PSY Ch 70

After neatly organizing the side dishes in the refrigerator, Jooyoung sighed as he looked at the shopping bag on the floor. 

This time, too, his aunt had packed enough side dishes for Dohyun as well. He couldn’t bring himself to refuse, so he accepted it, but the thought of delivering it to Dohyun himself irritated him.

“I don’t want to share this with anyone.”

He had never heard anything like that in his life. And then there was the part where Dohyun grabbed his butt. It was absolutely humiliating and disgusting, even more so because it was Dohyun.

“Crazy bastard.”

Jooyoung stood up with a scowl and picked up the shopping bag. He considered just throwing it away, but remembered that he’d already ended up tossing the cucumber cold soup last time without delivering it. He felt bad for his aunt. The weather had cooled down a lot anyway, so he figured he’d just leave it in front of the door on the 5th floor.

He was walking quickly down the hallway when he heard a commotion near the entrance.

“Look, what do you expect me to do when there’s someone filed a complaint about you?”

“I said it was a mistake! You keep embarrassing me like this!”

In front of the administration office, Sunwoo was arguing with a man—one who had previously yelled at Sunwoo about the loud vacuum cleaner noise.

“Mistake or not, I clearly told you when you moved in—smoking will earn you a warning on the first offense.” 

“So you’re saying I have to move out just for accidentally smoking a bit?”

“Yes.”

Two warnings meant eviction. It was clearly written in the move-in contract. It seemed the man had already received one prior warning for breaking the rules.

“Jeez! That’s not what I’m saying. Can’t you cut me some slack at the admin level?”

“This was the owner’s decision. I have no authority.” 

The man puffed out his chest and breathed heavily, as if trying to intimidate Sunwoo, who was smaller in build. But with his messy bedhead, it wasn’t all that threatening.

“Please pack up and vacate by the end of the day.”

The man, who had been huffing and puffing, suddenly changed his expression and said firmly, “I’m not leaving.”

“Then you’ll have to talk to the owner.”

Sunwoo, clearly used to this kind of situation, immediately took out his phone.

“Hey, wait a sec!”

The man, who had been talking down to Sunwoo so confidently, instantly backed off when he heard the word “owner.”

“Come on, let’s have an honest man-to-man talk here.”

“The owner is a man too.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

Sunwoo put the phone to his ear. “Hello, boss? Yes, this is Sunwoo,” he said, then exchanged a few short words before turning to the man.

“The owner says he’s coming down. Please wait a moment.”

Realizing the conversation was over, the man spat a huge glob of saliva on the floor.

“You’re impossible to talk to. Seriously.”

He turned around and gave Sunwoo a condescending once-over.

“Figures. You can’t really talk sense with city folks.” 

He muttered and slammed the door shut. Sunwoo called out calmly, “You’re moving out today.”

“That’s quite intense, huh?” 

He shrugged toward Jooyoung, who was standing next to the shoe cabinet.

“Is he really getting evicted?”

“Yeah. Two warnings, no exceptions.”

Glancing toward the man’s room, Sunwoo shook his head.

“Honestly, good riddance. I think he was a day laborer—he was always tracking in dirt on his shoes. There were a bunch of little issues with him. Did you see that? Spitting on the floor?”

The supply closet was next to the laundry room. As he walked that way, Sunwoo muttered. 

“Maybe it’s because this is the countryside. The standards of the people are just… tsk.”

“…”

“Oh! You know what I mean, right, Jooyoung-ssi?”

Sensing Jooyoung’s gaze, he winked as if asking for agreement. Jooyoung didn’t respond, but Sunwoo didn’t seem to mind. “Well then, have a good day!” he chirped and disappeared down the hallway.

“…”

Jooyoung closed the shoe cabinet and, after a moment of thought, left the shopping bag in front of the admin office. Then he sent a text to Dohyun. He figured it would be fine to leave it there, since Dohyun was probably on his way over after getting a call from Sunwoo anyway.

Just as he turned around, the lodging house door burst open. Dohyun came rushing in, panting heavily. He looked around frantically, then spotted Jooyoung just as he was turning the corner. Still in his shoes, he strode over quickly.

“Bae… Jooyoung.”

His hair was a mess, and he was out of breath—probably from running. As he got closer, a strong smell of sweat wafted over. 

Dohyun took another step forward and raised his hand. Jooyoung instinctively grimaced. 

“You stink of sweat.”

“Ah…”

Looking flustered, Dohyun lowered his hand and wiped his forehead.

“The side dishes are over there. Take them.”

“Huh? Oh.”

Jooyoung pointed indifferently at the shopping bag and turned away. He could feel Dohyun following him, but he ignored him.

“Bae Jooyoung.”

Anyone watching might’ve found it pitiful—the way he followed behind without even the courage to stop him. But it didn’t work the same for Jooyoung. Getting swept up in emotions and messing up once was enough; his apologizing for it once was enough, too. Right now, he didn’t even want to hear an apology.

“…Bae Jooyoung.”

Dohyun’s voice sank even lower. He must’ve realized that Jooyoung’s attitude was completely different this time.

Just around the corner, his room would appear. Jooyoung planned to ignore him to the end. But then…

“Haengnim-ah…”

Jooyoung suddenly stopped in his tracks.

A few seconds passed before he turned around in disbelief. He couldn’t trust what he’d just heard. Thought he was hearing things. 

“…”

Dohyun stood there with a timid expression. Maybe it was his size, but he looked like a large dog that had done something wrong and gotten scolded.

“…I’m sorry.”

Even though Jooyoung had turned around, he didn’t say anything. Just stared. Dohyun hesitated, then apologized in a voice so small it barely came out.

It wasn’t hard to guess why he had come running, or why he kept following even without being acknowledged. Of course, it was to apologize for that day. So hearing an apology wasn’t all that surprising. What was surprising was that Dohyun had used the term he had used to call Jooyoung long ago.

“I’m really sorry…”

The way he glanced up, unable to meet his eyes—it was just like when they were kids. Come to think of it, Dohyun had always been like this. It wasn’t a recent thing. He’d throw a tantrum because his feelings mattered most, and when Jooyoung got mad or walked away, he’d scramble to cling to him.

Suddenly, Jooyoung felt an overwhelming wave of irritation.

“You think saying sorry fixes everything?”

Dohyun’s expression twisted.

“That’s not what I meant…”

“You did this last time too.”

“…”

“You blew up, ran over me like I was nothing, and then suddenly came back with a sorry.”

“…”

“What? Now that I’m walking away again, you’re sorry again?”

While Jooyoung tore into him, Dohyun only opened and closed his mouth like a fish. He was clearly thrown off by the sharpness of Jooyoung’s words—sharper than he’d expected.

“I mean, it’s just that…”

“Alright, it is better to just be honest with me. Tell me why. Why did you do it?”

Jooyoung crossed his arms and raised his chin slightly. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out what had set Dohyun off like that. Was “do whatever you want” really that offensive? If anything, it was Jooyoung who had more reason to be upset.

“Hwang Dohyun.”

Jooyoung said his full name in warning.

“If you don’t talk now, it’s over. I won’t ask again, and you’ll just be trash to me.”

Dohyun’s wandering gaze froze. He furrowed his brows and stared hard at the right-hand wall. After what felt like a long time, he finally muttered a curse under his breath and forced the words out.

“…It’s just not right.”

His voice, filled with sullen frustration, sounded like a scolded child reluctantly admitting his wrongdoing. 

“What’s not right?”

Dohyun’s left cheek puffed up, then sank. At last, he looked at Jooyoung with a twisted expression. 

“Even if we’re not dating…”

“…”

“Doing that kind of stuff with multiple people at once… That’s just… not okay.”

Dohyun ran a hand down his face in frustration. After rubbing the back of his neck, his hand dropped limply to his side.

“…That’s why I said I didn’t like it.” 

Jooyoung couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh. Now that he heard it, it wasn’t complete nonsense—but it sure wasn’t something someone who blackmailed him into having sex with him had the right to say. 

“Did you forget you blackmailed me? And now you say that?”

“…”

“Ha… You’re fucking insane.”

Dohyun stayed silent, face stiff.

“Then you should’ve said it like that. What you did was sexual harassment and verbal abuse.”

Jooyoung shook his head and turned away. He didn’t want to speak anymore. If Dohyun had just been honest, Jooyoung might not have understood, but he would’ve let it go. But instead, Dohyun had yelled at him—demanding to know who he was going to sleep with. Just remembering it made Jooyoung feel the absurdity of the situation all over again.

“It’s not this bastard, is it?”

Even the way he had nearly broken Jooyoung’s fourth finger.

Same when he mentioned Hangyeol and Arin’s names. Back then, too, Dohyun looked like he’d been possessed by jealousy…

Wait—jealousy?

A thought Jooyoung hadn’t even considered brushed through his mind, and he stopped walking again.

“Who the fuck are you gonna sleep with, huh? Say it!” 

Dohyun had come at him like a madman, eyes wild with emotion. There were clearly parts that couldn’t be explained by the reasons he’d given.

“Dohyun absolutely adores you, Young.”

Jooyoung had once grumbled to his grandfather that Dohyun kept following him around, and it was getting annoying. His grandfather had smiled kindly and said that. It hadn’t made Jooyoung feel any better, but it did offer a kind of explanation.

Even Jooyoung had to admit—Dohyun really did like him a lot.

“…”

Jooyoung turned around and looked at Dohyun with a strange expression.

“…Bae Jooyoung.”

Sensing the shift, Dohyun called his name again in a desperate voice. The adoring gaze was gone, but that blind chasing remained. If that was the case…

Suddenly, Jooyoung’s eyes glinted.