By Zephyria 
As he stepped into the rectangular box of about nine pyeong, the stuffy smell of dust tickled his nose. Byeol, his face flushed red from the heat, sprawled out on the floor.
One by one, the others collapsed beside him, finally releasing the sighs they had been holding in.
Eden, leaning against a long steel table, surveyed the group sprawled haphazardly on the floor. Perhaps due to the unexpected strenuous march, they were already complaining from the start.
“We’ve only just begun, how can you be tired already?”
Jeffrey shouted, sounding aggrieved.
[Hey, you bastard. Even so, how can you not rest for even a second? You’re disgustingly fast, it’s practically running, not walking! I thought my shoulder was going to fall off.]
“What? Speak Korean.”
[That annoying bastard, really.]
Eden chuckled and checked his wristwatch. The time had just passed 12:30 PM. It was the time of day when the sun made the ground sizzle.
Moving during the day under the scorching sun without proper shade should be avoided as much as possible. That was why they had pushed themselves to walk so hard from the morning until now.
“We’ll start again around 3 PM. Everyone, get some rest.”
A light of relief flickered across the faces of the group as they caught their breath at the unexpectedly generous break time. After barely wetting their lips to replenish their fluids, they each settled into their own form of rest.
Mi-so turned on her phone, which she had turned off, and took videos with Byeol, while Jeffrey secretly stuffed the energy bar he had saved for himself in the morning into his mouth. Park Chun-beom, who was physically weak, had already fallen fast asleep.
Ha-jin, as expected, took out one of his Card Decks. The case was tattered, even though it was fitted with a Card Guard, from how much he had handled it.
He carefully stretched each of his fingers and began to shuffle the cards at a rapid pace. He didn’t forget to mutter to himself under his breath.
Eden glanced out the window, checking for any signs, before turning his gaze to Ha-jin. Unfortunately, Ha-jin was sitting crouched right under the desk where he was sitting with his legs wide open.
Sensing the gaze, Ha-jin abruptly raised his head. He frowned deeply as he saw Eden’s wide-open crotch.
“What’s with that expression?”
“Because Jeong Tae-geon Hyung’s thing is too much in front.”
“…Thing?”
Taken aback by the unexpected answer, Eden was momentarily speechless. It was such a long time since he had heard it, no, a ridiculous and unfamiliar word that he had no memory of ever hearing in his entire life had popped out of Ha-jin’s mouth. It was so refreshing that it made his head spin.
Eden raised the corner of his eyes and asked.
“Are you suddenly shy?”
Ha-jin squinted at the incomprehensible words, and he continued.
“It feels like just yesterday you liked it enough to rub against it on purpose. Or was it yesterday?”
“Excuse me?!”
Ha-jin shouted softly and looked around. Fortunately, Mi-so and Byeol were busy chatting while filming a video, and Jeffrey and Park Chun-beom were fast asleep, heads together.
It was a joke that could easily be misunderstood by anyone who heard it, and Ha-jin had to quickly grab hold of his dizzying mind.
“When did I ever rub against you on purpose?”
“When I told you to stop rubbing, didn’t you reply that you were ‘doing it on purpose’?”
He was beyond dumbfounded, he was wronged. To talk about the situation where he had squeezed under the car body to avoid the zombies at the police station like that. As if he didn’t know that the space was woefully inadequate to accommodate two healthy adult men.
Besides, it was Eden who had arbitrarily increased the volume of his genitals under their inevitably overlapping bodies. And yet, there was a considerable contradiction in Eden’s words, treating him like a pervert.
“I was about to write ‘not doing it on purpose,’ but suddenly the car shook and stopped, you know?”
“I understand. I’ll believe it that way.”
“What kind of answer is that… Why are you saying it like you’re doing me a favor?”
Ha-jin had no idea how to take the subtly provocative sexual jokes. Especially since it was difficult to even distinguish whether everything that came out of Eden’s mouth was serious or a joke.
He didn’t know whether to get angry and express his displeasure, or to brazenly retort and tease him back, he couldn’t think of any improvisation. In fact, he was so embarrassed that he didn’t even have time to feel unpleasant.
Come to think of it, it had been like that from the beginning. From their first meeting, Eden had thrown out rather hot and embarrassing remarks about whether or not he would have the opportunity to loosen his lower body, and he had also mentioned his nipple color in a random situation.
‘…Is it because he’s American?’
It was a series of strange jokes that could not be explained unless it was a cultural difference.
Ha-jin watched the smile hanging on Eden’s eyes with a wary gaze. Unlike his words, it wasn’t that difficult to judge whether that smile was true or false, whether it contained joy or contempt.
Eden was genuinely smiling right now. The orbicularis oculi muscles next to his eyes were constantly moving, and the corners of his eyes were raised as much as possible.
“Does Jeong Tae-geon Hyung find these jokes funny?”
“I don’t particularly enjoy joking around, but Do Ha-jin’s reactions are fun.”
“I don’t find it fun.”
“Are you offended?”
Eden, who had been smiling with dimples all along, slightly hardened the corners of his eyes at the end of the question. Ha-jin somehow didn’t want to lose. He knew that if he got angry here, he would definitely be treated like a kid.
“No? What’s so offensive about that kind of joke? It’s not that offensive. It’s not like that, but…”
“But not?”
“I just said it’s not fun.”
“I find it fun.”
“No,”
“If Do Ha-jin Hyung is upset, tease me back.”
Ha-jin, who was dumbfounded, let out a frustrated breath. Annoyingly, Eden only shrugged his shoulders once.
Ha-jin, who had lost his appetite for practice, carefully put the cards and Magic Pad he had been fiddling with back into his bag. This time, he took out hand sanitizer and a nail clipper and wriggled his body. He found a crumpled magazine with its head buried in the corner, placed it at his feet, and picked up the nail clipper.
Click! Click! They were already short and neat enough without needing any more trimming, but Ha-jin ruthlessly cut his nails. Eden shook off the remaining laughter at the sight of him taking it out on his nails.
Do Ha-jin was obsessively attached to practicing magic and tried to maintain hand hygiene obsessively, even in the destroyed world. It was a somewhat difficult part to understand, but Eden didn’t find Ha-jin’s constancy to be a bad thing. It was probably one of his own survival instincts.
He watched Ha-jin, who had turned his back to him, as if he were watching TV. His carelessly exposed back and black Drawerz Band caught his eye, due to his crouching posture. The buttocks visible beneath it were roundly raised like a delicious apple.
If it was seduction, it was terribly clumsy, and if there was no intention, it could be seen as innate. Eden, slowly scanning Ha-jin’s body with an interested gaze, licked his lower lip with his moist tongue.
“Jeong Tae-geon Hyung seems to be really used to that kind of thing.”
Ha-jin, who was clipping his nails vigorously, opened his mouth without even turning his head. It was as if he had eyes in the back of his head, and he was saying that he felt Eden’s gaze.
“That kind of thing?”
“Telling those kinds of jokes. If it’s a man who seems easy, you don’t care about the consequences…”
Ah, I wonder if he might think that was an outing. Ha-jin stopped talking and pursed his lips tightly.
“You keep beating around the bush since a while ago, but what exactly do you mean by ‘that’ kind of joke?”
Eden asked instead. Ha-jin turned around with a questioning look. Eden’s face, which he had expected to be smiling, was filled with just as much bewilderment as his own.
The guy who had been talking about nipples, loosening his lower body, and rubbing against him was now pretending not to understand. From his point of view, it was absurd.
‘…Am I the only one who hears it strangely? Maybe I’m just overreacting and being too sensitive…’
No matter how he thought about it, it wasn’t a cultural difference or anything like that. Jeong Tae-geon was making blatant jokes only to him, not to Park Chun-beom, Mi-so, or Jeffrey. That means…
“I, I thought you were looking at me sexually and making those jokes.”
“Are you trying to ask if I like men?”
At Eden’s direct question, Ha-jin could only open and close his mouth, unable to answer. He hadn’t intended to confirm his sexual orientation so thoroughly. While he was quickly racking his brains in embarrassment, a thunderous confession fell.
“I like men. To be exact, I don’t care about gender as long as I like the person.”
“……”
“So, is there a reason why Do Ha-jin Hyung needs to confirm my sexual orientation?”
Ha-jin did his best to ignore the embarrassment that was pulling at the back of his neck and replied.
“It’s, it’s not really that, but I’m saying this out of concern because Jeong Tae-geon Hyung keeps hitting on me.”
“…Out of concern?”
Eden mulled over Ha-jin’s words and twitched his eyebrows. Realizing the meaning, he suddenly burst out laughing.
Ha-jin was embarrassed in a different sense at the sight of his uncharacteristically hearty appearance. Looking at his face as he laughed with his upper teeth clearly exposed, he could vividly feel that the statement he had just made was being treated as a slip of the tongue, or something like nonsense.
Was he really mistaken? Was he the one who was overly conscious and giving meaning to a few simple jokes? He had been secretly conceited, thinking that even if he didn’t like him, he might at least find him sexually attractive.
The deeper Eden’s laughter became, the hotter Ha-jin’s ears became.