What is this…… how much time has passed? It was around the time he was rolling his eyes blankly. His gaze that had been trying to look around the room was caught at one point. Eunha, who had been looking at the person close by with loosely opened eyes, slowly narrowed his eyes as is.
Is it a dream……, he thought languidly when the eyes he faced curved faintly and smoothly.
“It’s been a while, hyung.”
It’s not. A familiar person was sitting next to the sofa. Someone with an elbow against the sofa, supporting his head, was looking down at Eunha. A person he never thought he’d meet here.
With his back to the light, Eunha, who stared for a moment at Yeonjun’s face in shadow, asked disagreeably.
“……Why are you here?”
“Because my cousin hyung asked me to come.”
Right. This guy’s hangout spots overlapped…… Pressing his dizzy forehead, Eunha exhaled a long breath. He had no energy at all because of the intoxication still remaining and the drowsiness right after sleep.
If he came following his cousin hyung, he should play over there and go, so why is he doing this here? Eunha, who had his arm draped over his forehead, closed his eyes as if settling his churning insides.
“We have frequent coincidences, we do.”
“It’s probably not a coincidence.”
What came back to words conveyed with regret was an answer with unclear meaning.
What do you mean, when he opened his eyes to look, Yeonjun hummed lowly. He subtly slid the interlocked gaze to the side.
“Originally I hate gatherings like this……”
“……”
“I thought I might be able to see hyung.”
“So you came?”
“Yes.”
“…How did you know I’d come here?”
He asked suspiciously. Yeonjun, who had opened his mouth to answer, only lightly moistened his lips with his tongue as if choosing words. Next he closed his eyes long then opened them. As if settling something down.
A thick alcohol smell came from him doing that. When he looked closely, his cheeks were reddish, so it seemed quite a bit of alcohol had gone in.
“That. Your friend.”
“……”
“The person whose birthday it is….”
At the tone with strength completely drained, slow and leisurely, a fragment from the art museum came to mind. He had escaped from Park Hyeonji who was holding him back from going home and gone to Yeonjun.
“You remembered Hyeonji is my friend?”
“Yeah…”
“‘Yeah’ is informal speech.”
“Ah.”
When pointed out, his eyes widened round. Yeonjun, who showed slight reluctance as if he’d forgotten, covered his face completely with both hands then put strength in his hands as if lightly pressing. It was an action as if pulling himself together. Eunha looked at the veins bulging on the back of his hands. Seeing that come into view impressively each time, he hadn’t known, but he wondered if that kind of thing was his taste.
“I’m sorry. I’m a bit drunk.”
“…There’s nothing to be sorry about.”
At the sour answer, Yeonjun clenched together the hands that had been enclosing his face. His face was half revealed, and eyes sending a gaze blankly were dyed with a sluggish smile.
“Kind.”
“That’s also informal speech.”
“Ah. Really.”
What is he trying to do? Somehow the nape of his neck wasn’t very refreshing at the feeling of being played with word games. It doesn’t seem like just a bit drunk. His eyes were loosely unfocused hazily, he kept spitting out frivolous laughter, and although he answered faithfully, he didn’t seem to recognize well what he himself was saying.
As if proving the suspicion, a warmly coaxing tone was heard.
“Please indulge me a little.”
Is his drunken antics aegyo….
“Why should I?”
“Can’t you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to.”
“…That’s too much…”
“I think Baek Yeonjun-ssi, who’s acting drunk to someone lying down to sober up, is more excessive. Keeps using informal speech.”
“You owe me a debt from last time. To me….”
“Last time? ……When?”
“When hyung was drunk……”
At the supplementary explanation, Eunha made an “Ah” sound of realization as if he finally understood. He’s talking about when Yeonjun took care of his blackout drunk self and then fucked him as is.
A sneer instantly jumped out. Because he thought he was making a strange claim.
“That’s not a debt, is it? If we trace it back, it was mutual.”
Of course, it was true that he was grateful for taking care of him when he almost passed out on the street as is. However, he didn’t know if it went as far as being a debt. Because it wasn’t pure goodwill.
When he went through trouble and strove to take care of a drunk person with a sinister purpose. That too unilaterally to someone who never asked for it.
Although at the time he spoke as if he did everything wrong and was indebted, it was to the extent of courtesy for a clean finish, so it would be troublesome to really attribute that night entirely as this side’s unilateral fault.
“Mutual?”
However, Yeonjun tilted his head as if he didn’t understand at all. At that reaction far removed from common sense expectations, Eunha, whose hackles rose for a moment, opened his mouth to say something, then changed the direction of his answer thinking what good would saying unpleasant things do. He seemed not in his right mind enough to wonder if he could even remember what was happening now.
“…I get it, so go play now.”
The drunk person didn’t listen though.
“I want to stay here.”
It was a confident declaration.
“Why?”
“Because I want to get close with hyung.”
“……”
“I’ve always wanted to get close.”
It was a voice with the end slightly wavering. A gentle smile bloomed in the pupils he faced. Eunha silently faced him and stiffened his mouth sourly. Wanted to get close, he says.
Suddenly his gaze went behind his shoulder. The door was firmly closed. The cause of the silence that had been causing a strange sense of incongruity from a while ago was that. The door the man closed upon entering. Cut off from the outside.
The quiet indoor atmosphere, contrasting with the faint noises heard from outside the door, felt strangely peculiar for a moment. It’s an obvious crux. Eunha laughed with a sneer.
“I thought you’d given up.”
“Given up?”
“Your interest.”
I thought interest had dropped after doing it once, but it seems not.
Yeonjun moved his lips slightly then pressed them together long. It was around the time he had the impression that the face he’d been looking at indifferently the whole time somehow seemed to turn pale like that of someone completely sobered up. The complexion quickly became opaque again.
“……Did you know?”
“Then I wouldn’t?”
An empty laugh flowed out. Is he asking seriously? Or is he acting shy and being coy? It’s probably the latter. It was a judgment based on common sense.
Yeonjun didn’t answer. Like someone fallen into contemplation, he kept silent for some time. Soon he needlessly fiddled with his nape and turned his gaze somewhere in the air.
“I’ve never given up……”
“You haven’t been coming to the cafe all this time though.”
“That’s……”
Yeonjun, who started to speak then stopped and exhaled a long sigh, dropped his head. His temples must be throbbing here and there. Covering his eyes largely with his palm, he muttered as if grumbling while rubbing his eye sockets. It was exam period, and even after exams ended he was somewhat busy because of assignments he’d put off.
It was a truly wholesome reason. Is that so, it was around the time Eunha blew air hard through his nose. He added more words. And—.
“……I also had some things to sort out in my thoughts.”
“……”
“But.”
Today, when I saw hyung……
Yeonjun, who trailed off, rubbed around his eyes hard one last time then lowered his hand. He subtly sent a heated gaze. Eunha chuckled.
“When you saw me, what?”
“Hyung.”
“Why?”
“Why is your lip injured?”
The gaze that had been staring deflected to the side. It was a sudden flow. Eunha, who recalled the wound he’d been living forgetting about, unconsciously stuck out his tongue and swept that area. When he touched the scab, a stinging pain spread. It was the area that had burst open badly after being hit by the man he met at the cafe. After that, the man he’d met a few times kissed as if chewing, so it hadn’t healed properly until now.
“Well. Just.”
He vaguely glossed over. Embarrassingly, he couldn’t explain that he’d been hit by someone he had a one-night stand with. No matter how much the one hearing those words was someone he’d had a one-night stand with.
Whether he read the unwilling signs, Yeonjun didn’t ask further.
