Jeong Taeui stared blankly at Ilay.

His dark eyes, lost in thought with a hand resting near his temple, were barely a hand’s span away as they quietly observed Jeong Taeui.

Every time he looked at this man, the same thought surfaced:

This man’s eyes could turn terrifyingly cold.

Whether deep in contemplation or occasionally discussing work matters with someone over the phone, those black pupils would narrow ever so slightly, freezing over like ice.

It was only after seeing Ilay’s eyes that Jeong Taeui realized—black could be a cold* color too.

(*寒色: The author uses the Chinese term 寒色, meaning cold color, to express a sense of coldness, darkness, or mystery.)

But so what?

He had known that from the beginning.

He understood clearly that this man had personality issues, even if his psychological state was different from that of a criminal. And knowing all that, Jeong Taeui still stayed with him. Simply because that man was Ilay Riegrow.

“Just sitting still, why do you still look so good…?” – Jeong Taeui suddenly mumbled. Right in front of him, Ilay was quietly watching him—or somewhere else. His lips looked unusually prominent today and kept catching his eye.

“…….”

Taeui suddenly impulsively leaned forward. And then he placed his lips on those silent ones.

Their closed lips overlapped.

Jeong Taeui felt his body heat on his lips.

‘Warm…’

He found it strange that this warmth was also flowing to the other person.

Thinking back, he realized he had kissed this man many times. But it seemed there weren’t that many gentle kisses like this.

And when he savored it slowly like this, it was quite good. He liked the dry yet soft and warm feeling.

“…….It’s alright.”

Jeong Taeui kept his lips like that for about ten seconds, then pulled back and sat straight on the chair as before.

Ilay’s face was still in front of him.

However, the expression on that face had changed slightly compared to earlier. It was no longer the cold gaze piercing him.

Ilay was looking down at Jeong Taeui, frowning slightly in a strange way. His hand, resting on his temple, didn’t move.

“… Ah… that’s really strange. I really like it, but it makes one feel strange.”

Jeong Taeui scratched his head in a daze. Ilay, who had been watching Jeong Taeui with a look like he was observing a strange creature, finally spoke slowly.

“Rather than strange, I’d say it feels uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable… isn’t ‘uncomfortable’ usually accompanied by words like ‘annoying’ or ‘weird’?”

When Jeong Taeui seriously asked, Ilay suddenly smirked.

“Maybe the meaning of ‘uncomfortable’ you know and the ‘uncomfortable’ I know aren’t different, but when you say it like that, it seems quite different.”

The moment he finished speaking those words.

Ilay reached out. His large, white hand brushed past Jeong Taeui’s earlobe and generously wrapped around his nape. He pulled him closer.

Once again, lips met lips. But this time was entirely different from before.

…… Ah… This man was right.

The feeling he unconsciously recognized.

The tongue tangling with his lips seemed to want to penetrate deep into his body. He felt as if those lips would soon devour him. Or he might suffocate and die before that.

This was exactly what happened when he locked lips with this man. Even if it started with a gentle touch, the ending always left Jeong Taeui struggling with the feeling that if he didn’t wake up, he would be devoured.

Even now.

Ilay used those big hands, one cupping his cheek and the other around the back of Jeong Taeui’s head, pressing his lips against his as if trying to swallow him. Now, he no longer looked human; he seemed like a giant wild beast or something entirely different, holding him and devouring him. This wasn’t a cute way to kiss someone.

Sometimes Jeong Taeui feared this man… He felt like he would really be eaten by him.

Even as he felt himself about to faint from lack of oxygen, Jeong Taeui mustered enough strength to think about this.

Then, after a moment, he tried to push Ilay away, thinking he would pass out from suffocation if this continued.

However, the solid figure remained unmoved, not budging an inch. It seemed like Ilay wouldn’t easily let go.

“Wait a minute… .”

Jeong Taeui was almost out of breath; he tried to turn his head to say something, but once again, his breath was taken away as Ilay’s lips quickly followed, sealing his own.

Wait, this situation had some issues.

If this continued, Jeong Taeui felt he would definitely pass out from suffocation, and even if he didn’t, he didn’t think this would end if it kept going. More importantly, this wasn’t his room; Jeong Taeui didn’t know when the owner of this room would return.

“Wait a minute, wait…… !”

Jeong Taeui tried to turn his head away and shouted again, but the man entwining him seemed uninterested in listening. No, more accurately, he smiled lightly, enjoying Jeong Taeui’s confusion. That smile quickly filled Jeong Taeui’s mouth.

Jeong Taeui suddenly felt that if he made another sound, this man would really bite him. With that thought, he kept silent.

He decided to wait a bit longer before starting to scream and struggle.

Jeong Taeui liked this feeling.

Sometimes, when Ilay kissed him, he discovered something small, interesting, and new. He liked that feeling. The sensation when he heard Ilay’s laughter when something happened.

When Ilay laughed like that, their lips and tongues touched, and Jeong Taeui’s mouth felt ticklish. A deep, gentle laugh seemed to transmit directly from his mouth to his ears.

Jeong Taeui liked the feeling of ‘tasting’ his laughter.
So he decided to stay silent for a while. Even when Ilay’s hands began to move improperly around his waist, sliding down lower, making him feel increasingly dangerous.

Just wait a little longer. Just a bit more.

But because of this distraction, it seemed Jeong Taeui missed something important.

Even though the room was well soundproofed, if you listened carefully, like when reading in the room, you could hear footsteps from the hallway. And Jeong Taeui missed those footsteps.

So the door suddenly opened, not because the person was trying to enter quietly or sneakily, but just an unexpected situation without any prior warning.

“I used this method before, and the bruises healed quickly. If it’s a bruise, it will heal on its own, but still…….”

The door suddenly opened with a cheerful sound.
At that moment, Jeong Taeui suddenly snapped back as if he had returned from another world. He opened his half-closed eyes.

Behind Ilay, who was occupying more than half of his vision, he saw Christoph standing in front of him, holding the doorknob.

He had just stepped in, one hand still holding something that looked like a medicine bottle, standing there staring at the two of them for a moment.

“…….”

Even without a breath, Jeong Taeui was momentarily lost and looked at Christoph in confusion, though Christoph didn’t seem that surprised. Christoph still looked at Jeong Taeui with his usual indifferent expression, leaving one wondering what was going through his mind.

The only one who seemed calm at the moment was Ilay.

“……., …….”

Although he was well aware that someone had entered and knew it was Christoph, the owner of this room, he didn’t even bother to turn his head. No, he continued what he was doing as if he didn’t even know Christoph had entered.

Only Jeong Taeui hurriedly pushed Ilay away, interrupting what he was doing while trying to remove his hand that was sliding under his shirt.

“Wait, wait…… wait a minute! Stop it!!”

Jeong Taeui glared at Ilay.

But Ilay pretended not to hear, despite being called several times.

Jeong Taeui used all his strength to push him away, so if he had fallen, it wouldn’t have been surprising (though that wasn’t going to happen). However, the distance between the two of them increased a bit.

Having his fun interrupted, Ilay looked down at Jeong Taeui with an unhappy expression.

“Why?” (왜)

“What nonsense? Because Christoph is back.”

Jeong Taeui responded without backing down, his voice displeased, while he resolutely resisted and pushed Ilay away once more. Ilay finally obediently moved back a bit and then turned his head to look.

“Perfect timing.”

Ilay said in a low voice. Jeong Taeui – once again – pushed hard against Ilay’s waist with his foot.

What to do now? A feeling of embarrassment filled his head.

With Christoph’s personality, there was no way he would be pleased seeing someone do something like this in his room. Although Christoph had accepted Jeong Taeui into his room, he didn’t think Christoph would overlook the sight of two men entangled on a chair in his room—or more accurately, on a chair right next to his bed.

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue.

“So…… this is…….”

But instead of trying to explain, Jeong Taeui realized Christoph was staring at something, so he followed his gaze.

There, his belt and the zipper of his pants were undone.

“…… !”

Jeong Taeui’s face froze.

His current state blatantly showed he was about to do something intimately related to the lower part of his body – no, he had no intention of doing that – but still, he couldn’t avoid being speechless.

Thinking about it, Christoph was old enough to understand and overlook what had happened. Christoph was no longer a middle or high school student, and this wasn’t something to brag about, but neither was it something to be ashamed of or hide.

What he should be worried about was his disheveled appearance on Christoph’s chair, not the fact that he looked like he was about to have sex. Moreover, the scene wasn’t that serious. It was just a bit of disheveled clothing and swollen lips.

…… The only issue was that both were men.

Unless Christoph was an idiot, he must have already figured it out.

Back when Ilay was an instructor at UNHRDO, he turned the whole place upside down to track down Jeong Taeui. Not long after finding him, he even mobilized his colleagues to pose as terrorists just to extract Taeui from a high-ranking Saudi official’s private residence. And after all that, despite his reluctance, he ended up returning to his family’s estate, where the two lived under the same roof for years.

By now, rumors had spread far enough that nearly all of his colleagues knew. In fact, most people even remotely acquainted with Ilay had at least heard Jeong Taeui’s name.

So unless they were idiots – or someone completely unaware of Ilay Riegrow – they couldn’t fail to guess the unusual relationship between the two.

That’s right.

As expected, this situation was embarrassing. The current situation was revealing too plainly the familiar things that had been ignored.

Jeong Taeui scratched his nape and lowered his gaze to his feet. His throat felt like it was burning.

But at that moment.

“Enough.”

As Jeong Taeui stood there awkwardly, staring at his own feet, Christoph’s unexpectedly calm voice cut through the silence.

Jeong Taeui lifted his head with a puzzle: “Huh?”

Still standing by the door, hand on the knob, Christoph looked at him with the same composed expression. There was something almost mocking in his gaze, as if teasing him for being so awkward, or as if annoyed by the unnecessary fuss over nothing.

“I don’t have any particular prejudice against homosexuality. So if you’re worried about my reaction, don’t be.”

“Oh…….”

Jeong Taeui didn’t know what to say, so he just vaguely responded, blinking. It was an unexpectedly calm and friendly answer.

Jeong Taeui glanced at Ilay. He, who had been interrupted in the middle of his enjoyment, was now sitting on the chair with an undisguised displeased expression, dragging the table closer to him and reaching for the cigarette box on it.

Ilay took out a cigarette from the wooden box on the table, which seemed more for decoration than for actual use by the room’s owner. He put the cigarette in his mouth.

Christoph frowned, seeing Jeong Taeui looking back and forth between Ilay and himself with a bewildered expression. He spoke as if to end this bothersome issue.

“I have no interest in others’ affairs nor in anyone’s preferences. But if I had to say, on the contrary, I somewhat admire homosexuals. After all, it’s a difficult relationship, and deciding to stay together like that must not be easy.”

For a moment, Jeong Taeui couldn’t believe his ears.

When hearing something unexpected from someone one doesn’t expect, people tend to wonder if their ears are mistaken or if the person in front of them isn’t who they knew.

After a brief moment of doubt, Jeong Taeui finally realized that Christoph wasn’t joking and seemed to have sincerely said those words.

He couldn’t believe Christoph had such an amazingly humane side.

He really didn’t know Christoph could understand the hardships of a minority community. He didn’t know Christoph could have such understanding when he didn’t understand ordinary people.

“Um…… okay.”

Jeong Taeui, slightly confused, unconsciously looked at Ilay. The man who had just smoked in someone else’s room without permission was also looking at Christoph with a blank expression.

He stared at Christoph with the cigarette in his mouth and then tilted his head to look at the ceiling. And then, as if suddenly understanding, Jeong Taeui nodded to himself.

“Well…… thanks for understanding.”

Surprised, Jeong Taeui didn’t know what to say, so he stammered. Christoph shrugged. At the same time, he looked at Ilay with curiosity.

“But it’s surprising.”

“But this is surprising. I was skeptical when I heard Rick was living with a man…… Who would’ve thought—and of all people, I never expected Rick to endure abstinence like this.”

Christoph nodded as if he genuinely admired that.

At that moment, the smile on Jeong Taeui’s face vanished instantly.

Huh…… ?

He felt like he had heard something that didn’t quite fit the story.

Jeong Taeui looked at Christoph with a puzzled face. Christoph sighed and looked at him.

“When you think about it, compared to heterosexual relationships—which can persist even without mutual respect or affection, as long as there’s physical intimacy—same-sex relationships have no choice but to be sustained purely by the heart, since there’s no physical outlet. One could argue that makes them purer…… Though I don’t see why you’d be so embarrassed about it to the point of holding back physically.”

Jeong Taeui stared at Christoph with a shock so intense it bordered on disbelief. His gaze was sharp enough to bore holes into the man’s face.

Strangely enough, it seemed like Christoph was trying to encourage him. The fact that someone like him even possessed the capacity to offer comfort was its own minor surprise. But still……

“My ears must be acting up…… Or maybe my brain’s just sluggish today. Then again, I barely slept three hours last night binging that novel.”

Rubbing his earlobe, Jeong Taeui muttered under his breath. Then, with a sideways glance, he looked back at Ilay, who was still puffing away at his cigarette, eyes fixed on the ceiling as if none of this concerned him.

“……”

Maybe he’d misunderstood. But even so, this felt like something he needed to clarify.

“A relationship based only on physicality…… or, well, the opposite—one based purely on emotions……”

As Jeong Taeui hesitated, scratching his temple, Christoph frowned slightly.

“Why does that matter?”

“No…… but…… what about same-sex sexual relationships…… “

“What do you mean ‘sexual relations between the same sex’? Women don’t have anything to put in, and men don’t have anywhere to put it.…Don’t tell me you didn’t know?”

Christoph stared at Jeong Taeui with genuine shock—and Jeong Taeui stared back with equal disbelief.

“……., …….”