By Zephyria 
Eun-myeong felt as if he had been dreaming a very long dream.
Even though he was burning up with a high fever, he didn’t want to escape that dream.
Because.
Because….
‘Baby, are you awake?’
‘Hurry up and wake up so you can eat.’
‘Were you thirsty?’
‘Shall we live like this for the rest of our lives?’
Because in every moment where his memories flickered and returned to their place, the man had been there.
That was why the dream felt even more surreal. How could the man be stuck to his side like that 24 hours a day? He wasn’t a piece of candy….
Dreams should be moderately delusional.
The man in the dream was sweeter, richer, and more colorful than any food Eun-myeong had ever tasted. He had an addictiveness that made it impossible to escape once you had a single taste.
However, the reason Eun-myeong woke from that heaven-like dream was none other than his voice.
‘Now, come back to me completely.’
The moment he heard those words, Eun-myeong realized what he had to do.
Return to him.
He wanted to look into those two eyes and smell his scent. He wanted to feel his hot body temperature with his own hands.
At that moment, Eun-myeong’s fingers, lying on the bed, twitched. His delicate brow furrowed deeply. His cheeks flickered, and the corners of his mouth trembled.
“Ugh, uuu.”
Eventually, Eun-myeong slowly pushed his eyes open.
The first thing he saw was a wriggling earthworm. Upon closer look, it was just a pattern on the ceiling.
An all-white ceiling, and the smell of alcohol disinfectant wafting into his nose.
It was a hospital.
Eun-myeong slowly rolled his eyes. It seemed to be a very large hospital room. There was a potted plant, a sofa, and even a TV.
It was an impeccably equipped room.
But the man was not here.
“…….”
Very slowly, Eun-myeong sat up. His entire body was drenched in sweat. A sudden chill ran down his spine.
Eun-myeong tried to get out of bed but almost rolled off. He had so little strength in his body that he felt like a cotton doll.
He didn’t even have the strength to push open the door. His legs gave out like a newborn fawn, and he walked with a heavy stagger.
Holding onto the handle attached to the hospital wall, he slowly stepped forward. Every movement Eun-myeong made was sluggish, but only his eyes moved quickly.
He walked as if tracing a path, and soon his heart grew urgent. His pace quickened. His thin, sweat-dampened hair fluttered.
Where is he? Where on earth could he be?
I opened my eyes to return to him, but he’s not here. The man is nowhere to be found. I should have just stayed in the dream.
Eun-myeong wandered frantically here and there, eventually coming to a dead stop. Dizziness set in, and his vision turned white.
He should have just lived in that dream for days, or even hundreds of days.
Ah, he felt like a lost child.
Like a child who had followed someone for a long time thinking they were their parent, only to stand there in vain upon realizing they were mistaken.
But only for a moment; the disappointment drained the strength from his legs, and Eun-myeong staggered.
Just as he thought he would slam his head into the floor. Suddenly, an arm reached out from behind and supported him.
“…….”
But that grip was so familiar, and the pheromones wafting from behind were something he had missed so dearly.
Eun-myeong already felt as if he were being embraced by him.
“Found you…!”
The man spoke as if cheering. His large chest heaved violently.
He was someone who rarely sweated, yet he was panting and dripping with sweat, as if he had been rushing somewhere in great haste.
Thump, thump, clatter….
A dropped water bottle rolled mercilessly across the floor around him.
Droplets of liquid dripped from his chin. His thick neck, like an old tree, glistened with sweat, boasting a vivid sense of vitality.
Eun-myeong looked at him as if possessed.
Ah, he was the man he had been searching for.
Overwhelmed by the happiness filling him, Eun-myeong unconsciously lost himself.
It was only natural, as the high tide rising in his body was too overwhelming. Like a wave growing in volume following a giant full moon, Eun-myeong struggled to accept the overflowing emotions.
“Huh? You’re not some puppy running around frantically, are you?”
The man knelt down. He grabbed Eun-myeong’s ankle and casually wiped it against his shirt.
“A baby who can’t even put on shoes by himself.”
Amusingly, Eun-myeong was barefoot. Unaware of it, he had simply wandered around frantically searching for the man.
“…Ah.”
Is this, is this really reality? Could this also be a dream? His head felt like it was spinning.
“I wondered if someone had stolen this disobedient puppy in the meantime.”
With that, he lifted Eun-myeong up. He slid his firm forearms under Eun-myeong’s plump buttocks to support him safely.
Thump, thump, thump….
Then, from the chest they were pressed against, a heartbeat echoed like a dull rupture.
Yes, it wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t.
The moment he realized it, Eun-myeong regained his sense of reality, as if he had just crunched through a mouthful of ice.
Right. Why he had tried so hard to forget the Boss, and tried again to forget. Eun-myeong finally remembered.
The man had a place to return to.
A nice house, a beautiful wife, a cute and lovely baby. There was no room for Eun-myeong to squeeze into that peaceful picture.
“L-let me go.”
Eun-myeong pushed the man’s shoulder with his fist. In truth, the man’s body heat and scent wafting over him were unbearably pleasant, but he couldn’t let this happen.
“Let me go.”
Hic, sob, he repeatedly swallowed the cries welling up inside him.
Why does he always come to save him when he is at his most miserable, struggling, and hurting?
Why does he keep coming all the way to this distant countryside to find him?
Why does he keep making him misunderstand?
“Shhh.”
The man patted Eun-myeong’s bottom as if soothing him. He told him that everything would be alright and that they should go back to bed.
It was the same voice that had comforted him in the dream. It was the very voice that had led him here.
“To the Boss.”
Eun-myeong spoke the words he hadn’t wanted to utter, the words he had longed for and yet dreaded just as much.
“The Boss has a place to return to.”
“…What?”
It was then that the man’s dark eyebrows furrowed sharply.
Eun-myeong’s eyelashes gradually lowered. His thin neck tightened with tension.
It seemed the man was angry. Moreover, his heart trembled anxiously as he tried to bring up words that wouldn’t easily leave his lips.
If he said this, would the Boss get angry and tell him he was overstepping?
He was scared and terrified that the man might mock him as he did before. His face was tense, and his hair was damp with sweat.
“You have a family.”
The man raised his hand and brushed the hair away one by one. This revealed the peach-fuzz hair along his forehead.
“You have a wife, and she’s pregnant with a baby….”
Whether he noticed the man touching his hair or not, Eun-myeong continued, trembling.
What kind of nonsense is he talking about?
Ha, the man let out a hollow breath, his chest shaking as if he were appalled.
“Do I look like such a fucking bastard to your eyes that I’d maintain two separate households?”
The words were raw and vulgar, like a freshly caught live fish. And the gaze that met his held a heat so intense it felt as if it would burn Eun-myeong alive right then and there. It was raw truth, without a single trace of a lie.
At this, Eun-myeong became utterly confused.
…Then what about the photos that lawyer showed him?
Recalling the evidence he had seen with his own two eyes, Eun-myeong’s cheeks stiffened. He knit his brows firmly, as if refusing to be easily fooled.
“I saw a photo of your future wife wearing a dress.”
Ha! The man burst into loud laughter. Then he looked down at Eun-myeong.
“Did you wear a dress while I wasn’t looking?”
He joked that if he had done such a thing, he should have shown him, asking where he had hidden it and demanding to see.
“Or did you receive a wedding invitation with my three-letter name on it?”
Eun-myeong shook his head slightly. No, it wasn’t that.
Wait, come to think of it.
Actually, there was something a bit strange. The man didn’t appear in the photos the lawyer had handed over. The ring was photographed so small that it was impossible to tell if the design was similar.
However, because it was a lawyer from Kangsung who said it, Eun-myeong had no choice but to believe it entirely.
But seeing the man so bewildered, Eun-myeong was deeply shocked.
“L-lie….”
He couldn’t believe this situation. He had been played by such a petty lie.
So foolishly and stupidly, he had pushed the man away, missing him, and had suffered in agony alone.
Times that were clotted and sticky with misfortune, pity, sadness, and tears.
Yet, even after realizing he had been deceived, the emotion that surged over Eun-myeong like a wave was none other than ecstasy.
Perhaps.
If the man’s words were truly true….
It might mean that he actually loved him.
“Then why weren’t you by my side? Why weren’t you—weren’t you there when I opened my eyes?”
“Because you were searching for water, saying you were thirsty.”
Now that he thought about it, that seemed right. His throat had been so parched it felt like it was burning, and he remembered mumbling for water in his sleep.
That wasn’t all. Thinking it was a dream, Eun-myeong had occasionally conversed with the man.
No, for the most part, the man had spoken to Eun-myeong, and Eun-myeong had only uttered a few words like small moans.
The voice he had heard during that time echoed in Eun-myeong’s mind.
‘Baby, please open your eyes.’
‘It’s not scary, not at all, it’s all a dream.’
Were all those voices really real?
‘Now, come back to me completely.’
And even those voices that had called him, all of them?
“Boss, did you call me?”
The man’s exceptionally deep and dark lips slowly curled upward. He gazed at Eun-myeong without blinking.
“Yeah, I called you countless times.”
“Why?”
Eun-myeong asked softly. Expectation was etched in his eyes, which sparkled with moisture. Fluttering excitement, tension, and even arousal.
“What do you mean why.”
He rubbed his nose against Eun-myeong’s plump cheek.
“I called you so we could do things that Baby likes.”
“What is that?”
There were countless things Eun-myeong liked. Sweet things like steamed buns, clear sunny weather, moments of deep thought while solving problems, and time spent with his Noona.
But among those many things, the absolute best was.
“Hmm? Let’s talk about love.”
Eun-myeong burst into tears. He buried his nose in the man’s neck and rubbed his cheeks frantically.
“Boss.”
Tears poured out. No matter how hard he tried not to cry, it was useless. He was panting from his chest, and he couldn’t even control his breathing.
“Boss, I like you, I really like you.”
All those countless moments he had struggled, desperate to reach him and share his body heat.
Looking back at them one by one, they were damp and stained with tears, but even those sorrowful moments were all love.
He no longer had to swallow the overflowing emotions inside.
“I came back because I wanted to be with you.”
As he whispered the love surging from his heart, the man smiled.
And he replied.
That he had been waiting very much.