Trying to forcibly lift the heavy atmosphere, a pointless question slipped out of Doyun’s mouth.
“For the time being.”
Eunho crossed his arms and said it with a sigh woven into his voice.
Doyun could feel a heated gaze landing on him from the passenger seat as he drove.
“So then, was there someone you were seeing before? If you’re an omega… a woman? Or maybe… a man?”
He was dying of curiosity, but Doyun asked it as casually as he could manage.
Ever since that strange wet dream, he’d become intensely curious about Eunho’s personal life. Eunho didn’t seem to hide things deliberately, but he also wasn’t the type to blabber like Minjun or Suhyeok — so the curiosity and imagination had been growing bigger by the day. Not knowing the ins and outs of Eunho’s relationships only added fuel to that curiosity.
“There’s no one. And I already told you — right now, there’s no one I’m seeing besides you.”
He’d meant it as a casual probe, but it hadn’t gotten him much.
“…Right.”
“……”
With Doyun’s reply, a heavy silence filled the car. It would’ve been nice to turn on the radio or some music, but Eunho rarely listened to anything while driving. Doyun tried to break the silence by muttering to himself or humming a melody under his breath.
“This car really is huge. Think I’ll be okay parking it later?”
“Maybe because it’s my first car, but I’ve never really felt like it was that big while driving it.”
“SUVs are super popular these days. Domestic ones, not foreign ones like this, obviously. My oldest brother is planning on having kids next year or the year after, so he said he’s switching to an SUV. Apparently even strollers are so big these days that they don’t fit in anything but a hatchback or an SUV.”
Being the youngest, Doyun had an older brother and an older sister — eight years older than him and five years older respectively. His brother, who had married relatively young, was planning to have a child next year or the year after. Doyun loved kids, and he was genuinely looking forward to it. He and his brother weren’t particularly close, but a nephew or niece was a different matter — once the baby arrived, he had full plans to absolutely dote on them.
“Oh yeah?”
“It’s kind of amazing my brother even got married with how rude he is, and it’s even more amazing that I’m about to have a niece or nephew.”
“A niece or nephew… wild.”
Eunho echoed back in a completely unbothered tone.
Doyun launched into a passionate speech about how adorable small children were, dragging in stories about distant cousins twice removed.
“Are you going to keep driving a sports car forever? You’d barely fit two people in it, let alone a stroller.”
“…I don’t need kids.”
Eunho, who had been resting his chin in one hand and watching Doyun, said it in a surprisingly firm voice.
“Really? I like kids. They’re so cute.”
“What’s cute about something that just cries all the time. Isn’t it fine to live without kids? You can live freely without any restrictions.”
Eunho tapped the back of Doyun’s hand, which was resting on the gear shift, with his fingertips. One tap, then another.
Doyun pressed on without being swayed by the teasing.
“Sure, there are couples like that. But personally, when I get married, I definitely want kids. They’re so tiny and cute. And they’re so soft.”
“They only seem cute for the brief moment you’re around them.”
Eunho withdrew the hand that had been tickling the back of Doyun’s and crossed his arms sulkily, turning his head away.
Looking out the car window, Suhyeok’s apartment complex was coming into view.
“Even if you say that now, if you have your own kid someday, I bet you’ll be completely obsessed with them.”
“Doubt it.”
Doyun circled once around the parking lot right in front of Suhyeok’s apartment complex and spotted an empty space.
He stretched out his right arm, grabbed the back of the passenger headrest, turned his head to look behind him, and started reversing in.
While angling the car and easing it back, his eyes met Eunho’s. Doyun grinned.
“How am I doing — a man who can parallel park.”
“…Let’s go once you’re done.”
Eunho, who Doyun had fully expected to smile back with that crinkle-eyed grin of his, got out of the passenger seat instead.
Thud!
The heavy car door slammed shut with a sharp, irritable bang.
Listening to it, Doyun thought to himself:
Why is he acting like that again…?
***
The moment Eunho opened the front door and stepped inside, Suhyeok and Minjun came bounding out like puppies greeting their owner.
Doyun, sensing the subtly chilled air around Eunho, followed awkwardly into Suhyeok’s place.
Being treated like he was invisible by even Suhyeok and Minjun stung a little.
Maybe I should’ve brought a box of soju or something.
“Welcome. Your Highness.”
Minjun gave a half-bow and greeted Eunho with exaggerated politeness.
Eunho snorted, handed over a heavy shopping bag containing the whiskey, and played along with a teasing air.
“Yes, yes, take it.”
“Wait, you said you bought two bottles — there are four in here?”
Suhyeok peered into the shopping bag with wide eyes.
Doyun stood a step back and watched Suhyeok and Minjun make a fuss, shaking his head.
Even for people who love alcohol, is it really something to smile that brightly over?
“Some gifts came in for my grandfather — I brought those too. How about we all drink ourselves to death tonight.”
“Ohhh.”
“Oh, I’m actually kind of impressed by Sa Eunho.”
Eunho had a high alcohol tolerance, but he wasn’t fond of getting completely wasted the way Suhyeok or Minjun did. He exercised every day, never touched cigarettes, and even meditated occasionally for his mental health.
Losing control of his reason could mean losing control over his pheromones as well, so he tended to be careful in many respects.
So when that same Eunho announced he’d come to drink themselves to death together tonight, it was only Suhyeok and Minjun who lit up.
Suhyeok, buzzing with excitement, finally noticed Doyun trailing in behind and said:
“You two came in together?”
“Yeah, Eunho came and picked me up at the convenience store.”
Doyun glanced sideways up at Eunho and said it to Suhyeok.
Without sparing Doyun a single look, Eunho slipped off to the bathroom to wash his hands.
Doyun watched Eunho’s retreating back, expression souring slightly.
He genuinely couldn’t figure out what had set Eunho off like that this time.
He didn’t seem to care much about the lack of contact… so what is it now?
Doyun pushed aside the tangled thoughts and headed to the kitchen to help Suhyeok and Minjun set up the drinks.
“You two had a little lovers’ spat and now you’re back together. I’m proud of you, Doyun. They really do say fights between couples are like cutting water with a knife.”
The moment Doyun stepped into the kitchen, Suhyeok clapped a hand on his shoulder and said it in a breezy, relieved voice.
On Suhyeok’s fingers was a ring Doyun had never seen before.
He had heard through the grapevine that Suhyeok had finally gotten together with the girl he’d been seeing — but seeing the glittering physical proof of it in person was still a surprise.
Apparently seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses, Suhyeok kept pairing him and Eunho together as “a couple” or “like a married pair,” and Doyun didn’t appreciate it one bit.
“Why do you keep acting like Eunho and I are married?”
“Why do you think? You two are always glued together like a pair of cockroaches who can’t live without each other.”
Suhyeok snorted and gave Doyun a shove.
Na Minjun, who could rival anyone here when it came to being insufferable, chimed in from the side.
“Who was it that went around looking completely miserable every day — saying they were tired and bored — while Eunho was in the States? That was you. You.”
“That was because I was prepping for the TOEFL… it’s not like I was falling apart just because Eunho was gone… seriously.”
Suhyeok and Minjun cleanly ignored Doyun’s small, defensive mutterings and turned their full attention to properly examining the whiskey Eunho had brought.
“Whoaaa. This looks insanely expensive?”
The bottle pulled out of the sleek box was no ordinary-looking thing.
Minjun bounced his shoulders with glee and started pulling glasses from the cabinet one by one. All the glasses were freebies they’d collected over time, so every one was a different size and shape.
“Fine… let’s all drink and die together tonight.”
“Wow, our little Doyun is finally talking sense for once.”
Suhyeok reached out and thoroughly messed up Doyun’s hair.
These guys and their absolute weakness for alcohol. Doyun swatted Suhyeok’s hand away, thinking exactly that.
Still, he wasn’t in a bad mood.
Drinking sessions with all four of them were always lively and fun.
Thinking about when exactly these guys had become so obsessed with drinking, his mind drifted back to New Year’s Day of the year they all turned twenty.
It seemed a little childish in hindsight, but on the evening of December 31st — still nineteen years old — the four of them had gathered with a solemn sense of purpose.
The moment midnight struck and they were officially free from the rules of adolescence, the four of them headed to an upscale bar run by someone Eunho apparently knew.
It was suspicious, honestly — how could a high schooler have a connection like that — but Eunho had just brushed it off as “someone I know.”
Either way, the four of them drank freely and recklessly there.
Their university acceptances had already been confirmed long before. Grateful for the almost miraculous coincidence that all four close friends would be attending the same university, they drank like water.
Of course, that was only possible because none of them knew the hangover that was coming the next day.
After drinking whiskey at the bar, they moved on to Suhyeok’s place and drank makgeolli on top of it.
