NOT 116

Cha Seo-jun gave a single nod.

He tried to appear fine, but the corners of his mouth wouldn’t lift all the way. Perhaps because the cafe’s ceiling lights were unusually bright, Seo-jun’s eyes, which had sparkled whenever he smiled, now looked sunken deep and dark.

Haon couldn’t just let that go.

He had drawn a firm line with his words, but somehow, a corner of his heart felt heavy.

The short sound of Haon setting down his cup rang out.

“Wait a moment.”

Haon spoke briefly and got up from his seat. He walked around to Seo-jun’s side and, without saying where he was going, headed for the door.

“Hyung?”

As if he hadn’t heard Seo-jun’s voice, Haon opened the door and went straight out.

Maybe he was avoiding the awkwardness and leaving the spot.

With that thought, Seo-jun couldn’t bring himself to follow Haon out. Instead, he lowered the empty hand that had wanted to grab him, curling it into a fist.

“Haa.”

As soon as Haon disappeared, Seo-jun’s expression immediately crumbled.

He knew he had to be okay. To act like nothing was wrong when Haon returned, he had to pull his expression together right now.

Yet his gaze kept falling to the floor.

The iced Americano cup in his hand felt cold and damp, as if telling him to get a grip.

“Is it completely over now?”

He hadn’t planned to confess like this, but he had pointlessly wasted his chance.

He’d finally gotten the chance to work at the same cafe. Could he ever talk and laugh with Haon like before again…?

Before that thought could finish, the door opened again.

Thinking a customer had come, he reflexively looked up to see Haon standing there. His face was slightly flushed as he came in, swinging a plastic bag.

He’d thought Haon left because being with him was awkward, but had he forgotten something?

“Here.”

Haon held something out to Seo-jun. It was chocolate milk.

“Why this…?”

“You liked chocolate milk.”

Seo-jun stared blankly down at it.

Something felt strange.

“Uh… Did I like this?”

Seo-jun muttered softly to himself.

Emotions surged up all at once. Seo-jun didn’t know where to start sorting out his feelings.

He was upset at being rejected. But the fact that Haon wasn’t pretending not to know his feelings at all also tickled his heart.

It felt like disappointment and gratitude were being stirred together in one cup.

“So you went to buy this?”

And right now?

At Seo-jun’s question, Haon set down the chocolate milk and took out his own strawberry milk.

“It just felt like we needed to drink this right now. Honestly, milk suits us better than coffee.”

At that, Seo-jun’s expression noticeably sank. It made his earlier thought that he shouldn’t act like this in front of Haon seem pointless.

“Does coffee not suit me?”

He finally managed to speak. Somehow, it sounded like he was saying the time they’d just spent drinking iced Americanos together wasn’t great.

He didn’t want to hear that Haon still saw him only as a kid, but at the same time, he also wanted to confirm it.

“Between us, coffee…”

Haon took out another milk. He placed the two milks side by side, then also placed the cups containing the coffee they’d been drinking together next to them.

“…has no memories attached to it.”

Seo-jun’s pupils shook violently.

Memories? For a moment, his heart pounded hard, but he didn’t want to admit it.

If he kept this up, it would show that he still liked him. Then Haon might run away.

Seo-jun’s confused feelings eventually came out as a sharp retort.

“I don’t like chocolate milk.”

At the sudden confession, Haon was startled in turn. His face looked even more surprised than when Seo-jun had confessed his feelings.

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

“I gave all the strawberry milk I had to you, hyung, so I drank chocolate milk.”

If he gave all his strawberry milk to Haon, he could just drink something else. He said the secret he’d kept to himself all this time as if it were nothing.

At Seo-jun’s sincerity, Haon looked down at the chocolate milk he’d bought.

Anyway, now was his chance to confess something too.

“I didn’t like strawberry milk that much either.”

Haon could also say it calmly.

“Back then, I just drank it to fill a meal. Since the younger kids liked it, strawberry milk rarely came to me, so I drank it on purpose sometimes, but I didn’t really like it that much.”

Seo-jun’s face stiffened completely.

The choked-up feeling from a moment ago shifted in a different direction. It even felt somewhat like betrayal.

At that reaction, Haon was the one who flustered.

“What’s wrong?”

Seo-jun looked straight at Haon with a wronged expression.

“Then you should have told me sooner. I didn’t even know that…”

What more could he say here?

“Right.”

Haon nodded. And said,

“So you liked strawberry milk.”

And he held out the strawberry milk he’d bought for himself to Seo-jun.

With a face that seemed to say, “Isn’t this enough?” looking so refreshed, Seo-jun’s face twisted strangely.

The milk wasn’t the problem; Haon still didn’t know.

What feelings Seo-jun had when buying strawberry [visit our site]content">stolen contentmilk all this time, what feelings he had when handing it to him, and how he had stepped back without revealing his own heart.

So, Seo-jun added his own disappointment to the irrelevant answer.

“…You only bought me milk.”

“Huh?”

“If I’d known it was instead of a meal, I would have bought bread.”

At those words, Haon wore a momentarily dumbfounded expression. Then, pressing his lips tightly, he held back his words before finally bursting out.

“Hey, you really…”

As Haon laughed, his shoulders shaking, Seo-jun also held on with a choked-up face before finally laughing too.

The lingering remnants of hurt and regretful feelings between them mixed with the laughter and faded.

“Anyway, let’s swap today. I’ll drink the chocolate.”

Seo-jun picked up the strawberry milk, and Haon picked up the chocolate milk.

After both took a sip at the same time, their eyes met.

A sweet taste spread in their mouths. That sweetness strangely seemed to warm their hearts too.

Seo-jun swallowed a sip of strawberry milk and muttered as if declaring a resolution.

“I’ve decided.”

Haon looked at Seo-jun while holding the milk in his mouth.

“I’ll always be on your side, hyung.”

Haon swallowed and laughed.

Why did those words sound so cute?

“What does that mean?”

“There’s such a thing.”

Seo-jun hastily dodged.

“Anyway, I’m on your side for life. If anything happens, tell me everything.”

“If I tell you?”

“I’ll block it all for you.”

His words were spirited, but towards the end, his ears turned slightly red.

Haon shook his head as if he couldn’t be helped.

And he held out his chocolate milk toward Seo-jun.

“Cheers.”

Seo-jun also raised his strawberry milk and lightly clinked it.

“I’ll be on your side too.”

At that, Seo-jun narrowed his eyes playfully and asked.

“So if I fight with Jeongwon-hyung, you’ll take my side?”

Haon answered without a second thought, with a matter-of-fact expression.

“That won’t happen.”

“Why not?”

“It means you won’t unauthorized [Read on Read BL Novels]copyhave a reason to fight with Jeongwon-sunbae. Could you even stand up to sunbae?”

The corners of Seo-jun’s mouth, which had taken on a face more wretched than when he was rejected, slowly fell.

“Would a fight even be possible in the first place?”

At Haon’s words, delivered as if it were utterly obvious, Seo-jun couldn’t even hide his genuine sense of injustice.

“Hyung!”

＊ ＊ ＊

“I’ll head in first.”

Haon, who had taken off his apron, picked up his bag.

Cha Seo-jun, who had been washing dishes, looked back at Haon.

“Let’s have dinner together before you go.”

“Sorry, sunbae is waiting for me right now.”

Haon shook his head.

Even though they’d been together until now, as the time apart grew longer, he felt uneasy.

“See you at school tomorrow.”

Haon waved goodbye and left the cafe.

Seo-jun looked once more in the direction Haon had gone. The door was already closed, and the bell’s sound quickly quieted. All that remained was the sound of water and the cups piled in the sink.

He bowed his head and moved his hands again. Soap bubbles flowed over the back of his hand.

Just as his hands seemed to loosen in the warm water, the places touched by detergent became slippery, making him keep applying force. Each time he rinsed a glass cup, the fluorescent light reflected long on its transparent surface.

Seo-jun shook a cup once to remove [Read on Read BL Novels]the water and placed [visit our siteclass="wm" style="opacity:0;font-size:1px;user-select:all;">unauthorized copy]it on the rack. Then he picked up the next cup. He picked up the next plate.

“I confessed, so that’s enough.”

A low voice mixed in with the sound of water. Being a mutter to himself, it was even more composed.

He ran his finger once more along the edge of a plate. Carefully finishing up so no bubbles remained, his hand paused for a moment.

The moments of drinking milk with Haon passed by one by one.

Someday, he really hoped a day would come, at least once, when he could stand on Haon’s side with all his might.

Seo-jun bit his lip and clenched hard. And then, as if nothing had happened, he continued working again.