By Zephyria 
“……So. What. You want me to be jealous?”
“I mean, meeting someone like me wouldn’t be a loss for you, Hyung.”
Eun-ha chuckled hollowly.
“That damn loss……”
“I’m serious.”
“Yeah. No-”
“……”
“It’s a loss for you, Yeon-jun. Meeting me.”
The light changed. He naturally dropped his hand and gripped the steering wheel.
“Then I want to take a loss, so badly……”
His lips twisted into a smile at the childish grumble, as if he wanted to be heard. Eun-ha tapped the steering wheel with his index finger and scolded him. He shouldn’t think like that.
After the meal, they headed to the public library. Eun-ha borrowed books about once a month. He walked between the bookshelves with a post-it note listing the call numbers of the books. After finding two books first, he dragged his feet to find the remaining one and ended up in a rather deep spot.
After carefully examining, he realized that the last book was on the top shelf of a tall bookshelf. As he clicked his tongue at the ambiguous height, he saw a step stool in the far corner of the bookshelves that were lined up in a straight line.
Well…… With a bit of pride kicking in, Eun-ha stood on tiptoe instead of going to get the stool. When he stretched his arm out, the spine of the book brushed against the tip of his middle finger, but he couldn’t quite grab it. He thought he could grab it if he did well, so he was struggling. He was stuck to the bookshelf, wriggling and concentrating, when suddenly one of his forearms was grabbed and an arm stretched out from over his shoulder. The sight of Yeon-jun easily taking out the book Eun-ha wanted with a neat touch was like slow motion. Eun-ha, who had paused, turned halfway around to look back.
Their eyes met. It was a sunny day, and the temperature was quite cool in the afternoon, so all the windows were wide open instead of the air conditioner. Since it was a corner by the window, the cool breeze of the weather was rippling around them. Looking at Yeon-jun against the background of the faint shadow of the window frame and the fluttering translucent silk curtains, Eun-ha felt as if he was in the middle of a romantic scene from a drama for a moment, and then he frowned as he felt like he was suddenly pulled out of there.
“……What is it?”
There could be no more classic trick than this. As he let out a chuckle as if to rebuke the somewhat artificial act, Yeon-jun, who had understood the implication, awkwardly averted his gaze.
“About your ideal type, Hyung.”
“……”
“…You said a kind person.”
“……”
So he tried it once, and his earlobes gradually turned red. Gu Hae-bin seemed to have divulged information unnecessarily again.
Facing him completely, Eun-ha took the last book he handed him and let out a helpless sigh. It was the moment he readjusted his posture. Yeon-jun’s gaze shifted slightly to the side. At the same time, Eun-ha lost his balance and fumbled. What touched the back of his head, which was about to hit the bookshelf, was not a hard sensation but a soft flesh that supported him with strength.
Yeon-jun, who had squeezed his hand into the gap between them, returned Eun-ha’s head, which had been slightly tilted back, to its original position. Then he stroked the back of his head once as if to check it and stepped away.
Eun-ha hugged the book in his arms and breathed quietly. Their eyes met up and down.
Yeon-jun slowly opened his mouth.
“Can’t you tell me what being kind is?”
Eun-ha only looked up silently. For some reason, he felt that he was too close, so he leaned his back against the bookshelf as much as possible.
“Something you would like…… I mean, something that would make you feel fluttered…… like that kind of kind act.”
Even so, he was close.
“I don’t know what to do to make you like me.”
“……”
“I thought I knew something…… but I don’t know again.”
So it was a frustrating tone, as if it was difficult and hard. A confession that naturally aroused a pitiful feeling. Anyone, anyone would want to take out all their resources and tell him everything they knew, like that.
Eun-ha hardened his heart.
“You have to figure that out on your own.”
“……”
“…And this… setting the mood is prohibited.”
Eun-ha, who issued the third prohibition following skinship beyond glances and hugs, lowered his gaze diagonally.
He doesn’t know what a kind act is?
It was so absurd……. Eun-ha, who turned his body around, snorted and quickly left the corner. While putting strength into the fingertips holding the book.
He could hear his heart beating in his ears.
“I suddenly became curious, Hyung.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you and that Hyung just friends?”
After finishing dinner, they were taking a leisurely walk. They visited the Han River at Yeon-jun’s suggestion. Eun-ha tilted his head, not immediately associating the subject, and asked back.
“That Hyung?”
“Gu Hae-bin Hyung.”
Just friends……. Eun-ha, who recalled Yeon-jun’s question, immediately made a bitter expression. He wondered if he was talking about someone, but.
“I’ve known him since elementary school.”
“I’ve heard that, though.”
It was a nuance as if leaving the possibility open. It was easy to read what kind of assumption he was making.
“What do you mean ‘though.’ Don’t say weird things.”
He frowned. Yeon-jun accepted Eun-ha’s words as if he agreed. “Weird things……” But there was no soul or empathy mixed in it at all, so it sounded like an answer that he didn’t believe at all, and Eun-ha frowned sincerely.
“He’s crazy about women. Please…… he’s a madman for women. Didn’t you hear the story that he gave me a hard time for a while because the girl he liked liked me?”
“I heard it. That’s why I’m more depressed……”
“……”
“So, I have competitors regardless of gender now. Twice as many as others.”
No, maybe several times……. Eun-ha let out a hollow laugh at the sadly muttered words.
“What competitors.”
That’s all old stories. It’s true that there was such a time, but it was just a distant past. In college, he was so engrossed in dating that he didn’t care about anything else. And after breaking up…….
Anyway, it was a very embarrassing past to keep going up and down like this. It was just that he received some attention because he was a little good-looking. It was the age to do that. He was so tired of studying for the exam that he poured great attention into trivial things.
All that is past glory. Eun-ha sincerely thought so. Forgetting about things like store review windows.
“And well…… I don’t think being heterosexual is a particularly restrictive trait either. I didn’t even know I would be like this.”
I wish I had continued to live without knowing. Eun-ha clicked his tongue inwardly.
“No matter what, it’s not Gu Hae-bin. You’re really misunderstanding that. Got it?”
I know you’re still upset, but you’ve got the wrong address. For Eun-ha, Gu Hae-bin was like family. And vice versa.
At the firm rebuke, Yeon-jun made a docile expression, but in the end, he did not answer.