CBR 37

His broad shoulders and firmly sculpted chest muscles stood out clearly over his school uniform. The hard texture of that body still lingered in the palm of Jaewon’s hand. Unconsciously, Jaewon clenched his fist tight. Dojun, who possessed a body like that, wearing a rather obedient expression made him feel a strange sensation.

‘Why is it suddenly so hot?’

While flustered by his sharply rising body temperature, Dojun let out a loose smile. Between his lips, his fangs, which looked uniquely sharp, caught his eye. Was this how vampires, said to bewitch people by creating sexual hallucinations, enticed their victims? Buried in such thoughts, it took Jaewon a long while to register what he had just said.

“Bark? Why would I…”

His mouth, which was about to argue reflexively, clamped shut.

‘If I climb back on that thing again! I’m a dog, a dog!’

The sight of himself making that grand declaration resurfaced vividly like a video clip. Jaewon’s face turned the color of dirt, and Dojun gently nodded his head, urging him on. Jaewon rolled his eyes and did the math.

“Hey, I just said that back then. How can a person make dog sounds?”

He tried to slip away with a servile smile, but it didn’t work at all.

“You make them every day.”

“To a good person’s ears, it sounds like human speech.”

“Then should we do something other than barking?”

The grip holding his wrist grew sticky. Looking into those pitch-black eyes, Jaewon felt a strong conviction that if he didn’t bark right now, he would end up crawling on all fours.

‘Being born human, I’m doing all kinds of things.’

Jaewon, who had a firm standard for human dignity, barked gloomily.

“W… Woof.”

“What? I can’t hear you well.”

Dojun furled his brows and leaned his ear in. Seeing that heinous sight, Jaewon made a completely twisted face and cleared his throat.

“Woof, woof (You piece of shit).”

“It doesn’t touch my heart.”

“Grrr, arf arf (You bloody bastard)!!”

Immersed in the role before he knew it, he barked thunderously. Only then did Dojun smile with full satisfaction, seemingly pleased.

“Good boy.”

He praised him while gently scratching his chin. It was a touch that was playful yet delicate. Jaewon felt an inexplicably dangerous vibe and took a few hesitant steps back.

“Do you live here?”

Usually, when someone asked like that, it was followed by an evaluation of the residence. However, Kim Dojun was not such a conventional human being. He definitely had another hidden agenda. Jaewon looked at him suspiciously before reluctantly answering.

“Yeah.”

“Nice.”

Jaewon’s eyes opened slightly wider. From the alley entrance where cigarette butts and flyers rolled around, the studio apartment neighborhood with tightly packed buildings was a place too embarrassing to call nice, even as a lie. Yet Dojun, casually looking around the surroundings, didn’t seem to be mocking or sarcastic at all. Nor was it a naive sentiment that made one laugh dryly.

When dealing with people, Jaewon had a habit of categorizing targets consciously or unconsciously. Then, applying the protocols established from past experience, he would choose a coping method and execute it accordingly. Although people’s personalities and inclinations varied individually, they were ultimately largely similar, so there was no major issue with this method.

To him, who had lived like that, Kim Dojun was a difficult problem. Relaxed and confident, yet not arrogant. Self-indulgent, yet did not act recklessly. He clearly had everything, yet he was empty. An indefinable human like him was like an algebra problem that couldn’t be solved even after covering three door-sized boards with formulas, making Jaewon constantly curious.

“What’s so nice about it?”

“You can see the sun well.”

Dojun gestured with a glance to the side. Jaewon unconsciously turned his head following him, and the red-stained sky spread out fully across his vision. The studio apartment area where Jaewon lived was located on high ground, and reached close to the sky by that much. The scene where the deep orange light of the setting sun mixed with the blue light of the sky was as wonderful as a famous painting. It was a landscape he had never paid attention to before.

A fairly chilly wind wrapped around them and passed by. Unusually black hair fluttered softly, revealing a neat forehead. Dojun closed and opened his eyes slowly. Looking at that unburdened face, Jaewon could tell.

He didn’t measure anything. He accepted objects and facts just as they were and expressed them as such. It was the freedom of a person without a measuring stick for judgment. Jaewon grew puzzled.

‘Is that possible?’

Everyone lives inside their own well. Someone rules over wealth and people in a well like a kingdom and lives out a long life, while someone else spends much of their time only with themselves in a deep and narrow well.

The experiences a single life form can undergo during a lifetime are limited, and social animals bound together are bound to gather experiences to build big data in order to lower the failure rate. That is why human affairs cannot help but be heavily biased. It is only human nature that the larger the well one lives in, the more one comes to rely on preconceptions.

Yet Kim Dojun, who was in a position where it wouldn’t be wrong to say his word was law, possessed endlessly flexible thinking. The unpredictability that misfired his expectations every single time was caused by that. The more Jaewon experienced him, the more he felt like he was wandering lost.

The face quietly tinted in the sunset glow stared intently at him. Deep shadows cast over the sharp and solid face. Jaewon felt a strange tickle in his stomach and snapped his head away. Scratching his earlobe, he grumbled for no reason.

“You can’t see the sun from my room.”

“Is that so? Then should we live together.”

It was a nonchalant tone, as if asking to grab a meal together. Jaewon almost nodded unconsciously before his mouth fell wide open.

“Pardon? Why is the conclusion like that… how many steps did you just jump over out of nowhere?”

“You can see it well from my home.”

“…”

“Too much.”

He cast his gaze toward the horizon and then knitted his brows. My home. From the expression that carried a sense of alienation, Jaewon could tell that he was currently living alone.

Jaewon’s expression turned peculiar. There couldn’t be a pleasant backstory for a student living alone. Not knowing what to say, he hesitated and scratched his cheek.

“Well… a house with good lighting is nice.”

“It’s bright, so there’s nowhere to hide.”

The words sank right into his heart. It had no head or tail and sounded purely like nonsense, yet it didn’t feel that way. It made him turn his head and stop his eyes on that face whose inner thoughts were unreadable.

Dojun slowly leaned his body in. He stopped only when it came close to skin brushing skin. His breath touched Jaewon’s ear.

“I wish someone would block it for me.”

Jaewon thought that uttering such vulnerable words so reliably was quite a skill in itself. Even as he thought that, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from those staring intently at him. It was a distance where the bridges of their noses could touch. Jaewon decided to make a decision before his surging, pounding pulse ruptured his arteries. Gulping down his throat, he barely squeezed out a word.

“Buy blackout curtains.”

“You’re not falling for it.”

Dojun clicked his tongue as if it were a shame. Jaewon was shocked by the excessively skillful response.

Wearing a cheeky smile, Dojun tapped the tip of his shoe. Perhaps because of his long legs, even that trifling action possessed style. Thinking that the sleekly shaped sneakers somehow looked like dress shoes, Jaewon shook his head side to side.

“Aren’t you going home?”

“Why. I’m waiting for you to tell me to eat ramen before going.”

Dojun answered nonchalantly and tilted his head to the side. It was a gesture asking what he was going to do. Jaewon unconsciously checked the current inventory of ramen at home before jumping in surprise, his eyes rounding into circles.

“What are you talking about? There isn’t even a single drop of broth to give you.”

“How harsh.”

He chuckled dryly. Even as he said so, he continued the conversation peacefully as if it was an expected reaction.

“How about coffee.”

“I can’t drink caffeine. My heart throbs.”

“Aha.”

When Jaewon explained his constitution and symptoms, Dojun lifted his chin and nodded as if understanding. Looking at him smirking with a dark-hearted face made Jaewon feel unnecessarily anxious, so he fidgeted with his hands.

“Brown rice green tea.”

“Don’t have it. But do you really have to drink green tea with brown rice?”

“Raisin tree tea.”

“Do you think I’d have that?”

“Buy some.”

‘Is he determined to extract liver from a flea?’

The saying that those who have more are greedier is scientific fact. Jaewon held up his middle finger and turned around. However, after taking only a few steps, his ankle was caught again.

“Get in safely.”

The words left a lingering, wistful echo. It was a line fit for a protagonist who had just finished a first date with their destined partner. By any measure, it wasn’t something to say after kidnapping an unwilling bread shuttle and bringing him here by brute force. Yet, his insides were gently touched by those words.