Hakyoung lightly brushed aside Yumyeong’s bangs with his hand and smiled back at him.
Yumyeong said,
“I’m sweaty.”
“It’s fine.”
“My nape is no joke. Because my hair is long.”
Then this time, Hakyoung’s hand also touched his slightly damp nape. He tried to avoid it, saying not to touch, but Hakyoung’s hand persistently followed. Unable to help it, with his nape caught, Yumyeong looked in the mirror.
“Should I try tying my hair up? I think it’ll tie.”
“It would suit you well.”
“Don’t be ridiculous… I should go shower first.”
*Ding!*
While they were flirting, the door opened with the arrival notification sound. Yumyeong, who went ahead first, checked the room number written on the memo and pressed the door lock password. The door made a *click* sound as it turned, and the two’s eyes met again.
The moment they flung open the door, they both fell silent for a moment.
“Uh…”
“Wow…”
It was obvious if you thought about it, but inside was completely empty.
Of course, they hadn’t expected perfect interior decoration. However, the visual shock of the empty house was enough to leave the teenagers, who had never bought furniture on their own in their lives, speechless. The only things inside were blue moving boxes that hadn’t been unpacked yet.
Fortunately, at least it was cleanly swept, and the system air conditioner was working. After looking around the house here and there, Yumyeong returned to the living room and checked the moving boxes.
“These are my clothes…”
In the box labeled ‘Clothing,’ clothes were neatly folded and stacked. Below that were boxes labeled books and accessories, and bedding. Hakyoung, who had followed at some point, was observing Yumyeong’s profile. Though he didn’t say anything, he seemed to be asking ‘Are you okay?’
Yumyeong chuckled and answered.
“…We did well to pack our things.”
Until sunset, Yumyeong didn’t think about going outside as he organized the luggage. Watching that expressionless profile, instead of tactlessly urging him to go out, Hakyoung helped him.
“Wow, all my diaries are here. Workbooks… I could throw these away.”
“You have a lot of diaries.”
“Of course. I was the type who wrote in my diary faithfully.”
The handwriting was very familiar. The habit of drawing ‘ieung’ clockwise had been consistent since childhood. Meanwhile, Hakyoung discovered an interesting album.
“Is this a photo from your elementary school entrance ceremony?”
“Yeah.”
Hakyoung took in the album carefully. The face he had first fallen for in his life was there. When he was young, he thought he was very handsome, but looking now, he was just a baby.
After washing up one by one and cooling off from the sweat, the two bought dinner while enjoying the cool evening breeze. Though it was a short walk, it was enough time to fully enjoy the summer night. Venus hung in the sky, and a pleasant breeze burrowed through their not-yet-dry hair.
At the convenience store they briefly stopped by to buy water, Hakyoung slipped a hair tie onto the counter. Yumyeong laughed heartily and as soon as the payment was done, he tried to tie his hair himself.
“This isn’t working well. I’ve never done it before…”
“I’ll do it for you.”
With the hair tie in his mouth, Hakyoung carefully gathered Yumyeong’s hair together. The touch of his hand gathering the hair like a hand-comb was so gentle it tickled his scalp.
Yumyeong deliberately chattered to calm his fluttering heart.
“Wh… what’s this? Looks like you’ve tied girls’ hair before.”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
When he was young, Hakyoung had grown his hair long due to his mother’s preference. The habit he picked up then still remained.
“It’s short so it won’t all tie up. This is the limit.”
“Much better. It’s cool.”
Yumyeong’s hair that Hakyoung completed was a half-up style. The tied part stuck out like a bird’s tail, and the remaining hair still covered the nape, but even that alone felt very refreshing.
After returning home like that, they took out all the bedding from one box and spread it out in the middle of the room. They layered all the bedding they had in case the floor was hard, completing a very fluffy sleeping place.
“I’m sorry because of me. Sleeping on the bare floor.”
“I’m fine.”
Because Hakyoung, sitting obediently on the bedding, said it so nonchalantly, Yumyeong felt even more sorry.
“You hate having your back against the bare floor. Should I make it fluffy for you?”
“What? How…”
“Sleep on top of me.”
Then Hakyoung silently blushed to his ears and glared at Yumyeong. Unable to tell if that meant yes or no, Yumyeong only scratched his head.
Unlike the dormitory where nameless birds cried deep in the mountains when night fell, the city didn’t sleep even at midnight. The sound of cars brushing past the main road could still be heard in the distance, and the streetlights were so bright that even with all the lights off, light leaked in from somewhere.
Lying down side by side next to Hakyoung to try to sleep, Yumyeong suddenly realized something.
The fact that being alone among these many lights in the city center might be lonelier than being deep in the mountains where you couldn’t even feel the presence of people.
Though he sometimes got sick of the school rules and penalty points, living in the bustling dormitory was much better. Because there were friends who welcomed you no matter whose door you flung open.
But that too would end after graduation.
After graduation, probably alone in this house like this…
Thinking that far, Yumyeong linked arms with Hakyoung for no reason.
“Hakyoung-ah, you don’t like the middle of the city like this, right?”
“Hm?”
“You said so. That you can see stars well when there’s no light. There are stars in the sky now too, but we just can’t see them, right?”
“That’s right…”
Murmuring, Hakyoung turned his head this way. His dark eyes held a bit of sleepiness.
“You like places where you can see stars well, like the countryside or the desert.”
“That’s true.”
“Then, after we graduate, if I ask you to live here with me…”
“…”
“You don’t want to?”
While waiting for an answer and blinking a couple of times, Hakyoung’s eyes changed completely from just before. His face had completely driven away the sleepiness.
After staring with deep eyes for a while, he asked,
“You want to live with me?”
“Yeah.”
Yumyeong answered obediently.
The city lights that wouldn’t go out flickered behind Hakyoung’s back. His cheek, backlit by the faint city light, was glowing white.
He suddenly wanted to touch that skin. It was when he carefully raised his hand and brushed aside the hair covering his forehead a little. Hakyoung asked back with a humorless face.
“…Why do you say things like that?”
“Huh?”
“Are you serious?”
“What are you talking about…”
“You said you want to get married. You said your dream was to be a married college student.”
With his finger touching his cheek, Yumyeong froze.
“You don’t really have any intention of living with me. Stop doing things that confuse people.”
Reprimanded in a way he hadn’t expected at all, Yumyeong was stunned. Not knowing what to make of himself unable to say anything, Hakyoung bit his own lips tightly. Then he removed Yumyeong’s hand that was touching his cheek and turned to lie with his back turned.
Behind his sharply jutting angular shoulders, the t-shirt wrinkled along the muscles of his back. From Hakyoung, who had turned away and was holding his breath like that, a small voice leaked out after a moment.
“I’m sorry.”
“…For what?”
“Just sorry.”
It was a voice exhausted on its own.
Without a word, Yumyeong moved closer to Hakyoung’s back. When he hugged that back from behind, unlike the curt words from just before, he felt a very warm body temperature.
How long had they been like that?
Though he hadn’t said anything, words flowed smoothly from Hakyoung’s mouth.
“…I don’t understand you. You act like you need me, but you say countless times that what you really like and want to spend your life with is a woman. I know all too well that men aren’t romantic partners to you. But sometimes I get confused to the point of going crazy. You’re doing it now too. You say you want to live with me, but I don’t know if you’re serious or not. Then when you go to college, you’ll forget you even said those things…”
“What about you.”
When he asked quietly, Hakyoung hesitated for a long time. As if to soothe him, Yumyeong patted the arm of Hakyoung he was hugging.
“Regardless of my position, what’s your heart like?”
“…”
Hakyoung didn’t answer.
Strangely, it was a silence where his heart seemed to be audible. Even so, he wanted to hear it directly at least once.
If I hear that, somehow I too…
I feel like I’ll know the answer.
“I like you.”
At that moment, Yumyeong unconsciously closed his eyes. A stinging feeling filled his entire body, bringing an indescribable sense of fulfillment.
Even though it was an expected statement, it was nice to hear. To the point of tears.
At the same time, this very moment felt strange and new. The fact that even though he’d received a confession from a guy he once hated like crazy, he didn’t feel repulsed or dislike it.
Slowly, very slowly, even while knowing it was becoming this kind of situation, he too had never once put on the brakes. Yumyeong looked into his own heart while feeling his heart pounding noisily.
Did I ultimately want to hear these words from Ryu Hakyoung?
Since when exactly?
“You like me?”
“Yeah…”
“You really like me?”
“Yeah. I like you.”
Because those words felt so good to hear, Yumyeong asked several times. Even to him, who wanted to gain all the attention and affection of everyone in the world, Hakyoung’s confession was special. It seemed like he wouldn’t get tired of it no matter how many times he heard it.
“What do you like about me?”
“I don’t know.”
“Aw, tell me. What do you like?”
“…You’re cute, and though you’re not kind, you’re just…”
“And?”
“Your hair texture and neck are pretty.”
“Really? And more?”
“You always make my heart flutter…”
Yumyeong kept asking endlessly while clinging to Hakyoung, who was avoiding his eyes. He stubbornly held out with his back turned, absolutely refusing to make eye contact with Yumyeong. He pushed away Yumyeong with one hand, who was to the point of climbing on top of him after trying to examine his face, and buried his head in the floor.
Yumyeong, persistently approaching, whispered almost touching his lips to Hakyoung’s ear.
“When do I make your heart flutter?”
“…Even now…”
“Haha, but why do you keep avoiding my face?”
Finally reaching his limit, Hakyoung yelled with his face buried in his arms.
“I can’t look at you! Do you even understand what I just said?”
