Joo Tae-hyun couldn’t understand Seo Baek-han’s intentions behind those words, so he blinked for a while. Besides, how did Cheon Seung-pil calling at this hour get interpreted as them dating?
Amidst his confusion, the loud ringing tone stopped abruptly, only to repeat itself shortly after.
“Feel free to answer it.”
As he subtly flipped his phone over, Seo Baek-han gestured towards it with a short nod. Joo Tae-hyun became even more clueless about his scheme and chewed on the inside of his lip. How could he answer the phone comfortably without him leaving the room? Especially when his displeasure towards Cheon Seung-pil was so obvious.
“It’s okay. I doubt it’s anything important.”
“I told you, you can be honest.”
“No, really. Seung-pil, you know how he is. He doesn’t care if it’s dawn in America or dawn in Korea… Anyway, he’s just very casual.”
Seo Baek-han stared intently at Joo Tae-hyun’s phone, which rang several more times as if he had sent a series of messages after not answering, and then remained silent for a while.
“And Seung-pil and I are really nothing.”
He mustered the courage to add subtly, but Seo Baek-han didn’t respond.
It seemed like it wasn’t just his imagination that he had suddenly become sharp, but he couldn’t guess the reason.
A long time ago, he had subtly hinted that he wanted him and Cheon Seung-pil to date. But even that was only in the early days of their marriage, and he hadn’t even mentioned his name recently. Why was he suddenly acting like this?
Ah, was he perhaps suspecting that he was secretly dating Cheon Seung-pil? That he had told that bastard everything that happened yesterday as soon as he woke up?
‘You said you’re definitely not dating.’
Yes, it was an tone closer to conviction than speculation. Seo Baek-han must have been misunderstanding that he was lying to him.
Cheon Seung-pil. Joo Tae-hyun almost burst out laughing at Seo Baek-han’s ridiculous misunderstanding, but his heart sank endlessly. Seo Baek-han was already on edge with just this incident, how disappointed would he be in him if he found out that he wasn’t a Switch user and had lied about wanting to marry him?
Anyway, that moment wasn’t now, so let’s just focus on the immediate matter.
Like a child who thinks he’s invisible if he just covers his eyes, Joo Tae-hyun subtly ignored the mountain of lies piled up. Not yet… not yet, it was okay if Hyung didn’t know.
“Hey, Hyung.”
Joo Tae-hyun opened his mouth, subtly glancing at him while fixing his messed-up hair.
“Hyung wants me to date Seung-pil, right? I know it.”
He had expected Seo Baek-han’s unique expression of wrinkling his nose, but he turned to look at him, narrowing his eyes as if he had heard something absurd.
“Me? Why?”
He had brought it up to dissipate the slightly awkward atmosphere, but it seemed to have backfired. Seo Baek-han narrowed the space between his eyebrows, openly showing that he didn’t like the question.
“Huh? Well, you once asked me if I was interested in someone you knew. Seeing that, I thought you wanted me to meet someone you knew well.”
“…That’s-“
“Also, you mentioned Seung-pil a few times after that… I wondered if someone like him would meet Hyung’s standards.”
Seeing Seo Baek-han staring directly at him as if he had been stabbed, Joo Tae-hyun belatedly regretted not packaging the sentence more elegantly. But he didn’t have that talent anyway, so the result wouldn’t have changed much.
“Cheon Seung-pil, grandson of the Yoonra Foundation… Yeah. I thought he wouldn’t be bad for you. Rather than you hanging around with other riffraff like bodyguards.”
Seo Baek-han, who started by sweeping back his hair, had a relaxed look that was no different from usual.
Seo Baek-han, who was seriously reciting Cheon Seung-pil’s profile and lost in thought, felt like a relative Hyung rather than a husband. A sincere attitude that didn’t feel even a bit of personal interest, as if he was genuinely worried about who his younger sibling should date.
Joo Tae-hyun unknowingly flicked the corner of his phone hard with his fingernail. He knew that he was worrying for him, but strangely, he felt sulky.
Why, of all times.
Why did he have to be talking about dating Cheon Seung-pil the day after they slept together?
“So, if I told you to date Cheon Seung-pil, would you consider it?”
If it were someone else, he might have had a glimmer of hope that he was jealous, but the other party was Seo Baek-han. He wasn’t someone who would accept his clumsy attempts to cross the line just because they had sex once.
“I wouldn’t-“
“If Hyung, really-“
He barely opened his mouth, trying to calm his noisy insides, but his words collided with Seo Baek-han’s.
“Huh?”
Because his voice wasn’t loud and the sentence was short, he didn’t catch it at all and asked back like an idiot, and he stiffened his lips and shook his head sternly.
“…No, you speak first.”
“Ah, uh… If Hyung wants me to meet Cheon Seung-pil that much, I’ll consider it.”
“You’ll consider it.”
“Yes, only consider it. But Hyung, Seung-pil would never see me as that kind of person.”
Joo Tae-hyun smiled faintly, hoping that his unnecessarily serious, even gloomy, face would be reflected on him even a little bit.
However, contrary to Joo Tae-hyun’s wishes, Seo Baek-han’s face remained indifferent. His lips drooped little by little, embarrassed by his rough gaze as if he was watching a boring farce.
“Seung-pil, Seung-pil.”
“Yes?”
“Let’s talk about that again after your body is fully healed. Since it’s before the start of the semester anyway, stay home for the time being.”
Fortunately, before he could stiffen up in an ugly state, Seo Baek-han lightly changed the subject. It was such an indifferent attitude that it made him wonder if he had been doing a surprise test to see if he would be obedient to him with Cheon Seung-pil as the subject.
“I looked it up and it said that exchanging Pheromones naturally while being close without having to have sex is also a good method, but I can’t bring you to work, so.”
“Ah, uh. Yes. That’s right. I guess…”
“I’ll tell the chief to bring you my clothes or blankets, so wear that at home for the time being.”
…What?
What was he supposed to wear?
He could feel his cheeks flushing, but there was nothing he could do. He would have thought nothing of it if he had told him to take off his underwear so he could see the condition of his ass. It was an extremely Seo Baek-han-like thought to want to see with his own eyes the result of what he had participated in.
But he didn’t know why such a trivial thing as telling him to wear his clothes at home felt so unexpected, or why it felt so stimulating.
“Depending on your condition, I might have to consider sleeping with you in my bedroom. In fact, Doctor Woo recommended this method the most, along with sex.”
Joo Tae-hyun shifted uncomfortably and sat with his back against the head of the bed, with his knees bent low. Seo Baek-han only said two words. He told him to wear his clothes and sleep with him in his bedroom.
But he was ashamed of himself for blushing and fidgeting as if he was embarrassed, and even getting an erection in the midst of all this.
He couldn’t help but show his face, but he absolutely didn’t want Seo Baek-han to find out about his erection, so Joo Tae-hyun changed his posture here and there to the point of feeling somewhat distracted.
Perhaps his Pheromones had leaked out due to the blanket rustling, Seo Baek-han’s gaze briefly touched him and then fell away. Joo Tae-hyun was only able to stop his bustling movements after receiving his unknowable gaze.
“It’ll be difficult to move around tomorrow… Depending on your condition the day after tomorrow, let’s go out.”
Hearing that, the blood that had rushed up seemed to subside.
He had forgotten the most important issue. Since he had done such a thing in the palace, it was natural to go and apologize. What would be a good explanation…
Anyway, he wondered what happened to the event. It was an important occasion, but he was worried that Seo Baek-han wouldn’t have had time to show his face either because he was taking care of him, or rather, because he was pouring his semen inside him.
“I was thinking of making a reservation again at the restaurant we couldn’t have dinner at last time, what do you think?”
“…Huh?”
“I also promised them that I would visit again soon, and since it’s a restaurant attached to the hotel, I think we can solve both the thing you wanted from me and the homework we have to do at once.”