By Zephyria 
I wondered how far Song Yi-ho had run this time.
We had both had plenty of time to organize our thoughts. No matter what happened, I was going to end this situation now.
The taxi headed toward the house very slowly, but it still dropped Min-gyu off in less than an hour. The taxi driver, who had spent the ride talking as much as he wanted, gave a friendly farewell.
“There’s an option in the taxi app to check a driver you want to meet again. Press that, and I’ll see you next time.”
Min-gyu gave a slight nod and entered the building where their homes were located without looking back. Despite all his practice just moments ago, nervousness crept in. For someone with his personality to be nervous before facing someone—had he caught it from Song Yi-ho?
Once inside the elevator, he checked his reflection in the mirror. Raindrops he hadn’t been able to avoid had left stains on the shoulders of his suit. His hair would look more familiar down than swept up, so he decided to shower and change clothes before visiting. He had some alcohol he’d bought at a convenience store a few days ago, so it might be good to start with a light drink.
Until Yi-ho started working from home, there were always two people reflected in these elevator doors. And now, Min-gyu was standing shifted to the right, as if someone were standing beside him rather than in the center.
He had no intention of losing Song Yi-ho. Even if Yi-ho were the one to let go of him first.
With that resolve, the elevator reached the 18th floor and the doors opened.
The moment the sensor lights flickered on in the dim hallway, Min-gyu’s expression froze.
“…Ha. Song Yi-ho.”
The hallway was a disaster. Dressers, chairs, side tables… The various pieces of furniture occupying the hallway were things he had seen inside unit 1802.
His hollow steps made a cold, scraping sound. He opened the nearest drawer. It was filled with various cables and PC peripherals. In the next drawer, he found the laptop Yi-ho used to use. Since they had spent countless hours facing each other doing assignments during their college days, he recognized it instantly, damn it.
Behind the furniture, three trash bags sat by the stairs.
“…….”
Veins popped on the back of Min-gyu’s hand as he opened one of the bags. It was stuffed full of clothes.
Min-gyu had picked out most of Yi-ho’s clothes. Unable to stand his fashion choices despite his beautiful face, Min-gyu had dragged him to department stores or given him gifts for special occasions. Min-gyu’s fingertips gradually grew cold. All warmth vanished from his expression. As he surveyed the scene, his chest heaved with ragged breaths.
He desperately searched for another reason. A reason why someone would put their furniture in the hall and throw away all their clothes.
But the more he tried to understand Song Yi-ho, the more he recalled his situation, the only conclusion he could reach was that he had run away.
He understood the fear of a shift in a fifteen-year relationship. Even though he had said he was afraid it would end.
After saying things like that, you’re trying to end it like this?
Is this your way of maintaining the relationship?
Before long, the hallway sensor lights went out. He had been standing there frozen, unaware of the passing time.
Of all times, the elevator that had gone down to the first floor stopped at the 18th.
Yi-ho was inside. For someone who had been running away so well, it was terrible timing.
“Ah.”
Yi-ho let out a blank sigh, clutching his laptop to his chest.
“…Cha Min-gyu, are you off work?”
“Yeah.”
His sunken voice was chilling.
“Song Yi-ho, what is this?”
“Ah, that… I’ll just leave it here for a moment.”
Had he already finished preparing to move? Or perhaps he had secured a hotel in a hurry and was leaving with only his essentials.
It was an emotion that couldn’t be explained as mere disappointment. A sense of loss, as if someone had forcibly ripped something out of his arms, and a surge of rage. He barely managed to suppress the urge to shout. Instead, his eyes stung as if his mind were exploding in a flash of red.
He wished he hadn’t been caught at all. Why be so sloppy about running away that I can’t even resent you to my heart’s content? Why? That thought made him even more upset.
“…I’ll clear it now. I heard there are temporary luggage storage centers…”
Yi-ho’s head dropped under Min-gyu’s gaze. As Yi-ho struggled to lift one corner of the dresser to put his laptop on top, a look of sorrow appeared on his face.
Why on earth was he the one feeling sorrowful?
Even now, the sight of him dragging his belongings toward the elevator was eyesore.
Min-gyu’s outstretched hand grabbed Yi-ho’s arm.
“Just stay.”
“…How can I just leave things in the hallway like this?”
“Where would you go in this weather? Just stay here! I’ll live like a dead mouse so I don’t bother you!”
For something shouted in anger, it was a rather miserable thing to say. It felt as though he had reached a point where he had nothing left to lose.
“Have you come to loathe me so much that you can’t even stand me being on the other side of the door?”
“What?”
Though their ways of thinking differed, he believed Yi-ho also wanted to hold onto their relationship.
I told you so many times that you’re family to me, the only one of your kind in the world.
The painful part, even now, was the fact that if Yi-ho used his departure as bait to threaten him, Min-gyu felt he would grant any request. Even if it went in a different direction from what Min-gyu had insisted upon.
Min-gyu placed his hand on Yi-ho’s arm. Crushed by a sense of loss as if fifteen years had been carved out of him, he barely managed to mutter.
“How could you do this to me…”
‘Can you really live without seeing me?’
He didn’t dare ask the question he wanted most because he was afraid. Like his hand, which was trembling, unable to hold on for fear of being pushed away.
“Cha Min-gyu…”
Yi-ho’s eyes widened. It was quite annoying to Min-gyu that those round eyes looked beautiful even in a situation like this.
As did the lips that might utter more hateful words.
“Ah, no, it’s not that…”
However, Min-gyu’s mind stopped at a single word Yi-ho spoke.
“There’s a leak.”
After blinking five or six times, Yi-ho spoke the word, and Min-gyu slowly let go of his arm.
“…A leak?”
“Yeah…”
“Rain is leaking into your house?”
“It’s near the bathroom, so I don’t know if it’s the rain or a plumbing issue…”
Min-gyu strode toward the opposite unit, punched in the passcode, and flung the door open.
“Hey, what are you doing! Cha Min-gyu!”
The owner called out belatedly, but Min-gyu’s eyes had already landed on the refrigerator standing prominently in the living room.
“…The water is dripping right next to the fridge. I thought there might be a risk of electric shock, but the food inside would spoil if I unplugged it…”
…So the refrigerator had ended up plugged into an outlet in the living room for the time being…
And in the process of moving the fridge, he had cleared everything in the path, eventually pushing things out into the hallway.
Min-gyu stepped inside the interior that could no longer be called a home. Piles of towels were placed under the areas where the ceiling was soaking wet. He entered the study, which had become another disaster zone. Avoiding the leaks, the remaining furniture was huddled in the corner like a group of cornered hamsters.
Standing with his back to Yi-ho, looking toward the dark area, Min-gyu secretly wiped his blurred eyes.
“…Why did you spread it all in the hallway instead of putting it in my house?”
The weight pressing on his throat vanished, and a voice that sounded hollow even to himself flowed out.
“We’re not… in that kind of relationship. Right now.”
“…….”
“How could I just open your door and go in during this situation…”
A voice full of grievance amidst the hesitation provided a valid response.
He was glad he had his back to Yi-ho. Looking at the messy house and hearing Yi-ho’s troubled voice, the corners of Min-gyu’s mouth curled up.
You weren’t trying to leave me.
Ah, thank god.
“Haha…”
A wave of relief crashed over him now that he knew. And that led him to trace back the cause of the emotions he had felt moments ago.
“…Why are you laughing?”
“Song Yi-ho, ha…”
“Get out! Why did you just barge in, expose the state of my house, and laugh at me?”
The reason why he had felt a strange fluttering every time something happened with Yi-ho, not just moments ago.
The meaning of Song Yi-ho to him was the same as it had always been. The person who knew everything—his habits, personality, family relations, and acquaintances.
The person he wanted by his side for a lifetime, the person he hoped would always be each other’s number one priority.
‘For a while, you asked about my dating life. While you like me, you’d want to see me meet someone else? What if I get married and have kids?’
Min-gyu asked himself the question he had once posed to Yi-ho.
Until now, he had thought that if Song Yi-ho ever married, the social aspects, the officiating, and the congratulatory song would all be his role. Yet, paradoxically, he had never imagined someone else standing beside him.
What remained in the reconstructed scene was nothing but a possessiveness he had only now foolishly realized.
The moment Cha Min-gyu defined the emotion he hadn’t known was clear.
Not knowing the form of an ideal family, he had kept rambling about “family.” He hated the thought of that gentle face looking elsewhere, and he hated other people touching him carelessly.
“Song Yi-ho.”
When he called his name, a bright red face looked back at him. His eyes were sorrowfully wet, and his bitten, red lips trembled as they parted. His cheeks twitched as he exhaled sharply. Min-gyu swallowed a curse. It was directed at himself.
Once he stripped away the stupid excuse of “family” from his emotions, there was a rather dark greed.
He had to admit it. This wasn’t friendship.
Nor was it even family.
If so, what could I do for Song Yi-ho, who is neither family nor a friend? To what extent?
His hand reached out to him instinctively.
The hand that had been heading for the flushed cheek desperately shifted direction toward the head. After a long time, soft hair scattered between his fingers. Yi-ho’s eyes widened. It was a wary look, as if seeing a madman, and he probably wasn’t wrong.
It felt good to touch Song Yi-ho after so long.
“What… what are you doing?”
Yi-ho slapped Min-gyu’s hand away. The strike was quite sharp.
Even so, he wasn’t angry. Min-gyu softened his tone. The rehearsal in the taxi had indeed been unnecessary. When Yi-ho was right in front of him, it wasn’t difficult.
“Did you contact the management office? Did you tell the Grandmother who owns the place?”
“……?”
“Let’s solve the important things first. Did you call?”
“…No… I had a video conference today… I had to run to a cafe with my laptop. I couldn’t do a meeting with that mess behind me.”
“Aha…”
Min-gyu let out a long breath, placed his hands on his hips, and looked around. The tasks that needed to be done immediately were quickly organized in his head.
“Call Grandmother right now. I’ll tell the management office and go up to the unit above.”
“Huh…?”
“Hurry.”
When he urged the dazed Yi-ho, he picked up his phone. Other than calling the gentle Grandmother, it was better for Min-gyu to handle any encounters that might lead to conflict with others. That was his area of expertise.
“…….”
Who else knows you as well as I do and adapts to you as much as I do? While grumbling internally, he realized he felt a sense of exhilaration in taking care of Song Yi-ho.
As he was about to go upstairs via the stairs, he noticed the trash bags filled with clothes. He paused for a moment.
“…But why on earth did you put them in trash bags?”
Yi-ho had a face that suggested he had no idea that was a problem.
“Because those were the biggest bags I had at home.”
“…….”
His entire body felt as if it were melting, his head throbbing. Min-gyu pressured the management office over the phone to come quickly and went upstairs to inform them of the leak. The person who came out looked uncomfortable, but they couldn’t say much to Min-gyu, whose expression had hardened darkly as he described the disaster in his home. After the manager came to assess the state of the house and left, emergency measures were completed by bringing a basin and dry towels from the opposite unit and placing them at the leak site.
“…….”
“…….”
Silence hung over the hallway where the two stood alone. Min-gyu picked up his briefcase leaning against the wall, placed it on Yi-ho’s exiled dresser, and then lifted the dresser up effortlessly. Yi-ho let out a belated “Uh, uh…” but Min-gyu had already moved the hallway luggage into unit 1801.
Min-gyu reached out his hand to Yi-ho, who was clutching the laptop and the trash bags of clothes under his arm. It was a sign to hand those over too. Yi-ho belatedly put on a wary expression.
“…I’m fine.”
Looking at the gentle eyes desperately glaring at him, Min-gyu suppressed a smile and spoke in the kindest voice possible.
“Yi-ho. I know things are awkward between us right now, but even so, would I have kicked you out in this situation if you had been inside my house?”
Min-gyu flicked his fingers again in front of the laptop.
“Give it to me, and stay at my place until the house problem is solved.”
Yi-ho shook his head, stepping back.
“…I’ll look for a place to stay now. Just keep the dresser for a few days.”
“They say it’s going to rain more tonight.”
Yi-ho had a look that asked what that had to do with anything. Cha Min-gyu seized a small victory here.
“That basin isn’t very big, so it’ll overflow soon. You’ll have to keep changing the wet towels. Even if a hotel is close, in this weather… wouldn’t it take 30 minutes by car? Waking up in the middle of the night to come here, coming back after working from home. You’ll be busy.”
“…….”
His expression showed that he had been so preoccupied with escaping Min-gyu that he hadn’t thought of that.
Min-gyu rested his arm on Yi-ho’s shoulder, leaning his weight on him. Then, he led Yi-ho toward his own home. Their bodies pressed together, and he could feel the warmth. The voice saying, “Hey, Cha Min-gyu…!” was heard right beside him.
After being worn down by work for days, his body relaxed languidly, as if he had just laid his head on a favorite childhood pillow.
“Let’s go, Song-i.”
Ah, this is great.
Even if Yi-ho had a look that said, ‘T-this isn’t how it was supposed to go…!’