“Really just a meal? Without any conversation?”
“No, we talked to some extent. Naturally while eating…”
“So what did you talk about?”
“Well…”
Why is he so persistent? He couldn’t figure out at all what Yuwon wanted to hear. Why on earth should he have to confess every little detail to Yuwon? As Sungjin doubted his ears, he unconsciously blurted out his true feelings that he had been holding back.
“Why… do I have to report that to you, Yuwon?”
He even momentarily forgot the fact that a microphone was attached to his clothes. As the saying goes, even a worm will turn when trodden on—Yuwon looked at Sungjin, who had exploded even if only slightly after enduring all along, with narrowed eyes.
Did… did it work?
Sungjin desperately hoped so, but it didn’t work at all.
“…Hmm. That’s not wrong.”
Will he back down like this? Before Sungjin could hold even a glimmer of hope, a reversal immediately began.
“If I tell you the reason, will you report it?”
“What?”
Since he never imagined such an answer would come back, Sungjin felt like he’d been hit in the back of the head.
“Uh… Huh…?”
When Sungjin couldn’t answer right away and only made stupid sounds, Yuwon let out a snicker and asked.
“What I said in the car earlier, it was a confession I mustered up courage to bring up, but you seem to have forgotten all of it.”
Wh… what did he say? Sungjin tried to recall the memory from a few hours ago and remembered the sentence he had desperately pretended not to hear.
Uh… While he stared blankly up at Yuwon, Yuwon opened his mouth again as if mocking Sungjin.
“I asked if I could try until your heart changes.”
“Ah.”
“You didn’t deny it, so I thought it was okay. Was I mistaken?”
“……”
He had no idea what kind of response would come back if he said it wasn’t okay here. While Sungjin, whose mind had become a blank page, froze, Yuwon continued speaking with a face as if he had seized the advantage.
“I quite like you, Sungjin. I’ve never met anyone like you anywhere until now. So if you don’t clearly reject me, I’ll keep being a nuisance.”
That confident expression was so much to his taste that it gave him goosebumps down his spine. Had he received so much bullying since childhood that his trauma manifested as a fetish? Did he have something like that so-called delinquent complex that was said to manifest in so-called losers?
That face wearing the smile of a predator that had completely cornered its prey seemed to have written on it, “I know my face is your type.”
And that was true. What should I do… I need to answer something. I can’t just stand here like this.
“I’m… grate, grateful… but…”
When he tried to give a similar answer to what he had said before, Yuwon didn’t miss the opportunity and pressed on.
“You’re grateful? If you’re grateful, you should accept. Why are you only grateful without any conclusion about what you’ll do?”
It was an extremely logical question. Just as Sungjin, at a loss for words, couldn’t say anything.
“Oh, it’s Sungjin hyung.”
Someone approached them with light, bouncing steps. To Sungjin, it was no different from a savior.
“Oh, Yuwon was here too.”
The protagonist who suddenly appeared was none other than Jiyoon. Jiyoon, whose eyes met Yuwon’s when he immediately turned around, flinched for a moment but didn’t step back and brazenly approached.
You need that kind of courage to survive as a one-person media creator, talking alone in front of the camera and doing everything yourself. Sungjin was amazed by his courage.
“What were you two doing? A secret date?”
Then, with eyes full of expectation, giggling, Sungjin took back the compliment he had just given. He’s just a guy who’s lost all fear. He was someone whose social sensors were broken in a different way from Sungjin.
Anyway, from Jiyoon’s perspective, the composition of that Lee Yuwon clinging to Sungjin, a man who appeared 100 percent hetero, as if courting him, seemed like quite an interesting spectacle. Even though Sungjin and Yuwon said nothing, he spoke alone in an excited voice.
“I’m rooting for you, Yuwon. I’ve been there too.”
“…Been there?”
Perhaps Yuwon also didn’t know what on earth he was talking about, as he asked with his arms crossed in a voice completely different from when he had looked down at Sungjin moments ago—a voice that felt no warmth at all. Then Jiyoon answered with a broad smile like a clown.
“They say the rice cake you can’t have looks more delicious. How many men have unrequited love for heteros?”
Then he quickly ran away before Yuwon could refute or do any harm.
“Oh, then I’m going to eat a late-night snack with the noonas. Fighting!”
It was Sungjin who was left alone again with Yuwon, who had reached a state just before explosion due to the utterly absurd remark.
I’m fucked.
It was Jiyoon who caused the trouble, but the cleanup was Sungjin’s responsibility. He couldn’t continue pretending not to know in this volatile state. Then, even if he had to get on his knees and beg, he at least had to beg in a place without cameras and microphones. Sungjin urgently covered the microphone with his hand and then quietly shouted.
“Wa, wait… let’s talk. Over there.”
The place Sungjin urgently pointed to was the first-floor shower room designated for men to use. There would be no cameras there and they could turn off the microphones for a moment. Yuwon, who had been silent, obediently followed Sungjin into the shower room. As soon as the door closed with a thud, a chilly silence descended.
“……”
“……”
Sungjin was the first to break the awkward silence that was like midwinter ice. It was a judgment that if it was going to happen anyway, it was better to get beaten quickly.
“Um… it seems… there’s some misunderstanding…”
When Sungjin barely squeezed out words to say while trembling with shaking hands, Yuwon responded very simply with a snort.
“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?”
Unlike Sungjin, who was trembling because spitting out a single word was such a difficult task, Yuwon seemed completely fine. However, his face was mixed with derision as if it had written on it, “Let’s hear what you have to say.” Sungjin couldn’t even raise his head, wanting to escape from that blatant gaze.
“Well… I mean…”
What if he talked to Yuwon about that day’s incident and it turned out he wasn’t the person involved? What if it was all just his own misunderstanding out of fear? Wouldn’t he end up confessing out of the blue to a clueless third party about the trash thing he did in the past?
Having already reached a conclusion, he became frightened again. How should he begin so that even if Yuwon wasn’t that person, it could pass without any major problems? Just as Sungjin belatedly tried to think.
Thud.
A vibration sound was heard from beyond the wall.
“Huh…?”
Something was strange. It wasn’t a vibration from dropping something or moving furniture, but this was exactly like… And before Sungjin could tilt his head while recalling something, faint vibrations rang from the wall—thud, thud, thud, thud.
It was the sound of something soft, dull, and heavy rhythmically hitting the wall. Could this be? The moment a certain possibility occurred simultaneously in both Sungjin and Yuwon’s minds, an embarrassing noise faintly echoed through the bathroom humidity and tile walls.
Ahng, haung, haaang…!
At the coquettish moaning sound that was probably deliberately squeezed out, both Sungjin and Yuwon doubted their ears. Are they crazy? Even if it’s not prohibited by the rules, where on earth? Who with whom? Given South Korea’s conservative social norms, there’s no way doing such a thing on a broadcast would be accepted as nothing.
However, whether the two were shocked or not, the people beyond the wall became even more intense. Sungjin’s face turned red in an instant.
“Wh, where, th, this kind of…”
When Sungjin stuttered in surprise, Yuwon answered in a cold voice.
“At least it doesn’t seem to be happening in this bathroom.”
Since the bathroom pipes would be connected, it might be that someone was enjoying their own rendezvous in another bathroom somewhere in this resort. Though their purpose was completely different, just as Sungjin and Yuwon had hidden in the bathroom to avoid microphones and cameras, someone whose body was on fire must have chosen the same method.
“……”
When Sungjin hiccupped in surprise and shut his mouth tightly, Yuwon stared down at that face and made a deflating sound.
“Why is Yoon Sungjin embarrassed? You’re not reacting anyway. Even though your face has turned this red.”
Then he tapped Sungjin’s cheek with his beautiful hand like a marble sculpture. Only then realizing how hot his cheeks were burning, Sungjin tried to step back and run away, but the tile wall touched his back. He was caught between a rock and a hard place.
“What?”
When Sungjin looked up at Yuwon in a daze again, he spoke mockingly with a still smiling face.
“You like men. Yoon Sungjin. Enough to immediately enter a hotel room with a man you’re meeting for the first time and come in someone else’s hand.”
Sungjin couldn’t say anything. He never imagined such an explicit sentence would come from Yuwon’s mouth.
