GGAS 34

“Did you come to buy something at Abang-garde? Don’t tell me it’s that chamber pot you were eyeing before?”

He had never eyed it. But Kim Abang grabbed Seo Taerim’s hand without hesitation, and Seo Taerim flinched. He couldn’t understand why, after coldly throwing his hand away before, Kim Abang was now grabbing it so easily.

“Why are you doing this? Weren’t we going to my shop?”

Kim Abang looked puzzled when Seo Taerim didn’t readily follow.

“Why, why are you grabbing me?”

Seo Taerim stammered and gave a nonsensical answer, he didn’t even dare to look at the hand that was caught.

“What am I grabbing?”

Kim Abang tilted his head, thought for about five seconds, then opened his eyes wide. He quickly released Seo Taerim’s hand and raised both arms like in surrender.

“Sorry! I shouldn’t be doing this!”

Kim Abang shouted, visibly flustered, and fidgeted before suddenly turning around as if to take off in a thirty-six stratagem retreat.

“Where are you going again?”

Seo Taerim, in his rush, lightly grabbed Kim Abang’s hem, then let go at once, thinking Kim Abang would dislike it. Thanks to that, Kim Abang took the chance to run. Seo Taerim stared blankly at the huge bundle bouncing on Kim Abang’s back, then quickly came to his senses and chased after him.

“Kim Abang-ssi, stop right there!”

Seo Taerim shouted. Of course there was no way. Kim Abang flung open the shop door and shoved in a bundle bigger than his body first. Then he quickly slipped inside himself and tried to lock the door.

But Seo Taerim, though he lagged in speed, was not outdone by anyone in reach. He grabbed the outer doorknob just before the door shut.

“Huh, huh? Why isn’t this locking…?”

Kim Abang muttered in panic, and through the crack, Seo Taerim’s eyes gleamed.

“You said I was your lifesaver, and you won’t even serve me a cup of tea?”

“Ugh… I only have hot chocolate!”

Kim Abang shouted in shock as he pulled on the door. At that moment Seo Taerim remembered the rotten hot chocolate Kim Abang had given him last time, and his hand lost strength.

“Then goodbye!”

Kim Abang tried to close the door in that instant. But Seo Taerim’s grip was not so weak. The door stopped just short of closing completely, and Kim Abang was flustered. He had never once failed to shut something when he used his strength.

“Ah, d-don’t come in.”

“Why not?”

“That…”

Kim Abang glanced once into the shop and bit his lip.

“That… anyway, don’t come in.”

He stammered and pulled on the door again. This time, it slid shut without much resistance.

“……?”

Kim Abang looked puzzled as he turned the lock. Just then, Seo Taerim’s low voice came from outside and pierced his ear.

“…Kim Abang-ssi, you’ve done everything just as you pleased until now, and now you want to throw me away because you don’t like it anymore?”

His voice sounded drained of strength.

“You come find me however you want… and then you leave however you want, is that it?”

The shadow cast on the door showed Seo Taerim’s shoulders drooping.

“Uh….”

Kim Abang widened his eyes like a rabbit and stared at the shadow.

‘Taerim-ssi… looks dispirited?’

It was something Kim Abang could never have imagined. Seo Taerim, who always smiled even if he was sloppy for his height, was now dispirited. What was more, the shadow even raised a hand to wipe at his eyes. As if… he was wiping away tears.

‘Taerim-ssi… is crying?’

At the sight he had never seen or heard of, Kim Abang fidgeted restlessly and finally turned the lock back to open.

“Taerim-ssi… are you crying…?”

Kim Abang cautiously peeked his head out and asked. Seo Taerim had his face buried in his arm.

‘What do I do… he really looks like he’s crying.’

Kim Abang felt like he would cry too at the thought of Seo Taerim crying. That cheerful Taerim-ssi crying, what in the world was going on!

“Taerim-ssi, don’t cry..?”

Just as Kim Abang furrowed his brows into a 八 shape and reached out his hand, Seo Taerim snapped his head up.

“Who’s crying?”

Seo Taerim, with a spotless face without a trace of tears, glared at him with eyes like a demon’s.

“…….!”

Kim Abang panicked and fumbled to close the door, but Seo Taerim flung it open even faster.

“Ah, y-you really can’t…!”

“I can.”

Seo Taerim said coldly as he pushed the door wide open. Kim Abang was dragged out with the door, stumbled, and ended up falling straight into Seo Taerim’s arms.

“…….!”

“…….!”

Both of them froze at the unexpected accident.

“…U, um.”

Kim Abang, who recovered first, squirmed and tried to pull himself out of Seo Taerim’s arms. Seeing him so desperately trying to run away felt like a bucket of cold water dumped over Seo Taerim’s head.

“…Do you dislike me that much?”

“What?”

Kim Abang stopped squirming in surprise and lifted his head.

“Me? Taerim-ssi, you?”

Kim Abang blinked.

“Taerim-ssi, your joke is really…”

He started to speak as if dumbfounded, then was shocked at Seo Taerim’s stiff expression.

“You’re not joking?!”

Kim Abang gaped and shouted ‘Oh my god,’ then grabbed both of Seo Taerim’s cheeks so tightly his flesh bulged out.

“Who said that, that I dislike you?”

He pressed angrily at Seo Taerim’s squished face. Seo Taerim flinched without realizing it.

“That is….”

“Oh? So someone really did say that?! Don’t try to hide it, give me their full name right now!”

“That….”

When Seo Taerim faltered, Kim Abang frowned.

“Hey!”

“K-Kim Gwang…, I don’t know the name.”

Seo Taerim answered without thinking, then quickly changed his words. It didn’t seem good to mention Kim Gwanggong’s name here as if he was trying to sow discord between brothers.

“What? Kim Gwangdon’tknowtheName? Who is that, where do they live? Even the name is ridiculous! Just let me catch them, I won’t let them off easy!”

Kim Abang jumped furiously as he spoke. Seo Taerim broke out in a cold sweat. Kim Abang already didn’t let Kim Gwanggong off easy, and if he went even further, Seo Taerim felt like he would end up dead at Kim Gwanggong’s hands.

“Kim Abang-ssi, anger is bad for your health. So please calm down a little…”

“Do I look like I can calm down right now? Our Taerim-ssi came here completely dispirited?!”

Kim Abang spoke while fuming, and Seo Taerim felt a little moved. He bit his lips to keep himself from smiling and cleared his throat.

“Ahem… No, well… I wasn’t really dispirited.”

“…You weren’t? Really?”

Kim Abang, who had been jumping around, stopped and looked at him suspiciously.

“Yes.”

“Really really?”

Kim Abang frowned like he didn’t believe him and stretched Seo Taerim’s cheek long. With his cheek pulled, Seo Taerim awkwardly nodded. Kim Abang raised his eyebrows.

“Really? If you’re lying, it’s a lifetime ban from salmon sushi.”

“…..It’s r-really true.”

“Mm~? That pause was a little long….”

When Kim Abang narrowed his eyes, Seo Taerim grabbed his hand and pulled it off his cheek.

“Then what you mean is, Kim Abang-ssi, you don’t dislike me, right?”

Seo Taerim quickly shifted the topic. He had to protect salmon sushi at all costs.

“Of course. I totally like you, Taerim-ssi!”

Kim Abang shouted with wide eyes. Seo Taerim forced himself to pull down the corners of his mouth that wanted to rise at “I totally like you!” and deliberately made a hurt expression.

“Then why do you run away, and why did you tell me not to come in? Especially when you always come into my office, but I can’t go in there, that’s too unfair….”

Seo Taerim grumbled as he argued, then lifted his head while pointing to “there.” And he saw it.

The large whiteboard standing against one wall of Abang-garde. On it, written in round letters, were the following words:

Taerim-ssi’s Hiccup Stopping Task Force

Problem: Taerim-ssi hiccups when kissed (maybe with any skinship at all?).

Solution:

Make food that’s good for hiccups~! (Lemon & sugar)

Feed it to Taerim-ssi~!

Caution:

No skinship with Taerim-ssi until the kiss!

(If he hiccups by mistake during practice, that wouldn’t be good~!)

“……?”

Seo Taerim was too stunned.

‘Wha… what task force?’

Could such a thing even exist? Seo Taerim turned to look at Kim Abang in disbelief. Then he saw Kim Abang hastily try to hide the huge bundle behind him with a kick, only to flinch.

“Th-that is….”

Kim Abang flustered and tried to cover the contents, but he couldn’t. Inside were jars full of preserved lemon syrup.

“……???”

Seo Taerim looked at him with eyes demanding an explanation.

“Th… this is, well….”

In the end, Kim Abang began pouring sweat as he confessed the whole story.

Summed up, Kim Abang’s long explanation went like this:

It all started just as Seo Taerim remembered, when Kim Gwanggong brought up the idea of a couple vlog. Kim Abang thought, ‘Wow, what a great idea!’ and was about to agree right away. But at that moment, Seo Taerim caught his eye. To be exact, Seo Taerim’s lips. Normally he would have just thought they were pretty, but strangely, that day, something stuck with him. When he thought it over, he recalled something unexpected.

Seo Taerim hiccupped every time he kissed Kim Abang.

Kim Abang was shocked. Wasn’t this a huge problem! If every time he kissed Seo Taerim he hiccupped, and that went on the vlog, it would be completely unfixable. Not only would it ruin Seo Taerim’s dignity, but people might also start saying that Seo Taerim and Kim Abang were a fake couple. After all, isn’t there always smoke where there’s fire when it comes to gossip?

Once the rumor spread, Kim Abang had a bad feeling it would only be a matter of time before the truth about their fake couple status was exposed. And if people found out, they’d be denounced by public opinion. Then Seo Taerim might be so shocked he would stop eating…! But that could never, ever happen.

So, to buy time to find a way to stop Seo Taerim’s hiccups, he voted to hold back on the vlog idea. That night, under the blanket alone, he searched the internet like crazy.

And he found out lemon and sugar were good for hiccups. So he decided to make preserved lemon syrup. Since Taerim-ssi hiccupped so terribly, he figured he’d need a huge amount, so he even roped in Gonggong to produce the first-ever extra-large preserved lemon batch. And this operation, for the sake of Taerim-ssi’s pride, was supposed to be kept secret. It had been going fairly well, but when he saw Taerim-ssi after a long time, he got overexcited and ended up revealing everything to Taerim-ssi, ruining the secrecy….

That was what had happened to Kim Abang from the moment he left Seo Taerim until now.

“…So what you’re saying is, all of this happened because you were worried I’d hiccup.”

Seo Taerim summarized once more.

“…Yes.”

Kim Abang answered.

“So, because you were worried I’d hiccup.”

Seo Taerim asked again to confirm. His tone was rather calm.

“…Yes.”

Kim Abang also answered calmly as he picked up a jar of preserved lemon syrup rolling on the floor. Then he took a handkerchief and started wiping the jar.

“…….”

“…….”

Neither of them said a word, and only the sound of Kim Abang wiping the jar of preserved lemon syrup filled the silence of Abang-garde. Written out, it would be like, squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak….

“Kim Abang-ssi.”

“…Yes.”

Squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak….

“So, because you were worried I might hiccup….”

When Seo Taerim spoke, Kim Abang stopped wiping the jar and slowly lifted his head.

“That’s right. That’s why I did it.”

Kim Abang said calmly. But unlike his calm tone, he looked like he was ready to cry.

“Hhup….”

When Seo Taerim barely held back his laughter at Kim Abang’s face, Kim Abang looked even more like he was about to cry.

“When I was doing it alone I didn’t think so, but now that I’ve said it out loud it sounds even stranger. Taerim-ssi, do you think it’s no good too? Do you think this won’t stop the hiccups?”

Kim Abang asked, lifting the polished jar of preserved lemon syrup. Through the glass, refracted by the light, his face looked even more like he was about to cry.

“Honestly, from about halfway I also started to think it wasn’t really right. Maybe something that startles you suddenly would work better….”

Kim Abang squeezed his eyes shut so he wouldn’t cry and fanned at them with his hand.

“But… but… I bought too many ingredients, so I couldn’t stop….”

He confessed in despair, tapping his forehead lightly against the jar. Seo Taerim tried to listen seriously, but since he couldn’t possibly keep a straight face, he bent gracefully at the waist and laughed silently instead.

“Taerim-ssi… what do we do with all this preserved lemon syrup? Who’s going to eat it?”

Kim Abang was on the verge of tears as he picked up another jar.

“Gonggong said he won’t help anymore. He said he’s sick of lemons now… If I want him to eat lemons, I should leave the house….”

“…Hhkhhk….?”

“And grandma said she won’t look at lemons for the rest of her life… If anyone brings lemons to her grave later, she said she’ll come back to life….”

“Hhup… hk, isn’t… isn’t that a good thing?”

Seo Taerim asked, barely able to breathe.

“But… do you eat lemons well, Taerim-ssi…? I really can’t….”

Kim Abang scrunched his face in every possible way as he asked, he was desperately trying not to cry. Seo Taerim used his long fingers to wipe the tears that had gathered at the corners of his eyes.

‘Ah, I’m really going to lose it.’

He felt like he was about to lose his mind. The hopeless pile of lemons filling Abang-garde made him feel that way, but more than that, this hopeless person in front of him was so lovable it drove him crazy.

“Taerim-ssi, do you want to try right now…? To see if you can eat it or not…?”

Kim Abang asked in a daze, picking up one of the spoons set out for sale. Seo Taerim finally stopped laughing, shook his head slowly, and sat on the table beside him. Then he took the jars of preserved lemon syrup from Kim Abang’s arms and set them down at the side, and gently pulled Kim Abang’s arm.

“……? Why are you doing that?”

Kim Abang, though curious, was easily pulled along and ended up standing between Seo Taerim’s long legs.

“Kim Abang-ssi.”

Seo Taerim held his hand and looked at him. Since Kim Abang was standing and Seo Taerim was sitting, their eye level met for the first time in a while, and the roundness of Kim Abang’s eyes stood out even more.

Seo Taerim liked that, and before he realized it, he smiled.

“From now on, let’s see each other every day.”

“Hm? All of a sudden?”

“It’s not sudden, is it? We already saw each other every day.”

“That’s true, but….”

Watching the round eyes fill with puzzlement, Seo Taerim held his hand. Kim Abang thought the sticky feeling of the preserved lemon syrup on his own hand transferring onto Seo Taerim’s was strange.

‘No, rather than strange, it feels… it feels kind of….’

Kim Abang rolled his head around, searching for the right word, but before he could find it, Seo Taerim demanded something else.

“And instead of just texting, I’d like us to meet in person.”

“Ah, you don’t like texting…?”

Kim Abang asked in surprise.

“No. I just like meeting in person.”

Seo Taerim said that as he slid his fingers between Kim Abang’s and laced their hands together.

“If we meet in person, when you trip I can catch you.”

“Mm….”

Kim Abang was about to answer, ‘Mm, that’s completely right!’ but the feeling of fingers interlacing made him miss the timing to respond, and his eyelids twitched instead. Seo Taerim thought Kim Abang had winked again and gave a faint smile in reply.

“Good. Then there’s one more thing.”

“…What is it?”

Kim Abang brushed off his oddly enhanced senses as a mistake and asked.

“Stop making preserved lemon syrup. Your hands are already small enough, and if you keep making lemon syrup you can’t even eat, they’ll wear out completely.”

Seo Taerim playfully shook their joined hands as he spoke.

“But….”

“Even if your lips suddenly fly off on their own and land on mine, I won’t hiccup, so you really can stop now.”

Seo Taerim said with a laugh to reassure him.

But with his wild imagination, Kim Abang only grew more worried. His lips suddenly snapping off and flying to Seo Taerim’s lips? From his point of view, fragile-looking Seo Taerim could never withstand that.

“Unless you have some special secret, how could you not hiccup….”

Kim Abang muttered with his head lowered, then suddenly looked up as he realized something.

“Oh, maybe when we kiss, your friend comes running out to scare you?”

That sounded like a pretty good idea. In fact, Seo Taerim’s one and only friend, Eun Yeonho, had once debuted playing the role of a virgin ghost in a school-based horror series.

“I love the scenes when Eun Yeonho-ssi jumps out!!”

Kim Abang said with sparkling eyes.

“Well, I guess that would be one way, but….”

Seo Taerim let out an awkward laugh. Then, with a slightly troubled expression, he tilted his head and rubbed his neck. After seeming to make up his mind, he lifted his head again and smiled stiffly.

“Mm… actually, I know the real reason why I hiccupped.”

“…..?”

“I think I hiccupped because I was looking into your eyes, Kim Abang-ssi.”

“My eyes?”

“I don’t know about you, but it was my first time looking into someone’s eyes so closely.”

Looking, into the eyes, that closely, for the first time. Kim Abang tilted his head as he instinctively examined Seo Taerim’s eyes. His lighter-colored irises were striking. And Kim Abang had never once forgotten them, from the very beginning until now.

‘I was the first one to see those up close?’

Kim Abang was puzzled.

‘Why? They’re pretty…. So nobody else wanted to look at them? There sure are a lot of strange people in this world.’

“…Don’t look at me like that. I’ll hiccup again.”

Seo Taerim laughed a little to smooth things over, his neck slightly flushed in embarrassment. And as Kim Abang watched the corners of Seo Taerim’s eyes curve naturally from his laugh, and the rims of his eyes turn as red as his neck, he thought just one syllable.

‘Wow.’

Still staring straight into Seo Taerim’s eyes, Kim Abang slowly opened his mouth.

“Then what do we do? If I look into your eyes, you might keep hiccupping. But it’s not like we can kiss with our eyes closed, right? Because right now I just feel like I want to keep looking at your eyes.”

Kim Abang swallowed the rest of his thought and asked.

“Uh….”

Seo Taerim looked at him, flustered.

‘Why can’t we kiss with eyes closed? Kim Abang-ssi, do you maybe have a stye? Does it hurt when you close your eyes?’

Seo Taerim carefully studied Kim Abang’s eyes. There didn’t seem to be a stye. They were just beautiful.

“What do we do? Is there a way?”

When Kim Abang asked again, Seo Taerim grew restless. For some reason Kim Abang seemed to dislike closing his eyes, he had already asked twice if there was a way, and an answer had to be given…. His mind spun dizzyingly fast until he finally found one method.

‘But, this is a bit….’

Just as he was thinking that, he saw Kim Abang’s pretty face. And his mouth moved faster than his head.

“There is, a way.”

Seo Taerim said. He didn’t want to disappoint him.

“…..?”

When Kim Abang stared at him, Seo Taerim wetted his lips. After hesitating briefly, he carefully took hold of Kim Abang’s other hand.

“…….?”

Kim Abang didn’t understand, he looked back and forth between his hand and Seo Taerim.

“So….”

Seo Taerim slowly lifted Kim Abang’s hand toward his own eyes as he spoke. His pale eyes were gradually covered by Kim Abang’s hand.

To Kim Abang, the sight looked like the solar eclipse scene from a movie he had once watched. It was a scene he especially loved, one he had replayed many times.

“Like this… I don’t need to close my eyes.”

Seo Taerim covered his own eyes completely with Kim Abang’s hand as he spoke. Kim Abang flinched at the feeling of eyelashes brushing his palm.

“…….”

Kim Abang looked at Seo Taerim, whose eyes were hidden. He couldn’t take his gaze off those slightly trembling red lips. And while he was looking at Seo Taerim, Seo Taerim couldn’t see him, and that somehow felt strange. Without realizing it, he wiggled his toes inside his shoes.

“…Does this seem like a good way?”

When talkative Kim Abang stayed unusually quiet, Seo Taerim grew uneasy and asked.

“…Yes.”

“Then will you come closer? Since… I can’t see anything.”

Seo Taerim swallowed and tried to sound casual, like he was simply asking for a pen to be passed. So Kim Abang ignored the sound of his heart beating half a beat too fast and also pretended to be casual as he stepped closer.

‘Hm, my hand’s a bit uncomfortable.’

Kim Abang tried twisting his fingers free from the interlaced grip, but Seo Taerim reflexively tightened his hold, keeping him from letting go.

“……?”

Kim Abang looked at his trapped hand in slight confusion, then lightly tapped the back of Seo Taerim’s hand with his index finger.

“Taerim-ssi, I think it’ll be uncomfortable if we keep holding hands.”

“…Ah.”

Seo Taerim seemed flustered, and at once spread his fingers wide open. Kim Abang hesitated, watching Seo Taerim’s hand hover awkwardly in the air, then gently pulled it and placed it on his own back.

“Mm, this is… okay, right?”

Kim Abang asked.

“…Yes.”

Seo Taerim answered. But feeling the slim line of Kim Abang’s waist beneath his clothes, he couldn’t think at all, and nothing was okay, yet he said it anyway.

And for Kim Abang, it wasn’t only about his waist. Everything was a problem. The small fingers curling at the back of Seo Taerim’s neck, the sweet breaths exhaled, the laughter when their noses bumped by accident, the habit of brushing his lower lip with a soft kiss before a real one, the higher heat of his tongue that matched his high body temperature…. Even though he couldn’t chatter like usual while kissing, Kim Abang came at him noisier than ever.

‘He’s warm.’

Seo Taerim learned that Kim Abang’s tongue was just the right kind of warm. While already pressed tightly against him, he pulled him even closer, and in doing so knocked over a flower vase behind them.

“……!”

Seo Taerim’s eyes flew open with the loud crash of shattering pottery. Between the slight gaps of his fingers, he locked eyes with Kim Abang, who had been peeking at his closed eyes and eyelashes. Seo Taerim forgot how to breathe.

“Ah… I’ve been caught.”

Kim Abang spoke in surprise, his lips still barely apart from Seo Taerim’s. Then, seeing Seo Taerim’s eyes looking even more startled than his own, he wrinkled the bridge of his nose and gave a sheepish laugh.

“Can’t you just let it go this once?”

Kim Abang squinted his eyes, but since he still couldn’t wink, he shut both eyes and opened them again.

And Seo Taerim couldn’t look away from him. Hearing the pounding heartbeat hammering against his ears, he thought, “It’s ruined, my whole life is ruined.”