By Zephyria Sung Se-han, whom I met after a long time, is giving me a cold look. I needed time to adjust to this situation.
“Sung Se-han Sunbae-nim, greetings!”
“Sung Se-han Sunbae-nim, hello!”
Sung Se-han, who casually accepted the polite greetings of my younger brothers, also greeted Gun-woo Hyung.
“Gun-woo Hyung, it’s been a while.”
“Se-han, what’s going on so late?”
Gun-woo Hyung’s voice was sharp, as if criticizing Sung Se-han. Only then did I come to my senses and quickly move my feet.
“Gun-woo Hyung, I’ll go talk to Se-han for a bit. Is that okay?”
When I grabbed Gun-woo Hyung’s arm and asked, he frowned.
“Tae-kyung, we’re tired and need to sleep early. It’s Se-han’s fault for coming without contacting us, so why….”
“It’s because I turned off my phone and couldn’t receive his call.”
Regardless of the truth, I didn’t want Sung Se-han to hear bad things from Gun-woo Hyung.
“It won’t take long. I’ll be back soon, so Gun-woo Hyung should take care of the kids….”
“Lee Tae-kyung.”
The moment Sung Se-han called my name, the back of my head tingled.
Having him in front of me, whom I had been desperately trying to drive out of my head, made it difficult for my thoughts to function properly.
Sung Se-han raised the corners of his lips, looking at my dazed face.
“How do you know if it won’t take long or not?”
His quiet, low voice echoed in the hallway, and a chilling atmosphere descended.
Jeong-min looked at me with an awkward smile. Soo-in and Ho-soo also seemed flustered.
Soo-in and Ho-soo probably don’t know yet that Sung Se-han is a capable person who can mess up the atmosphere as much as he wants without taking any special action.
“Se-han. Time flies when I’m talking to you, but it’s still a bit late today.”
I gritted my teeth to protect the image of the cool and amazing Sunbae.
“Let’s go talk in front of here. Should we have a simple sparkling water or something?”
Sung Se-han, who has a friend like me, should thank God. Seriously.
Sung Se-han, whom I thought would naturally follow me to the elevator, turned his body to the front door.
“Don’t you have sparkling water in the dorm?”
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Everyone, including me, stared blankly at Sung Se-han, who was naturally pressing the dorm password.
“You said you were tired.”
Sung Se-han, who opened the front door, gestured for me to come in.
I blinked and instinctively shook my head. I didn’t want to go into a room alone with Sung Se-han.
“Let’s go to the playground since Jeong-min needs to rest too.”
I was sure I would suffocate if we were alone in a small space, and I didn’t want to experience that again.
“Tae-kyung, just go inside and talk.”
Gun-woo Hyung pushed my back.
“I’ll have Jeong-min sleep in my room. Don’t think about going outside and go in quickly.”
Jeong-min said generously and went inside the house. Sung Se-han waited for me with the front door wide open until all the members, who were watching the atmosphere, went inside.
“You guys, in the room, the two of you….”
Gun-woo Hyung, who was looking back and forth between Sung Se-han and me, sighed as if holding back what he wanted to say.
“Se-han, I hope you can finish talking as briefly as possible. Tae-kyung is tired today….”
“Gun-woo Hyung is worrying about unnecessary things.”
Sung Se-han, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe, smiled softly.
“I’ll take care of it, so don’t worry.”
Gun-woo Hyung frowned at the tone that clearly conveyed the meaning of not interfering.
“Okay. I’ll see how well you take care of it.”
As Gun-woo Hyung, who was angry, went inside the entrance with heavy footsteps, Sung Se-han’s gaze turned to me again.
“Are you going to keep standing there like that?”
The brown eyes that I hadn’t seen in a long time were hidden in the shadow of the Ball Cap. Even so, the gaze that scanned me from head to toe was not hidden.
I had nowhere to hide now.
From the heart that rejoiced at the fact that we were in the same space. From the heart that fluttered and came alive the moment I met Sung Se-han. There was nowhere to hide.
So, I wanted to run away from the moment I was facing Sung Se-han right now.
“Okay. Let’s go in for now.”
I passed Sung Se-han and entered the entrance, but my nerves were all focused on the guy who was following behind.
Sung Se-han, who closed the front door and took off his sneakers and entered the house. Even without looking back, all of Sung Se-han’s actions were drawn as if watching a video.
“You’re going to drink sparkling water, right?”
He didn’t follow me into the room and headed to the kitchen. I watched Sung Se-han’s back and slowly followed him to the kitchen.
Sung Se-han, who naturally opened the refrigerator and took out sparkling water as if it were his own dorm.
“Jeong-min, cereal at this hour is not a good idea.”
Sung Se-han, who was scolding Jeong-min, who was pouring milk into cereal at the island table.
“Se-han Hyung, if I eat this and shower hard, I can burn all the calories.”
“You should eat two bananas instead.”
Sung Se-han tapped the shoulder of the youngest, Jeong-min.
I stepped back and left the kitchen. My head gradually became hot as I hurriedly walked to my room.
Only after coming inside and closing the door did I finally let out a stuffy breath.
“Shit…!”
No matter how hard I try not to think about the past, I can’t control myself when this kind of injustice surges up.
If Sung Se-han hadn’t left our team… I wanted to stop having these meaningless thoughts.
If that had happened, I would have been able to see Sung Se-han’s appearance every day.
We would have fallen asleep in the same room and woken up together to eat breakfast. And we could have gone to work together and practiced the choreography.
I would have been able to listen to his song work on the sofa in Sung Se-han’s studio, just like always.
Now I can’t do anything.
Sung Se-han has gone too far.
Suddenly, I felt so wronged and angry that I was going crazy….
Click. The door opened and Sung Se-han appeared. Sung Se-han, whom I didn’t even want to see.
“Here.”
His large hand held out the sparkling water with the lid open.
“You drink it.”
I took off my coat and threw it on the bed, then sat down with a thud, and Jeong-min’s bed across from me came into view.
I don’t even remember if Sung Se-han had ever slept in that bed, anymore.
“Are you still not over it?”
Sung Se-han, leaning against the door, drank sparkling water. Gulp. Gulp. My gaze was drawn to the sight of his Adam’s apple moving, and then my gaze collided with his brown eyes, which were looking this way.
“Who’s angry.”
I couldn’t let Sung Se-han know that my heart was pounding. I did my best to feign indifference.
“Then we.”
Sung Se-han, leaning against the door, let one arm hang down. The sparkling water bottle hanging from the end of his long fingers swayed precariously.
“We can talk while being angry at each other.”
My eyebrows went up at Sung Se-han’s words. Angry…? Why on earth are you…?
“Tae-kyung.”
The moment Sung Se-han took his body away from the door, my shoulders tensed up again. My wandering gaze roamed the floor.
I couldn’t bring myself to look up at Sung Se-han, who was standing in front of the bed in just a few steps.
“Because I admit that you’re angry because of me.”
When Sung Se-han was leaning against the door in the wide space, I could at least feel relieved, but now that he was so close, my heart started to make loud noises.
The long legs of Sung Se-han caught in my wavering vision.
The thigh muscles inside those firm Black Jeans must still be twitching. Thinking like this, I must be crazy.
“I’ve been playing nice all this time.”
“What…?”
I forced myself to look up at the incomprehensible words. Sung Se-han, who was looking down at me askew, raised the corner of his lips.
“Now, how are you going to relieve my frustration?”
More than Sung Se-han’s obnoxious tone, his cold eyes made my emotions surge.
What did I even do to drive him this far? I’m already full of unfairness, what right does he have?
“What are you even talking about? Can’t you speak in a way that makes sense?”
I couldn’t help but sharpen my voice.
“You have to understand, Tae-kyung.”
Sung Se-han let out a burst of laughter as if he had heard something funny. I couldn’t look at that cold smile for long. Because Sung Se-han came so close that our knees almost touched.
“So, what are you even….”
My legs kept bumping into his every time I moved, so I couldn’t help but be distracted.
“It’s not like I didn’t contact you all this time so you could go date a girlfriend.”
That’s why I couldn’t react immediately even though Sung Se-han was talking nonsense.
Girlfriend… is he talking about Yeon-du Sunbae…?
“Yeon-du is just a friend….”
“Friends, my ass.”
Sung Se-han scoffed at me in a very indifferent voice. I bit my lip at the sudden cold feeling in my chest.
“Sung Se-han, what are you trying to do? Do you think I’m a joke?”
Who do you think I’ve been keeping my distance from girlfriends for?
“Did you think you were the only one who could have a girlfriend? I told you? I can date anyone I want if I put my mind to it.”
The hand that was holding onto the bed tightened, and I clenched my fist involuntarily.
The days I suffered every day trying not to think of that handsome face felt like a joke. Why am I suffering because of this bastard….
“I’ll ask again.”
Sung Se-han bent down and looked into my face.
“I’m really pissed off, how are you going to relieve this?”