By Zephyria 
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Eun-won, who had been toggling back and forth between his contacts and messaging app several times, pushed his decision back a bit and looked up. He figured it would be best to think about it on the way home.
As he was about to leave the cafe, he spotted a familiar black car. He wasn’t an expert on cars, but seeing the emblem of a rearing horse on the front immediately brought Cha Se-jin to mind. With a feeling of could it be…, Eun-won cautiously approached the vehicle.
He walked toward the driver’s side, but it had grown dark and the windows were so tinted that he couldn’t see inside. It looked empty, but just in case, Eun-won peered through the windshield at the driver’s seat, and his eyes widened.
Beyond the window, Cha Se-jin was sitting with his arms crossed, eyes closed. Is he asleep…? Why didn’t he leave? I definitely saw the car drive away earlier… Did he come back? While pondering these questions, Eun-won started to knock on the window but then pulled his hand back.
“…….”
While he felt it was right to wake him, he couldn’t bring himself to do it when he imagined Cha Se-jin falling asleep while waiting for him here. Then again, it didn’t make sense to let him stay here.
What should I do…
After fidgeting outside the window for a long while, Eun-won finally gave a light tap on the driver’s side window. There was no response. Thinking he might have tapped too softly, he knocked again with a bit more force, but again, there was no reaction.
After knocking two more times, Eun-won straightened his posture, made a firm decision, and walked around the hood toward the passenger seat. He gently pulled the door handle.
He had planned to knock on the window loudly enough to wake Cha Se-jin if the door was locked, but fortunately, it opened. Even though he had decided to wake Cha Se-jin by getting into the passenger seat, he hesitated for a moment, wondering if it was okay to enter the car without permission. However, since the only way to interpret Cha Se-jin’s presence here was that he was waiting for him, he gathered his courage, climbed into the passenger seat, and closed the door. Very, very gently, for fear of waking him.
At this point, Eun-won found himself absurd and amusing. He couldn’t tell if he wanted to wake him or keep him asleep. With a small smile, Eun-won flinched at the thick scent of Cha Se-jin’s pheromones filling the car.
Perhaps because he was asleep, the pheromones were denser than usual. The pheromones, flowing more loosely than normal and trapped within the car, enveloped Eun-won. Sitting with his thighs pressed tightly together, Eun-won gazed at Cha Se-jin, who remained asleep, unaware that he had entered the car.
He seemed exhausted. To fall into such a deep sleep in such an uncomfortable position… He must be busier than usual, yet he came to pick him up and drop him off, which would make him even more tired.
“…….”
This was the first time he had looked at the man’s profile so closely and for so long, as if observing him. He had thought from the first time they met that he had a face so handsome that it constantly stole his gaze regardless of the situation, but looking closely, it was a face that was difficult to describe simply as “handsome.” His eyelashes were long, and the bridge of his nose was beautiful. Perhaps because he was sleeping, he also seemed quite gentler than usual.
‘At my house, I’m the gentle one.’
The moment he recognized that he looked gentle, the words Cha Se-jin had said came back to him. Thinking about it again, it was a word that truly didn’t suit Cha Se-jin. Cha Se-jin, a “gentle one”? Well… looking at him while he slept, maybe it was possible? A light laugh escaped the corners of his lips unconsciously.
Feeling guilty for having so many thoughts while looking at a sleeping person, he forced his fixed gaze away and took a deep breath to calm his strangely excited heart, but it wasn’t easy due to Cha Se-jin’s pheromones filling the car.
“Why did you close the door so gently? How is that supposed to wake me up?”
Startled by the voice beside him, Eun-won turned his head back and locked eyes with Cha Se-jin, who was already looking at him.
“…Did you wake up when I got in?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why….”
“Darling was looking at me so erotically that I pretended to sleep for a bit so you could look all your heart’s content.”
“…I wasn’t looking at you erotically….”
“I almost gave it away when you smiled while looking. Why do you make people misunderstand and then smile like that?”
Reaching out, Cha Se-jin rubbed Eun-won’s soft cheek with his fingertips and restarted the engine. Eun-won pressed the cheek where those fingertips had touched, feeling a sudden rush of heat and exhaling a hot breath.
“…Why did you come back? I saw you leave earlier….”
“It felt like a waste to leave after only seeing you for one minute.”
Perhaps because he had just woken up, Cha Se-jin’s voice was a bit lower than usual. Eun-won chewed the inside of his lip and fidgeted with his bag strap. He didn’t know if it was a joke or a sincere statement… but his heart leaned toward the unfamiliar words before his head could process them, and his heart began to thumping rapidly. He thought it was because of the pheromones filling the car.
“Are you hot?”
“…A little….”
Cha Se-jin placed a finger on Eun-won’s warm cheek as if checking his temperature. He liked the finger, which felt cool compared to the temperature of his face. When the finger spread and the large hand cupped his entire cheek, his eyes closed instinctively. The strength left his body, and his mind became hazy.
Looking at Eun-won leaning into his hand, Cha Se-jin rolled his tongue inside his mouth. He wanted to bury his face in the places that were stripped bare and where the body scent was inevitably strongest. He wanted to bite and suck the places where that sweet milk scent pooled, making him cry out.
The thought of Eun-won’s face, pinned under his body, unable to move and crying because he felt too much, sparked a violent impulse. He had been avoiding sex for a while because playing with Eun-won was so fun, and it seemed it had piled up in the meantime.
Still, he had no desire to go roll around with anyone else today. It was because he knew too clearly what was the most eye-catching and interesting thing. He wasn’t so pathetic as to grab just anyone to play with when something beautiful was right in front of him. Besides, it was his “bleaching” period.
Fearing that if he kept his hand there, he would touch deeper places instead of just the face, Cha Se-jin slowly stroked the cheek, wrapped his hand around the nape of the neck to massage it gently, and stroked Eun-won’s fine hair.
“Is it okay if we go back late?”
A hint of wariness flickered in the eyes looking back at him. It seemed he had interpreted the meaning of “late” impurity. If it weren’t the case, he would have said so, but since he had said it honestly hoping he would misunderstand, Cha Se-jin simply grinned and lightly pressed Eun-won’s earlobe with his fingertip.
“I mean, don’t just go home after dinner, stay with me a bit longer. Did you think I meant let’s do something erotic? I’d like that, though.”
“…….”
Smiling at Eun-won, who pressed his lips tight, Cha Se-jin this time pinched Eun-won’s cheek gently before letting go. He seemed to have a quite docile and unassuming personality, but the fact that he wasn’t a pushover was appealing.
“We’ll eat dinner quietly, then eat dessert quietly, and I’ll take you home quietly until the end, so don’t look at me like that. I don’t like touching people who say they hate it either. There’s no reason for me to do that.”
“Yes….”
Finding the answer funny in a good way and cute, Cha Se-jin touched Eun-won’s cheek again and stretched, moving his neck which had grown stiff from dozing.
“What should we have for dinner? Hmm, gnocchi sounds good… or should we have dim sum? Which do you prefer?”
“I’ve never had either.”
“Ah, then let’s go for gnocchi first. There are a lot of things there you’ll like. We’ll go for dim sum tomorrow.”
“Yes, I’d like that.”
Eun-won fastened his seatbelt and searched for gnocchi on his phone. Seeing that it was a type of pasta made by mixing potatoes, flour, and eggs, and looking at the various photos below, he felt a slight hunger. Even though he only saw it with his eyes, he thought it looked delicious.
Due to some traffic, it took about 40 minutes to reach the destination, an Italian bistro called
As if it were a place he knew well, a staff member greeted Cha Se-jin warmly, saying it had been a long time. They then guided them to a seat. Once again, it wasn’t the main hall but a quiet room. Eun-won entered the cozy, atmospheric room and sat down.
“How would you like your meal prepared?”
After looking at the menu, Cha Se-jin pondered for a moment and named a few dishes. Cream gnocchi, fresh pasta ragu, honey fig gorgonzola, and citrus scallop carpaccio. Eun-won didn’t understand all of them, but he was still very excited.
The first dish to arrive was the scallop. With pieces of grapefruit and a yellow dressing on top of the scallops, which were thin enough to be transparent, it tasted refreshing in his mouth.
Next, as per Cha Se-jin’s request, the gnocchi, pasta, and pizza were placed all at once. Eun-won took the plate Cha Se-jin handed him, having portioned out small amounts for him to taste. He then put the gnocchi, which he was most curious about, into his mouth along with the cream sauce.
“How is it?”
“It’s so delicious.”