Chapter 557 (2/2)

Eun Jiho replied threateningly, “You think that’s a big deal? Come on, I’ll do everything for you except drinking.”

His words made Yeo Ryung question, ‘Oh, drinking! That’s the bad side of being a teenager! Today’s a day to get drunk. Don’t you think so?’

The hallway became a little noisy. While we spoke further about what we should do in January after taking the College Scholastic Ability Test, a voice suddenly intervened in our conversation.

“Is it Donnie there?”

Before I tried to respond, the door was flung open. The light from the entrance poured outside. Without getting my heart ready, I confronted my mom all of a sudden. Only an awkward smile hung on my lips.

Yeo Ryung, standing beside me, was unable to hide her perplexed look. Slightly lowering her head, she said, “Hello, auntie.”

“Oh, hi, you’re there too, Yeo Ryung.”

Thankfully, my mom didn’t seem to notice that Yeo Ryung was somehow reacting a bit strange to her. Also, the three boys––Eun Jiho, Yoo Chun Young, and Eun Hyung––desperately shoving their big figures behind the narrow door seemed to be undiscovered yet too.

Since all those boys, a head taller than the average kids, were acting that way, I struggled to hold my laughter.

While I sunk my head onto my chest in order to hide my twitching lips, my mom began to nag me about everyday things.

“If you’re about to come home this late, you should have left some text messages to us. Not answering the calls, no messages! Geez, if you’re returning a little later, I was about to drive and look around the neighborhood with your dad.”

“Um… mom…” I murmured hesitatingly, then showed her my broken phone.

My mom slapped me on the back.

“We fixed this for you pretty recently, and this is what you have AGAIN?! Do you think we are rich? Are we that wealthy?”

Barely lifting my dropped head, I gulped down tears. Her slap was so painful that it almost made me shriek. Above all, she seemed to look more pissed off than I thought. Would our conversation go well today? I was deeply concerned already.

Roughly sending a hand sign to Yeo Ryung that things would be okay, I went inside the house and slammed the door close.

My mom didn’t look back at all but went straight to the living room.

“Mom,” I called her.

“Why?”

“We need to talk. You too, daddy.”

My dad, lying on the couch with his body all stretched up, just looked up at me, slightly lifting his head. These days, we had nothing to quarrel or argue about, so he looked apathetic as if nothing serious would become our topic of conversation today.

My mom also glanced at me with a similar expression. I dropped my gaze at the floor, wiggling my fingers, then slowly took a deep breath.

“Mom, Dad, I’m asking you to stop comparing me to Yeo Ryung for our academic performances or other things including everyday affairs.”

My parents looked at each other, then just burst into laughter.

My mom switched her smiley gaze to me and asked, “Why? Did something else make you feel jealous of her? Is that upsetting you?”

She spoke in a comforting tone so that I could confess what had happened. However, I returned her a calm response.

“Mom, I want you to stop that too. If I ask you to stop comparing me to Yeo Ryung, you always ask me back if I’m jealous of her with that look on your face, saying, ‘You’re still immature.’ Please don’t, anymore.”

That was when my parents realized that I wasn’t joking at all. Their face turned stiffer. The living room was enveloped by a cold silence. Their glances seemed like needles recklessly pricking all over my face.

However, I couldn’t step back this time. The tense air felt so suffocating that I always gave up persuading my parents. To think of it, it was always the same jagged stone that I stumbled on. In order to get rid of this, I was very aware that using a shovel was meaningless; instead, I should bring a bulldozer to remove it. However, I was reluctant to go that far.

My mom, at last, uttered in a solemn face, “Donnie, did you think that I reacted to you like that in order to just tease you?”