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Doun contorted his face.
‘Is he crazy?’
What was the problem with bringing a man to a man’s house, and if he was really worried about such issues, couldn’t he have just refused from the beginning? Moreover, this bastard had been humming and grinning the whole way home, looking so excited about something.
But suddenly spouting such nonsense. It was so absurd he was speechless.
“What are you talking about? I just got pissed off because you were ordering me around, so I said to come to my house. If you’re going to be like that, you’re the one who’s more in the wrong for coming to someone else’s house at this hour, aren’t you?”
When the indignant Doun retorted, mischief quickly appeared on the serious face that had been creating a strange tense atmosphere just moments before.
“Geez. What if I really agreed when you said let’s go! What if I had bad intentions and tied hyung to a bed or something, hm? And did all sorts of lewd things to you however I wanted? How could you fearlessly bring me to your house like that?”
At the quite specific and suggestive example, Doun was completely disgusted.
‘Tie what where, and do what kinds of things? Don’t tell me this bastard normally lives having such fantasies?’
Doun quickly stepped back and put force into his eyes.
“You think I can’t beat you? A few skill shots and you’d be finished!”
“Hyung’s heart is too soft, so I don’t think you could ever hit a person! And look, you’re not even thinking of hitting with your fists. Really, I’m so frustrated.”
Samin sighed deeply and stepped back. The strange confrontation seemed to end with his nonsense as usual. Doun shook his head in disgust, changed into slippers, and casually gestured for him to come in.
Following such Doun, Samin secretly clenched his fist tightly.
‘Whoa. I almost went straight for his lips. If I had done that, I would have been happy for just a moment and miserable for life…’
Samin swallowed dry saliva and patted the area around his rapidly beating heart. Outside the door, he had been fine enough to make silly jokes. The problem started the moment he entered the house filled with Doun’s scent.
‘I want to kiss hyung… I want to hold him and touch him all over…’
But if he did that, Lee Doun would sharply quit the guild and disappear again. He might even move, not just change his phone number. How had he managed to enter Lee Doun’s house? He couldn’t let momentary lust turn all his efforts to bubbles.
In the end, Samin spouted bullshit disguised as a joke and succeeded in protecting Lee Doun from his ugly desires. He felt like he might cry a little, but he could endure it like a man.
“Anyway. Our hyung is in big trouble with such a soft personality.”
When Samin shrugged and muttered, Doun’s lips twitched before he snapped back.
“…Geez. I’m still ranked higher than you, you know? What’s wrong with bringing a man to my house? What could be the problem between men? Men aren’t okay but women are?”
“I said men because I came today! Women definitely aren’t okay either! Got it? You can’t carelessly bring people over at this late hour!”
“If you keep acting up, I’ll just kick you out.”
“…I’ll be quiet.”
Doun took off his hat, placed it on the dining table, sat in a chair, and sighed deeply.
‘What the hell does he usually think about? That bastard.’
Until just before, his head had been complicated thinking about not properly doing his part in the tower, but listening to this crazy bastard’s nonsense made his mind go completely blank like white paper.
“Sit down for now. What do you want to drink?”
“Iced americano.”
With Samin’s answer came the scraping sound of a dining chair being pulled out. When he glanced up, Samin was sitting across from him looking around. There wasn’t much to see, but his sparkling eyes made Doun feel strange.
After ordering drinks through a delivery app, Doun absentmindedly touched around his left eye.
He couldn’t fight wearing annoying contact lenses every time he entered a tower, so he was bothered by another flaw of his that he had quietly confessed to Samin a few days ago.
Samin had said it didn’t bother him at all, but that wasn’t very comforting. His guild master was a strange guy who said everything was good no matter what he did.
“Does your eye hurt?”
“…No. It’s just a habit.”
Doun brushed it off vaguely. Since there was no physical pain, he thought it might not actually hurt.
“Hyung. I’ll receive the drinks when they come, so how about you go wash up?”
“…Hmm. Should I?”
Since he couldn’t leave a guest sitting while he went to wash, it was a welcome suggestion when he was feeling uncomfortable inside. Doun slowly started to get up, then as if he remembered something, pointed to one side with his finger.
“There’s another bathroom over there, so if you feel gross, you can wash up too. We came straight out of the tower without properly washing.”
“Hmm. Should I?”
Technically, the guy who fought and moved directly would feel grosser than himself, who just watched the fighting from behind. Doun nodded to Samin.
“There should be everything you need inside. If not, check the upper cabinet.”
“…Got it.”
At the delayed answer, Doun briefly looked at Samin’s face before quietly disappearing into the bathroom attached to the bedroom. And when some time seemed to have passed.
Samin, left alone in the kitchen, trembled with clenched fists.
‘Fuck. Telling me to wash up? There’s no torture like this… Ha, should I just pretend to be crazy and pounce on him? No. If I do that, I’ll never see our hyung again… Endure it. Kyung Samin. You can endure this.’
Samin collapsed in the same position on the dining table where Doun had once buried his forehead and sprawled out, catching his breath. After steadying his mind like that for a while, as if a useful mischief suddenly occurred to him, he started running toward the bathroom Doun had pointed to.
* * *
‘Ha… But what the hell is this serious thing he wants to talk to me about?’
Doun exhaled while looking at the bathroom mirror. Looking quietly at his left pupil that still hadn’t returned, depression began surging again.
While the halved skill power had been revealed to be a measurement error at the private training facility, the pupil that still shone blue was clearly a flaw of Hunter Magnetic.
Coincidentally, having failed to perform properly in the tower after confessing his flaw, Doun’s self-loathing only deepened.
“…Let’s go out and talk things through properly first.”
Doun muttered to himself like making a resolution while looking at himself in the mirror. It took a long time to settle his troubled mind, so by the time he belatedly washed his face and came out to the kitchen, quite some time had passed.
Thinking the drinks he had ordered might have already arrived, the anxious Doun stopped the moment he entered the kitchen.
“…Huh?”
Kyung Samin was sound asleep at the dining table, using one arm as a pillow. He had expected him to grumble about why he came out so late after receiving the drinks. At the unexpected situation, Doun unconsciously approached carefully, muffling his footsteps.
‘Did he fall asleep waiting because I was dawdling too much inside?’
Looking closely, drinks were placed on the dining table. Seeing water droplets on the surface of the takeout cups, it seemed quite some time had passed. Doun, who had been blaming himself for his increasingly messed up sense of time lately, fell silent.
“Hey…”
He gently placed his hand on Samin’s shoulder and shook it, but the soundly sleeping Samin only swayed slightly and showed no signs of opening his eyes.
Doun scratched around his left eye with a troubled expression. He was the one who had suggested coming to his house in a fit of anger, and because it took quite a while to organize his thoughts, Samin had fallen asleep waiting.
He couldn’t just yell loudly to wake him up. Moreover, hadn’t Samin conquered the tower for free for his sake today? Without him, he wouldn’t have received the guild members’ help either.
Overwhelmed by growing debt of gratitude, Doun ultimately couldn’t wake Samin and could only stand there perplexed.
“Is there a blanket or something in my house…?”
Just as Doun, who had been scratching his neck, was about to quietly leave to cover him with something.
“Mmm…”
Samin made a groaning sound while tossing and turning.
“Hey. Wake up for a moment. Don’t sleep.”
As if it was perfect timing, Doun quickly spoke to Samin and lightly shook his shoulder. Then his eyelids seemed to half-open before closing again. When the frustrated Doun urgently shook his shoulder, only then did Samin begin mumbling with unclear pronunciation.
“Hyung… I’m so tired. If I go home like this, I think I’ll drive drowsy…”
“That bad?”
“Yes… My eyes won’t open. Can’t you just let me sleep here tonight? We can talk tomorrow…”
Though he desperately wanted to refuse, seeing his face so tired he couldn’t even open his eyes made it hard to speak up. Though he pretended otherwise, he might actually be fatigued from participating in the conquest, or exhausted from comforting his depressed self.
Eventually, Doun hesitated before reluctantly nodding.
“But there’s nothing in the guest room, so there’s nowhere to sleep really. If you’re going to sleep, go sleep in my room. I can sleep in the living room.”
It was when Doun was moving to his room, bringing Samin who was staggering up from the dining table. The body swaying from drowsiness gradually began getting closer.
The moment Doun, standing in front of the bedroom door, turned around telling him to go in. Samin leaned his head on Doun’s shoulder and muttered.
“What would I be if I took the homeowner’s room?”
“Still, sleeping in the same bed is a bit…”
Doun answered while slightly pulling his body away. It would be better for him to sleep on the sofa instead. Since he was the one who caused this situation, he thought he should take responsibility.
He was planning to quickly push the drowsy, staggering Samin into the room and roughly sleep crumpled on the sofa, when he felt strong arms suddenly wrapping around his waist. Just as Doun was startled, Samin mumbled.
“Earlier hyung said what’s wrong between men. So sleep with me.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
