“I’m sorry. It was my fault. I won’t do it again. If you’ll just forgive me this once…”
“Jin Surim-ssi.”
“I’ll throw all of this away. I won’t do such creepy things again…”
While Surim was frantically making excuses and pleading, Song Hanyeong suddenly pulled his necktie loose. Come to think of it, Song Hanyeong had a habit of kissing or having sex when he was angry. Surim gulped and trembled.
But Song Hanyeong’s next action wasn’t what Surim had imagined.
“…Huh…?”
Song Hanyeong, who had completely removed his necktie, placed it on the empty space on top of the Song Hanyeong altar.
“A gift.”
“…What?”
“Never mind if you don’t want it.”
“N-no! I like it! Thank you!”
Surim grabbed Song Hanyeong’s wrist as he tried to take the necktie back and shouted enthusiastically.
“But… aren’t you uncomfortable with this?”
“I am.”
“Ah, I thought so…”
“But I’m trying to respect it.”
Respect something like this? As Surim stared blankly up at him, Song Hanyeong stroked Surim’s cheek with a crooked smile.
“Humans can have somewhat strange hobbies.”
“Ah, that’s a very vampire-like thing to say.”
“Because I’m a vampire.”
“I see…”
It was fortunate that Song Hanyeong was a vampire. If he’d been another human, he never would have understood this hobby, but because Song Hanyeong was a vampire, they could safely get past this.
Relieved, Surim smiled brightly.
“Anyway, thank you.”
“Sure.”
“Then can I keep collecting things?”
“No.”
“Ah… I can’t…”
It seemed to be consideration, telling him to make the necktie his last collection. Surim nodded glumly.
“From now on, I’ll give them to you.”
“You’ll give them to me?”
“Yes. So don’t pick up trash.”
“…It’s not trash.”
“Candy wrappers are?”
“They’re pretty when you stick them in a diary…”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“Okay.”
Surim laughed. There wouldn’t be the fun of secretly increasing his collection, but it was also good to be able to have officially recognized items.
Song Hanyeong glanced at the time and turned around.
“It’s late. I should be going.”
“Ah, already?”
“Yes, I have things to do.”
He really was such a busy man.
Surim hid his disappointed feelings and saw Song Hanyeong to the door. He wanted to go all the way to the car, but he couldn’t put on his shoes because Song Hanyeong firmly refused. He wanted to be together for even a few more minutes.
“Get home safely.”
“You have a good night too, Surim-ssi.”
“Okay!”
After closing the front door and entering the bedroom, Surim neatly rolled up the sprawled necktie and placed it back on the altar.
He’d thought if it was discovered, everything would be thrown away and trampled, but it really seemed like a miracle that it passed without incident. Grateful once again that Song Hanyeong was a vampire, Surim crouched on the floor and gathered up the contract documents he’d thrown earlier.
“Huh? But didn’t he say he was going to check the contract…?”
He had, but seeing that he’d completely forgotten and left, it seemed Song Hanyeong had been flustered too, even if he didn’t show it outwardly.
Surim giggled and carefully gathered the documents, hiding them deep in the drawer again.
And it was when he stood up and yawned loudly.
Meow…
Along with a faint crying sound, he heard scratching at the door. Surim ran to the entrance.
“Kkamang-ah!”
Grr. Giving what barely counted as a response, Kkamang entered the house and familiarly climbed up to sit on the sofa.
“Kkamang, you always sit on the sofa.”
What a funny cat. Surim sat on the floor in front of the sofa and stroked Kkamang from head to back. Kkamang got angry when his butt was touched.
“Why did you come so late today? Lately you’ve been coming right when I get off work.”
Meow. Was that an answer that understood anything? Surim smiled and brought his face close to Kkamang.
“You really missed out big time. If you’d come just a little earlier, you could have run into Song Hanyeong. Do you know how handsome that man is?”
Meow.
“Right, you wouldn’t know. What would a cat know?”
Surim gently stroked between the eyes of Kkamang, who was looking at him with an exasperated expression, then stood up abruptly and took off his clothes.
“I’m going to wash up, so you can’t leave while I’m gone, okay?”
Watching the back of Surim entering the bathroom, undressing without any wariness, Kkamang let out a deep sigh.
* * *
“Today I have a good feeling about things, hyung.”
Surim said seriously, facing the urn. It was true. For some reason, he felt lighthearted, and comfortable as if he’d put down a heavy burden.
“Right, it’s about time to get better. Don’t you think?”
It had already been over a month since he’d started talking to his hyung’s urn about the delicious food at the restaurants he’d bookmarked. He’d eaten countless foods, and had enjoyed date-like non-dates with Song Hanyeong many times under that pretense.
During that time, Surim had improved in many ways. He no longer had dreams of his childhood, no longer felt that cold sensation in his back for no reason, and the strange phenomenon of feeling like everything was meaningless and futile as soon as he came home had disappeared.
Life felt worth living. Even though he’d lost his family, it still felt worth living despite that.
So now it was worth trying to challenge himself. Surim headed to the kitchen with a face burning with determination. His target was the refrigerator.
“I can eat up to tofu now!”
As soon as Surim arrived at work and ran into Song Hanyeong, he suddenly shouted. It was an extremely proud face.
“Up to tofu?”
“Yes, I experimented this morning. I was perfectly fine even after eating tofu.”
“That sounds like you weren’t fine when you ate other things, Jin Surim-ssi.”
“Uh… well, the rice and chive pancake were failures…”
Song Hanyeong gazed intently at Surim with eyes like he was looking at a troublemaker.
“I won’t know unless I try…”
“Next time, do it when I’m there.”
“What? No!”
“No?”
“Of course not. I don’t want to throw up in front of Manager-nim.”
Song Hanyeong stared at him intently once more, but Surim didn’t back down. This was a matter of pride and social dignity.
As he held firm, Song Hanyeong shook his head.
He’d won.
“From now on, keep reporting obediently like you are now.”
“Okay.”
Surim smiled broadly and continued.
“I think I’ve gotten much better. It’s thanks to you, Manager-nim. The advice you gave me before.”
Surim’s anorexia had been an illness caused by psychological problems to begin with. The despair and emptiness he felt after his hyung’s death created questions like “Why should I live?” which made him unable to eat.
That’s why eating at the restaurants his hyung had wanted to go to, commemorating his hyung that way, had helped him gradually get better.
After giving his thanks, Surim hastily continued.
“Ah, but even so, you can’t neglect the contract. You know that, right?”
“I understand.”
“There’s only about 5 months left now, so I won’t let you off easy.”
“5 months.”
“Yes, actually there’s a bit less than that. About 4 and a half months left…?”
“…I see.”
Time really had flown by. It felt like just yesterday that he’d met Song Hanyeong again, but it had already been over a month since they’d modified and added to the contract and signed it.
“Anyway, I’m glad.”
Song Hanyeong reached his hand toward Surim’s neck. The hand that entered between Surim’s reflexively stiffened nape moved to the back of his neck and gently stroked his neck bones.
“It doesn’t seem very different from when I first touched you, yet I’m surprised that much time has passed.”
“M-Manager-nim…”
“From now on you’ll eat breakfast properly, so you’ll gain more weight soon.”
“Of course! I’ll gain more weight…”
“Why are you like this?”
“It tick-les. Please remove your hand…”
“It doesn’t seem like it tickles.”
“It d-does!”
“If you say so.”
Song Hanyeong replied teasingly, slowly withdrew his hand, and tapped Surim’s cheek with his fingertips. Surim rubbed his cheek, pretending it tickled for no reason.
“Anyway, it’s happy news, so I wanted to tell Manager-nim first.”
“Yes. You did well.”
“Yesss…”
It doesn’t seem like a timing to be praised, so why is he praising me? And why does that make me happy? Surim barely followed along with a flow he couldn’t understand, feeling shy for reasons he didn’t know.
“Then I should give you a reward.”
“A reward?”
When he lifted his head, Song Hanyeong pulled out a small piece of paper from the diary he was holding and held it out. It was a business card.
“I thought you’d like something like this, or not?”
“…I like it…”
Surim carefully received Song Hanyeong’s business card with a blissful expression. A business card of Song Hanyeong’s given directly by Song Hanyeong—it really was a precious item.
Song Hanyeong smiled and gently stroked Surim’s hair before returning to his seat. Come to think of it, it was already nearly 9 o’clock. It was surprising that no one had come to work in the meantime. Surim also quickly returned to his seat, carefully tucked the business card into his wallet, and started work.
“Today is— snack ordering day.”
Humming as he checked the desk calendar, Surim entered the shared server and opened the break room snack order request file.
Actually, snack ordering wasn’t such a high-priority task that he needed to check it first thing after arriving at work. But there was a situation related to Lee Myeongho that made him pay special attention to it.
Before, when he was troubled by the situation with Song Hanyeong and received a request from Assistant Manager Seong to help with an urgent matter, he’d been so busy that several days had passed with him forgetting the snack order. At that time, Lee Myeongho’s expression as he stared blankly at the empty break room had been so gloomy, like a person who’d lost their country, that it was hard to watch.
