By Zephyria 
As if drawn by the scent, his feet moved.
“I couldn’t.”
However, the ruthless Cha Min-ho didn’t look back once. It was as if he didn’t even know Gyu-oh was following him. A secretary, who had stood up awkwardly, offered a greeting. At that moment, Min-ho’s voice abruptly cut in.
“Wait.”
At the gesture of a raised hand, Gyu-oh, who had been responding to the secretary’s greeting, stopped dead.
“Huh?”
“I’m going to drop off my things.”
“Why?”
Min-ho turned his back without answering. He walked away with resolute strides, as if he had never told Gyu-oh to wait. As Gyu-oh stared blankly at his back, Min-ho’s disinterested voice drifted back.
“You said let’s drink coffee.”
“Whoa.”
See? Hyung is totally whipped for me. Before he could even utter that thought, a voice followed to cut off the delusion.
“Let’s buy some and go to Mu-gyeong. We need to share the situation today.”
And so, Min-ho said only what he wanted to say and closed the door.
“….”
Of course. If you took the “work DNA” out of that man, nothing would be left. Even if it was reluctant, the fact that he agreed to drink coffee was enough. As Gyu-oh nodded a couple of times, he felt the weight of the wax on his hair.
“Deputy General Manager, your vibe is different today?”
As he stood there blankly, the secretaries struck up a conversation. Because of these people, he didn’t feel lonely even when kicked out in front of the door.
“I put some effort into it. Looks sharp, right?”
“Sharp? Ah, yes, yes. You look like a celebrity.”
“Which celebrity?”
He pressed persistently to find out who. He wasn’t particularly curious, but there was nothing better for playing around than nitpicking words. The secretary’s eyes wandered before she gave a troubled smile.
“An idol, but I can’t remember the name. Anyway, you look handsome with your hair pushed back.”
“Handsome? How much? Out of 10, what score?”
Just as he playfully pressed for the answer again, the office door swung open. Gyu-oh’s mouth, which had been about to keep digging, snapped shut.
“….”
Did he hear all the nonsense I was just saying? Looking at his expression, it seemed he did. The way his eyebrow twitched was a look that asked, Why the hell are you asking something like that? Being caught playing these kinds of games with the person he was actively courting—and no one else—was quite embarrassing. Feeling guilty, he added an unasked excuse.
“I’m not hitting on her, okay? She’s the one who called me handsome first.”
“Is that so?”
When Min-ho asked for confirmation, the secretary just smiled. Even when Gyu-oh appealed his unfairness, the secretary didn’t take his side, and Min-ho’s ‘of course’ expression remained.
“Sowon-nim? Why are you making the Director misunderstand? I’m shaking with a sense of betrayal.”
“Shake quietly.”
“No, Hyung. I said it’s a misunderstanding.”
Fearing that Min-ho might misunderstand the relationship between him and the secretary, he waved his hands to express his innocence. Of course, Min-ho was not a man who easily succumbed to jealousy or misunderstanding. Min-ho indifferently averted his gaze and spoke to the secretary.
“Sowon-ssi, you remember what I told you before, right? Don’t forget.”
“Yes.”
He didn’t even blink at Gyu-oh’s words. At Min-ho’s reminder, the secretary’s eyes briefly landed on Gyu-oh. It seemed like there was a hint of a smile, but he couldn’t fathom what they had talked about.
Gyu-oh’s eyebrow shot up at the sound of a conversation known only to the two of them. This was a man who never had private conversations outside of work. What did they talk about when I wasn’t here?
“About me?”
But Min-ho kept his mouth shut. The secretary also kept avoiding his gaze, suggesting she wasn’t in the mood to tell him readily.
“I asked what you two were talking about.”
“….”
“When I wasn’t here, you two, what did you say?”
He pushed forward with feigned strength, breaking his sentences, but Min-ho didn’t bat an eye. He might not be the type to easily succumb to jealousy or misunderstanding, but he seemed to be a master at triggering them.
“Cafe on the first floor?”
“Obviously. If we buy from another cafe, Mu-gyeong Hyung will flip his desk.”
“True.”
Min-ho nodded bluntly and quickly passed by his side. As soon as they entered the elevator, Gyu-oh stood close to Min-ho. Then, he leaned in unnecessarily close and whispered in his ear.
“Anyway. You two were talking about me, right?”
“….”
Instead of answering, Min-ho stepped back, covering the ear where the breath had touched with his hand.
“If you don’t answer, I’m going to keep clinging to you.”
“Is there anything else besides work talk?”
As if clinging was uncomfortable, a straightforward answer finally returned. Even that wasn’t particularly useful, though.
“I don’t think so.”
Even as he narrowed his eyes and glared, Min-ho’s answer remained consistent. He repeated the indifferent response while steadfastly staring straight ahead.
“That’s right.”
“Hmph.”
Naturally, Min-ho didn’t budge even at the snort. Instead, he closed his eyes deeply and opened them, which was a signal that he was starting to get irritated. Gyu-oh quickly straightened his body and shoved his hands into his pockets. Since keeping a moderate boundary was ingrained in him, his body moved instinctively this time as well.
As he looked straight ahead, he saw his and Min-ho’s reflections. The suit he wore for the first time in a while was uncomfortable, but it seemed to suit him well, and it matched Min-ho too. Wearing the same suits and shoes, riding the same elevator, it was almost like…
“But being like this, we kind of feel like an office couple.”
“…Hey.”
He’ll probably give me a piece of his mind to stop saying strange things. Since he was already mentally prepared, he wasn’t afraid of the answer. However, what came out of Min-ho’s mouth was completely unexpected.
“It’s funny for someone as light as me to say this… but I hate people with light hearts.”
Is he saying this for me to hear? Whenever he went around meeting people and acted friendly, people joked that he acted light. But doesn’t Min-ho know better than anyone that treating others that way isn’t sincere? Hyung must know that he’s never truly given his heart. He wanted to ask what he meant, but his mouth moved on its own.
“Me too.”
“Bullshit. Then why do you keep tangling yourself with me?”
Min-ho’s words became unusually harsh. He had only subtly mentioned they were like a couple, but it seemed that had bothered him.
“I’m putting in the effort. To see the world more broadly.”
He tried to handle it brazenly, but as expected, it didn’t work on Min-ho. Snorting, Min-ho turned his head and met his gaze. The dark brown eyes were, as always, calmly turbulent. As if he didn’t want any emotion to be discovered, yet didn’t want to be left alone.
“Do you think the habit of dating women is that easily fixed?”
That look had always lingered in a corner of Gyu-oh’s heart. It had been that way throughout the ten years they spent as close Hyung and Dongsaeng.
“Why is the conversation suddenly getting deep again?”
“I’ll let the sex slide since you just put it in and it’s over.”
“Ah, Hyung…”
“Other things. Do you think other things would work?”
Other things? Though it was only a single experience, he recalled the sex he had already replayed thousands of times in his head. The feeling of knees rubbing against the sheets, thighs with tensed muscles, and the sensation of genitals swelling hotly. Recalling Min-ho’s body temperature, which he hadn’t been able to touch to his heart’s content, only added to his thirst.
“….”
He missed the timing to answer because he was swallowing dry spit. Then, Min-ho suddenly grabbed his wrist. And then, he thudded it against his own chest, covered only by a thin shirt. Beneath his palm, he felt a flat yet quite firm chest. That was strangely exciting, causing Gyu-oh’s fingertips to tremble slightly. Min-ho, who must have felt that trembling fully, snorted.
“See. You’re shaking.”
“….”
“I told you, your body is rejecting it.”
He couldn’t even hear Min-ho’s words properly. All his nerves were focused on the palm pressed against the chest.
I think he told me to touch him like this in my dreams, too. The dream where he first had a nocturnal emission with Min-ho was still vivid. Because he had chewed over and retraced it hundreds of times.
Gyu-oh eventually, without realizing it, put strength into his hand and gripped the flat chest tightly. Simultaneously, Min-ho’s brow furrowed.
“Let go. Are you crazy?”
“…The texture is similar.”
As he murmured blankly like a person who had lost his mind, Min-ho’s eyebrows twitched fiercely.
“What?”
It was almost identical to what he had touched in his dream. It would have been more perfect without the shirt.
“I think I’d need to touch the bare skin to judge accurately.”
As he murmured while licking his lips, Min-ho finally shook off his wrist. Then, he even brushed off the front of his clothes as if something that shouldn’t have touched him had.
“Is this guy a crazy bastard? What’s with those eyes?”
He was the one who put it there and told him to touch it. He did as told and only got cursed at. This was a quite unfair situation for Gyu-oh.
“You told me to touch it first. That’s harsh.”
“….”
“I’m hurt.”
Min-ho, ignoring him as usual, looked straight ahead.
“Fucking hurt.”
The elevator, oblivious, arrived at the destination. Through the ruthlessly opening gap of the doors, Min-ho stepped ahead. He was so cold that a faint breeze seemed to blow.
“I’m really hurt.”
The voice that wouldn’t reach Min-ho scattered faintly.
‘Do you think the habit of dating women is that easily fixed?’
It’s not like we’ve even properly done anything. Isn’t he being too prejudiced?
Min-ho’s words poked at his chest, but the disappointment soon faded. It was because he became curious about the reason why Min-ho had suddenly thought that.