# Chapter 175
Rustle. Rustle. After a few very soft footsteps, a soft sensation touched his back.
Did he put him on the bed? Just as he thought this, the spot next to him sank down. It seemed Taesung had lain down beside him.
Before he could be surprised, a blanket covered his body. A warm arm was placed like a pillow under his head. Had he turned toward Lee Hwan? His warmth came close, ticklishly clinging to his neck.
‘……’
As it would be embarrassing to open his eyes now, he pretended to be asleep, and felt fingertips stroking his hair. Lee Hwan counted numbers inwardly, slightly clenching his fist and pressing his palm to keep his breath from wavering.
One. Two. Three. Breathing in rhythm, he wondered what this was about, but soon when a warm hand touched his face, even that thought fluttered away.
‘What……’
Fingertips sliding down as if trying to feel his features—around his eyes, between his brows, his nose, his lips. When the index finger lingered a bit longer on his lower lip, rubbing and pressing it firmly, his heartbeat gradually began to accelerate.
What was this guy doing? Why was he poking, rubbing, and making a fuss with a sleeping person’s face? Did he want him to wake up?
But the hand movements caressing his face and pressing his lips were actually light and careful. It was just that the sensation of gently touching a sleeping person was too stimulating for Lee Hwan.
His face gradually grew hot, and Lee Hwan was grateful that it was nighttime. No matter how good night vision might be, one couldn’t notice slightly reddened skin.
Had Taesung tensed his body? Suddenly the arm under his head became a bit firmer. Lee Hwan was about to unconsciously lick his dry lips when he realized his hand was still lingering there.
This time, something soft and warm touched his cheek and then pulled away. From the tickling breath approaching, Lee Hwan realized it was Taesung’s lips.
‘!’
Then, was that thing that touched his forehead earlier also lips?
His breath trembled slightly. His eyelids seemed to flutter too. Taesung’s fingertip moved up again and caressed the corner of his eye. The feeling of brushing against his eyelashes made Lee Hwan’s chest flutter.
It was over. Really over. Now he could neither say he was awake nor continue pretending to sleep. His heart was beating wildly and wouldn’t calm down. He already kept losing his composure when around him.
Why was this guy suddenly touching someone else’s face and acting crazy? Now the sound of his heart was pounding in his ears.
He thought he was the best at reading Taesung’s mood. He also thought he knew him better than anyone. But at what point had he missed his thoughts, for it to suddenly come to this?
‘……’
Lee Hwan now felt even his body slowly heating up. Looking back now, there really had been signs. From the beginning, Taesung had always silently accepted him, even when he couldn’t make up his mind and just pushed him around.
Moreover, lately that Kang Taesung guy had been doing strange things often. Every time he embraced him, his body was just as hot as Lee Hwan’s.
‘……No way.’
The assumption he hadn’t even considered, thinking it was just his own issue, gripped his heart.
Lee Hwan didn’t want to create precious people. He didn’t particularly want to live a life anxiously worrying about losing someone.
But there was no way that could go as planned. Wasn’t that why he was always anxious about him getting hurt, both before and after the regression?
Even a fool would know. That one wouldn’t throw away their life to save another just out of friendship, nor would they go through regression eight times to find someone.
Nor would one lose their senses just by seeing a face, or get startled and excited by every touch. Nor would one slowly caress cheeks or nuzzle heads when cuddled in bed.
‘……Damn it.’
Lee Hwan sighed inwardly with resignation and bit his lip firmly. Though he hadn’t opened his eyes yet, with his eyelids having fluttered earlier and his heart beating so rapidly while their bodies touched, Taesung would already know he was awake.
Now Lee Hwan exhaled with a slight tremor, but still without making a sound, and slowly turned his body toward Taesung. Taesung wordlessly embraced Lee Hwan’s head.
“Phew……”
The warm body pressing close pleasantly pressed against his cheek. Now he wasn’t sure if he should speak to him or continue pretending to sleep, but covering his face made it easier to bear these emotions.
However, the hand that had been cradling his head slowly moved down to tap his nape. Lee Hwan exhaled a moist breath as he felt the stimulation spreading down his spine. The body touching him trembled, and his face grew increasingly hot.
Lee Hwan pulled his hips back slightly and tightly closed his eyes. The heat enveloping his body reached his head, making him feel dazed.
With his head buried in Taesung’s embrace, he had the illusion that his scent, his exhaled breath, was filling his own lungs. His body kept getting hotter. His waist became stiff.
After embracing Lee Hwan in return, he did not move anymore except for occasionally twitching his fingers.
‘Black-horned mountain goat one, black-horned mountain goat two, black-horned mountain goat three……’
Instead, as the thick arm strongly wrapped around his back, Lee Hwan desperately hoped his consciousness would sink into sleep as he counted monsters.
* * *
When dawn broke, Lee Hwan was lying alone in bed. Rubbing his messy hair as he got up, he recalled the previous night.
Kang Taesung bringing him to his side from the sofa where he had been lying. The hands that kept caressing his face, and himself eventually forgetting to pretend to sleep and nestling into his embrace.
‘……’
With a dazed mind, Lee Hwan rolled over to where Taesung had lain and buried his face deeply in the pillow. There was no warmth left—who knows when he had gotten up and left.
But his scent remained faintly, so he could still recall Taesung even from the empty bed.
“Shit. What do I do, really?”
Speaking out loud made him feel like he might cry. It felt quite different to have his emotions exposed like this rather than sorting them out on his own.
After being alone, he had been too busy just surviving to like someone or not. He had indifferently passed over confessions of affection from others, and even when meeting decent people, his feelings didn’t exceed mere interest.
Facing this situation for the first time, his mind just felt foggy. The good thing was that Kang Taesung also didn’t seem to regard him as just a simple friend.
After collecting himself for a while, he left the room and smelled something sweet coming from the kitchen. Rubbing his eyes despite not being sleepy, he approached and saw Taesung grilling pancakes.
“What’s this?”
Lee Hwan asked casually, as if nothing had happened yesterday.
“You’re up? I found some pancake mix, so I thought we’d have it for breakfast.”
Glancing at the clock, it was 10 AM. It was a relaxed morning, neither too early nor too late.
As Lee Hwan furtively looked around while placing knives and forks on the table, Taesung gestured to the brewing machine next to the microwave.
“Mmm… hot stuff is nice too.”
Lee Hwan murmured after pouring a full cup of coffee and drinking it.
It seemed the meal preparation was almost done, as Taesung stacked pancakes on a large plate, placed it in the center of the table, and sat across from Lee Hwan. His slicked-back black hair was still damp.
He seemed to have showered last night before coming in. While pouring syrup over his pancakes, Lee Hwan asked:
“Did you take a shower?”
“Huh? Oh, um… I was sweating a bit.”
Being S-class and handling fire, it wasn’t likely sweat from being hot. Did he have another nightmare?
If he couldn’t sleep even with Lee Hwan beside him, how could he help? As Lee Hwan momentarily forgot the awkwardness and made a troubled expression, Taesung quickly shook his head.
“It’s not like that. I just… wanted to shower.”
Looking at him with suspicious eyes, his complexion seemed fine. With a “Hmm…” Lee Hwan cut a large piece of pancake and put it in his mouth, and the fluffy, sweet taste spread across his tongue.
“I got a bit feverish.”
Hearing Taesung’s explanation, Lee Hwan recalled the events of the previous day. The arms that tightly embraced him even knowing he was awake. The night spent counting numbers, trying to calm his heating body.
“Ahem, cough!”
Coughing up the bread stuck in his throat, Lee Hwan drank his coffee with a flushed face.
“Gulp… haah.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Rest a bit if you’re tired. We need to go out later.”
Lee Hwan put down the cup after finishing the remaining cough. Deliberately erasing the repeatedly emerging situation from his mind, he immediately changed the subject.
Then, after taking another bite of the syrup-soaked pancake, chewing it, and pushing it to one side of his cheek, he opened his mouth again.
“Kang Dongha won’t stay put unless we meet and talk directly.”
Taesung, who was coming over with a glass of water, stopped his footsteps at those words. Lee Hwan could sense the distrust and discontent rising behind his expressionless face.
As he chewed again, the sweet taste spread throughout. He could roughly ignore Taesung’s gaze too. Sugar was always right.
* * *
The subsequent contact with Kang Dongha went smoothly. The fact that communication worked well and they even set a meeting place without much objection meant that he was also full of intention to cooperate with them.
If that wasn’t the case, he would have made excuses and postponed it once or twice. No, he wouldn’t have taken Lee Hwan to Naru in the first place.
Unlike before, the meeting with Kang Dongha was at an upscale tea house with private rooms, far from Naru. Not only was the entrance inconspicuous, but with walls all around, it was a structure where the people inside were hardly visible from outside.
Taesung was watching the front with his arms crossed, not touching even the snacks, let alone the drink that Lee Hwan had ordered.
What caught his sight was, of course, Kang Dongha.
“Trying to kill people with that look.”
As if knowing he couldn’t touch him anyway, he behaved particularly unpleasantly. When Lee Hwan glared at him with triangular eyes, warning him not to misbehave, he deliberately made an understood gesture obviously.
Taesung’s gaze suddenly turned to Lee Hwan. Lee Hwan quickly picked up his cup and pretended not to notice, drinking tea.
