By Zephyria 
“Is it always this taste? It tastes a bit different from the one on the first floor.”
They were on their way up after buying a cup of coffee each from the hospital lobby cafe. Whether the Einspänner with cream on top didn’t suit his taste, Gyu-oh kept tilting his head.
“Then save it and give it to Seong Mu-gyeong. He’s a connoisseur.”
“Does that Hyung drink things this sweet?”
Thanks to a lover who was more sincere about cafe work than anyone, Mu-gyeong spent his days off visiting all sorts of cafes. He often mentioned that because he drank so much, he could now predict the taste just by looking at it. Especially since Hong-ju loved Einspänner, he claimed he could pick out the one his lover brewed even if there were thousands of them, rubbing his forehead.
He had been telling that story for several years, but Gyu-oh flicked an eyebrow as if he were hearing it for the first time.
“That’s what he says every time he comes back from a break. You don’t remember that?”
“Did he?”
I must have been thinking about something else when he said that. He tilted his head with a lukewarm response.
“He used to drink it well with us when we went to cafes.”
“Why do you remember what Seong Mu-gyeong drinks?”
Min-ho was speechless at the look on Gyu-oh’s face as he asked back, eyebrows twitching. It was a sight he had seen until he was sick of it, something he’d heard until his ears bled, so he had no idea why Gyu-oh was suddenly acting like this.
That was just how Won Gyu-oh was. He pretended to take care of others and acted interested, but he didn’t actually store the information. It was as if he poured all his energy into the exact moment he dealt with someone, and the second he turned around, the memory evaporated. He didn’t even make an effort to retain it.
“Isn’t it weirder that you don’t remember?”
“Is thaaat so?”
Gyu-oh swirled his coffee cup and downed it in nearly one gulp, then licked his lips. The cream that had been lightly perched there vanished in an instant. Just like Won Gyu-oh’s interest in others.
As they moved toward the crowded elevator, Gyu-oh subtly bumped his shoulder against Min-ho’s.
“Do you remember my age?”
“Of course I do.”
Gyu-oh began listing information about Min-ho, counting off on his fingers. Everything from his favorite scent to the hand cream he used often, his glasses frames, and his shirt brand.
“This is practically stalking. Why do you remember such useless things?”
“Rather than remembering…”
Gyu-oh scratched his eyebrow and looked up at the elevator panel, from which a crowd of people had just departed. He seemed to be choosing his words, or perhaps his face looked like he was concocting some novel excuse.
“Maybe we were destined for this?”
He draped a heavy arm over Min-ho’s shoulder as if putting him in a headlock and let out a smirk. Perhaps because they had been kissing in the car until just moments ago, his lips were exceptionally red, which felt oddly embarrassing. Min-ho figured he probably looked the same.
“…Look at you.”
Min-ho cleared his throat and turned his head away. He could feel a piercing gaze on the side of his face, but he stubbornly kept his eyes fixed forward.
“Let’s move a bit earlier tomorrow morning. I have to drop Hyung off and then go to the police station.”
Ah, right, he said he was going for questioning. After catching Son Pro, U-won had kept him. He heard that after giving him a proper ‘education’ in discipline, he was handed over to the police; since he had caused physical injury, it would be difficult for him to avoid punishment. During that process, Gyu-oh had spoken with the police occasionally, and tomorrow he had to go for the actual investigation.
“No, just go straight there. I’m planning to go straight to the office anyway.”
“What? The office?”
“Yeah. I need to see the details of the case. I’ll just tell Mu-gyeong to drop me off on his way to work.”
Gyu-oh would likely handle the questioning well enough… but it was obvious that Son Pro would be a mess. He had been beaten to a pulp from the moment he was caught, so there might not be a single part of him left intact. Therefore, it was necessary to properly prepare the alibis for Gyu-oh and Mu-gyeong, who were involved. Those two were far more desensitized to violence than he was, so they would surely just shrug it off, wondering why it was even an issue.
“Why are you thinking about going to work? You should rest at home.”
“My hands are fine and my eyes are fine, so why rest? If I rest, it all just becomes tomorrow’s work.”
He replied nonchalantly while sipping his coffee. In truth, having been away from work for several days, it had been weighing on his mind.
“Excuse me, Director Cha. If you’ve signed a contract, you should fulfill it faithfully. You belong to me for a month.”
“I am doing that. That’s why I’m…”
Sucking and rubbing lips with you in the parking lot, grabbing and shaking someone else’s downstairs, and doing all sorts of things.
“You need to focus. Focus! Did you make the contract with your work? Or with Mu-gyeong Hyung?”
“Then you want me to… just stare at your face and not work?”
When adding the last part, he glanced behind him and lowered his voice significantly. There was a patient on the phone with a doctor in a gown, but fortunately, they didn’t seem to be paying much attention to this side.
“Yes. That’s exactly what you should do.”
“Ridiculous. Anyway, just go tomorrow, okay? I’ll just call Mu-gyeong.”
“That damn Seong Mu-gyeong, Seong Mu-gyeong…”
Gyu-oh tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and repeatedly chewed over Mu-gyeong’s name. Then, he snapped his eyes open and muttered fiercely with a strange glint in his gaze.
“I will win. He’s been getting on my nerves since last time.”
Is this guy crazy? Why is he suddenly obsessed with a random person again? Shaking his head, Min-ho stepped into the elevator that had just returned from the basement. There were three or four people inside, but everyone was focused on their phones.
Min-ho pressed the button for the floor where the patient rooms were and stood in the farthest corner. He felt Gyu-oh, who was still faintly muttering Mu-gyeong’s name, come and stand beside him. Just as he was about to tell him to be quiet…
“…”
His eyes locked exactly with a doctor who had just entered the elevator. Strangely, the face looked familiar. He wasn’t the attending physician, so why did he look familiar? Perhaps the doctor felt that same puzzling familiarity, as their gazes locked for quite a while. The doctor hesitated, tilted his head slightly, and then stood with his back turned.
“Hmm.”
It seems that person recognized me too, but he doesn’t seem to remember? Was he someone I was involved with for work? Was there something linked to the hospital? While he continued to search his memory, staring at the back of the head of the doctor who felt both strange and familiar…
Gyu-oh leaned down and brought his lips close to Min-ho’s ear. Then, he whispered in a voice so small that others couldn’t hear.
“I find it even more suspicious when Hyung only vaguely remembers someone.”
Min-ho didn’t even have to listen to know what misunderstanding Gyu-oh was having. He was probably suspecting that Min-ho had slept with this doctor too and then erased the phone number and all related memories. Given their history, he wasn’t exactly aggrieved, but this time it really wasn’t the case. If they had rolled around even once, the other party wouldn’t have reacted so vaguely.
“…Be quiet.”
Min-ho spat out each word while clenching his teeth hard. He gave Gyu-oh’s chest a nudge with his shoulder, but the other man didn’t budge an inch.
After going up three more floors, the doctor got off first. Perhaps he had been harboring the same question mark as Min-ho, because as soon as he stepped out, he turned around and made eye contact.
“…”
“…”
No matter how he looked at it, he didn’t know. The question mark displayed on Min-ho’s face was mirrored on the doctor’s. Though he still seemed curious, the doctor took his hand out of his gown pocket and gave a short, polite bow. Min-ho also gave an awkward nod in return.
Then the elevator doors closed again. It was strange that Gyu-oh, who he expected to butt in, remained quiet, but Min-ho was too preoccupied with searching his memory. Even after arriving at the floor with the patient rooms, Min-ho kept tilting his head.
“Who was it? Have we ever been involved with the hospital?”
“…”
“I don’t remember anything.”
During the relatively long walk across the hallway to the patient room, Gyu-oh didn’t utter a word. Min-ho didn’t notice because he was focused on digging through his past.
“Ah, maybe it was… the military doctor from before—”
Having finally recalled a possible connection, Min-ho snapped his head up. He tried to ask for agreement, but he couldn’t even finish the sentence.
“Won Gyu-oh! You, your nose!”
Blood was streaming down from the nose of Gyu-oh, who had a face full of dissatisfaction. Min-ho shouted urgently and tried to reach out, but Gyu-oh was one step faster in blocking him. He snatched the hand hanging in the air and quickly flung open the patient room door.
“Fuck. A nosebleed? How embarrassing.”
“What?”
The guy, who had roughly wiped under his nose with the back of his hand, suddenly pulled him into a tight embrace. He was so strong that Min-ho almost dropped his coffee, and his lower back felt a dull ache. Even when he tried to push him away to separate their bodies, the grip only tightened.
“What, are you done thinking about other guys now?”
“Hey, wipe the blood first…”
“Whether it’s a doctor or a nurse, it’s annoying that he looks in good shape, so why are you chewing over it so much? What’s the point of remembering? What are you going to do if you find out? Go back and say hello again?”
The words poured out in a rapid-fire torrent without a single breath, making Min-ho’s own breathing feel short. Even as he vented, Gyu-oh, huffing and puffing, did not loosen the arms wrapped around him.
“Stop the nosebleed first, then talk.”
It seemed like quite a bit of blood was flowing. The brain that had been working hard to uncover the doctor’s identity now held nothing but worry for Won Gyu-oh.
“I don’t want to. I’m just going to get blood all over Hyung’s clothes and collapse while bleeding everywhere.”
“…Hey.”
“Then Hyung will have to take responsibility, right? Because if Hyung hadn’t been thinking about another guy, I wouldn’t have had a nosebleed?”
His voice continued to be quite agitated. From the sounds of it, this crazy bastard had been jealous. But to the point of a nosebleed? This is completely…
“A total psycho.”
“Yeah, I am a psycho. Got a problem with that?”
The sheer confidence in his retort made Min-ho feel dizzy. Won Gyu-oh was the one with the nosebleed, so why was he the one feeling lightheaded? He knew Gyu-oh had a tendency to want all the attention, but it wasn’t usually to this extent. Was he like this with everyone he dated? He started to feel that he might have gotten tangled up with the wrong person.