As he opened the door and stepped inside, the warm air in the room rushed over his body. The warmth that melted his body, which had been permeated by the cold wind, made him drowsy.
While he stood there in a daze, he heard the sound of the door closing behind him. Haeyoung, who had been bringing his arm to his nose as he entered the room, turned his head at the lack of any presence following him.
Seonwoo stood in front of the door with a more disheveled face than usual. When their eyes met, he pulled up the corners of his mouth slightly, but that smile didn’t have its usual ease. The emotions contained in his deep eyes rippled with a dark light.
He was also in no state to relax, his mind full of heavy thoughts. Nevertheless, as soon as Haeyoung saw his sunken expression, he pushed aside all the thoughts he’d been having.
“I wonder what put Cha Seonwoo in such a bad mood.”
As he muttered while looking him up and down with narrowed eyes, his chin propped up, a low laugh soon leaked from Seonwoo’s mouth.
“Haeyoung-ah.”
“Yeah, hyung.”
“There are too many people who like Haeyoung.”
“……”
Look who’s talking. Haeyoung’s eyebrows rose as if he was dumbfounded. Who was it that had just spent a long time having a conversation with Dain in the garden?
Haeyoung, who had been about to open his mouth indignantly at his words about popularity, paused for a moment. As he said, hadn’t he just finished talking separately with Dain? Seeing how he couldn’t hide his displeased mood at this point, could it be…
“Dain…”
Haeyoung, who had been about to ask if she had talked about him, closed his mouth again. It wasn’t because he was conscious of the filming, but because he was concerned about him standing before his eyes.
“…will be waiting. Let’s go out quickly too.”
As he changed the subject, he had to make a diligent effort to hide the corners of his mouth that were trying to rise.
So it means Dain isn’t interested in Seonwoo hyung.
As soon as he realized it, his churning stomach settled ridiculously quickly with the relief that came. It seemed he had been paying more attention to the sight of Seonwoo and Dain together than he thought. He could feel the poison of the emotions he’d expended gradually filling back up.
Haeyoung, who had been raising his arm to check if his clothes smelled, soon said with a laugh.
“Wow, hyung. I think my clothes smell like meat.”
The topic of conversation changed in an instant. Seeing the pleased look that rose on his face, Seonwoo instead narrowed his eyes.
Even though he must have guessed what Dain said. Yet seeing him look so happy like this, his throat couldn’t help but burn. A laugh like air escaping through his teeth leaked out.
“Really? I’m not sure.”
“You will if you get close. I should change clothes before I go.”
Haeyoung soon grabbed the sleeve part to take off the knit he was wearing. Seonwoo, who had been silently taking in the sight of him, took a step forward without warning.
Haeyoung called out to Seonwoo, who had approached right up to his nose, with a puzzled face.
“Hyung?”
“Yeah, Haeyoung-ah.”
“What…”
It was only for a moment that he hesitated at the action of approaching him and grasping one shoulder. Cha Seonwoo soon lowered his head as if he would burrow into his arms.
He buried his face in his neck and inhaled. Haeyoung flinched and his shoulders trembled at the hair that brushed against the bare skin of his nape exposed above the knit.
“Is that so…?”
It was a calm voice, but his characteristically gentle tone touched his skin before it reached his ear. Haeyoung, who had frozen momentarily, narrowed his eyes.
“Hyung, you’re doing this on purpose.”
“What am I doing?”
The question that came back had a quiet laugh mixed in. Haeyoung let out an empty laugh at that affectionate voice. Ah, this is on purpose. He could be one hundred percent certain.
Haeyoung wanted to attach a lie detector to his hand as he played dumb. Then proving Cha Seonwoo’s intentionality would definitely be easier than blinking an eye.
“Don’t play dumb.”
“You’re playing dumb too…”
“……”
He had nothing to say. Haeyoung, who reflexively closed his mouth, belatedly realized that the corners of his mouth were still turned up. He fumbled at his mouth with his hand and awkwardly covered it.
“Just let it slide once, Seonwoo hyung.”
The voice that flowed from his mouth, blocked by his hand, was somehow suppressed. The eyes visible above the hand covering his mouth looked straight at Seonwoo. Taking in the reddened eyes looking up at him, Cha Seonwoo swallowed.
His Adam’s apple slowly rose and then settled back down. A light of resentment briefly passed through his eyes hidden between long eyelashes, but he released Haeyoung with a reluctant gesture.
Haeyoung, who had escaped from Seonwoo’s arms as he readily stepped back, headed toward the dressing room but stopped far short.
“Ah, right.”
Haeyoung, who let out a short sigh, turned his body away from heading to the dressing room. And he headed to his bed and bent his legs to sit in front of the bag placed beside it.
The hand that went into the bag he hadn’t opened once since Christmas began to rummage inside. The item he was looking for soon caught on his fingertips. Haeyoung, who had been fiddling with the wrapping paper where he could feel the texture of the paper clearly, eventually stood up after hesitating.
When he turned around, he saw Seonwoo still watching him. Haeyoung walked toward him and held out the box he was holding.
“This is yours, hyung.”
A look of surprise momentarily crossed his eyes when he discovered the box held out to him. His eyes, opened wider than before, turned back to Haeyoung.
His mouth, which had been moving as if to say something, perhaps because it was an unexpected situation, soon closed tightly. Seonwoo took the box held in Haeyoung’s hand with a quiet touch.
He was staring down at the box in his hand, and Haeyoung awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck while watching such a Seonwoo. The silence was brief. At the expression that rose on his face, Haeyoung urgently opened his mouth.
“Hyung, it’s nothing special. I just meant to give it to you at Christmas but couldn’t…”
The thought of wanting to give it to him was probably largely due to the anxiety he’d just felt. The feeling he experienced while seeing Dain and Seonwoo standing together was a kind he had no right to feel.
The relief that came afterward from Dain’s interest being in someone other than him was also unreasonable. He knew it. His own cowardice in taking out the gift as a roundabout substitute because he didn’t have the courage to say the words he wanted.
“Hyung.”
“…Yeah.”
“It’s really not a big deal.”
As soon as those words fell, moist eyes silently turned toward Haeyoung. At the gaze strongly tinged with denial as if it couldn’t not be a big deal, Yoon Haeyoung had to bite his lips along with him.
Though he had spoken playfully on purpose, saying it wasn’t a big deal wasn’t entirely wrong. It was an item that was expensive to him, but from Seonwoo’s perspective, it probably wasn’t that expensive an item.
However, someone’s standards are always their own. Seonwoo, who had been fiddling with the angular part of the dark navy box, slowly opened his mouth.
“Still, I like it.”
The voice that leaked out gently had a somewhat suppressed corner.
It was a voice condensed with many emotions. However, Haeyoung felt like he knew the rest of what he’d swallowed. Still, I like it, because you gave it to me. He could tell without hearing it.
Cha Seonwoo was really someone who would giggle and take home even a pebble he picked up from the street to enshrine it. When he felt anxious wanting to give something better, he would tease him like that, saying thank you with a smile at each and every trivial thing. That’s why he couldn’t help but love him.
“It’s perfume.”
After peeling off the wrapping paper and opening the box, he checked what was inside and smiled, folding his eyes. Still happy about something, Cha Seonwoo kept letting out laughter.
He took out the perfume and readily held out his sleeve. After spraying it once near his wrist and smelling it, he slightly raised his eyes and looked at Haeyoung.
“Haeyoung-ah, did you know when you chose it?”
“Know what?”
“The perfume.”
At the quiet laugh mixed in his voice, Haeyoung deliberately furrowed his brow. He couldn’t grasp why he was asking such an incomprehensible question.
“…Didn’t you use this kind of scent, hyung?”
Was it not this one? Though he didn’t know if it was the exact same perfume, he thought the scent was roughly similar.
“That’s right.”
Seonwoo readily nodded to him with suspicious eyes.
“But because it’s a gift from you, it’s special.”
“……”
“I was curious if you knew when you gave it.”
He couldn’t tell what he wanted to say. However, he had no intention of speaking first and was only watching him, examining his expression. Finally, when he was about to ask what he was supposed to know—
Just then, a familiar alarm sound came from the phone stuck in his pocket. The message that would come at this timing was obvious. Haeyoung, who had closed his open mouth, took out his phone from his pocket.
「Please write the name of the cast member your heart was drawn to today and a message. The message will be delivered anonymously to the other person.」
As expected. Haeyoung, who had roughly read through the text message content that didn’t deviate even an inch from his expectations, raised his head again. Seonwoo, who must have received the same message, was also looking down at his phone.
Unlike usual when he would move his hands without any concern whenever he saw a message, today he didn’t seem to intend to send an answer right away. As his lowered eyelids lifted, the deep eyes hidden between long eyelashes became visible.
He was captured in the eyes of the one slowly raising his head. Haeyoung stopped the hand that had been pressing on the screen.
“Who are you…”
Cha Seonwoo drew out the end of his words in a casual voice. When their eyes met, he raised the corners of his mouth and smiled.
“Going to send it to?”
