Dawoon’s head gradually tilted as he waited for Ryu Taeha’s answer. Dawoon blinked his round brown eyes slowly and thought to himself.
Oh, look at this bastard.
The guy who had been smoothly chattering with a brazen face suddenly went quiet in an instant. Ryu Taeha’s lips, frozen with a dimmed smile, showed no sign of movement, just like someone who’d lost their words.
So even that shameless bastard has times when he’s stunned.
“Why are you so surprised? It’s not even a difficult question.”
It was clearly a question that the real Jeong Dawoon would have asked countless times already. Rather, he’d thrown it around so much that he thought Ryu Taeha would take it lightly and answer casually.
However, the reaction that came back was completely different from expectations.
“…It’s worth being surprised about.”
After an incomprehensible silence, Ryu Taeha slowly opened his mouth and rubbed his lower jaw. Then, with an uncharacteristically contemplative face, he stared intently at Dawoon and asked an unexpected question.
“Did I confuse you?”
Ryu Taeha’s expression became more serious than ever before. Dawoon, instead flustered by his attitude he was seeing for the first time, moved his lips.
“Pardon…?”
“Why are you suddenly asking something like that? What part confused you?”
When the question flew back at him, this time it was Dawoon’s turn to be at a loss for words. He’d been overwhelmed by Ryu Taeha’s momentum.
“So is that why you’ve been acting strange lately? Because you thought I didn’t like you?”
“No! No. That’s absolutely not it.”
He strongly denied it before it led to an absurd conclusion.
“I’m just… asking to confirm.”
To confirm? Ryu Taeha, repeating Dawoon’s words, lifted one corner of his mouth.
“That’s so out of the blue. We’ve been sleeping together for years, and now you’re checking?”
He should just answer whether he likes him or not—why is he interrogating like this? Dawoon rubbed his face tiredly and asked seriously once more.
“I’m asking if you like me, not just my body. Do you like me even without doing that?”
“That thing, what. Sex?”
Dawoon bit his lips and nodded. At this, Ryu Taeha’s eyebrows scrunched up exaggeratedly.
“Why wouldn’t we do such a good thing?”
He made a despairing face as if he’d heard a prophecy that the world was about to end. Watching him abandon his seriousness already, Dawoon sighed.
“Just answer properly. Without the jokes.”
“You know there’s nothing left of me if you take that away.”
“I don’t know.”
Dawoon warned that if he didn’t have a proper conversation, he’d go into his room. Only then did Ryu Taeha calmly settle his smile and place both hands on his chest.
“I’ve never not liked Dawoon. Not even once.”
His voice, stripped of laughter, rang out quite heavily.
“I like you a lot.”
His expression was also quite serious in its own way. He had a face as if looking at a beloved lover, not just a sex partner.
If he hadn’t known the novel’s content, he would have believed his confession just like that.
However, for Dawoon who already knew all about his actions, belief didn’t come easily.
“Sincerely?”
“Of course it’s sincere.”
As if reading the clear suspicion in Dawoon’s question, Ryu Taeha answered with even more weight.
“I’m sincere every moment.”
…And that bastard says he’ll personally pick out another partner?
What kind of crazy bastard would say something like that to someone they sincerely like? If he had his mind intact, it was something he’d never say.
“I sincerely like you, Dawoon, so I respect all your opinions too.”
Ryu Taeha added as if reading Dawoon’s inner thoughts. Dawoon’s eyes, who had been cursing him inwardly, narrowed slightly at the same time.
So because he sincerely likes Jeong Dawoon, he also accepts the decision to find a new partner? As a sign of respect?
Apparently, Ryu Taeha’s meaning of ‘like’ is clearly different from others. True to form for a guy with a free-spirited lower body, his way of thinking was truly bizarre.
Well, the novel he’s the protagonist of deviated considerably from common sense to begin with. Instead of understanding Ryu Taeha, Dawoon continued his questions while mulling over his peculiar personality and sexual preferences.
“Then… do you like me more than Ryu Jin?”
This time too, Ryu Taeha’s answer didn’t come right away.
“……”
However, his reaction was clearly different from when he was at a loss for words. Judging by the displeased look on his face, it was clearly felt that he’d deliberately closed his mouth.
“Isn’t that something we finished talking about a long time ago?”
Ryu Taeha, who had taken half a step back, swept his hair up. Dawoon, who had no memory of having that conversation, just listened silently.
The conversation they were having now was content that didn’t appear in the novel.
“We promised each other when we started. We even swore not to ask questions like that.”
Thorns sprouted in Ryu Taeha’s gaze, which had only been circulating with gentle affection. Dawoon watched him sharpen his edge in an instant and opened his mouth calmly.
“I’m sorry for breaking the oath.”
Though it was an oath he didn’t even remember, he apologized since he apparently broke it.
“But I wanted to check again. Because I got a bit confused by the way Guild Leader treats me.”
Ryu Taeha, as if pressing down the thorns in his eyes, pressed firmly on his eyelids and faced Dawoon. At his gaze that seemed to ask what was confusing, Dawoon spoke in a tone as calm as his expression.
“Guild Leader seemed to like only me.”
Unlike the novel, he didn’t seem like someone who poured love and attention only on his younger brother. Nor did it seem like he treated Jeong Dawoon as just a tool to satisfy his desires.
“Dawoon.”
Ryu Taeha, leaning against the doorframe, slowly rubbed his face.
“I like you a lot. I have no intention of making another partner besides you. No intention of dating either.”
Softening his sharp expression, he reached out his hand out of habit. Just before touching Dawoon’s hand, Taeha hesitated for a moment, then withdrew his arm again and murmured gently.
“But no matter how much I like you, my younger brother is my first priority.”
So, Dawoon’s expression became subtle at the quietly continued words like a murmur.
“Don’t bring up Ryu Jin’s name.”
“……”
“This is already a finished topic for us. Please.”
Dawoon, who closed his slightly parted lips, looked at Ryu Taeha with a hardened gaze.
How he’d been handling Jeong Dawoon until now—he could vividly feel it.
“Is that a request? To my ears, it sounds like a warning.”
Dawoon spoke mockingly while wearing a fake smile following his example. It was an attitude the original Jeong Dawoon would never have shown. Because he would have lived desperately struggling to somehow gain the heart of the one he liked.
Ryu Taeha didn’t give any answer. He just widened his well-cultivated smile and took another half step back.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
What do you mean ‘you’re right’? Just as Dawoon was furrowing his brow, Ryu Taeha’s out-of-the-blue self-reflection continued.
“I have nothing to say even if you lose interest in me, Dawoon.”
“……”
“I understand everything. Because I understand, I’m not holding onto you.”
He, who had been stubbornly standing guard in front of Dawoon’s door, created a movement Gate behind him.
“I know very well that I don’t deserve to.”
With his characteristic languid smile, he left on his own with a final word to rest well.
“…Ha.”
The moment he disappeared, Dawoon burst out in a big hollow laugh.
“What’s with the cool act? A guy who clings every chance he gets.”
Muttering to himself as if dumbfounded, he entered the room. Putting aside his complicated feelings, Dawoon, who had been stepping toward the bed where the deeply sleeping cat lay, suddenly looked at the door.
“……”
The moment he thought someone had called him.
‘Instead, let’s not date.’
Suddenly, the sound of an unfamiliar conversation echoed in Dawoon’s ears.
‘Dawoon, do you understand? I’m saying let’s just continue being sex partners from now on.’
‘Why…?’
‘I’m not confident I can cherish you as much as my younger brother. And I don’t want to either.’
Stunned, Dawoon’s lips twitched. What kind of conversation is this?
With a face colored with confusion, he just blinked at the empty air. The owners of the voices echoing in his ears were Ryu Taeha and Jeong Dawoon. However, the content of the conversation was something Dawoon had never experienced.
Then this is… it must mean it’s the memory of Jeong Dawoon, the owner of this body.
‘From now on, you’ll definitely have moments of disappointment because of my younger brother. Very many.’
Following the sound, vivid sensations continued. Dawoon immediately realized that the cold sensation caressing his cheek was Ryu Taeha’s hand.
‘If that’s going to be a problem, let’s not start. I don’t want to hurt you. And I don’t want my younger brother to have to be mindful later.’
‘I’m, okay. I don’t care even if I get hurt.’
Jeong Dawoon’s voice, crushed by tears, trembled desperately. He even made a promise he couldn’t keep, saying he’d be good to his younger brother too.
‘I like Guild Leader. I can do anything, really anything.’
Following his cheek, a cold palm was felt on his back too. Ryu Taeha, who had stroked down Jeong Dawoon’s back, whispered in a quieter voice.
‘I’m not as great and good a person as others think. Rather the opposite.’
‘I don’t care. Because you’re a good person to me.’
‘Dawoon.’
‘You can take care of only your younger brother. Don’t worry about me, live for your younger brother. But… have sex only with me.’
Dawoon’s eyes, focused on the auditory hallucination, reddened. It was because emotional synchronization occurred along with Jeong Dawoon’s memory.
Dawoon, clutching his heavy chest, sank to the floor. Without even time to be surprised by the sudden situation, he was busy holding back the tears welling up.
‘Then let’s just be sex partners. If you want, I’ll even pretend to be lovers.’
Dawoon’s head, barely holding back tears, dropped deeply to the floor.
‘Refuse if you don’t want to. I’m okay even if we don’t.’
Ryu Taeha’s words, stabbing cruelly, gouged out Jeong Dawoon’s heart. The same pain was transmitted to Dawoon, who had become one body with him.
“…Hic. Sob.”
Unlike Jeong Dawoon who cried out loud for the whole world to know, Dawoon just dropped thick teardrops while covering his mouth. He, who had finally shed the tears he couldn’t hold back, still had a face deep in thought.
It seems there’s much more content that wasn’t in the novel than expected.
Even while shedding tears to the point of dizziness, Dawoon resolved to dig into the story he didn’t know.
Just as there’s a reason Yeoul becomes a villain, he thought Ryu Taeha must have his own circumstances. There must definitely be.
And if there aren’t, then he just won’t see that crazy bastard ever again.
