Midday Guest Chapter 69

How had I been treating Cha Seokjoo all this time?

As I sat there in a daze, retracing my past actions, Cha Seokjoo returned after finishing his call.

“You’re going to eat breakfast, right?”

“…Yes, sir.”

The answer came out polite automatically. Just like Cha Seokjoo’s employees who had been standing in perfectly straight lines a moment ago, Yiwon looked at him while maintaining a formal posture.

This man who had suddenly appeared at Haeundang. Come to think of it, he was a director of the Cheongun Group, the representative of an organization, and a formidable person living in an apartment known for housing only the select few wealthiest people in Seoul.

It was only because his playful way of speaking, youthful appearance, and their meeting in Yonggung-ri had blurred all those conditions that I hadn’t truly realized it.

“I was thinking of eating at the lounge.”

“Yes.”

“Is there anything specific you want to eat?”

“No, there is not.”

Yiwon stood there like a statue, taking a moment to reflect on his previously naive attitude.

“Why did you break down all of a sudden again?”

“…….”

“If you don’t want to eat, you don’t have to.”

In the midst of that, he was hungry. He was also very curious about the first-class lounge.

“I am going to eat, but…”

“Then what is it?”

“…Just because.”

“Just because? What kind of reason is ‘just because’?”

One of Cha Seokjoo’s eyebrows shot up. His expression said, What’s with him now?

“Is the baby nervous about riding a plane?”

“It’s not that…”

Since Cha Seokjoo was the one who handed over the passport, he surely must know this fact. No, maybe he had known since much earlier….

Yiwon, continuing his solitary thoughts, reached the conclusion: Is feeling awkward about an age gap really such a new thing? Cha Seokjoo’s demeanor toward Yiwon was not much different from usual.

Unlike Yiwon, who was becoming increasingly serious, Cha Seokjoo looked down at him with a hint of a smile. Just like the day he wrapped his arm around Yiwon’s shoulder when Yiwon was hesitating to share an umbrella awkwardly, or the day he reached out to Yiwon as he lingered, unable to easily leave Haeundang.

“Is it because I brought you here without feeding you?”

Since he was still hesitating, Cha Seokjoo grabbed Yiwon’s hand and pulled him along. Thanks to that, Yiwon’s body, which had been standing like a man with feet glued to the ground, staggered from his spot.

“…Ah.”

The two passports held in his hand fell and rolled across the floor. He bent over and picked up the passports from the ground. When he looked up again, Cha Seokjoo was staring intently at the passports with narrowed eyes.

“And here I was wondering what the reason was.”

“…….”

“You’re not the only one who was surprised.”

“…You were surprised too, Director?”

“Would I not be?”

Then, he took the passports hanging from Yiwon’s fingers. After tucking them both away inside his jacket, he finally parted his lips toward Yiwon.

“It’s not a valid reason for a return.”

“…A return, I didn’t think that far…”

“If you’ve got it, then follow me. Let’s eat.”

The large hand wrapped around Yiwon’s wrist as they walked.

Led by him, Yiwon moved his steps and thought: I was surprised because he’s older than expected, but I definitely don’t dislike it. And that man really has a baby face.

7:45 AM. Yiwon boarded the plane heading from Seoul to Hong Kong.

He was assigned a seat in first class. Yiwon, who had imagined a scene of sitting side-by-side with Cha Seokjoo, approached his seat feeling a bit flustered.

Despite being an airplane seat, the chair was as large and wide as a recliner, and it was even equipped with sliding doors so it could be used privately.

People said economy class was difficult because your knees hit the seat in front, but it wasn’t like that here. There was plenty of space left even if he sat in a posture that was supposedly the worst for the spine and stretched his legs out fully. With a seat like this, it felt like he could easily endure a 24-hour flight.

Yiwon stood in the space assigned to him and looked down at the seat next to him. He was supposed to sit alongside Cha Seokjoo with a low partition between them. The partition was about the height of an armrest, and it seemed possible to face the person next to him and have a conversation.

Even so. It only takes 3 hours and 30 minutes to get to Hong Kong, so a seat like this felt a bit excessive. Perhaps reading Yiwon’s expression, Cha Seokjoo added an explanation.

“I hate being uncomfortable. Especially when I’m on my way to a business trip.”

“…Ah.”

“Let’s sit. My head already hurts just thinking about the clean-up work I have to do.”

“Yes.”

The first-class seat he sat in following Cha Seokjoo was extremely comfortable.

The seats were special, but the meal was even more so. After takeoff, Yiwon cleanly finished the scallop appetizer, steak, and wine provided as the in-flight formal dinner.

After finishing the meal and even eating dessert on the plane, the lighting dimmed significantly. From then on, no sound could be heard except for the white noise of the cabin.

Cha Seokjoo took out a laptop on the table and began to work. After watching him for a moment, Yiwon put on a headset and searched for movies.

It wasn’t just the latest movies; there were even films that hadn’t been released yet. There was so much he wanted to see. It felt regrettable that the flight time was only 3 hours and 30 minutes.

After much deliberation, Yiwon chose a Hong Kong movie. It was a film he remembered seeing on a program called <Cinema Heaven> when he lived at Haeundang with his mother.

He carefully saved the OST he heard back then and the locations he promised himself he would visit someday. They were places he wanted to go at least once if he had the time.

As he was watching with unintentional focus, Cha Seokjoo reached out his hand. He placed his palm facing upward and tapped the table between them, so Yiwon craned his neck to look at him.

Cha Seokjoo repeated the same action without a word. He probably wouldn’t have been heard anyway since Yiwon was wearing a headset.

It was when Yiwon, after a moment of hesitation, overlapped his hand on top of the man’s palm. Cha Seokjoo turned his gaze back to the monitor while holding Yiwon’s hand.

Yiwon also turned his gaze back to the screen. His eyes were on the movie, but it felt as if his entire heart was directed toward his hand.

As if it were nothing, Cha Seokjoo focused on his work, flipping through screens with one hand.

Suddenly, Yiwon began to think seriously about what he would do during midterm exams. It seemed Cha Seokjoo could focus on work even while engaging in skinship, but Yiwon definitely could not. Leaning back in his seat, Yiwon fell into deep thought. To do even a little bit of studying during the exam period… he felt he would have to consider methods like desperately securing a library seat reservation or going to a study cafe.

Thinking about this and that, he glanced around the cabin. The interior was dark, but the purser standing by like an NPC was still within his field of vision, and Yiwon was still holding hands with Cha Seokjoo.

“…….”

Feeling worried that he might say something strange and also feeling a bit tickled, he moved to withdraw his hand. But Cha Seokjoo would not let go. He tried a few times, but it was no use.

Yiwon spent the time sitting diagonally against his chair, holding hands with him like that.

The hands were released only when Yiwon began to doze off. To lie down in the seat, he had to withdraw his arm, and Cha Seokjoo seemed to have noticed that.

Only then was Yiwon able to recline the seat. Feeling a blanket being covered over his shoulders, he fell into a deep sleep.

Just as he was stretching his legs and turning on his side, he opened his eyes to a hand shaking him. The headset he had been wearing on his ears was also removed.

“We’re landing soon.”

“Already?”

And so, they arrived in Hong Kong.

A person was waiting at the airport to greet Cha Seokjoo. After sharing simple greetings, they moved straight to the accommodation. Yiwon took in the sight of the unfamiliar city unfolding outside the window.

Tall buildings, trees that grew in peculiar ways, and the uniquely toned-down colors of Hong Kong blended together to create an exotic atmosphere.

After an hour’s drive, the place they arrived at was a clubhouse located in Stanley Bay. The 132-story apartment in Seoul was jaw-dropping, but this place was even more than that. Yiwon lost his words at the ocean view and the swimming pool connected to one side of the living room.

In the meantime, the staff member who managed the clubhouse stood the suitcases on one side of the living room and stepped back. Yiwon replied to the greeting in his stead and confirmed that the door was closed.

“Director, this…”

Yiwon, who was pulling on the suitcase handle, hurriedly lowered his voice. Cha Seokjoo was leaning against the sofa with his eyes closed. He was the type who had been working overtime in his study for several days since Oh Taesik called in the early dawn. Most people would have already been lying in bed.

He moved the suitcases into the room discreetly. There was furniture built as a luggage rack against the wall, so he placed the two side-by-side. Opening the closet to hang the clothes, he saw it was packed with shirts and suits. They were all in the sizes and designs that Cha Seokjoo enjoyed wearing. Yiwon, who added only his own clothes to the empty hangers, returned to the living room.

Cha Seokjoo was closing his eyes in the same spot and in the same pose. As Yiwon tried to move away quietly, Cha Seokjoo tapped the seat next to him on the sofa with his hand to call him over. He had opened his eyes before he knew it.

“Where are you going?”

“I was going to look around the house for a moment…”

“Do it later. I have to go out soon.”

Cha Seokjoo turned to sit toward Yiwon and reached out his arm. As soon as Yiwon approached, he lost his balance and fell toward him as if spilling over.

Cha Seokjoo covered his back with a large hand and took in his lips. Yiwon wrapped his arms around Cha Seokjoo’s shoulders and kissed him.