GGAS 31

It seemed that among the people Eun Sanho knew, the one who made time pass the fastest was Kim Abang. Their conversation drifted from one subject to another like a chain, a meandering kind of talk, and before they knew it three hours had passed as if it were only three minutes.

“Congratulations on your discharge!”

As soon as they got into the back seat, Kim Abang held out a small cake to Eun Sanho and said it.

“Wow, this is something I really like… how did you know?”

Eun Sanho opened his eyes wide and received the cake.

“You mentioned it before~. I made sure to remember it! Just now, I saw it on display at the bakery out front, so I hurried and bought it.”

Kim Abang winked as he spoke.

“You remembered that…?”

Eun Sanho asked, he was surprised.

“Of course!”

Kim Abang laughed sheepishly. Eun Sanho followed his laugh with a pretty smile, then brought his hand close to Kim Abang’s ear and whispered something. At that, Kim Abang’s eyes widened like a startled rabbit, then soon after he tapped Eun Sanho’s arm and burst out laughing.

“Ai, really~.”

Kim Gwanggong, who was starting the engine in the driver’s seat, saw that scene in the rearview mirror and felt uncomfortable.

‘…As expected, it bothers me.’

Kim Gwanggong thought. Judging from the last three hours, Kim Abang and Eun Sanho got along very well. Laughter filled more than half their conversation, with sounds like kyaaaa, ahaha, kak kak kak. They seemed perfectly in tune. On top of that, what Eun Sanho had called his ‘ideal type’ before was no different from describing Kim Abang as he was. Short, with a round face, a preference for pastel-colored clothes, that damned ideal type…. It really was just like Kim Abang. Realizing that Eun Sanho had already known Kim Abang when he said it, it seemed more like he had never had some separate ideal type at all, and instead just liked Kim Abang himself.

‘Eun Sanho-ssi… likes Kim Abang?’

“Haa….”

Disturbed, Kim Gwanggong barely held back the urge to press his head against the wheel and let out a long sigh.

At that moment, Seo Taerim, who was sitting in the passenger seat, leaned his body toward Kim Gwanggong.

“…What is it?”

Kim Gwanggong glanced at him and asked.

“Gonggong-ssi, do you by chance have a license you never use?”

Seo Taerim asked in a quiet, subtle way. Kim Gwanggong raised his eyebrows, wondering what nonsense this man was spouting now. Then Seo Taerim smiled his handsome smile.

“As I thought. I saw that you started the engine a while ago but still haven’t driven off.”

‘What does he mean he figured it out?’

Kim Gwanggong was dumbfounded.

“Now, don’t panic. Just step out of the driver’s seat as you are and I’ll drive. If I say you weren’t feeling well and so I drove instead, then Kim Abang-ssi and Sanho won’t suspect that Gonggong-ssi doesn’t really drive.”

Seo Taerim raised his thumb and winked as if to say ‘okay?’ It was his attempt at getting closer to Kim Abang’s only sibling, but Kim Gwanggong only furrowed his brow hard.

The way Seo Taerim called him ‘Sanho’ grated on him just as much as the fact that Kim Abang seemed to fit Eun Sanho’s ideal type. The way Eun Sanho called him ‘Taerim-hyung’ also bothered him the same. At first, since they didn’t acknowledge each other, no one noticed, but as it turned out, Seo Taerim was a friend of Eun Yeonho, Eun Sanho’s older sister, and had some acquaintance with Sanho. According to Seo Taerim, even though he had known Eun Yeonho for a long time, he had only met Sanho a few times and wasn’t close, so he didn’t want to act too familiar and make Sanho uncomfortable. That was why he waited until Sanho finished talking with Kim Abang before greeting him.

‘…Should I just tell him to walk on his own?’

Kim Gwanggong thought as he looked at Seo Taerim. Of course, for the past three hours, all of Seo Taerim’s attention had been on Kim Abang’s burst goditang, so if one counted the number of times he mentioned it, words like ‘goditang’ or ‘wet tissue’ had far outnumbered ‘Sanho.’ But if he could, Kim Gwanggong wanted to sew Seo Taerim’s mouth shut. That damned ‘Sanho.’

‘Huh, why’s he like that..? Did I wink wrong…?’

Seeing Kim Gwanggong frowning, Seo Taerim cautiously tried a wink with his other eye. It was a pitiful effort, but instead of easing, Kim Gwanggong’s expression only grew more twisted as he spoke.

“Why are you calling me Gonggong-ssi? My parents gave me a proper name, why are you arbitrarily calling me something else, CEO Seo?”

Kim Gwanggong said coldly.

“Eh? No, but Gonggong-ssi told me to call you that….”

“When did I ever.”

Kim Gwanggong cut him off flatly and started driving. Seo Taerim wanted to explain that it was unfair, but at first his voice was buried under the navigation’s guidance sound, and later it was drowned out by the classical music Kim Gwanggong turned on. So in the end he gave up protesting, took out a bag of peanuts from his bag, and started concentrating on shelling some to give to Kim Abang.

“Mm….”

Seo Taerim furrowed his brow tightly, trying hard to shell the peanuts neatly. At first it seemed even the peanuts were moved by his effort and came out well. But as time went on he put too much strength into his hands, and the peanuts ended up breaking apart, finally crumbling into powder.

“Cough…?”

Because of the peanut powder flying toward his side, Kim Gwanggong coughed and rolled down the window. The night air was cold, but since it didn’t carry peanut powder, it was easier to breathe.

“Hoo….”

Kim Gwanggong thought that somehow there was not a single person around him who was deft with their hands, then stopped the car at a red light. He lifted his gaze upward just to look at the sky, and whether it was fortunate he saw it now or unfortunate he only saw it now, he finally saw it. Among the forest of buildings in the city night, there was a particularly bright large billboard, and on that billboard was today’s news.

“H Hotel CEO Seo Taerim, dating a handsome man”

Just the text itself was information he could not care less about. But the photo that appeared with that title was not something he could dismiss. That small, round-faced man in pastel clothes rubbing lips with CEO Seo Taerim of H Hotel was….

“……?”

Kim Gwanggong narrowed his eyes so hard his brows furrowed deep as he stuck his head out the window.

“Huk, Gonggong-ah, dangerous! Put your head back in!”

Kim Abang shouted in surprise from the back, but Kim Gwanggong was in the middle of experiencing for the first time in his life the phrase “his body stiffened” as reality.

But, was it the world’s way of telling even someone like him that life was warm and worth living? The billboard’s news kindly displayed the photos so clearly he didn’t need to crane his neck to see. It showed his older brother, presumed to be drunk, and Seo Taerim kissing from every possible angle. A kiss photo from the right side, a kiss photo from the left side, a kiss photo taken by drone from above, a kiss photo zoomed close on just the lips, even a kiss photo taken with an infrared camera….

“??????????????????”

What he was thinking – if that could even be called thought – he kept thinking again and again as he stared at the billboard with his face tightly contorted, unable even to blink. Thanks to that, Kim Abang in the back seat was about ready to lose his mind.

“Taerim-ssi, push Gwanggong inside! At this rate his neck will break! Cars are coming!”

“Kim Gwanggong-ssi, are you crazy? Come back in!”

Seo Taerim pulled him inside. Dragged in by force, Kim Gwanggong barely tore his gaze away from the billboard and turned his head. Then he saw Seo Taerim looking baffled, Kim Abang flustered, and Eun Sanho surprised.

“What the….”

Kim Gwanggong looked not at the photo but at the real Seo Taerim and Kim Abang, narrowed his brow even more, and could not finish speaking.

“Gwanggong-ssi, what’s wrong? What’s out there….”

Eun Sanho looked outside with doubt, then slowly opened his eyes wide. He whipped his body around to look at Seo Taerim and Kim Abang.

“Are you two dating??”

“What?”

Seo Taerim asked back in surprise, more from a sudden lag at an unexpected question than from anything else. But Kim Gwanggong heard Seo Taerim’s answer as, “What are you talking about? I’m not dating Kim Abang,” and before he knew it, he jumped up from his seat and hit his head against the car ceiling.

“Urk….”

“Ah, are you okay? Isn’t it swelling?”

Kim Abang supported him and asked, but Kim Gwanggong had no interest in whether his head was swollen or not.

“If you’re not dating, then don’t tell me you’re already married?!”

Kim Gwanggong shouted with his pupils shaking.

“Married?”

Kim Abang asked back in surprise. This too was just lag, but Kim Gwanggong took it as, “Right, I never told you? The truth is, I’m already married to Seo Taerim,” and was shocked.

“You’re married…?”

“Ahhh???”

“Married…, married…?”

“A, no! Calm down! It’s just a contract relationship!”

Kim Abang urgently revealed the truth. But hearing that, instead of calming down, Kim Gwanggong was even more shocked by the nonsense of “contract relationship,” and again, before he knew it, he jumped up and smacked his head on the car ceiling.

“Ugh! Gonggong-ah!”

“Gonggong-ssi!”

“Gwanggong-ssi!”

The three of them shouted in alarm. And because Kim Gwanggong’s car did not move even after the light turned green, the honking from the cars behind added on, and inside and outside the car turned into utter chaos.

***

Somehow after they made it home, Kim Gwanggong sent Kim Abang, who said he would put ice on his head, back to his own room. He did not want frostbite on his head.

“Haa….”

As always, he showered under pouring water, then wearing only a gown he drank a glass of whiskey, glanced at the ruined pink suit soaked in seawater with a complicated expression, then turned off the light and lay down on the bed. But every time he was about to fall asleep, useless thoughts kept coming up, so he could not sleep at all.

‘Isn’t this insane?’

Yes. Someone’s screw-loose mind was keeping him awake.

‘Contract relationship? With Seo Taerim?’

Kim Gwanggong snorted with his eyes closed.

‘How long has it even been since they met, and they’re already doing some contract relationship?’

He turned onto his right side and thought irritably. They had graduated from the same kindergarten, yet it was as if only Kim Abang had never learned the lesson of not following strangers.

‘And why of all people Seo Taerim? That guy, no matter how you look at him, he can’t be trusted. His eyes look blank and dull. If he’s with Kim Abang they’ll just become Dumb and Dumber.’

Thinking of how Seo Taerim, who had been selected several times as the baby with the prettiest eyes at local festivals just after his first birthday, would feel wronged to hear that, Kim Gwanggong turned onto his left side.

“The fools are flocking together….”

Kim Gwanggong started to turn his body back to the right, then froze.

Wait a minute. Could it be that Seo Taerim was only acting dumb to win over Kim Abang…?

He immediately sat up.

Maybe… maybe Seo Taerim was a conman who only went after Kim Abang’s money…. So….

Once he started thinking, the thoughts kept flowing endlessly, and before he knew it, in Kim Gwanggong’s head Kim Abang had become the victim of a marriage-fraud case, clinging to a bankbook while streaming with tears.

–Gonggong-ah, what do I do? Taerim-ssi took all the money and disappeared….

“This bastard.”

Without realizing, Kim Gwanggong spat out harsh words and immediately grabbed his phone. Then, while searching in the dark for thirty minutes about “when a boyfriend borrows money and doesn’t pay it back,” he glanced at the clock, flinched, and quickly shut off the phone before lying back down again.

Useless worry. If that stupid face was acting, he would have been an actor.

Kim Gwanggong clenched his teeth and forced himself to try to sleep. As a result, he gained both sleep and nightmares.

–Gonggong-ah, we got married. Even though right after we married Taerim-ssi blew away all my money, I’m fine~. Love is always about feeling full just from seeing the face…☆

With eyes full of love, Kim Abang cupped Seo Taerim’s face as he said it. Then Seo Taerim pulled out a rose from somewhere, bit it in his mouth, and lowered his head.

–Kim Abang-ssi…. Everything you say is true. Love is like a kimchi refrigerator from which kimchi endlessly springs…☆

–Oh my…. People will hear….

Kim Abang blushed and hit Seo Taerim’s chest with both hands, but even that did not ease his embarrassment, so he took out a pile of plates from his bag and hurled them at the wall. The plates broke with clattering sounds into the shape of a heart.

–How can plates break into a heart shape? Truly lovely, Kim Abang-ssi….

As Seo Taerim lowered his head to set the mood, the rose turned into green onion kimchi.

–Ah, Taerim-ssi, even your kimchi taste is perfect….

As Kim Abang stood on his toes, their lips overlapped….

“Uwaaaaah!!!”

Kim Gwanggong screamed and woke up.

“Ugh… huh….”

He brushed back his sweat-drenched hair and gasped for breath. It was clear he needed to take countermeasures.