Chapter 115
One might wonder how Seo-jung could remember an outfit from seven years ago, but for him, it would have been stranger not to remember. It was the first and last time he had seen someone come out wearing a thin leather jacket in the middle of winter, trying to look stylish.
It was the day of their first date after the two had started dating following Cha Yoon’s persistent courtship. Seo-jung arrived at the date location 30 minutes early. Although he was in the habit of arriving before the agreed time, getting there this early was unusual. Seo-jung rubbed his cheeks, feeling as if his excited mood for the first date had been exposed.
Just as he was considering entering a nearby bookstore to wait, a familiar silhouette caught his eye. Seo-jung frowned.
‘…Cha Yoon?’
Thinking he might have seen wrong, he blinked several times, but nothing changed. If anything, he became more certain that the person standing there was indeed Cha Yoon. After all, there couldn’t be anyone else in this world born like that except Cha Yoon.
Why is he here already? Did he get the meeting time wrong? Seo-jung hurriedly moved his feet. Running up to Cha Yoon in one breath, Seo-jung looked him over. How long had he been waiting here? Seeing his reddened ear tips and cheeks from the cold air, it didn’t seem like he had just arrived, which made Seo-jung feel uneasy.
‘Yoon, what are you doing?’
‘…Hyung? What, why are you here so early?’
‘That’s my line. Why did you come so early? Did you think the meeting time was 11:30?’
‘What? No, I didn’t get the time wrong. We agreed to meet in front of the cinema at 12, right?’
If he hadn’t misunderstood the meeting time, it meant he had come early voluntarily. Then why? As Seo-jung frowned, Cha Yoon spoke again.
‘I just know you come out earlier than the meeting time, so I didn’t want to make you wait. That’s why I came out a bit earlier.’
Seo-jung was at a loss for words when he heard that Cha Yoon had come out much earlier than the agreed time because he didn’t want to make him wait. After opening and closing his mouth for a while, he finally managed to speak.
‘…If you came this early, you should have at least called. How long have you been waiting alone? What if I had come out at the agreed time?’
‘What if you got hurt rushing out? It’s better if I wait alone.’
‘…’
‘But you know, I think it was good that I came out early. Thanks to that, we met 30 minutes earlier, right?’
Cha Yoon, who said such things without considering others’ feelings and smiled shyly, looked both pretty and touching. Just as Seo-jung was sighing softly and taking in the reddened skin again, things that hadn’t been visible before started to come into view. For example, the t-shirt that exposed his neck and the rider jacket worn over it, completely unsuitable for the weather that was over -10 degrees Celsius. Seo-jung’s eyes widened once again.
‘Yoon, what’s with your clothes?’
‘Oh, this?’
Unlike the serious Seo-jung, Cha Yoon casually looked down at his clothes and shrugged. He even looked somewhat proud.
‘Why? Don’t I look good?’
‘What…’
And this was what he had to say. It was ridiculous. There was nothing to look good about. He just looked cold.
‘Never mind, just take this for now. And let’s quickly go inside and buy you an outer layer.’
As Seo-jung unwrapped his own scarf to hand it over, Cha Yoon waved his reddened hands.
‘Why would we buy an outer layer? I’m already wearing one. Why are you giving me this? I’m really not cold at all. I’m seriously fine, so you hurry and put it on, hyung. You’ll catch a cold. Come on, quickly.’
Cha Yoon, who had wrapped the scarf back around Seo-jung’s neck with his frozen hands, ended up catching a cold the next day. It was the first time in 12 years that illness had visited him, someone who had never known minor ailments.
‘That’s why you shouldn’t dress so thinly. Even if you’re riding in a car, still…’
Seo-jung scolded Cha Yoon, who had ended up bedridden after their first date, while nursing him, feeling upset. It’s not like he didn’t have clothes, so what was he thinking wearing clothes more suitable for autumn in the middle of winter? It was hard to understand with his common sense.
Cha Yoon, who had been silently listening to Seo-jung’s continued words, slowly opened his mouth after a while.
‘You know, hyung, you told me I looked cool for the first time when I wore that outfit to school before.’
‘…I did?’
Had he said such a thing? No matter how much he tried to remember, nothing came to mind. Despite Seo-jung’s reaction, Cha Yoon nodded with a confident expression.
‘Yes, on the third Thursday of October last year, as soon as I entered the club room, you said that. You even said that pushing back my bangs to show my forehead suited me well. I remember it clearly because it was the first and last time you said something like that to me.’
‘…’
‘That’s why I wore it on purpose. I wanted to look cool to you. …Because it was our first date.’
But you didn’t know that and kept scolding me… Looking at Cha Yoon lying on the bed with his lower lip protruding as if upset, Seo-jung brushed back his bangs. He hadn’t thought there would be such a reason behind the previous day’s eccentric behavior.
Cha Yoon was thoroughly mistaken. The reason Seo-jung didn’t often say things like “you look handsome” or “it suits you well” wasn’t because he didn’t think so. Rather, because there were no clothes that didn’t suit Cha Yoon, he didn’t feel the need to say it explicitly.
Seo-jung looked down at Cha Yoon’s face, who was avoiding his gaze as if expressing his hurt feelings. He noticed the area around his eyes, redder than usual due to the fever, and his plump lips.
To think he had kept in his memory a single remark that even the person who said it had forgotten. He knew Cha Yoon’s feelings were deep. After all, for someone who had lived thinking he liked women to start dating him was something that couldn’t be done without extraordinary feelings.
But separate from that, when he encountered the magnitude of Cha Yoon’s feelings in everyday life, it felt strange. It wasn’t bad or negative. Rather, if anything, it was an odd feeling of his palm throbbing yet tingling at the same time.
Seo-jung, who had been focusing on that feeling slowly spreading through his hand, finally came to his senses. This wasn’t the time for such thoughts. Knowing that his words had such a strong influence on Cha Yoon, he couldn’t let him have strange misunderstandings.
Seo-jung wrung out a cold, wet towel and placed it on Cha Yoon’s forehead. Cha Yoon flinched at the cold sensation from the wet towel and turned his eyes. Seo-jung didn’t avoid the gaze he met and opened his mouth.
‘Yoon, I think you look pretty even with this cold towel on your forehead and cold sweat on your face.’
‘…’
‘What I mean is, to my eyes, you always look cool and radiant. So don’t try to look stylish and end up sick like this in the future.’
‘Do you feel the same way, hyung?’
‘Yes.’
When Seo-jung nodded simply, Cha Yoon raised his upper body and sat up on the bed. The wet towel that had been on his forehead rolled off, but he didn’t mind at all.
‘Do you also feel like I’m the only one you see even when surrounded by people, worry every night about what if someone else falls for me, find me cute just watching me breathe, want to hug me and not let go because I’m too pretty, and get surprised thinking how can such a person exist in this world? Do you really have such feelings for me, just like I do for you, hyung?’
Is this what they mean by giving an inch and taking a mile? The conversation he had started to clear up the misunderstanding and comfort Cha Yoon’s feelings had instead prompted Cha Yoon’s love confession. While others might call these words exaggerated or intense, Seo-jung just felt trembling. With a feeling that went beyond tingling to a prickling sensation, Seo-jung swallowed dryly and nodded.
Upon receiving an affirmative answer, Cha Yoon hugged Seo-jung tightly as if he couldn’t hold back anymore. His body, still feverish, enveloped Seo-jung. It was burning hot, as if representing the temperature of Cha Yoon’s heart.
‘I thought it was just me, but you felt the same way… I didn’t know.’
‘…’
‘It’s not that I’m ignoring your feelings for me. I knew you liked me, you know? But I didn’t know you liked me this much, just like I do. But now that you say you do…’
I feel like I’m all better even though I’m sick, really. Cha Yoon tightened his arms around Seo-jung a bit more and buried his face in Seo-jung’s neck.
‘I’ll do better for you from now on, listen well, and always be pretty and cute and cool. So you have to like me for a lifetime. Okay?’
As Cha Yoon nuzzled his face against him like a child seeking attention, Seo-jung carefully raised his hand and stroked Cha Yoon’s soft hair.
‘I’ll keep liking you even if you don’t do all that.’
‘Then that’s even better.’
Seemingly very pleased with the response, Cha Yoon let out a happy laugh.
It’s a bit funny, but even after that, Cha Yoon often went on dates in similar outfits. Unlike their first date where his outfit was completely unsuitable for the season, he did avoid wearing them in the middle of winter or summer, but the expectant look in his eyes, subtly hoping for praise, remained the same. It seemed he thought it was his own winning combination to look cool to Ki Seo-jung.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
