The second floor had railings running along the window side, structured so you could see the first floor and the ocean at a glance. There were a total of five doors on the second floor, and Seok Iseo opened the outer door among them.
“It’s nice.”
Taeju glanced at his trunk already positioned in the room and just nodded. The room with a large bed, storage cabinet, table, and rug wasn’t bad for spending a few weeks.
Though it felt more like a business hotel than a guest room. If he had to point out a difference, it was definitely more spacious than a business hotel.
“Where’s your room, hyung?”
Taeju finished touring the room with just a quick look around. He approached Iseo with a smile that was brazenly obvious.
“My room?”
“Now that we’re living here just the two of us, I should at least know where your room is.”
This time too, Seok Iseo bit his lower lip slightly as if troubled or unwilling. Then he nodded his head slightly.
His room was at the very end. When Seok Iseo pointed to his room door, Taeju approached without permission and opened the door. Ah, he exclaimed in a not-so-high voice. Not caring, he opened the door wide and went inside.
“Nice room.”
Taeju, who had finished touring his own room with just one turn of his head, examined Iseo’s room thoroughly. He wandered around here and there as if checking where everything was.
The L-shaped room had a huge window, though not as large as the living room. It was a view with vast blue fields spread out and the ocean caught at the edges.
“What do you do at home, hyung?”
Taeju naturally sat on Iseo’s bed as he looked up. When he reached his arms behind his back to support himself on the bed, his broad shoulders flexibly straightened.
“Just, this and that.”
Seok Iseo didn’t sit on the bed but paced back and forth in front of him with a pale complexion. Was saying pale the wrong description? His face was originally deathly white anyway.
“What are you standing for? Sit down.”
He suddenly grabbed Iseo’s hand as he paced back and forth and pulled him toward the bed. Taeju smiled at the body that followed along helplessly.
“Let’s go out and talk.”
“Why?”
“It’s cramped here, and have you eaten?”
“What’s cramped about this? I’ve eaten. What time do you think it is?”
“Then I’ll show you around the other rooms.”
“Later. Why? Is there something in your room you don’t want discovered?”
A vicious smile hung on Yeon Taeju’s face. It was a smile clearly different in texture from the face that had been smiling brightly all along. If you called him mischievous, there was a subtle sexiness to it, and to call him lewd, his handsome face overflowed with fresh vitality.
“Something I don’t want discovered? There’s no such thing.”
The smile became more crooked at Iseo raising his voice as if startled.
“Hyung, now that I think about it.”
Yeon Taeju blatantly surveyed the wide, soft bed surroundings. Because Taeju was stretching his neck to look around in all directions, Iseo’s eyeballs also rolled along. His grape-like pupils were enormous, as if they might make a rolling sound.
“What?”
The distance between himself and Seok Iseo was generous enough for one person to sit. Taeju put more weight on the hand supporting him from behind and leaned his upper body back. The face that glanced at him and then turned back to face forward was enigmatic.
Why is he built like that? Yeon Taeju thought such an absurd thought. At the same time, he traced back why he was having such strange imaginings while looking at him.
Though his romantic history was colorful, he wasn’t the type to feel this kind of impulse even toward a man.
The guy was unnecessarily pretty. Pretty wasn’t enough. There was a strangely bewitching aspect to him. It was an energy that ran on a different track from men’s sex appeal. Taeju’s eyes narrowed.
“I heard your health isn’t good, but are you okay now?”
Iseo, who had been hastily turning his face toward Taeju as if he hadn’t heard, opened his eyes wide. Taeju’s face was already close enough to touch his shoulder.
His prominent nose bridge and gorgeous eye corners instantly caught his gaze and wouldn’t let go.
“I came to nurse you, hyung, so if you’re like this, I’ll have nothing to do.”
Iseo felt a corner of his heart sink with a thud because Taeju was smiling at him, crinkling his eyes.
Blood rushed to his face in an instant. His sunken heart bounced up greatly as if it would burst through his throat.
“Wh-what?”
Because Seok Iseo had turned red up to his nape in an instant, Taeju pushed his face even closer. Why is he so flustered that even the person watching feels strange? Yeon Taeju smiled widely enough to show his canines.
The way things were going was quite amusing. He said he was sick, so he’d expected there to be medical equipment at least in or around the room or bed. But no matter where he looked, he couldn’t find anything of that sort.
Suddenly he recalled something his mother had said offhandedly. It must have been when he was a student. Seok Iseo, who was supposed to come back after receiving treatment in America, had returned but received a prognosis there that there was no hope. At the time, Yeon Taeju had just let it pass without a response.
After that news, he never showed his face once and just holed up in the provincial villa. Naturally, one could only think he was suffering from a serious illness. But upon hearing he’d come to nurse the patient, the patient was flustered.
“Nurs-nursing, what. Why would you do such a thing…”
“Hyung, are you okay now? I worried about you from time to time, thinking of you. They only kept saying you were convalescing.”
Of course, it was all a shameless lie. Only the part about thinking of him occasionally was half true. Occasionally, once in a while when he was mentioned, he did think about him for a few fleeting seconds. Thinking he must be living well somewhere.
He subtly stroked the opposite shoulder. Then Seok Iseo ended up looking like he was being held in one arm.
True to his usually quick hands, as he was about to naturally lower the hand stroking the shoulder to the scapula, Seok Iseo jumped in surprise and lifted his bottom off the bed.
“Yeah. My health is continuously bad. It’s called spinal muscular atrophy with lateral sclerosis, and I’m continuously using medication to slow the progression, but if I stop the medication, muscle hardening becomes severe and there can be temporary paralysis or permanent blindness in the optic nerves. Once a month a doctor comes…”
Yeon Taeju’s face slightly contorted. Spinal what? What kind of name is that long? They said it was an incurable disease, and the disease name really was incomprehensibly long like something incurable.
But doubt still remained. If it was such a serious illness requiring a doctor’s house call every month, there were only two employees and there was no medical equipment needed for treatment in the room.
Taeju leisurely bent his lower back that had been leaning back and looked up. Seok Iseo, who had been pacing around the bed explaining his illness, stopped talking because Taeju had become quiet.
“Is that so?”
A deep wrinkle formed long across Taeju’s flat forehead. With his chin pulled in and eyes glaring up, the sharp eye shape that hadn’t been noticeable when he smiled was clearly revealed.
Iseo quickly nodded his head. Taeju straightened his head, making his glaring eyes seem meaningless, and smiled again as before.
“Your health is still bad, that’s worrying. I should properly nurse you at least while I’m here.”
“No, there’s no need…”
“Now show me the other rooms too.”
He suddenly grabbed Iseo’s hand and led him out of the room, then Taeju bent at the waist and met his eyes.
“Hyung, is even walking like this too much strain? Should I carry you around?”
“What?”
“I can piggyback you or hold you.”
When Yeon Taeju smiled brightly, his eyes became asymmetrical. Taeju’s smile, with his right eye becoming smaller, was tinged with mischievous playfulness and vitality. It was worlds apart from when he was expressionless.
“Being this skinny, I think I could hold you with just one arm supporting your bottom.”
Taeju lifted Iseo’s clasped hand. Then with his other hand he pulled down his sleeve. His snow-white, smooth forearm without a single hair was revealed. Seeing the straight, smooth arm, one of Taeju’s eyebrows rose.
He’d thought only his face was enigmatic, but how is even his arm so enigmatically built? He was thinking such thoughts.
“What nonsense, let go!”
Immediately Seok Iseo glared. He shook off the hand holding him right away and put distance between himself and Yeon Taeju. Iseo sharply opened his eyes and hurriedly pulled down the sleeve that had ridden up. It was a reaction as if someone had forcibly grabbed and spread open his collar.
“Yeon Taeju, I hate being touched by people. So.”
“Ah, hyung. I’m sorry. I really like people and I studied abroad too, so physical contact is a habit of mine. Were you very uncomfortable?”
At Iseo’s strong rejection, Yeon Taeju more exaggeratedly than him poured out apologies and excuses. Usually when you made a fuss like this and pretended to be sorry, the person on the receiving end would become more flustered.
“If you’re going to stay here, watch your behavior.”
But unexpectedly, Seok Iseo hardened his previously docile face sharply and admonished him once more. If you’re going to stay, be careful. It was a strange commanding tone and clearly high-handed.
It was natural for Yeon Taeju’s mood to twist.
“Hyung, I’m sorry. Don’t be angry. I’ll be careful.”
