‘Dating? I’m dating Haimar Eilec?’
Even though his body was completely stiff and his face looked stunned, the emotion filling Ben’s core was joy.
He was just too surprised, and the hiccups burst out first.
Something he never dreamed of until just a few hours or minutes ago was happening in reality, so wasn’t it natural to be completely floored?
“I-I didn’t, hic, hear wrong, did I? Hic.”
“Hmm?”
“No, y-yes. Hic, let’s do it, be… lovers.”
After asking pointlessly and receiving a seemingly displeased reaction, Ben hastily accepted the proposal.
If his face were a pressure cooker, the safety valve on the top of his head would be spinning vigorously and emitting steam by now.
Even without the words, “I like you,” their actions made it impossible not to know.
With the certainty Haimar gave him, Ben gained confidence, and his conviction grew even stronger as he took a few steps forward.
He now knew that the hand that slipped under his oversized knit, tracing the vertebrae one by one as it moved up, the lips that occasionally brushed against his face before pulling away, and the eyes that gazed at him intently—all held affection.
He had only decided not to avoid it and changed his perspective, but a completely different world was revealed to him.
‘I should have just done this from the beginning.’
His resentment towards Hoaphilen increased further.
“Are you sober?”
“Yes. Hic, I answered in my right mind.”
“That’s good.”
Ben put emphasis on every syllable, lest Haimar mistake it for drunken behavior.
Although the persistent hiccups made him feel less credible, Ben was sincere.
However, perhaps his sincerity wasn’t fully conveyed in his hiccup-laced answer; Haimar only gave a perfunctory affirmation and then lightly tapped something on Ben’s head.
“By the way, what are these ears?”
“Ah.”
The moment Haimar touched them, the unexpected weight whoosh suddenly registered.
Surprised for a different reason by the headband, which suddenly felt like it was tightly constricting the back of his ears, his hiccups stopped.
At this historical moment, his attire abruptly crashed into reality.
Ben belatedly realized that the hiccups were the least of his problems; no matter what he said in this state, it would inevitably diminish the seriousness of the moment.
Haimar’s newly acquired lover was a man who wore grotesque, fluffy rabbit ears and a ribbon dangling down his neck, annoying Haimar.
And that man was him!
‘No, shouldn’t this moment have been a bit more romantic?’
He wasn’t asking for something out of a novel or a drama.
Just something normal; even if it were his original, mundane officetel, this embarrassment would have been less.
He felt so good just moments ago; couldn’t he change into neat clothes and say it all again now?
Why did Haimar have to point this out, after ignoring it all along, making things difficult for him?
Even if his clothes were within the normal range, the ears and the ribbon were, at best, a fetishistic area.
He wished Haimar wouldn’t stare so intently, knowing they didn’t suit him, but at this point, he felt somewhat wronged.
He was an innocent victim.
He hadn’t done this because he wanted to!
“It doesn’t… suit me, does it? Haha.”
Ben tried to ignore the cold sweat that was starting to bead on his back and forced a smile.
“No, it suits you annoyingly well.”
He didn’t know what to say, as Haimar didn’t say it looked bad but reacted like that instead.
So, Ben decided to ramble and explain why he was in this state.
“Well, this is a p-penalty, sort of. More like a wish, because it’s a birthday…”
“Aha, a wish.”
However, the listener was only picking out the words he wanted to hear.
Haimar naturally knew that Ben’s appearance was non-voluntary, even if Ben hadn’t explained it.
With the combination of the twins and Ellyn, who would be offended if he said they were crazy, it was obvious that Ben had come to this look while regaining his senses after being led by the nose.
Haimar didn’t know why Ben was profusely sweating while trying to explain the faults of those crazy people, but he decided to seize the opportunity that had rolled his way and quietly took out an item he had stashed away.
“I have a wish, too.”
‘…What is that?’
Ben stopped his rambling explanation and stared intently at the object in Haimar’s hand.
He even rubbed his eyes to confirm if he was seeing correctly.
The object Haimar had pulled out was a rabbit tail plug that should not have been in his possession. The large, round tail shape was very striking.
It was the item Ben had only glimpsed and then carefully sealed back in the paper bag.
Ben could not understand how it was in Haimar’s hand, as he didn’t even know where he had thrown it until Ellyn only brought out the headband.
“W-why did that come out of your pocket…?”
“When we were coming up, the twins were looking at something with lingering regret.”
‘He read that?’
‘And he even took it because he read it?’
He was thorough.
Ben didn’t know whether to be surprised by Haimar’s secretive sleight of hand or to be amazed by the twins, who, despite being intimidated by Haimar, still harbored regrets about this obscene tail.
But what did Haimar want him to do with it?
Surely he wasn’t asking him to use it? It must be a joke, right?
“Won’t you do it for me? It’s our first day.”
‘What does that have to do with our first day!’
Perhaps the concept of having a normal, healthy expression of love on the first day of their relationship didn’t exist in this man’s mind.
Ben was crestfallen over the utterly shattered rosy romance.
“You truly are a drunkard.”
“A d-drunkard…”
‘If I can avoid that, I’m happy to be called a drunkard.’
How his train of thought made such a connection was beyond him, a mere mortal, but he understood that he had instantly been relegated to the status of a drunkard.
Haimar’s expression, with his eyes narrowed primly and looking sadly at the rabbit tail, resembled a heartbroken woman who had been spurned.
This man’s face was a sin, his face.
Though Ben desperately wanted to say, ‘It’s no use,’ he couldn’t easily speak up because he was already guilty of wearing the rabbit ears to grant Ellyn’s wish.
If the situation were reversed and Haimar refused his request after fulfilling someone else’s, Ben would feel upset.
Furthermore, though he didn’t want to attach too much meaning to it, it was Haimar’s first request after they agreed to date.
He didn’t know why the first request had to be something like this, but it was natural that he was more inclined to prioritize the request of the person he liked over Ellyn’s.
They say, to like someone is to lose, and the scale of his heart was tipping toward Haimar moment by moment.
“Please, give me some time to think. This requires quite a big decision, you know?”
“Alright then. Wear it until I finish showering and come out.”
‘Wear it?’
“W-wait a minute—”
While Ben was still processing Haimar’s words, Haimar, as if he had been waiting, gently placed Ben on the bed, smiled brightly, took off his coat, and neatly disappeared into the bathroom.
The series of movements was clean and concise, like flowing water. In that moment, Ben realized: I am screwed.
There was no other option. Haimar had genuinely given him time to make a decision.
Not a No, but just time to decide on a Yes.
The only available choices were all Yes or Yes, understood.
In tLus, he knew there was no other option from the start.
But still, me?
‘God, why do you put me through such trials?’
Ben, for the first time in a long time, sought the God he never believed in.
‘Damn Haimar.’
Even though his status had changed to lover, his spitefulness remained exactly the same.
The sound of running water echoed from the distant bathroom.
It felt like a countdown clock set for Ben.
The water sound didn’t contain a message, but every time it rang out, it seemed to rush him: ‘What are you doing? Hurry up!’
Ben glared at the rabbit tail Haimar had lightly tossed aside as if it were his sworn enemy.
He should have prevented the purchase of this thing at all costs.
If he could turn back time, he would gladly go back and sternly forbid Xenon from buying it.
“Alcohol. I need alcohol.”
He felt like finding the alcohol he had mostly sobered up from.
Why would he need alcohol?
This is exactly when he needed it.
He couldn’t insert this sober.
Even though he wasn’t exactly sober right now, but still.
However, contrary to Ben’s wishes, he would have to go back to the kitchen to get alcohol.
In a desperate attempt, he rummaged through the room and found a tube of personal lubricant in the drawer, which the landlord had kindly provided.
In addition, he also found a few rum chocolates, which Xenon had hastily given him earlier when he accidentally downed the Absinthe.
‘Let’s at least eat this.’
In the spirit of ‘taking a chicken instead of a pheasant’, Ben diligently unwrapped the chocolates and put them in his mouth.
The taste was distinctly different from the one he ate earlier, and upon closer inspection of the wrapper, he saw a red mark on it.
He thought this was the one with the higher alcohol content, and the bitterness was certainly much stronger.
Although the rum was bitter, it was tolerable with the chocolate taste, so Ben chewed and swallowed all four chocolates.
Even the small amount of alcohol inside the tiny chocolates quickly brought heat to his body.
But was it too strong?
Or was it because he ate them all at once?
The heat rising in his body was excessive, to the point of feeling too hot.
“It’s a little… hot…”
