“Can I sleep over at your place tonight?”
“…I don’t think that’ll work. I have to stop by the convenience store this evening, and it looks like it’ll run late. It’s not even a nice place, and I’d feel bad leaving a guest there all alone….”
The truth was, Doyun didn’t need to work at the convenience store tonight. It meant Eunho was perfectly welcome to come over to his studio apartment. But the lie about going to work a part-time shift had already slipped out of Doyun’s mouth before he could stop it.
“…Then tell me when it’s okay for me to stay over.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
Despite it being a weekday, the shopping center parking lot had not a single empty space. Doyun, who had been walking alongside Eunho, suddenly stopped in his tracks. A low whistle escaped him.
“Hey, hey — Sa Eunho. That’s an Aston Martin. That’s insane.”
It was strange to see such an expensive sports car — the kind you’d only expect to see in movies — parked somewhere like this. Doyun leaned down and tried to peer inside the low-slung body of the car. He debated whether to ask Eunho to take a photo of him with it, clicking his tongue in temptation.
“…Let’s just go.”
Doyun straightened back up and nudged Eunho’s arm — who was still standing ahead of him, waiting — as he said it. He rose up on his heels and craned his neck, searching for the SUV Eunho usually drove. It was large enough that it always stood out, but today it was nowhere to be seen — maybe parked somewhere in a corner.
“Even if you can’t have me over, it’s fine to drop you off, right?”
Eunho slipped a hand into his pocket — and the sound of the sports car right in front of Doyun unlocking clicked through the air.
“…Wow.”
Instead of an answer, a gasp burst out of Doyun’s mouth. Suddenly, Eunho standing before him seemed to radiate a kind of brilliance.
Even someone with no interest in cars wouldn’t turn down a chance to ride in one like this. And Doyun happened to be very much a car person. When Eunho walked over and opened the passenger door for him, Doyun couldn’t hide the flush on his face, repeatedly gasping, “Oh wow, this is insane.”
“Don’t tell me — you actually bought this car?”
Doyun hopped in eagerly and asked as he buckled his seatbelt.
“Wow, the leather is insanely soft.”
As if Eunho’s answer hardly mattered, Doyun was already running his hands over the leather-finished sun visor, glove box, and everything else, letting out a stream of amazed sounds. He examined every detail inside the car, letting out little “ohhh” sounds. Unlike the dark exterior, the seats were a duo-tone brown leather.
“Doyun, you’re about to drool. And yeah, I bought it.”
Whether it was because he was so focused on inspecting every corner of the car, the crease between Doyun’s brows deepened. Eunho reached over and lightly tapped Doyun’s jaw, which was hanging half-open. At that, Doyun made a little “ang” sound and playfully snapped his teeth at Eunho’s finger. Eunho had actually drawn blood from this exact kind of teasing before, yet he didn’t pull his hand away — he just laughed.
“Hey, how much does this thing even cost and you just — bought it. You’re insane. But wait, what’s the zero-to-hundred on this?”
Even as he scolded Eunho, the moment the engine started, another gasp flew out of Doyun’s mouth. He even clapped a little. When he reached out to run his hand over the unusually shaped gear selector, Eunho’s fingers came to lightly tickle the back of his hand. Doyun’s question — half worried, half curious — was answered by Eunho with total nonchalance.
“I didn’t just randomly buy it. We picked it out together, remember? We put in the order exactly as we configured it and waited forever for it to come in.”
“We did? When?”
We picked out a supercar together? Doyun shook his head exaggeratedly, as if he’d just heard something absurd.
“The day we all watched a movie at Suhyeok’s place. You said you were curious how much the car in the film cost and we configured it together.”
“Come on…. We were just browsing.”
Doyun let out a short sigh. Earlier this year, the four of them had gathered at Suhyeok’s place to watch an action movie together. It was a film they’d stumbled on while casually having a beer and flipping through channels. It was about an agent from British intelligence running around doing action sequences — and since they’d all already seen it several times, they spent more time talking about other things than actually watching.
Doyun’s attention, naturally, had been on the cars featured in the film. He’d gotten worked up watching them get demolished, going on about how much those things must cost. Then later, he had a vague memory of sitting next to Eunho with Suhyeok’s laptop, customizing an Aston Martin with all the options they’d want.
“You suddenly seem extremely rich to me. This car’s probably worth about the same as the deposit on my studio, isn’t it?”
He didn’t know the exact price, but it was clearly going to be in the hundreds of millions of won. When Doyun compared it to his own deposit, Eunho’s eyes went wide.
“Your one-room deposit is that expensive? The place is tiny, the building’s old, and the neighborhood’s not even that safe.”
It was small, old, and tucked away in a sketchy alley — but having it confirmed so bluntly out of Eunho’s mouth wasn’t exactly a pleasant feeling.
“It’s right in front of the university. And since I get the deposit back eventually, it beats paying monthly rent.”
“Wouldn’t a newer building be better even if it’s a bit farther from campus?”
“The deposit on my current place already took everything my family had to scrape together.”
Eunho nodded at Doyun’s words, though his expression didn’t look particularly sympathetic. Doyun had been staring at the gridlocked road ahead when he suddenly seemed to remember something and clapped his hands together, turning to Eunho.
“Hey, but — you’re not, like, car poor, right? Where did all this money come from? I mean, do you actually have that kind of money to spend? For real?”
Doyun already knew full well that Eunho came from a well-known wealthy family. But vaguely knowing someone was “rich” and actually watching them buy a car worth hundreds of millions of won right in front of you were two completely different things.
“Ha, are you worried about me?”
Eunho let out a warm laugh at Doyun’s concern. But Doyun’s head was already filled with words like “car poor” and “credit default” that he’d seen in the news not long ago.
“Of course I’m worried. Hey — you didn’t sell your officetel, did you?”
“Me?”
Eunho’s eyes went wide at Doyun’s out-of-nowhere question. Along the road cutting through central Seoul, expensive foreign cars were scattered here and there — but Eunho’s stood out the most among them.
“You said something before about moving…. You didn’t sell your place and buy a car and now plan to sleep at my apartment, did you?”
“Doyun, isn’t your imagination working a little too hard?”
Eunho’s hand ruffled Doyun’s hair and then withdrew. Doyun raised his hand to fix his hair, then spoke in a surprisingly firm tone. He knew it was nosy to pry into someone else’s finances — but he couldn’t just sit back and watch his friend’s credit rating go down the drain.
“Why did you suddenly buy this car — and with what money. Did you sell your officetel or not?”
“My place is still there. If you’re worried, come stay over sometime — it’s been a while.”
At Eunho’s reply, laced with a smile, Doyun let the intensity drain from his glare. Only then did he actually take in Eunho’s face — still wearing that faint smile.
This guy’s side profile is genuinely insane.
Doyun marveled inwardly. The brow bone that jutted out more sharply than most people’s, and the high bridge of the nose that followed from it — it looked like something drawn by hand.
Even if you put a beta in the passenger seat of this car instead of an omega, probably ninety-nine out of a hundred people would fall for Eunho. Even he himself — just a friend — felt his heart react. That said something.
“Why would I go to your place. Honestly, I’d rather just sleep right here. This feels more comfortable than a bed. Wow. For real. This is something else.”
Doyun sank deeper into the seat, settling back against it comfortably. The texture was genuinely awe-inspiring. Eunho glanced at him sideways and asked with a bright eye-smile,
“Want to drive it sometime?”
“This car?”
“Yeah. This car.”
Just imagining it, Doyun’s face went pale. Doyun, who loved cars, had gotten his license the moment he came of age. He drove frequently — borrowing his parents’ or his brother’s car — and prided himself on being the best driver he knew. But driving a car this expensive required not just skill, but nerve.
“No way, absolutely not. If I scratch it — oh god…. But hey, what happened to your other car?”
“The SUV? That’s still there too.”
“Wait, you didn’t sell it?”
The SUV Eunho usually drove was a gift from his maternal grandfather when he’d started university — also worth a hefty sum. Doyun had assumed he would have gotten rid of his old car after buying a supercar like this, but Eunho answered without a care. Come to think of it, the last time they’d all gathered at Suhyeok’s place, Eunho had shown up in his usual SUV too.
“Should I have? I figured I might need a bigger car sometimes, so I just kept it.”
