Chapter 19: Misread Intentions

The comment section under that post was practically a battlefield.

Even though he needed to manage this situation, Woo-min couldn’t help the corners of his mouth rising as he clicked like on Crispy!!!MungBeanPancake’s post and replies.

Crispy!!!MungBeanPancake.

Like a general everyone was waiting for, he had appeared gallantly in the midst of the battlefield, throwing straight punches without caring what anyone thought.

He’d listed the key facts about the Ruby Sword and even the episode numbers to back them up, so even if someone tried to argue emotionally, it would be hard to refute.

The whole board was buzzing as if a hornet’s nest had been stirred, but Seon Woo-min was happy.

It was one of the most thrilling, satisfying moments he’d had in his time as a Mung Bean fan, and it felt like his troubled heart was being comforted.

Crispy!!!MungBeanPancake was someone who understood Mung Bean’s authenticity and charm.

Not only that, he’d even stepped forward and become indignant on his behalf.

He was as reassuring as an entire army.

He felt grateful in a way words couldn’t express.

Thinking it had been a good decision to get to know him, Woo-min smiled silently, then let his phone go with a weak hand and slowly closed his eyes.

Thanks to Jun-ho’s consideration, Seon Woo-min was able to return to the counter in much better condition.

Jun-ho told him he’d been lucky—it hadn’t been too busy while he was resting, so things went smoothly.

“Thinking about it, the location choice is off.

At lunchtime, office workers swarm in like zombies.”

After the quiet hours, when customers who came for personal work were scattered around, came the peak lunchtime rush.

“That’s exactly why the owner chose this place.”

Standing at the POS, Woo-min rolled up his shirt sleeves briskly.

“You look so refreshed after a short rest.

Kids sure recover fast… Here they come, here they come.

Hey, let’s do this.

Welcome!”

“Welcome to Baekseok Coff—”

Greeting the customer entering through the door, Seon Woo-min couldn’t finish his sentence and froze.

The man approaching while chatting with his companions was the pierced man.

He wasn’t the one who’d handed him the drugged beer, but the problem was what came after.

According to Jun-ho’s account, the pierced man had carried Woo-min, who was completely out of it, into a room.

Why?

For what purpose?

It was an unresolved mystery, a point that still didn’t sit right.

More than anything, Woo-min had a gut feeling the pierced man was gay or bi.

And very skilled at passing as straight.

“Hello.”

The pierced man greeted him as cheerfully as ever, staring directly into his eyes.

His oddly colored eyes, wolf-cut hairstyle, and large frame harmonized, reminding Woo-min of a Siberian Husky.

Not sturdy and brave… but a husky that whines and refuses to listen to its owner.

“Hello.

About yesterday, the room—”

“Yes?”

“…I heard you rented a room and had fun.”

Seon Woo-min lowered his voice so only the pierced man could hear.

“Ah, I did.”

The pierced man, who’d been leaning in to hear what he was saying, even smiled.

It was true—he’d rented a party room at the club with friends he often hung out with, so Do-kyung answered honestly.

“Sounds like you had a great time.”

“About the same as usual, I guess.”

“……”

At the brazen reply, Woo-min’s lips twisted.

He wanted to retort, “You sure party like you look,” but stopped.

The man wouldn’t be affected by such sarcasm, and even if he was, it wouldn’t solve anything.

More than anything, the pierced man’s harmless, innocent expression, which was somewhat different from Woo-min’s expectation, made him uneasy.

There was no hint of guilt or hiding something.

If there was none of that, he was probably just coming to the café like usual.

Crucially, there was no evidence the pierced man had done anything to him in the party room.

While showering at Jun-ho’s, he’d checked his body thoroughly just in case, but there was nothing that felt uncomfortable, not even the usual kind of bruise.

During his designated break time, Seon Woo-min grabbed his cigarettes and headed to the smoking area.

He usually avoided taking smoke breaks during work hours to not encounter customers, but today was different.

Just seeing the pierced man sitting with a friend, laptop open, happily playing games, made his blood boil.

“Huh?”

There was a cat in the flowerbed near the parking lot that he hadn’t seen before.

Smaller than an adult cat but not quite a kitten.

It was a cheese color like Mung Bean, with white paws that made it stand out even more.

Maybe it was the offspring of the one that used to come around often.

“Baby, where did you come from?”

He crouched down carefully not to startle it, but the cat hissed and disappeared into the flowerbed in an instant.

I guess I’m not meant to get along with real cats, Woo-min smiled wryly.

“I followed you out to ask for your number.”

“Why would you want my number?”

The voice answering was the pierced man’s.

As they approached, Woo-min subtly shifted to a shadowy corner.

“Oh, why?

Because I’m interested, of course.”

The woman answered back clearly, undaunted.

“How could you be interested without even knowing me?

I’m seeing you for the first time right now.”

“That’s not—”

Woo-min couldn’t hear what she was saying, which was frustrating.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t give you my number.

I have someone I like.”

The woman retorted, “Is that so?” and clicked her proud heels back into the café.

Blowing out cigarette smoke, Seon Woo-min remembered the condom that had fallen from the pierced man’s wallet.

Having someone he liked probably meant they weren’t dating yet.

But why carry a condom around?

How was he supposed to interpret that?

Maybe he was the type who only did one-night stands, like himself.

Now he couldn’t get a handle on what kind of person the pierced man was.

No, even if he was a good person, getting close to him would still be difficult.

His hands, decorated with various accessories and tattoos, could never stay still.

Even while talking to someone, he was constantly scrolling through his phone, and he’d leave his laptop screen open while going to the smoking area every few minutes.

He couldn’t simply dismiss his restlessness and short attention span as flaws, but he didn’t seem like someone who could pour careful interest and stable affection into anything.

“Oh?

Manager-nim, you were here.”

Lee Do-kyung, who had appeared in the smoking area after coming around the corner of the café building, raised his eyebrows.

His eyes went to the cigarette between Woo-min’s fingers before returning.

“I didn’t know you were a smoker.”

This was the first time Do-kyung had seen Seon Woo-min smoking in this life.

In the previous life, they’d even smoked together, so he’d found it odd.

Now it seemed he’d been refraining at the café, and must have been stepping out after work to have a smoke.

“Sir.

Let me ask you something.”

Deciding he couldn’t just let this go, Seon Woo-min stubbed out his cigarette.

Do-kyung silently watched the long cigarette being crushed between his slender, pale fingers.

Cloud Nine, meaning ‘peak of happiness.’

He’s still smoking that tasteless brand.

Seon Woo-min was a connoisseur.

He didn’t smoke like he was consuming cigarettes; he believed that even smoking time should be happy, so he chose cigarettes to match that and savored them.

Do-kyung didn’t know much about it, but it seemed like a meaningful stubbornness of an intellectual to him.

He thought it was sexy.

The way Seon Woo-min chose his cigarettes like that, and his quiet lips slowly drawing on the filter after reciting poetry.

“According to my companion who went to the club with me yesterday, you carried me on your back into a room.”

Returning to the present, the Seon Woo-min before him exuded a chilling coldness from his eyes.

“Is that so?”

“Nothing happened there, did it?”

“Huh?”

Do-kyung frowned, repeating the question.

“What do you mean, nothing happened?”

“It’s a bit awkward to say directly…”

“Ah.”

Only now did Do-kyung understand Woo-min’s reaction, which had seemed particularly prickly today.

So, Seon Woo-min was misunderstanding him.

Thinking that he had taken a passed-out person to a room and done something terrible or various other things.

“Come on… do I look like that kind of person?”

He asked back, then realized he probably did look exactly like that kind of person, and closed his eyes tightly.

Even Bae Jun-ho’s reaction that day—flinching whenever their eyes met—now made perfect sense.

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