HARD 4

“What kind of thing is that to say?”

Cha Gyuwon said with a serious expression.

“Don’t say things like that, even as a joke.”

Ah, is it a sensitive issue because he’s from a gangster family?

Go Woonha jumped to a completely non-sensitive conclusion about a sensitive issue.

Honestly, he quite liked Cha Gyuwon’s serious face and wanted to pin him down again, but his hunger was greater right now. He was just starting to open up, so coaxing him a little more gently seemed like it might create another opportunity later. Go Woonha smiled, being considerate in a calculated way. With that very smile that Cha Gyuwon thought was angelic. And the one that many others had been deceived by.

“I do anything that looks fun. I don’t have any prejudices or entry barriers. Oh, but I don’t do drugs. And I’m pretty strict about using condoms. Seriously, you, Mr. Cha Gyuwon, for 10 years…”

“No. That’s enough.”

Cha Gyuwon cut him off sharply, not wanting to hear about the 10 years again.

“Anyway, what I’m saying is that I do take care of my own body.”

Why am I even saying this? Go Woonha wondered for a moment. He had never felt the need to make others understand him, nor had he felt the desperation to convince them. So he had never bothered to say that the goal of his actions was not self-destruction. Not even to the counselor he had slept with a few times.

But in front of Cha Gyuwon, it strangely flowed out of him.

It seemed to be because he thought this would make Cha Gyuwon open up more.

Go Woonha soon dismissed it as nothing.

“So, about that, I’m really hungry. Can we get something to eat? I’ll make you really good fried rice this time.”

Cha Gyuwon unconsciously relaxed at Go Woonha’s soft and gentle tone, but he came to his senses at the mention of fried rice. He shook his head with a serious expression and shot to his feet.

“No. I’ll make it for you.”

“Or we could order in.”

“It’s fine.”

Cha Gyuwon strode out of the room.

Go Woonha uncrossed his legs and leaned back on his hands, stretching his body. On his spread thighs, the red marks of Cha Gyuwon’s handprints from the bathroom remained.

Go Woonha, who had been tilting his head back and forth, soon flopped down onto the bed.

A hidden face under a gloomy fringe, all-black clothes. From the bed of Cha Gyuwon, who supposedly only stayed at home, came the fragrant scent of flowers.

“Why do you like things that don’t suit you at all?”

Go Woonha looked up, unaware that he himself was a being who was tremendously ill-suited for Cha Gyuwon. Then, he couldn’t help but burst out laughing, phuhat, at the glow-in-the-dark star stickers on the ceiling.

If it had been the bedroom instead of the bathroom, he would have done it while looking at those glow-in-the-dark stars. Even though it was still bright outside, the blackout curtains were drawn, making the room dark. It was a good thing he saw them now. If he had discovered them later and laughed in the middle of it, Cha Gyuwon would have sulked and hidden away again. Where would he hide then? The bathroom?

Go Woonha, presumptuously planning for the next time, looked to see if they were arranged in the shape of a constellation.

Of course, Go Woonha didn’t know constellations well. He yawned in languor and just counted the number of stars. The thought of Cha Gyuwon with his large body putting up those tiny little stickers one by one was amusing in itself.

Then, Go Woonha slowly closed his eyes.

The speed at which his eyelids blinked grew slower and slower.

“Excuse me.”

The title Cha Gyuwon had chosen after much deliberation was “Excuse me.”

Go Woonha, unaware that he was being called, was sound asleep, breathing evenly, and wouldn’t wake up.

After hesitating, Cha Gyuwon finally reached out and shook his body, and only then did he snap his eyes open.

“Let’s eat, the food is ready…”

At the mumbling sound from the man who was avoiding his gaze, Go Woonha blinked his eyes.

“Was I asleep?”

“Yes.”

“For real?”

Cha Gyuwon looked at Go Woonha, who pointed at himself and asked repeatedly, with a bit of suspicion.

“Yes… You were definitely asleep.”

Cha Gyuwon wondered if Go Woonha was teasing him again, but he just got up abruptly without saying anything.

The dirty thoughts were only in his own head. He had thought he would pick on the words ‘definitely asleep’… Cha Gyuwon, feeling very awkward, trotted out after Go Woonha.

Meanwhile, Go Woonha was lost in his own thoughts.

He was definitely not the type to fall asleep anywhere he laid his head.

Unless he had pushed his body to the limit, or in a very, very, very, very rare case, he had fainted (mostly due to pain), or was completely drunk, he couldn’t fall asleep in a place that wasn’t his own home.

It was strange that he had dozed off lightly in Cha Gyuhan’s bed before, but to have dozed off in Cha Gyuwon’s bed to the point of needing to be shaken awake, even for a moment, was hard to believe.

‘Was I tired? Well, yeah. It was really good, after all.’

He thought about it for a moment, but this time too, Go Woonha didn’t think too deeply and dismissed it as nothing. Because thinking is a hassle.

“Wow. What is all this?”

Go Woonha, who had gone out to the kitchen, marveled at the feast that finally came into view.

After that short nap, his body was in top condition. Cha Gyuwon glanced at the pants Go Woonha was wearing and mumbled.

“You did open a new pair of underwear, right?”

“Oh. I did. It’s comfortable, like shorts. But all the clothes were either black or gray.”

“…Those are my favorite colors.”

“I like them too. Still, having only the same T-shirts and pants is a bit much. It’s not like you’re Crayon Shin-chan.”

“…”

“So, did you cook all of this, Mr. Cha Gyuwon?”

Cha Gyuwon, slightly shocked by the Crayon Shin-chan comment, nodded a beat later.

Go Woonha was genuinely surprised by the quite plausible Korean set meal, which he hadn’t expected at all.

“Wow, I’ll eat well. I’m totally feasting today. I get to eat Mr. Cha Gyuwon, and I get to eat the food Mr. Cha Gyuwon made.”

“…How can you say things like that so casually every time?”

“What things? Wow, this is really delicious.”

It was quail eggs braised in soy sauce with shishito peppers. It must have been made a while ago, as it had absorbed the seasoning very well. His appetite was instantly whetted.

“Did you make this braised dish yourself too?”

Cha Gyuwon nodded. Go Woonha, with his chopsticks in his mouth, his eyes wide with continued admiration, kept asking, “This too? This too?” so he quickly forgot the lewd jokes Go Woonha had made. The person in front of Cha Gyuwon now was the angel he had fallen for at first sight, not a crazy person.

“It’s really delicious. Everything is delicious. This is the most delicious thing I’ve eaten in Korea today, seriously.”

“In Korea…?”

He had only secretly heard and memorized his name by watching him come and go from the house with his hyung, but he didn’t know anything else about him. Go Woonha nodded and said.

“I originally live in the US. I’m just here for a little while for work.”

“Aha… So, are you g-going back?”

“I guess so, someday? I miss my younger brother and his husband too.”

“Your younger brother and his husband…”

“Ah. They’re married. Should I show you? My younger brother is really cute.”

Go Woonha’s phone happened to be on the dining table. He unlocked it, went into his photo album, and showed him a few selected pictures. They were from his younger brother’s wedding. Having only heard the word “cute,” Cha Gyuwon very naturally and obviously pointed to one person in the photo.

“This person? He’s really cute.”

“Huh? No? The one next to him. He’s cute too, though. He’s his partner.”

For a moment, Cha Gyuwon froze, looking at the man standing next to the small man, with his eyebrows raised crookedly and a villainous smile.

Cute…?

No matter how he looked at it, he was absolutely far from cute. Cha Gyuwon, who had a pretty good eye for cute things, found himself speaking very honestly without realizing it.

“Is your eyesight bad?”

“Me? My eyesight is good. 1.5, 1.6.”

“I see… But a husband, no, a partner, so the two of them are…?”

“Right. It’s not yet legal in Korea, is it? They’re a same-sex married couple.”

In that moment, Cha Gyuwon’s small world shattered lightly.

He had fallen for Go Woonha at first sight and had been sad about his unrequited love. Because he wouldn’t be able to marry Go Woonha, the path to giving him his virginity was closed.

Though he ended up giving it anyway…

But now, another path had just opened up.

Go Woonha ate the spicy water kimchi, unaware of the gloomy enthusiasm flowing from Cha Gyuwon’s face, hidden by his bangs.

“Ah, this is really delicious. Mr. Cha Gyuwon, you could get married right away.”

“Yes… I will…”

“Hmm?”

His voice was so small that Go Woonha didn’t hear it.

Cha Gyuwon still doesn’t know Go Woonha well.

What he was facing now was just a rose-tinted version that had completely forgotten about the incident in the bathroom, not his true self, yet Cha Gyuwon, without realizing it, had made a certain vow that would stake his life.