1st November 2024

“And the great, the magnificent, the brave Taekwoon, is here camping in front of his laptop waiting for a mobile drama to broadcast!” Hakyeon declares melodramatically when he finds Taekwoon lying lazily in bed with his laptop in front of him.

Taekwoon controls his urge to flip Hakyeon off and instead settles on commenting, “stop pretending that you don’t go watch the same mobile drama that you speak of with such disdain, in the middle of the night.”

“Well, at least I don’t wait for it to come out,” Hakyeon replies before backing out of an argument he cannot win.

2014

“What’s this?” Sujeong asks, holding up a bottle of white glue that she found on Hyesu’s desk.

“White glue?” Hyesu squeaks.

“Where did you get this from?” Sujeong demands.

“I bought it?” She replies, attempting to keep the tremble out of her voice.

“You did? You bought it? When?”

“Some time back?”

“Really? You bought it sometime back? Then why does it look unopened to me? It’s brand new isn’t it?”

“I haven’t gotten down to using it…”

“Hyesu, close the door,” Sujeong instructs, pointing towards the bedroom door. Once the door is closed, she presses on, “really? But I distinctly remember you playing with the white glue today at the bookshop today.”

“Did I?”

“Don’t try and be smart with me. I definitely remember seeing you play with the white glue, it was on the top shelf.”

“Unnie, what are you trying to say?”

“What do you think I’m trying to say?”

“So what if I was playing with the white glue at the bookshop today?”
“I full well know that you didn’t buy the white glue because I paid for all the purchases today,” Sujeong continues as she examines the bottle of white glue, “I can bet that if I go back to the bookshop, I’ll find a shelf of identical bottles of white glue that have identical price tags.”

“I didn’t steal it,” Hyesu insists.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I’ll believe you. But I think you should know that taking anything without paying for it is stealing. That’s against the law and it can get you into major trouble if you get caught. Don’t think you won’t get caught, because you will get caught eventually, and the cost of getting caught is way more than having to pay for something.”

“Don’t worry, unnie, I won’t steal.”

“And if you really want something, then you can save up to buy it, if you can’t afford it, you can ask unnie, maybe we can work something up. But never ever take something without paying. Okay?”

“I got it unnie. Sorry.”

-

“Why do you apologise if you didn’t do anything wrong though?” Taekwoon wonders, “but it’s a little difficult to believe that you obtained that bottle of white glue by legitimate means.”

Sujeong is in a bookshop, going through the aisles. She catches sight of the bottles of white glue on the top shelf, hesitates for a moment before picking one off the shelf and examining it. Exactly the same kind of white glue that she saw on Hyesu’s desk, down the yellow coloured price tag. Sujeong sighs profoundly.

-

Hyesu holds the bottle of white glue between two palms, screws her eyes shut and shakes her head vigorously, “never again, Hyesu. Never again.”

“Wow, she’s really got some guts. Bare faced lying to her unnie.”

-

“Got something to tell you,” Sujeong whispers to Hwajae as he finds himself bankrupt in the game of monopoly yet again, “let’s go there.”

Hwajae follows her to the dining table, “what’s up?”

“Okay, so don’t freak out. But a few days ago, I found a bottle of white glue in Hyesu’s bag. She was playing with a bottle of white glue when I brought all of them shopping for school supplies. She claimed that she bought the white glue some time ago, but I seriously doubt it beca