From the moment Gi Siyoung brought up absurd nonsense that didn’t suit Seungun’s disposition, he wanted to run away. He wanted to shake off the shackles on his heart. He was so despicable and contemptible to himself that he could barely stand it. It made him even more miserable that all he could do was endure.
Gi Siyoung looked at Seungun, who couldn’t say anything and was only perking up his ears, and smiled with satisfaction. He should have done this from the start instead of scheming to knock him down with lousy excuses. While Im Seungun was generally open to physical contact, he had a surprisingly naive side when it came to this sort of thing. At times like this, he was exactly like a blockhead who had never dated anyone.
Watching the stone-faced Im Seungun’s expression turn troubled never got boring. He was curious about Im Seungun’s inconsistent past, but that was something he could dig into slowly later.
Just then, a vibration sounded from Seungun’s pants pocket. Startled, Seungun first glanced at Gi Siyoung’s face. The only person who would call at this hour was President Gu. If he answered the phone, the house was quiet enough that the other person’s voice would leak out. But fortunately, the vibration ended after just once. Gi Siyoung, who found it suspicious that Seungun was frantically pulling out his phone in alarm, snatched it away.
“Ah!”
Seungun jumped up from his seat and reached out with a pale face, but he had no strength in his body to overcome Gi Siyoung’s physical power. Siyoung easily blocked Seungun as he lunged at him.
He gazed at the screen with his hand stretched up high. If he read President Gu’s suspicious text in the preview… Seungun’s heart pounded and cold sweat broke out.
“Give it! Why are you reading someone else’s—!”
Then please come for sure! I’ll be waiting ♡
Gi Siyoung slowly began to read the text message aloud.
“‘Then please come for sure. I’ll be waiting’? A heart?”
Because of the phone’s brightness illuminating the center of Gi Siyoung’s face, his change in expression was clearly revealed. With furrowed eyebrows and twisted lips, he sharply turned his head.
“Patrick?”
“……”
“You even exchanged numbers with Patrick?”
“I said give it back.”
“When?”
“The night we drank in Bali.”
That bastard had ended up taking Seungun’s number after all. Gi Siyoung threw the phone onto the bed with a displeased face. Seungun hurriedly shoved the phone into his pocket. He’d have to be more careful from now on.
“What are you hiding so much when I’ve already seen everything? Does putting it away make what I saw unseen?”
“What am I hiding? I’m putting it back because you’ve already seen it. And why did you open someone else’s text without permission?”
“Ah, so there must be some shady reason I shouldn’t see Patrick’s texts?”
“Patrick isn’t a shady person.”
“If you like Patrick so much, why don’t you just get his name tattooed on your chest?”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Why are you two meeting?”
“I got concert tickets from him at the bar last time, remember?”
“Ah, that.”
Gi Siyoung remembered the ambiguously-sized concert ticket he had mistaken for a hotel card key.
“So.”
“……”
“You’re really going to go there?”
“……”
“Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you really going or what?”
“Because I made a promise.”
“Who lives keeping 100% of their promises? If there are circumstances, you break them.”
“How can I do that? And…”
“And what?”
When Patrick gave him the concert tickets, he begged and begged again to please come, to please come watch since it was his first solo concert. If many people came to support him, it would give him confidence. Those eyes that grabbed his hand and asked looked exactly like Puss in Boots, so he couldn’t make excuses.
“There are two tickets.”
“So what? Are you bragging that you got two?”
“Come with me. I already cleared my schedule.”
“…Are you asking me on a date right now?”
Gi Siyoung, who had been acting prickly like a hedgehog, mulled over Seungun’s words and asked back in a softened voice.
“If I said I wouldn’t go, what would you do, clearing your schedule so carelessly?”
When Patrick got to his main point that he really hoped Gi Siyoung sunbae could come together if possible, Seungun hadn’t been able to confirm so readily… But looking at Gi Siyoung’s face meeting his eyes now, somehow he glimpsed hope that he might be able to take him to the concert as Patrick wished.
“When is it?”
“Tomorrow at 6 PM.”
“Wow. You’re telling me quite early, aren’t you?”
“So if we’re meeting tomorrow, hurry up and go home.”
“I was planning to sleep over.”
“Are you joking? The bed is completely full just with Gi Siyoung-ssi lying down. This isn’t a place like Gi Siyoung-ssi’s house where a guest can sleep over.”
“Ah, okay, okay, I get it. You’re being really strict. Does Im Seungun-ssi think I’ll pathetically cling to sleeping over here if you’re like that?”
Gi Siyoung, shaking off Seungun’s hand that was dragging him to the entrance, brushed off his sleeves with sharp taps. Then, as if without regret, he left the house without looking back. Seungun stood blankly at the entrance, listening to the sound of him going down the stairs.
Had he sent him away too coldly? He’d probably already lost affection for him. He was probably the most pathetic and ungracious person Gi Siyoung had ever met. He remained frozen in the dim entrance until Gi Siyoung’s footsteps faded away.
Unless someone said “ding,” it seemed like he would freeze like ice and not move until his thoughts ended, but at the sudden sound of “Im Seungun!” calling his full name, he was startled and rushed out to the utility room. Even while Seungun was running, a loud voice from outside the building called Seungun’s name several times.
Seungun threw open the window and looked down, his eyes widening. Gi Siyoung, who he thought had left in a bad mood, was waving both hands raised above his head and shouting, “See you tomorrow!”
“What are you doing right now!”
Seungun whispered down. It was late at night. Even though it was a neighborhood where few people lived, it would be terrible if someone recognized Gi Siyoung’s voice. Seungun gestured urgently for him to leave quickly while keeping his voice down.
He was smiling so broadly it was clearly visible even from above. Along with a mischievous laugh, he got into the driver’s seat looking like someone with a screw loose. As soon as Gi Siyoung’s car left the villa parking lot and completely disappeared from sight, Seungun firmly shut the window and sank down in place with his hands clasped to his chest.
***
The next day, Seungun kept checking his outfit in front of the full-length mirror at the entrance. His hair was shaggy because he’d been too busy to groom it, and his bare face with nothing applied was dull and lifeless. The dark circles seemed to have come down darker than before… No matter how he looked, there wasn’t a single aspect he was satisfied with.
“I should have bought some clothes.”
He hadn’t realized it because he always wore comfortable clothing when working. Since he had no private schedule outside of work, shopping was far from his life. He had impulsively accepted Gi Siyoung’s proposal to date, but thinking about meeting someone he saw every day for a different purpose made him extremely self-conscious. A private meeting—he had to show behavior appropriate for that.
“I can’t go out looking shabby, haa…”
His counterpart was Gi Siyoung. Someone who looked like a new season model for a famous brand even wearing 5,000 won clothes sold at the market. Standing next to someone like that would make him look even worse by comparison. Seungun pursed his lips and opened the closet door again.
“……”
It was obvious.
He had no clothes to choose from. In the end, he put on faded jeans and a blue shirt. It would be hot to walk around in this during midday when heat wave warnings were going off, but it was the tidiest and least-used outfit among what he had.
He glanced outside from time to time, but Gi Siyoung’s vehicle wasn’t visible even when he checked for the last time. As he buttoned his shirt and checked again discreetly, a decent car that didn’t match this neighborhood was driving slowly at that alley entrance. Seungun hurriedly finished preparing.
The concert start time was 6 o’clock. The time Gi Siyoung had asked to meet was much earlier than that. Getting into the passenger seat, Seungun glanced sideways at Gi Siyoung in the next seat. So much so that it was embarrassing how long he’d agonized in front of the mirror, Gi Siyoung was once again stunning enough to be unable to take his eyes off him today.
He wore a summer V-neck knit and jeans with a moderate cut, and below the knit sleeves rolled up to his forearms, a watch that looked ordinary but wasn’t ordinary in price and a silver bracelet glinted. His well-defined neck muscles were fully visible above the knit, refreshingly exposed.
Seungun, embarrassed by his shirt and jeans purchased from the internet, rolled down his folded sleeves to cover his bare wrists.
“But where are we going right now? There’s still some time before Patrick’s concert.”
“You’ll know when we get there.”
Gi Siyoung raised his eyebrows and turned the steering wheel. His eyes were looking somewhere. When he turned his gaze there, he saw the logo of Seoul’s largest department store.
