* * *
Cha Rui exaggeratedly swaggered over with his large build, yanking the blanket off.
Seo Inho scowled deeply and yanked the blanket back over himself.
His lazy demeanor contrasted starkly with his sharp features.
“Can’t you see I’m sleeping?”
“Doesn’t look like it to me. You skipping class again?”
Thanks to Seo Inho ditching class whenever he had the chance to hide out somewhere, Cha Rui ended up running around the school practically every day.
Whether he knew that or not, Seo Inho opened one eye and stared up at Cha Rui with a sly, fox-like expression.
“I’m sick. Think I’ve got the flu or something.”
“Bullshit. You ever gonna come up with a new excuse?”
Despite his words, Cha Rui’s hand was already pressed to Seo Inho’s forehead.
Figures.
That smooth, flawless forehead had never once been feverish.
“No fever at all.”
“But my neck’s hot.”
With that, Seo Inho grabbed Cha Rui’s wrist and placed it against his neck.
Cha Rui’s thick, solid frame flinched slightly.
Every time Seo Inho pulled this kind of stunt, Cha Rui’s mouth would go dry.
“You crazy bastard…”
“Ah… I bet something cold would help. Wonder if anyone’s buying.”
Seo Inho stretched his arms and yawned, casting Cha Rui a shameless glance.
His expression was so transparent that Cha Rui couldn’t help but sigh softly in resignation.
Even when he acts like a slippery snake, I can’t bring myself to hate him.
“Get up.”
“Buy me something expensive.”
As Seo Inho practically jumped out of bed, clearly waiting for those words, Cha Rui crossed his arms in disapproval.
Seo Inho’s gaze briefly lingered on Cha Rui’s thick, muscular arms before quickly flickering away.
“Is that all I am to you? A wallet?”
“How’d you guess?”
Seo Inho grinned slyly, trailing his long fingers across Cha Rui’s face.
Watching him pretend to spit as if Cha Rui’s hand had gone in his mouth, Cha Rui couldn’t help but smile himself.
“You haven’t changed at all in three damn years.”
They kept messing around on the infirmary bed until the nurse finally showed up, prompting them to reluctantly drag themselves to their feet.
“What are we eating?”
“What do you think?”
As always, they ended up at the expensive dessert café Seo Inho liked.
They came here at least twice a week, so they were basically regulars.
Even though no one was stealing his food, Seo Inho shoveled down the shaved ice like his life depended on it, then grimaced and pressed his forehead.
The sight was so ridiculous that Cha Rui let out a snort.
How could he act like it was that delicious every single time?
“Good?”
“Yeah. Nothing beats mango shaved ice in summer.”
Seeing Seo Inho wiggle his eyebrows with that cheeky smile, Cha Rui burst out laughing.
Seriously shameless.
His eyes briefly scanned Seo Inho’s defined shoulders and slender wrists.
“Where the hell does all the food you eat even go? You’re all skin and bones.”
“Hey, you’re just freakishly huge, alright? You’re probably the only person in the world who’d call me skinny.”
Fair enough.
At 180cm with that kind of frame, Seo Inho was more athletic than skinny.
But Cha Rui’s personal standard made Seo Inho look endlessly small and frail.
Cha Rui proudly patted his own chest.
“You need to be built like this to make S-Rank, you know?”
“S-Rank? You?”
Seo Inho pointed his spoon at Cha Rui, expression dripping with disbelief.
It should’ve stung his pride, but Cha Rui leaned back in his chair, unfazed, looking cocky as ever.
“What if I do?”
“You think anyone can just become S-Rank? Dream on. Even as a B-Rank, I’ll have pretty girls all over me.”
“There you go again with the girls…”
Annoyed, Cha Rui pettily tossed his clean spoon onto the table.
Seo Inho didn’t care one bit, polishing off the bowl with aggressive spoonfuls, sucking on the spoon when he finished.
“What’ll you do if you actually make S-Rank?”
Arms crossed in irritation, Cha Rui stared blankly at Seo Inho’s fair face before mumbling softly.
His voice was barely above a whisper, almost like he was talking to himself.
“Dunno… maybe confess or something…”
Seo Inho raised an eyebrow, clearly not hearing him.
“What? What’re you mumbling about now?”
“If you didn’t hear, forget it. Let’s go if you’re done.”
As if making up his mind, Cha Rui tapped the table and stood.
Turns out, the day to act on that decision came sooner than expected.
“What did you just say?”
The cold air of the school rooftop bit at their skin.
The weather was at the point where snow wouldn’t have been surprising, and Seo Inho’s eyes were sharper than usual.
“I said, I made S-Rank.”
“No, not that.”
“…I said I like you.”
It was just an impulsive, reckless confession.
Cha Rui hated seeing Seo Inho flirting with girls, wanted to keep him by his side, make him his.
Maybe Seo Inho felt the same.
Or so Cha Rui foolishly hoped.
“Ha! Fuck, are you seriously gay?”
Seo Inho exhaled hard, white breath misting into the air.
His lips curled in a crooked smirk, sharp canines showing.
They’d been glued at the hip for three years, but Cha Rui had never seen him make that face before.
“I spent three years glued to you without knowing? Shit, I almost got tricked into dropping my guard.”
“……”
“I think you’re confused. You’re just my wallet. A nice, thick wallet.”
“Seo Inho.”
At Cha Rui’s voice, Seo Inho’s expression instantly turned cold.
“But I can’t even use you as a wallet now. You disgust me.”
Who is that?
Is that really the Seo Inho I knew?
For the first time, Cha Rui’s usually expressionless face began to shift.
Seo Inho’s sharp gaze landed on Cha Rui’s clenched fists.
“Relax your hand. You know what happens when an S-Rank hits a civilian.”
His tone dripped with mockery, his distorted eyes looking at Cha Rui like he was filth.
His voice, coming from behind, was void of any emotion.
“Don’t ever talk to me again… unless you want to be known as a f*ggot.”
And that was the end of it.
After that day, until graduation, Seo Inho treated Cha Rui like he didn’t exist.
Laughing, joking, throwing arms around new friends—yet he never once glanced Cha Rui’s way.
Still, Cha Rui couldn’t let it go.
He went to Inho’s house several times, but all he got was cold indifference. Ignored, over and over again.
And just like that, three years passed.
Crackle.
The sound of firewood burning snapped Cha Rui out of his thoughts, the light returning to his gray eyes.
Maybe it was seeing that bastard’s smiling face for the first time in so long—it had dragged him down memory lane.
“I’m in a sh*t mood, so drop the honorifics.”
Of course, that’s Seo Inho for you.
Always finding new ways to piss people off.
Cha Rui had sensed something was off, but it never crossed his mind that memory loss was the reason.
Right, this was the same guy who used to avoid walking past his dad’s tteokbokki shop because he couldn’t stand the smell—and now he’s working there part-time?
What a joke.
“Uh… yeah, okay.”
Seo Inho scratched his cheek awkwardly, unfamiliar with the casual speech.
Every little thing he did felt strangely irritating.
Cha Rui’s gaze instinctively dropped, sensing something twisted beneath the surface.
There, on Inho’s exposed nape, faint blue handprints remained.
At that moment, Seo Inho rummaged through his item pouch and slid a bottle of water toward Cha Rui.
“Drink some. You’ve been sweating like crazy.”
After glancing around cautiously, he pulled a chocolate bar and an energy bar from his pocket and set them down beside him.
They were soaked, the plastic wrappers wrinkled beyond saving—probably from rolling around roughly.
“They look like crap, but they’re fine inside. I’m basically a normal person now, so I need to keep my energy up too.”
Had Seo Inho ever given him anything before?
A “thick wallet”—that’s all Cha Rui had been to him, constantly bled dry for cash.
He couldn’t recall ever receiving so much as a chocolate bar from the guy.
Cha Rui stared down at the items with a conflicted expression.
“You really don’t remember, do you?”
Otherwise, there’s no way Seo Inho would act like this.
At his words, Seo Inho chuckled awkwardly, slapped his knee, and stood up.
Even so, being S-Rank had left him looking more filled out—muscle and weight in all the right places, even after ten years.
“I’ll be going.”
“……”
Cha Rui stayed frozen, unmoving, until Seo Inho’s silhouette completely vanished from view.
By the time he noticed, the chocolate bar and energy bar that had been left on the log were already gone.
“What’d you guys talk about?”
I grabbed my hoodie the moment I returned to the beach.
The sun was setting, and the air had turned noticeably chilly.
After checking that the little bird was still safely nestled in my pocket, I glanced down at Woo Jaehyun, who had followed me closely.
The hefty bundle of fish in both his hands looked like at least fifty.
Honestly, way too many for the few of us here.
“Nothing much. Let’s go hand these out.”
Woo Jaehyun didn’t seem satisfied with my vague answer, frowning in disapproval.
But he followed without complaint.
As we got closer to where the plane wreckage was, the sound of arguing filled the air.
“Not this again? Seriously, cut it out.”
“I’m telling you, I saw it! Pale face, long hair—”
“You were tired, hallucinating, whatever.”
“I said no!”
Grasshopper and Glasses Guy were practically shouting at each other.
The man with the horn-rimmed glasses kept glancing nervously toward the woods, just like when I first met him.
“What’s going on?”
I pulled some shellfish from my item pouch as I approached the kid’s father, who held the boy protectively.
The child looked half-awake, his face buried in his dad’s chest.
“Oh, that young guy with the glasses said he saw something in the forest.”
“In the forest?”
“Yeah. Said it looked like… a ghost or something.”
* * *
