# Chapter 28.
Jaei believed that in this world, only two people could recognize the “real Doha” and accept a miracle that couldn’t be scientifically explained: himself and Doha’s mother. At the very least, it made sense for her and Doha to meet again. She must be one of the reasons Doha had returned.
Throughout his meeting with Hong Duyoung, he had maintained his hatred with a venomous heart, keeping all his nerves razor-sharp. But when he faced Doha, his tension gradually began to ease. Whether it was the onset of a cold or something else, his skin felt raw and his whole body ached as if he’d been beaten. Strength drained from his fingertips, and his legs gave way. He collapsed to the floor like a deflated balloon.
“Mmng! Mmng! Mmngummng! Uummng! Mmng ummng mmngum mmng!”
Hyung, hyung! What’s wrong! Don’t die! Don’t die and leave me!
Even in his collapsed state, Jaei interpreted Doha’s words perfectly. He felt his body being confined in Doha’s arms, which had grown with strong bones and muscles. Just before losing consciousness, to avoid worrying Doha, he delivered one final statement like a last will: I drank, so don’t take me to the hospital, it’s embarrassing.
Doha undressed the collapsed and sleeping Jaei and dressed him in cute chick-yellow pajamas. He couldn’t bring himself to wash the little chick’s body with his own hands.
Although he prided himself on being very intimate with Jaei, they weren’t completely informal in every aspect. There was definitely a difference from the relationships between ordinary brothers or generally between men of the same gender. And the formation of this relationship was entirely thanks to Jaei.
In the early years of elementary school, Doha occasionally bathed with Jaei’s father. Jaei sometimes went to the sauna with his father too. But Jaei had never shown his naked body to him.
Looking back, there were so many sides of himself that Jaei had never shown him. He had never appeared disheveled, nor had he ever uttered even a single common curse word in front of him. He would sometimes scold him sharply, but he was someone who didn’t know how to speak unkindly.
So naturally, Doha followed Jaei like a mirror. If he cherished him, then he cherished him back; if he adored him, then he adored him too; if he said he loved him, then he responded that he loved him too.
Previously, in this kind of relationship, loving him more than a brother was a big problem for himself. He thought Jaei wouldn’t give him even the slightest possibility. But now, having confirmed that there was a possibility, he had become quite shameless. He had marked himself as Jaei’s future lover. Although the process to get there might be difficult, he believed that the future was unconditionally reserved for him one way or another.
“I hope hyung has been giving me a chance from the beginning. That’s what I’ll believe.”
He picked up Jaei’s thin body and moved him to the sofa. Normally, even when Jaei was drunk, he would get up, wash himself, finish household chores, and only then go to sleep. Knowing his habit, Doha planned to let him lie on the sofa for a while.
He safely confined Jaei’s body in his embrace. Jaei took the inner position, while he took the outer position where he might fall to the floor. When he was young, he was in the position of being protected by Jaei, but after his body grew enough to hide Jaei behind his back, their roles had reversed. When walking on the street or going to restaurants, he always made sure Jaei was on the inside.
Jaei was surprisingly vulnerable to stimuli for someone who worked with many people professionally. He was the type to groan in pain even after just attending an awards ceremony. It was only right that he, being strong in both body and mind, should protect him. Of course, Jaei might not think so. But Jaei’s opinion wasn’t particularly important.
Gently caressing Jaei’s cheek as he exhaled with soft breaths, Doha practiced restraining his desire to kiss him. He never knew that such a difficult challenge existed in the process of becoming an adult. He wanted to kiss him even on his eyelids or the bridge of his nose, but he couldn’t secretly do such things while Jaei was sleeping.
He decided to wait patiently until the day came when he could proudly kiss him with Jaei’s permission. Although that act might be permitted only to someone else for now, he believed that someday it would be his turn.
The only way to suppress the boiling desire and overcome the suffering was deep sleep. And so Lee Doha, a human capable of deep sleep whenever and wherever he wanted, soon succeeded in reaching nirvana in deep slumber.
Both of them remained lying on the sofa until morning. Unlike Jaei, whose daily routine was irregular, Doha, being a student by profession, woke up at his usual time even on the weekend when there was no school.
It was just past 6 AM. He found it very curious that Jaei was still nestled in his arms, and he shifted his body around. It was the first time Jaei had come home drunk and fallen asleep like this.
He let go of Jaei from his embrace and got up. Suddenly released from the confinement of Doha’s strong arms, Jaei began to groan in pain. Being held tightly immobile had been providing stability to his body. Doha knelt down on the floor beside the sofa and worriedly asked while stroking Jaei’s cheek. His groans sounded too painful.
“Are you sick, or is it a hangover? Should we go to the hospital? Hyung, if you’re embarrassed about going to the hospital, wrinkle your nose.”
Groaning and barely able to open his eyes, Jaei vigorously wrinkled his cute nose. Doha lightly pinched his nose, rubbing it, then carried him in his arms and moved him to the bed. He covered him with the blanket up to his neck, carefully closed the door, and cleaned the living room.
Jaei coming home drunk meant that he had no schedule today. Doha thoughtfully bought a hangover remedy from the convenience store and was rummaging through the medicine cabinet, thinking they should have hangover soup. At that moment, Jaei’s phone, which had been placed on the table, started flashing. Someone was calling.
Do voice phishing or spam callers work on weekends? Even if they did, it was still too early for them to be at work. However, given Jaei’s unusual profession, it wasn’t extremely surprising to receive calls at this hour. Since it could be a schedule-related call, Doha responsibly picked up his phone.
“Hong Duyoung…”
Looking at the composition of people around Jaei, about 50% were celebrities, 40% were company employees, staff, and reporters, and the remaining 10% were friends or professors from school or acting academies.
There were so many people around Jaei that he naturally couldn’t know them all. However, he at least knew the people with whom Jaei was close enough to save their phone numbers and contact.
In exchange for planting Choi Hyunjin as a monitor beside Doha and tracking his private life in real-time, Jaei had explained his human relationships without reservation. So Doha naturally thought Jaei’s lover must be among the people he knew.
Among them, Director Hong Duyoung was the most likely candidate. Since Jaei had strongly denied being in a relationship with him, Doha had also dismissed his suspicions. But now, just looking at the name on the screen, he was somehow gripped by an unpleasant feeling. No matter how insensitive he was by nature, he could at least feel an ominous premonition. He answered the phone and held it to his cheek. He didn’t make any sound.
“Jaei.”
It was an unpleasant voice. Although Hong Duyoung had only uttered three syllables, Doha could immediately tell he was quite drunk. So Hong Duyoung must have been Jaei’s drinking partner last night. Doha didn’t give him any response. He had no intention of waking Jaei up to hand him the phone. Sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed, he stared straight ahead with a cold face, listening to his voice.
“Did you get home okay? I didn’t make any verbal slips yesterday, right?”
“…”
Doha thought it was one of two things: either they were close enough to have a call at 6:47 AM, or the man had lost his judgment due to intoxication. Despite receiving no response, the man forced his heavily slurred tongue to move and rambled on about what he wanted to say.
“Why aren’t you answering? Not fully awake yet?”
“…”
“Jaei. Your expression yesterday was so good. I didn’t know you could make such a troubled face.”
“…”
“As expected, you never disappoint me. Those feelings too, you have to experience them firsthand to make them yours. Everything created by imagination is fake.”
Doha’s large, round eyes narrowed into a straight line in an instant. He hung up the phone right then. His chest grew cold and his lips dried up from strange imaginings. Annoyingly, the call came again, but he didn’t want to take calls from a drunkard. After firmly declining the call, he put the phone down on the table and fell into thought.
Detective Lee Doha, severely lacking in deductive skills, trembled his hands slightly before letting out a big sigh. He had internally believed Jaei’s statement that the rumors about a relationship with Director Hong were nothing but dirty gossip. It felt like being hit hard on the back of the head by Jaei’s pretty hand.
Moreover, Hong Duyoung was currently suffering from a chronic illness. If he were to die, would Jaei carry him in his heart for the rest of his life? Would that then be Hong Duyoung implementing what he had seen on the internet before: “How the dead can defeat the living”?
“Lee Jaei, you liar.”
One thing was certain: the human Lee Doha did not have very good intuition.
