Inhan didn’t stop there and tried to get confirmation from Yuho.
– Hyung, you’ll come, right?
“……Then just wait for me a little.”
– Yes. Come slowly. You don’t have to hurry.
“Okay.”
Worry appeared on Yuho’s face after he hung up. Thinking of Inhan who might face the first moment of his birthday alone made him feel guilty.
Seonchan, who noticed Yuho’s state, asked Yuho in a worried voice.
“Where’s Inhan’s house? I’ll take you straight there.”
“No. You don’t have to.”
Yuho hastily refused Seonchan’s suggestion. He thought he couldn’t make someone who liked him do such a thing. But Seonchan’s attitude was firm.
“I feel so sorry. You told me from before we left that you had to go early.”
“I’m really okay. You can take me to the dorm.”
He knew stopping by the dorm would make him even later, but Yuho couldn’t bear to accept Seonchan’s suggestion. But Seonchan continued to persuade Yuho.
“I’m really okay too. Enter the navigation. I’ll go straight there.”
“……Sorry.”
Yuho had no choice but to convey his apology first.
“What are you sorry for? You don’t have to be sorry to me at all.”
At Seonchan’s kindly delivered words, Yuho eventually entered Inhan’s address into the navigation. Somehow it had become a situation where he was sorry to both Seonchan and Inhan.
Seonchan’s car stopped at the apartment complex where Inhan lived a little after 12 o’clock. Yuho greeted Seonchan with an anxious heart.
“Thanks for taking me. You worked so hard driving for a long time today.”
“Don’t mention it. Hurry up and go.”
“Yeah. You get back safely too.”
“Yeah. Have a good birthday party.”
“I’ll contact you.”
“Okay.”
After finishing the short farewell, Yuho got out of the passenger seat.
“Yuho. The shrimp.”
“Ah.”
Yuho quickly grabbed the shrimp box from the back seat that he had almost forgotten and left behind.
“Then I’m going.”
“Yeah. Take care.”
Yuho ran urgently toward the apartment building entrance while holding the box in his arms.
Seonchan quietly watched that retreating figure, then soon moved the car and exited the apartment complex. At the same time, he thought it was regrettable that the end of a day he thought would only be happy ended uncomfortably.
Yuho pressed the password for the building entrance that Inhan had told him in advance and hurriedly got on the elevator. The elevator stopped on the 6th floor, and Yuho immediately got off and pressed the doorbell of apartment 603 where Inhan lived.
Soon, as if he’d been waiting, the front door opened and Inhan appeared in neat attire.
“You came?”
“Sorry. I’m late, right?”
Yuho conveyed his apology to Inhan first out of feeling sorry. But Inhan greeted Yuho with a face that didn’t seem to mind at all.
“No. You’re not late at all.”
“Happy birthday.”
At Yuho’s hastily delivered words, Inhan smiled happily.
“Just with words?”
And he let Yuho into the house with a smiling face, even making a joke.
“Come in.”
“Yeah.”
Yuho obediently entered the entrance. There was no particular presence felt inside Inhan’s house. So he was alone after all. Yuho realized and swallowed dry saliva from nervousness.
“I didn’t know I was the only one coming.”
“I wondered. You agreed to come too readily.”
“If I had known you were alone, I would have hurried faster……”
“You came in the end anyway. Then that’s enough.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Really.”
“That’s a relief.”
At Inhan’s appearance that really seemed fine, Yuho was finally relieved.
“What’s that in your hand? Cake?”
Inhan was curious about the identity of the large styrofoam box held in Yuho’s arms. Yuho hastily handed Inhan the box containing shrimp.
“Ah. This is shrimp.”
Inhan received it in bewilderment and stared quietly at the box lid. Then he asked Yuho.
“Don’t tell me this is the birthday present?”
“That’s right?”
“Shrimp?”
“Yeah.”
At Yuho’s answer, Inhan showed signs of being flustered. And with a troubled face, he asked Yuho.
“Can I not accept it?”
“Of course not. It’s a present.”
“Then what about my wish?”
“What wish?”
“You said you’d grant what I wanted.”
“I did?”
At Yuho’s attitude of feigning ignorance, Inhan was at a loss for words and gaped. At that sight, Yuho swallowed his laughter inside and said to Inhan.
“I’m joking.”
“Hyung, you’re teasing me right now?”
“Yeah.”
In the fully relaxed atmosphere, Yuho really felt like he had returned to the past. Precisely to that overwhelming time right before debut when he didn’t know love and had no fear that someone would hate him. For Yuho, it was the happiest moment of his life.
“I bought it for all the members to eat together.”
“Because I like it?”
“Yeah. Because you like it.”
At Yuho’s answer, Inhan smiled with satisfaction. And with a moved face, he said to Yuho.
“You did think of me after all.”
“Huh?”
“I thought you had completely forgotten about me.”
At Inhan’s meaningfully spat words, Yuho had many thoughts. If he really forgot about Inhan, it seemed like he had.
Before, he used to spend all day thinking of Inhan and worrying nervously, but today he barely thought of Inhan after seeing the shrimp – even he thought it was a surprising change.
But he couldn’t reveal that fact as it was.
“What are you talking about? You’re not someone who gets forgotten by just anyone.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You’re ChilSpot’s super big and super cool youngest.”
Yuho continued with playful remarks and reached out his hand to pat Inhan’s head.
At that action of drawing a line again, Inhan’s expression hardened for a moment then relaxed. And he smiled at Yuho as if nothing was wrong.
“I see.”
Inhan realized at that moment that becoming comfortable with each other wasn’t necessarily all good. At the same time, a fearful thought arose that perhaps Yuho was noticing his feelings and drawing a line.
“Your house doesn’t have much in it?”
Yuho belatedly looked around Inhan’s house that he was visiting for the first time. The inside of the house filled only with necessary furniture without interior accessories felt not just empty but desolate.
“I didn’t really feel like filling it up.”
“Why?”
“It just doesn’t feel like my house.”
At Inhan’s bitterly continuing answer, Yuho fell into thought for a moment. And soon he made an unexpected suggestion to Inhan.
“Do you want to come back to the dorm?”
“What?”
“Come back. You hate being alone.”
“……Why suddenly?”
“Because without you, the dorm doesn’t feel like a dorm.”
Yuho thought finding their places one by one like this was right. Since he had practically driven Inhan out, he thought returning things was also his responsibility.
But Inhan surprised Yuho with an unexpected remark.
“Don’t you have any thoughts of living in my house, hyung?”
“Huh?”
“Just so happens a room is empty.”
He had made up his mind not to be flustered by anything Inhan said. He didn’t know he would go as far as suggesting living together, so Yuho was momentarily flustered. But he soon regained his composure and said to Inhan playfully.
“No. I like the dorm though?”
“True. Me too.”
At the rejection that came back, Inhan dealt with it flexibly. It was something he had been preparing to say for a very long time, but he couldn’t deny the fact that the timing of the question was bad.
Inhan spoke to Yuho again as if nothing was wrong.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“Are you hungry? Should I grill the shrimp for you?”
“I prepared food.”
Inhan naturally guided Yuho to the kitchen. Only then did Yuho discover the kitchen table that was set up in full party atmosphere.
From steak to canapés to champagne, food and drinks befitting a party filled the table. Yuho asked Inhan in bewilderment.
“Did you prepare all this?”
“Yes. I cooked everything myself too.”
“Really?”
Yuho reacted in genuine surprise. The members’ birthday parties held six times a year had always followed the same pattern. The company prepared the cake and various delivery foods filled the table. Yuho had naturally expected Inhan’s birthday to be held that way too.
“Today is your birthday.”
“Yes. So you came to me like this, hyung.”
With a face asking what the problem was, Inhan headed to the refrigerator to put away the shrimp box he was holding.
“Hyung. Hurry and sit down.”
At Inhan’s following invitation, Yuho sat down obediently in a dining chair while feeling dazed. Inhan soon returned holding a cake and sat in the seat across from Yuho.
“Next time I’ll do everything for you.”
“What?”
“I’ll buy you a cake, buy you a present, and cook everything too. Really.”
Yuho spoke to Inhan genuinely feeling sorry.
On the other hand, Inhan felt embarrassed that he seemed to have troubled Yuho contrary to his intentions.
“The cake, present, and cooking are all fine.”
“Then?”
“Should we light the candles first?”
“Yeah. Let’s do that.”
Yuho hurriedly took out the cake from the box, stuck in the candles, and lit them. Inhan moved his hands several times to help, but since there were only four candles, the preparation ended quickly.
“I’ll turn off the lights too.”
“Yeah.”
Inhan quickly turned off all the lights in the living room and kitchen and came back, and as soon as Inhan sat down, Yuho diligently sang him the happy birthday song.
Inhan watched that sight intently and thought it was hard to distinguish whether it was the candles or his own heart that kept flickering.
“Aren’t you going to make a wish?”
Only after hearing Yuho’s words did Inhan briefly close his eyes and open them. Then he blew out the candles and turned the kitchen lights back on. At the same time, Yuho said to Inhan.
“It will definitely come true.”
“What?”
“Your wish.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I made a wish too.”
Saying that, Yuho smiled beautifully. Inhan thought that moment was hard to endure. If it was a heart that would be discovered anyway, he wanted to just be honest.
“Yuho hyung.”
Inhan called Yuho in a low voice. Yuho immediately reacted and looked at Inhan.
“Yeah?”
“I’m not a baby.”
“Ah. That was me joking……”
“I hate being a little kid to you, hyung.”
“……Huh?”
Yuho wondered what Inhan was talking about. Inhan continued speaking.
