Clearly he was the homeowner, but for some reason, Seo-an ended up obediently doing as Hae-won told him. When he was forced to turn his body into the room by the hand pushing his back, he heard a firm voice from behind once more.
“Hyung, just get ready for work. I’ll take the child to daycare and go home to sleep more.”
No, I could just do it on my way to work…
When he turned around thinking that, he saw the two of them already standing side by side holding hands.
For some reason, he felt strange.
He had no intention of clearing up the misunderstanding Hae-won had about him, nor of explaining his circumstances. He thought he wouldn’t do so in the future either, but a strange ripple began to rise in one corner of his chest.
“Hurry up.”
“Daddy, hurry hurry! Don’t be late coming to get Ji-yu again!”
He didn’t want to admit it, but that picture also suited them quite well, which was a bit confusing.
***
“Hyung, what are you thinking about so much?”
At the question heard right next to him, Seo-an turned to the side. Hae-won in comfortable clothes was smiling brightly with his hat pressed down low. Even though his face wasn’t very big and was covered by the brim of the hat, the brilliance he possessed was rarely hidden.
As soon as Seo-an saw his face, he smiled brightly and shook his head.
“Nothing, I wasn’t thinking about anything.”
“The weather is really nice today.”
Hae-won spoke as if it were natural while taking the seat next to Seo-an. At the same time, a cool canned drink was placed on the desk where textbooks were messily spread out.
A smile bloomed on Seo-an’s lips at Hae-won’s action of casually placing down the ion drink he enjoyed when his head hurt, somehow knowing what he liked without making a big deal of it.
“How did you know I like this?”
“You always only drink that. I thought you had shares in that company.”
The cheeky remark made Seo-an’s smile deepen. Seo-an, who received the drink with a simple thanks, took a big gulp as soon as he opened it. When he opened his throat and poured it in, Hae-won, sitting right next to him, watched with enjoyment as if watching a rare and curious show.
In Hae-won’s hand was a carbonated drink. He remembered Hae-won, who said ion drinks were too bland and coffee was too bitter, saying carbonated drinks were better and enjoying them.
Seo-an gently snatched the can from his hand and opened it for him. He knew he wasn’t holding it because he couldn’t do it, but he just wanted to do it for him.
“Hyung, what are you doing today? Let’s eat dinner together later.”
“Dinner? My lunch hasn’t even settled yet.”
“Exactly. I’m saying let’s stay together until it settles.”
How can he say such shameless things so well with that pretty face? Seo-an looked at Hae-won with curious eyes and readily nodded.
At the beginning of last year, he became close with Hae-won at the freshman welcome party, who had captivated everyone in the department with his glamorous appearance as soon as he entered as a freshman.
Hae-won, who had quite a drinking capacity despite being only a first-year, made a very strong first impression. In the end, the only ones who kept their sanity until the welcome party was completely over were Seo-an and Hae-won, just the two of them.
Perhaps that’s why. The two who became close rapidly had already been stuck together for over a year and established themselves as a famous pair within the department. Even though both of them were men, there seemed to be a strange atmosphere in the department of “don’t mess with them,” but the two didn’t pay much attention to it.
“Did you finish your assignment? You said you were busy.”
“I put out the urgent fire. You know the one you sent me yesterday? It was all in there.”
“You didn’t submit that as is, did you? That professor searches all the past exams.”
“…Why are you telling me this now?”
Both ends of Hae-won’s straight eyebrows drooped downward. At the same time, he threw his body onto the department room sofa and rolled his body, leaning his neck on the armrest. Because of that, even though his head was bent back and he was looking at Seo-an upside down, a smile quickly bloomed on his lips.
“You didn’t ask.”
“Still, that’s just common sense, you should have told me.”
“Why didn’t you change it with your common sense?”
“…This won’t do.”
What won’t do?
At the out-of-the-blue answer, Seo-an tilted his head.
Seo-an, who had turned his chair completely toward Hae-won, crossed his legs and bent his body slightly to make close eye contact with Hae-won. The closer their faces got, the deeper the pretty smile on Hae-won’s lips became.
When Seo-an’s expression also softened gently while looking at him, Hae-won reached his hands up and gently wrapped Seo-an’s face with both hands.
“Hyung has no choice but to take responsibility for me.”
Then he continued what he had said out of the blue.
It was like this every time. And Seo-an was used to Hae-won’s attitude like this.
Of course, he was flustered at first. He had also been amazed that Hae-won, the same gender as him, said such things so casually. But that was only for a moment. Seo-an, who had felt favorable from the moment he first saw him, wasn’t entirely uncomfortable with this relationship where they had some certainty about each other’s feelings even without the direct words “I like you.”
Seo-an smiled faintly with his face held by Hae-won.
“Why would I suddenly take responsibility for you?”
“You didn’t tell me the precautions in advance. If my grade gets destroyed, hyung takes responsibility.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“You don’t not want to.”
And as if that certainty wasn’t only his own, Hae-won always retorted like this.
The moment Seo-an grinned, their lips touched. Seo-an, who had only been aware that their faces were getting closer, that he felt a pulling force, widened his eyes in surprise at the moist sensation touching his lips.
He hurriedly knocked away Hae-won’s hands and straightened his body. As if possessed by something, separately from his suddenly alert consciousness at a moment when everything had been flowing naturally, his heart beat very fast. At the same time, it felt like he could feel a pounding pulse on his lips too, so Seo-an slowly fumbled and touched his own lips.
“…Hey.”
Hae-won, who was getting up from the sofa, also looked quite flustered, as if he hadn’t intended to kiss either.
“…Really, hyung seduced me.”
“Me, what did I do?”
“Hyung seduced me first. Really.”
Hae-won’s face, repeating only the same words, was dyed red as if it would burst at any moment. The loud pounding erased the other sounds around them.
The commotion that bloomed in a place with only silence didn’t know how to subside easily.
***
“Hmm…”
With a clack, the sound of a pen rolling, Seo-an frowned. After unknowingly making a sound from his vocal cords, he closed his eyes tightly and pushed out of his head the childhood he had been reminiscing about for a moment.
Perhaps because he drank with Hae-won last night and talked about their university days, the memory of their first kiss that came to mind particularly vividly was troublesome.
There must have been signs like that before too. It’s just that the scene I happened to recall today is that one.
When they walked side by side, their hands would secretly brush against each other, and then they would hold hands. As if they were even dating, they had lain side by side on the department room sofa and slept holding each other’s waists.
Of course, there was the inconvenience of having to get up before their classmates came, but that meant that was all that was inconvenient. So even after kissing, he had felt excitement rather than discomfort.
Seo-an made a tsk sound, then let out a deep sigh.
“What am I doing…”
That was then, and now is now.
The four years were both short and long, and that time had changed many things.
Seo-an shook his head, telling himself not to fall into pointless sentimentality. His head hurt because his mind had been all over the place since morning. Fortunately, the project he had been suffering with ever since moving was approved, and he was told he could freely use his time for the time being.
Seo-an, who immediately took a half-day off in the afternoon, was sitting in a cafe waiting for Ji-yu and Hae-won. It was to buy food for Hae-won, who had worked hard, and Ji-yu, who must have been lonely staying alone.
He picked up the pen from the floor with a eup-cha sound. When he straightened his waist, thinking he should organize things appropriately since it was about time for the two to arrive…
“Ta-da!”
“Ta-da.”
Ji-yu and Hae-won stood in front of him, bursting out the same exclamation simultaneously.
Cute Ji-yu aside, Hae-won’s appearance from university days overlapped exactly over Hae-won’s brightly smiling face. Perhaps it was because he had just been mulling over old times.
“You… now that I see you, you’re exactly the same as before.”
Seo-an said blankly. It wasn’t something he said particularly consciously. It was a remark that came out on its own, and by the time he realized it, it was already too late.
Hae-won’s neat eyebrows rose slightly and then settled. A strange look could be read in his eyes as he tilted his head crookedly.
“What’s this, you don’t even answer questions properly but now you’re openly seducing someone.”
What he said while doing so was clearly sulky, but his mood didn’t look that bad.
At the same time as Seo-an cleared his throat with a ahem, the child who didn’t know anything made a bright voice between the two adults facing each other.
“Daddy is openly seducing?”
Normally, he might have wondered if someone would hear, and quickly picked up the child and made a fuss trying to move their attention elsewhere.
But Seo-an couldn’t do that.
“Why, does it feel suddenly good to have a face you liked stay the same?”
