“Did you do it like this in the dream?”
Ilkyung’s entire body turned pink as if it were burning up.
“Did you like it?”
Ilkyung sprang up. He tightly wrapped his disheveled robe as if protecting it from a pervert and shouted, “I-I’m going to wash up!” before running away to the bathroom. Watching that retreating figure, Daehoon shrugged his shoulders. Daehoon’s large hand was soaked wet with white semen.
* * *
Ilkyung banged his head against the bathroom wall and cursed.
“I must be crazy, Woo Ilkyung. What’s so important about some S-rank Esper? What is this even?”
He felt self-loathing. He had run away into the bathroom for now, but after washing up and going out, he’d have to see Director Ha again! He wished the bathroom wall would just collapse. He wished the bathroom wall would break through all the way to his house. So he could just go home. Why did I follow him all the way here? Did I really say I’d recreate the dream? If I did, I’m really a nutcase.
“Ilkyung-ssi.”
Outside, Daehoon knocked and called for Ilkyung.
“Wh-what!”
Even though he had locked the door, Ilkyung quickly ran over and gripped the doorknob tightly with his hand.
“I left underwear and clothes outside, so come out and put them on.”
“Huh? Ah, okay!”
At Daehoon’s words, Ilkyung finally breathed a sigh of relief. Then he looked down at the robe he was still wearing.
“Ugh, fuck.”
White semen was still stuck on the front of the robe, not yet dry.
“What should I do with this? Should I hand-wash it?”
It was when Ilkyung was biting his lips.
“Ilkyung-ssi, there’s a basket outside the bathroom, so put the robe there. A helper will come later and take it to the laundry room.”
“Why are you there?”
“To tell you.”
He must have heard the cursing too, right? He must have heard me agonizing over whether I should hand-wash it, right? Instead of the bathroom wall breaking through, I wish the floor would just break through. So I can disappear. Ilkyung stood there blankly like someone who had lost their soul.
“Wash up and come out to sleep.”
Ilkyung didn’t answer.
“Not answering? Is something wrong? Should I come in?”
“No! Nothing’s wrong. I got it, I got it, so stop talking now.”
Ilkyung gripped the doorknob again and trembled. He felt like he would die of shame.
“Alright, sleep well. Let’s see each other in the morning.”
I should run away in the morning. I’ll wake up without anyone knowing and quietly go to work at the Center. Ilkyung resolved and resolved again. Ilkyung had forgotten that he was staying out overnight and that his mother was definitely grinding her teeth at home. He didn’t have the capacity to think about such things.
* * *
No matter how he thought about it, Woo Ilkyung’s life had definitely gone spectacularly wrong this year. I will definitely kill you, fortune teller. You will die by my hand. When Ilkyung woke up in the morning, he thought of the quack fortune teller as if thinking of a lover.
Knock knock. Ha Daehoon opened the door and looked in quietly.
“Did you sleep well?”
Director Ha stood there looking neat, having already washed up. On the other hand, Ilkyung who had just woken up didn’t even want to imagine what he looked like. Ilkyung had terrible sleeping habits and rolled around the bed all day long. Not only that, but on some days he would even fall off the bed. Despite having been in bed life for so long.
“Looking at your face, today doesn’t seem great either. Wash up and come out. Let’s have hangover soup and go to work.”
“Okay.”
Ilkyung nodded. Ilkyung went into the bathroom with a gloomy face.
What happened yesterday was so embarrassing that he had planned to wake up earlier than anyone else in the morning and escape to work, but what could Woo Ilkyung, who originally had a lot of morning drowsiness, do? Everything was ruined. Ilkyung washed with a blank face and despaired at the fact that he had to go to work together.
He had accepted Director Ha’s offer to go on a date, take him home, and pick him up in the morning too, but who knew it would turn out like this?
After washing up, Ilkyung sat down in front of the dining table. When Daehoon didn’t say anything, Ilkyung sneakily watched for his reaction before spitting out words.
“I’m not going to drink with you anymore, Director-nim.”
“How much have you even drunk with me?”
“I feel like I keep getting drunk when I drink with you, Director-nim.”
“So I’m asking when you drank with me. You got drunk all by yourself and now you’re framing an innocent person. And that day you called me, didn’t you drink with your friends, Ilkyung-ssi? I guess you drank with another me.”
Ilkyung glared at him.
“Anyway, erase it from your head.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“That thing yesterday!”
“So what are you talking about?”
“That dream yesterday! Masturbation!”
His face turned bright red. Because Director Ha was making an expression like he really didn’t know anything. Fuck, did I dream it? Ah, I dreamed it but I went on a rampage alone and did the masturbation and all that stuff? While Ilkyung was opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish, Ha Daehoon burst out laughing.
“Hahahaha. Really cute. Didn’t I say I’d erase it from my head? Then you just have to stay quiet and play dumb, but you had to say it with your own mouth. Stop talking and just eat.”
“Ah, I really want to sink into the ground.”
Ilkyung banged his forehead on the table. Daehoon gently touched Ilkyung’s brown hair and said.
“I’ll stop teasing you, so eat. Can you move aside?”
“No thanks. Why move aside? I don’t have a hobby of letting guests act like the host.”
“You slept in my spot in the bedroom, so what’s the problem?”
“Ah, that’s right!”
Ilkyung suddenly sat up.
“Why did you give me the bedroom? Then where did you sleep, Director-nim?”
Yesterday he was too out of it to say anything, but he realized this morning when he woke up. That he had been sleeping in Director Ha’s bedroom, not a guest room. This was also absurd beyond belief. Why, when he’s a guest?
“When I saw you last time, Ilkyung-ssi’s sleeping habits were terrible. Unless the bed was a certain size, you’d fall off the bed while sleeping.”
Woo Ilkyung didn’t stay still for even a moment. He moved so much it made one wonder if he had a sleep disorder.
“Still, even so.”
“Never mind. Hurry up and eat. Let’s go to the Center.”
“Thank you.”
Ilkyung gave a small greeting and ate. Then he got in Daehoon’s car and went to work at the Center. He had no idea what he was doing.
Getting off at the Center and heading to the lobby with a blank expression—of course he had set a time gap attack, Director Ha said he’d come in after smoking a cigarette and Ilkyung was on his way in after buying a cup of coffee, but they ran into each other right in the lobby.
Director Ha saw him and chuckled. A laugh that said, you said you’d go first but you’re only here? But that’s when it happened.
“Ha Daehoon.”
Someone called Director Ha’s name. Who at the Center would so carelessly call Director Ha’s name like this? Ilkyung looked around to find the source of the voice.
“What?”
From far away, some man strode over and just grabbed Daehoon’s hand.
“Uh, huh?”
The man naturally patted Daehoon’s shoulder. He was bigger than Ilkyung but smaller than Director Ha. His upturned eye corners somehow seemed to resemble a cat. Ilkyung, holding his coffee, looked the man up and down.
Director Ha turned his steps that had been heading to the elevator and headed straight to the cafe. Holding his coffee, Ilkyung stood there blankly watching the scene.
“What?”
It was a face he’d never seen before. And there was absolutely not a single person, really no one, at this Center who would treat Director Ha so familiarly like that. Director Ha pretended to be polite and well-mannered, but in fact, he wasn’t very sociable. No, he was completely hopeless at it. Ilkyung thought so.
He didn’t meet with anyone to smile warmly and chat, nor did he meet anyone one-on-one to have long conversations at a cafe. So naturally, he didn’t do skinship even more. But what is that Director Ha Daehoon doing right now?
He’s smiling. He’s smiling, drinking coffee with that man, and sitting across from him in the cafe!
“Assistant Manager Woo, what are you doing?”
The cafe interior was visible from the lobby, and while Ilkyung was staring intently at the two people, Section Chief Kang appeared at some point and tapped Ilkyung.
“Ah, you scared me. Whoa, Section Chief!”
“What are you looking at so intently?”
