By Zephyria 
A-gon seemed nervous at the words that he had something to say. When Hae-jun said he had something to say and told him to sit down, it was usually when he had done something wrong.
“It’s nothing like that, so come here.”
A-gon sat down in front of Hae-jun. Hae-jun looked into his eyes and spoke with difficulty.
“I have to leave this house now.”
“……Did I do something wrong?”
“No. It’s not a problem like that.”
How should he put it? Hae-jun slowly chose his words.
“A-gon, calm down and listen. I was actually living with you after receiving a request. And now that the request is over, we have to break up.”
Having said that all at once, Hae-jun swallowed hard. A-gon didn’t move at all.
“I should have told you from the beginning, but you weren’t in a good enough state to understand this kind of story back then. So I was going to explain it later, but it got too late. Anyway, I came here to assist you after receiving a request from Wooyeong.”
“…….”
“A-gon, are you listening?”
A-gon lowered his eyes. Hae-jun knelt down in front of him and matched his eye level.
“I knew that you had a contract with our house because of the Assistant.”
“Really?”
“Yes, you weren’t the first person to have someone like you.”
Hearing those words, he felt relieved. Then he would easily understand the rest of the story.
“That’s a relief. You knew.”
“But I don’t know why you’re telling me that now. Apart from the request, you love me now, right?”
At the word love, Hae-jun’s face became troubled. A-gon’s face turned cold when he saw that expression.
“You don’t?”
“……Well, A-gon. I like you a lot, but I never said I loved you.”
“No, you said you loved me.”
“When did I?”
“You decided to have a baby with me.”
A-gon said clearly.
“You decided to have a baby with me because you love me.”
Ah. Hae-jun stroked his chin without a word. He never thought that story would end up like this. This was truly embarrassing.
“That’s right. Isn’t it?”
A-gon’s voice quickened a little.
“Isn’t it? Hae-jun, why aren’t you answering?”
“……A-gon. Well.”
Hae-jun faltered, unable to speak easily, and Lee A-gon’s eyebrows shot up. There was a scraping sound as Lee A-gon stood up from his chair.
“You didn’t want to?”
“……”
“You didn’t want to have a baby with me?”
“Lee A-gon, listen to me. I can’t say I love you. My feelings aren’t that strong. But I want to see you even after the commission is over.”
Hae-jun conveyed his current feelings honestly. He didn’t love him. He had good feelings. He didn’t want to break up yet. So he wanted to continue seeing him even after the commission was over. Hae-jun’s feelings were just that much.
“No, no. Just a moment.”
Lee A-gon was completely confused. He covered his chin with one hand and frowned. He had an ominous feeling. He couldn’t put it into explicit words, but he already knew what it was. Lee A-gon finally asked his beloved hyung this.
“From the beginning, you had no intention of having a baby with me?”
His voice trembled with a rough texture. Lee A-gon squeezed his eyes shut and opened them.
“From the beginning… was it all a lie?”
He remembered every word his hyung had said, without missing a single syllable.
“Lee A-gon, do you want to be my husband? Do you want to have a baby too?”
“If a baby is born and the dad is unemployed… how embarrassing would that be?”
“If we have a baby, then I’ll marry you.”
“Okay. Then let’s do it in a way that makes a baby today.”
He thought it was genuine. He believed that his hyung felt the same way. Because he wouldn’t have suggested having a baby unless he loved him. He was so happy that his hyung had made that difficult decision.
Lee A-gon’s eyes turned fierce. He thought they loved each other… he thought they were in love.
It was all a lie.
He couldn’t understand. Why? For what?
“Lee A-gon. You know. I think it’s time for you to know, so I’m telling you. I can’t get pregnant. Men, men can’t have babies.”
“Ha!”
Lee A-gon laughed loudly. Anger boiled up like a wildfire.
“What was the reason for going along with me until now, even though you didn’t believe it? Why did you pretend to agree to have a baby?”
“That’s because you…!”
Hae-jun, who was about to shout without realizing it, stammered. He managed to shut his mouth in time, but Lee A-gon caught the nuance of the unspoken words. He cleverly realized what Hae-jun’s confession stemmed from.
“The commission.”
Hae-jun flinched at Lee A-gon’s murmur. Lee A-gon closed his eyes and bit his teeth, then released them.
“Don’t tell me it was because of the commission?”
“Lee A-gon, just a moment. Listen to me…”
“You said you’d have a baby to control me?”
“A-gon-ah. Please.”
“From the start, you had no intention of having a baby or getting married, it was all a lie. Just to manipulate me, for that one purpose. Me.”
The more he spoke, the more anger welled up. He fanned his anger with words so that he could inflate it even more.
“You never believed me. It was all a lie from the start. I thought we loved each other. I thought we’d get married. I thought if I did well, it would happen someday. But it wasn’t. It was all for your own purpose.”
“A-gon-ah!”
Hae-jun approached Lee A-gon. He hesitated, about to grab Lee A-gon’s hand. Lee A-gon’s glare was colder than he had ever seen before. He felt resentment and anger. That appearance was so unfamiliar.
He thought Lee A-gon would hate him once he knew the truth. But he never thought that hatred would last long. Lee A-gon being angry at him and hating him. He couldn’t even imagine it.
At the same time, he realized for the first time how much Lee A-gon wanted him and his baby. He really had never been insincere for a single moment.
Hae-jun, for whom it was common sense that men couldn’t have children, had never been serious. It was always somewhere between a joke, a prank, absurdity, and disbelief.
Lee A-gon was not. He desired a child far more fervently than Hae-jun had expected.
The two started from different starting lines. Unintentionally, Hae-jun had betrayed Lee A-gon.
“I’m sorry.”
Hae-jun apologized urgently. When he decided to confess the truth, the thing he worried about the most was the shock Lee A-gon would receive when he found out that he had approached him for a commission. If he had known that he would be caught up in this because of the pregnancy, he would never have mentioned it, even as a joke. He never dreamed that he would be so hurt. Hae-jun sincerely regretted it.
“I’m really sorry. I was wrong, Lee A-gon.”
“You must have laughed when you saw me happy at the thought of you giving me a baby.”
“No, I never did.”
“You said you’d marry me and give me a baby because it’s something that will never happen.”
“……”
He had nothing to say. Lee A-gon’s point was accurate.
Lee A-gon clutched his chest. He wanted his hyung to deny his words, but his hyung couldn’t even open his mouth.
“If that’s the case, why did you make me swear? Why did you make it so I couldn’t forget hyung? Even though you didn’t like me. Why.”
“That wasn’t a vow. I told you it was hypnosis.”
He had something to say about that, if nothing else. Hae-jun hastily made excuses.
“I was afraid you’d become closer to Seo Ji-hoon than to me. That’s why I hypnotized you. I never expected that hypnosis to last this long. If I had known, I would never have hypnotized you.”
“Why?”
“Why, I really didn’t know you’d be waiting for me this long…”
“No. Why didn’t you want me to be closer to Seo Ji-hoon?”
“That’s.”
Hae-jun pursed his lips. Lee A-gon had asked this question before. At that time, Lee A-gon thought his hyung was jealous of Seo Ji-hoon. What was his intention in asking about a story that was already over?
Doubt sprouted in Lee A-gon’s mind, who had only believed his hyung’s words so devotedly. Doubt peeled off the veil that had been covering his eyes. Now Lee A-gon began to doubt all of Hae-jun’s intentions.
“That’s…”
Hae-jun couldn’t bring himself to say that he was jealous. He couldn’t think of any other excuses either. Lee A-gon’s eyes narrowed.
Their very beginning. He wanted to believe that Hae-jun hyung, who had approached the bullied eight-year-old first, was sincere. He didn’t want to think there was another reason.
“…You.”
Hae-jun turned his head. He struggled fiercely. Should he just lie and say that he liked him, that he wanted to be his best friend? But after dragging out the answer for so long, that answer lost its persuasiveness. Besides, Hae-jun didn’t want to lie to Lee A-gon anymore.
“I heard what the director said. That you and… the child who is closest to the main character… will be given the qualifications to go on an extension.”
In the end, Hae-jun told the truth. He couldn’t bear to look at Lee A-gon’s face, so he kept his eyes on his feet.
“So… I had to be the closest to you.”
The difficult confession was over. Now Hae-jun had nothing more to hide from Lee A-gon.
A long silence passed. After a long time, Hae-jun, who had mustered up the courage, carefully raised his head and met Lee A-gon’s cold eyes. Those eyes could not be expressed simply as cold. What was in them was an icy contempt.
“Leave.”
Lee A-gon finally opened his mouth. Hae-jun asked back blankly.
“Huh?”
“Get out of this house right now.”
“A-gon-ah.”
The hand that was offered with a flustered expression was slapped away with a thud. Lee A-gon pointed to the door with his finger.
“Get lost, hyung.”