He had a dream.
As is often the case with someone carrying unease, Cha Eui-sung found himself frantically chased from place to place. He scaled walls while being pursued by the Bureau of Regulation, and when a USB containing crucial intel mysteriously vanished, he suddenly found himself breaking into Oh Se-dan’s office. Laser security systems—completely unrealistic ones—enveloped him on all sides, and just as he managed to slip past them, his phone rang and the sound of footsteps echoed from afar. At the very end, flying in a helicopter, a piercing blue iris flickered in the sky above. The chilling eye rolled toward the fleeing man. He’d been discovered. The instant that thought took hold of his mind, a jolt of dread shot through his body like lightning.
He startled awake and lifted his heavy eyelids.
“Let go. I’m not doing anything weird.”
“Hoo….”
No-name, who’d been looming over him, was gone—and in his place was Moon Tae-young, frowning with Eui-sung’s hand gripped tightly in his. The way his hand was twisted looked genuinely painful. His heart, which had been hammering like mad, gradually calmed, and the stiffness in his neck began to ease. Apparently, he’d grabbed Moon Tae-young reflexively in his sleep after being jostled. He must not have been sleeping that deeply, since he woke so quickly…
Well, really. No matter how tired you are, if you pass out completely in a place like this, that’s not a person—it’s a hibernating bear.
As Cha Eui-sung released his grip, a large hand gently settled on his shoulder once again.
“Go lie down and sleep.”
That usual calm tone, even in his half-asleep haze, was oddly comforting. Still, Eui-sung shook his head weakly. He hadn’t intended to sleep here in the first place. Just wanted to sit for a bit longer before heading back. It seemed like he’d briefly dozed off again after showing that sliver of will…
“Mmm…”
Poof—something soft landed on him. A blanket. A pleasant scent wafted up, making the corners of his mouth lift without him even realizing. Teetering on the edge between wakefulness and sleep, Cha Eui-sung instinctively buried his face in it. As he breathed in, warmth filled his chest. After being so tense just moments ago, his body automatically sought comfort.
He rubbed into it for a while, and eventually, a warm hand began stroking his hair. Eui-sung, lacking all dignity, shifted his cheek toward it and pressed down hard. The palm against his lips was firm, yet soft.
“I’m really not in the mood for that tonight.”
Only then did the fog of sleep lift like a curtain. Cha Eui-sung struggled to open his still-heavy eyelids and slowly turned his head. Acting all brazen with Moon Tae-young, letting his guard down just because things seemed to be going okay, falling asleep mid-conversation, and rubbing his face into the blanket Tae-young had brought him—all of it played back in his head, as if from a third-person perspective, like a scene described in prose.
Goddamn it. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep here. Just as Eui-sung belatedly sensed the awkward atmosphere and reached to toss the blanket aside, the hand that had stayed still until now quickly pressed down on his arm, stopping him.
“I never said you couldn’t rest. Just told you not to mess with my head.”
Mess with his head? Is that really something you say to someone who was clearly just sleeping? What had he even done? Even through the grogginess, Eui-sung found it absurd…
“Mess with your head?”
But the words that came out of his mouth were something else entirely. Cha Eui-sung turned toward Moon Tae-young with sleep still heavy in his eyes. Tae-young looked equally incredulous, but the sharp tension in his expression had long since melted away.
“You’re the one who, yawn… touched me while I was sleeping, weren’t you?”
“You were passed out in the middle of the living room. I just suggested you go sleep properly.”
“Then why’d you touch my hair?”
“I thought you might have a fever.”
“From my hair?”
“…”
Eui-sung stubbornly buried his face back into the blanket, having clearly won that round. Moon Tae-young’s lingering scent felt like it wrapped gently around his entire body. All the anxiety that had been gnawing at him felt like a lie now, with a slow warmth bubbling up inside his chest.
…Again.
At this point, it might as well be called a chronic condition—this abrupt shift in mood. Cha Eui-sung tried to tamp down the fluffy feeling that had no business showing up without permission as he fumbled through the blanket and reached into his pocket. He checked his phone. Not much time had passed.
“How long did I sleep?”
“Not long. About ten minutes.”
No wonder he still felt dead tired.
Cha Eui-sung reluctantly pushed aside the soft blanket and sat up. Even for an S-rank, running on this little sleep was taking its toll—his legs buckled slightly as he rose.
“If you don’t mind me not touching you, why not just sleep here?”
It wasn’t even a question worth debating. Everything that had happened since the System’s emergency episode had been so overwhelming, he felt like he’d go insane if he didn’t sit down and vent it all out into the void.
And now that Moon Tae-young had apparently figured out at least part of the truth, things between them might be heading into a whole new chapter.
Still, the reason his steps faltered… was probably just because he was so damn tired.
Cha Eui-sung glanced half-heartedly in the direction he was supposed to go and finally spoke.
“Won’t it be uncomfortable for you?”
“And now you’re worried about that?”
“I know things haven’t smoothed over yet. Obviously. After how I acted.”
“Then how about doing what I tell you for once? Instead of turning savage and whining like that just ’cause you’re on edge.”
He instinctively touched his face at the blunt comment—his jaw had been tensed tight. Somewhere along the way, he’d started scowling again.
“Was I really that irritated?”
“Yeah. Since the moment you threw the blanket off. Out of nowhere.”
He hadn’t meant to lash out—it was just his mood flaring without warning. Embarrassed, Eui-sung rubbed the back of his neck as Tae-young gave a subtle nod toward the bedroom.
“It’s snowing pretty hard. If you head back now, you’ll be wide awake by the time you get there.”
Did he know Eui-sung hadn’t been able to sleep properly anywhere except near him lately?
Cha Eui-sung stared out the window for a moment, then gave in and turned around. Tae-young picked up the blanket and led the way, and Eui-sung quietly followed, obediently climbing onto the bed as instructed.
Noticing that his clothes looked rather stiff and uncomfortable, Tae-young commented in passing as he laid the blanket over him,
“You really bundled up. It’s not even cold.”
“I wore it because it looked nicer.”
He just wanted to look good. He figured if he looked good enough, maybe Tae-young would overlook a few things.
He’d said he liked him, after all. And if Eui-sung—who prided himself on being cold and logical—could turn this foolish over it, then there was no way someone who liked him more would stay unaffected.
“Does it look good on me?”
“You’re very calculated, aren’t you?”
It sounded casual, but the bite in those words stung. All the scheming and maneuvering he’d done to get close to Tae-young flashed through his mind like a slideshow.
Still, even if Tae-young’s face wasn’t exactly warm, at least it wasn’t distant anymore.
“So I guess I don’t look half-bad.”
Muttering under his breath, Cha Eui-sung lifted the blanket slightly. When Tae-young raised an eyebrow, Eui-sung looked up at him and spoke again.
“I know you’re not in the mood. But… can you stay with me?”
His voice was slack, heavy with drowsiness—so lacking in energy it almost sounded pitiful.
He’s probably sitting here thinking about a hundred things while I was passed out like an idiot.
He didn’t want Tae-young’s thoughts to get too far ahead while he was asleep. Even if just for a moment, he wanted to keep him from spiraling into assumptions.
Tae-young, unaware of such selfish reasoning, remained silent for a long while before finally getting into bed.
As soon as Eui-sung rested his head against Tae-young’s body, who was sitting against the bed’s headboard, he quietly closed his eyes. All that insistence on going home seemed laughable now—he was out cold almost immediately.
***
“So? It’s resolved now?”
“I’ve covered it up—more or less.”
“He’s just letting it go even though he knows it was a coordinated approach?”
“Well, we’re close. Closer than you’d think, Mr. Kim Jeong-baek.”
Hah.
Kim Jeong-baek scoffed, spoon still in his mouth. The empty ice cream container he’d scraped clean was left rolling carelessly across the table.
“You really finished the whole thing.”
“Hey, didn’t I tell you? Seo-ryong gets a sore throat if she eats cold stuff in this weather. I told you not to buy things like this. So I had to take care of it before she got back from school.”
“Sure didn’t look like a chore with the way you inhaled it.”
“Well, it was tasty.”
Maybe because one of his worries had been lifted, Kim Jeong-baek looked visibly more cheerful today. Eui-sung still wasn’t sure how he’d ended up spinning tales about his relationship with Moon Tae-young just to pacify this man, but the fact was—his advice had helped.
“But really, how long do you think that half-assed patch job is going to last?”
“What do you mean, how long?”
“Come on, boss. You know how this works. If you don’t cleanly tie off loose ends, they always come back to bite you. What you did was just slap a blindfold on the problem.”
Setting his spoon down, Kim Jeong-baek put on a mock-stern expression. With skin that taut, trying to act all grim-faced just made him look ridiculous—especially for an Awakened.
“If the other guy’s letting it slide despite knowing what happened, there’s gotta be a reason. It’s not like he’s overlooking the flaws of someone he loves, right? You two barely started seeing each other. If he’s being that generous about some dumb thing you said, then he’s not just big-hearted—he’s a sucker…”
“Less nonsense, more cleaning. Start with the trash.”
Cha Eui-sung scowled as he flicked the empty container with a sharp tap.
