By Zephyria 
When Cha Jeong-won didn’t answer, Haon continued speaking even faster. Resentment rose to his throat, leaving him no time to choose his words carefully.
“I don’t know why your mother is being brought up here. Instead of mentioning your mother here, we should recall the day we first met. Do you know how I was after I tumbled down the stairs with you?”
Haon slapped his own chest once with his palm. His heart was still beating rapidly.
Given how he had never openly revealed it until now, it was impossible to know just how suffocated he had felt.
“From that moment on, absurd things started happening to me. Traffic lights and elevators that were working perfectly fine would suddenly break down when I approached. Cold showers and spilled coffee became almost daily occurrences. My daily life was completely thrown into chaos. And then…….”
Haon gritted his teeth for a moment mid-sentence. Embarrassment and resentment rose simultaneously, making his face grow hot.
“I kept running into you. I was trying to avoid you, you know. I wasn’t usually that unlucky. So…….”
Haon pointed briefly towards the other end of the hallway. As if the earlier commotion hadn’t completely settled yet, a faint murmur could be heard even from a distance.
“You know what I’m talking about, right?”
Cha Jeong-won’s eyebrows moved ever so slightly.
“But when we were together, incredibly good things happened…….”
Haon recalled the day they played the balloon dart game.
He also remembered the day in the elevator when Cha Jeong-won received the call about winning the sweet room accommodation voucher.
“When we, I mean, when you and I…….”
Haon bit his lip, stopping mid-sentence.
He had thought a day like this might come someday, but now that it was here, his throat kept tightening up.
So, he simply closed his mouth and pulled Cha Jeong-won into a hug.
A moment ago, Cha Jeong-won had pulled him first, but this time Haon was the first. They were so close that Haon felt he could even sense the sound of Cha Jeong-won’s heartbeat.
Haon took another steadying breath in that embrace, then lifted his head and looked straight at his face.
“How is it?”
Haon asked.
“How is it with me clinging to you like this?”
Before Cha Jeong-won could answer, Haon laughed first. Until just now, all sorts of emotions had been rising complexly, but strangely, his heart felt a bit calmer now.
“Doesn’t it seem like even better things will happen now?”
Haon lightly grabbed the collar of Cha Jeong-won’s clothes. He tried to say it playfully, but his voice was serious.
“When I was apart from you, misfortune came to both of us, and when we were together, good things happened, right? Together we live, apart we die! That’s it.”
As soon as those words ended, Haon bit his lip once, thinking he might have been too blatant.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Even if I willingly become your exorcism pollack, you’re still like this.”
“……Do you even know what that means?”
“Of course I know. We can’t be apart. Absolutely not!”
Cha Jeong-won didn’t scoff. Instead, he briefly bowed his head and let out a breath near Haon’s forehead.
Instead of roughly rushing in like before, this time he pulled Haon into a very short, firm hug.
“If you don’t want to believe it, don’t.”
Instead of answering, Cha Jeong-won let out a very short laugh.
“But.”
Haon added a beat later.
“From now on, don’t say you’ll be alone. Let’s be together.”
As Haon spoke decisively, Cha Jeong-won cupped the back of Haon’s neck. And this time, without even a question, he briefly kissed his lips again. It was as if a seal was stamped, imprinting some kind of resolution of his.
As soon as their lips parted, Cha Jeong-won pulled Haon closer once more without letting him go.
Even though the heat from the kiss just moments ago still lingered on his lips, Cha Jeong-won’s gaze quickly grew calm. That composed demeanor actually made Haon even more nervous.
Cha Jeong-won scanned Haon’s face briefly, then asked as if to confirm.
“Is that all you’ve been hiding from me?”
Haon couldn’t answer immediately.
The word ‘hiding’ seemed to pierce Haon’s chest precisely.
Too many sentences rose in his mind. That he knew what would happen in the future. That he couldn’t say this world could be read in a different way for him.
Speaking might make him feel better. But it was also clear that the moment he spoke, it would end.
Haon had that kind of intuition.
It wasn’t Haon’s problem. It was Cha Jeong-won’s.
Accepting his own tangled life and hearing that the tangling was a predetermined fate from the start were completely different things.
Even worse……. If he knew that the person who should be by his side wasn’t Haon but someone else, what expression would he make?
Haon forced the corners of his mouth upward. He needed a face that feigned shamelessness.
He couldn’t say it.
Not even the fact that he had come to like Cha Jeong-won.
“If you ask like that…….”
Haon averted his gaze, then met it again.
“…I look like someone who’s hiding something, don’t I?”
Cha Jeong-won narrowed his eyes.
“I’m not really the type to lie well.”
Haon hastily cut off his words. Instinctively, he felt he had to hold out longer. If he spoke at length, gaps would appear, and if gaps appeared, secrets would leak out.
“You seem like you’d be good at it.”
Haon opened and closed his mouth, then finally lowered his voice.
“At the very least, I’m sure it’s not what you’re suspecting.”
Cha Jeong-won paused briefly, just like that. He wasn’t getting angry or probing further. That attitude was even more frightening.
Cha Jeong-won gazed at Haon for a long while, then let out a very short breath.
And he lightly pressed his forehead against Haon’s, as if bumping it.
“I don’t really want to dig into everything here right now.”
Haon’s eyes widened. Cha Jeong-won continued.
“Let’s do the rest when we get to Seoul.”
“Seoul?”
“Yeah. When we go back.”
Cha Jeong-won didn’t say the words ‘let’s wrap this up,’ but Haon understood the meaning.
Right now, there were many people and it was still noisy. And above all, something between them had risen too heatedly; if they touched on it more here, who knew what would happen.
For now, it ended with a kiss, but Haon had already experienced a precarious thrill in Cha Jeong-won’s embrace, as if standing at the edge of a cliff. His body remembered, making his stomach tingle from deep within.
“Okay.”
Haon barely managed to reply. Then he hesitated for a very brief moment.
Should I say it? If I say it, will it be too obvious?
But if I don’t say it now, won’t I regret it again?
In the end, he opened his mouth.
“But, sunbae.”
“Yeah.”
“Want to go to my house?”
Cha Jeong-won raised an eyebrow.
Instead of answering, Cha Jeong-won looked Haon up and down once more. His gaze lingered briefly on Haon’s nape, lips, and pupils.
Haon’s heart jumped again under that gaze for no reason.
“I mean my family home.”
Afraid of where things might go if they stayed like this, he hastily added.
“My parents are waiting, you see.”
When he said he was coming to Gangwon-do today, they told him to come eat and then go.
It was a remark that came to mind because of that, but Cha Jeong-won interpreted it in his own way.
“Meeting the parents first, the order is all messed up.”
What order!
＊ ＊ ＊
“Where did he go.”
Cha Seo-jun walked quietly, muffling his footsteps as he searched for Haon.
Haon had told Cha Seo-jun it was dangerous, so he shouldn’t follow. But Cha Seo-jun couldn’t just stand still either.
“How could I not follow?”
Of course, he was worried about his cousin too.
But Cha Seo-jun was more worried about Haon. Even if it was selfish, he had nothing to say.
After searching here and there, he finally found Haon.
Relieved that he seemed unharmed, he was about to approach him with joy but stopped short.
He was late to notice Cha Jeong-won because he was looking at Haon.
Along with that, he saw the two of them standing close together.
Cha Seo-jun’s steps noticeably slowed.
“They’re both safe.”
However, Cha Seo-jun’s expression wasn’t very good.
Once he gets into university, I’ll go find Yoon Haon.
If we become something like sunbae and hoobae, not teacher and student, we’ll get closer than before, right?
I should increase our time together by working as his assistant.
When we drink, who will get drunk first? Either is fine. If I get drunk, I’ll lean on Yoon Haon, and if he gets drunk, I’ll gladly lend him my shoulder.
Spending time like that, when the memory of being teacher and student grows faint……. Should I confess?
At first, it might be a little awkward, but I was confident I could appear as an Alpha to him.
I was really confident, but…….
Haon was looking at someone other than me, smiling brightly.
Cha Seo-jun couldn’t bring himself to approach him and stood helplessly.
Then, someone called Cha Seo-jun from behind.
“Seo-jun.”
Cha Seo-jun’s shoulders stiffened ever so slightly. The voice was overly affectionate, grating on his nerves even more.
Turning around, Lee So-yul was standing there.
“Can we talk for a bit?”
His gaze went towards Cha Jeong-won, then returned to Cha Seo-jun.
In that moment, Cha Seo-jun realized he and Lee So-yul had one thing in common.
85 – NOT 85