FETCH 42

They say that when a drinking session is in full swing, people move from place to place to keep drinking, and while the people filling the neighboring tables had changed seats entirely, Han Kang and Jaechan remained exactly where they were.

Since the two of them were happy just being stuck together, they didn’t feel any need to move.

“But isn’t Guide Choi Seokyoung coming?”

Jaechan asked a team member next to him who was gulping down alcohol. At that, the man looked around as if he had only just remembered Choi Seokyoung. As he added, “Oh, right,” Ji Sangtaek, who must have overheard, passed along the word.

“Seokyoung hasn’t finished up his work yet, so I don’t think he can make it today. Jaechan was curious about him, wasn’t he?”

“Yes, that’s a shame.”

“Well, he’ll be at work soon anyway, so see him then.”

Well, nothing could be done about it.

Jaechan just replied with a smile and a “Yes.” Looking at the current state of things anyway, it didn’t seem like Han Kang would let him go regardless.

As time passed, the voices of the drunken people grew louder and louder. For a brief moment, Jaechan thought it was noisy, then he gobbled up a lettuce wrap that suddenly flew into his mouth.

Having made wraps for him several times while downing drinks alone, Han Kang was now leaning his chin on his hand, looking at Jaechan with eyes that had gone completely unfocused.

“Are you drunk?”

“No.”

No matter how one looked at it, he seemed drunk, but Han Kang shook his head side to side.

Since Han Kang had learned how to drink from his hyungs even before he turned twenty, his words were likely true.

“Are you not coming to the Center tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Let me rest.”

Jaechan said, holding out a wrap in return. If he hadn’t heard the news that he could rest, he probably wouldn’t have thought much of going to work. But now that he knew it was a possibility, Jaechan truly wanted to rest.

For some reason, his body felt more listless than usual, and he felt stiff. It felt as if all his accumulated fatigue was hitting him all at once.

People might call this malingering, but regardless, he was sincere. Just as he was thinking how powerful the effect of self-hypnosis could be, Han Kang chewed the wrap apathetically and muttered.

“Then who am I supposed to play with tomorrow?”

“What do you mean ‘play’? You have to train. You spent the whole day today just shooting the breeze.”

“Who’s shooting the breeze? I even went on outdoor training.”

“Don’t you have a match schedule? Anything like an international competition?”

Jaechan looked at Han Kang while gulping down his drink. As if just mentioning a match brought on work stress, Han Kang’s expression crumpled tightly.

Well, it was true that from now on, if a match was scheduled, it wasn’t just Han Kang’s business anymore. Since Jaechan himself was now a guide belonging to the team and would participate in all training, in a way, it was soon to be his business too.

Recalling that, Jaechan let out a joyful exclamation. “Ho-oh.” Was it because he felt the day he would train alongside the team members, including Han Kang, wasn’t far off? Anticipation blossomed in his chest. Even though they hadn’t finished this particular training properly, Jaechan’s face flushed and his eyes sparkled despite himself.

The thought of doing it right this time and showing his true worth filled his mind.

“Then I’ll be right next to you when you train from now on, right? I heard that when those kinds of match schedules are set, you do joint training with guides often.”

“We do it often, since we have to get in sync.”

“Daebak. That sounds fun.”

“You think it’ll be fun?”

“Is it not fun?”

Unlike Jaechan, whose clear pupils were shining brightly, Han Kang’s eyes were hollow and faded. He even looked as if to say, “Do I really have to say it out loud for you to know?”

His intention that it was a nuisance reached Jaechan clearly without a word. Instead of giving a different answer, Jaechan plunked his glass down in front of him. With a sullen face, Han Kang poured out a nagging.

“You’re drinking too much right now.”

“You drink with me too.”

“I am drinking.”

“Right, so keep drinking with me.”

Jaechan gave a small laugh and poked Han Kang’s cheek. Han Kang’s eyebrows twitched, and his eyes rolled around to look at the hand. His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly as he looked back and forth between Jaechan’s pretty face and his straight fingers.

Then, he trickled alcohol into his glass. After biting his lips slightly inward and tossing it back in one gulp, he drank twice more in succession before finally clinking glasses with Jaechan.

As he kept accepting and drinking, his head began to spin. Jaechan pinched his thigh, telling himself he had to stay sharp from now on.

After all, don’t people tend to let their guard down when they’re drunk? And with Han Kang right beside him, what if he ran his mouth and made a mistake?

Still, seeing as his mind was clear, it didn’t seem like he was that drunk. Thinking he would snap out of it after just one more glass, he went to tilt his drink, but then…

“Huh?”

Suddenly, the glass he had been holding firmly vanished.

Soju splashed out of the glass someone had roughly snatched away, soaking the back of his hand. Jaechan quickly turned his eyes toward where the glass had disappeared. He saw Han Kang tossing back the drink.

His protruding Adam’s apple was quite a sight. And how efficient and clean he looked as he finished the drink and set the glass down as if it were nothing.

It felt like watching a great masterpiece, so Jaechan completely forgot that his glass had been snatched and turned his body fully toward Han Kang. Even while his vision was spinning, Han Kang’s handsome face was carved clearly into his sight.

Though his eyes were hollow and empty due to fatigue, those eyes used to shine intelligently when they caught the sunlight. Besides, there was no need to even mention the well-carved bridge of his nose. The bridge of the nose that accurately crossed the center of a face where a youthful appearance still faintly remained was bound to stimulate his masculinity even more.

Jaechan reached out his hand without realizing it. His brain, already submerged in alcohol, didn’t even properly perceive what he was doing.

He thought he wasn’t drunk yet, but he seemed to be well and truly drunk.

When he gave the nose a light stroke with his hand, Han Kang’s pupils rolled along with the touch. Then, he slightly pulled his face back and removed Jaechan’s hand from him. Jaechan tried to reach out again because he wanted to touch him more, but it was no use since the face had already moved away. Jaechan let out a disinterested hum, “Hmph,” and leaned his chin on his hand.

“You’re very drunk.”

“So what, I can be a little drunk. I’m not going to the Center tomorrow.”

Jaechan mumbled his answer with completely slurred pronunciation.

In fact, he couldn’t even properly grasp what Han Kang was saying. Jaechan’s gaze simply landed on Han Kang’s red lips moving in front of him. Those lips, clean without a single flake of dead skin even without special care, seemed to remind him of the moisture he had felt before just by looking at them.

Touching those too would be over the top, wouldn’t it?

Since Han Kang had become somewhat cautious for some reason after the insertion guiding, he was about to fold his fingers regretfully, telling himself to behave this time.

“Stop drinking and let’s go now.”

Han Kang stood up abruptly, came to his side, and tapped his shoulder. It seemed to mean it was time to get up, but Jaechan didn’t want to, so he shook his head with an “Ugh-ungh.”

“Aw, why. I’m not drunk yet.”

“Honey, you’re being a real nuisance right now. Everyone’s staring at you. Let’s go home; you said you’d put me to sleep.”

Han Kang coaxed him again, tapping Jaechan’s shoulder. As if soothing a child who couldn’t overcome sleep, his touch was soft and gentle despite the strength behind it.

Jaechan just grinned. Actually, his joints felt like they didn’t belong to him, devoid of any strength. This was all because he was drunk. Though he said he wasn’t drunk, his tongue was already so twisted he couldn’t even pronounce words properly.

Still, because he liked this cozy atmosphere, he shook his head “Ugh-ungh” once more, and in that moment…

“Waaah…!”

At the same time his body was hoisted into the air, he settled onto somewhere solid.

“We, the married couple, will be heading out now.”

Couple? Who’s a couple?

Without any time to argue the situation, Jaechan had to leave the meat restaurant slung over someone’s shoulder. Because his head was hanging down, he couldn’t even ask to be put down.

Jaechan just let his whole body go limp while dangling there. A sigh of exasperation leaked out right next to him, but he pretended not to hear it.

.✦ ݁˖

He didn’t even realize he had made it all the way home on Han Kang’s back. Jaechan opened his eyes blearily at the familiar sound of the door lock beeping “beep-beep-beep-beep” as the code was entered.

Did he get exhausted too from the various scuffles on the way home?

“Whoa!”

With a loud shout, the two of them tumbled onto the floor at once.

“Aah, my arm, my arm!”

Jaechan realized a heavy pain was spreading through the arm he had reflexively extended to protect him. Jaechan felt himself sober up instantly and started hitting Han Kang repeatedly without realizing it.

By now, it was time for him to get up with a mischievous laugh, but Han Kang remained still while lying down. Since he was pinned under his body, Jaechan couldn’t force himself out, so he tried pushing Han Kang’s head, saying, “Move this.” But he didn’t budge.

“Hey, hey… Get up, you’re heavy.”

It was the moment he tried squirming and twisting his body. Han Kang’s black pupils seemed to slowly roll toward Jaechan, and soon he pressed his body completely against him.

Jaechan inhaled a tensed breath, “Hup,” despite himself.

Looking at him now, Han Kang’s eyes weren’t normal either. While Jaechan’s drunkenness had vanished entirely, Han Kang’s unfocused black pupils were somehow giving off a sharp light as they scanned Jaechan’s face intensely.

Their bodies were completely overlapped. Han Kang’s breath, as he buried his nose in the nape of Jaechan’s neck and breathed slowly, reached him fully. Because of that, a chill that made every hair on his body stand up rushed in.

Jaechan felt Han Kang’s heavy crotch and twisted his waist slightly to the side. He tried to at least reduce the contact area.

“Ah, hey. Wait, just a second…”

But Han Kang, who had pulled him into an embrace so he couldn’t move at all, finally began to slide his hand inside his clothes. It was only natural that his movements, slowly rubbing their tightly pressed crotches together, were flustering.

After all that talk about not being a guide and so on. After rejecting him with all sorts of sharp words, saying how could he do such a thing or that things were much better before. Jaechan didn’t know how to interpret Han Kang, who was now rubbing his genitals against him.

Should he dismiss this as the alcohol too?

While his mind became complicated for a moment, his instincts inevitably remained alive, and a tight strength began to gather in his lower abdomen. The boiling heat settled in, making it feel like he would get an erection at any moment.

Han Kang’s glinting gaze as he looked at him wasn’t very kind. It was a gaze that seemed to obsessively pick apart and analyze him, as if he had locked onto a target.

Since when had he been watching?

He swallowed dryly. The air in his very familiar home felt uncomfortable, as if it were scratching the inside of his throat. At the same time, anticipation filled him again from within.

It was Han Kang who had done nothing but push him away. Thinking that such a man was coveting him and revealing his desire toward him, Jaechan’s heart couldn’t help but start pounding.

Jaechan swallowed hard and met Han Kang’s eyes squarely. He was also worried that Han Kang might suddenly change and look at him with contempt again. Thinking there would be nothing more annoying than him initiating it and then acting disgusted, Han Kang suddenly licked up the nape of his neck with his tongue.

“Hey, hey.”

Just as a startled Jaechan was stammering…

Han Kang’s moist lips greedily swallowed Jaechan’s lips. His sharply open black eyes were now hidden behind his handsome eyelids. Jaechan’s eyelids also fluttered down softly.