Vol 1 Ch 21

Only when closing time came did they leave Gyeongbokgung and eat dinner at a Korean traditional restaurant in Seochon.

From the location to the meal, it was a textbook tourist route… but Marteo no longer felt any of the dissatisfaction he’d had earlier.

The leisurely hours in the palace, Yeonho’s relaxed face under the sunlight, the eyes they exchanged often, their fingertips brushing lightly whenever they walked, the teasing voice asking, “Should I buy you this?” while browsing the souvenir shop…

Even if Yeonho had asked him to dig the desert with a spoon, it would have been fine as long as they were together.

So the moment of parting was bitter and unbearably disappointing.

“What are you going to do now.”

The day’s schedule ended.

Lowering the imaginary tour flag, Yeonho asked casually as they left the restaurant.

If he had planned to spend the night with him, he probably wouldn’t have asked.

Maybe the fatigue from all the walking finally hit him.

Watching Yeonho tapping his legs lightly, Marteo reluctantly opened his mouth.

“I should… head back.”

“You will?”

“…….”

“Yeah. You must be tired too after all that walking.”

His tone was still casual, but “you too” meant “me too.”

If only he had no awareness at all, then Marteo would not have to feel this sting.

A bitter smile tugged at his lips.

After doing so much these past days and even reflecting, stopping at just that kiss had truly been a mistake.

He had not expected missing that chance to hurt this much.

Meanwhile, oblivious Yeonho had already taken out his car keys.

“How will you get home. Is it far from here?”

“Just… a little.”

“Then don’t struggle. Take a taxi.”

He had said he would drive him before, yet today it seemed he wasn’t offering that service.

Well. He had even given him a card to use, so there was no need to act as a chauffeur.

But… when he saw Yeonho turning his back after saying that, understanding and emotion were clearly two separate things.

Before thinking, he reached out.

Just as Yeonho was grabbing the car door handle, his wrist was suddenly caught, making his shoulder jerk.

“…Why, …what?”

Two questions, spaced apart, felt strangely awkward.

But this was no time to question the reason.

Marteo wet his dry lips and spoke quickly.

“I want… to take you home.”

“Huh?”

“You worked hard today because of me.”

“…….”

“So please, give me the keys.”

His words sounded like a request, but his actions were not.

Marteo practically snatched the keys like he was stealing them and walked around to open the passenger door himself.

Then he asked quietly toward Yeonho, who was standing still.

“You… don’t like it?”

A sigh nearly escaped instead of an answer.

He didn’t understand it himself, but… he really was weak to that polite speech of his.

In the end, he couldn’t resist for long and chose the passenger seat instead of the driver’s seat.

Only after seeing him buckle the seatbelt did Marteo finally close the door and hurry to the driver’s side.

Watching him for a moment, Yeonho bit down on his tongue.

That brief instant when his wrist had been grabbed, and his heart jumped without warning—now it felt ridiculous and pointless.

‘I really thought he was going to kiss me again….’

A mix of disappointment and relief… something odd.

“Turn right up ahead.”

The navigation said to go straight for 5 km, but Yeonho suddenly gave a different direction.

Marteo looked over in confusion, and the obvious answer came.

“It’s faster that way.”

That obvious answer wasn’t very pleasing.

‘I’m not in any hurry to get there….’

His strict adherence to signals and speed limits wasn’t only about safety.

Still, he made a show of changing lanes.

Unfortunately, he chose a much narrower side street instead of the block Yeonho had meant.

“Huh? Hey. Why are you going in there?”

Yeonho lifted his head from the seat where he’d been relaxing.

Marteo answered stiffly, unable to interpret the expression.

“You said to turn right just now…”

“No. I meant at the traffic light over there.”

“……Ah.”

“Even from a glance you can tell this is a residential alley. Why would you drive into here?”

“Should I… turn around?”

But Marteo had already seen it.

A one-way sign.

Squarely nailed onto a utility pole.

Yeonho realized it too and rubbed his forehead before sinking back in the seat.

“Never mind. There’s nowhere to turn around anyway.”

Just like he said, the narrow alley lined with houses had cars jammed into each piloti parking area.

There was no way in or out.

And due to the structure of the alley, speeding was impossible.

Marteo laughed inwardly and slowed down even more on purpose.

The navigation recalculated, adding fifteen minutes to the arrival time.

To gain fifteen minutes, he was doing something this ridiculous.

Yeonho, of course, didn’t know, and neither did Marteo fully realize it until now.

But for him, those fifteen minutes were not lost—they were gained.

Creeping along like a turtle, he leisurely glanced at Yeonho.

And after spending ten precious minutes crawling through the alley, they finally emerged at the end.

“Where’s your house.”

At the mouth of the alley, passing the last villa, Yeonho suddenly asked.

Marteo, frustrated at having no choice but to pick up speed again, hadn’t heard clearly and responded with “…Sorry?”

Yeonho frowned.

“Where do you live. Is it far from here?”

“…No, it’s on the way.”

“On the way?”

“It’s close to your place, Do Yeonho. You don’t have to worry about it.”

When he’d first offered to drive him, and earlier when they almost parted, he’d asked similar questions.

Marteo assumed this was the same kind of concern and even added a reassuring smile.

But that was a mistake.

“Then don’t go to my house. Just go to yours.”

“…What?”

“You said it’s on the way. Why bother driving all the way to my place? If I drop you off, I can drive myself after that. What’s your address?”

Yeonho even reached for the navigation screen.

Marteo’s smile vanished instantly.

Address?

There was no need to input one.

He hadn’t lied about it being close.

From Yeonho’s living room window, the building’s logo was fully visible.

Since arriving in Korea, Marteo had been staying in a five-star hotel.

But he couldn’t tell the truth.

Hotel rates, even for small rooms, were expensive, and if he said he’d stayed there for over a month, Yeonho would definitely find it strange.

“It’s fine. It’s really no trouble.”

Marteo tried to compose his face.

But this time, it didn’t work.

“There you go again. Do you get sick or something if you don’t argue with what I say?”

“That’s not it…”

“Then stop talking back and give me your address.”

Already having misunderstood a simple direction, now forced to do yet another stupid thing, Marteo pressed his lips tightly.

“…I don’t remember it.”

“What?”

At least earlier he’d been doing something for a reason, but this—Yeonho’s expression was utterly dumbfounded.

Maybe even disappointed.

“You’ve been living there for over a month and you never memorized your own address?”

“There wasn’t… any real need. I just look for the building when I walk.”

“…….”

Yeonho closed his mouth at the added excuse.

Staring straight ahead, his expression was unreadable.

If only he would let it go here… Marteo glanced nervously at his profile.

Then Yeonho spoke again.

“Anyway, go to your place.”

The tone made it clear no argument was allowed.

Cruelly, the next traffic light turned green and opened the road ahead wide.

***

 

After winding out of the alley and driving for dozens more minutes, Marteo still could not bring himself to go to a hotel and kept circling grim neighborhoods.

Seeing Yeonho’s face grow sulkier and sulkier, he finally stopped the car at the curb.

The roadside was lined with miscellaneous shops—variety stores, hair salons, bars and restaurants.

It was not a residential area.

Peering out at the noisy street, Yeonho turned to Marteo with a frown.

His look said why park here when I told you to take me home.

Marteo pretended not to notice.

“We have arrived.”

“Arrived?”

“Just a little further from here.”

“Then go on. Why stop here.”

To be honest, part of him had wondered if Marteo would just pick any place.

But if Marteo insisted on coming inside, that would be a problem.

“The alley in front of the building is narrow. It’s easier to get out here.”

“…….”

“And it’s easier to turn the car around.”

A flimsy excuse recalling an earlier wrong turn.

Yeonho seemed to think the same and said nothing more.

‘I’ll have to find a decent place by tomorrow.’

His plan to drop Yeonho right at the door had already fallen through, so he set about making plans for the next day and buckled his seatbelt in a hurry.

Yeonho followed and stepped out of the car.

As he approached the driver’s side in turn, Marteo took a step back and tightened his lips.

“Send me a message when you get home. Let me know you got in safe.”

“Am I a child?”

“…….”

“You’re the one who should stop standing there and go.”

“…I’ll leave after I see you off.”

A polite response and a reasonable request.

But the feeling left was oddly sour.

‘What exactly is making this feel so wrong?’

Unable to shake the unease, Yeonho glanced at Marteo once more.

Then he stopped abruptly.

The point Marteo had been staring at over Yeonho’s shoulder began to harden his gaze too.

‘Why…?’

Marteo furrowed his brows and followed the line of sight.

At that moment, Yeonho’s voice—low and heavy—reached him.

“Antonio.”

Turning his gaze back, he saw Yeonho’s twisted mouth.

“You… be honest. You lied to me, didn’t you?”

It was a lucky thing his shoulders did not twitch.

Too many thoughts surfaced at once to react with surprise.

‘…What. Did I make some mistake!’

Marteo quickly replayed their earlier conversations in his head.

But he could not find anything to justify the charge.

After a long pause, with a face equal parts genuine and theatrically astonished, Marteo frowned.

“What are you talking about, all of a sudden?”

“Don’t you really know?”

“…….”

“You… saying you have a home was a lie.”

…What?

The tension he had felt a moment earlier collapsed into hollow disbelief.

Was the only lie really about having a “home”?

But the situation was not so trivial.

“If you actually rent a room, say whether it’s a monthly or annual lease. Is it short-term. Is it a formal contract. How much did you put down as a deposit.”

Yeonho fired off sharp questions one after another.

Marteo had nothing to say in response.

What kind of housing could a twenty-four-year-old on a jobseeker visa reasonably choose in this area.

What were the going rates nearby.

Even if he had never lived at the top end, he still had a sense of the bottom line.

Unable to answer rashly, Marteo kept opening and closing his dry lips.

Watching that, Yeonho let out a bitter laugh.

“Ha. I knew it. It was suspicious from when you said you didn’t know the address…”

“…….”

“Where did you plan to go after I left you first. You mean to tell me you were staying somewhere like that? That’s why you didn’t need to memorize the address?”

“Somewhere like that?”

At Yeonho’s rapid grilling, his finger jabbed the spot his eyes had lingered on earlier.

The row of storefronts a short distance behind Marteo.

An old building with grimy white tiles and third-floor windows fitted with blue sun film.

The yellow letters stood out against it.

[ G O S I T E L ]

Marteo’s face went genuinely slack for the first time.

The “tel” ending suggested motel or hotel-type lodging of some kind, but why “gosi”?

What was it about that word that made Yeonho look so displeased?

At that moment, Marteo could not think of a question to ask or a judgement to make.

Meanwhile, Yeonho’s blurred expression hardened into certainty.

The doubt that had popped into his mind when they had misentered the alley and seen the villa complex came flooding back.

Where on earth was this guy staying? He did not look like he had relatives nearby, and Seoul housing was brutal. Asking “where do you live” carried weight beyond mere location.

Then the answer that he “didn’t know the address” and his refusal to let Yeonho take him home, plus urging Yeonho to go first—all of it sat wrong.

And that glaring “gositel” in plain sight seemed to be the key and the explanation for all the unease.

Maybe he had been circling around the company not because the room was tiny but because being outside was better.

Refusing the car before would make sense if he was staying at a gositel. What good is having a car if there’s nowhere to park. Everything fell into place, and Yeonho pressed his palm to his forehead.

“Don’t play coy. Answer honestly. Since when. You stayed at a gositel the whole time since you came to Korea?”

His voice was still sharp, but calmer than before.

Marteo thought fast.

Now that he looked again, it was clear Yeonho cared less about the “lie” and more about the “gositel” itself.

In this case, it was better to give the answer the questioner wanted rather than deny.

“…It’s lodging, yes.”

“So you really stayed at a gositel?”

“It’s not particularly uncomfortable.”

Claiming comfort while clueless about what a gositel really was was bold.

Still, the assessment was predictably accurate.

Yeonho let out a long, stunned breath, then drew his mouth closed.

His face remained sullen.

And it was no wonder.

Marteo looked like someone who had never known hardship, yet he claimed not to be uncomfortable.

…Was he poorer than he looked.

Could he not even afford a proper deposit.

Was that why he’d set his sights on being an entertainer so recklessly.

But even so, a gositel was rough.

There was practically no privacy, and in extreme cases you could hear your neighbor’s flatulence.

Many had no windows, and a spot by a busy road would have heavy exhaust and noise.

Was he tall or average? Without looking, the bed would likely be a single at best.

If he stretched his long arms, both walls would touch.

Even under tight management, how could he possibly stretch out his body properly in such a cramped place.

As the image formed, Yeonho’s face crumpled further. And yet the man he faced smiled faintly as if to reassure him. It made his blood boil.

Unable to hold back, Yeonho finally spat out, twisted.

“Get in.”

“Pardon?”

“Get back in the car!”

There was no way he could leave that guy here.

To be continued in Volume 2 –