At the fierce hand strike accompanied by a whoosh of wind, Yoon Minoh glared at him with tear-filled eyes. But Yeo Dowoon didn’t meet his gaze.
It was because Cha Haseong’s coldly cooled face, standing at the boundary between the kitchen and living room untying his apron, consistently induced guilt in him.
To make matters worse, cold sweat had already started to break out on his back. Like human trash caught red-handed in the middle of cheating, Yeo Dowoon stammered an excuse.
“We’re nothing to each other.”
Then Yoon Minoh twisted his head irritably.
He wondered what shameless bastard had turned the sweet atmosphere into thin ice, and sure enough, it was that cunning Guide bastard, which made his stomach boil.
Yoon Minoh kept chattering in an impudent tone.
“Since you’re nothing to each other, hurry up and get lost.”
“We’re really nothing to each other. Really.”
“You’re really nothing to each other, really. …Ahhhhh!”
Then he only stopped after getting his thigh pinched hard. Crazy, he thought magma had been poured on his thigh flesh! Yoon Minoh became gloomy as he caressed his burning skin.
It was because whenever that damn Guide bastard appeared, even his smooth operation to win over Yeo Dowoon seemed to hit a snag. Cha Haseong alone commanded in a monotone voice.
“The food’s ready, so call the team leader too.”
He wiped his wet hands on the apron and lifted the corners of his mouth slightly. But unlike the corners rising diagonally, those eyes were still ruthless and cold.
Just as Yeo Dowoon was hurriedly about to stand up, he murmured as if it were fascinating.
“People who’ve kissed Dowoon-ssi are all sharing a table together… This will certainly be a special meal.”
***
The situation at the dining table was even more of a spectacle.
Yeo Dowoon chewed the fluffy rice grains, regretting why he didn’t possess the ability of astral projection. Damn it. But no matter how much he bit, tore, and dissolved it, he couldn’t taste anything.
It was to the extent that there was no way to express it except with the words colorless and odorless, so Yeo Dowoon was even swept up in the illusion that perhaps his sense of smell and taste had really been paralyzed.
If so, the cause would definitely be today’s dining table.
“Eat this too.”
Cha Haseong placed meat on his spoon for the fourth time already, as if he intended to drain him dry. As the seasoned meat landed on the spoon with a thunk, Yeo Dowoon’s foot was stepped on again under the dining table.
“Urk…!”
It was all Kwon Jeonghoo’s doing. When Cha Haseong kindly served him side dishes, he would step on his foot like a ghost or kick his ankle. How many times was this his mischief now? No. How many times was this his fucking around?
Kwon Jeonghoo’s upper body visible above the table was peacefully motionless, but below he was reacting fiercely as if waging war, so Yeo Dowoon just became dumbfounded.
‘Has he gone senile, fuck.’
Although there had been no direct guiding, perhaps because an S-class Guide was positioned at quite a close distance, Kwon Jeonghoo’s complexion was unusually bright and radiant.
His condition also looked optimal, yet why was he dying to act so nastily, really. When Yeo Dowoon glared at him, Kwon Jeonghoo moved his chopsticks to the soy-braised beef while simultaneously pressing down hard on his toes.
“Ungh…!”
The impact was tremendous because he happened to be wearing fur slippers with hard soles. Naturally, Yeo Dowoon was barefoot. Since he wasn’t even wearing a single sock, completely barefoot, it felt like his toes would be torn off.
“Hyung! Don’t put in your mouth what that bastard’s hands touched, eat mine. Mine.”
Yoon Minoh, who had been absorbed in the completed dishes, joined the battle late.
Yeo Dowoon wanted to correct him that the meat you were chewing and swallowing had also been touched by Cha Haseong’s hands, but he just gave up on speaking. It was because quite a bit of stamina was needed just to calm his surging feelings.
At this moment, he had only one goal.
To eat his given portion as quickly as possible and then escape from this fucking meal. Yeo Dowoon, who had been pouring food into his mouth with the feeling of suffering food torture, suddenly choked with a cough.
Cough! Cough!
As he coughed in agony, Yoon Minoh immediately brought a water cup to his lips.
After gulping down the corn silk tea, Yeo Dowoon sent a resentful gaze toward Kwon Jeonghoo. But Kwon Jeonghoo only smacked his lips shamelessly.
‘Why.’
So Yeo Dowoon came to desire astral projection even more. Kwon Jeonghoo’s foot was smoothly crawling up past his ankle and calf to the back of his knee. The gesture was very explicit and erotic.
Yeo Dowoon wasn’t a man so ignorant of sex that he couldn’t recognize even this level of subtle nuance.
He regretted his past self who had ordered a 4-person dining table while preparing for a sweet cohabitation life with Cha Haseong.
He had purchased it after seeing the product description that this size was just right for two people to use, but if he had known he’d be molested by Kwon Jeonghoo’s feet, he would have at least considered a 10-person size.
“Hyung. Are you sick somewhere? Did you get indigestion?”
When Yeo Dowoon’s complexion became as pale as someone who had spent several nights with their eyes open, Yoon Minoh asked as if worried. Yeo Dowoon sighed, “Phew.”
If he had only worried with his mouth blabbering, he could have accepted it as goodwill and moved on, but when the glittering eyes and self-interested hands combined, the intention was blatantly visible.
“This won’t do. Go to my room and rest. I’ll nurse you.”
The hand gripping between his arm and armpit quickly lifted Yeo Dowoon up. Thud, the metal chopsticks he was holding fell to the floor. Kwon Jeonghoo’s foot also naturally lost its attack power.
But Yeo Dowoon couldn’t take steps excitedly as if he were a fish that had met water.
“…You’re leaving it?”
It was because the four syllables Cha Haseong casually uttered neutralized him like deadly poison. Long fingers lightly brushed the tablecloth. He added as if talking to himself.
“It won’t taste good when it gets cold.”
“Tomorrow I’ll microwave it…”
“It won’t taste good even if you reheat it. Stir-fried dishes.”
Though he didn’t say to sit down, it was a transparent threat indicating that if he left the table, he wouldn’t let it go. So Yeo Dowoon couldn’t help but feel a sense of crisis. His ability to cope also declined.
Because the opponent was none other than Cha Haseong.
The only existence that could reduce the mighty Yeo Dowoon to a subordinate position. Yeo Dowoon felt pulled.
If he sat back down in the chair and picked up his utensils like this, Kwon Jeonghoo’s foot would crawl up his legs like before. But if he declined Cha Haseong’s suggestion, he worried whether he might be hurt.
It was around the time when his internal conflict was prolonging. Cha Haseong spoke in a voice that sounded cut off in pieces.
“I’m joking. If you force yourself to eat food you don’t want to eat, you’ll ruin your stomach and then some.”
He seized the upper hand in an instant.
A powerful condition that the other two trespassers didn’t possess supported him. The leisure of the haves. Like a conqueror who had occupied the isolated island called Yeo Dowoon, he spat out with precise vocalization and pronunciation.
“Not Yoon Minoh-ssi’s room, go to your room, Dowoon-ssi, and wait.”
“…”
“Ah, it would be better if you’re washing up.”
But Yeo Dowoon rather experienced uncomfortable coldness from his smiling appearance. He had thought Cha Haseong’s smiling face was the prettiest and most radiant, but it seemed it was purely his misconception.
“Because we need to do guiding before bed.”
Would this be the kind of face you get when you force someone beautiful enough even when not smiling to smile…
Neither the savory smell rising from the beef brisket dish, nor the warm warmth felt from the grandly filled table, nor the intense chandelier light spreading from overhead could melt his anxiety.
“Go on, Dowoon-ssi.”
Yeo Dowoon felt even more anxious at Cha Haseong’s permission.
He had painstakingly cooked and set the table for people he had no friendship with, yet ending dinner like this—he wondered if he was disappointed, but on the other hand, a question arose.
Cha Haseong’s sulky expression exactly resembled…
‘No way.’
It was because it resembled his ex-girlfriend who had been upset after discovering a woman’s name in his call list.
‘Is he jealous?’
***
Water droplets flowing down like slashes wet his nape. Perhaps because he had turned the lever to the extreme and taken a cold shower, his throat hurt sharply. His skin was exuding coldness as if he had applied an ice pack.
“This is wearable too, in its own way.”
Yeo Dowoon, who came out of the bathroom wearing a bathrobe that he usually didn’t prefer because the texture felt awkward, stared blankly at the clock hand ticking away.
After finishing the shower, it was about the right time for the meal to end. Wondering if Cha Haseong might be cleaning up alone, he moved his steps quickly with a worried heart.
But it was the moment he twisted the doorknob. Someone pushed the door open from the opposite side with a whoosh. Thanks to that, Yeo Dowoon’s foot got caught in the door gap and he groaned.
“Ungh…”
He thought his feet were suffering a lot today.
Should he consider it extremely fortunate that his big toe hadn’t been cut off? When he barely composed his face that had been scrunching up with all his might and lifted it, Cha Haseong, who was still holding the doorknob, asked.
“Are you bleeding?”
As if he was thinking of looking for a first aid kit if he said yes, his upper body was slightly turned. Yeo Dowoon hurriedly answered. Without any ulterior motive, he had merely explained the natural principle as an Esper.
“No. I think it’ll be fine if you hug me once.”
