Harmonious Love

Where There Is Sunlight, There Are Shadows (13)

And if they had met earlier, they would probably be strangers to each other by now.

“Sunbae.”

“Yes?”

“About the people you met before.”

“…”

He spoke on impulse, but the question had been lingering in his mind all along.

“How did things end with them?”

Mo Yeon was curious about how this relationship would end.

And as the silence grew, Tae Young-won’s eyes became sharper.

“Why are you asking about that?”

“Because I’m in the same position as them, I’m just curious.”

“Why are you in the same position?”

“Are we in different positions then?”

“Of course we’re in different positions. I’ve never thought about ending things with you.”

His voice was no different than usual, but somehow the air had grown chilly.

Originally, not talking about the past is natural in a romantic relationship. Moreover, Mo Yeon already knew how Tae Young-won had lived. What was the reason for not wanting to talk about it now?

“I’m not talking about now. I’m just asking about something that happened in the past…”

“Whatever I did in the past, I have no intention of ending things with you. It’s not an easy thing to let someone who used to follow me around into my home.”

Mo Yeon frowned. When asking the question, he hadn’t expected such an unhesitating answer.

“And am I crazy? After all that struggle to get you back, I wouldn’t end it easily.”

“…”

These were words that could never be kept from the beginning. Mo Yeon usually didn’t take them deeply and let them pass, but looking at it carefully, Tae Young-won really seemed to believe that such a relationship could last forever. Mo Yeon found himself speaking without thinking.

“What if I get a partner in the future?”

Tae Young-won, who had been firmly keeping his mouth shut, suddenly inhaled at that question. Mo Yeon silently watched as his jaw clenched tightly.

“A partner?”

“…”

“What nonsense are you saying? It’s not funny at all.”

Whether he truly meant that it wasn’t funny, his crooked smile appeared far from amused.

Actually, he hadn’t expected the atmosphere to become so cold when he brought it up. Nevertheless, Mo Yeon didn’t back down. He really wanted to know how this relationship would end.

“I’m not joking.”

“You’re not really the type to have a partner anyway, are you? That’s how I understood it.”

“Well, in the long run, who knows. You might find someone first.”

“…”

“How would you know if either of us might suddenly meet someone we genuinely like?”

His lightly pigmented pupils stubbornly gazed at Tae Young-won. Though he didn’t avert his eyes, his eyelashes trembled slightly.

“Someone might appear who makes you do things you wouldn’t normally do.”

“…”

“Someone who makes everything feel so unfamiliar that you want to stop, where everything from top to bottom feels strange, but you like them so much that you can’t possibly stop. That would be a violation of our contract, wouldn’t it?”

Though it was his own voice, his words had never hurt himself so much before. Just from that, his heart already felt bruised.

But even after waiting for quite some time, Tae Young-won didn’t say anything. That silence felt like an affirmation, and Mo Yeon felt annoyed with him once again.

“For me, it’s honestly unimaginable. If you find someone you like, I’ll ignore it. I’ll pester you about correcting the contract violation.”

“…”

“And anyway, they’ll be less handsome than me and worse at sex than me, so you’ll come to your senses and return soon. Why were you following me around in the first place?”

“Huh.”

How could he be so carefree and selfish? He was amazed at that arrogance, believing that even if Mo Yeon found someone to love, he would eventually return to him.

At the same time, it was irritating enough to make him want to hit him just once. Because he couldn’t deny it.

“Do you think we could remain just very close senior and junior if I had a partner?”

“Yeah, at least I could. You don’t know how lucky it is to be able to live with your ideal type as a sex partner for life.”

Now he was calling him his ideal type. Tae Young-won had known from before that Mo Yeon was particularly drawn to him. Of course, the reason was much more complicated than Tae Young-won thought. That must be the source of his baseless confidence.

Tae Young-won seemed to have shaken off whatever inexplicable displeasure had gripped him earlier, and now wore his characteristic playful smile. His smoothly curved lips and narrowed eyes were enough to enchant anyone no matter how many times one saw them.

“The one who can’t bear it won’t be me but the other person. If you break away like that, I’d be grateful.”

And seeing him again, Mo Yeon still couldn’t deny that source. Had he really fallen for him now?

His appearance must be the biggest reason for his pretentiousness all this time. With such a face, even if he put on an insincere mask, people would see what they wanted to see anyway.

“But aren’t we doing well lately, making those worries seem meaningless?”

“…”

“That’s how I felt. Is there something Mo Yeon is dissatisfied with?”

As he said this, Tae Young-won frowned as if hurt. His voice was much softer than the chilly tone from earlier, and he was speaking as if to soothe Mo Yeon. Having lost the will to speak further, Mo Yeon shook his head.

“No. I’m satisfied too.”

In the end, Mo Yeon neither heard about Tae Young-won’s former partners nor succeeded in envisioning his future.

Feeling gloomy, he looked to the side. Inside the café’s terrace area that came into his view was a familiar person.

Kim Hyun-soo, who had been walking across the campus earlier, seemed to have come to buy coffee. Their eyes hadn’t met before.

It was something he had thought when they encountered each other on the street, but now the difference felt even clearer. Looking at him now, he really did seem different at school. Of course, he couldn’t compare to Tae Young-won sunbae.

As the class president, he seemed bright and proactive. Perhaps because Tae Young-won had repeatedly mentioned how he was “for a gay guy,” Mo Yeon found himself thinking that Kim Hyun-soo didn’t look that gay.

“Then why is Mo Yeon suddenly saying such things, ruining sunbae’s mood…”

“Ah, sorry…”

Mo Yeon absentmindedly answered while keeping his gaze fixed on Kim Hyun-soo. The muttering from across the table continued.

“Just now, I imagined Mo Yeon stalking another man and I suddenly felt incredibly disgusted. I thought I couldn’t tolerate just the sex, but now that I think about it, this seems absolutely unacceptable too. It’s cumbersome to promise not to stalk on top of not having sex, and honestly, I don’t trust it either, since Mo Yeon has such a habit of creepily following people. You got caught by me and still stalked again, right? Looking at that, it’s not easy to trust you. Honestly, these days I think, ‘Ah, I should be the only one stalked by Mo Yeon…'”

“Ah, really?”

“Yeah… so if something like that happens, before Mo Yeon follows him, I’ll track that guy first and make him disappear without a trace. Then I’ll go home and have intense sex with Mo Yeon. I think it would feel really good to do it all night long.”

“Yes…”

Normally, he would have thought the conversation flow was unnatural or that Tae Young-won was talking nonsense, but right now Mo Yeon had no time to think about such things.

Every time he saw Kim Hyun-soo’s face at school, the thought of finding yang energy resurfaced.

After all, the people he’d encountered at the gay bar didn’t seem that different from other people. Looking at Kim Hyun-soo, who appeared no different from ordinary people, although Mo Yeon had completely stopped going since that day, he wondered if a second attempt might be different.

These days, ghosts occasionally caught his eye but weren’t a major threat. Sometimes, even when their eyes seemed to meet, they would just pass by. And he knew better than anyone that it was all thanks to Tae Young-won.

‘Yes, no matter how scary and strange it is, I’m the stranger one for seeing ghosts.’

And the moment he thought that, his eyes met with Kim Hyun-soo’s.

He seemed to have known that Mo Yeon was there all along. Without showing any surprise, he nodded with kind eyes.

“…Huh?”

Then he turned his steps and began walking toward them. At first, Mo Yeon couldn’t believe it, but as he approached the terrace glass door, Mo Yeon’s mind became increasingly confused.

He wondered if he might have seen someone else, but unfortunately their eyes were still locked. Kim Hyun-soo was clearly coming to acknowledge Mo Yeon.

Why is he coming? Tae Young-won sunbae is here too.

Being in a position where he had something to hide, he couldn’t be at ease. Moreover, Mo Yeon wasn’t on terms with Kim Hyun-soo to acknowledge each other separately.

‘What does he intend to do here? Why is he coming?’

What would he say in front of Tae Young-won sunbae?