Harmonious Love

Where There Is Sunlight, There Are Shadows (2)

‘Should I have stolen and worn Tae Young-won sunbae’s clothes too?’

As he examined Kim Hyun-soo’s attire, he naturally compared it to his own.

At the same time, thinking of Tae Young-won reminded him of something he had forgotten. Come to think of it, this morning Mo Yeon had made an excuse to Tae Young-won about going to the library. He had also added that he shouldn’t wait for him at all since there were only a few days left until the certification exam he was preparing for.

When Mo Yeon asked, Tae Young-won immediately replied.

<…Yes.>

As he had said before, not much had actually changed between the two of them. They just acknowledged each other as sex partners.

And since officially becoming sex partners, Tae Young-won no longer randomly showed up at the restaurant or waited for Mo Yeon to come home. He even sent Mo Yeon home more readily than before when Mo Yeon said he wanted to be alone and go home, unlike his previous clingy behavior. So recently, Mo Yeon often slept at his own place rather than at Tae Young-won’s house.

Originally, the main reason Mo Yeon stayed at Tae Young-won’s house was because Mo Yeon liked Tae Young-won. Tae Young-won had shamelessly told him to stay over, saying that Mo Yeon would naturally want to sleep with the person he liked. But now that reason was gone, so he could sleep at his own place and use his evening time freely like this.

Since he had already told him in advance, today he just needed to return to his own home at a reasonable time.

The fact that he had gained this freedom also meant that Tae Young-won had gained freedom as well. Tae Young-won had firmly emphasized to Mo Yeon that he wouldn’t share partners with other men, and he also said that as long as he maintained a sex partner relationship with Mo Yeon, he wouldn’t meet anyone else. Mo Yeon, who hadn’t even made such a request in the first place, couldn’t believe those words at face value.

‘It’ll probably be like that for a while.’

He was away from home for days not long ago, how long does he expect me to believe that…

Since he himself was at a gay bar right now, it meant that Tae Young-won could also break their agreement as sex partners without telling him.

Suddenly feeling unpleasant, Mo Yeon looked down at his outfit again. Now that he had come this far, it seemed best to put aside useless thoughts.

Today, Mo Yeon was wearing the same pitch-black pants and thick sweatshirt as usual, with a brown duffle coat on top. It was dull and looked like a model student.

So he looked even more like a novice than the freshman standing in front of him, and not at all like Tae Young-won sunbae. To achieve his goal, he thought he should definitely dress like that from next time, at least as much as others did.

And while Mo Yeon was having these dissatisfied thoughts about his attire, Kim Hyun-soo was still looking at Mo Yeon with curious eyes.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?”

“It’s just surprising. I didn’t expect to run into someone I know here.”

“This place is less than 30 minutes from school. That’s why we met.”

If you’re done greeting, why don’t you leave? He didn’t seem to approach me this much at school, but Kim Hyun-soo apparently didn’t think it was that surprising.

“Not really. This is the first time I’ve met anyone while walking around this neighborhood. I honestly didn’t expect it to be you, sunbae… Do you know my name by any chance?”

The glittering street was still hard to get used to. Looking around, Mo Yeon quietly nodded.

“You just said you’re Kim Hyun-soo.”

“Wow, I thought you’d never know my name.”

Mo Yeon frowned.

It was absurd enough that he was interpreting things on his own when Mo Yeon hadn’t originally remembered his name, but there was something else more annoying.

Why is he saying ‘forever’? It seemed like he had just managed to get it out of his head a minute ago, but suddenly being reminded of that name again made Mo Yeon even more uncomfortable.

“What brings you here?”

Kim Hyun-soo asked with interested eyes.

“Why are you here? It’s not a company dinner today, right?”

Mo Yeon asked grumpily, faced with this troublesome situation. He had never imagined this kind of situation on the first day he decided to find another yang energy substitute. If it wasn’t a company dinner, he meant for Kim Hyun-soo to stop talking and leave.

“What? Company dinner? Pfft.”

But Kim Hyun-soo burst out laughing as if Mo Yeon’s words were absurd. At the same time, he nodded towards the entrance of the establishment.

“Are you going in here?”

“…”

Huh. For a moment, Mo Yeon’s mouth gaped open blankly.

Come to think of it, the place he was trying to enter now wasn’t a school building, nor was it an ordinary restaurant or bar. It was a fairly large gay bar in this area.

Recalling Tae Young-won’s reactions so far, being mistaken for gay by others was definitely not a normal thing. Mo Yeon added before more time passed:

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m just here to find someone.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s great. Then I think I can help you.”

“What?”

Mo Yeon asked blankly. He thought Kim Hyun-soo had just spoken to him while passing by, but was that not the case? Mo Yeon pointed at the entrance like Kim Hyun-soo had done earlier.

“So you’re here for this place too?”

Belatedly flustered, Kim Hyun-soo lowered his voice and said as if to show off:

“Yes.”

“…”

“I’m not here to find anyone though.”

Mo Yeon’s eyes finally widened in surprise.

***

“Let’s have a drink here first and look around. Hyung!”

Thankfully, Kim Hyun-soo willingly stepped up to help Mo Yeon, even though they weren’t close.

He said something to the bartender while greeting him, and soon two glasses of drinks arrived.

Mo Yeon took a sip and glanced at Kim Hyun-soo. The red drink with a lemon floating in it was sweet, and barely tasted of alcohol. Mo Yeon took another sip with slightly surprised eyes.

“You don’t like alcohol, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought so. I heard you never come to company dinners.”

He seemed to be showing this kindness because Mo Yeon was his school senior. The reason Mo Yeon didn’t often go to company dinners wasn’t that he couldn’t drink. A guy two years his junior should know that.

“By the way, can I ask who you’re looking for? I’d need some information to help you.”

As expected, the socially adept are different. If it were him, he wouldn’t have cared who someone was looking for in a gay bar, but it was always fascinating to notice these differences.

“It would be good to know your purpose too. If that’s okay with you, sunbae.”

Tae Young-won had also said he wanted to see Mo Yeon as a cherished younger brother for a long time. The emotions Mo Yeon felt when he first heard those words were still unclear even to himself.

What was certain was that it wasn’t a particularly welcome statement.

“Well… I’m not sure what I’m thinking either.”

Mo Yeon answered Kim Hyun-soo’s question, shaking off the thoughts that had resurfaced.

“You remember the face, right? Want to walk around with me? It might be someone I know…”

“No, I’ll just sit here and look today.”

“…”

When Mo Yeon quietly replied, Kim Hyun-soo seemed a bit taken aback, but soon nodded. He was already feeling drained, lacking the energy to even read Kim Hyun-soo’s mood.

With an urgent heart, he had walked into this unfitting place on his own feet.

As flashy as it was on the outside, the interior was much more spacious. As such, just lifting his head a little revealed countless unfamiliar men, too many to count with the eyes.

They were drinking and talking to each other under the dark lighting. The atmosphere wasn’t particularly obscene or strange. They were chatting happily, and everyone looked like ordinary people.

Wouldn’t there be at least one person here similar to Tae Young-won, if not quite the same?

Wouldn’t there be at least one more way for him to escape this terrible nightmare?

“…”

Fiddling with his glass, Mo Yeon looked around the bar. There were several people making eye contact. Some of them even tried to approach.

Each time, Mo Yeon immediately lowered his head. He hadn’t done anything since coming here, and aside from Kim Hyun-soo, whom he already knew, he hadn’t even spoken to anyone, let alone made contact.

Somehow, he felt increasingly unwell. Mo Yeon put down the glass of alcohol he could no longer drink.

“Are you okay? You’ve been looking really unwell for a while…”

Sensing that something was very wrong, Kim Hyun-soo asked worriedly. He seemed to have been watching Mo Yeon’s mood for a while, but Mo Yeon hadn’t even had the presence of mind to notice.

Mo Yeon tried hard to nod.

“Yeah, I’m fine… but I think I need to go home.”

“What’s wrong, was the alcohol too strong?”

Kim Hyun-soo stood up abruptly and took a step closer. When the unfamiliar scent hit him, Mo Yeon unconsciously stepped back.