By Zephyria 
After lightly touching his red side, he snapped back to his senses and moved. He put on Gyu-oh’s clothes, grabbed the car keys, and headed straight for the company. Since most people had already left, it was quiet starting from the parking lot. He parked as close to the entrance as possible and made a call.
—Wow, timing. I was just about to call you.
A slightly lowered voice brushed against his ear. It was just an ordinary sentence, not a confession of love, yet a shiver ran down his spine and his heart began to race for no reason.
“Call? Why?”
—Just… I missed you?
At those words, he unconsciously stopped walking. It was just as he had arrived at the first-floor lobby. The elevator, with perfect timing, headed to the upper floors. Wondering if Won Gyu-oh was coming down, he hurriedly asked.
“What are you doing? Coming out?”
—I’m actually holding back on smoking right now. I have to shake this off quickly so I can sleep in while hugging Hyung tomorrow.
Judging by the silence around him, he was definitely still inside the office. The only noise was on Min-ho’s end. Suddenly, even the time spent waiting for the elevator felt like a waste. He headed straight for the emergency exit. To avoid making noise, he climbed the stairs two or three at a time, keeping the call active because he didn’t want to hang up.
—But why is it so noisy around you?
“Cleaning.”
—Cleaning? I told you to just lie down and sleep, why are you cleaning at this hour?
Gyu-oh had threatened him, telling him not to get a single drop of water on his hands. He claimed his philosophy on housework was that if you’re going to do it half-heartedly, you shouldn’t even start. Gyu-oh’s house was clean enough that there was nothing to touch. Even if they really lived together, there would likely be nothing for Min-ho to do.
“Hurry up and ventilate my office too.”
—Why suddenly ventilate? It’s col-dy.
“Open the window, open the door. Hurry.”
He heard Gyu-oh grumbling about why he was suddenly talking about ventilation, but for some reason, Min-ho kept laughing. Smiling to himself as he climbed the stairs, he reached the 8th floor in no time.
“Whew.”
He tried to steady his slightly labored breathing, but it wasn’t easy. As if he were nervous, he kept becoming short of breath.
—What are you doing to be panting like that? This is suspicious.
“……I didn’t know organizing things properly was this hard.”
His racing pulse wouldn’t subside. It felt as if the thumping vibration echoing through his entire body could be heard by the other person.
He flung open the emergency exit door and passed the empty reception area where the secretaries usually sat. Then, with perfect timing, the office door opened.
“No, I don’t know what it is, but don’t do it! I’ll do it when I get there.”
The voice over the phone and the voice ringing right in front of him overlapped. Gyu-oh snapped his head up and stared at him with a dazed expression. Perhaps because he was quite surprised, the way he blinked looked stupidly cute.
“Your jaw’s gonna drop.”
“Wha- what? Why is Hyung here?”
The boy continued to look back and forth between the phone and Min-ho’s face with a vacant expression. Min-ho, having hung up the phone, took large strides forward. Then, he suddenly wrapped his arms around the waist of Gyu-oh, who was still awkwardly holding his phone.
The sensation of their firm chests colliding. Only now did it feel real that he had come to see Won Gyu-oh in the middle of the night.
“Hey, I guess you really are going to change me.”
“Huh?”
“…….”
When things were hard, he could only think of things like alcohol or sex. He lived clinging only to work because he didn’t want to be plagued by nightmares. Into a life that had been consumed like a rag, eating away at his own body and mind, Won Gyu-oh had suddenly intruded.
Won Gyu-oh had swept away everything that had allowed Cha Min-ho to barely endure his life and stood proudly in their place.
“You were the first thing I thought of.”
Since Gyu-oh was someone who cared about the mood, Min-ho had wanted to tell him in a wonderful place. But it felt like he had to pour out his overflowing heart right now. His pulse was still loud and his breath was short, but Min-ho showed his sincerity step by step.
“I couldn’t think of anything else. That’s why I came.”
Cha Min-ho, who had only hidden himself because he feared the end and was scared of parting, gathered his courage for the first time. He revealed his true inner feelings—things he hadn’t shown even to his only sibling or his oldest friend—in front of Won Gyu-oh.
“I missed you. I felt like I absolutely had to see you.”
Min-ho, who only knew how to hesitate and pull back from the line he had drawn, had stepped forward entirely of his own will. The warmth Won Gyu-oh had radiated had finally melted all of Cha Min-ho’s rigid walls.
Gyu-oh, blinking slowly with a dazed expression, barely managed to part his lips. Even if the words “let’s pretend this never happened” or “let’s just stay as a good Hyung and Dongsaeng” came from those lips, he felt confident that he wouldn’t be hurt.
Because this time, Cha Min-ho could be the one to wait for Won Gyu-oh.
The lips that were silently gaping finally opened, and a finely trembling voice flowed out.
“……You’re accepting me, is that it?”
“Rather than accepting… let’s just try to do well together, something like that.”
That expression was too tilted in his own favor. Moreover, what Cha Min-ho wanted wasn’t a relationship where Won Gyu-oh entirely endured and led him. If Gyu-oh only embraced his jagged and twisted self, he would eventually get hurt.
He wanted a relationship where they adjusted their sharp edges to fit together without any gaps. So they could move forward for a long time without hurting each other. He didn’t care if they moved along a crooked trajectory. As long as it was with Won Gyu-oh, even walking an ugly path would be wonderful.
“Hyung. You’re not drunk right now, are you?”
“I’m not drunk. I’m sober.”
“Isn’t it still a few days until the promised time……”
Gyu-oh looked bewildered, perhaps because Min-ho had suddenly shown up in the middle of the night to give a confession-like confession. A cold breeze flowed through the open office door. He couldn’t tell if he felt the chill because he was nervous or if a truly cold wind was blowing. As Min-ho swallowed dryly with tension, his Adam’s apple bobbed significantly.
“Why. Is it burdensome now that it’s actually happening?”
“…….”
“Is the mood… too lacking?”
Gyu-oh, who had been staring back without answering, slowly raised his hand. Then, he slapped his own cheek with force. Slap. Startled by the fairly loud sound, Min-ho quickly grabbed Gyu-oh’s arm.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
The reddened cheek gradually puffed up. Only then did the corners of his stiff mouth lift, and the smile he only showed when he was happy spread.
“No. I thought it was a dream!”
“……Again?”
Placing a hand on his chest, leaning his upper body forward and squeezing one eye shut, Gyu-oh let out a short sigh. Soon, he reached out with both hands and cupped Min-ho’s cheeks.
“There is. A secret between Cha Min-ho and me that Hyung doesn’t know.”
Whispering softly with a smile, Gyu-oh tilted his head. His tongue and hot breath immediately pushed through the gap of the lips. Min-ho also extended his tongue, entwining with the familiar body temperature and sensation. Could a smile be transmitted so clearly even through thin skin? A faint smile had also hung on the corners of Min-ho’s mouth.
To think he would kiss in a space where so many people usually came and went and the lights were always on. And with Won Gyu-oh, who he now stuck to like a partner. Now, whenever he came and went from here, this scene and the emotions he felt in this moment would come to mind.
Even if Won Gyu-oh didn’t, it would be remembered as a very meaningful moment for Cha Min-ho. Because he had gathered his courage for the first time. In his darkened vision as he closed his eyes, the image of Gyu-oh’s smiling face he had seen last lingered.
“Mmph, ngh……”
A thick tongue pushed in as if to pierce the throat, and a desperate, deep kiss continued until the lips were smeared with saliva. Usually, Gyu-oh was uncharacteristically gentle in matching his breath, which was fine, but today he was pushing so aggressively that Min-ho felt he was running out of air. Min-ho slowly opened one eye.
He frowned as he struggled to focus, then slowly lifted his gaze. At the same time, his eyes locked with the downward-cast black pupils.
“…….”
Since when had he been opening his eyes? Had he seen everything, including the silent smiling? Before embarrassment could rush in, Gyu-oh pulled his waist with a strong grip. Led by the quick movement, as if snatching prey, he was pulled into the office.
Slam. The sound of the door closing echoed quite loudly in the empty hallway. Following that were hands urgently groping Min-ho’s cheeks, nape, shoulders, and waist as he was pushed against the door.
Min-ho didn’t push back against the forceful pressure and obediently wrapped his arms around Gyu-oh’s shoulders. The temperature of their lips, pressed together to the point of being crushed, had now become similar. After lightly biting the lower lip and sucking it with a chu sound, a few more shallow kisses followed. The skin, dampened by saliva, felt exceptionally sticky as it touched and parted.
“You’re not taking it back later, right?”
Even while asking the short question, their lips remained locked with continuous kissing sounds. Gyu-oh, licking Min-ho’s reddened lower lip with his tongue, raised the end of his sentence as if urging him.
“Hmm? You’re not, right?”
From the moment they started kissing, the two of them never looked away. They looked into each other’s differently colored pupils, facing their own reflections within them. Perhaps that was why, rather than feelings of apology or embarrassment, he could focus entirely on his sincerity.
“I wouldn’t have brought it up if I were going to take it back. We just sealed the deal.”
Min-ho also slowly tasted Gyu-oh’s parted lips with his tongue. It was strange that even though heated flesh was touching, it felt hot enough to burn. Following the tongue that licked the lips and pulled away, Gyu-oh’s eyes cast deeply downward.
“……You know what happens if you take it back, right? I’ll put chains on your ankles and lock you in my room.”
The gaze that had been wandering around the glistening lips slowly rose again. When their eyes met once more, Min-ho carefully moved his hand. Passing the firm shoulders he was hugging, he gently wrapped his hand around the nape where the ink was deeply engraved. As he kept his fingers slightly bent, his thumb touched the prominent Adam’s apple.
“Will you give me snacks and a laptop too? Then confinement wouldn’t be so bad.”
“That damn work.”
Every time Gyu-oh spoke, the slight vibration of the Adam’s apple was transmitted to his fingertips. It was a fairly ticklish sensation, but Min-ho didn’t pull his hand away. He simply wanted to feel Gyu-oh’s body temperature and trembling exactly as they were. Gyu-oh seemed to feel the same, as he tilted his head and buried his lips in the nape.
“The only thing I’m putting in Hyung is my cock.”
Click. The sound of the lock engaging echoed. Now, anyone wanting to enter would have to punch in the password. Until then, this was a space for just the two of them. No matter what they did or what they spoke of here, nothing could leak out.