“Hurry over before I resign.”

“Are you nuts? Doing this in the work studio?”

“I walk around with your hard drive. I’ll send you a file every time you give me one.”

“Being computer illiterate, how are you going to get rid of the hard drive?”

“Right, I was someone computer illiterate.”

At some point, even Sangwoo was smiling. His brightly smiling face was so rare that Jaeyoung hadn’t even seen it five times. However, it seemed that the reason he couldn’t take his eyes off him wasn’t simply because of the rare occasion.

Jaeyoung was going to stop kidding around just then, but when Sangwoo came and sat down next to him, he became playful. When he poked him on his waist with his finger, he squirmed and got angry. However, he kept tickling his side, so he couldn’t help but burst out into laughter. Sangwoo laughed as if he were out of breath and poked Jaeyoung’s stomach with his shoes. That look was ridiculously cute.

“Ah, crazy… Please stop, hyung. It’s really… difficult.”

‘I want to devour him.’

Suddenly, all thoughts of playing pranks disappeared. Instead, he wanted to pick him up and scold him right on the spot. He wanted to roughly nibble on his skin while questioning him how he could laugh like that at will and whether or not he was still laughing.

Jaeyoung had come to grip Sangwoo’s wrist tightly at some point, and wrapped his waist with one arm. The smile gradually disappeared from Sangwoo’s face when he saw the expression on his face.

“…”

The mood had changed. It had changed from an all-ages-allowed comedy to something in the R-19+ erotic genre. It was a moment where he’d rather become an animal. If they were two dogs instead of two humans, they could immediately jump on each other, just like they had the previous day.

Ding!

At that moment, the person who had been completely forgotten, glamorously showed their presence. A fluorescent orange tumbler rolled over and hit Jaeyoung’s foot. Jaeyoung inadvertently picked it up and slowly turned his head. Yuna was standing, awkwardly frozen, with her shoulders trembling.

Sangwoo slipped out of his grasp. His ears were red as he returned to his seat and looked at the monitor as if nothing had happened.

Jaeyoung motioned for Yuna to return to her seat and turned around in his seat. She had been asking him so much about them a few days ago, so he had roughly explained their situation. He didn’t understand why she looked so surprised. For a while, the only sound in the awkward atmosphere was from the mouse and the keyboard. That was until Yuna opened her mouth.

“Jang-Jaeyoung-let’s-go-smoke-together?”

Jaeyoung got up without a word, grabbing his pack of cigarettes and his Zippo lighter. When Yuna beckoned him to the door, she left first while dragging her slippers on the floor. Jaeyoung patted the back of Sangwoo’s head and followed her.

“Did you sleep together?”

As soon as he had arrived on the first floor, she asked him. Among the people that Jaeyoung knew, Choi Yuna was unrivaled when it came to being direct (that was true before he had met Chu Sangwoo). Rather than giving a hasty answer, Jaeyoung lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply.

“Last time, you said it was a slight interest, but are you playing with that innocent child?” Yuna spat out in a harsh tone.

“What do you mean by that?”

That was the sound of something he didn’t like to hear. Jaeyoung puffed out smoke and looked at his friend’s frowning face. Yuna was more the bold than serious type, but when it came to dating, she was quite traditional, so if she wasn’t constantly in a relationship, she would be suffering from its aftereffects.

And now, it was the post-relationship period.

“Did he originally lean this way? I don’t think so?”

“Whose side are you on? Shouldn’t you ask me something like that first?”

“No matter who you have met, you have never surrendered your heart to them, but it’s different with him. What are you going to do in the future?”

It was an angry voice. Jaeyoung replied, irritated.

“Why are you so out of line? Who are you?”

Yuna went quiet at those words.

What he was doing was none of her business and intervening in other people’s love affairs was being out of line. It was the first time she had acted this way since they had become close friends.

After only smoking for a while, Yuna then uttered, “I got concerned when we spoke last time, but I didn’t want to meddle. But it’s only been a few days since then and you’ve already gone all the way. You’re being too irresponsible, aren’t you? When you leave him behind to go study abroad, won’t he become dejected?”

Jaeyoung threw away the slightly-more-than-half burnt-out cigarette butt and put it out with his foot. Who was playing around and tossing a person away? He got really angry. Was this the Joseon Dynasty? Did they have to spend the rest of their lives together just because they slept with each other once?

“Aren’t you being too concerned about this?”

To be so invested in a person she barely knows just because she was still sad after a relationship that ended badly six months ago. That was her personal situation, but it didn’t mean that she could interfere in other people’s private lives.

“Just because you choose to date trash, do you think everyone else in the world behaves the same way?”

“Well said. Yeah, I got burnt by scum. But what I’m saying is, what’s the difference between that and what you’re doing to him right now?”

“Why do you have to explain that to me? Don’t speak recklessly when you don’t know what’s going on.”

The bleached blonde hair blew in the wind. Yuna made a sad face as if this were her own business.

“You’re going to toss him away. How can I not care when the situation is exactly the same?”

Jaeyoung put a new cigarette into his mouth without saying a word. An unpleasantness began to creep into the bottom of his heart. It seemed that Yuna had flicked a switch that she shouldn’t have.

He wasn’t thinking about the future. The distant future would eventually become the present someday, so his motto was to live a fun life while doing what he wanted to do in the moment. And his present was being completely into Chu Sangwoo. Currently. What was the problem with that?

He felt a bit better after clicking the Zippo lighter and deeply inhaling. Jaeyoung slowly exhaled as if he were taking a deep breath.

“For fuck’s sake, why are you worried about that? How do I know if I’ll feel the same by then? Or if he’ll feel the same way? I’m busy focusing on the present, so I can’t afford to worry about such things,” he crudely spoke.

Then was he supposed to count how many days there were left until he departed? Was he supposed to count down until D-day while imagining their parting, shedding tears, making couple rings that they’d share, and to hear him saying that he couldn’t forget him even while abroad? It wasn’t even funny.

Moreover, Chu Sangwoo, who had stood waiting under Jaeyoung’s stairs, didn’t even understand that the situation in itself made it a romantic affair. He didn’t even think that a guy who was worried about his grades would worry about having such strong sexual desires and become overly sad over Jaeoyung leaving in two months’ time. That crappy ride was entirely Jaeyoung’s responsibility.

“You can do foolish things. But don’t force others to do the same.”

Yuna stayed silent for a while. She was looking at the sky with a blank expression and then smoked two cigarettes in a row. Jaeyoung waited until she was ready.

“You’re right. The situation is so similar that I must have gotten absorbed.”

Soon after, Yuna told him what was on her mind. She cursed and spluttered out a “sorry for being nosy.” Jaeyoung truly appreciated her easy-going side. They had different personalities and ways of thinking, but because of that, they had been able to remain friends.

“But you… were you always bi?”

“Probably not. I don’t know,” Jaeyoung frankly answered.

He had never given that a serious thought.

“Jaeyoung.”

Yuna only called him that when she was fooling around.

“In spite of your leaving, be nice to him even if you’re going to toss him aside. It’s heartbreaking,” she playfully said while pulling a face.

Jaeyoung thought that she was talking nonsense since she wasn’t even self-aware.

“Oh, you sad thing. I’m sure you’ve never been in a relationship. You somehow ended up getting trapped by this bastard.”

Jaeyoung laughed as if he were dumbfounded by her words. Who the hell got trapped by whom? From Jaeyoung’s perspective, he was thrashing about because he had gotten caught by Chu Sangwoo’s hook. Even Grand Duke Jiang¹ didn’t know he had caught a fish and was looking elsewhere. On that part, Yuna was mistaken, but Jaeyoung didn’t bother to explain it to her.

“Are you aware that he’s an idiot? He said he’s been in a relationship before,” said Jaeyoung.

“It must be a lie.”

“What lie? He’s the type of guy that wouldn’t lie even if his lips were ripped off.”

“I can’t picture it.”

Yuna turned her head.

Jaeyoung didn’t respond. He used to think the same way, but it was different now. It was difficult to realize at first, but once he took a step forward, it was like an ant hell where he didn’t have a choice but to get sucked into. Jaeyoung wasn’t proud of the fact that he was the only person in the world to notice Chu Sangwoo’s charm.

“I’ll leave for now. Stay by yourselves today. I won’t disturb you.”

Yuna walked up the stairs, then turned around and waved at him. Jaeyoung put his hands in his pockets and looked up at the sky. Then, he took quick steps back into the building.

⌘W

“Beautiful.”

It was a brilliant day that made him talk to himself. The sky during sunset was dark indigo, waving with subtle gradations of purple, stimulating the imagination.

It was dark and pleasant, so it was perfect for skateboarding. However, Jaeyoung was aware he had a wicked employer, so he worked like a slave in the studio.

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