By Zephyria 
Ah, I shouldn’t have dozed off.
Haon was feeling crestfallen simply because he had fallen asleep while watching a movie with a man. It was such a trivial matter that Tae-hwi would have scoffed in disbelief if he had heard it.
However, Haon was deadly serious. Every time he recalled himself dozing off on the sofa beside the man, it felt as if a heavy sandbag was being tied to his chest.
The first time the man suggested watching a movie, Haon hadn’t been able to because he had thrown up. He thought the man would never bring up the idea of watching a movie again.
‘Shall we watch a movie after eating?’
But the understanding man had led Haon back to the living room and placed a delicious glass of orange juice in his hand, just like that day. Once the living room lights were turned off, it even felt like being in a real cinema.
Because of that, Haon had been quite excited last night. He liked watching movies, and he liked it even more that the man had asked him to watch one together. He was deeply grateful that the man continued to spend time with someone as boring and socially awkward as himself.
However, that excitement didn’t last long. This was entirely the movie’s fault.
The man had chosen a bright, Hollywood action film. It was a work so popular that it had held the number one spot in advance ticket sales for the longest period upon its domestic release. But for Haon, the pace was too fast.
First, the subtitles flashed by too quickly, and the thrillingly fast-paced visuals were so overwhelming that it was dizzying to take them all in. Since he kept missing key lines of dialogue, he couldn’t follow the plot. The cinematography was flashy, but since he didn’t know why they were fighting, his concentration gradually waned.
Moreover, having just filled his stomach, food coma set in, and his eyelids eventually grew heavy. Consequently, he dozed off for a moment. He had tried his best to keep his eyes wide open, sipping on orange juice to stay awake, but by the middle of the movie, yawns began to leak out again.
Haon covered his mouth and yawned as discreetly as possible, hiding it from the man. The characters in the movie were engaged in a serious discussion that Haon couldn’t understand. His eyes grew tired, so he gave up on reading the subtitles entirely and just admired the flashy visuals. This only doubled his boredom.
Is this actually interesting?
Suddenly curious, Haon shifted only his pupils to glance sideways. At that exact moment, his eyes met the man’s.
‘It’s boring, isn’t it?’
The man whispered softly, his eyes curving into a gentle smile. It felt just like sitting in a real movie theater.
‘No. It’s interesting.’
Haon whispered back, lowering his voice to match the man’s. Despite his answer that it was interesting, the man pressed the stop button, saying they would watch the rest next time.
‘We could have kept watching….’
‘We’ve seen enough.’
As he said this and smiled, the man’s body was turned toward Haon, not the TV.
Unaware of this, Haon only felt apologetic. He felt a sense of regret, thinking the man probably wouldn’t suggest watching a movie together again.
“Haa….”
Recalling last night, Haon’s sigh grew even heavier.
* * *
After finishing work, Haon took a taxi home. He had taken the bus on his way there, but by the time he clocked out, all the last buses had stopped running, forcing him to take a taxi.
Actually, the man had offered to give him a ride today as well, but Haon had adamantly refused. Perhaps sensing Haon’s discomfort, the man fortunately stepped back.
“Eh…?”
Haon paused as he pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time. Another object had come out along with the phone.
It was Tae-hwi’s perfume. When he brought the lid of the small sample bottle to his nose, he smelled the scent that always clung to Tae-hwi. When Tae-hwi had tried to spray the perfume on him again before he left work, Haon had refused, so it seemed Tae-hwi had secretly slipped it into his pocket. Not that he had any use for it.
‘Give it your best shot. If it really works out, don’t forget that I was actively rooting for you.’
Tae-hwi’s voice, cheering him on to make things work with the man throughout the workday, came back to him, and Haon let out a small sigh. Make things work? Unless he were born again, such a thing would never happen.
He stared blankly at the small bottle before stuffing it deep back into his pocket. Thinking he should return it next week, he leaned his head against the window. When he rode in the man’s car, even just looking out the window was fun, but now he was simply exhausted.
* * *
Checking the time, which had reached 3:00 AM, he pulled out the common entrance key he had kept with his wallet. Thanks to the card key the man had given him, he was spared the trouble of having to memorize a passcode.
He opened and closed the front door as quietly as possible, walking with minimized footsteps. He tried to stifle his presence like a thief, making sure not to disturb the landlord who would be sleeping upstairs.
“You’re home?”
However, the man was not in his bedroom, but sitting on the living room sofa. He had apparently been watching TV, as he set down the remote and approached Haon.
“You must be tired.”
He welcomed Haon with a smile so bright it almost made him mistake the time for 3:00 PM. Haon, who had been tiptoeing, blinked in surprise at the man who was still awake at this hour.
“You’re not asleep yet?”
“I usually stay up late.”
The man peered into Haon’s small face as if checking his complexion. Since he had come home from working until late, fatigue was etched onto Haon’s face.
“Were there a lot of customers today?”
“A few more than usual.”
The shop, which had been moderately quiet, had suddenly been swarmed by customers for a short while. They were people seeking shelter from the rain. There had been a forecast for a brief shower at night, and eventually, it rained. Fortunately, by the time Haon left work, the ground was merely damp.
“Lots of drunks, too, right?”
The man walked side-by-side with Haon, leading him toward his room. Because he followed so naturally, Haon continued the conversation without much thought.
“Of course there are.”
Since it was a pub, there were always drunks. Still, the owner personally kicked out the nightmare customers, so he rarely struggled because of them. If the owner wasn’t there, Hyung-cheol would step in to handle things. Tae-hwi and Haon’s role was to step back quietly and glare intensely at the troublemakers.
“That must be hard,” the man murmured, stopping in front of Haon’s door.
“Go inside and get some rest.”
Only then did Haon realize the man had escorted him all the way to his door. Since they were already inside the house, it was a bit strange to say he had “escorted” him, but still.
“Until when are you working there?”
The man asked casually, opening the door for him.
“One month. It’ll be over in one more month.”
“You still have a whole month left.”
A month that felt short to Haon seemed long to the man. With his smile fading slightly, the man continued his questioning.
“Isn’t it hard commuting because it’s far?”
“It’s okay. I came back comfortably in a taxi.”
It was tiring, but it was a job that would end in a month. After considering his words while observing the man’s expression, Haon added that he would try to return home as quietly as possible.
“By any chance, can the sound of the front door opening be heard upstairs?”
When Haon asked with a worried face, the man tilted his head for a moment, then smiled and shook his head.
“No, it doesn’t matter if you make noise, but I’m worried it might be hard for you, Haon-ssi. It’s also dangerous to be out so late at night.”
If that was the case, it was a relief. As long as he wasn’t inconvenienced, it was fine.
“It’s not dangerous at all because I take a taxi. And the older guys I work with are all nice, so the work is fun.”
Of course, the foul-mouthed owner was a bit scary, and Tae-hwi’s barrage of questions could be overwhelming at times. Nevertheless, Haon was enjoying his weekend work in his own way.
Above all, the biggest advantage was that there were no strange customers. If anyone threw suggestive glances at Haon or Tae-hwi, who were Omegas, the owner kicked them out immediately. According to Tae-hwi, the owner’s daughters were all Omegas, so he was sensitive to those things. For Haon, this was a great blessing.
“Still, if it gets too hard, quit immediately.”
The man smiled, suggesting that he should rest on weekends, and Haon simply smiled back. Thanks to his weekday workload becoming very light, the weekend labor was much less taxing. He planned to find his next job immediately after the pub work ended, without resting.
Haon smiled at the man and glanced inside his room. Can I go in now? His legs were starting to ache, but because the man continued to stand there holding the doorknob, he couldn’t enter. It seemed the man still had more to say.
“…….”
Or is he waiting for me to move first? Haon stood blankly, his toes shifting back and forth in one-centimeter increments. The man just kept smiling and showed no sign of leaving. What is he trying to say?
“Goodnight.”
After a short silence, the man spoke. Haon looked at him for a moment, then bowed his head in greeting a beat late.
“Goodnight.”
With a clack, the sound of the door closing echoed, and the house sank back into its familiar silence. In-ho slowly released his grip on the doorknob and stepped back one pace at a time.
After running his hand through the back of his hair, which was neat even without combing, he lingered in the living room for a while. He touched the TV remote, lifted and put down a cushion on the sofa, and stepped slowly.
Then, finally, he glanced at Haon’s door one last time before returning to his own room. The time was passing 3:00 AM.