#53

The place Kwon Jung-hyun took him to was a parking alley a short distance from the bar. There were recycling bins, illegible posters, and a few vending machines lined up. A strange scent of soy sauce and fish cake soup lingered in the air.

“Want something to drink?”

Jung-hyun asked, looking at the vending machine.

“If you don’t say anything, I’m picking based on my own taste.”

Shin Ho-jae stared blankly at his profile without a word. Kwon Jung-hyun didn’t ask further and pressed a button on the machine. Soon, with a clunk, a heavy plastic bottle dropped.

Instead of letting Kwon Jung-hyun bend down, Shin Ho-jae reached in and pulled out the bottle. It was a blue ion drink, the kind he often drank during matches. Ho-jae opened the cap and abruptly thrust it in front of Jung-hyun.

Seeing this, Kwon Jung-hyun made a strange expression. Only when Ho-jae stubbornly continued to hold the bottle out did he finally take it.

“Why didn’t you come to see the match yesterday?”

Ho-jae saw Jung-hyun’s brow furrow. He answered slowly as he brought the mouth of the bottle to his lips. Shin Ho-jae stared intently at his face until he took a drink.

“Something came up.”

“Like what?”

“You’ve become quite interested in me.”

“Did you happen to go to the hospital?”

“Hospital?”

“The pheromone center or wherever. I heard people get sick after receiving pheromones.”

“Did I look sick? Why did you think that?”

“You weren’t drinking any alcohol.”

Jung-hyun’s expression turned strange once again.

“You were watching that?”

“And then you kept forcing yourself to drink when people gave it to you. Why be so foolish?”

“…….”

“Who is going to say anything if the owner says he doesn’t want to? You could have just not drunk it.”

Kwon Jung-hyun stood there, gazing blankly at Ho-jae. As a gap formed in the conversation, the words he had just uttered suddenly replayed in his mind.

Didn’t I already talk about this earlier…? No? Did I only think it? Why am I confused?

“Did you drink a lot?”

“Huh? No.”

“Now that I see, Ho-jae, you’re quite a good liar. I think you told me you don’t drink during the season.”

“…….”

“Or maybe you were just making excuses back then because you didn’t want to drink with me.”

“…That’s not an answer to my question.”

“Ho-jae, you’re drunk right now. And I’m a bit too tired to talk to someone who repeats themselves. Shall we stop talking and head back?”

Kwon Jung-hyun curled his lips into a smile and tossed the plastic bottle, from which he had taken only one sip, straight into the trash can. The sound of the heavy bottle colliding with the garbage was loud.

Just then, a bicycle without lights suddenly darted out from behind Jung-hyun. Reflexively, Shin Ho-jae grabbed Jung-hyun’s arm and yanked him sharply toward himself.

However, perhaps because his control over his strength was off due to the alcohol, he pulled too hard. Kwon Jung-hyun’s face collided with Ho-jae’s chest with a thud.

In the next instant, the bicycle zoomed past them. Jung-hyun frowned, placed a hand on Ho-jae’s chest, and pushed himself away.

“What on earth are you doing….”

“You’re hot. I think you have a fever.”

Now that he mentioned it, Ho-jae remembered the tailor shop owner saying that Jung-hyun often ran a fever. He felt worried.

“Is that why you couldn’t come to the match?”

“I told you something came up. More importantly, stop showing off your strength and let go of me, will you?”

Shin Ho-jae did not let go of Jung-hyun. Jung-hyun looked up at him with a slightly wounded pride in his eyes.

“I think, Representative, you try to avoid the situation whenever there’s something you want to hide.”

Shin Ho-jae felt like he was starting to understand this man.

When this man smiled, when he avoided a situation. Every time, Kwon Jung-hyun had been evading something.

“That’s why you’re difficult.”

What could it be? What was he hiding?

“Are you a good person, Representative, or a bad person?”

Jung-hyun let out a hollow laugh.

“Shin Ho-jae, are you an elementary school student?”

“…….”

Ho-jae felt offended. To use that tone when he was asking seriously.

Of course, he knew that people couldn’t be divided so dichotomously. Someone who is a good person to him might be a bad person to others, or vice versa.

But there had to be a limit. Shin Ho-jae had never seen anyone as extreme as Kwon Jung-hyun.

He would act like a mean and dirty person, then show a kind and sacrificial side; he seemed like a strong and solid person, then showed a side that was infinitely fragile.

Since he couldn’t reach a conclusion on his own, he wanted to hear a definitive answer from him.

Jung-hyun used his other hand to pry Shin Ho-jae’s hand off and lifted one corner of his mouth.

“Now I’m curious. If I answer that I’m a good person, what changes?”

“…….”

“I think I’ve figured something out too. Shin Ho-jae, you think someone is only worth being kind to if they are a good person.”

“…What?”

“Isn’t that why you’ve been a bit soft with me lately? Saying you’ll do the pheromone extraction you hated so much, putting a bandage on me….”

“…….”

“Shall I guess? Seeing me lying down because I was unwell made you feel a bit sorry for me, and you thought my mother was too much? I must have looked quite pitiful that day.”

“…….”

“I’m sorry I can’t give you the answer you want to hear. You know as well as I do that I’m not that kind of person.”

Kwon Jung-hyun took a step back from Shin Ho-jae and pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. Ho-jae watched with a hardened brow as he put one in his mouth and lit it.

He felt as if he had been hit right where it hurt. But he didn’t want to admit it.

“…I didn’t ask because there was something I wanted to hear.”

Kwon Jung-hyun turned his head and exhaled smoke.

“Then? Did you ask because you were truly curious? I’m honored. You really have become quite interested in me.”

Jung-hyun curled his lips and immediately followed up with a question.

“Do you perhaps like me?”

Shin Ho-jae’s brow furrowed instantly.

The sudden jump in topic was absurd. How on earth could he think that his actions up until now were because he liked him? It was a ridiculous stretch.

Jung-hyun stared at Ho-jae’s expression and inhaled from the filter.

“That’s a face that’s suddenly sobered up. Otherwise, behave yourself. I might misunderstand.”

A slight laugh was mixed into his voice. And what followed was a gentle request for him to leave.

“Since you’re sober, why don’t you head inside first?”

At those words, Shin Ho-jae looked up. He felt a sense of déjà vu. Like the day Kwon Jung-hyun told him to go back.

Only then did he see the expression on Kwon Jung-hyun’s face that he had missed in his flustered state. A face wearing a faint smile.

Shin Ho-jae now knew that when Kwon Jung-hyun smiled like that, he wanted to hide something.

“Then, Representative.”

And at the same time, a very faint and soft, small contact came to mind.

If it wasn’t a delusion, it was definitely.

“Why did you kiss me that day?”

“Kiss?”

Jung-hyun furrowed his brow as if asking what he was talking about.

“Which time are you referring to? In my memory, I think I did it over twenty times every time I took it out. If you hated that, you should have—”

“When I was sleeping, you did it secretly.”

“…….”

“On my nose.”

For a split second, Kwon Jung-hyun’s poker face crumbled. Shin Ho-jae took a step closer to him. He instinctively stepped half a pace back.

Now Shin Ho-jae thought he understood a little. To draw the truth out of a man skilled at lying, one had to dig into moments exactly like this and pry the gap wide open.

His heart began to thrum. Was it the exhilaration of finding a gap? Was it because he was anticipating the answer? Or was it simply the remaining effects of the alcohol? He couldn’t tell.

“It was very different from the kisses you gave… when you were taking it out.”

“…….”

Shin Ho-jae stepped right up to him. This time, Jung-hyun did not avoid him. The distance between them narrowed to the point where he could embrace him just by reaching out.

Kwon Jung-hyun stared at Shin Ho-jae without a word or any expression.

It was certainly a different expression from when he only pushed him away with a smile. It was then that a slight smile played on Shin Ho-jae’s lips.

“Why ask something like that.”

With a short laugh, Kwon Jung-hyun grabbed Shin Ho-jae by the collar and yanked him sharply toward himself. Losing his balance, Ho-jae wrapped both hands around Jung-hyun’s shoulders.

In the next moment, Kwon Jung-hyun’s face approached. Their lips met with a soft chu. When Ho-jae opened his mouth slightly in surprise, Kwon Jung-hyun didn’t miss the opening and bit and sucked on his lower lip.

Shin Ho-jae closed his eyes unconsciously. A soft and sweet kiss followed. Their breaths mingled and their saliva entwined. The hands that had been holding his shoulders naturally slid down to grip his waist.

The kiss ended as abruptly as it had begun. Kwon Jung-hyun suddenly pulled his face away. In the eyes of the panting Shin Ho-jae, lust had already welled up.

A smile appeared on Kwon Jung-hyun’s face as he saw this. He pulled the collar he was holding. Shin Ho-jae followed along as he was pulled, without any resistance.

Jung-hyun whispered low in Shin Ho-jae’s ear.

“Because you’re horny.”

54 – Puck Drop