The owner pointed at Jeong Minha with his mouth gaping open in surprise. The athlete who won a silver medal before? At those words, when Jeong Minha just nodded as if a bit embarrassed, the owner got extremely excited and eventually even got an autograph.
After talking for a while, he told him to come again next time and even packed him full of snacks. Having received praise and snacks, Jeong Minha came out of the shop cheerfully.
“Wow, he was such a nice person.”
But unlike the excited Jeong Minha, Seo Sihan was somehow quiet.
“Hyung?”
“……”
“Ah, it was too long, wasn’t it? I’m sorry….”
“That’s not it….”
“Yes?”
Seo Sihan looked at Jeong Minha and asked slowly.
“Minha…. Do you give autographs to everyone who says they’re a fan?”
“Ahaha, well, it’s amazing that they recognize me too, so… yes….”
Jeong Minha laughed embarrassedly and almost bit his tongue, but Seo Sihan was making a face that somehow seemed even more disappointed. At this, Jeong Minha also asked carefully.
“Why…?”
“I said I was a fan… from the beginning….”
“……”
“……”
“No, hyung, you didn’t ask me separately to do it….”
“I did….”
“When?!”
“Before, when I saw you sign the contract at the company… you said you’d do it for me again later….”
“……”
His memory is really good. Jeong Minha, who had just recalled something he’d completely forgotten, hurriedly made excuses.
“H-hyung, I want to put more sincerity into yours. I’m thinking of a cool autograph, so please wait just a little longer.”
“Really?”
“Yes…. Ah, and please take this.”
Jeong Minha handed the hamster doll he’d gotten earlier to Seo Sihan. Only then did Seo Sihan smile and accept it.
“Thanks. Even thinking about it again, Minha was really cool earlier.”
“Mm, it’s thanks to hyung telling me…. But why this doll? I think the cat next to it was cuter.”
Of course, Seo Sihan wasn’t particularly interested in dolls and had only said it to see Jeong Minha shoot. But receiving it as a gift like this made him feel even better. Above all, looking closely, he quite liked how the doll looked.
“It resembles Minha.”
When Seo Sihan said this with a pretty smile, Jeong Minha got angry because it was absurd and embarrassing.
“I keep telling you I’m a person!”
“You really do look alike though?”
At other times he’d say he looked so cool just standing still, making him flustered, but then at times like this he kept saying he resembled cute animals, so he had no idea at all what this hyung thought of him.
* * *
After wandering around and playing here and there for a while, it had already become evening.
After eating at a nearby restaurant, they tried to return to the festival to watch the fireworks show in the evening. However, it was already full of people with no space to sit.
“Uh…. I didn’t know there would be this many people.”
“Right, there are even more than earlier…. Then shall we watch from the car instead of here?”
“Sounds good.”
While walking to the parking lot quite far away, another park with relatively fewer people caught their eye. Let’s just watch a little here and then go home. At Jeong Minha’s words, Seo Sihan said okay.
Right after, Jeong Minha, who bought a bunch of food again from a nearby convenience store, sat on a bench with Seo Sihan. This time too, Jeong Minha asked if he’d eat together, but Seo Sihan said it was okay. We just ate dinner though? At Seo Sihan’s question, Jeong Minha coolly said that’s that and this is this, even opening a beer can.
“Normally for things like this, you’re supposed to watch while eating chicken and beer… ah, but hyung has to drive….”
“I’m really fine. Just being with Minha is good enough.”
“…Y-yes.”
Because of Seo Sihan casually saying things like that again, Jeong Minha hastily downed the beer in one shot. The surprised Seo Sihan told him to drink slowly, but the can was already empty.
“It’s okay. I drink well.”
“Still….”
Certainly, Jeong Minha had a higher alcohol tolerance than others. He’d never gotten seriously drunk until now either.
“……I once drank a ton in the past.”
There was still a little time before the fireworks started. In the cool breeze, Jeong Minha put on his outer layer again.
It didn’t really feel like being drunk, but somehow, stories that he wouldn’t normally tell came tumbling out of his mouth on their own.
“Th-that, when I was twenty. After the Olympics…. That was the first time I bought a bunch of soju and everything and drank it all?”
“……”
“People said to forget with alcohol if things are hard, so I drank…. But I didn’t feel better at all and just had an upset stomach the next day.”
Jeong Minha spoke calmly, and Seo Sihan just listened quietly.
“In the end, I just wasted money. With that money, I should have bought food instead…. Like this.”
He said while eating the snacks he’d just bought from the convenience store. Seo Sihan smiled just a little then listened to the story obediently.
“Anyway, really…. It was really hard back then. Because of the coach, I got into debt at twenty… Mom was hospitalized too…. My head was telling me to earn money right away, but I didn’t want to do anything, so I just holed up in my room for weeks…. I just wanted to run away, but then thinking of Mom, I couldn’t do that either….”
“……”
“So after that, I tried working part-time for the first time, and wow. It was really hard. Even harder than training? How do other people do it? But I couldn’t quit, so I endured it and continued. I think that’s when I drank….”
Seo Sihan observed Jeong Minha’s expression. It was dark so he couldn’t see well, but it still seemed like an indifferent expression.
“…So, obviously when I drank back then, I didn’t feel better at all, so I thought people were lying….”
Jeong Minha stopped talking and looked at Seo Sihan.
Though it was dark, his shining eyes curved gently into a smiling face.
“Strangely, why do I feel so good right now?”
“……!”
“Even telling this story doesn’t make me very depressed. Rather, after drinking earlier, I felt a little better. So this was real?”
Pop, pop. Sounds like testing fireworks could be heard from far away. It seemed like it would start soon.
“Unlike back then, I don’t have any hardships now, so I can only feel good. And that’s… all thanks to hyung, isn’t it?”
“That’s….”
You’ve done that much for him, so you could be more confident, but I don’t know why you act like someone sorry for not taking better care of him. Jeong Minha found that aspect of Seo Sihan fascinating.
“Actually, even now I can’t believe it. Hyung treats me incredibly well. Is it okay to live such a happy and comfortable life? I feel like when I wake up, I’ll be back to that time again. Actually, even that coach treated me really well until he disappeared. So hyung might also later….”
“…I absolutely won’t.”
At Seo Sihan’s definitive words, Jeong Minha burst out laughing.
“Wow, how did someone like hyung really become my fan? Isn’t this me being too lucky?”
That such a cool and perfect person was his fan—it was truly unbelievable every time he heard it.
Jeong Minha liked that aspect of Seo Sihan the most. Of course, he was grateful for the material help too, but… what touched his heart more was that he continued to support and like the dream that even he himself had given up on.
“……”
At Seo Sihan’s silent reaction, just as Jeong Minha was starting to regain his senses and get a bit embarrassed, trying to change the subject—
“Actually, until I went to meet you at the café… I had a lot of worries.”
At the words he heard, Jeong Minha immediately looked at Seo Sihan.
Because of the cool breeze, Seo Sihan’s hair swayed slightly. His long eyelashes moving every time he blinked were also more visible.
“Meeting like that was honestly rude, so I was worried about being hated by someone I’d liked as a fan for a long time….”
Seo Sihan spoke while looking straight ahead quietly, then smiled softly.
“But now… I think it was so good that I mustered the courage to go find you then. Since Minha says he’s happy like this… I feel so good too.”
“……!”
Pop, pop. The sounds grew louder and louder.
The fireworks preparations were reaching their peak.
“And I’ll never leave. At least until Minha wants me to… I can keep making Minha happy.”
“……Yes?”
At that moment, fireworks shot up with a sound cutting across the sky.
“Because I’ll always be your fan….”
The fireworks burst. As the sparks spread, the dark night sky brightened in an instant.
Seo Sihan looked at Jeong Minha and smiled. His usually dark eyes seemed to shine brightly because of the fireworks.
Jeong Minha recalled the numerous movies he’d seen. A confession at a fireworks festival—he’d even been bored, saying it was too cliché.
And at this moment, the heart of the person directly experiencing that cliché incident burst along with the fireworks.
This loud heartbeat easily overcame the efforts he’d been working hard to deny all this time.
Not simply for reasons like arrhythmia, cringe, embarrassment, or shame…….
“……”
He liked hyung.
He truly liked him.
With hyung… in a different sense.
Jeong Minha acknowledged his one-sided love.
