#83
Bonoh’s voice trembled faintly. His voice, trying hard to hold back tears, was filled with suppressed emotion. Taeseong hesitated for a moment. Taeseong’s conviction that this was just role-playing was shaken in an instant by Bonoh’s single word. His cracking breath and trembling shoulders were hard to see as fake.
“What…?”
Taeseong found himself asking back without realizing it.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know!”
At the end of Bonoh’s cry, sobs burst out.
“I… I know everything. Hic, huu…”
Bonoh glared at Taeseong with trembling lips, then couldn’t hold back and sniffled. Finally, thick tears began to drop from both his eyes. Bonoh seemed to be trying to hold back the tears that were about to burst out, but that only made him look more pitiful.
Taeseong froze when faced with that sight. His chest cooling down seemed to tell him that this wasn’t fake.
“Kim Bonoh, calm down. Who said we’re breaking up? Stop this joke—”
Taeseong reached out his hand urgently. But before his fingertips could reach him, Bonoh’s voice was heard again.
“You…! You said that!”
Bonoh looked up while sobbing. His tear-filled eyes seemed to pierce through Taeseong.
“You said you’d meet other people, that… isn’t that the same as breaking up?”
Bonoh’s voice seemed to be collapsing. Taeseong swallowed his breath. His heart sank dizzily.
“…No.”
Taeseong barely opened his mouth. His throat felt like it was burning. Only then did Taeseong realize he was cornered at the edge of a cliff.
Right now, in this moment, Taeseong was facing the consequences of the words he had said. Why hadn’t he thought that his words testing and shaking Bonoh would come back to him like this?
“Because you were pretending to remember. So… when I said you told me that day that I could meet other people, I thought you’d confess with your own mouth that you didn’t remember.”
Even as he spoke, Taeseong realized how childish and cruel he had been. He had wanted to tease Kim Bonoh and get a little revenge. But facing Bonoh in front of him now, Taeseong couldn’t smile at all.
“…So, that was a lie?”
Bonoh looked at Taeseong. Tears were still welling up in his eyes. Taeseong couldn’t even look at Bonoh’s eyes and nodded.
“I just… thought you didn’t like me that much. I thought you agreed to date me because I was drunk and clinging to you…”
Bonoh hung his head low and muttered weakly. His voice trembled at the end. Taeseong looked at such Bonoh and opened his mouth.
“It’s not like that. Really not, Kim Bonoh.”
He spoke with enough force to sound firm. Bonoh sniffled and lifted his head slightly. Then he glared at Taeseong with swollen eyes. His eyes were red, but his expression was somehow relaxed. The tension seemed to have eased a little.
“Geez, this isn’t a lie too, is it?”
His voice sounded dull because his nose was stuffy. It seemed like he was being needlessly stubborn, and also like he was testing one last time in case he might get hurt again.
Taeseong let out a breath mixed with laughter for a moment. Kim Bonoh’s appearance, still being prickly and suspicious of him, was pitiful and also cute.
“Kim Bonoh. Do I look like someone altruistic enough to force myself to date someone I don’t have feelings for?”
Taeseong erased the anxious look from his face. Then his cold impression was revealed as it was. His sharp eyes with pitch-black pupils seemed to sink and flash, and his pale white skin made that cold atmosphere stand out even more. Just sitting still without any expression, that face was filled with unwavering arrogance.
“No. Absolutely not…”
It was the face Bonoh had encountered when he first entered the dormitory. The gaze that seemed to look down on others, the uninhibited attitude, and the cold expression as if whatever situation unfolded before him was unrelated to him.
Seeing that appearance actually reassured Bonoh. Right, Joo Taeseong was originally this kind of guy. Joo Taeseong was absolutely not the type of person who would force himself to date someone he didn’t even like. He had completely forgotten this while watching him recently caring for and looking after him. There were times when such a person was particularly kind only to Bonoh.
The reason was probably… When he thought that far, Bonoh’s face heated up belatedly. He touched his hot ear tips with his hand and asked Taeseong.
“…Then Joo Taeseong, you’re not forcing yourself to date me because I clung to you?”
“Kim Bonoh, you really don’t remember anything at all?”
“Yeah…”
Bonoh flinched, then nodded. Then he stammered and continued as if making excuses.
“So, so… I remember up to drinking alone after you went in to shower. After that, I really don’t remember anything at all…”
Taeseong looked at Bonoh quietly, then smiled slightly. Then he stood up from his seat. Seeing this, Bonoh asked urgently.
“What are you trying to do?”
“Role-playing.”
The corners of Taeseong’s mouth turned up slightly. But his eyes had no playfulness and were strangely serious. Taeseong looked down at Bonoh while standing.
“Kim Bonoh, did you drink?”
His low voice echoed in the classroom. Bonoh looked up at Taeseong with a bewildered face.
“Huh? Me…? No, I didn’t drink just now.”
He answered while blinking as if confused. Taeseong slowly approached Bonoh. He figured Kim Bonoh would notice what he was trying to do as it went on.
“You were like this that day.”
After hesitating a little, Taeseong imitated what Bonoh had said that day.
“You… let’s do that with me.”
Bonoh’s eyes widened, then his face quickly turned red.
“What? Do what?”
He was clearly flustered. He fidgeted with his fingertips restlessly. Taeseong suppressed his laughter inside.
“You know, that thing. What other people do. Like… this…”
When Taeseong even imitated the hand gestures Bonoh had made that day while explaining, Bonoh’s face became even redder.
“Hey, how can we do that? Where do you think this is…”
The flustered Bonoh looked around hurriedly as he spoke. Taeseong chuckled at the sight. Then he carefully reached out and cupped both of Bonoh’s cheeks with one hand. His cheeks were slightly pressed, and he could feel the soft texture in his hand.
“What are you thinking? I mean let’s date.”
Taeseong’s voice was mixed with laughter. He lowered his head as he was and kissed Bonoh. It was a short kiss that made a smacking sound. Bonoh blinked and looked at Taeseong. Then he took a breath and asked quietly.
“Did I confess like this that day?”
Taeseong slowly nodded. Then he said in a voice that was playful but couldn’t hide his sincerity.
“If there’s no answer, I’ll assume we’re dating for life?”
“……”
Bonoh held his breath and rolled his lips inward to bite them. It was a display of his will not to answer. And that was also an expression of agreement to dating for life as Taeseong had said.
“Haha…”
Taeseong burst into laughter seeing such Bonoh. The laughter that burst out helplessly was mixed with joy and relief. Bonoh also smiled broadly along with him. A smile spread across his face that had turned rosy.
“Kim Bonoh, do you know what else we did that day?”
Bonoh looked at Taeseong with a puzzled expression without saying anything, then lightly shook his head. Taeseong lightly pulled Bonoh’s hand and made him stand up from his seat. He wasn’t pulling with force, but Bonoh followed Taeseong without resistance.
The two quietly came out to the hallway. All the lights in the hallway were turned off.
“Joo Taeseong, where are we going?”
Bonoh asked carefully. Taeseong smiled briefly and brought his index finger to his lips.
“Shh.”
As if telling him to just follow quietly, Taeseong walked down the hallway holding Bonoh’s hand. Their footsteps echoed subtly in the empty building. He headed toward the stairs at the end of the hallway.
When they went up one floor, deeper silence enveloped them both. In the dim darkness, only a soft light was leaking from the direction of the bathroom.
Arriving in front of the bathroom, Taeseong looked around once, then opened the door and went inside. It was a building in a remote location, and at this hour, there was no way anyone would be in the bathroom on the second floor, not even the first floor.
However, Taeseong opened and checked each bathroom stall one by one. The sound of doors rattling continued briefly. No one was there.
After confirming that all the stalls were empty, Taeseong looked back at Bonoh. Without saying anything, he took Bonoh’s hand again and carefully entered the innermost stall. As the bathroom stall door closed with a short creaking sound, only the breathing of the two people spread thinly in the narrow space.
Taeseong reached behind Bonoh and locked the door.
Click.
The sound of the lock turning echoed particularly loudly. Bonoh unconsciously stepped back one step.
“What, mmph…”
Without any chance to react, Taeseong’s lips collided with his. Taeseong eagerly opened Bonoh’s mouth and explored inside as if his throat was dry. As Taeseong pushed roughly, Bonoh’s back touched the stall door.
Taeseong acted as if he would swallow even all the panting breaths. With his hands, he began to undress Bonoh. When he took off the t-shirt, they separated briefly, then immediately stuck together again.
Taeseong lightly hung Bonoh’s t-shirt over the bathroom stall partition. Then he undid Bonoh’s pants buckle and pulled them down along with his underwear. The jeans and underwear he was wearing fell to his ankles.
“Ah, haa… wait, wait a moment.”
Bonoh, who had suddenly become half-naked, trembled slightly. When Bonoh panted and pushed him away, Taeseong obediently backed away. Bonoh gasped for breath. Following his breathing, his flat chest swelled and deflated.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
