“Huh? How… How did you know? Can you really see everything?”
“There’s only one reason you’d wait up for me without sleeping at this hour.”
Dowon shook his head as if exasperated and headed to the bathroom. At his retreating back, Yeohwi urgently shouted.
“Wait…! So, can’t you sleep with me tonight?”
“No.”
Dowon refused without even looking back. But just for today, Yeohwi didn’t give in easily either. He limped after Dowon on his injured leg. And blocked the bathroom door with his large frame.
“Then I’ll sneak into your bed, Dowon-ssi.”
Yeohwi declared resolutely. At that, Dowon stopped, dumbfounded.
“What will you do after crawling in? Your arms are in that state, so you can’t do anything anyway.”
“I’ll do things in a month!”
Yeohwi shouted back. Dowon’s thick eyebrows twitched.
“Then what are you going to do?”
“Just… well…”
Yeohwi, who had been hesitating and avoiding his gaze, looked straight at Dowon again as if he’d made up his mind. His cheeks were flushed red all the way to his ears.
“I don’t know, just. I’ll hug you, Dowon-ssi… and kiss… Well, there are lots of things I want to do…”
Dowon let out a hollow laugh. He was even more dumbfounded imagining what he meant by doing things in a month.
“Move. I’m washing up.”
As if it wasn’t worth answering, Dowon pushed Yeohwi aside and entered the bathroom. But just as he was about to close the door, a thick thigh slipped through the gap.
“…Aren’t you leaving?”
Dowon glared with fierce eyes. However, Yeohwi shamelessly pushed his way in. Using his body weight, he wedged through the door gap and closed the door behind him with a thud.
“What’s the big deal? You’ve seen all of mine too, Dowon-ssi.”
“Seong Yeohwi.”
“It’s unfair! I’m all, my dick…! That, I look like I can’t even get married. Though it doesn’t matter since you’re my husband, Dowon-ssi… Anyway, I want to see too.”
“Has he lost his mind…”
It was so absurdly ridiculous that he wasn’t even angry. Dowon looked at Seong Yeohwi acting obstinately with an astounded expression, then soon ignored him and turned his head.
Entering the powder room, he completely loosened his tie and threw it into the laundry basket. The dark navy tie slid smoothly along his long fingertips.
“If words don’t work, there’s only beating. Get out if you don’t want to get hit.”
Dowon left a warning and turned his back. Then, standing in front of the powder room mirror, he began roughly unbuttoning his shirt. Pop, thud. The sound of buttons being undone rang loudly in the silent space.
Yeohwi leaned against the door and stared at Dowon without blinking an eye. His gaze persistently followed Dowon’s movements.
“I’ll just get beaten then. I’m already injured all over, so what’s a few more wounds?”
“You’re really persistent.”
“I know.”
The white shirt slipped below his shoulders and fell to the floor. Broad, firm back muscles were exposed nakedly under the lighting. A deeply carved groove along the spine and shoulder blades that rose and fell with each movement of his waist. The lean muscles moved on his back like living creatures. It was a body forged through years of intense exercise.
‘…Wow.’
Yeohwi swallowed his saliva. His throat was dry. His heart was also pounding so crazily that his ears felt muffled.
He was sexy even when wearing a suit, but now that he’d taken it off… This was a lethal weapon. Such a dangerous body. How wonderful it would be if he could touch it. Just imagining it made his lower abdomen feel heavy.
Dowon threw the shirt into the laundry bin. Then he brought his hand to his pants belt. The sound of the metal buckle coming undone rang loudly in the silent space.
Dowon, who was about to pull down the zipper, stopped his hand.
Looking up at the mirror, Yeohwi still hadn’t left and was watching him with wide eyes. No, he was greedily appreciating him. His gaze was fixed on the loosened gap in the pants and the abs carved like a painting above it.
“…Hey.”
Dowon slowly turned his head and glared at Yeohwi in the mirror. Yeohwi, who had been staring at Dowon in a daze as if possessed, flinched. The two’s gazes met precisely through the mirror.
Eyes getting soaked with desire. Instead of adjusting his open pants, Dowon strode toward Yeohwi standing by the door in his exposed state. An oppressive shadow engulfed Yeohwi.
“Looks like you’ve seen enough. Should I escort you out?”
Dowon trapped Yeohwi with both arms.
No, he thought he did. His hand on the door slipped and grabbed the doorknob behind Yeohwi’s back.
“Dowon-ssi.”
Yeohwi whispered breathlessly.
“As I thought, let’s sleep together tonight.”
Dowon’s eyebrows twitched. Yeohwi, lifting his chin, finally provoked Dowon.
“I will leave… but if you agree to share the bed, I’ll leave.”
“Idiot.”
Dowon, who let out a hollow laugh, placed one hand on the doorframe and bent his upper body. A black shadow completely covered Yeohwi.
“You’ve got negotiation fundamentally wrong. What benefit is that to me? How long do you think that kind of unreasonable demand will work?”
“Then I won’t leave.”
“I’ll kick you out. Don’t make me hit a patient.”
“Why.”
A low growling voice scratched at his ear, but Yeohwi didn’t back down one bit.
“Sleeping with a child is absolutely not okay, but hitting a sick person is fine?”
Dowon’s eyes narrowed. Just as he was about to forcibly use strength to send him out, Yeohwi moved. He unhesitatingly stretched out both bandaged arms and tightly embraced Dowon’s bare waist.
The rough, scratchy texture of the bandages passed over his skin, and soon hot body temperature covered his entire upper body.
“What are you doing? Let go.”
“I don’t want to. I won’t let go until you promise.”
Yeohwi trapped Dowon tightly in his arms as if telling him to listen to his heartbeat. And he buried his face in the firm shoulder and rubbed his head as if trying to enter into it.
Soft lips brushed over Dowon’s sternocleidomastoid muscle.
“Tonight, I absolutely won’t let go.”
Hot breath scattered warmly over Dowon’s bare skin.
“Absolutely.”
“…”
“Absolutely. Never.”
“…”
“I’d rather be beaten to death by you, Dowon-ssi.”
Yeohwi muttered with emphasis as if making a vow to himself. As if those words became some kind of spell or incantation binding him. And just like those words, Yeohwi began to bind Dowon’s waist even more tightly.
The more he tightened his arms, the more his fingertips without nails throbbed, but he clung on like someone who couldn’t feel pain. That was, absurdly enough, like a vow that he wouldn’t let go until death, or perhaps even after death.
Dowon looked down at Yeohwi’s arms clinging to him while holding him captive.
Tightly wrapped white bandages. The ruined hands beneath them.
If it had been something like a cute, green confession, it would have been simple to handle, but he could read the resolve contained within. Rather, it was closer to a challenge with a sharp edge.
Those pupils sparkling with brilliance.
There was no weakness or purity there. Instead, they were filled only with the longing of the starving and the desperation of one hanging from a cliff’s edge.
Like a moth jumping into flames without hesitation, he could keenly feel that blind fervor that wouldn’t stop even knowing it would burn up. Even if unrequited. Even if abandoned tomorrow. A desperate collision as if he could sell his very soul if only he could take one step closer in this moment.
“…You.”
Dowon’s lips twisted strangely.
Soon, like blood flowing from an open wound, a chilling voice poured out.
“What the hell do you.”
Just as bleeding couldn’t be endured with patience alone, he couldn’t stop his true feelings from leaking out either. It was that kind of thing. Because the walls he’d built were thick and the heart he’d blocked was so high, the rebound was just as severe.
“What on earth are you carrying on your shoulders?”
Dowon roughly grabbed and pulled off Yeohwi’s bandaged arms. He had no choice because the sound of Yeohwi’s heart being crushed against his chest was so loud and desperate.
“Ahuk…!”
The grip was so strong that Yeohwi almost screamed.
Dowon glared at Yeohwi with fierce eyes without even composing his disheveled expression.
“What’s so desperate? Why do you act like you only need me?”
A blue flame ignited in those eyes. Emotions he’d suppressed all his life burst through reason and poured out like a broken dam.
“The world is full of people without principles who stick here and there like fleas, and that fairy-tale-like feeling you’re appealing to now—no one takes it seriously except delusional lunatics.”
