Ordinary Person A

#28

Fortunately, among the clothes Moon Jin-hyuk brought, there were comfortable clothes suitable as pajamas, so Ho-woo didn’t have to borrow Oh-yul’s pajama top. However, the fact that they had to sleep in the same bed remained unchanged.

Moreover, recalling what happened this morning, a sigh escaped involuntarily.

Ah… Ah… Lee Ho-woo, go die. Just go and die. Why couldn’t you reject him? You indecisive fool!

How could you say that you can’t date him because he’s an Esper when faced with that expression and voice?

Ho-woo’s various selves popped up above the surface and disappeared.

“Does your head hurt?”

Ho-woo, who had been agonizing while tugging at his hair, returned from his sudden reverie and weakly replied, “No, it’s not,” to Oh-yul, who wore a worried expression.

“If anything hurts, tell me right away.”

“Yes…”

Oh-yul’s expression became dubious at Ho-woo’s weak response. He strode over, placed his large hand on Ho-woo’s forehead to check for fever, and only then did his expression soften.

“Oh, and Ho-woo. Do you remember Esper Moon Jin-hyuk?”

Since he was an unforgettable presence, Ho-woo nodded lightly. Oh-yul sat on the edge of the bed, gently stroking Ho-woo’s round back of the head with one hand. As his large-jointed hand ruffled through the soft hair, it felt ticklish and strange.

Should I push him away or not? After briefly considering, Ho-woo docilely accepted the touch. He knew it was an action that kept giving him hope, but he decided not to be harsh right now because the dark blue eyes looking down at him sparkled with infinitely deep and pure affection.

“He said he wants to apologize.”

“Apologize?”

It seemed he had scolded him thoroughly after dragging him away this morning. Ho-woo hadn’t expected the word “apology” to come up at all.

Ho-woo glanced up at Oh-yul. His face, handsome enough to draw admiration, showed no humiliation even when looked up at from below. He recalled that this handsome man in front of him was the superior of that young Esper. He was in a position where he could easily pressure him to apologize.

Although Ho-woo hadn’t seen much of Moon Jin-hyuk, people of that type often had strong pride and insisted they had done nothing wrong.

But an apology?

“If it makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to accept it.”

Since forgiveness was entirely Ho-woo’s choice, Oh-yul didn’t rush Ho-woo’s decision. He simply stayed by Ho-woo’s side, looking down at him with calm eyes until Ho-woo made a decision.

If Ho-woo had firmly rejected Oh-yul, they wouldn’t be in a position to face each other, but Ho-woo failed to push him away today. This meant he might have to face Moon Jin-hyuk several more times in the future.

Anyway, as long as there was the connection of Oh-yul, living uncomfortably with each other was not something he wanted.

“Hmm… Mr. Moon Jin-hyuk. How old is he?”

“He just turned twenty this year.”

Ah…

Aah…

He’s so young.

Ho-woo let out a deep sigh. He really did look young and fresh-faced, and his actual age was young too. Ho-woo had hoped he was at least a bit older so he could dismiss him, but just twenty?

“…When should I see him?”

“You can see him in my office tomorrow. He has to submit an incident report for missing an emergency dispatch anyway.”

…An incident report. He thought Oh-yul would cover for him, but he got scolded and had to write a report too.

Ho-woo hoped that Moon Jin-hyuk, who seemed to lack any sense of tact, would bring at least a little when he came to apologize. That way, he could at least pretend to forgive him when they met in the office.

Ho-woo suddenly recalled the view of Oh-yul’s office. Although he couldn’t remember exactly how things were placed, there was one unforgettable thing in his office.

“Your office, Mr. Yul. I think the walls need repair.”

The large hand that had been caressing his head suddenly stopped at Ho-woo’s unexpected words.

“The walls are all damaged, aren’t they?”

Where does all the tax money go if not for things like this?

Ho-woo grumbled, wondering where all the tax money he paid had gone. Oh-yul just smiled silently like a picture in response to his complaint.

“There were also red stains on the white walls. You should repaint all of that too.”

When mentioning the red stains, Ho-woo reflexively glanced at Oh-yul’s expression. The marks on the wall looked like blood stains to anyone who saw them. The color, slightly dark red, was extremely unsettling.

Surely Mr. Yul wouldn’t… hurt someone to the point of bleeding… No way.

Ho-woo chuckled, recalling Oh-yul’s desperate expression as he clung to him earnestly. Although he had instantly crushed Han Seong-won’s leg, that was training done in the training grounds, and according to Yu Hee-eun, there was also a healing Esper present.

“But… what was that stain?”

“It was indeed blood.”

“…!”

Ho-woo’s hope that it might have been at least tteokbokki sauce shattered into pieces, scattering with the numerous exclamation marks that appeared above his head.

“Another Esper hit their head against the wall and got a nosebleed. It seems to have stained then. Even when we tried to clean it, it didn’t come off well, perhaps because it’s a white wall.”

“…Is there a reason to hit your head against that wall?”

It wasn’t even the wall next to the door, but the right wall visible when you open the door and enter. And it was in the center of the wall, quite far from the door. For what reason would someone hit their head so hard as to cause a nosebleed? Ho-woo sat up abruptly with wide eyes.

“It was a minor dispute over differences in opinion about mission execution. As they pushed each other, emotions got a bit heated.”

His dark blue eyes, which had momentarily become distant as if recalling that time, drew a gentle curve.

“…It seems it got quite intense.”

“Well, with overflowing powers, it’s something that happens occasionally.”

Oh-yul shrugged lightly as if it was no big deal. His nonchalant attitude, saying they could request repairs during the upcoming maintenance period, suggested this was quite a familiar occurrence for him.

“More importantly, are you okay?”

“With what?”

Oh-yul smiled silently, his eyes curving like a fox’s. His dark blue eyes, full of mischief, disappeared under his long eyelashes and when they reappeared, there was a hint of self-deprecation mixed in.

“Sleeping in the same bed with me, I mean.”

“―!”

Ho-woo sprang up like a coiled spring. Come to think of it, this was Oh-yul’s room, and the bed he had been sprawled on was Oh-yul’s bed. And Oh-yul had just earnestly poured out how special Ho-woo was to him today. Ho-woo’s nape turned red.

“Uh… I’m sorry. I was thoughtless.”

He was about to get up quietly to sleep on the sofa, trying to leave the bed, but a large hand reached out and gently pushed him back down onto the bed, gripping his shoulder without hurting him.

“You’ll catch a cold.”

“The heating here is good. And it’s almost summer…”

“It gets cold in the early morning, so use the bed.”

Oh-yul, who firmly stopped Ho-woo, took his own pillow and settled on the sofa. Then he brought his Esper uniform coat that reached his knees and covered himself with it. Ho-woo fidgeted, shifting his hips uncomfortably at the original room owner’s humble sleeping arrangement.

“I should…”

“They say the one who likes more always loses.”

It was his characteristically stiff tone, but mixed with a ticklish affection that made one’s heart flutter.

“So I’m bound to always lose.”

Click-

Although there was no one nearby, the sound of a switch being pressed was heard. Simultaneously, deep darkness instantly settled in the room. Even at Oh-yul’s soft, whisper-like “good night,” Ho-woo couldn’t fall asleep easily.

A wind was stirring in the sea within his chest. Feeling both excited and filled with anxiety, he let out a long, trembling sigh.

***

“I’m sorry!”

Ho-woo had to calm his dazed ears for a moment at Jin-hyuk’s loud voice and his waist bending precisely at a 90-degree angle with discipline.

Gone was his initial sneering attitude; the young man before him was thoroughly cowed. His eyes, mixed with a light green, rolled anxiously here and there, glancing at Oh-yul’s expression, as if they might make a clattering sound.

“I acted disrespectfully beyond my place!”

It was an apology that directly quoted his own words telling Ho-woo to know his place. He was apologizing to Ho-woo but watching Oh-yul’s reactions. Even an idiot couldn’t miss it.

I knew this would happen.

Ho-woo let out a small sigh. He hadn’t expected to receive a sincere apology in the first place, so he didn’t even have expectations. Moon Jin-hyuk kept his waist bent at a right angle, seemingly intending to stay bowed until Ho-woo said it was okay. As a physically robust Esper, he could probably keep his waist bent all day without issue, but Ho-woo didn’t want to watch this apology show for that long.

“Thank you for apologizing.”

Although he wasn’t thankful, Moon Jin-hyuk’s expression brightened somewhat when Ho-woo gave this perfunctory response. I guess what matters is that some form of apology came out of the mouth that had only spewed nasty words before. Having accepted the apology, Ho-woo’s expression became peculiar, feeling as if they had sorted out a hierarchy like animals.

The man who had created this situation was sitting with his hip perched on the edge of the desk, observing them.

His long coat, which should have been neatly closed in front, was disheveled, revealing the inside. As if the light coming through the window was bothersome, Oh-yul’s eyes, slightly weary, were slightly furrowed.