Lying on the daybed where he always used to lie alone looking at the sky, using Leo’s arm as a pillow, Hyedam’s body stiffened at his touch that casually came up onto his belly.
“What do you want to eat for dinner? I’ll try making anything that can be made with the ingredients here.”
They had spent about a month apart without seeing each other’s faces and had only reunited yesterday, but unlike him, Leo was acting as if there had been no gap at all.
“We just ate brunch, what are you already thinking about dinner menu for.”
Worried that Leo’s hand might go toward his lower abdomen, Hyedam placed his hand on top of his as naturally as possible.
“I need to prepare in advance. What if you say you want to eat stir-fried dried shredded squid like at breakfast?”
“I’ll eat whatever’s available. That works, right? But when are you leaving?”
“Where to?”
“The company. You just stopped by briefly because the weather was bad. Looking at it now, the weather seems completely fine. No matter how busy and much work there is, wandering around in that storm was really not okay. It’s fortunate you could at least stop by here and avoid the bad weather.”
Leo, who had been placing his lips against Hyedam’s hair that was lightly flying in the wind, burst out laughing at his absurd question.
I’ve never worked passionately enough to risk my life flying and sailing? Why would someone going on a business trip carry around a ring!
“I don’t know where to start explaining and making you understand. First, you know I love you, right? That I’ll stick right by your side and never leave for life. You understood that clearly, right?”
To his question, Hyedam, who had been hesitating, rubbed his knuckles with his fingertips and answered “Yeah.”
“We’re getting married too, right?”
“…If your parents allow it.”
“No need to worry about that. Next, do you want to live in a house? Or do you want to live in an apartment?”
“Mm…”
“Then I’ll take care of that, and we can commission Luna for wedding preparations. What else is there?”
The conversation that had been going back and forth slowly gradually decreased in speed, and when no answer came back from Hyedam, Leo pulled up the blanket and covered him well up to his shoulders.
“Are you really going to do all that?”
At the sight of Hyedam, who had been quietly in his arms as if asleep, suddenly sitting up, a surprised Leo calmly looked up at him looking down at him.
“Would that be all? How much is there to do together from now on.”
While talking about their future together like this, he had no intention of pointing out Hyedam’s attitude of continuing to hesitate. He would just stay attached by his side for life and directly show him how much he loved him, how much he liked him, and what would happen without him.
“Do you have to eat that right now?”
Leo shook his head watching Hyedam bustling around with a blanket draped over his shoulders. Saying he wanted to eat gopchang grilled on coal briquettes in the morning. There were no coal briquettes but there were firewood, and all the barbecue equipment was there, so grilling and eating whatever he wanted, whether gopchang, beef, or pork, was no big deal.
It wasn’t a raised platform but the deck had a table, and with the bright moonlight along with subtle lighting, it seemed like returning to that day from before.
“I told you to wait inside since it’s chilly, why can’t you wait.”
“How can I trust you? You can’t cook.”
“Even if I’m not good at Korean food, I’m pretty good at Western food or barbecue!”
“Didn’t you put in too much firewood?”
At Hyedam’s nagging, Leo placed his hands on his waist and looked at him silently. After looking over what he had prepared, should he wash some more vegetables? Did you make rice earlier? The words continued on to saying let’s eat the doenjang-jjigae they didn’t eat in the morning.
Since the fire needed a bit of time to catch completely, Leo, who approached his side, first turned on the small heater he had brought. Then he grabbed the shoulders of Hyedam, who was still moving around, and sat him in a chair with a soft cushion.
“Should I grill the gopchang first?”
“What else is there?”
“There’s T-bone too, and pork belly. I’ve prepared all the meat we have for now.”
“…It’ll all be delicious.”
“Right. I’ll just grill it all.”
“Who’s going to eat all that?”
At Hyedam’s words that popped out sharply with each comment, Leo burst out laughing without realizing it.
It was Hyedam who had been trying to create distance with him somehow. He, who would use the title “Team Leader-nim” along with formal speech if things seemed even slightly off, was speaking comfortably. Rather, should I say I’m the one unconsciously speaking precisely?
“Me. Our motnan-i just needs to eat what he wants.”
As he put T-bone steak on the grill first and put meat on one by one, the words “mushrooms, onions, garlic” slipped right in.
“How did you manage alone when you want to eat so many things like this?”
“Until now I didn’t really want to eat anything.”
Leo couldn’t take his eyes off Hyedam sitting with the beautiful sunset behind him. How could his feelings of liking keep growing more and more? Even if he set aside the two past connections and only recalled since meeting him last late autumn, his feelings toward him weren’t something that could be easily explained.
Even knowing he made him uncomfortable, he endlessly wanted to approach him. He wanted to win his favor, wanted to receive his gaze even once more. He wanted to know what he liked, wanted to be by his side, wanted to do everything together with him.
Even knowing what he disliked, he clung to him, and gradually began to expand his place by his side like that. Even knowing he shouldn’t be impatient and should give him leisure, it wasn’t easy to control his heart that went ahead.
If until now it had been him responding to his demands, currently Hyedam was by his side by his own choice. As Daddy said, rather than building a large cage, as Komom said, it would be more right to become a tree where he could rest and stay anytime.
Though he did build a large cage too, but isn’t it good to have alternatives clearly prepared for anything?
“Hyedam-ah.”
“I’m three years older!”
When he called him, who wasn’t looking at him and was looking at the distant sea, a sulky response came back. When I call him our motnan-i he stays quiet, but calling his name isn’t allowed?
“Motnan-ah.”
Although no answer came back, since he was looking at him, Leo grinned.
“You burned the meat, right?”
When he had just been quietly watching, at the words of Hyedam who eventually got up from his seat and approached his side, Leo smiled and stepped back slightly.
Burning meat, as if that would happen. He might not know about other things, but he definitely knows how to do barbecue.
“This one.”
At Hyedam’s one word as he looked around at the meat, Leo’s hand moved quickly. Unable to help his preference, Leo, who was about to put the grilled gopchang that Hyedam chose first on a plate, created a bit more distance when he came a bit closer.
Before he could say he’d put it on a plate so wait, Hyedam, who had neatly eaten the gopchang he had picked up with tongs, had a satisfied expression.
“As expected, meat tastes good when you grill and eat it like this.”
Having prepared doenjang-jjigae, rice, and even ssam vegetables, smiles continuously hung on the faces of the two standing in front of the grill sharing the grilled meat with tongs. When Leo, as if about to feed Hyedam, put a piece of meat into his own mouth, Hyedam bumped his whole body into him.
“Are you cold?”
“No.”
If you’re not cold, why are you wrapping the blanket so tightly around yourself.
Only after roughly filling their stomachs while bickering in front of the barbecue could the two have a proper meal at the table.
“Does it remind you of that time?”
“Yeah.”
Having easily answered Leo’s vague question, Hyedam drank carbonated drink instead of alcohol and smacked his lips. With gopchang it should be soju… Back then they drank both soju and beer, so it was a bomb.
“The moon was pretty.”
“Now is prettier. There are so many stars here too.”
“I think our Hyedam is prettier.”
“Crazy…”
At Leo’s words that really came out of nowhere, Hyedam was horrified and stuffed the ssam he had just wrapped into his mouth to block it.
While chewing and eating but still wanting to say something, Hyedam, who had been making eye contact with Leo and conveying with his eyes to please not speak, quickly turned his head at an unfamiliar sound.
Because the building was so well soundproofed, he had never heard sounds of helicopters, drones, or boats coming and going. Even when the storm was raging like that, the indoors was cozy. But if his ears weren’t mistaken, the sound he was hearing now was a helicopter sound.
He had received the drone delivery Luna sent in the afternoon, and he had been told that since this place was an island owned by Leo’s family, permission from the family was needed to enter and exit.
Leo, who had been laughing and eating meat together, was also looking at the backyard.
“Who said they were coming?”
“Robert was supposed to come in three days.”
Although he wanted to stay here for a long time, there was Hyedam’s hospital appointment, and Leo also had to fulfill his assigned duties until he resigned.
At the change in Leo’s expression, who seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, Hyedam had to swallow the saliva pooled in his mouth hard.
