# Chapter 25
Jaei blinked with a tearful face. Even in identical situations, there are times when no emotional fluctuation occurs at all, and times when tears burst out so sadly that one cannot understand oneself. A few days ago, he read the same letter calmly. The tears he couldn’t shed then flowed down now.
“Why do you say things about dying so easily, you jerk.”
He wiped his tears with his fist, pressing his lips tightly together and holding back his sobs. But soon he burst out with sorrow and cried loudly like a child before collapsing on the floor.
Today was the last day Jaei would call Ryu Doha’s soul. June 22nd, after checking the date on his phone, he stopped the act of breathing. He buried his face in the pillow and lay still. He held his breath to the limit, as if diving in deep water. Then he fell asleep as if passing out.
About an hour later, when he woke up, Jaei was still alone. For the past month, he had visited this room almost daily, calling for Ryu Doha from the threshold of death. But all attempts had failed. He didn’t appear even today, on this truly special day.
And now Jaei finally had the confidence to check with his own eyes the whereabouts of the “real Ryu Seungha.” He opened the letter that he had left unread in his mailbox for over two weeks and checked the contents.
Customer Wang Jaeyoung, we have resolved the case you requested.
His eyelids and cheeks, wet with tears, were swollen. He needed to quickly go down to the 9th floor, drink tea to reduce the swelling, hold Doha at his side, and place an ice pack on his eyelids. He hurriedly stepped out the front door.
In front of the door, his foot got caught on a huge pile of luggage. Doha was obediently placed in front of the door like a contactless delivery package.
“Doha.”
Doha was closing his eyes gently, looking beautiful and pure. He slowly opened his eyes at the sound of his name being called. Doha’s originally white and clear pupils were tinged red.
Jaei looked at Doha pitifully and sat down right there. Had he been crying painfully, imagining him making love with someone else here? However, since he didn’t want to squat on the floor, he used Doha’s sturdy thigh as a cushion to sit on. And while gently holding Doha’s handsome face with one hand, he asked.
“Why are you doing this pitifully here again. Did you cry?”
At Jaei’s concerned voice, Doha exhaled deeply and hid his eyes with the back of his hand. Earlier, after anonymously seeking help online, he received the answer [Meet the third party with that person’s lover, show a more attractive image than the opponent in a situation where you face each other equally]. So he had come to stand guard at the path for this three-way meeting.
However, as soon as he leaned his back and head against the wall, he fell asleep like a sloth. Jaei didn’t seem to notice that he had been sleeping. In that case, there was no need to be honest. After all, falling asleep anywhere like a baby wasn’t particularly cool.
Doha covered his mouth and chin with his large hand and started acting with a serious expression. His voice was two tones lower than usual.
“While waiting for you here, I’ve thought a lot.”
He hadn’t thought much. For the extremely simple Lee Doha, thinking was just deciding to overcome this crisis with positive thinking and beat Jaei’s lover. But as he needed to make a decisive move to Jaei at this moment, he was writing a script in his head in real-time. The high school boy who liked romance dramas looked straight into Jaei’s eyes with moist eyes like a male protagonist in a drama and continued.
“If I had grown up not getting what I wanted, I wouldn’t have thought about wanting you, hyung.”
“……”
“But I’ve gotten everything I’ve wanted so far. You raised me like this, hyung.”
“……”
For a moment, he bowed his head, lowered his gaze, and gave a hollow laugh. All calculated actions. At this point, he needed to change from formal speech to informal speech while looking into Jaei’s eyes, and put strength at the end of his words. Like shouting, but not feeling violent.
“It was you who put everything in the hands of a child who had nothing but black gloves. You spoiled me. You shouldn’t have raised me like this.”
“……”
The next line is the climax. It’s the winning line that makes the opponent’s heart sink.
“So I need to have you, hyung.”
Doha, who had just confessed his love after waking up, looked at Jaei with moist eyes that had slight tears. On June 22nd, receiving a confession of love from Doha again after 18 years, Jaei stroked his cheek and answered with a voice full of emotion.
“You really have talent for acting.”
“…Did you catch on?”
“I’ve been acting for years. I know everything. Your lines are good, your pronunciation and vocalization are good, and your expressions are good too. Your voice is also good.”
With his cheeks turning round and red from embarrassment, Doha looked at him pitifully and pleaded with his hands clasped together.
“I guess it was too artificial. I’m sorry, hyung. Please pretend what I just said didn’t happen. Please act like you didn’t hear it.”
Jaei stroked Doha’s white cheek and shook his head with a pitiful expression.
“How can I do that when I’ve already heard everything? So. I. Need. To. Have. You. Hyung. I can tease you with this for about 10 years.”
Jaei mimicked him with an utterly hateful face. Seeing Jaei not being surprised or excited, but playfully dismissing the confession, the corners of Doha’s eyes drooped. Becoming sullen, Doha muttered disappointedly in a timid voice.
“I want to turn back time. I want to go back to before I spoke.”
“……”
Listening to the sentences Doha uttered, Jaei quietly watched him for a moment with eyes that simultaneously held tears, conviction, and affection without saying anything. Then soon, he smiled brightly and exclaimed in a cheerful voice.
“Ryu Doha, let’s go home. Put an ice pack on me.”
Lee Doha, who perceives his real name as Ryu Doha, naturally accepted the name that came from Jaei’s mouth. He nodded his head and waited for Jaei to get up first. However, Jaei, who had proposed going home, didn’t budge from sitting on Doha’s lap. Instead, he shamelessly leaned his head on Doha’s shoulder while wrapping his arms around Doha’s neck.
So Doha had no choice but to put his arm under Jaei’s knees and easily lift him in a princess carry. Reminiscing about the small days when he was carried on Jaei’s back, he confidently spoke with his shoulders spread wide and his chest pushed out, which had become noticeably broader.
“I can carry you now, hyung. I’ve almost grown up. I have a little left to grow, really just a little. I’m about 95% loaded.”
“Yes, grow quickly. Quickly grow 100% and carry me to the filming location. I’ve fully grown up, but why are you still a baby? Still, still…”
Jaei, who had been barely suppressing his surging emotions with morality and ethical consciousness, spoke in a sorrowful voice. Doha, who was walking to the elevator carrying Jaei, stopped right there. Slightly irritated at being called a baby, he turned around and stood in front of the entrance to unit 1002 again.
“Press the password, hyung. Let me at least greet your wife.”
“I told you we need to go home and put an ice pack on. My face is swollen.”
“Quickly, please. I’ll greet her with absolute politeness and won’t get angry at all. I won’t be surprised even if my sister-in-law is that director who played the servant. I’m confident I can accept even if I get a 40-year-old sister-in-law with a bushy beard. I’m mentally prepared enough.”
“Maybe it’s because our Doha watches a lot of dramas. Your imagination is excellent.”
“Isn’t that man on his deathbed? I saw in the news recently that his health isn’t good. Hyung, could your ideal type be…?”
Doha looked at Jaei suspiciously, expanding his eyes and mouth into circles simultaneously. Jaei, who had been oddly misunderstood that his ideal type was “someone about to die,” flicked Doha’s forehead and answered.
“How did you come to believe such a dirty rumor?”
“I wonder who made me believe such a dirty rumor?”
Doha asked loudly, furrowing his brow. Ahem, clearing his throat and turning his head primly, Jaei said as he flailed his feet.
“I won’t tell you the password. Later, find out this house’s password and open it yourself. I’ll give you one hint at a time slowly from now on. See with your own eyes what’s in this house by opening the door yourself.”
“How can I solve it? When we went to escape the room, I couldn’t solve even one password, remember?”
Indeed, Doha and Jaei once paid money to escape a room but ended up being confined in the room for an hour. The 20-something fool Jaei encouraged and cheered on Doha, who was still a teenage fool.
“Our Doha is still young, so he can do it. Let’s exercise our brains for once. Lee Doha, fighting.”
Jaei placed one finger on Doha’s forehead and began drawing something slowly. Doha considered this the first hint and concentrated his dull senses to guess the mark Jaei had left on his forehead. What Jaei’s finger had drawn was clearly a tongue shape used to taunt someone.
