I was born with nothing. No money, no family, no honor. All I had was a tacky name given to me by the orphanage.

I didn't particularly like or dislike that name. It was just a name that existed because it was given to me, and that was all.

Something that just functioned in its place as 'my name.'

But I guess my name meant something different to that kid. Even at a short introduction saying my name was Noh Jungwoo, that brat would giggle and laugh.

What could a mere 6-year-old know, but seeing that kid's smile back then was the first time I thought I liked my name.

Even so, you were a normal child with two parents, and I was a hollow something with nothing. I thought we couldn't be close, and I didn't really intend to approach you.

But funnily enough, you were the one who approached me first.

After you first spoke to me, we stuck together until we graduated from kindergarten.

There were days I fell asleep in the orphanage teacher's arms, crying at the thought that I might not see you once we went to elementary school.

But fate must be a stubborn thing—we went to the same elementary and middle school too. We stuck together so much it made my past self, who cried about not seeing you, look pathetic. To the point of exhaustion.

That's why seeing you, who was always strong, crying until you were on the verge of collapsing when your parents died at 16, made me feel strange.

...Stop crying, you brat.

I couldn't hug you like other people. Instead, in my own way, as Noh Jungwoo, I spoke to you. I definitely said something mean, but that day, you didn't argue back. Instead, you leaned into me. At that moment, I felt an inexplicable sense of responsibility.

I couldn't empathize because I never had them to begin with. But I wanted to embrace the wound you had from losing what you once had.

If you have nowhere to go, follow me.

I said it confidently despite having nothing. You knew better than anyone that I had no parents and was a beggar. Nevertheless, you followed me, and that's how our life together in the rooftop room of an old commercial building began.