* * *
While Jiho was lost in thought, the dakgalbi was perfectly cooked.
The delicious smell had been wafting through the restaurant, making his mouth water, and seeing the cooked meat in front of him made him impatient.
As Yejun started serving the dakgalbi, Jiho waited. Yejun began filling a plate with an excessive amount of meat.
No matter how hungry you are, taking so much food for yourself isn’t polite, especially picking out only the tender pieces. It’s the kind of behavior that gets you criticized.
Jiho narrowed his eyes, watching Yejun’s actions but stayed silent. Then Yejun placed the plate piled high with meat in front of Jiho.
“You like the tender pieces, don’t you?”
Jiho looked at Yejun, puzzled, but he responded nonchalantly.
Jiho had assumed without a doubt that Yejun would eat all that meat himself.
But it turned out he was looking out for Jiho. Jiho, who had thought Yejun was being rude, was surprised by his unexpected kindness.
Even for the usually kind Yejun, this seemed a bit different.
He had never served so much food so openly before. Was Jiho just overthinking it?
Unable to tell if he was being overly sensitive, Jiho stayed quiet while Taeyun chuckled at the plate in front of him.
“Hey, Yejun, isn’t it a bit too obvious you’re favoring Jiho?”
“What do you mean?”
“Look at that mountain of meat. You don’t think that’s a bit much?”
“I was just being generous. Do you want some too?”
“No thanks, I’m not begging for it…”
Taeyun grumbled as he picked up another set of tongs and started serving himself.
Taeyun’s complaint wasn’t serious but playful.
However, Jiho couldn’t just take it as a joke. He was already conscious of being treated differently by Yejun.
Even if others didn’t care, Jiho felt uneasy about receiving special attention from Yejun.
Jiho subtly pushed the bowl Yejoon had given him back towards Yejoon and said, “Hey, that’s enough. You eat this.”
“Huh? Why? What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it, I just can eat well on my own without you taking care of me like this.”
He couldn’t bring himself to say that such consideration made him uncomfortable. It was something he was grateful for, and even though it was embarrassing, he didn’t hate it.
However, he realized that he needed to put an end to Yejoon’s kindness towards him.
When Jiho started acting hysterically, as if trying to stop Yejoon from taking care of him, Yejoon looked at him silently, seemingly confused.
Yejoon, unable to understand why Jiho was acting this way, furrowed his brows and asked seriously, “Jiho, are you upset because of that incident?”
“…What?”
“If it’s because of that, it was just a mistake…”
“Hey!”
Is he crazy? Why bring that up in front of people?
When Jiho shouted to cut him off, the customers around them looked their way. Even Taeyun and Yejoon’s classmates were startled, thinking a fight had broken out.
Jiho felt embarrassed by the attention but was even more dumbfounded by Yejoon’s expression. Yejoon looked genuinely puzzled, not understanding why Jiho was reacting this way.
Does he really not know, or is he pretending? If he was normally clueless, that would be one thing, but this guy usually picked up on things quickly. It didn’t make sense that he was so oblivious about this.
Especially when it was a sexual matter. Talking casually in front of others about how they had done such things together… He couldn’t understand why.
As Jiho stared at Yejoon in disbelief, Taeyun, who was eating spicy chicken across from them, gave them a suspicious look.
“What’s going on? Did you guys have a fight or something?”
“We didn’t fight.”
Jiho managed to suppress a sigh and answered.
To be precise, it wasn’t a fight. It was an incident too embarrassing to talk about…
When Jiho cut him off decisively, Taeyun’s face quickly turned to one of disappointment.
It seemed he had been looking forward to watching a fight, the most entertaining thing in the world to him, and he now spoke lightly with a deflated expression.
“Then what’s the big deal? It’s not the first time Yejoon’s shown favoritism towards you. Just eat it. It looks good.”
“…….”
“Ye-tto”…
“Ye-tto” was a shorthand for “pretty psycho,” a term often used to describe Ahn Yejoon.
He was kind and attractive, popular with everyone like a unicorn, but had a bit of a crazy side.
Thinking about it, it made sense that someone like him could be so oblivious in this context.
He was the kind of guy who would rather say, “Take responsibility,” than tell his childhood friend to get lost after waking up from their drunken encounter.
Given his unique mindset, he might not even consider hiding the fact that they slept together from others.
Jiho wondered if Yejoon was purposely trying to rile him up, but thinking of him as purely innocent seemed to calm Jiho down a bit.
As Jiho sighed and softened his sharp tone, Yejoon smiled and said kindly,
“Anyway, just eat this. I’ve already set aside what I’m going to eat.”
Yejoon showed a small dish of spicy chicken he had prepared for himself, already seasoned.
His dish was just as generously filled with meat as Jiho’s, but while Jiho’s had tender pieces, Yejoon’s was mostly filled with dry chicken breast.
He doesn’t even like chicken breast, so why did he pile up on it?
“Hey, why did you take so much chicken breast? You don’t even like it.”
“I’m watching my diet.”
People often eat chicken breast when dieting, but eating seasoned spicy chicken while claiming to diet seems contradictory. Not to mention drinking soda.
Although it seemed odd, Jiho decided not to nitpick, thinking Yejoon might be trying to manage his diet in his own way. However, he had a different curiosity.
“Diet? Where do you have fat to lose?”
Usually, dieting is about weight control, but Yejoon didn’t seem to need that at all.
Back in high school, Jiho remembered Yejoon being 186cm tall. With that height, he had no extra fat, a slim yet muscular build, and broad shoulders. It was an ideal body.
As Jiho looked Yejoon up and down, Yejoon replied slyly,
“I’m trying to build more muscle.”
“Muscle? But you already have plenty…”
Jiho recalled Yejoon’s physique vividly, remembering his solid chest muscles and his abs that looked like chiseled chocolate.
Unconsciously swallowing, Jiho quickly snapped out of it and looked up, realizing the thoughts he had.
What was I thinking?
Jiho was shocked that he had been entertaining such thoughts and resolved to stop.
“You already have plenty.”
“True, but being more toned is more attractive.”
“…….”
Yejoon smiled softly.
It could be that he just wanted to be popular.
However, Yejoon was already so popular that people often called him “everyone’s favorite senior,” and everyone wanted to be close to him.
So, Jiho felt like Yejoon’s words hinted at him wanting to impress someone specific.
Taeyun seemed to think the same, his eyes wide as he asked Yejoon, “Wait, do you like someone? It sounds suspicious.”
“I’m not telling you.”
Yejoon didn’t deny it but answered playfully, increasing their curiosity.
Taeyun pouted, feeling it was unfair, complaining that Yejoon wouldn’t even share such things with them.
After several unsuccessful attempts to pry information from Yejun, Taeyun decided to switch targets.
“Jiho, do you know who Ahn Yejun likes?”
“Huh? Me? I… don’t.”
I really don’t know. I’ve never heard Ahn Yejun talk about liking anyone.
I should have immediately said no, but I found myself glancing at Ahn Yejun, feeling a bit awkward.
Ahn Yejun was resting his chin on his hand, looking at me with a smile in his eyes.
It was as if he was saying, “If you know something, spill it.”
For some reason, I imagined a fox’s tail swaying behind him.
What the… why do I see a tail?
Jiho squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again to dispel the hallucination before answering.
“I… really don’t know.”
“What? If you don’t know, then no one does, right?”
Since Jiho, who was the closest to Ahn Yejun, didn’t know, Taeyun grumbled, thinking there was no one else to ask.
Despite all this, Yejun’s sly gaze didn’t leave Jiho.
That look seemed to be saying something, but Jiho didn’t have the courage to ask why he kept staring.
Feeling inexplicably hot inside, Jiho gulped down his soda. Even though the carbonation burned his throat, he emptied the glass in one go.
Just eating a meal was making me so self-conscious. How could things ever go back to how they were?
It felt hopeless.
* * *
He likes you silly
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