Chapter 25: A Heat Not Caused by the Weather

Yunhwan whispered softly, wary of Seong-pil overhearing.

“If you’re hot, let’s go now.”

“It hasn’t even been ten minutes.”

“…But you’re hot.”

At that, Seonghye’s pupils widened as he looked at Yunhwan. Leaning slightly toward him, Seonghye spoke in a low voice, mimicking Yunhwan’s tone from a moment ago.

“…I’m thirsty, too.”

“Just a second.”

While Yunhwan stood up and went to get the ice water, Seonghye pressed his fingers against his temples and exhaled a hot breath. He was indeed suffering from the heat, but it wasn’t strictly because of the summer weather; it was because of the man sitting next to him.

Starting from the day before yesterday, every time he looked at Yunhwan, his breath grew short and his fingertips tingled. It felt exactly like…

A throb of sensation between his legs caused a low curse to leak through his teeth.

“…f*ck.”

His neat brow contorted into a fierce scowl. Seonghye, reflexively tensing his thighs, began to count the dates in his head. Junseong had clearly explained last week that it was too early for his rut, so he couldn’t understand why his body was reacting like this.

Startled by the unfamiliar sensation, he bit down hard on the soft flesh inside his cheek as a dull, heavy heat began to coil around his entire body.

“This is a problem…”

He turned his head, and suddenly, a familiar silhouette and scent washed over him without warning.

“……!”

His eyes snapped shut at the intense sensation that hit him like a sharp pain, opening slowly only after a few seconds. He saw Yunhwan hurrying back toward him with the ice water. As the distance between them closed, his fingers and toes began to tremble subtly.

The clearer Yunhwan’s face became, the more Seonghye felt the screws in his head tightening and loosening in turns. He let out a low groan, looking down at his hardening center. He felt like he might lose his mind at any moment, but seeing the worry and concern filling Yunhwan’s eyes as he ran toward him, Seonghye knew he couldn’t show himself like this.

Just as he swallowed his last pained moan, the surrounding air sank once more, heavy with a thick fragrance.

“Here’s the water. Drink up, quickly.”

A bottle of water covered in condensation was thrust toward him. Droplets of water slid down the bottle and dripped onto Yunhwan’s hand, trailing down his forearm.

“Thanks, Hyung.”

Seonghye’s eyes narrowed slightly as their fingers brushed while taking the bottle.

After taking a few sips of the water Yunhwan brought, he felt the burning heat in his mouth and face slowly subside. After quenching his thirst, Seonghye took Yunhwan’s hand. Before the wide-eyed Yunhwan could process it, Seonghye pulled the hand and pressed it against his own forehead, a faint smile touching his lips.

“This hand is cooler than the water I just drank.”

His voice was rough and gravelly at the end. His pitch-black eyes boiled as they locked onto Yunhwan, looking as though they were scorched by fever.

“This won’t do. Let’s go home, Seonghye.”

Before the flustered Yunhwan could pull his hand away, the voice continued.

“Just a little longer.”

As Seonghye’s eyelids trembled and closed, Yunhwan pulled a chair over and sat close beside him. He inspected Seonghye’s condition with a cautious gaze.

To Yunhwan, it seemed his own hand—which had been holding the frozen water bottle—was helping to cool Seonghye’s burning forehead. Feeling the hot skin warming his palm, Yunhwan applied a bit more pressure and rubbed Seonghye’s forehead.

With his eyes closed, Seonghye repeatedly exhaled slow breaths through his lips. Worried that the younger man was struggling with the rural heat, Yunhwan leaned in, listening intently to the sound of his breathing.

“What’s this, Hyung-nim? I told you to tell me if it’s too hot. Look at your neck, it’s bright red! You’re roasting!”

As Seong-pil appeared, placing an ice pack on the back of Yunhwan’s neck, Seonghye’s eyelids snapped open.

Yunhwan turned his head and grumbled at Seong-pil.

“You’ve got a good harvest, why aren’t you hiring people? Why call me just because you’ve got no one else?”

“You call this a good harvest? My peppers failed and I only saved the zucchinis. I can’t even pay the bank interest.”

While talking back, Seong-pil leaned his head to the side to look at Seonghye. Meeting those sunken, dark eyes, he awkwardly scratched his chin. He had expected Yunhwan’s “cousin” to have a similarly easygoing personality, but the more he saw him, the harder he found it to even make eye contact. The man was not easy to work with.

“Is your brother doing okay with the work? He looks like he’s in much better shape than you, Hyung.”

Despite the tension, Seong-pil tried to make small talk, but Yunhwan cut in before Seonghye could.

“What do you mean ‘better shape’? He’s working in a greenhouse in this weather.”

“He’s enduring it fine, but you’re the older one—can’t you handle this? I was the one who picked three boxes of aronia for you last year!”

As the conversation between the two dragged on, Seonghye’s gaze sank deeper. Every time Yunhwan spoke with Seong-pil, the fingertips Seonghye used to hold Yunhwan’s hand trembled slightly.

Later, when Seong-pil went outside to take a phone call, Yunhwan began to pack things up. It was nearly 7:00 PM, but the world outside was still bright. During the long days of summer, overworking was a one-way ticket to falling ill.

After tidying the area, Yunhwan stood up. Seonghye stood up with him and removed the ice pack from Yunhwan’s neck. Un-dried sweat rolled down the nape of Yunhwan’s neck.

As dark damp spots spread across the collar of the T-shirt, Seonghye gently caught Yunhwan’s wrist.

“Wash your face before we go if you’re hot.”

“I’m fine. It’s not that hot.”

Seonghye smiled and softly wiped the back of Yunhwan’s neck with his own hand.

“Look at this. You are hot.”

Yunhwan turned his head away in embarrassment at the wet palm shown to him. Seonghye set down the gear he was holding and headed with Yunhwan toward the sink located at one side of the greenhouse.

Seonghye turned the tightly closed tap, and cool water poured out.

“How can someone who leaves a fan on for me every night be so oblivious to his own heat?”

“…….”

His embarrassment was short-lived; the water was so cold that Yunhwan’s tense expression melted. As he washed his face, neck, and hands, the previous heat vanished, replaced by a refreshing chill that instantly boosted his mood.

Leaning against the greenhouse wall, Seonghye watched him with a smile.

“See? I told you you were hot.”

Yunhwan looked up to find Seonghye watching him. He blinked his eyes, which were still wet and difficult to open, and felt a soft touch near them. Thanks to Seonghye wiping away the moisture, Yunhwan could finally look up properly.

Yunhwan dried his face and neck with the towel Seonghye handed him. The cooling sensation that had felt so good was soon masked by the humid air, but it was much more bearable than before.

Once the unpleasant dampness was managed, he finally looked at Seonghye. Seonghye was frowning, pressing his fingertip against the wet collar of Yunhwan’s T-shirt.

“Your clothes are wet, too.”

He had let it be because Yunhwan looked so happy washing, but the water from his neck had soaked down to his chest.

“I can change when I get home. It’s hot, right? Let’s get out of here.”

“…….”

While Yunhwan gathered the towel and the zucchinis he almost left behind, Seonghye stood still, watching him quietly. For a moment, his gaze lingered on Yunhwan, and then he suddenly covered his face with his large palm and bowed his head.

“…?”

Yunhwan stopped mid-action.

“Seonghye? What’s wrong?”

Yunhwan bit his lip anxiously and called out to him again.

“Are you in pain? Should we go to the hospital?”

Yunhwan reached out to touch Seonghye’s forehead. Come to think of it, Seonghye had seemed more sensitive to the heat than usual lately. I shouldn’t have brought him out today, he thought with deep regret, his voice rising in pitch.

“Don’t be like that, let me see your face.”

Unable to ignore the hidden face, Yunhwan pulled Seonghye’s hand down. Seonghye, who had been standing with his eyes closed and a calm expression, slowly lifted his eyelids.

“…I’m not in pain.”

He murmured lowly.

Seonghye’s gaze fell to the hand that had just been covering his face. His palm was damp and sticky with moisture. That wasn’t all. Though he had simply been standing there enduring it, he felt as though heat had been poured over his entire body.

“Ah… maybe I am in pain.”

The heat radiating from his body caused Seonghye’s loosely unfocused pupils to move slowly until they fixed on Yunhwan.

“I was just a bit dizzy for a moment.”

The pupils focused on his target began to constrict.

“W-wait a second.”

Yunhwan quickly turned on the tap and pulled Seonghye’s hand toward the water, likely trying to cool him down. Standing still and looking down at the gesture, Min Seonghye couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

“It’s not like that. The reason I’m hot isn’t because the weather is hot, Hyung.”

As a flustered Yunhwan looked up, his eyes met a gaze that had sunk into a deep, heavy intensity.

Seonghye reached out past Yunhwan and firmly shut the tap. The noisy rushing of the water vanished, and the surroundings became instantly, deathly quiet.