“…What is it now?”
“Check your phone. Yoonho must have sent a message.”
At those words, Junghyun frowned as he picked up his phone and rubbed his eyes to check the screen.
As Jaehyuk had said, several messages had arrived from Yoonho in the early morning.
After checking the messages from someone who seemed to have lost sleep despite being the third party least involved in this situation, Junghyun irritably scratched his head as if this was becoming troublesome.
“Uncle seems to have a more annoying personality than I thought.”
“Precisely right.”
“If it was going to end up like this anyway, I should have just answered his calls.”
“…Calls?”
As Jaehyuk, who had been checking his own phone, turned only his eyes to look at Junghyun with an expression that asked what he was talking about, Junghyun rolled his eyes for a moment and asked back.
“Did I not tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“Uh…”
Realizing that there hadn’t been time to talk about it, Junghyun quickly explained the situation.
“He’s been contacting me since March asking to meet, but I blocked all his calls because it was annoying. Yesterday I answered and teased him a bit.”
Junghyun sincerely regretted that if this was going to happen anyway, he should have deployed his “terrifying mouth” after such a long time.
It wasn’t just ordinarily annoying—it was extraordinarily annoying.
But for Jaehyuk, there was a different issue.
“Why did Uncle contact you?”
“He said he wanted to meet and talk.”
“Talk about what?”
“I don’t know exactly since I hung up without listening… but from the tone, it seemed like he wanted me to team up with him behind your back.”
When Junghyun shared his inference that it felt something like that, Jaehyuk reacted with disgust as if he’d heard the most horrifying thing in the world.
“Uncle, with you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why else? To bring you down.”
“How?”
“By extracting confidential information, or holding you back so you can’t move, or by playing the victim and making you look like a tremendous bastard.”
“How do you know in such detail when you didn’t even talk to him?”
“I’m not knowing, I’m guessing. He said he could give me more than what you promised.”
No further thought was needed after that brief but powerful testimony.
The fact that he mentioned a specific amount to Junghyun meant he had seen the contract before.
And if that was the case, it would have been better to know earlier.
“You should have told me about this beforehand.”
“I told you I hung up on every call. And this is all just my guess, not something I know for sure. Whatever he did, yesterday he even called from Seojun’s phone, so I told him I’m hanging up because I have nothing to discuss now but will call when I do, and it seems he created something to discuss.”
Junghyun remained perfectly calm despite dropping this bombshell.
That disconnect made Jaehyuk press his fingers firmly on the back of his neck.
Now he understood.
The cause of all these unusual circumstances.
He had wondered why his uncle suddenly popped up, but this guy was the root cause.
“…So according to you, this is all Uncle’s scheme to make you contact him?”
“Probably. And since there was no contact, he seems to have escalated things. To make me suffer too.”
“…That’s definitely… so like Uncle that I have nothing to say…”
“That’s why it’s annoying.”
“…Uncle being annoying is true, but…”
That was an undeniable truth that no one could dispute… but suddenly his fighting spirit disappeared.
It was just absurd.
“Fine. I get it. Hearing it like that, I finally understand this whole situation.”
“That’s good. I’m glad you understand.”
“Yes. Now that the cause and purpose are clear, it should be easier to find a solution.”
It was disconcerting how trivial it turned out to be, but at least the situation was clarified.
The problem was that clarification was all they had.
“I’ll go wash up. You should get up soon and have breakfast. I’ve set up the appointment with Junyoung for 9 o’clock.”
“I’ll need to go out for that. I have things to check too.”
Finally getting out of bed, Junghyun plodded out of the room.
Seeing his zombie-like behavior of heading straight to the dining room right after waking up, Jaehyuk laughed in disbelief as he headed to the bathroom.
It was a refreshing start to the day.
* * *
“I heard their lemon tea cake is delicious.”
“Go ahead and eat it.”
Jaehyuk responded half-heartedly, now confident that he wouldn’t be surprised even if Junghyun ate the cake box instead of the cake, and put on his jacket before leaving the house.
Beside him, Junghyun was wearing a large sky-blue hoodie with matching jogger pants, and today again he simply grabbed his phone as he left through the front door and got into the elevator.
When they reached the underground parking lot and stepped out, the cool air wrapped around their necks.
The morning was still quite chilly.
Junghyun shivered slightly and pulled the hood strings tight, securing the hood to his neck.
Seeing this, Jaehyuk asked with concern:
“Are you cold?”
“A little.”
“Should you wear another outer layer?”
“I’m already wearing an extra layer underneath.”
Junghyun shrugged, mentioning that this hoodie was fleece-lined, then got into the passenger seat and fastened his seatbelt as Jaehyuk also got in and started the engine.
Just as he was about to shift gears, Jaehyuk hesitated for a moment.
It was a repetition of their daily routine from a month ago.
Back then, he had thought the morning fights were tiresome, but he had missed even that during their time apart, so Jaehyuk quietly turned to look at Junghyun.
At that gaze, Junghyun quickly put both hands in his pockets.
“Don’t bite.”
Jaehyuk smiled at his quick reaction.
“I could bite more than just hands.”
“I don’t think there are any more places to bite on my neck.”
When Junghyun said it was already in tatters from all his biting, Jaehyuk gave him an eye-smile.
“I could bite more than just the neck.”
As Jaehyuk stared intently at Junghyun’s ears, Junghyun quickly pulled his hood over his head.
“Stop biting. You might regret it by tomorrow afternoon. No, you might regret it as soon as this afternoon.”
“That won’t happen.”
“I hope you keep your word.”
Glancing at Junghyun, who was looking forward again with a dubious comment, Jaehyuk immediately moved the car out of the parking lot.
“We’ll go to Divine first.”
“What about going to work?”
“I already called in. Said I’d be late today.”
“That’s good. But who will take me home?”
“Director Jang will come.”
“Ah… well… that should be fine.”
Saying that, Junghyun looked around at the familiar streets that had already brightened up.
The streets that had been bleak before he left were now sprouting greenery everywhere, and some trees were full of flower buds.
Seeing that made him realize it was April.
It was clearly different from foreign countries.
Streets in foreign countries were like a single photograph, but the changes in familiar streets represented the seasons.
It was now fully spring.
He finally felt the flow of the seasons.
* * *
After circling the nearby paid parking lot several times like on the day they first came and finally managing to park, Junghyun entered the cafe that had left such a strong impression and curiously looked around the outdoor seating area.
The shop was the same, but the atmosphere was subtly different from that day.
The flowers in the planters, the table decorations.
Moreover, unlike that day, the outdoor tables were less crowded, and Junghyun enjoyed that leisurely atmosphere as he sat down.
“This is nice. No people around. Good for paparazzi to take photos too. When shooting in places like this, it’s hard to blur other people’s faces.”
“Do you do cafe shoots often?”
“Yes. Cafes do a lot of viral marketing. Especially cafes run by large corporations—they call it viral, but it’s practically major advertising. Social media is a must.”
While they were sitting and having this pointless conversation, a server approached with menus.
“May I take your order?”
“I’ll have an Americano. What about you?”
“Peppermint tea and lemon black tea cake. And also a strawberry crab cake.”
Having neatly ordered even the cake slices as he had mentioned, Junghyun took out his phone and checked his email.
Jaehyuk stared at him.
With a face that seemed to wonder what this guy was up to now.
Junghyun verbally responded to that suspicious gaze.
“You’ll find out soon.”
Despite this, Jaehyuk’s gaze remained full of distrust, so Junghyun put down his phone, placed his hands on the table, and rolled up his sleeves.
Then he glanced at Jaehyuk and warned:
“Don’t bite.”
Fortunately, there were no bite marks left on his fingers and arms, but being surprised by sudden attacks was the problem.
He wanted to stop being surprised now.
“I’ll think about it.”
“How about just stopping thinking altogether?”
“That seems like something I should be saying to you?”
Suddenly finding the attack turned back on him, Junghyun, who had been sunbathing, looked at Jaehyuk with surprise.
At his questioning gaze that asked what that meant, Jaehyuk gestured with his chin as if to say, “Don’t you know?”
“…You’re more perceptive than I thought.”
“As much as you are.”
At that quick response, Junghyun laughed in disbelief.
“You don’t seriously think that, do you?”
“I’m serious.”
At his confident answer, Junghyun quietly looked at Jaehyuk.
With a contemptuous look that seemed to say “You?” Jaehyuk’s pride was hurt, and he was about to say something when Junghyun gestured with his chin toward the front.
Instinctively turning his gaze at that signal, Jaehyuk saw Junyoung approaching with hurried steps and closed his mouth.
Junyoung, who had been approaching quickly, also stopped in his tracks at that moment.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
