Don’t you think we are going too fast? chapter 15

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“Moon Sunwoo, you idiot, stop thinking!”

The sudden memories made my heart race and my body heat up.

Feeling embarrassed and flustered, I circled the room like a dog needing to pee before finally grabbing my phone and wallet.

Checking the time, I stepped outside, where the cold winter air helped clear my head.

The taxi I had called was waiting, and I climbed into the backseat.

Surrounded by the warm heater air inside the taxi, I tried to ignore the lingering memories, repeating to myself that it was okay, it never happened.

By the time I arrived at the cinema, my mind and heart had calmed down.

Relieved, I brushed off the unnecessary thoughts and took the elevator to the upper floor where the cinema was.

Arriving at the cinema floor, I saw Taeshin leaning against the wall in a corner.

Wearing earphones and focused on his phone, he was dressed in a black hoodie and a brown long coat.

“Tae…”

Clucking my tongue at his habit of only wearing a coat in the cold, I started to call out to him but hesitated when I saw his hand holding the phone.

That hand had held my chin.

The unwelcome memory surfaced again, making me take a deep breath and chant to myself, “Lee Taeshin is a friend, Lee Taeshin is a friend, nothing happened between us.”

“Nothing happened. Why do I keep thinking about it?”

Standing still like a frozen penguin, I muttered to myself.

Taeshin, noticing me, looked up and smiled warmly, like spring sunlight in the middle of winter.

As he approached, I awkwardly raised my hand and smiled back.

Ah, geez.

What’s wrong with me?

Feeling strangely jittery and embarrassed to look Taeshin in the face, I felt my body heat up again.

“Sunwoo?”

“Huh?”

Taeshin called my name with a puzzled look, and I replied absentmindedly.

Feeling unexplainably uncomfortable and embarrassed, I broke into a sweat, my face heating up.

“Hot? Your face is red.”

“Uh, yeah. It’s… hot.”

Hearing Taeshin mention my red face, I pulled down the hood and long padding that were tightly wrapped around my neck and took the lead.

I spoke nonchalantly, sensing Taeshin following him.

“I’ll get the movie tickets, so you go buy the popcorn. Caramel and cola!”

“Sunwoo,”

Ignoring Taeshin’s call and pointing to the popcorn store, I went straight to the unmanned ticket machine.

As I tapped the touch screen, I glanced back to see Taeshin standing in line at the popcorn store.

I pressed my warm cheek with the back of my hand, cooling it down, and retrieved the tickets.

Despite usually having a brain that forgets past events to the point of being called an airhead, this must have been a pretty stimulating incident.

It kept coming to mind.

The more he thought about it, the more awkward I felt around Taeshin.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself, shaking my head to clear my mind.

Get a grip!

Turning around. Just then, Taeshin was receiving the popcorn and drinks from the store clerk.

“Got everything?”

“Yeah. Where are the tickets?”

“Here. Let’s go in right away.”

I showed the tickets, took one of the drinks from Taeshin, and grabbed the popcorn.

We showed the tickets to the staff at the entrance and entered the theater.

With the place almost empty, we comfortably found seats and set up their drinks and popcorn.

I placed the cola to my right for easy access and held the popcorn in my arms, watching the ads on the big screen.

“There are a lot of people today.”

“Must be because it’s vacation time.”

I whispered to Taeshin, looking around at the nearly full theater before the movie started.

Soon, the theater lights dimmed.

Despite being full, the darkened theater was quiet, as if everyone was holding their breath, ready to focus on the movie.

The atmosphere was so tense that even eating popcorn felt like a distraction.

The movie began, showing a bald Hollywood actor living in a shabby house in a slum and working as a supermarket employee.

Although the protagonist’s life unfolded slowly, no one found it boring or made any noise.

However, my mind started to wander again.

The thought of being alone with Taeshin in this enclosed, dark, and quiet theater kept creeping in.

Despite the large theater being full, it felt like it was just the two of them.

The tension of silently exchanging glances that night and lying on the bed drunk, looking up at Taeshin, who was looking down at him, felt similar to the tension he was feeling now.

No, no. Focus on the movie.

I tried to shake off the distracting thoughts by taking a long sip of cola.

The cold drink cleared my head, but the persistent memories made the movie hard to follow. I glanced sideways.

Taeshin seemed unfazed, peacefully watching the movie, rolling the drink in his hand out of habit and sipping from the straw. It seemed like he was the only one acting strange.

Just then, Taeshin looked at him, catching him lost in thought.

Caught not watching the movie, I felt a sudden sense of panic, as I detected pheromones from Taeshin.

Though it was impossible, the soft scent seemed to linger around my nose, making me quickly turn back to the screen.

I pretended to watch the movie, eating popcorn, and soon Taeshin resumed watching too.

The pheromones he felt earlier seemed to be just my imagination, as nothing lingered.

My mind was so restless that he kept sensing things. It was definitely a phantom scent, but my cheeks itched, and I rubbed them with the back of my hand, fixing my eyes on the screen.

I couldn’t focus on the movie at all. My mind was too occupied with useless thoughts, and I could barely remember the beginning of the film.

“Sunwoo, are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah! Let’s go buy clothes now.”

Drained from trying to pull my wandering mind back, weleft the theater.

Taeshin noticed and asked, but I nodded, mustering strength.

I stretched my back and arms, refreshing my body and mind, making Taeshin look at me like I was acting strange.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Um, nothing.”

The short response sounded affirmative. He nudged Taeshin’s side with his elbow for looking at him weirdly and moved to the floor with the clothing stores. The bright, open shopping mall felt much better after the dark, enclosed theater. As they chatted comfortably, he found it easier to forget the awkward thoughts about Taeshin.

Late winter season changes had the mannequins in front of the stores dressed in lighter clothes. Browsing the spring collection, he picked out a few items, soon holding three hoodies, a zip-up, and two pairs of pants. He also chose a hat and asked for delivery after paying. Finished with his shopping, he turned to see Taeshin standing in the hallway, looking at another store.

“Why? What’s over there?”

“Are you done?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s check that place out.”

Following Taeshin, we entered a semi-classic men’s wear store.

Taeshin went straight to a shirt, pulling out an oversized one with a chocolate base and a khaki collar, suitable for warm spring days, though it looked thin for the current season.

“This would look good on you.”

“It looks cold… but if you like it.”

Though it seemed thin, Taeshin wasn’t sensitive to the cold, so if I liked it, there was no problem.

After all, it was Taeshin who would wear it. But then Taeshin handed me the shirt.

“Try it on.”

“Huh?”

“I think it would suit you, Sunwoo.”

“…This?”

Caught off guard, I took the shirt from Taeshin and looked at the design again.

Seeing the same design I noticed before, I looked up at Taeshin, hoping it was a joke, but Taeshin pointed to the fitting room without a hint of jest.

“I don’t think it’s my style….”

“Just try it on.”

Since I prefer comfortable casual clothes, I weakly protested but then glared at Taeshin, who was pushing me forward, and went into the fitting room.

The oversized shirt didn’t restrict my movements, but the season was the issue.

On this cold day, he asked me to take off my warm fleece hoodie and try on a thin shirt for spring.

Grumbling to myself, I changed clothes.

Fortunately, it wasn’t as cold as expected inside the warm department store.

I hastily straightened the hem of the shirt and stepped out of the fitting room.

Adjusting the sleeves that slightly covered my palms, I looked for Taeshin.

He was browsing other shirts near the fitting room, and when he saw me, he approached with a smile.

“It looks good on you.”

“Really? It’s because the hanger is nice.”

“Maybe so. Wait, here….”

When I first received the shirt, I didn’t feel great about it, but hearing that it looked good on me made me feel better.

Smiling broadly, I joked that it was because I looked good, to which Taeshin lightly agreed while reaching for my shirt collar.

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Nothing… nothing.”

As Taeshin moved closer and slowly adjusted the shirt, I felt the pheromones again.

This time, it wasn’t my imagination; it was real pheromones.

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