Jeong Minha sat with one knee raised, his arm draped over it, pondering with a serious expression. To anyone watching, it would look like he was in a bad mood, sitting alone to calm his feelings. But in reality, it was the opposite—he’d become serious because he was in too good a mood.
Would it be okay? Would hyung like it too? Of course, for him it was a sweet deal. Legally giving a cheek kiss to his unrequited love. He wanted to shout “Please, it has to be me, pick me!” But to do that just to say thank you, since they were both men, he questioned whether Seo Sihan would accept it.
Jeong Minha briefly thought about just how open-minded Seo Sihan might be. Then he realized.
‘Hyung lived abroad. Wouldn’t that be better than Korea?’
Immediately after, he typed “UK same-sex…” into his phone’s search bar and when he saw “marriage” appear in the related searches, he clicked it right away.
- Is same-sex marriage legal in the UK?
- The UK currently has it legalized. Actually, since 2013… (read more)
Jeong Minha clasped his hands together and cheered internally. Thank you, thank you. I don’t know who you are, but thank you. And I’m so glad hyung is British. Isn’t this fate at this point? Isn’t this the level of being pushed toward marriage?
Even though he had no intention of confessing yet, he imagined getting married by himself. Ah, is this going a bit too far…. But what changes when you get married? Living together? We’re already doing that though? Huh…? Am I actually married right now?
After endlessly unfolding exciting fantasies, he got hit with reality and stopped. But after imagining that much, giving a light kiss on the cheek to say thank you felt better than he thought. The reason was appropriate too. And above all, he just wanted to do it himself.
* * *
Seo Sihan’s work ending time was approaching.
Once Jeong Minha decided something, he absolutely had to see it through, so his mind became urgent. It was because he didn’t have the courage to do it completely sober.
‘Should I just not do it? No, if not now, when else will I try! I should use this chance to see hyung’s reaction and decide whether to give up on this unrequited love or not.’
He went straight into the kitchen and flung open the refrigerator door. In front was the beer he drank.
‘This won’t make much difference whether I drink it or not.’
Needing the power of alcohol, Jeong Minha rummaged through the huge refrigerator. Not this one, not this either. Hm? What’s this? Wow, stir-fried noodles would be delicious. Ah, I’m hungry…. Whoa. I really want to eat cheese chicken ribs?
After fighting with his appetite for a while, he discovered a bottle of alcohol in the back of the refrigerator. Taking it out, it was a quite luxurious bottle.
‘Is this okay to drink…?’
Even trying to read the explanation on the back, it was in English so he couldn’t understand what it said.
‘Hyung drinks wine, so isn’t it something like that? Well, it’s probably higher proof than beer.’
So Jeong Minha drank the alcohol right away.
And afterward, he didn’t remember what happened.
What Jeong Minha had drunk was whiskey, which had much higher alcohol content.
* * *
Seo Sihan, who came home late at night after working overtime, moved his steps quietly. It was already past 10 o’clock.
Knowing that Jeong Minha would be asleep in his room watching videos around this time, Seo Sihan walked even more quietly than usual in case he woke him up. And just as he put down his things in the living room and entered the dressing room to get clothes to change into.
Suddenly he heard footsteps and the door opened with a sliding sound. A familiar face appeared.
“…Minha?”
Jeong Minha opened the door and came into the room. Not asleep and suddenly why? Seo Sihan, who was about to ask if something happened, detected something strange.
Jeong Minha was approaching while staggering with his head deeply lowered. Thinking he’d fall like that, Seo Sihan reached out his arms to support Jeong Minha.
At that moment…….
“……?!”
The chu incident.
The incident where Jeong Minha suddenly slapped a cheek kiss on Seo Sihan.
What’s more, he kissed him while grabbing Seo Sihan’s shoulder with his right hand and pulling Seo Sihan’s cheek with his left hand. Seo Sihan, who was already slow in his movements, had no choice but to give up his cheek to Jeong Minha’s surprise attack.
As soon as warm lips touched his cheek, Seo Sihan froze on the spot. However, only his face quickly turned red.
After spacing out like that for a moment, he looked at Jeong Minha in confusion.
“Why, why…?”
“Hehe….”
Jeong Minha’s eyes were more half-glazed than usual and his cheeks were incredibly red too. Thinking about how he’d been staggering earlier, this was…….
“Minha…. Did you drink alcohol?”
“Huh…? Eh….”
Seo Sihan knew that Jeong Minha didn’t get drunk easily with ordinary beer and soju. Then there was only one remaining culprit.
“The purple bottle in the back of the refrigerator?”
“Yeah…. It had a strange taste but it was pretty drinkable too….”
“……”
Whatever Jeong Minha did in this house, whatever he used, he didn’t care about any of it, but he hadn’t even thought of this. Anyway, Jeong Minha always exceeded his expectations.
How did he even discover that? Even Seo Sihan himself had forgotten that alcohol existed. He’d received it from the company before, but it looked quite high in alcohol content so he’d just been storing it.
“That’s pretty strong…. Are you okay? Does your stomach hurt?”
“I’m fine. I’m really good at drinking alco, hic, hol.”
He looked like someone completely drunk to anyone watching. Seeing Jeong Minha hiccupping and slurring his words, Seo Sihan let out a small sigh. He was more worried because he didn’t know how much he’d drunk.
“You don’t seem okay though….”
When Seo Sihan asked as if interrogating, Jeong Minha became rather confident instead.
“Really! I drink well, you know? Hyung knows too. I don’t usually get drunk…. Ah, this is unfair.”
“…Really?”
Seo Sihan was surprised at a different point than Jeong Minha’s story.
Did Minha just… use casual speech? He immediately couldn’t hold back a pleased smile.
Usually, even when told to speak comfortably, Jeong Minha would never use casual speech, saying “This is the best I can do for you, I’m already being casual? Should I use complete banmal like during training?”
What’s banmal? When Seo Sihan asked, after Jeong Minha briefly used the same speech pattern as his secretary, he’d given up saying to just do it like usual.
But now it was different.
“I’m sleepy….”
Jeong Minha was really speaking comfortably. He was even more honest, making him so cute.
“Sleepy? I’ll take you to your room.”
Seo Sihan briefly checked his pants pocket. Ah, I left my phone in the living room. Minha’s so cute right now I want to take a picture…. Just as he was expressing his regret and trying to support Jeong Minha again.
“No…. Hyung… I have to wait for Sihan hyung.”
“…Yeah. I’m here, Minha….”
Sihan hyung. This was a way of addressing him that the usual Jeong Minha also often used. Jeong Minha just called him that because it was more comfortable pronunciation-wise, but for Seo Sihan who came from using English, he once couldn’t understand why an ‘i’ went in the middle.
So he didn’t misunderstand it as aegyo either. He didn’t know that nuance. Even if Jeong Minha had really tried to act cute and called him ‘hyung-a,’ Seo Sihan would have asked “Why is there an ‘a’ at the end?”
But conversely, a problem arose. Rather, being too accustomed to English, every time Jeong Minha called him by name, other words kept coming to mind. Especially now when his tongue was loose like this, even more…….
“Huh? Sihani hyung…. When did you get here….”
“……”
Seo Sihan turned his gaze to erase the thoughts coming to mind. However, Jeong Minha kept trying to collapse while dozing off, so he eventually caught him again.
First, identifying the cause was priority now. Why did he drink alcohol? Did another difficult thing come to mind? When he asked worriedly, Jeong Minha grinned. …Huh. So cute. Minha doesn’t usually smile much….
“I just wanted to give you a kiss when hyung came…. But I was embarrassed so I drank.”
“…Suddenly? Why?”
It wasn’t simply a drinking habit? Actually, when Jeong Minha first kissed his cheek, Seo Sihan had been flustered, but after realizing he was drunk, he’d just passed it off thinking it must be a drinking habit. But it was the opposite. The statement appeared that he’d drunk alcohol to do that.
“This morning hyung left a present and went…. I was so happy….”
“Ah…. If it’s that, I already heard on the ph—”
“No! That’s not enough!”
“Ugh……”
Seo Sihan, suddenly hit on the back, swallowed his pain. As expected, Minha’s strength is no joke. Cool. But it really hurts…. Why, why did I get hit….
Jeong Minha had just roughly swung his arm, but the national shooting team member’s arm strength was no joke. While Seo Sihan was confused about this, Jeong Minha blinked his sleepy eyes and opened his mouth again.
“…Hyung. Do you know that I really like you?”
