The hand that touched his cheek moved toward his ear. It gently stroked his earlobe, then moved down to lightly grasp his neck, while the hand that had been caressing his shoulder descended down his arm. Even the hand slipping beneath his T-shirt now showed no hesitation. Yuwon looked up at Hyun Gyujin, who was gazing at him persistently, and stretched out his arms. He couldn’t fathom where his courage was coming from.
Hyun Gyujin’s body pressed against mine. His face slowly leaned in, and his lips approached mine. As the thought that they might touch crossed my mind, warmth settled over my lips. It was warm, soft, and… gentle.
‘How will I face him tomorrow?’
At the moment the unexpected words resonated, Yuwon’s eyes snapped open. The breath trapped in his mouth burst out, scattering.
“Ah….”
The lips he touched in the dream were too warm. Besides feeling sweaty due to the pain, Yuwon also felt a damp sensation for another reason inside his pants. Oh…. It was definitely insane. Finding it hard to bear, Yuwon closed his eyes deeply and took a deep breath, pulling up the blanket. He wanted to quickly wash away this sticky, guilt-laden feeling.
“Yuwon, are you asleep?”
As he was about to leave the bed, the door opened slightly with a knock. Yuwon quickly pulled the blanket back over his legs.
“Mom….”
“Were you awake? Mom got back so late. Sohee said you were sick…. She called me on the way back. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s not that bad, and you’re busy, Mom, so I didn’t want to worry you for nothing….”
“Where’s the logic in that? If our son is sick, it’s natural for Mom to worry. Because I’m your mom. Should Mom not know if our puppy is sick?”
“I got it. I’ll tell you everything from now on.”
“Be sure to tell me. No matter how busy the shooting is, our Yuwon is the most important to Mom.”
Yuwon, embraced by his mother, nodded his head. Despite telling everything, he couldn’t help but worry about the secret hidden under the blanket, which was a mixture of concern and prickliness in his heart.
“And Dad?”
“He’ll come. He hurried up without even parking the car when he heard our son was sick.”
Then footsteps approaching the room were heard from afar. Soon, Yuwon’s father, with a worried expression, entered the room and sat on the bed, embracing Yuwon from the other side. Yuwon, while trying to ignore the sticky feeling under the blanket, hugged his mother and father together.
A mix of slight headache and dizziness, along with a heart heavy with joy from seeing his parents and uncomfortable guilt, pressed on Yuwon’s heart heavily.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
***
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As he stepped out of the door, he saw the elevator coming down from the 12th floor. Yuwon inevitably looked at Hyun Gyujin standing inside the elevator as the door opened at the 6th floor. But his eyes were caught first by Hyun Gyujin’s lips, making him quickly avert his gaze and step inside.
“Where are you looking?”
Before the door closed, Hyun Gyujin turned his body toward Yuwon, who had stepped in. Taken aback for a moment, Yuwon took a step back. Ignoring that, Hyun Gyujin approached even closer, pressing Yuwon against the elevator wall and covering his forehead with his large hand.
“The fever’s gone down?”
“Yeah… It’s all gone now.”
“That’s good. Well, it’s 36.7 degrees.”
“Wow, how did you know? It was really 36.7 degrees.”
“My hand is a thermometer. After checking for fever since I was young, now it’s automatic. Beep, 36.7 degrees, normal.”
Seeing Hyun Gyujin smiling, Yuwon’s heart fluttered again. With a slightly awkward feeling, Yuwon smiled back and quickly moved away from Hyun Gyujin’s shadow, stepping out of the elevator.
“I was going to check if you were okay again yesterday, but Mom caught me. She told me not to go if you’re just going to disturb your sleep. Am I someone who would disturb your sleep?”
“Well… she’s right.”
“Wow, that’s harsh.”
Seeing Hyun Gyujin’s genuinely hurt expression, Yuwon laughed and gently shook his arm.
“It’s just a joke.”
“….”
“Don’t be mad… Seriously, it’s just a joke… I know how much you suffered because of me yesterday.”
“What suffering? If you were sick, you’d do the same to me. It’s natural.”
“Are you not mad anymore?”
“I wasn’t mad. I was just pretending to be.”
With a cool laugh, Hyun Gyujin took Yuwon’s bag off his shoulder and hung it over his own. Then, as if by habit, he ruffled Yuwon’s hair like a mess and finally ran his hand down to pat his neck a couple of times. Yuwon’s toes curled up inside his sneakers.
“Oh, right. Jung Yuwon. Did you dream about me yesterday too?”
The moment Yuwon heard the unexpected words, his heart plummeted. Yuwon looked up at Hyun Gyujin with a surprised expression, unable to even control his facial expression.
“…What?”
“You said you dream about me these days.”
“…Me?”
“Yeah. You said that yesterday. That I appear in your dreams every day.”
Yuwon tried hard to recall yesterday’s events. When, exactly, did he say something like that to Hyun Gyujin? No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t remember discussing such things with Hyun Gyujin. He naturally had no idea how far he had gone in the conversation, what exactly he had said, or how he had said it.
“Did I… Did I say that? Why can’t I remember saying such things?”
“You were half asleep. You seemed to think what you said to me was part of the dream.”
Hyun Gyujin said it nonchalantly, but Yuwon couldn’t easily accept this situation. Although Hyun Gyujin might not know what actions he performs and what he does in Yuwon’s dreams, Yuwon knows very well.
“…What did I say? Just… You dreamed about me?”
“Yeah. You said I appear in your dreams every day.”
“…And?”
“That’s all.”
“Oh….”
Only then did Yuwon feel relieved. It seemed that he hadn’t said anything beyond that. After all, if he had told Hyun Gyujin about touching him everywhere in his dreams and doing inappropriate things, Hyun Gyujin wouldn’t have talked about it in such a casual tone.
“…Maybe because I had a fever. Sometimes when you have a high fever… it’s hard to tell whether it’s a dream or reality. Maybe that’s what happened yesterday….”
“That’s possible. But why do you think so hard about it? What’s wrong with dreaming? You also appear in my dreams often.”
“…How do I appear?”
“Just… We go places together, nothing special. Oh, once we walked through a desert all night.”
“Oh….”
Yuwon bit his dry lips out of guilt. Fortunately, Hyun Gyujin didn’t say anything strange, but he couldn’t let his guard down. There was no guarantee that something like this wouldn’t happen again, and even if it didn’t, he didn’t want to dream of doing something he couldn’t do with his friend anymore. He wanted to go back to the time when both he and Hyun Gyujin felt honest and confident. Even if he dreamed, he wanted to dream of ‘ordinary’ dreams as Hyun Gyujin said. To achieve that… First, his heart needed to return to how it used to be. He shouldn’t feel excited when he sees his friend or feel nervous. He shouldn’t feel his heart pounding when his shoulder is touched, or feel uneasy when drinking the yuzu tea his friend bought while worrying about it. He wanted to go back to the time when he and Hyun Gyujin were both openly and confidently friends.
That’s right, he just needed to sort things out. This feeling wasn’t something that had been around for a long time. An emotion like this, which had been felt for 18 years, couldn’t be defeated by a month-old budding emotion.
“You’re spacing out again, Yuwon.”
“It’s not spacing out… I’m just thinking.”
“What are you thinking about? Me?”
With his upper body leaning forward, Hyun Gyujin met Yuwon’s eyes with a grin. His unsuspecting heart fluttered uncontrollably as if to mock Yuwon’s thought of being able to sort out his emotions.
***
The strong determination that he wouldn’t feel fluttery anymore when he saw Hyun Gyujin miserably failed. The fluttering, trembling, and that eerie feeling down his spine whenever their hands touched weren’t controlled by his will.
And naturally, the dreams didn’t go as Yuwon wished either. The more conscious he became, the more intense the physical intimacy in his dreams became. Now, pressing their bodies together became a common occurrence, and they even went as far as kissing each other all night with the sound of pecking lips. The only difference from the first time they kissed was that now Yuwon also leaned in a bit, matching their lips together. Honestly… it felt good.
Waking up in the morning after dreaming all night with a ticklish and moist feeling, followed by days of self-blame and heartache upon seeing Hyun Gyujin. As days turned into weeks, Yuwon secretly cried while washing his underwear in the bathroom. It was a dead-end alley. The reality of taking off his underwear while dreaming of something inappropriate with a childhood friend was too distressing.
He couldn’t concentrate on his studies, and nothing tasted good anymore, leading to him losing a bit of weight. His parents worried about what was going on, and even Hyun Gyujin began to worry. Every time Hyun Gyujin asked what was wrong or if he was in pain, the guilt became too overwhelming.
Yuwon knew he had to make a decision now.
😭😭😭aww