By Zephyria 
Eun-ha shook his head and began to walk. He handed the paper bag he had grabbed before leaving to Yeon-jun, who was following obediently behind him. It wasn’t anything grand; since he heard the opening was coming up soon, he had prepared a gift to commemorate the occasion. He decided to let Yeon-jun deliver it, thinking it would look better coming from him than from himself.
Last night, while sitting side by side on the sofa, Eun-ha had briefly explained the reason, and in response, he had to endure Yeon-jun’s gaze, which sparkled to an almost burdensome degree. It wasn’t entirely unfamiliar; it was a reaction he glimpsed from him occasionally. Usually, it happened when Yeon-jun looked at him as if he were some great adult over the smallest of things. A look of admiration… something Eun-ha felt he didn’t deserve at all.
‘…Why are you looking at me like that?’
‘Because I like Hyung so much.’
Feeling overwhelmed, Eun-ha pushed his shoulder away, telling him to stop looking. Though he was easily pushed back, Yeon-jun immediately clung to him again, peppering kisses all over his cheek. As a result of the natural contact, a swollen object that couldn’t be ignored poked insistently against his thigh. Because of this, Eun-ha went from inwardly finding Yeon-jun cute to feeling utterly bewildered. No matter how peak his hormones were, he couldn’t understand how he could get an erection so easily, or exactly what point had triggered it.
Eun-ha sent a message to Park Hyun-ji saying he had arrived and entered the building. As soon as he reached the floor he had been told about via the elevator, a familiar face appeared. Park Hyun-ji, who had come out to meet them, beamed the moment the elevator doors opened. To be precise, the radiance was directed solely toward Yeon-jun. “You’re here! It’s so hot outside, isn’t it…?”
Eun-ha watched his friend, who was greeting them with a kindness that felt purely social, and gave a slight nod of his head. Park Hyun-ji greeted him back with a casual pat on the shoulder.
Yeon-jun watched the intimately indifferent scene and let out a small, unconscious laugh before remembering and holding out the paper bag. Park Hyun-ji’s eyes widened.
“What’s this? You didn’t have to buy anything.”
“I wanted to congratulate you.”
Yeon-jun replied softly with a smile. Watching the boy hand over the gift as instructed and behave politely on his own, Eun-ha felt a strange sense of pride. Despite the fact that he had contributed absolutely nothing to the boy growing up this way.
After a brief exchange of greetings, they entered the office, which was more like a studio. Inside the somewhat cluttered space, there were three other people besides Park Hyun-ji. One was a former college classmate and business partner of Park Hyun-ji’s whom Eun-ha had been drinking with once or twice long ago—someone whose name occasionally popped up in the group chat. Another was a woman whose face he didn’t recognize, who looked quite young.
And the last was Gu Hae-bin, who was sprawled out on the sofa as if it were his own home. In fact, upon hearing that Park Hyun-ji and Eun-ha were meeting today, he had declared his intention to attend as a matter of course. Of course, it was entirely one-sided. He had simply said, “I’m coming too.”
However, since he was the type to pop up everywhere at any given moment, no one really minded. Gu Hae-bin, who had been fiddling with his phone, glanced over at Eun-ha.
“You here?”
“Yeah.”
After exchanging another dry greeting, they spent a short time on the customary introductions. Park Hyun-ji explained that the woman he was seeing for the first time was his assistant. Next, he introduced Yeon-jun and his business partner in turn.
“And this is my classmate, who somehow ended up working with me.”
“‘Somehow ended up working’? What’s with that nuance?”
“It means I love it, Hyeon-min.”
“…Anyway, I’m Kim Hyeon-min.”
“And finally, this is my closest friend.”
That was what Park Hyun-ji said while pointing to Eun-ha. Just as Eun-ha was feeling a subtle emotion at the modifier that sounded so natural and fitting, Gu Hae-bin, who had been listening quietly, cut in. He asked what he was if Lee Eun-ha was the ‘closest’ friend.
“Obviously you’re—just a close friend.”
“Wow, what’s with the discrimination?”
“Why? It’s better than being Lee Eun-ha’s friend.”
“You’re really crossing the line.”
“It’s not wrong. You were Lee Eun-ha’s friend at first.”
A retort came back asking if he realized that was a matter of fourteen years ago. Starting from that, a series of bickering remarks were exchanged. Eun-ha habitually tuned out the noisy quarrel and sat on the sofa. They weren’t actually fighting. They were doing this as a joke because there were people present who were strangers or not well-acquainted. It was to clear the subtly awkward atmosphere.
Sure enough, the woman who was the assistant grew curious. Having just graduated from university early this year, she attempted a small conversation by asking Eun-ha, who was sitting nearby, about his relationship with Park Hyun-ji. Eun-ha replied while wearing his habitual public face.
Once the atmosphere loosened, the time spent there became more of a casual hangout. The nominal purpose—Yeon-jun’s interview—was completely forgotten as they ordered plenty of delivery food and desserts, eating and playing to their heart’s content. They even played a board game from some unknown source. In the middle of it, they had a conversation about personality types, and when they compared notes, Eun-ha was the only one who fell into the introverted category. It was a very predictable result. Everyone except him seemed truly energetic.
In the midst of it, Eun-ha quickly exhausted his energy and sank into a state of mental depletion. Then, looking beside him, he saw Yeon-jun responding to someone with a relaxed expression. Like a true extrovert, he got acquainted with them without any difficulty and became close quickly. Eun-ha watched him with a sense of slight strangeness and wonder before leaning back deeply into the sofa and lounging.
Then, the boy suddenly noticed and whispered in his ear amidst the noise. “Are you tired?” As he spoke, he grabbed Eun-ha’s wrist under the table. It was that kind of day.
It was only toward evening that the boy finally settled his schedule after discussing it with Park Hyun-ji. Since the vacation period was ending soon, he decided to go in about four times a week for a while to get used to the work. After that, he would go in two days during the week and one day on the weekend, and if school became too busy, he would reduce the weekday attendance by one day.
As a result, Eun-ha’s daily life became somewhat leisurely. He went to work mostly alone, and when he returned home, the boy wasn’t there. Though it was called a part-time job, it was almost full-time work, so there were often cases where they couldn’t eat dinner together.
The end of August. Eun-ha stood at the entrance, looked around the house which was empty again today, and trudged inside.
He didn’t know why it felt so empty.
Furthermore, for some unknown reason, his heart beat anxiously.
Eun-ha looked around the silent house with dry eyes and instinctively picked up his phone.
[What are you doing?]
He wrote the message and then deleted it. What would he be doing? He’d be at his part-time job. It wasn’t even as if he hadn’t heard from him. They had finished a phone call just an hour ago. He had heard that the boy had eaten lunch and that in the afternoon, he would be going out briefly with Park Hyun-ji and the assistant.
So perhaps, he didn’t entirely not know the reason.