While Yuchan was away, Hakyung left after only saying thank you for helping him choose a gift.
Left alone just the two of them. Yuchan, sitting in the cafe, tapped the glass with a displeased expression.
“…This is strange.”
At Yuchan’s words, Dohyeong also nodded.
Someone is strange, someone is not strange. He didn’t want to divide things into a dichotomy, but Hakyung’s behavior today was definitely odd.
Of course, he didn’t convey the last words Hakyung left. Since he couldn’t verify the truth of them yet, he thought it wasn’t right to spread words here and there unnecessarily.
“Be careful of that person for the time being.”
Dohyeong nodded silently.
Normally, he would have brushed it off saying what does it matter, but. Even to himself, Hakyung was definitely strange.
Dohyeong, who had been stirring his half-melted iced coffee with a straw, took out his phone.
“Should I call Wootae hyung? I’ll take you home.”
“You, didn’t you come with your manager hyung?”
“Nope. I drove my car here?”
Yuchan, who spoke nonchalantly, took out his car keys from his pocket and shook them.
“To go together with you.”
“Really. Funny, seriously.”
Should this be called cheeky? Dohyeong, who had snorted, unlocked his phone.
“I’ll just tell Wootae hyung. I should at least tell him.”
“Then shall we shop a little more? There was something I wanted to buy, but I couldn’t look at it properly earlier because of Hakyung-ssi.”
Yuchan pouted his lips while complaining. At the seemingly aegyo-like gesture, Dohyeong couldn’t help but laugh.
He was cute, that was true. Cute enough that it wasn’t strange for Yuchan’s fans to constantly say he was cute.
Could he also be swayed by this appearance? Could he really live without caring about Haesung anymore, without even pondering where his heart was heading?
With a bitter heart, he sent a message to Wootae.
Ji Wootae
Hyung, Hakyung-ssi left
I’ll hang out with Yuchan a bit more and then come home
He said he’ll take me
And just as he was about to close his phone. For some reason, he became curious about SNS.
Whether Hakyung posted something strange again, who updated what. Normally he wouldn’t have thought about it at all, but today a strong premonition that he absolutely had to check wrapped around his head.
“What are you doing?”
“Ah, just… trying to see what’s been posted.”
Dohyeong, who smiled awkwardly, opened SNS. And the moment he scrolled down little by little.
What entered his eyes was Haesung’s SNS post, updated after a long time.
He had followed him again when <Glass Holding Stars> started. No matter how much they’d broken up, they were working together, and it was to show they’d broken up on good terms.
Right. It was simply that, but the moment he saw the uploaded photo, he froze in place.
“What is it?”
Finding Dohyeong strange, Yuchan joked around and stood up. Then he looked down at the phone.
★
It was delicious, unchanged
It was moving
Dohyeong, who had been staring at the content posted with the photo for a while, turned off the phone screen. After hastily putting it in his pocket, he raised his head.
“Should we go?”
He wanted to ask what it was, why he was so shaken, but.
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
Yuchan decided not to ask further.
If he kept prying into things about Haesung, Dohyeong wouldn’t be able to sort out the thoughts already coming to mind.
The two left the cafe and decided to look around the department store.
They decided to tour the casual store first and got on the escalator, but.
_’…That restaurant, it’s a place I went to with him.’_
In Dohyeong’s head, there was nothing but the photo from Haesung’s SNS.
_’And that movie…’_
It was a movie he had wanted to watch with Haesung someday. Before its release, he’d received an invitation to a preview screening and asked him to go together, but.
He was coldly rejected. Maybe because he didn’t mention it was a preview screening in the first place.
If he had, Haesung might have readily accepted. But for a reason other than that, he had wanted to go watch it together because he was Kim Dohyeong.
He’d heard news about the re-release, but he didn’t know Haesung would watch it. That he voluntarily went into a theater and watched that movie meant…
_’No, don’t get false hopes. It’s just a coincidence.’_
Dohyeong, who considered it absolutely wasn’t, shook his head quickly and vigorously.
Right. This is really just a coincidence. In the first place, Haesung wasn’t the kind of cunning person who would calculate even something like that and act.
There’s no need to be. People overflowed around him even without doing such things.
How many people would there be who liked him?
_’…There’s no particular reason to go there, but.’_
The moment Dohyeong, who was thinking such thoughts, burst into a laugh. He was startled by the presence grabbing his hand and looked back.
“Hey! What if you go down again?”
Yuchan was carefully pulling his hand. When Dohyeong looked forward in even more surprise, there was an escalator going down to the next floor.
How much had he spaced out?
“Uh… thanks. Yuchan.”
“Really. You almost went to the lost child center.”
“You could just call, what lost child center.”
“You’re acting exactly like one.”
“Choi Yuchan. You’ve gotten big.”
“I was always bigger than you.”
As they started bickering and joking around, only then did his heart feel at ease.
But still, the story from Haesung’s SNS that filled his head didn’t leave.
The words that it was deliciously unchanged, the words that it was moving.
The unrealistic thought that perhaps all of it was directed at him lingered in his mouth.
***
After stopping by the cafe he frequented, somehow the time became awkwardly off.
Haesung stared at the time on his phone for a while, then turned the car toward the department store.
Around this time, he used to go clothes shopping with Dohyeong. Because once they properly started activities, there wasn’t much time like this.
This was no different from Haesung’s own expression of interest. His own expression that if he really had no interest and no feelings, he wouldn’t come to crowded places with someone.
Of course, it was a mistake not to think about whether it would be properly conveyed.
He could use valet parking, but today he wanted to look around quietly and leave. After parking in the VIP-only parking lot, he stood in front of the elevator.
When the elevator coming down from the 3rd floor stopped in the basement and the doors opened.
“Oh? Haesung sunbae-nim.”
A completely unwelcome voice was heard.
“What brings you here?”
It was Hakyung.
At his face brightening as if flustered, as if pleased, Haesung narrowed his brows.
“……”
“Ah, right. This is a department store. Right.”
I forgot. Hakyung, who walked out of the elevator smiling, looked Haesung over with his hands behind his back.
But Haesung wasn’t the type to bristle at such a gaze.
It was when he was about to pass him without saying anything.
“Thanks to sunbae-nim’s birthday, I was able to move Dohyeong sunbae. Well, if this is also thanks to sunbae-nim, should I say thank you?”
His body stopped dead at the familiar voice. He slowly turned back, and Hakyung covered his mouth with one hand as if surprised.
“Wow, that expression is no joke.”
“…What did you just say?”
“Well. Won’t you find out the details soon enough?”
Hakyung made an incomprehensible sound and took a step back.
As if waiting for Haesung’s next action.
At the clearly visible appearance, Haesung didn’t budge. He just quietly looked at Hakyung.
“I met Kim Dohyeong sunbae. Here.”
“……”
That meant Dohyeong was also in this department store right now.
There was no doubt about why the two met. He was just standing at a crossroads of whether to go in or not.
“Shall I tell you an interesting story?”
At Hakyung approaching with a grin, Haesung stepped back slightly.
But he didn’t stop. He slowly approached Haesung and stuck close to him, then stood on tiptoes and brought his lips close to his ear.
Haesung looked down with complete displeasure at the hand placed on one side of his chest. Just as he was about to shake it off.
The voice penetrating his ear made him hesitate.
“Dohyeong sunbae seems to be misunderstanding. Between me and sunbae-nim.”
“…What do you mean?”
Hakyung smiled brightly and lowered himself from his tiptoes. He placed both hands on his chest, looked at him quietly, then shrugged his shoulders.
“I said I wanted to get sunbae-nim a birthday present, asked him to help me choose, brought him here, but his expression was really… not good. Should I say he looked depressed? Or should I say he looked complicated.”
“What’s your point?”
“That’s what I’m saying. Ah, and Yuchan sunbae also seems to have feelings for Dohyeong sunbae.”
How much had he noticed from where to where?
The most tiresome and dangerous type. Because his mind scheming how to cook with the information clutched in his hands was clearly visible.
“The two are together right now. Shouldn’t you hurry and go?”
“You-“
“Then. I’ll see you on set. Thank you for various things today. Both sunbae-nim and Dohyeong sunbae. I won’t forget.”
Hakyung winked while making incomprehensible sounds.
He only watched him walking away from him. He knew he should grab him, but the words Hakyung left wouldn’t leave his head.
_’The two are together right now.’_
If he appeared in front of Dohyeong here and now, it might rather become a bad situation.
He might be uncomfortable, or might pass by pretending not to know. No. A situation might arise where he just politely greeted him thinking of him only as a senior and moved on.
His head was complicated, but his body was already in the elevator going up. Where would they have gone? Thinking it would be better to look around from the 2nd floor first, he pressed the elevator button.
_’The probability of encountering Dohyeong here is… low.’_
In the first place, recognizing Dohyeong among all these people wouldn’t be an easy task either.
Not even knowing whether what Hakyung said was true or not.
While thinking various thoughts, it was already the 2nd floor. Haesung got off the elevator with a somewhat nervous heart.
He walked through the department store corridor as calmly as possible. People’s gazes pierced him, but he didn’t care.
Rather, he knew that at times like this, he had to be confident.
It seemed like he’d gone around once, but Dohyeong wasn’t there. Had he left? Or another floor?
Not wanting to think about the former, he believed the latter was certain.
“Escalator.”
Muttering briefly to himself, he turned around. The moment he moved his steps toward the escalator.
“No, I’m just going to buy training clothes.”
“Hey. Even if you only stay at home, you-“
“Shh. Let’s just pretend we don’t know. I just want to enjoy things normally right now.”
A familiar voice was heard. The moment he raised his head sharply, Dohyeong entered his view.
Wearing a mask, with a hat and hood pulled over, he could still recognize it was Dohyeong at once.
“Kim Dohyeong.”
Dohyeong, who had been walking from the opposite direction, turned his head to look at Haesung.
And his eyes widened as if surprised, his lips trembling finely. Although his expression was clearly filled with bewilderment, his gaze didn’t leave Haesung.
“…Hyung.”
