He was truly surprised. The man with tattoos on his burly arms didn’t look easy to deal with, even to Chahyun. He was clearly an organized crime member, and somehow looked like someone who might have killed three or four people.
He agreed one hundred percent with Yiyoung’s words that if they had fought, he would have been hurt much more severely. Chahyun also hadn’t expected to beat the man with his fists right then and there, and had planned to finish it with the judgment of the law. That man seemed like he wouldn’t touch Yiyoung as long as he could beat Chahyun to death.
In any case, he himself was originally big and sturdy, so even if he traded a few blows with the man, he would have just been bedridden for a few days, but Yiyoung was different. Infinitely soft and light as paper, Yiyoung wouldn’t be able to pick up his bones even if he just brushed against such a man. Nevertheless, Yiyoung had been his shield until the very end.
Although it was a shield only the size of a palm and utterly useless. He was also like a hamster trembling and shaking between a lion and a leopard.
‘But a very brave and wonderful hamster.’
Chahyun thought Yiyoung, who stood blocking the vicious villain with all his might, saying he would protect him with such a weak body, was truly magnificent and like a prince. He fell for him even more because he was trembling with fear.
‘Dignified.’
After all, courage was a gentleman’s quality that couldn’t be bought even with money.
The pain he felt from the wound inside his mouth strangely became pleasure when Yiyoung’s tongue touched it. A thrill that started from the oral mucosa traveled through Chahyun’s entire body. Hot vitality filled his whole body.
Chahyun roughly pulled Yiyoung’s chin and recklessly pushed his tongue in. He didn’t even notice that Yiyoung, intoxicated by ecstasy, was panting and practically clawing at the shoulders of his suit jacket. It was because even if Yiyoung struggled desperately, it wasn’t even ticklish.
Chahyun came to his senses abruptly only after being hit on the back of his neck repeatedly with Yiyoung’s pebble-sized fist.
As soon as he reluctantly pulled his lips away slightly, Yiyoung took a big “huk” breath. He had almost suffocated the hamster to death.
While Yiyoung was catching his breath, Chahyun fiddled with his already swollen lips. Yiyoung’s rapid breaths touched his face, which was still close. Just as he was about to kiss him again right away after sweeping his thumb across the small lips that were wet and glistening, Yiyoung turned his flushed face away sharply and mumbled.
“Stop now…”
Chahyun let go of Yiyoung’s face, swallowing a groaning moan.
Still feeling lingering attachment, before pulling back he sucked on Yiyoung’s lips once with a smack. At that moment, Yiyoung flinched and bowed his head, squeezing his eyes shut. Soon, Yiyoung stealthily opened his eyes and kept combing his bangs up onto his forehead.
It was a gesture of wanting to hide his face, which had reddened to the point where it wouldn’t be strange if it burst right now. Not only Yiyoung’s face but also the area around his eyes had turned red. His large eyes were watery, his gaze glistening, and his face was contorted.
Chahyun couldn’t help but ask with a dumbfounded expression.
“…Was it that bad?”
It probably wasn’t good to recklessly shove his tongue into his narrow mouth and almost make him choke. But he didn’t know it was such a mess that he would cry. It was an even more shocking reaction because Chahyun had felt dizzyingly good.
Yiyoung shook his head as if embarrassed, clutching his bangs.
“That’s not it.”
However, without giving Chahyun a chance to brighten his expression, he immediately added.
“But I hope you won’t do this again.”
“…”
Chahyun glared at Yiyoung sulkily.
Judging by how difficult it was for him to say it, it didn’t seem like “push and pull.” Even though it seemed the kiss wasn’t that unpleasant to him, saying he didn’t want to do it again was probably for the same reason as telling Chahyun not to keep being curious about him or coming to see him.
Chahyun recalled what Yiyoung had said to him at the whiskey bar.
‘What if I end up insisting I can’t break up with Chahyun-ssi?’
Certainly that would be troublesome.
However, looking at Yiyoung sitting silently next to him, completely flushed, it didn’t feel troublesome at all. Chahyun smiled and thought toward Yiyoung, who showed no sign of going inside his house even though there seemed to be nothing more to say.
‘Are you reluctant to break up with me like this?’
Otherwise, there was no way Yiyoung, who had always been anxious because he couldn’t chase Chahyun away every time, would be sitting close by with such a shy face. He didn’t feel bad about it at all.
Thanks to that, Chahyun, who felt inclined to be generous for once, said while maintaining his softly smiling face.
“I’ll return your composition notebook next time we meet.”
Yiyoung raised his head and showed a puzzled face. Chahyun continued.
“It was because of that notebook, wasn’t it? The reason you reluctantly came out when I called you. You were probably planning to avoid me even if you gave up on the other items as long as you got that back.”
“…”
Yiyoung flinched as if hit in a sore spot and lowered his gaze.
Chahyun also knew well that their meetings weren’t dates, though he had insisted they were on his own. It was closer to negotiations that Chahyun held after kidnapping Yiyoung’s precious belongings rather than dates. Of course, Chahyun was happy to see Yiyoung even that way, but it was naturally an annoying and bothersome thing for him.
But somehow it seemed like Yiyoung would meet him now even without such hostage-taking. Chahyun added confidently in quite an assured tone.
“I’ll give it back. Instead, next time really meet me for a date. And if you still say no after that, I won’t bother you anymore either.”
Saying this, and he was sincere, but Bae Yiyoung would probably answer yes. Because he’s brave.
At first, he didn’t understand why Yiyoung refused his proposal to meet for just two more months. At that time, Yiyoung gave a puzzling answer that it was more difficult to accept that proposal because he liked Chahyun. Now Chahyun seemed to vaguely understand that feeling. Yiyoung had been scared.
Even now he didn’t want to leave and go home like this, so Chahyun couldn’t even imagine what the separation after two months would be like. Though he didn’t know well because he had no experience, it seemed like Chahyun would be quite heartbroken when that time came.
But more than that, he wanted to spend time with Yiyoung right now much more. To the point where it seemed he wouldn’t regret any price he had to pay for this momentary greed.
Yiyoung might understand now what he meant when he said he wanted to meet him “even if just for a little while.”
He really hadn’t been chasing and bothering Yiyoung just to play around. He wanted to like Yiyoung, even if just for one period. Having even that short memory would be better than living as a penniless empty-handed person with nothing. Moon Chahyun, who had never felt romantic feelings for anyone else and for whom marriage was nothing but business, would probably have only Bae Yiyoung remaining as someone he could call a lover in his life.
He wanted Yiyoung to know that he was, in his own way, desperate.
While waiting for Yiyoung’s answer, Chahyun unconsciously held his breath. After hesitating for a long time, Yiyoung barely moved his lips, which were about a pinch in size.
“…When?”
Chahyun slowly lowered his faintly trembling eyelids and let out a long sigh of relief.
He would need to do well on the date to have a next time, but he had at least made it through the preliminaries. After going through twists and turns, it felt like he had finally reached the starting point. In fact, it was half bravado.
‘In any case.’
Moon Chahyun’s first push and pull in life. Success.
***
Yiyoung decided to see Chahyun again in two weeks.
It seemed like it would take that long for the bruises to fade from Chahyun’s face. Coincidentally, Yiyoung also had a song he needed to finish, so he was busy for a while without time to breathe. After finishing the work, ten days had already passed.
And the day before the day he was supposed to meet Chahyun, today. Yiyoung went to see his mother in the morning.
The women’s detention center located on the outskirts of the city was quiet as always. Yiyoung waited for his mother in the empty visiting room. Before long, he saw his mother following a guard through the reinforced glass. Yiyoung greeted her with a bright smile, delighted.
“Mom.”
Even though there was no way Yiyoung’s voice could be heard because of the partition, his mother responded with a warm smile.
His mother sat across from him in the visiting booth and picked up the phone attached to the partition. As soon as Yiyoung connected the call with his mother, he said brightly.
“You’ve gotten even prettier than when I saw you last time?”
Of course, there was an inconsistency in those words. Because his mother was always pretty.
Yiyoung’s mother, Bae Eunsu, was objectively a miraculous beauty whose age of forty-eight was meaningless. People who didn’t know her often mistook Eunsu for a beautiful woman in her early to mid-thirties even until recently.
