Strategic Mating Partner Chapter 90

As Sejin stared at Taehyun with a face mixed with a bit of shock, Taehyun smoothly twitched his eyebrows up and down. Then, plop, he added nonchalantly.

“Yours are the Saenggyul○gyul and Babam○ in the refrigerator.”

When Sejin silently opened the freezer compartment of the refrigerator, he found it truly was piled high with ice cream he had never seen before. It seemed Taehyun had bought a large amount from the ice cream discount store in front of the studio apartment complex entrance and stocked it up. Instead of grumbling, Sejin picked up an ice cream bar, tore off the plastic wrapper, and began to munch on it. It was sweet. The cold ice cream melted softly in his mouth, but for some reason, it could not calm the heat that seemed to be boiling up from within him.

Why are you here. He wanted to snap at him, asking what he was doing here, but the words would not come out. The moment he brought it up himself, he felt like Taehyun would say, ‘Oh, right. Well, I’ll get going then,’ and just get up and leave. He could not understand why he did not want Taehyun to go. Just as he could not understand why Taehyun was here, Sejin decided to just let it be.

After that, until his departure date was set and he had to head to the local training facility in Istanbul, Taehyun continued to frequent Sejin’s studio apartment. Sometimes, he would very boldly spread out a blanket he had brought himself on the floor and sleep over. One time, after changing into his pajamas, he glanced at Sejin and sat down on the edge of the bed, and when Sejin did not say anything, he quickly got under the covers on the bed and fell asleep first. He wanted to fiercely chase him out, asking why he was occupying someone else’s bed, but those words did not come out, and after Taehyun left, Sejin found himself unconsciously sniffing the blanket.

This is a creepy thing to do. He knew it was something a pervert would do, yet his hand moved first. Like it had been dried crisp in the sun. A slightly sweet and cozy smell of the sun. A strangely pleasant scent lingered as if a room spray had been used. Does he use something like perfume, which is unlike him? No, it might not be unlike him, but perhaps it suited him. Unlike other indifferent male athletes who were drenched in the smell of sweat, he was the type to care about unseen maintenance.

He did not seem to put much effort into his appearance, but his every action and his attire showed he was not someone who just went about carelessly. He gave the impression of someone who considered how he appeared to others. Yet, it did not feel like he was overly sensitive or meticulously grooming himself either. He began to understand a little why the public, as well as those around him, went crazy for Taehyun.

Be that as it may, he considered kicking the uninvited guest(?) sleeping soundly while occupying someone else’s bed in the butt and chasing him onto the floor, but in the end, Sejin could not bring himself to do it. When he gently pushed him to the side as if to say ‘scoot over a bit,’ Taehyun made a groaning sound, eung, as he tossed and turned, then lay on his side. Thanks to that, Sejin squeezed his body into the narrow empty space that had been created. In reality, the bed, which was quite cramped even for a tall man to sleep in alone, was now filled with the bodies of two people.

Sejin snorted, heung, and pulled the blanket up to cover himself. Lying there with his shoulder against Taehyun’s, his heart kept pounding loudly, thump thump thump. It felt strange that the thought of kicking him out right away did not cross his mind.

The reason Taehyun showed such burdensome kindness was simple. Because Sejin looked lonely. Because he felt sorry for the eighteen-year-old kid who had no adult to properly take the time to look after him, other than himself. In truth, it might have been that Taehyun himself was lonely. As is often the case with those who bestow excessive kindness upon others, the act of easily sharing affection was, in the end, not so different from craving affection, and it would reveal how affectionate and tender-hearted a person he was. Taehyun sometimes seemed very solid, but at other times, he was a soft person, like ice cream that melts in an instant.

Sejin wanted to touch that weak point of his. He wanted Taehyun to be flustered because of him and spend a heated night, not knowing what to do, just like him. However, all he could do, and all he knew how to do, was to let out a light snort, heung, blush, and avoid his gaze, so until the moment they finally parted, Sejin did not realize what his feelings were.

During the short cohabitation of a somewhat twisted and strange relationship that began just before his departure, Sejin and Taehyun talked quite a lot. It was mostly Taehyun unilaterally starting the conversation, but in any case, a situation resembling a dialogue continued.

“Why are you going this far for me?”

When Sejin took a big bite, hap, of the famous brand chicken burger Taehyun had bought for dinner and asked abruptly because he really did not understand, Taehyun answered again with a smooth expression.

“Just because. I told you to think of it as a sense of camaraderie, didn’t I?”

Why would you with me? And what kind of nonsense is this camaraderie. When Sejin scowled at the still-unconvincing answer, Taehyun curled the corners of his lips into a grin and said.

“I told you. When I was about your age, I was also surrounded by people I disliked. My family situation was a mess, and it wasn’t an environment where anyone could properly take care of me. In situations like that, a trivial word can become a huge turning point.”

Sejin still wore a look of incomprehension. Taehyun smiled and added.

“And well… if I have to say, I guess it’s because of a sense of kinship. I heard that your only guardian is your mother. I was also raised by my mother. The reason… might be different from yours, but my father wasn’t an ordinary person.”

The story he continued with an indifferent tone was not something that could be passed over nonchalantly. From his father trying to take the prize money he received for an injury in a competition, to him frequently going to his mother’s academy and causing a scene. Taehyun was surprised at himself to find that revealing his own shame, which he had vaguely thought would be difficult, was easier than he had imagined. He thought he would never be able to tell anyone because it was embarrassing. Now that he had, it felt like it was nothing.

Of course, the reason was likely because the one listening to that long, drawn-out story was not just anyone, but Sejin. He felt that Sejin probably would not hold a prejudice against him or distance himself over something like this. If he were to be asked to pinpoint the reason he believed that, he would have nothing to say, but he just felt that sense of relief. It was a strange thing.

“……”

Sejin, who had been listening to those words in silence, briefly tried to come up with various sentences in his head to offer some words of comfort to Taehyun, but concluded that all those attempts would be rather meaningless. He was not very good with words anyway. No matter what he squeezed out, he would not be able to soothe him with eloquent speech. In that case, it was better not to say anything about it. Sejin fell silent again, and after a long while, he opened his mouth.

“I haven’t had a father since I was born. My mother just said she doesn’t know either.”

He could not understand why it was so difficult to utter that short sentence. It was a story as difficult to tell others as having a trash-like father. He did not know if his mother’s words were a lie or the truth, but there is a big difference between a child whose father is ‘non-existent’ and a child whose father is ‘unknown’.

Will this be a comfort to you. Will me telling this story not destroy that inexplicable sense of kinship you felt from me. It was a shame that Sejin, too, had never told anyone, but after saying it, he felt a sense of relief. Taehyun, who had been looking at Sejin with slightly widened eyes without realizing it, suddenly gave a bitter smile and answered.

“One never had one from the start, and the other was at a point where it would have been better not to have one. Then, well, can’t we see that as being similar in their own way? Or not, is that too rude of a remark to the one who never had one at all?”

Sejin did not reply to that casual, plop, remark. Instead, at Taehyun’s bitter smile, his own lips unknowingly formed a gentle curve.

“What is that.”

Although the first word that came out of his mouth was again an unintentionally blunt one, it was not unpleasant. But at the same time, his stomach started to churn again as if he had indigestion. He felt like something was broken. When he was with Taehyun, he would feel anxious and nervous, as if the ground beneath his feet was falling into a bottomless pit, but when he saw his smiling face, he would become okay. Even when Taehyun did nothing, it was a repetition of a routine where Sejin alone got sick and then got better. He himself did not know why he was being like this.

And so, the short respite came to an end in an instant. Five days after Taehyun left for the host city first, Sejin also boarded a plane to Istanbul with the rest of the national fencing team. It was a rather long flight to Istanbul, but with an unknown sense of elation, he pointlessly turned on one movie after another that he had no interest in, and repeatedly fell asleep and woke up, and before he knew it, it was time to land. The plane that had departed in the morning finally lowered its wheels in the city called the gateway to Europe just before dinnertime.

At last, the real schedule was beginning.