“Marriage…? Ah, yeah… I remember.”
Jeong Minha lowered his head more and more as he spoke. He wanted to hide in the ground like this, but he couldn’t keep avoiding it.
“At that time when I asked you if you’d get married later… you said you’d probably do it with someone else.”
“Mm…”
“…”
Until just now, he had been hesitating about whether it was okay to say this, but seeing Seo Sihan answer yes like this again made him explode inside.
“…What do I do if hyung marries someone else?”
“…Huh?”
At the unexpected question, Seo Sihan just looked at Jeong Minha’s face with a blank expression.
Well, Seo Sihan hadn’t really thought much about the marriage talk from the beginning. Just because everyone does it, he’ll do it someday too—that was all he thought. To be more honest, he didn’t particularly want to. Rather, because he was happy living together with the two of them now, he was planning to postpone it as much as possible if he could.
But as soon as he heard Jeong Minha’s question, he suddenly started worrying. Should he let him know he has no plans to do it yet?
When Seo Sihan hesitated, Jeong Minha continued speaking.
“Hyung… If hyung gets married, will I leave that house?”
“…! N-no…”
“Then what? We can’t all three live together. Or will you say that house is mine and hyung will live somewhere else?”
“…”
Seo Sihan tried imagining his own marriage.
If he gets married, he’ll take care of Minha as much as he wants and separately…
…Ah.
Having realized something, Seo Sihan immediately opened his mouth.
“I… am so happy living together with Minha right now.”
“…Yes?”
“So that talk back then too… was that if my family forces me, I’d have no choice but to do it. Honestly, I don’t want to do it either.”
“…!”
“I want to keep staying with Minha like now… So I’ll postpone it as much as I can until…”
Before he knew it, Jeong Minha had stopped walking and was standing still. Seo Sihan also stopped talking and turned around.
Jeong Minha’s face, which had looked in a bad mood all along until now, had changed. His eyes were wide open in surprise and his ears and cheeks were all red.
‘…So this was why.’
Seo Sihan had been figuring out the cause throughout his conversation with Jeong Minha. When he suddenly brought up marriage, Seo Sihan had also guessed it was just because he’d have nowhere to live. However, hearing the words that followed, even if he took care of everything Jeong Minha needed, it seemed he wasn’t satisfied.
Then there was only one reason. Jeong Minha wants to live with Seo Sihan. Seo Sihan got the answer right.
‘Then right now, because he wants to keep living with me… he got disappointed about the marriage talk and ran away?’
The frustration that had been full of anxiety until just now disappeared. However, his heart was still beating fast.
Because of Jeong Minha’s statement that he did this not because he disliked him but because he liked him, Seo Sihan naturally smiled. He immediately approached the frozen Jeong Minha and hugged him warmly.
“Minha also… wants to keep being with me?”
“Y-yes…”
The trembling affirming voice, the reddened ears, the arms frozen stiff not knowing what to do—he loved it all so much. Seo Sihan said while stroking Jeong Minha’s head.
“Yeah… Even if I get married anyway, the other person won’t want it either, so we’ll each live separately and I’ll be with Minha…”
“That’s not it!”
Jeong Minha immediately denied it while pushing Seo Sihan. The pushed side hurt a little, but Seo Sihan smiled and corrected his words.
“Okay… Then even if someone tells me to do it, I won’t. I’ll hold out as much as I can…”
“Is that okay…?”
“Can’t I just say I won’t work starting the day after they make me get married?”
“Y-you do that, then…”
At Seo Sihan’s words, not knowing if it was a joke or serious, Jeong Minha laughed in disbelief. Finally seeming to be in a better mood, Seo Sihan also laughed together. As the tension released, the cold came rushing in.
When he trembled slightly from the chilly wind, Jeong Minha immediately grabbed Seo Sihan’s arm. He led him saying let’s go home quickly in a voice that had regained energy. It was really a cool appearance, but Seo Sihan carefully spoke up.
“I parked my car over there though…”
Seo Sihan pointed with his hand in the completely opposite direction from where they were going.
“What? Why are you only saying that now…?!”
Jeong Minha walked together toward the opposite side in bewilderment.
After that, Jeong Minha, who safely arrived at the car, opened the passenger seat door and got in the car.
Seeing that, Seo Sihan was completely relieved. For the past few days, Jeong Minha had only ridden in the back seat, saying he was sleepy.
When he stared intently at Jeong Minha who got in the passenger seat, Jeong Minha made blank eye contact. Seo Sihan leaned his head on the steering wheel and smiled.
“Thank you for liking me, Minha-ya…”
“…U-uh? What?!”
Soon Seo Sihan turned his body closer toward Jeong Minha. Because of Seo Sihan suddenly approaching, Jeong Minha held his breath for a moment and squeezed his eyes shut.
Buried in the sound of his crazily beating heart, he only realized a few seconds later that Seo Sihan had turned back. He had just fastened his seatbelt.
“Aren’t you hungry? What do you want to eat?”
When he heard the everyday conversation, Jeong Minha finally exhaled.
‘Th-thank goodness…! Phew, I thought my one-sided love was discovered. …No, is this really fortunate?’
Jeong Minha agonized inside going “kyaaak,” then his mind became calm at the thought of eating dinner. Come to think of it, he was so hungry today because he had eaten sparingly all day to avoid using the card. He said he wanted to eat his fill of anything, so Seo Sihan said okay and started the car.
At the buffet they arrived at after that, Seo Sihan just smiled saying Jeong Minha was cute as he swept through everything, but gradually couldn’t smile. Isn’t he really going to get sick at this rate…?
Making Seo Sihan’s worry meaningless, Jeong Minha was sturdy. He just happily ate everything and got back in the car.
Jeong Minha, whose heart had become comfortable, brought up what he wanted to say.
“But hyung, really… I was so surprised earlier. Why did you even cover my mouth? I was so scared I thought I was going to die. If you’d been just a bit later, I almost broke your arm.”
“Sorry… It seemed like Minha would scream…”
“No, of course! If someone grabs you from behind like that, you can’t help but scream, right? Why didn’t you call my name first…”
“But… Then Minha would have run away.”
“Why would I… Hm? Would I?”
“…”
“…”
“I… don’t have confidence I can catch up to Minha by running…”
At Seo Sihan’s sincerity that came out in a serious atmosphere, Jeong Minha couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“Still, from next time, call my name first. Then while running, I’ll see you following, and if you look tired, I’ll stop for you.”
“Thanks… But are you going to do this again next time?”
“…No!”
Jeong Minha, who felt a creepy feeling in an instant, answered quickly. Seo Sihan started the car satisfied, and Jeong Minha unnecessarily turned on music and sang along to lighten the mood.
And after arriving home.
After washing up and lying in bed, Jeong Minha gripped his pillow tightly.
‘In the end, I’m back at square one!’
He had worked hard to give up on his one-sided love, but his heart became complicated again because of Seo Sihan’s statement declaring he wouldn’t get married because of him. At this point, he suspected whether this hyung was doing this on purpose.
‘Still, looking at what he said today, really… if I do really well, isn’t there a possibility?!’
Jeong Minha carefully recalled today’s events to try to analyze Seo Sihan’s feelings.
And the thought that came wasn’t excitement but fear.
‘…How did he really know to come?’
It was a location where we couldn’t meet by chance, right? I deliberately went to a place far away from the office, house, and school… How did he know my location right away…
While turning his head, his eyes met with his phone placed on the bed. His spine suddenly got chills.
