Chapter 57: The Unconventional Proposal

“A dorm? Well…”

Yeon-chae had an indifferent expression. His reply was far from enthusiastic, causing Yoonwoo’s brow to furrow.

“What is it now?”

“Rather than a dorm, I’d say…”

“Oh, right, what?”

His lips curved into a faint smile. Yeon-chae chuckled, looking at Yoonwoo, who was staring intently with a tense expression.

“It’ll be more like a newlywed home.”

It was clearly a joke. Yoonwoo tried to retort casually, but his lips were sealed shut, unable to utter a single word.

“I’m not joking. Nor do I feel like it.”

His tone suggested he had read Yoonwoo’s thoughts. Yoonwoo slowly blinked his eyes.

Yeon-chae’s light brown gaze met his directly.

The moment their eyes met, Yoonwoo knew. Just as Yeon-chae had claimed, there was not a hint of playfulness in his gaze. Yoonwoo swallowed sharply.

‘Marriage? Really? Well, there are certainly many benefits to getting married.’

Yeon-chae’s voice, casually mentioning marriage, echoed in Yoonwoo’s ears. As if seeking a housemate to save on living expenses, he had enumerated the advantages of marriage, captivating Yoonwoo.

The temptation had sounded quite plausible. For a moment, Yoonwoo had been so swayed that he almost proposed to Yeon-chae on the spot, barely managing to regain his composure.

“I want to marry you, Hyung, and for this to become our newlywed home. Please think about it seriously.”

“Hey, what’s with this sudden talk…?”

It was a conversation that seemed to have faded away. Yet, Yeon-chae had brought up the marriage card once more.

This time, however, his voice wasn’t as casual or tossed-aside as before. The moment Yoonwoo realized this, his throat went dry.

“…Are you suggesting we get married so we can properly greet our parents and it’ll be easier to raise the baby?”

“That’s part of it, yes.”

The calm reply came back. Yeon-chae’s unwavering gaze seemed to sweep over Yoonwoo.

Yoonwoo swallowed dryly, averting his eyes. Somehow, his cheeks flushed hot.

“You shouldn’t just get married for reasons like that.”

He retorted, almost lecturing. If a twenty-one-year-old was pushing for marriage with such naive reasons, even a twenty-three-year-old needed to be on high alert.

“Then what reason should there be?”

“Naturally, we should… love… each other.”

Yeon-chae snorted. His expression clearly conveyed, ‘What’s all this talk of love now?’

Given that they had gotten pregnant after an accidental encounter with someone they hadn’t even properly dated, let alone had a ‘something,’ Yoonwoo himself felt that any mention of love was belated.

However, Yeon-chae seemed resolute, unwilling to back down as easily as before.

“So, if I love you, it’s fine?”

“What’s that sudden nonsense now?”

“If I love you, Hyung, will you marry me?”

“There you go again, saying things you don’t mean…”

It was starting again. Yeon-chae’s relentless, nonsensical demands.

Sometimes, he would fixate on something trivial, acting stubbornly like a spoiled puppy.

He had been like this when he insisted on having a baby, claiming he wouldn’t date or marry anyone else.

He was also like this when he pressured Yoonwoo to marry and live together, citing his conservative stance against cohabitation before marriage.

Now, after Yoonwoo had simply told him that marriage was for people who loved each other, he was asking if it would be fine if he loved Yoonwoo.

Yoonwoo pressed a hand to his forehead. ‘I know you’re in love with Yoon-hyung!’

Yoonwoo felt a surge of anger, realizing how utterly oblivious Yeon-chae thought he was. As always, he countered the nonsense with more nonsense.

“Hey, I said ‘mutually’ love each other. You can’t just push it, claiming you love someone when they don’t even feel the same way.”

Although it was a casual deflection, it was also a remark tinged with concern, made with Yeon-chae’s ‘true future spouse’ in mind.

If Yeon-chae was willing to marry simply for convenience and to avoid parental scolding, he might push for marriage without considering the other person’s feelings.

Yeon-chae’s common sense was a bit peculiar, requiring Yoonwoo to teach him even such obvious things. Yoonwoo certainly didn’t want to see Yeon-chae getting slapped around in the future.

As if reading Yoonwoo’s thoughts, Yeon-chae let out a hollow laugh.

“I won’t push. I won’t force you to like me.”

“Well, that’s good then…”

“Hyung.”

Yeon-chae cut off Yoonwoo’s continuing reply.

“We’re not talking about that right now, are we?”

Of course, they weren’t talking about that.

Yoonwoo was still talking about Yeon-chae’s future true love. He glared at Yeon-chae with displeased eyes.

The twenty-one-year-old, who was the other father of the baby in Yoonwoo’s belly, was acting out, seemingly unhappy even with Yoonwoo considering his own predicament at such a young age.

“Even if I truly like you, I won’t demand that you unconditionally accept me.”

“Alright, I get it.”

It seemed best to drop the subject here. Yoonwoo also didn’t want to upset Yeon-chae with unnecessary meddling.

As Yoonwoo waved his hand dismissively, Yeon-chae sighed and spoke.

“Just don’t reject me right away. Take some time and think about it.”

“I said I get it… What?”

“I’ll wait. Quietly, without rushing you.”

Yeon-chae’s eyes curved into a wide smile.

‘Were we still talking about marriage?’ While Yoonwoo blinked, a bewildered expression on his face, Yeon-chae quickly brought over a pressure cooker and placed warm galbi-jjim onto Yoonwoo’s empty plate.

So, this galbi-jjim was like a bribe, asking Yoonwoo to marry him.

Yeon-chae’s parents had divorced when he was young. Yoonwoo had heard this when Yeon-chae explained the child support fund his father had supposedly set up.

When asked how his father had prepared such a fund so early, Yeon-chae replied indifferently.

‘He probably did it to show off in front of my mom.’

‘Huh? What do you mean?’

‘When they divorced, my mom took me, so my dad has a bit of an inferiority complex. He probably wanted to show off that he treats me better than my mom.’

‘Oh? Oh…’

Yeon-chae’s expression remained unfazed, but Yoonwoo’s face grew awkward at the sudden influx of private information.

The conversation, which Yoonwoo had forgotten for a while, came back to him that morning, prompted by Yeon-chae’s insistent text message.

[Hyung. Are you thinking about it properly?]

Perhaps Yeon-chae missed having a family. For Yoonwoo, the idea of missing family was hard to comprehend.

He was constantly annoyed by his noisy older brother—the type who would still talk even if drowned—and his tempestuous twin high schoolers.

However, for Yeon-chae, an only child who had lived solely with his mother since childhood, missing family seemed entirely plausible.

Moreover, Yoonwoo had heard that Yeon-chae’s mother had recently remarried. This could have been a blow to Yeon-chae.

In any case, seeing him push for marriage, it seemed clear that ‘Yoon-hyung’ was a lost cause.

Yoonwoo felt an ambiguous mix of wanting to laugh and cry at this realization, which he had discovered in such an unwelcome manner.

[I told you I’d think about it. You are thinking about it, right?]

He had promised to wait quietly without rushing, but of course, Yeon-chae couldn’t resist.

Yoonwoo considered replying, then sighed and put his phone down. He needed time to clear his cluttered mind.

Again, his phone buzzed. This time, the vibration didn’t stop after a single pulse but continued repeatedly.

Thinking it was going on for too long, he glanced at his phone again, only to see an incoming call instead of a message notification. The name on the screen was Yeon-chae, once more.

“H-hello?”

–Why did you answer so late?

“I didn’t know you were calling.”

Yeon-chae must have seen the ‘1’ next to the message disappear instantly, yet the obvious lie flowed easily from Yoonwoo.

Yeon-chae didn’t bother to acknowledge it. Instead, he simply stated what he wanted.

–Then please open the door.

“Huh?”

–The door. The front door.

Then, the doorbell rang a long, sustained chime. Still holding the phone to his ear, Yoonwoo dazedly turned his head toward the front door.

“I just remembered something I forgot to give you.”

Yeon-chae confidently entered the house and stated his purpose.

“Is no one home?”

“Huh? Oh…”

It was a weekday afternoon, and Jinwoo and Kangwoo, being high school students, would naturally be at school. Yoonwoo nodded, his expression awkward.

In any case, Yoonwoo found it awkward to face Yeon-chae right now. Knowing that his talk of marriage was serious, Yoonwoo couldn’t playfully brush him off as before.

Yeon-chae had said he would wait, but as time passed, Yoonwoo only grew more uncomfortable.

However, Yoonwoo soon changed his mind. He decided it was perhaps for the best that Yeon-chae had come.

“Yeon-chae. Since you’re here, let’s talk.”

It was just as Yoonwoo, having made up his mind, opened his mouth with a resolute expression.

“Just a moment.”

Yeon-chae gently cut off Yoonwoo’s words. Without missing a beat as Yoonwoo flinched and paused, he pulled Yoonwoo by the wrist and sat him down on a dining chair.

Then, he knelt on one knee before Yoonwoo.

Yoonwoo, whose senses instantly returned, sprang up from his seat.

“What is this, what are you doing!”

Still, his wrist was held by Yeon-chae, preventing Yoonwoo from escaping. Starting from the tips of his ears, his neck and both cheeks quickly flushed crimson.

There was no way Yoonwoo couldn’t guess what Yeon-chae was about to do.

Inevitably, Yeon-chae pulled a small box from his jacket’s inner pocket. Yoonwoo was so flustered that tears welled up in his eyes.

More than anything, he couldn’t endure the sheer embarrassment of Yeon-chae kneeling on one knee before him in this situation. Yoonwoo tried to stop Yeon-chae, his voice thick with emotion.

“Hey, get up. Why are you doing this to me…?”