By Zephyria 
“…Knotting.”
“Huh?”
Knotting? He said he was knotting? Joo Tae-hyun’s words were so serious that I didn’t have time to think about anything else.
Right now, his pheromone was perfectly normal. Even considering it was right after sex, it was no different from usual. But if he was knotting and the concentration was this low, then things were different.
“Are you, knotting right now?”
“No, not me… Hyung is.”
…Huh? What was he talking about? Seo Baek-han slightly detached his body, which was clinging like wet paper, and checked his condition. Of course not. Could there have been a problem during sex…? Even if the pheromone was within the normal range, the inside could feel pain from sudden stimulation.
“It’s not like you’re knotting, so why are you… cumming so much.”
Again, Seo Baek-han only vibrated his throat, saying, “Hmm?” Only after mulling over his mumbling a couple of times did he realize that Joo Tae-hyun was trying to lighten the mood with a playful remark.
“Haha. I guess it’s been too long. Why, were you uncomfortable anywhere?”
“What’s uncomfortable? It’s not like you came inside me, ugh!”
Seo Baek-han grabbed Joo Tae-hyun’s waist and changed positions. Joo Tae-hyun, now sitting on his thigh and facing him again, didn’t have much of an expression. But Seo Baek-han knew that he made this face when he was usually embarrassed.
Joo Tae-hyun, who had been stiff for a moment, belatedly noticed the sofa and clothes covered in bodily fluids and frowned slightly. I told you I’d take care of it. He soothed him like that, but he didn’t seem very convinced.
“Let’s wash up first. The bathroom is upstairs, right?”
“Yes. Ah, the guest bathroom is if you open the guest room-.”
Before Joo Tae-hyun could finish speaking, he pulled him close and hugged him. It was such a close distance that their still-hot genitals rubbed against each other.
“Really? I think I can wash you while I wash myself.”
At the brazen reply, the furrow between his eyebrows became a little more pronounced.
“You have to save to live well.”
“So what are you saving on?”
“Everything.”
Seo Baek-han didn’t care and massaged Joo Tae-hyun’s thighs, gently patting his back and waist. He even got hit by Joo Tae-hyun for grabbing his butt in between. He generally loosened his body in a wholesome atmosphere.
“Why… hmm, why do you keep looking at me like that?”
“Because you’re pretty.”
There was no deep kiss that entangled tongues and drained energy, but when their eyes met, they shared light bird kisses, pecking with their beaks. Passing the lips, cheeks, brow bone, lower jaw… and even the philtrum. Literally everywhere on the face.
He was doing all sorts of embarrassing things that he couldn’t have imagined in the past, but he didn’t mention the sex right before that had been rushing towards the very end. As if nothing had happened.
It wasn’t that he was trying to dismiss it as nothing. How could he cover it up and move on as if nothing had happened? It was just that it was difficult to express all of his current feelings with any modifier. Joo Tae-hyun probably felt the same way… Paradoxically, it could only be explained in silence. Whether it was the situation, the emotion, or whatever it was.
As he swept back Joo Tae-hyun’s sweat-soaked hair, he shook his head slightly, as if he was a little uncomfortable. Seo Baek-han couldn’t help but admire how cute Joo Tae-hyun was.
“Tae-hyun.”
But why did his name come out instead of saying he was cute? Seo Baek-han swallowed the surging emotions. Before he could even properly realize what the name of that emotion was, he shoved it into his heart.
Because if he didn’t, he felt like he would cry pathetically.
In the end, all he could put on the tip of his tongue was Joo Tae-hyun’s name.
“I feel like I’ve eaten all the unhealthy food in the last few days.”
Seo Baek-han chewed on the soggy orange chicken and grimaced.
Joo Tae-hyun was also getting tired of fast food. In a world where you could order groceries through an app and have them delivered to your door within a few hours, but neither of them knew how to cook, so they made an implicit agreement not to waste money unnecessarily.
There was only one option left. The two of them were holed up at home, mastering all sorts of delivery food.
About a week had passed. During that time, Joo Tae-hyun hadn’t stepped outside the house, and Seo Baek-han had only gone out once to buy condoms.
After the impulsive sex that he had committed while drunk on alcohol and atmosphere, they hadn’t brought up the subject, as if they had agreed in advance. Joo Tae-hyun didn’t add any excuses, and Seo Baek-han didn’t bother Joo Tae-hyun using that as an excuse.
But it wasn’t like Seo Baek-han had returned to the hotel either.
“Ah, Tae-hyun. Check this article one more time.”
“Is it a press release?”
“Yeah. I’m going to upload it as soon as I get back, but there… uh, there’s new content added there.”
Since then, he had naturally stayed in this house. Joo Tae-hyun didn’t nag him about how long he was going to stay. Just… really just. Somehow, he was living with him, though not really living together.
Seo Baek-han’s return date was slowly approaching.
The two of them ate together, discussed the intense domestic situation, and sometimes just blankly watched movies. Then, when their eyes met, they naturally kissed. If they felt like it, they would mingle their bodies intimately.
In fact, this strange cohabitation was similar to the dream that Joo Tae-hyun had desperately wanted when he was young.
He wanted to be able to spend time with Seo Baek-han like this. He didn’t even want to be loved by him. A fancy restaurant? Expensive gifts? He never wanted that either. When they came home after finishing their work, he wanted to be in the same space together as if only the two of them existed in this world. He wanted to be able to freely go back and forth between each other’s bedrooms, and while he was studying, he would do his work, like that… He really would have been satisfied with just that.
Joo Tae-hyun, who had become part of a peaceful scene that he couldn’t even reach when he wanted it so badly, would suddenly get teary-eyed even while reading or sleeping. He didn’t show it in front of Seo Baek-han, but it was probably because he pretended not to know rather than him hiding it perfectly.
“Ah, by the way. Is the indictment of Kang Bu-nam intentionally being kept quiet? There’s no one really talking about it.”
“Yes. He’s practically a stranger, but he’s still related by blood… I thought it would be awkward for everyone if it got any louder.”
“That’s Sang-woo Hyung’s opinion, right?”
“Yes. Kyung-han Hyung too.”
Seo Baek-han smiled, as if he expected it.
“Oh, I have a flight tomorrow morning.”
The upcoming Crown Prince Inauguration, the recent situation of Kang Bu-nam, Kim Seung-jun, Choi Yeon-jun, and Cheon Seung-pil… As if it were part of the story they had been exchanging until just before, Seo Baek-han calmly announced his return schedule.
“I don’t think I’ll be gone when you’re asleep. Probably around… um, 2 AM? Don’t worry about it and get some sleep.”
Wasn’t the flight to Incheon usually in the afternoon? I remember it being a little after 1 PM, but he’s saying he’s leaving at 2 AM? But Joo Tae-hyun didn’t bother to ask why and just nodded slightly. Seo Baek-han must have a lot to take care of. No matter how much the secretaries take care of it, there must be a lot of things that he has to take care of and check himself.
Above all, it was no longer something for him to interfere with.
“Tomorrow… is that a little earlier than scheduled?”
“Yeah. That’s how it turned out. Other people are having a hard time.”
“I guess so.”
Seo Baek-han cleared away the food he was eating, poured water, and casually called out to him. He had been habitually saying his name since he had been staying at his house, so he didn’t respond. But.
“Will you see me off?”
Seo Baek-han had a playful smile on his face and said something unexpected. It was a light question that didn’t feel like he had any lingering feelings. I don’t know what he was thinking inside, but that’s how it looked on the outside.
So Joo Tae-hyun calmly retorted.
“If any more new articles come out, my Hyungs and Noona won’t leave me alone.”
Yoon-woo Noona has been giving me the cold shoulder lately, and I can’t handle it anymore, he replied bluntly, and Seo Baek-han laughed out loud.
“That’s true.”
He didn’t even add excuses like he was just saying it or that it was a joke. He just laughed.
That was all.