“Uh… oh, really? Thank you….”
Forgetting he’d just been hit, Seo Sihan immediately looked at Jeong Minha with a touched expression. Jeong Minha stared at Seo Sihan like that for a moment, then turned his head as if giving up.
“Ah, forget it. Hyung’s face is pretty and what you do is pretty too…. So I keep wanting to dote on you too….”
“…Mm, mm.”
Seo Sihan kept his mouth shut as much as possible and held back his laughter. Jeong Minha was saying rather uncle-like things with a serious expression.
And really like an uncle, he suddenly started nagging on and on. No matter how you look at it, hyung needs to exercise, isn’t the reason you can’t sleep at night just because hyung sits down all day? Why do you eat so little? You’re taller than me, so you should eat more.
At the continuing nagging, Seo Sihan just listened obediently like a criminal. This wasn’t actually drunk to say thanks, but drunk to get angry, right…?
Jeong Minha only nagged hard with completely slurred pronunciation for a while, then eventually stopped talking on his own because he was sleepy. Taking advantage of this moment, Seo Sihan immediately spoke.
“Minha, if you’re sleepy, sleep. I’ll take you.”
“……Hyung.”
“Yeah?”
“You know… all of this is me thinking of you?”
“Yeah…. Thank you. I’ll do better too….”
“……”
Hearing Seo Sihan’s answer, Jeong Minha made a satisfied expression. Then he suddenly spread both arms and hugged Seo Sihan fully in his embrace. Of course, because Seo Sihan’s build was bigger, as expected, it ended up looking like Minha was being held again.
“Good boy….”
Getting nagged at and praised by someone younger than himself, this time he couldn’t hold it in and laughed. Then Jeong Minha raised his head. Will he get angry asking why I’m laughing when he’s serious? But this is because Minha is too cute….
Seo Sihan worked hard thinking of excuses in his mind. However, Jeong Minha lowered his head again and closed his mouth. At that sight, thinking he might really be angry, when he tried to bend his waist to look at Jeong Minha’s face, he hugged even tighter and burrowed into his embrace.
…He’s so cute, but can’t he loosen his strength just a little…? Just as Seo Sihan, slightly suffocated by the strong force, grabbed Jeong Minha’s arms.
“I’m happy when I’m with hyung too….”
“……”
With those words, Jeong Minha finished saying everything he wanted to say and fell asleep while being held.
As the strength loosened and the arms fell, Seo Sihan exhaled again. But rather, his chest felt tight.
Cuteness, gratitude, being moved? They were all correct words, but this was more than that…….
“……”
Seo Sihan lifted Jeong Minha up as is and walked toward the room on the opposite side. Then after carefully laying him on the bed, he even covered him with a blanket. In the meantime, whether he briefly woke up, Jeong Minha muttered like sleep-talking.
“Hyung…. Don’t abandon me….”
“Why would I abandon you, Minha….”
“I’ll guard the house well….”
“…Y-yeah. Good. I’m counting on you….”
“If I just win the gold medal… I’ll pay it all back….”
“…You don’t have to pay it back.”
“I… I….”
This time, whether he really fell asleep, there were no more words. Only breathing sounds could be heard.
“……”
Seo Sihan looked at the sleeping Jeong Minha.
There was a lot he wanted to say. When he first admitted to being a fan, he’d thought about other things too. However, those were thoughts he’d already sorted out before going to find him at the cafe.
For Seo Sihan, whose fan feelings of wanting to cherish Jeong Minha were greater, just being able to cheer him on directly from the side was satisfying enough.
But there was one thing he wanted to be greedy about.
“You really don’t have to pay it back, Minha. Instead….”
Seo Sihan bent his waist low and whispered slowly into Jeong Minha’s ear.
“Let’s keep… living together.”
Even while sleeping, Jeong Minha tossed and turned as if it tickled. Then soon fell into a good sleep again. Seo Sihan just smiled looking at Jeong Minha like that, then quietly left the room.
For Jeong Minha, whose memory evaporated after drinking alcohol, this was a story he absolutely didn’t know.
* * *
Midterm exams were over, but Jeong Minha collapsed on his desk again. This time it wasn’t the living room but his own room.
‘I really did that…?’
Trying to brag about his exam scores to Seo Sihan who came home from work, he only heard some dark history-like story instead.
Seo Sihan explained gently while smiling, but in the end Jeong Minha couldn’t stand listening and said it was okay to stop talking, pushing Seo Sihan away and running to his room.
But even though he really only pushed lightly, hyung looked hurt so he watched carefully then went back. I’m sorry…. Are you okay? When Jeong Minha apologized, Seo Sihan immediately said he was fine. After confirming, Jeong Minha ran back to his room.
“……”
He was so embarrassed he wanted to die. It was time to sleep but his head was complicated so sleep wouldn’t come.
Then he should tire out his body and pass out. So he just did push-ups alone in his room. After doing about 50, he lay on the bed. Sleep didn’t come. He got up again and did 50 more. In the end, he barely fell asleep only after completing 100.
And the next day, Thursday morning.
Jeong Minha was collapsed on his desk, deep in thought again.
‘……Did I do it?’
With just what Seo Sihan explained yesterday, he couldn’t tell whether he’d kissed him or not.
Seo Sihan only asked, “When Minha was drunk, you spoke comfortably while smiling, it was so cute I wanted to take a picture but if you do this later too, can I take it?” Jeong Minha screamed internally from embarrassment, but he wanted to grant pretty much anything hyung wanted. So he coolly told him to do it.
Anyway, he didn’t tell him the detailed story so he didn’t know, but Jeong Minha knew his own personality well.
‘I 100% did it…… Ah, crazy. I really want to jump out.’
He briefly looked at the wide window positioned in the middle of the wall. The sky was so clear.
Spacing out while staring at the drifting clouds, he banged his head on the desk again.
‘If I did it but he deliberately didn’t talk about just that… is he pretending not to know? Then hyung really……’
Having lived confidently overflowing since childhood, for the first time his confidence crashed to the floor. The possibility of unrequited love was dropping endlessly.
This isn’t even stocks, so why does it keep going up and down? Hyung’s heart is really difficult. If you like me, you like me, why do you keep making it confusing?
Seo Sihan likes and cheers for Jeong Minha. This is fan feelings.
Seo Sihan likes and takes care of Jeong Minha. This is… a guardian?
‘……Then I’m hopeless trash feeling these kinds of emotions toward my guardian….’
Ring ring ring, just as Jeong Minha was only spouting nonsense in his mind, suddenly the phone ringtone sounded.
Checking the caller, Jeong Minha bolted up from his seat.
[Mom]
It was the appearance of a real guardian.
* * *
In the early days of living together, at Seo Sihan’s words that he’d paid for his mother’s hospital bills instead, Jeong Minha had gone to check if it was real.
However, when he went to the existing hospital, the hospital room was already completely empty. Instead, he heard that the patient had moved hospitals a while ago.
Panicked, Jeong Minha called a taxi as soon as he heard the location. Normally he would have walked or taken the bus, but he didn’t have that leisure.
And when he arrived, he couldn’t keep his mouth closed.
“Wow……”
Whether this was a hospital or a hotel, his mother’s name was written in front of an incredibly luxurious single room.
When he opened the door and entered, his mother was awake so he could talk to her right away. However, it was unfortunately right before entering major surgery. There wasn’t much time. Becoming urgent, Jeong Minha hurriedly spoke to his mother lying in bed.
“Mom, don’t die…!”
At Jeong Minha’s choked voice, his mother got angry in bewilderment.
“Who’s dying?! Please stop saying ominous things.”
He only got scolded for talking for no reason. However, his mother, who was equally flustered, also asked Jeong Minha questions she was curious about.
“But what is all this? Suddenly the hospital changed and surgery was scheduled…. What money do you have? Don’t tell me you dropped out of school?!”
“No! Just suddenly someone saying they’re my fan appeared and paid for all the necessary money….”
“……What?”
