#74
Since manifesting, there were times when leaving a crowded place left a feeling of discomfort in the respiratory tract, like a foreign substance of pheromones remaining. Shim AD, not unaware of Eunhong’s situation as a newly manifested individual, had suggested it. Eunhong clumsily put the cigarette in his mouth and brought the end to the flame Shim AD offered.
Gack-! Cough cough.
Having seen it somewhere before but never having smoked, he boldly inhaled the cigarette and was severely punished for it. Forget about the pheromone deodorizing effect, his nose burned and tears poured from his eyes. As he coughed hard, Shim AD laughed mischievously.
“You should have just taken a small puff at first.”
Eunhong glared at him reproachfully while rubbing his teary eyes. Shim AD, still laughing, offered a handkerchief. When Eunhong muttered, “Ah, I’m never doing this again,” he laughed even louder. What a kid. So what if he was a kid. He thought it might be better to endure the pheromones instead.
At that moment, as if perfectly timed, Jaeha appeared.
After seeing Shim AD and Eunhong giggling over the cigarette, Jaeha’s mood was getting worse. It started with the company dinner, or rather, from Eunhong working at the company…. Jaeha was spending quite a lot of energy trying to suppress his emotions that were firing off in all directions.
“Are you angry?”
“Why did you take off your watch?”
Close to midnight, the roads were quiet and the car was heading home without any traffic.
“The person next to me spilled alcohol, and the band got all wet, so I took it off.”
“……”
Eunhong, fiddling with his empty wrist, glanced at Jaeha. Jaeha remained silent, his hands on the steering wheel, just driving and looking ahead. Eunhong felt awkward and sniffed his collar. The smell of meat and alcohol was overwhelming. Perhaps his sensitive friend’s expression was so bad because of the terrible smell right now.
Eunhong slightly lowered the passenger window. As the cold air rushed in with the sound of the window lowering, Jaeha’s gaze briefly touched Eunhong.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to drink.”
“I didn’t.”
“But you smell strongly of alcohol.”
“It was spilled. Really.”
Eunhong looked at Jaeha as if feeling wronged.
“…Why didn’t you answer your phone?”
“It was too noisy…”
“Why did you smoke?”
He could have simply answered ‘Just curious-‘ but somehow he was at a loss for words. It was because he remembered Jaeha’s terrifying gaze when he looked at Shim AD earlier.
“They said it would eliminate the pheromone smell.”
Jaeha, steering with one hand, asked in a cold voice.
“So the alcohol was spilled, you didn’t know about the calls, and the cigarette was because of pheromones.”
“Yeah… It wasn’t great. I’m not going to do it again.”
“……”
“……”
When Jaeha closed his mouth, silence fell in the car. The dark car interior, with no music playing, was suffocatingly quiet. Only the sound of the wind from outside swept between them.
Jaeha, who had been quietly driving and looking ahead, suddenly closed the window. Eunhong, who had been resting his head, was startled by the window rising with a zing sound. Even though Eunhong looked at him with wide eyes, Jaeha paid no attention.
“You’ll catch a cold if you’re drunk and cold.”
“…I told you I’m not drunk.”
“……”
It seemed Jaeha needed some time. Eunhong gave up trying to explain further and leaned his head on the headrest. Thinking about his expression when caught smoking, he felt a hundred apologies wouldn’t be enough. But then it occurred to him that of all the reactions since declaring they should date, this dramatic response from Jaeha was the most intense, and Eunhong felt slightly annoyed too.
So Eunhong, thinking Jaeha would eventually come around and that he should respond when Jaeha spoke to him again, stared out the window. It was Friday evening. Eunhong was tired, the dark car interior was cozy, and the seat was excessively warm. So, forgetting they were in a standoff, he ended up dozing off.
“Huh.”
He woke up with a start, feeling the car stop. Eunhong rubbed his cheeks in embarrassment. Fortunately, he hadn’t drooled, but he felt ashamed of how ungracefully he had jerked awake. As he sat there stupidly, Jaeha, who had turned off the engine and gotten out of the car, came around to the passenger side and opened the door. Despite the obvious anger, the still gentle action made Eunhong feel somewhat sheepish.
“Get out.”
Although he really hadn’t had a single drop of alcohol, the supportive hand wasn’t unwelcome, so Eunhong pretended to give in and clung to Jaeha’s arm. Jaeha had to slightly bend his waist to match Eunhong’s pace with Eunhong’s arm around his neck. Eunhong almost laughed at the deep furrow between Jaeha’s brows.
“Ugh, the smell of alcohol.”
Eunhong’s lips curled into a smile at the grumbling, accompanied by a wrinkled nose. He liked the touch that was supporting his body, almost carrying him, even while complaining. Without any actual effects of alcohol, his face flushed and felt warm.
Eunhong deliberately relaxed his legs and leaned on Jaeha with all his might. He even slightly closed his eyes, and Jaeha’s shallow sigh tickled his ear. Unable to hold back a smile, he laughed “hehe” as if truly drunk.
He tormented Jaeha the entire elevator ride to the top floor. Putting all his weight on him and nuzzling his head, he made Jaeha’s sighs grow deeper. Jaeha half-carried Eunhong with one arm while using his other hand to smooth Eunhong’s hair. The earlier awkwardness had disappeared, replaced by the usual warmth and touch. The sweet pheromones and the long-missed touch made Eunhong’s heart flutter.
“Did you fall into a vat of alcohol? What’s with this smell…”
…Though separate from his touch, it seemed his sulking was still ongoing.
Honestly, Eunhong wasn’t scared even when Jaeha got angry. He could just close his eyes tightly and get through the nagging. Moreover, pretending to be drunk seemed to make even the nagging pass by roughly. He thought he should use this tactic often in the future…
“……”
Jaeha looked down carefully at Eunhong, who was shamelessly pretending to be asleep while leaning on him. He even stopped moving.
“Waaah!”
Just as Eunhong was wondering why Jaeha had stopped and slightly lifted one eyelid to peek, he felt his thighs being firmly grabbed and his body lifted into the air, defying gravity.
“P-put me down…!”
“Shut up, you drunk.”
“Ah, ah put me down!”
Jaeha lifted Eunhong like a sack. Because of the hand tightly gripping his thighs, Eunhong couldn’t move an inch. He didn’t know what to do with the face brushing against the side of his buttocks. The elevated view of the elevator interior also added to his embarrassment. Eunhong tensed up, afraid someone might get on the elevator. He felt humiliated.
Ah, I dug my own grave, Eunhong thought. He struggled, patting Jaeha’s back with both hands, asking to be put down. But Jaeha didn’t budge. Finally giving up, Eunhong tightly closed his eyes. Slung over Jaeha’s shoulder like a sack of rice, he dangled helplessly as Jaeha walked. His face turned bright red, either from all the blood rushing to his head or from the shame.
Jaeha put Eunhong down on the sofa and carelessly threw his bag and coat into the dressing room. As he moved towards the kitchen intending to prepare something to eat, he stopped abruptly, seeing Eunhong already opening the refrigerator door. Eunhong was pressing a cold water bottle against his flushed cheeks.
“How much did you drink for your face to be like that? I told you to cut down on drinking.”
Eunhong gaped in disbelief. His expression said, “Who’s the one who turned me upside down and made my face burst-” Jaeha silently went to the sink, washed his hands, and started peeling a few oranges. His eyes were indifferent as he disassembled the oranges as if nothing had happened. The peels quickly piled up, and he placed the neatly separated flesh on a plate, setting it in front of Eunhong. The dining room filled with the scent of oranges.
Eunhong followed Jaeha’s back with his eyes as he moved about, and unconsciously clicked his tongue. Why did I start playing around… As he was pondering how to change the atmosphere, Jaeha pushed an orange slice towards his mouth.
As Eunhong raised his hand to eat it himself, Jaeha swatted it away and continued to feed him. Like a baby bird, he had to eat a whole orange this way. After eating came washing up. Jaeha pushed Eunhong’s back while nagging. You smell.
Jaeha’s gaze fixed on Eunhong’s back as he walked to the bathroom, grumbling. Fatigue settled in. Jaeha buried himself in the large armchair and pressed his head. When he closed his eyes, a headache stung.
Jaeha knew that Eunhong wasn’t drunk, and he also knew about Eunhong’s dissatisfaction. He had been acting awkwardly ever since that unexpected declaration of dating at the restaurant. Eunhong was probably puzzled by his lukewarm attitude, and because of that, things between them were becoming even more awkward. Jaeha himself knew that his feelings were strange.
As he started acting awkwardly, the relationship between them became unprecedentedly awkward and stiff. Trying to act like couples in manuals, wrong reactions kept popping out.
How do you feel now that you’ve gotten what you wanted?
He recalled someone’s question to a person who had achieved a long-cherished desire. At that time, he thought the question was stupid. How would they feel? Just good, of course. An indescribable sense of fulfillment, probably. But now he knew that that fullness also brings fear.
It felt like holding a balloon inflated to its limit. But my hands are rough, you see.
