And having arrived at the room next door, he knocked on the door, went in, and called out to Minho, who was sitting perched on the bed.
‘Kim Minho.’
‘Uh, uh…’
Minho, who had been sitting with a face like a rotten paprika, raised his head with noticeably awkward movements at the sound of Haeyoung’s voice calling him. Seeing him so obviously conscious of him, Haeyoung lost the will to soothe him with gentle words.
Seeing how he couldn’t even think to hide it, he seemed to be backed into a corner. He thought there was no need to be this gloomy, but well, if he was dying to feel this way. It wasn’t his business.
Haeyoung approached and sat down on his knees in front of Minho, who was perched on the bed. As his eye level lowered, Minho’s face, with his head hanging down, came fully into view.
He thought he heard a sigh from behind him, but Haeyoung looked up at Minho and asked in a light tone.
‘Why do you look so dead?’
At the straightforward question thrown without beating around the bush, Minho flinched and hunched his shoulders. Whether he was trying to act nonchalant or not, he fumbled to straighten his expression, but soon gave up and turned down the corners of his mouth.
‘It’s not even the last one. It’s not like it ends after just this one date, so what the hell are you worried about?’
Haeyoung abandoned his plan to console him early on. From his experience tutoring for many years, bitter words were the medicine for students who had already become dejected and lost their fighting spirit over something that hadn’t even happened yet. If the results later fell short of expectations and he was upset, then he should offer comfort, but that was something to do when the time came.
The funny thing was that he couldn’t even see himself properly. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the fact that he himself was included among the targets Minho was wary of, but at least it was clear that him being wary of him now was pointless. It was clear who occupied the largest place in Soyoon’s heart right now.
Haeyoung’s gaze subtly turned to the person standing behind. Seonwoo wasn’t entering the room but was leaning against the open doorway, looking down at him. When their eyes met, he looked momentarily surprised, then soon smiled silently, narrowing his eyes.
‘…The number one target to be wary of is standing right there.’
Yoon Haeyoung let out a shallow sigh, ignoring his stirring insides. Then he turned his head, which had been half-turned away, back to look at Minho.
Because there hadn’t been even a bit of hesitation, Haeyoung had no choice but to stop and agonize until coming to this room. However, upon encountering Seonwoo, who came out of the room, spotted him, and immediately showed him an affectionate smile, his agony once again became meaningless. Yoon Haeyoung knew that the words he was bringing up were not simply for Minho alone.
‘I have someone else on my mind.’
The voice that came out quietly wasn’t heavy, but the heart contained within it settled on Minho with a fairly weighty heaviness.
The act of bringing out feelings that had only been kept inside was like giving a clear form to vague feelings and even attaching a name tag to them. Knowing this, he stubbornly brought up the feelings he’d been covering up and pretending not to know, and he knew it was purely his own greed. As he forced himself to swallow the surging self-loathing, his mouth tasted bitter.
However, looking at Haeyoung who had an indifferent face on the outside, Minho’s eyes widened.
‘What? You, then… it’s decided?’
There was no need to ask who he was thinking of. Haeyoung could be certain that whoever the person Minho was thinking of was, it would be the wrong answer.
Seeing his dumbfounded face, a mischievous desire to tease him bloomed, but he held it in. It would be troublesome if he cried after being teased a bit more. Haeyoung avoided answering ambiguously and nodded slightly. But even that alone seemed to have diverted Minho’s attention somewhat from the worry he’d been having.
‘So don’t worry too much.’
Haeyoung said as he got up.
‘Go and come back well tomorrow, and worry about what to do after that. You can’t change what’s already been decided.’
Watching him nod with a blank face, wondering if he’d properly heard what he said, Haeyoung let out a slightly uneasy laugh. Still, the shadow that had been cast over his face had disappeared much more than before. Satisfied that Minho’s complexion, which had been like a rotten paprika, had brightened, Haeyoung turned around with a good night greeting.
Seonwoo was still standing and waiting in front of the room, and Haeyoung nodded toward outside the room as if to say let’s go back now. Only then did he straighten his body that had been leaning against the doorway and turn his body diagonally. Haeyoung, who had slipped out through the leisurely opened passage, went straight back to the room where he was staying.
As soon as he entered the room, he set down his bag in its usual place. Then he headed to the dressing room while taking off his coat. After hanging up his outerwear properly and only loosening his necktie to place it on the nightstand, Haeyoung headed straight to the bathroom. It was the moment when he finally stood in front of the sink and rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt to wash up.
‘Haeyoung-ah.’
It was right then that Seonwoo, who had been following him, suddenly called his name. Having discovered through the mirror his figure entering the bathroom, Haeyoung froze in momentary confusion. The presence that approached from the side as if digging in and the suddenly close distance made Haeyoung forget how to breathe.
Cha Seonwoo reached his arm forward in front of Haeyoung, who stood facing the sink. His long fingers lightly pushed up the cold silver faucet.
Swoooosh— the sound of water pouring roughly into the sink filled the bathroom. A low voice came through quietly, piercing through the noise that made his ears ring.
‘The person on your mind, it’s me, right?’
The voice that came out quietly was somehow different from usual. A question where the firm conviction had melted away like foam in the water, leaving only a familiar shell. Haeyoung suddenly felt his vision grow distant.
Haeyoung, whose hand gripping the sink had turned white with the force he was applying, couldn’t bear it and turned his head. And seeing the face he encountered, he had to firmly press strength into the arm braced against the sink to support his body so as not to collapse.
‘You still… like me, right? Hm? Haeyoung-ah.’
The voice flowing out slowly was by no means relaxed. His gaze looking down at Haeyoung was still affectionate, but there was somewhere congested about it, mixed with various emotions. Seeing the smile where his barely hidden anxiety protruded, Yoon Haeyoung had to feel a pain that stuffily squeezed the inside of his chest.
Haeyoung, who had been unknowingly ruminating over last night, emerged from the deeply submerged memory at the voice heard from a distance.
“Haeyoung oppa!”
At the familiar voice, he stopped walking in a daze and raised his head. Though he’d guessed while taking a taxi and setting the destination, it seemed the date location this time really was an amusement park. He caught sight of Soyoon standing around the escalator going inside, in front of the ticket booth.
She’d told him to come in comfortable clothes, so he’d wondered where they’d be going, but an indoor amusement park was a place that wasn’t unfamiliar to Haeyoung either. Watching Soyoon, who had left her outerwear somewhere and was wearing only a brown shirt as her top despite it being winter, waving her hand, Haeyoung quickly raised his hand and waved back.
The way she was waving her hand so big also reminded him of Minho for a moment, so a smile naturally gathered at the corners of his mouth.
“Did you wait long?”
“No! I just got here too. Oppa, here.”
Haeyoung, who had quickened his steps, approached and stood in front of Soyoon. Perhaps because they had no romantic feelings or interest in each other, he didn’t feel awkward upon seeing her. Haeyoung accepted the ticket Soyoon handed over with a comfortably smiling face.
“Let’s go quickly!”
Soyoon led Haeyoung with a face that couldn’t hide her excitement. Haeyoung also obediently followed behind her as she grabbed his collar and walked ahead.
While going up the escalator heading inside the amusement park, Soyoon whispered to Haeyoung with a face excited like a child.
“Oppa, are you good at riding rides?”
“Yeah.”
Haeyoung replied simply to her question. However, as if a short answer wasn’t enough, he even tilted his head boldly.
“I’m totally good at them.”
Soyoon’s face brightened even more at the calm face that seemed quite confident. As if she’d expected that answer, covering her rising mouth corners, she whispered quite resolutely.
“We… our goal today is to ride everything here.”
“…Everything?”
“Yeah. It’s been really long since I’ve been here. Since we’re here, I’m going to ride everything before we leave.”
Having hesitated momentarily after hearing they should ride everything, Haeyoung soon couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter.
Seeing her face that seemed to look forward to the amusement park more than the date, he simply had no talent for not laughing. The fact that she was more interested in the rides than in him was welcome to Haeyoung, and his heart lightened at the expression that revealed her determination to get their money’s worth since they were here anyway. Because he could genuinely go along with that kind of thing too.
“Alright, let’s ride them all.”
He nodded readily while swallowing his laughter. Because Haeyoung had also spoken quite solemnly just as she had, Soyoon’s smile deepened even more.
