By Zephyria 
Goosebumps rose on Min-ho’s back at the low voice. He still hasn’t given up. Unaware of Min-ho’s slightly trembling shoulders, the man breathed another whisper along with a hot breath.
“I heard the rooms here are good, too.”
It was a rare, blatant proposal. Even among those who knew the taste of men, they could recognize each other, but it wasn’t common to be this explicit. There was a chance it could be a misunderstanding, and the aftermath of such a mistake could be quite significant. Usually, one wouldn’t be certain until they were on a bed doing the cock-work. However, the detective had been making quite an aggressive appeal since last time.
“Is that so? I’m fine because I have company.”
As if shaking off the sticky breath, Min-ho toyed with the outer rim of his ear and leaned his upper body to the opposite side. The detective, who looked down as if gauging the suddenly widened distance, licked his lower lip.
“Are you still busy these days?”
“Yes, there’s something else I’m preparing lately.”
“Ah. That’s why you look so tired.”
“….”
As the man tilted his head toward him, the scent of perfume came close enough to brush the tip of his nose. It was overwhelming. Until not long ago, Min-ho had been favorable enough toward this detective to consider playing along with his advances. Perhaps because he had changed the saved name, only a sense of discomfort continued to surge.
He kept his gaze down without any reaction. He intended to show that he had no will to converse, but the other party seemed to take this as a sign of permission. The hand that had been gripping the back of the chair slowly reached toward Min-ho. Min-ho straightened his back, focusing all his attention on that hand.
“You look much better without glasses, really.”
Along with a whisper mixed with a low laugh, the hand came close enough to brush his eyes. The moment he realized the intention to touch his face and tried to pull his upper body back, the detective’s forearm was firmly gripped by someone. It was a neat set of fingertips that Min-ho knew well.
“Why are you touching him?”
“…Excuse me?”
Whether surprised by the sudden intrusion of another’s voice, the man’s eyes widened as he looked up at Gyu-oh.
“If you touch this Hyung, he bites.”
“Ah, ah. You’re the company. The acquaintance.”
“….”
After confirming Gyu-oh’s face, the man deliberately emphasized the words ‘acquaintance.’ However, Won Gyu-oh, who actually was an acquaintance, wasn’t affected at all.
Without giving any answer, Gyu-oh simply narrowed his brow and scanned the detective up and down. The smile had completely vanished from his usually beaming face. Because that created a rather chilly and sharp atmosphere, the detective wore an awkward expression.
“Hello. I worked with Director Cha for a short while, and since we ran into each other by chance, I came to say hello. I was glad to see you.”
“….”
Despite the outstretched hand and the detailed explanation, Gyu-oh remained silent. He simply stood crookedly, staring bluntly at the man’s face and body. If they had shaken hands, they would have exchanged names, and he would have heard the detective’s name. But because Gyu-oh didn’t respond, it seemed difficult to ever learn the man’s name.
“Ahem.”
The detective also quickly scanned Gyu-oh’s appearance. The open shirt collar, the tattoos visible beyond the rolled-up sleeves, and the delinquent attitude. Having concluded that there was nothing good about getting involved, he took a step back. Only then did the man’s shadow over Min-ho fade.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt your meal. Please enjoy.”
“…Yes, please leave.”
The man stood up awkwardly and gave a small bow. Then, he lightly touched Min-ho’s shoulder and gave a kind smile.
“I’ll be in touch. Please reply.”
“….”
He had changed the name in his contacts, deleted all the messages they had exchanged, and even blocked him, so there was no way for them to contact each other anymore. Nevertheless, the man looked him in the eye and flicked his eyebrows as if to emphasize. Of course, they might run into each other again for other reasons, but such coincidences weren’t as frequent as one might think. Min-ho nodded with a reluctant expression.
Only after the man had completely moved away from the table did Gyu-oh sit in the chair. Even as the meal arrived and filled the table, Gyu-oh continued to glare in the direction the detective had disappeared.
“Who is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
Min-ho, who had been picking up the knife and fork, paused for a moment and looked toward where the detective had walked. Strangely, after deleting the name from his phone, the name had completely vanished from his mind as well. He felt it was a very ordinary name.
While he was searching his memory, a large hand suddenly entered his field of vision. Following the sound of a thumb and middle finger snapping, Min-ho’s head returned to center. Gyu-oh was squinting one eye with a dissatisfied expression, but his gaze was incredibly cold.
“Since when do you let someone touch your face and exchange contact info with people you don’t know?”
“I said I don’t know his name.”
“….”
Gyu-oh pressed his aching eyes with the back of his hand and met his gaze again.
“Because I changed it.”
“…Even for that bum?”
Gyu-oh’s face crumpled instantly. He huffed, glaring in the direction the detective—who had already vanished without a trace—had gone.
“He’s a detective. Not a bum.”
“Detective or judge. Do you think I don’t know your criteria for changing names, Hyung?”
His fiercely wide eyes were quite scary. He didn’t seem to have interfered in every little thing like this before. His questions continued persistently, as if he were interrogating a cheating lover. What they met for, how old he was, how long they had been in contact, and so on. The original Won Gyu-oh would never have bothered to ask such things.
“I’m telling you, it’s not like that. With that person, I changed it before that.”
“….”
After pressing him for a while, this time there was no response. When Min-ho glanced up, he saw a gaze staring at him intently, without even touching the food. The face was full of distrust. He didn’t know why he was explaining everything one by one when he could just ignore it. As Won Gyu-oh became strange, he felt himself becoming strange along with him.
“I tried to go, but I couldn’t. Because some pervert had settled into my house that day.”
“Pervert?”
Seeing the face asking back with a flick of the eyebrows, it seemed he didn’t remember that time. As they say, the one who hits sleeps soundly; he had clearly forgotten about the guy who sent perverted photos.
“There was a guy wearing nothing but an apron.”
“What kind of fucking pervert wears nothing but an apron…?”
His words cut off, as if the record of that night finally came back to him. His lips moved silently, and then he bit his lower lip.
“Who else could it be? Who around me would do something that stupid?”
“Fuck, it can only be me.”
Then, like someone who had realized something profound, he closed his eyes slowly and even shook his head. The words that followed were even more absurd.
“Still, Won Gyu-oh sacrificed his own body to protect Hyung’s purity.”
“Lower your voice.”
He put particular emphasis on the word ‘purity.’ Min-ho had to check if the employee passing by the table could hear this conversation.
“Ah, look at my heart racing from this sense of duty.”
The boy placed his hand on his thick chest and shrugged his shoulders as if letting out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t been a slick talker for just a day or two, but Min-ho couldn’t help the headache that came every time he faced him.
“Stop acting out. Shut up and eat.”
“Yessir.”
Contrary to the prompt answer, Gyu-oh reached out and snatched Min-ho’s phone. Then, his fingers moved busily as if checking something habitually. Wondering if he was checking for call logs or text records, Min-ho spoke casually.
“I deleted everything anyway.”
“Don’t delete them. It’s more confusing if you delete them.”
He’s talking as if he actually has a sense of duty. It would be so great if he approached his work with that much sincerity. The knife work, which had paused for a moment, picked up speed again.
“…I’m going to age because of Won Gyu-oh, I really am.”
Despite the words, in his rigid daily life, he rarely had a reason to smile if not for this idiot. Gyu-oh probably knew that too. When Min-ho placed a large piece of steak on Gyu-oh’s plate, a silly response came back as a reward.
“Still, Hyung is on the younger-looking side.”
“One more word and I’ll stab you.”
“Okay.”
After shaking the fork left and right in front of him as a threat, Gyu-oh quieted down. Gyu-oh, curling his large frame, used the knife and took a big bite of the steak. As expected, that guy only gets quiet when something is in his mouth.
It was an unplanned deviation, but spending time like this occasionally wouldn’t be bad. Min-ho swallowed a small smile without Gyu-oh noticing. The feelings of panic and discomfort from the sudden encounter earlier had all faded away.