Dusk (BL Light Novel)

Ordinarily, no matter how pissed off I was, after a night’s sleep, my emotions would settle. I'd wake up and think, “Yeah, I was a bit heated yesterday,” and move on. I was usually the type to explode in the moment but mellow out over time, convincing myself to let it go.

But this time, I couldn’t just let it go. No matter how much I thought about it, Gang Jaegyung had gone too far. There was no way to forgive him, not even after replaying the scene in my head hundreds of times. That bastard was an expert at driving people up the wall.
I stood outside the entrance of the café — my go-to spot whenever I had an excuse to come here, thanks to the conveniently located parking lot. As usual, Uncle stationed himself in one corner of the café, waiting. In my hand, I clutched the secret weapon I had asked him to bring.
The café was crowded, but finding Gang Jaegyung was easy. His jet-black hair stuck out like a sore thumb among the sea of other heads. Grinding my teeth, I stomped toward him.

Gang Jaegyung was sitting with his coffee, casually tapping away on his phone. When he noticed me approaching, he looked up and flashed a bright, blinding grin — a smile that I hadn’t seen in a week.
“You’re here?”
Acting like everything was normal, as if he hadn’t just pulled that ridiculous stunt yesterday. It was infuriating.

Without a word, I lifted the secret weapon — a punch gun — and aimed it square at ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) Gang Jaegyung’s face. With all my strength, I pulled the trigger. The plastic fist shot forward with a loud, squeaky whoosh, charging straight toward his smug face.
But Gang Jaegyung was quick. With reflexes befitting a bodyguard, he leaned back, letting the toy fist pass right by him.
“Oh? You dodged?”

Biting back the urge to actually punch him, I muttered through clenched teeth. Gang Jaegyung hesitated for a moment, then slowly leaned forward and, in a display of exaggerated obedience, lightly tapped his forehead against the still-extended plastic fist.
“……”
Seeing that, all the steam instantly evaporated. Damn it. Was he trying to be cute?

Not a chance. Determined not to let him off that easily, I marched past the table and closed the distance between us. Realizing the impending danger, Gang Jaegyung nervously started to scoot backward.
A criminal trying to escape his punishment. Unbelievable.
I dropped the punch gun onto the table and approached him, raising both my hands. In a feeble attempt to calm me down, Gang Jaegyung reached out and gripped my right hand, as if to stop me.

“Ack…!”
I brought my left hand down hard, slapping his back with a solid whack. The impact echoed, and Gang Jaegyung instinctively let go of my hand. Before he could grab me again, I swung my right hand, smacking him on the forearm.
“Ow, ow! That hurts!”

“Oh, does it? I’m barely even hitting you.”
I wasn’t lying. I was holding back, just slapping him lightly. But the fact that he was whining and acting like he was in agony only made me angrier. I grabbed his solid forearm and whacked it again, and again.
“Ah! It really hurts! Ow!”
Gang Jaegyung hunched over, trying to shield his arm, and as he did, his back was exposed. Perfect. I smacked his back this time.

The sound was a satisfying mix of a sharp smack and a solid thud. The café was starting to quiet down, and I could feel people staring, but I was still too pissed to care.
“Seriously! Your hands sting like hell, Go Yeong!”
“You’re lucky I’m not slapping you across the face.”

Every time Gang Jaegyung tried to block one spot, I targeted another. He was laughing as he tried to defend himself, as if the whole thing was a joke. Laughing? Oh, you think this is funny? You’re asking for it. I gritted my teeth and smacked him harder.
Thwack. Thump. Smack. The sound of my palms hitting him echoed through the café.
By the time I was out of breath, Gang Jaegyung was slumped over, panting, his laughter now a weak, wheezing sound. His shoulders sagged, his face flushed, and his hair disheveled. For once, he actually looked like he’d been beaten up. I felt a little better.

To cap it off, I gave his head one last light punch with my fist and then dropped my hands, which were burning from the repeated hits.
Gang Jaegyung, dressed in a white T-shirt under a sky-blue cardigan, looked like a mess. The cardigan had slipped off one shoulder, and his clothes were wrinkled beyond recognition. If he weren’t smiling like an idiot, he’d look like he’d just gotten mugged.
“Ow… Go Yeong, your hands really sting… I’m exhausted.”

I hadn’t even used that much strength, but he was acting like he’d just been through a war. Rolling my eyes, I dropped into the seat across from him.
“Well, who told you to pull that stunt?”
“If I didn’t, how else would I get to see you?”

Gang Jaegyung slowly straightened up, fixing his hair as if he were preparing for a job interview. I scowled, reaching into my jacket pocket and pulling out a badge. I tossed it onto the table.
Gang Jaegyung’s hazel eyes lit up.
“You screwed up and gave me the wrong badge in the first place. Why did I have to come all the way here to fix it?”

“Because I wanted to see you.”
He placed his phone down and took out the new badge — the actual one he was supposed to give me — wrapped neatly in a small envelope. He handed it over with a smug smile. The sight annoyed me, so I snatched it from him, grumbling.
“What do you want to do now that we’re here?”

“Play with you, of course.”
“What kind of moron pisses someone off to get them to hang out?”
Seeing my fists clench, Gang Jaegyung leaned forward and grabbed my hand again to stop me from reaching for the punch gun.

“That’s the only way you’d actually meet me. Think about it — if you were me, you’d have done the same thing.”
“……”
I hated how true that was.

When I didn’t respond, Gang Jaegyung leaned back, fluttering his eyelashes dramatically. “If you’d agreed to meet sooner, I wouldn’t have had to do that.”
“So now you’re saying you’re not at fault?”
“What did I do wrong? You refused to see me, so I had to get creative.”

His expression was a mix of genuine confusion and feigned innocence. The audacity.
“Fine. We’ve met, we swapped the badges, we’re done here.”
“I’m sorry.”

I tried to stand, but Gang Jaegyung grabbed both of my hands, looking up at me with those ridiculously wide, puppy-dog eyes. His expression was so desperate it was almost comical.
“I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have made it look like you were sending those pathetic chat messages. And I shouldn’t have tried to play innocent just now. I won’t do it again.”
That was a complete 180. Just a second ago, he was defending himself, but now he was all remorseful and teary-eyed. It was almost convincing.

I eyed him suspiciously. Gang Jaegyung pouted and whispered, “I mean it.”
Let it go, or not? The indecision gnawed at me until I noticed people in the café glancing our way. Yeah, no wonder. With all that slapping and shouting, and now two grown men holding hands and whispering dramatically, of course they were staring.
Damn it.

I yanked my hands free and sat back down. “Let go.”
“Promise you won’t leave?”
“I’m not going anywhere. Now let go.”

Gang Jaegyung hesitated but finally released my hands, his face still crestfallen. I rubbed my wrists, feeling the lingering chill from his cold fingers.
“If you’re not leaving right away, do you want something to eat? The desserts here are good.”
 

Gang Jaegyung tilted his head, almost like he was trying to be cute, and asked in a sweet, playful tone. Was he really trying to act cute to calm me down? Did he actually think that kind of thing would work on another guy? Or did he just know he was pretty and was shamelessly using it to his advantage?
Before coming to the café, he must have looked up the menu. He started listing off dessert names, chirping away about which ones were good and which ones were too sweet to recommend. He kept chattering like that, obviously trying to lighten the mood.
I’d been here a few times already. Every time I came with Moon Seonhwa, she would chatter nonstop about how this cake was too dry or that bread was too sweet, so I already had a pretty good idea of what the desserts here were like.

But I didn’t bother interrupting Gang Jaegyung. Instead, I just leaned my chin on my hand and listened, letting his steady, gentle voice wash over me. After going through several dessert options, he finally turned to me.
“Anything you feel like eating?”
“Not really. I’m not much of a dessert person.”

“You don’t like sweets?”
“It’s not that… I just don’t usually go for them. I don’t reach for them much.”
As I spoke, I averted my eyes, resting my chin against my palm. Gang Jaegyung, who clearly wasn’t getting the reaction he wanted, reached over and lightly traced his fingers along my forearm, trying to get my attention.

The ticklish sensation made me flinch. Annoyed, I squeezed the punch gun I was still holding and pulled the trigger, sending the plastic fist flying toward him. It barely grazed his hair, but Gang Jaegyung didn’t even flinch. He just blinked, expression blank.
Boring. I tossed the punch gun onto the table.
“Then, should I just get what I feel like eating?”

“If you want.”
“Anything you can’t eat?”
“Not really… Ah. Matcha. Anything with caffeine, actually.”

“Got it. And no drink for you?”
“Not right now.”
Gang Jaegyung got up to go to the counter, pulling up his cardigan as it slipped off his shoulder. As he turned, I noticed the bottom hem of his T-shirt was all crumpled, and it bothered me for some reason. I reached out and tugged it back into place.

Gang Jaegyung stood still, letting me straighten his clothes. When I was done, he smiled brightly, like a little kid being praised for good behavior. Then he patted his sides and sauntered off to the counter.