# Chapter 69
I couldn’t remember how many times we did it. We had sex in the afternoon, and when I came to my senses, it was already past nine at night.
The two of us finally washed up, changed clothes, and stepped outside. The air inside the apartment was too hot, so we opened the windows for some ventilation.
We sat under a convenience store parasol and unwrapped some ice cream.
“Here.”
Yeomin broke off the tip of his ice pop and held it out to Jiho. Jiho awkwardly took it.
His expression seemed to ask, ‘Why are you giving this to me?’ When told to put it in his mouth, he finally went “Ah!” and sucked on it, munching away.
Yeomin asked, “Do you know something?”
“Whaf?” (What?)
“They say giving someone the tip of your ice pop means you love them.”
Jiho looked touched by this nonsense.
“Hyung really loves me.”
Instead of answering, Yeomin put the ice pop in his mouth and gazed at the night sky with an enlightened expression.
The night air was cool, and after having sex for the first time in a while, his body felt refreshed. It was one of the most pleasant nights he’d had in recent memory.
All his worries and uneasiness seemed to have washed away. Everything felt resolved.
Even if, in reality, nothing had actually been solved.
“You know what?”
This time Jiho asked, mimicking Yeomin’s tone. What? Yeomin asked, and Jiho sent him a playful eye-smile.
“I almost got hard just looking at you right now. That must be love too, right?”
“…That’s just you being an animal.”
Yeomin firmly set a boundary. Then he moved his plastic chair a little further away from Jiho.
Feeling wronged by this treatment, Jiho pressed on.
“Then what about when I knew you were at home but couldn’t visit, just circling around your place?”
“That’s lingering attachment.”
Yeomin classified it clearly.
“Then what about when I watched you but ran away because I was afraid you’d hate seeing me?”
“That’s lacking courage.”
“Then what about when I missed you so much that I turned off all the lights and just lay down in your empty apartment?”
“That’s… longing.”
And perhaps if you combined all those things, it might become ‘love.’
Yeomin wasn’t unaware. He knew that Jiho’s feelings for him were perhaps too complex to be expressed by the clear word ‘love’ alone.
‘I know I like Seol Jiho, and Seol Jiho likes me too. So what should we do now?’
Thinking about the future, Yeomin felt a bit lost.
This was an issue on a completely different dimension from study abroad plans, part-time job plans, or vacation plans.
‘A future plan with Seol Jiho. It really makes my head spin.’
While Yeomin was seriously munching on his ice pop, something cold touched his hand.
It was Jiho’s hand.
“Then what about this?”
Jiho flipped over Yeomin’s hand and began drawing something on his palm.
Jiho’s fingernail pressed gently, tickling Yeomin’s palm where he had applied medicine earlier.
♡
It was a heart shape, of all things.
Seriously, where did he learn these elementary school dating tactics? Could Director Ahn be the source?
“This is… usually called ‘showing off.’ Pfft.”
Yeomin couldn’t help but burst into laughter, and Jiho laughed along. Then he admitted readily.
“Then let’s show off, hyung. I’ll only show off for you.”
“…”
“I don’t want to do anything with anyone except you. So I want to be with you.”
“…”
“Showing off… no, dating.”
The word ‘dating’ came out of Seol Jiho’s mouth. Not ‘contract dating’ but unconditional ‘dating.’
Compared to Jiho’s intense, strange, and ambiguous confessions until now, this was a very ordinary, normal confession.
A very common line. A very everyday setting. This moment, ordinary to the point of being unrealistic, somehow felt incredibly special to Yeomin. It might have been the most special moment since meeting Jiho.
Yes. Turning the ordinary, everyday life into something special.
That must be what real ‘love’ is.
* * *
Jiho was in a good mood these days. That’s because he recently got a boyfriend who was one year older than him. This time, it wasn’t under the flimsy excuse of a ‘contract,’ but a real, genuine boyfriend.
For reference, they had already had sex countless times. They had even lived together for a period at each other’s places.
Nevertheless, there were many aspects he discovered for the first time after starting to date.
New sides of Yeomin, new sides of himself—everything felt unfamiliar to Jiho.
“What are you doing?”
Jiwoong, who was checking his phone while brushing his teeth, confronted Jiho who suddenly entered the bathroom.
Ignoring him, Jiho pushed Jiwoong aside with his shoulder and wet his bangs.
“What are you doing?”
When Jiwoong frowned, Jiho said, “Hyung said I look more handsome with my bangs down.”
Oh my, is he looking at a lovesick fool… Jiwoong’s eyes seemed to say as he watched Jiho suddenly barging in to wash his bangs.
Whatever! Jiho roughly washed his bangs and dried them with a hairdryer. It was almost time for Yeomin to come over to tutor Jiwoong.
The tutoring that Yeomin had quit when he left Jiho’s house had resumed recently. Jiwoong wanted it, and so did Yeomin. (The only one who didn’t want it was Seol Jiho.)
Jiho was grooming himself while waiting for Yeomin to arrive soon.
“I think I preferred your previous annoying concept better.”
Jiwoong openly criticized him. But it didn’t even register in Jiho’s ears.
These days, Jiho had moved out of Director Ahn’s house and was living with Jiwoong in the same house.
And next month, he had plans to move into an officetel near the school.
‘Of course, I’d like to set up a newlywed home and live together as early as tomorrow.’
Knowing Yeomin would never easily agree to that, he planned to move near Yeomin’s place to naturally induce cohabitation.
Just then, the doorbell rang. Jiho ran to the first-floor entrance in less than 10 seconds. Even though he wasn’t the tutoring student. His speed was unbelievably inhuman.
“Was it tough coming here? I told you I’d pick you up.”
“It’s fine. It’s not that far.”
Yeomin, who recently got round glasses saying his eyesight had worsened, looked several times cuter than before.
His deliberate aloofness in front of Jiwoong was also cute, though a bit disappointing.
The fact that he immediately looked for Seol Jiwoong with a “Jiwoong~” after seeing him was truly vexing.
“Don’t come out to the living room during the lesson.”
“Why? I’ll just watch quietly.”
“You’ll just disturb us like last time. It’s distracting. Either go downstairs or stay in your room.”
Yeomin was a very firm teacher. Though Jiho wanted to persist, he couldn’t throw tantrums like before.
Because now he was in a relationship… with Joo Yeomin.
Dating was really difficult. It was a high-level mental labor based on mutual respect and consideration.
Yeomin urged, “Hurry up.”
“…I’ll come out as soon as it’s been an hour.”
“I’ll praise you if you wait patiently.”
Saying that, Yeomin secretly tapped Jiho’s bottom. Jiho slouched into the room.
As soon as the door closed, Jiwoong mocked Yeomin.
“You do all sorts of things in front of a minor.”
“Did you see? Hmm.”
“Seol Jiho has gotten weird these days.”
“He was weird to begin with.”
“He’s even weirder now. He suddenly goes around with his bangs down. And he’s acting cute more often.”
“Maybe it’s because I tell him he’s cute every day now.”
Jiwoong glared at Yeomin as if he’d found the culprit.
By now, Jiwoong had begun to distrust Yeomin who still bickered with Jiho. He treated Yeomin as if he was on the same level of weirdness as Jiho, like they were a matching set.
It was quite unfair… but there wasn’t much room for excuse either.
“I heard Seol Jiho is excited about moving. Are you two planning to live together?”
“This is news to me. But is that more important than your mock exam right now?”
“It’s much more interesting though.”
“You seem to have a lot of interest in Seol Jiho despite appearing to dislike him. Are you two secretly close?”
Jiwoong became serious at Yeomin’s remark. He made a fuss, demanding Yeomin take back those words.
Anyway, the brothers in this family really… had quite the temperament.
“It’s not my place to interfere in sibling matters, but from my perspective, you two don’t seem to have a bad relationship.”
“…”
“Do you dislike Seol Jiho that much?”
“You said you have a sister too. Then you should understand.”
Jiwoong very clearly explained his feelings.
“It feels like that my whole life. Always losing to Seol Jiho, having things taken by Seol Jiho, being pushed aside by Seol Jiho, and yet still liking Seol Jiho… an unfair feeling.”
Right. The most infuriating part is that last point. The fact that no matter how annoying an older sibling is, the younger ones ultimately can’t help but like them.
Yeomin could relate deeply.
To Yeomin, the young Jiwoong was just like himself when he was younger. A work-in-progress filled with anxiety, inferiority, and loneliness.
Of course, Jiwoong was much smarter than him.
“I was secretly hoping you would never date Seol Jiho, but seeing you meet him again and like him makes my stomach hurt and feels childish… but it’s also surprising, like, was he always this kind of person?”
“I know what you mean. Actually, I was thinking about avoiding Seol Jiho forever, maybe never seeing him again…”
And those thoughts still persist.
“I wanted to have just one thing in life. In a life where I’ve always inherited things, borrowed things, never really enjoyed anything for myself, I wanted something I could have exclusively.”
“…”
“Someone who likes me first, who prioritizes me above all else. Anyone would want that.”
For Yeomin, that person was Jiho.
‘Did I get too invested?’
Jiwoong coldly turned the pages of his workbook at Yeomin’s serious words.
“I’m going to solve problems now. Please be quiet.”
Yeomin chuckled at the cute warning.
