Ah! Lee A-gon let out a short moan and looked at Park Hae-jun. A stream of blood trickled from his nose and soon fell to the floor with a dripping sound.
“Lee A-gon!”
That shouldn’t fall on the carpet. Park Hae-jun threw down the pile of laundry he was holding and pulled out tissues.
“Lower your head. Don’t tilt it back.”
“Ugh.”
Lee A-gon raised his blood-stained hand with a disgusted expression. It’s dirty. He wants it wiped. Park Hae-jun brought more tissues and wiped Lee A-gon’s hand.
‘If this is dirty, how did this guy live before, I wonder.’
“That’s enough. I said lower your head.”
After his near-death experience, Lee A-gon frequently got nosebleeds. Usually they stopped within 5 minutes, but sometimes they lasted up to 30 minutes.
Once , Park Hae-jun had seen him bleeding from his mouth, which had been so shocking that he could only stare blankly without moving. Later he realized it wasn’t hemoptysis but nosebleed blood that had flowed into his mouth, but when he first saw it, he was so scared his hands and feet trembled.
Lee A-gon, who kept bleeding.
Lee A-gon, who had nearly died. His temperature also rose easily, frequently exceeding 38 degrees. Sometimes Park Hae-jun would wake up scared and check if Lee A-gon was still breathing.
Lee A-gon was truly, extremely fragile.
“Why are you here? I told you to stay on the second floor.”
Once the nosebleed subsided somewhat , Park Hae-jun asked.
Lee A-gon shook his head. It meant he didn’t want to.
“Why not?”
“…”
“Are you trying to distract me again?”
“…”
Lee A-gon grabbed Park Hae-jun’s sleeve. Then he opened and closed his lips twice.
‘Kiss. Kiss.’
Tsk , Park Hae-jun clicked his tongue briefly and pushed Lee A-gon away, but his hands had already slid around Haejun’s neck.
Lee A-gon closed his eyes, pursed his lips and said, ‘Kiss. Kiss. Kiss. Kiss.’
“No kisses. Kisses later.”
When Park Hae-jun roughly turned away after removing Lee A-gon’s hands, he clung to him with a whimpering sound. Park Hae-jun took a step back from him. Kisses are only twice a day, morning and evening. Park Hae-jun was currently training Lee A-gon with kisses.
The Lee A-gon who had survived death had changed. He was different, as if he had torn through a thin membrane.
The first change was that his eyes gained focus. They were no longer hazy. Like a bird hatched from an egg, intelligence appeared on Lee A-gon’s face. The treatment had worked.
Of course, he had only just hatched from the egg, and this bird was still young. Park Hae-jun had to raise Lee A-gon like a mother bird and teach him how to fly.
“Where is the medicine, Lee A-gon?” Park Hae-jun asked about the medicine as soon as he got up from his sickbed, “There must be some medicine left. Where is the medicine? Hm?”
“I’m not trying to scold you. I’m asking you to give it to me for your own sake, so there won’t be another accident.”
“Where did you hide the medicine? Is there really none left? Lee A-gon, you need to tell me.”
Unfortunately, Lee A-gon’s intelligence didn’t seem developed enough to understand those words yet. Throughout Park Hae-jun’s speech, Lee A-gon just tilted his head with an expression that said he didn’t understand.
After trying to persuade Lee A-gon for a long time , Park Hae-jun finally took a step back. Lee A-gon couldn’t understand what he was saying. There was no use pressing him.
Park Hae-jun’s focus shifted to developing Lee A-gon’s language ability. That day , Park Hae-jun had clearly heard it. The sound of him calling him “Park Hae-jun hyung. “
“Say something, Lee A-gon. Call me hyung.”
When repeatedly urged, Lee A-gon moved his lips. The sound of “P… P…” leaked from Lee A-gon’s lips. Park Hae-jun held his breath and watched as Lee Aa-gon’s lips twisted this way and that, trying somehow to form words. But Lee A-gon just spit out something between “P” and “B” a few times, unable to develop it further.
There was another change. An unexpected change—Lee A-gon was becoming attached to Park Hae-jun.
Of course, he had been attached to Park Hae-jun before too. But while then, the object of his attachment had only been Park Hae-jun’s “cock,” now it had expanded to Park Hae-jun himself. Lee A-gon wanted Park Hae-jun’s attention, and would become dissatisfied if Park Hae-jun didn’t pay attention to him.
In the morning, Lee A-gon, who had been lying between Park Hae-jun’s thighs, would suddenly get up and hang his hands around Park Hae-jun’s neck. His bright eyes had clear focus, and those eyes were always directed at Park Hae-jun.
‘I’m so happy you’re awake. Are you happy to see me too?’ His shining eyes seemed to say.
When Park Hae-jun tried to get up, Lee A-gon would resist by putting strength into his thin arms. Then he would press his lips against Park Hae-jun’s and smile. Kisses. Lee A-gon always looked so happy whenever he kissed Park Hae-jun.
“Hey, move aside.” Park Hae-jun pushed Lee A-gon’s face away. Lee A-gon shook his head and clung to him more eagerly.
“Really, come on.”
No matter how much he pushed him away, Lee A-gon kept putting his uncomfortable face close to Park Hae-jun’s and begging for kisses.
Finally , Park Hae-jun set a rule, “When you kiss, you close your eyes. That’s manners. From now on, close your eyes when you kiss, Lee A-gon. If you don’t, I won’t do it.”
At those words, Lee A-gon quickly closed his eyes. He also put both hands on his chest and waited for the kiss with a desperate face.
Hmm. Park Hae-jun looked at that face and hesitated.
To tell the truth, he didn’t want to do things like kissing with Lee A-gon. It was because Park Hae-jun simply couldn’t forget his first impression when he met Lee A-gon.
The homeless Lee A-gon and the dirty black line stuck under his fingernails. White eczema had bloomed on his face, and the grime behind his knees wouldn’t wash away no matter how much he was scrubbed. That sight was so vivid that it was almost stamped into Park Hae-jun’s mind.
Of course, Lee A-gon wasn’t like that now. He now bathed well by himself and ate regularly, gaining a decent amount of weight.
But that didn’t mean he became pretty. Although he had gained weight, he was still skinny, and his skin was so thin that the blue veins visible around his temples remained unchanged.
When he brought that face close and stared with wide eyes, it was incredibly uncomfortable. Moreover, Lee A-gon didn’t even close his eyes when kissing. It was because he wanted to see Park Hae-jun up close.
‘Kiss me.’
‘Hug me.’
‘Hold me.’
‘Look at me.’
‘Why won’t you look at me?’
‘Why do you push me away?’
‘I’m hurt. So hurt.’
Unable to speak, Lee A-gon expressed his emotions with his entire face. Now he followed Park Hae-jun with the same obsession he once had for finding drugs, showing affection to Park Hae-jun all day long.
Why on earth was he acting like this?
Park Hae-jun formed several hypotheses about this change. The most plausible was what happened that night.
That frightening night. Park Hae-jun had kissed Lee A-gon countless times. He had repeated “I will save you with this kiss” about a hundred times.
Lee A-gon truly came back to life after receiving those kisses. While it couldn’t be said with 100% certainty, Park Hae-jun’s help had indeed made a difference. From Lee A-gon’s perspective, it was understandable to misinterpret that the kisses were what saved him.
Lee A-gon, no longer searching for drugs, directed all that obsession and time solely toward Park Hae-jun. Park Hae-jun tried to accept this change positively. After all, Lee A-gon had found something he wanted from Park Hae-jun other than his cock.
The problem was that Lee A-gon, who had gained intelligence, lacked patience.
He was poor at controlling his emotions, had impaired memory and cognitive abilities, and was a 190cm adult male whose mind was filled all day with thoughts of kissing another man.
Kisses only in the morning and evening. Not allowed otherwise.
When Park Hae-jun set this rule, Lee A-gon was consumed with dissatisfaction. Having intelligence but no patience, Lee A-gon naturally attempted to rebel.
He swept all the food off the table.
The delicious food neatly packed in lunch boxes fell to the floor with a loud noise. Today’s meal was ssambap. Steamed cabbage and pumpkin leaves beautifully wrapped around rice, along with clear doenjang soup, rolled around on the floor.
Seeing this, something blew a fuse in Park Hae-jun’s mind. He was Korean, and Koreans instinctively disliked the careless treatment of food, as if it were inscribed in their genes.
Park Hae-jun glared at Lee A-gon with cold eyes. Lee A-gon moved his lips with a sulky expression. ‘Kiss.’
Damn, it was that kiss again.
“You want to kiss me?”
Lee A-gon nodded.
“Then clean that up.” Park Hae-jun pointed to the floor. “Clean it up.”
“…”
“I said clean it up, Lee A-gon.”
Lee A-gon made an innocent expression and shrugged his shoulders. It was a gesture that said, ‘I don’t understand what you’re saying. What are you talking about?’
‘He does understand what I’m saying.’
Park Hae-jun realized immediately. Lee A-gon’s intelligence was better than he thought. Good enough to act and lie.
That meant he might have also been lying when he claimed not to understand the questions about the drugs.
“You don’t want to?”
When Park Hae-jun asked, Lee A-gon again answered “Kiss.” Park Hae-jun felt a part of his heart becoming very cold.
“Really? You don’t want to? Fine. Then I won’t kiss you anymore either.”
Park Hae-jun stood up abruptly and passed by Lee A-gon very coldly and frostily, going up the stairs. He went to the room where he and Lee A-gon stayed and gathered his belongings. Not that he had much. His pillow, blanket, pajamas, toothbrush, laptop, and an essential item—the mood light.
Belatedly, Lee A-gon appeared with a clatter. His eyes widened when he saw Park Hae-jun standing with his belongings.
Park Hae-jun walked briskly and opened the door of the room across, putting his things inside. When the confused Lee A-gon tried to block his way , Park Hae-jun coldly pushed him aside.
“You are forbidden from entering this room.”
Bang, the door closed. Lee A-gon, standing dumbfounded and at a loss, clung to the door.
And Park Hae-jun shouted in a rough voice, “Go away! I won’t sleep with you anymore!”
At those words, the sound of knocking on the door became more violent. Park Hae-jun rolled tissue paper into his ears and prepared to endure.
‘I admit it. I was complacent.’