Strategic Mating Partner Chapter 96

About 10 minutes later, the driver who arrived at the airport waiting area was a Mexican immigrant, who joked that he seems to be working 10 times more than usual lately, probably because it is the Olympic season. Then, he tried to make small talk, asking what brought them to LA, and was surprised and welcomed them warmly when he found out that Taehyun’s group was also an athletic team heading to a facility near the athletes’ village.

“Oh, my daughter loves K-POP a lot too! She said that one member, who was it, Jihyeong? learned taekwondo when he was young, so I think I looked it up once.”

And so, he chattered on nonstop about what he knew about K-POP until they got into the vehicle.

‘I think this driver probably knows more about K-POP than most of the Koreans here….’

Taehyun thought that if he were to reply here that he had actually met that member because they had filmed a show together, the car would not even be able to depart and the conversation would just drag on and on, so he kept his mouth shut. Finally, after much ado, the group of about ten people managed to call one large car and one small car and split up. As the heavy car body began to move, Taehyun finally realized that he had not replied to Sejin.

‘Ah, right.’

When Taehyun hurriedly took out his phone again, there were no new messages from Sejin since then. Taehyun quickly typed a reply and sent it.

3:49 PM

Cute

3:50 PM

Good luck with your training

Then, just as he was about to turn off his phone screen for fear of getting carsick, a reply came back from Sejin right away.

Hyung, you should get some good rest soon too

3:50 PM

‘Heoeo….’

Taehyun’s eyes narrowed for a moment. Before, he would make me wait for ages, like a messenger to Hamheung, just to see a reply after a long time, so why is he suddenly like this? While it was subtly bothering him, a certain assumption flashed through his mind.

‘Surely he wasn’t replying late before to play some kind of push-and-pull, was he?’

The timing of his suddenly quickened responses was too suspicious. Other than that, there did not seem to be any other plausible reason he could think of. Surely he could not be that simple-minded. He wanted to dismiss it as absurd, but the circumstances were suspicious. No, push-and-pull is something you do when there’s a mutual vibe, what was he trying to do by pushing all by himself when I didn’t even care?

However, Taehyun was soon at a loss for words. In the end, didn’t he fall for that trick anyway? He only had memories of being annoyed by Sejin’s slow replies, but thanks to that, he had thought about Sejin a few more times, so he came to the conclusion that it might have been what Sejin was aiming for in its own way.

‘Now that I think about it, it’s really true, isn’t it?’

Taehyun felt wronged for a moment. I was being swayed like that by that simple-minded guy? It was unbelievable, but to some extent, it was true. For the past month and a bit, Taehyun had been surprised at whether there had ever been a time in his life when he had spent so much time thinking about just one person. Even when he was asked to take care of Sejin exclusively, he had not spent this much time thinking only of Sejin. Looking back at it one by one, a hollow laugh really came out.

It was not even funny. No matter how inexperienced he was in dating, it was not as if he had no experience at all, so to be played on the palm of a virgin six years his junior (Sejin himself had given no comment, but Taehyun had been sure for a long time) was a bit of a blow to his pride. It was ridiculous to pretend he did not like him when it was already so obvious, but he could not help but feel like he had been hit over the back of the head.

‘It’s not like I’ve ever set out to woo, seduce, and confess to someone.’

So far, all of Taehyun’s relationships had started with the other person confessing first. Of course, he had never tried to win the romantic affection of someone. In terms of human consideration, unless they were a really strange person, he was always above average, and even with that strange person, his personality was such that he would try to humor them moderately to avoid creating trouble, so unless they were truly exceptional, there were not many people who disliked Taehyun as a person.

Of course, there were plenty of people who talked behind his back, saying he was arrogant or that he benefited from being born with a handsome face, but even they would act friendly in front of Taehyun himself. Often spitting with a smiling face, pretending not to. Anyway, he had never tried to seduce someone with intent. The same went for the so-called push-and-pull.

Do I really… have to go through that troublesome process? If you like someone, why would you make them taste the frustration of rejection? If you like someone, don’t you want to see them constantly, talk to them, be with them, and things like that? He still did not understand, but in the end, Sejin’s move had worked, so he had nothing to say even if he had ten mouths.

‘So now he’s not doing it because there’s no longer a need to….’

Am I being treated like a fish that’s already been caught? Around the time Taehyun’s strange reasoning continued in a chain, the car pulled up in front of the designated accommodation. A small building, supported by the National Gukgiwon and normally used as a corporate training facility by a sponsoring company, came into view. From here, it was only about a 15-minute drive to the stadium.

“Oh…. Nice….”

The building seemed old, but it was very clean, as if it had been well-maintained. The interior also looked clean and nice, as befitting a corporate facility.

“I heard the beds at the athletes’ village are super narrow. One of my friends who arrived first is over 190cm, and he said the bed only comes up to his ankles?”

At the junior’s fuss, he went to the bedroom to check the bed first, and thankfully, it was a fairly spacious size here. Though it did seem unrealistically narrow for two men to lie down in. It seemed impossible to do any naughty things in the double occupancy room. In any case, once the competition schedule began, they would be living in the accommodation assigned within the athletes’ village, but it seemed there would be no problem using this place as a second accommodation and base camp(?) until they returned to Korea.

‘Not bad….’

Taehyun scanned the room, seuk, and took a picture. I should send this too. He was about to unconsciously send the picture to Sejin, then flinched, heumchit, thinking, what am I doing, it’s not like I’m his girlfriend reporting my daily schedule. But he would probably be curious. When Taehyun was leaving for the airport in the morning, he had been pressured with an earful of nagging to let him know if he arrived safely at the airport, if the takeoff seemed to be without problems, and to inform him if there were any issues, so as soon as the roaming kicked in, he had sent a message to Sejin saying he had arrived safely. He wondered why he was worrying about something like this, but it made him feel strange.

Ah, whatever. Let’s just go get something to eat. As Taehyun threw away his complicated thoughts and went out to the common area, which was set up like a living room, his colleagues, who had already left their luggage in their rooms, were one by one clutching their hungry stomachs.

“Ah, I’m hungry.”

“Let’s go eat, quickly, eat!”

“Didn’t you all eat the in-flight meal before we landed?”

When the coach asked in a dumbfounded and dejected tone, was she twenty now? The youngest female athlete answered with a bright smile.

“Aiy, that was just a snack! Let’s hurry and go eat In-N-O○ut!”

“Didn’t that come to Korea too?”

“No. It wasn’t an official launch, it was a short-term pop-up. I missed it because I was busy then.”

The competition is just around the corner, aren’t you managing your weight…. he thought, but since they were tired from the nearly 10-hour flight today, one day would probably be fine. It would be a bit problematic if that excuse continued until tomorrow, but in the end, everyone unanimously headed to the fast-food restaurant.

Even there, as soon as he was faced with a hamburger boasting such tremendous juiciness that made him think, ‘Wow, if I ate this every day, I’d be well on my way to 100kg,’ Taehyun first took a picture to send to Sejin. No, really, it’s not like I’m going to send it right now like a real-time report. Just with the thought of maybe collecting them and sending them all at once before bed later, he was fiddling with his phone when the junior athlete next to him asked abruptly.

“What are you taking pictures of so constantly? Are you going to post them on SNS?”

“Huh?”

Taehyun, thinking, ‘How should I take this to make it look more delicious,’ had pushed aside the french fries ordered for the coach and coaches and was focusing on capturing just the hamburger on screen, when he tilted his head, ggyauttung, at the sudden question. Ah. Right. They would know that I’m not in a situation to meet anyone, nor do I have any intention of meeting anyone. They would never have guessed that he was thinking of sending it to his prospective(?) boyfriend. Taehyun nodded his head moderately in agreement.

“Uh huh, it’s been a while since I’ve been somewhere far from Korea, so I was thinking of updating a bit.”

During the peak of his broadcasting activities, he would upload a new post almost every other day, but now, not wanting to hear complaints about playing celebrity instead of focusing on training, he was only posting about his participation in or winning of various competitions.

“Then let’s take a picture all together with us! Please tag me too.”

Somehow, it seemed so obvious what his ulterior motive was that Taehyun burst out laughing, put.