# Chapter 52
After returning home, Jiho wouldn’t come out of the bathroom.
Yeomin paced in front of the bathroom door, wondering if something had happened to him.
About an hour passed. Finally, Jiho emerged, dripping wet and shaking off moisture.
Earlier he’d been trembling like a sick puppy. But now he was back to his playful self.
“What should we have for dinner?”
“Forget dinner, let’s have that,” Yeomin said, pointing to the wine refrigerator, willing to postpone their evening meal.
Surprise flashed in Jiho’s eyes. Then his face curved into a smile.
“Hyung, you want to get drunk?”
“Yes.”
Yeomin grinned along with Jiho. And inwardly he responded:
‘I want to get you drunk.’
Isn’t another name for alcohol “truth serum”? Yeomin had something he really wanted to hear from Jiho today.
Drinking wine while looking down at this beautiful view. Actually, this was the first time Yeomin had tasted such fine wine.
He’d tried champagne once at a department event before, but he was much more familiar with soju and beer.
‘How much does this wine cost? If I knew, would I be unable to drink it?’
Yeomin wondered as he watched Jiho fill his glass.
“Here, try just this much first. It might not be to your taste, hyung.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“…That’s strange.”
“What is?”
“Why are you speaking so nicely?”
This guy is suddenly dissing me. How nicely am I speaking? Someone listening would think I usually just curse all day.
Yeomin pouted his lips.
“You’re the one acting strange today.”
“…”
“Why did you act like that? Earlier.”
Yeomin asked casually, as if it were nothing. Deliberately not looking into Jiho’s eyes, thinking that if he made a big deal of it, it would really become something dramatic.
In truth, it didn’t matter if Jiho didn’t answer. It wasn’t something he absolutely needed to know.
But on the other hand… he was curious. Curious about why Jiho had looked so anxious earlier.
“Ah, that?”
Jiho took a sip of wine.
Yeomin followed suit and swallowed some wine. Contrary to his expectations, it was only bitter and astringent.
The beer sold at convenience stores tasted much better.
“I thought I’d be okay going there after so long. To the amusement park.”
Jiho spoke with an indifferent expression, as if telling someone else’s story.
“No. I was definitely fine at first. Because I was with you, hyung. So I thought I’d be okay, but…”
“…”
“When I was left alone, it became hard to breathe. So as soon as I got off, I tried to find you first… but you weren’t there.”
He seemed to be referring to when Yeomin disappeared to help find a child’s mother.
Somehow Yeomin’s heart grew heavy. Jiho continued speaking.
“I didn’t know where to go, and my body wouldn’t move. So I just thought I’d wait until you came back. But I was scared, thinking what if you never came back?”
“Why would you think that?”
He had just briefly left his spot because something came up, and couldn’t be contacted for a short time.
Jiho wasn’t a seven-year-old preschooler. And normally, he seemed like the type who would find Yeomin by any means necessary, searching everywhere.
Seeing Yeomin’s puzzled expression, Jiho’s lips twitched. As if hesitating to say something.
Then he blurted it out like a complaint.
“I rode a merry-go-round before. When I was really young.”
“And?”
“When I got off the merry-go-round, my father was gone. Then the staff took me away. The Ian Group attendants.”
Yeomin’s heart pounded.
“I thought either bad people had taken my father away or that the Ian Group had kicked him out. As I grew up, I realized. That my father had abandoned me there.”
“…”
“Earlier, I think I lost it because it felt like you had left me the same way. Of course, even if you had left, I would have found you somehow.”
It was a much darker story than Yeomin had expected.
“…Or maybe not. Maybe I would have waited there until you came back.”
Jiho spoke self-deprecatingly.
Yeomin didn’t pity him.
Why would he feel sorry for someone else’s situation? Who in this world doesn’t have a painful past? Yeomin was cold-hearted.
But on the other hand, rather than sympathy, he felt ’empathy’ for Seol Jiho.
Because he too had felt those feelings at some point.
When he realized his sister Yeojin hadn’t just been unable to come home because she was busy, but that she had left him behind. It was a truly miserable and frightening feeling.
‘Did the young Seol Jiho, and today’s Seol Jiho, feel that way too?’
“Aish…”
Yeomin suddenly gulped down the rest of his wine. His face scrunched up as if he’d swallowed a very bitter medicine, but he emptied his glass without leaving a drop.
Jiho was watching Yeomin with curiosity. Wiping his wet lips, Yeomin declared spiritedly:
“Next time, let’s ride the merry-go-round.”
Jiho’s expression hardened. But Yeomin paid no attention and added:
“I’ll stand where you can see me until you get off.”
“…”
“When you get off, I’ll praise you for riding well.”
At those words, Jiho made an indecipherable expression before finally breaking into a smile.
‘Did this guy always smile so prettily?’
It seemed like he did… Yeomin felt confused.
Whether it was from the alcohol or from Jiho’s gaze, he fanned his cheeks, which had grown much hotter than usual.
Jiho worried about Yeomin.
“The problem with hyung is that you’re too nice.”
At this nonsensical statement, Yeomin couldn’t help but laugh. Even Taeyang or Yeojin would scoff if they heard it. Him, ‘nice’?
“You’re the only person in this world who thinks I’m nice.”
“That’s how it should be. Hyung should only be nice to me. …No, actually, you can be really mean to me too.”
The incomprehensible talk seemed likely to continue.
Yeomin had no will to understand Jiho’s words anyway.
“Jiho. Bottoms up. You’re drinking in such tiny sips.”
“When I look at you closely, you’re quite the nag, hyung.”
Jiho reluctantly downed his drink at Yeomin’s sharp glare. Yeomin enjoyed watching him do so. It seemed he really was a nag, just as Jiho said.
Pleasantly warm cheeks, a beautiful night view, dry wine that didn’t suit his taste, the subtle scent of body wash. All of it felt extremely incongruous yet somehow perfectly harmonious that night.
It was just the right environment for a closed heart to carelessly open.
“Can I kiss you right now, hyung?”
…Yes. That was why. That was why he couldn’t refuse in that moment.
On a night where he was desperate to share body heat, even if just for a moment, Yeomin willingly closed his eyes and opened his lips to Jiho.
* * *
Jiho rushed at Yeomin as if quenching his thirst, exploring his wet mouth.
Yeomin’s delicate mucous membrane tasted sweet. The more he sucked, the more saliva came; it was a taste he wanted to store inside his body.
“Ugh, hey… that hurts!”
The bite on his shoulder must have been too strong, as Yeomin pushed Jiho away. Then, seeing his expression, Yeomin flinched.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“What do you mean?”
When Jiho whispered in a low voice, Yeomin replied with a trembling voice.
“You seem… aggressive right now?”
“That’s because I’m excited.”
Jiho buried his lips in Yeomin’s soft skin. It was adequately moist, soft, and firm.
The deeper he rubbed his lips, the tighter Yeomin gripped his robe, making his lower abdomen tighten.
With each lick of his tongue, soft as if licking ice cream, Yeomin’s breathing grew deeper.
“Ha, ah… hnngh.”
It was incredible how responsive his body was. Even if he tried to maintain his composure, there was simply no way.
Actually, he had no intention of maintaining his composure anyway…
Jiho had no intention of being cautious in his relationship with Yeomin. He had already waited too long just by holding back until now. It was the greatest exercise of patience in Jiho’s entire life.
Yeomin, being stimulated, commanded:
“Let’s go to the bed… Seol Jiho.”
“No. I want to do it here.”
Jiho was stubborn.
He quite liked the view from the high floor. No, actually, he wasn’t particularly moved by the scenery itself, but he greatly enjoyed exploring a naked Yeomin with that night view as a backdrop.
He was also curious about what it would be like to have sex with Yeomin while looking down at such a view.
“…You’re not listening again.”
Yeomin scolded him, but Jiho was prepared to be scolded from the start. It was just one of those days when he wanted to be particularly difficult.
“That’s right. Today I’m not listening to hyung.”
“Hey! Mmph-“
Jiho lifted Yeomin up and seated him on his thighs. Then he spread open Yeomin’s loose pajama top.
When he pinched the exposed chest with his fingertip, Yeomin arched his back.
“Why are you being petty?”
Yeomin spoke sharply. Reminded of a hedgehog raising its quills, Jiho smiled.
“You left me behind earlier, hyung.”
“It wasn’t on purpose… Ahh!”
“Even adults should be punished when they do something wrong.”
Jiho grabbed and twisted Yeomin’s sensitive spot. His teasing fingertips were relentless.
Each time Yeomin reacted with a twitch, his round buttocks pressed against Jiho’s lower body.
The thin silk pajamas failed to protect anything properly. If anything, they only added more stimulation.
“Do you know how scared I was when you disappeared, hyung?”
Jiho opened his eyes, pretending to be pitiful. His voice was infinitely pathetic.
While looking at Yeomin like that, his hands were simultaneously tormenting him.
Yeomin looked down at Jiho with a flushed face. His eyes were adequately glazed, his lips were wet, and his hair, disheveled from kissing, looked almost vulgar.
Really…
‘No wonder I don’t want to let you out.’
A desire for exclusivity boiled up in Jiho’s heart.
He wanted to look at him all day, to explore only him. A face too precious to show to anyone else.
“Ah, you’re… revealing it…”
Even the words he spoke with that face were just too pretty.
How could Jiho let go of Yeomin even for a moment? A smile bloomed on Jiho’s lips, thoroughly enchanted by him.
Indeed, those who fall in love are all the same—completely hopeless.
