Chapter 36 Part 1

“Oppa?”

“……Yeah.”

Lee Jun snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Haein.

“What? You didn’t hear a word I just said, did you?”

“What did you say?”

“That we need to buy snacks for Hae Sol.”

As Lee Jun patted Hae Sol’s bottom, whom he was holding in front of him, Haein, pushing the cart, gestured.

“Let’s go over there.”

“Go by yourself.”

“What? Why do I have to go by myself?”

Haein stopped walking and expressed her dissatisfaction to Lee Jun.

“If that’s the case, I would’ve come alone from the start.”

“I have something to think about.”

Lee Jun took Hae Sol’s hand and waved it as if in greeting, and Haein looked at him dumbfounded. It didn’t matter if she went alone to pick things up, but her brother ignoring her words while lost in thought was not ideal.

Haein, contemplating how to get back at him, felt a mischievous urge and cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone.

“Hae Sol’s dad! Let’s go together!”

Her voice was so loud that other people stared, but Lee Jun, utterly unfazed, ignored her.

“Go get the snacks.”

Instead, he ordered Haein to hurry and pick up the snacks.

“Fine, I’ll go alone.”

Haein, half-giving up, turned the cart around. After sending Haein off, Lee Jun patted Hae Sol’s bottom as usual. Hae Sol, busy looking around elsewhere, tilted his head back at Lee Jun’s touch.

“Is it fun?”

“Bua.”

Abububu. Drooling with his babbling, Hae Sol still laughed, delighted by something. Lee Jun wiped the drool from Hae Sol’s chin with his hand and then wiped it on his pants.

“If you drool that much, you’ll get a rash.”

He spoke sternly about not drooling, but he didn’t expect Hae Sol to understand. Lee Jun slowly moved in the direction Haein had gone.

He wanted to shorten the distance, thinking about how much Haein would grumble when she came back with the snacks.

“I really need to stop thinking about Chaeheon…”

Falling asleep at his house and waking up in the morning to go to his part-time job. Those moments, flowing as naturally as water, kept coming back to him again and again.

“Hae Sol, can I really draw a clear line?”

He wondered if he could really act in a way that Chaeheon couldn’t approach him, then let out a hollow laugh, thinking, “What am I doing?” Always, at any time, thinking about Chaeheon…

“Senior.”

Seeing Chaeheon again outside of school, after the weekend, Lee Jun took a sharp breath. Running into him like this was not good. Especially not when Hae Sol was in his arms.

“……Is this a coincidence too?”

At Lee Jun’s question, Chaeheon’s gaze dropped from his face, down, and lingered somewhere. Without meeting his eyes, Chaeheon said.

“Last time was a coincidence. And today… I saw it.”

The message from his sister, when he took Lee Jun’s phone from his sleeping hand to place it on the side table.

“I was going to come and cling to you a bit, then go to school together, but I saw something unexpected.”

At Chaeheon’s mumble, Lee Jun’s hand covered Hae Sol’s head protectively. Running into him by chance at the Pasta Restaurant was fine. He was surprised then, but since Chaeheon knew he worked there, there was nothing to hide, but it wasn’t the same now.

Lee Jun bit his lower lip. If he could, he wanted to escape this situation. But… even if he did, would Chaeheon not mention seeing Hae Sol?

He’d already smelled the baby’s scent on him.

“Hae Sol’s dad?”

Just as he thought.

Lee Jun swallowed a silent sigh. Chaeheon must have been nearby when Haein shouted earlier. Lee Jun pondered what to do in this increasingly tangled situation, wondering why someone who lived near the school had come all the way here unnecessarily.

He had already encountered Hae Sol, so even if he tried to avoid it, there was a limit.

Was it enough to just hide that Hae Sol’s biological father was someone Chaeheon knew? It was difficult to set a standard for what to hide and what to reveal.

In the end, all of Lee Jun’s complex feelings turned into discomfort.

“It’s uncomfortable when you keep showing up without a word.”

“I thought you were busy, Senior, so I wanted to talk while we walked to school together.”

“What do we have to talk about?”

“An exchange of feelings? Or perhaps a confirmation?”

How absurd.

“Are you not going to show me the baby you’re trying so hard to hide from me?”

Chaeheon’s gaze became significant.

“Is it because you’re Hae Sol’s dad?”

A tense atmosphere, like a crack in glass, formed between them. Chaeheon looked at the baby nestled in Lee Jun’s arms. When it was covered by his hand, it wasn’t very visible, but as Lee Jun turned sideways, the face was revealed.

The baby, whose chubby cheeks rose and fell with every movement of its lips, was securely held in Senior’s arms. Yes, just like a perfect father’s embrace.

“At this rate, I don’t know how much I’ll end up imagining on my own.”

At Chaeheon’s self-deprecating mumble, Lee Jun became wary of him. Did he think Lee Jun would back down just by looking at him like that? Chaeheon looked at the baby snuggled closely in his arms and murmured.

“Looks like Senior.”

If Lee Jun were squeezed and shrunk from every angle, he would look exactly like that baby. At Chaeheon’s words, Lee Jun looked down at Hae Sol. He had often heard that Hae Sol looked like him. Since Hae Sol resembled Haein a lot, it made sense that he could also resemble him, but there was no need to specifically explain this to Chaeheon.

“He’s got nothing to do with you, so mind your own business.”

At Lee Jun’s cold words, Chaeheon furrowed his brow in displeasure. It seemed like he was the only one who had been by Lee Jun’s side until now, and he had nothing to do with it?

“Saying things like that hurts me.”

“I might even cry.” At his casual remark, Lee Jun turned back with a dumbfounded expression. It was an incredulous look that asked, “How can those words come from your face?” but Chaeheon ignored it. Right now, counting dates was more important than trying to understand Lee Jun’s feelings. He couldn’t pinpoint the baby’s exact age in months, but roughly calculating from the last time he and Lee Jun were intimate, it didn’t seem entirely unrelated…

Chaeheon looked down at the baby again, then suddenly frowned.

“He doesn’t look like me.”

Not a single feature of Chaeheon’s face was present in the baby’s.

“I’ll give you a chance before misunderstandings pile up.”

Chaeheon stood firmly, arms crossed, as if urging him to speak. Lee Jun looked at Chaeheon with a sideways glance, then turned his gaze away.

“Think what you want.”

“If you say that, what do you think I’ll assume?”