Kim Min-seok, who had been hanging his head like a sinner, cautiously lifted his face. Instead of looking at Choi Sang-hyuk, he observed Ha Jun-seo’s expression, worried that he might be hurt. As expected, Ha Jun-seo’s face had hardened slightly. That sight pained him. Kim Min-seok quickly opened his mouth. There was something he wanted to tell Ha Jun-seo as well.
“I don’t know yet what Seo Ha-yoon was thinking when he approached you, Jun-seo. But Seo Ha-yoon… really liked you too. I mean it.”
Kim Min-seok stopped there and once again bowed his head deeply like a sinner.
A heavy silence filled the living room. Kim Min-seok felt like a prisoner awaiting his sentence, desperately hoping someone would say something.
“Then…”
After a long pause, Ha Jun-seo finally spoke. The mere fact that someone had broken the silence made Kim Min-seok cautiously lift his head.
“Then what about now? Not Seo Ha-yoon, but Ha-yoon now? What about him?”
“…”
Kim Min-seok was at a loss for words. Ha Jun-seo wasn’t going to let him hide behind Seo Ha-yoon’s personality.
“Choi Sang-hyuk? Or me? Or both? Which is it?”
“I… I…”
“Stop overthinking it and just say what you feel.”
Choi Sang-hyuk cut in sharply. It felt like he was being cornered with no escape. Kim Min-seok wiped the sweat pooling in his palms onto his pants. Then, after biting his lip hard, he finally opened his mouth, feeling as if he were stripping naked in the middle of Gwanghwamun Square.
“I… I really like both Choi Sang-hyuk and Ha Jun-seo. I really do.”
“…”
“…”
“I know I shouldn’t. I know it’s wrong. I know I shouldn’t do the same thing I used to resent Seo Ha-yoon for doing. But no matter how much I think about it—no matter how many times, a thousand or ten thousand times—I still like both of you. I know it’s a shitty thing to do, but I can’t help it. That’s why I ran away. Because saying something like this is just ridiculous, so I thought it’d be better to just disappear and not see either of you…”
“…”
“I’m really sorry. I know this is completely absurd. But I just can’t choose. So please, just break up with me. Both of you. That would be so much easier for me. After being apart for three months… I really missed you both. I really, really did. But choosing between the two of you would be unbearable, so it felt much better to just stay far away and watch from a distance. Isn’t that ridiculous? I know. It’s so absurd, so pathetic… I have no decisiveness at all…”
Neither of the two men said anything. Kim Min-seok kept his gaze fixed on the floor, wondering what expressions they must be making. Were they looking at him with contempt? With a sense of betrayal?
Would they be looking at him with sheer disbelief? Or with eyes full of hatred and resentment?
“…It seems our dear lover has a restless ass and can’t be satisfied with just one person.”
After a long silence, Ha Jun-seo finally spoke, his voice laced with playful mischief. Kim Min-seok had no idea what he meant.
“So, will the two of us be enough for you? Or don’t tell me… do you need a third?”
“…Huh?”
“Seriously? Do you need a third?”
Ha Jun-seo’s eyes flashed dangerously. Startled, Kim Min-seok frantically shook his head in denial.
“N-No! Absolutely not!”
“Good. If you had said you needed a third, I would’ve made your life a living hell for days.”
Ha Jun-seo grinned. But Kim Min-seok still couldn’t grasp what was happening, his bewildered gaze shifting between the two men.
“I told you before, didn’t I? Just go with what your heart wants. Whether it’s Choi Sang-hyuk, me, or even both of us…”
He remembered those words. But that wasn’t all—back then, Ha Jun-seo had also said they could break up if that’s what he wanted. Of course, he had also mentioned he wouldn’t let go so easily.
“But… but… that would be too selfish to ask of you two.”
“It is selfish. But what can we do? If you’re saying you’d rather throw everything away than choose one of us, then you might as well keep us both. That way, at least it works out for everyone.”
Ha Jun-seo spoke so casually that Kim Min-seok started to wonder if he was joking. Was he making fun of him, just to mess with him out of spite?
Kim Min-seok turned his head toward Choi Sang-hyuk. His expression was stone-cold, clearly displeased with the way things were unfolding.
“Sang-hyuk…?”
At Kim Min-seok’s hesitant call, a vein on Choi Sang-hyuk’s forehead twitched. It was obvious he was beyond frustrated but was barely holding it in.
“Seo Ha-yoon.”
Choi Sang-hyuk finally spoke, calling his name.
“Y-Yes?”
Kim Min-seok straightened his posture and swallowed hard. Choi Sang-hyuk’s dark eyes moved slowly, locking onto him with an intensity that made him shrink back. The look in his eyes was practically cursing him out. Kim Min-seok felt like whimpering. I am trash! He wanted to shout it out loud.
“…Fine.”
“Huh…? What?”
Kim Min-seok’s eyes widened in disbelief at what he had just heard. Choi Sang-hyuk clenched his jaw, grinding his teeth before repeating himself as if spitting out the words.
“I said it’s fine.”
“…You mean… you’re actually saying it’s okay for me to date both of you…?”
“But,” Choi Sang-hyuk cut in sharply, “it stops at just him. If you so much as wag that restless ass at anyone other than the two of us from this moment on…”
He didn’t even finish his sentence, but he didn’t need to. The unspoken threat was crystal clear.
Kim Min-seok gulped. Then, nodding vigorously, he responded as fast as he could.
“Yes. Yes! Never. I swear. I promise!”
Kim Min-seok nodded so vigorously that his entire body swayed with the motion.
“There we go, then. So, from now on, I can assume Ha-yoon won’t be running away again, right?”
Ha Jun-seo asked with a playful smile.
“…Yeah…”
Kim Min-seok answered sluggishly, his mind still trying to process what had just happened. It felt like he had somehow been swept along without fully understanding how.
“Um, but… I wasn’t actually planning on dating both of you…”
“So, you’re saying you’ll dump us both?”
Ha Jun-seo cut him off. He was still smiling, but somehow, it was unsettling.
“No, that’s not what I meant… I just think it’s not right to be with both of you at the same time…”
“Which is basically the same thing, isn’t it? You’d rather get rid of us both than be with us both. That’s what you’re saying, right?”
“I mean… I guess that’s technically true, but…”
Kim Min-seok’s eyes darted around helplessly. He felt like he was being pulled into a trap.
His brain froze. Like a crashed computer, he completely shut down for a moment.
“You said you couldn’t choose between us, so I’m just saying we should all get along. Dating is a personal choice, and no one’s going to stop us. Even Choi Sang-hyuk is fine with it. I’ll be generous and let him have the main spouse position. That should work, right?”
“Uh… Uh…”
Kim Min-seok was at a complete loss for words, only managing to stammer incomprehensibly.
“You’re kinda cute when you look all dazed like that,” Ha Jun-seo murmured with a chuckle, then reached out and pinched Kim Min-seok’s nose.
At that moment, Choi Sang-hyuk, who had been sitting silently with a scowl, suddenly stood up. Kim Min-seok flinched, instinctively freezing in place.
“Time for you to leave.”
Choi Sang-hyuk directed the words at Ha Jun-seo.
Ha Jun-seo scrunched his face in displeasure, but he quickly smoothed out his expression and got up.
“Yeah, yeah. The concubine knows when to step aside.”
With a mocking grin, Ha Jun-seo strode over to Kim Min-seok. Then, without warning, he grabbed his face and planted a light kiss on his lips.
“I’ll let the main spouse have the first turn. But tomorrow… look forward to it.”
Look forward to it? Look forward to what? What the hell does he mean by that?
Kim Min-seok, still stuck in his frozen, error-ridden state, couldn’t even manage a proper goodbye before Ha Jun-seo left.
***
Click—
The front door shut, leaving only Kim Min-seok and Choi Sang-hyuk in the living room. A heavy silence fell between them, pressing down like a weight.
Kim Min-seok swallowed dryly and slowly turned to look at Choi Sang-hyuk. Their eyes met.
“…S-So… how have you been?”
Kim Min-seok, still mentally lagging as if his brain had crashed, only now managed to offer a reunion greeting.
Choi Sang-hyuk’s eyebrow twitched, and a sharp grinding noise came from his clenched teeth.
“‘How have you been?’ That’s what you have to say right now?”
Choi Sang-hyuk asked, standing with a slanted posture, his tone dripping with disbelief. Kim Min-seok desperately tried to think of something to say. But his already sluggish brain refused to cooperate.
Taking a deep breath, he locked eyes with Choi Sang-hyuk. And then, he just said what he truly wanted to say.
“…I really missed you.”
At those words, Choi Sang-hyuk stiffened as if he had been struck out of nowhere.
Kim Min-seok swallowed hard and gathered the last bit of courage inside him. Then, standing up from his seat, he slowly took a step forward, then another, until he finally closed the distance and wrapped his arms around Choi Sang-hyuk’s chest.
The firm, broad chest filled his arms completely, giving him an overwhelming sense of comfort. The scent of Choi Sang-hyuk’s cologne, mixed with the natural warmth of his body, tickled his senses. The sheer presence of him was so vivid, so real, that all the confusion and turmoil that had clouded Kim Min-seok’s mind quickly faded into the background.
“Didn’t you miss me, Sang-hyuk?”
He found himself asking without even realizing he was acting spoiled.
“Ha—”
Choi Sang-hyuk let out a short, incredulous laugh, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The sound stung, making Kim Min-seok feel oddly wronged. Keeping his arms wrapped around him, he tilted his head back, forcing their eyes to meet.
“Tell me. Did you miss me or not?”
“You’re seriously asking me that right now?”
Choi Sang-hyuk still looked like he couldn’t wrap his head around the situation. But Kim Min-seok’s boldness had already reached its peak.
The fact that this man had searched for him for three whole months. That he had dropped everything and come running all the way to Busan. That, instead of letting him go, he had chosen to share him with Ha Jun-seo rather than lose him completely…
No matter how he looked at it, there was no doubt.
Choi Sang-hyuk loved him.
