Sweet Shot

#120

His grandfather was an incredibly wealthy man, and his father was the head of a large financial company with headquarters in the United States and branches in several countries. As these realistic thoughts rushed in, Ha-min felt uneasy, even though he vaguely thought Tae-rim wouldn’t leave. Even if they were together like this now, Tae-rim was someone who had his own place, his own position.

“He might come up to Seoul for my birthday.”

“Just pretend you don’t know.”

“Is that possible? We should just confirm…”

“Do it that way. I’m going to settle things this time anyway.”

“Ugh, whatever, I don’t know. Hyung will figure it out.”

While Ha-min was lost in thought, the two brothers were having a conversation he couldn’t understand. Before he could ask what they were talking about, the others suddenly came in. Each carrying loads in both hands, they barged in, and it instantly became noisy.

“Oh? Oppa, you came early… Oh, hello!”

Eun-soo, who recognized Ha-min first, seemed surprised to see Tae-rim behind him and greeted him with wide eyes. Tae-rim, as always, smiled naturally and returned the greeting.

“Hello.”

It wasn’t just Eun-soo who was surprised to see Tae-rim; Hee-gyeom was the same. While Eun-soo might not know, Hee-gyeom’s relationship with Tae-rim was subtly not good, so he had a sour expression. While everyone was feeling awkward, Woo-kyung was the one who welcomed Tae-rim most warmly.

“Oh, sunbae-nim, hello!”

After a movie outing and drinks with Eun-soo, Woo-kyung, Ha-min, and Tae-rim before, Woo-kyung had shown a strange familiarity with Tae-rim. Being one of the most oblivious in the group, he greeted without hesitation, and Tae-rim returned the greeting with a smile.

There were a few other unfamiliar people, both men and women, and Ha-min felt overwhelmed by the sudden commotion. As he was about to be swept away from Tae-rim by the others, Tae-rim subtly grabbed Ha-min’s hand from behind.

“Where are you going?”

Ha-min was startled by the sudden contact that hadn’t happened for a while, but Tae-rim was calm.

“Sit next to me.”

And he smiled prettily, almost like a child whining.

Ha-min dressed more neatly than usual and even styled his hair a bit when he heard about the filming. Of course, he hadn’t planned to, but Tae-in had insisted. He had even specified how to do his hair and what to wear. So Ha-min thought the filming would be more serious than expected, but it turned out to be not much.

They just set up three or four motion-sensing cameras inside the studio and filmed us chatting and having fun. Occasionally, when they had conversations suitable for the content, Tae-in would film with a handheld camera, but it wasn’t too burdensome.

Ha-min, not being very talkative, just drank the alcohol he was given and smiled softly at what the others were saying. Tae-rim also didn’t actively join the conversations, quietly drinking a couple of glasses while repeatedly looking at Ha-min.

At first, he glanced occasionally, but later his gaze became so direct that Ha-min’s profile felt hot. When Ha-min looked back, Tae-rim would smile faintly and whisper softly, “Drink slowly.” His low whisper felt more ticklish than usual, perhaps due to the alcohol.

“Ha-min hyung is the only one here who’s finished military service.”

As there were quite a few male students about to enlist, the conversation had drifted to military service. Ha-min blinked his eyes wide at the sudden mention of his name.

“Really? That’s amazing.”

“Well, it wasn’t right after…”

As envious attention came his way, Ha-min smiled slightly, his face a bit flushed from the alcohol.

“Yeah.”

It was always like this when military service came up. There were quite a few who were dying of envy for Ha-min, who had already completed his service.

“But why did you go and come back so quickly?”

“Yeah, how did you do that?”

As it was unusual, the others asked for the reason, and Ha-min always gave a vague answer.

“Just because it’s good to get it over with quickly… and to lose weight too.”

As he answered with an innocent smile, more questions poured in as curiosity grew. Tae-rim also seemed interested as it was the first time he was hearing about this, and he stared intently at Ha-min, as if encouraging him to say more.

“I was quite overweight since I was young.”

“That’s right. He was really chubby in elementary school.”

Tae-in chimed in, as if suddenly remembering.

“I kept gaining more weight and got bullied… So, I enlisted right after getting accepted to university.”

“Bullied?”

Ha-min nodded innocently at the quick question from the others.

“Because I was fat… ugly, so the kids bullied me a bit.”

Of course, it wasn’t just a bit, but it didn’t seem like something to go into detail about, so he spoke casually. Tae-rim’s expression gradually hardened. Ha-min didn’t notice and continued speaking.

“So I wanted to lose some weight before starting university… I just wanted to become a new person. I wanted to… just live anew.”

As the conversation became a bit heavy, Tae-in glanced around at the atmosphere. Seeing Ha-min, who seemed quite drunk, speaking seriously about things he usually didn’t mention, the others started to whisper with puzzled looks. At that moment, Tae-in burst into an exaggerated laugh and countered.

“This guy is so determined he even went to the military to diet― He only looks docile on the outside. He’s no joke.”

“Well, you can’t go to the military as soon as you turn 20 without some serious resolve.”

Eun-soo, who had been listening quietly, chimed in.

“Besides, oppa, not everyone becomes handsome just because they lose weight, right? It’s only possible if you have the basics.”

“I’m not handsome though.”

As Ha-min spoke absentmindedly, holding his glass with both hands, the people around him frowned.

“If hyung isn’t handsome… what are we supposed to be? Be quiet.”

Woo-kyung made a disgruntled sound and playfully poked Ha-min’s waist. As Ha-min let out a deflated laugh as if ticklish, Tae-rim, who was sitting next to him, smiled gently with a hardened expression and wrapped his arm around Ha-min’s waist, pulling him closer. As the distance suddenly widened, Woo-kyung looked at Tae-rim with questioning eyes, and a glimpse of a hardened gaze was visible.

“…How rude.”

Huh?

“Hey, Shin Woo-kyung, you’re out of alcohol― Hyung, have a drink!”

As Woo-kyung stood there with a dumb, confused expression, Tae-in, sensing the strange atmosphere, quickly changed the subject. He swiftly squeezed between Ha-min and Woo-kyung and poured alcohol generously. Woo-kyung received a full glass of strong alcohol with a bewildered face and downed it in one shot.

Tae-in laughed cheerfully and glanced at Tae-rim as if telling him to take it easy. But Tae-rim pretended not to notice and only took care of Ha-min, who was starting to sway.

“Ha-min, are you drunk?”

Tae-rim asked kindly, looking at Ha-min’s face, which was flushed from the alcohol. Ha-min shook his head.

“No?”

Judging by his bright eyes that couldn’t focus, he didn’t look sober.

“I told you to drink slowly.”

“The others kept giving me drinks… and I’m in a good mood.”

As the alcohol and atmosphere lifted, his troubled feelings lightened a bit, causing him to drink even faster than usual.

“Want to get some fresh air?”

As Tae-rim’s voice touched his ear, the hand hidden behind Ha-min’s back gently rubbed his palm. After rubbing the palm in circles, he interlaced their fingers and gripped Ha-min’s hand. Ha-min’s droopy eyes suddenly widened at the unexpected contact. He looked surprised, as if asking what Tae-rim was doing, but Tae-rim just smiled as if nothing was wrong.

“Hyung…”

As Ha-min mumbled awkwardly, trying to push away their interlocked hands, Tae-rim drawled playfully, “Why―”

Ha-min pushed slightly, but Tae-rim pretended to be pushed away playfully before intertwining their fingers even more tightly, like a snake coiling. A strange feeling washed over Ha-min, making his whole body hot. The stimulation from just holding hands was enormous, along with the thrilling feeling that they might be caught.

Above all, was it because of the alcohol? For some reason, he didn’t like it. For a moment, he felt resentful towards Tae-rim, who was smiling gently. After saying he liked him, after being so good to him, after treating him so well like this, the thought that he might leave again suddenly overwhelmed Ha-min’s mind, making his heart sink.

“I need to go to the bathroom…”

Ha-min quickly shook off Tae-rim’s hand with a slightly hardened face and fled the scene. He needed to cool both his head and his heart.

Ha-min splashed cold water on his face and took a deep breath to suppress the floating feeling of intoxication. Only after washing his face with cold water a couple more times could he somewhat quell his intense emotions. As he gradually became more rational, Ha-min calmly organized his thoughts. Yes, he should ask properly. There was no point in suffering alone like this again. He had resolved several times to face things properly now, without hiding anything anymore…

Ha-min clenched his fists tightly and took a few more deep breaths with a visibly tense face before leaving the bathroom. That’s when he saw it.

“Sunbae-nim, can’t you give us your number?”

Two of the girls he had seen for the first time approached Tae-rim, who was getting drinks from the vending machine. They had a very young and cute vibe. He had noticed them glancing at Tae-rim a few times during the drinking party. And this kind of thing was to be expected, so it wasn’t surprising. But then.

“Even if I give it to you, you won’t be able to use it.”

Tae-rim said gently as he took two juices from the vending machine.

“Why not?”

“Because I won’t be here anymore.”

“Oh, really?”