When they arrived home, Ms. Park worried about Yeonrok.
“Really, those Young Masters. Making only our innocent Young Master get hurt in the middle.”
While saying that, her eyes seemed to be saying harsher words. Yeonrok secretly enjoyed Ms. Park openly taking his side, then asked:
“What about the walnut cakes?”
“I stored them separately, should I bring them?”
“Yes!”
Although such a disaster had occurred, the walnut cakes were innocent. Yeonrok sat down and ate walnut cakes while mulling over the man he’d seen at the hospital today and the kind-looking internal medicine doctor. Kim Seowon… I shouldn’t forget. Just in case, I should write it down on my phone too.
“Oh, Young Master. I found this while cleaning, what should I do with it?”
When he looked to see what it was, it was a plastic clapping cheering tool. It was something he’d bought before to try to talk to Moon Gyeonwoo, who used to ignore him. He’d hidden them here and there, and forgot to put away one of them.
“Oh, give me that.”
As Yeonrok pondered where he could use this, Moon Gyeonwoo happened to appear. He sighed seeing the crutch leaning against the dining table and the leg wrapped tightly in bandages. Moon Gyeonwoo asked with a very apologetic face:
“Are you badly hurt?”
“Yeah. They said my leg is broken.”
Yeonrok grumpily lied. However, seeing the ankle brace, Moon Gyeonwoo said:
“Looks like it’s a sprain. I thought so. Sorry. I’ll apply compresses whenever I have time.”
It seemed he didn’t get his medical license for nothing. Without answering, Yeonrok squinted his eyes and tore open a walnut cake to eat. Since it didn’t seem intentional, he held out a walnut cake with a forgiving heart. Seeing Moon Gyeonwoo obediently accept and eat it, Yeonrok’s mood softened a bit and mischief suddenly kicked in.
He clapped his hands annoyingly with clack-clack sounds and poked at him. Before, he’d been very annoyed and irritated, but this time perhaps because he’d committed a sin, Moon Gyeonwoo humbly accepted it. After poking a few times, Yeonrok asked what he’d been secretly curious about:
“But did you have a lovers’ quarrel with Choi Hwan or something? Why did you fight? Are you going to date again later?”
“Yeonrok.”
Moon Gyeonwoo answered seriously while glancing at the hand clapper tapping around his shoulder area:
“I’ve never once dated someone I broke up with again. Once it’s over, it’s over forever.”
As if he’d been patient for a long time, he grabbed the annoying plastic toy dangling around with his hand. Then he suddenly kissed the plastic hand. Yeonrok jumped up from his seat, let out a short scream, and quickly dropped the tool from his hand. Surprised, he stammered and interrogated:
“Wha, what are you doing!”
If he’d gotten angry instead, he wouldn’t have been this surprised. However, Moon Gyeonwoo paid no attention to his horrified reaction. He stared at Yeonrok with that pretty face and asked:
“Yeonrok, will you date me? I’ll really treat you well.”
Huh? Did Moon Gyeonwoo just confess to me… Did he confess?
Yeonrok doubted his own ears. Moon Gyeonwoo returned the clapping tool as if telling him to touch it freely again, but he had no desire to touch it at all.
“You’re joking right now, right?”
Yeonrok, who had distanced himself a bit from the other person, asked carefully. Moon Gyeonwoo said quietly with a face where not even a trace of playfulness, let alone laughter, could be found:
“I never joke about something like this.”
What’s going on? What on earth is this? Yeonrok had believed without a doubt that of the three people, Moon Gyeonwoo was the least likely to become his lover. But surprisingly, the first person to confess to wanting to be his lover was Moon Gyeonwoo. Human affairs were truly unknowable no matter how much you thought you knew.
“But why? With me…? Ah, I mean, it’s because I’m your Name Partner, right? Contact deficiency, something like that.”
Could there be some kind of trap? An intention to make a fool of him? Moon Gyeonwoo seemed to see the suspicion on Yeonrok’s face clearly, as he dropped his head pitifully.
“You made me like you. It’s a bit unfair…”
Moon Gyeonwoo quietly lowered his eyes. The sight looked so forlorn that Yeonrok flinched. Still unable to understand and flustered, he forced himself to shout:
“Even if you say you like me, I don’t like you!”
He thought this was enough of a rejection, but Moon Gyeonwoo was persistent. Unlike Yeonrok, who had kept his chastity for the Name Partner he would someday meet after experiencing one very painful heartbreak, this was a master who had dated and broken up countless times asking:
“You really don’t like me?”
“That’s right!”
“Then do you hate me?”
Huh? If you ask if I hate you… To be honest, before, yes. However, his heart starved for affection had softened into mush after Moon Gyeonwoo recently treated him a bit well, calling him his benefactor. He couldn’t bring himself to coldly say he hated him. For that, Moon Gyeonwoo’s straight brow, eyes, nose bridge, and lips looking at him were too beautifully formed. If only he were a little uglier, I could have lied…
“I don’t hate you. But don’t misunderstand. I don’t like you either.”
Even at that answer, Moon Gyeonwoo only smiled brightly.
“If you don’t hate me, that’s enough. Even if you like me just a tiny bit, I’m okay with it.”
“I don’t like you even a tiny bit!”
Yeonrok shouted while backing away from the other person who had gotten close before he knew it. Moon Gyeonwoo didn’t tell Yeonrok to date again or ask him to like him. He just fiddled with the hand clapper used to poke at him. Then he sighed quietly and said:
“Now that I think about it, it really is unfair.”
This was something Yeonrok had already heard from Moon Gyeonwoo during the kidnapping incident last time. Unable to understand at all what was unfair, Yeonrok couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked:
“What exactly is unfair?”
“That I probably came to like you at some point. And that I’ll come to like you even more from now on. …I knew from the moment I first saw you that it would turn out like this.”
What nonsense is this? Yeonrok felt dubious. From the beginning, Moon Gyeonwoo glared at and ignored only him so much that not even a trace of affection could be found. Thinking he was making moves now after all this time, Yeonrok snorted.
“How ridiculous.”
“I should have just treated you well from then instead of rejecting you for nothing.”
Yeonrok laughed at Moon Gyeonwoo’s words, but on the other hand, he felt a strange feeling. It felt like he knew something but was hiding it from him. But… what on earth could he be hiding from him?
“Can I keep this?”
Moon Gyeonwoo asked in an endlessly gentle and affectionate voice while caressing the hand clapper. He seemed like a completely different person from the one he’d seen in the beginning. Unable to adapt at all, Yeonrok trembled and coldly snatched away what he was holding.
“No! And… You’ll break up anyway even if you date. I’ve seen it all until now, how can I trust you?”
Since coming to this house, it had been a continuous series of letting down hopeful feelings for Yeonrok. Not only the disappointment in his Name Partners who were cold to him, but seeing them date and break up among themselves, it was natural to think this way.
‘Is there even any meaning in dating if it’s like this?’
Watching the three of them, it seemed only Yeonrok alone held naive feelings about lifelong partners, love, and lovers. Even when he thought it would be nice if even one of his Name Partners became his lover, the only conclusion he reached was that they would inevitably break up anyway. Moon Gyeonwoo especially had so many ex-lovers he didn’t even know how many there were, and after breaking up, he was someone who acted coldly as if cut with a knife.
That Moon Gyeonwoo said this:
“Why would we break up? You won’t betray me. Then I’ll never betray you either.”
Yeonrok flinched. It was because a thought he’d had while watching Moon Gyeonwoo’s relationships came to mind.
If I had a lover who treated me that well, I would never betray them. I would really treat them well too… Noticing him, Moon Gyeonwoo tempted him cunningly and smoothly like a snake.
“Yeonrok, we have a lot in common. We’re lonely for company and endlessly desire affection. We’ll really be a well-matched couple.”
Moon Gyeonwoo’s words precisely struck the parts that had been deprived for so long. Yeonrok’s heart swelled without realizing it. Though he was very tempted by the other’s proposal, what he thought of next was Yeom Cheonho.
The peculiarity of being a group of as many as four Name Partners bothered him. As far as Yeonrok knew, he was currently the only person who had contact with Yeom Cheonho. But if he dated Moon Gyeonwoo, what about Yeom Cheonho? What followed was the memory of the two kisses they’d shared…
“Are you thinking of someone right now?”
At the cold voice, Yeonrok came to his senses with a start. Moon Gyeonwoo was smiling brightly, but somehow his eyes were cold.
