#63
Did he really want to do this?
Ho-woo’s skeptical gaze poked at Oh-yul’s profile. Though the stinging gaze should have made him turn around, his eyes scanning under the transparent glass case didn’t waver.
“Th-This is very popular these days… It’s the new model that just came out!”
The phone store employee, with a jaw trembling like an aspen leaf, looked at Yul’s face fearfully yet curiously. Even so, his appearance was still dazzling and radiant.
His slightly disheveled bangs and long, lush downcast eyelashes carefully examined the item.
“What do you think, Ho-woo?”
Though it was quite a large phone, it looked small in Yul’s hand. Although he looked agile rather than bulky, Ho-woo inwardly gasped as it hit him anew that the man before him was a giant over 190cm tall.
“It’s not about me, it should be comfortable for you, Yul.”
“Of course, it should be to your liking as well, shouldn’t it?”
“What?”
Ho-woo, who had been finding it cute that Yul was asking for his opinion on something he would use himself, opened his eyes wide.
I wasn’t planning to change my phone?
Since the phone he was currently using was only about a year old, he hadn’t particularly thought about changing it. What this man had originally requested this morning was…
“You said we should just match numbers. Couple numbers.”
“……”
“……”
Yul’s gaze fixed on Ho-woo. Between the two of them, only the hapless store employee rolled his eyes about, looking uncomfortable.
Reading that discomfort, Ho-woo touched his nape with a wry expression.
“…What is it?”
“No, nothing. I certainly only requested matching numbers, didn’t I?”
“You did.”
“Then, may I take a look at your phone, Ho-woo? Wouldn’t it be more familiar if it’s a model that people around you are using well?”
“Uh… mine is over a year old though.”
“That’s fine.”
Yul leisurely held out his hand to Ho-woo. Without any suspicion, Ho-woo took out the phone he had put in his pocket and handed it to Yul.
“Hmm.”
Yul, who had naturally received the phone from Ho-woo, pretended to look around the phone with a softened expression, turning it this way and that, before slightly applying force with his fingertips.
Crunch-
“—!”
Ho-woo’s eyes widened like saucers at the horrible sound of thin plastic crumbling helplessly under the Esper’s hand.
The shattered screen poured out from Yul’s grip. In that brief moment, the phone had become completely beyond repair.
“Oh my, I’m sorry.”
Ho-woo stared blankly at the man who didn’t look sorry at all. He thought he saw Yul faintly smiling as he rolled the half-crushed phone in his hand.
“Since I broke it, I should buy you a new one.”
It was a refreshingly clean conclusion. He put down the broken phone and placed the new model phone that the employee had confidently recommended into Ho-woo’s hand.
“What do you think, Ho-woo?”
Yul returned the same question he had first asked to Ho-woo. Since he couldn’t insist on continuing to use the now irreparable phone, Ho-woo replied reluctantly.
“…It’s nice.”
Actually, I don’t know what features it has, but I guess it’s good since it’s the latest model.
At Ho-woo’s words, Yul completed the payment without hesitation. The white phones of the same model and color were indistinguishable at a glance.
If the phones were accidentally switched, it would be nothing short of a disaster. If his father were to call while they were switched…
Wow, I just got goosebumps.
Ho-woo rubbed the goosebumps that had risen under his thin shirt while looking at Yul, who seemed strangely excited. He was receiving recommendations for numbers to change to from the employee.
After carefully receiving recommendations for several numbers, he seemed to be contemplating, not quite satisfied with any of them. Ho-woo rested his chin on the glass table beside him and stared at him.
Right. Yul should try all the things he wants to do.
The reason he didn’t feel like getting angry even though it was clear to anyone that his phone had been deliberately broken might be because of this feeling.
Whether his feelings stemmed from pity, or if it was genuine affection, or perhaps a mix of both, Lee Ho-woo had raised the white flag to Oh-yul.
So he wanted to accommodate him. If Yul was happy, surely he would be happy too.
“Which number do you prefer, Ho-woo?”
“Hmm…”
Ho-woo examined the meaningless array of numbers before tapping the glass with his fingertips.
If we’re matching numbers anyway, they don’t necessarily have to be exactly the same, right?
“Does it have to be the same number?”
“Isn’t that what makes it a couple number?”
Yul tilted his head slightly as if Ho-woo was asking something obvious. His wide-eyed gaze was full of questions, which was cute.
“I think this might be better than meaningless numbers.”
Ho-woo received a pen from the employee and quickly wrote down four digits. Yul checked it and smiled, his eyes crinkling slightly. He didn’t ask Ho-woo what those numbers meant.
“We’ll go with Ho-woo’s suggestion.”
He simply bowed his head under his partner’s opinion like an obedient dog.
“Aren’t you going to ask what it means?”
“It’s your birthday, isn’t it?”
Yul leisurely wrote down his own birthday as well. His birthday was in December, when the cold winter begins. Ho-woo somehow thought it suited him well.
“Let’s have the middle numbers the same as this, and the last numbers as our respective birthdays.”
It was quite a demanding order, but the employee desperately searched for available empty numbers and finally succeeded. The employee, silently clenching his fist and rejoicing in his achievement, completed a few clicks, and it became Yul and Ho-woo’s numbers.
Ho-woo rolled his new number around in his mouth a few times. The last digits of his new contact number were filled with Yul’s birthday.
Now he wouldn’t be able to forget the birthday at the end of the year when winter begins, even if he wanted to.
“This is much better.”
Yul, who now had a number made with Ho-woo’s birthday, also seemed considerably pleased.
“I like it.”
A sweet smile melted away as if a sparkling halo might appear around him. Seeing him so happy over something like this made Ho-woo’s mood soar even higher.
“You’ll save my number first, right?”
To Ho-woo’s casual question as he pulled up the list of numbers saved in his previous phone from his cloud account, Yul pressed in the number made up of digits he had never forgotten even for a moment and saved it in his phone.
“Lee Ho-woo”
The name saved somewhat bleakly with even the surname included, rather than an affectionate lover’s contact, was embedded on the screen. However, Yul stroked those three characters several times with his thumb as if looking at the most precious thing in the world.
His eyes, filled with sweet and soft affection, were gentle.
“Your birthday is coming up soon, may I celebrate it for you?”
“There’s no reason why not, but…”
It felt awkward having someone offer to celebrate his birthday, as it had been quite a while since anyone other than Do-hyun had done so.
Ho-woo’s birthday, in the month when the rainy season rages in midsummer, was close to the anniversary of his mother’s passing.
Perhaps because of this, Ho-woo hadn’t celebrated his birthday since he was young. His father became more sensitive and depressed as the anniversary approached. He couldn’t ask such a father to celebrate his birthday.
So Ho-woo became indifferent to his birthday. No, he tried to become indifferent. That day is a dual day. One that can’t be purely happy about, nor unreservedly sad.
“I think I might need to visit my father around my birthday.”
Whether that will be on his birthday or another day, he wasn’t sure. Yul slightly furrowed his brow at Ho-woo’s vague words.
As they left the store, receiving the polite greetings of the employee who looked refreshed after finishing his task, a muggy heat hit them. The moisture mixed in the air was so humid it seemed like it might pour rain at any moment.
The weather around this time, repeating every year, might cling to Ho-woo until he died, spreading a sense of depression.
Moreover, his lover, who seemed like he would persistently and shamelessly insist on going together at Ho-woo’s troubling words, was strangely silent. That silence was uncomfortable. His darkened eyes rippled like still water, lost in thought.
As if something didn’t sit well with him.
“I’ll try to avoid my actual birthday as much as possible though.”
“I understand.”
Only then did his face brighten a bit, and Ho-woo dismissed Yul’s previous gloominess as insignificant. I guess he wanted to celebrate properly since it’s the first birthday since we became lovers. Thinking that way, he just found him endlessly lovable.
“Since tomorrow’s the weekend, shall we go on a date?”
“That sounds good. As it happens, there’s somewhere I need to take you, Ho-woo.”
“Me?”
Ho-woo couldn’t think of any particular place Yul would need to take him. Though he showed his unresolved question on his face, Yul didn’t provide an answer.
“It’s not a bad place.”
Of course not.
Curiosity filled his mind before worry. He even felt a vague expectation because of his firm belief, from an unknown source, that Yul wouldn’t take him anywhere bad.
“So where is it?”
“It wouldn’t be fun if you knew in advance.”
It seemed impossible to draw an answer from Oh-yul, who was thoroughly keeping it a secret. Ho-woo raised one eyebrow.
