By Zephyria .
His body froze.
At the unexpected and shocking statement, Ki Jae-eon reflexively stood up. What did he just say? He hesitated, staring at the door. His eyes widened, losing their composure.
“……Did you find out everything?”
That I like you, Sunbae? He thought he could even hear such hallucinations.
Thump, thump.
An unknown anxiety washed over his entire body. It was slightly ticklish and dizzying.
‘How did he know I saw it?’
Was this what it meant to have one’s blood run cold?
32, crossed out, 100.
32, crossed out, 100.
[I, like, you]
Awkward confessions floated in his head.
“Sunbae.”
Huck, snapping out of his thoughts, he hurriedly inhaled.
Was it because of his psychological turmoil? He could feel the Barrier, which hadn’t budged, shaking, and at that moment, crack! Someone’s sharpness, not missing the opportunity, finally broke through the gap and shattered the Barrier.
“……!”
The tightly closed door opened, and Ahn Seo-myeong appeared before him.
“It hasn’t been twenty minutes yet.”
The connection he wanted to sever had desperately come to meet him.
‘Of all times, to say those words…’
As if he had predicted that he would waver.
Ki Jae-eon forced his stiff body to relax and stammered, opening his lips.
“……You, don’t tell me.”
“Yes.”
Ahn Seo-myeong said, stepping over the threshold.
“You’re thinking right. I was just trying to trick you so I could talk to you.”
A straightforward confession without any excuses.
“Because if I didn’t do this, you would have avoided me, right?”
In other words, all of this was Ahn Seo-myeong’s plan. The revenge match was just a nice-looking excuse… The real intention was that he wanted to talk to Ki Jae-eon alone, who had looked into his diary, and he even deliberately let him into the room to block his escape.
A space for just the two of them, where no third party could interfere.
A distance from which he couldn’t run away.
He had prepared so meticulously in such a short time.
“The order of the diary.”
Ahn Seo-myeong threw out a word as he locked the door with a click.
“……?”
“The order they were in was wrong. I always put it in the third spot.”
Because it’s stuck between thin notebooks, the order gets messed up if you just put it in randomly. Ahn Seo-myeong kindly added an explanation. Only then did he understand how he knew.
“I don’t have many things, so I can tell right away even with small differences.”
So, was this pressure not to lie that he hadn’t seen it?
To think he had made such a basic mistake. Ki Jae-eon narrowed his eyes and clenched his fist.
Honestly, he was flustered.
So, what did he want to say? Why did he touch other people’s things without permission? Ah, right. He was sorry for looking without permission. But other than that, he had no idea what his intention was in bringing it up.
Because… he probably knew too.
That the person he liked and the current him were different people.
“Are you going to argue?”
The feelings he couldn’t suppress popped out.
Then.
“Argue?”
He heard a voice filled with disbelief.
Wondering what he meant, he slowly raised his gaze.
In it…
“Does it look like it?”
Was Ahn Seo-myeong, his face flushed as if burned.
His spotless cheeks, his round forehead hidden by his bangs.
His straight nose, his well-shaped earlobes.
His straight and upright neck, his long and slender fingers.
Even the space between his slightly furrowed brows…
Every part of his body was red.
“Me… to Sunbae, no, to Hyeong?”
He looked like a well-baked sweet potato.
Where had the guy who was so cocky, saying he wouldn’t be touched and offering to make bets, gone? Only a kid remained, pouting and glaring with his lips tightly shut. His distorted face looked so ashamed, as if he wanted to bite his tongue right away.
“You……”
“The name compatibility.”
Ahn Seo-myeong cut off Ki Jae-eon’s words and took a step closer. The energy he felt as he closed the distance was immense. His unsorted breaths, the veins protruding on the back of his hand. He looked like he was about to punch him at any moment.
“By chance, accidentally, I just heard it!”
However, the eyes under his still flushed face and slightly trembling eyelids were so hot that even the person looking at them could feel it, so anyone could tell that the nature of his excitement was not anger. So… if he had to define it, it would be somewhat shy emotions like embarrassment, awkwardness, and shame.
“I don’t really believe it…!”
A voice that seemed to be tightening his throat, creeping little by little into the inside of his throat.
What was this? It was so strange.
It felt like his heartbeat was mixed in with his voice.
Thump, thump, thump.
It seemed to be beating at a very fast pace.
“I didn’t, I didn’t plan to tell you like this.”
Crap…. The small head, cursing as he bit his lip, soon dropped to the floor. He could see his red hands slowly moving to press down on his forehead. His clumsy gestures were filled with awkward and fresh affection.
The present reality was so embarrassing that he wanted to die, but beyond that, he liked him so much that he didn’t know what to do-.
“Hyeong and I can’t only have 32%… No, sorry. That’s not it. That’s not what’s important right now. Ah, haa. What I, what I want to say is……”
An astonishing rise in body temperature.
His thoughts were a mess.
“…Jae-eon Hyeong.”
Startled, he raised his head again, and the black eyes he met contained something that made his heart ache. Yes, they were shining without any intention of hiding it.
It was definitely affection.
Affection.
A young affection.
But it was a pure love that ‘Ki Jae-eon’ had never received.
Perhaps even to the point of jealousy, it was shining.
“……I.”
A warmth filled the room.
“I like Hyeong.”
I like you. He felt suffocated by the trembling voice.
Had language ever been so precious?
Could a person love someone so much?
How could he do that.
How could…
How could ‘I’ have been loved like this?
Now he was even respectful.
“I’m sorry.”
Ahn Seo-myeong quickly avoided his gaze and twitched his slightly flushed cheeks.
“For confessing so suddenly, for surprising you.”
“……”
“I have nothing to say even if I had ten mouths. G, Grandma said that suddenly confessing is rude to the other person. I agree too. Forcing emotions is violence, right? I didn’t want to do that to Hyeong. I’m already young, so I wanted to be more mannerly, yes, uh… So I was going to prove it slowly……”
Ahn Seo-myeong stuttered, unlike his usual self.
He didn’t seem to realize it, but his upper body was also constantly twisting.
“But to Hyeong……”
“……”
“I don’t want to be hated.”
Don’t hate me. The skin under the child’s eyes was turning red.
Eyes sparkling with moisture and reddish skin.
A child with unblemished love.
Ah, you are beautiful.
Suddenly, he had such a thought.
It was a thought he had never had before in his life.
It was natural.
Love? Romance? He had never even been interested.
But he realized it just now.
Anyone who has a true love is beautiful.
‘To the point that it’s conveyed to me…’
Ki Jae-eon’s face somehow became lonely.
‘So this is what it’s like.’
This is what it’s like to be loved.
Now he understood.
‘It was quite a good feeling.’
He had pretended to be indifferent because he couldn’t receive it.
Because it wasn’t his.
Because he thought he would never have anything to do with such things in his life.
Ki Jae-eon looked at the person confessing his love in front of him.
Now that he had tasted a glimpse of affection, only the bitter parts remained.
Yes, affection that cannot be received makes people miserable.
The more desperate he was, the more he felt like his existence was being denied.
No one wants me.
The certainty that the number of people who would be happy if I disappeared would increase.
Probably his mother, his brother, the idiots at the main office…
Even you in front of me.
The person you really want is ‘me’, not me.
‘I’ was really an amazing bastard.
Now I don’t know. What the hell did you do, you.
Ah… I can’t accept it all.
I was angry that you shouldn’t like ‘me’ more.
‘It’s my complete defeat.’
“That’s enough.”
Ki Jae-eon opened his mouth with a hollow smile.
“I’m not the one who needs to hear this.”
The person you’re confessing to is- he was about to continue when.
“Then who should hear it?”
He heard a voice that was completely different from before.
“I’m asking you.”
Who else would I confess to besides Hyeong?