Watching Luna and Leo walking side by side, Hyedam took a sip of the vin chaud he was holding. The day he first met Luna. He’d felt some indescribable emotion alone at how the two interacted without hesitation. Luna, who knew Leo’s childhood that he didn’t know and knew his tastes, was unhesitant even in recommending items.
Leo listened to Luna’s words, nodding his head or conveying his opinions in short, brief responses.
If they have business, the two of them can handle it. Why did they drag him along—his eyes caught sight of one decoration as he couldn’t bring himself to say he’d go home since it was still work hours. At first he didn’t know what it was and only after staring at it for a while did he realize it was an hourglass.
Hyedam turned the hourglass upside down and watched the sand that had been on top fall disorderly and pile up below. The hourglass he knew just had sand falling in one line and that was it, but various colored sands made mountains, scattered, and created new shapes like a painting.
Hyedam’s hand moved again as he watched the hourglass that had changed to a different shape than at first. The sand that flowed down again created yet another shape.
Inside the thin, flat circular frame was oil, colored sand, and a bit of air. Whether turned halfway or completely, the sand inside moved freely and kept changing. The composition didn’t change but at the results that changed every time, Hyedam’s lips curved up slightly.
“Hyedam-ssi, here for a moment.”
Hyedam, who had been concentrating on the hourglass having completely forgotten what he was doing now, suddenly raised his head at Luna’s voice.
“Yes.”
“Which color looks better?”
At Luna’s question asking which looked better between black and dark blue, Hyedam’s eyebrows twitched. Isn’t that the same thing, what’s different? Aren’t red and burgundy the same red family? So whether it’s black or dark blue, if you look in the dark they’re all the same dark color, do we really need to distinguish between those two?
Whether only the color was different or there was something else, Hyedam reached out one hand to feel the texture. The texture seems the same too?
“Aren’t they the same?”
“They’re the same sheets. Just different colors.”
If it’s bed sheets, as long as they’re faithful to their function and feel good against the body, that’s enough. What does the color matter? Ah… anything too pink or too yellow was rejected. When something gets on them, it shows a lot too… Both were dark colors so it didn’t matter which one.
Most of all, it wasn’t something he’d be using.
“Go with the one that makes less noise.”
It was Leo who rescued Hyedam, who had been trapped in Luna’s gaze looking at him with sparkling eyes, silently pressuring him to choose one of the two colors.
“What?”
“One that rustles less and has good texture.”
“Then. It’s that one over there?”
At Leo’s words, when Luna left the sheet she’d been touching and moved to another place, Hyedam shrugged his shoulders once and drank the vin chaud again. They said to drink it while it’s warm, but the vin chaud that had cooled a bit while going here and there tasted worse than at first.
“You hate noisy things.”
At Leo’s words as he approached from the side, Hyedam nodded roughly. It’s not great having noisy things when sleeping.
“You also hate rough sheets.”
This time too, Hyedam’s head moved up and down. He hated wearing anything while sleeping—Hyedam usually slept in just underwear. Sometimes when he passed out drunk, the clothes he’d been wearing stayed on, so even though he was indifferent to other household goods, he paid attention to bedding.
“How about this?”
Called by Luna, Hyedam approached her and lightly placed his hand on the dark gray sheet. I really like that the color is dark. But the price… After rolling only his eyes slightly to check the tag, he quickly returned the hand he’d placed on the sheet to its original position.
Can’t spend a whole month’s salary on bed sheets.
“This one. What else is there to see?”
“Sofa. There are brand new hot-off-the-press items that haven’t been officially displayed in the store yet in the first-floor warehouse. Or do you want to see them after they’re displayed?”
“Let’s see them together while we’re here.”
Is it fun to look around and choose like this? You just look online and if the price is right and the color is okay, you buy it. Following Luna who was leading the way humming, wondering what was so enjoyable, Hyedam swept his eyes around the spacious area once more.
I never dreamed there was a multi-space like this in the suburbs. Well, even if I’d known, I wouldn’t have visited though.
Following Luna who was leading the way, Hyedam was somehow sitting on a sofa. And as expected, he had to endure Luna’s burdensome gaze with his whole body.
Hyedam’s basic thoughts—that all items are the same, and if they’re made for similar performance there’s no big difference—were being completely demolished today. Hyedam’s gaze, having sat on five sofas in a row without even removing the vinyl, turned to the sofas he’d sat on first.
There are these kinds of differences even without removing the vinyl? There really was a world of difference, from the style where your whole body sinks in the moment you sit, to the degree of firmness of the seat, the depth of the sitting area, and even the basic height of the sofa.
To emphasize once more, the person who would use this sofa would be Leo, but Luna kept asking him.
“The team leader should choose…”
“Of course Leo will make the choice. But there’s also the opinion of people looking around together. Personally, I think the sofa Hyedam-ssi is sitting on now would be good. You can order any color. So you just need to think about how it feels when sitting or lying down.”
“This sofa is the softest. It has a sinking feeling, and the sitting part is deep so it would be comfortable to lie down too.”
“Then let’s pick that one. Instead, I’ll ask them to raise the sofa height a bit more. If they can make the sitting part deeper too, let’s try that. Hyedam-ssi, you like how soft it is, right?”
“Ah, yes.”
When Luna’s gaze came to him again after seeming to get final confirmation from Leo, Hyedam quickly answered as he stood up from the sofa.
“I’ll look around once more later for curtains and accessories and organize a list. They said a lot of new items come in at year-end and early year, and looking at the warehouse there were a lot of products that hadn’t even been unboxed. Please remove the vinyl from this sofa here.”
“Did you finish it?”
Watching the staff come to remove the sofa vinyl, Hyedam gulped down the little bit of drink remaining at Leo’s words.
“It’s good, right?”
“Yes, it’s good.”
“I should ask for more.”
“What?”
“Never mind. Is your body okay?”
In a situation full of the rustling sound of vinyl, at Leo’s question as he suddenly placed his hand behind Hyedam’s waist, Hyedam quickly stepped aside to escape his touch.
“I was worried, but you seem okay.”
“I don’t know exactly what you think of me, Team Leader, but I’m much sturdier than you think.”
I don’t get minor illnesses, I get a cold maybe once a year, so the worry…
“Then why did you cry saying it hurt? You’re already ugly, and if you cry like that, don’t you know how troubled I’d be?”
At Leo’s words, who had quickly followed after Hyedam had deliberately created distance, Hyedam’s eyes widened and he quickly raised his hand to cover the mouth spouting terrifying words.
“What are you saying right now!”
Since he’d covered his lower face, all that was visible were his pupils, slightly larger than usual. They soon curved prettily, and at just seeing his eye smile, Hyedam, who almost smiled along instinctively, was startled at the unfamiliar sensation felt on his palm and moved away from him.
“I’m just saying what I want to say, is that not allowed either?”
“…There are other people here.”
“Ah! So it’s okay if there are no people. Should I ask everyone to leave?”
“No, I mean, that’s not what I meant.”
“I understand. Don’t get angry again, what do you want for dinner?”
It was taking quite a lot of time to remove the thick vinyl from the sofa with a design connecting a large four-seater sofa and a single-person couch.
“Dinner?”
At the continuous sound of vinyl, Hyedam, who hadn’t properly heard Leo’s words, brought up again the one word he wondered if he’d heard wrong.
“We came all the way here, were you going to leave without eating dinner?”
“What does coming all the way here have to do with eating dinner together?”
“There’s no connection.”
The weird guy has gotten even weirder. Today Leo’s schedule was entirely filled with personal schedules, so he didn’t know exactly what work he had to do. But he knew precisely that he always split his time with many appointments. Yet he suddenly appeared during lunch. And now he was leisurely enjoying shopping.
On top of that, eat dinner together?
“I know a place that does barbecue pretty well. Draft beer too?”
As he looked with eyes full of suspicion, saliva pooled in his mouth at the menu readily offered. Since when exactly had he become such an instinctive person? He knew he had some desire for sleep, but he’d never thought he had an appetite. And on top of that… carnal desire too.
While thinking of barbecue ribs and draft beer, when Leo’s vivid abs and thick chest muscles suddenly came to mind together, Hyedam clenched his fist and turned around. He’d just said there was a decent restaurant nearby and suggested eating dinner considering the time to go back, but his brain, blinded by carnal desire, was even having strange imaginings.
