So although he had told a small lie, it could not be helped.
While Haein desperately made excuses to himself, the sleeping Yeonjun shifted.
“Mmm…”
At the low moan slipping between those thin, soft lips, Haein stiffened with tension and stepped toward the roadside.
“Just, just a moment…! They said the taxi was coming soon, so it’ll be here any minute!”
Haein stretched an arm toward the road and waved. Before long, a taxi with the same license plate number shown in the app arrived and stopped in front of them.
After folding Ignis-nim’s long legs up as best he could and getting him into the back seat, Haein circled around the car, opened the opposite door, and climbed in. A sweet scent of alcohol immediately washed over him.
The smell was not particularly strong, so it did not seem as though Yeonjun had drunk very much. Yet it was strangely different from the smell of someone who had gotten completely drunk on beer or soju.
At that sweet fragrance, Haein unconsciously tensed his entire body and corrected himself into a rigidly upright posture.
“We’ll be setting off.”
“Yes!”
One of them was dead drunk while the other looked as sober as if he had not touched a single drop of alcohol. Still, perhaps because they were both men rather than a man and a woman, they did not appear particularly suspicious.
Haein’s heart pounded as though he were doing something wrong.
Is it really okay for me to do this? Is it all right to act however I want when Ignis-nim never gave me permission?
For a moment, guilt pricked sharply at his heart and made him break into a nervous sweat. Eventually, he managed to rationalize his actions.
In any case, I’m the one they contacted…!
It was not as though he had volunteered to come get Yeonjun first. The establishment had asked him to!
Haein clenched his fist so tightly that his entire hand strained.
Just then, the driver spotted a pedestrian jaywalking and abruptly slowed down. Yeonjun’s body swayed with the car.
He slid smoothly down from the seat back, and then his whole body collapsed onto Haein’s thighs, their bodies overlapping.
Gasp…!
Haein almost let out a foolish cry of admiration without realizing it, but barely managed to restrain himself and screamed internally instead.
Ignis-nim’s light, wheat-colored hair rested against Haein’s firm thigh as Yeonjun shifted lightly.
Although Haein was wearing fairly thick jeans, the body heat transmitted through that thin layer of fabric was far too stimulating for an inexperienced twenty-year-old.
W-What do I do…?
His mind was nothing but red warning lights.
Yeonjun was the one who had been drinking, yet heat instantly spread from Haein’s cheeks across his entire face as though Haein himself were intoxicated. Even his forehead felt hot, as though he were coming down with a cold.
Haein needed to do something about this.
As a desperate measure, he gripped Yeonjun’s shoulder and shook him. Yeonjun did not even twitch.
“Um, hyung…”
When Haein held his shoulder and pushed him very carefully, Ignis-nim frowned as though uncomfortable.
His dark eyebrows drew together, briefly forming wrinkles between them, before his sharply defined eyes relaxed again.
How can he even look this handsome while shifting uncomfortably in his sleep?
Feeling as though it would not be surprising if his nose began bleeding at any moment, Haein murmured,
“Please wake up. We’re almost at your house.”
Haein checked that the numbers on the meter were gradually approaching the fare he had estimated and moved his lips to speak. Then, as though acting spoiled, Yeonjun pressed his cheek against Haein’s left thigh and rubbed it there.
“Mmm…….”
Yeonjun’s unexpected movement was far too stimulating. To make sure no inappropriate situation occurred inside a taxi, which was, after all, technically a public place, Haein had no choice but to repeatedly chant the school song he could barely even remember.
Hyung! That’s too close…!
Unable to bring himself to push Yeonjun away, Haein barely managed to shift him a little farther toward the outside of his thigh.
When the change in position altered the height of Yeonjun’s head slightly, Haein watched his face twitch with discomfort once again.
“Ha…”
Was it not cheating for someone who was so good at games to be this handsome too?
Of course, Haein himself had heard similar things said about him until he was sick of them, but this was the first time he had ever thought the same thing while looking at someone else.
Unless he kept a firm grip on his senses, he felt as though he might unconsciously reach out and touch Ignis-nim’s cheek, completely entranced.
“…….”
At that moment, a spark ignited inside Haein’s heart.
“…Yeonjun hyung.”
Haein called the name he had heard several weeks earlier, when Ignis-nim had gone off like a grenade with its safety pin pulled and rattled out everything he wanted to say.
Yeonjun’s ear twitched.
Of course, Haein had seen it on his ID earlier too, so naturally it really was his name. Even so, seeing Yeonjun’s shoulders flinch in response to being called by that familiar name made Haein’s chest tremble.
He no longer felt like this was IgnIgnis-nim, someone who existed somewhere on Earth, far away from him.
This was Seong Yeonjun, a real person who existed in the very same space as Haein right now.
His heart felt as though it might truly leap straight out of his mouth.
“We really are almost there…”
Even though Haein murmured in a foolishly trembling voice, Yeonjun remained quiet without reacting this time.
Then the driver cut in with almost cruel timing.
“Should I let you out by that alley?”
Haein repeatedly nodded even though he had no idea where the driver was pointing.
“Ah, yes! I’ll pay by card…”
“No, you called through the app, so you can just get out.”
“Ah, right, yes!”
Haein tried to calm the heat burning across his face as he supported Yeonjun and helped him sit up.
Was he really the type of person who, once drunk, would not even notice if someone carried him away?
Completely dead to the world, Yeonjun kept his eyes closed and breathed in soft, faint puffs.
“Hyung, we’re really here…!”
Thoroughly tense, Haein propped Yeonjun against the seat back so that he sat upright. Yeonjun answered in a hoarse, sleep-heavy voice.
“Mmm… Where…?”
Haein had already known from the few trivial phone conversations they had shared, but his voice was simply too good.
Normally, was it not the case that someone with a handsome face would have a disappointing voice, while someone with a good voice would have a slightly disappointing face?
Was someone allowed to exist in this world without even the slightest flaw in either category?
Haein clenched his fist again and swallowed an internal scream.
“Your house, hyung!”
Just when Haein had finally gotten him properly upright, the taxi shook as it crossed a speed bump while turning toward the alley.
Yeonjun’s body tilted toward Haein again. This time, he rested his head against Haein’s shoulder and murmured,
“Do I, mmm… have to get out?”
At the petulant-sounding mumble, Haein nearly shouted, “No!” without realizing it, but barely managed to restrain himself.
“Yes. You have to get out now.”
The taxi had already reached the entrance of the alley. Haein opened his map app and checked which direction the address on the ID was located, then got out first and pulled Yeonjun’s body from the vehicle.
“Do you need help?”
Perhaps Haein looked so young that the driver found him somewhat unreliable. When Haein hoisted Yeonjun onto his back, the driver glanced over his shoulder and asked.
“No, I’m fine!”
Haein immediately refused. He adjusted Yeonjun on his back, slinging him more securely over his shoulders, then let out a sigh.
Now the problem was getting inside.
Fortunately, the five-story villa was a fairly large, newly constructed building and had an elevator. The address written on the ID had been unit 402.
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, the main entrance was open to the outside. Haein entered and pressed the elevator button.
Throughout the wait, Yeonjun’s body heat against his back felt hot enough to burn him.
On top of that, since he was carrying a drunk person on his back, there was only so much he could do about their position.
Their faces were much too close together, and whenever Yeonjun occasionally groaned from his impending hangover, the sound echoed around Haein’s ears like surround sound.
Urgh.
I did not come here today to do indecent things, weird things, or baa-aad things. I really came here with a pure heart to help hyung!
Haein stepped inside the elevator while desperately trying to think wholesome thoughts.
In the mirror attached to the cramped interior, he saw his own pathetic face, dyed as red as the drunk man’s.
But hyung is just too stimulating. I can’t help it.
Haein offered the roundabout excuse to himself and swallowed a sigh.
Although the ride took less than a minute, he trembled as though it had lasted an hour.
“The doors are opening.”
The doors soon opened with a cheerful chime. Stepping into the hallway, Haein looked around to locate unit 402.
This side is number one, so……
After checking the number directly across from it, Haein shook Yeonjun once more to wake him and asked,
“Hyung, we’re at your house.”
When Haein spoke while carrying him, Yeonjun rubbed his face against the back of Haein’s neck and whined.
“Home, mmm… I don’t want to go….”
Ah, this is driving me insane.
Haein desperately resisted the involuntary tightening in his lower abdomen.
“You have to go inside even if you don’t want to. Please open the door lock.”
Bracing his legs firmly, Haein lowered his body and brought Yeonjun’s hand close to the digital lock.
Yeonjun toyed with the handle using his fingertips as though playing with it.
“Mmm… Why won’t it open…?”
Because you haven’t entered the number, hyung?
Feeling as though he might cry, Haein spoke to Yeonjun again.
“You have to enter the number for it to open.”
As though he understood Haein’s correction, Yeonjun kept his eyes closed and rubbed his cheek against the nape of Haein’s neck.
“The password…”
“Yes, the password!”
“0412.”
That isn’t what I meant when I asked you!
Still, one way or another, Haein had learned how to get them inside. With a trembling hand, he entered the password into the digital lock.
“…?”
Beep-beep-beep-beep.
However, the only response was a mercilessly clear error tone.
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