A Heart-Stopping Morning

Has he gone from dragging in objects to finally dragging in entire people?

A headache surged purely from wondering if he had somehow developed a bizarre new drinking habit without his own knowledge. Since his own arms couldn’t possibly be wrapped around himself at such an angle, it was bound to belong to someone else.

In the first place, it possessed an entirely different shape from his own arms, which rarely put on muscle and never tanned under the sun.

“Ha.”

The thick, sturdy arm was layered with distinct contours of muscle, its veins prominently raised. Even putting aside the sun-baked, tanned complexion, it was glaringly obvious that it wasn’t his. Lien dropped his head back onto the bed with a thud.

Exactly what on earth had he committed last night? Driven by pure curiosity as to who exactly he had scooped up, he turned his head, only to nearly let out a physical shriek.

“……Shit.”

Calix Loffstern.

The owner of that robust arm, and the absolute last person he should ever cross paths with again.

Desperately dragging up the memories of the previous night, Lien ultimately muttered a brief curse. It wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular, given that both he and the man thoroughly deserved to be cursed.

The heavy arm was entwined across his abdomen like a literal octopus, rendering it utterly impossible to lift away. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t strip it off if he exerted all his strength, but wouldn’t that snap the man awake? He genuinely couldn’t help his desperate desire to avoid facing him if possible.

Then again, judging by how the man hadn’t even stirred when Lien had instinctively slapped away a hand that crept beneath his shirt in his sleep, he truly seemed to be dead to the world.

Staring blankly at the ceiling for a while, Lien subtly rolled his head to look at the sleeping man.

Unlike the masculine arm tightly laced with veins, the face resting with calmly closed eyes possessed features so neat and refined they felt almost delicate.

The sharp, straight eyebrows, the long sweep of his outer eyes, the smooth jawline, the beautifully elevated bridge of his nose, and the firmly set crimson lips were nothing short of a beautiful male deity in a painting. He used to lean a bit more toward the cute side in the past.

‘…Have I completely lost my mind, seriously.’

Inadvertently caught in his thoughts, Lien was startled and forcefully scraped away the tangled ideas in his head. Yet, despite that, it was an undeniable fact that he couldn’t easily tear his gaze away from the man’s face. It belonged entirely to the realm of primal instinct rather than reason.

‘Well, the answer is blindingly obvious.’

The first person he had ever harbored in his heart during his lifetime, and the sole individual he had believed would never be replaced by anyone else in the future. There was a time when he believed that amidst a life entirely embroidered with falsehoods, his feelings toward this man were the absolute, solitary truth.

‘Though it shares no relevance now.’

The man of the past had certainly caused a fever of puppy love to rage within him, but that was no longer the case. On the contrary, he ought to despise him.

Yet, his eyes still automatically gravitated toward him, unable to break the contact easily. Meeting his first love after several years, he realized he had missed him…… just that much.

Damn it, get a grip. Lien.

Lien.

Muttering his own name, he let out a profound sigh. Just how long was he going to indulge in such weak-willed thoughts? The current version of himself was a completely different person, so it was only proper that his emotions toward the man should be entirely nonexistent.

If any lingering sentiment truly remained, it must be defined strictly as hatred.

After exhausting all his efforts to push the heavy arm away, Lien ultimately collapsed flat on his back. Though his mind was a chaotic mess, he recalled the fact that his initial dilemma hadn’t been resolved yet.

Exactly why was this man sleeping on his bed, locking him in a tight embrace?

“…What exactly happened?”

Failing to recall a single thing beyond the fact that they had thrown a wild drinking party last night, he had to groan while clutching his head. Meanwhile, the hangover he had briefly forgotten began to rear its head. This was also entirely because of Calix Loffstern.

“Ugh, seriously……!”

With the hangover combined with the heavy pressure on his stomach, he felt like he was genuinely going to throw up. Groaning through the piercing headache while dragging up his memories, Lien’s face twisted into a scowl after a long while. As the sequence of last night’s events finally resurfaced, he glared fiercely at Calix. It was utterly exasperating to watch him sleeping so peacefully with a boyish face.

“If you can’t drink, you should have just said so.”

It was no wonder he lacked any memory of him during the party. It was only natural that searching for any trace of the man during the drinking session yielded nothing, since his entire recollection consisted of staring dumbfoundedly at a man who had collapsed flat onto the table after a single glass of wine.

Afterward, the drinking party that stretched late into the early morning hours only concluded after every single soul was thoroughly hammered, leaving not a single person sane. He had lazily waved his hands to drive away the knights who sluggishly insisted on helping him clean. Watching them scatter toward their respective rooms like zombies, Lien decided to catch a quick nap first and organize the hall at dawn. And it was only much later that he discovered Calix, whose forehead was still glued to the table.

‘I should have just left him there, whether his mouth twisted from the cold drafts or not.’

Thinking rationally, that was exactly what he should have done. The problem was that he himself was profoundly intoxicated, and regardless of past grievances, his brain at that moment had only processed the data that the man was an ‘inn guest.’ If he had been a mere drunkard who only used the tavern, Lien could have tossed him outside the front door and walked away coolly. But the man was a guest of the inn nonetheless, and he possessed a room he had personally rented. Normally in such cases, he would provide the service of escorting the guest back to their room, but……

‘He is disgustingly heavy.’

Lien, who had been supporting Calix, staggered violently and muttered in deep dissatisfaction. It was only natural. Unlike himself, whose height seemed to have stopped growing midway, the man was exceptionally tall and their physical statures were worlds apart. There was no way it would be a walk in the park for a drunk youth to support such a massive man. Furthermore, the moment he felt the exhaustion hitting him, the stairs reflecting in his vision looked impossibly high. There is absolutely no way I can climb up there……!

The only method he could devise at that moment was to wake up one of the gluttonous knights who had already retired to bed and tell them to drag their leader away. However, men who had practically crawled up the stairs on all fours could never be of any assistance. He couldn’t call his father out in the middle of the night either, and lacking the confidence to lug the man all the way to the third floor by himself, Lien ultimately dumped Calix onto his own bed.

Naturally, he had zero intention of sharing the same bed. He had fully intended to roughly unfold a tavern chair and sleep downstairs. However……

‘Are you even actually drunk?’

He was firmly caught by a hand that still seemed to possess consciousness, unlike its master.

Though it appeared to be a slumbering reflex, the man shot out his hand and forcefully dragged Lien by the waist, causing him to tumble straight back onto the bed. And the moment the plush mattress met his back…… a warm body temperature clung to him instead of a blanket. By that point, sleep began to pour down heavily and everything became an absolute chore.

‘Whatever. I’m sleeping.’

Thus, Lien had drifted off, resulting in the exact scenario materialized this morning. It could truly be dubbed a catastrophe birthed entirely by sheer laziness.

“Damn it, damn it……”

Now that the memories had returned, he couldn’t afford to remain like this any longer. He needed to escape the spot before the man woke up. He wanted absolutely no part in any useless misunderstandings.

Lien attempted to move with extreme caution so as not to rouse him, but Calix’s arm wrapped around his waist was clamped so securely that it refused to be nudged. He truly couldn’t comprehend why this guy was clinging to a complete stranger of a man like this.

Just then, as if the squirming movements were disturbing his slumber, Calix’s handsome brow furrowed. A faint groan slipped past his lips, and the moment Lien’s body was forcefully hauled toward the inner side of the bed, he began to struggle. At that, as if something was bothersome even in his sleep, the man tightened his grip, pulling Lien flush against him and trapping him entirely within his embrace.

“Ugh.”

Save me. He felt like a beast caught in a literal snare. As he groaned, entirely immobilized, a low, rumbling chuckle vibrated right above his head.

Exactly since when had he been awake? The silent battle he had fought assuming the man was dead asleep turned entirely futile. He snapped his neck back to look upward, only for his breath to hitch in his throat.

As if the slumber hadn’t completely cleared, Calix’s dark eyelashes quivered repeatedly before his eyelids slowly lifted after several attempts. The deep blue eyes concealed beneath slowly unveiled themselves like stars rising in the night sky, blinking unhurriedly as if trying to bring the world into focus. The moment he registered Lien’s face cradled in his embrace, a radiant smile bloomed across his face.

Thump. He felt as though he could physically hear his heart dropping.

However, the emotion that had involuntarily fluttered for a fleeting second plummeted straight into an absolute abyss at the words that followed.

“Good morning. Princess.”

Damn it.

“…I am not the princess.”

“But you are the princess.”

Though it was a sweet, melting voice capable of thoroughly enchanting a person, Lien had zero intention of falling for it. He could never allow himself to be helplessly toyed with like in the past. Pushing against the man’s chest, Lien spoke in a freezing cold voice.

“First of all, please unhand me.”

“Ah……”

Did he possess an absolute octopus identity? Only then realizing that his limbs were tightly coiled around the youth, Calix’s cheeks instantly flushed a vibrant scarlet. Becoming a free man in a flash that rendered all his prior stealth entirely meaningless, Lien bolted upright from the bed. Calix stared wistfully at his own empty arms, opening and closing his hands as if mourning the instant disappearance of the warmth within his embrace.

‘Unbelievable.’

If you wear that exact expression, it makes it look as though you truly harbored deep affection for me, doesn’t it? Entirely oblivious to Lien’s inner thoughts, Calix cast a subtle glance at the empty space beside him and spoke in an insinuating voice.

“Aren’t you tired? Sleep a little longer.”