By Zephyria 
Pushed back by the offensive, Min-gyu retreated step by step until his back finally hit the corner. The moment Yi-ho, who had pinned Min-gyu into the corner, threw a punch, Min-gyu ducked sharply and grabbed him by the waist. Wrapping his arms around Yi-ho’s upper body, Min-gyu shoved him back with his head and shoulder.
“Hmph…!”
Yi-ho gasped at the unexpected counterattack. Pressed tightly against the center of Yi-ho’s chest, Min-gyu could feel the thumping of his heart against his ear.
Having dragged his opponent back to the center of the ring, Min-gyu took an attacking stance. Yi-ho, who had been pressing him so fiercely until a moment ago, was standing there with a strangely dazed expression. The opponent’s lapse in concentration was a golden opportunity for Min-gyu. A glove full of power flew toward Yi-ho’s face.
“…….”
At the last second, however, he changed direction and tapped Yi-ho’s arm. Yi-ho clutched the arm that had been hit. He frowned as he looked at the point of impact, and then at Min-gyu.
“What was that?”
He was dull about everything else, yet he was sharp exactly at times like this. Moreover, he seemed quite displeased by the fact that Min-gyu had gone easy on him. Min-gyu shrugged.
“Hey, come to think of it, how could I hit someone who had a bad cold until a few days ago? Just hit me instead.”
“…Then why did you suggest coming here?”
It was a question that hit the nail on the head, unlike Yi-ho. Min-gyu’s purpose, of course, wasn’t exercise. If Yi-ho was unhappy, he wanted to cheer him up, and once he was, he wanted to hear him out.
“I didn’t really feel like exercising; did you come just because of me?”
“Not exactly.”
The desire for Yi-ho to let out what was inside him stemmed from his own frustration, so it wasn’t because of Yi-ho.
“Cha Min-gyu, I’m slow on the uptake, so I only just realized. Yesterday, was you continuing to drink in front of the Head of Department also to keep me from drinking?”
That was a question that made him want to ask, Did you only just realize that? He wished those efforts had been recognized sooner.
However, after hearing Yi-ho’s crooked tone, he didn’t feel like answering honestly.
“No? It was because I wanted to drink a lot yesterday. Tuna appetizers, and it was on the corporate card.”
“…….”
Yi-ho closed the distance again. A loud thwack! echoed. This time, he intentionally aimed for the top of Min-gyu’s guarding glove. The sound of the impact resembled the popping of sparks before a large explosion.
Thwack, thwack. The same sound repeated as they exchanged blows. After hearing Min-gyu’s words, Yi-ho’s expression vanished.
This time, something surged up inside Min-gyu as well. The Yi-ho standing before him was incredibly irritating. It wasn’t that he was angry at Song Yi-ho as a person, but he felt a strong aversion to this situation and Yi-ho’s attitude toward him. To the point where he wanted to scream and ask why.
Since when? No, what was the cause? What was the problem?
The unpleasantness he felt now resembled anxiety. That tingling sensation caused his strength to fail at the final moment of a strike. Seeing the weakness of the attack that hit him, Yi-ho’s expression grew even fiercer.
This wasn’t good. Forgetting the original purpose of coming here, Min-gyu’s emotions began to fray.
“If you’re acting like this because of yesterday, regardless of what my purpose was, I don’t think this is the right way to handle it.”
Min-gyu didn’t attack. Instead, he slapped aside a blind punch thrown his way.
“Department Head Gye wants to keep you as his own person. But that’s a rope you shouldn’t grab onto. That’s why I stepped in.”
“Then just tell me with words. I’ll avoid it well.”
“With your level of intuition, Song-i Mushroom?”
“If things go wrong, I’ll handle it myself. How old am I?”
Ha, Min-gyu let out a sharp breath.
“Hey, Song Yi-ho.”
The continuing rejection was reaching a point where it was truly sickening.
“Has my interference become something strange to you? Why? Since when?”
“…I didn’t say it was strange. I said it was excessive.”
Even in this state, the idiot Song Yi-ho corrected his words out of worry for the hurt others might feel. Thwack! Min-gyu’s glove struck Yi-ho’s guard hard.
“…….”
Then, Min-gyu pulled the gloves off his hands entirely. His wrists, which had taken a few proper hits, stung slightly.
“Song Yi-ho, you’ve definitely changed lately, and you know you’ve never given me a proper explanation other than saying I’m ‘excessive,’ right?”
“…….”
“I’m sorry, but I’m going to keep doing this even if you keep running away. At least until you tell me a reason I can accept.”
Because of the heat, both were drenched in sweat after just a short amount of movement. Hair clung to Yi-ho’s forehead and cheeks. Moreover, the lines of his body were clearly visible through his damp clothes.
As his gaze traveled down Yi-ho’s cheeks, shoulders, waist, and hands, Min-gyu suddenly felt a bit more unpleasant.
“While we’re at it, be more careful.”
“About what?”
“The way the youngest in your team clings to you, the way you let other people touch your arms and legs and stroke your face, the way you just snap up whatever they give you without checking—you’d better refrain from that.”
Yi-ho’s expression distorted strangely. This was why he hadn’t wanted to say anything. Min-gyu let out a deep sigh.
Throughout his time at the company, nothing like that had ever happened to Cha Min-gyu. Min-gyu knew that Yi-ho appeared attractive to people.
Unlike his generally clean-cut face, he was popular for his harmless attitude and his ability to dive deep into the field of computing. And on the surface, how would a person with that face and a gentle personality appear to others?
He had witnessed it firsthand in Thailand. Min-gyu, who had stopped by Yi-ho’s session to cheer him on, discovered foreigners pointing at Yi-ho from below the stage and saying something. Listening closely, they started by saying his face was like a K-pop singer, then moved on to saying they liked his body and wondering if he’d be hot in bed—even spewing bullshit like, “No, a type like that is better off knowing nothing.”
Standing between them and Yi-ho, Min-gyu chased away the bastards who kept muttering, telling them to get lost. Even then, his anger didn’t subside for a long time.
“You’re not interested in dating and have only liked women, so you might not know, but there are many men in the world with peculiar tastes.”
“…….”
“I’m saying that men can have strange thoughts about other men.”
Min-gyu spoke in a calm and gentle voice, as if giving sex education to a child. Despite that, Song Yi-ho’s expression only hardened.
“Then what about you?”
“If you have a conscience, you shouldn’t ask back about me. Who at the company would act like that toward me?”
“You do it to me too, not just other people. Hugging me suddenly, touching me, giving me things.”
“Wow… I’m so hurt. Song-i, I’m…”
I’m different. How could I be the same as others? But he couldn’t think of a concise way to explain it.
“We’re friends.”
“Ha…”
Yi-ho wiped his face with both hands.
“That’s the problem, you crazy bastard.”
“What is?”
“You… let’s keep some distance for a while. …Right now, it’s really strange.”
Something snapped in Min-gyu’s head as well.
“Yi-ho.”
Keep distance? Just like that, unilaterally?
Min-gyu took a step toward him. The gaze that usually held him blankly was sharp now that the words “keep distance” had been uttered.
The sparring had ended long ago, but the sound of gloves clashing, like a prelude to an explosion, seemed to ring out faster.
“Don’t make me laugh. Did you think I’d just say, ‘Yes, let’s do that,’ if you unilaterally decided and notified me?”
Min-gyu stepped forward as if wary that Yi-ho might disappear.
“Don’t I have at least this much right over you?”
“…….”
“Who else knows you as well as I do, and stays as disgustingly close to you as I do?”
“That’s why I’m saying those words are strange.”
“Song Yi-ho, what exactly is so strange?”
“Who the hell worries about that kind of thing between friends? Even brothers wouldn’t say that to each other if they’re both guys.”
“What does it matter if others do or not? Do those people have a friend who looks like you? And you—why is the result of caring about that to tell me to keep my distance? Is our relationship only worth that much to you?”
Min-gyu knew that the words he was saying were becoming strangely overheated.
What would he have done if the opponent had been someone else? In the first place, he would never have cared this much for anyone other than Song Yi-ho, but even assuming he had, if they asked for distance after he’d looked after them, he would have cut off his sincerity without a shred of regret.
But Song Yi-ho?
It would be less shocking if his parents threatened to remove him from the family register than if Yi-ho turned his back on him. He had no idea what the problem was in this relationship or why this was happening.
And while Yi-ho was pushing him away with all sorts of hurtful words, why was it Yi-ho who wore a sorrowful expression?
“I’m saying stop because I’m close to you, Cha Min-gyu! Because I want this to last! Don’t you think we’ll become awkward after saying things like that?”
“No. I’d rather blow it all up. I like seeing the gentle Song-i Song-i explode and say what he needs to say to me. So, please, just tell me everything you haven’t been able to say!”
He had once said in this very spot that even if Yi-ho threw a fit for no reason, he would beg for forgiveness up to three times. Probably, even if Yi-ho pushed him away with nonsensical stubbornness, three times wouldn’t be enough—he would cling on pathetically as many times as it took. To Cha Min-gyu, Song Yi-ho was that kind of existence.
He thought Song Yi-ho felt the same.
“Stop hiding it and feeling frustrated alone, and just tell me when you started thinking this and what you’ve been thinking!”
“…….”
Eventually, his voice grew loud. The low voice spread and echoed through the hallway of the old shopping center. As resentment surged and his vision wavered, Yi-ho let out a long, trembling breath. When he finally lifted his face, he was smiling palely.
“Cha Min-gyu.”
Yi-ho spoke as if spitting out something very painful.
“I definitely tried to give up.”
The moment Yi-ho looked at him and used the word ‘give up,’ Min-gyu clenched his fist. Who was giving up on whom? Song Yi-ho, on me?
“Why would you…”
“Then how do you think the person you take care of, hug, and touch would feel about you?”
The “What?” stopped at his lips.
“I like you, you bastard.”
Yi-ho’s face distorted, turning bright red like a fruit that had missed its harvest. His eyes grew wet, as if sap were leaking from deep within the flesh.
“This is the thought I haven’t been able to say for ten years, and the reason I’ve been digging my own grave in frustration. So stop it.”
“…….”
“I’ll… sort it out on my own.”
The whites of his eyes, straining to hold back tears, were bloodshot. Despite the moisture, his gaze was clear. It was the gaze Min-gyu had seen many times over a decade, the eyes that had made Yi-ho a special person to him.
Min-gyu’s mouth opened slightly and then closed again.
His mind went blank. The voice from the outside didn’t organize properly and just floated within him.
Min-gyu understood the context of the confession Yi-ho had let out. The ‘liking’ he spoke of was not a simple matter of preference.
Song Yi-ho, likes me.
While he was unable to show any reaction, Yi-ho turned around first. Stepping down from the ring, he began to leave the gym with fast strides. Min-gyu followed him, his face still dazed.
“Song Yi-ho!”
Without any calculation, he reached out his hand to Yi-ho.