JD 47

Hakyung, momentarily dazed by the boss’s handsome face filling his vision, shivered again at the salty air brushing his nose. Seeing Hakyung’s extreme reaction begin all over again, Muheon clicked his tongue silently once more.

“Let go of the handle first.”

Muheon gently placed his fingers over the pale hand still gripping the door handle tightly and coaxed him.

“You brought a packed lunch, we’re supposed to take a walk and have a date… You want to stay in the car the whole time?”

“B-but…! What if I fall into the sea and die while we’re walking?”

Realistically, unless it was during high tide, drowning in the West Sea was actually quite difficult.

Muheon let out a quiet laugh at Hakyung’s absurd worry.

Clearly mocking him, that laugh made Hakyung scowl and furrow his brows in indignation. Seeing that he’d hurt Hakyung’s pride, Muheon tapped gently between his eyebrows.

“You won’t die. Did you forget I’m sea-born?”

“Well, you might be fine…”

“Even if I die, I’ll save you first.”

“No! Don’t die, Boss!”

“I told you, I won’t die…”

Finally, Muheon pried Hakyung’s pale fingers off the door handle and picked him up.

He was light—like holding a stuffed doll. Muheon added a mental note to feed him some famous tonic foods once they went to the sea.

While Muheon was grumbling inwardly about Hakyung’s weight, Hakyung, now outside the car without quite realizing it, clung tightly to his clothes. He wrapped his legs around Muheon’s thick waist like someone who mustn’t let his feet touch the ground.

Not a baby monkey, but something just as ridiculously cute. Muheon nibbled lightly on Hakyung’s soft cheek. Hakyung giggled, not even slightly annoyed.

After teasing those soft cheeks for a while, Muheon slowly lowered his arms. Hakyung’s feet touched the ground.

“Okay, take my hand.”

“You have to promise not to let go of my hand!”

“Alright.”

Hakyung laced his fingers firmly between Muheon’s and began to move his feet carefully.

It felt like watching a baby take its first step—somehow heartwarming.

Considering Muheon’s actual age, Hakyung was about toddler-level.

With one hand holding Hakyung’s, the other carrying the lunch bag, Muheon slowly walked toward the sea.

Despite his hesitance, Hakyung followed along fairly well.

After about 15 minutes of slow strolling, they arrived at a place Hakyung had forgotten, but Muheon hadn’t—the spot where Muheon had once saved Hakyung.

As Muheon looked around, feeling a strange wave of nostalgia, beside him, Hakyung groaned,

“Uuuuugh… the w-waves…! Aaah! Boss!”

Of course, the waves were barely reaching within two meters of them.

Hakyung’s dramatics were truly next level.

Muheon dragged the clinging Hakyung forward, practically carrying him.

Though Hakyung was panting nervously, Muheon knew he couldn’t let him fear the sea forever.

They’d be living together for life—surely they’d need to go to the ocean once in a while.

Determined to take a spartan approach when it came to the sea, Muheon didn’t coddle his antics.

“Open your eyes.”

“O…okay, just a second…!”

Hakyung inhaled deeply and exhaled. He had, in fact, tried various methods to overcome his fear of the sea.

He’d listened to wave ASMR on YouTube, watched snorkeling videos. But instead of helping, it only worsened his fear of the waves.

But now, his boss—his sea-born boyfriend—was here.

Determined to ignore his heart pounding with anxiety, Hakyung stepped closer to the sea.

He wanted to prove he was scared, not that he hated it.

His tightly gripped hand was damp with cold sweat. For Hakyung, this was a once-in-a-lifetime challenge.

Despite his snail’s pace, Muheon never sighed or showed frustration. He just patted the clammy hand, silently cheering his river dolphin on.

“I-I touched it! Look, Boss! I touched the ocean!”

The very tip of Hakyung’s sneaker had grazed a tiny wave. You’d need to look closely to even notice.

Still, Muheon nodded and massaged the childlike tension from his shoulders.

“How does it feel?”

“Better than I thought… AAAH! It’s wet!”

A wave that had only touched his toe suddenly splashed up to his ankle.

Hakyung looked at his soaked sneaker in horror, his face crumpling like he might cry.

His ever-changing expressions made Muheon burst out laughing.

Was there anything this cute, silly, and lovable in the whole world?

Muheon lifted the now-sopping Hakyung into his arms. This was enough sea-time for today. He made a mental note to buy him a new pair of sneakers.

But then—

“Wait, Boss.”

“Hm?”

Tilting his head, Hakyung pressed his cheek to Muheon’s neck.

Something about this posture felt oddly familiar. He always loved clinging to his boyfriend, so they were often glued together, but… this felt different somehow.

He couldn’t explain exactly how, but it was.

It was just so warm and overwhelmingly safe.

“When I’m in your arms like this, it feels like I could never die. It’s like… like this happened before. I feel so safe and calm, it’s overwhelming.”

“Feels like it happened before?”

“Yeah! Really!”

Hakyung, smiling brightly, nuzzled Muheon’s neck again like a cicada clinging to an old tree.

“You noticed well.”

“Huh…? Noticed what?”

The sentence lacked a subject. Hakyung blinked and was about to ask for clarification—

But Muheon spoke first.

“Eighteen years ago, I came up to the surface after a long time.”

“Eighteen years…?”

“Yeah. Right here. It’s where I found a little river dolphin flailing in the shallows.”

Hakyung’s eyes widened like saucers.

What followed was a string of unbelievable confessions.

The gist: the person who had saved him from nearly drowning as a child wasn’t that bastard Kim Taeyoung—it was Muheon.

Stunned, Hakyung gaped.

“N-no way! How could you have saved me? And how did you know it was me?”

“You think I wouldn’t recognize this river dolphin? It hasn’t even been twenty years.”

It wasn’t just under twenty—it had been well over fifteen.

Muheon himself must’ve only been a teenager then.

Going out of his way to save a child couldn’t have been easy.

Still, Hakyung didn’t completely believe him. But he couldn’t crush his boyfriend’s pride either.

“Mmm, so you’re the one who saved my life. My hero, huh?”

“That’s right.”

Muheon’s shoulders seemed to puff up a little.

Hakyung giggled at the adorable reaction and completely forgot he was still in the sea.

Even the sound of gentle waves no longer bothered him.

The ocean was no longer a terrifying place where he nearly died—it was slowly becoming a place of warm memories with his boss.

“Maybe I can handle being in the sea because you’re a sea eel, Boss.”

“Wait—Kang Hakyung.”

“Yes?”

“What did you just call me?”

Hakyung whispered into his ear,

“You’re a sea eel, right? Ah—oops. Geunrim-hyung said not to say that out loud… Is it also not okay to say it to you?”

“Haah… Right. Sea eel. Sure.”

Muheon looked weirdly defeated, and Hakyung’s voice grew even smaller.

“And… I heard that’s why… down there… you’re, um, special? I don’t care what it looks like, so don’t hold back. Just… do it.”

“…I’m seriously going crazy.”

It was an unbelievably bold and reckless tease.

As he buried his face into Muheon’s chest, cheeks red, Muheon just shook his head in disbelief.

With how firmly Hakyung believed him, even if Muheon revealed his true form, he probably would love it.

More than anything, Muheon had taken a critical emotional hit from Hakyung’s wild cheekiness.

He carried Hakyung—who seemed to have adapted to the sea—to the sandy beach.

His shoes, now soaked, were covered in sand.

No matter how much he shook his feet, the wet shoes were useless.

“Here, wear these.”

Muheon pulled a towel and a new pair of sneakers from a shopping bag—who knows when he’d prepared them.

Still baffled, Hakyung put on the sneakers and walked in place.

They fit perfectly. They were comfortable.

And with them, one more fond memory of the sea had been made.