“Do you think I’ll believe what you just said?”
Jaehwi’s expression, which until just now had been relaxed as he entrusted his body to him and listened to his words, changed in an instant. The emotion revealed on his face was clearly teasing or ridicule.
The worrying, agonizing, and anguishing over how to say it all became meaningless. He’d suffered alone knowing it was something no one could easily believe. If even he had heard such words, he wouldn’t have been able to easily respond to such an absurd story.
Raon, who read even playfulness in Jaehwi’s slightly smiling face, lowered his gaze in awkwardness. Had he hoped for a reaction that deeply empathized with and acknowledged his words, accepting it with “I see”? Jaehwi’s current reaction was the most normal one, yet his chest ached at the bitterness and emptiness washing over him.
I should have kept my mouth shut till the end, what a loose tongue. Every time it seemed they’d gotten close, his mouth was creating distance between them again.
If he had immediately understood his words, believed them, and reacted intensely, that would have seemed strange in its own way too. It sounded like a made-up story to anyone’s ears, and if he’d immediately acknowledged the unbelievable situation as truth, that might literally have been making fun of him.
Like “I’ll just pretend to believe you no matter what lies you tell or babble about.” It might feel like that…
“No.”
Raon honestly answered, meeting the eyes of Jaehwi again, who had thrown out words direct enough to stab right into his chest without beating around the bush and was waiting for his answer with silence.
And in the silence that came again, as Raon was turning his head, his eyes met with the golem sitting alone in the passenger seat. On top of that, beside it, Bbobbo, curled up in a ball, was yawning with its mouth wide open.
Really, I’m crazy…
Unlike the simple Bbobbo, couldn’t the golem hold basic conversations? Then the golem heard this whole conversation. Then what am I doing in front of them right now…
Raon, who was blinking his eyes after suddenly becoming aware, was startled enough to flinch his entire body at Jaehwi’s touch cupping both his cheeks.
And without having time to do anything, Raon’s view changed as he was held by both cheeks, and Jaehwi’s handsome face was right before his nose.
“I’ll believe you. No, I believe you. When hyung says so, I have to believe it, what else can I do? Moreover, it’s words said in this kind of space, in this kind of position, even accompanied by guiding that drives a person crazy, so how could I not believe it? Right? Caught up in my rampage, we died and regressed. But then you should have run far away from me. Why are you stupidly trying to be by my side again? What if you die again?”
It seemed like teasing yet also soothing, seemed like truth yet also false. He was definitely smiling but his expression seemed like crying too—Raon couldn’t properly read either Jaehwi’s expression or emotions.
“So that’s why you ran to the training room where I was in that outfit? Crying?”
At Jaehwi’s words that felt completely emotionless and indifferent, Raon urgently grabbed his wrists that were caressing his cheeks.
“…Pretend you didn’t hear what you just heard. It’s not reality but a dream story. Because you wander around doing whatever you want and don’t listen to me, I have all kinds of dreams. Sometimes you rampage and the world ends, sometimes I wake up after getting a call that you died while out on site. But regression, that really doesn’t make sense, right? Anyway, it’s true that I care about you, and it’s true I don’t want you to die. When you said you loved me in the dream, I was a bit sorry I couldn’t answer. But now I don’t have to be sorry. Because you’re not my Hwiya from the dream.”
Though it seemed like nothing would salvage the situation no matter what he said, Raon babbled whatever came out of his mouth and removed the warm hands touching his cheeks. Then he put strength in his legs to get up, trying to escape from the subtle position they wouldn’t be in no matter how close they were.
Though he said he got up, his knees were still touching the seat Jaehwi was sitting in, but there was almost no part of them touching each other. It was Jaehwi’s car with a high chassis, but as Raon was about to return to the passenger seat with his head slightly bowed, unable to overcome the force pulling down his waist, he plopped back down on Jaehwi’s lap.
“Want to kiss?”
“Whaat?”
Startled by Jaehwi’s words, Raon urgently raised his hand to cover his lower face.
Just a few minutes ago he’d been the one to put his lips on him first, but the situation was different now. No, the situation was the same, but anyway, it’s not just the two of us here right now! They might not know any better, but Bbobbo is here and the golem is too.
I caused this trouble by acting impulsively again. Let’s just go first. Go and talk between the two of us. Or just let it pass as just another thing like that. Anyway, now is not the atmosphere for this kind of talk and this kind of thing.
At Jaehwi’s eyebrows slightly furrowing, Raon quickly shook his head to convey his feelings a bit more accurately. Then Jaehwi, whose eyebrows furrowed a bit more, lightly cracked his neck to both sides.
“You don’t want to?”
Hearing those words, Raon, who had been nodding his head a couple times, stopped his moving head with an “oops” feeling. Then he rolled his eyes to stare at the passenger seat side and looked at Jaehwi’s eyes again.
“You said you couldn’t say you loved me when I said I loved you.”
“……”
“You said you don’t want me to die, don’t want us to die together. You said let’s live together, travel, watch movies, do everything anyway.”
“……”
“But you don’t want to kiss?”
It’s not that I don’t want to kiss, but right now the golem is here, Bbobbo is here, and we’re on the roadside on the shoulder, and we didn’t even park properly but just roughly stopped the car anywhere. So let’s go home and…
As Raon slightly turned his head to look at the passenger seat to convey again that the golem was beside them, a deflating “heuk” sound popped out of his mouth.
The golem that had made eye contact with him just before was sitting with its back turned, stroking the sleeping Bbobbo’s fur. It’s not that it doesn’t know, but it seems to know a lot…
“Kang Raon.”
I thought it was quick-witted, but not? Raon looked at Jaehwi who didn’t seem to notice even though he’d given such eye signals and now had even completely turned his head to look at the golem and Bbobbo and even sighed. Then he opened his mouth.
“Golem. Picking up Bbobbo is nothing for you, right? Pick it up and go to the back seat. That’s my spot.”
The shoulders of the golem showing its back flinched. The small head tried to turn back but didn’t turn all the way, so Raon released the tension in his body and collapsed into Jaehwi’s embrace.
The precarious atmosphere had completely fallen apart. When with Jaehwi, sometimes he’d be tense enough for all his body hair to stand up, but it would dissolve this easily.
“Hurry up and listen. Before I put you back in the dungeon.”
Raon, who had already vented his anger at Jaehwi as much as he could, pulled his earlobe, and even grabbed and hit his head, showed his honest personality without restraint. He just made a huge blunder anyway, so there’s no way maintaining dignity now would work.
When he spoke curtly with his voice lowered and his unpleasant feelings unhidden, the golem silently got up and began trying to lift Bbobbo, which was bigger than itself. Even by dungeon master grade, the golem was higher than the Gem Kitten, so in fact, before the golem woke Bbobbo, it was right that Bbobbo should have been aware and moved aside on its own.
“……”
Raon, who had been watching the golem touching from here and touching from there, making efforts to lift Bbobbo, raised his hand and scratched his forehead.
‘Human. The Gem Kitten used its ability.’
In the end, Jaehwi’s movement was faster than Raon’s upon hearing the message that it couldn’t lift Bbobbo with its own strength. The large hand grabbed both the golem and Bbobbo at once, and threw them to the back seat just like throwing away trash.
“You didn’t want to kiss just because of those things?”
Raon quickly grabbed the cheeks of Jaehwi, who was grumbling without hiding his feelings, and pressed his lips against his.
“Here’s a kiss. Done, right? Now let’s go home. On the way, drop me, Bbobbo, and the golem off at my place.”
Having finished speaking quickly with lips still touching, Raon quickly moved to the passenger seat to avoid being swept away and dragged along again by the rapidly changing atmosphere moment by moment.
“What did you say?”
“Me, the golem, and Bbobbo to my place. You to your place.”
“…Are you playing with me right now?”
“I’m serious.”
Raon, sitting obediently with even his seatbelt on, tapped the gear with his hand. He also added the words “Let’s hurry up and leave. At this rate the sun will set. I’m hungry. I’ll get tired.”
Only after Jaehwi, who had given in to his stubbornness again this time, started the car could Raon lean back comfortably in the seat. Then he looked at Jaehwi who was driving. He’d babbled alone again, made a fuss alone, and somehow hadn’t heard his exact answer.
“Min Jaehwi.”
“……”
“Jaehwiya.”
“……”
“You’re not going to talk to me?”
Raon had touched him again, who didn’t even give him a glance even when he called his name.
