DG 66

“Ah……”

At the nonchalant reply, Ryu Jeong couldn’t hide his smile. Confirming through Lee Do-hyeon’s words that it wasn’t just his own thought, the earlier embarrassment and shyness completely evaporated. He curled his toes hidden by the worn sneakers inward as he smiled, and the radio, which had been on all along, announced midnight.

Startled, Ryu Jeong hurriedly took out his phone to check the time. The changed date above the reset time caught his eye. Already late at night, entering the early morning hours, Ryu Jeong, flustered, hesitated before pushing the two unfinished drinks towards Lee Do-hyeon.

“I haven’t paid yet.”

“It’s okay. There’s some change left from last time……”

“Change? …Ah.”

Lee Do-hyeon, who frowned slightly as if he couldn’t immediately recall, let out a small sigh. It was a small amount of money, so it was buried deep in his memory. The fact that he remembered and mentioned it made him seem quite meticulous and sharp, which looked cute.

“This one is for Ryu Jeong to drink.”

Lee Do-hyeon opened the soy milk and handed it to Ryu Jeong. The soy milk opened with a cheerful pop, and Ryu Jeong found it in his hand before he could even refuse. He worried about what the Shop Owner might say, but he couldn’t refuse the hand-delivered drink to his face.

In the end, Ryu Jeong sipped the soy milk in front of Lee Do-hyeon. The still warm and savory soy milk gently soothed his stomach, irritated by the spicy ramen.

“Um, but……”

“Yes.”

Lee Do-hyeon, who had been watching him drink while holding the small soy milk bottle with both hands, replied casually. Even though he hesitated for a long time as if he had something to say, Lee Do-hyeon didn’t show any signs of impatience and waited quietly. Before long, his small lips parted.

“I still have a long way to go before I get off work……”

“I know. 8 o’clock, right?”

Mentioning the exact time made him even more uneasy. Ryu Jeong couldn’t continue and hesitated. He was happy to see him like this, but he was worried that he might be causing Lee Do-hyeon, who had to go to work tomorrow morning, unnecessary trouble.

Didn’t he already have something to be sorry about this morning? The discomfort he couldn’t shake off while riding in Lee Do-hyeon’s car tried to raise its head again.

“Um… President, you have to go to work tomorrow too, right……?”

But he couldn’t tell someone who had driven a long distance twice in one day to go home now. It was an eviction notice stemming from a sorry and considerate heart, but when you look at the conclusion, there was no eviction notice at all. Unable to bring himself to say what was on his mind, he asked indirectly, and Lee Do-hyeon quickly retorted.

“Are you telling me to go now?”

Ryu Jeong gasped at the very direct question. He quickly looked up to meet his eyes, wondering if he might be upset. Fortunately, Lee Do-hyeon’s face didn’t show any signs of being upset.

“That’s too much. To someone who worked overtime and rushed over because he wanted to see his Darling.”

“I was worried… you might be tired……”

There was a hint of disappointment in his reproachful tone. Ryu Jeong mumbled words that sounded like excuses, drooping his eyebrows as if he was upset. He was confident that his desire to see him was no less than his. He had found a place where he could comfortably lean his body, which had been battered by hard part-time work all day long, and there was no way he wouldn’t think of it.

His desire not to send him away because he wanted to see him was only slightly, very slightly, smaller than his consideration for Lee Do-hyeon, who would be tired because of him. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see him if he sent him away like this, but he was afraid that Lee Do-hyeon might think so.

Lee Do-hyeon, who had been silently watching Ryu Jeong, who couldn’t say anything more and bit his lip tightly, shook his head slightly as if there was nothing he could do.

“I’m not saying anything to Ryu Jeong right now.”

“…Then……”

“It’s not like I don’t know how much Ryu Jeong cares about me… and I’m not narrow-minded enough to scold my Darling for saying a word.”

Ryu Jeong couldn’t hide his intimidated expression, as if he didn’t understand the long introduction. The main point must be more important than the introduction. Lee Do-hyeon, who quickly grasped what was important in a conversation with his young Darling, quickly continued.

“Just think of it as me being a little whiny because I’m sad.”

“Whiny…?”

“Yes. Me, thirty-three years old, whining because my Darling is working… I’m really not acting my age, am I?”

“Ah, no.”

“No?”

“Yes……”

Ryu Jeong quickly denied the self-blaming words. Even if he thought he wasn’t acting his age, he liked Lee Do-hyeon like that. He just felt good thinking that his feelings of liking and wanting to see him were the same as his.

He was fiddling with the half-empty soy milk bottle, and Lee Do-hyeon, who had been staring at Ryu Jeong, glanced at the dark alleyway beyond the glass door.

“Um. I have something to ask you.”

As he cautiously changed the subject, Ryu Jeong, who seemed to be in a better mood, looked up with sparkling eyes.

“Is there CCTV outside the store too?”

“No… there isn’t, but why……”

Ryu Jeong paused for a moment at the unexpected question before answering. There was no particular reason to ask about the presence or absence of surveillance cameras, so his face, which was also glancing outside, was full of doubt.

Lee Do-hyeon replied nonchalantly.

“No, I saw that the outdoor table was dirty when I came in.”

“Yes? I cleaned it earlier……”

Could someone have sat there while he wasn’t watching? Ryu Jeong couldn’t hide his embarrassment at Lee Do-hyeon’s words that it was dirty, as it hadn’t been long since he had cleaned up the traces left by the Shop Owner while smoking. At the same time, he reflexively reached for the yellow rag.

“Go out and check.”

Ryu Jeong, passing by Lee Do-hyeon, who was taking the initiative to open the door, headed for the outdoor table and stopped abruptly.

“Uh……?”

A dazed sound escaped his lips. Contrary to Lee Do-hyeon’s remark that it was dirty, there was nothing on the table, and even when he bent down to look underneath, there was no trash rolling around, so it was clean.

What on earth……. He looked around several times, but he couldn’t see any trash to clean up. Ryu Jeong, bewildered, looked around, and then the hand holding the rag was grabbed and his body turned around.

His body, unable to fully withstand the force, staggered as if about to fall, and soon he was seamlessly pressed against a dark wall-like body. Ryu Jeong unknowingly closed his eyes tightly at Lee Do-hyeon’s face, which was coming right up to his.

Warm, soft lips landed on Ryu Jeong’s lips as naturally and inevitably as if they were in their rightful place. Ryu Jeong froze as if he had forgotten to breathe. An enormous tension that made his knees weak climbed up his waist. He didn’t know when he had dropped it, but the rag was rolling on the floor, and Ryu Jeong tried to calm his trembling heart by clenching and unclenching his empty hands.

It was the first time that a few seconds felt like an eternity. With a short, cheerful sound, his lips moved away, but Ryu Jeong couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes. He barely exhaled the breath he had stopped, with his white skin wrinkled as if he had closed his eyes tightly, and then slowly lifted his eyelids.

“……”

As if he had been waiting for him to open his eyes and look at him, dark night sky-like eyes were looking at him. Ryu Jeong, who was embarrassed, closed his eyes again.

Lee Do-hyeon, who had been silently looking at him, lowered his head again. The alleyway in the early morning, with no one around, remained quiet.

Leaving behind Noh Hee-cheol, who was yawning incessantly and barely acknowledging his greeting, Ryu Jeong left the convenience store with the soy milk bottle he couldn’t bring himself to throw away in his hand.

The fatigue from the night shift was a familiar and heavy weight on his eyelids. Ryu Jeong, who squeezed his eyes shut and opened them, thinking that he wanted to go and rest soon, hurried his steps.

The place he headed to with his hazy mind was the stairs he had climbed for 10 years. Ryu Jeong, who had fixed his gaze on the toe of his sneakers and was about to take a step, stopped.

“Excuse me, are you Ryu Jeong?”

It wasn’t of his own volition, but of someone else’s.

The days when the crying insects were invisible because of the cold were gone, but the alleyway wasn’t completely quiet due to the birds that woke up the morning. Nevertheless, the one who stopped Ryu Jeong in the alleyway, where it was difficult to hear people’s voices, was a man who looked somehow familiar.

“Ah, I apologize if I startled you.”

Compared to the loan sharks who would call him by curse words instead of honorifics or even his name, his speech was very polite. Moreover, the other person was dressed in a neat suit like Lee Do-hyeon. Unlike the loan sharks who wore shirts with flamboyant patterns regardless of the season, or who proudly showed off the animal pictures tattooed on their arms and shins, the other person made Ryu Jeong nervous in another sense.

Ryu Jeong held the soy milk bottle in his hand even more tightly and looked at Chief Yoon with eyes that had lost their sleepiness and were filled with wariness. Chief Yoon, noticing Ryu Jeong’s seemingly anxious expression, stopped as he tried to approach and gave a troubled smile.

“We met briefly at the hotel once before. With Lee Do-hyeon. I’m the General manager, Yoon Dong-hyeon.”

Chief Yoon took out a business card from his inside jacket pocket and reached out as if to hand it over. He was standing far away, so he couldn’t see what was written on the business card. Without readily trying to receive it, Ryu Jeong just stood far away and looked at him suspiciously, and then realized that he was the person he had encountered at the hotel and sighed softly.

“Ah… back then, in the elevator……”

“Ah, yes. That’s right. You remember.”

Ryu Jeong, who had somewhat lowered his guard, paused and bowed his head in greeting. When he gave a small voice, “Hello……,” Chief Yoon, who let out a sigh of relief, also belatedly bowed.

“Um, but what brings you here……?”

Ryu Jeong opened his mouth first, unable to bear the awkward silence. Chief Yoon, who had been wearing a friendly smile, sighed, “Ah,” and pointed to the car he had been riding in with a nod.

“Actually, the President told me to help Ryu Jeong get off work.”

“Help me get off work… how?”

“He told me to take you home. Um, the President said he had already told you.”

“Ah……”

Ryu Jeong was speechless for a moment at Chief Yoon’s words. He had heard that he should ride in the car that Chief Yoon would drive, but it didn’t feel real when he actually faced it. More than anything, he felt embarrassed. Even though it was a matter of private domain, the face that was smiling while waiting for his answer felt somehow uncomfortable.

He would have woken up early and prepared to match his quitting time, but he was starting to worry that he might have put up with the fatigue because of him.

He could just take the bus. As he was lost in complicated thoughts and hesitating, Chief Yoon, who had been silently watching Ryu Jeong, took out his cell phone from his pocket. As if he had misunderstood his hesitant attitude, he showed the number saved as ‘President’ and looked as if he was about to press the call button right away.

“You can talk to the President. He really ordered me to come.”

“Ah, no. It’s okay. I’m just… just a little surprised.”

“Did I pop up too suddenly? Actually, you didn’t come out even though it was past quitting time, so I wondered if there was a separate back door. He told me to check that you went into the President’s house, but I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to take you there. I’m sorry.”

Chief Yoon smiled awkwardly and bowed his head politely. He didn’t mean to put pressure on him, but somehow the situation was flowing strangely. Ryu Jeong, embarrassed, bowed even deeper than Chief Yoon, as if he was even more sorry.

The awkward atmosphere didn’t seem to ease easily. Ryu Jeong just fiddled with the soy milk bottle listlessly until Chief Yoon, who had neatly put away the cell phone that had lost its purpose, tentatively suggested that they leave now.

Could he see him if he went home now? Ryu Jeong, nodding his head, slowly moved towards the car that Chief Yoon was pointing to with a fluttering heart.

Chief Yoon, who didn’t forget to hand over his business card when Ryu Jeong came closer, even opened the back door for him. Seeing him holding the wide-open door, it seemed like he was going to close it as well as open it. Ryu Jeong couldn’t hide his embarrassment at the gaze that was telling him to get in quickly. It was an extremely courteous attitude that didn’t suit him.

He was afraid that if he refused, it would sound like he was giving him a hard time, so Ryu Jeong continued his hesitant steps. But suddenly, he thought he should pack his clothes. It was obvious that he would only be staying for three or four hours, but he couldn’t keep wearing the clothes he had been wearing for a whole day.

“Ah, um, can I stop by my house for a moment?”

“Your house?”

Chief Yoon asked back in a questioning tone. Ryu Jeong, who was embarrassed for no reason, glanced at him and nodded his head.

“I just have something… to pack.”

Chief Yoon didn’t ask what it was and made a silent sound as he checked his wristwatch. What if he said no? As he was anxious, sure enough, a troubled look appeared on Chief Yoon’s face.

“Is it something you need right now? If not, I’ll stop by and get it in the afternoon. I heard you go to work around noon, and I thought you wouldn’t have time to rest if I stopped by.”

He wouldn’t have enough time even if he left work on time, but he couldn’t accept Chief Yoon’s suggestion. Ryu Jeong shook his head slightly.

“It’s okay. I’ll get it now.”

“Then I’ll go with you….”

“No! I’ll go alone. I have to go up for a long time… and, it’s personal stuff.”

It was true that he had to go up and down a road that was difficult to walk even on flat ground, and it was also true that what he was trying to bring was personal stuff. Of course, the biggest reason was that he had to walk awkwardly with someone other than Lee Do-hyeon, but Ryu Jeong didn’t bother to mention it.

When he repeatedly said it was okay with an astonished face, Chief Yoon stepped back as if he couldn’t help it.

“Then I’ll be waiting here. If you need any help, please call the number on the business card there.”

“Ah, yes. Then I’ll be back soon.”

Ryu Jeong, stepping back hesitantly and bowing his head again, turned around and ran up the stairs.