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Join the ServerCrispy!!!MungBeanPancake (find_B12345): [Well, it just]
Crispy!!!MungBeanPancake (find_B12345): […]
Crispy!!!MungBeanPancake (find_B12345): [Somehow it ended up that way]
Silence hung over the chat window for a while.
It was Nokddoongie Bokddoongie who spoke first.
Not being good at offering comfort, Seon Woo-min tried his best to console MungBeanPancake.
Nokddoongie Bokddoongie (nokkdoo1107): [But, MungBeanPancake-nim,]
Nokddoongie Bokddoongie (nokkdoo1107): [If that person also has feelings for you,]
Nokddoongie Bokddoongie (nokkdoo1107): [like you do,]
Nokddoongie Bokddoongie (nokkdoo1107): [then someday, even if it’s far in the future,]
Nokddoongie Bokddoongie (nokkdoo1107): [the two of you]
Nokddoongie Bokddoongie (nokkdoo1107): [will find a way to meet again.]
Nokddoongie Bokddoongie (nokkdoo1107): [It really does happen that way.]
Nokddoongie Bokddoongie (nokkdoo1107): [Because connections have a power of their own.]
He thought about adding “so cheer up,” but stopped.
Such consolation would only sound trite to MungBeanPancake right now.
He himself had neither the ability nor the desire to summon back someone who had already drifted far away, merely by thinking about a past love.
Crispy!!!MungBeanPancake (find_B12345): [Yes, and Nokddoongie-nim,]
Crispy!!!MungBeanPancake (find_B12345): [if you have someone you like,]
Crispy!!!MungBeanPancake (find_B12345): [treat them well.]
Crispy!!!MungBeanPancake (find_B12345): [Putting everything else aside,]
Crispy!!!MungBeanPancake (find_B12345): [just so you don’t leave yourself with regrets.]
Crispy!!!MungBeanPancake (find_B12345): [That’s how you survive.]
Seon Woo-min downed the last of his coffee beer.
“…….”
That’s how you survive. So did that mean right now he felt like he was dying?
Why?
Because that love of his life wasn’t by his side?
Nokddoongie Bokddoongie (nokkdoo1107): [Okay.]
Nokddoongie Bokddoongie (nokkdoo1107): [Then get some rest, MungBeanPancake-nim.]
Nokddoongie Bokddoongie (nokkdoo1107): [I enjoyed today!
I’m off to watch IPKC.]
Woo-min laughed dryly, sent a perfunctory reply, and closed the messenger window.
***
Level 4.
“Lee Do-kyung, aren’t you cold?”
“Yeah.
Freezing.”
“Then why are you dressed like that?”
A voice that sounded like an interrogation but was actually concern.
The corners of Lee Do-kyung’s mouth rose slightly.
Seon Woo-min unwound the scarf he was wearing and wrapped it around Do-kyung’s neck.
He carefully tucked it in so that no cold wind could seep through any gaps.
Watching this, Do-kyung’s chest ached heavily.
“Enough, you wear it.”
Even as he said that, Do-kyung didn’t make a move to take it off, liking the scent of Woo-min that clung to the scarf.
A hand smacked his back as he buried his nose in the scarf, a blissful smile on his face.
“Don’t be cheesy.
We’re outside.”
The reason Seon Woo-min could so readily take off his scarf was because of the hand warmer in his own hand.
Always kept in stock at Lee Do-kyung’s front entrance.
Do-kyung, who maintained a warm body temperature even in winter, never used hand warmers.
He stocked them purely for someone else, from around the time the cold season began.
Seon Woo-min never forgot to take them whenever he went out.
He gripped Do-kyung’s affection tightly and put it in his pocket.
He never let go.
“Hmph.
As if you’d know.”
“…Cute.”
The one who had told him not to be cheesy, Seon Woo-min, as if unable to resist himself, grabbed Do-kyung’s cheeks and stretched them.
Even as he looked down expressionlessly while his cheeks were pinched, Woo-min could tell he was overwhelmed with happiness.
Because at times like that, Do-kyung’s eyes held a special gleam.
“Lee Do-kyung, be careful.
You’ll get hurt.”
Do-kyung had bundled him up almost like a snowman, saying he needed to be extra careful when a cold was winding down.
From a fleece zip-up to a thick long parka, Seon Woo-min, buried in layers with only his eyes visible, was watching what Do-kyung was doing.
“Woo-min, come here.
You try it too.”
“I don’t want to.”
The accumulated snow had frozen solid, making the narrow path slippery.
Do-kyung sliced through it with his sneakers like he was ice skating, even making a perfect curve.
“It’s fun, I tell you.”
“I don’t want to fall.”
“Why would you fall?
I’m here.”
“……”
“Come here.”
Seon Woo-min, who had his hands thrust into his long parka pockets, reluctantly took a step.
He clumsily imitated Do-kyung’s movements, running with short steps and sliding.
Watching him, Do-kyung laughed, his Adam’s apple showing.
“Wow, you’re good.
Fool?
You have to take your hands out of your pockets.”
“I’m going again.”
Having gotten into it, Seon Woo-min ran again like a penguin with short steps, braced himself with both feet, and slid.
And unintentionally, he slid straight into the arms of Do-kyung, who was waiting across from him with arms outstretched.
“Are you crazy, Seon Woo-min?
That’s f*cking cute.”
“Hey, let go… mmph!”
Do-kyung pulled him into a breathless embrace, then suddenly grabbed Woo-min’s cheeks and kissed him.
Woo-min’s eyes went wide as if they would pop out.
They were on a path where people walked by.
Once Do-kyung got into it, he tended to get excited like this regardless of the place.
At times like this, no matter how much Woo-min struggled, he wouldn’t stop.
He wouldn’t pull back until he was satisfied.
Thump thump thump, Woo-min urgently pounded Do-kyung’s back with a clenched fist and tugged at his jacket, but he didn’t budge.
After a long while, Do-kyung pulled back and traced Woo-min’s swollen lips with his index finger, his eyes lowered.
“…I want to do it again.”
“……”
“I want to be inside you.”
Seon Woo-min shook his head with a firm gaze, grabbed Do-kyung’s finger to stop it from moving further, and flung it away.
It was clear that reasoning wouldn’t work.
Do-kyung’s eyes were already gone.
The special gleam in his eyes was stage three—still controllable.
When his eyes were gone, that was stage one—out of control.
As long as Woo-min could handle the aftermath in time, he was lucky.
They walked again, holding hands.
“…Lee Do-kyung.”
“What.”
“Can you stop staring at me?”
“I don’t want to.”
“No?”
“…What do you mean, no?”
“I don’t want to either?”
“No?
You don’t dislike anything?”
“No?”
“No?”
The two could argue all night over a single word like “no.”
Being the same age, they bickered constantly.
Neither one would act mature and back down; their arguments gave no quarter.
Yet neither ever ended up in a bad mood.
And Lee Do-kyung liked that.
The fact that he and Seon Woo-min were the same age.
That they were friends who did the most erotic things to each other, lovers who shared playful pranks as intimately as friendship.
“Ah, Lee Do-kyung.
Why do you keep staring?”
“Because you’re f*cking beautiful.”
“No?”
“No?”
“…That expression is so annoying.”
“No?”
“You lunatic.”
“No?”
Seon Woo-min burst out laughing.
Even the words “you’re beautiful,” which would have embarrassed him if anyone else had said them, meant nothing coming from Do-kyung.
In fact, they were sweet.
Actually, he was so embarrassed and shy his body twisted, and it all came from sweetness that exceeded his limits.
“You really do love me, Lee Do-kyung.
You look at me like that all the time.”
“No?”
“You love me as if it’s always the first time.”
“No?”
“You never get tired of falling for me.”
“…Well, some of that is true.”
Grinning, Seon Woo-min gently pinched Do-kyung’s cheek again.
Woo-min’s gaze as he looked at him was filled with layers of blind love.
“So.
You became Rudolph to get me to think you’re cute?”
“Exactly.”
“Don’t do that next time.”
“No?”
At the café where they’d agreed to meet, Seon Woo-min waited for Do-kyung with a gift already in his crossbody bag.
On Christmas Eve, the café was filled not only with Woo-min but with many other customers, their faces excited and expectant.
At one point, the café suddenly grew quiet and murmuring broke out.
Wondering why, Woo-min turned his gaze toward the entrance.
There stood Lee Do-kyung, a red, round Rudolph nose stuck in the middle of his face, wearing reindeer antler headband, with a bundle of gifts slung over his shoulder, waving enthusiastically.
With his blue-grey contacts, he was a truly grotesque Rudolph.
Not to mention, if he was dressed as Rudolph, why was he carrying a bundle of gifts?
Nothing matched at all.
Seon Woo-min turned back around and went back to reading his poetry.
He wished he’d just pretend not to see him and leave, but Do-kyung approached Woo-min’s table and plopped the red bundle down.
While Woo-min burned with embarrassment, Do-kyung just kept smiling.
He seemed to be enjoying the attention.
That was probably why he’d been able to come to the café dressed like that.
Woo-min pressed a hand to his dizzy forehead.
“Woo-min, did you like my gift?”
“It was perfect.”
What came out of the blue-grey-eyed Rudolph’s gift bundle was an e-book reader, a tablet PC, café drink vouchers, fur gloves—everything Do-kyung had thought Woo-min needed, without hesitation.
“’Perfect’ is good to hear.
But where’s my gift?”
You’ve got to see this next! Crow's Golden Fragment will keep you on the edge of your seat. Start reading today!
Read : Crow's Golden Fragment
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