HPK 67

Silence pressed heavily on his shoulders. Wooseung aimlessly followed the trail of lights sliding quickly past the window. Taejung, sitting in the seat next to him, had also been looking only at his phone since a while ago, so there was no noise at all inside the car. The occasional sounds of the city coming from outside were all there was.

Vzzzzt—.

Just then, a low vibration buzzed irregularly a couple of times. Wooseung turned over the hand resting obediently on his thigh and checked his phone. A message that had just arrived was displayed on the screen.

[Hyung]

[Are you okay?]

Wooseung smiled faintly at Hyojun’s message, which arrived with a crying emoticon. He held his phone up a little higher and pressed the keypad firmly.

[Yeah, I’m okay haha]

[I was surprised because the president showed up so suddenly ;;]

Wooseung scratched his forehead and then chose his words to smooth over the situation appropriately.

[He said he came because I wasn’t there when he went to the bathroom ㅋㅋ]

Hyojun replied asking if that was what happened, and then delivered the unwelcome news that the waiting room had been turned upside down by Taejung’s appearance. However, Wooseung wasn’t particularly surprised, as he had somewhat expected it from the moment Taejung showed up in the waiting room. Instead, he was more surprised by the message Hyojun sent next.

[It was like he came to keep his lover in checkㅋㅋㅋ]

After seeing the message, Wooseung subconsciously glanced at Taejung. Fortunately, he was still fiddling with his phone just as he had been before.

[What are you talking about ;;ㅋㅋㅋ]

Wooseung hurried to reply and then flipped his phone over.

“Were you talking shit about me?”

Taejung asked, his eyes still fixed on his phone. Wooseung’s heart sank, thinking he might have seen his text.

“……I wasn’t. Talking shit about you, President.”

“Your expression just now totally looked like you were, though?”

Taejung put down his phone, just like Wooseung had. For the first time since getting in the car, the two of them faced each other.

“It was just Hyojun asking if I had left work, so I replied a little.”

Even as he spoke, he was worried that Taejung might ask for his phone again like before. Just the thought of Taejung seeing the message Hyojun sent was horrifying.

Taejung twitched his eyebrow and looked at Wooseung as if observing him. He wanted to look away to avoid the persistent gaze, but he held back, thinking it would make him look more suspicious. Just when he thought his face might get a hole burned through it, Taejung opened his mouth.

“Hey, but…….”

Taejung’s low voice echoed in the quiet car.

“You said earlier, what was it, that this is your first time being sponsored?”

For Wooseung, who had been anxious that he would ask for his phone, it was an unexpected question.

“……Yes.”

His hair swayed softly, following the slow nod of his head. Just like its owner, it had no strength.

“A virgin.”

“…….”

“And your first time being sponsored.”

He must have disliked the word virgin, because he furrowed his brow slightly. Every time the usually placid Wooseung showed his emotions like this, Taejung felt strangely pleased. The corner of his smooth lips curved up ever so slightly.

“I’m the first for everything, then?”

Unlike Wooseung’s brow, which remained crumpled and refused to smooth out, the corners of Taejung’s mouth rose higher and higher.

“You’re not supposed to start with something expensive and good from the very beginning.”

His tone was subtly condescending. It also sounded like he was genuinely pitying him. It was absurd, but Wooseung chose not to say anything because he didn’t want to get dragged into it.

However, Taejung seemed pleased even by that reaction, and he watched the tight-lipped Wooseung with a sly smile. The furrowed brow, the lips slightly protruding from being pressed together. There was nothing that wasn’t amusing.

His mood, which had been shitty and drooping like a plant with a broken stem, instantly improved as if it had never been bad. He had always been prone to mood swings, but such a drastic change was truly a first in a long time. He even felt slightly giddy. Without knowing why his mood had improved so much, Taejung simply savored the enjoyment of the moment.

“Hey, come here.”

He patted his thigh, tap, tap.

“……I’d rather not do it in the car.”

Wooseung glanced once at the thigh, then once at Taejung’s shameless face, and shook his head.

“Fuck, who said we’re going to do it? Just get on.”

At the repeated demand, Wooseung reluctantly lifted his hips. He checked the driver’s seat just in case, but thankfully, Junseok seemed to be focused on driving and unaware of the situation in the back seat. Or perhaps he was desperately pretending not to know.

He clumsily climbed onto the hard thigh, which was packed with muscle, and sat down awkwardly. His legs were spread, making the already sore inner thighs scream in protest.

The handsome face with a mischievous smile was very good-looking, but at the same time, it was full of a delinquent aura that made his heart uneasy. Taejung wrapped an arm around Wooseung’s waist and buried his face in his chest. Every time he breathed, his warm breath spread across his chest. The sensation was extremely strange.

After being like that for a long while, Taejung chuckled, saying, “It’s true.” He lifted his face and met Wooseung’s eyes.

“Hey, you smell like my house.”

The amusement in his voice was blatant. Wooseung blinked his eyes, looking at him blankly.

Of course he would smell like Taejung’s house……. He had been at his house almost all day and had even showered and left from there.

But Taejung kept repeating the obvious, burying his face in his chest and then lifting it again. In the meantime, light laughter occasionally escaped from between his lips.

He had been so annoyed, and now he was delighted as if he had discovered an amusing toy. Although it was a mischievous smile, his delight was clearly genuine.

A peculiar light surfaced on Wooseung’s face as he gazed intently at Taejung.

♡

“Yeah, I sent it. Use that for the maintenance fee, and the rest……. Ah, a blanket? Yeah, you can do that. But didn’t you buy one recently? Ah, it wasn’t good?”

The sound of a door closing could be heard over the phone. It seemed that when the topic of money came up, Heehun had come out of the main room where he was with their grandmother. The maintenance fee for this month wasn’t very high, so he said he would use the remaining money to buy their grandmother a summer blanket, and Wooseung reluctantly agreed. He knew very well Heehun’s heart that felt sorry for their grandmother who lay in bed all day, but on the other hand, he couldn’t help but ask, what about mom’s blanket. He felt a little displeased, remembering how she used to rotate between two blankets all year round.

“Then give me the one you’re not using. I’ll use it.”

—Okay. Ah, did you arrange to come with Yejin?

“Ah…… Yejin said she’s going on a trip with her classmates, so I don’t know if we can match our schedules.”

—What’s this about a sudden trip again. Oh dear, I can’t believe her. Really.

Heehun continuously expressed his complaints, asking why she wasn’t thinking of coming home when their grandmother’s situation was so bad.

“It’s fine if it’s just me. Anyway, buy that and let me know, yeah, yeah, pay in cash.”

Wooseung responded moderately and then ended the call cursorily, saying he was returning to the study room.

Just then, the phone he was holding in his hand was snatched upwards. The culprit was Taejung.

“Dad?”

He asked as he pressed the end call button in Wooseung’s place. When Wooseung answered, “Yes, my dad……,” he threw another question as if he had been waiting.

“Who else is in your family?”

“Uh…….”

Wooseung squatted down by the sofa and looked up blankly at Taejung. He was flustered by the sudden background check, but he answered the questions faithfully for now.

“My dad, my mom, and my granny and my si…….”

“Granny?”

Taejung mocked him, mimicking his pronunciation.

‘Seung-ah, my goodness, my little puppy.’

‘Yes, granny.’

Perhaps because he had had a short conversation with his grandmother before talking to his dad, the affectionate term had slipped out without him realizing. A wave of embarrassment washed over him, and his cheeks grew faintly hot. Wooseung averted his gaze slightly and mumbled, “……My grandmother and my sister. That’s everyone.”

“How old is your sister, is she a girl, or a boy.”

Taejung asked, tilting his head.

“She’s 20, and uh, um. She’s my younger sister…….”

Feeling somehow uncomfortable, Wooseung trailed off his sentence without realizing it. In the other establishments that Taejung ran, there were many young women who were just 20 years old, like Yejin. That was probably why. The reason it was uncomfortable to say he had a younger sister.

Taejung himself, however, seemed uninterested in Wooseung’s answer. Despite having asked the question himself, all he did was react as if it were funny, saying, “You’re the older brother?” Then, with a casual gesture, he tossed the phone back. The screen of the returned phone displayed the recent call history, which seemed to be the last thing he had checked.

[Dad 11:57 AM]

[President Yesterday]

[President Yesterday]

[Yejin Thursday]

With the exception of Yejin and his dad, most of the recent calls were with Taejung. For some reason, he couldn’t take his eyes off it.