#18
From the moment Bonoh opened the bathroom door and came out naked, he was prepared to get an earful from Taeseong. He thought he’d immediately get scolded as water dripped onto the floor, but unexpectedly, Taeseong was quiet. Puzzled, Bonoh rolled his eyes around, reading Taeseong’s mood.
Taeseong was staring fixedly at Bonoh’s body with his brows deeply furrowed and his face scrunched up. During the gay porn incident, Taeseong had unconsciously tried to imagine Bonoh’s naked body.
However, his white belly and thighs that looked like they’d never been touched by a ray of sunlight were unexpected and even shocking. Despite drinking so frequently, his body had no excess fat. His sides looked soft, but traces of abs remained faintly around his sunken navel, and his thighs were quite substantial. Following the white, soft-looking skin upward, on his chest were pale-colored nipples, tender and…
If he looks like he shouldn’t be seeing this, why is he staring so intensely? Bonoh, who had intended to take out clothes and put them on as soon as he left the bathroom, froze in place as if his feet were nailed to the ground under Taeseong’s gaze. It felt like he was touching every corner of his body with his eyes.
During the incomprehensible silence, a drop of water fell from Bonoh’s wet hair. The water droplet ran down Bonoh’s nape, swept across his white skin, and collected at the tip of his nipple. At the tickling sensation, Bonoh brushed it away as if sweeping down his chest.
“Y-you, what the hell are you doing?”
“Huh? Oh, all my clothes got wet so I had no choice…”
“How can you come out with your body completely naked!”
There it is. Taeseong finally exploded and yelled belatedly.
“That’s why I told you not to look… But I did cover what needed to be covered when I came out.”
Bonoh slightly lifted the towel that was covering his groin as if to show him. Taeseong squeezed his eyes shut.
“You think it’s fine just covering that? You perverted bastard. I should have known from when you were watching gay porn…”
“Ah, why are you bringing that up here! That was really a mistake!”
Though Bonoh protested as if wronged, Taeseong didn’t even pretend to listen and nagged with his reddened face. What distinguishes beasts from humans? It’s knowing cleanliness and shame! If you don’t know shame and go around stripping in front of others, what difference is there from a beast? You should know to be ashamed. If you keep doing this, it’s troublesome. Taeseong’s nagging had a somewhat old-fashioned feel to come from someone in their early twenties.
Bonoh let Taeseong’s words go in one ear and out the other as he went to the closet. He grabbed any underwear at random and bent over. Without knowing that his butt and deeply carved spine were all exposed, Bonoh put his legs through the underwear one by one.
“Hah, really.”
Since Taeseong was so disgusted, Bonoh had turned around to change clothes, but Taeseong kept making deflated sounds as if he was dumbfounded.
“Ah, what’s wrong with you, constantly? Between guys, this can happen…”
“Ha, between guys? I thought you were just perverted, but now you’re promiscuous too. Hey, you really can’t go around showing off your ass like that anywhere.”
Taeseong suddenly became serious at Bonoh’s dejected grumbling.
“It’s not the first time showing my naked body, whatever.”
“What?”
“In the military or saunas, you can’t help it when washing together. You went to the military too, so you’d know.”
“……”
Taeseong’s face was so red it looked like it might explode. At this rate, he’ll suffocate. Is coming out with some clothes off really something to get this angry about? Bonoh knew Taeseong would be angry, but he didn’t expect such an intense reaction.
Even if he got angry, he thought he’d be scolded for water dripping on the floor, but to throw a fit over showing his naked body. Still, it hadn’t been many months since he was discharged, his muscles were still there, and in the military he’d often heard he had a good body. Were those all just flattering words from his juniors?
Still, there’s nothing as comfortable as being naked… A thought suddenly flashed through Bonoh’s mind. Since he’d already stripped, couldn’t they both just live more comfortably in the dorm? It would be inconvenient for Taeseong too to put on clothes right after washing in the humid bathroom. Even if he’s disgusted, if he explains it logically well, Joo Taeseong would accept it. He’s a Political Science and Diplomacy major after all.
“Since it’s come to this, let’s just live naked. Not staying naked all the time, but just when we come out after washing and when sleeping? Not wearing clothes is better for ventilation and good for health. Some celebrity sleeps with only perfume on. Most importantly, it’s comfortable…”
“Are you crazy?”
“Or would just being topless be okay? That much is fine even at swimming pools…”
“This won’t do with you.”
Taeseong jumped up from his seat and took down the <Room 309 Usage Rules> paper that had been stuck on the inside of the door. Then he wrote something at the bottom of the paper and held it out to Bonoh.
“…Never walk around naked. Must live wearing both top and bottom clothing? What’s this?”
“A newly added rule.”
Bonoh was so dumbfounded he was speechless. What kind of rule is this… I mean, even middle school student advisors don’t have dress codes in dorms. Words of protest swirled in his mouth, but he could only stammer without being able to pour them out.
…It’s not a space I live in alone, so if the other person finds it unpleasant, there’s nothing I can do. When Bonoh said nothing, Taeseong took it as agreement and stuck the paper back on the inside of the door. He didn’t forget to post it at eye level so it could be seen every time they went out.
***
Left alone in Room 309 after Bonoh left, Taeseong was lost in thought. This was because his roommate Kim Bonoh’s recent behavior had been suspicious. No matter how friendless Taeseong was, he roughly knew what kind of conversations went on between male friends. Compared to that, Bonoh was a bit excessive.
Ever since Taeseong was taken to the hospital by ambulance for stomach cramps, Bonoh had become much kinder. Calling 119 and going to the emergency room as a guardian could be chalked up to roommate loyalty, but what came after was the problem. Without being asked, he brought political science exam materials, and while Taeseong was getting an IV, he bought things like cabbage juice and cute sleep socks.
On the way back to the dorm, he brought ion drinks, and the next day he even bought porridge. All while roughly getting by with convenience store food for his own meals.
Once, Taeseong’s complexion had gotten bad from stomach pain. Bonoh, who happened to enter the room, even massaged Taeseong’s hands, asking if his stomach hurt again. “When you have indigestion, pressing here makes it feel a bit better.” From Bonoh, who was muttering like that, came a faint smell of alcohol and cold wind. Since Taeseong didn’t have indigestion, the pain didn’t go away, but the clumsy massage was quite refreshing, so he let it be.
Taeseong was overly conscious of when he was in pain and was constantly anxious about not being able to take care of him enough. He thought it was excessive for a roommate, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Rather, it felt quite good, and receiving such concern was refreshing.
But Taeseong couldn’t help but keep asking the question “why.” Why was he being so nice? Looking at his own attitude and behavior, it seemed like even if he wanted to be nice, he’d give up. Joo Taeseong was the type to incur a thousand-nyang debt with his words.
Taeseong thought of several possibilities. There are exactly three reasons for nursing and caring for a sick person. Either being nosy, feeling guilty for making them sick, or otherwise having affection. Taeseong confidently ruled out the first two cases.
Bonoh did fall under nosiness and guilt, but Taeseong had no way of knowing that fact. He didn’t even think that the stress that caused his stomach cramps had occurred because of Kim Bonoh in the first place. To say he was caring out of nosiness, Bonoh and Taeseong’s relationship hadn’t been that good so far, and caring for someone you have a bad relationship with just out of nosiness was impossible according to Taeseong’s way of thinking.
Then what’s left… affection?
Thinking about it, it was suspicious as hell. Looking back on past days when he was caught watching gay porn and kept being anxious about not being able to show his naked body, Bonoh was clearly attracted to him. Moreover, what was Bonoh’s reaction when he said he was going to his family home last weekend? He said he was sad that he was abandoning him. Seeing how he grieved over Taeseong’s absence rather than enjoying his freedom by watching gay porn alone when left behind, it was definitely not just simple light attraction.
Could it be that Kim Bonoh’s behavior until now was actually a silent signal asking him to understand his feelings? Taeseong was so startled by the hypothesis he’d come up with that he almost jumped up from his seat. Making him hear men’s moans on purpose might have been Bonoh’s own kind of sex appeal.
It was quite a bold method. It even made Taeseong’s stomach flutter, so it wasn’t a complete failure. Taeseong thought he was quite skilled, worthy of someone who had penetrated his safety net and won a “slight” reaction. Now it had become an established fact to him that Bonoh was ardently having a one-sided crush on him.
Taeseong now faced another dilemma. If Bonoh confessed to him, how should he respond? The person giving the rice cake had no intention of it, but Taeseong was endlessly serious. Compared to their first meeting, which had been the worst from Taeseong’s perspective, his current evaluation of Bonoh had become quite generous.
However, Taeseong considered it not something that could lead to romance. In this state, if Bonoh confessed, rejection would be appropriate. Taeseong nodded his head.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
