By Zephyria 
The next day, Kyung-hyun and Yi-ho’s session took place. Among the attendees, Yi-ho spotted the man who had handed him a sticker the previous day. He felt a slight pang of regret that the man had left halfway through; it seemed he had come out of loyalty to their brief encounter rather than an actual interest in the presentation. Since the atmosphere was casual, many other people were coming and going during the session as well. Having grown accustomed to solemn presentations in company conference rooms with the lights turned off, Yi-ho felt a bit out of place. Fortunately, the session concluded smoothly, including the Q&A.
“Good work, everyone.”
“Yeah, we really suffered. You too, Yi-ho.”
Kyung-hyun, who was tidying up the podium, gave a thumbs-up with a tired expression. Yi-ho was equally drained.
The previous evening, the company had suddenly issued an order to add a flashy introduction of two AI technologies being used in the autumn new product launch. Yi-ho and Kyung-hyun met via a video call in the middle of the night, looking far different from their amicable appearance at the cafe.
Yi-ho had it rough, but Kyung-hyun, as the presenter, had even more to prepare. She tapped Yi-ho’s arm with her backpack, which was stuffed to the brim with materials.
“Hurry home. I can’t even bring myself to suggest we grab a meal before parting ways.”
“Yes. You get home safely too, Kyung-hyun.”
Yi-ho bowed his head to say goodbye to Kyung-hyun.
A rain shower must have fallen while they were in the session hall, as the asphalt ground was wet. The air, like a hot wet towel, remained the same even as sunset approached.
Upon arriving at the hotel, the world spun. Today, he flopped his body, still in his outdoor clothes, onto the pristine white bed.
“Ugh, I’m dying…”
Age cannot be cheated. In his twenties, pulling all-nighters for every assignment was common. It was frequent for him to sleep less than twenty hours in a whole week, but now his body screamed at him, asking if he had gone mad.
Because he was exhausted to the point of death, he ironically couldn’t fall asleep. Moreover, the dopamine from having accomplished something—even if it was a schedule that had squeezed the life out of him—surged and kept him awake. To add to that, there was a sliver of guilt for not having showered yet…
While tossing and turning, his phone rang. Yi-ho vowed that if the company called today, he would pretend to be dead and not answer.
However, the call was from someone else. A person who gave him both the fluttering excitement of a pleasantly racing heart and the comfort of answering the phone while lying down.
“What’s up?”
-Song-i Song-i, what are you doing?
“I was resting after the schedule ended.”
-Did the presentation go well?
His gaze shifted sideways, glancing at the screen. As if doing so would make the face of the caller appear.
“It was a disaster. I totally stumbled over my words, and the demo was glitchy.”
-Really? It didn’t seem like it at all.
“You were there, weren’t you?”
There was a face he had caught a glimpse of from the podium. Because the person had entered during the presentation and left before it ended, and because the lights were focused on the stage, he hadn’t been able to confirm the features clearly. But he had a feeling. Song Yi-ho might be oblivious, but his intuition, built from long-term habit, was usually spot on.
-Ah, you were testing me? Wow, our Song-i is great at running sessions and knows how to trick people. You’re all grown up.
Behind Min-gyu’s teasing voice, the sound of traffic could be heard. It seemed he wasn’t indoors.
Because work had suddenly piled up the previous day, they hadn’t even seen each other’s faces despite coming on the business trip together. He had even looked up that Thailand is a country where same-sex marriage is legal, yet they hadn’t even managed a single dinner. Seeing as he was just now getting off work, it seemed Min-gyu had worked all day just as much as he had.
“Cha Min-gyu, where are you?”
-I worked hard and I’m on my way back to the hotel. Do you have anything scheduled for tomorrow?
“The important stuff is all done today. I’ll just listen to some sessions I’m interested in and visit the company once…”
-I guess the company work isn’t that important.
“Yeah.”
Even that would likely be limited to reviewing presentation materials shown by Kyung-hyun.
-Then come to my room. I bought a bottle of wine. We’re abroad together for the first time in a while, we should have a drink, right?
Yi-ho bolted upright from his lying position.
-Order some room service appetizers in advance. I’ll be there in about 30 or 40 minutes.
“Got it.”
It was a perfect proposal for the current Yi-ho. He immediately left the bed and entered the bathroom he had been ignoring. After showering and changing clothes in a flurry of activity, he headed toward Min-gyu’s room. It was a room two floors above Yi-ho’s. When given the choice of rooms, he had naturally yielded the upper floor to Min-gyu, who was sensitive to surrounding noise.
True to Min-gyu’s personality, the room was spotless. Even the suitcase was placed neatly, as if aligned with the corner of the room. The only human trace was a hotel guest information sheet tossed carelessly on the nightstand.
The temperature in the room was slightly muggy. Yi-ho lowered the room temperature and sat on the edge of the bed.
When would he arrive? Yi-ho checked the call duration. It had been 15 minutes ago. It was blatantly obvious how frantically he had prepared and rushed over.
The duvet, which he tentatively sat on and brushed with his hand, was naturally stiff. It should have been the same duvet as in his own room, but this one felt more crisp. So, he needlessly flipped over the pillow…
“Ah, he told me to order room service.”
Yi-ho found the room service booklet on the nightstand next to the bed. Fortunately, it contained both Thai and English menus. Of course, while he could read English haltingly, his proficiency was equally poor.
First, steak. Meat… I should eat this, and rice. Rice…
The cold air pouring from the ceiling air conditioner mixed with the hot air, making his shoulders itch.
A sensation like light raindrops tapping began at one point and spread throughout his body. His eyelids stung as if he had fallen into water. The sound of raindrops continued in a slow rhythm, then at some point, it began to sound like actual rain.
Swoosh—. The rain, which had become a heavier shower, soon stopped. Instead, a warm humidity approached his face, and he lifted his eyelids, which he didn’t know had closed.
“You awake? Song-i Song-i, why are you sleeping in someone else’s room?”
The heat was coming from the naked body in front of him. The man, emitting warm steam from his body after a hot shower, had a large towel wrapped around his lower half, covering only the bottom. Leaning obliquely against the headboard, Yi-ho’s eyes snapped wide open.
“Get up. We agreed to hang out. You didn’t order appetizers, did you? I ordered them earlier.”
What is this? Is it a dream?
Is this a luxury he’s enjoying because he came to a country open to homosexuality? For a dream, the firm chest and shoulders moved too dynamically. A stream of water flowed long between the defined chest muscles, traveled down the abs, and soaked into the precariously wrapped towel.
Under the low lighting of the hotel, his vision momentarily blurred. An unknown danger signal flashed in his head. He felt he needed to keep some distance from Min-gyu, but Min-gyu, with a hardened expression, stepped even closer.
“Hey, Song Yi-ho.”
“G-get away…”
Although he had peeked at Cha Min-gyu’s underwear with a slightly dirty mind while holding his suitcase, he hadn’t wished for something like this. Beyond panic, a dry cough bubbled up from inside him.
But the problematic naked upper body continued to close the distance. Yi-ho waved his hand to signal him not to come closer, but Min-gyu instead grabbed Yi-ho’s shoulder tightly, preventing him from escaping. The towel tied around his waist seemed to be slipping subtly too…!
“Song Yi-ho!”
Min-gyu pressed his forearm against Yi-ho’s nose. The hot, hard arm pressed against the philtrum. Then, something else hot flowed over it.
“You have a nosebleed, you idiot!”
“Huh?”
Blinking and looking down, he saw his clothes stained with two long streaks of blood, like a dying message at a crime scene. Uh, huh?
“Don’t tilt your head back. Lean forward. Ah, damn, something to wipe with…”
Min-gyu’s gaze, unable to pull his arm away from under Yi-ho’s nose, wandered and stopped at the towel tied around his own waist.
While even the proactive Cha Min-gyu hesitated for a moment before executing that plan, Yi-ho, noticing, hurriedly pulled up the collar of his T-shirt.
“I’m bleed-ing, give me a tis-sue…”
“…….”
As Min-gyu moved his hand, the blood pooled under the nose splattered onto the T-shirt. His face flushed hot, as if he had been caught dropping a perverted item hidden in his clothes.
‘Wow, uh, what… is this…’
To the brain of Song Yi-ho, which had become as fragile as slime after staying up all night, the vivid 3D body of Cha Min-gyu seemed to be a shock too great to process.
“I told you not to tilt your head back!”
Even while going to find tissues, Min-gyu looked back and nagged. Yi-ho shuffled his position, worried about getting blood on the duvet. Eventually, using the tissues Min-gyu handed him, he half-blocked his lower face and headed to the bathroom.
Yi-ho fell into a state of self-loathing, wondering if he was really this much of a pervert. Looking in the large mirror, the area under his nose was completely bright red. No, no matter how much he liked Cha Min-gyu, isn’t this too extreme a reaction for a thirty-three-year-old man? Something a twenty-three-year-old wouldn’t even do…
By the time he had almost wiped away the blood from his face, he began to worry about how to open the bathroom door and go out.
Judging by Min-gyu’s reaction just now, he didn’t seem to think of him as a perverted bastard, but he might have figured out the situation by now…
Just then, the bathroom door swung open from behind. Min-gyu, now fully dressed, looked at him with worried eyes.
Chapter
38
“How are you feeling?”
Fortunately, Min-gyu didn’t seem to have realized that Song Yi-ho had been aroused by the sight of his friend’s naked body.
“The bleeding… seems to have stopped. Just a second….”
“Let me see.”
Min-gyu stepped closer and pressed down more firmly on Yi-ho’s hand, which was holding the bridge of his nose. Then, with a serious expression, he tilted Yi-ho’s pale face this way and that.
Yi-ho’s bewildered gaze landed on the side mirror. He looked a complete mess, wearing a shabby t-shirt used for pajamas that was now smeared with blood. Standing in front of Min-gyu, who had just come out of the shower looking pristine, the contrast was even more stark.
“…Cha Min-gyu, lend me a shirt.”
Instead of an answer to the request, a deep sigh echoed.
“Just come out first.”
His arm was gripped lightly as he was led out and sat down in a small chair. A bottle of mineral water was handed to him. As he drank through the straw, it felt quite burdensome that Min-gyu was staring intently at his nostrils—since both were plugged white with tissues.
“Did you fail to sleep properly yesterday too?”
Yi-ho set the water bottle down and nodded hesitantly.
“The company told me to put something in a session urgently, so I worked a bit more last night.”
“Haa….”
This was already the several-th time Min-gyu had sighed in front of Yi-ho. Every sigh radiated blatant dissatisfaction with the situation.
Standing up, Min-gyu picked up the receiver by the bed and called the front desk. He told them that he would pay for the food, so they didn’t need to bring it.
“Uh, hey….”
The moment Yi-ho started to rise to protest that it wasn’t necessary, Min-gyu’s stern gaze pierced him. Having finished the call, Min-gyu approached him again.
“Just go to sleep. Forget the alcohol and everything; you look like you’re in bad shape today.”
“No, I’m feeling better now….”
“Song Yi-ho, I’m actually going to get angry.”
“…….”
“Why do you work by grinding your body down? If it didn’t seem like it would be resolved before the business trip, you should have adjusted the schedule. Do you think the company will appreciate this? You’re just stressing out the people around you.”
No, well, the misunderstanding was too deep. Of course, overwork had played a part in this disaster. But the core cause was probably you…. No. There was no need to blame others; Song Yi-ho’s perverted inner thoughts were the biggest problem.
Looking at Yi-ho sternly, Min-gyu pulled out a chair and sat in front of him.
“Take out your phone.”
“Why…?”
Even as he asked, he was swept up by the intimidating momentum and did as he was told. Partly because he had a guilty conscience….
“It seems like you don’t need to go to the session, and as for the company visit, postpone it to the day after tomorrow right now, in front of me.”
“That’s not even that difficult. I can just pop in for a bit.”
“That’s why I’m telling you to postpone it. Tomorrow, you’re staying put and resting.”
He wanted to argue, but he felt like a child throwing a tantrum. Eventually, he wrote a message to Kyung-hyun. Sorry to contact you so late, but would it be possible to postpone the company visit tomorrow…. Kyung-hyun’s reply came almost immediately. He said he was actually thinking of taking tomorrow off himself, so he welcomed the change.
“This person takes much better care of his own body. Unlike some people.”
“I get it, so stop being sarcastic….”
Actually, rather than the sarcasm, his true wish was for Min-gyu to remove the lethality from his voice. …This is why Min-jung is scared of her older brother and likes her uncle more. Hearing that mutter, Min-gyu clicked his tongue in a way that was still somewhat scary, but he did soften his tone.
“Song-i.”
“Yeah.”
“Sleep here tonight. I can’t let you go, fearing you’ll work again tonight.”
“No… today really isn’t the day. Thanks to you, I don’t have anything left to do. I’ll get some proper rest.”
“Of course. Rest and look over the things coming from Korea.”
“Oh, since it’s come to this, I should add some code reviews….”
Ah.
What a damn genius. It was a leading question. With a face that said ‘Gotcha,’ Min-gyu patted the pillow on the bed.
“Ah, I won’t. I won’t do anything. You booked two rooms, why stay in a cramped one?”
“This is a double room anyway. Change your clothes first.”
Min-gyu went to his suitcase and pulled out a green t-shirt. It was a piece of clothing Yi-ho had seen a few times in Min-gyu’s casual wear. But why lend a shirt that was slightly oversized even for Cha Min-gyu? Given the atmosphere, it felt awkward to ask for something else, so he just accepted it.
He contemplated for a moment whether he should go back into the bathroom to change, but he simply turned his back and pulled off the blood-stained t-shirt. Since Cha Min-gyu had stripped off his own clothes right in front of him earlier, he probably wouldn’t think much of it, and given his own body, he likely wouldn’t feel much seeing Yi-ho’s thin body exposed. He slid his arms through the sleeves and pulled the shirt over his body. He looked exactly like a folded long umbrella. While he was at it, he looked in the mirror and removed the tissues plugging his nose. The bleeding seemed to have completely stopped.
Then, Min-gyu pointed to the bed again. No, this man really doesn’t know how scary a one-sided crush can be and keeps extending dangerous invitations.
But honestly, since he was intimidated, he figured he should listen for a bit and headed toward the bed. The guilt of causing worry played a part as well. He could just lie down for a while, let him know he was fine, and then leave. As soon as Yi-ho laid his head on the pillow, Min-gyu flopped down and took the spot beside him.
“Just how spoiled was Song-i Mushroom for the discharge to come out? I told you to give up on the trip if it was too much.”
It’s really not because of work…. And even if he had been busier than he was now, he would have come on the trip. Because.
“I wanted to travel with you too.”
“…….”
Min-gyu, who Yi-ho thought would nag more, let out a sigh and turned his body slightly toward Yi-ho. Yi-ho’s field of vision was filled with Min-gyu.
“Don’t lie flat on your back. The blood will flow backward.”
Yi-ho, who tried to avoid the gaze and lie facing the ceiling, was immediately stopped and held back. Whether Min-gyu had been hiding his strength all this time or Yi-ho simply had no strength left in his body, he couldn’t resist. When Yi-ho squirmed his shoulders, Min-gyu’s brow furrowed.
“Song-i.”
“…Fine. I’ll lie facing the other way.”
“Why bother?”
“…….”
Min-gyu’s voice grew closer. He propped himself up on his elbow, resting his chin on the pillow, and stared intently at Yi-ho.
“The back of Song-i’s head is pretty, but not enough to make me want to talk to it.”
In the end, Yi-ho had to give up on turning away. Furthermore, he ended up in a situation where Cha Min-gyu’s chest was right in front of him. It felt as if the naked body he saw earlier was being traced over the pajamas. In fact, the curves of the collarbone and pectoral muscles were slightly visible through the gap in the pajama collar.
Following the semi-nakedness, I’m really indulging in luxury abroad. He felt too guilty to run away with that thought.
Yi-ho desperately shifted his gaze to the area around Min-gyu’s chin, the most wholesome part of his body. But even there, there was the variable of a prominent Adam’s apple.
They had seen each other exhaustively, as long as their stubborn one-sided love had lasted. They had gone on several trips together. So why couldn’t he look at him? The state of being in a one-sided love was the same then as it was now. Back then, whether Cha Min-gyu wore a swimsuit or came out naked after a shower, it wasn’t to the point where he couldn’t look. Had this situation become awkward because they grew older, and instead of rubbing shoulders on public transport, they started driving separately, and instead of borrowing each other’s clothes or things, they started buying new ones?
Recalling the memories of trips he had taken with Cha Min-gyu helped his breathing settle a bit. It was thanks to the inertia provided by a long period of time.
Despite Yi-ho’s efforts, Min-gyu brought his hand to Yi-ho’s chin. His fingers brushed up his cheek and touched near his nose.
He could somehow hide the pounding of his heart under the thick duvet, but he felt that the quickened breathing caused by that thumping would soon be discovered.
When Yi-ho attempted to flip to the other side once more, a faster hand wrapped around his back.
“I told you it’ll flow backward. You really don’t listen.”
Min-gyu’s body suddenly drew closer to Yi-ho. Their toes tangled at the ankles. Min-gyu pulled Yi-ho’s shoulder completely into his embrace, making it impossible for him to move.
“Fine, Song Yi-ho. Let’s just sleep like this. Then you won’t be able to move even in your sleep.”
“Hey, you, why, why are you doing this!”
“What? We’re much closer when we spar.”
“Is that the same as this?”
“When we went to Europe, we slept in a bed smaller than this to save on expenses.”
“…Stop it. That was over ten years ago.”
“Song Yi-ho, you and I are friends, then and now. What’s different?”
“…….”
Hah. No matter how poor Yi-ho’s eloquence was, he could find a few words to respond to this absurd situation. It was only that the words wouldn’t come out because his heart was pounding up to his throat.
‘What is this bastard doing? Does he want to register a marriage with me? Does he want to make this hotel room a honeymoon suite?’
Instead of struggling, Yi-ho lowered his head. His face was hidden beneath the sheets.
“…Song-i.”
“…….”
After calling him Song Yi-ho with a firm voice for a while, now it’s Song-i again. Yi-ho didn’t even respond.
“I’m doing this because I’m worried. Please understand my heart. Okay? So you don’t get sick.”
Then, he gently patted the top of the duvet.
“Song-i Song-i Ho.”
“What.”
“Are you pouting?”
“I don’t even have the energy for that.”
“Then why won’t you show me your face? As if you can’t stand the sight of me.”
He didn’t know why Min-gyu had suddenly become so humble, but what could he say to someone who was nursing him and worrying about him? A sigh escaped Yi-ho’s lips. When he lifted his head slightly, Min-gyu’s face relaxed with satisfaction.
“Right, don’t avoid my eyes. It’s not like I’m going to hurt you.”
You beat my heart every single day.
“Lately, when Song-i avoids my eyes, I feel….”
“……?”
“Nothing. Let’s sleep now.”
With that, he pulled up the duvet to cover him.
Cha Min-gyu was originally kind. His delicate nature worked especially strongly toward his friend, Song Yi-ho.
“Song-i, you’re my family.”
Except for that part.
“…Cha Min-gyu, you’re too much.”
“What’s ‘too much’ when it comes to family?”
‘Right, fuck. Well said. Let’s just become family here. Family…, …….’
Thoughts consisting of nonsense had helped him divert his attention from the agitation caused by Cha Min-gyu and calm his heart. But now, instead of being funny, he suddenly felt sad.
It’s an industry-standard reward.
I should be happy….
Yi-ho closed his eyes tightly in the embrace of Min-gyu, who was pressed close to him. It was a very strange night.