He’d been about to ask where Eunho had parked the car, but there was no need. The sports car Eunho had driven up in was the kind that drew eyes all on its own.
Eunho stood in front of the trunk, holding a box of sweet potatoes. The fact that he had to load a box covered in dancing sweet potato characters into this car felt strangely surreal.
“Sweet potatoes… in this car….”
Up until just a moment ago, Doyun had been a little put off because of Eunho, but the sweet potato characters were so ridiculously cute that a laugh slipped out of him anyway. Eunho caught Doyun’s expression and let out a quiet snicker, then tilted his head downward as he made his request.
“Doyun, can you grab my keys? They’re in my pants pocket.”
“Oh. Sure.”
Doyun moved around behind Eunho and slipped his hand into Eunho’s left pants pocket. The moment he thought his hand was going in deeper than expected, his fingertips made contact with an unfamiliar sensation. Since Doyun was also male, he knew perfectly well what body part his fingertips had just touched. When Doyun’s hand shifted slightly, Eunho’s thigh tensed.
“…….”
“…….”
He needed to pull his hand back out, but whether it was because Eunho had tensed his thigh, his hand wouldn’t come free easily. And he couldn’t just squirm and wiggle his hand around either. Doyun had no choice but to keep his hand perfectly still, completely consumed by the unfamiliar sensation against his fingers.
“…The other side. Not that one.”
After a brief silence, Eunho released the tension in his thigh and said quietly. Doyun quickly pulled his hand out of the left pocket.
“Ah, sorry. You could’ve told me which side… beforehand.”
“Yeah, sorry.”
Eunho’s apology only made it more embarrassing. Doyun let out a short sharp breath, then this time moved at lightning speed to pull the car key from Eunho’s right pocket. From opening the trunk and loading the sweet potato box to getting in and driving off, neither of them said a single word to the other.
***
“Where the hell are we even going?”
The drive stretched on longer than expected, and Doyun was the one who eventually broke the silence first. From the moment Eunho had put on his sunglasses and turned the music down to barely a whisper, Doyun had sensed something was a little off — but Eunho seemed to be in a good mood, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel and keeping time with the beat. He’d said we’re going to eat chocolate, so Doyun had assumed they were heading to some café — but Eunho’s car had already been cruising down an open highway for quite some time.
“My grandfather’s hotel.”
Doyun’s mouth dropped open at Eunho’s casual reply. Among Eunho’s family, his maternal grandfather was the only one living in Korea, and he ran a hotel chain. At first, when Eunho had said his family was in “hospitality,” Doyun had assumed he meant a pension or a motel — but when it turned out the man owned hotels and resorts that anyone would recognize by name alone, all three of them had nearly fainted from shock.
“You said we were going to eat chocolate — what are we doing all the way at a hotel? I thought we were just going to some café… Wait, which hotel?”
“The new one in Incheon. I showed you pictures last time, remember? You don’t have class tomorrow, so it’s fine if we stay the night, right?”
Sometimes it seemed like Eunho knew his schedule better than Doyun did. Just as Eunho said, Doyun had absolutely no classes tomorrow. He’d agreed to help out at the convenience store, but that was the evening shift — so if he played all day today and slept in tomorrow afternoon, it wouldn’t be a problem at all. Then the lunch plans he’d made with Suhyeok came to mind.
“Oh, I have plans tomorrow at lunch.”
“With that alpha?”
Eunho’s voice sharpened instantly, noticeably enough that Doyun caught it right away. Doyun let out a long, heavy sigh at Eunho’s reaction. He’d only received a single piece of chocolate from a junior who said he wanted to be close with him — and yet he was exhausted from being teased as if he’d been aggressively pursued.
“I keep telling you, he’s just a junior from my department. Are you teasing me now too?”
“Since when do you go out of your way to have lunch with juniors?”
Have I really been living that much like a loner…? He’d thought he’d been maintaining a fairly normal social life, but Eunho’s nonchalant dig landed, and Doyun made a sour face as he replied.
“I’m trying to meet more people now. It’s a networking thing, I guess.”
“If you absolutely have to see that alpha tomorrow… then spend all of today with me before you go.”
Eunho reached out with his right hand and pinched Doyun’s cheek. It wasn’t like he’d used that much force, yet it hurt enough to sting tears into Doyun’s eyes. Eunho was like this sometimes — playing around without knowing his own strength — and on those occasions, Doyun would end up with all sorts of marks on his body afterward. And yet whenever Doyun actually bruised, Eunho would be the one more startled — that was just how bad he was at controlling his strength.
“Ow, that hurts. I’m going to bruise. Hey — playing around is fine, but why are we suddenly ending up all the way in Incheon?”
“If we stay at Suhyeok’s place, we’ll just end up drinking with the sweet potatoes again anyway. Just think of it as going somewhere nice to eat with me — doesn’t that sound fine?”
Eunho took off his sunglasses and gave Doyun a wink. Doyun made a gagging noise and pantomimed throwing up, and Eunho burst out laughing.
“Why aren’t the others coming? Why just the two of us? Do you know how much Na Minjun complained about you playing favorites with me?”
Doyun said, with Minjun — who had pouted about not getting chocolate — still on his mind. Eunho gave him a look of genuine bewilderment and said,
“Minjun and Suhyeok said they’re going with their girlfriends, so I already lent them my car for this week and next weekend, and gave them hotel vouchers too….”
“What. No way, give me vouchers too.”
Doyun held out his palm, and Eunho took his hand, raised an eyebrow, and said,
“Why would I bother getting you a separate voucher? Just stay with me.”
“Ugh, you’re so greasy. I feel like I’m getting reeled in somehow… Did you plan all of this on purpose?”
“As if.”
“But how long have they even been dating — they’re already doing overnight stays? That’s wild….”
Doyun muttered, leaning his head against the window. Before he knew it, Eunho’s car was crossing a bridge over the sea. He’d been dragged along without any warning, but seeing the blue sky and the ocean stretching out before him, he couldn’t help but feel his mood lift.
***
The one condition Doyun had put down in exchange for agreeing to stay the night at the hotel was simple. Same room was fine — but it absolutely had to be a twin bed. Doyun had emphasized it several times, and Eunho had nodded along with a vague, noncommittal response. The moment check-in was done, Eunho dragged Doyun straight to the café inside the hotel.
“I’m not really in the mood for chocolate, though.”
The moment they arrived at the café, Eunho came back with an assortment of pralines. Some had almonds, some were decorated with white chocolate, and others were plain dark chocolate — quite the variety.
He’d eat chocolate occasionally when studying, but it wasn’t like he was obsessed with it. That was exactly why the chocolate Suhyeok had given him had been sitting neglected at the bottom of his bag for days. And yet here Doyun was, stuck in a situation where he apparently had to eat chocolate.
Doyun had clamped his mouth shut to signal he didn’t want any — but when Eunho said just try one and popped a piece straight into his mouth by hand, there was nothing to be done. The almond praline was, contrary to his expectations, just the right level of sweet. As Doyun’s resistant expression gradually softened, Eunho smiled and asked,
“Now that we’ve had chocolate, what do you want to do next? Swimming? Spa?”
“No, I mean — we came all the way out here just for chocolate in the first place, and… what the hell were you so worked up about earlier?”
“Because you eat whatever’s handed to you without any sense of caution. You’re going to get sick like that.”
Eunho answered Doyun’s question while offering him another piece of chocolate. Doyun opened his mouth and let Eunho feed it to him. This piece seemed to have liquor inside — as the hard shell melted, a sharp bitter alcohol burst out.
“Come on, are you seriously saying that too? Unbelievable. He’s an alpha, I keep saying.”
“Doyun. Do you have any idea how many alphas mess around with non-phenotype people just for fun?”
Doyun nodded along at the start of yet another one of Eunho’s lectures. He’d heard it so many times by now that he could practically recite the whole thing from memory.
“I know, I know — there are alphas who string along betas and play games with them. But they do that to beta women, not to guys… And besides, by that logic, you’re way weirder. Using any excuse to — oh — suddenly drag me to a hotel and tell me to stay the night.”
Eunho wiped his chocolate-stained fingers on a napkin and said in a low, quiet voice,
“Doyun, do you know what they call chocolate?”
“What do they call it?”
Doyun replied, taking a sip of his coffee.
“A natural libido booster.”
“Libido booster? I feel like I’ve heard libido before — wasn’t that in sexual psychology class?”
