Chapter 22
Use the proper title.”
“Why. You like hearing informal speech from a young brat, don’t you?”
With his remaining hand, Seo Young-woo toyed with the wedding ring on the ring finger of Kim Seong-jae’s left hand, which rested on the keyboard, and did not avoid his gaze. Rather, he took it calmly and continued.
Perhaps he was clenching his molars, because Kim Seong-jae’s masseter trembled. That, too, lasted only a moment; the man erased the emotion from his face and shook off Seo Young-woo’s hand. But Seo Young-woo caught that hand again, stood up, and looked down at Kim Seong-jae.
“If you keep acting emotional, I’ll misunderstand. I’ll think you still have lingering feelings, or something. And you’re a man with a family.”
“Seo Young-woo.”
“Let’s not do things we’ll misunderstand about each other.”
Seo Young-woo let go of his hand, put on his for-work smile, brushed off his hand as if he had held something filthy, and left the office.
***
Baek Jin woke with a start and blinked at the white ceiling. His body felt refreshed, as if he had slept very soundly.
“Ah.”
As he put strength into his hand to raise his body, he was startled by a heavy pain from his fingers and quickly lowered his gaze. His body, which had always been fine after guiding finished while he slept, was today much the same as just before he fell asleep. Except for the cast that had appeared on his right hand.
Then the curtain was flung open, and a nurse with an expressionless face appeared.
“This is the Bureau hospital, and your guardian asked me to tell you to wait here for a moment when you woke up.”
“My guardian?”
“Yes, Team Leader Seo Young-woo.”
That stings. The nurse tapped the syringe, then stuck the needle straight into his forearm and injected something into it. When he stared blankly at it, the nurse only said it was an antibiotic and disappeared quickly.
Baek Jin blinked dumbly, and his face heated in an instant. Just hearing the name Seo Young-woo made his body grow hot. He did not know what to do at the scene of the kiss that flitted through his mind.
Who kisses their guardian.
He squeezed his eyes shut and, as was his habit, pressed his lips together, then, embarrassed that even his own tongue had touched his lips, put them back where they had been.
His first kiss at twenty-two was rather late compared to other people, but because he had thought he would never have one in his entire life, it felt new to him.
He tried to think of something else so he would not think about it, but the thoughts, each biting the tail of the last, led to his kiss with Seo Young-woo. The soft, tickling sensation had felt good. Enough for the fine hairs on his body to stand stiffly on end. Later, as if he had been given an anesthetic, all the strength had drained out of his body and he had slept soundly.
Mister had probably… done it a lot. Would everyone who had kissed him have been just the same as he was? At the thoughts that had begun again, his heart pounded thump-thump, as if announcing its existence anew.
When he thought that, unlike himself, whose chest fluttered at just remembering that moment, the man might have been displeased, a feeling of apology welled up. If he had known he would have his first kiss with a person like that, he should have at least practiced sometime in his life…
Wanting to drink some water to calm his unsettled heart, he got up from his seat, and at that same moment the curtain was drawn back.
“Where are you going?”
“W-water. I was going to drink some water.”
“Sit down.”
Caught off guard and seated on the bed again, Baek Jin bowed his head deeply. He did not need to see a mirror to be embarrassed by his heated face, so he squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again.
When he faced the man, the scene that rose to mind began to torment Baek Jin all over again. Even the moments when the tips of their noses brushed each time they turned their heads and their breaths touched each other’s skin came back to him, until he felt he would suffocate and die.
Contrary to his wish that Seo Young-woo would come after he had calmed down a little, he returned right away and held out a paper cup of water.
“This time… is. Too…….”
Even though Seo Young-woo was speaking right in front of him, he could not hear anything. He was looking at his eyes, yet his gaze kept going down and staying on his lips. Realizing his own state belatedly, Baek Jin only held the paper cup and looked at the water sloshing weakly inside it. Had Mister been all right?
Seo Young-woo grabbed Baek Jin by the shoulder and asked, “Are you all right?”
Because Seo Young-woo bent at the waist to meet his eyes, Baek Jin’s thoughts began to tangle like a machine hit by an overload. What did he mean, all right? The kiss, surely? Did he think he had made some kind of mistake with him?
“I liked it. Really…….”
Seo Young-woo tilted his head as if to ask what he was talking about, then, as if he had realized something, the corner of his mouth twitched.
Seeing Seo Young-woo turn his head away as if holding back laughter that was about to burst out, Baek Jin belatedly realized his slip. Now even the rims of his ears and the nape of his neck, connected to them, had heated bright red as if they would burst.
Baek Jin shot up from the bed, pushed his way past Seo Young-woo just as he was, and left the hospital room, dragging legs that had not yet regained their feeling. It was a moment when he wanted to run away more than at any other time.
***
Whenever the car stopped at a signal, Seo Young-woo glanced at Baek Jin in the rearview mirror. The corners of his mouth were raised more softly than at any other time.
“I think it would be better if I ride in the back…….”
Even if he avoided him for a little while, it was the same house, the same bedroom. But Seo Young-woo, worried about the neck of Baek Jin, who would not lift his head, told him to do whatever was comfortable.
To be honest, the kiss he had shared with Baek Jin was so light that it did not even fall into the act Seo Young-woo had defined as a “kiss.” All he had done was push his tongue in and move it a little, wasn’t it? For him, who tended to come on strongly enough to seem intense, it really had been an act for treatment, nothing more and nothing less.
However, at Baek Jin’s out-of-the-blue confession, the edged feeling in him had evaporated. Fortunately, Baek Jin himself also seemed unable to think of anything else under the aftereffects of the kiss.
Had he heard such an honest remark recently? Seo Young-woo had always insisted on older partners, but for the first time he thought he might understand a little of why people dated younger partners.
“Seeing it in person, your hair suits you even better.”
Seo Young-woo spoke first, breaking the silence.
“Ah, thank you…….”
“You’re in the back, so I can’t see it well. If you’d sat next to me, I could have looked at it properly.”
“……”
“I’ll have to look again when we get out.”
When he teased him a little, Baek Jin clamped his mouth shut at once. Would he sulk if he did more? Seo Young-woo was holding back his laughter when a rustling sound came, and Baek Jin, who had been pressed tight against the window, poked his head in between the driver’s seat and the front passenger seat.
“……Can you see now?”
His brightly flushed face came closer. He had been too embarrassed to say a single word, yet at Seo Young-woo’s words he stubbornly pushed his head in. At this unexpected action, once again, Seo Young-woo finally burst out laughing loudly.
Cute enough to kill, really.
“The back is a little short.”
At the added explanation, Seo Young-woo stroked the back of Baek Jin’s head with the hand that had been holding the steering wheel. A rough, bristly texture was felt against his palm.
“You shaved the back right off.”
“Does it look strange?”
“No, pretty. It suits you well.”
At that, Baek Jin rolled his eyes this way and that and quietly pulled his body back. To be honest, because of the completely exposed face, his gaze did not go much to the hair. Even when it had been hidden under a shaggy head of hair he had thought him pretty, but now that it had been cleared away entirely, he had looks that would not suffer in comparison even if he were made an actor.
“Once you gain a little weight, you’ll look even better. We were supposed to have lunch together, but it’s already evening. Let’s eat out next time.”
“……Anything is fine with me.”
At the dutiful answer, Seo Young-woo let a small laugh slip out. Baek Jin, who followed him well, felt cute, like a nephew, but relatively young partners had a way of often mistaking the very fact of receiving guiding for the other person having feelings for them.
Would it get better if Baek Jin mingled with other people? Baek Jin’s clumsy manner was cute and amusing, but at times like this, it might be better to keep a suitable distance.
***
“The delivery arrived first. I guess we’ll eat and wash after.”
Because of the traffic congestion caused by cleaning up after Moran Park, the food they had meant to come home, wash, and eat had arrived first. Seo Young-woo gathered up the food in front of the entrance and opened the door.
At being told to go in first, Baek Jin, who had been standing behind him, moved his feet. While he was worrying about what to do in his filthy state, he glanced around at the sound of a chair being pulled out and headed toward the dining table.
“Do you like Chinese food?”
“Yes. I ate it sometimes when I was little.”
“It’ll be even more delicious than it was then.”
Seo Young-woo took the packaged food out of the bag one item at a time and peeled off the plastic wrap. Perhaps because it had just arrived, warmth could be felt from the jjajangmyeon and tangsuyuk. Looking at the dining table filled with Chinese food, he smiled sheepishly.
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