#223
Dan Joo-hyuk, who had stepped closer, had an extremely serious expression. His chest came right up to Yoon Pa-ran’s nose, but Yoon Pa-ran stood his ground without backing down.
He immediately frowned at those words that seemed to blame him.
“You told me to wear it.”
He had obediently put it on when told to equip himself. He didn’t want to borrow even this saint’s robe from Dan Joo-hyuk anymore, but he had bent his stubbornness at the words that it could be dangerous.
But now that he was saying something different, it seemed like some kind of whim and made him a little angry. Whether Yoon Pa-ran was angry or not, Dan Joo-hyuk just leaned against the car with his hand and hardened his face even more.
Then he suddenly said nonsense.
“You should wear pants. Your ankles are all showing.”
“……What?”
Yoon Pa-ran, who had been preparing to fight back, hesitated. He momentarily couldn’t understand Dan Joo-hyuk’s words.
Eventually, Yoon Pa-ran, who realized he had heard correctly, frowned again.
“What’s wrong with showing some ankle?”
“It’s not allowed.”
However, Dan Joo-hyuk seemed to have no intention of explaining his reasons.
Dan Joo-hyuk was the one who had started playing around without giving him the saint’s robe pants in the first place.
“You didn’t even give me pants at first.”
“……I’m sorry about that. But wear pants today.”
Even when he deliberately picked at that fact, Dan Joo-hyuk didn’t back down.
At his even resolute attitude, anxious emotions began to sprout little by little inside Yoon Pa-ran.
“Is there something else you’re hiding? ……Like a reason I need to wear pants?”
“It’s not like that.”
Although he flatly denied it, Yoon Pa-ran couldn’t believe him. His trust in Dan Joo-hyuk had already been broken.
Yoon Pa-ran looked at him discontentedly with his mouth shut. Then Dan Joo-hyuk let out a small sigh.
Just as he was thinking that sigh was a bit irritating, Dan Joo-hyuk reluctantly stated his ‘reason.’
“I don’t know what kind of eyes those other bastards are looking at Yoon Pa-ran with, so wear pants.”
“What are you talking about? Why would other people?”
This time too, it wasn’t something that readily made sense. Could it be that people were gossiping behind his back about him using good equipment?
However, the explanation that finally came out was close to being quite nonsensical.
“……They keep staring at Yoon Pa-ran’s ankles.”
“What? Who’s staring at me?”
It was tremendous nonsense. Honestly speaking, it was absurd that Dan Joo-hyuk was acting so seriously over such an unreasonable reason.
However, Dan Joo-hyuk only had an even stiffer face. Not stopping there, he suddenly bent down and approached Yoon Pa-ran.
Since their faces were already close as if picking a fight, Yoon Pa-ran was flustered. While saying “uh, uh” and backing away, he ended up sitting down heavily in the car.
It was when he was about to spring back up, thinking he had shown a foolish appearance. However, Dan Joo-hyuk was one step faster and dropped one knee heavily in front of Yoon Pa-ran.
Yoon Pa-ran was flustered by the suddenly lowered eye level. While saying “uh, uh,” one of his ankles was even firmly grasped.
“Eut.”
His body reflexively trembled at the sensation of hot, large hands grasping his ankle.
Dan Joo-hyuk’s thumb naturally and slowly caressed near Yoon Pa-ran’s ankle bone. His fingers also secretly dug between the accessory always worn around one ankle and his skin.
At the hot sensation, Yoon Pa-ran strangely felt thirsty. The awareness that he had definitely felt this sensation when their bodies intertwined made his skin tingle underneath.
Soon, Dan Joo-hyuk murmured in a voice that seemed even thirstier than his own.
“When it’s so clearly exposed like this, why wouldn’t they stare?”
Their gazes met with serious black pupils.
Yoon Pa-ran was swept up in contradictory feelings of wanting to run away immediately and wanting to sit down like this.
“Urk, stop talking nonsense and get away!”
For now, Yoon Pa-ran chose to flee.
Dan Joo-hyuk had quite a serious attitude, but the content was definitely strange. It was hard to completely believe such seemingly unhinged words.
In his hurry to back away, Yoon Pa-ran slipped right into the car. Only then did Dan Joo-hyuk, whose expression had relaxed a little, smile leisurely and say.
“Change your clothes and come out.”
“Damn it.”
He felt like he had been had somehow. After deliberation, Yoon Pa-ran irritably slammed the car door shut.
Eventually, he threw off the embarrassing underwear and put on pants, but his mood felt strange the whole time.
❖ ❖ ❖
Two days later.
“……”
Yoon Pa-ran looked down at his hands with a languid face in his studio apartment. His quiet phone was placed there.
The operation to root out all the spy hunters using safe zones as bait had ended safely. Two days ago, he had opened safe zones three times, but nothing had happened.
In the end, even when not just hunters but also general civil servants from the Ministry of Special Administrative Safety all came, there were no incidents. For now, it meant there were no spies using that strange power among the people who needed to work together with the government and Yoon Pa-ran.
However, the human heart was truly strange. He had steeled himself like this, but when nothing happened, he became anxious again.
What Yoon Pa-ran felt anxious about was the same for Dan Joo-hyuk.
“Phew……”
Yoon Pa-ran, who had tossed his phone with no contact onto the bed, flopped down. The reason he had suddenly rested for two days was none other than because of Dan Joo-hyuk.
Until then, he hadn’t known since opening about one safe zone per day was the limit, but two days ago, changes occurred in his body. When he opened safe zones three times in a row, he felt a little dizzy and it was too much for him.
Yoon Pa-ran instinctively realized that opening safe zones three times a day was his limit. He also simultaneously felt a sense of crisis that he shouldn’t carelessly reveal this information.
So he barely controlled his body and pretended nothing was wrong. In reality, it was successful since no one, including Minister Byeon, noticed that something was wrong with Yoon Pa-ran.
However, only Dan Joo-hyuk amazingly noticed that something was wrong with Yoon Pa-ran.
‘I made up another excuse to clear your schedule, so rest well for a few days.’
He who had been guarding Yoon Pa-ran’s side with a stiff expression the whole time said this while taking Yoon Pa-ran to the orphanage. He seemed to have already figured out why Yoon Pa-ran was trying to hide this symptom.
Since it wasn’t a bad proposal, Yoon Pa-ran rested well for two days after that. Fortunately, symptoms like dizziness completely disappeared in just one day. He newly learned that he needed to take appropriate rest to use this skill.
And during that time, Dan Joo-hyuk didn’t contact him once.
“……”
For some reason that bothered him, so Yoon Pa-ran checked his phone again with a sullen face for no reason.
It was the phone Dan Joo-hyuk had given him, calling it a secure line. Since he had only put essential contacts in here, he was using it almost like a phone dedicated to Dan Joo-hyuk.
He was curious about the reason Dan Joo-hyuk had suddenly touched someone else’s ankle that day. He didn’t believe what he had said, but he had expected him to cling to him unusually again, seeing his attitude of acting without distance.
But Dan Joo-hyuk remained without any news. As if such a thing had never happened at all.
He really makes people worry.
It was when he was cursing Dan Joo-hyuk wildly in his mind like that. Thinking there would be no change this time either, Yoon Pa-ran picked up his phone.
“Ah.”
Right at that moment, as if watching him, the phone rang loudly.
Startled, Yoon Pa-ran’s hand slipped and he dropped the phone. After rolling it around on the bed several times, Yoon Pa-ran picked it up again and looked down at the screen.
As expected, it was Dan Joo-hyuk who had called.
“……Why.”
After deliberation, Yoon Pa-ran answered the phone grumpily. When there was no news, it had been constantly irritating, but when contact actually came, it was very uncomfortable.
―What are you doing?
Whether he knew Yoon Pa-ran’s psychology or not, Dan Joo-hyuk spoke as if nothing had happened.
That leisurely attitude bothered Yoon Pa-ran again, so he grabbed at the blanket for no reason.
“Just, I’m here.”
―Want to see my face for a moment?
“No.”
Dan Joo-hyuk casually suggesting they meet was also a bit infuriating. The refusal popped out reflexively.
Then Dan Joo-hyuk was silent for a moment before slowly continuing.
―Come out to tear up the contract. We both need to be there.
This time, it was a proposal that even Yoon Pa-ran couldn’t ignore.
Yoon Pa-ran, who had been blankly fiddling with the blanket, hardened his expression and sat up. He could tactfully tell that what Dan Joo-hyuk was referring to was the Blessing Contract.
“The contract?”
―That’s right.
“……”
The more he thought about it, it was a simple problem. As long as there was a possibility that the other party could cause serious damage to Yoon Pa-ran through a fraudulent contract, that contract was definitely something that needed to be eliminated. Actually, when he first realized he had been deceived, Yoon Pa-ran had thought that contract needed to be gotten rid of quickly.
However, when Dan Joo-hyuk took the initiative to suggest ending the contract, his mood felt strange. Somehow unsettled and unclear feelings.
Was Dan Joo-hyuk doing this because he was afraid of deceiving him again?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
