“You thought it was a dream?”

Yoon Taehee wrinkled his nose slightly as he laughed.

“...”

The instant Jaegyeom realized last night had not been a dream, his thoughts stopped completely.

It felt like someone had smashed the back of his head with a hammer.

Everything went black.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re messing with me.”

Jaegyeom, frozen stiff like a stone statue, barely managed to force the words ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) out.

There was no way.

Yoon Taehee had to be joking.

Just as Jaegyeom stood there with a dazed expression, desperately rejecting reality—

“Messing with you?”

Yoon Taehee tilted his head faintly.

Then he flicked his finger against the cigarette in his hand and put it out. Despite having taken only a single drag from it, he discarded it without hesitation and let out a silent laugh.

“I’m not.”

As he spoke, Yoon Taehee started walking toward him.

The closer he got, the more Jaegyeom instinctively shrank back. He unconsciously stepped away, only to bump against the wooden porch behind him.

Blocked in, he awkwardly dropped down onto it.

“Who jokes about things like that....”

Murmuring to himself, Yoon Taehee bent down in front of him.

“...”

That was when Jaegyeom’s pupils finally began to shake violently.

Squatting in front of the porch, Yoon Taehee picked up the underwear Jaegyeom had dropped earlier. He shook it out lazily before muttering,

“Would I really joke about somebody else’s....”

Mid-sentence, he lifted his eyes to Jaegyeom.

Jaegyeom’s face turned pale.

The vulgar words had come out so casually, almost absentmindedly, which somehow made them even worse.

“Y-you fucking lunatic.”

The curse escaped him automatically.

“I lost so much hair washing up earlier....”

Resting his elbows against his knees, Yoon Taehee stared blankly up at him and spoke in the calmest tone imaginable. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

“At this rate I thought I’d go bald.”

He casually raked a hand through his still-damp hair.

“...”

People really did lose the ability to speak in situations like this.

A faint shampoo scent drifted from Yoon Taehee’s damp hair.

Then, casually tossing the underwear over his shoulder, he added,

“I was going to wear yours.”

Jaegyeom felt utterly miserable.

He had genuinely believed someone as obsessively clean as Yoon Taehee—the kind of person who washed clothes after wearing them once because he refused to put them back into his bag—would never do something like that.

His hopes had been crushed spectacularly.

“H-hand it over.”

Jaegyeom hurriedly snatched the underwear back.

The shock of reality crashing down had quickly transformed into unbearable humiliation.

His face was already burning red.

He should have drunk until he blacked out completely.

Why the hell were his memories so clear?

How could something this insane actually happen?

It felt like the sky had collapsed and the earth had split open beneath him.

He should have just kept his mouth shut. Now there was no way to pretend he remembered nothing.

And worse—

Even if Yoon Taehee had started it, Jaegyeom himself had absolutely kissed him back.

Drunk or not.

“Why?”

Yoon Taehee asked innocently.

“Are you embarrassed?”

“...”

Embarrassed?

Jaegyeom nearly choked.

This went far beyond embarrassment.

Right now he felt like he wanted to bite his own tongue off.

Ah, fuck, he never should’ve kissed him in the first place....

“Sh-shut up. Let’s just pretend none of it happened.”

“How do you pretend something that happened never happened?”

“It’s your fault.”

At this point, the only explanation was that Yoon Taehee had bewitched him somehow.

Jaegyeom was drowning in regret.

He had never really been comfortable with physical affection in the first place, so he honestly didn’t know what counted as kissing well or badly.

But whenever he kissed Yoon Taehee, he ended up following along like he was possessed.

Every time, his sense of reality blurred away until all that remained was breath and sensation.

Yoon Taehee always touched him subtly, skillfully, and the kisses themselves were overwhelming enough that maybe this outcome had been inevitable from the start.

Yoon Taehee was an absurdly good kisser.

“Y-you were doing weird sodomite shit, so obviously I—”

“Maybe you have a natural talent for sodomy.”

Yoon Taehee cut him off with a low laugh.

“...”

Humiliation gave way to desperate self-justification.

“Don’t say insane things.”

“What?”

Glowering at him, Jaegyeom protested,

“I-I’m still a guy too, so obviously my body would react.”

Yoon Taehee nodded easily.

“That’s true.”

Then he stretched out one arm.

He slowly turned his hand over as if admiring some beautiful object.

Naturally, Jaegyeom’s gaze followed it.

Long, elegant fingers.

Hands that looked too refined to have ever touched anything dirty.

Prominent veins along the back of his hand.

Neatly trimmed nails.

Jaegyeom found himself staring blankly at the sharp knuckles—

“But did you think I wouldn’t notice that?”

At the same moment, Yoon Taehee suddenly grabbed his ankle.

His hand slid slowly up Jaegyeom’s leg, lightly stroking the inside of his calf as though massaging him.

The hand slipped beneath the loose hem of his shorts, curling around his knee and the back of it.

The movement happened so suddenly that Jaegyeom jerked violently, yanking his leg back.

“W-what the fuck are you doing? You fucking psycho.”

Yoon Taehee looked up at him slowly.

All traces of laughter had disappeared from his face.

“Give me the underwear.”

His voice was calm.

“I’ll wash it again.”

At that moment, Jaegyeom genuinely wanted to dive into the ocean and swim all the way back to Seoul.

***

The two of them headed to the owners’ house for a late meal.

Yesterday they had eaten dinner early with the couple, but now it was already past ten in the morning. Since they had missed regular mealtime, only the two of them were served.

Sitting alone together at the table, Jaegyeom kept his gaze lowered and ate in silence.

The shock still hadn’t left him.

On the surface he looked focused on eating, but in reality he had no idea what was going into his mouth.

He couldn’t even tell whether the rice was entering through his mouth or his nose.

Unlike him, Yoon Taehee remained perfectly composed.

He ate quietly without making a single unnecessary sound.

Having once lived in a temple, his table manners were almost unnaturally restrained.

A guy who used to live in a temple....

Every time Jaegyeom looked up at the man sitting across from him, inappropriate images kept surfacing in his head.

The low table forced both of them to tilt their heads slightly while eating, and every time Yoon Taehee lowered his gaze, Jaegyeom could see the crown of his head.

Each glimpse made him choke on his food all over again.

A guy who used to live in a temple—with a mouth like that....

Suddenly Jaegyeom wanted to rip his own hair out.

Sitting across from him like this and quietly sharing a meal felt painfully awkward.

Thankfully, Yoon Taehee was not particularly talkative while eating.

“How is it? Does it suit your taste?”

At that moment, the sliding door opened and the elderly landlady stepped inside.

To Jaegyeom, she looked like a savior descending from heaven.

Settling down beside the table with one knee raised comfortably, she began chatting with Yoon Taehee about this and that before cautiously bringing something up.

“So... have you thought about it?”

The meaning was obvious enough.

Was he interested in meeting her daughter for matchmaking purposes?

Jaegyeom glanced toward the grandmother.

She really seemed to like Yoon Taehee.

“Ah.”

Yoon Taehee, lifting a spoonful of rice, let out a quiet sound and smiled.

“I was too caught off guard yesterday to say it properly, but....”

“Yes?”

“There’s actually someone I like already.”

As he spoke, Yoon Taehee calmly placed the rice into his mouth and looked directly at Jaegyeom.

Their eyes met before Jaegyeom could avoid it.

Caught completely off guard, he choked violently on his soup.

Cough— cough, cough—

“Oh dear, are you alright?”

The grandmother hurriedly poured him water and rubbed his back.

Then, still sounding disappointed, she asked Yoon Taehee,

“So you really do have someone already?”

“...”

Instead of answering directly, Yoon Taehee only smiled.

“Are you planning to marry them?”

The grandmother sighed wistfully as she asked.

“I’m considering it.”

CLANG.

Jaegyeom slammed his spoon down onto the table.

***

The moment the meal ended, he retreated straight back to the room.

Neither of them spoke on the walk back to the mud house.

The strange atmosphere was suffocating.

Trying to distract himself and fill the silence somehow, Jaegyeom immediately turned on the TV.

Yoon Taehee never watched television anyway. He would probably sit outside on the porch reading like before, so Jaegyeom planned to pretend to watch something and just waste time.

Only after putting some distance between them did he finally manage to breathe properly again.

Letting out a long sigh, Jaegyeom lowered his head and pressed a hand against his forehead.

“What are you doing?”

The door suddenly swung open behind him.

“Watching TV?”

Yoon Taehee asked casually.

“Oh. Yeah.”

Fuck, he scared me....

His heart pounded wildly, but Jaegyeom forced himself to answer normally.

He had probably come in because Jaegyeom disappeared into the room without saying anything.

Right now, Jaegyeom desperately wanted him to leave.

Unfortunately, Yoon Taehee instead leaned against the wall and began watching TV with him.

“......”

Jaegyeom’s shoulders slowly stiffened again.

He needed to avoid Yoon Taehee somehow, but this was a tiny island with nothing to do, and they were the only two people staying in the house.

Booking a private house had been a terrible idea.

He should have just gotten separate rooms from the beginning.

“I-I’m going outside.”

Unable to endure the awkwardness any longer, Jaegyeom escaped into the yard.

He sat down on the wooden porch and scratched irritably at his forehead.

But before long, Yoon Taehee appeared again.

He stepped out into the yard and settled onto the porch nearby.

Then he simply sat there with one leg crossed over the other, watching Jaegyeom.

“......”

Finally, Jaegyeom snapped.

“Hey. Why do you keep following me around?”

Blinking once, Yoon Taehee answered simply,

“Because I want to stay with you.”

The straightforward answer made Jaegyeom flinch.

“Th-there’s no reason we have to stick together all the time.”

“Why not?”

Yoon Taehee smiled lightly.

“I like you, so I want to be with you.”

For a moment, Jaegyeom nearly got swept up in it.

But he held his ground stubbornly.

“W-we don’t have to do everything together. Learn to spend time by yourself.”

At the unexpected lecture, Yoon Taehee let out a soft laugh.

“Why do you keep avoiding me?”

“I-I’m not avoiding you.”

Jaegyeom immediately looked away.

“Now you’re avoiding eye contact too.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

The childish argument went back and forth until—

“Then why did you come out here?”

As expected, Yoon Taehee hit the exact center of the problem.

Jaegyeom had no answer.

After all, unlike Yoon Taehee, he neither smoked nor read. There was no reason for him to be sitting alone in the quiet yard.

“T-the TV wasn’t interesting. I got bored.”

Wearing a sullen expression, Jaegyeom threw out whatever excuse came to mind.

Yoon Taehee, still seated with one leg crossed, rested his chin against one hand and watched him quietly.

“Bored?”

Then, almost like he had been waiting for that answer, he slowly stood and smiled.

“In that case...”

His smile deepened slightly.

“Want to go on a date?”