The hand that had been caressing his cheek slipped around to the back of his neck, then curled around his head. With a restraining, capturing motion, Sa-yoon was pulled down helplessly onto the bed. He struggled to keep his weight off Geon-joo, bracing himself with a hand above the other man’s head. His other hand, awkwardly lingering, gripped Geon-joo’s shoulder. Geon-joo pulled him closer still.

“Haa…”

The sound of his breathing was nakedly desperate, groaning as he tried to close the distance even further. Hot, feverish breath hit Sa-yoon’s throat, and his expression crumpled.

This sick kid, seriously…

The curse rising in his throat was swallowed by the other’s mouth, never translating into words. The heat radiating from their touching skin was beyond imagination. Whether Geon-joo knew or cared about the worry consuming Sa-yoon, he hugged him so fiercely it felt easier to just collapse on top of him, his hands sliding down to sweep over Sa-yoon’s waist.

As Geon-joo’s hands roamed his back, their gazes suddenly tangled. Geon-joo’s eyes were so full of resentment that Sa-yoon, unable to properly resist, felt like a traitor before that sullen glare.

Wait, what did I even do?

If anyone did something, it was that body over there. All he did was worry. When someone puts on such a method-acting performance with their precious body on the line, who could possibly stay calm watching it? Even if the roles were reversed, it was clear Geon-joo would have reacted the same way, which made this feel all the more unfair.

He would have approached too, and so…

“Fuck.”

Imagination was the problem.

His thoughts wandered uselessly, picturing Han Geon-joo kissing his Original Soul. Heat rushed to his face, and he gripped the blanket. A realization hit him like a revelation: unfairness was unfairness, and bullshit was bullshit.

Because of that, Sa-yoon let go of his last bit of resistance and willingly indulged Geon-joo’s childishness. Swallowing the breath Geon-joo exhaled, he bit the tip of his nose. The panting man grabbed Sa-yoon’s head again, adjusting the angle to kiss him. Wet sounds, clearly deliberate and meant to be heard, stimulated his hearing. Just as his throat began to vibrate involuntarily at the deep intrusion of the tongue…

Suddenly, a thumb pushed into his mouth. Pulling as if to tear his lip, the man stopped the kiss and slowly pulled away.

“Ah-ha ee-haegi-ya.” (You little baby.)

Sa-yoon mumbled the slurred words as the hand pulled at the inside of his mouth like a baby playing pranks. Han Geon-joo, breathing out hot, shallow ssaek-ssaek breaths, frowned.

“Hyung, really…”

“Ae-ha meol.” (I did what?)

“What did I do?”

“…”

“Your boyfriend is me. Not that bastard, me. You need to know what to mistake and what to allow.”

How could you kiss him?

At the gaze that seemed to ask exactly that, Sa-yoon moved his lips silently. He didn’t know what action to take in a situation like this, or how to soothe the other person. Shit, I’d need to have been caught kissing another man to know.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t completely another man, and it was half-forced, so he felt aggrieved. Geon-joo, seeing this, pulled Sa-yoon’s legs to make him straddle his waist and made a sullen face. A squirrel who had its acorn stolen would look more polite than that.

“Seriously annoying.”

This is why I didn’t want to use the skill.

Complaining words flowed from his mouth. Seeing him sigh with the clear intent of being heard, looking so troubled, Sa-yoon felt his own insides getting complicated and ruffled his hair.

“…I’m sorry.”

Unfairness aside, he had to apologize where it was due. If Geon-joo had been watching everything from inside, it was no different from having his lover stolen right in front of his eyes. If he were in Geon-joo’s shoes, he would have been filled with rage and thrown Han Geon-joo out a window by now. But at his meek apology, Geon-joo’s eyes narrowed.

Naturally, it seemed like an emotion that wouldn’t be resolved with just a single word of apology.

“But if you saw it, you know. Would I have done that because I wanted to?”

“Use your head a little. Do you think now is the time for excuses?”

Narrowing the space between his eyebrows, Geon-joo stretched the inside of Sa-yoon’s mouth again. Kid, kid, he called him, and now he was playing pranks like a literal two-or-three-year-old. Feeling a bit dumbfounded, Sa-yoon opened his mouth as pulled, then snatched Geon-joo’s wrist. Seeing the fingers wet with his saliva look dirty, he pulled out two tissues and wiped them, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction.

“Then what is it time for?”

“That’s for you to thi…”

“Is this okay?”

Twisting the wrist slightly, he kissed Geon-joo’s palm. Perhaps flustered, Geon-joo curled his fingertips slightly. Sa-yoon uncurled the fingers again, looking down at him, then lowered his head.

“The conclusion is, you’re sulking right now and want to be soothed, isn’t it?”

“…”

“So I’m asking if soothing you like this works.”

His memory was hazy on whether he heard it from Yen or Gyeongjin, but he had heard that if a lover sulks, you should soothe them gently. Is this the gentleness they talked about in this situation?

In the first place, Sa-yoon didn’t know how to be gentle other than this. It was simply an act of copying exactly how Han Geon-joo treated him, so asking him was practically the most accurate way.

Asking again with his eyes, he kissed Geon-joo’s wrist. Just as Han Geon-joo often did, he used his remaining hand to slip fingers between the clothes and caress the abdomen, feeling a quite firm stomach. As his fingertips felt the finely defined muscles and scratched down involuntarily, Han Geon-joo’s hand kept trying to escape his grasp.

“Isn’t this it?”

At his words, Han Geon-joo shut his mouth. Sa-yoon examined his face, checked the tips of his ears, and smirked.

Judging by how red they were, looking like they might burst, he at least didn’t dislike it.

…Come to think of it, his expression has relaxed a lot too.

The face that had been full of annoyance and resentment had now changed to be so mild it looked somewhat blank. Just as he was gauging if the anger had fully dissipated, Geon-joo, finally succeeding in pulling his hand from Sa-yoon’s grasp, pushed Sa-yoon’s legs away with both hands.

“Anyway… I get it, so get off for a bit.”

“You’re the one who put me up here.”

It was Han Geon-joo who had pulled the standing Sa-yoon onto him. Feeling it was hard to keep up with his back-and-forth, Sa-yoon prepared to get down, inadvertently touching Geon-joo’s thigh, and his eyes went round. Flinch. Han Geon-joo trembled in his legs and waist, reacting sensitively. That alone was enough to grasp the situation, and a strange silence fell.

What do I do with this?

Sa-yoon held his breath, looking down once at Geon-joo’s face, eyes squeezed shut, and once at his legs, then licked his lips. This was the first time he had ever wanted to ask Lee Jae-hee for the right answer this badly.

“Um… so, this…”

“…”

“…Do I have to soothe this too?”

When he asked after serious contemplation, Han Geon-joo, his face turning crimson, covered his expression with both hands and shrugged his shoulders.

“…I’ll take care of that myself, so just get off.”

“Get off?”

“Hyung, please.”

The small voice sounded quite desperate, so Sa-yoon hesitated before getting off the bed. A deep silence settled in the instantly awkward atmosphere.

“Help you?”

Sa-yoon, unfamiliar with the silence, eventually couldn’t hold back and asked. At that, Geon-joo immediately crumpled his face and pulled the blanket over his legs. Strictly speaking, Sa-yoon was the one dragged into a kiss, but Geon-joo was acting like a bride on her wedding night.

“It’s fine, just get out.”

“…Uh, okay. Uh… fighting.”

“Fuck, seriously.”

For once, it was a curse filled with sincerity. Sa-yoon realized it was really time to leave and exited the room. Click. Not long after closing the door, he heard a sound like a pillow being thrown, followed by curses directed at him. Recalling when he had first brought him here, Sa-yoon looked troubled, then carefully left the hallway at the sound of running water. When he went out to the living room, Lee Jae-hee was petting Rai on the sofa.

“Finished?”

The man asked in his usual casual tone, looking up.

“…Well?”

It was Han Geon-joo who was angry, not him, so it wasn’t for him to decide if it was finished or not. As he shrugged, Lee Jae-hee placed Rai on his lap and closed his eyes.

“From now on, it would be better for you two to use a separate floor. Unless necessary, don’t let others into the floor where you two stay.”

“Is that necessary?”

“I’m saying this thinking of Geon-joo-ssi, not you, Sa-yoon-ssi.”

Lee Jae-hee wasn’t one to speak nonsense. Sa-yoon pondered, then replied that he would, as it wasn’t difficult. Lee Jae-hee kept silent for a moment, then brought up the topic he had mentioned when entering the room earlier.

“Shall I check your error progression rate?”

That single question slammed his dreamy mood back into reality. Sa-yoon stared at Lee Jae-hee’s face, feeling as if he was facing something he had forgotten, then let out a hollow laugh.

Right, war is coming, what am I thinking about?

It was time for both him and Han Geon-joo to prepare for war. It wasn’t the time to be melting in clumsy emotions. Discarding the faint excitement and tension that remained, Sa-yoon returned to an emotionless face and buried his body in the sofa.

“How much is it?”

“It’s 75 percent.”

“…That should be enough until the war.”

There was no more time to waste. Thinking of Geon-joo in the room, Sa-yoon touched his lips and made a resolve.

“It’s time to put an end to the past.”

It was time to put a period, telling the ghost still trapped in the old era that his time and story were over, not to have lingering regrets anymore.