LM 64

“Shall I look into it?”

“Didn’t you say you’d be very busy?”

“It’s not that difficult to investigate someone.”

Kwon Siyul’s face immediately brightened. If it was Woo Hyunse, he would most likely be able to quickly find out where Kwon Yuwon was and what he was up to. However, his sparkling eyes soon dimmed. He could clearly foresee Kwon Yuwon’s furious reaction upon learning that Kwon Siyul was living with an alpha.

But was that really the problem? His worry for Kwon Yuwon far outweighed his hesitation to accept Woo Hyunse’s help. After much deliberation over the matter, Kwon Siyul nodded his head with a solemn resolve.

“Then please, hyung.”

He couldn’t express how fortunate he felt to have Woo Hyunse by his side during such times. The thought of being alone, with Kwon Yuwon gone too, sent chills up and down his spine. Overcome by a sudden fear, Kwon Siyul stretched out his arms and embraced the other man tightly.

“Thank you. I really have no one but you.”

It was true. With Kwon Yuwon gone, Woo Hyunse was the only one supporting Kwon Siyul as he felt on the verge of collapse due to vague anxiety.

A generous hand ruffled Kwon Siyul’s thick hair. The warmth of their touch seeped through the skin, reaching his heart. Kwon Siyul exhaled slowly and burrowed his face into Woo Hyunse’s embrace. While he was still worried about Kwon Yuwon, with Woo Hyunse around, he didn’t feel as if the world was about to end.

Woo Hyunse truly seemed to be busy, as their encounters became less frequent after that. Before, they at least had moments to spend together before Woo Hyunse left for work or after Kwon Siyul returned home. Now, they barely saw each other’s faces when waking up. Even though text messages and calls were regular, not being able to see each other in person led to a growing longing in Kwon Siyul’s heart.

Kwon Siyul let out a deep sigh while looking at his phone. The number beside the message he had sent to Woo Hyunse after work remained unchanged. Didn’t he even have time to check messages? Kwon Siyul wanted to visit Woo Hyunse’s office directly, but funnily enough, he didn’t even know what kind of work Woo Hyunse did or the location of his office.

Reflecting on it, it turned out there was much more Kwon Siyul didn’t know about Woo Hyunse. While he was familiar with Woo Hyunse’s generally kind but sometimes strict and cold personality, his pheromones that were like a winter birch forest but lately hinted at spring buds, and small habits like where he liked to bite and tease during intimacy, Kwon Siyul lacked such objective information like how many family members Woo Hyunse had or exactly what his job entailed.

Having never had a family himself, Kwon Siyul usually didn’t ask others if they were an only child, the eldest, or living alone. He also didn’t pry into their occupations. This was partly because his own job wasn’t something to be proud of. He thought it best not to broach such topics, as he would have to answer in turn if asked. This had become a habit of his.

But now he was curious. Who were Woo Hyunse’s family members? Where did he rank in the family?? What did his parents do? What had he done in the past, what was his major, and what exactly was his job?

Kwon Siyul sat on the sofa, wiggling his toes while staring at the TV. He hadn’t noticed when Woo Hyunse was around, but with no one else there, the house felt empty, vast, and even cold. The heating was set to its usual temperature, yet he couldn’t understand why his nape felt so chilly.

Left with no other choice, he fetched a blanket from the bedroom, wrapped it around himself, and deliberately turned up the TV volume. The boisterous laughter from a variety show filled the lonely living room.

While the blue light from the TV reflected in his eyes, Kwon Siyul couldn’t focus on the chatter of the guests. His mind was replaying past memories of times he had spent with Woo Hyunse.

It was after they had finished making love, sprawled out on the bed. Like a drowned corpse, face down, Kwon Siyul had asked Hyunse in a hoarse voice, “What kind of exercise do you do to have such good stamina? I want to do it too.”

At this rate, he felt he might die from exhaustion. Even though Kwon Siyul asked seriously, Woo Hyunse merely shrugged his shoulders as if it were nothing special.

“Just regular exercise?”

“The gym?”

“That too.”

“What else?”

“Swimming, and occasionally golf or tennis.”

“Wow…”

With barely enough time to sleep due to work, yet still finding time to exercise, Woo Hyunse’s day seemed to have 48 hours instead of 24. Kwon Siyul’s ambition to build his stamina and become stronger than Woo Hyunse wilted in the face of such a packed schedule.

Woo Hyunse chuckled softly and planted a kiss on Kwon Siyul’s lower back. As he slowly traced upward, as if counting the bones hidden beneath the skin, Kwon Siyul’s cooling body began to heat up again. The afterglow hadn’t fully faded yet.

Feeling like he might cross the Jordan River if they went another round, Kwon Siyul abruptly sat up and hurriedly swung his legs off the bed. He grabbed the first piece of clothing he could find, which turned out to be Woo Hyunse’s shirt. When he put it on, the cuffs covered his fingers and the hem reached his thighs.

“What size clothes do you even wear?”

Even though Kwon Siyul was used to wearing loose clothes a size too big, Woo Hyunse’s shirt on him was more like a blanket than actual clothing. Kwon Siyul took off the shirt he had been wearing and turned over the collar of Woo Hyunse’s shirt. There were three X’s on the front. For someone of Woo Hyunse’s build, a smaller size would probably cling too tightly and restrict movement. As Kwon Siyul nodded in understanding, Woo Hyunse, who had approached without him noticing, rested his chin on Kwon Siyul’s shoulder.

“I tried adjusting my diet to reduce my size before, but it didn’t work. I gave up after that.”

The whispered voice right next to his ear was sensual. The subtle rising scent gradually moistened Kwon Siyul’s insides, which he had thought were completely dry. Before he could fully process the unfamiliar changes in his body, Woo Hyunse’s hands, slowly slithering up like a snake, helplessly pulled Kwon Siyul back into bed.

“Ah.”

His cheeks and ears burned just from recalling the memory of the things they had done on the bed. He quickly rubbed away the heat with his hands, trying to escape the memory.

The time on his phone screen had already changed to a new hour. Would Woo Hyunse not come home today? He considered calling but withdrew his hand reaching for the phone, not wanting to bother a busy person and potentially annoy him.

Should I wait?

As he pondered, a notification popped up on his phone. He hastily picked it up and widened his eyes. It turned out to be a message from Woo Hyunse.

[Go to sleep first.]

Just one short sentence. Kwon Siyul pouted and started typing. He wrote “When are you coming?” then deleted it, wrote “Can’t I wait?” then deleted that too, and finally sent just a single word: “Okay,” with a suitable emoticon added so it wouldn’t seem too cold.

Despite being told to sleep first, Kwon Siyul didn’t go to the bedroom. The bed was too wide to use alone. Instead, he curled up on the sofa like a bug, arching his back. Even with the blanket, even with warm air rising from the floor, he felt cold as if a window somewhere in the house had been flung wide open.

He vaguely thought that even if the seasons changed and hot summer came, he might remain in a cold winter without Woo Hyunse. But this thought faded before it could fully form, overwhelmed by drowsiness. He tried to keep his eyes open but failed to do so. It was an uneasy sleep that enveloped him next.

What was meant to be just closing his eyes for a moment turned into a full-on nap. Kwon Siyul struggled to open his eyelids, feeling his body float. Before his blurry vision fully cleared, he recognized who it was by the scent that filled his nose. After blinking hard once, he saw the familiar jawline.

“Hyung…?”

“Are you awake?”

At the gentle voice, Kwon Siyul wiggled his toes, rested his head on Woo Hyunse’s chest, and wrapped his arms around the other man’s neck.

At first, he had panicked and made a fuss about being picked up, but now his body had adapted to Woo Hyunse carrying him. Even when lifted without warning, he would squirm to find a comfortable position like a child in a parent’s arms. He had also given up knowing that requests to be put down would be ignored anyway.

“Why are you sleeping in the living room?”

“I was waiting for you…”

His words trailed off sleepily. Kwon Siyul yawned softly and turned his head to check  the clock on the wall. The hour hand was almost at 7.

“I told you to sleep first.”

“I didn’t want to sleep alone.”

“How sweet of you.”

Woo Hyunse placed Kwon Siyul down on the bed and carefully covered him with the blanket. He stroked Kwon Siyul’s hair and patted him, telling him to sleep well. Fearing Woo Hyunse might leave the room soon, Kwon Siyul quickly reached out and grabbed the hem of his clothes.

“Can’t you stay by my side until I fall asleep?”

He blurted out after hesitating. He had been unsure whether to say this or not. Was it right for an adult over twenty to cling to someone else, saying they didn’t want to sleep alone? He was doing something in front of Woo Hyunse that he had never done at the orphanage.

Kwon Siyul decided to be a bit more brazen. This was all Woo Hyunse’s fault. He could have slept peacefully on the sofa, but Woo Hyunse had moved him here and woken him up, so it was his responsibility to put him back to sleep.

His eyes, now wide awake, sparkled as he looked up at Woo Hyunse. Gripping the sleeve tightly and looking up with a desperate face, he resembled a squirrel faced with a fresh green grape. As if thinking “Who could resist this?”, Woo Hyunse smiled slightly in disbelief and took off his coat.

He stripped down to his underwear, removed his shirt, belt, and pants, and lay down next to Kwon Siyul. As he stretched out his arm, Kwon Siyul rolled over and settled against his side. His body was curled up like it had been on the sofa, but unlike then when he had been cold, now he looked cozy, as if nestled in a perfectly fitting, comfortable haven.

It was warm.

Kwon Siyul wanted to catch up with Woo Hyunse and spend some time together, but sleepiness clung to his eyelids. His mind was hazy. The sleep that had briefly retreated now washed over Kwon Siyul again like a wave.

Unable to resist, Kwon Siyul drifted off to sleep. Unlike when he was in the living room, his heart wasn’t anxious. Woo Hyunse was right beside him. He felt that as long as he had faith that Woo Hyunse would return, he could endure sleeping alone in the future.