Romantic Gangster

#47



#47

Ji-woo was looking at Choi Young-jae’s laptop. When he double-clicked the folder to organize the materials he had received for homework, numerous images and documents appeared. As Ji-woo’s eyes scanned through them one by one, he noticed a video file that somehow seemed out of place.

Ski Skill.

Does Young-jae like skiing? Did he suddenly search for and download a ski skill video while looking for materials? Or maybe he just saved the video here after continuously saving things in this folder? Out of simple curiosity, Ji-woo looked at the words “Ski Skill” and double-clicked on the video.

Soon, the video player popped up and a dark screen appeared. Skiing, as Ji-woo thought of it, was a sport done on a snow field, so it should have a very white background, but the video was quite dark.

What is this…?

Just as he was wondering, a woman and a man suddenly opened a door and entered. Then they suddenly started kissing, holding each other’s faces.

Ji-woo was so surprised that he forgot he should turn off the video, and just stared at Young-jae’s unexpected “Ski Skill” video.

The screen filled with the man and woman’s faces, and now it only showed their lips pressed together. Between their lips urgently sucking and engulfing each other, their tongues could be seen moving.

This wasn’t the level of content occasionally seen in movies or dramas. It wasn’t just a glimpse of tongue, but the tongues rubbing against each other, being sucked into mouths and coming out again, all clearly visible.

Realizing that “ski” was actually “kiss,” Ji-woo quickly grabbed the mouse and moved the pointer towards the X button.

Just as he was about to click the X button to turn off the video, the camera pulled back again, showing the faces of the two people.

‘What, Seo Ji-woo. You can kiss me after all.’

The changed screen showed him and Hyun-joon. Hyun-joon, smiling at him, lowered his head again and devoured his lips. The on-screen Ji-woo wrapped his arms around Hyun-joon’s neck and opened his mouth. Between their lips meeting and parting slightly, tongues could be seen frantically digging in and rubbing against each other.

This can’t be… What is this? What’s going on?

At that moment, the on-screen Hyun-joon turned his head towards Ji-woo outside the screen.

‘What do you mean? It’s a dream.’

Ji-woo, startled, jerked back as his eyes flew open. Clutching his blanket, he stared at the ceiling and exhaled, his breathing slightly quickened from shock.

“Haa…”

He could feel his heart beating so fast it was concerning. Ji-woo slowly sat up, closed his eyes, and tried to calm his startled heart.

After taking several deep breaths and trying to steady his breathing, he felt his shocked state slowly subsiding.

I must be crazy, really. How could I dream something like that?

Shock aside, the dream content was insane, and Ji-woo’s face quickly turned to one of disbelief as he covered his face with both hands, overwhelmed by embarrassment.

He really couldn’t understand why he had such a dream. Yesterday, after parting with Hyun-joon and coming home, he had barely managed to wash up before going to bed. Before sleeping, he had intended to think deeply about Hyun-joon saying he liked him, how he wanted to react to those words, and what he wanted to do, but he was so drowsy and sleepy that he couldn’t think at all, his body completely lacking strength.

It seemed that he had been exposed to Hyun-joon’s pheromones for too long and too strongly before parting yesterday. Seeing how he had been completely soaked in those pheromones to the point of being unable to do anything.

Ji-woo made a mental note not to stay too long in that pheromone scent just because it smelled good, and slowly traced his thoughts back to the origin of the dream.

“……”

It didn’t take long to trace back his thoughts. He remembered thinking about kissing yesterday when Hyun-joon brought up the topic at the convenience store, and then recalling the video he had seen at Young-jae’s house. It seemed those two things had mixed together.

Usually, even when he had dreams, the content would become hazy as soon as he woke up and he often couldn’t remember well, but not today. The scene where the people in the video changed to him and Hyun-joon was clear, and Hyun-joon kissing him was incredibly vivid. If there was any consolation… it was that he wasn’t directly doing it, but just watching himself and Hyun-joon doing it. Well… even though it was still him in the video.

The on-screen Hyun-joon looking at him and saying it was a dream was truly like a horror movie. Feeling somewhat creepy, Ji-woo rubbed his arms as he got out of bed, opened the curtains wide, and quickly brightened up the house. As the darkness dissipated, the scary feeling finally started to fade a bit.

After tidying up his bedding and washing up, Ji-woo was drying his hair when he finally turned off the ringing alarm. Because of the strange dream, he had gotten up and washed without knowing what time it was, and it turned out to be even before the alarm went off…

With 30 minutes left even after finishing preparations for school, Ji-woo sat leaning against the wall and fell into thought. Since he had extra time, he thought it would be good to do the “thinking” he couldn’t do last night because he fell asleep.

Wondering where to start thinking from, Ji-woo recalled Hyun-joon admitting that he liked him.

‘Do you… like me?’

‘Ah, shit. Do you think I’ll feel better just because you finally figured it out?’

‘…Really?’

‘Yeah, really fucking true.’

‘……’

‘Don’t forget it now that you’ve figured it out with difficulty.’

The words “I’ll feel better just because you figured it out” kept echoing in his mind. Why did Hyun-joon like him? No, how did he come to like him? He clearly found Ji-woo annoying when he followed him around telling him to come to school, and didn’t like him much.

Of course, after he started coming to school, they became closer unlike before, and they grew even closer as Hyun-joon helped calm Ji-woo’s pheromones by letting him receive his alpha pheromones, but there was nothing in between that could have made Hyun-joon come to like him.

‘But seriously, you smell so fucking good.’

Suddenly recalling when Hyun-joon smelled his pheromones and acted a bit forcefully, Ji-woo tilted his head.

Is it because of the pheromones…? No, somehow… it didn’t seem like that was the reason. Should I ask Hyun-joon directly? Is it okay to ask about this…? How should I ask?

Why do you like me?

What made you come to like me?

What’s the reason you came to like me?

Ji-woo, who had been muttering slightly different expressions of the same question, shook his head. His thoughts weren’t organizing well. What was important now wasn’t ‘why’ Hyun-joon came to like him, but his own feelings.

Even though he couldn’t understand the reason, Hyun-joon had already revealed that he liked Ji-woo, even to the point of thinking about kissing him many times, and now the turn had come to Ji-woo. It was now his turn to answer, and he couldn’t just keep asking questions forever.

But… this was really his first time, and it was difficult to even continue his thoughts. He didn’t know where to start thinking from, and while he did like Hyun-joon, he couldn’t figure out ‘what kind’ of like it was.

He couldn’t ask Young-jae about this, nor could he question a teacher, so frustration just kept piling up in his heart.

At that moment, his phone, left on the floor to charge, vibrated with a buzz. Startled, Ji-woo quickly checked the screen.

[Hyun-joon: In front of your house]

At the message saying he had arrived, Ji-woo quickly got up, grabbed his bag, and left the house. He didn’t know why he was hurrying out like this, but his feet were already approaching Hyun-joon as if there was some urgent matter.

As he came out of the dim apartment building, his eyes met with Hyun-joon, who was leaning against the wall. At that moment, Ji-woo recalled the Hyun-joon from his dream who had approached him without hesitation and rubbed his tongue all over.

“Give me your bag.”

“You really don’t need to carry my bag. It’s kind of similar to opening cans for me, but I can carry this much without any problem.”

“I know. I know, but I still want to carry it.”

“Why?”

“How can I watch the person I like carrying around heavy things?”

Ji-woo was startled and tried to cover Hyun-joon’s mouth, but the ticklish words had already all flowed out. Ji-woo’s face turned bright red at the unexpected words.

“Looks like you’re really touched.”

Hyun-joon grinned, took the bag off Ji-woo’s shoulder, casually slung it over his own shoulder, and nodded his head as if to say let’s go.

“Are you usually good at saying things like that?”

“What do you mean by ‘things like that’?”

“…Weird things.”

“You’ve been calling it weird since yesterday. Hey, is it okay to just crush someone’s sincerity by calling it weird like that?”

“I’m not crushing it… I’ve never heard anyone say things like that before. So I don’t know how to respond.”

“Do you dislike hearing it? Does it annoy you and make you think, ‘What the fuck is this bastard babbling about’?”

Ji-woo exhaled emptily at Hyun-joon’s extreme expression and shook his head.

“If that were the case, I wouldn’t be walking with you now.”

“Then you don’t dislike it?”

“…Yeah. I don’t dislike it. It’s not something to dislike, right? It’s saying that you like me… How could I dislike someone saying they like me? I like it, I do like it, but just because I’m grateful and happy that you like me doesn’t mean we can date just like that.”

Hyun-joon looked down at Ji-woo, who was calmly expressing his opinion, and bit his lip hard as if feeling a bit tense. When thinking logically like that, the reasons why it wouldn’t work often seemed bigger than the reasons why it would.


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