Horror washed over Yumyeong’s face.
“You really did well on the written exam. So why didn’t you do better normally too?”
It was just as he said. Yumyeong, who had lost motivation for his studies, had already ruined many practical performance assessments and reports. And since the total score for the final exam on the report card came out as a sum with the performance assessments, this result was created.
As he calmly refolded the report card and put it in the envelope, Hakyoung said.
“Then I won.”
“Hey, wait!”
Yumyeong cried out desperately.
“This is invalid!”
“What?”
“We didn’t set clear standards before the bet. Whether to go by points only, or by rank. If this had been the midterm exam. Then I would have won!”
Since he’d been confident he would win until just moments ago, Yumyeong couldn’t easily escape from the shock. But the problem was that watching that desperate appearance, Hakyoung simply frowned in silence without answering. Feeling somewhat inferior due to his reaction, Yumyeong grumbled again as if shaking off his irritation.
“Ugh, why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because you look kind of desperate…….”
“Ha! Me?”
“Yeah. Stop being unreasonable.”
Hakyoung said as if admonishing him.
Yumyeong felt so wronged that tears even welled up in his eyes. His objection that the standards were ambiguous was legitimate, but these were words coming from someone who had already lost. The fact that in others’ eyes he would only look like a sore loser who couldn’t accept defeat cut even deeper. Since he had always hated losing, his pride was hurt all the more.
“…….”
It was when Yumyeong was silent with his head bowed. Hakyoung, who seemed to be quietly examining that face, opened his mouth.
“It’s just a bet. Why are you so serious?”
“Don’t make me talk.”
“Did you want to win that badly?”
“Is there anyone who likes losing?”
“Then…….”
Hakyoung lowered his eyes and let out a shallow sigh.
“I’m fine with it, so let’s say you won.”
“Are you joking?!”
The moment he jerked his bowed head up, Yumyeong almost hit Hakyoung’s chin with the top of his head. Hakyoung, who flinched in surprise and stepped back, had a slightly bewildered face.
“I hate being given a win even more. Just do it the original way.”
“Really? But you cri…….”
“Shut up and just say your wish…….”
Yumyeong gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. Losing left a bitter taste, but being forced to win because someone let him was an even greater humiliation. Since it had come to this anyway, he intended to grant it once like a man.
“Are you really sure I can say I won?”
“Yeah.”
After answering readily, Yumyeong waited for Hakyoung to state his wish.
“I, um……. I.”
However, Hakyoung only moved his lips with a somehow tense face.
“What, why are you taking so long?”
“Ah, just a moment.”
Hakyoung’s face, which had been calm even in the tense moment before opening the report card, became disheveled when it came time to merely state a wish. He swallowed dry saliva, and also rubbed his tense palms on the pant leg over his thighs. What kind of scheme was this? Yumyeong raised one eyebrow thinking it was quite suspicious.
Hakyoung asked again. With a serious face.
“Are you really sure it’s okay?”
“What is?”
“My wish…….”
“No, I mean what is it? Just say it.”
By this point, he was getting more and more curious and his patience was wearing thin.
A little while later, Hakyoung finally opened his mouth with his ears dyed red. His voice was so small, as if crawling, that it was hard to catch it in one go.
“Want to, touch.”
“Huh?”
“I want to touch…… you.”
The focus in Yumyeong’s eyes, who had been listening quietly, blurred vacantly. Hakyoung’s Adam’s apple clearly bobbed up and down, then he waved his hand in front of him saying ‘Yumyeong?’ Yumyeong regained his blurred vision and asked.
“Uh, what? Say it again.”
“I guess it won’t work after all. Let’s pretend you didn’t hear.”
As he said that, Hakyoung forlornly bowed his head to the side. Seeing that melancholy profile gradually brought back a sense of reality. Yumyeong slowly grasped the situation.
Had sexual frustration made his head go strange?
For a moment, the events of that thundering night passed by. He might have touched some dangerous switch of Hakyoung’s at that time. Of all times, when he was in solitary practice in his own Sodom and Gomorrah!
He was even a guy suffering from unrequited love. Since he’d only been looking at his target continuously, he might need a sacrifice for desire relief……. Yumyeong ground the inside of his invisible lips.
So that’s why he hesitated like that.
Certainly, if it weren’t for this kind of bet, it would be difficult to say to anyone.
Yumyeong glanced at Hakyoung and said.
“Ridiculous? You say everything you want to say and then why act deflated?”
“You’re the one. You pretended not to hear what you didn’t want to hear.”
“Then who would hear such words in their right mind?”
“I heard loud and clear that you don’t like it, so stop.”
The low voice carried emotions that seemed hurt. While Yumyeong hesitated for a moment, Hakyoung opened his mouth again.
“That’s why I told you to say you won.”
“…….”
“Whether I won or lost, I knew my wish wouldn’t come true.”
Hakyoung’s eyelashes trembled and then settled. Yumyeong was dumbfounded. The pervert with a pretty, innocent face in front of him had just been openly saying he would molest(?) him. But looking at just that face, he felt like he was the bad guy for refusing it. To a guy who liked men and must have experienced countless such rejections, he couldn’t show his usual disgusted reaction.
As Hakyoung interpreted Yumyeong’s heart as he couldn’t continue speaking, he opened his mouth with a bitter smile.
“As you said, we didn’t set standards, and your score was overwhelmingly higher. It’s not unreasonable to say you won.”
“If you put it that way…….”
“But you’re really amazing. Once you set your mind to it, you recover your grades right away. When you can do that well.”
“Right…… right?”
“Yeah, you’re really smart, aren’t you?”
Receiving unexpected praise melted his heart, so Yumyeong forgot his awkwardness and awkwardly touched the back of his head. There was still conflict going on in his heart about whether it was right to move on like this, but that said, he couldn’t allow(?) his body either. It seemed right to grab it when he was backing off.
“So what’s your wish?”
“Huh?”
“What did you want to ask me to do? Tell me. I’ll grant anything.”
Hakyoung said with a generous face. It was truly an expression that said whatever it was, he willingly wanted to grant the wish.
In reality, that’s probably what it would have been. Until he heard Yumyeong’s wish.
“Ah, my wish? Do you have a younger sister? Or a cousin.”
When he awkwardly blurted out the words, doubt flashed in Hakyoung’s eyes for a moment.
“Why that?”
“Is she pretty? Introduce her to me.”
However, as soon as he finished speaking, Hakyoung’s face gradually hardened.
“Or an older sister is fine too. Up to five years older than me…….”
That’s when he’d gotten that far. Hakyoung cut him off sharply with a voice as if frost had fallen coldly.
“Forget it, I’m saying I won.”
“What?”
“I can’t grant it. I won.”
As the situation changed like flipping a palm, Yumyeong felt absurd for a moment, then soon indignation surged up. The fact that he went out of his way to hear the wish and then swiftly changed his words made him think it could only be because it was fun to jerk him around.
“Hey, don’t ask then!”
“What? An older sister is fine too?”
“Yeah……!”
“Ha, up to five years older? Are you crazy?”
At the pouring criticism, Yumyeong became slightly bewildered. Hakyoung occasionally lost his reason and became crazily childish or emotional, and now was exactly one of those times.
“What’s wrong? I haven’t even done anything yet. I just asked you to introduce someone……!”
“Yeah, I have an older sister. But I absolutely can’t introduce her to you.”
“No, damn…… why?”
“Someone like you who’s light and playful and can’t help himself around women…… that kind of…….”
Getting that far, Hakyoung suddenly stopped talking. The voice coming from beyond his deeply bowed head was trembling slightly.
‘Is he angry because I touched on his family.’
Feeling an ominous anger from Hakyoung’s gloomy atmosphere, Yumyeong thought he should quickly back out. Everyone has their reverse scale. To think Hakyoung had an older sister, he was a bit curious, but now was the time to retreat.
“Ah, okay. Let’s pretend I didn’t say it. I just said it and you’re really going at me…….”
“I won. You have to grant my wish.”
“…….”
Yumyeong pressed his lips tightly shut and fell silent. When there was no answer, Hakyoung, who had been bowing his head until now, raised it at an angle. As if a blue-green light was pouring from those eyes, Yumyeong was slightly, very slightly intimidated.
“The touching, how far……does it go.”
Hakyoung didn’t answer and continued to glare. As a sharp blue energy settled on his pretty face, Yumyeong floundered. For him, who had consistently been weak to this type of face from the past until now, it was something that couldn’t be helped. Though he himself didn’t even know why he was like that.
“Set a standard. That way I can prepare myself mentally too.”
“…….”
“Upper body or lower body?”
“…….”
“Head, chest, stomach?”
Hakyoung had no answer. Instead, he only scanned him thoroughly with his eyes. Only then did Yumyeong realize that Hakyoung was scanning his body in ‘that meaning.’ Once he became conscious of it, he felt like his neck to his ears were heating up for no reason.
After a while, Hakyoung said in a low voice.
“Neck……. Up to the shoulders.”
It was a smaller area than expected. Thinking it was unexpected, Yumyeong asked again.
“That’s enough?”
“That’s enough.”
Hakyoung nodded his head lightly once. Thinking it was nothing special, he suddenly felt relieved, so Yumyeong let out a laugh.
“Are you going to do it now?”
“I’ll…… tell you.”
“So not right now, right? That much is nothing. Yeah, whatever.”
Then he stretched long as if his body was stiff from sitting for a long time. Under his top, his slender stomach with a clearly defined eleven-line abs was revealed. Unaware that Hakyoung was unconsciously looking there, Yumyeong tapped Hakyoung’s shoulder and stood up from his seat.
“Then tell me when you want to touch.”
After finishing the bet as if leaving a debt like that, Yumyeong returned to his room. Left alone, Hakyoung gripped the report card envelope tightly in his hand. All of Yumyeong’s words, uttered without any awareness, sounded meaningful and were a little painful.
“Ha…….”
The sigh he let out was hot enough for even himself to be conscious of it.
