“Ngh…!”
“Let’s do it again… That thing, it was good….”
Yoonjo, his face buried in Seonwoo’s neck, let out even breaths. Then he suddenly came to his senses and wriggled his arms up to grab Seonwoo’s lower back. Seonwoo, who had suddenly ended up flopped on top of Yoonjo, rolled his eyes around in embarrassment.
“Um, Yoonjo-ya.”
“It’s hot… but you’re cool…”
“Ji Yoonjo.”
“Hyung… your cologne… is amazing…”
“Ji Yoonjo?”
“……”
“Yoonjo-ya?”
Yoonjo, breathing softly, seemed like someone who had fallen into a deep sleep. After staying still for a while, when Yoonjo didn’t move at all, Seonwoo unknowingly let out a sigh of relief.
He never imagined he’d fall for such a trivial provocation. Because he’d been holed up for such a long time, it had been a while since he’d done something like this. The moment a brief stimulus was applied, all the cells in his body stood on end as if they’d been waiting and lunged toward Yoonjo.
Doing something like this just one day after rejecting his feelings was something even trash wouldn’t do, yet his hands wouldn’t stop. If Yoonjo hadn’t fallen asleep, things might have naturally progressed to the next stage. If anything, it was fortunate that he’d stopped like this.
“Yoonjo-ya….”
Seonwoo, who exhaled the name like a sigh, dropped his head with a thud. Then he vividly felt the hot breath touching his neck and the burning body temperature felt through the thin shirt.
The heat that had subsided for a moment began to slowly raise its head again. Thinking about what he was doing in front of a sleeping Yoonjo, Seonwoo carefully removed Yoonjo’s hands and got up from his seat. After hesitating and twitching his hands, he soon lifted Yoonjo into his arms. It was because he couldn’t leave a drunk person sleeping in the living room.
After laying him down properly in the bedroom and tucking the blanket snugly around him, Seonwoo was about to stroke sleeping Yoonjo’s eyes but soon stopped.
“You don’t know how dangerous you are.”
He’d almost crumbled after barely one day of deciding it was a bad idea. It wasn’t even funny how flimsy his resolve was. Seonwoo listened to Yoonjo’s even breathing for a while before finally getting up and going out to the living room. He sat on the sofa, clasped his hands together as if praying, and pressed them to his forehead.
“…I’m going crazy.”
He thought it had subsided, but he had no idea when he’d reacted like this again. It was to the point where he wondered if he’d gone insane.
As Seonwoo let out consecutive sighs, Dongtae, who had gotten up at some point, walked over with a pitter-patter and lay down at his feet. Seonwoo stroked Dongtae’s fluffy fur, trying to calm his desires.
It was around the time dawn was breaking that Seonwoo, who had been sitting and continuing various thoughts for quite a while, regained his composure. What remained in the place where the tension had disappeared was a terrible sense of fatigue.
Recently, his insomnia seemed to have diminished a bit, but it started going awry from the day he returned from Seoul. He only slept two or three hours in light sleep, so Seonwoo’s current condition was as bad as it could get.
‘You need to make a comeback, Seonwoo-ya. I think five years is me being pretty generous.’
The agency CEO’s words buzzed around his ears. A headache suddenly spread. Seonwoo, who pressed the end of his eyebrow with his thumb as if pushing it down hard, let out a sigh. While dry-washing his face, he came down from the sofa and hugged Dongtae. Dongtae blinked his eyelids slowly as if sleepy, then soon closed his eyes tightly.
Seonwoo, who closed his eyes following Dongtae, thought of Yoonjo who would be sleeping in the master bedroom. As he brought up his chattering voice one by one, the agency CEO’s words that had been hurting his head gradually began to be erased.
Seonwoo, who had his eyes closed for a while, opened them at the heavy weight he felt on his chest. It seemed he’d fallen asleep for a moment. He lifted his head slightly as if in pain, saw the white bundle of fur, and relaxed his body again.
“……?”
At the same time, he noticed something was strange. When he sat up abruptly, he felt a soft bedding. On the small side table right next to him, he could see several books he’d been reading every night. This was the master bedroom. It was when Seonwoo, who clearly remembered falling asleep on the living room sofa the night before, was blinking his eyes.
“Huh? Hyung, you’re awake? It’s only six o’clock though….”
With the sound of the door opening, Yoonjo stuck his head in, holding a ladle. As if he’d been cooking, he was uncharacteristically wearing an apron. The green apron had a famous soju brand name written on it, making it look less like cooking and more like he should be raising a glass at some bar.
“Seonwoo hyung really has terrible drinking habits. If you sleep like that in the living room with Dongtae, your back will hurt. You need to lie down properly to sleep well. Don’t you know your back is important?”
He had no idea who was talking about whose drinking habits right now. When Seonwoo, who had finished grasping the situation, let out an empty laugh, Yoonjo lightly shook the ladle and said,
“Since you’re up, come out. I made dried pollack soup. Dongtae-ya, let’s eat. Come out!”
Dongtae, who had been sprawled on his chest, rolled out of the room as if tumbling. In the suddenly empty room, Seonwoo unknowingly scrunched up his face. He really had no idea who the owner was.
When he went outside, he could see Yoonjo placing bowls on the table. Right next to him, the cheerful sound of crunching kibble could be heard. Dongtae didn’t usually eat food given by others, so he couldn’t even gauge when they’d become so close.
Because of finicky Dongtae, even the housekeeper who looked after the house had suffered for half a year. Yet with Yoonjo, whom he’d only known for barely over a month, he acted like he’d give him his liver and gallbladder, which was nothing but ironic.
“Hurry and cure your hangover. I had a really hard time this morning, you know. Wow, when I tried to wake you to put you to bed, do you remember hugging me tight?”
That couldn’t be. Forget anything else, he’d never heard of having such a sleeping habit, and above all, Seonwoo wasn’t drunk. The fact that his mind was still clear was proof of that.
However, instead of refuting, Seonwoo sent a look as if to say, go on. Yoonjo, who had been sneaking glances out of the corner of his eye, added on chattily as if he’d been waiting.
“I came out to drink water at dawn and hyung was crouched on the sofa. Hugging Dongtae in an uncomfortable position. So I put Dongtae down and tried to wake hyung so you could sleep comfortably, but suddenly you went like this! Like this!”
Yoonjo, who approached Seonwoo, spread his arms as if to embrace him. He looked ready to fall into Seonwoo’s arms at any moment. It would have been a successful plan if only Seonwoo hadn’t pushed Yoonjo’s forehead back with a long push.
“Ji Yoonjo.”
“…Y-yes?”
“Didn’t you learn you’ll be punished if you lie?”
Huh.
Yoonjo’s eyes widened, then he soon shifted his gaze to the side bit by bit. Not long after, when Seonwoo’s hand fell from his forehead, Yoonjo grumbled.
“Can’t you just play along?”
“No.”
“I even made dried pollack soup for your hangover…. Sliced the green onions finely… Made it refreshing and spicy….”
“How much do you remember from yesterday?”
“Ah! Of course I remember everything!”
Yoonjo, who added what do you take me for, put down the spoon and chopsticks and untied his apron strings. Perhaps because he couldn’t hug Seonwoo, his lips were strangely pouting out sulkily. Because it overlapped exactly with how he’d been begging for a kiss last night, Seonwoo had to cover his mouth and swallow a sigh.
“We were talking about this and that while drinking. Um… I think I also said let’s play a truth game.”
Yoonjo, who rolled his eyes around, furrowed his brow deeply as if trying to recall the memory. Even so, perhaps there was nothing particular, as he nodded his head perfunctorily.
“I think I fell asleep after that. When I opened my eyes, I was under the blanket. Ah! But that doesn’t mean I blacked out.”
At Yoonjo’s bright voice, Seonwoo felt his head becoming dizzy. He couldn’t believe he’d burned up all by himself, swayed by a drunk kid. A sigh burst out at the thought of what he’d done to a kid who knew nothing.
“…Why? Hyung, did I do something wrong?”
“Nothing like that. What could you have done wrong, Yoonjo….”
At Seonwoo’s powerless words, Yoonjo rolled his eyes around. No matter how hard he tried, no more memories came out. He wondered if he might have a drinking habit he wasn’t aware of, but he was certain that wasn’t it.
Even when he attended various drinking gatherings including club meetings and drank heavily, Yoonjo had never caused a single incident or accident so far. If you could call it a drinking habit, it was that he obediently returned to the dormitory, and even after entering the dormitory, he just slept like he was dead.
“I was famous at school. For having a calm drinking habit. Everyone who’s had drinks with me said so, right? Oh, they also said I have a strong homing instinct.”
Yoonjo, who hung the apron in a corner, petted Dongtae once, then hesitated for a moment. Then, very slowly straightening his bent waist, he added,
“Um…. Uh, so…. Then I’ll go to work. Thank you for drinking with me yesterday.”
“You can eat together. You prepared it, so you should at least taste it.”
“No! No! No! It’s okay! Uh, but… um…. Instead, can I walk Dongtae this afternoon?”
Seonwoo, who thought he’d naturally sit down, tilted his head slightly at the unexpected answer. Regardless, Yoonjo straightened his clothes and walked toward the entrance. His gaze stubbornly faced forward.
“Farm work! Yes, farm work, I’m running late so I need to go quickly.”
“…Do as you like.”
“Then I’ll come back later!”
Yoonjo, who left the entrance almost as if fleeing, held his breath until the moment he entered his own house past the gate. After roughly closing the worn gate, Yoonjo collapsed on the spot. He tapped the dirt ground with his palm, bang, bang, letting out a silent scream.
“Wow…. Really… I must have lost it….”
What hadn’t come to mind even while preparing the meal suddenly rose up like a buoy with its weight removed the moment he petted Dongtae’s head.
Insisting so stubbornly that he liked him was a talent if it was a talent. Moreover, even Seonwoo’s cold words declaring it was a misunderstanding…. Even moments he didn’t need to remember came to mind together, and his mood suddenly became gloomy.
“It’s not… a misunderstanding.”
Yoonjo, who had been curled up for a while, stood up abruptly. Unlike the gloomy words he’d spoken, his expression looked as resolute as a general advancing toward enemy lines.
Second plan, approach without being burdensome. In other words, the time had come to actively implement unconditionally hovering by his side and then boom! seeping in.
