Han-gyeom, hoping Won-hyeok wouldn’t get depressed, even clenched both fists tightly in encouragement.
“Wait, Han-gyeom. You don’t have a single photo from when you were little?”
“No.”
Han-gyeom nodded honestly. What he remembered was from elementary school. He had gotten homework telling him to make a family newspaper, and for the first time he had asked his mother whether they had any family photos or pictures of him from when he was little, but all she gave him was a firm answer telling him there was no such thing and to just throw something together.
While his classmates cut out countless photos and decorated their poster boards in all kinds of bright colors, Han-gyeom had filled his with nothing but dense writing, and because of that, the other kids had teased him for no reason. After that, he never looked for photos again, and he never asked his parents either.
“Ah, but sunbae, I think this picture came out really well. Was this during sports day?”
But just as he always had until now, Han-gyeom was perfectly fine. Just because he didn’t have photos worth reminiscing over didn’t mean his life would fall apart. Even if he didn’t have that ordinary normalcy everyone else seemed to have, Han-gyeom didn’t particularly care.
“You….”
The moment Won-hyeok’s lips parted, a faint vibrating sound came from the living room. Both of them turned their heads there at the same time.
“I think it’s your phone, sunbae.”
“Ah, yeah.”
“I’ll put this back, so go answer it.”
While Won-hyeok stepped out into the living room to take the call, Han-gyeom slid the album back into its original place. Then, after carefully checking to make sure he hadn’t left anything more disordered, he closed the door and came back out into the living room.
“Should we sleep now? We have to go to school tomorrow too.”
In that time, Won-hyeok had already finished the call and walked over to Han-gyeom.
“Okay.”
Nodding, Han-gyeom naturally started heading toward the sofa by himself, but with a puzzled look, Won-hyeok quickly grabbed the back of his collar and stopped him.
“What are you doing?”
“Going to sleep!”
“There?”
When Won-hyeok pointed at the sofa, Han-gyeom let out an “uh…” and hesitated for a moment, as though he had never imagined he’d be asked that.
“Th-then where am I supposed to sleep?”
When he had roughly looked around Won-hyeok’s house earlier, there had only been one bedroom. So he had naturally assumed he’d be sleeping on the sofa. Was that not it?
“Where else? You can sleep in the bed.”
“But there was only one bed.”
At that, Won-hyeok pressed a hand to his forehead this time. What was it—had he made some mistake again? Han-gyeom absentmindedly went back over what he had just said.
“Han-gyeom, I get uncomfortable in narrow beds, you know? So the bed in that room is really big.”
“Really? I didn’t know you get uncomfortable in narrow beds, sunbae. I’ll remember that.”
Han-gyeom was simply happy to learn something new about Won-hyeok’s preferences. There was no way he could possibly know the real meaning behind Won-hyeok’s words.
“Right. I forgot for a second that you don’t get it unless I say it directly.”
“Huh?”
Before he could even ask what that meant, Won-hyeok suddenly grabbed Han-gyeom’s arm and pulled him along without hesitation, striding straight to the bedroom and yanking the door open. Han-gyeom was still completely bewildered.
“What I mean is, I’m saying I don’t mind if we sleep together. It’s big enough that even two grown men could lie down in it and still have room.”
As Won-hyeok spoke, pointing at the bed that took up most of the room, Han-gyeom blinked. Then, realizing what he meant, he abruptly gasped in shock and clapped a hand over his mouth. Looking at him like that, it felt like watching some kind of animation.
“Sl-sleep together?”
“Yeah.”
“How… how can we do that?”
Han-gyeom’s face turned serious in an instant. Won-hyeok was so taken aback by that reaction that he felt flustered instead. For a second, he even wondered if Han-gyeom was being so wary because of what had happened during his rut last time, when they had gone all the way.
“Th-this isn’t a dream, right?”
“What?”
But what came out of Han-gyeom’s mouth was truly unexpected.
“Sleeping in the same bed as you, sunbae… it’s amazing that this kind of luck could happen to me.”
Han-gyeom even shook his head back and forth, muttering incomprehensible things to himself. Looking at him now, his expression wasn’t serious so much as it was overwhelmed—far more dazed and delighted by how absurdly unbelievable the situation was. At the sight of that, the corners of Won-hyeok’s mouth helplessly threatened to loosen.
It did annoy him a little that the one who had first said he’d never seen anyone as pure to the bone as Kang Han-gyeom was Kim Sun-woo, but honestly, he had no intention of denying it.
To be frank, in all his life as a dominant alpha, it wasn’t as if there had been absolutely no omegas who came at him trying somehow to sleep with him. Guys like that approached with filthy desire smeared all over their eyes from the very start, so there was no way not to notice. On top of that, the pheromones they leaked in an attempt to seduce him sexually were pretty revolting too.
So seeing his inexperienced lover now, who was in a relationship with him and still not even imagining they might sleep together, just planning to lie down alone on the sofa instead—it was impossible not to laugh.
At the same time, he felt a little sorry that he had used rut as an excuse to devour someone that pure.
“We’re dating, aren’t we?”
“That’s true.”
“So it’s fine for us to sleep in the same bed. If Han-gyeom, if you’re really uncomfortable, then say so. I can sleep on the sofa.”
Saying he couldn’t very well make a guest uncomfortable, Won-hyeok smiled with easy warmth. There wasn’t a single grain of sincerity in what he’d just said. He simply wanted to tease Han-gyeom a little. Surely if he said it like this, Han-gyeom would get all flustered.
“Wh-what? N-no, you can’t do that.”
Just like now. And Won-hyeok had one more motive.
“Then?”
“Sl-sleep with me. I think that would be better.”
He wanted to hear him say that. Just hearing those words come out of Han-gyeom’s mouth filled him with an absurd amount of satisfaction.
“Okay.”
Han-gyeom climbed onto the bed first and scooted to the inside. He carefully took off his glasses and set them beside the pillow.
“I’m turning off the light.”
“O-okay… okay!”
Han-gyeom nodded hard, his voice tense and wound tight with nerves. Soon the bedroom lights went out, and Won-hyeok climbed onto the bed too.
“What if my heart’s pounding so hard I can’t sleep?”
“People’s hearts don’t burst that easily. Stop talking nonsense and go to sleep. You drank too, so you’ve got to be tired.”
“Okay.”
Though he answered bravely enough, Han-gyeom reached out and felt around over the left side of his chest with his hand. Through his palm, he could feel his heart not merely beating but practically thrashing. Fidgeting with the blanket for no reason, he stole a glance to the side and saw Won-hyeok lying there with his head on the pillow, eyes closed, posture neat and composed.
Han-gyeom unconsciously bit down on his lower lip. It was because an admiring sound had almost slipped out without him realizing it. How could even the way he slept look that picture-perfect? No, more than that, this really wasn’t a dream, was it? To be lying side by side in bed with sunbae.
Han-gyeom pinched his own cheek hard for no reason. In the middle of that, he misjudged his strength and it hurt way too much, but it was the first time such sharp pain had ever felt this welcome. After sneaking a few more glances at Won-hyeok’s face like that, Han-gyeom suddenly remembered something he had forgotten and hurriedly searched for his phone.
Turning onto his side with his back facing Won-hyeok, he carefully switched on the phone he had left by the pillow. In his own way, he was thorough—he lowered the screen brightness to the absolute minimum, then opened the calendar app with practiced ease. After clicking on today’s date, Han-gyeom fell into thought for a moment.
Would it be better to write, The day I visited sunbae’s house for the third time? Or, The day I saw sunbae’s childhood photos for the first time? After thinking seriously about it, Han-gyeom tapped at the screen. He looked at the phrase he had settled on with satisfaction, then finished saving it and stared at it proudly.
“The first day I lay on sunbae’s bed?”
Then, right at that moment, a voice sounded from above his head. He was so startled that not even a sound came out. When he lifted his head slightly, Won-hyeok was propped on one hand, tilting his head as though he had been watching everything Han-gyeom was doing.
“S-sunbae….”
“What are you writing there?”
“Th-that is, so, what this is is….”
Before Han-gyeom could explain anything, Won-hyeok smoothly snatched the phone from his hand.
“Huh?!”
“I was wondering what you were doing instead of sleeping, and this is what you were saving?”
“Pl-please give it back.”
Han-gyeom flung out his hand, but Won-hyeok dodged lightly. Then he started flipping through the screen.
“Let’s see. The day I had my first date with sunbae, the day I started dating sunbae, the day he got glasses fitted for me….”
Grinning playfully, Won-hyeok began reading off the calendar full of the precious traces Han-gyeom had left behind. At that, Han-gyeom’s face turned pale. Because in that calendar, it wasn’t just the things that had happened after he started dating Won-hyeok—there were also all the records Han-gyeom had painstakingly kept since his first year, constantly observing Won-hyeok.
If Won-hyeok saw those, he’d definitely be creeped out.
“Stop teasing me and give it back already…!”
He frantically waved his hands and reached, but there was no overcoming the physical difference between them. Using his long arms, Won-hyeok deftly avoided Han-gyeom’s grasp.
“You really saved all of this?”
“Th-that’s not it….”
Won-hyeok’s hand moved even faster as he kept swiping through the screen. The moment Han-gyeom thought, At this rate he’s really going to see last year’s records too, he didn’t know where the courage came from. Maybe the sense of crisis turned straight into action. To protect his phone, Han-gyeom abruptly sat up and this time, instead of just reaching with his hand, threw his whole body forward—right onto Won-hyeok.
Because of that, he finally managed to grab Won-hyeok’s wrist, which he hadn’t been able to reach this whole time. Seizing the chance, Han-gyeom safely took back his phone from Won-hyeok’s hand and let out a sigh of relief.
“This is my precious property. It’s embarrassing, so please don’t look through it however you want.”
“…….”
Han-gyeom was still fiddling with the back of his neck in embarrassment when it suddenly struck him that Won-hyeok had gone quiet.
“Sunbae?”
Still straddling Won-hyeok, Han-gyeom looked down. For some reason, Won-hyeok had turned his head the other way with a frown on his face, biting down hard on his lip.
“You… get off me. Now.”
“Ah, s-sorry!”
Only then did Han-gyeom realize he was on top of Won-hyeok, and he panicked. In his blind rush to protect his phone, he had apparently made him uncomfortable.
Han-gyeom struggled badly. Then, because of the blanket that had been thrown into disarray during the little scuffle, his foot got caught, and his body tumbled across the bed.
And Han-gyeom collapsed over Won-hyeok all over again. The difference from before was that this time it wasn’t intentional but an accident, and the place he fell wasn’t Won-hyeok’s upper body but his lower half.
“Ah, fuck….”
“Ugh….”
Not hearing the low curse from above him, Han-gyeom rubbed his forehead where it had bumped against the upper part of Won-hyeok’s thigh when he fell. Then, the moment he slowly opened his eyes, he saw something in his line of sight.
A thick, raised outline.
