A Twisted Story, A Twisted Relationship
After vomiting all night and collapsing into sleep at dawn, Sangho slept like he’d fainted for a couple hours before waking around daybreak. His stomach that had felt like it would turn inside out seemed to have calmed down to some extent.
Half-asleep, half-awake, Sangho had been rubbing his cheek against something warm in front of him when at some point his eyes snapped open.
What the.
Sangho stayed still and only blinked. The identity of the warm thing was Han Kyungoh, topless. Sangho himself was lying with his head on Kyungoh’s thick forearm, and Kyungoh had his other arm wrapped around his waist. Though the dawn air still retained a cool chill, stuck tight to Kyungoh like this, he didn’t feel cold at all.
Flustered, Sangho stayed frozen while thinking all sorts of thoughts. I want to escape without waking Kyungoh, but his forearm was wrapped firmly around his waist, so if he moved his body Kyungoh would wake immediately. Plus, having done lower body exercises yesterday, every time he moved even a little, tingling muscle pain rang from his thighs to his buttocks.
After being frozen like that for about 5 minutes, unable to stay embraced by Kyungoh any longer, Sangho gradually began backing his hips away and distancing himself. Please, please don’t wake up…
“Hheek!”
When he’d separated from Kyungoh to some degree, suddenly the forearm around his waist tightened and pulled him forward. Sangho, whose nose was buried in the firm chest, made a strange sound. His thigh and buttock muscles were pulled all over and hurt. Then Kyungoh half-opened his closed eyes and looked down at Sangho. Perhaps in a bad mood from being woken, his expressionless face and eyes met directly. This… he’s not going to lose it again, is he? Sangho, who recalled the athletic storage, rolled his eyes with a tense face when a heavily sleepy, low voice popped out.
“Sleep more.”
“…”
And Kyungoh closed his eyes again and breathed regularly. It seemed he’d fallen back asleep immediately. But why does he keep speaking informally? Something bothered him, but Sangho didn’t feel like arguing.
Sangho stayed frozen for a few more minutes, then tried to escape Kyungoh’s embrace again, but it wasn’t easy to remove the tightly entangled forearm. In the end, Sangho sighed and stopped struggling. If I wake him for nothing, I might suffer something strange again, he thought. At least other than hugging, he’s not touching my body.
Sleep a little more… and go home in the morning.
Sangho closed his eyes in Kyungoh’s embrace as if resigned.
***
“Why, why won’t you let me go!”
“…”
Kyungoh, who had been drinking water wearing only training pants, glanced back at Sangho’s outcry.
“Your clothes aren’t dry yet.”
“I, I said I can just wear them wet and go!”
“…”
At Sangho’s protest, Kyungoh briefly rolled his eyes elsewhere then fell silent. This was the third time he’d tried to gloss over it like that. Sangho was wrapped in a blanket wearing only underwear. It was embarrassing to have endured from morning until now in this state.
Sangho, who had tried to return to his studio apartment from the morning, panicked a bit when he realized the clothes he’d taken off during the night were gone. When he discovered the clothes spinning round and round in the washing machine, he had no choice but to stay longer, but Kyungoh hung the clothes high on the drying rack and wasn’t giving them back.
Why is he being like this? I said I can just wear them wet and go.
Sangho felt like he’d die from discomfort with this whole situation. Being completely naked, plus having shown the disgraceful behavior of vomiting wildly the previous day. Of course, Kyungoh didn’t seem to care about such things, but anyway, he needed to go home and rest a bit, and go to work the next day too.
“Kyungoh student. I want to go home and rest.”
“Rest here.”
This crazy bastard!
Sangho forcibly held back the curse that came out automatically and started coaxing him again with a desperate voice. After the athletic storage incident, Sangho had resolved never to attack or provoke Kyungoh.
“You need to rest too. And I need to go home to prepare and go to work tomorrow. Right?”
At the pleading voice, Kyungoh put down his water cup for a moment and made a sullen expression. It was an expression of dissatisfaction.
“…That studio apartment.”
“Yes?”
“I’m not certain, but. I think there’s something there.”
At the sudden words, Sangho made a dumbfounded face. What’s he talking about?
“What do you mean?”
“You seemed not to know, so it was a bit awkward to say, but yesterday alpha pheromones were all over that place.”
“What? Alpha? What… Didn’t you smell it wrong?”
“No. It’s not simply scent that was left there. Someone deliberately sprayed it. Has anything strange happened lately?”
Sangho looked at Kyungoh’s serious expression and his face hardened slightly. No matter how he looked at it, he didn’t seem to be lying. His spine suddenly went cold. Strange things… there were. Someone cleaned the place thoroughly while I was away.
“Y-you’re lying, right?”
“…”
“Really?”
Instead of answering, Kyungoh nodded. Then, as if not pleased about something, he furrowed his brow and scratched the back of his head. It seemed he’d held back his words, worried Sangho would be too concerned.
The person who cleaned wasn’t Wonha? Then… who?
Thump, thump, he could feel his heart beating anxiously. It’s definitely not Wonha. He told me several times he’s a beta, and in that webtoon he was a beta too.
Suddenly, a scene from the webtoon he’d skimmed through came to mind. That man who had shown unimaginable obsession and madness toward Wonha. When Wonha and Han Kyungoh started getting close, that crazy bastard who sprayed his pheromones all over Wonha’s spaces.
…Fuck.
It was Nam Dohyun.
***
— Beep, clocking in.
Still, Monday came. From the moment Sangho entered Korea University’s main gate, he walked with his hood pulled down low over his anxious face. The gym was the same as usual, and he didn’t see any suspicious people on his way to work. Only after entering inside the gym where there were CCTVs did Sangho let out a sigh of relief.
Having spent the entire weekend at Kyungoh’s house, Sangho eventually decided to stay at his place until Kyungoh’s rehabilitation ended. Because when Sangho had fallen into serious worry with a pale face, Kyungoh had told him ‘you can stay for about a week.’ Moreover, Kyungoh said with a slightly reddened face that after rehabilitation ended he’d return to the dorm anyway, so he could stay longer. Of course, Sangho planned to find another place and move out before then, so he declined, saying he didn’t want to impose that much.
I need to move quickly. To Wonha’s studio… I shouldn’t go there.
His head felt jumbled. Why did Nam Dohyun leave such traces in his studio apartment? Could it be he didn’t like me getting closer to Wonha? But in that webtoon, when stalker ‘Sangho’ hovered around Wonha, Nam Dohyun had just watched and as long as he didn’t touch Wonha, he restrained himself.
No, with that bastard’s personality, it would be more accurate to say he neglected it. Because Wonha, who was suffering from stalking, had relied on Nam Dohyun quite a bit. He gradually cornered him like that, and then appeared when stalker ‘Sangho’ finally attacked Wonha. Wonha, who had been mentally cornered and then saved, finally opened his heart to Nam Dohyun then. Though it was expressed romantically in the webtoon, thinking of it as reality was chilling.
In that webtoon, Nam Dohyun was Wonha’s childhood friend, something like that. He was really anxious when Wonha became close with Han Kyungoh. Then when the stalker appeared, he used that.
Goosebumps rose on the nape of his neck. Sangho rubbed the back of his neck, falling into thought. In the first place, because stalker ‘Sangho’ wasn’t a very significant role, he’d naively thought Wonha would naturally become close with Kyungoh and Nam Dohyun would get involved, and the three would have a romance.
But now… he hadn’t stalked Wonha, and the variety show episode where Wonha got close to Kyungoh ended in just a week. Come to think of it, Han Kyungoh also didn’t seem to have gotten very close to Wonha, as there didn’t seem to be any contact or private meetings with Wonha. Since Han Kyungoh, who had been the ‘love rival,’ was absent, the person who could interfere with Nam Dohyun would be someone close to Wonha who had met him frequently recently.
Then that person would be…
…Me.
A cold bead of sweat trickled down his spine.
After that, he didn’t remember well how he cleaned the gym. Sangho began worrying about what to do now with a pale face.
I thought too complacently. I thought I could just stay friends with Wonha… I didn’t think that if Kyungoh wasn’t there, the person close to Wonha would be me.
Naturally, moving to Wonha’s studio was directly planting a death flag. Though he felt bad for Wonha, he had to refrain from meeting or contacting him for the time being. It was extremely fortunate that they were apart due to overseas filming schedule. Nam Dohyun probably only recently realized he was around Wonha. If he’d known before, he would have sent a warning message faster.
But that alone wasn’t enough. He was already included in that bastard’s surveillance net. Simply not meeting Wonha and moving wouldn’t make the persistent Nam Dohyun easily let go of his suspicions. Wonha would probably think it strange if he suddenly distanced himself, and given Wonha until now, he might cling to him even more. Because he’s the kind who comes to the studio apartment after one missed call. Nam Dohyun would be even more provoked seeing that.
