Should he have been suspicious from the moment he said he trusted himself? Standing in front of the shooting line watching Seonwoo fumbling with the gun in an awkward posture, Haeyoung felt the anxiety he had tried to cover up raising its head again.
“Haeyoung-ah, how do I hold the posture?”
“……”
At the question Seonwoo eventually threw, Yoon Haeyoung moved his mouth and ended up just closing it.
They just explained it to you. What were you listening to? Haeyoung, who had firmly swallowed down the questions that rose to his throat, looked at Seonwoo with an absurd face. However, he only smiled and tilted his head with an expression that showed he had no idea what Haeyoung was thinking. The thought that they were screwed suddenly flashed through his mind.
“Hyung, you’ve completed military service, right?”
Haeyoung asked with suspicious eyes. Then Seonwoo, who had been wearing a leisurely smile on his lips, froze as he was, and a cheerful laugh was heard from Sehee’s direction, who was standing at the shooting line right next to them.
Yoon Haeyoung turned his body to look at Sehee and drooped his eyebrows.
“Noona, can’t we switch teams now?”
“…Can’t switch.”
“She says we can’t.”
Though Haeyoung had asked Sehee, Seonwoo answered a beat late as if asking how he could say such a thing.
At the same time, he felt a momentary heaviness near his shoulder. The head that dropped onto his shoulder rubbed slightly as if sulking. Was he hurt even though it was a joke? Haeyoung, who raised his hand, ruffled through the hair tickling near his nape as if stroking it, then turned his body and pushed Seonwoo away.
“It’s a joke.”
Haeyoung, who spoke as if to soothe him while laughing, patted his back. It was a gesture telling him it was okay and to shoot comfortably. Seonwoo, who had been looking at such Haeyoung intently for a moment, also wore a faint smile on his lips and stood in front of the gun.
Eventually he reached out and gripped the gun’s handle. His shooting posture holding the gun was quite sloppy.
“Hyung, by any chance……”
You don’t have amnesia, do you? The words he wanted to ask filled his mouth, but Haeyoung swallowed them down and just silently watched Seonwoo.
The slightly disheveled hair covered his white forehead as he gripped the gun and positioned himself. As his eyes narrowed, his long eyelashes cast shadows over his clean skin.
The sight of him gripping the gun barrel with his innocent-looking face created a disparate atmosphere. Haeyoung’s mouth opened slightly.
“Haeyoung-ah, you’re going to bore a hole through my face.”
At those words, Haeyoung flinched and deliberately wore a crooked smile on his lips.
“Just hurry up and shoot.”
“Yes.”
The laugh he couldn’t hide was mixed in his drawn-out answer. Bang, as soon as the words ended, gunshots were heard in succession.
And Cha Seonwoo missed Haeyoung’s expectations without even an inch of error.
Haeyoung blinked while holding the target Seonwoo had shot. Though he’d had an inkling from when he was shooting carelessly, Haeyoung reflexively closed his mouth while looking at the holes that had perfectly missed dead center. Sehee, who had been looking at the target Seonwoo shot from the side, let out a light snort.
Seonwoo asked with a voice tinged with laughter toward Haeyoung, who had lost his words for a moment.
“Did I do well?”
Haeyoung, who made eye contact with Seonwoo looking up at him with a slight glance, let out a chuckle and nodded.
“…Yeah, you did well. They’re all close to the center.”
Right, this is doing well. It’s not like they went outside the target, he hit everything inside the target. Haeyoung stood in front of his shooting line, defending Seonwoo as if it were natural.
Haeyoung, who had been fiddling with the upper part of the gun’s stock while waiting for his turn, naturally looked up at Seonwoo again. Shooting results aside, he hadn’t been able to shake off the sense of incongruity he’d felt for some unknown reason since seeing him at home.
It was just his misconception, but he was noticeably unable to concentrate. He’s smiling brightly so he doesn’t seem to be in a bad mood… Haeyoung’s eyes narrowed as he watched Seonwoo.
“I’ll go!”
Haeyoung, who couldn’t take his suspicious gaze off Seonwoo, turned his head at the voice he heard. Soyoon was holding the gun and positioning herself for shooting.
Soyoon, who at first occasionally flinched and unknowingly let out disappointed exclamations, soon adapted and aimed refreshingly at the center of the target. The results confirmed after shooting all the prepared bullets were also good. Except for a few shots at the beginning that hit the edge of the target, all the holes were positioned close to the center.
“Haeyoung oppa, now it’s oppa’s turn.”
Soyoon, who had been inwardly proud while looking at what she shot, turned to Haeyoung with a grin.
Feeling everyone’s gaze fixed on him, Haeyoung let out an awkward smile. Since the scores Soyoon and Seonwoo brought were similar, the outcome of the bet would be decided by his and Sehee’s results. The karma of his playful bravado had returned quite heavily.
He didn’t have to win, but he didn’t want to do it carelessly either. If there was something that bothered him, it was only one thing. The gaze sent from beside him while gripping the gun’s handle was quite blatant.
“Hyung, I’m the one whose face is going to have a hole bored through it.”
Yoon Haeyoung, who let out an empty laugh, immediately put his finger on the trigger.
It was the first time he’d held a gun since being discharged, but the texture winding around his hand felt instinctively familiar, giving him goosebumps. Haeyoung, who swallowed inwardly, pulled the trigger aiming only at the dead center of the target.
Bang, bang, bang, bang. Each time he put strength into his hand, a heavy recoil was transmitted through his entire upper body along with the gunshot that rang in his eardrums. As he pulled the trigger without hesitation, he felt like the stress that had been building up was being released somehow.
After shooting until the bullets ran out, he raised his head with a more refreshing smile than before.
“This is more fun than I thought.”
“Right? I often come to the shooting range when I want to relieve stress.”
However, at Sehee’s following words, Haeyoung, who had been wearing a refreshed face, momentarily raised his eyebrows.
What caught him was the words about often coming to the shooting range. He thought she would be good anyway, but if she had a lot of experience too, it was obvious as day that her skills would be good. While Haeyoung was looking at Sehee, the target he had just shot returned into his hands.
It was a clean target with the holes punctured throughout gathered at the center of the target. Soyoon, who had been watching with curious eyes from beside Haeyoung, hit his shoulder with an admiring, smiling face. Seeing her hold out her palm as if to high-five, Haeyoung also smiled and lightly met her palm.
“Hyung.”
He then spread out his palm in front of Seonwoo’s eyes as Soyoon had done. Seonwoo, who had been alternately looking at that hand and Haeyoung’s face, slightly curved his eyes.
Seonwoo, who readily met Haeyoung’s hand with his own, bent his fingers before he could withdraw his arm again. Haeyoung’s shoulders stiffened at the fingers digging in without gaps between the hands. He tried to pull his hand out, but it didn’t come apart easily, as if they had interlocked fingers quite firmly.
He sent a silent signal with his eyes telling him to let go, but Cha Seonwoo only smiled as if he knew nothing.
‘What if other people see, whenever there’s an opening…’
Before, at least it was when they were alone together, but now there were other people and they were probably filming somewhere too. Haeyoung hurriedly lowered their clasped hands behind his back and turned his body.
When he turned his eyes, he could see a staff member holding a camera from a distance. Haeyoung, who confirmed the direction of the lens, turned his body diagonally and hid their interlocked hands so they couldn’t be seen. And he slightly shook his arm behind his back, sending a signal to let go.
However, from over his shoulder, only a suppressed laugh could be heard.
“Oh, you’re pretty good.”
At that moment, Sehee, who had been looking at Haeyoung’s target, gave what was close to a compliment with a grin. Haeyoung also raised the corners of his mouth toward her, pretending to be calm. However, after she eventually positioned herself for shooting and took her gaze off him, the smile hanging on his lips awkwardly blurred.
Even while looking down at Sehee, who was carefully taking her time as if checking a few things before shooting, Haeyoung couldn’t concentrate at all. Soyoon was also concentrating on watching Sehee about to shoot, and their clasped hands wouldn’t even be visible on camera, but his heart was pounding as if he were committing some wrongdoing.
The palm clasped with Seonwoo’s burned as if he were holding embers rather than a hand. It was a clear and tangible warmth.
‘This is driving me crazy……’
Haeyoung raised his free hand and covered his face, pretending to brush away his bangs. For a moment, he even suspected whether he was being overly conscious. Because the person standing behind him was too calm.
But even without thinking deeply, it was a situation worth being conscious of. It wasn’t that his own feet were tingling over a wrong he hadn’t committed, but that he was anxious about getting caught for the action he had committed.
Holding hands when they were in a broken-up relationship couldn’t be appropriate behavior. The problem was with himself, who couldn’t forcefully shake off Seonwoo’s hand even though he already knew it in his head. At the self-loathing that suddenly washed over him, Haeyoung slightly glared behind him.
‘Why?’
The lips that entered his view moved. At that silent question, he felt indignantly wronged.
But at that moment, at the small cheer he heard, Haeyoung had to look forward again. At some point her turn had ended, and Sehee was holding the target, with Soyoon standing beside her letting out admiration with her eyes wide open.
Haeyoung also took a step closer to Sehee and leaned his upper body. And looking at the target that entered his view, he let out a quiet sigh.
“Wow, noona, why are you so good?”
“Cool, right? You’re falling for me.”
“Really though…”
Is this noona perhaps a former shooting champion?
Haeyoung, who had been about to ask if she was a national representative before starting her business, closed his mouth at the pressure he felt from their clasped hands. Because the timing of the sudden strength in the hand was exquisite.
When he gave a sidelong glance over his shoulder, he saw Seonwoo with his eyes downcast. At the faint smile hanging on his lips, Haeyoung reflexively blinked. …Why is his mood twisted again?
At the vague doubt, Haeyoung slightly furrowed his brow and tapped Seonwoo’s shoulder with his finger. And when he immediately opened his palm and rubbed his shoulder as if to soothe him, Seonwoo gradually released the strength from the hand he had been gripping tightly without letting go. The hand that had been holding and fiddling with his fingertips as if reluctant even as it smoothly fell away, completely separated.
Haeyoung tightly gripped his empty hand at the sense of emptiness he felt for some unknown reason along with relief.
“Wow, unnie is so cool!”
Soyoon grabbed Sehee’s arm and repeatedly raised her heels. Her excited voice and the hair fluttering up and down clearly revealed her elated mood. Without even bothering to calculate, it was clear who the winner of the bet was.
“We lost.”
Haeyoung wore a helpless laugh on his lips and lightly raised both hands.
