LM 27

There was a dog that drooled when a bell rang, wasn’t there? Even though he was busy sleeping during class when it was mentioned, he could clearly recall that experiment in his head.

Based on this famous experiment, Woo Hyunse probably shook a yogurt drink at a specific time instead of ringing a bell. It was hard to distinguish between conditioning and reflexes, but at this time, even if it was an empty container, seeing a yogurt drink naturally made him immediately think of Woo Hyunse. 

Kwon Siyul fiddled with his phone until it was almost out of battery, then pressed his lips together thinly as he pulled up the number. Despite hesitating at first, he decided to press the call button quickly. The dial tone sounded.

He was partly anxious that he might hear someone else’s moans like last time. Woo Hyunse was really a promiscuous person. He could play around with anyone on any night. Just as Kwon Siyul had picked up someone from the club, so could Woo Hyunse.

“Mm.”

Not even a “hello” in response. That was also typical of Woo Hyunse. Kwon Siyul’s lips, which had been clamped shut like a clam, suddenly relaxed.

“…You weren’t asleep?”

“I didn’t know when Kwon Siyul would call. Is it over?”

“Yes. It’s over now.”

Kwon Siyul sat with his legs stretched out. His anxiety melted away in the face of the voice flowing toward him. At least it seemed like he wasn’t with someone else.

“Are you coming to pick me up?”

At this late hour. He stopped himself from adding that.

“Of course.”

A laugh like a nasal sound escaped before he could suppress it. Kwon Siyul pretended to sniffle and rubbed his nose with the back of his hand.

“Then I’ll wait for you.”

He hung up and sent the address. He had considered staying on the call, but remembering a news report that talking on the phone while driving was as dangerous as drunk driving, he forced himself to hang up.

The time waiting for Woo Hyunse to arrive felt extremely long and boring. Even when playing games, he couldn’t concentrate and kept checking the time repeatedly. Five minutes felt like ten, and ten minutes felt like thirty. When he thought a lot of time must have gone by, it turned out to be only one minute.

And why was it so cold? The temperature was still above freezing, but the cold biting into his skin was like the piercing wind of midwinter. Even when he hunched his neck and got up to stamp his feet, the chill would still be there. The idea of going into a nearby convenience store only occurred to him after shivering in the cold for quite some time.

Kwon Siyul hurried into a nearby convenience store. As he warmed his frozen body in the heated air, he habitually grabbed a yogurt drink and a less sweet, warm bottled drink for Woo Hyunse. Just as he was about to pay, small square boxes on the counter caught his attention.

“…”

Come to think of it, he had gone to a motel to spend the night with someone without being fully prepared. Kwon Siyul glanced at the boxes while pretending to be busy looking at other items.

They were colorful and varied. Next to them were boxes containing several single-use gel packets. While he had seen condoms many times, he hadn’t seen gel ones even when he worked at a convenience store, so he lingered in front of them for a while.

The world has really improved. Adult products were being sold at a convenience store.

It might be because this was near an entertainment district. While enjoying the novelty of browsing, Kwon Siyul quickly grabbed the nearest condoms and gel, hid them under other items, and presented them at the counter. Despite his attempt to conceal them, the employee scanned the barcodes of the items at the bottom with an utterly indifferent expression on his face.

As soon as he finished paying, Kwon Siyul hastily stuffed the items into his pocket as if hiding them. His heart pounded as if the act of buying those items was something worse than delivering drugs. In one pocket was the warm drink for Woo Hyunse, and in the other were the two items he had bought on a whim. Kwon Siyul fiddled more with the opposite side than with the drink that was meant to warm his hands.

He probably wouldn’t use them right away, but…

There was no need to return them. It’s not like he’d never use them, and when the opportunity arrived, he would. He took his hand out of his pocket and went outside. He had considered staying inside the convenience store to avoid the cold, but given what he had bought, he felt uncomfortable being in the same space as the cashier who had rung him up.

Woo Hyunse arrived a few minutes later. Before he could get out of the car, Kwon Siyul hurried over, bent down, and tapped on the window. Woo Hyunse’s face appeared through the lowered window. His hair tips were damp as if he had just washed up before coming here. Kwon Siyul absentmindedly touched his own hair. It felt dry and rough under his fingertips.

As soon as he got into the car, Kwon Siyul fumbled in his pocket and pulled out the glass bottle drink, placing it in the cup holder. It still felt warm to the touch.

“I bought this for you, Mr. CEO. Drink it while it’s warm.”

Woo Hyunse smiled at the glass bottle as if looking at a small gift brought in by a cat. Kwon Siyul glanced at that smile from the corner of his eye, then buried himself in the backrest and turned his gaze out toward the window. Maybe it was because he had come in from the cold outside to the warm inside, but his body felt hot. His fingertips tingled and his neck felt stiff.

“Well, at least no one carried you off.”

“I didn’t drink that much.”

He did drink, so it wasn’t an outright lie. Two bottles of beer, far from a lethal dose. Woo Hyunse tilted his head toward him and sniffed. Even though it didn’t touch his skin, his breath tickled just like a feather. Kwon Siyul giggled and hunched his shoulders. The tip of Woo Hyunse’s nose nearly touched his nape, then stopped there without coming any closer.

“…Where did you drink?”

“Just a bar? I don’t remember the name.”

“Just a bar,” Woo Hyunse repeated as if trying to wrap his mind around what he just said. Unlike when he looked at the bottled drink Kwon Siyul had given him, the corners of his mouth were now straight. As always, Kwon Siyul noticed the extreme difference between his smile and his expressionless face. Feeling as if the internal temperature had suddenly dropped by about 5 degrees, Kwon Siyul racked his brain for words to fill the silence, scared that he had done something wrong.

“You smell like shampoo.”

“What?”

“Did you wash up?”

No way, how eerie…Woo Hyunse should have become a shaman. Even without divine inspiration, his innate sense would have allowed him to read people’s innermost thoughts. Kwon Siyul’s face quickly turned as pale as a sheet of paper. Trying not to show it, he turned his neck as far as he could to the side and focused his gaze out the window.

While drinking, one of my friends threw up, so I went to a motel to clean up and wash quickly. You have a better sense of smell than a dog. You noticed right away. It was an appropriate excuse and line to feed Woo Hyunse. He had rehearsed it in his head. Now, he just needed to say it out loud.

“…Actually, I didn’t meet with my friends.”

But his mouth and brain weren’t in sync at the moment. Throwing away the prepared lines, he blurted out an unexpected confession. He should have covered his mouth with his hand, but Kwon Siyul just squeezed his eyes shut and let his mouth run on its own. While revealing the truth was uncomfortable, it did feel relieving in a way.

“Who else?”

“I don’t know. Just someone to sleep with.”

Kwon Siyul lowered his eyes, then looked at Woo Hyunse’s reflection in the window, unable to face him directly. The other man was staring at him. There was a rare look of surprise on his face. His furrowed eyebrows and eyes were clearly filled with displeasure.

“You’re saying you were going to roll around with some other bastard.”

Kwon Siyul just nodded his head. Woo Hyunse leaned his elbow on the window, covering his mouth with his hand as if to hide his feelings. Even so, his clenched jaw was visible between his fingers. Although Kwon Siyul couldn’t smell pheromones to know exactly what state Woo Hyunse was in, he could feel the once-warm air in the car rapidly cooling down.

“Didn’t you tell me to wait?”

His voice was as cold as ice too. Kwon Siyul put his hands in his pockets and fidgeted with his fingers. He had a lot to say. Woo Hyunse himself had slept with others during rut, so why couldn’t he do the same? He didn’t understand why the other man was being so sharp.

“I tried to sleep with someone else, but it really wasn’t working out.”

Now it seemed his mouth had taken over his brain, as his actions followed his words. Kwon Siyul took out the smaller condom from among the items he had been fiddling with and lightly tossed it onto the cup holder. Woo Hyunse recognized what the box was and laughed as if he couldn’t believe Kwon Siyul. It was definitely not a happy or amused laugh.

“Shall we sleep together?”

He threw back the very words Woo Hyunse had said to him before. “Ha,” Woo Hyunse let out a bitter laugh. He roughly rubbed his mouth and tapped the steering wheel with his fingertips. Kwon Siyul’s throat burned, afraid that Woo Hyunse might ask for time to think as he had done, or refuse.

“The idea of being a substitute makes me feel like shit, but I can’t refuse.”

He grasped the condom box with his large hand. He crushed the box in his grip and flung it into the back seat. Kwon Siyul’s eyes widened as he followed the trajectory of the crumpled box, then suddenly turned to look at Woo Hyunse. Before he could even ask why, the other man answered.

“That doesn’t fit me.”

“And it definitely pisses me off that you bought it to use with someone else,” he added, gritting his teeth. 

Woo Hyunse started the car. As Kwon Siyul hurried to fasten his seatbelt, the other roughly set off. He seemed to already have a destination in mind, driving forth without any hesitation.