#32
Was the childhood habit of lingering around his stepmother for even the slightest bit of attention still affecting him even after becoming an adult?
But Hyun-oh wasn’t his stepmother.
He was his husband, and legally their closest relationship.
Even if he had no interest in Eunsol, Eunsol wanted to learn everything about Hyun-oh one by one. …Because he liked him.
At this sudden realization of his feelings, Eunsol stopped closing the door and jerked his head up. Hyun-oh kept his sharp gaze fixed on his documents, seemingly indifferent to whether Eunsol left or stayed.
Eunsol held his breath and gazed at Hyun-oh endlessly. In the spacious study, only the sounds of the fountain pen meeting paper and Hyun-oh turning pages flowed subtly.
His heart was beating violently as if it would burst through his chest. Eunsol hesitantly backed away and closed the door. Only after Hyun-oh’s figure disappeared behind the closed door did his held breath escape through his lips.
“…What do I do?”
Eunsol staggered away from the study. Only after entering the dimly lit bedroom did he slump to the floor.
From the first moment he saw him, he had been drawn to his handsome appearance and attractive pheromones. He had thought that marrying such a person, even if it was like being sold, wouldn’t be unhappy.
Sometimes he felt sad that Hyun-oh had no interest in him, but he hadn’t realized that those feelings arose because he liked Hyun-oh.
It wasn’t simply that Hyun-oh had become his husband, and therefore he wanted to know more about him and fretted over his slightest mood changes. It was because Eunsol’s heart had inclined toward him.
The feelings that had imperceptibly saturated Eunsol grew uncontrollably the moment he became aware of them, thoroughly shaking him.
Eunsol looked around the space where he was alone. It was a place where traces of Hyun-oh were everywhere. Since Eunsol had entered late into a space that Hyun-oh had been using, there were hardly any traces of Eunsol.
Originally, his body would heat up when he recognized Hyun-oh’s pheromones. But after becoming aware of his feelings, just sensing the pheromones permeating the room caused a tingling sensation in his lower abdomen.
His trembling gaze fell on the bed. The spacious bed had enough space in the middle for two adult men to lie down, even with both Hyun-oh and Eunsol already lying on it.
Previously, whenever he slept with Hyun-oh, Eunsol had trouble falling asleep because he was so conscious of him. He could only fall asleep because Hyun-oh usually entered the bedroom after Eunsol had already fallen asleep.
“…Can I sleep with him?”
Just imagining Hyun-oh lying beside him made his heart race. Both his body and mind were responding simultaneously. Just by picturing what would happen soon.
Eunsol hesitantly got up. In the end, he had to spend more time than usual washing himself. He endured under the shower until wrinkles formed on his fingertips.
He felt a peculiar gaze on his body when he was walking toward the dressing room, wrapped in a robe, to get his pajamas.
“Oh, wh-when… did you come back?”
When he had visited the study, even Eunsol, who didn’t know much, could see that Hyun-oh had a lot of work. He had expected him to come to the bedroom only near dawn.
Water that had collected in Eunsol’s hair, startled, trickled down his neck. The robe wasn’t properly fastened, revealing skin that looked particularly moist after the shower, glistening subtly under the bedroom light.
“…You’ll catch a cold. Coming out like this.”
Hyun-oh, who had been standing still with his gaze fixed on Eunsol since he emerged, quietly moved. He took the towel Eunsol was holding in his hand and placed it on top of his head.
“Ah…”
In an instant, his vision was covered by the white towel. By the time Eunsol lowered the towel that had been covering his face, Hyun-oh had already entered the bathroom.
Remembering Hyun-oh’s fleeting touch on his head, Eunsol hung his head low.
“When did this come undone…”
He remembered tying the waist string before leaving the bathroom. But somehow, the robe’s string had come undone, clearly revealing his naked body.
Thinking that Hyun-oh had seen this, his body refused to return to normal, making the long time he had spent standing under the shower seem futile.
“First, clothes…”
Glancing at the bathroom from which faint sounds of water could be heard, Eunsol hurriedly headed to the dressing room. Standing in front of the mirror to apply lotion, his reddened face became even more visible.
He applied lotion to his face, which was not yet completely dry, and took out a dry towel to wipe his wet hair. The towel quickly became soaked. As he wiped away the moisture flowing down his body, his body, which had been flushed pink, gradually returned to its original color.
Eunsol then put on his pajamas and carefully exited the dressing room. Hyun-oh still seemed to be washing up.
He lay down on the wrinkle-free bed and closed his eyes quietly. He tried to fall asleep before Hyun-oh came out, but all of Eunsol’s senses were inclined toward the path Hyun-oh would take when he emerged from the bathroom.
The scent of the body wash Hyun-oh used grew closer. Eunsol curled up to avoid being agitated. Hyun-oh’s presence felt stronger than usual.
He felt the side of the bed sink. The image of him lying down beside him was vivid, even in his closed vision.
Eunsol’s eyelashes trembled as he felt Hyun-oh’s gaze on his face. Just as Eunsol was chewing on the inside of his lip—
The bedroom lights went out with the sound of a button being pressed. The gaze he had felt on his face also disappeared.
Eunsol consciously tried to keep his breathing even. Only after a considerable amount of time had passed did he open his eyes slightly. In his vision, not yet adjusted to the darkness, appeared a form composed entirely of black.
After blinking a few times, the form changed into Hyun-oh with his eyes firmly closed. Hyun-oh was lying with his eyes closed, facing the ceiling in a correct posture.
Judging by his chest rising and falling regularly, he seemed to have quickly fallen asleep. Eunsol captured Hyun-oh’s face in his sight without moving his body.
When Hyun-oh had his eyes open, Eunsol couldn’t comfortably look at his face. Since there weren’t even any photos of him in the house, Eunsol would sometimes look up news articles online when he wanted to see him.
Hyun-oh’s pheromones mixed with each breath he evenly inhaled. It felt as if he had lain his body in a space full of green pine trees.
Eunsol moved his hand to gently cover his chest. With his heart clearly making its presence known beneath his palm, he even had the absurd thought that perhaps the sound of his heartbeat might wake Hyun-oh from his sleep.
Even though he knew that wouldn’t happen.
Eunsol ended up not falling asleep until dawn. Even until Hyun-oh got up from bed, finished preparing for work, and left the house.
“…I couldn’t even see him off.”
He was concerned that with his busy schedule, Hyun-oh might not be eating properly. He had wanted to prepare the juice that Hyun-oh had willingly drunk again today. But today, he simply couldn’t.
Because if he met Hyun-oh’s eyes, he felt his emotions would be clearly displayed on his face.
This was a person who didn’t even touch Eunsol despite sharing a bed. As if constantly reminding him that this was a strategic marriage out of necessity, he rarely revealed even a fragment of emotion. Eunsol didn’t know what would happen if his feelings were exposed.
“I can’t let him find out.”
If Hyun-oh knew that Eunsol had developed feelings of affection for him, he might suggest separating bedrooms. It was the only time when they were together like a married couple. It was also the moment when Eunsol could fully enjoy Hyun-oh’s pheromones.
With a determined fist, Eunsol got out of bed and tidied up the bed sheets. He went to the kitchen, took a bottle of water from the refrigerator, and drank it all in one go. The cold water flowing down his esophagus cooled the heat that had built up in his body overnight.
“Maybe I should ask Hyung Jeong-woo.”
How to hide his emotions.
Eunsol was the type whose thoughts were completely reflected on his face. Occasionally, Ryu Jeong-woo would look at Eunsol as if he found him cute, while also showing concern.
‘In this world, having your honest emotions read by others is a minus. There are many hyena-like guys who, rather than finding innocent people cute like I do, aim to exploit them to the bone.’
At the time, he had been busy taking Ryu Jeong-woo’s various pieces of advice to heart.
Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen Ryu Jeong-woo for a while. It was because Ryu Jeong-woo had gone on a business trip to New York. Eunsol took out his phone and checked the date he had noted in his memo.
After sending a message to Ryu Jeong-woo, he went to the dressing room to choose clothes. Although his eyes were dry from not having slept all night, his desire to receive advice from him as soon as possible was stronger.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
