There was no need to go that far, but thinking Ki Taeseong might have called from someone else’s phone, Yiyoung flinched and stopped pushing the front gate, frowning. Just then, a low voice rang out in the quiet alley.
“If you’re going to turn it off, why carry a phone around?”
At the same time, a large silhouette suddenly popped out from one side of the dark alley. Yiyoung jumped in fright, screaming “Ah!” and leaping up.
Chahyun was dumbfounded seeing Yiyoung bang his shoulder against the iron gate.
“Why are you so startled? Did you commit a crime?”
For a moment, he thought Ki Taeseong had come. Even if not, anyone would be shocked to fainting when a man of this size suddenly appeared from a secluded place.
Yiyoung clutched his pounding chest and panted lightly.
“Ch-Chahyun-ssi, why…? What brings you here?”
“Did you also use private loans? Do loan sharks come to your house too, is that why you’re like this?”
Chahyun didn’t answer Yiyoung but continued questioning while looking him over with suspicious eyes.
The private loans Mom had were resolved by Ki Taeseong a very long time ago. The debts remaining now were all borrowed under Yiyoung’s name, and most were student loans. Even though he worked without rest from the moment he became an adult, he had borrowed bit by bit from various secondary financial institutions due to unavoidable circumstances, and was steadily paying back the principal and interest.
While it objectively couldn’t be called a good situation, he had long since escaped being chased by rough-looking loan sharks. Still, perhaps because trauma remained, his startled heart didn’t easily calm down.
Yiyoung thought of the unidentified number that had left a missed call on his phone and sighed softly.
‘It was Chahyun-ssi’s number. Thank goodness.’
Chahyun was definitely more welcome than loan sharks or Ki Taeseong.
Yiyoung barely caught his breath and straightened up, holding onto the gate. Yiyoung looked at Chahyun bewilderedly and frowned.
“Don’t tell me you were waiting for me?”
And it seemed he’d been waiting quite a while. Chahyun was trembling from the cold.
Although it was now spring, it was still quite chilly once the sun set. The jacket Chahyun wore over his cotton tee might be okay for a brief moment, but it was thin enough to make one’s body shiver after being outside for twenty or thirty minutes. Yet Chahyun was shaking and trembling with his arms tightly folded.
“How long have you been here?”
“Around eleven.”
Since it was now 1 AM, he’d been waiting for nearly two hours. Perhaps because of that, Chahyun’s lips seemed frozen, his answer short and his pronunciation slurred.
“What about your car?”
Chahyun clacked his molars together and jerked his chin toward the hill with the empty lot. Since Yiyoung didn’t answer his calls and there was no knowing when he’d arrive, it seemed he’d parked his car there and just waited in front of the house.
Yiyoung tilted his head looking at Chahyun’s face, pale from the blood draining away.
“Why?”
“Because I missed you.”
Chahyun answered without hesitation in a slightly hoarse voice that seemed locked up.
Perhaps because even to his own ears his pronunciation wasn’t clear, Chahyun loosened his stiff lips by opening his jaw wide and moving it side to side. Yiyoung was stunned.
‘Weren’t we completely finished after our last conversation?’
While he was wondering this, Chahyun complained in a string as if his mouth had loosened up.
“I didn’t want to come either. But what can I do when I keep wondering what you’re doing? If Bae Yiyoung-ssi had just answered the phone, I wouldn’t have had to come here at this hour.”
Yiyoung’s jaw dropped slightly in bewilderment.
He was sorry for unintentionally making him wait, but honestly it wasn’t Yiyoung’s concern. Rather, he was flustered and troubled to be receiving an unexpected visitor late at night. Moreover, when had he changed his number without a word, and now he was complaining about Yiyoung not answering his calls?
Chahyun continued grumbling while shivering.
“Anyway, why is it still so dark here? Do I really need to donate a utility pole for them to get their act together?”
Letting his incomprehensible mutterings go in one ear and out the other, Yiyoung asked in a deflated voice:
“Is there a reason I should answer Chahyun-ssi’s calls?”
“Do you need a reason? When I call, you should naturally answer.”
“What on earth is that…?”
What kind of logic is that—about to ask this, Yiyoung pressed his lips shut.
Since he was making an assertion that was almost like throwing a tantrum, no words of rebuttal came to mind. He couldn’t even grasp what to point out first and was at a loss for words when Chahyun spoke in an extremely dignified voice.
“Bae Yiyoung-ssi may not know because you’ve never met someone like me. But I’m not someone just anyone can refuse or make wait. So actually, this is an extremely honored situation for Bae Yiyoung-ssi. I’m telling you in advance because I’m worried you’ll feel apologetic to me later.”
Rather than feeling honored or apologetic, Yiyoung only thought Chahyun was really a strange person.
‘Is he really crazy?’
Sure, his being impressive was true, but how could he say that with his own mouth?
It was embarrassing enough to make the listener uncomfortable. Chahyun himself had a nonchalant expression without being the least bit sheepish. The more he looked, the more he was completely different from the elegant and intellectual Moon Chahyun. Yiyoung unknowingly looked Chahyun over.
‘And why is his outfit like that?’
A leather rider jacket, jeans, and boots reminiscent of combat boots. He didn’t know if it was an outfit a stylish twenty-eight-year-old man would wear, but it felt unfamiliar, like a young punk. Moreover, his appearance stood out from trying too hard to look cool, which was somehow embarrassing and burdensome.
Yiyoung awkwardly answered while stealthily turning his gaze away from Chahyun.
“That’s… kind of you…?”
There really was no other suitable thing to say besides this. It was because he couldn’t understand the intention of him suddenly visiting and listing off his own praises.
‘Did his pride get hurt from being rejected by me so he came to argue?’
However, Chahyun didn’t look angry. Rather, he just quietly nodded as if satisfied to have received the praise he deserved. Chahyun looked down at Yiyoung with his characteristically cold and arrogant gaze and finally brought up the main point.
“So I’ll give you one last chance. Just date me for exactly two months.”
Ah. So he wasn’t arguing about why he was being rejected, but rather couldn’t accept it at all.
Chahyun must have thought anyone would definitely like it if he asked them to date. Having his question resolved, Yiyoung muttered in a slightly deflated mood.
“……I guess I am Chahyun-ssi’s type.”
“Surprisingly so.”
Chahyun readily admitted it without changing his expression at all. At that confident appearance, Yiyoung unconsciously let out a slight laugh.
Even having lost his memory, his taste in people was truly like a pine tree.
Even if it wasn’t love at first sight like before, his words about coming because he missed Yiyoung seemed sincere. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have waited for two whole hours, shivering in the cold, for Yiyoung who couldn’t be contacted and whose arrival time was unknown.
Even acting this arrogantly, Yiyoung still couldn’t easily hate Chahyun. Rather……
‘He seems a bit cute, even.’
Thinking positively, it could be seen as an aggressive approach. Previously too, Yiyoung had often thought it would have been good if one of them had a slightly more passionate personality. Of course, he’d liked him because he always approached with a cautious and careful attitude, but since both were introverted, even after they started dating they couldn’t easily get close.
In that respect, Chahyun acting somewhat unreasonably felt cute. If he were simply a completely different person who just resembled Chahyun, he might have been thrilled in this moment.
That is, if he weren’t the Moon Chahyun of that great Moongang Group.
Yiyoung wiped the smile from his face and spoke in a low, sunken voice.
“Can you wait here for a moment? I happen to have something to give you.”
Chahyun nodded with a puzzled expression. Yiyoung went into the house and brought out the large box he’d left in the storage room about a week ago. Chahyun was bewildered when he received the box.
“What’s this?”
“These are things Chahyun-ssi gave me.”
In the end, Yiyoung hadn’t been able to dispose of Chahyun’s gifts.
He absolutely couldn’t throw them away, and it was also awkward to give them to someone else or sell them. But it was also difficult to just keep possessing things that reminded him of Chahyun.
He’d thought it would be okay if he hid them out of sight, but that wasn’t the case at all. Over the past week, Yiyoung had countless times found himself blankly staring at the storage room door without realizing it, then starting in surprise. Sometimes, unable to resist the impulse, he’d crouch in the storage room taking out the items in the box one by one and sniffling pathetically, which he’d done several times.
Because of that, Yiyoung only realized he liked Chahyun much more than he’d thought.
