He had no idea how long he had been sitting there, dazed. Thoughts drifted in and out of his mind, and time passed without him even noticing. Kim Min-seok only snapped out of it when he heard the sound of the front door opening.
The sensor light at the entrance flicked on, illuminating the darkened house. Startled, Kim Min-seok awkwardly rose from the couch as Choi Sang-hyuk stepped inside. Choi took a brief look around the dim, unlit home before striding in and switching on the living room lights.
The sudden brightness made his eyes squeeze shut, unaccustomed to the light. He blinked a few times, adjusting before he could fully open them.
“What the hell are you doing, sitting here in the dark?”
Choi Sang-hyuk spoke as he grabbed Kim Min-seok’s chin, tilting his face slightly. His dark eyes carefully examined Kim Min-seok’s complexion and expression.
“Did you eat?”
“…I ate earlier.”
“When?”
“Around lunchtime.”
At that response, Choi Sang-hyuk’s gaze hardened slightly at the edges.
“And the hospital?”
“…I didn’t go.”
Kim Min-seok hesitated before answering, then quickly added an excuse, as if trying to justify himself.
“I was going to go. I even got as far as the hospital entrance, but… no matter how much I thought about it, going wouldn’t really change anything.”
“Amnesia or whatever… It’s not something that just gets fixed with a pill. It might come back, or it might not. It’s all just luck, isn’t it?”
“Then what about you?”
Choi Sang-hyuk asked.
“Huh?”
Kim Min-seok blinked, not fully grasping the question.
“I’m asking about you. How are you doing? If things never go back to the way they were, are you okay living like this?”
“….Ah….”
Caught off guard, Kim Min-seok’s expression wavered.
It was an unexpectedly direct question. That was exactly what he had been sitting on the couch thinking about this entire time. Did he want to continue living as Seo Ha-yoon, or did he want to return to being Kim Min-seok? No—what if Seo Ha-yoon suddenly appeared and demanded his body back? Could he willingly give it up? And if his memories of Kim Min-seok gradually faded away… then what would happen to him?
“…I… I don’t know. I really don’t know, Choi Sang-hyuk.”
His voice trembled slightly as he spoke. And as if pleading, he continued murmuring.
“…It feels like my memories are disappearing. My memories as Kim Min-seok.”
“I tried to visit my old place today. I remembered how to get to Noryangjin, but beyond that… everything was blank. I thought about it for a long time. My old goshiwon, the store where I worked part-time, even the name of the orphanage I grew up in… It’s all just gone, like someone erased it with a rubber eraser.”
“So… so…”
I’m so scared!
Kim Min-seok swallowed the last words before they could escape his lips.
Choi Sang-hyuk let out a quiet sigh. Kim Min-seok hesitated, studying his face before cautiously asking,
“You don’t believe me, do you? That I’m Kim Min-seok.”
“Whether you’re Seo Ha-yoon or Kim Min-seok doesn’t matter to me. The person standing in front of me right now is you. And you’re mine. That’s not going to change.”
His words sounded indifferent, almost dismissive, but there was a weight behind them. That weight settled oddly in Kim Min-seok’s chest, offering him a strange sense of relief.
To find comfort in the fact that he belonged to someone… A proper human being wouldn’t feel that way, would they?
Kim Min-seok mocked himself silently.
Choi Sang-hyuk pulled out his phone and started typing. After fiddling with it for a moment, he tossed it onto the couch and began taking off his suit jacket.
“I ordered food. Go wash up before it gets here.”
Without further explanation, he unbuttoned his dress shirt and headed for the bathroom.
Only then did Kim Min-seok realize how hungry he was. He had only eaten a single sandwich since waking up—it made sense that he’d be starving. Without a word, he turned toward the master bedroom’s bathroom, following Choi Sang-hyuk’s instructions.
When he came out after showering, Choi Sang-hyuk was drying his wet hair with a towel. Unlike Kim Min-seok, who had changed into pajamas from the dressing room, he wore nothing but a pair of briefs. His muscular, toned body was on full display, leaving no room for imagination.
Even as a fellow man, it was hard not to admire such a body.
I really had sex with a guy like that…
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Kim Min-seok’s face turned red. Images of last night’s intense, overwhelming encounter flashed through his head—the embarrassment, the shame, and the sheer, mind-numbing pleasure that had drowned out everything else.
To think that a body as plain as his could experience such pleasure… It was astonishing.
Until now, the idea of men losing themselves to lust—of emperors bringing ruin to their nations over a woman, of people literally dying from excessive pleasure—had always felt like something out of a distant legend. But after last night’s overwhelming sensations, he found himself thinking, Yeah… maybe that could actually happen.
A quiet chuckle snapped him back to reality.
Kim Min-seok froze.
He realized he had been staring at Choi Sang-hyuk’s body, practically devouring him with his eyes. And Choi Sang-hyuk had noticed. That was why he had laughed.
His face burned with humiliation.
Choi Sang-hyuk put down the bottle of water he had been drinking and began walking toward him. There was something about the way he moved—slow, deliberate—that made Kim Min-seok instinctively step back.
And then—
Ding-dong—
The doorbell rang.
The food had arrived.
“Tch.”
Choi Sang-hyuk clicked his tongue in irritation, as if disappointed, and turned toward the door.
Kim Min-seok nearly had a heart attack when he saw him stride toward the entrance wearing nothing but his briefs. Was he seriously planning to answer the door like that?
Panicked, he grabbed Choi Sang-hyuk’s arm to stop him. Min-seok stepped in to open the front door and received the delivery.
What Choi Sang-hyuk had ordered was sushi.
At the sight of the beautifully arranged sushi—a dish he had only eaten a few times because of how expensive it was—Kim Min-seok couldn’t help but salivate. Without hesitation, he quickly unwrapped the packaging and set the food on the dining table. He immediately sat down and tore open a pair of wooden chopsticks.
Choi Sang-hyuk, who had been silently watching him, pulled out the chair across from him and sat down.
“Here. Let’s eat.”
Kim Min-seok handed over a neatly split pair of chopsticks. Choi Sang-hyuk stared at them for a moment before accepting them with slow, deliberate hands. Excited, Kim Min-seok opened his own chopsticks and eagerly began devouring the sushi.
Each piece was perfectly bite-sized, and the taste was exquisite. Every time the sharp wasabi mixed with soy sauce spread through his mouth, his appetite grew stronger. He even enjoyed cleansing his palate with pickled ginger between bites. Before he knew it, all the heavy thoughts that had clouded his mind earlier had completely vanished—his focus was solely on eating.
“…Is it good?”
Choi Sang-hyuk’s voice made him pause. Only then did Kim Min-seok realize that while he had been stuffing his face, Choi Sang-hyuk hadn’t taken a single bite. His chopsticks were still poised in the air, untouched.
Kim Min-seok had already eaten more than half the sushi, while Choi Sang-hyuk hadn’t even started. The realization that he had been greedily shoveling food into his mouth while the other man simply watched made embarrassment creep up his neck.
“Yes. It’s delicious. I haven’t had sushi many times before. The few times I did, it was cheap sushi from the supermarket… This is my first time eating something this good.”
He spoke without hesitation, fully embracing the fact that he was Kim Min-seok. Then, he urged,
“You should eat too, Choi Sang-hyuk.”
Choi Sang-hyuk looked at him with an unreadable expression before finally moving his chopsticks.
This time, instead of eating, Kim Min-seok found himself watching Choi Sang-hyuk. He was a strikingly handsome man with sharp, masculine features, and even the way he ate was composed and effortless.
Damn. Even watching him eat is satisfying.
Shaking off his thoughts, Kim Min-seok returned to his meal.
With each bite, the worries, confusion, and fear that had plagued him earlier melted away. Maybe I really am just a simple guy.
As the sushi gradually disappeared from his plate, a faint sense of loss crept in. He was getting full, but the food was so delicious that he wanted to keep eating. Only two pieces remained. Wanting to savor them, he slowed his chewing, trying to prolong the experience.
Just as he was about to pick up one of the last two pieces, a large hand suddenly reached out, took his plate, and slid it away.
Startled, Kim Min-seok looked up to see Choi Sang-hyuk calmly switching their plates.
“Uh… Aren’t you hungry?”
Kim Min-seok blinked in confusion.
On the plate now in front of him, all but two pieces remained—the rest of the sushi was untouched.
“Eat.”
Choi Sang-hyuk’s response was short and firm.
“But…”
Kim Min-seok hesitated.
Choi Sang-hyuk raised an eyebrow.
The expression on his face was clear. Are you really going to disobey me?
“Thank you for the meal.”
Kim Min-seok didn’t hesitate any longer and picked up his chopsticks again.
With more sushi suddenly in front of him, his heart felt at ease. Instead of carefully savoring each bite like before, he happily stuffed piece after piece into his mouth, devouring the food without restraint.
Humans really are simple creatures.
