#6
As Hyeon-woo, lost in thought, slowly nodded, Tae-geon pressed on.
“I think it would be good to review the business potential by incorporating parents’ opinions before starting construction on the annex.”
“……”
“How about setting up the west wing as temporary guest rooms and offering a two-day, one-night course with entertainment programs on the first day and educational programs on the second?”
“…That sounds good…? Shall we give it a try?”
As a positive response flowed from Hyeon-woo’s intrigued lips, a pleased smile appeared on Tae-geon’s face.
“Then I’ll talk to the teacher about it.”
“Okay! Please do. Thanks, Tae-geon. Once I finish adapting, I’ll pay more attention to things after that.”
“…I’ll continue to take care of Jerome from now on, so you don’t need to worry about anything else.”
“…?”
“Just focus on me.”
At those words, Hyeon-woo, who had been sipping his Americano, smiled faintly.
Was it just his mood? The bitter Americano tasted unusually sweet today.
*
After dinner, he finished cleaning up the kitchen with Scott’s help. Scott took out the dough he had prepared yesterday on the clean countertop. Today was the day to try making egg tarts.
Once a week, Hyeon-woo was learning baking from Scott. It had started as an effort to develop signature menu items for the mansion, but Hyeon-woo realized through baking how fulfilling and satisfying it could be to create something from nothing.
The process of flour becoming dough, and dough transforming into sweet muffins, crispy cookies, and fluffy castella was fascinating and marvelous every time he saw it. Above all, his sense of achievement was immense thanks to Jerome and Tae-geon, who devoured his imperfect confections as if they were the most delicious things in the world, even though he was still too embarrassed to serve them to others.
Although the desserts were surely blander than store-bought ones, as he was using minimal sugar to suit Tae-geon’s taste who disliked sweet things, it didn’t matter at all to Jerome’s appetite.
The egg tarts, which were completed late at night, were quite numerous. After carefully packaging each one, he put them in the refrigerator. He planned to send them as snacks for Jerome to share with his friends at kindergarten tomorrow.
Returning to his room and finishing his belated bedtime preparations, Hyeon-woo fell asleep but woke up again not long after.
“…What are you doing now?”
Tae-geon, who had snuck in at some point, was hugging Hyeon-woo from behind, burying his nose in the nape of his neck.
“Tae-geon, I’m tired.”
“……”
“I have classes tomorrow, you know.”
“……”
“Let’s do this another time, okay?”
Tae-geon, strongly restraining Hyeon-woo who was weakly struggling due to sleepiness, murmured.
“…I’ll just smell you.”
Despite saying that, he slipped his hand inside Hyeon-woo’s pajama top and painfully pinched the raised nub on his chest.
“Ah…!”
A reflexive moan escaped Hyeon-woo’s lips at the tingling stimulation. He turned around with an annoyed expression.
“I thought you said you were just going to smell!”
As Hyeon-woo scolded him in a hushed voice to avoid being heard outside, Tae-geon nodded.
“Yeah. Doing this makes the scent even better.”
Tae-geon’s deep breaths were hot as he slid the tip of his nose around Hyeon-woo’s nape. If it was a scent that changed with stimulation, it must be referring to pheromones, not body odor.
“Haah.”
Hyeon-woo felt conflicted at the satisfied sigh coming from behind him. Was it because he had been increasingly curious about Tae-geon’s pheromones lately? Although this wasn’t the first time Tae-geon had craved his pheromones like this, Hyeon-woo felt his chest tightening for no apparent reason.
He too wanted to know and was curious about what Tae-geon felt from his pheromones. But knowing that the more he indulged in such desires, the more depressed he would become, Hyeon-woo tightly closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
*
He didn’t know how the week had passed. Hyeon-woo, who had been completely absorbed in adapting to the unfamiliar environment, hurriedly packed his bag as soon as classes ended.
Finally, tomorrow starts the weekend. Thinking he would just sleep like the dead, he was about to leave the lecture hall when someone’s disappointed voice hit the back of his head.
“Hyeon-woo hyung, are you just going to leave?”
When he turned around, four students from the same class were gathered. They were the ones who had ended up in the same class after the recent level test.
Fortunately, they had avoided the bottom class, but they weren’t in the top tier either. Although their accuracy in solving problems was high, they couldn’t finish all the questions within the time limit, so they didn’t receive good scores.
Apart from the problems, there were many unfamiliar aspects in the overall college entrance exam system. A considerable amount of time had passed since he had been in high school preparing for the entrance exams, so many things had changed.
It was embarrassing to keep going to the information desk every time he had a question, but these guys, noticing that Hyeon-woo was struggling to adapt, had approached him first and meticulously explained everything from advantageous elective subjects to the teaching styles of different instructors.
“We’re going to eat dinner at a place nearby. Come with us, hyung.”
“That’s right, eat with us~ It’s a really delicious meat restaurant! We’ll treat you.”
“Come on! Hurry~!”
Hyeon-woo didn’t dislike their invitation, showing interest and goodwill towards him who couldn’t fit in and was left out. He felt a bit rushed due to his late start, but just having people in the same situation around him made him feel less anxious.
He had been thinking of treating them to a meal sometime to show his gratitude anyway. After some deliberation, Hyeon-woo took out his phone and sent a message to Tae-geon.
[Can I have dinner with my academy friends and come home later today? I’ll be back by 7 PM.]
He waited for the reply with a slightly tense feeling, vividly imagining Tae-geon flatly refusing. However, unlike usual when replies came promptly, today’s response was delayed.
“Hyung! This way, this way!”
One of the group waved at Hyeon-woo, who was standing blankly.
“…Okay.”
Hyeon-woo approached them in a daze. Just as they arrived at the meat restaurant in front of the main gate, his phone in hand vibrated.
[Alright. Contact me at 7 PM.]
Hyeon-woo’s eyes widened.
Really?
He stared at Tae-geon’s message for a long time with disbelieving eyes.
Meanwhile, Tae-geon was in front of Jerome’s kindergarten.
“Uncle~!”
Tae-geon picked up Jerome, who came running out, and nodded a greeting to the teacher who appeared behind him.
The teacher, who had shyly bowed her head, indicated that she would like them to wait a little. It was the day scheduled for the teacher to conduct a preliminary site visit before inviting Jerome’s friends to the mansion.
After loading the remaining children onto the bus without missing anyone and closing the kindergarten, the teacher immediately approached the car.
Driver Yoon stepped out as the driver’s side door of the visibly expensive foreign car opened. He then politely gestured towards the passenger seat and asked,
“May I escort you to this side?”
As Tae-geon and Jerome were already sitting in the back seat, there was no other choice. The teacher nodded and got into the passenger seat.
“Teacher?!”
Jerome exclaimed with round eyes as he saw the teacher sitting in the front seat, and Tae-geon explained,
“Uncle invited the teacher to the mansion. She’s coming with us.”
“Really?!”
Excited about the fact that a guest was visiting the mansion, Jerome bounced up and down in his seat.
“Teacher! I’ll show you Jerome’s garden too!”
“Yes. I’m really looking forward to it.”
The teacher smiled affectionately.
“In summer, there are roe deer and fallow deer, and in autumn, there are squirrels too! In autumn, the garden is full of acorn shells, and they say it’s all from squirrels eating them!”
Jerome’s excited chatter continued non-stop throughout the car ride to the mansion.
The teacher, who had expected something on the scale of a sweet potato farm or sheep ranch run by parents, which they occasionally visited for field trips, couldn’t believe her eyes at the spectacular scene unfolding before her. Everything was a new world from the moment the car passed through the barrier controlling access for outsiders.
“We were originally planning to open it to the public in a couple of years, but we wanted to try setting up programs for families with young children. We’d like to get opinions from parents on this occasion and actively consider it.”
“It’s wonderful. Both the magnificent natural scenery and the historically valuable mansion. It seems like it will be a precious experience for the children.”
The sun was already setting.
The teacher, who had been hopping across the stepping stones of the garden stream following Tae-geon, lost her balance and stumbled.
“Oh no?!”
Splash-.
She slipped on the moss-covered stepping stone and ended up falling on her bottom in the stream. As the cold stream water seeped in, a chill ran through her entire body.
“Are you alright?”
Tae-geon extended his hand to her.
“Th-Thank you.”
The teacher’s face turned red for reasons other than embarrassment as she grasped Tae-geon’s hand with her trembling one.
She thought she caught a glimpse of Tae-geon vigorously wiping his hand on his pants, the hand that had just touched hers, but she soon forgot what she had seen as Tae-geon took off his outer garment and held it out to her.
“Please wear this.”
“…No, I can’t…”
The teacher’s lips, which were refusing, had already turned blue from the cold. Even though it was the beginning of summer, the stream water was like ice. As she shivered from the cold, Tae-geon held out the blazer in his hand once more.
“Please wear it.”
“…Well, then.”
Only then did she reach for the coat Tae-geon was offering. Completely oblivious to Tae-geon’s annoyed gaze, she took the offered coat with a pounding heart and draped it over her shoulders.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
