#Dating Novice (9)
The other person began explaining calmly first. He rubbed his face with a troubled expression and leaned deeply against the backrest.
“The person who said they were near school was actually near our home.”
His gaze, staring directly at Ha-min, felt accusatory.
“So I followed you. Satisfied?”
“……”
“Now it’s your turn to talk.”
As his plausible explanation ended, the arrow came flying back. Whether the explanation was sufficient or not, Ha-min gathered his confused emotions and bit his lip. He started to feel increasingly wronged by the assertive voice that seemed to be cornering him. He knew he had done wrong, but… the starting point was…
“…I didn’t know that hyung had been thinking about marriage…”
Ha-min finally brought up what he had been holding back. A deeper sense of heaviness than his counterpart’s boiled up from deep inside.
“I know it’s in the past.”
“……”
“I know it’s an old story… but the talk of marriage didn’t seem that far removed from hyung…”
“……”
“If you break up with me… you could marry anyone…”
“Break up?”
Before he could finish, a knife-like voice cut in. Ha-min raised his eyes with a startled expression. The gap that had briefly opened between them had suddenly narrowed.
“Ha.”
Tae-rim let out a laugh that seemed incredulous toward Ha-min, who was at a loss for words. The sound of his laughter echoed ominously enough to give goosebumps.
“Who said anything about breaking up?”
“……”
“…Who said we’re breaking up?”
His face, grabbing Ha-min’s arm and asking again, felt chilling. A rough glint swept through his flashing pupils.
“Didn’t I tell you? Even if you hate me and scream… I have no intention of letting you go.”
“Hyung, what I mean is…”
“Shall I tell you the truth?”
As he spoke with an increasingly intense voice, blue veins rose on the back of his hand gripping Ha-min’s arm.
“I installed a location tracking app on your phone.”
“…What?”
“That’s how I followed you. I felt I needed to see with my own eyes who this senior guy you mentioned was, someone I don’t know.”
Ha-min’s face crumbled in shock at the unexpected words. His mouth, open in surprise, wouldn’t close. It was so bewildering that he wondered if he had heard correctly, even though it was with his own ears.
“Even if I’m this kind of bastard, you can’t break up with me.”
As his emotions gradually escalated, Ha-min wiped his eyes as if it was hard to handle. When Tae-rim got excited like this, Ha-min didn’t know how to respond. It was at the moment when Ha-min took a deep breath and resolutely opened his mouth to try to have a slow conversation again.
“Hyung, first listen to what I—”
“Yes, I’m sorry that you had to hear those things.”
He tensed his jaw as if forcibly swallowing the emotions that had been boiling over. He stretched his stiff neck and took a deep breath. Barely organizing his intense emotions, he finally released Ha-min’s arm. It was so red that it might bruise, but Ha-min didn’t feel any pain. All his attention was focused on Tae-rim’s tired appearance, having barely contained his anger.
“It’s my fault… But.”
A heavy voice echoed deeply.
“I also feel like my head is going to explode every time you act like this.”
He pressed his temple as if his head was throbbing, barely suppressing his voice and swallowing it. Even someone as obtuse as Ha-min could tell that he was controlling his temper. Tae-rim’s appearance, squeezing his eyes shut and swallowing his breath, looked painful. So painful that even watching him was distressing.
**
It was the first cold war since they started dating. Ha-min tried to speak to him, looking for opportunities, but Tae-rim left no openings. When Ha-min tried to talk to him while offering coffee, he was already drinking it, and when Ha-min tried to see him off as he was about to leave for work, he had already left the house in the moment Ha-min looked away.
In a miserable state of mind, Ha-min exhaled deeply and leaned on the sofa. It was true that he had done wrong, but… he hadn’t expected this reaction. There had never been an incident like this since they started dating, and while dating, Tae-rim had always treated him excessively well. It had been as if Tae-rim’s daily life revolved around him.
He knew he had done wrong. But had he done so wrong that they wouldn’t speak at all? It was also outrageous for him. He couldn’t have imagined that Tae-rim would secretly install a location tracking app on his phone. It seemed like evidence that he didn’t trust him that much.
Ha-min couldn’t shake off his troubled feelings as he headed to school. To think that he would fight with hyung like this… He hadn’t even anticipated that they would have a fight. He really didn’t want to have arguments that would hurt each other’s feelings. He usually tried to be careful to avoid such incidents…
Throughout classes at school, he fiddled with his phone. He checked frequently to see if there was any contact from hyung, but there was no message from him first. Usually by this time, there would be a phone call or a message, and it was unsettling in its own way that the phone, which usually rang busily, was quiet.
Hyung. Have a good day at w
Ha-min wrote and deleted, then wrote and deleted again in the messenger window. It was the kind of message he sent every day, but he didn’t know sending it first would be this difficult. In the end, he deleted what he had written again and closed the window. He decided to focus back on class, thinking that he would see him again in the evening anyway and talk then.
As class was nearing its end, suddenly a message came from Tae-in, asking him to stop by briefly afterward. Since he was uncomfortable going straight home anyway, he thought it was fortunate and headed to the studio. He wanted to get some advice from Tae-in as well. Having arrived at the studio with his troubled heart still uncleared, Ha-min looked around in confusion at the somewhat chaotic atmosphere.
Then, from the recording studio, Tae-in emerged, dressed more formally than usual, adjusting his collar. His usual style was comfortable t-shirts with beanies or caps, but today he had even applied wax to his hair and was looking stylish.
“What’s this, what’s the occasion today?”
“Oh. I’m going to do a simple broadcast.”
“Really? When?”
“In about 30 minutes?”
At those words, Ha-min unconsciously checked his wristwatch.
“Then why did you call me?”
He wondered why Tae-in had specifically called him when he seemed busy.
“Why? Because I’m going to do it with you.”
“Huh?”
“I told you, you’d do one more broadcast with me.”
“But this is so sudden…”
“It’s not a YouTube broadcast, just a light live, so you don’t need to feel pressured.”
“Live?”
“Yeah. It’s a live broadcast on Instagram, about 20 minutes? We’ll just do that and finish. Hey, go ask Woo-kyung to do your hair.”
Tae-in called Woo-kyung separately from the practice room, as if Ha-min’s opinion wasn’t particularly important.
“This is too sudden… I haven’t prepared anything…”
“Your clothes are fine… and you don’t need makeup with your face, so just fixing your hair should be enough.”
“Still… I haven’t even mentally prepared…”
“Just think of it as chatting with me. This broadcast doesn’t need separate content. It’s just greeting the subscribers?”
“…Why should I be there for something like that…”
“Do you know how many DMs I’ve received asking for a broadcast with you? Before, I was bombarded because of hyung, and recently, it’s been because of you.”
At the sudden suggestion, Ha-min couldn’t really express his opinion and was led by Woo-kyung’s hand to get his hair done. Despite saying it was a light live, they were setting up lighting and even pre-selecting and checking some questions. It had a more vibrant atmosphere than YouTube broadcasts, which are pre-recorded and edited.
“I don’t look good today…”
When he muttered that his condition wasn’t good and his face probably wouldn’t look nice, Woo-kyung, who was blow-drying his hair, jeered.
“Hyung, your face has been looking good lately. Like someone who’s dating.”
“Huh…?”
Wondering if it was that obvious, Ha-min awkwardly touched his face.
“You’ve also gained some weight it seems. You were too thin last semester.”
With a more focused face than usual, Woo-kyung enhanced the volume of his hair with a blow dryer and meticulously applied wax with the tips of his fingers. Impressed by his skillful technique, Ha-min felt a bit different looking at himself in the mirror.
“Woo-kyung, you’re really good at styling hair…”
When he admired how Woo-kyung had styled his hair naturally like a celebrity’s, Woo-kyung shrugged proudly.
“My family runs a hair salon. So I often help my mom and do men’s styling sometimes, it’s a piece of cake for me.”
“Ah— I didn’t know. That’s cool, Woo-kyung.”
“It’s nothing. But wow, with your hair done, you look even more handsome. Might Tae-in hyung be overshadowed?”
At the flattering compliment, Ha-min laughed deflated and shook his head. How could Tae-in, Tae-rim’s younger brother, be compared to him? Though he might not shine as brightly in Tae-rim’s shadow, Tae-in had been popular since elementary school when they first met.
“Are you ready? Then come over here.”
Ha-min, who had been swept along and was now seated, was somewhat dazed.
“But this is too sudden for me… I haven’t even told hyung…”
“It’s not like we’re doing a serious broadcast or anything. It’s just a live, right? Just answer the questions I ask and that’s it. I’ll do most of the talking anyway, so you just need to give simple answers to what I ask.”
“Um… okay, I understand. But do I look strange…?”
“You look really good! I guarantee that after this live broadcast today, your followers will exceed 50,000.”
At those words pointing at him with a solemn expression, Ha-min still looked bewildered. But since he had made a promise, it was awkward to flatly refuse. Moreover, in a situation where preparations seemed to have been completed, he felt Tae-in would be disappointed if he said he wanted to back out. Because of this, Ha-min reluctantly started the broadcast.
Ha-min sat there stupidly, just staring blankly at the screen that was recording him in selfie mode. He looked around with a face that wondered if it was really him being shown.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
