Kwon Gyo-eon studied Hae-yul for a moment, then gave a low hum.
“Ju Hae-yul never takes the easy way with anything. You’ve gone a few days without seeing me and now you’ve forgotten how to address me?”
“I didn’t forget.”
“It’s fine. Twenty-two is still young, so it happens. I understand.”
“Excuse me?”
Young, he says. Where in the world was there a grown person this size? Hae-yul was about to burst out laughing in disbelief when he tilted his head.
“By the way, how do you know my age? Don’t tell me you’re going to say to leave that to my imagination too?”
Kwon Gyo-eon blinked a few times, then replied in his usual unhurried tone.
“Because Ju Hae-yul told me.”
“I did? When? Was it… that night?”
Hae-yul clenched his fist, his expression turning pained. What on earth had they talked about that night — the night he couldn’t fully remember? Had he blabbed about the convenience store and the study café too? The thought that he’d been so out of it that he’d spilled trivial details like that to a complete stranger was horrifying.
The things that had happened that night — a night he couldn’t remember — kept coming back to trip him up. It was the one mistake he’d made since coming here, and it just wouldn’t stop grabbing him by the ankle. If not for that mistake, he never would have gotten tangled up with Kwon Gyo-eon.
Of course, without Kwon Gyo-eon, who knew what kind of trouble might have found him instead…… Though being entangled with him in this particular way was uncomfortable, Hae-yul was, if he was being honest, a little grateful to Kwon Gyo-eon. That was a separate feeling from wanting to keep him at arm’s length as much as possible.
So he did feel bad for Kwon Gyo-eon, who was now facing a rut. Because one way or another, it seemed like helping him had unexpectedly brought this on.
“Who knows. When could it have been?”
…And yet, watching Kwon Gyo-eon act petty like that, any gratitude or guilt flew right out the window and he just felt inexplicably irritated. With an annoyed expression, Hae-yul’s lips pursed — and then pressed shut. Whether Kwon Gyo-eon had noticed, he let out a short laugh.
It looked very much like he was laughing at Hae-yul, and Hae-yul’s eyes sharpened. Kwon Gyo-eon acted as though nothing was the matter, even as he had to feel that gaze was far from friendly.
“By the way, how many part-time jobs does Ju Hae-yul actually have? At this rate, you’re going to run your body into the ground.”
Was he bringing up the jobs on purpose to change the subject? Hae-yul eyed Kwon Gyo-eon suspiciously, trying to gauge his intent, before answering honestly.
“If I want to live a normal life like everyone else, I don’t have a choice. They say hardship in your youth is something worth seeking out. Well, I’m sure it’ll all end up being good experience someday.”
At Hae-yul’s words, Kwon Gyo-eon tilted his head.
“Why would you seek out hardship?”
He looked as though he genuinely didn’t understand what Hae-yul was saying. Like someone who had never gone through a hard day in his life. Even with all the money and privilege of a good family, surely he had gone through hardships of his own… or maybe not?
“When you can barely keep up even while being paid for it — why on earth would you go out of your way to seek hardship? Ju Hae-yul, do you perhaps enjoy pain or suffering?”
“…Excuse me?”
The sheer absurdity of the question left Hae-yul momentarily speechless. It was a figure of speech — who actually goes out of their way to seek hardship. He was already grinding through it while getting paid for it, every single day. And it wasn’t as if Kwon Gyo-eon didn’t know that saying existed. Hae-yul stared at him, stunned.
Then Kwon Gyo-eon went even further.
“I had no idea Ju Hae-yul had that kind of taste.”
“No. I don’t have that kind of taste.”
“There’s no need to deny it in front of me. I intend to make an effort to respect Ju Hae-yul’s preferences. Though—”
“I said I don’t have any taste like that — why won’t you listen? And if you’re not going to listen, why even ask?”
Hae-yul reached out and covered Kwon Gyo-eon’s mouth with his own hand, cutting off the nonsense. A faint, ticklish breath landed against his pinky finger resting just below Kwon Gyo-eon’s nose.
- Clue
“…Oh.”
Hae-yul, belatedly realizing what he’d just done, was so startled he yanked his hand back at lightning speed, as if he’d been burned.
“I’m sorry……”
Kwon Gyo-eon, too, seemed caught off guard by the unexpected action — he stared at Hae-yul with wide, rounded eyes. He was silent for a long moment, and Hae-yul, clenching his fist tight, gave Kwon Gyo-eon — who was standing smack in the middle of the stairs — a small sideways nudge and headed down.
Kwon Gyo-eon stepped aside easily, and almost immediately the sound of him following behind Hae-yul could be heard. Hae-yul, walking in stiff silence with his face flushed red with embarrassment, suddenly spun around and asked.
“Why do you keep following me?”
“Because Ju Hae-yul keeps walking away?”
The utterly shameless response, delivered with the face of someone who genuinely couldn’t understand why he was even being asked, gave Hae-yul a headache. His brow furrowed at the throbbing in his temples, and Kwon Gyo-eon came closer.
“What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
“It’s not that……”
Hae-yul exercised patience and swallowed down the words you’re what’s making me unwell. If it had been anyone other than Kwon Gyo-eon, he would have said it without filtering himself — but Hae-yul was still in a position where he had to tread carefully around Kwon Gyo-eon, so he had no choice but to watch what he said and did.
For good reason — with one word, Kwon Gyo-eon could leave Hae-yul saddled with a debt of one billion won out of nowhere, despite having no means to pay it. He had almost forgotten that critical fact and was about to be rude.
…Though it might already be too late for that.
Hae-yul looked at Kwon Gyo-eon, who was watching him with an oddly concerned gaze, and asked.
“Weren’t you here because you had something to say?”
“Ah, right.”
Kwon Gyo-eon nodded — then suddenly broke into a mischievous smile.
“But I’ve thought this for a while, Ju Hae-yul speaks in a rather interesting way.”
“…Ah. If it’s been bothering you, should I make more of an effort going forward?”
“No. I was saying I like it — the way the distance in your speech is so flexible.”
Whether it was a compliment or a dig, the ambiguous remark left Hae-yul’s eyes wandering. Soon, Kwon Gyo-eon opened his mouth.
“Ju Hae-yul said one billion would be preferable to meeting with me occasionally, and one hundred million would be preferable to one billion — or alternatively, to offer a completely different option. Am I remembering that correctly?”
“Yes.”
“Is that still the case?”
At Kwon Gyo-eon’s question, Hae-yul fell quiet.
Meeting with Kwon Gyo-eon from time to time was a choice he had declined after considering various factors. Because he didn’t want to walk the path laid out in the original — and because a few meetings weren’t about to make him develop any sentimental feelings for Kwon Gyo-eon.
Wait. Hold on.
But now, thinking it over again, he realized there was one contradiction in the reasoning he’d given himself. He had firmly concluded that meeting with Kwon Gyo-eon wouldn’t cause him to develop any sentimental feelings.
But wasn’t that actually a good thing? The “Ju Hae-yul” in the original had loved Kwon Gyo-eon, and at the same time had been heartbroken watching a Kwon Gyo-eon who didn’t love him back. In that case, all Hae-yul had to do was not fall in love with Kwon Gyo-eon. For someone like Hae-yul, who had never once thought about being in a relationship with a man, wasn’t that an enormous advantage?
If not for what had happened between him and Kwon Gyo-eon because of the heat cycle, Hae-yul probably would have gone on living a perfectly ordinary, peaceful life. He would have denied the secondary gender dynamics of this world and lived as a bachelor, or perhaps dated a woman. He certainly never would have ended up in the same bed as a male alpha.
So all he needed to do was think about it differently. That one hundred million was easier than one billion, and meeting with Kwon Gyo-eon occasionally was easier than one hundred million. Not developing any feelings for Kwon Gyo-eon would be the simplest thing imaginable.
Right now, Kwon Gyo-eon might have some inexplicable interest in him — but if Hae-yul acted as stiff and unmoved as a block of wood every time they met, would that interest really last?
No. There’s no way.
He felt certain Kwon Gyo-eon would quickly lose interest and stop seeking him out. All this time, it had felt like leaving room for the original story’s trajectory, which had put him off — but in reality, it was a simple matter of just keeping his own head straight.
Hae-yul looked at Kwon Gyo-eon with an expression of relief, as though a long-aching tooth had finally been pulled.
“No.”
“So you’ve changed your mind. May I guess which option Ju Hae-yul is choosing?”
“I could just say it myself, there’s no need to——”
He seemed to have a decent idea of what Hae-yul was going to choose. Before Hae-yul had even finished nodding, Kwon Gyo-eon spoke with an amused expression, certain of the answer.
“Since I said one hundred million was out of the question — it must be repaying the one billion, then?”
Kwon Gyo-eon was unexpectedly lacking in perception, it seemed. Either that, or he was so sharp he was deliberately teasing Hae-yul. Hae-yul stared at him blankly and swallowed a sigh. It was fair enough that Kwon Gyo-eon would say something like that — he had been acting from the start as though paying back the money was the only option that existed.
There was no one to blame but himself. It was entirely his own doing.
“That’s not it either.”
“Oh, that’s unexpected. Then — you’d like to hear the other option?”
“Not that either — but I am curious what it was.”
At Hae-yul’s question, Kwon Gyo-eon looked genuinely surprised but answered without resistance.
“It’s not as grand as Ju Hae-yul might be expecting. I was simply going to request a brief interview as a precaution against the rumor.”
“…An interview?”
The color drained from Hae-yul’s face in an instant. He said it wasn’t anything grand, and yet an interview? Wasn’t that on par with one billion won as an option? Hae-yul couldn’t shake the suspicion that Kwon Gyo-eon had deliberately come up with that option.
To make sure that, of the three choices, meeting with him would inevitably come out as the most manageable one.
