By Zephyria 
[ERROR] 202X-06-28 15:32:38 – Server Runtime Exception
“What now….”
The test project terminated along with the error. Why on earth was the server doing this? Had the company database been washed away by the insane rain?
Of course, after several hours of scouring the code until his eyes felt like they were being plucked out, it would be revealed that Yi-ho had simply missed something. A fierce battle with one’s own past code is the destiny of every developer.
Raindrops beat against the window as harshly as Department Head Gye’s reprimands regarding errors. Yi-ho stretched his arms high above his head to loosen his stiff body. As he did, his short sleeve slid down his shoulder. Looking puzzled, Yi-ho squeezed his own arm. The volume had… decreased. It was because he had lost both fat and muscle simultaneously. Since he hadn’t been eating properly lately, there was no reason to feel wronged, but still….
“Haa….”
Even if an error in a program is difficult, a solution can be found.
As for the longest unrequited love for Cha Min-gyu—the most serious concern of Song Yi-ho’s life—there had at least been an answer: maintaining the status quo alone.
An engineering soul to the bone, Yi-ho had always struggled with problems that didn’t have a clear answer. Furthermore, once the uncontrollable element known as Cha Min-gyu started running wild, every process became a complete mess.
Yi-ho knew he had reached the limit of running away. More accurately, that Cha Min-gyu’s patience for Yi-ho’s trivial escapes had run out.
Their relationship became intricately tangled, like the humid air of the rainy season. The more he fled, the louder the emotional time bomb ticked.
Cha Min-gyu was the type of person who thought of ten or twenty different paths while Yi-ho thought of one. Therefore, normally, Min-gyu would have known the slow-paced Yi-ho and waited. But the current Min-gyu seemed to have no intention of doing so. The few days of generosity granted after the escape at the apartment were effectively a warning. That the next time they met, he would definitely put a period to this matter.
“…….”
Then, after that, the relationship would change in one way or another.
If so, what would be the best direction?
If this were a program, he would run countless tests, but life didn’t work that way. He couldn’t undo words already spoken, nor could he stop a timer that was running on its own.
Probably after work today. …Or at the latest, tonight. That would be the limit of Min-gyu’s waiting. This was a premonition Yi-ho had because he had observed Cha Min-gyu for a long time.
He felt as if he could hear the hands of the clock on the time bomb going tick, tick in his ears. A sound that wouldn’t be strange if it exploded at any moment.
Tick, tick, …tick.
“……?”
But why does it feel like I’m actually hearing it?
Yi-ho slowly stopped his hands from tapping the keyboard.
…Tick, …tick…. Tick….
Once the clatter of the keyboard vanished, the sound in question became even clearer. Yi-ho’s eyes widened as he stared at the monitor, his pupils trembling aimlessly. Only after alternating between a few deep breaths through his nose could he turn his gaze toward the door. There was only his usual studio apartment, which looked exceptionally bleak due to the rainy season.
Then what was this mysterious sound?
Tick…, t-tick…. Tick….
While the sound—which resembled a knock or perhaps small footsteps—continued, the sky pouring rain thundered.
“Ah, please….”
Was it a mistake to leave the lights off in the room and only have the monitor on for the sake of concentration? Goosebumps rose on his arms.
Song Yi-ho, an engineering soul to the bone, does not believe in the occult. However, not believing doesn’t mean he lacks the fear that every human possesses. And as someone who utterly hated problems without answers, he had no immunity to unscientific phenomena!
Yi-ho awkwardly lifted his hips from the chair. “Ghosts don’t exist in this world…,” he muttered in a voice like a bleating goat as he craned his neck out of the study.
For now, only the mysterious ticking sound continued; it didn’t seem like anything was outside. The fact that the house looked bleaker than usual was definitely because the lights weren’t on during a rainy day.
Yi-ho reached for the switch to at least brighten the room.
It was then.
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.
The same sound began to occur right behind his back.
Moreover, it was close. His defensive instinct made him spin around immediately. Yi-ho’s eyes were filled with horror as he confirmed a dark shape.
A large stain coloring the ceiling wallpaper, and a stream of water dripping from it one drop at a time.
“Aaaagh!”
A loud scream erupted from the mouth of Song Yi-ho, a man who never held the microphone even at karaoke and didn’t raise his voice more than three times a year.
It was raining inside the house.
∗ ∗ ∗
The rain that had been drizzling since he left for work poured down with even more terrifying momentum by the afternoon. The atmosphere in the office was as bleak as the weather. On days like this, lethargy tended to spread.
Min-gyu also looked at the sky and let out a sigh through his nose. Then, habitually turning his head toward the seat next to him, he locked eyes with someone who was not the original owner of that spot.
“Uh… Team Leader Cha, what is it?”
“Nothing. I’m just having trouble concentrating.”
“The weather is a bit much today, isn’t it? Even for the rainy season, I feel it’s overdoing it.”
As the price for initiating the conversation, he had to engage in a pointless chat with someone who also happened to not want to work. After finishing the conversation, Min-gyu gave a nod of his head and turned back to the front. Deputy Manager Kang, who brought a folder at the perfect timing, witnessed the conversation.
“Still, it must be boring since the development team leader isn’t here, right?”
Hearing the question, Min-gyu let out a short laugh. He was almost glad to hear about the friend who had hidden himself so thoroughly that he was about to forget what his face looked like.
“I like Team Leader Song. It’s Team Leader Song who hates me.”
“Ahaha… I’m sure.”
“Huh? You don’t believe me.”
“I don’t know. I think public opinion is a bit different. Seeing how everyone feels bad for Yi-ho when you two fight….”
“Hmm? Really?”
“Well, since Min-gyu’s combat power is so overwhelming….”
Min-gyu flipped through the documents as he listened to the answer. Perhaps the previous incident had served as a lesson, as Deputy Manager Kang’s documents had become significantly more meticulous since then.
“I don’t know about others, but isn’t it a bit much to take the side of another team’s leader right in front of your own team leader?”
“Ahaha, wow, you actually say things like that. Even if Yi-ho and I teamed up, we probably couldn’t beat you, Min-gyu.”
I mean, I don’t know why you two are teaming up. I’m the one who would be the first to jump out and fight if Song Yi-ho were getting beaten up somewhere.
Min-gyu handed over the signed documents after finishing the review. Even as he returned to his work after sending Deputy Manager Kang away, her words rolled around in his head.
Did it look to others like I was pushing Song Yi-ho too hard?
“…….”
That connected to the series of events that had unfolded over the past few days. The fact that Song Yi-ho was running away from him might be because of the awkward topic they had to discuss face-to-face, but… could it be that he was scared of me?
No, although Yi-ho is introverted, he isn’t the type of person to get intimidated and shrink away like that.
However, it was true that the most recent memories remaining in his mind were of him grabbing Yi-ho’s arm and shouting, and the scene of him relentlessly pursuing him.
The corners of his mouth, which had been stiff in agony, curved slightly askew. With one side running away and the other chasing, it was hard to tell who was the one with the unrequited love.
And this, while he himself went around enchanting even members of other teams.
The sky steadfastly poured raindrops all day long. With this amount of rainfall, there would be quite a few reports of flooding on the evening news. As if the dark clouds had made the company’s clock hands heavy, time flowed exceptionally slowly until it was finally time to leave work.
Min-gyu was the first among the marketing team members to stand up from his seat.
“Then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Leaving the office with quick steps, he grabbed his umbrella and went down to the lobby.
With the start of a rainy season described as “historic,” he was semi-forced to use public transportation and taxis. Normally, he would have hated the slow and tedious commute, but for now, the time to organize his thoughts and reflect on himself wasn’t bad.
The one occupying his mind for several days was, of course, his friend of 15 years, Song Yi-ho.
To be precise, he had never left a spot in Min-gyu’s head since they first met 15 years ago. That was why Min-gyu had expressed it in words many times. Song Yi-ho, you are more like family than my own family. The proportion of friendship with you in my life is huge, and it’s so precious. Yi-ho had never given an answer to those words. There were many moments when he felt quite hurt by that.
‘I like you, you bastard. This is what I’ve been unable to say for 10 years, and the reason I was digging a hole for myself in frustration.’
So, I occupied a large proportion of your head as well.
Though it wasn’t in the direction he had expected.
Yi-ho seemed to have worried that he would feel disgust if a person of the same sex harbored romantic feelings, but Min-gyu’s impression of the confession itself was closer to a positive one. I might have occupied a quite high position—perhaps even the very first—in Song Yi-ho’s priorities. That fact gave Min-gyu a considerable sense of fulfillment.
Although he didn’t like that Yi-ho had started avoiding him as if trying to burrow into the ground.
Min-gyu boarded a taxi he called via an app. Traffic began shortly after leaving the company. If he had brought his own car, he would have experienced that congestion from the moment he left the parking lot.
If Yi-ho had commuted with him, the journey back and forth with him in the passenger seat wouldn’t have been boring. The air inside the taxi in the city, stained black by the monsoon rain, was humid.
Until his late 20s, there were rare times when Min-gyu didn’t have someone he was dating. Dating was an interesting activity and helped him gain inspiration within universal sensibilities. It was also quite useful for his profession as a marketer.
Such dating had ceased for the past few years. As an excuse, he claimed he had no time because his younger sibling was often left in his care, but the exact timing coincided with when he started a sort of cohabitation with Yi-ho.
Whenever he looked into Yi-ho’s eyes, he felt as if something was being filled inside him. That influence grew larger and larger, until at some point, it even overturned his own emotions. The timing when he felt he didn’t particularly need anything else as long as he had a lifelong friend like Song Yi-ho was similar to when his dating stopped. And this year, Yi-ho had shown those ‘eyes’ exceptionally often. That yearning gaze that elevated his mood.
The identity of that gaze was the look one gives to someone they love.
So that’s why your eyes looked so beautiful.
So that’s why your eyes seemed like they could enchant people.
“…….”
He was several times stupider than Song Yi-ho, whom he had always teased for being clueless. To think he hadn’t known.
He had talked about friendship, friendship, but Min-gyu himself knew that he too had crossed the line of friendship.
He had lived through numerous relationships with less affection than this. And as for Song Yi-ho, although he had never dated a man, there was no reason why a romantic relationship would be impossible if the partner was him.
That was why he had brought up the suggestion to date without any hesitation, but he hadn’t known it would turn Song Yi-ho into a matsutake mushroom hiding among the bushes.
Thick raindrops still tapped on the taxi window. Even though the wipers diligently pushed away the constantly forming water stains, they piled up again. As the entire road was wet, the taxi moved slowly.
“It’s raining too much this year.”
Perhaps bored of being stuck between cars, the taxi driver struck up a conversation. Min-gyu glanced at the driver’s face through the rearview mirror. Soon, he curled the corners of his mouth into a smile.
“I agree. It must be hard for you to drive, sir.”
When Min-gyu answered in a kind voice with a smile, the driver’s expression, which had been slightly tense toward the large man, softened.
“Even if it’s tiring, what can you do to make a living? It’s only natural for the generation of the customer’s father to grit their teeth and work.”
Sorry, but—actually, he wasn’t even that sorry—it was a topic Min-gyu couldn’t empathize with. However, hiding his true feelings, he intentionally continued the conversation to match the taxi driver’s mood. As he gave soft responses and gestures showing he was listening, the taxi driver was soon pouring out his family history to Min-gyu, things he hadn’t even been asked about.
‘…If I just maintain this kind of attitude, Yi-ho won’t be scared.’
No, I should speak a bit more softly to Yi-ho. Because it’s Song Yi-ho.