Want to Go on a Date With Me?

After sending it, he realized it was a rather suspicious message.
Sitting on a playground swing in the late, empty dawn and asking someone if they were awake made him laugh at himself.
Just as he was about to mock himself, his phone suddenly rang loudly.

“Ba, Baek Jeongha…?”
So surprised, he blurted out the name the moment he answered.
A faint, chuckling sound came from the other side of the phone.

– Yes, it’s Baek Jeongha.

“Ah, right… you’re awake?”

– I’m awake.

“Ah…”

Even though he was the one who contacted first, Haeyoon’s mind went blank, and he just sat there with his mouth open.
He hadn’t expected a call at this hour at all.

Baek Jeongha’s voice came from the other side of the phone.
– I thought you’d just forgotten.

“Ah…”
– Are you just going to keep saying ‘Ah…’?

“Ah…! S-sorry. I was just so surprised…”
– You contacted me first; why are you surprised?

“You’re right…”

Haeyoon kept running his hands through his hair.
Just moments ago, he was definitely cold, but now he was breaking out in a cold sweat.
Honestly, sending the message had been a bit impulsive too, and now he was so surprised his head was spinning.

– Did you drink?

“…Yes.”
– Should I wait a bit until you’re more comfortable talking?

It was a strange feeling.
Baek Jeongha had always felt cool—no, cold—to Seo Haeyoon.
When he was with Ahn Seonwoo, and even when they met recently, it was the same.
Somehow, a person of low temperature, unfeeling.
That was the image of Baek Jeongha that Seo Haeyoon felt.

But right now, the voice of Baek Jeongha asking, ‘Should I wait a bit?’ was strangely warm.
Warm enough that he wanted to share that body heat.

“Baek Jeongha-ssi.”
– Yes.

Drawn by that warmth, Haeyoon opened his mouth as if entranced.

“Is this really… going to be fun?”
– ……
“Maybe if I get in one hit, even if it’s meaningless… will I feel a bit lighter?”
Plop. A small drop of water spread on the playground floor.
He didn’t particularly feel like crying, but in an instant, tears streamed down his cheeks and fell to the ground.
Maybe he actually wanted to cry back there.
The moment he saw Oh Jaeyeol and Ahn Seonwoo sitting there affectionately arm in arm, did he want to burst into tears?

Haeyoon continued.
“If I vent it like that… will it hurt a little less?”

The words ‘enduring well’ and ‘not being in pain’ are not the same.
Even while making a habitually expressionless face, telling himself to just live his life from here on out, that they were people with no more meaning or value to him, his inner self could be screaming in pain as if his heart were torn into a thousand pieces.
Haeyoon was just someone who endured pain a little better than others, not someone who didn’t know pain.

– I don’t know.

And in the face of the pain Haeyoon was vomiting out, Baek Jeongha spoke.
– That’s something you can’t know. It might be satisfying, it might feel empty, it might help you overcome it faster, but you might also regret it.

“……”
– One thing is certain: you’ll know once you try it.

Without wiping his wet cheek, Haeyoon repeated Jeongha’s words in his mind.
– If you don’t try it, you’ll just keep wondering. ‘If I had tried something back then, would it have hurt less? Would I have overcome it faster? Would I have felt even a little bit of satisfaction?’

“If I don’t try it…”
– But what if you try something? Then you’ll know. Whether it was good or bad.

That was right.
Here, Haeyoon could choose the tranquility of ignorance.
As he had always done when facing hardships in life, this time too, he could endure until the wound healed and reclaim his daily life along with the fading memory.

– So, what will you do?

But Haeyoon thought. Is that really okay? Is a daily life reclaimed by just enduring, being wronged over and over without trying anything, truly satisfying?

– Do you want to go on a date with me?

Like the temptation of a serpent, Jeongha’s voice whispered in his ear.
Haeyoon decided to gladly take a bite of this small act of deviation.

* * * *

“Damn it…”
Seonwoo spat out a curse, almost throwing his phone down before setting it aside.
He was genuinely irritated to the point of going mad.
The wedding date was approaching, but he never thought something like wedding invitations would make him this displeased.

Receiving sincere congratulations from friends while handing out invitations should be the most basic thing, but somehow, all these so-called friends were getting on his nerves.
Some were openly showing their disapproval, others were making lame excuses like being busy and asking to just send them online.

Given the situation, even when he did meet someone to hand over an invitation and receive congratulations, it never felt quite satisfying.
It was exhausting to suspect that they were only saying that on the surface while thinking something else inside.

It would be a lie to say he hadn’t expected it at all.
Most of Seonwoo’s friends were also Haeyoon’s friends, so it was awkward for them to wholeheartedly congratulate him.
Seonwoo had naturally braced himself for that much.

But shouldn’t they at least not show it on the surface, no matter what they think inside?
Even his college friends, not just high school friends, were acting that way, which was just too much.

What was even more irritating was that Oh Jaeyeol, who was clearly in a similar position, didn’t seem to care about such issues at all.
Jaeyeol’s nonchalant attitude, as if to say such reactions were natural, made Seonwoo feel like he was the only one being petty, which angered him.
He wanted to vent his anger openly, but he couldn’t.
Just the day before yesterday, he had heard comments like, ‘I know preparing for the wedding is tough, but you seem too irritable lately.’
This wasn’t a problem Jaeyeol could solve, and getting angrier here would only look like picking a fight.
He didn’t want to have a serious argument right before the wedding.

“……”
Then, Seonwoo suddenly stared intently at the phone he had tossed aside.
Even before his mind could consciously register it, the messages he had exchanged with Baek Jeongha recently surfaced in his mind.

Since that day, Seonwoo often found himself thinking of Jeongha.
“Why did you reply to my contact…”
You should have just kept ignoring me as usual, not making me uneasy.
While grumbling as if complaining, Seonwoo’s heart would still flutter when he recalled that day’s text.

“Would he answer if I called…”
Unknowingly clutching his phone again and muttering, Seonwoo hurriedly shook his head.
He had somehow escaped that persistent obsession with Baek Jeongha; it made no sense to go back to that now.

He was no longer the Ahn Seonwoo who clung one-sidedly to Baek Jeongha.
He had met an Alpha who loved him and was about to marry that Alpha.
Seonwoo consciously fiddled with his wedding ring, calming his heart.

Ahn Seonwoo was now moving toward the future.
For a happy future ahead, Baek Jeongha, Seo Haeyoon… the past all had to be buried.

* * * *

Jeongha and Haeyoon faced each other once again in a cafe.
It was a ‘next time’ that might not have happened at all.

Despite the special circumstances, Jeongha led the conversation with utterly ordinary greetings and small talk.
Just saying things like, ‘The days are getting quite chilly even during the day now.’

“Aren’t you going to ask why I changed my mind?”
Haeyoon was the first to steer the conversation.
He didn’t really like going around in circles with obvious talk.

“Do I have to ask?”
However, Jeongha tilted his head as if he hadn’t even considered such a thing.

“Well… not exactly, but…”
“What’s important is that your mind changed, not the reason why.”
“…That’s also true.”

Since what Jeongha said wasn’t wrong again, Haeyoon nodded meekly.
Reasons were only important to him, the one who had been agonizing; it had nothing to do with Jeongha, who was already decided.

Taking a sip of his café mocha piled high with whipped cream, Jeongha suddenly opened his mouth as if remembering something.

“But you’re not using casual speech? We said back then… we’d switch if we met again.”
Haeyoon answered with a firm expression.

“We said I’d try, not that we’d switch.”
It was casual speech.

Looking at Jeongha’s momentarily stunned expression, Haeyoon continued.
“You keep using polite speech with me. I’m your hyung.”
Only after processing that did Jeongha break into a sly, smiling squint.

Haeyoon’s gaze caught on his elegantly curved eyes.
When expressionless, he looked very mature, but when he smiled like this, he seemed younger than his age.
With a fox-like face, Baek Jeongha said,

“Then what about calling you hyung?”
“Do as you like.”
“Hyung, you’re really straightforward. Different from my first impression.”
As it wasn’t a particularly new comment, Haeyoon just nodded quietly.

“I’m on the quieter side, and I’m quite shy, so I hear that a lot.”
It wasn’t untrue; Haeyoon actually heard a lot of speculation about his personality.
It seemed because he rarely proactively revealed his character.
Most saw Haeyoon as cold, but some saw him as timid, and others, without even knowing him well, were convinced he must be rude.

“Yeah. Being quiet doesn’t mean being timid.”
Just as Jeongha was nodding along obediently, his eyes sparkled again at that moment.