“So anyway, things worked out really well with sunbae.”
“Yeah, that’s good.”
In-seok answered blandly. On the way to his part-time job, Han-gyeom had happened to run into In-seok nearby. Since it ended up looking like they were going to work together by coincidence, Han-gyeom told him too that things had been resolved with Won-hyeok through their conversation the other day.
“Sunbae was really understanding, thankfully, you know?”
“Oh, really?”
“I think sunbae is seriously so considerate.”
“……”
In-seok, who had been responding to Han-gyeom’s chirpy relationship talk in a half-hearted but dutiful way, pressed his lips shut at the part where Han-gyeom praised Won-hyeok’s personality. Even as an empty pleasantry, he just couldn’t bring himself to agree that the temperament of that ticking time bomb was good.
“Maybe I should try dating too.”
In-seok muttered quietly. Even today, under the sky blazing with the hot summer sun, the noisy cries of cicadas rang out from all around.
“Huh?”
“Ah? Oh… it’s nothing.”
As if he himself was pretty surprised he’d said something like that, In-seok laughed and waved his hand dismissively.
“Anyway, it’s already August. Ah, I really wish fall would come already. It’s so hot I can’t live like this.”
Shielding himself from the blazing sunlight with one hand, In-seok grumbled. The Korea Meteorological Administration’s forecast that this summer would be especially hotter than usual seemed to have been right, with record-breaking heat waves continuing one after another.
“…Seriously.”
Following In-seok’s lead, Han-gyeom looked up at the sky. In the cloudless expanse above, only the sun burned at the highest point.
In truth, Han-gyeom had never really felt the flow of the seasons in his life. Spring passing, summer coming, then autumn and winter arriving as the year went by was simply too natural a thing. And his life had never really been colorful enough for him to feel the shift in seasons all that deeply.
But this time, it was different. Since becoming something special with Won-hyeok in spring, he was now spending the summer with him. Whenever he thought about what they might do together in the autumn that would come next, and then in winter, or what they could do together, his heart would start pounding without him even realizing it.
“Come to think of it, was this month your last month working?”
“Yes. I only started this part-time job in the first place because I wanted to buy sunbae a gift.”
It was a job he had started for Won-hyeok’s birthday in August. And besides, he had no intention of working part-time during the semester. Then he’d have to focus on keeping up his grades.
“About that gift. I tried casually asking Do Won-hyeok.”
“Really?!”
Han-gyeom’s eyes sparkled at once, and In-seok smiled awkwardly. It was always amazing to see how completely Han-gyeom changed the moment the subject of Won-hyeok came up.
“Yeah, but he says there isn’t really anything he wants.”
“Ah… I figured.”
Han-gyeom’s shoulders drooped on their own as his anticipation crumbled away in an instant. Watching him, looking exactly like a puppy with its tail hanging low, In-seok scratched his cheek for no reason, feeling sorry. In truth, it wasn’t that Won-hyeok had said there was absolutely nothing he wanted.
“So, what, you don’t have anything you want?”
“Kang Han-gyeom.”
“……”
That conversation had ended just like that. Afterward, In-seok had asked a few more times whether there wasn’t anything material he wanted, but each time, maybe because he got annoyed at being pestered, the only thing he got back was a stream of swearing telling him to shut the hell up and stop asking, so in the end, he failed to find out.
“Han-gyeom, this is just my opinion, but wouldn’t Do Won-hyeok like whatever you gave him?”
“Y-you think so?”
In-seok vaguely thought that if it was something Han-gyeom gave him, Won-hyeok would probably be happy even if it was just a single fallen leaf picked up off the side of the road. As ridiculous as it was, the one thing he had come to feel while watching those two was that Do Won-hyeok was sincere with Han-gyeom, at the very least.
He used to think something like that would never happen even if the sky split in two, but now that he’d witnessed it with his own eyes, he had no choice but to believe it.
“Of course. That’s what lovers are like. It’s not about the price, it’s about the thought. The thought.”
As he dressed it up in plausible words, he felt a blatant stare from beside him. Han-gyeom was looking at In-seok with shining eyes, full of admiration.
“I’m so glad I have you, hyung.”
Still chatting away, the two of them walked into the café. Thanks to the cruel summer weather, the sweat that had been pouring off them like rain disappeared quickly in the cool air-conditioning. Feeling grateful a hundred times over to whoever had invented air conditioning, Han-gyeom was about to head to the changing room when Hae-jun came out from inside at just that moment.
“Boss, hello.”
“Oh, you’re here?”
Hae-jun looked back and forth between the two of them, who seemed to have come in together, then greeted Han-gyeom with his usual soft smile.
“But you two came together?”
“Ah, we ran into each other right in front.”
As soon as In-seok came inside, he naturally picked up the piled trash bags and took them outside.
“Han-gyeom, it’s hot outside, right? Drink this.”
To Han-gyeom, who had just come back out after changing clothes, Hae-jun held out a cup. It was a finely blended watermelon smoothie. Just looking at it made it seem refreshing, and Han-gyeom broke into a huge smile and bowed his head.
“But is it really okay for me to just drink café drinks like this?”
“Hm?”
“No, I mean… I’m just a mere part-timer, so I feel kind of self-conscious.”
“So what? I’m giving it to you because I want you to have it. Besides, I’m the owner.”
At those words—that if the owner himself was giving it to him, what could possibly be the problem—Han-gyeom momentarily had the illusion that a halo was shining behind Hae-jun. It was the first time since Won-hyeok that he had seen someone so astonishingly kind and considerate.
On top of that, whenever Han-gyeom got off work, Hae-jun would sometimes pack him bread, cookies, cake, and things like that to take with him. Always with the words: Don’t skip dinner, make sure you eat properly.
And yet, despite all that, Han-gyeom had gone and felt pointless jealousy toward him. Suddenly, the way he himself had been just a few days ago felt so pathetic, and he felt guilty for no reason too. Hae-jun hadn’t done anything to Won-hyeok in the first place, but simply because he was an omega standing close to an alpha, Han-gyeom had interpreted it differently all on his own.
“Um, there’s something I need to apologize to you for, boss…”
“Apologize? To me?”
“Yes.”
At this rate, he felt like his heart would stay too uncomfortable every time he looked at Hae-jun. So Han-gyeom finally brought up what had been weighing on his mind all along: that when he saw Hae-jun standing close to Won-hyeok, he’d felt childish jealousy without even realizing it.
He had expected that hearing something like this might make Hae-jun feel offended, but contrary to that expectation, after hearing the whole story, Hae-jun let out a rare burst of audible laughter.
“B-boss?”
“Ah, sorry. Han-gyeom is just too cute.”
Still smiling, Hae-jun gently patted Han-gyeom’s head.
“If anything, I’m the one who should be sorry. I don’t have even an ant’s eye booger worth of that kind of interest in Won-hyeok-ssi. I’m the one who made you misunderstand for no reason, right?”
“No! I was just digging myself into a hole all by myself… you don’t need to apologize.”
“If you were worried, you should’ve told me. Said you were jealous, so I shouldn’t act too close with him.”
Han-gyeom was flustered by the words, which sounded like they might have been a joke or might not. Even if he had thought that, how could he possibly say something like that right to the person’s face?
“Sure, that’s understandable enough. But still, why apologize over something like that? If anything, every time I see the two of you, I think Han-gyeom is the one who’s too good for him.”
“I-I’m the one who’s too good for him?”
Compared to Won-hyeok, there wasn’t a single thing about himself that stood out as better, so why would he be the one who was too good for anyone? But Hae-jun only lifted the corners of his mouth in a meaningful expression and didn’t add anything more about it.
“Mm, since I want to ease your anxiety, I’ll tell you too. Actually, there’s someone I like.”
“Huh? Really?”
At the unexpected words, Han-gyeom’s voice jumped an octave. Back when he had first started working here, hadn’t Hae-jun said he couldn’t date even if he wanted to because there weren’t any decent alphas around? So it had been because he already had someone else in his heart.
“Yeah, so don’t worry. The chance of me developing those kinds of feelings for Won-hyeo-ssi is… lower than the chance of getting struck by lightning.”
He had never actually doubted Hae-jun. He had never thought Hae-jun was approaching Won-hyeok while harboring other feelings. But after hearing that, it was funny how much more relieved he felt anyway.
“Th-then, boss, are you in unrequited love too?”
“That’s right. Believe it or not, I’ve been in unrequited love for seven years.”
Gasping at the completely unexpected number of years, Han-gyeom clapped a hand over his mouth. Seven years. Even his own time of looking at Won-hyeok from afar and admiring him alone had only been about a year and a half at most. In front of Hae-jun, he couldn’t even begin to compare.
“Unrequited love is enjoyable, but it’s hard sometimes too. I know because I’ve done it too.”
“You’re not going to ask who it is?”
“Huh? Ah, that’s okay. Asking something like that would be way too rude. Besides, it probably isn’t someone I know anyway.”
Hae-jun only continued to wear that meaningful smile. At the very moment their conversation ended, a customer came in, so Han-gyeom failed to notice that smile in the end.
“Wow, the weather is seriously hot. Hyung, I’m pulling myself a cup of coffee, okay?”
Right then, In-seok, who had gone out to deal with the trash, came back in through the rear door.
“Pay for it and drink it.”
“You’re really cold-hearted, seriously.”
But even as he said that, Hae-jun walked over to the coffee machine and got ready to pull the shots. Even though In-seok hadn’t said what kind of coffee he wanted, Hae-jun naturally made him a vanilla latte and handed it over.
While making a customer’s order, Han-gyeom suddenly looked over at the two of them talking. In front of In-seok, who was drinking the coffee Hae-jun had made for him and laughing that he felt like he could live again, stood Hae-jun, looking at him with a pleased expression.
Han-gyeom tilted his head slightly, then looked away.
