It Had to Be You

“Today?”

Jeongha, who had been walking leisurely after class while on the phone, stopped in his tracks.
It was Haeyoon on the other end.

– If you don’t have time today, tomorrow is fine too.

“No, I have time today. Should I come over now?”

He answered without a moment’s hesitation, and Seongtae, walking beside him, shouted “Hey!” with a baffled expression.
And for good reason—they were on their way to meet up with friends for drinks.

But Jeongha just shushed him, silencing Seongtae, and focused back on the call.
“Yeah. I will. What should I bring? Want me to get popcorn?”

“Hey, Baek Jeongh… Mmph!”

Seongtae, trying to interrupt again, had his mouth clamped shut by Jeongha’s hand.
As Seongtae recoiled in shock, Jeongha gave him a look as if he was the one being rude, but continued the call, his voice as gentle as ever.
“Got it. Don’t go to any trouble getting things ready. If you need anything, I can just buy it on my way over.”

Watching from the side, Seongtae felt a chill run up his arms.
Having been friends with Baek Jeongha for several years, he’d never once heard a voice like this from him.
It was so unfamiliar it was almost unsettling.
He didn’t know Baek Jeongha was even capable of speaking so kindly and softly.
“What’s up with you?”

As soon as the call ended, Seongtae blocked Jeongha’s path and asked.
“That was that person from before, wasn’t it.”

He had a hunch.
It was that person from the previous call.
The one Baek Jeongha had smiled at with an expression he’d never seen before while leaving a drinking session.
He’d felt the same sense of dissonance then, and he recognized it immediately.
There was no way there were multiple people capable of drawing such expressions and voices from Baek Jeongha.
“I’m going ahead.”

Jeongha simply ignored the interrogation and turned away.
A surprised Seongtae quickly grabbed him.
“Hey, hey, where are you going! We were on our way to meet the others!”
“Something urgent came up, so I can’t make it. Make my excuses to them.”

Jeongha spoke with an attitude that suggested he couldn’t care less whether Seongtae made excuses or not.
The person who had been speaking so gently moments ago had already vanished.
“You’re really going like this?”
“That’s enough. Let’s grab a drink just the two of us next time. I’m going.”

Standing there, Seongtae watched Baek Jeongha’s back quickly recede, feeling bewildered.
From the talk about buying popcorn and such, it didn’t seem like a real emergency, yet Jeongha seemed inexplicably rushed.
“Could he… be dating…?”

Seongtae muttered to himself, then shook his head at the absurdity of his own thought.
It wasn’t just men and women; regardless of dynamic, countless people had thrown themselves at Baek Jeongha.
Among them were plenty who were so popular others would line up just for a glance, but as far as Seongtae knew, not a single person had successfully “dated” Baek Jeongha.
“There’s no way Baek Jeongha would….”

Shaking off the ridiculous notion, Seongtae continued on his way alone.
They were supposed to be friends, but Baek Jeongha was truly an enigma.

* * * *

“I’ll get us something to drink. Just sit down for a minute.”

Following Haeyoon’s guidance, Jeongha obediently sat on the living room sofa.
Even though he’d arrived a while ago and they’d had dinner together, he still couldn’t relax.
It wasn’t the house that was the problem.
It was who he was in this house with.
Haeyoon’s house resembled Seo Haeyoon himself—that was Jeongha’s first impression.
It wasn’t particularly flashy, but the interior used warm colors and felt cohesive.
Some might say that didn’t suit Seo Haeyoon, but Jeongha knew this temperature suited Haeyoon perfectly.

Taking a deep breath, he caught the faint scent of paint.
Though he had a separate studio, Haeyoon sometimes did light work at home.
This was unfortunate for Jeongha.
Baek Jeongha, not very familiar with the smell of paint, felt as if he was inhaling Seo Haeyoon’s pheromones filling the house.
“We’ve got popcorn and cola, feels just like a movie theater.”

Haeyoon, who had brought the cola, sat down beside Jeongha and spoke.
“Yeah, it does.”

Jeongha tried to appear calm, carefully looking around the living room he hadn’t been able to properly see since arriving, as they’d eaten right away.
Unlike the overall atmosphere decorated with mostly small, intricate items, the TV on the living room wall was enormous.
Seeing Jeongha’s gaze land on the TV, Haeyoon spoke, feeling a bit embarrassed.
“I often get inspiration from the colors or mise-en-scène of movies….”

Jeongha nodded.
Honestly, those things weren’t very important to him right now.
All of his senses were focused on how close they were sitting.
Had Baek Jeongha ever felt so self-conscious around someone, let alone cared about them this much?
At least within his memory, he hadn’t.
His throat felt dry, afraid that if he let his guard down even a little, he’d make a fool of himself.
He wasn’t some inexperienced youth about to have his first experience.
Besides, Baek Jeongha wasn’t here to sleep with Seo Haeyoon tonight.
Haeyoon was a Beta, with no means to stimulate him.
So what was this thrilling sensation Baek Jeongha was feeling?
What exactly was making him so tense?

His mind was a whirlwind, and on top of that, he felt a sense of injustice.
Even though they were in a space together as partners—by contract or otherwise—Haeyoon seemed completely unbothered.
At this rate, he’d just be a good junior to him.

Truth be told, Haeyoon was also awkward and flustered in this situation, his every action stiff.
He had secretly fanned himself in the kitchen when getting the cola, letting out a sigh.
But Baek Jeongha, too tense to observe Haeyoon as usual, couldn’t know this.
No matter how much he thought, he couldn’t figure it out, so Jeongha just kept drinking cola.
It was absurd that despite this discomfort, the thought of leaving this place was the furthest thing from his mind.
“Well, then… shall we start the movie?”

Jeongha said.
It seemed better to have something to focus on.
Fortunately, Haeyoon nodded without a word and started the movie.
“It might be a bit slow… but if it’s too boring, feel free to say so. I’ve already seen it, so we can pick something else.”
“Don’t worry. That won’t happen.”

Jeongha answered confidently.
There was no way a movie Seo Haeyoon wanted to show him would be boring.
What Jeongha wanted to see wasn’t the movie itself, but the “Seo Haeyoon” that the movie revealed, so any content would surely be interesting.

Haeyoon turned off the living room lights.
In the dark space, only the light from the screen illuminated their faces.
Soon, the movie began.

* * * *

The movie was quite quiet.
It wasn’t the atmosphere one would easily guess from the premise—a survival story of a character stranded alone in space.
On the large screen, an endless universe stretched out, and the protagonist floated through infinite space like a shattered fragment, feeling despair.
As Jeongha gauged this directionless, overwhelming solitude, Haeyoon spoke.
“When I broke up with Oh Jaeyeol….”

It was a strange thing.
Jeongha was not usually one to easily empathize with others’ feelings.
Not because he couldn’t notice, but because he was fundamentally indifferent to others.
Yet in this moment, hearing just Haeyoon’s first words, Jeongha knew what feelings he had experienced watching this movie.
It wasn’t just noticing; he was so choked up by those feelings that he couldn’t speak.
Haeyoon continued calmly.
“I happened to watch this movie, and it felt exactly… like it was expressing what I felt at that time.”
“…….”
“I’ve never been to space… but still, it felt like I was the only one abandoned in this vast universe….”

Jeongha slowly turned his head to look at Haeyoon.
Haeyoon wasn’t a castaway now.
He might have floundered in those feelings once, but in the end, he had found his direction again.
Even if he hadn’t met Jeongha, he was someone who would have overcome it on his own.
So there was no need to pity him now.
He wasn’t someone someone like Baek Jeongha, who had never been hurt by any emotion, could dare to pity.
Therefore, Jeongha had no intention of pitying Seo Haeyoon or feeling compassion for him.

“Haeyoon.”

Jeongha called his name without realizing it.
Right now, he didn’t want to address him with words like ‘hyung’ or ‘you.’
He wanted to let the name that had now become singularly special to him roll off his tongue.
And responding to Jeongha’s call, Haeyoon looked at him.
The moment their eyes met, sparkling as if holding the light of stars, Jeongha felt an impact like colliding with a massive planet.
Amidst the scattering fragments of light, Seo Haeyoon, who was nothing short of a disaster for Baek Jeongha, spoke.
“Back then, I thought the protagonist who never gave up was amazing… I didn’t think I could ever do that….”
“…….”
“But I didn’t give up, I somehow endured, and then I met you, like a rescue ship.”

Haeyoon remembered what Woojin had said to him recently.
_’I don’t know the reason, but lately, you… you don’t look sick or struggling. Sometimes you even look a little happy, and I really like that.’*
Woojin could only guess, but Haeyoon knew exactly why he had been able to recover so quickly.
Baek Jeongha.
Because of the man before him.
The man he’d thought was cold, callous, indifferent, and cruel had become the gravity that pulled Haeyoon, adrift in an endless universe.