By Zephyria 
“Then.”
“…….”
Despite the calm urging, Gyu-oh still hesitated. Min-ho slid his fingers through the black hair and slowly ruffled it. As he waited calmly, Gyu-oh slowly lifted his head from where it had been leaning against Min-ho’s body.
“I was afraid you’d think I’m an easy person.”
“…….”
“Actually, I’m not an easy person at all, so it would be troublesome if Hyung felt that way.”
‘It’s funny for someone as loose as me to say this… but I hate people who are light-hearted.’
Those were words he had said himself. Was it after seeing how well Gyu-oh got along with the secretary? It was a familiar sight he could have ignored, but for some reason, it had bothered him so much back then. He feared that Gyu-oh would just test him and eventually go back to meeting women and living a normal life. He thought he might end up miserable after being swayed alone. Those spiteful emotions had ended up wounding Gyu-oh.
“……I said those things without knowing my place.”
“…….”
“I’m sorry. At that time, I was a bit… cornered, so I made a slip of the tongue.”
A gaze followed, staring up while poking Min-ho’s stomach with a tilted chin. Min-ho reached out and finished tidying Gyu-oh’s disheveled hair.
“You’re not a light person, absolutely not.”
To people who didn’t know Won Gyu-oh well, his tendency to flirt easily and act friendly might seem light, but he rarely gave his true heart. Thus, it was impossible to gauge how much courage it took for him to fully reveal and hand over that heart to Min-ho.
“Right. Same for Hyung.”
“…….”
“Since we’re both heavy people, we have to be serious every day.”
Because he spoke with his chin resting there, the faint vibration was transmitted directly. That resonance eventually reached Min-ho’s heart.
“Doubting, giving up, hiding—those are fouls.”
“…….”
“I’ll consider it a betrayal of our ten-year friendship, or something like that.”
Despite the words sounding like a threat, a chuckle escaped.
“Alright.”
It was an answer from his own mouth, but he was surprised by how affectionate it sounded.
Taking advantage of the moment Min-ho’s stiff expression softened, the hand wrapped around his waist began to move stealthily. Perhaps because the hand was large, Min-ho could immediately tell where it was groping. The touch that had been fiddling with his side soon reached his buttocks. A force followed, gripping the glutes that were still sore from being overworked all dawn.
“It’s almost time to start work.”
“There’s still an hour left.”
An hour was, in fact, enough time to do just about anything. However, since the cleanup was a headache, he had to know how to exercise moderate restraint.
Unaware of these thoughts, the hand groping his buttocks moved further down and wrapped around his thigh. The fingertips moving gently up and down were blatant, but Min-ho ultimately did not give in to the temptation. When he closed his eyes and shook his head, Gyu-oh noticeably squinted one eye.
“A kiss. We can at least do that.”
He really loves clashing lips. He often gave pecks without mixing tongues; he was a guy exceptionally obsessed with lips. Despite looking like he’d have hard tastes, he was surprisingly good at these ticklish things. As if urging the hesitating Min-ho, the large hand groped both thighs.
“Sit here, Darling.”
“……You’re so good at this at times.”
Perhaps because it had been a while since he heard ‘Darling.’ Even the remaining guard vanished. While he briefly checked that the door was closed, the hand leading him applied force. His body tilted, and his knees touched the sofa. He suddenly ended up straddling Gyu-oh’s thighs, but he felt a sense of stability in the hands enveloping him.
“I know exactly when to use the word ‘Darling’ now.”
“…….”
As expected, he was a guy who couldn’t be beaten in reading the room. Letting out a chuckle, Min-ho tilted his head. Bright light spread across Gyu-oh’s face, which had been cast in shadow by the position of the lamp. Through that gap, a faint smile was visible.
Their plush lips met as if crushing together. The moment warm breath spread inside his mouth, he felt as though he might fall asleep.
They spent a full hour kissing. Only when they heard signs of someone nearby did they finally pull apart, and Min-ho had to scrub his lips at the side sink to hide the fact that they were swollen red. Even so, his lips remained red.
Inevitably, he worked wearing a mask in the morning, using a cold as an excuse. It would have looked strange if Won Gyu-oh had been wearing one side-by-side with him. Fortunately, Gyu-oh headed straight to the cathedral, so no misunderstandings arose.
“If it’s a divorce lawsuit… he’s really been screwed.”
Surprisingly, the thing the Executive Director of T Corporation wanted to protect most was his family. Though he had cheated, he had tried to focus on his wife and only son. There were times he brought his family along for rounds, and Min-ho had thought it looked quite nice. He felt uncomfortable that he had pushed someone’s family to that point, but…
“He probably trembled and was swayed, knowing the result would be like that.”
“……Yeah.”
“If you look at it, it’s 100% the old man’s fault. Cha Min-ho is zero.”
At Mu-gyeong’s nonchalant addition, Min-ho’s movement to dig a hole of guilt stopped abruptly. Reading that agitation, Mu-gyeong continued in a low voice.
“If he had just stayed still, it would have passed quietly. He’s the one who made it a big deal.”
“…….”
“He could have just cut off the tail, so why did he have to touch this side, touch it.”
The Executive Director, anxious about what other materials Son Pro might hold, had made a wrong move. He probably wanted to clean up everyone who knew his secrets. Thus, he tried to drag Min-ho, who had been staying still, down with him.
“He deserves to be divorced, and it’s only natural he was fired from the company. Did you push him to live like that?”
Listening quietly to the Executive Director’s actions through Mu-gyeong, it seemed there was absolutely no reason for Min-ho to feel guilty. Right, who told him to cheat and do such suspicious things after having a child? Chewing on that thought, he erased the uncomfortable feeling.
“Hearing that, that man is no ordinary piece of trash.”
“I think it’s right for him to be processed as waste alongside his son.”
After swallowing his coffee, Mu-gyeong added with a smirk. Min-ho agreed with that statement. After organizing his thoughts while pressing the ice with his straw, he spoke.
“Even if the contract acquisition manager on their end changes, it’s not exactly a positive situation for us, right? Since we’re already so entangled.”
“Well, it could be, but it could also not be.”
“Haa.”
Currently, the Executive Director had taken all responsibility and stepped down from his executive position. Even if a new person was appointed to handle the T Corporation Complex Center construction, they wouldn’t look kindly on Woowon, who had already been entangled with the Director and his son. Even if they won the contract on their own, others might suspect, ‘Maybe they handed it to Woowon because there’s something else to hold against them.’ In many ways, the situation was bleak.
“Anyway, everyone has come to know that the rotten water over there contaminated everything. No matter which company we work with, they won’t look at us kindly.”
“…….”
“Our image was already like that, so it doesn’t matter how anyone sees us. The important thing is, whether you have the will to keep going.”
It sounded like he was telling Min-ho not to feel any guilt, whether he gave up on the contract or challenged it to the end. As if he knew Min-ho was worrying that he had accidentally sabotaged his assigned task, as if he knew Min-ho was agonizing over whether he was making the employees suffer by diving into a project with a predetermined conclusion.
Seong Mu-gyeong occasionally took his side with casual remarks, but he wasn’t usually this actively supportive. He was a guy who usually showed things through actions. Perhaps that’s why Min-ho felt something akin to emotion.
“What’s gotten into you? Taking my side.”
“Haven’t I always been like this?”
“You?”
When Min-ho stared at Mu-gyeong, who shrugged brazenly, the stiff line of his mouth tilted upward.
“That bastard Won Gyu-oh nagged me so much. He told me to speak clearly so you wouldn’t dig a hole.”
“…….”
“He said if he caught you blaming yourself, he’d split your desk in half, or maybe set the company on fire.”
“……His tyranny is evolving day by day.”
“It’s always evolving.”
Mu-gyeong nodded in agreement, swirling the coffee cup in his hand. Then he glanced up. He looked like he was contemplating whose head to crack with the thing in his hand, but he was simply looking at his lover at the counter. Sipping his coffee and following Mu-gyeong’s gaze toward the counter, Min-ho muttered.
“Hong-ju-ssi’s back of the head is going to get a hole in it.”
“Even if it does, I’ll be the one to poke it, so look away.”
“…….”
He was so used to such petty jealousy that it was now familiar. Arguing or being disgusted was something he did in the past. He had realized that just letting it slide was the most effective method.
Actually, at first, he hadn’t been this favorable toward their relationship. To be precise, he lacked trust in Hong-ju. But that small child had eventually changed Seong Mu-gyeong, and it had influenced him as well. Through Hong-ju, he learned how much of a ripple pure and upright emotions could create.
And currently, Won Gyu-oh was pouring those emotions into him. Ceaselessly, even in moments when they weren’t visible. Wouldn’t that small current soon draw a wave large enough to swallow him whole?
Then perhaps, instead of looking back at the guilt or regret left on all the paths he’d walked… he could become a person too busy just retracing happy memories.
“……Running away would be a blow to my pride, wouldn’t it?”
The deliberation wasn’t long. Even if he struggled with work, there was someone by his side to put him to sleep, and colleagues to share the burden if it got hard. Above all, he couldn’t let everything he’d done so far go to waste. He decided to cling to the T Corporation contract acquisition, which had even led to an executive meeting. Because he now knew that running toward it was what mattered, whether it turned into a disaster or a success, even if he couldn’t get the desired ending.
“I knew you would.”
At the indifferent response, Min-ho drained the rest of his coffee. The edges of the ice, once angular, had melted into round circles. Whether touching his lips or hitting the cup, there was no longer any sharp, sensitive presence or pain. Just like him, whose edges had melted thanks to Won Gyu-oh’s body temperature.
“Then I should start getting ready.”
“Take it easy. Otherwise, I’ll get tired too because of Won Gyu-oh.”
“Just bear with it. I endured it all.”
He stood up, pointing to Hong-ju, who was approaching wearing a beige apron. Leaving only a brief greeting, he returned to his office alone.
What stopped Min-ho’s steps as he headed straight for the desk was the map attached to the wall. It was in the form of several sheets of paper pasted together, something he put up every time he took on a new project as if to strengthen his resolve.
“It’s going to be tough again for a while.”
He might have to roll and struggle several times harder than before. Nevertheless, he was no longer afraid, as there was now someone by his side to watch over his long and tiring nights.
After pressing down a fluttering corner to stick it properly, he sat in his seat. Then, instead of a pen or mouse, he first reached for his phone. Entering the phonebook, he erased all the names combined with strange numbers.
As he erased them one by one, the back of his neck grew stiff, realizing how much he had lived like a rag over the past years. Still, he liquidated everything cleanly without leaving a trace. Only then would he have the qualification to ask someone to spend long, long nights with him.
With a genuinely light heart, he entered the message box he shared with Gyu-oh. He examined the photo Gyu-oh had sent a few hours ago. The guy, covering the tattoo on his nape and with his hair neatly tidied, was dressed in priest robes.
“……You’re handsome today, too.”
He whispered the words he couldn’t bring himself to say in front of the person. He looked and looked again until the screen turned black. In that way, he kept Gyu-oh’s image in his eyes for a long time.