Only then did Rion finally feel the weight of Jin-ha’s arm draped over his shoulder. With an awkward expression, he smacked Jin-ha’s arm away.
Wait a second. Why am I even watching this guy’s mood? He runs away like I’m going to touch him if I move even a little, but now he’s making a big deal out of this and giving me looks?
It was only after he glanced at Yu-won and knocked Jin-ha’s arm away that Rion realized something felt off. But it was already too late to grab the arm he’d just brushed away and put it back.
“Well, I guess that’s true.”
Deliberately acting even more nonchalant, Rion cleared his throat and shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t want to look like he was getting swayed by something like this. Somehow, it felt like losing.
“What’s the big deal anyway? Isn’t it weirder to care about something like this? Right?”
As if to prove a point, Rion boldly placed his arm over Jin-ha’s shoulder. Why was he making such a fuss about who someone linked arms with when he wouldn’t even allow Rion to do it in the first place?
“Exactly, what’s the big deal? It’s something you can do with anyone. We’re always like this, aren’t we?”
Catching on to Rion’s intention, Jin-ha smiled and played along, lifting his arm back onto Rion’s shoulder. Even if it was childish, there was nothing to say—childish things were fun by nature.
“What is wrong with all of you? Stop messing around and let’s just go.”
Out of everyone there, Min-hyeon was the only one who didn’t understand what was going on, wearing an openly displeased expression amid the subtle battle of nerves.
He could tell that something about the atmosphere was strange, but he couldn’t grasp at which point, or for what reason, it had turned this way. Of course, he didn’t particularly want to understand either.
What’s the point of me understanding any of that? Seriously, they’re all so weird.
“Let’s go, Yu-won.”
Having no desire to deal with it any longer, Min-hyeon tugged on Yu-won’s sleeve. Yu-won glanced down at him, lightly draped an arm around his shoulder for a moment, then casually let it fall away.
“Yes, let’s go.”
“Huh.”
Watching that, Rion let out a hollow laugh, looking dumbfounded. Yu-won, however, didn’t seem to care at all. After giving Rion a brief nod of greeting, he left together with Min-hyeon.
“Did he just do that on purpose?”
“Well, probably?”
After the two had gone so far that even their footsteps could no longer be heard, Rion—who had been frozen with an incredulous expression—suddenly turned to Jin-ha and spoke. Jin-ha awkwardly lowered the hand that had been resting on Rion’s shoulder as he replied.
“What the hell was that?”
Rion said, bristling, his face looking like he’d taken a direct hit. His feelings had gone beyond simple disappointment and were now bordering on betrayal.
“No, with me, he flinches back just from me putting a hand on him and makes it obvious he doesn’t like it, but right in front of me he goes and touches someone else first? What is that?”
He’d thought they’d gotten fairly close, and he’d tried not to feel hurt, telling himself that some people simply hated physical contact with others—but this changed things.
“I’m the idiot for expecting anything from him. An idiot. That guy has zero manners—no, zero human decency. Yeah, like someone’s personality is going to change just because we haven’t fought in a while.”
“Didn’t you say earlier that he was better than you expected and even kind of cute? That after living together, your relationship had improved?”
“I take all of that back. All of it. Cute, my ass.”
Rion stomped down the hallway, seething. Making someone feel bad with childish behavior like that without saying a single word was a talent in itself.
“Seriously, they’re having so much fun.”
Jin-ha was the only one who seemed to be enjoying the situation, watching Rion’s thoroughly pissed-off back.
***
“Why are you suddenly acting all buddy-buddy?”
“What do you mean?”
“‘What do you mean,’ my ass. Since when did you ever do things like that?”
Min-hyeon said this while mimicking what Yu-won had done earlier. It was true that the two of them had been spending more time together ever since they started talking about the team the Center Director was newly planning.
They’re not a pair, but who knows what might happen to that punk Rion. It’s not a good idea to throw him straight into a Gate, but you can’t just keep high-level personnel sitting around at the Guide Center either. Someone like Min-hyeon can wait outside the Gate and help if anyone needs emergency guiding.
As Min-hyeon ended up spending more time together with Yu-won while listening to the Center Director’s plan to create some sort of Gate post-processing team, they did grow closer than before—but only to the extent of casually joking around.
They were absolutely not close enough to sling an arm over each other’s shoulders and walk together pretending to be affectionate.
“Don’t bully Rion sunbae too much. He’s really simple-minded—if you just go ‘yeah, yeah’ and listen to him when he’s angry, he forgets everything in less than thirty minutes.”
“I know.”
“What good is knowing if you keep fighting with him all the time? Don’t you fight at home?”
“There’s not really anything to fight about at home. We don’t talk about work.”
As if nothing had happened, Yu-won maintained a bit of distance from Min-hyeon as they walked. Min-hyeon let out a scoffing laugh at the transparent behavior.
“Hah, seriously… never mind. You’re really a weird guy.”
“Thank you.”
“But seriously, why do you tease him over something like that? Rion sunbae getting upset over it is kind of funny, but it’s not like he hugged him or kissed him. He just put a hand on his shoulder, and everyone’s making such a big deal out of it.”
Min-hyeon complained irritably. They really were people he couldn’t understand.
“I already knew Jin-ha hyung was weird, but… when everyone starts acting strange like this, it makes me wonder if I’m the abnormal one.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing. Just….”
Yu-won recalled the bewildered look on Rion’s face. He didn’t like seeing Rion standing side by side with Jin-ha, their arms over each other’s shoulders—but seeing Rion so obviously paying attention to him made him feel good too.
Somehow, my personality seems to be getting worse by the day.
As Min-hyeon said, the act of putting a hand on someone’s shoulder was nothing in itself. In fact, Yu-won wasn’t the type to dislike light physical contact from others.
He usually didn’t care much, but because the other person was Rion, he got tense and flinched. It wasn’t that he disliked it—he just hadn’t realized Rion was paying that much attention to it.
And the fact that it feels good makes me a messed-up bastard too.
“Oh, does Rion sunbae know that the Center Director is planning to create a Gate post-processing team?”
“He probably doesn’t. But even if he did, I don’t think he’d care much.”
“Yeah, that sounds right. Hm… well, it’s not like sunbae is going to stay out of Gates forever anyway.”
Min-hyeon replied casually and continued toward their destination. Compared to people getting caught up in stupid pranks like this, the rookie Esper who would become his junior mattered far more.
“An A-rank healing-type Esper… I don’t know whether I should be happy or not. If I think positively, it feels like my workload will get lighter… but on the other hand, now that there’d be two healing Espers, I’m worried they might send one of us into the Gate.”
“They could send in an A-rank rookie instead.”
“…I feel bad saying this, but honestly, I really hope they do. People think healing-type Espers live protected, cushy lives, but I grew up tough as hell. The rookie should grow up that way too.”
Min-hyeon grumbled that he wished there were more people who could heal injuries in real time.
“If Guides could restore not just abilities and stamina through guiding, but also heal bodies too, how great would that be? Then my job would be way easier.”
“I wish I had an ability like that too. Even if I’m an S-rank Guide, there’s nothing I can do in an emergency.”
“Hey, if you actually got an ability like that, you’d be annoyed. You said you don’t like sticking close to Rion sunbae. If it works on the same principle as guiding, holding hands wouldn’t be enough to do anything.”
After teasing Yu-won, Min-hyeon walked ahead of him. Yu-won muttered under his breath, too quietly for Min-hyeon to hear.
“It’s not like I couldn’t….”
It was a good thing Min-hyeon didn’t notice the tips of Yu-won’s ears turning red as he walked ahead.
***
“…….”
Rion seemed to be in a very bad mood, but since they had rules set for living together, he did come home. Still, he didn’t want to come back together, so he returned alone and deliberately planted himself in the living room.
If it were just me, I could’ve brushed it off as being a little hurt. But how does it make sense that others are okay and I’m not? I’ve known him longer than Min-hyeon. He only met Min-hyeon after going into that S-rank Gate.
It was trivial, but it hurt far more than Yu-won’s usual rude remarks.
Even when he’d heard things like, ‘Do you even know whether you’re running into danger or just charging in blindly?’, or ‘If you’ve been here five years, act like it. I’d believe you if you said it was your fifth day,’ or ‘If you like thrills that much, go bungee jumping or something. Don’t do it in a Gate,’ he’d get angry once and feel better a few hours later.
This is pissing me off….
Today, no matter how long he stayed angry, his mood wouldn’t settle. He was on the verge of snapping even at innocent Min-hyeon.
Beep, beep, beep, beep—.
The sound of the keypad being pressed echoed through the apartment. There was only one person who could be coming in, so there was no need to wonder who it was.
“You’re home early.”
Yu-won greeted him while looking toward Rion, but Rion didn’t even turn his head toward the entryway, keeping his gaze fixed on the TV.
Hmph. What, do you think I’m some kind of single-celled organism? You think you’re the only one who can act cold? Fine. I’ll do the bare minimum too.
Without even realizing how childish he was being, Rion crossed his arms and refused to move. Yu-won watched him for a moment before stepping further into the apartment.
