#51
Noah fled in a hurry from Derik’s room, not looking back once as he ran into his dormitory room as if being chased.
Elisa seemed to be saying something to him as he suddenly appeared, but Noah passed right by her, entered his room, and locked the door. His heart was beating uncontrollably fast.
“You crazy bastard. Ah. Crazy. This crazy… Why are you alive? Why are you living?”
Noah threw himself onto the bed and pulled at his hair in self-reproach.
From the moment he opened his eyes and saw Derik’s face right in front of him, he hadn’t been in his right mind. It seemed like the first time he had seen that handsome face at such a close distance. Even between close friends, they had always maintained an appropriate physical distance.
If anything, it was Raymond who acted without boundaries. He would playfully hug Noah at random times, and though Noah wasn’t sure if it was common here too, he would often give the French greeting of bisous. At first, Noah was surprised, but now hugging Raymond and rubbing cheeks with him didn’t evoke any particular feelings.
But Derik was different. Despite sharing more time with him than with Raymond, who always sat next to him during lectures, ate meals together, and worked on assignments with him, the conversations Noah had with Derik in a day were fewer than the chatter he shared with Raymond in just five minutes.
‘Stop eating spaghetti. Eat steak.’
‘Why?’
‘You ate spaghetti for lunch yesterday too.’
‘That was tomato sauce, and today it’s cream sauce, you know?’
‘…’
Derik chose silence over speaking more often than not. And that silence was more intimidating.
This was the typical conversation Noah and Derik would have during meal times—Derik always trying to make Noah eat meat, and Noah preferring carbohydrates over protein. Noah understood exactly what was hidden in Derik’s silence.
‘That’s why you’re not growing taller.’
That’s surely what Derik wanted to say. Everyone said Derik had no expressions, but Noah, who was always with him, could accurately detect even the subtlest changes in his expression. That look, slightly disdainful, clearly said as much, and Noah would ultimately end up eating the steak.
‘Ah, really. Do you just want to steal my steak? If that’s the case, just order another piece of meat. I’ll have to share it with you since I’m so nice. I should help our Derik who’s working hard to grow taller every day—who else would?’
While making these frivolous comments and ordering additional steak, Noah was suppressing his true feelings.
If asked who his first love was, he could proudly declare “Remona.” Only his family would understand exactly what he meant by Remona. Even if he shouted here that he loved Remona, as long as it didn’t reach Raymond’s ears at the Tower, everyone would surely imagine some person named Remona living well somewhere.
The prince on a white horse who had saved him when he became little Noah and was wandering around the Imperial Palace. He had even confessed and proposed marriage at their first meeting, but if asked now who he liked, Noah could answer with a smile.
‘I Like Chicken.’
Anyway, if asked who his second love was, he could say it was the Angel from his dreams. A being with silver-white hair, broad shoulders, and a warm chest that had embraced him. And damn it, that Angel looked exactly like Derik who had just been leaning into his face.
When he had seen young Derik, he had thought, ‘Incredibly handsome. Totally awesome. Looking forward to when he grows up,’ because he resembled the Angel from his dreams.
But as Derik grew and came to resemble the Angel more and more, Noah began to feel uneasy. And at some point, Derik had pushed aside the Angel from his dreams and taken a place in Noah’s heart.
Nevertheless, Noah had desperately hidden his feelings of affection under the name of friendship and maintained a cordial relationship with him. But just now, seeing Derik up close, he had been overcome by wild fantasies.
When he fell into the water due to Raymond’s prank, Noah thought he could swim magnificently. But in reality, he couldn’t even doggy paddle and just floundered about. He only clearly remembered that it was Derik who had saved him.
Had he fainted after being rescued?
No. What came back to him was the situation when he opened his eyes. It was Derik’s dormitory living room, and the sun was setting.
Derik’s silver-white hair was tinged golden by the sunset, creating a halo around him. His gray eyes, with his back to the light, appeared so dark they looked black, and Noah could feel Derik’s breath on him.
And there he was, being held like a princess on Derik’s thighs. That alone was a shocking enough situation, but Derik was touching his face as if handling something precious.
In dramas or movies, there was only one event that happened with a 99.9% probability in such situations. If under 15, it would be a peck, but if older, a kiss, and if it developed a bit more, a story that began with a kiss on the sofa but ended with a glorious defeat in bed would naturally follow.
The fact that they were in such a situation…
Derik probably didn’t have any feelings for him, but from the perspective of someone who, upon regaining consciousness, found themselves close enough to the person they liked to throw personal space to the dogs, it was a situation to be bewildered about.
Noah moaned again as he recalled Derik’s handsome face, which had been close enough as if they had just finished kissing.
Did we really do it? No. If he was going to do it, he should have done it when I was awake, why do it when I’m asleep? Making me unable to properly feel the moment of my first kiss is hypocrisy.
“This crazy… really, this crazy bastard, how dare he with that handsome face…”
A blunt voice suddenly burst from Noah’s mouth as he was moaning. He was too surprised when he involuntarily punched Derik’s smug face and, while trying to escape from his arms, accidentally hit Derik’s chin with the top of his head. Remembering this, he covered his face with both hands and kicked his feet on the bed.
After kicking his feet and twisting his whole body for a moment, Noah suddenly sat up straight on the bed.
Anyway, Derik said he didn’t do it. If he didn’t do it, then he didn’t, but why did he suddenly lean into my face when I woke up? Could it be that Derik likes me too?
A sigh escaped Noah’s lips as he reached the final scene of what had just happened. How should he face Derik tomorrow when they had the same first class?
Making his previous sitting up seem pointless, Noah collapsed back onto the bed.
“Young master, dinner is ready.”
Hearing Elisa’s voice from outside, Noah got up staggering. As they say, a well-fed corpse looks better, and to grow even a little taller, he couldn’t skip meals.
After wobbling to the table and finishing his portion of the meal, Noah staggered back to his bedroom. Elisa must have sensed something was wrong from his expression and behavior, but he felt grateful that she didn’t ask anything.
“Aeongi~”
The moment Noah saw Aeongi, who usually disappeared in the morning and returned in the evening, calmly lying on his bed, his tear ducts malfunctioned. He felt relief at having an animal friend to whom he could pour out all his inner thoughts without causing any problems.
Though he had chattered to Aeongi about his daily life and thoughts so far, he had never revealed such deeply hidden things.
Noah transformed Aeongi, who was of medium size, back to his original large form and immediately wrapped his arms around Aeongi’s neck, burying his face in the fluffy fur. Aeongi’s fine fur was getting soaked with his tears, but that didn’t matter at all.
“Sob… *sniff* Aeongi, I…”
Now that he was trying to express what was in his heart, the words wouldn’t come out well, and his pronunciation kept getting muddled by his tearful voice.
“*sniff* *sob* There’s someone I like…”
After sniffling and wiping all his tears on Aeongi’s fur, Noah straightened up and this time held Aeongi’s cheeks with both hands to make eye contact. Looking at Aeongi’s blank, uncomprehending face, Noah swallowed the saliva pooling in his mouth.
“Ah! That’s right. Do you want to see? The person I like?”
When Aeongi tilted his head to the side, Noah unconsciously tilted his head in the same direction.
“His personality seems a bit weird, but he’s not that bad. He’s kind to me. He helps me well with my assignments too. Most importantly, he’s really super handsome. In my life, I’ve never seen someone so handsome that it makes my heart feel grand. Honestly, Angel is incredibly, insurmountably cool too, but it’s not even certain if he’s a real being. But this guy is real, I tell you.”
As if he had never cried, Noah’s face was now full of life, and he rapidly fired words without any stutter.
“That’s right. Our Aeongi hasn’t met Derik yet. Why was that? Why haven’t you met? You’ve seen Raymond, right? That guy with pink-pink eyes, handsome, speaks well, and smiles a lot. Why, the last time he tried to touch you, you even tried to bite him. Ah. It’s okay to bite Raymond, but you can’t bite Derik. Got it? Because the person I like…”
“Noah!”
Just as Noah was about to say that the person he liked was Derik and that he would definitely introduce Aeongi to him, he quickly looked towards the window at the loud voice calling his name.
“NO! AH! YA!”
“Noah~ya!”
“No~ Noang!!”
Thinking that his name could sound quite diverse, Noah let go of Aeongi’s cheeks and went to the window, knowing that if he didn’t respond, the person would keep calling his name all night.
“Noah~ya~”
“What.”
Leaning his upper body out with his hands on the windowsill, Noah’s eyes met Raymond’s, who was also leaning out.
“You’re okay. That’s a relief.”
“You called me just to check that?”
“Yes!”
Dumbfounded, Noah glared at Raymond, who was spouting nonsense about how Noah looked prettier in the moonlight, and slammed the window shut.
That guy giving him trouble and then pretending to cure it. Come to think of it, it seemed like there wasn’t a single normal person around him.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
