By Zephyria 
The shaggy-haired man chuckled at the hostile reaction. It was an unpleasant laugh, but there was no need to react further.
“Let’s go.”
Min-ho said, tapping Gyu-oh’s lower back as he held the helmet under his arm. Leaving only the word that he would contact them separately regarding the appointment time, they immediately left the table tennis center. Busy conversations leaked through the closed glass door, but he didn’t bother to listen.
Descending the stairs where trash lay scattered, he glanced at Gyu-oh. By now, it was time for him to chatter about something. For some reason, he was silent.
“Why have you been so out of it for a while?”
“…….”
“What. Did they bully you again? Tell you to buy cigarettes?”
When he teased him playfully, Gyu-oh stopped walking for a moment. Standing still, he swallowed his breath and moved his lips as if to say something, but then he shook his head. Watching the broad back leading the way, creating a sudden gust of cold wind, Min-ho tilted his head. It seemed something had indeed happened while he was away for a moment.
“……Hmm.”
This time, Min-ho’s steps stopped in place. Looking at his current state, he didn’t seem in the mood to tell him easily. Truly, he had a knack for making people curious.
“Aren’t you coming?”
Gyu-oh, who had descended half a floor ahead, looked up and shouted. Their eyes met through the railing.
“…….”
Won Gyu-oh had a fairly fierce impression when he didn’t smile, and that was exactly the case now. After staring down at the face that clearly showed dissatisfaction, Min-ho finally started walking.
From eating an early dinner and returning to the office until the time he clocked out, Gyu-oh didn’t even go home; he stuck close to Min-ho’s side, acting sullen. Even when asked what on earth had happened, he kept his lips tightly shut and only shook his head.
He’ll speak when he’s frustrated enough. After giving him attention a few more times, Min-ho eventually switched off all his concern. Since riding a motorcycle at night was dangerous, he drove Gyu-oh home personally and then returned to his office-tel.
Although he had drunk the decaf coffee under pressure, he still showed no sign of sleepiness. The moment he swung open the refrigerator door, thinking of having a drink, the sound of a keypad being pressed echoed through the quiet house.
There was only one person who could barge into Min-ho’s space so boldly.
“I just can’t stop being curious.”
He looked as if he had just woken up, wearing only an oversized T-shirt and pajama pants. His hair was sticking up on one side, as if he hadn’t bothered to dry it properly.
Entering urgently, Gyu-oh closed the distance quite threateningly. After standing so close that their toes almost touched, he mouthed a few words silently. Contrary to his momentum, he seemed to be hesitating.
Beep, beep. An alert sounded from the refrigerator. Only after Min-ho closed the refrigerator door, from which cold air was flowing, did Gyu-oh finally speak.
“Hyung, by any chance, did you sleep with that bastard?”
“Who.”
Who is the bastard Gyu-oh talking about? The only people he met today were Seong-tak’s crew, so he must be referring to one of them. In his mind, Min-ho recalled a few of the faces that had left an impression among the men he’d met today.
“Who else! I’m talking about that loser who hangs around the ping-pong parlor.”
He might be disappointed to learn that Min-ho threw his body around carelessly, but since it was already out in the open, he didn’t want to create any more secrets. Min-ho replied nonchalantly, brushing his hair back.
“…Exactly. Which one of the ping-pong parlor losers?”
Gyu-oh, who had been blinking stupidly, suddenly scowled. He must have grasped the meaning instantly—that there wasn’t just one person from the ping-pong parlor who had slept with him.
“What the, fuck?”
Standing with his weight shifted to one side, Gyu-oh gripped his hair as if trying to tear it out. Veins popped on his forehead, and the furrow between his brows deepened. “Wow,” “Huh,” “Seriously.” A string of exclamations followed one after another. After spitting out one last fierce curse, he ground his teeth.
“Weren’t you looking at his face, Hyung?”
Gyu-oh’s voice spiked sharply at the end.
“Body.”
“Body?”
“I was looking at the body.”
“Booo-dy?”
Tilting his head slightly, Gyu-oh rolled his eyes as if chewing on the thought, then scowled again.
“But, really?”
“It probably wasn’t bad back then.”
In truth, he didn’t accurately remember the naked bodies of his partners. Since he figured they were people he’d eventually erase from his memory, he hadn’t bothered to take them in properly; besides, he had insisted on positions where his back was turned throughout the act. At the indifferent response, Gyu-oh roughly ruffled his own hair.
“No, still. How could you with the guys you worked with…”
As his messy hair fell back, the veins on his forehead became even more visible. It was understandable that he’d be bewildered. He had barely accepted the fact that the Hyung he followed like family was seeing men. It couldn’t be easy to accept that he was a slut who didn’t discriminate.
After judging himself in such a way, Min-ho’s mouth felt strangely bitter. He really did need a drink tonight.
“It was around the time I split from Seong-tak.”
Min-ho opened the refrigerator again and took out two cans of beer. As he walked toward the living room, the large frame followed closely behind him.
“Still. Those are guys who would’ve come looking for you whenever they felt like it, right?”
“….”
“Or you could’ve run into them again, just like this time.”
The low voice followed him like an interrogation. It was a tone that felt cautious even while openly reprimanding him. In moments like this, the distance between him and the guy he thought of as close as family suddenly felt real.
Despite his appearance, Won Gyu-oh was surprisingly mentally healthy and had little interest in promiscuity. He was different from Min-ho, who threw his body around in pursuit of a moment’s pleasure.
At first, it was simply because he wanted to fall into a deep sleep. To avoid nightmares, even for just a few hours, he had to exhaust his body. He didn’t feel like fighting, and at the time, simply cutting back on sleep to work and study wasn’t enough. Stray thoughts easily crept into a weary mind and body.
The method he found was to drink—though he wasn’t good at it—or have sex. Only when his mind grew hazy and his head went white would the thoughts filling his subconscious finally subside. Could he even fix that now? Could he even be understood?
“If they come looking. Have you ever seen me meet someone I slept with once before?”
“….”
“I was going to erase them from my life anyway, so it didn’t matter.”
Gyu-oh was well aware of the meaningless combinations of numbers saved in Min-ho’s contacts. And exactly what purpose those people served.
“Ha.”
As Gyu-oh flopped down beside him, the leather sofa let out a small creak under his weight.
That they were just people to be used once and discarded, so no emotions remained, and thus an unexpected reunion didn’t matter. Having listened silently to the response, Gyu-oh snatched a beer and popped the tab. As he gulped it down without pause, his Adam’s apple bobbed violently.
Watching him, Min-ho’s eyes felt dry for some reason. Perhaps it was because he’d been in a dusty place. Today, his throat felt particularly scratchy and his eyes itchy. Once he drank the beer, these uncomfortable sensations would gradually fade.
Rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, Min-ho also opened his beer can. Just as he was about to bring it to his lips, a large hand suddenly intervened and snatched the can away. Gyu-oh, having finished his own beer in one go, now drank Min-ho’s.
It felt like it took less than ten seconds. Gyu-oh crushed the empty can with one hand and abruptly stood up. While Min-ho was just blinking stupidly at the broad back of the silent youth, Gyu-oh headed to the pantry, rummaged through it as if it were his own home, and brought back some water and something else. What he thrust in front of Min-ho was water and a white pill.
“What is this, all of a sudden?”
“Allergy medicine. You were in a dusty place. Take this instead of rubbing your eyes.”
“…Did we even have this in the house?”
He thought the emergency medicine was in the master bedroom; when had it been moved to the pantry? As he uttered the stupid question while scratching his eyebrow, Gyu-oh shook his hand again, scolding him.
“Just take it. Forget the beer, beer.”
The large shadow loomed over him, refusing to budge an inch. Min-ho looked up at Gyu-oh, who stood his ground with stubbornness, and eventually gave in and reached out.
Only after watching his Adam’s apple move did Gyu-oh finally leave his line of sight. Returning, he didn’t sit on the sofa but settled himself closely against Min-ho’s leg.
“Hyung. Min-ho Hyung, Cha Min-ho.”
He ruffled his hair, let out a low sigh, and radiated his annoyance with his entire body. Then, he tilted his head deeply to the side. With such a large guy doing this, Min-ho’s knee felt quite heavy.
“I really can’t leave you alone. You were a much more dangerous person than I thought.”
“….”
“I thought you were smart, but you have zero self-awareness. Huh?”
As Gyu-oh rubbed his head against Min-ho’s knee, his hair pricked at the skin. It was a rather stinging sensation, but Min-ho didn’t bother to push him away.
“What are you talking about.”
“And why are your standards so high? That’s what’s really pissing me off right now!”
What was the point of having high standards when he only did one-night stands? If he replied with that, Gyu-oh would probably nag him until dawn. So, he simply kept his mouth shut.
After chattering like that for a while, Gyu-oh snapped his head up. His disheveled hair looked ridiculous, but Min-ho didn’t laugh.
“You said you couldn’t sleep, right? I’ll stay by your side and monitor you until you fall asleep.”
“If you monitor me… will sleep that wouldn’t come suddenly arrive?”
Min-ho let out a small laugh and reached out. He slid his fingers through Gyu-oh’s spiky hair. As he gently shook it, the fine hair loosened, and a fragrant scent wafted out.
“Why. You’ve been taking naps lately thanks to me.”
“That’s true, but…”
Thinking about it, that was the case. It had become frequent that he’d just brush it off, thinking that even if he couldn’t sleep at night, he could just close his eyes during the day. He hadn’t wanted to depend on anyone. Without realizing it, he might have been leaning on Gyu-oh too much.