/
“No, you didn’t.”
“Then, you can ask. I’ll consider it heard.”
“I didn’t ask you either, though?”
“That’s why I’ll consider it heard. I get it. You want to go out with me.”
The desire to refute brimmed to the tip of his tongue, but Yoonshin couldn’t since it was the truth. Sehun was right. Yoonshin wanted to define their relationship, preferably in the direction that Sehun mentioned.
Sehun must have led Yoonshin to bring it up first. Yoonshin ended up asking Sehun out first, and Sehun accepted it. Yoonshin tried to hide being upset about playing into Sehun’s hand and declared indignantly, “Never in a million years will I like you first.”
“Say that again, enunciating every word.”
Yoonshin’s declaration must have struck a nerve. Sehun’s pristine face became stiff as a rock. Yoonshin glanced from the side and winced, but Sehun pushed harder against Yoonshin.
“I won’t like—urk!” Yoonshin yelped.
A chilling voice pricked his eardrums. “Earlier, you said that you would never sleep with me. Do you remember that?”
Yoonshin had said that when they ate lunch together for the first time. At that time, he simply used it as a metaphor to express his intent that he wouldn’t slip away from Doguk.
“Of course I do. But what I meant that time was—!”
“You have a lot of things you’ll never do with me, don’t you? Does that mean we’re going out, but we don’t like each other yet?”
To confront someone like Sehun, who considered all the possibilities to ultimately incapacitate the opposing party, Yoonshin knew that the weight of his feelings had to be lighter than Sehun’s. Moreover, Yoonshin needed to learn how to effectively utilize his relationship with Sehun. If the balance of emotions leaned further to one side, Yoonshin could get swept along in Sehun’s pace and be fettered up slowly but surely. Yoonshin didn’t want to ruin his situation like that.
“You’ll be the one to tell me that you like me first,” Yoonshin said with conviction.
“I’ll return those words to you. I’m very competitive. You will say it first,” Sehun proclaimed flatly, and then he yanked Yoonshin’s head by his hairs. He angled Yoonshin’s head toward him. In pain, Yoonshin took deep breaths as he turned his head.
At the same time, the older man’s eyes glinted guilefully as he leaned in to kiss Yoonshin.
“Ngh! Mmmm.”
Their tongues roused a fierce battle in the depths of their mouths, tangling with each other. Sparks seemed to fly in the air as their flesh overlapped.
A sultry atmosphere hung above the two. Their power struggle continued as they pressed onto each other, silently sinking—or perhaps floating to the surface—together.
Yoonshin pulled in the other’s hips firmly. He moved around, matching Sehun’s movements, and their kiss grew deeper.
Yoonshin already knew that the picky and haughty Sehun Kang wasn’t an easy match as his boss and as a lover. There was no turning back.
If one was caught in the rain without an umbrella, one would have to brave through it.
Act 12
Night had already fallen. The sky grew dark past the evening hours. Cars scuttled busily outside the hospital. The constant influx of cars caused a hubbub, but the energy of the crowd wasn’t necessarily lively—rather, it was the opposite.
The temperature drops throughout the day were drastic, chilling the nighttime air. Thoroughly feeling the approach of winter, Yoonshin came out from the in-patient exit. He pulled his jacket closed and perched on the bench in front of the flowerbed.
He sighed, staring blankly at the fog from his mouth, before he called his client. “It’s Yoonshin Do from Doguk.”