“When I said you should never sleep with a stranger, Ju Hae-yul asked me if it would be okay once we weren’t strangers anymore.”
“…That was——”
“We’re no longer strangers. Now that we know each other, don’t you think this relationship shouldn’t end at just one night?”
“What? Why does it follow that way?”
“Is what I’m saying difficult to understand?”
“Yes, a little. Isn’t it more comfortable for both of us if it ends at a one-night stand?”
Kwon Gyo-eon looked steadily at Hae-yul, then tilted his head to one side.
“Why? I don’t think I ever said I’d be more comfortable ending it that way. That’s a conclusion Ju Hae-yul reached alone.”
“No, it wasn’t just for my own sake — it was a conclusion I reached out of consideration for you too. Looking at the fact that you live alone in a place like that, you don’t seem like an ordinary person.”
Hae-yul said that and quietly glanced at the door. The part-timer coming to relieve him was just walking into the convenience store. Whether Kwon Gyo-eon was watching him or not, Hae-yul hurriedly stripped off his vest and went into the back room to hang it up.
“Hyung, who’s that customer? Is he yours?”
Im Seong-hyeok, the next shift part-timer who had followed Hae-yul into the back room, whispered.
Was Kwon Gyo-eon his customer? Hae-yul squinted in thought, then grabbed his bag and shook his head.
“What? He’s not my customer.”
“Not yours? He looks like he’s waiting outside for you.”
At those words, Hae-yul’s brow furrowed. He’d been about to sling his bag over his shoulder but stopped dead in his tracks and asked Im Seong-hyeok.
“Do you have anything urgent today? Plans or a date or something. I’ll cover your shift.”
“…Are you joking?”
“No. I’m completely serious. Tell me quickly. I’m saying I’ll cover for you.”
“Who makes plans on a day they have work? And what date? If you were going to cover for me, you should’ve said so before I got here. I’ve got nothing on, so go on home, hyung. The fact that you’re saying weird things means you must be exhausted.”
Im Seong-hyeok said this and waved his hand as if shooing away a bug. If he walked out now, he’d inevitably come face to face with Kwon Gyo-eon waiting for him outside. And Kwon Gyo-eon would bring up the conversation they hadn’t finished.
“This is going to drive me insane.”
Hae-yul muttered in a sigh-laced voice, clenched his fist, and walked out of the convenience store. If he just ignored whatever Kwon Gyo-eon said and kept his eyes forward, the man would eventually give up out of embarrassment, or exasperation, or irritation — and go his own way. There was nothing good that would come from the two of them meeting, and Hae-yul was far from pleased about Kwon Gyo-eon approaching him like this.
Kwon Gyo-eon glanced at the watch on his wrist and said casually.
“Clocking out, it seems.”
“……”
“If you have nothing special going on, you’ll be heading straight home.”
“……”
“Then I suppose I should make something special happen.”
Hae-yul, who had been letting Kwon Gyo-eon’s words wash over him, flinched at the last line and stopped walking.
“Ju Hae-yul, do you like movies?”
“Yes. I like watching them alone at home.”
“What about exhibitions?”
It was something Hae-yul said specifically to cut off whatever invitation was coming — but Kwon Gyo-eon seemed to have taken it differently.
“Together with me——”
Hae-yul stopped walking just as Kwon Gyo-eon was about to ask again and turned around. That large frame filled Hae-yul’s entire field of vision. Hae-yul tilted his chin up slightly, met Kwon Gyo-eon’s eyes, and spoke clearly.
“I also like watching exhibitions as videos at home. The world has gotten so convenient for that kind of thing, it’s all very well set up. So you go ahead and watch movies and exhibitions in that nice home of yours too. Or else go find someone else to take.”
Kwon Gyo-eon’s lips pressed shut, as if momentarily at a loss for words. Hae-yul seized the opening, moved his legs quickly, and climbed the hill. Even as his breath came all the way up to his chin, Hae-yul was focused only on putting distance between himself and Kwon Gyo-eon, and at a distance he decided was sufficient, he looked back.
Kwon Gyo-eon was standing near the convenience store, gazing steadily in Hae-yul’s direction. His expression wasn’t visible from this far, but at the very least, he didn’t look like he was about to come sprinting up after him.
“Ha, ha……. Ha, fuck……. I think I really am thoroughly screwed.”
It really did seem like he’d gotten himself tangled up in something serious. Even though he’d deliberately chosen only the most off-putting things to say, he couldn’t manage to feel at ease at all. Hae-yul shook his head left and right as if to shake off the ominous feeling creeping up inside him, then turned and walked away.
* * *
Whether Kwon Gyo-eon had time to spare, he showed up at the convenience store again at the crack of dawn the very next day and made a nuisance of Hae-yul’s shift. He stood to the side of the counter with his arms folded and nitpicked more fastidiously than even the convenience store owner.
“Ju Hae-yul, isn’t the floor too dirty? Don’t you clean?”
Pointing out the faint footprints left by customers walking through, no less.
“Aren’t you going to restock the chips and ramen? The shelves are completely empty.”
On top of gesturing to the rack that a customer who had just walked out had gotten their hands on.
“When are you going to sort out those stacked deliveries? Aren’t you going home today?”
He even hounded Hae-yul to hurry up and stock the delivery boxes that had just come in.
At first, Hae-yul ignored Kwon Gyo-eon and quietly went about his work, but after a while he grew weary of it and let out one heavy sigh after another. He had absolutely no idea why the man was coming after him like this first thing in the morning. To think he’d come back again after hearing all of that yesterday. It wasn’t as though he was someone without pride.
Though the original hadn’t described it in detail, Kwon Gyo-eon was a man of considerable wealth. Being a member of a large conglomerate’s founding family, he held a fairly high position in the company. If you worked at a company that large, you’d think he’d have to work diligently — did he really have time to waste here?
He has a lot of money, not a lot of time. And someone from that kind of family would certainly have sky-high pride — so why……
With Kwon Gyo-eon watching, Hae-yul restocked the snack shelves one by one and asked quietly.
“Don’t you have work?”
“I worked hard all week so I could follow Ju Hae-yul around on the weekend, so it’s fine.”
“So you do have a job.”
“Don’t tell me Ju Hae-yul thought I was unemployed?”
Kwon Gyo-eon asked with a laugh in his voice, as if he’d just heard something entertaining. Hae-yul pressed his lips together and said nothing, but Kwon Gyo-eon — as if he’d somehow read the answer from that silence — covered his mouth and laughed quietly. Then his gaze met Hae-yul’s and he cut the laughter short, clarifying.
“…Ahem. Not unemployed. I work at a company.”
Hae-yul gave a half-hearted nod at Kwon Gyo-eon’s words, shoved the last remaining snack onto the shelf, got up, and headed for the back room. It wasn’t as though he didn’t know Kwon Gyo-eon worked at a company. He’d asked simply to get on Kwon Gyo-eon’s nerves — but the question seemed to have only piqued the man’s interest instead.
Every time Hae-yul moved, Kwon Gyo-eon’s gaze followed. Hae-yul treated Kwon Gyo-eon — who was leaning against the counter at an angle, observing him — as though he didn’t exist, went and got the mop, and scrubbed the convenience store floor vigorously.
After wiping the stained floor clean, neatly sorting through the delivery boxes as well, and heading back to the back room to rinse the mop, Hae-yul realized something belatedly.
Why did I go and do every single thing that man pointed out?
Hae-yul stood dumbfounded in the back room, mop in hand, staring blankly into space. Kwon Gyo-eon’s face — wearing that amused smile — filled his mind completely.
Pulling himself together, Hae-yul hurriedly rinsed and put away the mop, grabbed a cup of instant noodles, and came back out of the back room. This isn’t following Kwon Gyo-eon’s orders — it’s just stuff I would have had to do anyway. Hae-yul rationalized it to himself and restocked the cup noodles shelf.
After finishing restocking the shelves and completing the cash register check, he wiped down the counter once with a wet wipe. Before he knew it, the time had become 6:57 AM. Im Seong-hyeok would be coming in to start his shift soon. Hae-yul unzipped his uniform vest in advance, ignoring Kwon Gyo-eon’s gaze that trailed his every movement.
And just as it hit 6:58 AM, the bell on the door rang and Im Seong-hyeok made a boisterous entrance.
“Hyung, freaking good morning! Wow, it’s not cold at all today, the weather is so nice, isn’t it——”
Im Seong-hyeok, who had come bounding in with a spring in his step, spotted Kwon Gyo-eon standing in front of the counter again today and belatedly straightened his stride. Hae-yul teased him as they headed into the back room together, Im Seong-hyeok sneaking glances at Kwon Gyo-eon.
“You’re in an amazing mood today. Did something good happen?”
“Oh, I’m going to an exhibition with Jeong-yeon the day after tomorrow.”
“…Oh, really?”
The word ‘exhibition’ had made Hae-yul flinch as yesterday’s events resurfaced, but he quickly recovered and asked back with a surprised look. Im Seong-hyeok had been carrying a one-sided crush on someone named Seo Jeong-yeon for quite a long time. He’d said they’d been close since middle school, which meant it had been a friendship of at least five years by rough estimate.
The only trouble was that Im Seong-hyeok was a Beta, and Seo Jeong-yeon was an Alpha — so he’d said, sadly, that he’d half let go of those feelings. Relationships between designated and non-designated people were socially uncommon, and it seemed Seo Jeong-yeon thought of Im Seong-hyeok as purely a friend as well.
Even so, having half given up on those feelings, he was clearly quite worked up about going to an exhibition — something that belonged on a proper date itinerary — with the person he had feelings for.
Hae-yul still found romance or marriage between two men strange and unfamiliar, but he wasn’t so small a person as to frown upon other people’s love lives for it.
