When Munyeong asked carefully what he was doing standing at the door like that, Haejeong’s face went startled, his eyes darting around in a way that didn’t suit him at all.
“……What, just… thinking for a moment.”
“…Why out here……, come in.”
With a puzzled look that said why are you standing outside to think of all places, Munyeong pushed the door wide open himself. Haejeong stepped into his own home with an awkward, uncertain posture. His heart and mind were in turmoil, yet being welcomed to the door like this wasn’t unpleasant — and so he scratched the back of his neck with a sheepish expression.
“Did you eat dinner?”
Munyeong asked — not personally, but in a professional manner. His tone wasn’t particularly formal, but his eyes were those of an employee attending to a task.
“…No.”
“I set something out just in case — perfect timing, then.”
Munyeong seemed somehow even more composed than usual. The way he threw himself into his work, focused and deliberate, made him look like a man who’d emptied everything out and was finally unburdened. Haejeong didn’t like the look of it, but couldn’t bring himself to toss out a remark the way he normally would — he just hesitated. It was exactly the look of a foal that hadn’t been able to do what it needed to do.
“The rice just needs to be scooped — do you want to wash up first and then eat?”
Munyeong had become the perfect housekeeper of this home. Whatever he’d done, he’d done flawlessly — not a single speck of dust was visible anywhere in the large house. The marble floors caught the light and gleamed brilliantly. He was sick enough to be hospitalized, and it’s not like his employer is even home — he could’ve slacked off properly and just lounged around.
“…For now… hmm… I’ll eat now— gck!”
Having been swallowing nervously over and over, Haejeong choked on his own saliva and let out a strange, strangled sound. Gck! Kgh! Cough! Hack! He pounded his own sternum and fell into a coughing fit, and Munyeong’s eyes went wide as he rushed over with a glass of water he’d quickly poured.
“Are you okay? Did you choke?”
“Kghh! Kgh….”
Only after gulping down the water in a rush did the coughing subside. Haejeong exhaled deeply, and then looked at Munyeong with a thoroughly mortified expression. In all his years, he had never suffered such humiliation. Looking good at all costs — that was the governing principle of Haejeong’s life. And here he was, spluttering and nearly spitting in front of the very person he needed to win over. He couldn’t have been more embarrassed.
“…Are you okay? Should I get you another glass?”
Munyeong asked with concern, gently patting Haejeong on the back. Haejeong’s gaze drifted involuntarily to Munyeong’s face, now so close. Clear eyes, a straight nose, skin pale as porcelain, hair a natural color as if it had never once been dyed or permed, neat lips — his eyes were drawn to each feature one by one, and an instinctive thought surfaced without thinking.
I want to kiss him.
He wanted to press kisses all over that gentle face — the face that worried over him even for something as trivial as a little choking fit. It was a craving that surfaced constantly, always finding gaps to slip through. He was lucky when it was just thoughts of kissing. At home, he imagined taking that innocent thing in every corner of the house. At work, he imagined having sex with him on top of the office desk. He’d even fantasized about sneaking it in during the day with the other employees all around, or taking him on the lobby desk in the dead of night when no one was there. More times than he could count, arousal had stirred below and left him in an awkward state he had to deal with. Whether the man himself knew any of this — who could say. And yet here he was, worrying over a little cough. The way that idiot could look both dense and unbearably attractive at the same time.
“…Why, why are you…?”
Munyeong, feeling the intense stare on him, asked with a flustered look. Those transparent eyes — embarrassed or bashful, it was hard to tell — flushed a light pink at the cheeks. And that, in its own right, made him want to kiss him too.
“…It’s nothing.”
But Haejeong forcibly looked away and replied flatly. Then he took off his coat and headed for the dining table. A rich, savory smell had taken over the entire house. Truthfully, the way he felt right now, food was the last thing he thought he could get down — but the spread in front of him so clearly showed the effort that had gone into it that he had no choice but to sit down and eat along.
“Oh, let me scoop the rice.”
As Haejeong settled at the table, Munyeong hurried over to the pressure cooker and transferred the waiting rice into a bowl. He piled it high as a mountain and set it in front of Haejeong.
“…I only made what I know how to make. It’s fine to leave it if it’s not good.”
“…….”
“I’ll finish whatever’s left…. Enjoy your meal.”
“……Just me?”
“Ah…. Yes.”
“I told you. I don’t like eating alone.”
Haejeong tossed out the complaint without thinking. He didn’t like the idea of someone going to all this trouble and then just watching him eat.
“…Oh…….”
Normally, saying that much would have the guy squirming sheepishly into the seat across from him — but this time, he hesitated with a troubled expression instead.
“……I still have the bathroom to clean….”
“Do it after you eat.”
“…But…….”
“…….”
“Usually…… a homeowner and…, a servant don’t eat… together….”
Where he would normally have given in without fuss, he offered a nonsensical excuse to signal his refusal. He couldn’t bring himself to refuse outright, so he gave a plausible-sounding reason — but to Haejeong’s eyes, the intent was too plain to miss.
He was drawing a line. In his own way.
Ha. Haejeong exhaled, hollowed out, and was so incredulous that words didn’t come. He hadn’t thought he’d be drawing a line this way. The consideration Haejeong had been showing — Munyeong was now the one rejecting it. He was saying, in his own way, stop being good to me.
Munyeong took Haejeong’s silence as acceptance and turned away. And just as he was about to head toward the bathroom in the living room, something seemed to cross his mind — he turned back and quietly opened his mouth.
“…Um… but….”
Haejeong looked at him with eyes full of foul temper.
“……Who’s been doing the driving lately…?”
“What?”
“……No, I just thought… you’d said to keep doing that job too….”
“…….”
“It’s not my debt but… still, to get my bankbook and place back… just cleaning the house probably isn’t going to be enough….”
“…….”
“…I feel like I should be doing more work somehow…….”
Munyeong said it haltingly, his face uneasy. Haejeong let out another short, incredulous laugh. So in other words — I want to pay it off fast, get everything back fast, and leave. That was what it amounted to. The intent was so transparent that Haejeong broke into a low, near-unhinged string of laughs.
Im Munyeong wasn’t giving him a single opening. Without giving him a chance to turn things around, he was pressing ahead with his eyes, ears, and everything else blocked off.
“Or if there’s any other work… if there’s anything you need…….”
“I’ll handle it myself.”
Haejeong cut him off and refused flatly, swallowing the anger boiling up inside him.
“When there’s something to give you, I’ll give it to you myself…. Just do what you’re already doing, and do it well.”
To keep from losing his temper, Haejeong turned his body away entirely. He began shoveling the gradually cooling food into his mouth. Not knowing what he was even eating, he stuffed the food in like a man who hadn’t eaten in days, swallowing his anger bite by bite. If he’d gone with his gut, he had more than enough frustration to blow up in a spectacular rage — but he didn’t want to do something he couldn’t take back, so he took it out on the food instead.
Munyeong watched that irritated back with a puzzled look. Then he anxiously observed the way he was throwing food into himself at a frantic pace. At that rate, he’s going to give himself indigestion…. He murmured it without a sound and then drew his gaze away. It was Munyeong’s deliberate effort to pull his attention back as far as it would go.
