GB 121

Haero’s hotel room was quiet.

It had a separate bedroom with a living room in between.

“Haero?”

There was no sign of anyone.

Knowing this, Yoon Moo-hwa carefully set down his bag and began to search the room.

“Haero?”

While calling his name softly, his eyes and hands remained cold. When he opened the dresser to check, he saw clothes folded in Haero’s distinctive way.

Still, he couldn’t be at ease.

Yoon Moo-hwa loosened his tie with a swallowed sigh. Feeling drained, he turned his gaze to the bedside table and vaguely discovered a water glass with lip marks on it.

“…”

Quietly staring at it, Yoon Moo-hwa reached out and grabbed the glass.

Holding it up to the light, the lip shape became more distinct.

He could tell just from the silhouette. It was indeed Haero’s.

Tilting his head and examining it carefully, he brought the glass closer to his face. Then he gently and carefully pressed his lips against Haero’s lip marks.

For all its deliberate quietness, the scene was downright repulsive. Filthy and cowardly. He had ultimately crossed the line with a child he had raised, twelve years his junior, and now, caught having implanted a nano chip in his body, here he was kissing lip marks left on a glass in an empty room. It was utterly disgusting.

Like this, his relationship with Haero thoroughly destroys Yoon Moo-hwa. It would continue endlessly. It would deny everything from his foundation to the values he had upheld, occasionally plunging him into self-loathing. In the end, he had succumbed to his growing desire for that boy.

Even his promise, that if there were truly a decent person for that boy, someone who could make Haero completely safe, he would let him go, was actually a deception.

Where in the world could such a person exist? Someone who could keep another being perfectly safe?

In short, he had deceived everyone by making an impossible promise. Even himself.

Yoon Moo-hwa drank the water like someone excessively thirsty. Even this tasted sweeter at the thought that Haero had drunk from it. And such mad taste perception disgusted him.

When he finally chose Haero, he hadn’t committed to enduring this self-loathing that he would occasionally face, nor to the future events that would negate all his words and life. He had come to love even this, even the “Haero-ness” he had to swallow along with Haero himself.

After emptying the glass, Yoon Moo-hwa soon felt a dizziness as if someone was gripping his brain and shaking it violently.

Then a mad drowsiness swept over him, and soon he collapsed backward, exhaled once, and closed his eyes.

***

Yoon Moo-hwa opened his eyes to the weight pressing down on him and the rustling busyness. His mind didn’t clear easily. His tongue wouldn’t move well, like after light sleep anesthesia, and his vision flickered like a broken TV screen.

Even in this state, Yoon Moo-hwa could tell that the person straddling him was Haero.

“Awake?” Haero asked casually while unbuttoning Yoon Moo-hwa’s shirt. “Thanks for drinking it so obediently. I put sleeping pills in the water.”

Yoon Moo-hwa gave a hollow laugh at Haero’s audacity. “I thought so. It tasted sweet.”

He couldn’t tell if he was pronouncing properly.

He only understood after a while when Haero tilted his head and asked, “It’s colorless, odorless, and tasteless. What are you talking about?”

Haero was holding a syringe familiar to Yoon Moo-hwa’s eyes. It was something he knew well. Certainly not a common stock syringe, but a special electronic one.

The last time Yoon Moo-hwa had seen it was when he implanted the nano chip in Haero.

“Are you trying to kill me?” Yoon Moo-hwa murmured slowly. 

Despite the lingering effect of the sleeping pills, his voice contained no betrayal, anger, or fear. Rather, it was infused with a faint elation. Just like when Haero said he would no longer respect Yoon Moo-hwa.

“Of course not. I’ll never have to see you die with my own eyes. Understood?”

‘Then you should promise not to show me the sight of your death either.’ Yoon Moo-hwa felt resentful of the drug’s effect, just this once.

Haero drew into the syringe a chip identical to the one injected into his own body.

It was a military development product that hadn’t been commercialized, and they said a newly developed GPS based on this was being prepared for distribution. In other words, in the world, he had been the only one using this directly, and now it would be just the two of them—himself and Yoon Moo-hwa.

A secret just between the two of them.

Haero couldn’t think of a more desirable treasure. Except for Yoon Moo-hwa himself.

—Finally found it.

The person who provided the chip was Suhee, who was working at the Military Supply Command.

—This isn’t even being used and there’s no separate program developed for it. It’s just a waste with chip functionality, so why did you ask me to get this?

Suhee grumbled through the video. Coincidentally, the person who delivered this was a driver who also worked in contraband delivery. The very same driver who had delivered jellyfish with Haero.

He showed a little surprise when he saw the recipient’s face and that the recipient’s name was “Haero,” but soon pretended not to know, just took a signature and left. After all, the name the smuggler knew Haero by was “Number 8.”

Haero thanked Suhee profusely, saying he had a long story to tell her as repayment and promised to meet again.

After ending the call, he picked up the box containing the delivered chip and turned it around.

Coincidentally, Suhee had packaged it in a ring box. Haero stared at the red velvet box with gold lines tracing the edges for a long time before carefully opening the lid.

Inside, the sparkling nano chip gleamed brilliantly in the gap where a ring would sit. Now that gleaming object shone inside the syringe.

Haero slightly regretted not opening the ring box in front of Yoon Moo-hwa. It was a pointless regret, as the box had already been burned and no longer existed.

“I’m not at all angry that you implanted a nano chip in me without telling me.”

“…”

“I was confused at first, but after knowing everything, I actually felt a bit good about it. And I thought you were foolish. If you had admitted it earlier, you wouldn’t have needed to return like this.”

“Haha.” Yoon Moo-hwa laughed weakly.

Even that was lovable.

Haero firmly pressed his lips together, afraid he might inadvertently break into a grin. Now wasn’t the time for that. “But I think this pace was right for us. I wanted to board your ship as a proper member… and in fact, didn’t you survive thanks to me, Commander?”

“…”

“‘Again,’ that is.”

Haero leaned over, careful not to reopen Yoon Moo-hwa’s side wound.

He’d been told it would hurt a bit where the skin was thin. 

Haero, being a little mischievous, decided to implant it in Yoon Moo-hwa’s neck. Bringing the needle tip close, Haero asked near Yoon Moo-hwa’s ear, “Should I not do it?”

Yoon Moo-hwa had now largely recovered from the effects of the drug.

“What are you saying?” He murmured in a voice deep as if just waking from sleep. “Don’t hesitate. It’s yours.”

Haero felt electrified, as if current flowed through his entire body.

An immense lovingness, desire, and obsession overflowed wildly.

Yoon Moo-hwa was his moon. A land where flowers don’t bloom, the moon. And he himself had repeatedly rushed toward that moon like waves. He first felt that distance five years ago. And now, he was about to engulf the moon. He planned to wrap it completely, to make it sink into his embrace.

“Never, never again keep secrets from me.” Haero muttered through gritted teeth.

Yoon Moo-hwa couldn’t show all of his naked feelings to Haero, so he didn’t make false promises. Instead, he closed his eyes, slightly turned his head, and offered his neck.

Haero stared at Yoon Moo-hwa’s sternocleidomastoid muscle as if bewitched, then covered it with his lips and sucked deeply. After lingering there for a while, he placed the needle tip again on the mark he had left.

There was no need to worry about the program. Yoon Moo-hwa would already have it.

‘Hyung always helps him like this. ’

✼✼✼

While the body recognized the nano chip as a foreign substance and adapted to it, fever and pain were expected. Since Haero himself had experienced this, he thought of letting Yoon Moo-hwa rest, but the person in question had no such intention.

“No way.” Yoon Moo-hwa murmured like a spoiled child at Haero’s suggestion that he should rest. Wrapping his arms around Haero’s waist as he straddled him, rubbing his cheek against his chest, he said again. “Don’t tell me to wait again.”

“But… your side hasn’t healed yet.”

“It’s been four weeks, Haero. More than enough time to heal.”

He was serious. The bandage wrapped around his waist now was essentially just for anti-inflammatory purposes during his journey to the base, in case anything might happen. It didn’t impede his movement at all.

“Want me to show you?”

Haero stopped Yoon Moo-hwa, who looked ready to unwrap the bandage to prove it.

Pressing down on his broad chest and pushing him back slightly, Haero’s troubled expression, despite Yoon Moo-hwa’s self-reproach, excited him excessively and made him impatient.

His melancholic face was surprisingly mature. Along with desire, Yoon Moo-hwa suddenly felt afraid. He would continue to be like this. Haero was much younger than him, and it was he who should be anxious, not Haero. Wasn’t that why he had tried to let him go instead? It seemed all his fears and apprehensions had been held by Haero.

“Then… be gentle.” Haero warned seriously.

Gentle? That would be impossible.

Yoon Moo-hwa had waited too long. For years he hadn’t even been aware of it.

Mixing bodies with Haero on the ship had been ridiculously insufficient. This thirst would never disappear for the rest of his life.

However, Yoon Moo-hwa, with an innocent expression, whispering thanks to Haero, was clearly taking the form of a cowardly adult.

“I, I’ll undress you. Just like I did a moment ago.” In truth, Haero wasn’t so much melancholic as he was fiercely conflicted between his medical conscience and his personal excitement.

Still young, Haero ultimately sided with instinct.

Haero swallowed repeatedly as he undressed Yoon Moo-hwa, who laughed softly at the sound echoing in the quiet room.

Haero’s dick was magnificently erect, making its presence known against his stomach. Moreover, his waist and hips were also restless, constantly stimulating Yoon Moo-hwa.

It was hard to wait. Still, he endured like a military dog that had been commanded to “wait.”

After completely undressing Yoon Moo-hwa, Haero blankly stared at the naked body before him.

“Is it disappointing?”