“I’ll go wash up for a bit.”
Whether he’d fully woken from sleep, Inhan spoke to Yuho with precise pronunciation.
Huh? Come where? Why wash up and come? Numerous question marks floated in Yuho’s head, but Inhan had already headed to the bathroom.
He thought Inhan might even shower and come out, but Inhan simply washed his face and brushed his teeth before returning.
Yuho tried to act nonchalant and said to Inhan.
“Eat. It’s already one o’clock.”
“What about you, hyung? Did you eat?”
Asking that, Inhan sat in the seat next to Yuho.
Yuho had many thoughts at Inhan’s question. If he said he hadn’t eaten, he’d be placed in a situation where the two would have to eat together, and to say he had eaten seemed pointless to lie about. Moreover, he felt bad about making someone who visited the dorm after a long time eat alone.
“No.”
“Want to go out to eat something?”
“No.”
“Even if we’re not close, we can still eat together.”
“No.”
At Yuho’s reaction of putting up walls and refusing, Inhan bit his lips tightly. And with a faint sigh, he asked Yuho in a lowered voice.
“Should I just go home? Do you want to eat comfortably?”
“…No.”
Yuho thought even he didn’t know what he was trying to do. The other party, Inhan, must be even more confused. Yuho knew but couldn’t organize his thoughts well. He wanted to be together but found him hateful, yet hated him but didn’t want him out of sight.
He even thought that perhaps it would be a better choice to stay by his side pretending to be a close hyung even if Inhan loved someone else.
“Want to go eat handmade burgers?”
Inhan asked with a sweet face, oblivious to Yuho’s inner feelings.
Does he think everything works with hamburgers? Yuho bristled at Inhan’s question.
“Change up your repertoire.”
“Then pork cutlet?”
“Not really.”
“Wagyu sushi.”
“I don’t feel like it?”
“Pizza.”
“I had that the day before yesterday.”
“Ramen?”
“That was yesterday at lunch.”
Despite Yuho’s continued refusals, Inhan didn’t give up and began pondering new menu options. Yuho swallowed his laughter inwardly and answered.
“Let’s eat handmade burgers.”
The answer had been decided from the beginning anyway. At Yuho’s answer, Inhan let out a pleased laugh.
Yuho thought he liked it yet disliked it.
“Then get ready to go out.”
Inhan said to Yuho while getting up from his seat. Yuho asked Inhan in puzzlement.
“Why?”
“Aren’t we going there to eat?”
“Why bother? We can just get delivery.”
“I really want to eat out though.”
“…”
“I think it’s been a month since I’ve been to a restaurant.”
“Then do that.”
At Inhan’s groan, Yuho eventually surrendered.
After each finished preparing to go out, the two headed outside together and immediately called and boarded a taxi.
Even while riding in the taxi, Yuho continued to show dissatisfaction.
“Won’t Suhyung hyung say something?”
“I told him we’re going out to eat lunch together.”
“You didn’t say we were going all the way to Gangnam though.”
At Yuho’s words, Inhan closed his mouth. And hastily changed the topic of conversation.
“Is the live broadcast preparation going well?”
“Yeah. I’ve memorized almost all the lyrics.”
“Can I come watch that day?”
“No.”
“Yes.”
At Yuho’s sharp refusal, Inhan answered quickly. Yuho was somewhat satisfied that the kid who had a somewhat self-centered side was listening to him in one go. Of course, he was still annoyed.
“It’s not just me and Unseong hyung doing it, the other METEOR members agreed to help with the jam session too.”
“Those hyungs all know me too.”
“So?”
“Just saying.”
The taxi moved for about twenty minutes and stopped at the hamburger shop. The two pulled their hats down low and entered the hamburger shop together.
After eating hamburgers with Inhan and returning, Yuho immediately grabbed his guitar and headed to the company’s vocal room.
Because Inhan arrived at the dorm with tight timing, he only conveyed greetings to Yuho before immediately leaving for his schedule with Suhyung.
Yuho was practicing guitar in the vocal room for a while when he couldn’t resist his curiosity and reached for his phone.
‘Lunchtime Ssikssiburger JangDanz sighting pics today (97)’
Yuho checked the popular post uploaded to the fan community with a worried heart. Here, ‘JangDanz’ was a fandom term used by ONESPOTs to refer to the group’s tallest member Inhan and shortest member Yuho together.
In a total of seven photos, variousInhans were captured in chronological order: Inhan ordering hamburgers, Inhan going to get hamburgers, Inhan eating hamburgers, Inhan smiling while looking at Yuho, etc. Yuho was slightly caught on the side, only enough to confirm his presence.
[They said it’s right that only the two came and they just came briefly to eat
Hyo ate a basic single size and Nan ate double size with bacon
They also ordered cheese fries and shared them
For drinks Hyo had strawberry shake and Nan seemed to have soda
But Nan put a straw in Hyo’s drink, cut his hamburger, and even tried to wipe his hands with wet wipes but got hit once
Later when people crowded in, Nan wrapped his arm around Hyo’s shoulder and left the shop
After the two left, some woman said “must be his girlfriend” lol died laughing
They said as soon as they left the shop they got in a taxi and disappeared
Photo/sighting source is Byeolgram and the writer is confirmed civilian]
The sighting post was more detailed than the photos. Among the dozen or so people who came to the table, only about three recognized Yuho. The culprit must be one of them. Yuho guessed and scrolled down to check the comment reactions.
[Hyo always makes Nan wait on him like that, anyone would think he has no hands or feet]
└ [Why are you bitching when Nan likes doing it? Don’t ruin the post and gtfo]
[Being sweet to Nan is just the default, it’s not only to Hyo so stop overreacting]
└ [Present evidence of who else he does it to]
└ [Where does it say he only does it to Hyo, illiterate gtfo]
[My ultimate biases… you two be more lovey-dovey ㅜㅜㅜ]
[Our white soft honey rice cake baby hamster Hyo-kkie eats hamburgers as small as himself ㅜㅜㅜ]
└ [Maybe it’s that Nan eats big ones]
└ [Shh be quiet our Nani is huge so he has to eat huge things, single size won’t even come close]
It was literally a comment trainwreck.
Though they’d just briefly gone to eat hamburgers, not only pics and stories but even videos were spread variously across all kinds of communities.
As expected, Inhan’s super star is super star. Yuho realized and escaped from the post.
It was when Yuho was in the middle of practicing singing in the vocal room.
At the suddenly ringing phone, Yuho hastily checked the screen. He expected it to be Seonchan or Yeomin, but absurdly a message arrived from Inhan. He wondered if he’d seen the notification wrong.
Inhan – [Hyung, did you get to the practice room okay?]
Yuho stared at the phone screen for a long while.
Inhan – [Photo] [Photo]
Inhan – [Will you pick which photo to post?]
At Inhan’s messages coming in succession, Yuho eventually entered the chat and removed the unread mark.
Yuho – [Number 2]
After deliberation, Yuho replied. He hadn’t told Inhan not to contact him, so there was no justification to nag.
Inhan – [Then I’ll post number 2] [Practice well]
Yuho – [Yeah]
Yuho answered simply and saved both photos Inhan sent. There were always side effects to doing things by force. Now Yuho decided to wait for the day his heart would naturally stop someday.
* * *
Thanks to Raulie, who was supposed to eat dinner together, flying off to a drinking session with friends, Yuho ended up having dinner alone with Taylor who was in the studio.
The menu was pork cutlet, and the two ordered delivery and sat facing each other in an empty office to eat.
“You stayed until the kids’ filming ended that day, right?”
“Yes. I stayed with them then went over to the dorm.”
“Right. When Seo Domyeong-ssi said to ride together in his car.”
Yuho found the way of addressing “Seo Domyeong-ssi” coming from Taylor’s mouth extremely unfamiliar. How did Domyeong sunbae end up being called by such a form of address by Taylor hyung? He was curious, but knowing Taylor wouldn’t answer, Yuho decided to put away his curiosity.
“I didn’t know it would end so late.”
“I heard Inhan slept at the dorm that day.”
“Yes. He came and drank until dawn, it was no joke.”
“So what about with Inhan? Did you resolve it?”
At Taylor’s question, Yuho briefly pondered. If he thought they’d fought, he would ask if they’d made up, but the question of whether they’d resolved it felt somehow strange.
“What?”
“Whatever.”
At Taylor’s vague answer, Yuho couldn’t continue speaking. Instead, Yuho decided to change the topic of conversation.
“Hyung.”
“Yeah?”
“By any chance, with Domyeong sunbae…”
“We’re nothing.”
As expected, just as Yuho predicted, Taylor denied his relationship with Domyeong in one stroke.
Of course that’s possible. Even if they’re nothing, you can still get a ride. Yuho tried to accept it and decided not to ask Taylor any more about Domyeong.
“To be exact, we’re in that kind of relationship where he confessed and I rejected him.”
At Taylor’s following answer, Yuho’s mouth opened of its own accord.
He’s suddenly saying this kind of thing while eating pork cutlet? And it’s Taylor hyung?
At Taylor’s words conveyed without any change in expression, Yuho wondered if he was hearing things.
“Who… to whom?”
“Seo Domyeong-ssi to me.”
“But why are you together…”
“Because I’m using him.”
“Who’s using whom?”
“I’m using Seo Domyeong-ssi.”
At the incomprehensible adult world, Yuho’s mind became hazy. I thought he was just tough in speech and looks but a warm-hearted hyung. Yuho thought he’d even failed at interpreting Taylor’s character.
“I’ll stop here for today.”
“Okay. I’m thinking the same thing.”
Yuho gave up on digging further. Taylor also agreed with that opinion and focused on eating pork cutlet again.
“Hyung. Then…”
Yuho decided to change the topic of conversation once more. There must be some intention behind Taylor revealing such a tremendous fact to him. Yuho carefully threw a question at Taylor.
“Did you know by any chance?”
“Yeah.”
Even at Yuho’s question conveyed with the subject omitted, Taylor quickly gave an answer.
