VSP 26

But his interest quickly faded. Inside the regulation trash bag there was nothing but cooking ingredients.

“You only bought ingredients?”

“I did get a few snacks.”

“There’s only chocolate.”

“I like chocolate.”

Sejun answered bluntly and started rummaging around the kitchen for pots and pans.

He hadn’t expected a house someone lived in to have so few cooking basics, but the kitchen only had things like salt and sugar. It was so bare it looked unused. He had wondered if buying chicken stock and olive oil was unnecessary, but now he was glad he had.

“You don’t even cook ramen usually?”

“Yeah.”

This is the end, the end. Sejun mumbled and laid out the ingredients and looked for a cutting board and knife, his actions quite serious.

“Seo Sejun, what are you scheming?”

After silently watching for a while, Dogyeong suddenly asked. Sejun flinched, his body shaking visibly, then quickly put on a nonchalant face.

“Scheming, what scheming~! Our Dogyeong is still growing, so I’m feeding you well.”

Dogyeong narrowed his eyes. Growing? He had grown until he was twenty, but what nonsense was this at twenty-four?

He had expected Sejun to bring ready-made meals, but all the groceries were real ingredients. The only ready-to-eat things were smoked duck and the chocolate he had bought for himself.

He was really going to cook. That Seo Sejun.

In his own house, no less.

Dogyeong couldn’t understand how the situation had come to this. But he had agreed, and he really was hungry, so he decided to just watch.

Sejun found a pot of the right size, filled it with water, salted it, then set it aside and started cooking the smoked duck in a frying pan. At the same time, he took out a cutting board Dogyeong had forgotten existed and began washing and chopping what looked like dropwort.

Doing more than one thing at once, his movements looked practiced.

“……”

Dogyeong leaned against the table, watching leisurely.

But from behind, it wasn’t so much watching Sejun cook as simply staring at Sejun’s back.

The tight black T-shirt fit his body closely. Muscles were built just right, but his waist was noticeably slim. The rolled-up sleeves revealed arms with visible muscle definition. It all matched well with his face, which, when he kept his mouth shut, actually look quite good.

But what did it matter? He was Seo Sejun.

Bored of just watching, Dogyeong moved closer, loitering at Sejun’s side.

“What are you making?”

“Pasta.”

“I can see that. What kind of pasta?”

“Do you only eat tomato and cream like a kid with picky taste?”

“That’s not it.”

“Then just watch.”

His hands moved smoothly as he cleaned and trimmed the dropwort. It wasn’t a beginner’s skill but something well-practiced.

Dogyeong stared at him. For some reason, Sejun flinched and fixed his gaze on empty air. Dogyeong could tell that was where system logs appeared.

“What, why is Lucky Love…” Sejun muttered, looking confused. From the side, it was hard to tell what he was doing. Curious, Dogyeong slipped closer until he was right behind him and rested his chin on Sejun’s shoulder.

Even to himself, it felt like a very impulsive action.

“Eek!”

Sejun freaked out the moment the chin touched his shoulder and twisted away, so it only lasted an instant.

Their eyes widened, startled–Sejun, who had recoiled, and Dogyeong, who had dropped his chin as soon as he rested it.

“Ah, shit!”

Sejun rubbed the back of his neck like his whole body had broken into goosebumps, while Dogyeong froze, shocked by his own action, his eyes wide.

What the hell ? Why did I do that?

Just a moment ago, everything had been calm, but suddenly the air turned awkward.

Sejun shuddered, muttering “ugh, ugh,” glaring at Dogyeong with a slightly flushed face, then turned back to cooking.

“Don’t do weird shit, seriously.”

Crazy, ah, damn. He scolded him, then went back to trimming the dropwort. But his attempt to act calm was obvious. His ears were bright red.

As for Dogyeong, he was still reeling and stunned at the strange impulse he had just acted on.

He had never once in his life hung on to someone in such a familiar way.

Why did I just do that? And fuck, with Seo Sejun of all people?

And Sejun’s reaction. Didn’t that whole scene look like… he had just molested him?

“…Why are you the one looking offended?”

Dogyeong got annoyed and demanded. But Sejun didn’t even seem to think about answering, only kept focusing on cooking.

Soon the kitchen filled with the smell of garlic and peperoncino. Added with the dropwort, it smelled fragrant.

But Dogyeong’s mood was far from fragrant. What bothered him was that Sejun was openly ignoring his presence and concentrating on the food.

And sometimes, Cha Dogyeong had the temperament of a child.

If someone tried to ignore him, he was childish enough to force them not to.

“Hey, Seo Sejun.”

“…What.”

Maybe he couldn’t ignore him when he called his name. Sejun, in the middle of tasting the water with a spoon, blew on it and took a sip, replying half-heartedly.

If he had known what the next question would be, he would never have done so.

“Why are you hairless down there?”

“Pffft.”

Sejun spat the noodle water out of his mouth.

•••

When Cha Dogyeong had suddenly rested his chin on his shoulder, Sejun had felt goosebumps shoot across his whole body.

[Lucky Love Mode activated!]

Just before that, the Lucky Love Mode notice had suddenly appeared in front of his eyes. Sejun had thought, why the hell would chopping dropwort count as some kind of sexy event? Then Dogyeong had suddenly done something completely unexpected.

Clinging to his back, resting his chin on his shoulder, doing something indecent like that!

Sejun realized this damned Lucky Love Mode wasn’t just affecting him, it was influencing Cha Dogyeong too!

“Why are you hairless down there?”

“Pffft.”

So when Dogyeong followed up with that question while he was tasting the noodle water, how could Sejun not think this too was Lucky Love Mode’s fault?

Heat flared up from his ears, spreading hot across his whole face.

His mouth burned too, scalded from the noodle water.

“You crazy bastard!”

Did this idiot not even realize how vulgar that was? Especially for someone like Sejun, who had no tolerance for that kind of talk, his face turned bright red as he yelled.

“Fuck, what do you care if someone shaves or not!”

To be exact, he hadn’t even shaved. It had been forced off him. It was like the hair had just… ceased to exist. If it had been shaved, there would at least be stubble. Instead, it was smooth like it had never been there.

And wasn’t that partly Cha Dogyeong’s fault? If you traced back the cause, Dogyeong might say he was unfairly blamed, but to Sejun both he and the original author were equally guilty.

“It’s so smooth I wondered how it would feel if I blew on it.”

But even after Sejun’s outburst, Dogyeong didn’t look affected at all. He only mumbled something like that, leaving Sejun’s jaw dropping in disbelief.

With no resistance to dirty talk, Sejun’s face heated until it looked like it might explode.

“Hey, Cha Dogyeong!”

“Why’s the color pink too?”

Ah, so his first kiss really was his first.

The words Dogyeong mumbled so calmly took Sejun two, three repeats to even process. Once he understood, he thought he might faint.

How could this bastard say something like that with a straight face? Wasn’t he really insane? And he couldn’t possibly be talking about his lips!

What drove him crazier was that the moment Dogyeong said it, the kitchen air, which until then had only been awkward, grew unbearably heavier with another kind of awkwardness.

Sejun’s face flushed red and blue, his mouth opening and closing like a fish, unable to find words.

Finally, with great effort, he managed to shout.

“You crazy fucker, if you keep talking shit, I won’t cook for you!”

Of course, this was Dogyeong’s kitchen, and if he kicked him out, Sejun would be the one in trouble. But he forced himself to act tough.

Whether it worked or not, Dogyeong only shrugged at the sight of Sejun turning back to cook, then walked out of the kitchen with a satisfied smile, as though he was pleased with Sejun’s red face.

Meanwhile, Sejun’s hand gripping the ladle trembled, for more than one reason.