12 – TDG 12

After ​that, ​the ​conversation ​suddenly died down. ​The ​sound ​of ​ice ​cubes melting and slipping ​into ​the water felt ​unusually loud. This ​is ​awkward. ​I ​had ​talked ​a big game ​about ​making ​things exciting, but ​now that I’ve actually ​brought the ​kid home, ​I don’t ​know what ​to ​do. ​This was the ​limit of ​a boring human who ​did nothing but sleep ​whenever he returned home.

“Is ​this your ​mother?”

Ji-hyuk ​was the first to speak. He ​reached over my shoulder ​and ​picked ​up ​a ​picture frame that ​had been ​sitting ​there. It was ​a ​photo of a smiling middle-aged ​woman.

“Yeah.”

“What did ​she ​do?”

“…She passed away ​when ​I ​was ​young.”

I ​said it ​without ​thinking and ​immediately regretted it. Ji-hyuk’s expression stiffened slightly.

“Sorry… ​I’m sorry for ​your loss.”

“It’s okay. ​It happened a long ​time ago. ​Don’t worry about ​it.”

Yoon ​Yang-hee, Seo Joo-won’s ​mother, had passed ​away in ​a ​car [Read on Read BL Novels]accident ​when ​her Read on Read BL Novelsson ​was ​two years ​old.

Since ​it ​happened long before ​I ​possessed this ​body ​and ​I ​had no connection to her, I only held a formal sense of mourning. At the very least, I wasn’t in a position to be comforted by a kid who had neither parent.

Unintentionally, the mood sank. Now isn’t the time for this. I stood up from the sofa with forced energy.

“Follow me. I’ll show you Hyung’s room!”

Gundams existed in this world too.

As soon as I opened the door, a display case packed with Gundam plastic models came into view, drawing a low exclamation of awe from Ji-hyuk.

“Did you assemble all of these, Hyung?”

“Of course! I did them all! I loved them when I was a kid. But I don’t do it anymore.”

Of course, that was a lie.

The plastic models were the original Seo Joo-won’s hobby. The reason I flatly stated I didn’t do it anymore was to preemptively stop him from asking me to show him how to assemble one.

Following the Gundams, the second thing that caught Ji-hyuk’s eye were the various plaques and certificates displayed on the wall.

Academic excellence awards from elementary school, a grand prize for writing [visit our site]from middle school, photos [stolen content]in frames on the bookshelf… Han Ji-hyuk was scrutinizing the life [unauthorized copy]of ‘Seo Joo-won’—a life I had ignored—more meticulously than I ever had.

“…….”

I wonder why, but the longer the silence lasted, the more uncomfortable I began to feel.

I had lived as Seo Joo-won for five years, but only a tiny fraction of the things in this room were mine. My own image from five years ago naturally overlapped with Han Ji-hyuk’s figure. In an effort to understand the original Seo Joo-won’s character even a little bit more, I had looked through the records he left behind and tried assembling the remaining plastic models.

But at some point, I stopped doing that.

Because this room was already complete.

Since I wasn’t the real thing, adding anything clumsy of my own would only increase the sense of dissonance. Besides, the decoration of a room wasn’t what was important anyway.

“…….”

What on earth was I thinking, bringing Han Ji-hyuk to my house? When I first suggested it, I thought of the typical atmosphere a ‘home’ provides—longing and nostalgia—but I realized that I myself couldn’t empathize with those feelings at all.

It would have been much better to just go to a park or something…

“What’s this?”

Ji-hyuk picked something up from the bookshelf and held it out.

Seeing that, I stood up abruptly and approached him.

“That’s… the ID I got when I was working as a field Guide in Department 7. It’s an old one…”

“Field Guide?”

“Yeah. It’s where I was before I met you. I gained a lot of experience over five years.”

I had just shoved it away after leaving Department 7, and now it rolls out like this.

Looking at the worn, smudge-stained ID, I remembered the moment I first received it. I recalled how I had hung it on the wall and stared at it, steeling my resolve several times to do my best. Not knowing the hardships that awaited me.

As I chuckled at the memory of my youthful naivety, Ji-hyuk suddenly asked.

“It must have been a good place.”

“Huh? No… well, it was just… a job.”

To be honest, it felt like playing an endless game of hide-and-seek with a ten-headed Cerberus in the middle of a lake of fire, but since describing a place I had spent so much time in that way would be like spitting in my own face, I ended it by vaguely glossing over it.

Ji-hyuk’s long fingers lingered quietly over the ID.

“You look much younger in this photo than you do now, Hyung.”

“Right, it was taken when I was nineteen.”

This ID was the only thing in Seo Joo-won’s room that truly belonged to me.

It was a record of my complete history. Thanks to that, I could brag about it with quite a bit of pride.

But for all that, the photo really makes me look like a loser. In a mix of nostalgia and embarrassment, I reached out to snatch the ID from Ji-hyuk’s hand.

“Give it back. It’s embarrassing, so stop looking.”

“Why? What’s embarrassing? You look really cute when you’re young, Hyung.”

He skillfully dodged my hand and held the ID high above his head.

“Shut up. Cute my ass… Give it back right now. Hey, you’re not giving it back?”

Ji-hyuk was being uncharacteristically stubborn. No matter how much I stood on my tiptoes and jumped, it wasn’t at a height my stature could reach. Finally, when I dragged over a chair to climb up, he lowered his hand as if he couldn’t believe me. However, as I approached, he quickly pulled the ID back and hid it behind him.

“Hyung, give this to me.”

“What are you talking about? Why that?”

“You don’t use it anymore, so it’s fine, right?”

“Fine or not, no way, kid. How can I just give you my ID?”

Ji-hyuk’s eyebrows drooped, and he continued to whine like a puppy, begging for it. Why is he suddenly like this? What’s so great about a worn-out ID that he wants it so badly?

Hmm… he wants it this much, should I just give it to him?

After all, this guy was the reason I started working as a Guide… it might be meaningful in its own way.

“Fine. I’ll give it to you. But only you can see it.”

When I reluctantly agreed, Han Ji-hyuk beamed, showing his white teeth.

“Don’t worry. I won’t show it to anyone.”

“But why specifically that? If you need a photo, I could give you a recent one…”

“No. I like this one.”

The way his eyebrows twitched with excitement made him look like a little kid who had discovered a hidden treasure.

What’s so great about an old, awkward photo of a plain-looking kid? What a strange guy.

Anyway, I already gave it to him, so do whatever you want with it—fry it or roast it—my favorite.

Han Ji-hyuk’s third interest was my bed. To me, it was just a bed, but he looked at it with sparkling eyes as if it were some grand object of study, which was actually kind of cute…

When I told him he could lie down, he dove onto it immediately as if it were a swimming pool. After bouncing on it a few times as if testing its elasticity, he beckoned to me.

“Come here, Hyung. Lie down.”

“I’m good.”

Why would I lie down on the bed I lie on every single day? I shook my head in distaste, but Han Ji-hyuk didn’t give up and persistently tempted me to come over.

“…….”

How many fans could possibly refuse when their favorite, possessing a beauty of the century that should be preserved in a museum, is lying on a bed in a lethally languid pose and waving them over? And I’m not exactly that kind of iron-willed person.

When I pretended to give in and perched my stolen contenthips on the edge, he smiled and slid [visit our site][unauthorized copy]his arm around my waist. In the blink of an eye, I was pulled inward.

“Ah!”

Ji-hyuk knocked me flat on my back and skillfully climbed on top of me. He lay half-overlapping my body and rested his forehead against my temple.

“Just like this for five minutes.”

Suddenly five minutes? As if afraid I might escape, Ji-hyuk wrapped his leg over mine and pressed down. That unexpectedly created a strange sensation. We hugged often in the dorms, but we had never entwined our legs.

Still, it felt like it would be even weirder if I moved to pull my leg away. Like I was the only one conscious of it. As I looked up hesitantly, Han Ji-hyuk’s closed-eyed face was the picture of peace. I endured the five minutes with a slightly awkward feeling.

“Ji-hyuk-ssi, five minutes are up. You should get up now.”

After exactly five minutes, down to the second, I quickly tapped his chest, but there was no answer. He couldn’t have fallen asleep already, could he?

“Han Ji-hyuk…?”

When I lightly pulled his cheek to wake him, Han Ji-hyuk quickly grabbed both my hands and pulled them down. What, so you weren’t asleep after all!

“Mmm, ten more minutes.”

“You said only five minutes earlier.”

I heard a muffled laugh near my ear.

“Then just five more minutes.”

At the soft, mid-low voice that seemed to tickle the inside of my ear, my shoulders involuntarily flinched. Then, as if telling me there was no need to be nervous, Ji-hyuk held me close and patted my back. Since he liked this so much, it felt wrong to force him up… I gave up and let the strength leave my body in his arms.

‘This guy… did he not sleep last night or something?’

In the quiet room, only the sound of our thin breaths echoed, crossing over each other.

Perhaps thanks to the air conditioner, the air was cool overall, so it wasn’t hot at all even though we were stuck together. Rather, while the surroundings were cold, only the parts where we touched were pleasantly warm, which made me feel good.

Despite his broad shoulders, he was lying on his side to hold me, his one shoulder crumpled. I really wanted to put a pillow under his head, which was dangling pitifully, but I was held so tightly that I couldn’t possibly pull my arm free.

A groan of longing leaked from deep inside me.

“Hyung, wake up. Hyung.”

I opened my eyes at the sound of his voice. I saw the familiar ceiling of my room. Ji-hyuk was lying diagonally beside me, propping his head up with one hand, chuckling as he looked at me.

“You really sleep deeply, Hyung. You wouldn’t even know if someone carried you away.”

That woke me up instantly. Had he been watching me sleep? Feeling my face flush hot, I scrambled to sit up.

“W-what time is it now?”

“It’s only three.”

My shoulders, which had been tense, finally slumped.

I was thinking about the pillow, and then… I can’t remember from some point on.

‘Seo Joo-won, are you crazy? You actually fell asleep…’

Three o’clock. It’s a relief that it’s not past the return time, but there wasn’t enough time left to plan a new schedule.

I’m screwed….

I thought Ji-hyuk might be acting like that because he was tired, so I told myself I’d let him sleep for just 30 minutes, but I was the one who ended up falling asleep.

An hour and a half from leaving in the morning to arriving home. And then on the bed straight until three in the afternoon.

This is ridiculous. Even a man and unauthorized copywoman sneaking unauthorized copyinto a hotel together wouldn’t have stayed stuck to a bed this much.

Seo Joo-won, are you in your right mind or not?

“Aren’t you hungry? You should have woken me up.”

At the words that slipped out of pity, Ji-hyuk slowly shook his head.

“Not really. I liked watching you sleep, Hyung.”

This kind boy….

Look at him, worrying so that his Hyung wouldn’t blame himself.

This is no time for me to be like this. It’s well past lunchtime, so I need to feed him something quickly.