Just a Contract… So Why Does It Feel Different?

Though their friendship began thanks to Jaeyeol, Haeyoon had also been friends with them for quite some time.
Though he wasn’t the most outgoing, taking time to get close, Haeyoon was deep and affectionate, always jumping in to help as if it were his own business whenever anyone was in trouble.
They had long accepted Haeyoon as a friend, and no one at this gathering saw him merely as Jaeyeol’s lover.

“Are you done?”
Faced with words he never expected to hear from his own friend, Jaeyeol also became aggressive.
Yet, Hyeon-tae didn’t back down.

“No! I’m not done, why? You’re a real piece of shit.
How did Haeyoon treat you, and you go and get f*cking married? To who?”
“Ah, this bastard’s really lost it.
You, come outside for a minute.
What the hell is wrong with you!”
Finally, another friend who couldn’t stand it anymore hurriedly began pulling Hyeon-tae outside.

“You bastard, you’ll get your comeuppance.
You can’t live like that, you hear?”
Jaeyeol stared incredulously at Hyeon-tae, who was still shouting at the top of his lungs as he was dragged out.

“Jaeyeol-ah, just let it go.
That guy drank way too much today, ugh…
Hyeon-tae thinks of Haeyoon like his own younger brother.
Try to understand a bit.”
“Forget it.
I’m leaving first.”

Despite the friend’s consoling hand on his shoulder, Jaeyeol set down his glass and stood up.
Any enjoyment from the alcohol was completely gone.
Ignoring the voices calling him, he stepped outside, where Hyeon-tae, spotting Jaeyeol, even spat on the ground with a thwip.

Anyway, it was absurd that they had only met Haeyoon through him, yet they sided with Haeyoon to this extent.
At the same time, it struck him anew just how long and deeply Seo Haeyoon had permeated his life, and vice versa, creating a peculiar feeling.
They were practically no different from a married couple, though called lovers.
So perhaps it was natural that the breakup was hitting his life like a huge wave, akin to a divorce.

But what could he do?
Whether it was a breakup or a divorce, his ties with Seo Haeyoon were already over.
They were now less than strangers.
The world Jaeyeol belonged to also had to accept that fact eventually.
This confusion would resolve itself with time.
Thinking that, Jaeyeol walked through the noisy night streets.
He decided not to recall things like how on days he got drunk, Haeyoon, who didn’t drink well, would even play the role of his designated driver.

* * * *

“You’re being quite harsh.”
Just as they were about to part ways after a late dinner, Baek Jeongha abruptly spoke.
Haeyoon looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“Me?”
“Yes.”
“What… did I do?”
“Not even letting me drive you home?”
“Ah……”

After hearing the reason, Haeyoon returned to his usual impassive expression.
The two had a late dinner.
After their contract relationship was hastily settled at the cafe, they spent considerable time learning each other’s basic preferences.
Haeyoon seemed to wonder if they needed to go this far since they weren’t planning anything grand, but Jeongha stubbornly insisted.
He argued that if they weren’t going to start at all, fine, but once they started something, he needed to do it properly and perfectly to be satisfied.

Haeyoon obediently followed his lead.
He knew Jeongha saw this as a fun game, so it wasn’t incomprehensible.
Moreover, spending time with Jeongha wasn’t unpleasant.
Surprisingly, Jeongha and Haeyoon’s preferences were almost completely different.
From the music they listened to, the movies they watched, to the books they liked, hardly anything matched.
In contrast, Haeyoon and Jaeyeol had shared many similarities.
That’s why Haeyoon once believed Jaeyeol was fate, as if that was proof their relationship would never change.

To that Haeyoon, the conversations with Jeongha felt unfamiliar.
Their preferences could almost be called polar opposites, but listening to why he liked those things wasn’t bad.
Haeyoon appropriately refuted his points, sometimes found his explanations convincing, and continued the conversation.
Jeongha did the same.
They talked without noticing the time, not realizing evening had passed.
Haeyoon learned for the first time that Jeongha was such a good talker.
Because when they met with Seonwoo, Jeongha was the type to be so quiet it made the person next to him uncomfortable.
Not just quiet, he often didn’t even respond to Seonwoo’s words.
So it was natural for Haeyoon to think Jeongha lacked basic manners.
It was a moment that drove home that Baek Jeongha had never been attracted to Ahn Seonwoo for even a single moment.

Feeling belated hunger, the two ended up having dinner together and then parting.
Jeongha, who had driven, offered to give Haeyoon a ride home.
And Haeyoon refused.
Then he suddenly grumbled that he was being harsh.
Baek Jeongha did.
Haeyoon, who couldn’t understand why this was harsh when he hadn’t even asked for a ride but rather considered it sparing him the trouble, and since they weren’t really dating, just blinked repeatedly.

“Even if it’s a contract relationship, do you need to make it so obvious at every turn that we’re not lovers?”
“But there’s no need to act like real lovers just because we’re alone either.”
It was almost a battle of spear and shield.
Haeyoon continued.

“And you… you have a habit of subtly mixing in casual speech.”
“Do you dislike that?”
“If we were close friends, it wouldn’t matter.”
“We’ll be close soon anyway, so can’t I do it in advance?”
Haeyoon shrugged.
He hadn’t brought it up because he was particularly upset now.
He just wanted to shift the topic slightly.

Haeyoon still had lingering doubts about whether being with Baek Jeongha like this was right.
But Jeongha was closing the distance at a rapid pace every time they met, which kept making him hesitate.
Originally, Haeyoon was quite shy and took a long time to get close to people.
Even if Jeongha didn’t genuinely want to become close to him, it was still an unfamiliar approach for Haeyoon.

“I’m curious about something.”
So, suddenly, Haeyoon became curious.

“Oh, what is it?”
“Why are you going this far?”
“Me?”
“Yeah.
I get that it looked fun, so you agreed to do it together.
But it seems like there might be another reason for being this proactive.”
He was excessively enthusiastic for someone just doing it because it looked fun.
Even so, it was someone else’s business.

“Hmm…”
Jeongha pursed his lips and rolled his eyes.
He didn’t look very serious.
Watching that face quietly, Haeyoon added.

“Could it be…”
“……?”
“…You had some pent-up feelings towards Oh Jaeyeol?”

Haeyoon’s pitch-black eyes scrutinized Jeongha’s expression.
If Ahn Seonwoo wasn’t the reason, the remaining one was Oh Jaeyeol.
If he had pent-up feelings while knowing Jaeyeol, his proactive attitude could be somewhat understood.

A brief silence flowed between them before Jeongha burst out laughing.
He looked genuinely baffled, as if he’d heard something ridiculous.

“What about him?”
“Huh…?”
Haeyoon answered like a dazed person to Jeongha’s immediate follow-up.
Jeongha promptly added.

“What about Oh Jaeyeol?
Why would I have pent-up feelings towards him?”
Jeongha’s face looked sincerely incredulous.
Haeyoon nodded quietly.

In Haeyoon’s life, Oh Jaeyeol had occupied an enormous and important part, but the presence of Jaeyeol as described by Jeongha was minimal, almost insignificant.
The sharp sense of incongruity from that gap churned Haeyoon’s still-wounded heart this way and that.
Chewing on this first-time unfamiliar sensation, Haeyoon opened his mouth with a dazed expression.

“Then why?”
“Hmm.”
“If it’s not Ahn Seonwoo, and not Oh Jaeyeol either.
Then why?”

Of course, humans can act without a special reason, but from Haeyoon’s perspective, Jeongha’s attitude couldn’t be fully explained by that alone.
Haeyoon didn’t easily trust people he couldn’t understand.
For acting this proactively, there had to be a more serious reason than that.

However, Jeongha seemed not to understand Haeyoon’s very question.

“I told you before.
Because it seems fun.”
“…To this enthusiastic extent?”
“Yes.”

Jeongha nodded decisively without a hint of hesitation.
It was Haeyoon who was left speechless.
Haeyoon couldn’t understand jumping into someone else’s childish revenge drama for mere fun when it had nothing to do with him.

“Can’t you understand it?”
Jeongha asked, as if he knew exactly what Haeyoon was thinking.

“Yeah.”
Haeyoon didn’t deny it, and Jeongha shrugged.

“Well, there’s nothing to be done then.
I don’t have anything more to explain.”
“…If you say so, then it must be so.”

Haeyoon accepted it without further questioning.
Whether it was the truth or not, if he seemed unwilling to say more, pressing him was pointless.
However, since there likely wasn’t any crucial reason, it might end without a special reason, just as it began.
Even if they parted like that, Haeyoon wasn’t in a position to question it, so he could only mentally prepare himself.

“Let me say this clearly one more time.”
It was at that very moment that Jeongha’s voice, which had only sounded light until now, turned serious.
His momentarily puzzled expression soon stiffened as Jeongha subtly took hold of his hand.
Holding hands wasn’t a big deal, but not knowing the intention made Haeyoon tense.
As if unaware of Haeyoon’s tension, Jeongha rubbed the back of his hand with his thumb and continued.

“As for Oh Jaeyeol, but even more so with Ahn Seonwoo.”
“……?”
“They mean absolutely nothing to me.
He holds no significance whatsoever.”