That day, I had dinner with Lee Daeju and Shin Gi-hyeok—the three of us together. I didn’t want to eat with Do Jihoon while things were still awkward between us, and Kwon Jisoo had already gone home first. I still didn’t quite have the experience to casually eat alone, so I lured those guys out with the bait of meat.
[I’ll have dinner with my classmates before going home ♡ I’ll only drink one bottle of beer! Don’t worry hehe]
I sat alone at the barbecue restaurant with a blank expression while waiting for the others and sent Do Jihoon a KakaoTalk message. I’d chosen the option of eating with my classmates because it felt like things would be awkward if I ate with him alone—but that didn’t mean I wanted to break the promise I’d made with Do Jihoon to contact him in advance if I was going to be late. I didn’t want him worrying about me. I really didn’t want that.
A few minutes later, Lee Daeju and Shin Gi-hyeok both arrived at the restaurant. As expected, the moment we sat down, Shin Gi-hyeok—proud of his meat-grilling skills—picked up the tongs and started grilling the meat. At the same time, I spoke with a gloomy look on my face.
“…Hey, guys.”
“He’s got a problem.”
“Agreed.”
Before I could even properly start, Shin Gi-hyeok and Lee Daeju chimed in simultaneously.
“What are you, fortune tellers?”
“It’s obvious from the way you’re talking. So what happened?”
“No, um. It’s nothing serious.”
I considered telling them about what had happened with Do Jihoon but decided against it. I didn’t want them forming a bad impression of him for no reason. So I left out the part about Do Jihoon and only told them about what happened with Woo Hyun-woo.
“I ran into Woo Hyun-woo while I was going to eat lunch with Do Jihoon. He came up and talked to me. Asked me to buy him food.”
“Is that bastard insane?!”
The moment I finished speaking, Lee Daeju exploded in anger and shouted. Shin Gi-hyeok also frowned deeply while flipping the meat with the tongs. I’d been extremely irritated earlier, but seeing my classmates get angry on my behalf made the frustration that had built up inside me feel like it was blowing away. They ordered two servings of pork belly and two servings of pork neck to comfort me.
“Eat this and calm down. Since ancient times, they say a generous belly leads to a generous heart.”
“What kind of nonsense—no, actually. Yeah. Lee Daeju’s right.”
Shin Gi-hyeok scowled for a moment before immediately agreeing, pulling off a lightning-fast change in attitude worthy of Udyr.
“I appreciate it, guys. But… isn’t this my money?”
“Eh. Don’t worry about the small stuff. Shin Gi-hyeok will grill it nicely for you. Eat and feel better.”
“No, guys. I really don’t think this counts as a small issue.”
Because of my friends’ comforting-that-didn’t-really-feel-like-comforting, that evening I ended up trudging home after getting robbed of five servings of pork belly, three servings of pork neck, and two bottles of beer.
And when I got home—
As I hesitantly opened the front door and stepped inside, I saw Do Jihoon sitting on the sofa. Normally when he was at home, he preferred using the study. But seeing him sitting on the sofa so conspicuously like this made it seem like he had something he wanted to say.
“Doji. I’m home. What were you doing?”
I walked behind the sofa and wrapped my arms around Do Jihoon’s neck, hugging his head. It felt a little awkward, but the scent coming from his hair and body still calmed my mind just the same. I rubbed my face all over his hair.
“Did you enjoy dinner?”
Do Jihoon didn’t shove me away forcefully, but he didn’t speak to me kindly like he usually did either. I tried to gauge his mood through pheromones, but that wasn’t possible because he had completely withdrawn them.
“Yuri. Could you sit here for a moment?”
Do Jihoon spoke in a calm voice devoid of rhythm. I slowly loosened my arms from around his neck and went to sit on the sofa.
“Why? Do you have something to say?”
“Do I have something to say…”
He let out a breathy laugh like someone who’d just witnessed an amusing situation. I waited stiffly for the words that would come out of Do Jihoon’s mouth. He let out a deep sigh once, then began tapping the sofa lightly with his index finger. It was clear he was choosing his words carefully.
“You seemed to be in a bad mood since this afternoon.”
“…Yeah.”
“So I kept thinking about it by myself, but I couldn’t figure out the reason no matter what. Why were you in a bad mood?”
“….”
I hadn’t expected Do Jihoon to ask so directly. I spent a long time thinking about what I should say to him. I couldn’t even clearly define what emotion I’d been feeling myself—so how was I supposed to explain it to him?
After thinking so hard that my head started to hurt, I stopped. Right. I wasn’t the kind of character who thought deeply about things like that. I decided to just speak honestly about my feelings.
“You know what you said to me earlier when we were eating?”
“You mean at lunch.”
“Yeah. Then.”
Do Jihoon remembered the situation too. I bit my lower lip out of habit before carefully opening my mouth.
“…I know you said it because you were worried about me. But the way it sounded made it feel like it was my fault that things are awkward between Woo Hyun-woo and me. So it made me feel a bit… off.”
“What?”
Do Jihoon’s face crumpled like wrinkled paper, and he shouted in surprise. It was obvious he was flustered. Maybe because it had been a long time since I’d seen him reveal such open shock, I ended up feeling a little dazed myself.
“I told you, that’s not what I meant.”
“I know. I know that wasn’t the intention behind what you said. But what am I supposed to do if that’s just how it made me feel? I don’t even know why, but I felt kind of upset… and a little wronged.”
“….”
Do Jihoon pressed his lips together tightly, seemingly surprised that I had felt that way. It was obvious he didn’t fully understand—but there was no way he’d dislike me expressing my feelings. I continued speaking.
“It felt like you were saying I was wrong. So I guess that’s why I felt hurt.”
Ah… so that was it.
As I kept talking to him, I ended up realizing for myself why I’d been irritated with him. I’d thought that even if he didn’t care about other people, he would be different when it came to me. But seeing him analyze the situation logically instead of empathizing emotionally must have triggered some unconscious fear.
Like I might become just another acquaintance to him, instead of someone special.
While I was deep in thought, Do Jihoon suddenly reached out and pulled me into his arms. He began patting my back rhythmically as he spoke.
“I see. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you’d think of it that way.”
Feeling his pheromones along with the warmth of his body suddenly made the tip of my nose sting. The small knot that had been bundled up inside me loosened, and heat began rising to my face.
Damn it. If I start crying here I’ll look like a total kid.
Reality hit me. I felt embarrassed for sulking over something so trivial, so I couldn’t bring myself to lift my head. Instead, I rubbed my face against his shoulder.
“…Hey. You do care about me, right?”
“What kind of question is that? That might be the most ridiculous and absurd thing I’ve heard all year.”
“So you do care about me?”
“Of course.”
Do Jihoon answered so firmly that the corners of my mouth twitched upward on their own. Using his pheromones and body warmth, he continued soothing my gloomy mood.
“Do I just care about you? Whenever I think about you, all kinds of emotions rush in so intensely that it actually catches me off guard.”
“What does that mean? Is that a good thing?”
“It’s not a bad thing.”
For some reason, Do Jihoon’s flat tone calmed me. My emotions really must have been jumping all over the place. I slipped my arms beneath his and hugged him with all my strength.
“Ugh.”
A strained groan escaped from Do Jihoon. I found that extremely satisfying and let out a snickering laugh.
“Do Jihoon. You like me more than other people, right?”
“You and other people aren’t even comparable. Do I really need to say it?”
“Yeah. You do.”
“…Of course I like you more.”
Do Jihoon paused for a moment before finally saying the words I wanted to hear. Despite the fact that I’d been sulking for half the day, just that single sentence from him instantly lifted my gloomy mood.
“Doji. I say this to you a lot, right? That you should be grateful for the rest of your life for getting engaged to me.”
“You do say that. Why? Do you want an answer about that too?”
“That would be nice too! But that’s not it.”
“…Then what is it?”
Do Jihoon’s voice trembled with unease. So he wouldn’t feel anxious, I tightened my arms around him even more as I spoke.
“No. I’m really grateful that I got engaged to you too.”
“…That’s what you wanted to say?”
“Yeah. That’s what I wanted to say. When I thought about it, I realized I’ve never actually said it to you before.”
Do Jihoon definitely had a unique and surprising ability. No matter how gloomy I felt, whenever I opened up to him, those negative emotions would always disappear. Sometimes there were glitches—like earlier at lunch—but looking at the final results, his success rate was basically one hundred percent.
And just like that, the resentment I’d been holding toward Do Jihoon dissolved in half a day.
After getting Do Jihoon’s permission, I explained what had happened today to my classmates. Immediately, they started flooding the group chat with messages saying “Singles’ Heaven, Couples’ Hell.”
As a bonus, they also spammed a bunch of angry circle emoticons with horns.
