Harmonious Love

A Perfect Lie (12)

Tae Young-won is away from home.

By Mo Yeon’s estimation, it had been over ten days. He vaguely knew this, and was sure of it again the moment he stepped into the elevator.

“…”

One in the right corner of the ceiling, and one in the center as soon as the elevator doors opened.

When Mo Yeon met the ghost’s face, he unconsciously held his breath and then slowly exhaled. The ragged face, with an unreadable expression, made a clattering sound as its teeth collided.

The most important thing is not to react to the ghost’s appearance or eerie atmosphere. Mo Yeon pressed the floor button, passing by the ghost, and waited silently.

‘Where is this sunbae and what is he doing?’

Tae Young-won certainly hadn’t set foot in this officetel for days. Though there had been no contact, Mo Yeon naturally knew this fact.

It was because ghosts were starting to appear more frequently inside the officetel as well.

Originally, there were places with strong and weak yin energy. He thought this officetel wasn’t a place with strong yin energy, but the key was that it was a place where Tae Young-won frequently stayed. If it’s like this after being away for about ten days, is it actually a place with no yang energy at all?

That meant if Tae Young-won ever moved, he would have to move too, no matter what.

Mo Yeon was influenced by him in many more ways than he had thought. The bitterness he felt when realizing this once again was indescribable.

Perhaps from the moment Tae Young-won appeared in his life, he never had any choice to begin with.

<…>

He said he didn’t want things to change, but receiving yang energy for a long time would be better for Mo Yeon. He couldn’t understand why those words made his heart so complicated.

If he felt this way, how much more frustrated must Tae Young-won be?

It was after that day that Tae Young-won stopped showing up. Just as he didn’t hold onto the unresponsive Mo Yeon, he no longer waited for Mo Yeon to finish work, nor did he send the occasional messages that Mo Yeon may or may not have replied to.

Of course, he didn’t visit the restaurant either.

Could he have gotten tired?

‘Well, sunbae must feel bad too…’

Ding, the arrived elevator doors opened. It was the only advantage of worries and concerns. It quickly made him pass the moment of being trapped in a small space with a ghost.

“Could he have moved already?”

Mo Yeon unconsciously looked around the officetel building.

He didn’t mean for him to distance himself so quickly.

He just meant for him to distance himself a little. Mo Yeon’s heart pounded.

***

It took a bit longer for Tae Young-won to return home after being dragged around to family trips and corporate events. Originally, a week was the promised time, but it had been delayed too much.

The atmosphere with his overbearing family was just annoying and not comfortable at all for him. Rather, Tae Young-won thought this family atmosphere made him dislike people even more.

Today, with some kind of banquet happening, he had to manage his expression all day in front of people.

In the past, this was his daily life so he couldn’t feel the frustration, but lately, it was a bit different.

So, living a life of pretense 24 hours a day, irritation would suddenly well up. In the end, when all his family members were happily drunk, he left for the officetel without hesitation.

He was too busy to contact anyone, and indeed, not once did Mo Yeon contact him first. He read the recent message history with Mo Yeon with a bitter face.

[I made too many egg rolls, want to eat breakfast?]

Most of the content was one-sided like this.

[Mo Yeon, want to drink strawberry juice?]

[Looks like you didn’t go to work today, I waited for nothing]

Cutely, the last message had a reply.

[I don’t go in on Mondays starting this week.]

Tae Young-won smiled bitterly as he typed out a message.

[I want to rub my nose on Mo Yeon’s butt|]

Or maybe his nipples…

Would he get slapped if he sent this? Looking at the blinking cursor, he irritably erased the message.

“I’ll just wake up the kid who’s sleeping early for nothing…”

It was almost midnight. If he sent it and woke him up, who knows what he’d hear.

He blankly stared at the window one floor above his apartment, then went inside.

He was certainly fatigued from the past few days. The moment he washed up and lay on the bed, he fell asleep as if his body was being sucked in.

And as a faint rustling sound was heard, his deep sleep gradually turned into a light sleep.

At the same time, he heard a whispering voice in his ear.

“…Sunbae.”

The moment his eyes opened at the familiar voice, something pressed firmly against his lips.

It was a hard, small protrusion. Tae Young-won moved his hand to embrace the flat back.

At the same time, he remembered something he had said before. It seemed like a similar situation.

Ah.

What should he do with this adorable cat?

His lips curled up for a moment, but he frowned at the rising excitement.

Haa. He let out a low moan against the moist chest, and the waist he was embracing trembled slightly.

He happily took the protrusion into his mouth again.

Where There Is Sunlight, There Is Also Shadow (1)

As much as Tae Young-won knew Mo Yeon, Mo Yeon also knew how instinctive a person he was.

True to his instincts and honest with his emotions, he was a person who moved according to his curiosity, and that’s why he was honestly drawn to Mo Yeon, who stimulated his curiosity despite being a man for the first time.

Maybe he could meet someone similar?

Could there really not be a single person in this world similar to Tae Young-won?

With such expectations, Mo Yeon had come to a gay bar for the first time of his own accord. The criteria for choosing the location were first, not too far from home, and second, not too expensive.

[Eden’s Kiss]

Looking up at the store name written in what seemed like scribbled writing, Mo Yeon marveled anew. When he found it through an internet search, he didn’t think much of it, but seeing it like this, the name seemed to have quite a lot of meaning packed into it.

Checking the time, it was already 8 PM.

‘I should go in quickly.’

As he came on a day when he didn’t have a part-time job for once, Mo Yeon planned to move quickly to achieve his goal. It’s better to avoid going home late as someone who has to avoid ghosts.

Unfamiliar with such places, Mo Yeon strode into the glittering store with surprising determination.

Ironically, he could muster up the courage more easily because Tae Young-won mistakenly thought he was the type to frequent such places. Of course, Tae Young-won doesn’t know that Mo Yeon is here. He had no intention of telling him, as Tae Young-won absolutely hates sharing with others.

‘We’re not dating anymore anyway.’

And finding a source of yang energy other than Tae Young-won had been Mo Yeon’s long-standing wish since he first got involved with him.

Now that Mo Yeon had distanced himself from Tae Young-won once, he felt the necessity keenly and finally decided to take action.

The sensation he felt when he first handed Tae Young-won a pen and their hands brushed, and when he felt his breath on his nape – he felt something different then. Maybe he could recognize someone similar here in the same way?

“Oh? Wait a moment.”

And just as he was about to enter, someone stopped Mo Yeon.

What? Mo Yeon looked up reflexively, but his eyes showed no particular emotion even after meeting the other person’s gaze.

“Sunbae Mo Yeon, right? I’m Kim Hyun-soo. I’m the first-year class representative, don’t you remember me?”

Ah. Even if he didn’t remember the name, hearing “class representative” seemed to jog his memory. He was the first-year who always asked for his attendance at events like department dinners.

No matter how little interest Mo Yeon had in other people at school, he couldn’t completely fail to recognize a junior who had consistently spoken to him for a year. However, the reason he didn’t immediately recognize him was largely due to Kim Hyun-soo’s attire.

“I remember.”

“Wow, really?”

Kim Hyun-soo, who smiled with his eyes as if pleased, looked quite different from when they met at school. Maybe because he was tall, or because he had dressed up to go out, he looked more mature than a guy who had just turned twenty, unlike when seen at school.

With a navy blue jacket and his hair styled to show his forehead, he looked much more adult and handsome than his usual student appearance.

So, in conclusion, he looked somewhat like Tae Young-won sunbae.