WYK 69
by SpringlilaSide Story 3 – Their Hobbies
Final exams were slowly coming to an end. Only one subject remained – a liberal arts exam tomorrow afternoon. Once that was over, the joyful vacation would finally begin.
Jeong-yoon sat on Chae-heon’s bed and stretched. Chae-heon, who had finished all his exams four days ago, treated Jeong-yoon like a wife tending to her husband preparing for the civil service examination. He brought the exhausted Jeong-yoon home from the library, let him sleep, fed him, and served him cut fruit. Jeong-yoon, drowning in fatigue, could only gratefully accept this kindness.
It was now 3 AM. About 40 minutes ago, Jeong-yoon had been forcibly “kidnapped” by Chae-heon and driven home after studying at the university library until 2 AM. After taking a hot shower and changing into comfortable clothes, he finally felt alive again.
Sitting on the small bed in what appeared to be a study, he absently dried his wet hair. Chae-heon had said he would sleep on the living room bed. Apparently, they needed separate rooms so Jeong-yoon could take his exam tomorrow.
Looking at the books densely packed on one wall made him dizzy. It was probably because he had just spent hours staring intensely at text at the library. He was too tired to fall asleep.
As he was looking around blinking his eyes, there was a knock at the door. It was Chae-heon.
“Yes?”
Jeong-yoon couldn’t help but smile at how cute it was that Chae-heon carefully knocked on the door of his own house.
Soon Chae-heon entered holding a white mug. It was warm herbal tea. He seemed to have thoughtfully prepared it, noticing that Jeong-yoon was having trouble falling asleep. After placing the teacup on the bedside table, Chae-heon stroked Jeong-yoon’s wet hair, went out, and came back again. While earlier he had been holding a teacup, this time it was a hairdryer.
“You’ll catch a cold if you sleep with wet hair.”
“A cold? It’s boiling in here. Your floor feels like beach sand in Southeast Asia.”
Though it was cold enough outside to need a padded jacket, the tenperature inside his house was like a warm, sunny beach.
Chae-heon turned on the hairdryer, ignoring Jeong-yoon’s comment. With the whirring sound came warm air.
Chae-heon’s hands tousled, smoothed, and brushed up Jeong-yoon’s wet hair. His touch was as careful as if handling a fragile child. Jeong-yoon closed his eyes and smiled quietly, finding the gentle way Chae-heon played with his hair both affectionate and ticklish.
After a while, once Chae-heon had dried Jeong-yoon’s hair fluffy and soft, he cupped Jeong-yoon’s face and planted a quick kiss on the bridge of his nose.
“You’re cute.”
“…”
His hair was messy and sticking up in all directions from the hairdryer.
‘If he finds this appearance cute, he must really like me,’ thought Jeong-yoon as he scratched his tingling nose with a flushed face.
Sometimes Chae-heon would suddenly kiss him, hug him tight, or playfully bite his cheek while quietly watching him. It always felt like the doting love given to a young one, making Jeong-yoon’s insides burn hot. While wondering if Chae-heon had always been such a romantic, he felt extremely shy yet happy about receiving such abundant affection. Just like now.
After looking down at Jeong-yoon, Chae-heon went to the desk beside the bookshelf. He then opened a drawer and came back carefully holding something. It was a photograph.
“Look. Similar.”
Jeong-yoon quietly accepted the photo Chae-heon held out.
The subject of the photo was a young man. It was Seo Jeong-yoon himself, roughly brushing up his hair as it flew about in the wind. He looked slightly younger than now.
Jeong-yoon squinted and looked closely at the photo, trying to figure out when and where it was taken. But before he could properly examine his features in the photo, Chae-heon snatched it away.
“It’ll get creased.”
Jeong-yoon chuckled in disbelief as he watched Chae-heon preciously put the photo back in the drawer. What a reaction over the photo getting creased when the actual person was right in front of him.
He got up and wandered around the study. Jeong-yoon had never properly been in this room before, as they always slept together on the bed in the living room. The bookshelf was filled with novels whose titles looked boring at a glance, along with many other books. He wondered if Chae-heon had actually read them all, but decided not to ask.
Tapping the books with his fingertip, he spoke to Chae-heon behind him.
“That photo was taken in Jeju Island, right?”
“Yes.”
“Did you take it?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why didn’t you share it? We exchanged all the photos we took there after developing them.”
“Because it’s mine.”
“…”
Jeong-yoon slowly turned around. There sat Chae-heon on the edge of the bed, watching him with his usual calm expression.
Was he saying he didn’t share that photo because it was “his”? Something felt odd.
But Chae-heon’s answer had been so matter-of-fact that Jeong-yoon couldn’t find words to respond. He just hummed and turned back to examine the books.
“Kang Chae-heon. Actually, I have something to confess… I took photos of you during that school trip too.”
When things were awkward between them after Jeong-yoon went to Taiwan with his sister, he had brought photos intending to confess his feelings to Chae-heon but never showed them. Jeong-yoon smiled awkwardly as he mentioned those photos.
“Did they come out well?”
“Yeah. You looked really cool.”
But you’re even cooler in person. The way you’re sitting now is like a painting too. Jeong-yoon just smiled, suppressing the words of praise welling up inside him. It still felt like a dream or fantasy that this man was his lover, but he had no intention of expressing such embarrassing inner thoughts. He had his pride, after all.
While staring at a blue book cover in front of him, he lifted his gaze slightly. There, on a shelf just above his eye level, he spotted a large, thick book decorated with gold embossing.
‘A photo album.’
It was obviously a photo album. At just the right height to be in Chae-heon’s view. Its central placement suggested it was quite precious. Jeong-yoon turned around excitedly.
“This is a photo album, right? Can I look at it?”
“Of course.”
Maybe it would be full of Chae-heon’s childhood photos. Grinning, Jeong-yoon lay on his stomach on the bed. There was no better position for browsing through something. Smiling at Chae-heon’s hand stroking the back of his head, he opened the album.
“…”
Jeong-yoon’s expression changed strangely. He turned another page.
This time, he slowly raised his upper body. His eyes reflected slight bewilderment and confusion. The person in the photos wasn’t Chae-heon, but someone else.
Someone all too familiar. Someone he’d seen countless times in the mirror.
Seo Jeong-yoon himself.
With a blank expression, Jeong-yoon pointed at one photo. It showed himself wearing a white t-shirt and smiling brightly.
“When was this…?”
“High school sports festival.”
“…”
“This is from university entrance ceremony.”
“…”
Jeong-yoon was lost for words as Chae-heon, maintaining his expressionless face, began flipping through the album and explaining. Then, near the end—
“This is from when you first came home on leave.”
He pointed to a photo of Jeong-yoon wearing a hat pulled low, drinking coffee in a cafe.
“…”
Jeong-yoon blinked.
He recalled what he was doing in that photo. He remembered drinking two frappuccinos in one sitting because they were so delicious on his first leave. He never dreamed Kang Chae-heon had been taking photos then.
Unfamiliar images of himself were scattered throughout the album. In some he was laughing while talking to someone, in others frowning while reading alone. He was sitting, standing, or striding purposefully somewhere.
The common thread among all these photos was that he hadn’t taken any of them himself.
Jeong-yoon swallowed hard and carefully turned his head toward Chae-heon.
Chae-heon was still watching him with an affectionate expression. His completely normal expression almost made Jeong-yoon feel like he was wrong to find this strange.
“Where did all these photos come from? I don’t think I took them.”
“Just from here and there.”
“Here and there?”
Chae-heon smiled slightly and pointed to the high school sports festival photo at the front of the album.
“I got this from our homeroom teacher. When I said I was making a class album, they gave me quite a few.”
“…You abused your class president powers a bit, huh.”
Jeong-yoon mumbled absently, staring at Chae-heon’s finger. As Chae-heon continued flipping through the album, he pointed to the university entrance ceremony photo and continued.
“This one was posted on our school website.”
“…I didn’t even know my photo was on the school website.”
“Got this one from the professor at the student-teacher seminar.”
“…Ah… I look so stupid giving that presentation…”
Jeong-yoon couldn’t help but laugh hollowly. It was both amusing and incredible to see the album packed with photos of himself from verifiable sources.
At the same time, he felt slightly worried. Wasn’t this photo album a bit strange? It seemed somewhat stalker-like. While he had obsessively analyzed Yu Da-jeong’s profile photos when he thought she was Chae-heon’s girlfriend, this felt like a different issue.
“Did you take photos like this?”
Jeong-yoon’s finger pointed at a specific photo. In it, he was sleeping with a grimacing expression, with Cha Jeong-hwan’s foot on his stomach and Kim Min-soo’s foot on his neck. It seemed to be from when they were sleeping all tangled up with classmates during an MT trip.
Jeong-yoon hadn’t even known such a photo existed.
“That was posted on Kwon Mi-hee’s social media.”
“Mi-hee?”
Here’s the translation of the final part:
“Yeah. When I asked for the original, she sent it.”
“…Why did Mi-hee take photos of me sleeping… My face is all puffy… Anyway, she just gave them to you when you asked?”
“Yeah. I got them often. This photo is from Mi-hee too.”
Chae-heon calmly pointed to several other photos.
Apparently, photos had been exchanged through channels unknown to him. Jeong-yoon felt somewhat conflicted. Why did Mi-hee give away his photos without telling him? Or did she not find it strange that Chae-heon was requesting his photos in the first place?
Mi-hee’s past comments finally made some sense. ‘You and Chae-heon are close.’ ‘You two are best friends.’ These comments must have been based on Chae-heon’s behavior.
Jeong-yoon tapped a photo that seemed to be taken during his military leave.
“What about this one? Did Mi-hee give you this too? I don’t think I met her that day.”
“I took this one. How could I stand not seeing you?”
“…”
True, his less than two years in the military had felt like 20 years without seeing Chae-heon. But he’d never thought to secretly take photos of Chae-heon during his leave. Jeong-yoon laughed like a sigh and said lightly,
“You could have just asked me… Why collect them so diligently like a squirrel gathering acorns? Do you like me that much?”
“Yeah. I like you. I love you.”
“…”
Chae-heon answered immediately without a hint of hesitation. Jeong-yoon was utterly speechless and just blinked. He already knew that Chae-heon liked him, but the confession, thrown out as if it were obvious, felt new and unfamiliar. His heart was fluttering, and it was truly exciting.
Jeong-yoon cleared his throat a couple times and tried to joke,
“You know secretly taking photos is illegal in our country? Some of these photos could be against the law.”
Chae-heon tilted his head toward Jeong-yoon and smiled slightly.
“Are you going to report me?”
“Why would I report you?”
“Right, thanks.”
Finally, Jeong-yoon burst out laughing.
“Anyway, stop collecting my photos now. Go any further and it becomes a disorder.”
“Disorder? No. It’s just that my ways of loving are a little different.”
Chae-heon replied nonchalantly while stroking the back of Jeong-yoon’s head. Jeong-yoon continued laughing while handling the photo album.
A photo album full of his photos. It was a bit strange. It was also amazing that Chae-heon cherished this strange photo album. But it was reassuring that when he said ‘It’s just that my ways of loving are a little different,’ it seemed Chae-heon was aware that he was somewhat different from others. Self-awareness was important, after all.
Rolling around on the bed and giggling, Jeong-yoon picked up his phone that was lying near his pillow.
“Chae-heon. Look at me for a second.”
Chae-heon, who was carefully placing the photo album back on the shelf, turned around slightly. His image filled the phone screen. Kang Chae-heon in a white t-shirt and training pants. A defenseless and ordinary appearance that only Jeong-yoon could see.
Jeong-yoon quickly captured a few photos of Chae-heon with rapid clicks.
‘From today, I’ll start collecting Chae-heon’s photos too.’
A contented smile naturally spread across his face.
After that day, a new photo album appeared on Jeong-yoon’s bookshelf too. Chae-heon sleeping. Chae-heon smiling. Chae-heon drinking coffee. And photos of them together.
It was a loving photo album packed full of Kang Chae-heon and himself.