By Zephyria 
Grrrrrrrr-.
The moment the words left his mouth, Haon’s stomach growled right on cue. Even while feeling queasy, it seemed he was still hungry.
The two turned into an alleyway without a word. They saw an oven-baked pizza place famous as a hidden gem near the school.
Perhaps because it was a bit early, there weren’t many customers. When they opened the glass door, the scents of flour, tomato sauce, and cheese hit them all at once.
“Welcome.”
An employee greeted them cheerfully.
They were guided to a seat by the window. It was a spot where they could see the oven with flames flickering.
They could see the pizza baking on the stone slab.
Somehow, the stomach that had been churning just moments ago now felt strangely settled.
“What do you want?”
Cha Jeong-won asked, pointing to the digital menu tablet attached to the table.
“Didn’t you want pizza too, sunbae?”
So, he thought Haon’s roundabout expression—that he couldn’t finish it alone—was his way of saying ‘let’s get pizza.’
“I heard you mumbling.”
He correctly pointed out that wasn’t it.
“So, you followed me because of that?”
Then you should’ve pretended you knew in advance.
“You were talking as if someone was next to you…”
Was I late because I was checking if there was a ghost or something?
“I saw you.”
So that’s not it.
Haon glared at Cha Jeong-won with half-lidded eyes before looking away.
“I think anything with tomatoes would be good. Ah, but nothing too thick and heavy. Something soft would be good right now.”
While Haon was seriously choosing from the menu, Cha Jeong-won scrolled down considerately.
“Huh?”
Just as Haon made a sound, his finger stopped.
“How about a margherita with added prosciutto and arugula?”
“Sure.”
An immediate answer.
So much so that Haon asked,
“You like that too, sunbae?”
“Not sure.”
So it was just a casual reply.
Cha Jeong-won immediately added it to the cart and selected drinks.
Watching Cha Jeong-won, Haon felt a subtle emotion.
It had been like this since yesterday. Rough around the edges, yet somehow accepting everything in a strange way?
If asked if it wasn’t like this before, it kind of felt like it was when they were dating.
‘Ahh, don’t get confused. Yoon Haon.’
Haon muttered to himself to get a grip and finished placing the order.
After ordering, water, a fork, and a knife were placed on the table.
A small salad came out first. As he just stared at it, Cha Jeong-won pushed the water towards him.
“Don’t push yourself, just eat.”
“Okay.”
He wasn’t drawn to the salad, but because Cha Jeong-won said that, he somehow wanted to take a bite.
A contrary streak emerged in a strange place, but fortunately, the light taste suited his palate.
Haon, who was rolling the cup in his hands while drinking water, nodded.
“But I think my mind is coming back a little since I’m moving around a bit. It’s scary. My stomach.”
Even though he said it like a joke, a more frightening fact surfaced in his mind.
The bench, the coat, the arm, and the lips.
The taste of alcohol lingering on the tip of his tongue suddenly felt different in meaning.
Remembering himself from yesterday, his ears grew slowly, stealthily hot.
‘I remember up to the kiss.’
But then the film burned white, they say.
He had no idea what he said, what face he made, or whether he acted rudely.
“It’s here.”
“Huh?”
In the midst of his deep thoughts, a low voice was heard. Haon looked up.
The pizza had already arrived. Steam was rising in wisps, and the crust was puffed up softly.
“It came out really fast…”
As he mumbled whatever came to mind, having nothing else to say, Cha Jeong-won placed a slice of pizza onto Haon’s plate.
“Thank you.”
To even take care of him like this…
Haon hesitated for a moment, then picked up his fork and knife. He would have preferred to eat with his hands, but he wasn’t confident he could eat neatly in front of Cha Jeong-won.
As he cut and picked up the tip of the pizza slice, the cheese stretched out like a thread.
Time stretched out along with it.
Now was the perfect, yet simultaneously the worst, timing to ask.
‘Should I ask now?’
Ask what kind of things he did yesterday.
Ask if he perhaps made a mistake with sunbae.
Ask if he might have mentioned Cha Jeong-won’s secret, which he knows from the original work…
While contemplating whether to ask now, the cheese on the tip of his knife wouldn’t fall off, causing him to miss the subtle timing.
Not knowing what to do with the slowly stretching cheese, he finally opened his mouth wide and bit into it.
The taste of tomato sauce spread through his mouth along with the hot air. The salty cheese and prosciutto followed.
“…It’s delicious.”
It went down much more smoothly than expected. The feeling of heartburn seemed to fade a little too.
As his eating speed increased, he subtly picked it up with one hand and took a bite.
“Yoon Haon.”
At Cha Jeong-won’s voice, Haon looked up with the pizza crust still in his mouth.
Cha Jeong-won’s eyes were looking at him directly from across the table.
Unlike yesterday, he was clear-headed and sober, yet he still couldn’t gauge what he was about to say.
“About yesterday.”
Cha Jeong-won paused briefly.
The sound of the crackling oven and the soft conversations from nearby tables filled the gap.
“No need to force yourself to remember.”
The jaw of Haon, who was holding the pizza crust in his mouth, stiffened ever so slightly.
“…Huh?”
He asked again, as if to confirm he heard correctly.
But Cha Jeong-won continued in the same tone, without any particular emphasis.
“It means if there are parts you don’t remember, you don’t have to dig them up. Nothing big happened.”
“Nothing big…”
Haon’s gaze swept over the pizza on his plate once before rising back to Cha Jeong-won’s face.
“Happened?”
“Yeah. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but there was no irreparable accident.”
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. It was an expression more like soothing him, saying it’s okay, rather than joking.
“No need to be so cautious.”
Haon, still biting the pizza crust, paused for a moment.
“The things I did yesterday… Not all of it, but I do remember one thing.”
“……”
“Does that fall under the category of ‘nothing big’?”
He couldn’t outright call it a kiss, so he spoke indirectly, but there was no way the listener wouldn’t understand.
Cha Jeong-won picked up a slice of pizza with his fork.
Keeping his gaze fixed solely on the pizza, he closed his mouth for a moment, then muttered very lightly.
“We did more than that…”
Then he took a bite of the slice.
The sound of the crispy crust shattering echoed like thunder.
“A kiss is nothing.”
His tone was so ordinary that Haon almost let it pass.
“T-that kind of phrasing makes me sound like a really frivolous person.”
Haon mumbled as if protesting hastily.
“Never said you were frivolous. You were drunk, and I didn’t push you away. That’s all.”
His words were plain, but the breath that trailed off at the end slowed down ever so slightly.
Haon felt it too.
“So, that’s why there’s no need for us to make a big deal out of it. Don’t go banging your head against the wall thinking about yesterday.”
“…How did you know I was banging my head?”
“I can tell by your expression.”
Cha Jeong-won took a sip of water.
‘Was it really nothing big?’
At the very least, if this person said without hesitation that nothing big happened, then it seemed he didn’t need to cling to yesterday’s events and roll around in misery by himself.
Haon put the remaining pizza crust in his mouth and chewed it firmly. The hot cheese brushed against the tip of his tongue before melting smoothly.
“…Then I won’t dig it up either. The memories.”
He cautiously drew a conclusion.
“Yeah. That’s better.”
“But I will dig into this pizza.”
As he said this while subtly pulling the pizza plate towards himself, the tension in the air finally eased a little.
“You should eat quickly too, sunbae. If you let your guard down, you might not get any.”
“You were just saying you were dying.”
“If it’s delicious, I come back to life. It feels more like recovering my life than just curing a hangover.”
It was half-serious, half-joking. Because the taste of the sauce and cheese spreading in his mouth really made it feel that way.
“Do you eat pizza often, sunbae?”
“No.”
An overly simple answer.
“It’s too much to eat alone. I don’t like leaving leftovers either.”
“Ah, I can relate to that.”
Haon nodded.
“I like pizza too, but I can’t eat it well. I always leave one or two slices. But Kim Hyun-gyu can finish a whole pie by himself.”
Just thinking about it, an indignant expression naturally surfaced.
Only, he wouldn’t know if Cha Jeong-won felt the same.
“If the two of us order, we have to order two pies, because Hyun-gyu eats one and I have to handle the other one.”
As if he had pent-up feelings, the words kept coming.
“But then it’s not that we only want pizza, we want spaghetti too. But since he gets stuffed just from the pizza, we give up on the spaghetti.”
“That’s a big sacrifice.”
The serious tone of acceptance made him laugh for no reason.
“Should we order spaghetti too?”
“It would be nice if I could eat it, but for now, I’ll finish the pizza first and think about it. To the extent my body allows.”
Laughing while suffering from a hangover. Moreover, it wasn’t so bad that he could continue a conversation with just a slice of pizza and Cha Jeong-won sitting in front of him.
And so, the two spent some time exchanging talk about pizza and meaningless jokes.
The margherita disappeared cleanly.
The additionally ordered spaghetti was also half gone.
By the time they finished paying and left the shop, Haon’s complexion was much better than before.
“I’m alive.”
Haon, who looked up at the sunlight once, also rolled his shoulders once.
“Now I guess we can go to school.”
“Yeah.”
The two walked together towards the school.
It would be nice if this atmosphere could continue…
67 – NOT 67