By Zephyria 
Gyu-oh lightly bit the tip of Min-ho’s tongue with his teeth, rubbed the end quickly, and sucked it, swallowing all the saliva. At the persistent movement, Min-ho flinched and shifted his body.
Although he still felt it was far too short, Gyu-oh obediently pulled his head back. Seeing the long string of saliva falling as if wrapping around Min-ho’s lower lip, he couldn’t help but stick out his tongue and lick it. A thrill ran through him at the sensation of the thin, hot skin crumbling under his tongue.
“……Why are you being so aggressive? Did you suddenly want to kiss?”
As he murmured with a voice full of question marks, Min-ho let out a low sigh. Then, he used his finger to gently wipe Gyu-oh’s lips, which had become smeared with saliva in that short time.
“I was a bit childish just now.”
“…….”
What was childish? Min-ho, who was saying incomprehensible things, turned his gaze away awkwardly. Then, without starting the engine, he just stared straight ahead. Since he looked like he had something to say, Gyu-oh silently looked at his own reddened lips.
“But honestly, you looked so well-suited that it was a bit absurd.”
“Huh?”
“The way you naturally lowered your eye level when talking, and how you seemed used to blocking people with your arm when it’s crowded.”
Did I do that? At the time, the only thought in his head was that he wanted to see Hyung quickly, so he didn’t even know he had acted that way.
“You’re a guy who should live like that, yet you’re telling me to follow you to the restroom and sending me hearts.”
“Ah, that’s because Hyung—”
“But thinking about it, you can just do that to me too, right?”
“Huhhh?”
Perhaps because it wasn’t a thought he’d organized before speaking, the conversation jumped around. Usually, changing the subject was Gyu-oh’s role. Perhaps because they were in love, such habits were rubbing off on each other quickly.
“You can just do the same. The height difference isn’t that much, but lean down on your own.”
“…….”
“Why. You hate it?”
His face flushed red at the gaze demanding an answer.
So, what you’re saying is that Cha Min-ho was annoyed because I was naturally escorting a woman? That’s why he snapped at me in such a childish way? Of course, far from being childish, my heart had practically dropped, but regardless. If it’s the same emotion I felt toward that nameless bum clinging to Hyung earlier…
“No way I’d hate it. But this… is definitely jealousy, right?”
“Hmm.”
Min-ho inhaled through his teeth and tilted his head slightly. He probably didn’t even know what emotion it was, even after admitting it. Hyung had always been dense about these things. After tilting his head for a while, Min-ho flicked his eyebrows and raised the end of his sentence.
“Is it jealousy?”
“In my eyes, yes. Ah, this house is quite the jealous type.”
And here I thought he didn’t have those kinds of emotions! Because his face was always so indifferent. The corners of my mouth curled up instinctively. My heart hammered as violently as it had when Min-ho suddenly kissed me earlier. The pulse was so loud and fast it felt like it was thumping through the car.
“…So it actually works?”
Min-ho let out a scoff, as if he found himself absurd, and covered his face with his palm. The curve of his ear, visible between his fingers, seemed faintly red.
“Hmm, come to think of it, what about Hong-ju-ssi? How could you just leave him behind?”
I brought up someone else to change the subject because I felt awkwardly shy. When I pulled down the hand covering his face, I saw his cheeks beautifully flushed. I thought he was too indifferent to ever show emotion. He gets jealous, he gets shy. He’s really all grown up. I swallowed the thought that if Min-ho heard this, he’d definitely smack me on the back, and continued.
“Hyung, Hong-ju-ssi isn’t a baby. And I didn’t leave him behind; I was the one abandoned.”
“Still, kid, you can’t just leave someone alone.”
It was obvious he would have found his boyfriend on his own without all that fuss. Honestly, he worries too much about nothing.
“Cha Min-ho, just worry about Won Gyu-oh. Unless you want to see what real jealousy looks like.”
“…What happens if you do it properly?”
Gyu-oh pointed forward with his chin, wearing a confident expression. It was the path where cars were lined up to exit the parking lot.
“I’d lie down right there. Flailing, screaming, and whining. So that not a single car could get out.”
“You already do that.”
“Exactly. Which means… my desire for your attention didn’t just appear overnight, right?”
Min-ho let out a chuckle, noting how well the logic connected. I wasn’t joking; I was being sincere. I worried for a moment that my feelings were being conveyed too lightly, but I trusted that Hyung would understand.
“I guess I wasn’t in my right mind either, putting up with that.”
The corners of his mouth lifted loosely with a sigh. Looking at the lips he had been sucking and nibbling on so excitedly until a moment ago, I felt like something was scratching at the inside of my lower abdomen. I wanted to kiss him deeply, but seeing Min-ho start the engine without hesitation, I barely managed to suppress my desire.
On the way, I called Hong-ju at Hyung’s insistence. He said he had met Mu-gyeong as soon as he split from me and was on his way home.
The thought I had most often while watching that couple was, ‘Aren’t they bored?’ Neither of them liked active things, and even when they went on dates, they usually returned after just a few hours. To Gyu-oh, who loved wandering around, being swept up in things, and spontaneously leaving for somewhere, it seemed incredibly stagnant.
But after meeting Cha Min-ho, I understood. No matter where you go or what you do, a private space where just the two of you can be stuck together is the best.
Honestly, I wanted to get laid as soon as we arrived, but Hyung isn’t the type to pick up on those cues, so I had no choice but to poke my own thigh and go wash up. As promised, we ordered hamburgers and sat huddled together with a movie we hadn’t seen yet playing in the background. The time I thought would be boring felt more precious than anything.
—So, are you saying you don’t trust me right now?
—When did you ever give me a reason to trust you?
A fiery lovers’ quarrel continued on the screen, but Gyu-oh leisurely tapped his toes while using Min-ho’s thigh as a pillow. Why does that man act in a way that makes him untrustworthy? One look and it’s 100% the man’s fault. After weighing the wrongs of the couple in the movie, Gyu-oh thought about something and suddenly sat up.
“Ah, right.”
His hair, messed up from the sudden movement, was quickly tidied by a few of Min-ho’s touches. In the meantime, Gyu-oh abruptly thrust his phone forward.
“Here.”
“What’s this?”
Min-ho looked at the object blankly, bewildered by the sudden gesture, so Gyu-oh shook it again, urging him to take it.
“Check it, hurry.”
“I’m not really curious.”
Still, he had to check. Fighting over trust like that couple should not exist in our dictionary. Of course, today’s jealousy was kind of cute, but seeing that too often would be upsetting.
“Start being curious from today. You can do it, Hyung.”
“….”
“You managed to be jealous earlier, right? Then you can also be restrictive. Do it.”
I practically forced the restriction on him. Ignoring his reluctant expression, I shoved the phone into his hand.
“…This is supposed to come naturally.”
Min-ho clicked his tongue and scratched his eyebrow. However, unable to resist the persistence, he began a clumsy inspection of this and that. Seeing him go back and forth between the contacts and the photo gallery, as if he didn’t even know what to look for, Gyu-oh thumped his chest.
“No, look properly. You have to look at the chat logs.”
“I’ve ignored almost everyone, what is there to see?”
It was true that there was almost nothing, making the act of checking pointless. He only gave long replies to people connected through work; for those he barely knew, he gave insincere answers or mostly ignored them.
“…Still, look thoroughly. I’m checking too, okay?”
“Go ahead.”
Min-ho answered indifferently, but he was busy clicking through the messenger as told.
Actually, this was the goal. While looking through Cha Min-ho’s phone was something he had done often before, this was the first time since they decided to date, so he was secretly nervous. Gyu-oh, who had familiarly entered the contact list, paused.
“Uh? Did you delete all the numbers?”
The total number of saved contacts had decreased, and all the suspicious combinations of numbers had vanished. He scanned the list again, but there were no traces of nameless one-night stands.
“Yeah. You’d hate it.”
This means he deleted the numbers and cleared his past out of consideration for me, right? I thought he’d just leave them since they were in the past and he had no feelings for them. To think he was considering me this much. Gyu-oh covered his lips with his fingertips. Min-ho, glancing at him as he failed to speak, scratched his eyebrow.
“…Maybe not.”
“Yes! I would’ve hated it. I would’ve fucking hated it!”
Hate it? I wanted to strip every single bum who had clung to Hyung and stand them in the middle of the street. If that didn’t resolve my anger, I’d have a fair fight with my fists.
But for Hyung to cut them off on his own like this. I felt like he was truly acknowledging me as his lover, and my heart kept floating.