“Libido, libido?” Doyun repeated the word to himself several times, chewing it over. He felt like he’d heard it in class before, but he couldn’t quite remember the exact meaning. He gnawed on his lip as he mulled it over. When nothing came to mind, he reached for his coffee cup again — and that’s when Eunho spoke.
“To put it plainly….”
“Yeah.”
“It’s sex food. Stuff that boosts your libido. Are you really sure that alpha gave it to you with zero ulterior motives?”
At Eunho’s words, Doyun set his coffee cup down on the table with a bit more force than necessary and quickly glanced around at the people nearby. It wasn’t exactly obscene, but the way Eunho had said the word ‘sex’ so directly made Doyun’s eyes go wide.
“Ha, seriously…. Are you out of your mind? What the — last semester, when you came back from your trip and handed out those chocolates. Were you trying to do that… as a group with us, or something?”
“That was….”
“Okay, never mind. Forget it.”
Doyun waved his hand wildly, covering his ears like he didn’t want to hear the answer. His face, head bowed, was slowly turning red.
Now that he thought about it — back then, Eunho had given him chocolates in a pink box. Just him, specifically. Doyun’s heart began to race in a way he couldn’t control anymore.
***
After eating the chocolates, the two went out for a meal. They’d eaten sweet desserts until they were sick of them, so Doyun had wondered if he’d even be able to stomach a proper dinner — but it turned out to be a needless worry. They had a full Korean table d’hôte dinner course, then borrowed swimsuits and went for a short swim.
Maybe because it was a weekday, the hotel pool was nearly empty. When the last foreign guest who’d been doing laps finally left, the two of them had the place to themselves. The pool was quite deep for a hotel pool — deep enough that Eunho’s feet couldn’t touch the bottom at the deepest end.
Eunho was swimming proper laps with good technique, while Doyun paddled around the pool with his head barely above the water in a doggy paddle. In a playful mood, Doyun pounced on Eunho from behind, climbing on top of him and dunking him. Eunho, submerged beneath the water, dove deeper to escape Doyun. Then he quietly came up behind Doyun and simply lifted him up.
In an instant, Doyun was dangling from Eunho’s grip, suspended in the air. He flailed his arms and legs trying to get down, but Eunho had him locked in too tightly for it to be of any use.
“Surrender and I won’t drop you.”
“Okay, okay — I surrender! I surrender!”
Doyun immediately threw his hands up. He wasn’t the type to dig his heels in over something pointless.
“Aren’t you giving up a little too easily?”
“I already surrendered, now let me down!”
Doyun kept shouting and throwing his hands up in the air, but Eunho didn’t budge an inch. Their faces drew closer together, and the moment their eyes met, Eunho let go.
With a loud splash, Doyun plunged into the water.
“Hey! Are you — are you crazy?”
Doyun, who’d been briefly flailing under the surface, broke through the water and popped his head out, shouting at Eunho.
“Did you honestly think I’d keep that promise?”
Eunho stared at him, not laughing, just watching. Doyun stared back, refusing to back down. He splashed water straight at Eunho. Eunho closed his eyes and took the wave to the face. A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips — but with the spray of water flying between them, Doyun didn’t catch it.
***
“Hey, I told you I wanted separate beds.”
When they came back to the room after swimming — or rather, splashing around — what greeted them was a single large bed, planted squarely in the center of the room. Doyun scowled and stuck out his lip in complaint, and Eunho walked over to the bed, pulled back the blanket, and said:
“Sorry, but look at this. The mattress is split right down the middle. See?”
He said it in a bright voice, raising both hands as if presenting something. Regardless, Doyun shook his head and started pulling on one of the bed legs. The bed, of course, didn’t move an inch. After a few more attempts he gave up, and started inspecting the seam where the two mattresses were joined together. Also to no avail.
“Ha, seriously…. Can’t this thing be separated?”
“It’s not like this is the first or second time we’ve slept in the same bed — why are you being so sensitive? The frame’s one piece, it doesn’t come apart.”
Eunho’s question hit right on target. I’ve been having unwanted wet dreams a lot lately and it’s been rough — that wasn’t something he could say, so Doyun came up with a plausible excuse instead.
“I’ve just been really sensitive about sleeping lately. I have trouble falling asleep, and I keep waking up in the middle of the night.”
“You slept fine at your place last time.”
Either he didn’t believe the excuse or he simply wasn’t persuaded — Eunho lay down on the bed and stretched one arm out to the side. He tapped the mattress twice with his fingertips as if to say come lie down, but Doyun stood in the middle of the room with his arms crossed. There was a sofa, sure, but he had no desire to sleep uncomfortably on it when there was a perfectly good bed right there.
“The hotel didn’t look that busy — is this really the only room available?”
“Yeah…. The twin rooms are all taken. Sorry, I should’ve checked if I knew you’d care this much.”
“Can’t we just go back? I only have this one change of clothes anyway, and I’d probably be more comfortable sleeping at home.”
When it became clear Doyun had no intention of lying down, Eunho pushed himself up and leaned back against the headboard. At Doyun’s suggestion of going home, Eunho ran a hand through his hair. He pressed one hand to his temple, then held out the car keys to Doyun.
“…I’m kind of too tired to drive. You want to? The parking lot here is pretty tight — I parked right next to a pillar, so you just have to make sure you don’t scrape it. You know how it is… even a little scratch and it’s a few hundred.”
“Ha — alright. Fine. Let’s just stay.”
Doyun looked down at the car key sitting in Eunho’s palm, then sank down onto the bed. Eunho, who had been leaning against the headboard, scooted closer to Doyun and rested his face on his shoulder.
“…Yeah. Let’s take it easy and leave tomorrow. We were messing around in the pool earlier — you’re tired, aren’t you? Your skin feels warm.”
The voice so close to his ear sent a shiver crawling across his skin. Doyun quietly removed Eunho’s arm that had, at some point, wrapped around his waist, then pulled out his debit card from his pocket and held it out to Eunho.
“Hey, there’s a convenience mart just a bit outside the hotel — can you go grab me some pajamas? The cheapest ones you can find. I’m only wearing them for tonight anyway. I can’t sleep comfortably in this.”
Eunho said he’d pay for it himself and tried to hand the card back, but Doyun pressed his lips together and shook his head. As easygoing as he seemed, there was a quietly stubborn streak in him — when Doyun dug in, even Eunho couldn’t win.
“Alright. I’ll go.”
Eunho smiled and stood up. Doyun watched him put on his outer layer and grab his wallet, and quickly tacked on a few more requests.
“Oh, and grab some snacks on your way back. Not the old-school kind — ask for whatever’s trendy right now. Oh, and nothing chocolate-flavored, get something salty. And can we do a beer each?”
Doyun insisted the snacks had to be the currently trending ones and named a few specific products as examples. If he didn’t spell it out like this, Eunho would inevitably come back with the kind of snacks a parent would buy.
“I’m paying for the snacks myself.”
“…Okay.”
“There’s stuff in the minibar — should I not bother picking up drinks separately?”
“The minibar’s expensive.”
Eunho let out a small laugh at that and pointed toward the minibar.
“You can raid everything in this hotel room’s minibar. Or we can order room service together if you want.”
“I’m not trying to make a whole thing of drinking…. When you go out, I’m going to shower first, so don’t go flinging the bathroom door open.”
“Got it. Be back soon.”
Doyun waved as he watched Eunho say his goodbyes and leave the room. He’d bought himself a little time.
Doyun sat on the bed and looked down at himself. He’d endured one of Eunho’s dirty jokes at the café, and they’d roughhoused in the pool, but there’d been no unusual reactions. A dream was just a dream after all — it hadn’t affected his everyday life at all, and for that he was relieved.
But tonight was what he was worried about. When was the last time I even touched myself? He scratched his head and thought, but it seemed like the last wet dream had been the last time. Should I just get one out real quick before Eunho comes back, or not. Doyun chewed on his lower lip as he headed toward the bathroom. Before long, the bathroom was filled with the sound of water splashing — and the muffled sound of Doyun trying to suppress his own moans.
***
“Sorry, I took a sip the second I opened it — so much for solidarity.”
