Is it broken? Jae-young cupped his left cheek with his right hand. Only then did the man, who had been standing like a brick wall, finally show movement. He tilted his head to the opposite side, rejecting Jae-young’s touch.
“Have you had enough fresh air?”
His lips opened slowly to ask the question. Though it ended as a question, it sounded like he had already decided what would follow. As if saying, let’s go back now.
Jae-young forced a smile as he looked at Sa Gong-hyun.
“Yes. Let’s go back now.”
He was a man whose thoughts were utterly impossible to read.
***
Jae-young returned home earlier than expected under Sa Gong-hyun’s escort. It was actually just past 11 PM, but for Jae-young’s standards, it was way too early.
He had naturally assumed he would spend the night at Sa Gong-hyun’s place. Even if not, he thought they would spend more time together. However, after their walk, Sa Gong-hyun had simply escorted Jae-young back to his home.
During the drive home, the atmosphere in the car was more rigid than concrete and suffocating. When Jae-young tried to initiate conversation several times, Sa Gong-hyun gave nothing more or less than concise answers. Though his responses were typically brief, this time was different. There was no sincerity.
After this atmosphere persisted for over 10 minutes, even Jae-young eventually fell silent. It was so frustrating that he thought it would be better to talk to a wall instead. At least then, he’d be speaking with the knowledge that there would be no response.
He couldn’t figure out exactly what had angered Sa Gong-hyun. It seemed the conversation they had on the walking path fence was the problem, but he couldn’t gauge which specific words had upset him.
All he had done was ask Sa Gong-hyun to smile again after noticing his smile had disappeared. The atmosphere had become strange after that…
He didn’t think he had misspoken. Everything he said was meant to please Sa Gong-hyun. Even when he asked what mistake he had made—feeling uncomfortable about parting on such terms despite not understanding the situation—Sa Gong-hyun had only told him to go inside.
It was exasperating. He could at least explain why he was acting this way. Sa Gong-hyun was too sensitive. He was excessively sensitive. He was incomparably sensitive compared to anyone else.
“Haah… so annoying.”
Jae-young opened the refrigerator while frowning deeply. After drinking some cold water, his agitated feelings seemed to subside a little.
A single sip wasn’t satisfying enough, so he took out a 500mL bottle of water and closed the refrigerator. Feeling inexplicably stiff, he stretched his upper body as he moved.
He headed to the only bedroom in his cramped apartment. Jae-young sat on the bed and lay back. The cheap mattress barely supported his weight.
Ah, everything is just so irritating. Once one thing bothered him, everything else he had been tolerating became unpleasant too. The cramped apartment, the musty dust smell from not airing the place properly, the incredibly uncomfortable bed.
He set down the capped water bottle. The curved bottle slid across his palm and rolled over the blanket.
“Maybe I should just go home and sleep.”
Jae-young muttered as he looked around the room filled with cold air.
Maybe I should go take a bath for the first time in a while, sip some whiskey from the display cabinet, and then sleep in my soft bed under a thick blanket… Come to think of it, I haven’t even played with the console game I bought recently.
Although it had been less than a month since he began this operation, it felt like he had been away for well over a year.
Surely Sa Gong-hyun wouldn’t have secretly had someone follow him after personally escorting him home, so one day should be fine, right? Jae-young blinked feebly and took a deep breath.
After some deliberation, he sat up and put on the black baseball cap that had been hanging on the stand.
He hummed a tune to lift his mood. Everything important was already in his coat, so he just needed to call a taxi to the front of his building.
Jae-young took out the phone he had stuffed into his coat pocket and turned on the screen. After calling a taxi, he glared at the newly saved number.
“You’d better not sleep well tonight, you inconsiderate jerk.”
He turned off the screen to protect his eyes from the light. Lying back down on the bed while waiting for the taxi, he exhaled irritably. After a brief hesitation, he left Sa Gong-hyun a message.
[The meal today was really delicious, Hyun-ssi. Good night.]
He would take it to his grave that he had affectionately added a smiling emoji and two hearts.
# Ask for Directions Even if You Know the Way
It was stifling. As he tried to turn over in his sleep, he groaned briefly, feeling his body tightly held by something. It felt like he was bound somewhere, or like his forehead was pressed against a hard wall.
Wait. What wall? Why is there a wall next to the bed? His malfunctioning thought process suddenly became alert. With an ominous feeling, he quickly opened his eyes.
The moment Jae-young, who had raised his guard to the fullest, realized what he had perceived as a wall, he let out a deflated sound. His heart, which had been startled, flapped like a fish dragged onto land.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Opening his eyes again, he irritably removed the arm that was embracing his body.
This was truly unbelievable. Jae-young, who had barely raised his upper body, pushed hard against the shoulder that had rolled toward him.
“Hey.”
There was no response from Seung-kwon, who was sleeping deeply.
“Hey, Cha Seung-kwon. Wake up.”
The place where Jae-young had been lying was his own home, which he had contracted for a two-year lease but had to vacate after less than three months due to unavoidable circumstances. It was a bed large enough for three adult men to lie on without any problem, but it was his bed and he had no intention of giving up even a spot to anyone else.
“Aren’t you going to wake up?”
After taking a deep breath, Jae-young tried to wake Seung-kwon again. Despite speaking as an equal to someone 8 years his senior, he felt not even a rat’s whisker of guilt.
Cha Seung-kwon deserved to be cursed at. He had entered Jae-young’s home without permission and laid down on his bed without even changing his clothes.
Despite knowing that Jae-young extremely disliked sleeping in physical contact with others, he had laid down next to him and even embraced him in his sleep. The thought of having slept embraced with him suddenly gave Jae-young goosebumps.
His annoyance increased with each passing second.
“Hey, you… What’s this? Hyung, what happened to your face? Did you fall somewhere?”
Jae-young, who was about to raise his voice, opened his eyes wide. There was a scrape wound on the half of Seung-kwon’s face that was buried in the pillow.
Just as he was about to grab Seung-kwon’s chin to examine the wound more closely, the man rolled over.
“…Just 5 minutes. I only fell asleep after coming in at 6.”
“Right now…!”
He was about to raise his voice to demand that Seung-kwon get up immediately, but he held back. Seeing Seung-kwon turning to the other side to go back to sleep made the back of his head throb.
Judging by his nonchalant reaction, he must have simply fallen on the ground. Or perhaps it was an injury from practicing martial arts.
“Hey.”
Jae-young lightly kicked Seung-kwon’s back with his foot. Seung-kwon lazily waved his elbow once.
“Did you unlock the password and come in at that hour again? Didn’t I tell you not to randomly unlock my house password? I told you to ring the bell if you want to come in, didn’t I? Hey, wake up. Get up before I push you off. Cha Seung-kwon!”
“…How would I know your password, you punk? Let me sleep.”
“How did you get in if you don’t know it!”
“Smart key, idiot.”
For a moment, Jae-young was speechless. It was absolutely infuriating and mind-boggling.
All this time, he had been changing the password repeatedly because Seung-kwon kept figuring it out and entering, but it turns out he’d been wasting his efforts. After silently raging, he kicked Seung-kwon’s back hard with the sole of his foot.
“…Hey, Do Jae-young!”
Seung-kwon, who had been sleeping steadfastly despite sensing someone behind him, glared at Jae-young. Jae-young quickly got off the bed and showed him his middle finger.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
