It was no wonder that passersby stopped in their tracks and lost themselves staring at him. Chahyun himself was waiting for Yiyoung with a pleased expression, as if enjoying the gazes openly ogling him.
‘I have to have dinner with a man like that?’
It was obvious they’d be subjected to people’s stares throughout the meal. And Yiyoung didn’t want to stand out in any way. Originally, Chahyun hadn’t been such a dazzling handsome man.
As he hesitated without readily approaching, Chahyun must have sensed Yiyoung’s presence because he turned his head while still smiling. When their eyes met, Yiyoung flinched, and Chahyun’s expression contorted.
Chahyun looked Yiyoung up and down with sharply raised eyes and said.
“Why did you come out just carrying the clothes I sent you to wear?”
When Chahyun scolded him, Yiyoung inevitably shrank. Though Yiyoung didn’t like his own timid personality that cowered so easily, the personality formed in childhood when his mother was chased by fierce-looking loan sharks would pop out before he could even consciously think about it.
Deflated, Yiyoung summarized in one phrase the various reasons for not wearing the clothes Chahyun had given him.
“Because it’s uncomfortable.”
It wasn’t simply that the clothes were uncomfortable. Even before, Yiyoung hadn’t comfortably accepted Chahyun’s expensive gifts. But when Yiyoung felt burdened, Chahyun couldn’t hide his deeply disappointed mood even without saying anything, so he’d just accepted them as happily as possible.
Naturally, now he was even more uncomfortable accepting items that were clearly luxury goods at a glance. Moreover, when he was already troubled about how to dispose of the gifts he’d returned, he didn’t want to receive new ones and increase his troubles.
Chahyun rubbed his face with his large hand and let out a deep sigh. When he removed his hand from his face, Chahyun had a thoroughly irritated expression.
“Don’t you think about me having to go around with you?”
Chahyun said in a frustrated tone.
“Bae Yiyoung-ssi seems to live without caring how other people see him, but I’m different.”
Wrong. Of course Yiyoung also cared about others’ gazes. It was just that his method was different from Chahyun’s.
Until now, Chahyun must have naturally received praise like handsome and wonderful from others, but not Yiyoung. Whenever he received someone’s attention, unpleasant incidents always followed. So Yiyoung found being the center of attention itself uncomfortable. Being excessively flashy was as uncomfortable as being conspicuously shabby.
Before Yiyoung could answer anything, Chahyun continued complaining.
“I don’t care if it becomes known that I’m seeing a man. But I can’t stand the person dating me looking like this. What would people think?”
It’s not a date though. Yiyoung’s expression hardened sullenly at the wrong point.
Of course, Chahyun’s dissatisfaction must have been elsewhere. He was saying it was embarrassing to date a man in shabby appearance. Though it was true that Yiyoung was shabby compared to Chahyun, since this was his best effort, he retorted grumpily.
“That Moon Chahyun goes around with a slovenly man?”
“Wha… what? What kind of nonsense is that?”
Chahyun stammered with noticeably flustered eyes. Then he corrected Yiyoung’s wrong answer.
“Of course they’d see me as a pathetic person who’s stingy about spending money on his lover, right?”
Ha. Yiyoung let out a light sigh at the complaint that was subtly off the mark. From what he heard, it seemed more important to Chahyun that he not look like a cheapskate than for Yiyoung to be comfortable. It was a more self-centered way of thinking than he’d imagined.
Chahyun didn’t stop there and went one step further.
“If you go around like this, it damages my reputation. Don’t you get it?”
Yiyoung had been still but suddenly became a man damaging Chahyun’s reputation, feeling wronged and resentful. Yiyoung stiffened his face and grumbled inwardly.
‘Then who asked to meet? He threatened and called me out himself.’
And I’m not his lover.
Chahyun pointed behind Yiyoung’s back with a disgusted expression and ordered.
“Go change right now and come back out.”
“I don’t want to.”
In his resentment, Yiyoung unusually asserted himself firmly.
Until now, Chahyun hadn’t even mentioned, let alone pointed out, Yiyoung’s clothing or appearance. Though he’d never thought about the reason since he hadn’t particularly been conscious of it, if he had bothered to, he probably would have believed without doubt that it was thanks to Chahyun liking him just as he was. But seeing what Chahyun was saying and doing now, that apparently wasn’t the case either.
Yiyoung frowned, feeling hurt, and thought.
‘I really didn’t want to know his true feelings like this.’
But the current Chahyun, not as skilled as when he was twenty-eight, kept getting his true feelings caught by Yiyoung.
Each time he met the memory-lost Chahyun, Yiyoung was repeatedly disappointed by the romantic fantasy peeling away layer by layer.
Not knowing his inner thoughts were like this, Yiyoung had mistakenly thought he’d finally met his perfect ideal type who matched him well. The fact that he’d been such a naive and foolish person was so embarrassing.
Feeling like he was pathetically getting dejected again, Yiyoung deliberately said stiffly.
“If it’s inconvenient to go around with me, just give me what you need to give and go back. Anyway, I kept my promise.”
Chahyun silently looked down at the gift box Yiyoung held out.
“……”
Soon, as if giving up, Chahyun let out a deep sigh and took the box. Chahyun threw the box into the car and then made a strange show of generosity.
“You do know I’m being really generous with Bae Yiyoung-ssi, right?”
“If you were, thank you. While you’re being generous, return my things too.”
Yiyoung said indifferently, holding out his palm toward Chahyun. Then Chahyun asked in a suppressed voice squeezing out patience.
“……Where do you want to eat dinner?”
Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to have any intention of just going back.
Just as he was slightly disappointed that the meal wasn’t falling through, Chahyun made an odd excuse.
“I originally had a plan, you know? It’s just that right now I don’t want to go to the place I reserved with Bae Yiyoung-ssi. Don’t regret it later when you find out where it was.”
He must have thought Yiyoung was inwardly criticizing him for making a date appointment without even looking into the location. He was criticizing him, but the point was completely off. Wherever they went, only Moon Chahyun himself didn’t know that a meal with such a hateful person couldn’t be enjoyable.
Anyway, it seemed he’d have to eat dinner to get his things back.
Yiyoung quietly examined Chahyun’s stylish outfit and then asked with feigned indifference.
“Do you know how to eat chicken feet?”
“What… feet?”
Chahyun’s sculpture-like face became dazed to a ridiculous degree. Yiyoung grinned faintly enough not to show and resolved. I’ll get revenge.
***
Disappointingly, Yiyoung’s timid revenge play ended in failure.
Chahyun ate chicken feet really well. He even said he liked soju more than wine. Yiyoung himself only knew a little about whiskey when it came to alcohol.
Having the good side dishes right in front of him but being taunted so much about not being able to drink, Yiyoung drank two glasses of beer competing with him and felt bloated. Chahyun had already emptied the bottle of soju he’d ordered alone and still looked fine.
By the time they left the restaurant, the sun had completely set. In front of the old and shabby chicken feet restaurant with 30 years of tradition inside the traditional market, Chahyun asked Yiyoung.
“Did you really think I’d be horrified if you suggested eating chicken feet?”
That’s right. Yiyoung had thought Chahyun would be shocked not only by the menu but by the overall condition of the restaurant. That’s why he’d come to a restaurant in the traditional market that Chahyun would reasonably find unsanitary by his standards. Chahyun snorted expressionlessly.
“Can someone claiming to be an artist be that cliché? A chaebol wouldn’t have tried chicken feet? What’s the next menu you thought of? Jajangmyeon, market tteokbokki and fish cakes… something like that?”
“There is no next time.”
Yiyoung answered bluntly. Then he started walking out of the traditional market, which had become dark and quiet with most businesses closed. Chahyun chased after him with big strides and continued to needle him.
“I think I’ve tried more diverse unusual offal parts than Bae Yiyoung-ssi. Bae Yiyoung-ssi, have you ever eaten tuna eyeball?”
“Tuna eyeball?”
Since it was a cooking ingredient he’d heard of for the first time, Yiyoung unconsciously asked back out of curiosity. Then Chahyun, unusually excited, took out his phone from the inner pocket of his suit jacket.
Soon after, Chahyun found and showed him a photo of a dish made with tuna eyeball. Yiyoung quietly tilted his head toward Chahyun’s phone screen, bringing his body close to him.
