At the unexpected suggestion, Dain’s eyes widened and she asked back, unable to hide her excited air.
“Is that okay?”
There was no reason it wouldn’t be. Anyway, he had gotten off work early today, and stopping by a cafe on the way home wasn’t difficult. It was obvious she wanted to go, so it would be stranger to pretend not to notice.
When Haeyoung readily nodded his head, a bright smile appeared on the face of Dain, who was usually quiet. Her steps heading to the cafe first were quite cheerful. Haeyoung, who was walking behind her, spoke as if casually bringing it up. Dain-ah, the way you walk is totally like a musician. It’s got rhythm. At those playful words, Dain, who had gone ahead and grabbed the cafe door, whipped around and frowned in a way that wasn’t unlikeable.
“Hurry up.”
Seeing her urging him and then opening the door to wait for him, Haeyoung quickened his steps. When he approached and grabbed the door handle instead, Dain, who had taken her hand off the door she’d been holding open, entered the shop. Unlike the cute exterior he’d seen from the outside before entering, the interior was a cafe filled with various breads.
Though it wasn’t large, perhaps because it was a bakery cafe, quite a lot of bread remained even though it was evening. Seeing Dain’s excited face among the breads displayed under the pale orange lighting, Haeyoung picked up tongs and a wooden tray. She had said to drink coffee, but it seemed bread was the real purpose.
“I want to eat everything, what should I do?”
“Pick everything. You can share it with the other people.”
“You…… are you perhaps a genius?”
Seeing Dain looking up at him with a touched face at his trivial answer, Haeyoung finally couldn’t hold back and let out chuckles. He hadn’t known because they hadn’t had much time together, but she seemed very serious about bread.
Every time Dain gestured at something she wanted to eat, Haeyoung picked them up one by one with the tongs and stacked them neatly on the tray. Dain, who had been frantically choosing bread, soon turned around with an “oops” expression, perhaps thinking she had only been putting what she wanted to eat.
“Haeyoung-ah, what do you want to eat?”
Haeyoung, who had been following behind her looking at the displayed breads, raised his head at the question that suddenly came.
The reason he couldn’t answer right away to the question of what he wanted to eat was because he wasn’t particularly fond of bread. He did eat it simply as a meal replacement, but he didn’t like it enough to seek it out. However, instead of shaking his head saying he didn’t particularly want anything, Haeyoung looked down at the breads carefully. Couldn’t he just pick some and give them to the others anyway?
I wonder what Seonwoo hyung likes… Will hyung be at home? Hyung eats sweet things well too, so should I buy something with cream on it?
“This one.”
He lifted up one with blueberries on it with the tongs. She, who had confirmed what Haeyoung chose, requested the clerk to package that one together as well. Soon Haeyoung took the paper bag the clerk handed back and moved his steps outside the shop.
Haeyoung, who had pushed open the glass door and come outside, held the door and waited for Dain to come out, wiping his cheek that the cold wind had brushed with the back of his hand. Perhaps because he had been inside the cafe where warmth lingered under the orange lighting and then came out, outside felt a bit more chilly.
“I’ll carry it!”
“It’s fine, you’re already carrying a bag as big as you are.”
To Dain, who reached her hand toward the paper bag he was holding as soon as she came out, Haeyoung briefly shook his head. She, who had been restless for a moment, smiled awkwardly and readjusted the black guitar bag she was carrying on her back.
The sun had already set, but the surroundings weren’t dark thanks to the streetlights set up here and there. However, the house they had come to reside in while filming the program was quite a ways up even within the neighborhood, so the two walked side by side to the house.
He didn’t know from when, but the gaze he felt after leaving the cafe was probably a camera. Haeyoung, who had refrained from speaking feeling awkward for no reason, glanced at Dain, who had become quiet again, and opened his mouth.
“This is the first time we’ve talked together like this.”
“Oh, right…!”
Whether she was naturally a quiet personality or shy with strangers, she tended not to talk much. Still, when he started a conversation, she answered quite well. Like now.
“You always leave early in the morning so there’s no time to run into you. Except when we all drink and talk together at night.”
Seeing Dain rattling on, Haeyoung silently nodded his head. However, at the name that followed soon after, he couldn’t help but flinch reflexively.
“Seonwoo oppa too.”
The timing of that name coming up had quite an ill-fitting corner to it. The name that popped out of nowhere, deviating from the context of the conversation, was highly likely something she had been holding onto all along. At the feeling of his nape stiffening as if cold water had been poured over him, Yoon Haeyoung had to struggle to arrange his expression.
“If you at least ate breakfast together, you could get closer, but you both leave too early.”
At those words, Haeyoung couldn’t find words to respond. Unable to easily bring out either a rebuttal or agreement, he just let out an ambiguous smile and fiddled with his lips.
Still, he had relatively more interaction with the male cast members, but it was undeniable that he had less interaction with the female cast members compared to others. And the same was true for Seonwoo as well. Having appeared on a romance program, he himself had been constantly conscious of only Seonwoo, and he knew that Seonwoo had consistently given him attention. Of course, it wasn’t a big problem because he didn’t want to pay attention to anyone other than Seonwoo.
Ah, if there was one more person he was conscious of, there was one. Yoon Haeyoung, who suddenly recalled Hajin’s face, unknowingly became inwardly anxious. She probably didn’t hope for much from him when she suggested his appearance but….
‘Is this okay……’
Hajin’s words that there was no one coming out to date, so he didn’t necessarily have to date, were the only consolation to Haeyoung now. The excuse that he was keeping everything she had asked was like a lifeline.
“How do you wake up so well in the morning?”
To him, who had been lost in thought for a moment, Dain asked in a tone of wonder. At that question, Haeyoung lowered his gaze back to her.
“I originally can’t wake up well in the morning either. I had to have someone wake me up to get up.”
“Wow, me too! If a person doesn’t wake me up, I can’t hear my alarm well and sleep through it.”
I know that. When Haeyoung grinned as if in sympathy, Dain’s face became even more relaxed. The atmosphere seemed to show she was much more comfortable with him than before. Haeyoung, who had read that difference, also spoke more lightly.
“Since there are a lot of people now, try asking them to wake you when they leave.”
At those words, she perked up her head as if it was a good idea.
“Then can you wake me up tomorrow morning when you leave?”
At Dain’s question that flowed out without much thought, Haeyoung hesitated. Dain, who had been tilting her head while looking at Haeyoung staring at her with an ambiguous gaze instead of answering right away, soon recalled the words she had thought and hastily drew in a breath.
Flustered, she even raised both hands to her chest and opened her mouth urgently.
“…Is that a bit much? There are other people in my room too, so I don’t have to ask you specifically… But it’s not like I said that to you leaving room for something. You know what I mean, right?”
In the words that flowed out in a fluster, there wasn’t a single properly completed sentence. Haeyoung, who had been quietly listening to the rambling content, smiled softly and nodded his head.
“I didn’t say anything, Dain-ah.”
“No, really it’s not like that.”
“I know.”
At the laughter still imbued in his voice, Dain lowered the corners of her eyes as if wronged. Though he had responded playfully, for Haeyoung it wasn’t a matter he could answer without any thought.
He knew Dain’s request to wake her had no special feelings attached. Rather, Haeyoung could guess that she had said such a thing because she thought of him as close. However, he was aware of the fact that even if his actions didn’t make Dain misunderstand, they could make observers misunderstand. And unfortunately, the person he was most conscious of lived in the same house.
Yoon Haeyoung didn’t want to make Cha Seonwoo misunderstand. Even after breaking up, the feeling of not wanting to hurt Seonwoo was still valid. Even though they had become a relationship that couldn’t be turned back, the greed of not wanting to do something irreversible was laughable, and so it became somewhat bitter.
Haeyoung, who had been walking in silence, smoothly brought up a different topic while ignoring his blurring vision.
“I’ve listened to your songs.”
“Ugh. Really? I’m embarrassed….”
“Why? They were good. I also watched you performing on YouTube.”
“I’m going crazy.”
Dain finally raised both hands to cover her face as if she couldn’t stand to hear it. It seemed like he could see her face turning bright red even in the darkness, so Haeyoung giggled quietly.
Though she was embarrassed, Dain seemed not entirely displeased that he said her songs were good, as she lowered her hands to peek out her eyes. Along with clear anticipation in her pupils, she carefully asked.
“Who do you think sings the best?”
“I am……”
Meeting that gaze, Haeyoung made a serious face. Hmm…. He dragged out time, even slowly stopping his steps as if pondering hard, then casually spoke.
“The person playing drums was cool.”
“Ah, besides that.”
Dain, who slightly frowned as if it wasn’t the answer she was expecting, mercilessly drew a red line through Haeyoung’s answer. He, who had his answer marked wrong taken back into his hands, made an expression of deliberating even more carefully than before.
“Then….”
Mischief glinted in Haeyoung’s eyes looking down.
“The person playing keyboard?”
“Hey!”
Dain, whose expectations were betrayed again, reflexively raised her voice and called out to Haeyoung. She, who had been making a displeased face, soon stuck out her lips, and Haeyoung erased the serious look from his expression and smiled lightly.
“I’m joking, the person playing bass was the best.”
Though he was coaxing her saying it was a joke, mischief was still imbued in his voice, so Dain grabbed the bass guitar bag strap on her shoulder and glared at him sideways. However, knowing that she wasn’t really angry, Haeyoung smiled amiably and asked.
“You said you came while preparing for a performance, right?”
“Yeah. But… our band isn’t that well-known, so honestly even if I say performance, it’s not a big scale. We just rent a live cafe and do it in a small way.”
Really? At the plain response without any particular addition, Dain nodded her head. He glanced down at Dain, who had become quiet again while slowly moving her steps. That’s when it was.
“…We originally planned to only do it until this year. So this is scheduled to be our last performance.”
The words that suddenly popped out broke the quiet stillness. Because they were words heavy enough to cause large ripples on the water’s surface, instead of opening his mouth right away, Haeyoung closed it for a moment. Words to respond didn’t easily come to mind for what he should answer.
He wasn’t unaware of how difficult it was to stop something you liked in the middle. He too had experience agonizing and running away countless times between the heart that couldn’t give up and the realistic difficulties of continuing. Unable to pick out words of comfort, he eventually spoke in a calm tone.
“I’ll definitely come watch when you perform.”
“Really? You promise?”
“Yeah.”
Seeing Haeyoung nod his head as if it were natural, Dain straightened her back with a slightly excited air. Soon following Dain’s gait that had become more cheerful, Haeyoung also lengthened his stride to match her walking speed. Even though the conversation didn’t continue endlessly, the atmosphere wasn’t heavy.
Having arrived home, he grabbed the door handle and glanced back at Dain, saying.
“…Still, I hope you continue. Your songs were really good.”
“……”
“Let’s go in, Dain-ah.”
Haeyoung, who had pressed the door lock and opened the door that had been closed all along, stood as if telling her to enter first. Dain, who had been standing blankly for a moment, belatedly nodded her head and entered inside. Haeyoung, who followed her in, crossed the corridor and headed for the stairs going up to the second floor.
When he climbed to the second floor, voices could be heard murmuring from the common space as if it were natural. It seemed those who had come home early had gathered and were talking. Instead of Dain, who had headed to a room on the first floor saying she would change clothes and come, Haeyoung entered the common space.
“Haeyoung, you’re here?”
To Sehee, who greeted him warmly as soon as she discovered him, he also greeted through eye contact. In the common space, there was not only her but also Jaehwi and Hyuna, and Soyoon and Minho as well. To Haeyoung, who was approaching those welcoming him, Jaehwi asked.
“Did you eat?”
“I ate. Did you all already have dinner? I bought this.”
When he put down a white box on the table, Minho, who was closest to the table, stretched out his arm without hiding his curiosity. The others all also took interest in the several breads inside it.
Among those admiring them saying they looked pretty and delicious, Minho asked.
“Can we eat it now?”
“Wait a moment. Since Dain picked them out, I think it would be good to eat when Dain comes.”
At those words, those who readily agreed took out the bread knife that had been in the box and gulped saliva. Seeing those who couldn’t take their eyes off the bread even though they must have eaten dinner, the corners of his mouth inevitably rose meaninglessly. While Haeyoung was watching them, Dain, who had finally come up to the second floor, caught Minho’s view.
He pointed to a corner inside the box and asked.
“Can I eat this, Dain?”
“Oh! That’s what Haeyoung picked?”
At Dain’s answer, Minho’s head turned quickly. Haeyoung hesitated for a moment at the sight of him looking at him with sparkling eyes. And seeing what his fingertip was pointing at, he reflexively answered.
“Ah, that’s…… for Seonwoo hyung.”
Seonwoo, who had been following in behind Dain, tilted his head when he heard his name. Only after unknowingly blurting out the words did Haeyoung belatedly read the room and roll his eyes, wearing an awkward smile on his lips. Then the other person also smiled back, folding his eyes in laughter.
“You’re back?”
He, who had approached, lightly grabbed Haeyoung’s shoulder and asked.
