By Zephyria 
“…Is this guy crazy?”
Letting out a hollow laugh, Min-ho gave Gyu-oh’s shin a light kick with his dress shoe. Even though there wasn’t much force behind it, Gyu-oh curled his large body and let out a long groan. Even then, he absolutely refused to let go of the slippery, soapy hands.
“Ouch, that hurts.”
“I keep calling you a blockhead, and you really just pick the most blockheaded things to do.”
“Where else can you find such a handsome blockhead? Anyway, come over here, wash your hands, and then eat, okay?”
He led Min-ho back to the small sink where Gyu-oh had been standing. Since Min-ho was also quite tall and bulky, it was uncomfortable, but Gyu-oh pressed himself closely against Min-ho’s back and overlapped their hands. The sensation of the prominent bones on the back of Min-ho’s hand was vivid beneath his palms.
“Won’t you let go?”
Even though Min-ho tried to shake off his shoulder, Gyu-oh stubbornly hugged him from behind. In that awkward posture, he busily moved the soapy hands.
“Stop playing hard to get, will you?”
Just as the foam began to dissolve, Gyu-oh, with a playful lilt in his voice, lifted the lever. Swoosh. Lukewarm water poured down, wetting both their hands. Soon, the foam that had been sticking to them was washed away as their fingers became tangibly entwined.
“I’ll wash myself, so just…”
A deliberately stern voice reached Gyu-oh’s ears through the sound of the water. As he glanced up, their gazes crossed through the mirror. On Min-ho’s face, besides irritation and annoyance, a flicker of discomfort passed. Only then did the smile lingering on the corners of Gyu-oh’s lips gradually fade.
Ah, this hyung said he likes men.
He realized that his unconscious action might have been uncomfortable for him. Suddenly, he became aware of how closely their bodies were touching. He felt that if he let go now, the situation would only become more awkward. He cleared his throat and hurriedly pushed his hands through the stream of water.
“I got it. Let’s just finish what we were doing and then part ways.”
The foam was being washed away, but the gaze clinging through the mirror showed no sign of letting go. After a brief, awkward silence, Min-ho returned to his indifferent expression and wiped the moisture with a towel. Then, he strolled over to the sofa and took a seat.
“It better taste good. Or you’re dead.”
Fortunately, the awkward tension had completely vanished along with the foam.
Sitting across from each other with a whole pizza between them, they continued their conversation as usual. The momentary awkwardness was gone.
“Since he’s an educated guy, he probably used his head for the backup too.”
“I’m checking, but I think we should check the girlfriend’s driver as well. They were exchanging emails suspiciously often.”
The topic was the civil servant they had finished cleaning up today. They needed to meticulously check that no documents linked to them remained. It would take a few days to erase all call logs and exchanged messages, but he was glad it was settled before they officially started the next phase.
“Then do we move straight to the other case starting tomorrow?”
Min-ho, who was stuffing pizza into his mouth with an expressionless face, nodded. As always, his eyes were bloodshot and his lips were chapped. He used to be quite large in build, though not as much as Gyu-oh. Perhaps because he had stopped doing physical work, he had become somewhat slimmer than before. Still, because he exercised occasionally, he maintained a toned physique.
Gyu-oh’s jaw, which had been moving at a regular pace, slowed down as he scanned Min-ho sitting opposite him.
“Did you ride the motorcycle again?”
A sharp question flew in, as if to wake Gyu-oh from his daze of observing Min-ho. Reflexively, he shook his head in denial first. He remembered how Min-ho would nag him every time he rode the motorcycle.
“No, I didn’t?”
“What do you mean ‘didn’t’? That’s a motorcycle key.”
In his downward gaze, he saw the motorcycle key with a tangerine keychain. He couldn’t deny it because he had attached the keychain in front of everyone as soon as he received the gift. He had even left the helmet by the door fearing he’d be scolded. To think he’d be caught by the keychain.
“You’re quick. You’ll have to put your life on the line.”
When Gyu-oh mimicked shooting a gun with his index and middle fingers, Min-ho flicked the hand away.
“Does this guy really need his head cracked to come to his senses?”
“Cars are a pain to erase traces of. And I rode alone, so what’s the big deal? It’s not like I gave anyone a ride.”
He listed out his own “valid” reasons for having to ride the motorcycle. As expected, Min-ho’s face didn’t look convinced.
“Whether alone or not, be careful. Do you think you’ll be young forever? At your age, it takes twice as long for bones to knit back together, twice as long.”
The repertoire he had heard over a hundred times continued. Gyu-oh quietly picked up a new slice of pizza and answered half-heartedly.
“Yeees.”
“Why the hell did Seong Mu-gyeong buy you such a piece of shit thing?”
As always, the arrow finally turned toward the person who bought the motorcycle. He was the Managing Director of Woowon, the company they belonged to; he had bought the motorcycle because it was necessary for work, and for several years, he had been cursed at like this. Hiding the fact that he had encouraged the director to pick a high-end model, Gyu-oh simply agreed with Min-ho.
“I know. That’s what I’m saying. That hyung is always the problem.”
“….”
Min-ho, who was wiping his mouth with a tissue, sent a cold gaze his way. Under the gaze so sharp it almost stung, Gyu-oh quietly munched on his pizza. Silence followed after that. Min-ho didn’t tell him to be quiet or shut up, but the atmosphere suggested that was the right thing to do.
By the time Gyu-oh grabbed his third slice of pizza, Min-ho stood up and headed for the sink. It seemed he was already stopping after eating only two slices.
“Done already?”
“Yeah. I told you I had bread earlier.”
Without even digesting, Min-ho simply wiped the grease off his hands and headed back to the desk, shaking his wet hands. After applying hand cream out of habit, he sat in the same spot, with the same posture, the same expression, staring at the same documents.
If no one stopped him, he was the kind of man who would stay like that all day, except for the time he spent eating and going to the bathroom. No wonder his eyesight was failing and he was tired every day.
“….”
However, Gyu-oh only let his lips flutter a few times, ultimately choosing not to voice his worries. The biggest reason was that he didn’t particularly want to question Min-ho’s choice, and if things ever got too extreme, there were plenty of other people besides him to stop him.
The relationship between Gyu-oh and Min-ho had always been this way. They were as close as family or brothers, yet they weren’t a pair that acted entirely comfortably with one another. It might have been possible precisely because Gyu-oh never crossed the line Min-ho had drawn around himself.
After polishing off the last slice of pizza, Gyu-oh quickly cleaned up. Knowing he’d surely be scolded if he didn’t sort the recycling properly, he even made a trip to the pantry at the end of the hallway. As he was wiping the table with a wet wipe, Min-ho let out a low sigh and muttered softly.
“I’m tired.”
Since Gyu-oh’s ears were always tuned specifically to Min-ho, he never missed even the smallest monologue.
“Get some rest now. Is today the only day? There’s tomorrow, and the day after.”
“Don’t you know the saying that tomorrow has its own troubles?”
“Then worry about that tomorrow.”
If he were assigned another task immediately, he’d be busy again, but he could rest deeply until daybreak. Having finished the cleanup, Gyu-oh approached the desk. After tapping it a few times like a knock, Min-ho’s eyes, which had been fixed on his phone, shifted toward him.
“Hyung, let’s go out together.”
“Hmm.”
Taking off his glasses and leaning back in his chair, Min-ho stared blankly at the ceiling. He remained like that for a while as if contemplating something, then eventually shook his head.
“I have plans.”
“At this hour?”
What plans did this man suddenly have, when he had been acting like he was about to die buried under paperwork until just a moment ago? As Gyu-oh frowned and pressed for details, Min-ho replied with a half-hearted tone, simply waving his hand.
“Yeah.”
“It’s almost midnight, what kind of plans? Especially for a man who can’t even drink.”
“Do you know how much my drinking has improved because of you?”
Even so, he couldn’t even handle a few glasses. Moreover, there were more than a few times when he would just pass out drunk, and Gyu-oh had to carry him like a piece of luggage. As Gyu-oh stared at him with narrowed eyes, Min-ho let out a smirk, perhaps realizing his own words made no sense.
“I’d rather be crushed to death by work. I don’t want to die because of a motorcycle.”
“You can just take your car, Hyung. And who are you meeting at this late hour?”
When he finally asked the question he was most curious about, he couldn’t even meet Min-ho’s eyes properly. An answer never came. Min-ho simply shut down his laptop, neatly organized the documents to one side, and picked up his jacket.
He was definitely going to meet some strange guy again.
“You’re going home, right? I’ll drop you off on my way.”
“…….”
There it was again. His mood was fluctuating violently once more. Throughout the time they lived like family, he had managed just fine without excessive interference or useless questions. Despite having forced himself to swallow his worries earlier, he was easily shaken, his interest boiling over at Min-ho’s brief silence or even a single breath.
This unnecessary interest began a couple of months ago, the moment he discovered the secret that Min-ho had been seeing men.
Because Min-ho had never shown any sign of it, even though they saw each other almost every day, it was something Gyu-oh had never even guessed. Of course, Min-ho likely had no intention of revealing it either.
However, it became an unavoidable situation because of a certain “not-quite-X” who had come to the office to cause a scene.