Chapter 37

Chaeheon’s eyes blurred as he stared at the menu.

“They look alike, but they don’t.”

He recalled Lee Jun and the baby in his arms. Until he’d smelled the baby scent on Lee Jun, he had been indulging in his own imagination.

“His leave of absence was due to family matters.”

He’d known his former lover had to earn money to make ends meet, so he thought that was the reason. He also believed the biggest reason Lee Jun broke up with him was the burden of him going to study abroad, but…

“Another reason.”

What if he took a leave of absence and had a baby?

Chaeheon’s gaze grew darker.

“I don’t want to investigate.”

Having someone secretly investigate all of Lee Jun’s circumstances was a line he shouldn’t cross now that he wanted to be with him again. So he didn’t want to…

“I still don’t understand.”

He said he’d only be with me, but I feel nothing from Hae Sol.

Chaeheon ran a hand over his neck, letting out a frustrated sigh. What was the truth?

While Chaeheon went to order coffee, Lee Jun looked around.

In the increasingly warm weather, an occasional breeze brushed pleasantly across his face. As he closed his eyes for a moment in the wind, he picked up the sound of approaching footsteps.

He didn’t need to look to know. Chaeheon.

“Here.”

Before he could turn his head towards Chaeheon’s voice, a coffee was placed in front of him. Lee Jun quietly gazed at the coffee, then slowly reached out and took it. The cool drink rising through the straw quenched his throat, which had been parched from carrying Hae Sol around.

“It’s tiring carrying a baby.”

At the knowing remark, Lee Jun looked down at his coffee. Ever since he smelled Hae Sol’s scent on himself, he’d wanted to ask at least once.

“You know well.”

Chaeheon asked casually.

“Seems like he hasn’t had his first birthday yet, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you take a leave of absence because of him?”

“That’s right.”

Lee Jun nodded. When Haein came back pregnant, he had to earn money instead of attending school right away.

He worked as a server at the Pasta Restaurant all week and took on more outsourced work.

“Senior, you’re truly an interesting person, the more I get to know you.”

“Don’t pay me any more attention.”

“It’s already too late.”

Lee Jun belatedly turned his head towards Chaeheon. Having ordered the same drink, Chaeheon took a sip of his coffee and winced one eye at the coldness. Or perhaps it was because of what he was about to say to Lee Jun.

“You know all my attention is already on you, Senior.”

“Sounds like obsession.”

“Aren’t attention and obsession ultimately branches stemming from similar feelings? That’s enough, isn’t it?”

Since emotions aren’t visibly tangible, only similar words have emerged. So, Chaeheon wasn’t wrong. However, Lee Jun wasn’t pleased with either attention or obsession. And… he didn’t like that Chaeheon was expressing feelings for him when his mind must be complicated.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Lee Jun stopped drinking his coffee and said with an uncomfortable look. Chaeheon was propping his chin with his hand, staring intently at Lee Jun’s face. He knew Chaeheon was looking because of the resemblance to Hae Sol, but it was hard to voice it.

“You resemble your sibling.”

“Ah…”

Not Hae Sol, but Haein.

“Because you’re siblings.”

Chaeheon tilted his coffee, meticulously examining Lee Jun’s face. While his kind-looking eyes, fair skin, and full lips resembled his younger sister’s, a closer look drew more attention to Lee Jun. His elegantly straight nose, the soft curve of his jawline, and his overall aura were far more striking than Haein’s.

“Still, Senior, you’ve probably been told you’re pretty more often, right?”

“…”

Lee Jun subtly avoided his gaze. In his opinion, Haein’s smaller, softer features made her prettier overall, but as Chaeheon said, people often complimented his face more than Haein’s.

“Why ask something like that?”

“Because you said you had a younger sister but never showed her to me.”

Chaeheon, who brazenly implied he could ask such a question, then casually inquired,

“What’s Hae Sol’s gender?”

It was an unremarkable question. Nine out of ten people who saw a baby would ask it. So he should just answer, but the words wouldn’t come out, as if he’d swallowed a small stone.

Lee Jun stared intently at Chaeheon’s face. His cool forehead, neat eyebrows, high nose bridge, and eyes so dark they could be mistaken for black. His lips, which had seemed as sharp as a knife before he’d touched them, not knowing they were soft, were balanced together.

Moreover, the smooth yet firm line of his face, falling from his cheekbones to his chin, was a masculine face, unlike his own.

What would a baby resembling Chaeheon be like?

“Admiring my face?”

“I just looked.”

“Am I handsome?”

“Yes.”

Neither Chaeheon, who asked if he was handsome without any embarrassment, nor Lee Jun, who answered honestly instead of reprimanding him for asking such a thing, realized how oddly their conversation was veering.

“…is…”

As Lee Jun lowered his head to drink his coffee, Chaeheon’s words were cut off, and only a part of them was heard.

“What?”

“I asked Hae Sol’s gender.”

“Male.”

Lee Jun forced out the words. He’d only stated one gender, but he felt as if all the energy had drained from his body. Wanting to sit somewhere, he looked around and then went to a nearby bench to sit down. As he pretended not to notice the gaze on him, Chaeheon’s eyebrow raised in his peripheral vision.

“Working weekends, going to the supermarket first thing in the morning, and soon going to school, it’s bound to be tiring.”

When Chaeheon spoke with such open displeasure, Lee Jun shook his head.

“You’re leaving out that you called me.”

“I only gave you a break. Besides, you said carrying a baby was hard.”

When Chaeheon spoke as if exasperated, Lee Jun, who had been trying to change the subject, awkwardly fell silent. If he didn’t want to focus on Hae Sol right now, he needed to talk about something else, but…

It wasn’t easy to force the conversation in another direction.

It was then.

“Are you close with the owner?”

“What?”

“I asked if you’re close with the owner there.”

Surprisingly, as Chaeheon mentioned someone else, Lee Jun’s eyes darted around aimlessly before he lowered his head to his coffee.

Is he not going to ask about Hae Sol anymore?

The baby must be what he’s most curious about.

Moreover, if he thought it might be his child, he would surely have to say something…

“I’ve been with him since the Pasta Restaurant opened.”

Anyway, Lee Jun had no intention of changing the subject that Chaeheon had started.

“Just for that reason?”

“He was a Senior I knew even before the Pasta Restaurant. He wanted to open a new restaurant, so I helped him with the interior design, and we grew closer.”

“You knew him from before?”

“I first met him while working at his Senior’s parents’ restaurant.”

“That’s a good connection. He even gives you tonic.”

“He gives me that because he worries about me. His family is in the restaurant business, so he’s very interested in food. Last time, he even gave me a slug.”

Thinking back to that time, he unconsciously laughed. He’d eaten the slug with his mom, but after they realized what it was, he only gave it to his mom.

“His cooking skills are good, but he’s not great at management, so his first shop failed. When he started again, I personally found the location for him.”

Lee Jun took another sip of coffee, and the conversation paused for a moment.

“He came asking for help, saying if that one failed again, he’d have to take over his parents’ work… so I did.”

“He doesn’t want to inherit it, I guess?”

“He’s sick of gamjatang. Of course, it’s delicious, but you can get tired of it…”

“You don’t have to explain, I understand.”

Chaeheon smiled and fiddled with his coffee cup. It was true for him too. He was born into a family everyone envied, but he didn’t want that life.

“This is why I shouldn’t have listened to someone else’s story.”

When Lee Jun looked at him as if asking what he meant, Chaeheon roughly avoided his gaze. He really disliked that Park Geon-u seemed to have feelings for Lee Jun, but he felt bad finding a commonality with him.

“Last time, you didn’t even explain properly…”

Chaeheon muttered discontentedly. Since Lee Jun didn’t seem to want to talk about Hae Sol, he used Park Geon-u as bait, and Lee Jun bit hard.

“Let’s go now.”

Lee Jun stood up and started walking, but hearing no footsteps follow, he turned back.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“…”

“If you’re just going to stay like that, I’ll go separately.”

Lee Jun didn’t wait for Chaeheon’s reply and continued walking. He’d spent time buying coffee and sitting on the bench, so if he took the subway now, he’d be late for school; he had to hurry.

The desire to ride in Chaeheon’s car, who had inexplicably sulked, vanished.

“Let’s go together.”

Chaeheon stood beside him with steps that were neither fast nor slow and grabbed his arm.

“Let’s go in my car.”

Chaeheon held Lee Jun’s arm firmly, not hurting him but ensuring he wouldn’t let go. He tossed the coffee from his other hand into a trash can and strode purposefully forward. Lee Jun matched Chaeheon’s pace but absolutely avoided eye contact with him.

After Chaeheon personally opened the passenger door, got Lee Jun in, and then walked around the car to get in himself, an awkward silence began again.

‘If he really doesn’t ask about Hae Sol…’

Lee Jun turned his head the other way to look at Chaeheon’s profile, dimly reflected in the window.

It would be good if they could really just gloss over it like this.