Chapter Text
The assemblyman’s home was eerily quiet, besides the occasional, muffled audio playing from a phone speaker outside the locked door of Beom-seok’s room. The song playing was by some hyperpop artist he could care less about. All Beom-seok was focusing on was Su-ho’s face he could somehow clearly see from a blurry phone camera, most likely taken by Yeong-i. His face was concentrated on the camera lens, as if staring straight toward Beom-seok through the screen and knew exactly how he felt and couldn’t give a shit about him. Beom-seok scrolls to the next post, feeling irritated, this time with Si-eun smiling slightly and Yeong-i holding some sort of soup. The caption read, “Si-eun bought us food!” (and unrelated tags).
A mix of envy and sadness flashed for a few seconds on Beom-seok’s expression. Then, as if nothing happened, he turns off the phone and stands abruptly, not sure what to do next. He shoves the phone in his jeans pocket. Before he knows it himself, he slides open the door to his room and jogs down the stairs. His chest aches with something he can’t describe easily. He swings the medicine cabinet open, and ignores all the expensive medications to his left. Instead, he takes a cheap bottle of Tylenol and pops two in his mouth.
For a moment, Beom-seok stares at his reflection in the mirror, feeling the cold floor touching his feet uncomfortably, overthinking every possible reason why he could’ve been left out by the three. Maybe they simply just didn’t like him, or liked Yeong-i more than him. The outcome that didn’t register at all for him was the fact he could be just overthinking it, or maybe they weren’t really excluding him.
As quickly as he entered, he exits the bathroom and stumbles over to the alcohol cabinet his adoptive father cared little to protect from his underage son. Beom-seok has no idea why he’s so desperate to drink away his jealousy, but the urge hits anyway like a dam bursting. As expected, there is no cork for the lid. He pours the half-empty, expensive alcohol into a glass and lets it burn down his throat so vividly and sharply he nearly chokes.
Once the glass is nearly half-empty, Beom-seok stops, his body shifting uncomfortably. He unlocks his phone and again scrolls through Su-ho’s Instagram, wanting nothing more than to be intoxicated and forget everything about the past twenty minutes. He leaves the bottle on the counter and walks to the living room, lying on the recliner. This time, the post shows Si-eun and Su-ho together in Byuksan High’s cafeteria, twirling a strand of ramyeon with chopsticks. Si-eun has his AirPods in as of not caring about the food or anyone nearby at all, but still looks at the camera with direct eye contact, posing with Su-ho subtly.
His eyes shut for just a few moments from a lack of sleep, when a vibration from his phone immediately has Beom-seok’s eyes darting back at the phone. A notification appears when he taps on screen so his phone doesn’t shut off. Unexpectedly, it’s from Su-ho.
“didnt know you were into crystal shops now ㅋㅋ”
What the hell was Su-ho talking about?
Beom-seok opens the notification in absolute confusion until he sees an image attached to the text. Some delivery app Su-ho’s job is linked to apparently had an order placed to his address. The order is from some store called The Green Man, a spirituality or crystal store a bunch of American tourists went to a few years back before dying out and struggling to make ends meet. The item placed is called a One Wish Willow. From an advertisement he’d seen a while back, it apparently granted any wish you’d ask for only once.
Oh.
In an instant, Beom-seok knows who placed the order. Yeong-bin or one of his friends. Ever since he had learned of his situation at Mungang, his state as an adopted child, and his father’s status, one of him and his friend’s personal hobbies were to send ridiculous items to his house (with their own money, for whatever reason) to get him scolded. It was a stupid, obviously unfunny prank. Out of every possibility in the world, Ahn Su-ho was going to be the one to deliver it to him. Of course. Beom-seok quickly types a reply back.
“i didn’t order that, just keep it or cancel my order or something”
Su-ho sends back a voice message saying it’s just ‘business’, and how he’s getting paid anyway so he might as well. He mentions Beom-seok possibly accompanying him on his deliveries and almost instantly types back, refusing the offer. The thing he absolutely does not want to do right now is be on a motorcycle whilst undergoing the process of being drunk.
About less than 20 minutes later (since there are no cheap stores near a political figure with such power), Beom-seok’s doorbell rings. The sound makes his ears ring because of the close proximity toward the front door and the living room.
“Su-ho-ya, I told you not to deliver it. I didn’t even order that,” Beom-seok scowls the moment he opens the door, tired and angry from the sudden disturbance.
“Oh Beom! Well, you didn’t even have to pay for it if you didn’t order it. Isn’t that nice,” Su-ho takes off his helmet and steps inside as if the place were his own, “And look at this thing! What even is this? A ‘One Wish Willow’? Yeah, bullshit it grants you your wish. Should I buy it myself and test it out?” Su-ho grins at the idea, obviously not really considering it, but the drunk Beom-seok takes him seriously.
“Are you seriously going to waste your own money on that thing? It’s just some trinket. You might as well just give me it anyway.” Beom-seok mumbles. His voice slurs, his movements becoming less coordinated.
“Are you drunk, hyeong?” Su-ho picks up on his unnatural movements immediately. “At this time of day? Wow, you’re really psychopathic.” A tired laugh comes out from his mouth.
“Su-ho, you should really leave. My father is going to come from his press conference. He’s an assemblyman. Really, you should leave.” Beom-seok pleads. He knew Jin-won would mostly come anytime now, if not right now.
“Okay, okay. Well. tell me if that thing works, okay Beom-seok-a? You should wish for like, a billion won, or something. Might as well try.” Su-ho slams the door shut behind him after waving and tossing the One Wish Willow on the couch. Beom-seok blinks slowly, not expecting such a quick visit from Su-ho. He must be in a rush. Just then, he sees his father’s limo pull into the driveway just after Su-ho leaves in the opposite direction.
Shit, Beom-seok thinks, rushing upstairs and shutting his door quietly after bringing the product with him. He sits on the end of his bed, exhausted from the drinking, forgetting the fact that the alcohol still sits on the kitchen counter and that he left the medicine cabinet wide open. He tears open the One Wish Willow’s packaging, having one thought in mind. On the triangular box, the instructions read:
“REMOVE THE BOX AND JUST MAKE A WISH!
SPARK THE MIDDLE AND BREAK IT IN HALF.
WHAT ARE YOU WISHING FOR?”
Beom-seok skims over the rules carelessly, tossing the packaging aside.
“I wish Ahn Su-ho would love me—love me more than anybody, no matter what I do that could possibly make him dislike me in the past, present or future.”
He snaps the product in half as instructed and doesn’t immediately realize the vagueness of his words. He only hears his father shouting his name in fury and Assistant Park’s footsteps behind him, and the horrible sting on his cheek that’d follow. The motorcycle engine revving in the distance came to an end, sending the neighborhood into total silence besides Beom-seok’s fathers screaming.