#067
Woo Dohwan tapped my instantly reddened cheeks and whispered ticklishly.
“No, no, no. More than that, I heard you’re quite a famous person.”
I recalled what I had heard from Woo Dohwan when he first started frequenting this place. What he said about being excited all day if he met anyone.
“Why’s that?”
“If you’re a famous person… your parents must also be people of considerable social status and reputation, so if their son said he was dating a man—”
“What do my parents have to do with who I date? It’s not like I’m dating a minor. And I’d rather people knew about it. You know you’re quite good at charming people, don’t you?”
“……”
“I wish everyone who comes here knew that Seo Ranho has a lover, and that lover is me.”
His face, beautiful as if drawn, curved softly all over. Who’s calling who charming? Staring entranced at the face of the man who smiled with his nose scrunched up as if he intended to charm, I let out a loud cough.
“Still, if I were to… no, if Woo Dohwan-ssi were dating a man, wouldn’t your family—”
“Ranho.”
“Yes?”
“I’ll handle everything else. There’s only one thing you need to do. Confess.”
Woo Dohwan, who had reached out to cup my cheek, spoke in a sweet voice.
“Just do that one thing.”
Despite his soft voice, his firm tone made me nod without realizing it. At the up-and-down movement, Woo Dohwan smiled brightly. Really, how can someone look like that? The saying that there’s no hope if you fall for an ugly man is completely wrong. Rather, falling for a handsome man is truly hopeless. I fell in like a black hole. There was no way to escape. He constantly coaxed me with that pretty face every moment. How could he be like this? I was just blinking in a daze when the wind chime rang.
My head and Woo Dohwan’s head turned toward the source of the sound.
“Oh? Hyung. You have a customer?”
It’s Ju Isin. He approached with big strides, carrying a bag from a franchise sandwich shop.
“I thought you should eat something before going to the police station, so I bought this. It’s still before morning, right? The sandwich was just made so it’ll be delicious.”
Ju Isin sat across the table familiarly and opened the shopping bag to lay out its contents. Woo Dohwan, who had been staring at Ju Isin tearing off the paper wrapping and placing an appetizing sandwich in front of me, opened his mouth.
“Ranho’s not going to the police station.”
“What?”
“My lawyer will go. They’ll prepare the necessary documents there. If you want to give a witness statement, you can meet my lawyer too.”
Ju Isin looked at me once, then at Woo Dohwan once, then asked suspiciously.
“Why?”
“What do you mean why? There’s a place that handles things professionally, so it’s strange to do it directly.”
“Why are you deciding Ranho hyung’s business on your own?”
“Think about why. Or do you already know and you’re asking anyway?”
Woo Dohwan smiled with his characteristic languid face. Ju Isin’s face crumpled as he looked at the gently folded eye smile.
“Is hyung hitting on me right now? I’m not interested in men except Ranho hyung.”
“You’re saying disgusting things.”
At Ju Isin’s words, now Woo Dohwan’s face crumpled. Both were extraordinary. I shook my head and rewrapped the sandwich, then straightened up. I needed to send both of them away first. My mind was chaotic and I had things to do. I needed to order flowers.
“Both of you, go for now.”
“Why?”
“I just got here though?”
“Ju Isin-ssi, thank you for coming to help from this morning. I’ll eat the sandwich well.”
I spoke while looking at Ju Isin. Then I turned my gaze to Woo Dohwan.
“Thank you for helping. I’ll do as we discussed.”
“I’m going to buy flowers.”
Ju Isin quickly spat out a suitable excuse to stay here. Faster than Woo Dohwan. He frowned and glared at Ju Isin sitting on the sofa, then straightened his body that had been leaning against the table.
“Since we’ve been together since last night, I’ll go.”
Ah, are you crazy? Why would you say that…! Ju Isin’s mouth fell open. It opened so wide his jaw might drop, and he was busy looking back and forth between me and Woo Dohwan with shaking eyes.
“You’re really doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”
“What if I am?”
When I clenched my teeth and whispered so Ju Isin couldn’t hear, Woo Dohwan shrugged and answered. As expected, he was doing it on purpose. When I clenched my fist and struck the smooth talker’s arm with a thud, he whined “ow” as if he was dying of pain.
“Give me a ride.”
“Give you a ride where!”
“I don’t have a car. How could I drive here that night, it’s dangerous.”
“You know you’re really being difficult, right?”
“I don’t know about being difficult, but I know you find me pretty.”
Only brief exclamations like “hah,” “really,” “wow” came out in fragments. What’s absurd is that what Woo Dohwan said was true. Even though he was being so colorfully difficult, Woo Dohwan was pretty. And he knew too well that I found him pretty. I was wondering whether I should give him a ride, what to do, when Ju Isin silently appeared from behind.
“Take my car. I just want to go home.”
“I thought you were buying flowers.”
“I’ll come back. I hate the idea of hyung giving that hyung a ride more.”
Ju Isin trembled as if disgusted. His fierce eyes glaring at Woo Dohwan like an angry Pomeranian were not ordinary.
“No.”
“Ah, why!”
“I think you’ll fight.”
“We won’t fight. I can’t fight. And I learned that charging at someone older than me is insubordination.”
“……”
“Anyway, let’s go in my car. You also gave me a ride home that time.”
When Ju Isin spoke as if looking for a fight without hiding his fierce gaze, Woo Dohwan shrugged.
“Ranho, call me. I’ll just take a taxi instead of his car.”
“Take Ju Isin-ssi’s car.”
“He doesn’t seem to drive well.”
How did he know? When I opened my eyes in surprise, Woo Dohwan burst out laughing.
“That day you got your cast off, his car was in front of mine and I saw it then. The doors were all scratched and the bumper was all broken. Darling, you shouldn’t ride in cars like that. You know that, right?”
Ju Isin trembled with the car keys in his hand after hearing such harsh words to his face.
“I drive well now.”
“Right, drive well and go home. Don’t bother Ranho.”
Woo Dohwan, who had wiped his expression clean, stopped precariously while stepping on the terrace.
“You didn’t forget what I told you to do, right?”
“…Yes.”
“I’ll be waiting, darling.”
He stroked my hair with his outstretched hand and waved gently. “See you later,” his well-shaped lips parted to mutter familiar sounds. I couldn’t take my eyes off his retreating figure as he walked away with a languid face and a faint smile.
“Hyung.”
“Yes.”
“What’s your relationship with that hyung?”
“Why are you suddenly asking that?”
When his long arm waved in the air, a taxi stopped before long. Woo Dohwan turned his head to look at me, curved his lips, then got into the taxi. The taxi carrying Woo Dohwan mixed in among the cars filling the road.
“No, why does that hyung talk in ways that make people feel bad?”
When I turned from where I had been leaning, Ju Isin followed me grumbling.
“Just because he’s handsome doesn’t mean his personality is handsome too.”
“Is it because Woo Dohwan-ssi said you can’t drive?”
“……”
Did I hit the mark? Ju Isin clamped his mouth shut. He pouted with his cleanly stretched lips pushed forward like a duck.
“Do you really drive well now?”
“…A little?”
“I’ll have to check. Give me a ride later.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
I stood in front of the showcase out of habit. Since Ju Isin said he would buy flowers. It would be good to give one to Ban Hajoon who seemed like he would come soon too. With grateful feelings.
“Are you really going to buy flowers?”
“Of course.”
Whatever had made him so sulky, Ju Isin’s words became short. That was cute too, so I nodded and picked flowers.
“As you can see, I haven’t brought in many flowers, so there’s not much available.”
“Hmm…”
“Do you like purple?”
“Yes! I like it!”
Still with his tongue-tied way of speaking, I shook my head and reached out. I opened the showcase and as soon as I heard Ju Isin’s answer, I took out purple irises. I also took out plenty of light purple carnations, light pink lisianthus, didiscus, and orlaya. Thinking the iris color might be too dark, I also took out a handful of white spray carnations and placed them on the table.
“Hyung.”
“Yes.”
“This really looks like dandelion seeds.”
Ju Isin held one stem each of didiscus and orlaya, busy examining them from all angles.
“Cute, right?”
“Really cute.”
“The one with bigger petals is orlaya, the one with small, dense flowers is didiscus.”
“It looks like it would fly away if you blow on it.”
I placed other flowers one by one in front of Ju Isin and arranged them. I put the light purple carnations and lisianthus as the main flowers and inserted irises in between. I filled empty spaces with didiscus and orlaya and added fullness with spray carnations.
I was wrapping the stems with white tissue paper and light purple cloth paper and tying white ribbon when a spray carnation was suddenly thrust in front of my eyes.
“Is this also a carnation?”
“Yes. Pretty, right?”
“I wouldn’t know this was a carnation if you didn’t tell me.”
“It’s because the petals are fully open. But it’s still a carnation.”
“So you like that hyung?”
“I like him, no, what?”
At the sudden question, I unconsciously gave an affirmative answer then stopped speaking. When I raised my head that had been lowered, my eyes met with Ju Isin who had been holding a flower under his nose to smell it. He blinked with a face exactly like a dog caught in the rain, then trudged over and plopped down on the sofa.
“……”
“I don’t think I can beat that hyung.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
