PAO 32

“Seowon, don’t just look at the sea, look back at me once in a while too. Don’t notice only after I’ve collapsed.”

“Wouldn’t it be fine if you just don’t collapse? But you, really…”

Seowon looked Junghoo over. His height, which was much taller than his own, and his considerably thick frame were clearly visible to the naked eye.

“Isn’t it embarrassing to say you’re going to collapse with that body?”

“Seowon, what kind of prejudiced bullshit is that? I can collapse even with this body. Do germs see your size and avoid you?”

“No, what I mean is… you’re so good at saying such frail things.”

“So our Seowon is saying that after seeing all of my bare flesh, is that it?”

“What bare flesh. Do you say things like that to other people too?”

Seowon’s face hardened. In the first place, he had never even seen Yoo Junghoo’s bare flesh, so he felt wronged as well.

“Seowon.”

At Junghoo’s affectionate voice, Seowon automatically lifted his head.

“I revealed my honest feelings, so it’s the same as showing you my bare flesh. And why would I talk about my bare flesh to other people.”

“…”

“You can’t do that. The police Mister will scold me.”

At the words Junghoo uttered softly, something began to well up inside Seowon.

“Yoo Junghoo!”

At Seowon’s shout, Sung Hangyeol, who had come over after parking, looked at the two of them with eyes that said he had no idea what was going on.

While they were looking at the sea, the drinks and snacks Junghoo brought filled the table. It seemed as if he had ordered every dessert on the menu, so Seowon looked up at Junghoo. Seeing his pale face, which was no different than usual, break into an eye-smile, he asked.

“Are you hungry?”

“I bought all this for Seowon to eat.”

Seeing the sandwiches, cakes, and other things Junghoo pushed toward him, Seowon pulled his upper body back.

“I’m not really that hungry.”

“You must be hungry since you’ve been on the go without eating breakfast. Ah, you can’t have coffee on an empty stomach.”

He had stealthily stretched out his hand to grab the coffee, but Junghoo took it away. He was surprised that he was really preventing him from taking it.

“What is this.”

“I’ll give it to you if you eat something else.”

As Junghoo pressured him with his eyes to pick one quickly, Seowon, who was unexpectedly faced with eating a lot of sweet things, looked at the other person sharing this table. Sung Hangyeol was looking at the table with his arms crossed, and even then, his expression wasn’t one of looking to eat something. From the time he was driving, he was often lost in thought.

After confirming that Sung Hangyeol had no intention of eating anything, Seowon picked up a sandwich that looked somewhat decent, and Junghoo, as if he knew he would, brought the slice of cake in front of himself.

Then, as if to show off, he cut it in half and put it in his mouth, getting cream on his lips.

“It’s good.”

“Don’t you usually not eat cake?”

“It’s sweet, so it’s delicious.”

“Since when did cake become delicious?”

When he asked while taking a bite of his sandwich, Junghoo held his fork upright and glared at it. It seemed like he was trying to think about when he started being that way, but why was he glaring at the innocent fork.

“I don’t know. Before, I used to feel sick when I ate it, but not these days.”

“…Eat a lot.”

Since he said he’d eat it, he didn’t stop him.

“Should I buy you a chocolate latte?”

He said it with the intention of buying him one since he was eating well, but Junghoo avoided his gaze. It seemed it wasn’t to that extent yet. Seowon gave a faint smile and then glanced at Sung Hangyeol, who had been quiet all this time.

He was still lost in thought and looked at me once in a while. It didn’t seem like he would open his mouth, so Seowon turned his gaze and looked at the sea.

The sea, undulating beyond the picture window, met the sky. The sound of the waves couldn’t be heard and the white foam wasn’t visible, but instead, it was peaceful. For something decided so suddenly, meeting the quiet sea made his own heart feel calm.

He was so busy staring blankly at the sea that he hadn’t taken a single bite of the sandwich he was holding.

“You can’t eat it?”

“Huh?”

Seowon, who answered without taking his eyes off the sea at Junghoo’s sudden voice, belatedly turned his eyes. Then, seeing Junghoo closer than he thought, he raised his hand to push him away, only to have it caught instead.

“Get up.”

“Why… hey.”

Junghoo, who even took the sandwich in his other hand and placed it on the table, looked down at Sung Hangyeol.

“I have something to talk about with Seowon.”

At the implication that they needed to talk alone, Sung Hangyeol’s gaze just sank, and he couldn’t say anything else. Sung Hangyeol aside, shouldn’t he listen to my opinion too?

“I haven’t even eaten one bite of this yet.”

It wasn’t that he said it because he wanted to eat. He was just thinking of something else because he was uncomfortable being alone with Junghoo, but it didn’t work.

The warmth wrapped around his wrist was firm, and the force pulling him was strong.

“I’ll buy you another one.”

So at the implication that he should follow him for now, Seowon obediently got up from his seat. The moment they left the cafe, the sound of the waves could be heard, and the closer they got to the sea, the louder the sound became.

With the wind blowing as well, Seowon’s peaceful heart was instantly shaken. Staring at the foam breaking nearby, his gaze clouded over again as if he had fallen into white noise.

“I’m sorry for saying hurtful things to you yesterday.”

Junghoo’s apology wasn’t buried by the loud sound of the waves, but Seowon couldn’t look back. He didn’t answer. However, he couldn’t ignore his apology either.

‘How foolish.’

If he were just shameless from beginning to end, I wouldn’t feel this way. The one who is unwell is Junghoo, so why is he apologizing to me?

It was like that when they were kids too. Was it when they were fifteen? He didn’t know why, but he wanted to skip class. He was muttering that he just wanted to go out for an hour when Junghoo held out his hand.

‘Let’s go.’

He didn’t think about the consequences of getting caught. Just because I said I wanted to go out, he got up without hesitation. Taking Junghoo’s hand, he ran to the back door. When they found the back door locked, he thought their little escapade was over, but Junghoo got down on the ground and pointed to his back.

‘Step on my back and climb over.’

Without caring that he was wearing a white shirt, he pulled the hesitating Seowon’s leg and made him step on his back. Like that, Junghoo came over the back gate with my slipper print on his back, and the two of them played for exactly one hour before going back to school.

What they did for an hour wasn’t anything that amazing. They just walked around the streets together, stopped to listen when a song came on, and got thirsty so they each had an ice cream.

What was so great about that, that even while being scolded after coming back, they kept chuckling. In the end, the homeroom teacher called their parents so they got scolded twice, and Junghoo blamed it all on himself.

“Do you even know you should be sorry?”

“Yes…”

“Then speak with some conscience.”

When he stood with his arms crossed, unable to just let it go, a fine wrinkle formed between Junghoo’s eyebrows. It seemed like he was trying to guess what I was thinking, but his serious expression didn’t loosen.

“The words Seowon wants to hear from me, is it perhaps that? That I, without a word…”

“Why did you become a pervert?”

“…”

“…”

Seowon slightly shook his head. He was curious why Junghoo had disappeared without a word and then reappeared, but he had decided not to ask. So that wasn’t what he wanted to ask right now.

“Was I originally not a pervert?”

At Junghoo’s bewildered question, Seowon pointed it out precisely.

“It wasn’t exactly normal for you to be aiming for me so cunningly since we were kids, but still, you weren’t like this in middle school.”

“Ah… back then, well, I was more mature.”

It was funny that he was talking about maturity just because he hadn’t said perverted things, but now wasn’t the time to pick on that.

“So why have you regressed now.”

“Uh…”

Junghoo opened his mouth while continuously putting his hair, which was flying in the wind, back in place. And even then, it wasn’t as if words came out right away, but it seemed he was trying to think quite hard.

“You’re right. Why did I become a pervert.”

Junghoo, who soon organized his thoughts, turned his gaze from the sea to look at Seowon.

“Shall we say I just followed my instincts?”

“Your pervertedness comes from instinct?”

What is this, some kind of pervert instinct.

“You know I’ve been following only you since I started walking. I recognized you as my mate the moment I saw you.”

“Like how a bird that breaks out of its egg recognizes the first being it sees as its mother?”

“That’s right.”

“…”

As he mulled over what Junghoo had said while looking at his beaming smile, a sense of skepticism washed over him. What on earth did I expect from Yoo Junghoo.

“Let’s just drop it.”

In the first place, it was my fault for thinking I could get an honest answer from a human whose intentions are impossible to read. Seowon gave up on talking any further and was about to go back to the cafe, but suddenly Junghoo’s hand wrapped around his waist.

“You’ll die. Don’t.”

It was just his hand on his waist, but instead of removing his hand, Seowon met his eyes and warned him.

“Seowon, why are you so tense. What do you think I’m going to do.”

“You don’t know that the problem is the fact that you’re doing anything at all.”

“Our Seowon speaks so well, doesn’t he?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

Seowon belatedly tried to pull Junghoo’s hand away, but his body was lifted.

“Ah, please.”

You bastard.

“This is what you’re supposed to do when you come to the sea. It’s romantic to get soaked in the saltwater.”

Seowon chewed on a curse between his teeth. This sudden turn of events was not welcome at all. Especially since he was caught by a guy who said he was sick, he couldn’t get out no matter how much he struggled.

In the end, they reached the front of the sea, and the incoming tide began to soak Junghoo’s feet. In the crisis of seemingly about to fall into the sea at any moment, Seowon babbled whatever came to mind.

“If you dunk me, you become a shameless bastard.”

“Was I that shameless?”

“Of course.”