Yeonwoo headed toward what appeared to be a dining area.
Behind the stairs, entering a corridor, there was a space like a separate room on the right. In the middle of the charmingly decorated room, the table was set with various sandwiches, different kinds of bread, fruits, jams, and bottled drinks.
Wasn’t the young master supposed to eat lightly?
Looking closer, he saw boiled eggs in a small basket. Seeing everything arranged so carefully, deliciously, and beautifully, hunger swept over him. As Yeonwoo’s mouth watered, he suddenly thought how luxurious this was.
Having eaten so well from yesterday until today, he felt like he was being treated specially. Is this how one always lives when seeing Ho Munbeom? Yeonwoo rubbed under his nose and took out the contraceptive pill he had brought in his pocket, swallowing it in one go.
With the pill in his mouth, he poured water into a glass, gulped it down, and sat in a chair. Wondering what to eat first, Yeonwoo reached for a bowl of salad that caught his eye. He was about to use the fork and knife placed beside the plate but noticed tongs inside the salad bowl and reached for those instead.
The salad was crunchy and had many ingredients mixed in, making it very tasty. He didn’t know what the dressing was made of, but he felt he could eat this every day without getting tired of it.
“…”
As food entered his stomach, he felt even hungrier. Yeonwoo carefully reached for a sandwich. With his mouth being small compared to the thick sandwich’s size, he took a small bite from the edge. The warm, soft bread naturally quickened his jaw movements.
As he was munching on both the sandwich and salad, having eaten about half without realizing it, Ho Munbeom appeared. Yeonwoo, raising his head at the presence, flinched when he saw Ho Munbeom in a robe with his hair not fully dried, and quickly turned his gaze forward.
Though he thought he had turned his head quickly, Ho Munbeom saw the movement and smiled. As he sat down in the seat opposite, Yeonwoo lowered his head completely. Though it might appear he was just eating the sandwich in his hand, his round eyes were visibly moving busily.
If someone else had behaved this way, it might have been unpleasant, but it was fine because it was Yeonwoo. Though Ho Munbeom knew why Yeonwoo couldn’t look at him directly, he deliberately called his name.
“Yeonwoo.”
“…”
“Are you going to keep avoiding looking at me?”
No, that wasn’t it—Yeonwoo raised his head and made eye contact with the man.
Seemingly satisfied, Ho Munbeom smiled with narrowed eyes.
“What is there to be embarrassed about between us?”
Fortunately, his mouth was empty. Otherwise, he might have choked in surprise. Yeonwoo reached for the glass. As he drank water, his small Adam’s apple, almost imperceptible, moved up and down. At the subsequent gulping sound, Ho Munbeom, with one eye narrowed, spoke:
“I’m worried that you couldn’t rest well because of me.”
As he said this, he poured orange juice into an empty glass and placed it in front of Yeonwoo.
Glancing at this gesture, Yeonwoo said, “Thank you,” and drank the juice instead of water. Yeonwoo’s calm eyebrow raised slightly before he examined the juice in the glass. Seeing that Yeonwoo seemed to like it, Ho Munbeom poured freshly brewed coffee into his own glass. While drinking coffee and moderately filling his stomach, his gaze rested on Yeonwoo.
At first, Yeonwoo seemed uncomfortable with being watched, but as he gradually adapted, he began moving his hand again. A bite of sandwich, a bite of salad, then a sip of juice—slow but eating quite well.
When he had previously taken Yeonwoo to meet his grandfather, though his eating pace was slow, he had eaten properly.
As he examined Yeonwoo up and down as if appraising him, Ho Munbeom suddenly recalled his grandfather looking at him and put down his glass.
Yeonwoo was now occupying a space that should have been his alone. It was a place he usually came to rest by himself, secluded and private.
He didn’t know how long he would be tied down in Korea, but if a situation arose where he wasn’t needed, he planned to leave without regret. The tiresome arranged meetings had been going on for over a year. Though his grandfather didn’t show it, it was about time to give up. According to his prediction, he could go abroad again within the year.
Until then, he had planned not to have a specific partner and to get through his ruts with medication, but now here he was sitting with someone else in what he had considered his own space.
Ho Munbeom stared at Yeonwoo’s slightly moving lips.
“I think I was a bit rough last night. Are you alright?”
“…”
Thinking about it, there was no way he could be fine. Though Yeonwoo tried not to show it, his gait when coming down the stairs had looked quite uncomfortable.
“I’ll be more careful next time. I’m sorry.”
At Ho Munbeom’s apology, Yeonwoo looked at him and softly murmured, “No.”
“That was just something we did together…”
At those words, the corners of Ho Munbeom’s lips turned up, spreading into a faint smile.
“That’s right, it’s something we did together.”
Perhaps because it was a familiar space, Ho Munbeom had been more excited than usual yesterday. Even while penetrating Yeonwoo’s abdomen, he had constantly bared his teeth on Yeonwoo’s shoulder, cheek, and neck. Like a puppy nipping. Perhaps because he had indulged so shamelessly, his condition was very good.
Despite such intense sex the previous night, he had woken up early in the dawn and taken a long walk around the villa’s surrounding mountains. Although he had worked his body to the point of sweating profusely, far from being tired, he felt refreshed. His mind was the same. His physical condition was better than it had been recently. Ho Munbeom leaned back in his chair, sitting comfortably, and stretched out his right leg.
Then he felt something against his foot. It was Yeonwoo’s foot. Feeling his toes touch the top of Yeonwoo’s small, modestly positioned feet, he raised his head. The eyes of Yeonwoo, who had been eating salad, wavered. After being so intimately entangled the night before, to see him at a loss over a mere touch of their feet made Ho Munbeom’s expression soften.
“Shall we see the sea before heading back to Seoul?”
“…”
“If we had more time, we could have gone into the sea. That’s a shame.”
At this casually offered remark, Yeonwoo fidgeted with the fork he was holding.
“I don’t know how to swim, so it’s fine.”
The sea as seen from the room was already sufficiently beautiful and nice. Maybe because of the window frame, it looked like the sea was contained within a picture frame. Since he had seen it before leaving the room in the morning, there was no need to go there directly. It had taken hours to get here, so the return journey would take just as long. Wouldn’t the highway be congested on the weekend? He didn’t mind, but Ho Munbeom was a busy person.
Suddenly, this moment of sitting across from Ho Munbeom and having a meal in this cozy space felt like a dream. Though the dull ache deep in his body and the soreness of his skin told him this was reality, not a dream, it still felt somewhat surreal.
Yeonwoo raised the corners of his lips, looking straight at the man without avoiding his gaze.
“This is my first time coming to a place like this, and it was very nice. Thank you.”
He would have liked to meet like this again, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it. Yeonwoo lowered his head at the sight of Ho Munbeom, who was just staring at him blankly without any change in expression regardless of whether Yeonwoo smiled or not. He gathered the small amount of remaining salad on his plate and put it in his mouth. Just then, he heard the voice saying, “Yeonwoo.”
“You seem too mild-mannered.”
“…”
A mild-mannered and good child.
It was a phrase he had heard often since he was young.
He could have just let it go in one ear and out the other, but his lips opened unconsciously.
“…That’s not true.”
Even at the mart, he had been called ill-mannered. It was a natural side effect of not mingling with people. Plus, nowadays, there seemed to be strange rumors about him. Though he couldn’t hold each person and correct the misunderstandings, so he kept pretending not to know…
“It’s not?”
Yeonwoo looked at Ho Munbeom, who was repeating his words, and nodded slightly.
It was an affirmation to the rebuttal that he wasn’t that mild-mannered, but the other party didn’t seem to believe it. Seeing Ho Munbeom’s mouth relax, Yeonwoo felt his heart beating faster.
He didn’t seem to believe what Yeonwoo was saying, but it wasn’t a lie. Though Yeonwoo had been called a good child who didn’t require much attention since childhood, school was different. In a place where various types of people gathered, many were not favorable toward Yeonwoo.
It was then that Yeonwoo seemed to realize:
He was only weak toward those he loved and gave his heart to.
Toward those he didn’t care for, he was indifferent to a degree that even he found strange. It was almost polar opposite. It would have been better if he could blend a little more.
Yeonwoo drank the orange juice. After the sweetness spread on his tongue, a slightly bitter taste followed.
There was no further conversation with Ho Munbeom until the end of the meal. After finishing, they prepared to return to Seoul immediately. After greeting the villa caretaker who arrived as they were leaving, Yeonwoo got into the car, and as expected, the highway was congested.
Still, the seat was comfortable, so his body wasn’t too strained. Ho Munbeom asked several times if they should stop at a rest area, but Yeonwoo said it was fine.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
