Yoon Do-jae and Beom Do-il, after filling their cart with melons and peaches, stopped short when they came across a display of Shine Muscat grapes.
“Hey… doesn’t it feel kind of wrong if we only buy these?”
Do-jae muttered, staring at the grapes. Do-il also paused, recalling how Min Yu-hyun had once said that dessert wasn’t dessert without Shine Muscats.
“Right? If we leave out Guide Min Yu-hyun’s favorite, it feels off… Let’s grab some too.”
He lifted a box of Shine Muscats into the cart.
“But if we only get one box while we bought three of everything else, that’s awkward, isn’t it? Let’s just get three.”
In the end, they bought three boxes each of melons, peaches, and Shine Muscats. Smiling at the thought of their fellow Guides’ happy faces, the two quickly teleported back.
But the moment they arrived, they froze.
The living room was already packed with people—including the camera director—all gathered around a mountain of peaches.
There were soft peaches, firm peaches, canned peaches, peach drinks—everything imaginable, as long as it was peach.
And right in the middle sat Hyun Tae-oh, pressed close beside Kang Chi-yu, blissfully accepting peach slices straight from Chi-yu’s hand.
Do-jae and Do-il exchanged stunned looks, then glanced at the fruit boxes in their arms… and back at the towers of peach crates stacked beside the sofa.
“Hey! Where’d you two go? Come have some peaches! Esper Hyun Tae-oh bought a ton!”
Jun-hyung waved them over cheerfully, while the two of them just stood frozen in place.
***
A kiss under the pretense of Guiding always burned too hot to handle.
At some point, Chi-yu had begun responding naturally to Tae-oh’s kisses.
When their lips finally parted, Tae-oh fixed him with a fierce gaze.
“I want to do Stage 3.”
“…Not here.”
“Then let’s go to my place.”
“That’s ridiculous—mph—”
“See? You want it too.”
“This is just a physical reaction… ah—”
Tae-oh crushed him in a firm embrace, whispering against his ear.
“Which is why—Stage 3.”
“Stop with the nonsense and just take the Guiding.”
When Chi-yu showed no sign of budging, Tae-oh buried his face against his chest, whining like a sulky child. He even braced his head so lightly that Chi-yu couldn’t feel a single ounce of weight—making it both absurd and ridiculously endearing.
“I really want to.”
“I said no.”
“Then when? When are you going to let me do Stage 3?”
“…After filming ends.”
“Fuck, how am I supposed to wait that long? You think I’ve got that much patience?”
Tae-oh shot upright, shouting in frustration.
Chi-yu couldn’t help the small smile tugging at his lips.
“You said you were seducing me.”
“…Yeah, I am.”
“And that’s the first thing on your mind, Mr. Seducer?”
“…Is that not okay?”
“It’s not.”
“Why not?”
“Because it feels like you only want my body.”
“What?!”
Tae-oh bolted up.
“What the hell? Of course I want your body—yeah, your body. I want it like crazy. Fuck, I really want it.”
His eyes swept over Chi-yu’s lips, then across his face.
“But it’s not just that. I don’t just want your body. I want all of Kang Chi-yu. From head to toe. Your heart, your mind—everything inside you.”
“……”
“I want everything.”
“……”
“And besides, I have to do Stage 3 Guiding anyway. Didn’t you hear what Professor Myung said? I can’t take suppressants, so three times a day—”
“After filming.”
Chi-yu cut him off flatly.
“I’ll do it with you once filming is over.”
The truth was, Chi-yu wanted it too.
He already knew how overwhelming it felt to be wrapped in Hyun Tae-oh’s arms—he’d experienced it before.
Still, even though Tae-oh had declared he’d seduce him and was now acting completely unlike his usual self, Chi-yu felt it wasn’t right to give in so easily.
It would be better to wait until they were truly dating before going that far.
In fact, that would be the perfect way to close the chapter on their long friendship and begin their lives as lovers.
Tae-oh was too blunt and reckless. If Chi-yu just gave in now, Tae-oh might be satisfied to sleep with him and still think nothing had changed—that they were just friends. That was exactly why Chi-yu decided to hold off on Stage 3 until filming ended. By then, he was sure they would have crossed the line from friends to lovers.
But Tae-oh, oblivious to his thoughts, looked up at him with the pitiful eyes of a puppy.
“Then… can I at least touch you until then?”
***
Beom Do-il blinked in surprise when Min Yu-hyun suddenly appeared at his room.
He couldn’t just slam the door in his face, so he let him in—only for Yu-hyun to stroll in like he owned the place and sit himself down not on a chair but on Do-il’s bed.
“How’s the shoulder? You’ve been taking your meds?”
“…Yeah, I guess.”
“It doesn’t hurt?”
“No. I took painkillers too.”
“Mind if I check? Take your shirt off.”
“Eh—?”
“Your top. Take it off so I can look at your shoulder.”
“…But it’s all wrapped in bandages, so you won’t really see—”
“Take it off.”
“…O-okay…”
Cowed by Yu-hyun’s sharp tone, Do-il slowly lifted his T-shirt. His taut muscles flexed, drawing immediate attention.
Yu-hyun’s gaze lingered shamelessly on his sculpted abs.
“…My shoulder.”
Flustered by the way Yu-hyun was staring, Do-il quickly covered his stomach with his hands and turned his injured shoulder toward him.
Yu-hyun rose from the bed and closed the distance.
Do-il flinched back a step, but soon found himself only a handspan away, face-to-face.
Yu-hyun’s height only reached his ear, so Do-il’s gaze naturally landed on the top of his head.
“No bleeding… and you’re sure it doesn’t hurt?”
“Yeah. Painkillers work pretty well on me.”
“You work out?”
“…Yeah, a bit.”
“Gym?”
“I play squash.”
“Oh? Squash.”
So squash could build a body like that. Yu-hyun muttered to himself as he sat back down on the bed.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“Yes?”
Do-il tugged his shirt back on while answering. Yu-hyun, eyes still fixed on his abs, went on.
“I think Esper Beom Do-il might be my fan.”
Do-il froze with his head halfway through the shirt.
What the hell was he talking about? He turned to see Yu-hyun sitting there with his arms crossed, wearing an infuriatingly smug expression.
“You might not realize it yet, but from the way you act, you’ve already fallen for me.”
“…Eh—??”
Do-il hadn’t even finished pulling his shirt down, left gawking in disbelief.
Just then, his door swung open.
“Hey, you got a charger—”
Lee Jun-hyung stopped mid-sentence, eyes widening.
He glanced once at Yu-hyun, seated on the bed, then at Do-il, half-dressed and hastily tugging his shirt down.
“…What are you two doing?”
“…! …Ah! N-no, it’s not what it looks like!”
Do-il flushed scarlet as he yanked his shirt into place, babbling in panic.
“Guide Min Yu-hyun just wanted to check my shoulder! That’s it! Don’t get the wrong idea, nothing happened!”
Unlike the frantic Do-il, Jun-hyung was calm as ever.
“Relax. Just lend me your charger.”
“I swear, nothing happened! We’re nothing like that!”
“Got it. Calm down. I’m not misunderstanding. Nothing happened. Okay? Nothing. Now hand over the charger.”
“Ah, right!”
Do-il scrambled to the nightstand, fumbling open the drawer.
Jun-hyung’s eyes, however, weren’t on him. They were fixed on Yu-hyun.
The calm expression from moments earlier was gone, replaced with a faint hardness.
Yu-hyun noticed immediately, rolling his tongue inside his cheek.
He had grown up under constant scrutiny, and reading people’s gazes and expressions was second nature to him.
Most people looked at him with admiration, so he rarely bothered these days. But Jun-hyung’s gaze wasn’t admiration—it was hostility. And that was worth noting.
Lee Jun-hyung clearly didn’t like him.
This kind of animosity was easy to spot, and Yu-hyun’s instincts were rarely wrong. He didn’t think Jun-hyung disliked Beom Do-il—but it wasn’t love, either.
It wasn’t the kind of selfish “too precious to give away but not mine to have” feeling.
It wasn’t romance, but it was more than friendship.
At the very least, Jun-hyung clearly cared about Do-il. And the way he was glaring at Yu-hyun, it was as though he was making sure he wasn’t messing with someone precious to him.
While Yu-hyun and Jun-hyung exchanged loaded glances, Do-il, completely oblivious, pulled out the charger and hurried over.
Handing it over, he asked timidly, “Wanna hang out in here for a bit?”
Jun-hyung picked up on Do-il’s SOS instantly and stepped inside without hesitation.
He dropped onto the bed right beside Min Yu-hyun.
Yu-hyun turned to him, and Jun-hyung met his gaze. Sparks practically crackled in the silence between them.
Their stares locked, probing, as if each was trying to uncover something from the other.
The heavy tension left Do-il at a loss. He quietly retreated to the sofa, sitting primly with his hands in his lap—like a guest in his own room.
