Chapter 16: The Aftermath

“Hey, another call.”

“…”

“I said there’s a call.”

“…”

“Choi Min-hyeon! Your phone is ringing!”

Heon-jae called out loudly. Min-hyeon was so absorbed in his game that he didn’t hear him until Heon-jae threw a small cushion that hit him—only then did he look up.

“Phone!”

“Again? Ugh. My cooldown just finished!”

Min-hyeon tossed his headset aside irritably and rushed out to the living room.

“I’m in the middle of a game! Hang up!”

He said it as quickly as possible and ran back to his computer, but in that brief moment, his character was already lying dead on the ground.

“Ah, seriously!”

Unable to contain his frustration, Min-hyeon stomped his feet—then forcefully shut down the computer. He padded over and poked Heon-jae, who was lying on the bed reading a webtoon.

“Scoot over. Let me lie down too.”

Heon-jae wriggled and made room. Lying down beside him, Min-hyeon let out a groan and thrashed around. Patting his back a few times to calm him down, Heon-jae clicked his tongue.

“Your brother is a bit much today, isn’t he?”

“Is this just ‘a bit much’? He’s completely insane.”

“Hmm. Can’t really deny that.”

With his face buried in the sheet, Min-hyeon mumbled.

“Do you think our hyung is really crazy too?”

“You just said that yourself. But he’s always been over-the-top—today he’s actually scary, though? What exactly did you do? What kind of trouble did you get into that he’s calling every ten minutes? And on the landline, too.”

“…I don’t know.”

Even he could tell it was an unconvincing answer. Min-hyeon banged his head against the plush mattress.

“What are you doing? You think that doesn’t hurt?”

Even as he said that, Heon-jae quickly slipped his hand between the mattress and Min-hyeon’s forehead to keep him from hitting too hard.

Unlike Min-hyeon, who felt so hot he could have steamed through his nose, Heon-jae’s hands were cool. Min-hyeon rubbed his forehead vigorously against Heon-jae’s cool hand.

“I don’t know.”

A sulky, whining voice came out. As always, Heon-jae didn’t rush him—he waited for Min-hyeon to speak first. It didn’t take long. Min-hyeon turned onto his side and suddenly spoke.

“I drank.”

Without pulling his hand out from under Min-hyeon’s head, Heon-jae adjusted his position so Min-hyeon could lie more comfortably.

“Oh. That’s a first. When?”

“The day before yesterday.”

“With your brother?”

“No. With a senior from school.”

Heon-jae narrowed his eyes. After thinking for a moment, he widened his eyes and looked at Min-hyeon.

“Hey, you didn’t get completely wasted and sleep over somewhere, did you?”

“Are you crazy? If I’d done that, would I still be alive? I’d be dead by now.”

“True. But then why? Why is your brother acting like that?”

“I didn’t tell hyung about the canceled class and secretly drank. I got drunk and dozed off a bit. When I didn’t come out at the usual time and didn’t answer my phone, he freaked out.”

“By your brother’s standards, that’s plenty enough to freak out about.”

Heon-jae nodded. Min-hyeon pouted. He felt wronged. Of course, secretly drinking behind his brother’s back was his fault—but at least he hadn’t intentionally turned off the GPS like Min-woo suspected. He’d just gone through that whole ordeal with Min-woo when he went to the photo exhibition with Jun-ho—would he be crazy enough to deliberately disable his own location tracking?

No matter how much he tried to explain, Min-woo had thrown a fit, demanding to know why his location couldn’t be tracked, and wouldn’t listen to a word Min-hyeon said.

“Ugh, I don’t know. No matter how special our hyung is, isn’t this a bit much? I’m a college student, and he just snatches my phone away—does that make any sense? I’m not a middle schooler. How old am I to be grounded?”

“Ah. Now I get it. So that’s why your brother keeps calling—to make sure you’re staying put at home.”

When Min-hyeon admitted that his phone had been confiscated and he was grounded, Heon-jae finally nodded as if he understood everything. Min-hyeon glanced at him and let out a deep sigh.

“…Hyung will let me go to school tomorrow, right?”

Today was still the weekend, so that was one thing—but starting tomorrow, he had to attend classes.

“Surely he’ll let you go to school.”

“Aaaah! I’m so sick of this. I’m not going to live like this forever, am I? Just thinking about it is horrifying.”

Would he ever be able to have a proper relationship while living under Min-woo’s constant surveillance? Would he even need Min-woo’s permission and supervision to date? Maybe Min-woo would be hiding somewhere watching when he kissed his partner. Just thinking about it made his skin crawl.

Min-hyeon, who had been physically shuddering, suddenly stopped moving. He’d just realized, belatedly, that the lover in his imagination whom he’d been kissing was Jun-ho. He was so naturally projecting Jun-ho into the position of his partner. His ears burned.

“Hey, your ears are going to bleed at this rate. Whoa, whoa, calm down. Your brother will get better too.”

Heon-jae, mistakenly thinking the redness in Min-hyeon’s ears came from anger or frustration at Min-woo, tried to soothe him. Min-hyeon stayed silent. When he seemed to have calmed down a bit, Heon-jae quickly changed the subject.

“So, how did your first drink taste?”

“It was good while I was drinking, but when I woke up, I felt like I was dying. My head hurt, my stomach was churning, I felt like throwing up…”

It felt like someone had hit him on the head with a hammer. The sky swayed when he looked up, the ground rocked when he looked down. Taking even one step was so hard that the walk from Jun-ho’s space to the main gate felt like several kilometers.

And the ride from school to home—why did it have to be so long? He’d struggled not to throw up in the car, only to vomit the moment he got home—pouring fuel on Min-woo’s already blazing fury.

‘Since I was already late anyway, I should have taken the hangover medicine Jun-ho hyung bought… But where did he even go?’

He regretted not taking the hangover medicine—he hadn’t even gotten to try it. Though he didn’t know where Jun-ho had gone that day, leaving him alone, he felt a little resentful. If you’re going to leave, at least wake me up first. So I could take the medicine and sober up. If he’d done that, at least he wouldn’t have been babbling nonsense in front of Min-woo.

Maybe Jun-ho had tried to wake him but he’d fallen back asleep. Jun-ho, who never forgot gentle consideration, might have done that. His feelings wavered, unable to find direction.

Then his thoughts drifted to the fact that the last thing he remembered was almost kissing Jun-ho—and his face flushed hot again.

“How much did you drink?”

“I don’t know. Three cans of beer? Four? Around that much.”

“Don’t go around drinking until you’re drunk when you don’t even know your limits. The world is dangerous these days.”

“Ah, seriously! If you’re going to be like that too, just go home. I get enough nagging from hyung as it is!”

Min-hyeon snapped irritably. Heon-jae smiled gently, saying “Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” and pacified him.

Min-hyeon immediately felt guilty. On this perfectly good weekend, Heon-jae had come all the way to his house just to see him, and he was taking all his misplaced anger. Compared to that, what a terrible friend he was. In a deflated voice, Min-hyeon apologized.

“Sorry for taking it out on you.”

“Since you know, now let go of my hand.”

Heon-jae laughed playfully. Not understanding, Min-hyeon blinked—then scrambled up moments later. Sitting up after Min-hyeon, Heon-jae swung his arm, which had been pinned under him.

“I almost died from my arm falling asleep. Your head’s gotten pretty heavy since I last saw you—you must have been studying a lot.”

“Studying? Not at all.”

“Why? You said you wanted to take a leave and retake the exam to come to my school.”

“I’m not going to your school. No, I can’t go.”

“What, what? Have you lost feelings for me now?”

“I don’t know what ‘feelings for you’ means, but hyung said not to even dream about taking a leave. And besides, to get into your school, I’d have to study like crazy—I don’t have the confidence.”

“Tch. I was all ready to be a perfect senior if you came in as my junior.”

“Then I definitely shouldn’t go—that sounds terrifying. Here, give me your arm. I’ll rub it.”

Heon-jae genuinely seemed disappointed that Min-hyeon had given up on retaking the exam. Min-hyeon felt a strange sense of newness too. Until the start of the semester, he’d vaguely dreamed of retaking the exam, hoping that if he studied like crazy, he might somehow scrape into the department with the lowest cutoff. But in just a few months, things had changed a lot. Putting aside practical difficulties, he now wanted to stay at this school by his own will. Because Jun-ho was at this school.

‘Again…’

No matter where his thoughts started, they always circled back to Jun-ho. At this point, it felt like he spent the entire day just thinking about Jun-ho.

“Hey. Put more strength into it—rub harder. That’s not rubbing, that’s groping.”

“Fine. I’ll squeeze the life out of it.”

Whenever Min-hyeon tried to daydream, Heon-jae would cut in like a ghost, so his thoughts of Jun-ho never lasted long. Min-hyeon twisted Heon-jae’s forearm with all his might. Heon-jae screamed and cried surrender.

“Ow! Sorry! I was wrong! Sorry! I surrender!”

Given their physical difference, Heon-jae could have just pulled his arm away—but instead, he obediently offered his arm and begged for forgiveness. Thanks to his big, gentle friend, Min-hyeon was able to escape his thoughts, if only for a moment.

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