Episode 51

 

Gyowon naturally handed over his phone as if he wasn’t paying any attention to Haeun’s reaction. Haeun quickly glanced at the screen of the phone he offered.

‘Wow, this phone looks nice.’

That was his first impression. It looked like a high-end model at first glance, and the screen was not even cracked, suggesting that it was well taken care of. For Haeun, who had a habit of treating his phones roughly and often used an iPhone without a case to show off, it was hard to imagine.

Although Gyowon didn’t seem to mind, it still looked awkward that he had just been pretending to gag and then immediately offered his phone. Haeun quickly opened his mouth as if he hadn’t already scanned him.

“I don’t really want to give my number to you because your skills at picking up numbers aren’t great.”

After saying that, he wondered if he had acted a bit too smug since, in the end, he was in a position where he needed help. No, wait, when did he start caring about other people’s opinions? 

Haeun looked at Gyowon’s expression but stopped himself. He replied lightly, as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“You have to have tried picking up numbers before, right? I’m a beginner, so could you cut me some slack?”

He answered so nonchalantly, but for some reason, it felt kind of annoying. It didn’t make sense to argue over it, so he just quietly accepted the phone.

However, when he casually flipped the phone over, he saw that the plain hard case he thought it had was actually decorated with a cute wolf character. 

Looking up at him with a puzzled look, he instead asked, ‘Why?’ as if it were odd that he was staring.

Well, it’s a bit funny to comment on someone else’s taste, but… still, doesn’t it seem a bit mismatched with his image? 

Haeun carefully chose his words and replied.

“Your taste is more… cute than I expected.”

At that, Gyowon said ‘Ah’ and chuckled briefly. Then, he explained that it was a gift from a fan.

“I get a lot of gifts like that, but cases are consumables. If it’s too good, it feels a bit burdensome to carry around. And isn’t it cute?”

It was cute, but it still felt like an unexpected side of him. Haeun shrugged and turned on the screen. As he handed it over, he wondered if there was no password on it, but there was—it had a pattern lock.

Instead of asking him to unlock it, he just stared at him. Gyowon extended his finger and drew the pattern on the screen. Was he not even trying to hide it? What if I just took the phone and hacked it? Of course, he wasn’t paying enough attention, so he quickly forgot the pattern.

As he looked down to type in the number, he noticed that Gyowon’s phone had an unusually large screen, which didn’t seem to suit ‘Park Ha’s’ hands. 

Park Ha’s body was smaller than Haeun’s, both in height and hand size. He had often found his small hands inconvenient. But even accounting for that, the phone’s screen was still quite large.

Haeun, remembering his father’s words about needing a larger screen because his eyesight was poor, asked.

“Why is the screen so big? Are you getting old?”

In the meantime, the number had already been entered. As Haeun took back the phone, Gyowon let out a laugh. He shook the phone in his hand, as if to show it to him, and answered.

“If it were smaller than this, it’d look petty.”

It certainly seemed to fit Gyowon’s hand just right, while it had looked strangely large in Haeun’s. If he were holding a smaller phone, it might have looked as ridiculous as a bear riding a tiny unicycle.

His hands seemed to be quite large, maybe even larger than his original hands. It wasn’t that he was envious, but it strangely bruised his pride. 

When he didn’t respond and diverted his attention, Gyowon seemed unfazed and turned his gaze back to the phone. Haeun had been curious about what he was going to save the number as, but when he looked back after a moment, Gyowon had already put his phone away.

Then, as if a thought had suddenly occurred to him, Gyowon opened his mouth.

“Ah, right.”

“What?”

“Should I speak informally?”

When Haeun reflexively asked, Gyowon responded with an answer that was neither a question nor a reply. Haeun, almost in disbelief, answered casually.

“You’re already speaking informally, though?”

At first, he had mixed polite and informal speech, but just a moment ago, he had switched completely to informal. Gyowon’s words seemed to be neither a request nor a notification, which made Haeun feel puzzled.

But then, Gyowon suddenly turned to Haeun with a serious expression.

“Haeun ssi.”

“Yes?”

“This.”

Taken aback by the serious tone, Haeun answered absentmindedly. Gyowon continued speaking calmly.

“Haeun ah.”

“Yes?”

“And this is different.”

“….”

What the heck is he saying?

Haeun thought he was going to say something serious when he suddenly lowered his voice. But when it was all said and done, he was just saying that ‘Haeun ssi’ and ‘Haeun ah’ were different. So, was there really any point in being surprised?

Once again, Haeun’s pride was slightly hurt. He turned his head dissatisfactorily.

“Then go ahead. I’ll contact you.”

In the end, Gyowon had said what he needed to, gotten Haeun’s number like he wanted, and informed him that he would be speaking informally from now on. Then, after briefly asking where his accommodation was, he quickly drove him there.

Being pushed and dragged along like this……

Haeun felt a strange discomfort and resentment in the back of his mind even though Gyowon had come to do something good for him. After the pleasant greeting was over, Haeun responded gruffly to the teacher’s cheerful goodbye.

“Yeah.”

Haeun’s tone made it clear he wasn’t thrilled about it although he was grateful. It probably wasn’t easy to pack so much transparent intent into a single response. 

Gyowon, who smiled casually, let go of the door handle that he had been holding as if he were about to open the door and naturally reached out his hand.

Startled, Haeun felt his index finger lightly tap his cheek before he opened the door.

If someone else had done it, or if it had been done just a little differently, it would have felt much creepier. 

Haeun, who was especially sensitive to same-sex physical contact because of being in a BL game, might have shuddered right in front of him. But since he only lightly brushed his cheek with the back of his hand, he wasn’t angry or upset. 

Was he someone who knew just the right way to touch someone without making them feel uncomfortable from the start? It seemed like that more than anything…

As Haeun looked at his face, a lazy thought crossed his mind: ‘Would he really do that…?’ 

So, he obediently got out of the car, following Gyowon’s lead. This time, he didn’t forget to bow slightly and greet him politely.

“Thank you for dropping me off.”

Gyowon smiled softly and nodded his head as a reply. Acting like an adult… 

Even as he thought that, he didn’t say anything. By now, most of his dissatisfaction had faded away.

***

“Hey, Park Haeun.”

As soon as he entered his accommodation, a cold voice pierced through the air. Seongjae, arms crossed, was leaning against the entrance with a slouched posture. Haeun, who hadn’t expected this situation, flinched and took a step back.

“W-what is it?”

He hadn’t expected Seongjae to be waiting for him in a manner like a parent waiting for their child who had been out drinking late at night. 

Lost in the whirlwind with Gyowon, Haeun had completely forgotten that the situation when he parted ways with Seongjae had been a bit awkward.

Thinking back, unlike Junwoo, who had practically pushed him to hurry into Gyowon’s van, Seongjae had seemed to reach out to him with a rather urgent expression. At the time, things had been so chaotic that he hadn’t had the chance to think about it.

“Where have you been, and what were you doing until now?”

Now that he thought about it, he felt a little guilty for forgetting. But backing down when being interrogated wasn’t like Park Haeun at all.

“What do you mean, what was I doing? Don’t you already know? You saw it earlier—I got taken away.”

Haeun shrugged as he spoke, his tone far from pleasant. The system, as if it had been waiting for the perfect moment, immediately objected.

『A professional idol doesn’t respond curtly to a concerned member!｡ﾟ(*´□`)ﾟ｡』

So far, it had been oddly quiet that Haeun had even wondered if it had finally given up on nitpicking, but of course, that had been a foolish hope. 

Seeing Haeun’s blunt response, Seongjae stared at him with a troubled expression and asked.

“Taken away? What… did he threaten you or something?”

“Huh?”

“Or did you get into a fight like in that article? Did he try to put you in your place?”

Seongjae’s expression looked genuinely serious. Haeun realized he might have messed up. His demeanor had been so intense that he had instinctively reacted defensively, but just as the system pointed out, he was actually just worried about him.

Seeing Seongjae looking so serious, as if convinced that Gyowon had done something terrible to him, made Haeun feel strangely awkward. He quickly waved his hands and reassured him.

“Come on, what threat? I was just saying it like that… Actually, things seem to have worked out pretty well.”

Even with that explanation, Seongjae still looked unconvinced.

“Worked out? What exactly did you talk about?”

“Uh, well…”

When it came time to explain, he realized the story would probably take a while. And after all, Seongjae wasn’t the only member of Stone Cherry. 

Even if he explained it to him now, he’d probably have to repeat the whole thing multiple times for the others. Just thinking about that made exhaustion wash over him all at once, as if all his accumulated fatigue had finally caught up.

“I’ll tell you later. Let me rest for now.”

“What? Hey!”

Did that sound too much like he was slipping away like a slippery fish? He had tried to hurry past him, but Seongjae grabbed his wrist before he could. 

Seriously? Was he filming a drama or something? Of all the ways to stop him, why did he have to grab his wrist? The fact that his hand completely wrapped around her wrist only made him more annoyed. 

He was already feeling bitter about being outmatched in hand size by Kim Gyowon earlier, so he immediately twisted his arm free.

Seongjae might act hot-tempered, but he was actually pretty soft-hearted. He wasn’t the type to shake someone around, demanding explanations when they were clearly exhausted. Taking advantage of that, Haeun patted his shoulder and said,

“Thanks for worrying about me, okay?”

His tone still sounded vaguely like he was picking a fight—just out of habit—but surely, the content of the message was what mattered, right? Seongjae seemed to ease up at her words, letting go of the hand he had been about to grab again.

『Seongjae’s favorability has increased by 1! (＇∀＇)』

Why, though? He was curious, but it wasn’t something he could exactly ask. Without wasting another second, Haeun quickly stomped his way toward his room.