By Zephyria 
“Were you waiting for my call?”
“Waiting for what?”
Min-ho answered indifferently and avoided my gaze. He then quickly shoved the phone, its screen now black, into his shirt’s front pocket.
It was a good thing I stopped contacting him for a while. He’s showing so clearly with his whole body that he was waiting for me. Watching that sight made my throat feel dry for some reason. I sucked on the straw and gulped down the ice-cold coffee. Despite that, the hot heat caught in my throat showed no sign of subsiding.
“Is that so? Then why are you so flustered?”
As I approached with a silly grin, Min-ho hurriedly straightened his body and tidied up his surroundings. The neatly stacked documents looked to be about two finger-widths high.
“It’s surprising to see a guy who should still be in the hospital showing up in the conference room.”
“Still, I stayed for the full duration of the promised date. I did an ‘open run’ for my discharge the moment I opened my eyes today.”
It was a good thing he’d moved diligently since morning. As he answered with a silly grin, a detached yet sharp gaze turned toward him. The eyes swept up and down, and far from feeling offended, Gyu-oh felt like throwing a tantrum just to make him look closer.
“Full duration, my foot. In terms of actual time, you’re far short.”
“You’re so rigid. I stayed for the conventional three days, so that should be enough.”
Before Min-ho could pick up the high stack of documents, Gyu-oh quickly pulled them toward himself. Tucking the pile of papers under his arm, he tilted his head. Suddenly empty-handed, Min-ho sighed, pressing his eyelids by habit.
“I thought it had been quiet for a few days. I really need to tie you up somewhere.”
Gyu-oh stopped sipping his coffee, his eyes sparkling.
“Tie me up?”
“…….”
“Your tastes are quite hard.”
He tended to lead during sex, too. Gyu-oh hadn’t expected him to have such hard tastes given his appearance. Then, does he tie the other person up and just, like, huh? Do it to them like he did to me?!
Lewd thoughts filled his head, only to be quickly replaced by a surge of displeasure. It was plausible that Min-ho had that much data on such things.
As he chuckled to himself and then quickly frowned, a cold gaze brushed past.
“Crazy bastard.”
Muttering that, Min-ho indifferently walked past him. He seemed a bit frostier than a few days ago, but Gyu-oh felt at peace just being able to see him by his side.
“Wait for me!”
As he sucked on the straw, the sound of ice rattling echoed. He had already downed the whole thing in that short time, yet his thirst remained unquenched. He felt a deep craving emanating from beneath his skin.
“What. Do you need something?”
“…….”
Whether he had firmly made up his mind or not, Min-ho began to draw a clear line. As if everything until now had been a joke. After Gyu-oh sat on the sofa with his chin resting on his hand, staring at him for over an hour, Min-ho finally stood up to leave.
“Where are you going?”
“…….”
Without answering the question, he walked right past the sofa. Gyu-oh’s eyes followed his retreating back as he left the office. Seeing that he hadn’t taken his outerwear, he was likely just going to speak with the secretary or go to the restroom. Even though he knew that leaving the room still meant being inside the company, he felt strange.
“……How cold.”
He even began to worry that Min-ho might delete his number within a few days. Does he hate it when I act like an obsessive husband? I mean, why did you think about sending me far away in the first place? He fiddled with the gauze on his forehead, biting his lip.
“There are plenty of ways.”
There were endless ways to draw Cha Min-ho’s attention. Just how much data had he accumulated over time? Gyu-oh stood up. Then, he flopped down right in the middle of the path to the desk. Right on cue, the office door swung open.
“Crazy.”
He felt an inexplicable sense of pleasure at the small mutter. See, no one is better than me at getting Cha Min-ho’s attention. With a satisfied smile, he stretched out his limbs, sprawling out as if he were in his own bedroom.
“You were treating me like I was invisible. I guess you can see me now?”
“…….”
Min-ho sighed, pressing his hand to his forehead, and then took a step forward. If he helped him up, should he pretend to be unable to resist and throw himself into his arms? Wouldn’t that be less burdensome than if he were the one doing the hugging? While making such absurd calculations in his head, he listened to the approaching footsteps.
Slide. However, without a change in expression, Min-ho stepped right over Gyu-oh’s sprawled legs. Even the passing shadow was indifferent.
“Hey, Cha Min-ho!”
He urgently grabbed Min-ho’s leg as he tried to pass. Min-ho stumbled, but he didn’t tell him to let go, nor did he shake his leg off. He simply looked down at him with a quiet gaze.
“How can you not give a single glance to a patient acting like this since morning? Are you emotionally deficient?”
“I wonder. If you’re a patient, you should be in a hospital room. Why are you sprawling out in someone else’s office, sprawling out?”
“I don’t know. I fell on Hyung’s spot, so Hyung pick me up.”
If lingering in front of him to be annoying wasn’t enough, sprawling out was the answer. It was also the method with the highest success rate for provoking Min-ho. It would be perfect if he rode a motorcycle too, but being away from Hyung made him anxious.
“Haa.”
Letting out a deep sigh, Min-ho slid his fingers under his glasses. The glasses shifted every time he pressed the bridge of his nose.
See. The reaction is much more immediate than when he’s just standing still. Gyu-oh stared up at him, observing. Soon, Min-ho took his hand off his face and knelt on one knee. Then, he gripped Gyu-oh’s shoulder and pulled hard.
“Ah, CEO. Don’t pull. You’re stretching the clothes~”
Pretending to be unable to resist, he let himself be pulled up, dragging out the end of his sentence. He subtly leaned his upper body in to be embraced, but Min-ho’s palm hit his cheek. Because Min-ho pushed with force, his upper body ended up pressed tight against Min-ho while his head was turned the opposite way—a bizarre position.
“Why are you pushing me~?”
The end of his words wavered up and down like a wave. Despite the cringeworthy whining, Min-ho didn’t even blink. He simply helped him up and indifferently brushed off his back. The fleeting feeling of excitement from the surprisingly gentle touch was short-lived; his heart sank at the low voice.
“Are you doing this because you want to do it again?”
Though the sound of patting his buttocks was mixed in, Gyu-oh could hear him clearly.
“It’s not like that.”
Lest there be any misunderstanding, he added again that it wasn’t.
“Really, it’s not.”
“Then why are you acting like this?”
Truthfully, he didn’t know his own heart. He didn’t want to seem like he was suddenly seeking Hyung just because they had sex once. But what could he do when his feelings toward Hyung had changed starting from that day? No, to be precise, Hyung had always been someone who lingered in his sight and mind, and Won Gyu-oh had simply recognized it after that day.
It wasn’t just a matter of being skilled and lewd in relationships with men. The Cha Min-ho he had watched from the side was a man who harbored loneliness deep in his bones. Even while drawing lines and pretending otherwise to those around him, he was someone who took care of others more quietly than anyone. Anyone close to him would know. How warm a person Cha Min-ho was.
“…….”
A person like that, preparing himself below on his own, saying things like “I don’t want to see the same thing,” and being utterly flustered when offered a wash. It wasn’t hard to gauge how he had been using his body until now.
Cha Min-ho was a person who needed to be melted by warm and gentle touches. He hated the fact that Min-ho had slept with bastards who only wanted pleasure, and he wanted to let him know that such things weren’t the norm. It was presumptuous, but he felt like he was the only one who could treat Cha Min-ho that way.
“This is why I said it wouldn’t work.”
A voice laced with fatigue brushed past his ear. Keeping his gaze lowered, he quietly watched Min-ho continue to brush off his back.
“You’re doing exactly what I was worried you’d do.”
“…….”
“And what comes after this?”
It was a question, but the end of the sentence didn’t rise. As he looked down in silence, Min-ho slowly raised his head. Even though their eyes finally met properly, he didn’t feel as excited as he thought he would. Was it because of the exhausted expression, or the faint smile hanging on the corners of his lips?
“I go find another guy.”
For a moment, he hallucinated a ringing in his ears. Despite being cold and ignoring him all day, the rejection was this polite.
“But Won Gyu-oh should go back to his place. That way, I won’t feel guilty.”
As if he didn’t want to give him a single wound.
“…….”
The guys who had passed through Hyung’s life must have been like this too. They probably clung to him annoyingly after sleeping with him once, and Hyung had learned how to ignore them by turning their contact numbers into meaningless combinations of digits. And on the surface, he probably acted as if he didn’t easily give anyone a chance.
But he couldn’t bring himself to do that to Won Gyu-oh. The best Cha Min-ho could do was ignore him while he lingered and think that he should give him a long vacation to keep him far away.
He didn’t know how to describe this feeling. Was it a sense of defeat, frustration, or apology? Regardless, it was clearly an emotion he had never experienced with Cha Min-ho.
Following the hand that led him, he eventually walked obediently. He kept his eyes on Min-ho’s back, who was walking a step ahead. He felt like Min-ho had never looked so small. Min-ho opened the door and pushed him through the gap.
“I heard the candy you bought arrived. Go ask for it.”
The admonishing voice clung to the back of his head. The sensation of being pushed away with force felt unfamiliar. It felt as if he were being rejected from outside the drawn line.
“…….”
Since he usually didn’t cross the line first, there had been no need to push him away. Along with that realization, the office door closed without regret.