Eunho’s fingers — long and straight but with thick knuckles — swept down across Doyun’s cheek like a gentle graze.
“Well, yeah.”
“That’s nice.”
“What is.”
“Just — that you live alone.”
Why on earth would that be—
Doyun frowned slightly at Eunho’s cryptic remark, which was hard to make sense of in context. In response, Eunho’s thumb pressed repeatedly between Doyun’s brows, as if smoothing out the crease.
“……”
“Doyun.”
“Hm?”
“When should I come over to your place this week? I’ll find the elephant t-shirt and bring it.”
Eunho smiled with a hint of playfulness and added, “Let’s sleep in matching pajamas.” His face was full of anticipation — he was clearly dead set on showing up in that elephant t-shirt.
“I’ve got a late-night shift tomorrow too, so I’ll probably just head to my parents’ place after and sleep there. So — want to come on the weekend?”
“Sure, why not.”
“But what are we even going to do at my place? Fair warning — it’s really tiny, so come mentally prepared.”
“Is it…. really that small?”
Doyun tried to roughly recall the size of his studio apartment just outside campus.
Taking the city bus from his family home, it was about 40 minutes to school. But since he was working the late-night convenience store shift almost every day, he’d reached a point where he was too exhausted to function without living closer. Because he wanted to avoid monthly rent and find a lease instead, his options hadn’t been all that wide. So the first thing he compromised on was the size.
“Honestly, no exaggeration — size-wise…. it’s probably about the same as Suhyeok’s room here.”
At Doyun’s answer, Eunho narrowed his eyes and asked out of nowhere:
“The bed too?”
“What do you mean.”
“I’m asking if the bed is about the same size as this one.”
Saying that, Eunho folded the arm that had been acting as Doyun’s pillow and pulled him in even closer. The two of them pressed together in the narrow bed.
“Well…. I think it was about the same. But I only have the mattress on the floor. That’s still fine, right?”
“Yeah — so we’ll just have to stick together like this, then.”
Doyun answered “I guess so” with an awkward little laugh. There was a subtle sense of unease from his lower body where it was pressed against Eunho’s. It was probably just his imagination, but Doyun noticed the faint, sweet scent that seemed to be coming from Eunho — slightly stronger now than it had been before.
***
Doyun. Hey, Doyun. Wake up.
A quiet voice rang softly in his ear several times. Registering that the voice was calling his name, Doyun slowly lifted his eyelids. Either the lamp beside the bed had been left on, or someone had turned it on — a warm amber glow was spreading through the room.
He had no sense of how long he’d been asleep. He could remember lying in bed with Eunho, talking about their high school days, and then discussing what they’d each done for English study over break.
“Read it for me in a native accent.”
In the middle of talking about the TOEFL exam, Doyun had held out an English passage he’d saved on his phone for speaking practice. Eunho had skimmed through it with his eyes, then asked “You really want me to read all of it?” Doyun nodded, and without refusing, Eunho began reading the passage aloud in a low voice.
Eunho’s voice was naturally low and husky, and when he spoke in a foreign language it seemed to drop even further in register. Thinking it sounded just like a narrator in a foreign film, Doyun had slowly drifted off to sleep.
“…Doyun, I think I need to get going. Come on, wake up.”
At Eunho’s words, Doyun slowly opened his eyes again, then let them fall shut. His whole body felt languid from where Eunho had been kneading him all over.
“If you don’t get up, I’ll just let you keep sleeping…. You look tired.”
“No, I’m up. I need to go too.”
At Eunho’s offer to let him keep sleeping, Doyun’s eyes snapped open. When Eunho warned that he’d leave him to sleep, he absolutely meant it.
Whenever Doyun came to Suhyeok’s place, he often ended up napping. He frequently slept right through his alarms, so he always made a point to ask his friends to wake him up without fail.
His friends, committed as they were to the task of rousing him, had employed all manner of creative methods over the years. Not long ago, Suhyeok had sprayed water directly into Doyun’s face with a spray bottle when he kept whining for just a little more sleep. Eunho, by contrast, was soft-hearted — if Doyun groaned out “just a little more, five more minutes…,” Eunho would take him at his word and let him be.
“It’s hard for me to force you up when you’re so sleepy.”
When Doyun had woken up a full hour later and asked Eunho why he hadn’t woken him, that was what he’d said.
“I’m seriously awake now. Stop touching me…. This is going to put me back to sleep.”
Doyun whined and grabbed Eunho’s wrist, pulling it away from where he’d been stroking his hair. The touch carried a hint of irritation, but Eunho, knowing it was just the sleepiness talking, laughed and said:
“Oh, our Doyun’s got some spirit in him? Looks like you’re fully awake now.”
Their eyes met, and the corners of Eunho’s mouth curved up beautifully. He pulled his hand free from Doyun’s grip and gave Doyun’s cheek the faintest pinch — gentle enough not to hurt at all.
“Spirit my ass…. What time is it?”
“Just past 7:30. It’s a little earlier than you said, but I have somewhere to be, so I need to head out. The guys passed out drinking in the living room, so they couldn’t wake you.”
Whether it was from being tucked snugly under the warm blanket or the heating in the room, Doyun felt hot enough that it was hard to breathe. He was trying to figure out why he felt so warm when he realized the heat was radiating from Eunho’s skin. Eunho’s body temperature felt abnormally high, and Doyun blinked at him in wide-eyed concern.
“Why is your body so hot, though? Are you running a fever?”
“I’m not running a fever. You must be hot because we’ve been pressed together so long. Come on, let’s get up.”
Eunho shifted himself upright, lightly dodging Doyun’s hand as it moved to reach for his forehead. Then he held both hands straight out in front of Doyun. Doyun took them and got to his feet. His hands were even warmer than usual. His whole body was like a furnace, yet Eunho’s expression was perfectly calm.
“Are you sure you’re not running a fever? Are you feeling okay?”
“I really feel fine.”
Whether he sensed Doyun’s persistent, suspicious stare, Eunho let out a low laugh. Repeating “I really feel fine,” he picked up the blanket Doyun had left in a heap and began folding it.
“I’m going to change.”
Having neatly stacked both pillows side by side, Eunho straightened up — and in one smooth motion, pulled off his t-shirt and tossed it aside. The whole sequence happened so fast that Doyun missed both the moment to react and the moment to look away.
The sight of Eunho’s bare upper body filled Doyun’s vision completely. Even with his clothes on, it was obvious how well-built he was — anyone could tell his arms were well-developed. But his abs and chest, fully on display like this, weren’t something Doyun got to see very often.
“…You’re built? Do you work out?”
“I work out every day, of course.”
Doyun’s gaze lingered for a long while on the abs — not just cleanly defined section by section, but seemingly perfect in left-right symmetry too. It was a physique that drew out admiration without any effort. He wasn’t obsessive about his diet or acting like someone consumed by fitness, and yet. A sigh escaped from Doyun before he could stop it. The heat mixed into that sigh wasn’t entirely from envy alone.
***
Eunho, who said he’d been sweating a lot, apparently found just changing his t-shirt insufficient — he asked Suhyeok’s permission and took a shower. Since everyone came and went from Suhyeok’s place like it was their own home, there were, fortunately, spare clothes of Eunho’s there too. While Eunho showered, Doyun found his hoodie scattered somewhere in the living room among the rolling empty bottles and pulled it on.
Eunho was sitting at the entrance. His shirt was pulled taut across both sides as he hunched forward, absorbed in something. The lines of his well-defined back muscles showed faintly through the fabric. The sight of that broad back filling the narrow entryway sparked a mischievous impulse in Doyun.
“What are you doing crouched down there.”
Doyun threw his full weight onto Eunho’s back, leaning into him like he was trying to climb on. Eunho lurched forward for a moment, then swung one arm back and smacked Doyun square on the backside. He’d put a fair amount of force behind it — Doyun’s backside stung. He let out a little “ow” — then suddenly yanked Eunho’s hand toward him.
“Hey, did you shower with cold water? Why are your hands so cold?”
