant that “genius” barely captured it.

If his brother weren’t so easygoing and somewhat indolent, if he weren’t so unconcerned about others and lacked ambition—to exaggerate slightly—he could have wiped out a continent.

His brother, highly sought after by the United Nations Human Resources Development Agency, possessed exceptional talent in the humanities, science and technology, and even the arts.

On the other hand, Jeong Taeui was unremarkable, or perhaps slightly above unremarkable. He never fell below average at anything. In some areas, he was even considered excellent.

But Jeong Taeui’s excellence was the result of his own considerable effort, unlike his brother, who achieved top marks with minimal effort.

However, Jeong Taeui never envied his brother for that. He might have thought it convenient, but he never desired his brother’s talent.

What Jeong Taeui envied about his brother was not his intelligence, talent, or abilities.

He envied his brother’s luck.

Jeong Jaeui, his brother, was a genius among geniuses, whose exceptional luck far surpassed even his incredible intellect. To say he was born under a lucky star wouldn’t suffice; his good fortune was truly extreme.

It went beyond merely escaping major accidents unscathed; his luck was such that, as a student, he never needed an allowance because he never needed one.

Jeong Jaeui, who had little material desire and rarely needed money, found himself needing funds unexpectedly. Lacking the necessary cash, he borrowed a few coins from those around him to buy a lottery ticket. This lottery ticket always brought him precisely the amount of luck he needed. Everything worked out that way for him. His life was characterized by unbelievably extreme and absolute good fortune. In contrast, Jeong Taeui experienced a normal amount of both luck and misfortune, a typical human experience. He wouldn’t lie if he said he envied his brother’s luck. As a child, the envy was unbearable, but as he grew older, it lessened. It was simply the usual envy for something extraordinary and desirable that he couldn’t possess. Even so, for Jeong Taeui, who rarely envied anything, this was his only envy of another person. While he envied and sometimes even felt jealous of his brother, Jeong Taeui loved him. His brother, possessing exceptional intelligence, the ability to utilize it brilliantly, and incredibly good luck – a truly fortunate individual – wasn’t even unpleasant in personality. While his behavior was sometimes indifferent, capricious, and inscrutable, as a brother, he was ordinary: normally kind and normally dependable. They considered themselves a close pair of brothers. …Even after twenty-odd years as brothers, Jeong Taeui still found his brother enigmatic; perhaps that’s just how geniuses are, or perhaps his brother didn’t like him very much.

Four days before his brother’s departure, the night before.

Jeong Taeui’s brother, as he often did, was intently studying a complex schematic, occasionally sketching chemical formulas and molecular models nearby, as if a thought had just occurred to him. He was so engrossed that he didn’t notice Jeong Taeui approaching and peering over his shoulder at the schematic for quite some time. Seeing the unfamiliar chemical formulas and numerical sequences, Jeong Taeui thought, “My brother’s off in one of his incomprehensible worlds again.” He climbed onto the nearby sofa and opened a mundane humanities book he could understand.

It was a quiet, comfortable night, as usual. After a while, tired of the papers, his brother pushed them aside, lay down on the floor in a daze, staring at the ceiling. Perhaps a weary sigh escaped his lips. He suddenly sat next to Jeong Taeui, who was sitting on the sofa reading, and unexpectedly grabbed Jeong Taeui’s pinky finger.

“This, see…,” he said, extending his own pinky finger, “…between here, this space, there’s a red thread. Since we were born on the same day, at the same time, from the same womb, it’s natural, unavoidable… let’s cut it.”

“…What?”

This was utterly incomprehensible. While he knew his brother operated in realms beyond his comprehension, he’d never before heard such nonsensical pronouncements. Jeong Taeui knew his brother wasn’t an ordinary person, but at that moment, he briefly wondered if his brother was even mentally sound.

However, with a calm demeanor as always, his brother made a snipping motion with his fingers, as if severing an invisible red thread of fate between their pinky fingers. Then, as if nothing had happened, he resumed staring at the ceiling. Jeong Taeui, his pinky finger still extended, continued to stare at him. Then, he blurted out:

“Brother… did you actually hate me?”

He racked his brains, wondering if he had done something recently to offend his brother, but nothing came to mind. What was the problem? Had some problem arisen without his knowledge, a problem serious enough to warrant talk of severing their bond?

Jeong Taeui’s question elicited a look of bewilderment from his brother.

‘Why me?’

His brother ended the conversation there. Jeong Taeui tilted his head and stared intently at his brother’s face. Unable to discern his brother’s thoughts, but seeing no insincerity in his expression, he silently returned to his book.

But thinking back, perhaps that response was short for, ‘Why would I like you?’

Now that he was curious, the only person who could answer that question had already left without a trace, leaving behind the words, “I need to experience misfortune.”

Jeong Taeui thought, ‘What a ridiculous thing to say,’ but now he realized his brother had been incredibly lucky to leave before this troublesome guest arrived.

***

While not particularly welcoming, Jeong Taeui couldn’t ignore his uncle’s request for food, given the guest’s hunger. He simply added another bowl of rice to the half-eaten meal already on the table. His appetite had long since vanished, but he sat opposite his uncle at the table.

“What kind of meager meal is this?”

Seeing the barley rice, clear soup, and a couple of side dishes, his uncle chuckled.

“What do you expect from a poor young man? Do they only serve delicacies in your uncle’s army?”

“Of course. If the food is rough when life is already hard, there will be an internal rebellion. But this isn’t the army.”

“Well, from what I hear, it’s not much different from the army. Depending on who you ask, it might even be stricter.”

“Even so, people are lining up from the other side of the world to get in. The name is impressive, too: the International United Nations Human Resources Development Organization.”

“I can’t remember such a long name.”

Watching his uncle eating while muttering something that was either praise or complaint — “Even simple dishes are delicious after a long time,” — Jeong Taeui sighed and picked up his spoon. His appetite had completely disappeared after putting down his chopsticks. He’d just have a few spoonfuls of soup.

While eating the clear soup, his gaze stopped at his uncle’s moving chopsticks. As he had thought before, this man held his chopsticks very gracefully. The way he used them was elegant. His hand movements were similar to his brother’s.

Jeong Taeui looked up at his uncle’s face and thinking that. It was neat and, in a way, gentle. He resembled his brother.

It made sense. Genetically, he was his father. Even if he didn’t resemble him.

“Your brother’s third anniversary is next month, isn’t it?”

As if knowing what Jeong Taeui was thinking, his uncle suddenly spoke.

“Yes. The 20th of the lunar month. Will you be coming?”

“It’ll be difficult.”

The last time he had seen his uncle was at his father’s funeral. He hadn’t visited since, not even for ancestral rites, but he understood his uncle was a very busy man.

This man, a troublesome and bothersome guest to Jeong Taeui, was actually someone who received good treatment wherever he went in the world.

“When he returns, should I tell him to contact you, Uncle?”

Even though he knew that if it was urgent, his uncle could easily find him, he asked anyway. Of course, his fortunate brother would never be found if the outcome was unfavorable to him.

“No… I don’t have that much time.”

His uncle finished his bowl of rice quickly, wiped his mouth with his fingers, and murmured. Then he stared intently at Jeong Taeui.

At that moment, a sinister premonition he had forgotten resurfaced, crawling up his spine.

“Jeong Taeui.”

“Uncle… I don’t know why you’re looking for my brother, but you know my brother and I are completely different, right? Even if you put the chemical formula he solved when he was five years old in front of me, I wouldn’t understand it.”

Jeong Taeui quickly and bluntly responded. His uncle smiled slightly, as he had before, seeming amused.

“Originally, I knew one of you two was my child.”

The uncle’s statement was a topic Jeong Taeui hadn’t anticipated. While any statement would have been unexpected, he never imagined this in this context. Jeong Taeui stared at his uncle, then sighed.

“So? It’s not one or the other, both of us are Uncle’s sons. Genetically, I know. So what?”

It wasn’t a secret. He’d heard it directly from his father as a child, when his father decided they were old enough to understand. He’d sat the two young children down and explained calmly that he was infertile and had needed his uncle’s help to have them.

Nothing much changed. His father was still his father, and his uncle was still his uncle. Even within a single phenomenon, one fact can have multiple truths.

However, at that time, his father had added, “So, later, sometime, if your uncle says something strange, assume it’s true, and go along with it.”