As soon as the doorbell rang, Jeong Taeui suddenly
stopped. The bean fell from the chopsticks he was holding in his hand and
rolled around on the plate. It only took a few seconds for it to roll off the
plate and leave a long sticky streak on the table, and at the same time, the
doorbell rang again.

Jeong Taeui gently put down his chopsticks and
cautiously turned his gaze towards the door. He had a bad feeling when he heard
vague footsteps going up the stairs.

No, to be precise, he felt uncomfortable from the
moment he woke up, because whenever it rained, his knees ached. Every time it
gets windy with pouring rain, his knees scream. But it has never been as
painful as it is today, which is a bad omen.

Jeong Taeui had just prepared a simple breakfast and
drank a few glasses in a bad mood, no different from the harsh weather with
light rain falling at the moment. The sound of footsteps coming from outside
became even clearer.

With this old dormitory building that was built more
than 20 years ago, just a cat entering can make the sound reach the rooftop.

And on the third floor right below the rooftop,
someone came to Jeong Taeui’s house at 7:00 a.m. early in the morning. From the
moment he heard footsteps going up the stairs, he had a bad feeling.

And the moment the doorbell rang, that omen became
reality.

Almost no one came to his house. The only person who
lives with him here is his brother, but he left the house four days ago, and he
won’t ring the doorbell because he already has the key.

That sturdy step stopped outside the door. That
person rang the bell again while he was still deep in thought. The knocking on
the door and footsteps sounded again. It was a heavy sound. It really sounds
like military boots.

The moment he remembered the two words military
boots, his premonition became even stronger, this time the doorbell rang three
or four times in a row. He had only eaten a few bites of rice but his appetite
had completely decreased so he had to put down his chopsticks again.

The man standing outside the door carrying that
unfortunate omen showed no signs of backing down. His heart became even more
depressed when someone refused to knock on the door or say anything but just
stood there ringing the doorbell repeatedly.

When the doorbell rang for the 12th time, Jeong
Taeui helplessly stood up and walked to the door. The person standing outside
the door took a step back when the door opened. The shoes that made that heavy
sound were clean military boots without a speck of dust. The man wore a
straight, wrinkle-free military uniform that was tailored to fit, ay no, no, it
was not a military uniform but just a uniform. But the place this man is
working is not much different from the army.

The small silver badge attached to the collar looked
especially obnoxious. Anyway, it’s a badge that many people in the world crave
but can’t get their hands on. (What’s that?)

Nothing good has ever happened to each of these men
wearing that neat uniform and wearing that badge. It must be said that this was
the third or fourth time he had seen that man wearing this uniform.

Black gloves took off the hat he was wearing. The
man looked at Jeong Taeui and smiled gently. (Run…baby run)

“I haven’t seen you for a long time. Nothing special
happened, right?”

It had been about three years since he last saw this
man. During that time, a lot of things happened.

He almost died while defusing bombs and also almost
died from a drug rejection reaction while undergoing surgery. He also almost
killed someone and was discharged before half of the prescribed time. < (╥︣ ╥)>

Jeong Taeui stared at the man for a moment with a
complicated expression then sighed and said.

 “I don’t know
if there’s anything special about me that you don’t know. But why did you come
at this hour without contacting me first… please come in.”

No wonder he had such a bad feeling.

It’s not that Jeong Taeui doesn’t like this man, but
he feels uncomfortable when he visits him in this outfit. But thinking back,
maybe he came to look for his brother, not him, and he didn’t bring any bad
news, Jeong Taeui breathed a sigh of relief.

However, when Jeong Taeui stepped aside feeling like
he was welcoming someone bringing a plague into his house, the man’s face was
full of joy, without a trace of discomfort. Jeong Taeui asked after closing the
door.

“When are you coming back?”

“Two hours ago. I just came back from the airport.”

“Ah, so that’s it… but you should have contacted me
before coming. I’m not at home.”

The man threw himself on the sofa in a comfortable
position that did not match that wrinklefree uniform. As soon as he heard Jeong
Taeui speak, he stopped for a moment and looked at him.

“No? So when will he come back?”

“I don’t know. He went out four days ago and I
haven’t been able to contact him either. Did you come back to Korea just to see
him? If so, your efforts will be in vain.”

“Is there no way to contact him?”

“If I could easily contact him like that, it
wouldn’t be Jeong Jaeui. You already know, but you still ask.”

Jeong Taeui sat on the chair opposite the man and
responded indifferently.

His brother is a person whose movements are
uncertain. If he has something to do and has to go out for a day or two, he
will inform you and then go. But there are also times when he goes out without
an appointment to return. Sometimes it took three to five days for him to
return, and sometimes the longest time was more than two months without
receiving any news from him. Now Jeong Taeui doesn’t know when he will return.

But this time he had a feeling that he wouldn’t see
Jaeui for a long time. Four days ago, while walking on the street, his brother
said something incomprehensible and then left.

“If people only live a life filled with luck, there
is nothing interesting at all. I also want to experience the so-called ‘bad
luck’.”

Jeong Taeui was lost in thought for a moment as he
remembered the image of his brother leaving with a smile as meaningless as
those words. Originally, he was considered an incomprehensible person, but even
if he tried to guess what he meant when he said that, he was helpless.

But…

 “Uhm, what
now…”

Looking at him, he mumbled incomprehensibly while
tapping his forehead with his fingertips. Jeong Taeui remembered what his
brother said, ‘I want to experience the so-called ‘bad luck’ again’. He is someone
who can turn bad into good in an instant. If that’s the case, he won’t be able
to experience that so-called bad luck in his entire life.

Jeong Taeui has an older brother born on the same
day and time as him. Even though he was a twin, his brother looked nothing like
him, and he was also frighteningly intelligent. Even the word ‘genius’ is not
enough to describe his intelligence.

If his brother wasn’t someone with an indifferent
and somewhat indulgent personality, and if he wasn’t someone who had no
interest in the society around him, not even the slightest bit of ambition then
to exaggerate, he could have blown a continent off the face of the earth.

Even the United Nations’ human resources training
organization covets him because of his exceptional talents ranging from social
sciences to engineering sciences and even the arts.

On the contrary, Jeong Taeui is a very normal
person. Rather, a little better than the average person. Either way, no matter
what he does, he won’t fall below average. There are also times when he hears
others say that he is also excellent in each field.

However, if Jeong Taeui is praised as excellent, it
must certainly be the result of his tireless efforts. Unlike his brother who
can easily achieve the highest score without even half the effort of others.

But Jeong Taeui has never been jealous of his
brother. He thought it would help him in some things, but he never wanted that
kind of talent.

What Jeong Taeui envied his brother was not his
intelligence or abilities. What he envied was his brother’s rare luck.

His older brother – Jeong Jaeui, is an extremely
lucky person. So much so that even his genius brain, which is said to be the
genius of geniuses, cannot be compared. His luck is so great that even saying
he was born under a lucky star is not enough. Even if he gets caught up in a
major accident, luck will keep him safe without a scratch on his body. As a
student, he never received pocket money. Because it doesn’t have to be.

Originally, he was a person with no material
desires, so he didn’t need much money. But suddenly something unexpected
happens and he needs to spend money and doesn’t have any money, so he will
borrow a few coins from people around him and buy lottery tickets.

If so, then that day’s lottery brought luck in
exactly the amount of money he needed.

It always happens that way.

Besides Jeong Jaeui who considers luck as a very
normal thing in life, Jeong Taeui experiences normal luck and misfortune
similar to a normal person. After all, he would be lying if he wasn’t jealous
of his brother’s good fortune in having such a life.

As a child, Jeong Taeui was very jealous of him. It
is the jealousy that anyone will have for the wonderful and good things that
they cannot have. But when Jeong Taeui gets older, it’s not that bad anymore.

Even so, he liked his brother.

He has an extremely wrinkled brain and the ability
to use that brain is beyond amazing. Although he has extremely good luck, his
personality is not obnoxious at all. Although he is a bit unusual and
indifferent, as a younger brother, Jeong Taeui finds that completely normal.
His brother is simply trustworthy.

Jeong Taeui still considers him as a good brother.

… Even after the two of them have lived together for
20 years, he’s still a person with many puzzling points, but it seems like all
geniuses are like that, Jeong Taeui doesn’t know. But he felt that maybe his
brother didn’t like him very much.

Four days before he left home, the night before.

As usual, he was staring at a complex blueprint of
something that Jeong Taeui couldn’t understand, and occasionally wrote down
chemical formulas and drawings of molecular models next to it. Jeong Taeui
thought to himself that perhaps he had plunged himself into his ‘world that
outsiders cannot know’ when looking at those strange numbers and chemical
formulas. Jeong Taeui climbed onto the sofa next to him and took out a normal
literature book that he could understand and read.

It was a quiet and comfortable night like any other.
His brother looked at the papers for a long while, not sure if it was because
he was tired or not, but he immediately pushed them aside and lay on the floor
with a bewildered face as if he was lost and looked up. ceiling.

Then, a tired sigh rang out. He suddenly came to
Jeong Taeui and sat down, took his little finger and said.

“Here…”

Then, he spread out his little finger and continued
speaking.

“There is a red thread tied tightly between these
two fingers. We were born on the same day and at the same time, so maybe it’s
natural, there’s no other way… So, cut it.”

“…What?”

What he said was difficult to understand. He is
inherently someone who always does things that he cannot understand. But he
never said anything he didn’t understand.

It was true that he had an abnormal brain, but now
Jeong Taeui really doubted whether his brain was truly normal in the
conventional sense or not.

However, he just looked at Jeong Taeui with calm
eyes and opened his two fingers to form a scissors shape and pretended to cut
the invisible red ‘thread’ between his pinky and Jeong Taeui, as if he was
cutting off the invisible relationship.

And right after that, he looked up at the ceiling
again as if nothing had happened. Jeong Taeui kept his pinky in the same
position and stared at it then suddenly asked.

“You… You actually hate me, right?”

Or maybe he recently did something that made him
disgusted. Jeong Taeui searched his memories but couldn’t remember what kind of
thing he had ever done. What’s the problem? What was so serious that his
brother suddenly said to cut off the rope connecting the two of them? (Even if
you don’t see it)

When Jeong Taeui asked that question, Jeong Jaeui
turned to look at him with surprise.

“Why me?”

His brother said so. Jeong Taeui tilted his head and
stared at his brother. But he doesn’t know what his brother’s thinking.
Confused, Jeong Taeui  returned to
looking at the book without saying another word.

But if Jeong Taeui thinks about it now, perhaps the
meaning behind that statement means, ‘Then why should I like you’, right?

No matter what question there is now, the only
person who can solve that question has left without setting a date to return.
He left saying that he wanted to endure the surrounding misfortune.

Jeong Taeui thought he had said all the words in his heart, but now
seeing him leave like that is very, very lucky. He left before this troublesome
guest could arrive and bring trouble with him.

Lhaozi’s Note: Hello there, This is originally posted in Aow but was deleted by the uploader so I took the liberty to share this great novel with y’all, all credits to the uploader who shared this in Aow. Thankyou so much.