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Chapter 9. Happiness Isn’t Far Away.
* * *
Samin kept stealing glances at Doun.
‘He’s so cute I could die. Really.’
Doun was lying next to him. In a soft, warm state, having finished preparing for bed. Dressed in a t-shirt and cotton pants instead of proper pajamas, Doun would awkwardly turn his head away every time their eyes met.
‘But he does seem to care about me being here, right?’
Samin grinned. It wouldn’t be easy to ignore someone who had boldly taken up half of a bed he’d always slept in alone. His strategy of somehow squeezing into Doun’s private space and making his presence known had succeeded to some degree.
Getting to share a bed with Doun by throwing a tantrum had worked out well. The problem was that there was absolutely no way he could sleep like this. With Doun lying within arm’s reach in what was practically a defenseless state, how could he possibly fall asleep peacefully?
‘Now what should I do…?’
After thinking for a moment, Samin propped his head up with one arm and lay on his side. It wasn’t a position that suggested he’d be falling asleep anytime soon.
“Hyung. Can I confess something to you?”
Doun became a little anxious. The timing and location were rather coincidental. The catalyst for letting Samin into his psychological boundaries had happened right here on this bed.
‘It’s natural for hyung to be unable to trust people and be guarded first. And those bastards who manipulated good people deserve to die. No one thinks the person who got manipulated is pathetic. Everyone’s too busy cursing the bad guys.’
Doun recalled the strange yet infinitely gentle comfort Samin had offered, even bringing up stories from his own childhood.
However, considering the current atmosphere, it didn’t seem like he’d suddenly offer comfort. At best, he’d probably say something about liking him or wanting to date.
“…What confession?”
Doun asked tensely. Samin made a serious expression like a believer making confession and whispered in a low voice.
“Actually, I can’t sleep well in hyung’s bed.”
“What?”
Doun bolted upright. He still vividly remembered how Samin had thrown a fit, saying he’d rather sleep on the floor than not sleep in the same room. But now that he was told to sleep in the bed, he couldn’t sleep well?
“Then what was all that insisting you had to sleep with me just now?”
“No, it’s because it keeps getting hard. When I slept here last time, did I even sleep 30 minutes total? I actually didn’t sleep much at the pension either. Look at this. Even now, just lying in hyung’s bed…”
Following Samin’s gaze, Doun’s head turned downward. After confirming a certain area, Doun recoiled in shock.
“You crazy bastard…”
“Want to touch it?”
When Samin tried to lift the blanket, Doun quickly pressed it back down.
“Why would I touch that?”
“No, I was trying to prove that I really like hyung. That it’s not a lie but really became like this.”
“No. That’s enough. Even without that shitty proof, I can tell you like me.”
“Hyung… What should I really do?”
When Samin looked up at Doun with a disgusting expression, Doun was repulsed.
“What do you mean what should you do?”
“I’ve become a pervert who gets hard just thinking about hyung.”
“Is being a pervert something to brag about?!”
Finally, Doun burst out yelling. What was so praiseworthy about getting an erection at any time that he’d say it so proudly? If he could, he’d want to peek inside Samin’s head.
“Doesn’t hyung feel sorry for me?”
“Sorry about what? You just seem like an idiot when you’re like this.”
Even as Doun criticized him mercilessly, Samin was busy admiring the face of Doun looking down at him. When they stood side by side, he always had to look down, but Doun’s face seen from below was also incredible.
“Mm… Curse at me some more. I think I get more excited when hyung curses.”
“Hey. You just get out. Go sleep at your house. This won’t work. I’m being too nice so you keep acting up, right?”
Doun threatened Samin with clenched fists. He knew the power of those white fists, but Samin just wiggled his eyebrows.
“Wow, I entertained hyung today and even did cute things, but now that you’ve gotten what you wanted, you’re kicking me out like this? That’s really mean.”
“You just need to stop saying perverted things.”
“We’ve even kissed, isn’t this too cold?”
“You begged me to do that first!”
“You could have avoided it, but who was it that closed their eyes first?”
At Samin’s retort, Doun’s lips snapped shut. He couldn’t argue back.
The day Samin and Doun had their first kiss. He could tell what would happen if he didn’t avoid the face gradually approaching. He wasn’t stupid—what man wouldn’t know that?
“…It was just because of the atmosphere then…”
As Doun mumbled excuses, Samin chuckled.
“Hyung. Normally other guys would throw a punch first if another guy with the same equipment asked them to date. They’d curse them out. Well, if they were really close friends, they might have just refused?”
Doun’s eyes grew bigger and bigger.
“But someone who closes their eyes when another guy blatantly leans in asking for a kiss, that’s really not common. At least not around me?”
Doun fell silent for a moment. Actually, he had never thought deeply about what kind of relationship he wanted with Samin. He just vaguely thought they were still at the level of guild master and guild member.
“I never thought about wanting to do that kind of thing with you… Just conquering towers together, eating meals, that sort of thing…”
His rambling voice couldn’t finish properly and scattered into nothing. Doun thought about it. Unlike himself, who had avoided thinking about what kind of relationship he wanted, what Samin wanted was clear.
‘He wants to date me…’
He had contacted him about conquering the unreleased top floors together on that late night filled with the sound of insects. Thinking about it, from the day he suddenly rushed at him in the park to confess, Samin had consistently appealed for him to see him as a romantic interest. And very persistently at that.
‘What should I do?’
If he had been someone with a firmer heart, he would have made up his mind to either accept Samin’s proposal or firmly reject it and remain in a guild master-guild member relationship. But Doun couldn’t do that.
All he did was show reluctance or vaguely avoid it whenever Samin expressed affection. Perhaps Samin felt this attitude of his was like a kind of hope torture.
Just as Doun’s complexion was growing paler and paler.
“So the problem is that hyung can’t really imagine dating me, right?”
Samin summarized Doun’s complicated feelings in one sentence. After thinking for a moment, instead of answering, Doun nodded up and down.
Samin raised his body from lying down to sit facing Doun. He hadn’t firmly said he disliked it. That meant there was still room to dig deeper.
“Doun hyung.”
After calling Doun once in a low voice, Samin slowly lowered his gaze. The moment Doun met his eyes, sensing the strange atmosphere.
“I’m going to kiss hyung in 10 seconds.”
“Huh?”
“If you want to avoid it, avoid it. If you want to hit me, go ahead.”
Samin pressed forward like a madman.
“No, suddenly…”
“I clearly gave you warning. Think about whether you can kiss me during these 10 seconds.”
An answer that hadn’t come despite all his thinking couldn’t possibly emerge within 10 seconds. Doun could only be flustered by the unreasonable time limit.
‘Why is this bastard suddenly acting like this to me? Maybe it’s not so sudden. He was doing weird things before too. But isn’t this too abrupt?’
Doun, whose already large eyes were opened much wider than usual, just rolled his pupils around helplessly. Samin was approaching him even now, but his own heart remained as puzzling as if wrapped in a pitch-black veil.
‘How many seconds have passed? It hasn’t been 10 seconds yet, right? Should I avoid that? Or should I just close my eyes and try it?’
He couldn’t ignore Samin’s advances with an ambiguous attitude forever. Doun looked at the face that had somehow come right up to his nose.
Although he had said Samin looked rough like a thug, up close Samin looked like a well-raised young master.
Between the lips that had come close enough that not even a finger could fit, hot breath passed over completely. At Samin’s breath lightly brushing his trembling lips, Doun finally slowly closed his eyelids.
Before closing his eyes, the last thing Doun saw was Samin looking at him with an expression full of joy. And along with the sound of drawing in breath, their lips immediately touched.
“Ngh…”
He had thought Samin would be soft and careful, since he was the one who usually comforted his sharp and twisted thoughts with playful tenderness. But their first kiss, which he had to rely solely on touch and hearing because his eyes were closed, was less gentle than Doun had expected.
His lower lip was sucked hard, and through his slightly parted lips as he let out a moan, a firm and wet tongue urgently pushed in. He was helplessly robbed of breath by the flesh that stirred every corner of his mouth.
“Hng, mmph…”
When a blocked nasal sound flowed from his throat and Doun’s shoulders flinched, Samin quickly reached out to grab the back of his neck. When he slightly moved Doun’s head to the right angle for sucking tongue and lips, Doun obediently followed.
‘No, why are his lips and tongue all so soft?’
Even when he roughly sucked his tongue, even when he nibbled on his lips, Doun’s tightly closed eyelids showed no sign of opening.
With a wet sound, Samin dropped a short kiss on Doun’s lips and muttered in a completely hoarse voice.
“Hyung. You need to open your eyes. You have to see who you’re kissing to know if you want to date me, if it’s okay to kiss me.”
When Samin bent his index finger and gently rubbed around his eyes, only then did his eyelids tremble and reveal blue pupils. Whether it was fortunate or not, both eyes weren’t completely blue, but Doun’s confusion was clearly evident in his finely shaking pupils.
Samin buried his lips lightly in Doun’s cheek and asked.
“How do you feel? Do you feel like shit and want to throw up?”
At the extreme example, Doun immediately shook his head.
‘Looking at this, he doesn’t have absolutely no feelings for me…’
“Then do you think you could date me and stuff?”
When he asked with subtle expectation, Doun just flinched without making any gesture. It felt like his insides were burning black. Even after such a deep kiss, he wouldn’t reveal his true feelings at all.
“Hm? Say something in response.”
Samin asked with completely disheveled breathing. Then Doun raised his carelessly sprawled hand to grab Samin’s clothes and watched his reaction.
As the two pupils receiving the soft lighting sparkled, the red lips that had been sucked and become slightly swollen casually recited words that drove people crazy.
“If we do it one more time, I think I might know…”
Crazy. How was he supposed to endure this? Samin immediately devoured Doun’s lips again.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
