Haeju stared only at Yeojin’s lips without answering. Just by looking at his entranced expression, he seemed to know what he was thinking.
“Seo Haeju, I asked if you understood.”
When he raised his voice slightly, only then did Haeju come to his senses and slowly nod his head.
“But you’re also like my family. Somehow I feel like I should be responsible for you. I also happen to have no family, so it seems like we could live together with you as my younger brother. So in conclusion, I don’t dislike you. Just restrain yourself from indiscriminate skinship.”
“Doctor, why are your lips so pretty too?”
“Hey!”
When someone talks, listen! He screamed out loud and smacked Seo Haeju’s forearm.
“It hurts.”
As if. His forearm was covered with muscles, so Yeojin’s hand that hit him hurt more.
“Did you understand what I said?”
When he asked while looking at the guy straight on, Haeju nodded.
“Don’t just nod, answer.”
“Yes, I understand.”
He answers well, the moment he thought that, Haeju added “But” to his words.
“Please let me kiss you.”
“You really.”
“Not asking you to do it every day. When I do well, when I listen and do something praiseworthy, then tell me I did well and kiss me. You do it, Doctor. Because I don’t think I’ll be able to hold back if I do it.”
Yeojin stared intently at Haeju. Oh? Are you trying to negotiate? Before flatly refusing, he thought for a moment. It wasn’t a problem that would be solved by threatening absolutely no, don’t do anything at all. He was a guy who might pretend to listen well now, then suddenly flip out like before and pull some stunt.
It wasn’t that the guy was bad, it was a natural phenomenon. The instinct to kiss, hug, and hold someone you like. Sexual desire. That was a natural human instinct. Seo Haeju, who had just become an adult, was at an age where instinct came before reason. Yeojin had also been overflowing with sexual desire at Haeju’s age.
At the height of vigorous youth, unconditionally telling him to endure was actually nonsense.
“Fine. I’ll do that much.”
A sparkling smile spread across Haeju’s face.
“And when there’s no one around, let me hug you once in a while. And let me hold your hand too.”
The cunning guy, once given permission, only kept wanting more.
You’re really going to do this? When he was about to glare and say something, Haeju immediately continued speaking.
“Please just do that. When there’s no one around, hugging and holding hands, and when I do well, you kissing me, Doctor. Just that. Even if you let me do that, if you say you don’t like it, I won’t do it.”
After speaking pleadingly, he immediately added one more line like before.
“Though I think I’ll be hurt if you say you don’t like it, Doctor.”
Then he lowered his eyes pretending to be pitiful. Look at this guy? He’s not just cunning, he’s totally playing with people. He must know that Yeojin is weak to Haeju’s expressions like that and is cleverly using it. I shouldn’t be swept away, I shouldn’t, he thought, but when he saw the guy’s expression like that, he couldn’t help but soften his heart.
He had only thought of him as a good, pure, well-behaved kid, but that thought shattered in an instant. Yeojin was no different from people who thought ‘my dog is so gentle it doesn’t bite people’ and walked around with a fierce dog without even a muzzle.
A gentle, good puppy to its owner, but a fierce dog outside. A fierce dog to others, but an endlessly docile and gentle puppy in the owner’s eyes. That was exactly it.
Even though the fierce dog was revealing its true self, the fact that it still looked like just a cute and pitiful puppy meant I’m ruined too. A very, very large bean pod was covering my eyes. But no matter how I look at it, it’s just a puppy with a big body.
Ah, I like this guy. Beyond simply liking, I love this guy?
That thought, an emotion he hadn’t even been aware of himself, suddenly came rushing in like a moth diving into light. Yeojin had never been in a relationship either, so if someone asked him what love was, he couldn’t answer, but instinctively he got the feeling that this was love.
Yeojin looked at Seo Haeju silently for a moment. Haeju also stared up at Yeojin with large, clear eyes without blinking once.
It was awkward to flatly refuse saying no, but he also couldn’t readily agree, so he was choosing what to say.
Even in the awkward silence and awkward air, Yeojin thought, ‘That guy’s lips are really pretty too.’ Just as Haeju had looked at Yeojin’s lips as if entranced, Yeojin did the same.
Even if drawn in a picture, it would be hard to depict such plump, full lips. He knew well how soft, elastic, and warm those pretty lips were. Because he had felt the texture of those lips before. Recalling the sensation of touching those lips then made his heart pound.
The very fact that he was having such thoughts was proof that his feelings were different from ordinary ‘liking.’ If the feelings inside him had been the feelings a doctor has for a patient, feelings similar to what he had for his dead younger brother, he wouldn’t be having strange thoughts recalling the texture of the other person’s lips.
Haeju, who had been staring at Yeojin, slowly raised his body as if drawn by some force. As that large body moved, the mattress creaked and shook. He didn’t notice well when lying down, but when he raised his body, the difference in their builds became real again.
The guy was big and solid. Not an ounce of fat, but not muscular either. A long, stretched-out body with just the right amount of lean muscle. How nimble and fast that pretty body was, Yeojin knew well. Though he had an innocent face with traces of youth remaining, the mobility that body produced exceeded imagination. When he was carried in Haeju’s arms and escaped, Haeju was so fast that he had to cling on desperately.
Never before and probably never again in the future, but should he say it felt like riding on a running beast? It wasn’t a speed an ordinary person could produce. Whether it was because the guy was a Transcendent, whether his natural stamina was good, or whether it was because he was young, he didn’t know.
While Yeojin was lost in idle thoughts, Haeju had already sat up in front of Yeojin. Their eye levels became the same. Haeju looked at Yeojin with deep eyes and reached out his hand. He lightly grasped the back of Yeojin’s neck with his large hand and brought his face close. The handsome face slowly approaching tilted slightly and his eyes lowered. The plump lips he had thought were pretty also parted and approached.
As if to kiss.
Just before their lips touched, Yeojin came to his senses and pushed the guy’s face away. But Haeju pulled Yeojin’s shoulders and held on.
“Hey, you really.”
“It’s the timing when you should kiss me once.”
“What timing, for crying out loud!”
“I did well. When I do well, you should kiss me.”
“You said you’d stop if I said I didn’t like it, right? Are you not keeping your promise?”
“We haven’t promised yet.”
He was infuriated, but it was true. The guy had only said please do this, but they hadn’t actually promised to do so yet. Then in the end, wasn’t he saying that if they didn’t promise, he would continue to act willfully like this?
It wasn’t a request, it was a threat.
“I’ve never promised to kiss you when you do well, so there’s no reason for me to kiss you!”
“I want to be kissed.”
This guy, really. Was he this stubborn and unreasonable? He thought the guy had really endured well living at the Center. He wanted to punch him once, but he held back in case he shed crocodile tears and made his heart soften again.
“Let go while I’m asking nicely.”
Instead, he squirmed with all his might trying to escape from the guy’s embrace. The opponent’s strength was so great that no matter how much he struggled, it probably only felt like a puppy twitching.
“I’ll only do it once.”
The guy muttered lowly and brought his face close again.
“Just once.”
The voice lowering his eyes and whispering gave him goosebumps. It should be a request to let him kiss, but he didn’t know why it sounded so strange. Even when he turned his head sharply to the side, the face followed, and when he turned sharply to the other side, it followed too. In the end, Yeojin gave up.
“I-I’ll do it for you!”
Until he gave him that damn kiss, the guy didn’t seem like he would stop this. Would that young beast of a guy really end with just one kiss, I wonder? The moment their lips touched, he might get excited and do something, so Yeojin shouted that he would do it himself.
“Really?”
Only then did the strength leave the hand that had been gripping his shoulder as if to crush it.
“Yes, I’ll do it for you, so close your eyes.”
“I don’t want to. I want to see your face, Doctor.”
He really doesn’t listen to shit. He felt like all his energy was being drained. Yeojin held back the curse that was about to burst out and spoke in a low voice.
“I told you to close your eyes.”
As if he might lose the chance to be kissed if he said one more word, the guy gave up and sat still with his eyes closed. Sitting there quietly with his eyes closed like that, he really seemed like the most harmless creature in the world. They say kids are prettiest when sleeping, and that saying was exactly right.
Looking at Haeju waiting obediently with his eyes closed to be kissed, he wondered what the hell he was doing. But on the other hand, ‘What does this guy trust to be so pretty?’ the fact that he was thinking such things meant he was indeed ruined. He felt like he’d die of embarrassment, but he decided to get it over with quickly and moved his body.
Perhaps because the surroundings were too quiet, the sound of the bed creaking rang out unnecessarily loudly.
He thought he’d give a quick peck on the cheek and pull away, but as if reading his inner thoughts, the guy said something.
