CHDY 36

The thoughtless act of indiscriminately hugging someone who had just undergone abdominal surgery was grating. It was likely an act of ignorance, but it was unpleasant regardless of the reason. The unexpected action of a stranger stimulated his sense of caution.

“But it looks like you are hospitalized here? Where are you sick? Are you hurt?”

“Ah… Yes. It is not anything serious, and I will be discharged soon. What about you, hyung? What brings you here?”

“I came to visit someone.”

Just then, the elevator arrived and people got out. The three of them got on along with the crowd of people who rushed in.

“You seem to have gotten even thinner. Are you doing well?”

“Yeees, I am doing fine. Hyung, are you still doing that business you said you started with your friend?”

“Aah, that. Hey, there is a lot to tell about that too. Let us set a day sometime and I will tell you over a meal.”

Inha was looking down at the two of them talking side-by-side from behind. Judging from the conversation they were having, it seemed the man and Jaeon had gotten to know each other while working together.

“Oh, right! Give me your number. My contacts did not sync when I changed my phone.”

The man held out his phone to Jaeon. Jaeon took it and began to input his number on the keypad. But before he could even finish typing, the elevator reached their floor.

“We have to get off, Mr. Jaeon,” Inha said, taking the phone from Jaeon’s hand. “Uh, uh,” Jaeon made a surprised sound as he lifted his head, following the phone.

Inha, who had returned the phone to its owner, wrapped his arm around Jaeon’s waist. Even while being led off by Inha, Jaeon turned back, bowed his head, and said his goodbyes to the man until the end.

“…He must have been someone you were very close to.”

Inha asked as they passed through the hallway.

“Ah…, he is just, a hyung I worked a part-time job with in the past.”

Instead of giving a clear yes or no, Jaeon left a vague answer.

“Um, but, would you like to go inside first? I am going to go upstairs for a moment and come back.”

Jaeon, who had stopped walking, said with a troubled expression.

“…Why?”

“Well, I think I need to go see the hyung I just met. It has been a long time since I have seen him… I was indebted to him a lot while we worked together, and I could not even give him my number, so I feel like it is not polite.”

“You only know the floor, not the hospital room. You probably will not be able to find him by now.”

“Ah…”

Jaeon let out a troubled groan, as if he had only just grasped the situation. It was just when Inha was about to say that they had missed each other anyway, so they should just go in, wrapping his arm around Jaeon’s shoulder.

“Hey, Jaeon-ah-!”

The sound of someone calling Jaeon came from behind them. When they turned, they saw the man they had just met running towards them from the opposite side.

“We met after so much trouble, you have to at least give me your number before you go.”

The man who came running was heaving as if he were out of breath from just that short distance. His smiling face as he placed a hand on Jaeon’s shoulder, seemingly exhausted, now looked to be in its thirties.

“Ah, actually, I was just about to go back up too, hyung.”

“You rascal. We are both in a rush right now, so just give me your number for now. I will contact you later. You should meet up with me when you are discharged too.”

“Yes, hyung.”

Answering affectionately, Jaeon was handed the phone. The screen the man’s phone showed was the same one where Jaeon had been entering his number earlier.

Jaeon quickly finished typing the remaining numbers and handed it back to the man. Only after calling his own number to leave it on Jaeon’s phone did the man laugh heartily and leave. Waving his hand, he repeated several times that they should definitely meet up later.

“…”

Jaeon, who had been bowing repeatedly, turned his body once the man was out of sight. He then carefully looked up at Inha, as if he had just remembered that someone else was beside him. When their eyes met, he studied Inha’s expression, looking somehow uncomfortable.

Inha walked on without a word. He had been walking right next to him until just a moment ago, but he no longer had his hand wrapped around Jaeon’s waist and walked ahead.

Even after they arrived at the hospital room and time passed, there was no conversation between the two. Inha was looking only at his phone the whole time, and Jaeon, too, only read his book or fiddled with his phone while watching Inha’s reactions.

It was around that time that Jaeon received a sudden phone call.

“Ah, yes hyung.”

Jaeon answered the phone with a slightly flushed voice. Inha’s gaze, which had been idly swiping through his screen, fixed on him.

“Yes, I also…”

When their eyes met, Jaeon averted his gaze as if to avoid him. His voice lowered slightly, and he acted as if he were watching for a reaction. It was impossible to tell whether it was out of consideration for the person sharing the space, or if he simply did not want him to know the contents of the call.

“I know. I think it has been about two years since I saw you.”

That was the part where Inha realized the person Jaeon was talking to was the man they had met today.

“…”

On the surface, they looked like a normal hyung and dongsaeng. But there was no way of knowing the inner circumstances. He and Jaeon, too, must have looked like a normal part-timer and customer relationship to others.

A thought suddenly occurred to him. The thought that maybe all the men Jaeon had been entangled with had, in fact, slept with Jaeon.

Maybe the convenience store manager was also in that kind of relationship with Jaeon. If he did not have feelings for Jaeon, there would have been no reason to torment him.

“Yes, any time is fine for me. As long as you are okay with it, hyung.”

He knew from listening that it was a conversation to set up a normal dinner plan. But since it came right after that plausible assumption had popped into his head, it sounded a little different to Inha. He could not help but feel that it was like a subtle signal promising something more.

“Haha…, yes, I will do that, hyung. I am the one who is grateful.”

Maybe his mind had gone strange. Every single word Jaeon uttered sounded vulgar and crude. It felt as if he were saying he would go whenever he was wanted, as if he would give him whatever he wanted. It seemed like he was subtly dropping words that would stimulate and excite the man.

“…”

Inha’s eyes were fixed on Jaeon and did not move. Jaeon, who was smiling while on the phone, noticed the stare and his smile froze and vanished.

“Yes, yes hyung. I, have to go now… Yes, of course, I will contact you. Yes, yes, goodbye. Yes…”

After the call ended, silence descended upon the hospital room. As if they had become one with it, Jaeon showed no movement. Minutes, tens of minutes passed, but the heavy silence did not disappear.

Jaeon, who had been leaning his body quietly against the headboard, slowly got down from the bed. Inha’s eyes followed him as he carefully got down, put on his slippers, and headed for the bathroom.

Click, the bathroom door closed with a sound. Inha, who had been watching in silence, got up. He leaned his body right in front of the bathroom.

From inside the bathroom came the sound of water running from the sink. Jaeon, who was killing time just running the water without it being clear what he was doing, came out about five minutes later.

Closing the door and lifting his head, Jaeon was startled to see Inha. But he quickly changed his expression to pretend he was not surprised and turned his gaze away with a nonchalant gesture.

“…Use me.”

Inha’s arm blocked Jaeon as he tried to pass. Surprised by the blatant act of blocking him, Jaeon flinched back as if he were scared.

“…Why…”

A shadow was cast over Inha’s face as he stood with his back to the light. Jaeon looked up 불안하게 at his form, which was darker than usual.

“Mr. Jaeon… you always exceed my expectations.”

As if mocking him, Inha’s voice became insinuating.

“…What is that supposed to…”

Jaeon’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked on with an uncomprehending face.

“It seems you miss men even in a situation like this.”

A look of horror flashed in Jaeon’s eyes as he looked up. His pupils, filled with bewilderment and anger, shook fiercely. Jaeon, who was about to protest, quickly shut his mouth. Then, as if to hide his flushed expression, he pushed Inha’s arm and tried to hurry past. But instead, his shoulder was caught in Inha’s grip.

“We are not done talking.”

As if that one phrase made his anger surge, Jaeon whipped his head up.

“…Move.”

The eyes of the two men in confrontation clashed sharply. The hospital room was instantly filled with tension.

Inha turned his head and laughed, as if in despair. It was laughable that just when he had thought it was peaceful, it ended up like this. The feeling of having returned to the past was just a momentary illusion; as expected, this broken state of his relationship with Jaeon was much more familiar.

“Get your arm off. Let go of this…!”

Unable to stand the loathing Jaeon, he pulled him closer. As he pushed him with a forceful motion, Jaeon’s eyes widened. Knowing full well that he was terrified, Inha did not loosen his grip.

Jaeon, who had been looking for a way to escape, looked up with a dumbfounded face. When Inha’s hand cupped his jaw, his pupils shook even more frantically. It was clear that a myriad of emotions were flashing through them. Looking straight down at the expression that revealed his panic, Inha tilted his head.

No sooner had their lips met than Jaeon pushed Inha’s shoulder. Inha grabbed his hand and pushed it against the wall. The resisting hand was gradually pushed upwards. Soon, both of his hands were raised high and pressed against the wall. Their two lips were colliding fiercely.

“Mmph…!”

Roughly sucking on his lips, Inha felt a surge of excitement. His mind had been a mess ever since Jaeon made plans to meet that man. He remembered Jaeon kissing a strange man in a dark alleyway someday. The way he had lewdly seduced the man. The way he had been engrossed in caresses and kisses, regardless of whether Inha was watching or not. The way he had been solely focused on pleasing the man before him replayed endlessly in his head like a broken screen.

Imagining Jaeon with another man was as easy as breathing. The same went for the scene of him getting entangled with the man he had just met at the hospital. Jaeon, calling him hyung and accepting the man, was drawn in his mind. It was so vivid for an imagination that he became convinced that the two had already done it, or would do so in the future.