* * *
“Wake up. We’ve arrived.”
As Jaehyuk woke Junghyun at their destination, he had an idea and acted on it.
Since Junghyun falls asleep when his head touches something, maybe he’d wake up if his head was lifted.
It sounded absurd, but just in case, he supported Junghyun’s head with his hand while waking him, and surprisingly, Junghyun opened his eyes immediately.
“We’re here. Get up.”
At Jaehyuk’s quiet call, Junghyun rubbed his eyes with both hands and looked around, then sat up abruptly, surprised by the unfamiliar scenery outside the window.
“…What is this…”
“Get out.”
Satisfied that Junghyun was awake, Jaehyuk removed his hand from Junghyun’s head and got out of the car first. Junghyun also opened the car door with a disheveled appearance and took one step outside.
Suddenly, his foot sank into the ground.
Of course it did. It was a sandy beach.
He couldn’t understand why they had come to the seaside in the middle of the night.
Surely Jaehyuk wasn’t planning to throw him into the sea.
He wondered if they had come surfing, but it was too late for that.
Tilting his head at Jaehyuk’s unpredictable behavior, Junghyun closed the car door as a cold wind swept in.
“Cold…”
Despite being well-dressed, the spring sea breeze was harsh.
As the sharp, knife-like wind seemed to cut into his skin, Junghyun quickly huddled and pulled up the zipper of his field jacket.
Then, as he raised his head to look for Jaehyuk, it didn’t take long.
It was impossible not to find him.
Beside him, who had gone ahead, a blazing fire could be seen.
And in front of it, two chairs were placed side by side.
Drawn by the scene that seemed prepared in advance and the flames, Junghyun approached, and Jaehyuk, who was already there, pointed to a chair.
“Sit.”
At his invitation, Junghyun sat in the pretty red chair with a cushion, and Jaehyuk covered him with a blanket that had been on the backrest.
But honestly, it didn’t seem necessary.
The flames in the fire pit in front of him were blazing as if they would burn the whole world.
At this rate, it could burn people too.
“Am I being burned at the stake today?”
Jaehyuk laughed at the strange question.
“That sounds good too.”
Without denying it, Jaehyuk also took a seat next to Junghyun.
Then he unexpectedly handed him a can.
“Hold this, it’s cold.”
It was a warmed can of cocoa.
Receiving the familiar-looking can and holding it tightly with both hands, Junghyun looked down at it as Jaehyuk, sitting beside him, took out two document envelopes.
“You got the message?”
Despite the extremely unfriendly question without a subject, Junghyun immediately understood what he meant.
“Yes.”
“Good. Then, give me the ring.”
At these unexpected words, Junghyun’s pupils began to waver subtly.
“…The ring?”
As Junghyun hesitated, seemingly flustered by something he hadn’t anticipated, Jaehyuk gave him a look as if urging him to hurry.
After a moment of hesitation at that gaze, which didn’t seem angry, Junghyun finally removed the ring from his left ring finger and handed it to him.
Then Jaehyuk also took off the ring from his own left hand. Then he took out the documents from the envelope.
They were the marriage contract and divorce agreement that they had drawn up five months ago and each kept a copy of.
Just that afternoon, a lawyer had contacted him asking what to do because Jaehyuk wanted those documents, and he had told them to hand everything over.
After all, those documents needed to be settled.
So he had been prepared, but when the moment actually came, his heart started racing.
Although his mind clearly thought things would work out well, he felt uneasy when Jaehyuk asked for the ring.
But on this matter, he had no right to speak.
So he remained silent and waited for Jaehyuk’s judgment, who, after checking the documents, spoke as if reciting.
“I don’t understand what Junyoung did at all, and honestly, it’s still unpleasant… but, there was something right in what he said.”
After those meaningful words, Jaehyuk looked down at the ring in his hand.
And after silently staring at the ring for a moment, he continued.
“Indeed, if the beginning isn’t good, the end can’t be good either.”
Though he still found Junyoung incomprehensible, Junghyun also agreed with his view on this particular point.
Especially for people with bothersome personalities like Jaehyuk and himself, who rarely change their minds once they’ve decided something, first impressions and the starting point of relationships are very important.
All of that determines the future.
“So I’m asking…”
After setting up his introduction that way, Jaehyuk held up the documents again.
“Do you think we need these?”
“…That seems like something for you to decide, hyung.”
“No. You need to decide too. This is an important issue for us. Both you and I are more accustomed to making decisions on our own and then announcing them, and we’re the kind of people who should live that way, but we’ve learned that it’s better not to do that with each other, right?”
At this gentle yet reproachful remark, Junghyun bit his lip.
Indeed, neither Jaehyuk nor himself was the type to seek others’ opinions.
Fortunately, until now, their ways of thinking and temperaments had been similar enough that there hadn’t been major problems, but in the future, issues could arise even in very small matters.
So it’s better to be clear about opinions.
It’s better to ask first rather than making assumptions or predictions.
“…Honestly, I’m someone who trusts contracts more than relationships with people, but…”
After saying that much, Junghyun immediately met Jaehyuk’s eyes.
Then he whispered softly.
“I trust you, hyung. So those documents are no longer necessary.”
At this expression of intent, more careful and certain than ever before, Jaehyuk smiled as if he liked the answer.
“Good. Then, we don’t need these anymore, right?”
As Junghyun nodded in response to his hand waving the documents once more, Jaehyuk unhesitatingly threw the documents into the blazing fire.
And at that moment, the bundle of documents instantly burned to ashes in the fire.
It didn’t even take a few seconds.
At this sight, which was somewhat anticlimactic, Junghyun laughed hollowly.
As he blankly watched the documents that had weighed heavily on his heart for the past few months disappear, the man beside him suddenly spoke.
“Your hand.”
At this gentle call, Junghyun turned to him and saw Jaehyuk wiggling his finger while holding the ring in his hand.
At that gesture, Junghyun slowly extended his left hand, and Jaehyuk placed the ring back on his left ring finger.
“With that in mind, I want to start over from the beginning. I originally prepared to give you a new ring… but it seems this ring has a special meaning for us, what do you think?”
Just as Jaehyuk had felt relieved when he saw the ring remaining on Junghyun’s hand the day he returned, it was a ring with special meaning for Junghyun too.
As the only evidence connecting him and Jaehyuk.
So he didn’t need any other ring.
Though he generally didn’t attach meaning to objects, he wanted to cherish this ring.
“I prefer this one too.”
As Junghyun smiled while touching the ring that had returned to his left ring finger, Jaehyuk now held out his own ring. Taking it, Junghyun placed the ring on Jaehyuk’s left ring finger.
Doing so, he began to understand why Jaehyuk had come all this way in the middle of the night.
“So, that’s why we came here?”
At the mention of starting over, Jaehyuk, who had put the ring back on, nodded.
“Since this is where we first met. It’s also good for burning documents.”
“It is good for leaving no evidence.”
The flames were so strong that there probably wouldn’t even be ashes left of the contract, but the wind would blow away even those scattered ashes.
As Junghyun expressed satisfaction at this perfect destruction of evidence, Jaehyuk quietly gazed at his profile.
Then, stroking Junghyun’s hair, which was in disarray from the sea breeze, he murmured regretfully.
“I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. It would have been better if I had recognized you sooner.”
At Jaehyuk’s tone tinged with some regret, Junghyun turned his gaze to face him.
Though he had been somewhat disappointed that Jaehyuk hadn’t remembered him, now he was rather glad they hadn’t met when they were too young.
This wasn’t just self-consolation or rationalization.
If they had met then, given his personality, it probably wouldn’t have ended well.
Back then, both Jaehyuk and he had more fiery temperaments, so rather than adjusting to and understanding each other, they would have burned like those flames and then quickly extinguished, ending with only scars.
“It’s probably better that you didn’t recognize me. If you had approached me then, you wouldn’t have married me.”
There’s no demand for an Omega who beats up Alphas with a surfboard when angry.
If he had recognized him then, he definitely wouldn’t have proposed. Maybe they could have been surfing mates, but nothing more.
But Jaehyuk thought differently.
“I might have proposed even sooner.”
At his playful tone suggesting he would have told Junghyun to go after his uncle, Junghyun laughed, and Jaehyuk kissed him.
The kiss, which started lightly, soon deepened, and without either one leading, they immediately stood up and entered the house.
While the exterior had a café-like design with all-white paint, the interior felt like a luxury pension with floor-to-ceiling windows offering a panoramic view of the dark sea.
In that beautiful house with wooden furniture placed on a marble floor, they undressed one by one as they entered the bedroom, caressing each other’s bodies and sharing body heat.
It wasn’t a heat cycle.
But they just wanted to hold and touch each other.
With the feeling of the inside of their hearts tickling and filling with warm water, they exchanged kisses continuously and lay on the bed, and Jaehyuk carefully kissed Junghyun’s nape and shoulders.
Fortunately, he didn’t bite this time.
He only gave light kisses and caresses, as if teasing.
Junghyun smiled and embraced Jaehyuk, seeing how the man who had been biting him at will due to severe mood swings just a few days ago now treated him like a precious jewel.
And they continued to caress each other and share body heat.
That alone was enough and felt good.
He only now realized how pleasant and warm a person’s breath and skin could be.
And he finally realized that this was the happiness he hadn’t known before.
It seemed that the lost child in his dreams would no longer need to wander through those suffocating alleyways.
He had finally found that child’s home.
Where he would live for the rest of his life.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
