Chapter 68
“Are you angry?”
“…”
“Did I interrogate you too much? Is that why you’re upset?”
The excessively gentle tone was just like a parent soothing a tantruming child. When Yuwon, who had lost his fighting spirit, couldn’t give any response, Jeonghyeok continued speaking methodically.
“I was worried. It was already time for you to arrive home, but you hadn’t contacted me.”
“I’m not that much of a child. And contact can be a little late sometimes.”
“You were late because you were talking to another guy.”
“It’s not ‘another guy,’ it’s Jaejoon.”
“Jaejoon or whatever, it’s not allowed.”
That damn “not allowed” again. Yuwon held his forehead and shook his head. It felt like talking to a wall.
No matter how much he wrapped it in a gentle voice, in the end, ajeossi was angry. For not contacting him as soon as he got home. For contacting someone else during that time. Just for such trivial reasons.
The area around his solar plexus, which had been stuffy since earlier, became tightly blocked again. He had a lot he wanted to say, but at least right now, he didn’t want to talk with Jeonghyeok.
“Forget it. I can’t communicate with you, ajeossi. I’m hanging up.”
“Don’t hang up.”
“I don’t want to!”
Yuwon shouted and hung up the phone. After changing the ringer to silent, he threw it carelessly onto the sofa.
“Ha…”
This was the first time he had rebelled so strongly against Jeonghyeok. Acting as he pleased felt refreshing, but on the other hand, he was a little scared. If it was the Jeonghyeok he knew, he would definitely be persistently calling even at this moment.
Anxiously watching the overturned phone with his heart pounding nervously, Yuwon soon shook his head vigorously. I didn’t do anything wrong. This is all because ajeossi is too sensitive. He regained his peace of mind by repeating this to himself.
Leaving his phone abandoned on the sofa like that, Yuwon headed to the bathroom. He reluctantly took off his clothes and entered the shower booth. His insides were still boiling, and he felt like dousing himself with cold water, but he obediently turned the faucet toward the warm water direction.
That’s when it happened. He heard the sound of the front door opening from far away. At first he thought it might be an auditory hallucination, but he couldn’t deny the increasingly clear sound of footsteps.
He felt chilled for a moment, but Yuwon quickly organized the situation in his head. There was only one person who could enter this house—ajeossi. Since he had already arrived not long after ending the call, he must have been on his way home from the beginning.
Just as he was about to start showering without caring, the approaching footsteps stopped right in front of the bathroom door. Yuwon’s hand gripping the faucet also hesitated.
With a sinking feeling, he turned his head, and at the same time, the door burst open.
“Kim Yuwon.”
Beyond the door that opened without warning, Jeonghyeok was standing there. Startled, Yuwon awkwardly covered his naked body. Regardless, his anxiously trembling eyes were persistently scanning over Yuwon.
“What are you doing right now?”
“What are you doing, ajeossi? Without even knocking!”
Knocking? After spouting nonsense about not being able to communicate and saying he didn’t want to, was he now expecting something like knocking from him? Jeonghyeok burst into hollow laughter between his ragged breaths.
Because Yuwon had hung up on him arbitrarily and never answered again, he had driven like a madman. He ran at full speed from the parking garage to the elevator. When he opened the front door and saw the empty house, his breath literally stopped.
Could he have run away? Had he gotten sick of me and finally left me behind?
The betrayal that burned hotly in his chest made it feel like something was about to surge up from his throat. Until he discovered the tightly closed bathroom door and was about to open that door.
Jeonghyeok ran his hand through his disheveled hair and said.
“Why didn’t you answer the phone?”
“Because I didn’t want to answer it.”
“This isn’t time for word games.”
“It’s not word games, I’m serious. I don’t want to talk with ajeossi.”
Jeonghyeok quietly looked at Yuwon, who was glaring at him. Then he let out a deep sigh and muttered low.
“…That’s enough. There’s a limit to how much I’ll tolerate.”
“Why? Is this not okay? Do I have to listen to everything ajeossi says unconditionally?”
At Yuwon’s sharp tone, the atmosphere became instantly murderous. Jeonghyeok stared at Yuwon expressionlessly, and Yuwon glared back at such a Jeonghyeok with all his might.
After the standoff continued for some time, Jeonghyeok was the first to break the heavy silence.
“What bothered you so much?”
“…”
“Tell me. I’ll fix it.”
He had expected him to get furiously angry. If not that, then to turn away coldly. Surprised by the unexpected reaction, Yuwon’s eyes widened.
In contrast, Jeonghyeok remained expressionless. The way he tilted his head slightly as if to say go ahead and tell me even looked generous.
Yuwon didn’t notice that this was a thorough act. He had no idea what kind of feelings Jeonghyeok was enduring his boiling anger with right now.
“Ajeossi… I hate that ajeossi keeps treating me like I’m some kind of strange person.”
Yuwon, who was simply relieved, carefully opened his mouth. Once he opened the floodgates, the complaints he had been holding back began to flow out smoothly.
“Every chance you get, you act like I’m going to meet other people, like I’m some kind of cheater… honestly, it gets tiring sometimes.”
Looking back, Jeonghyeok was wary of everyone around him. Not only his few friends but even Minhyeon, who was like a brother—he couldn’t meet any of them comfortably.
Since living together, he couldn’t even work part-time, and the orphanage volunteer work he had recently started was about the extent of his outings, but even that required him to promptly report where he was and what he was doing. Sometimes he felt like he was just breathing in and out in a narrow space that his body could barely fit into.
“This isn’t allowed, that isn’t allowed. Do you think it makes sense that I can’t even have a drink with friends? Contact can sometimes be a little late, but you complain about being just 5 minutes late.”
“…”
“Yesterday’s incident too. You suddenly showed up without saying anything and made me panic. Why are you suddenly suspicious of Minhyeon for no reason?”
When Minhyeon’s name came up, Jeonghyeok, who had been silently listening, spoke up.
“How can I not be suspicious? He’s someone who suddenly appeared.”
“He didn’t suddenly appear—he’s a kid who originally lived with me.”
Yuwon let out a deep sigh as if frustrated. He didn’t know what was suspicious enough to make him wary of Minhyeon, but he thought he should clear up the fundamental misunderstanding first.
“And I think you’re misunderstanding something—I don’t like men, you know?”
“Am I not a man?”
“Ajeossi isn’t a man, you’re just ajeossi.”
“So your preference is older men, not younger ones?”
“Ah, really!”
At the conversation that was exactly like a round song, Yuwon, who couldn’t stand it anymore, got indignant.
“It’s not because ajeossi is a man or because you’re older that I like you—it’s because you’re Moon Jeonghyeok that I like you. Do I have to explain it like this for you to understand?”
A moment of silence flowed. Both Yuwon, who had suddenly made an intense love confession, and Jeonghyeok, who had heard it, lost their words.
Ah. What did I just say? Flustered, Yuwon hurriedly changed the subject.
“So what I’m trying to say is… I wish ajeossi would trust me a little.”
“I do trust you.”
“Stop lying. You don’t.”
Caught.
Unable to reveal his true feelings, Jeonghyeok smiled slightly and strode into the bathroom.
“What, what are you doing? Don’t come in.”
“Why not?”
“I’m washing right now!”
“I’m going to wash too.”
Though Yuwon had absolutely never allowed them to shower together, that taboo had been miserably broken not long ago. A few days ago, on that day when they had beast-like sex, he had been led by Jeonghyeok’s hand into the bathroom together while half out of his mind. Of course, they didn’t just wash obediently in the bathroom either. They just continued what they had been doing.
Jeonghyeok unbuttoned his dress shirt with one hand and firmly closed the bathroom door. While he unfastened his belt and took off his pants, his gaze remained fixed on Yuwon without wavering.
To avoid the fierce gaze that seemed ready to devour him at any moment, Yuwon lowered his head. However, he soon opened his mouth slightly at something that entered his field of vision.
“…”
Jeonghyeok’s cock was half-erect. When on earth had it gotten like that? Yuwon’s face, colored with shock, became even paler as the cock gradually raised its head upward.
He could instinctively tell. That Jeonghyeok taking off his clothes right now wasn’t simply to wash.
“…I want to leave.”
After hesitating for a moment, Yuwon quickly moved with the single thought that he had to get out of the bathroom immediately. Just as he reached toward the door handle, passing by Jeonghyeok who stood like a gatekeeper, it happened.
“Where are you going?”
Along with the quiet words, his forearm was grabbed. Before he could even avoid it, Yuwon was sucked into Jeonghyeok’s embrace.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
