It was right after evening roll call. Yumyeong left his room carrying a full laundry basket.
The door slammed shut, and after just a few steps in the still noisy corridor, he heard another door opening behind him. Glancing back, he saw Hakyoung just leaving his room. In his hands was also a laundry basket.
‘I feel like our paths have been overlapping all day…… Am I imagining it?’
Yumyeong slowed his pace. Casually looking at Hakyoung’s laundry basket as he caught up to him, there were only a few pieces of clothing inside. Just a snow-white shirt lying thinly at the bottom.
“You could gather more.”
“Well……”
Giving a half-hearted response, Hakyoung entered the laundry room first.
The two stood side by side in front of the row of washing machines. Opening the lid of the top-loading washing machine and flipping over the laundry basket, the laundry tumbled inside.
Without measuring, Yumyeong boldly scooped in detergent and closed the lid. As he yawned and pressed the ‘start’ button, Hakyoung spoke to him from the side.
“Aren’t you adding fabric softener?”
“Do I need to? I’ve never used it. Do you have some?”
“That’s not what I…… Never mind.”
Hakyoung was about to say more but closed his mouth.
He was just curious where the good scent that subtly emanated through those clothes or his body came from if he didn’t use fabric softener. However, since he couldn’t state the truth as it was, he silently handed over his fabric softener.
“Use mine.”
“How much should I put in? This much?”
“I’ll do it for you.”
Hakyoung moved closer to Yumyeong’s side. He waited for him to make room, but Yumyeong instead leaned his body and came closer.
“I never know how much to put in.”
It seemed he was trying to see the amount going in directly. Thanks to that, their arms brushed precariously. Reflexively his body heated up and Hakyoung’s mouth began to go dry.
It wasn’t even something he particularly liked, yet he easily ended up in this state.
Hakyoung considered this a habit. Because he had liked Shin Yumyeong from childhood so much, that habit still remained.
The memories of childhood were so deeply engraved that he just reacted automatically.
So what I’m bound to isn’t Shin Yumyeong but…… the memories, right?
He came to that conclusion, but still an unresolved uneasiness remained in his heart. Like how the spiteful desire to give Yumyeong the same frustration he had experienced, and yet the twisted interest in wanting to endlessly touch and provoke him, coexisted. It was easy to identify each of these emotions individually, but he couldn’t know what to call all of it taken together.
“What, you put in this much?”
“Ah.”
Coming to his senses, Hakyoung froze for a moment. Looking at the fabric softener he had put in excessively, he replied without changing his expression.
“There’s a lot of laundry.”
“Really? Anyway, thanks for lending it to me.”
As he closed the lid, Hakyoung set the rinse and spin cycles to double. This should be enough to neutralize the fabric softener.
Even while Hakyoung finished all these operations, Yumyeong was leaning loosely against the washing machine with his chin propped up. When their eyes met, he stared up intently. Those drooping eyes with clear lower lashes looking up at him without smiling, almost glaring, made him nervous for no reason.
Why is he looking at me like that? Hakyoung met his eyes without backing down.
“If you have business, say it.”
Yumyeong threw out bluntly.
“……What business?”
“Didn’t you follow me because you have something to say?”
At those words, Hakyoung quietly swallowed dry saliva.
He’d been hit right on the mark. Of course he had something to say, and he had so much he wanted to ask.
Didn’t he want to meet that child he first dated again, wasn’t he curious how they had grown up…… And what would he do if that child was very close by?
He wanted to carefully probe his current feelings like that.
His head was so full of just those thoughts that he had been watching for opportunities all day. There were many chances, but the problem was those words just wouldn’t come out of his mouth.
However, Hakyoung, who had only been opening and closing his lips, ultimately lowered his eyes and denied it this time too.
“No.”
“Really? Then let’s go.”
Yumyeong lightly straightened his back and immediately turned around. Hakyoung also calmly followed behind him.
Just as they were about to leave the laundry room. Yumyeong, who had been leading, stopped dead in his tracks and said.
“Liar.”
Hakyoung’s feet, following behind, also came to an abrupt halt together. Then Yumyeong turned around and grinned.
“Are you an idiot?”
While saying that, Yumyeong’s hand pointed somewhere behind. It was Hakyoung’s laundry basket. With the shirt that hadn’t yet been put in the washing machine still intact inside.
“Ah.”
“Wow, you should really act. I almost fell for it too.”
Yumyeong clicked his tongue and entered the laundry room again. Then he picked up Hakyoung’s laundry basket for him and put it in an empty washing machine. Hakyoung followed behind feeling defeated. Yumyeong was again dumping in an aggressive amount of detergent.
“……That’s too much.”
“Wash it twice.”
Yumyeong, who had firmly closed the washing machine lid and pressed the ‘start’ button, looked back this way. When their eyes met, he raised one eyebrow. As if saying now was the time to open his mouth.
Hakyoung, who had been confronting him in that silence, ultimately realized he couldn’t avoid it and moistened his dry lips. However, since he didn’t have the confidence to obediently reveal the past, he ended up asking in a roundabout way after a long pause.
“That story you told in class. Your first kiss partner.”
“Hm? Ah, right. Hyung-nim was a bit fast.”
“If your last kiss was also at age ten, then……”
“Then?”
“Then……”
As Hakyoung drew it out, Yumyeong concentrated, even furrowing his brow.
“Aren’t you a virgin too?”
“Ah?”
More precisely, it was a stupid sound somewhere between ‘ah’ and ‘uh’. Flustered, Yumyeong looked at Hakyoung with a dumbfounded face.
As silence continued, only the sounds of crickets and frogs croaking came from outside the half-open black window. Hakyoung looked up at a moth clinging to the fluorescent light with dazzling wing beats, then asked again calmly.
“You said you’d done it before. Why did you lie?”
“When did I……”
“You always did that, pretending to be experienced at every turn.”
“I, I really have done it.”
“Liar. Did you think you’d win by saying that?”
“Who says things like that wanting to win?”
“It’s true you haven’t been able to date since then, right?”
“What kind of relationship is that? It’s kid’s play.”
Hakyoung quietly observed Yumyeong snorting. Yumyeong seemed to be playing dumb, tucking his hair behind his ear, then as if an excuse came to mind, his attitude quickly changed to being completely relaxed.
“It doesn’t always involve kissing, you know?”
“What?”
“Kissing and sex don’t always go together.”
At the explicit words, Hakyoung’s pupils shook wildly. Yumyeong didn’t miss that moment.
“Ha! This guy is so pure.”
Yumyeong clicked his tongue, leisurely crossing his arms. Then he smiled deeply and insisted stubbornly again.
“Once you get used to it, there are plenty of cases where you skip the kiss and go straight ahead.”
“Plen……ty?”
“Yeah. Ah, you wouldn’t know since you haven’t done it…… Haah, just how much does hyung-nim have to teach you from where to where?”
While saying that, Yumyeong tried to drape his arm around Hakyoung’s shoulder. Hakyoung instinctively felt great repulsion and pushed Yumyeong away.
“Get away……”
“Hahaha!”
“Disgusting.”
Seeing Hakyoung recoil, Yumyeong was very amused. Watching him like that made Hakyoung’s insides boil furiously.
It felt pathetic that his heart had fluttered even briefly seeing Yumyeong remember their childhood memories. He thought there was nothing more to expect, yet disappointment pierced through his core. Especially when he thought of Yumyeong entangled with girls, goosebumps rose all over his body and he shuddered.
This bastard is the worst after all.
A debauched bastard.
An idiot.
How did my Yumyeong become a bastard like this?
Just as Hakyoung was inwardly harshly criticizing him. Yumyeong said.
“Don’t tremble like that. You just haven’t had the opportunity, but if circumstances allowed you would’ve done it right away.”
“No.”
“Acting like a germaphobe.”
“Do you know me?”
Hakyoung recited the same words Yumyeong often said. Regardless, Yumyeong glared at Hakyoung as if he knew everything.
“It’s all the same. What guys think about.”
He hated those fox-like eyes too. Hakyoung refuted with proper reasoning.
“I’m different from you. Kissing and first experiences are very important to me. That’s not just according to desire…… it’s the crystallization of loving feelings. A promiscuous guy like you wouldn’t understand.”
At those words, Yumyeong’s eyes became strange, as if seeing something peculiar. It was a face that said ‘is there such a romantic in this world?’
“How funny. Usually kids like you cause big trouble when they do. Holding back like a bear trying to preserve your purity, then problems arise. You have to gain appropriate experience as you age. That’s how you can satisfy your partner too.”
“Satisfying your partner and whatnot doesn’t seem like something you should be saying?”
“What did I.”
“Sleeping together but not even giving them a kiss. I feel sorry for your partner.”
“Let’s see if your first night goes according to your will. How very rational of you.”
“Ha, now I understand why you got dumped by Song Heeun. It’s because your sexual values are shit. Play around moderately and please be careful of rumors.”
“If you had to choose between someone experienced but good at it, and someone who’s a first-timer but bad at it, people usually choose the former. Ask Lee Sunmin. See what he says.”
