Chapter 30

When I came up to the house and opened the door, I ran into Kang Ji Seok, who was about to come out, hurrying to finish packing.

“Oh? Noona!”

Kang Ji Seok welcomed Mina-noona with his eyes shining.

“Ji Seok-ah!”

Passing in front of me to run up to noona behind me, Kang Ji Seok easily took away her heavy load and grunted.

“Noona, congratulations on passing!”

“I told you on the phone during the day, why are you congratulating me? Still, it feels good to be congratulated!”

Mina-noona smiled broadly with the corners of her mouth raised and followed Ji Seok into the kitchen.

‘The two of you called each other… I didn’t notice it.’

Come to think of it, there was a time when Ji Seok was away during the day, saying he had something to do. Was he on the phone then?

‘It’s not that I wouldn’t have understood if you told me, but you had to…’

I was quite shocked that he intentionally escaped the room to talk to Mina-noona. Was it something I shouldn’t hear? Or a private conversation just for the two of them…

I couldn’t control my complicated feelings and followed them bitterly, but Ji Geon-hyung, who was putting the shopping bags on the kitchen table, with a quick step, approached me and quickly took away my bags.

“Isn’t it heavy?”

“…ah, yes.”

As if they were in their own world, I was distracted by Kang Ji Seok and Mina-noona seeming to enjoy themselves and answered a beat late. Ji Geon-hyung put down the bags I held and whispered with his lips close to my ear.

“Aside from wine, most of these things don’t need to be cooked, so let’s leave it to Han Mina and Ji Seok.”

Some of the shopping bags were heavy, and it seemed that there was wine in them.

I left the shopping bags behind and was nearly dragged away by hyung, so I ended up sitting in the living room, and I had the sense that my brain was getting wrecked because I couldn’t control my nerves that were constantly rushing towards the kitchen.

‘I thought I already made up my mind…’

Even if Kang Ji Seok liked someone and ended up with that person, I thought it would be okay to pretend that nothing happened and stay as friends like now. In front of Mina-noona and Kang Ji Seok’s eyes, even if I couldn’t live and died, I had to congratulate them and cheer them on calmly.

Although I knew that, it was not easy to manage my expression. My heart kept beating and my fingertips were shaking, I could only endure it with my fists clenched.

By the time I felt the pain of my fingernails digging into my palm, Ji Geon-hyung’s left hand wrapped around my left fist that was placed on my knee. Then, he opened my fist as he covered the back of my hand, and clasped it. His ring naturally took its place next to the red band on the ring finger of my left hand.

Covering the back of my hand, with our fingers interlocked, Ji Geon-hyung turned my palm around to look and frowned. My palm was engraved with four red curved nail marks.

“Your palm’s hurt.”

Running the fingernail marks on my palm with his other hand, hyung turned my head and made me face his worried face.

“It’s so obvious, so stop watching, Woo Seo-ya.”

Only then was I started and my eyes trembled. It was true that I was looking at them too openly, so if it wasn’t for hyung, I probably would have received a strange look from the other two.

Staring at me quietly, he pulled me up to stand up.

“We’ll be in my room, so call us when you’re ready.”

“What? Are you going to stay in your room comfortably and leave us alone?”

Mina-noona widened her eyes in a glare. Ji Geon-hyung overwhelmed her with his characteristic cold eyes and spat out proudly.

“Of course, it’s my house.”

“Ya! Then, I’m just going smash this and this, huh?”

“Do it, if you want me to claim damages.”

“Uwah… this scary guy…”

While Mina-noona was muttering as if she was dumbfounded, Ji Geon-hyung was dragging me into his room. This time, Ji Seok ran out of the kitchen and caught him with words.

“Why are you taking Woo Seo?”

“I’m going to show him the app I’m developing.”

I didn’t even hear about the app, but after I signaled to Ji Seok that I would come back with a wink, I followed hyung into the room. For some reason, instead of the cheerful look he had before, he made a somewhat unhappy expression, but I thought it was simply a complaint for not helping the two of them.

As if to support my idea, as soon as the door closed, the voices of two joyful people came and went from beyond.

I was dragged into Ji Geon-hyung’s room and leaned against the door, closing my eyes and soothing my stuffy heart. Just as though it was fortunate not to see the voices and faces of the two in an open space, the suffocating feeling of frustration slowly subsided.

I was leaning against the door for a while, and hyung pulled down the blanket and patted the bed.

“Come here and lie down.”

Instead of asking why, I looked at him quietly and he tapped the bed again with a gentle smile. I approached him slowly and lay down on the bed just as he wanted, then he came into the blanket together with me and hugged me as if it were natural.

There wasn’t much reluctance.

Recently, I’d been falling asleep while holding each other like this every day, and it wasn’t so bad because I felt so much better than when we slept just holding hands or loosely sticking together. There were times when I was embarrassed and especially worried that he would be uncomfortable, but hyung was rather too enthusiastic as if he had become addicted to this feeling.

The pleasant comfort wasn’t just limited to sleep. Just holding each other without the intention of falling asleep like now, anxiety and tension would disappear, and my mind would calm down. It was truly a strange phenomenon.

“…Hyung, you’re like an aromatherapy candle.”

“That’s a strange metaphor.”

“I heard they’re very good for relaxing the mind and body.”1

However, in terms of performance, Ji Geon-hyung was much better. He takes effect as soon as I hug him.

I closed my eyes as I felt his hand caress my hair like it was a habit. I didn’t intend to fall asleep immediately, but I felt like I would fall into a deep slumber if I let it go on for even a little while.

“Does it still bother you?”

My thoughts, which had been slowly subdued, were immediately lifted to the surface by hyung’s words. When I opened my eyes, my eyes met his unsmiling face.

“… Of course.”

Less than ten days have passed since I met Mina-noona and heard Kang Ji Seok’s confession that night. It wasn’t that long ago, so I guessed it was too much to completely pull myself together. Furthermore, since I have to see the friendly image of those two right in front of my eyes, I couldn’t help but feel pain like my heart was twisted.

“I have to get used to it…to stay by Kang Ji Seok’s side.”

“…”

Ji Geon-Ihyung listened to me with resignation and looked intently into my eyes. He was staring at me a little bit too hard, so I asked why he was looking at me like that.

“Did you forget about me for a moment?”

“Huh?”2

It was hard to understand what he meant. Instead of speaking again, hyung, who had been hugging me, let go and suddenly got on top of me.

“Hyung?”

I couldn’t move because of his weight on my body. In addition, he raised my hands to shoulder height and pressed them down.

When I looked up at him calmly, without resisting, his shadowy face turned slightly sinister from the backlight.

“It’s a temporary measure, but the last time I tried it, it worked pretty well.”

“What…?”

Hyung’s face came down and came close enough for us to touch each other with our breaths.

“When I kissed you, you kept looking at my lips for a while. It was cute that you’d blush from time to time.”

“When did I do that?!”

“Shh… The door isn’t locked.”

My shoulders trembled from his words. I kept looking towards the door that couldn’t be seen because it was covered by hyung and I was constantly worried.

“Ji Seok has a bad habit, he doesn’t know how to knock on the door. That’s why I keep the door locked every night.”

As we slept together every day, I had no choice but to learn that hyung had a habit of locking his door when he went to sleep. I heard that this habit was due Kang Ji Seok, who would recklessly open the door and come in…

As soon as I heard his words, I quickly became impatient and anxious. Even if he didn’t do anything, a position like this would be strange enough if Kang Ji Seok were to see it. It’d be a big deal to see anyone kissing like this.

“Hyung, l-lock the door…”

The anxiety from the fact that the door wasn’t locked was greater than the tension over being kissed. Kissing or not, I wanted the door to be safely locked first.

But hyung seemed to have a different idea.