Chapter 38: Coffee After the Wedding

“I just came from a wedding. I don’t really like dressing up like this, but I had no choice.”

Shin Joowon, wearing a bright smile, started the engine and drove the car.

Yooha’s gaze was completely stolen by Shin Joowon, who seemed to shine exceptionally brightly today.

Although there had been more than one occasion when he felt Joowon was a person living in an entirely different world from him, seeing him dressed up like this made his own clothing look infinitely shabby.

“Yooha, your belt.”

“Ah, yes….”

After scrambling to put on his seatbelt at Joowon’s words, a heavy silence fell.

Yooha only toyed with his clasped hands, holding his bag tightly in his embrace.

Every time this happened, he resented his own lack of conversational skills.

He couldn’t think of what would be good to say, and only worries that he might make Shin Joowon uncomfortable with unnecessary words swirled in his mind.

Whenever he was in front of Shin Joowon, what little confidence he had to begin with sank even lower.

Just as he was about to pick at his hangnails again, the gifticon Woo Tae had given him occurred to Yooha’s mind.

“Shall we have some coffee? What do you think?”

Just in time, as if he had read Yooha’s thoughts, Shin Joowon made a proposal.

In his delight, Yooha’s voice popped out in a bit of a hurry.

“I’d like that… and I, I have a gifticon, so I need to use it….”

“Really? Where is it for?”

“…Flos. There’s probably one near here, too.”

While the car was stopped at a red light, Shin Joowon searched for the cafe Yooha mentioned on the navigation.

Setting the first location that popped up as the destination, the route guidance appeared soon after.

“It only takes five minutes. We’ll arrive soon.”

“Yes…….”

Yooha, looking at the smiling Shin Joowon, answered with a much more relaxed mind.

He had internally worried what he would do if Joowon said he didn’t like that place and suggested going somewhere else, so he felt grateful to him for readily accepting his proposal.

Holding onto a pleasant fluttering, Yooha kept playing with his bag strap until they arrived at the cafe.

Parking the car in the basement of the building where the cafe was located, they went up to the cafe together.

The moment they stepped inside, it felt as if everyone was staring at him—or rather, at Shin Joowon standing beside him.

However, as if he didn’t care about other people’s gazes in the slightest, Shin Joowon began to search for a seat to sit, looking around busily.

“There’s a seat over there.”

Shin Joowon, pointing to a seat that caught his eye, grabbed Yooha’s wrist without hesitation.

While following his long strides, heat rose in Yooha’s body in an instant.

Although his hand became free as soon as they arrived at the seat, even though the contact hadn’t been long, his captured wrist felt hot and stinging as if burned.

“I’ll go order. What kind of coffee do you want, Hyung…?”

Yooha, putting down only his bag, asked Shin Joowon while gathering his phone and wallet.

He felt it would be better to leave the seat as quickly as possible to calm the heat that had spread across his face.

“I’m fine with an iced americano. No, let’s go together. I’ll buy.”

“No, it’s fine. The expiration date for this is tomorrow, so I absolutely must use it….”

Yooha showed the screen displaying the gifticon to Shin Joowon, who was about to rise from his seat with his wallet in hand.

Shin Joowon nodded as if understanding, and then smiled brightly at Yooha.

Yooha, bowing his head, quickly headed to the counter.

After ordering exactly according to the gifticon menu, he took the buzzer and intentionally waited in front of the pick-up counter.

Although he could have gone back to his seat to wait, Yooha needed a little more time to calm the heat that had risen in his body.

By the time he barely managed to soothe himself, the menu he ordered was ready.

Yooha returned to his seat holding the tray, which had two iced americanos and a slice of chocolate cake on it.

Before he knew it, Shin Joowon had taken off his navy suit jacket and was wearing only his shirt and tie.

That appearance made him look like a mature adult, making Yooha’s heart thump for no reason.

“Thanks, Yooha. I’ll enjoy it.”

Shin Joowon, who inserted straws into each cup and placed a fork in front of Yooha, smiled as if truly grateful.

Thinking that this was nothing compared to the consideration and kindness Joowon had shown him, Yooha felt a bit ashamed.

But that lasted only a moment; as he sat across from Shin Joowon, heat began to boil up from inside again.

Yooha emptied half of his coffee in one gulp and cautiously caught his breath.

A look of interest was nestled on Shin Joowon’s face as he watched Yooha.

“Do you tutor tomorrow too?”

“Yes….”

“You don’t get a single day of rest on the weekend. It must be tiring.”

“…It’s okay. I’m already used to it, so it’s not as tiring as you’d think.”

Although Yooha continued softly, he couldn’t easily make eye contact with Shin Joowon and shifted his gaze slightly downward.

Shin Joowon, playing with his straw, looked at Yooha’s reddish ear and his flushing cheek in turn.

Exactly like when Yooha had reacted to the pheromones Joowon had deliberately leaked in the library, Yooha looked as if he were embarrassed.

“But it’s still hard. Is it… because of tuition, by any chance?”

Ever since the thought had occurred to him that Yooha’s approaching him with an ulterior motive might have been his own misunderstanding, Shin Joowon’s curiosity about Yooha had increased dramatically.

Although Yooha had already shown him the neighborhood he lived in and kept carrying around that cheap wallet, suggesting he didn’t have much shame about his circumstances, Shin Joowon asked while maintaining as gentle a voice as possible.

Yooha’s eyes seemed to widen for a moment, and then his hands became noticeably busy.

Shin Joowon kept his eyes on Yooha’s face, maintaining silence.

Before long, Yooha answered while rubbing the condensation on the glass cup.

“It’s not because of that… my situation is a bit poor, so I receive a scholarship for my tuition. For part-time jobs… since I’m an adult now, I thought it’s only right that I earn and spend my own living expenses. And I feel so sorry to keep relying on my aunt…….”

For Shin Joowon, several million won for a semester’s tuition was close to pocket money.

There were many times when he spent several times that amount on buying a single pair of shoes, a bag, or a piece of clothing.

The fact that Yooha received a scholarship meant that his situation was so poor he couldn’t even afford to pay that.

Since Joowon had seen it himself, he understood to some extent.

However, Shin Joowon soon fell into another question.

He knew Yooha lived at his aunt’s house, but he found it puzzling that Yooha felt a sense of debt to the point of describing it as “relying.”

His curiosity getting the better of him, Shin Joowon didn’t choose his words carefully like before and let them slip out.

“Do your parents not help you at all? If their son is struggling this much, they could help.”

Shin Joowon took a sip of his coffee through the straw after finishing his words.

Yooha couldn’t answer easily, only biting his lip.

Moreover, he was gripping the cup so tightly with both hands that his fingertips had turned white.

“I… don’t have parents.”

The moment Yooha’s voice flowed out, Shin Joowon stopped his hand, which had been turning the straw.

“They passed away when I was ten. So I’ve been staying at my aunt’s house since then….”

“…….”

“Ah… it’s okay. Don’t worry too much…. It’s been a long time, so it’s nothing to me now.”

Only after facing the awkward smile, which clearly showed how hard Yooha was trying to act as if it were nothing, did Shin Joowon realize his expression had turned grim.

Bowing his head slightly, he rubbed his furrowed brow to relax it, but the shock that had struck his mind without warning did not easily fade.

Although he had been curious about the reason Yooha had come to live at his aunt’s house, he hadn’t expected such circumstances.

It seemed Jin Yooha had lived with his aunt and uncle ever since his parents passed away, viewing them like his parents and his cousin Woo Tae like a biological brother.

If Jin Yooha possessed a truly kind and soft personality, it was understandable that he was pushing himself because he didn’t want to keep relying on his aunt, who had raised him since he was ten.

To think he had chosen the most expensive frappuccino and even added whipped cream just to test a kid like this.

At the thought that his past self had been nothing more or less than an unredeemable piece of trash, heat rushed to his head.

Jin Yooha must have had a truly apologetic heart and had tried to buy him even a coffee, and the ten thousand won at the time must have been money Jin Yooha had earned through hard work.

Shin Joowon had to admit that at that time, he had been a complete scumbag.

“…Sorry. I brought up something I shouldn’t have.”

“No. I’m really fine.”

Yooha waved his hands vigorously at the apologizing Shin Joowon.

Before long, Yooha, firmly clasping the cup with both hands, smiled at Shin Joowon as their eyes met.

His softly crinkled eyes and the corners of his mouth rising subtly created a smile that made him look truly fine this time.

Shin Joowon faced the smile he had once dismissed as an illusion once again.

Feeling dazed, he blinked his eyes once like before, but this time, the smile still remained on Yooha’s face.

Seeing the clear smile from which no intention could be read, the coffee he had drunk with indifference until moments ago swirled, making his stomach churn.

Shin Joowon muttered curses in his mind, hiding his hand beneath the table and clenching it into a tight fist.

“Hyung… I’m really fine. Don’t feel sorry…. I’m fine, I am….”

Although he couldn’t even make proper eye contact when talking, noticing his expression had turned sour and trying to reassure him by repeating himself was so like Jin Yooha.

Shin Joowon relaxed his tightly clenched fist and let out a light laugh.

“Got it. My feeling sorry makes you uncomfortable, right?”

“It’s not that I’m uncomfortable…….”

“Yes, I know.”

If left alone, Yooha looked as if he would dig a hole and hide.

Shin Joowon cut off Yooha’s words at a reasonable point and overlapped his hand over Yooha’s hand.

As his hand completely enveloped Yooha’s, Yooha’s hand flinched slightly.

Deliberately applying a bit more force to press their hands closer, Shin Joowon drew a bright smile to reassure Yooha.

The heat that rose on Yooha’s face as he looked at Shin Joowon, dyeing it red, was in some ways only natural.

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