Contract Dating… or Something Real?

“But… did something happen?”
“Something?”
“Well, I thought you’d never contact me again.
Since you changed your mind, it seems like something must have happened.”

His way of conversing was quite willful.
That, at least, wasn’t very different from Haeyoon’s first impression of Baek Jeongha.

“You said you weren’t curious.”
“I said it wasn’t important, not that I wasn’t curious.
Why you changed your mind isn’t important, but I do want to know what happened.”

Despite being willful, he was strangely persuasive.
They hadn’t had many conversations yet, but he always used this kind of rhetoric.
Haeyoon thought he was the type to easily corner people in conversation and answered.

“Um… the class reunion I mentioned before… those two really came together.”
“Wow, really?”
Despite it being a rather serious situation, Jeongha reacted as if he was hearing the start of a very interesting story.
He was far from looking shocked or pitying Haeyoon.
If it was shameless, it was shameless, but Haeyoon didn’t find it particularly unpleasant.
In fact, his reaction had the effect of lightening Haeyoon’s emotions a bit.

Maybe that’s why.
A story he couldn’t easily tell other friends, fearing they’d worry, just popped out.
Haeyoon told Jeongha what had happened at the class reunion a few days ago.

“They’re both really something.”
Even after hearing the whole story of that day, that was all Jeongha’s reaction.
“Right.”
So Haeyoon could also talk about it as nonchalantly as if it were someone else’s business.
It felt quite novel to comment on his own affairs as a third party.
Then, Jeongha asked Haeyoon, who was stirring his hazelnut latte with a straw.

“Do you have any idea… why Ahn Seonwoo is going to such lengths?”
Haeyoon’s pitch-black eyes looked at Jeongha.
He had a nonchalant expression for someone who had just asked a question that could be considered unpleasant.

When Haeyoon remained silent for a while, Jeongha lightly shrugged his shoulders and added.
“No, you know.
Well, let’s say there was an incomprehensible selfish motive behind stealing Oh Jaeyeol.
But even after it’s all settled, going this far… I just don’t get it.”
After finishing his question, Jeongha’s eyes persistently scrutinized Haeyoon.

Honestly, Jeongha wasn’t the least bit curious about what Ahn Seonwoo was thinking.
He had a guess, but whether it was right or wrong didn’t matter.
He just wanted to know Seo Haeyoon a little more.
What he thought about this, how firmly he could handle it, things like that.

“Hmm…”
After a long while, Haeyoon let out a short breath.
His face didn’t show much agitation.
‘This must just be simple curiosity too,’ Haeyoon thought, defining Jeongha’s intention to that extent, and opened his mouth.

“Well, who knows.
Maybe I… unknowingly did something to deeply disappoint Ahn Seonwoo.”
“Really?
Usually, people in these situations don’t tend to blame themselves.”
Jeongha narrowed his eyes.
He didn’t much like people who habitually blamed themselves for everything.
Unaware of Jeongha’s inner thoughts, Haeyoon continued.

“Is that so…
That doesn’t mean I understand him, though.
It’s just, if I had to figure out the situation, that’s what it seems like.
Seonwoo was always by my side while I was with Jaeyeol-hyung, and for him to act like this now… I think there must have been a change in his feelings.”
“Maybe he was just waiting for an opportunity all along.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe he was waiting for the chance to deliver the most powerful blow.”
“Could be.”
Jeongha kept persistently probing Haeyoon’s reaction, but Haeyoon still just nodded calmly.

There could be many plausible assumptions.
But what meaning is there in knowing the reason now?
It’s something that can’t be fixed or undone.
If there was a will to restore the relationship, that would be one thing, but since that’s not the case, delving into the cause is just tiring.
Haeyoon was originally the type not to look back on past events.

“Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter.
I’m not even curious.”
“Oh, you have a surprisingly cold side.”
A faint smile touched Jeongha’s lips.
Haeyoon stirred his latte again and spoke.

“Because I did my best.”
Jeongha’s expression stiffened momentarily right at that moment.
Haeyoon continued.

“I did my best to the point where I don’t even have the energy to argue about what the reason was, who was wrong first.
To both of them.”
He could say it with confidence to anyone.
Haeyoon really always did his best.
To both of them, as a lover, as a friend, in every moment, to a degree where he couldn’t have done better.
And if even then he met such an end, it was something he couldn’t have helped.
If only Ahn Seonwoo hadn’t provoked and deceived him like this, Haeyoon would have truly never looked back at the two.

“I see…”
Jeongha nodded without asking further.
Perhaps not only Ahn Seonwoo but even Oh Jaeyeol hadn’t truly known Seo Haeyoon.
And precisely that point interested Jeongha even more.

“But then…”
“……?”
Then, Haeyoon opened his mouth.

“So, are we… doing something like a contract relationship?”
“Contract relationship?”
Haeyoon blurted it out as if it just occurred to him, but in truth, it was a word that had naturally surfaced while anticipating how things would unfold after contacting Jeongha.

“Pretending to be lovers and appearing in front of those two to stab them in the back… that kind of plan, right?”
However, Jeongha looked as surprised as someone who had never even considered such a thing.

“Do we have to do a contract relationship?”
“Um… Well.
Since we just need to make it look like that once, there’s no need to go so far as to pretend to be in a grand romance…”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”

Jeongha cut off Haeyoon, who was trying to cover up, thinking he might have gotten ahead of himself.
Then, smiling at the puzzled Haeyoon with that young, innocent face again, he said.

“Why not date for real, instead of a contract?”
“…What?”
“That couple is getting really married, right?
Why should we only ‘pretend’?”
“Wow…”

Haeyoon unconsciously opened his mouth in admiration.
Baek Jeongha had been exceeding expectations since the moment they met again, but this was on a whole different level.

“You really do find this fun, don’t you?”
Haeyoon muttered with a dazed expression.
And the moment Jeongha heard that, he easily predicted the next line.
It was time for the cliché repertoire about how his misfortune was just entertainment for him, and so on.

“Well, not that it’s a bad thing.”
But Seo Haeyoon also didn’t flow as predicted.
His tone suggested, ‘If you want to enjoy it, go ahead and do so.’
As Jeongha’s expectation went completely awry, Haeyoon continued.

“But I’ll pass on actually dating.”
“Why?”
Jeongha hurriedly asked back.
It was an unintentional reaction.
Haeyoon, as if not even conscious of Jeongha’s urgency, answered as usual.

“It might be fun for you, but for me, this isn’t just a fun matter.”
“Hmm…”
“I have zero intention of getting genuinely entangled with you over this.”
Jeongha couldn’t understand Haeyoon’s words.
In a situation like this, wouldn’t one usually try to genuinely seduce the other?
Frankly, Jeongha prided himself on being a much better choice than Oh Jaeyeol.

But Seo Haeyoon’s incomprehensible point wasn’t bad to Baek Jeongha.
It was novel.
He also wanted to see that face—which seemed to say that sincerity between you and me in this matter was neither important nor necessary—change.
He wondered what it would be like if this man before him, who always pretended to be indifferent but was in fact deeply wounded by love, were to fall in love with him, Baek Jeongha, instead of a bastard like Oh Jaeyeol.

“Alright.
Then let’s do a contract relationship.”
Jeongha happily proposed, feeling like he’d gotten a new toy.
To Jeongha, this matter had nothing to do with Ahn Seonwoo.
He just thought it would be more fun if he could make Seo Haeyoon genuinely like him.
That was all.

* * * *

“Why are you in contact with Haeyoon?”
Oh Jaeyeol’s sharp voice rang out over the table where they had been clinking glasses.
The atmosphere froze instantly.

It was a rare drinking session with friends.
Those gathered were friends particularly close among Jaeyeol’s college classmates, a group that met regularly even without special occasions.
Since everyone enjoyed drinking, they often got quite drunk when they met, and today, that drunkenness caused trouble.
One of the friends who was fairly drunk, Hyeon-tae, brought up Seo Haeyoon’s name, which had become almost taboo.

‘Drinking makes me think of the old days.
I miss Haeyoon too….
We should ask him to have a drink with us next time.’
Knowing the situation yet saying such a thing right to his face was a situation where Jaeyeol couldn’t help but get angry.
Jaeyeol continued in a sharp voice.

“Don’t contact him unnecessarily from now on.
And don’t even bring him up in front of me.”
However, Jaeyeol’s warning only made Hyeon-tae, who had already been suppressing his discontent, explode.

“Wow, you’re a funny bastard.
Hey, who are you to tell me to contact or not contact Haeyoon?
Frankly, Seo Haeyoon isn’t your lover anymore, is he?”
“Hey, hey, he’s drunk.
Hyeon-tae, let’s go get some fresh air.
Why are you like this?”
Another friend at the table panicked and tried to stop Hyeon-tae, but it was useless.
Hyeon-tae raised his voice even more, as if it was a good thing.

“Let me go.
Did I say anything wrong?
It’s the truth, you all think the same way deep down.
Honestly, I don’t think anyone treated you as well as Seo Haeyoon did, but fine, that’s your love life, so let’s leave it at that.
But, just because you broke up, do we have to cut ties with Haeyoon too?”
The others trying to stop Hyeon-tae fell silent for a moment.
Even if he was speaking somewhat harshly due to being drunk, Hyeon-tae’s words weren’t entirely wrong.