PAO 64

“The way your chest heaved against my back when you breathed felt good, and when your legs wrapped around my waist, the way they touched felt soft and also like squishy erectile tissue…”

“Shut up.”

Seowon barely restrained himself from smacking him in the face, if he could.

“Let’s go.”

It’s my fault for trying to have a conversation.

“Are you just going to go?”

“No. Our Junghoo worked so hard, I have to feed him something.”

After contemplating what would be good, Seowon soon decided on a direction and led the way. It was as if he would go alone even if Junghoo didn’t follow, but upon hearing the sound of footsteps behind him, Seowon smiled, pleased.

Junghoo and Seowon sat facing each other across a narrow table.

“This is what you’re feeding me for working so hard?”

Junghoo, who had folded his long legs haphazardly, scrunched up his face as well. At his displeased reaction, Seowon looked at the food on the table.

“What’s wrong with blood sausage? There’s liver, lung, and even heart here. The parts are so varied, isn’t it great?”

“You’re feeding me a whole pig.”

Junghoo said, marveling, but didn’t raise his hand.

“Feed me.”

“Don’t you have hands? Or feet? You can… open your mouth.”

Seowon, who had been muttering complaints, saw Junghoo’s trembling hands, then picked up a piece of chewy blood sausage and brought it to his mouth. He couldn’t be as affectionate as a typical couple, but this was the best he could do.

“Ah-”

What Seowon couldn’t do, Junghoo did by making the sound as he accepted the food, so that was that.

He popped the blood sausage into his mouth and dipped his own piece in the tteokbokki sauce.

“Wow, how does this place taste the same even after all this time?”

Seowon exclaimed in admiration and picked up a piece of lung. He dipped it in the tteokbokki sauce, just as he would eat it himself, and fed it to him. When a drop of tteokbokki sauce fell on his finger, he brought it to his own mouth and sucked it, and Junghoo stared at him intently.

“How is it?”

“It’s delicious.”

“Yes. But don’t look at my finger.”

I fed you lung, don’t act like you ate my finger. Seowon considered poking Junghoo’s face with the skewer instead of a blood sausage, but stopped.

“If you hadn’t carried me on your back, I wouldn’t have let you off so easy.”

“Carrying small and light you was nothing.”

As if to emphasize that it was really nothing, Junghoo ostentatiously held up both his hands.

“I think you have hand tremors. Don’t you dare raise your hands. Don’t even lift a finger, just let me feed you.”

Seowon took the skewer that was in front of him and speared a tteokbokki rice cake. The rice cake in Junghoo’s mouth, the fish cake in his own mouth.

If he’s whining, I have to do it for him.

As Junghoo obediently opened his mouth and ate, the owner of the snack stall, who had just served them a bowl of fish cake soup, struck up a conversation.

“You two are still on such good terms.”

“Oh? Do you remember us?”

While Seowon was speaking without having fully swallowed what was in his mouth, Junghoo placed a cup of water in front of him. He’d told him not to lift a finger, but he was taking care of him, so Seowon, even while drinking the water, signaled to Junghoo with his eyes to stop.

“Oh my, how could I not remember. You’re both so tall and handsome.”

The owner made eye contact with each of them in turn and clapped her hands.

“Your faces were shining even when you were young, you’ve grown up well.”

“Who’s more handsome?”

Since she had called them handsome anyway, Seowon asked playfully.

“Oh my. Between the two? Ohoho, that’s a tough one.”

The owner, with a pleasant laugh, looked back and forth between Seowon’s and Junghoo’s faces.

“In my opinion…”

In the strangely tense atmosphere, Seowon’s expression darkened as he felt a sense of unease. At first, she looked back and forth between them with a fairly even distribution, but at some point, she started sending more glances toward Junghoo.

“For your information, I have a very gentle-looking face that’s popular with people of all ages and genders.”

Seowon winked one eye along with his self-promotion. It was nothing, but he didn’t want to lose for no reason, so he even added a pretty smile of his own. Just as the snack stall owner burst out laughing and was about to pick one person.

“Seowon.”

Yoo Junghoo, who had been focused on the owner, turned to look at him and…

“Do you like me, or do you like the owner?”

He asked the question in a very gentle voice, but his eyes weren’t smiling.

He’s sulking.

He knew it the moment he saw him. When he thought about why he was sulking, he got a pretty good idea.

Because of the question asking the owner who was more handsome?

No.

“If I smile prettily too, will you say you like me?”

“…”

I’ve made a mess, I’ve really made a mess.

To resolve the ambiguous atmosphere, Seowon forced a smile and picked up the skewer.

“Junghoo, eat this.”

He pushed a fish cake into his mouth.

“I gave you a fish cake, not a rice cake. Is that answer enough for you?”

I chose you.

Junghoo clamped his mouth shut and chewed the fish cake. He made him eat up all the talk about smiling prettily and what not along with the fish cake. In the meantime, the owner returned with a smile and gave them some fried food, saying it was on the house.

“Let’s just say you’re both handsome.”

As things were resolved peacefully, Seowon gave an embarrassed smile. I shouldn’t have asked.

“Let’s finish eating.”

Seowon dipped the fried food in the tteokbokki sauce and fed Junghoo, then picked one up for himself.

“What are you going to do after we eat?”

“After we eat?”

Seowon, who received the question, tilted his head and then spotted the red sauce on Junghoo’s lips. It seemed to have gotten on his lips while he was being fed, but Junghoo showed no intention of wiping it off.

But really, how can he look so sexy even with tteokbokki sauce on him?

His lips were so red that his skin looked even more transparent. Caught off guard after letting his mind wander, Seowon shook his head as if he couldn’t be helped.

He’s the first kid who looks good even with sauce on him.

“What do you do after eating tteokbokki? We have to go buy sweet pancakes.”

“…And after eating sweet pancakes?”

“Remember they used to sell kimchi stew over there? I think that one was really spicy and refreshing…”

“And after eating that?”

“I haven’t thought about what to eat after that.”

At Seowon’s honest reply, Junghoo picked up his cup.

“I’ll stop eating now.”

“You’re not eating more?”

“I think it’s better to control myself.”

Junghoo shook his head, but no way.

“Eat what I give you. This time, it’s heart.”

Seowon ruthlessly pushed a piece of heart into Junghoo’s mouth.

After completing the kimchi stew course, Seowon, who really had nothing left to do, looked around the market.

“What should we do now.”

While he was stroking his chin and pondering, Junghoo was stroking his own stomach. He even winced from time to time, but whenever Seowon looked back at him, he would immediately straighten his expression as if nothing was wrong.

“You said a lot has changed. Let’s go have a look.”

At Junghoo’s words after a cursory glance around, Seowon nodded as if he was tempted, saying, shall we?

“But aren’t you thirsty?”

“Let’s get coffee.”

As Junghoo, with an unwilling expression, looked around for a nearby cafe, Seowon’s eyes narrowed. It was funny how he was pretending not to be full when it was so obvious.

This makes me want to tease him more.

However, it was clear that if he made him eat any more, he would get sick, so Seowon decided to let it slide just this once.

“Go buy me a drink.”

Seowon, who had eaten relatively less because he was busy feeding Junghoo, requested an Americano for himself.

“I’ll be right back.”

Junghoo, thinking that Seowon would stop eating after the coffee, readily went to find a cafe.

“Did I feed him that much? It was all for his health.”

Seowon, watching Junghoo quickly move away, muttered as if dumbfounded. It must have been hard for him to carry him down on his back, and he hadn’t been eating well before either, so he had just fed him well, but it seems it was a burden.

“Cute, though.”

Because he said he didn’t like it, he wanted to do it more. Seowon, who was left alone while waiting for Junghoo, sat on a bench for a moment and looked around.

“How long has it been since I’ve had this kind of peace.”

His days had been boringly ordinary, but since Yoo Junghoo appeared, he had been breathtakingly busy. Was this the first time since he briefly caught his breath at the beach? No. Even then, someone kept showing up and talking to him, so he couldn’t rest properly.

Just like now. Seowon, who had taken a deep breath, said to the person sitting next to him.

“Why do you always show up only when a person is resting.”

Of all people, it was Sung Hangyeol, not Junghoo.

“I was about to leave, but then I saw you.”

“If you were going to leave, you should have left already.”

Seowon genuinely couldn’t understand.

“Why are you so obsessed with Junghoo. Do you know that you’re even clingier than Yoo Junghoo is to me? If it’s over, you should leave. If you’ve abandoned him, you should also know when to let go.”

As Sung Hangyeol’s expression gradually turned bizarre, it seemed Seowon still had more to say.

“If this were a drama, Mr. Sung Hangyeol, you should have been gone a long time ago. Viewers don’t like it when the defeated villain acts all clingy, you know?”

“You… you’re still good with words. And you’re being strangely informal.”

Sung Hangyeol muttered about the strange points one by one. And as he did, he grumbled as if he were in a bad mood.

“Let’s say I’m the villain. Then what does that make you, who’s cornering that villain?”