Chapter 69: The Ring in His Pocket

“Come on.

Once we’re married, how many more times do you think we’ll be able to come here?”

“Why wouldn’t we be able to?

Did you start thinking it would be better to move to another neighborhood?”

Kwon Seha asked without much thought, but every blow contained in that one sentence landed on Yoon Jiwoo.

Jiwoo stopped walking, though he did not let go of Seha’s hand.

Instead, he stretched out his arm and clung tightly to Seha.

He looked like an affectionate puppy sulking at its owner.

“…No.

I’m not moving.

And even if I do, I’m not moving near the sea.”

Jiwoo shook his head fiercely.

Seha could feel the grip on his hand tighten, but he let it pass.

Well, if Jiwoo was speaking this strongly, Seha assumed there had to be a reason.

They began eating amid trivial conversation.

They entered an ordinary restaurant, sat down, and ordered various dishes.

Yoon Jiwoo, who loved food, had bright eyes, so Seha somehow could not bring himself to say that he was not hungry.

Jiwoo talked, and Kwon Seha responded appropriately, agreeing here and there.

There was no reason for ordinary conversation to be uncomfortable.

But Seha had felt something pricking around his solar plexus for a while.

More precisely, it was closer to his chest.

To avoid showing any sign of discomfort on his face, he put food in his mouth and stayed still for a moment.

“Kwon Seha.

You have indigestion, don’t you?”

“Hm?”

“Your face is pale.

You weren’t feeling well, and I dragged you out.”

As expected, quick-witted Yoon Jiwoo stopped talking even after chattering away so happily.

He took a soft handkerchief from his pocket and held it out to Seha.

Seha reluctantly accepted it, pretended to hold it to his face once, then put it down.

It did not smell like the grassy scent he had expected.

That was why he did not want to press his nose into it.

Seha casually shook his head.

Once the cold sweat passed, it was bearable enough.

He made a small gesture toward Jiwoo, who was suddenly worried, and changed the subject.

“What are you talking about?

I didn’t say anything because I could handle it.

More importantly, what was it you wanted to talk about?”

“What else would it be?

I wanted to continue what I was saying this morning.”

Jiwoo placed his hand over Seha’s again.

His affectionate fingertips gently scratched Seha’s palm as though throwing a tantrum.

By then, their plates were half empty.

Kwon Seha felt that he could only catch his breath after finishing either the meal or his conversation with Yoon Jiwoo.

Resting his chin on his hand, Jiwoo smiled slyly.

“Seha.

We’re not old, but we’re not young either.

You know that, right?

I want to see a baby who looks like you soon.”

“…….”

“They’d be so cute.

What if they look just like you when they say mean things, or when they make that face full of complaints?

If they did that with your childhood face, I might forgive everything.”

So this was what Jiwoo had wanted to say badly enough to wait until after work, chattering away until both of them had finished eating.

Jiwoo could not control the muscles of his face that kept relaxing, smiling brightly.

If one listened without thinking, what Jiwoo said could not be treated as a light topic.

“Hah….

So that’s what you were going to say.”

“Why?

Babies are at least cute.

But grown-up Kwon Seha is often annoying.”

The lingering tension stole all of Kwon Seha’s ease in that short moment.

No answer came to him.

Or rather, he did not want to answer right away.

He was not certain.

More than anything, he had never even thought that far ahead.

Jiwoo, who had been holding Seha’s hand all this time, primly shook it off.

He dabbed his mouth with a napkin, then abruptly stood up so quickly that his chair made a sound.

He looked down at Kwon Seha.

Jiwoo was smiling as he faced him.

For some reason, it was difficult to look at that smile today.

“If you’re done eating, get up.”

“Why?”

“Let’s hurry and go to the car….”

Without knowing what Kwon Seha was thinking as he looked at him, Jiwoo tugged at the end of Seha’s sleeve.

“I want to kiss you.”

There was no reason to refuse, so he did not hesitate.

In the end, he felt relieved by Yoon Jiwoo’s words.

Even for a moment, he was glad that they did not have to continue that conversation.

He found himself thinking there could be no better moment than this.

Kwon Seha ran away from his confusion.

The weather was cold, and the wind was blowing too.

Because of it, the trees outside the window shook wildly.

The leaves that had become fallen leaves dropped to the ground without hesitation, as though they had no regrets.

Settling on the artificially made asphalt road, they would now meet one of two endings: being swept away by a broom or crushed beneath people’s footsteps.

They were only fallen leaves, yet he felt deeply sorry to see them dying.

Even though he knew the season could only pass this way.

There were about twenty minutes left before they reached home.

The moment he estimated it, thick raindrops began falling onto the car with soft taps.

Could they arrive safely in the remaining time?

The thought crossed his mind in an instant.

With no one speaking inside or outside the dark, quiet car, anxiety rose within him without warning.

Then Jiwoo’s voice entered that silence.

Perhaps because the car briefly shook as it crossed a speed bump, Jiwoo’s voice seemed to tremble slightly.

“Seha.

You said you liked being with me.

This is a little sudden, but can I ask why?”

“Hm?”

“Why did you answer when someone like me, a subordinate you only knew by face, contacted you privately?”

The traffic light changed in the meantime.

Kwon Seha had not even noticed it had turned yellow until Jiwoo tapped the back of his hand.

Only then did he press the brake and shift gears.

Along with the question flowing into him, Kwon Seha looked ahead and focused on driving again.

Whenever Jiwoo’s quiet voice stopped, an awkward silence filled another space between them.

It was not wrong that Seha had said he liked being with Yoon Jiwoo.

He had said something like that.

It was something Kwon Seha himself clearly recognized.

That was why, at this moment, he did not answer Yoon Jiwoo’s question honestly.

He could not.

“Come on, tell me.

Even if it’s a lie, say something nice for someone to hear.

Like, Jiwoo, I love you.

Thank you for buying dinner tonight.

I’ll repay you for the rest of my life.

You know, things like that.”

The cheeks that Seha thought would be puffed out with displeasure remained unchanged.

If Jiwoo had become sulky in the meantime, Seha considered carefully taking his hand.

But even when he glanced at Jiwoo’s profile, their eyes did not meet.

Without answering his lover’s question, Kwon Seha continued watching him without permission.

“Why do you suddenly want to hear something like that?

Aren’t you embarrassed?”

“I’m not embarrassed.”

“…….”

“Tell me.

I like it most when I’m loved by you.”

Jiwoo’s face, filling Seha’s vision, was slightly tanned.

He looked healthy.

He had said that the skin darkened from running around in the sun had never returned to its original color.

They had talked about things like that only after becoming close.

As Yoon Jiwoo said, at first theirs had been a relationship that could not be expected to progress unless Jiwoo made an effort.

After they became lovers, Jiwoo had said something like that to Kwon Seha, who had not been thinking much about anything.

Half-undressed, he had awkwardly covered the place where his shirt was gone with his hand and rambled on.

If you act like a country dog, you can end up getting this tanned, you know.

Seha remembered the childish smile on Jiwoo’s face as he said it.

Absurdly, at that time, Kwon Seha could not control the thoughts that followed another direction in his mind.

There were many ways he looked different from someone else.

That was why looking at Jiwoo made him feel at ease.

There was someone pale white, almost like carefully sculpted glass.

When grief consumed him, he wilted limply like a powerless plant.

He was like a transparent flower that possessed no color.

That image easily gnawed away at Kwon Seha’s mind and filled it with only one thought.

Unlike Yoon Jiwoo, who loved going out and having fun, that person was reserved even in personality.

Whenever Seha looked at Jiwoo, he would think that there could be people in the world who were so completely opposite.

But did that have any meaning now?

Thinking of it as time that had already passed, Kwon Seha pretended to be more unaffected than necessary.

I know how I first began to hold you, Yoon Jiwoo, in my eyes.

But I cannot say it.

If possible, not for the rest of my life.

As the car entered a tunnel, its interior became dark in an instant.

A shadow fell across Jiwoo’s face.

The longer Seha’s silence lasted, the more he noticed Jiwoo’s expression turning pale even in the darkness.

“If you can’t answer, I’ll ask something else.

You have to answer this one.”

Tension entered Seha’s hand as he gripped the steering wheel again.

The pain in his chest, which had been aching since earlier, suddenly grew stronger.

It felt as though some sharp object was pressing firmly against him.

What could possibly be there?

He did not know what kept occupying him until he felt completely full.

He tapped and touched the place.

There was a ring where his palm came to rest.

He had put the entire case there.

That was probably why Kwon Seha kept feeling uncomfortable.

“Seha.

Why did Mr. Doyoon come earlier?”

“…….”

“…Did he give you something?

What was that thing you were holding in your hand?”

Holding it in his hand would not have hidden it.

What he had been desperate to do was not save Yoon Jiwoo from falling endlessly into his own imagination.

It was to find out the name of the emotion that had swept over him the moment he saw that ring.

Seha clenched the case he could feel beneath his clothes.

“A ring.”

Since he was, as Jiwoo said, such a rotten bastard, there was nothing strange about it.

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