Regardless of how victory or defeat turned out, he wasn’t particularly disappointed. This was because it wasn’t a bet they’d started to determine winning and losing in the first place.
Moreover, they’d even set the condition that the winning team would buy the meal. Following Sehee, who took the lead suggesting they go eat with a particularly pleased face, perhaps from shooting guns to her satisfaction, the three people moved locations.
The restaurant she chose had a nice atmosphere, and the interior and tableware placed on the tables were clean and charming. Until the food came out, the four people exchanged conversation in a fairly harmonious atmosphere.
The topics mainly consisted of trivial episodes that happened at home. Until Soyoon suddenly brought up a different subject in the middle of eating.
‘Only the last date is left now.’
Soyoon, who stopped eating and rinsed her mouth with wine, paused for a moment then opened her mouth with a calmer voice than usual. Though her characteristic bright smile still hung on her face, the attitude of throwing out the topic on the table wasn’t as light as usual.
Different from the cheerful laughter until just now, at the careful appearance, everyone’s gazes fixed on Soyoon. However, she was only looking at Seonwoo. Her lips that hesitated as if reluctant to speak opened slowly.
‘Seonwoo oppa… said from the beginning that there was someone he wanted to have the last date with. Does that thought still remain unchanged?’
Haeyoung, who noticed where Soyoon’s gaze was directed, unconsciously turned his head to the side. And at that moment, his gaze met with Seonwoo’s, who had been looking at him.
The moment he met the black eyes directed at him, in that instant Yoon Haeyoung felt as if he was falling from a very high place. It was a distant sensation as if his heart was dropping to the floor. He almost dropped the water glass he was holding and barely put strength in his hand.
The gaze that had been watching such Haeyoung soon fell away soundlessly. Seonwoo looked at Soyoon and nodded slowly. Along with a nod that was neither light nor heavy, he opened his mouth.
‘Yeah, it’s unchanged.’
At his words that flowed out calmly, Soyoon’s gaze turned downward.
‘…I see.’
Her lips that had been drawing curves wavered for a moment. She nodded as if understanding and raised the corners of her mouth again. However, the smile hanging on her lips gave off a rather bitter feeling instead of being purely pleasant as usual.
Haeyoung, who was barely pretending to have a composed expression at the unexpected situation, discovered Sehee in a similar position. To her blinking eyes as if asking what to do, perhaps feeling sympathy from him, Haeyoung showed an awkward smile.
The meal atmosphere that followed afterward could gradually come back to life thanks to Haeyoung and Sehee stepping up to perform CPR. It was just as they were coming out after having an early dinner not knowing whether it was going in through their mouths or noses.
“It was delicious, wasn’t it, Soyoon-ah.”
Sehee, who exited the store first, asked while linking her arm with Soyoon’s. At that, Soyoon nodded with her usual bright smile.
“Yeah! I ate a lot for the first time in a while.”
The cheerful voice heard from the front and the lightly nodding head revealed that her mood had improved. She even looked much more lighthearted than before the meal.
The gaze of Haeyoung, who was inwardly relieved, turned toward Seonwoo again. The area around his eyes visible between the white breath he exhaled was reddish.
“…That’s strange.”
Haeyoung unconsciously let out a murmur. His face, more flushed than usual, had been bothering him throughout the meal anyway. His eyes looking up at Seonwoo lengthened unconsciously.
No matter how he looked, his condition seemed bad. …He’s not sick somewhere, is he.
“Why?”
Perhaps feeling the gaze directed at him, he who had been following Haeyoung turned his head. At the rather persistent gaze, Seonwoo tilted his head with a smiling face and asked.
“Hyung, didn’t you only drink one glass of wine earlier?”
Instead of answering, Haeyoung looked at Seonwoo and asked back. At the question returned to him, he who hesitated raised his hand. At Seonwoo’s gesture of placing the back of his hand against his own cheek without a reply, Haeyoung’s eyes narrowed even more.
If his memory was correct, all he had drunk was about a sip of wine to rinse his mouth. In the first place, Cha Seonwoo wasn’t really the type to enjoy alcohol, and he definitely wasn’t the type whose face would flush right away from drinking a few sips of alcohol.
The more question marks increased, an unknown anxiety gradually rose from within. A hypothesis he wanted to ignore kept raising its head. In the end, Haeyoung, unable to overcome his impatience, reached his hand toward him.
“Hyung, just a moment.”
His outstretched palm touched Seonwoo’s forehead. At the touch reaching his forehead and the hot warmth felt from the fingertips placed on his forehead, both people froze simultaneously.
The one who was definitely less composed was Haeyoung. Even though it was midwinter, the warmth felt from his hand was absolutely not at a normal level. As if ice water had been poured over his head, Haeyoung’s expression hardened in an instant.
“…You have a fever.”
“Really? I didn’t know.”
The voice he barely managed to get out by opening his lips that wouldn’t part was sunken. Seonwoo shook his head as if it was nothing, but Haeyoung’s expression didn’t ease easily.
He wasn’t a fool, so there was no way he could believe what Seonwoo said at face value.
Not knowing didn’t make sense. If the fever had risen this much, he would have felt that his condition wasn’t good long ago. Since when exactly? It seemed he couldn’t concentrate at all even at the shooting range. No wonder his hands were warmer than usual…
Haeyoung, who was biting his lips, suddenly recalled the fact that from the moment he first saw him this afternoon, his condition hadn’t looked very good.
“What’s wrong?”
Perhaps because Haeyoung’s expression, who had stopped in front of the store without following, looked serious, Sehee, who had been ahead, turned around and asked.
“Seonwoo hyung… seems to be feeling a bit unwell.”
“Huh? Seonwoo-ssi, are you sick somewhere?”
“I’m fine.”
What do you mean you’re fine? Hearing Seonwoo’s answer, Haeyoung looked up at him, even erasing the smile he had been forcing on his lips.
Though he didn’t know exactly what this surging feeling was, he only knew that expressing his anxiety as it was right now wasn’t appropriate. Soyoon and Sehee would have been quite flustered too, and the filming camera was still following them.
Yoon Haeyoung raised his hand to wipe his face once, then raised his head with a calm face. And he discovered that worry was settling in Sehee’s eyes looking at him.
Ah. A low sigh flowed from his mouth. Meeting eyes with her seemed to bring him to his senses. Haeyoung spoke in a gentle voice as if soothing Sehee.
“Noona… I’m sorry, but I think I need to get permission from the staff and go to the hospital.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay. What’s there to be sorry about. Go carefully.”
Sehee waved her hand saying it was fine, and Soyoon, standing next to her, also looked at the two with concern. Discovering the cameraman peering at them as if something seemed to have gone wrong, Haeyoung hurriedly approached him.
When he explained the situation, though it was difficult to move directly since they were filming, he stepped forward saying he’d call a taxi. Grateful just for that, Haeyoung bowed his head with a smile that slightly leaked out. Leaving behind the staff member who immediately picked up his phone to call a taxi, Haeyoung returned to Seonwoo.
“Let’s go to the hospital.”
“Haeyoung-ah, it’s really not that serious.”
“…What does hyung know.”
Though he knew it wasn’t something to grumble about to him, seeing Seonwoo rather trying to soothe him made an unreasonable sadness seem about to burst out. Haeyoung, who was trying to gather his emotions with his gaze lowered, eventually pulled at Seonwoo’s collar as if muttering.
“Is hyung a doctor?”
At the face clearly showing upset feelings unlike the careful gesture, Cha Seonwoo eventually nodded as if defeated.
“Alright. I’ll go, Haeyoung-ah. Let’s go to the hospital.”
A voice as gentle as usual fell by Haeyoung’s ear. Only after he said he would go to the hospital did Haeyoung raise his gaze and nod slowly.
The taxi the staff called arrived without taking long. Grateful to Sehee and Soyoon, who waited together without going home first as if to see them off, Haeyoung conveyed his greeting with a complicated face.
After returning the microphone he’d been wearing, Haeyoung got into the taxi’s back seat with Seonwoo. The destination was a nearby university hospital. Inside the smoothly departing vehicle, Seonwoo was pressing down hard on his eyes with his hand as if tired.
‘Why didn’t he say anything when he wasn’t feeling well.’
Even while thinking that, in the end the responsibility came back to himself.
There was only one reason why Seonwoo, who was healthy even without taking care of his body, would be sick. Haeyoung, who recalled him waiting for him outside last night, bit his lips and shifted his gaze outside the window.
‘…I should have noticed something was strange from when hyung got off work early in the first place.’
Thoughts continued in an endless chain and kept coming back like a loop, and in the end only the conclusion that it was his responsibility came out there.
If Seonwoo hadn’t waited for him, he wouldn’t have gotten sick like this. To make matters worse, since he had no memory of seeing him sick, he didn’t immediately notice that his physical condition wasn’t good. Thinking that he had continued to hang out together in this state, an unavoidable sense of guilt washed over him.
Yoon Haeyoung swallowed a sigh while looking out the window. The scenery reflected in the window just flowed by without being captured in his eyes. He turned his head after Seonwoo’s head dropped onto his shoulder.
He silently reached out his hand to straighten Seonwoo’s posture so he could lean more comfortably. He also carefully smoothed out the clothes in his arms that he’d been gripping tightly and covered Seonwoo’s body with them. Haeyoung, who was rolling his eyes to see if there was anywhere that looked more uncomfortable, soon closed his eyes following Seonwoo.
However, he couldn’t carelessly fall asleep. Probably until he heard from the doctor that Seonwoo was okay, he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep easily. Haeyoung could be certain.
