Sweet Shot

#27

Ha-min hurriedly made excuses. But it was true. He was a busy person. He couldn’t waste his time.

After ending the confirmation call from his mother, Ha-min unconsciously glanced at Tae-rim. Sensing the gaze, Tae-rim spoke as if he had been waiting.

“Just an acquaintance?”

It sounded like laughter, but the final syllable was twisted. He had tried to whisper as much as possible, but it seemed Tae-rim had heard. Ha-min scratched his face.

“No, it’s…”

“Ha-min, who kisses and rubs himself against just an acquaintance.”

Ha-min’s lips clamped shut. Every time Tae-rim casually uttered such vulgar words, the back of Ha-min’s neck grew hot. At the lewd address, Ha-min habitually pressed his fingertips hard with his nails. Then, suddenly, an unexpected question came.

“Did you delete those friends’ contacts?”

“Huh?”

Ha-min’s eyes widened at the abrupt question. The corners of his eyes, flushed with embarrassment, were slightly red. Tae-rim, noticing this from the corner of his eye, smirked.

“I told you not to be friends with them anymore.”

“…Ah.”

Only then did Ha-min understand what Tae-rim meant. Guilt washed over Ha-min as Tae-rim mentioned the imaginary friends. It was a lie… There were no such friends doing those ridiculous things. He didn’t have any friends at all.

Ha-min was amazed at how easily he had lied. With unnecessary guilt, Ha-min averted his gaze and spoke in a crawling voice.

“…I deleted them.”

“High school friends?”

“Uh… yeah, that’s right…”

“All-boys school?”

“Huh? …Yeah.”

Tae-rim was asking unnecessary questions. Ha-min blinked in confusion but answered obediently.

“You said you’ve never dated a girl…”

The conversation was heading in a strange direction. Ha-min mumbled softly in an awkward voice.

“…Yeah.”

“…If you’ve never dated, it could happen.”

Soon after, the car entered the alley leading to the house. Even without a subject, Ha-min could understand what Tae-rim meant. His chest area stung. Tae-rim was dismissing the reason for Ha-min’s arousal as simply because he had never been with a woman.

Hyung really doesn’t know anything. It’s not that Ha-min wanted him to understand, but… Ha-min quietly looked out the window. The shabby neighborhood buildings came into view. Seeing the dilapidated buildings, Ha-min felt they were just like himself. Shabby and worn out, incompatible with Tae-rim – that appearance was just like himself.

**

The car that had arrived in front of the house came to a smooth stop. His house was nothing more than an old villa. It had been decent ten years ago, but time had inevitably made it shabby. It was a completely different exterior from the house where Tae-in and Tae-rim lived.

He wasn’t ashamed to show it, but he wasn’t proud either. It always seemed to tell him that he and Tae-rim were different. The same would have been true for the environment they grew up in, and for his miserable and dark school days. Such things always followed at his heels. Contempt and mockery, violence and blame. He didn’t want Tae-rim to know that side of him. How foolish and stupid he would look…

He already looked foolish enough for engaging physically with Tae-rim based on an absurd lie. He could clearly imagine how stupid he must look. Even if Tae-rim had gone along with it, Ha-min had initiated it, so Tae-rim had plenty of room for excuses. As Tae-rim had said, men could do anything when aroused. It was common for the body and heart to act separately.

“Thank you, hyung.”

Ha-min politely thanked Tae-rim, who had gotten out of the car after him. He even bowed his head deeply, causing Tae-rim’s lips to curve up gently. Tae-rim, who had followed Ha-min out of the driver’s seat, nodded his head greatly as if imitating a kind person.

“It’s nothing, really.”

Tae-rim responded kindly.

“Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve been to this neighborhood.”

Ha-min stretched out an unnecessary question. In any case, it was a place full of memories for him. It was the neighborhood where he could meet Tae-rim.

“Indeed.”

Although Tae-rim sounded uninterested, he showed consideration by trying his best to match Ha-min’s mood. Ha-min smiled awkwardly and spoke clumsily.

“You should go now, hyung.”

“You go in first. Give my regards to your mother.”

Tae-rim, with his arm resting on the car roof, gave a brief farewell to Ha-min standing across from him.

“Hyung, I’ll go in after I see you leave…”

Ha-min urged, standing in place. It was ingrained kindness. Tae-rim shook his head slightly.

“Ha-min first. I’ll go after that.”

“…Okay. Thanks for dropping me off.”

Ha-min nodded slightly. Tae-rim’s kindness was also just a common habit. But Ha-min, fiddling with the hem of his clothes, stopped as he was about to turn around. Words that he had been debating whether to say for the past few minutes kept lingering on Ha-min’s lips. He fidgeted uncomfortably at the rough words circling his mind.

Tae-rim raised an eyebrow at Ha-min suddenly stopping. It was a silent signal asking why. Ha-min hesitated for quite a while, chewing on his lips before carefully opening his mouth.

“Um…”

“…”

“I’m sorry, hyung.”

Tae-rim’s brow furrowed at the sudden apology.

“I feel like I encouraged you to do such things.”

“…”

“You might have felt bad… Like you said, it can happen when you’re h-horny, but…”

Ha-min struggled greatly, beating around the bush using Tae-rim’s language. Cold sweat trickled down.

“Anyway… I won’t do it again.”

“…”

“Like you said, I… haven’t been with a woman… I don’t know much about these things… So that must be why I did it.”

Ha-min couldn’t raise his head. An unnecessary sense of wretchedness crept into him. He couldn’t blame anyone. It was his own mistake, so he had to bear this wretchedness. But he couldn’t foolishly repeat it. Not with such an absurd false excuse.

There was a sound of tapping on the car roof. Tae-rim’s fingers moved rhythmically. His expressionless face was slightly tilted at an angle. Ha-min, flustered by Tae-rim’s unfamiliar atmosphere, continued speaking.

“I wanted to say this… Sorry for taking your time, I-I’ll really go now… Take care, hyung…”

“Then.”

Suddenly, Tae-rim cut in. He abruptly cut off Ha-min’s anxious and hurried words. He stared at Ha-min with a face devoid of its kind expression. The monotonous tapping stopped. As the unfriendly and crooked gaze landed on him, a flat voice was heard.

“Who are you going to do it with now?”

Ha-min froze with his mouth open. What, what did he mean? Unable to grasp the intention in his head, his lips just trembled. Tae-rim, who had said he was leaving, stood in place with no intention of departing.

“Ah…”

Unable to even utter incoherent words, only a groan escaped. At that moment, the sensor light of the villa turned on. Someone’s footsteps approached, pat-pat.

“Son, are you here?”

Sensing the commotion outside the quiet villa, Ha-min’s mother came down towards the entrance. Ha-min, at a loss for words, frantically turned his head. It was partly because he didn’t want to show Tae-rim to his mother, and partly because of Tae-rim still standing there with no intention of leaving.

“Oh, mom.”

“If you’re here, come in. Why are you outside… Oh my, who is this?”

Ha-min’s mother, wearing a light house dress, noticed Tae-rim and widened her eyes. An extremely delighted expression spread across her face.

“Oh my, could this be Tae-rim?”

“Hello, it’s been a while, ma’am.”

A smile immediately appeared on Tae-rim’s previously expressionless face. The gentle upward curve of his lips seemed to happen in extreme slow motion to Ha-min’s eyes. The sudden change in his face was newly disconcerting.

“So it was Tae-rim who brought Ha-min home? My, how you’ve grown up just the same! Look how tall you are. Oh, I could recognize you even from a distance.”

Mom clapped her hands, looking quite pleased. There was no way she wouldn’t recognize Tae-rim, who had been extremely popular among the neighborhood aunties. Moreover, she was well aware of how young Ha-min used to follow Tae-rim around, always calling him “hyung, hyung.” Mother approached Tae-rim and grabbed his hand, expressing her delight. Although it could have seemed rude, Tae-rim just smiled gently and held her hand.

“Have you been well all this time? I only heard that you had gone abroad. How is it that your face has become even more handsome?”

“You seem to have grown younger, ma’am.”

“Oh, you.”

Mother’s face lit up at Tae-rim’s smooth response. Then she suddenly scolded Ha-min.

“Ha-min, why are you just standing there with Tae-rim like this? You should have brought him in right away.”

“Huh? No…”

“Since you’re here, stay for a meal. The housekeeper made plenty.”

Mother pulled Tae-rim’s hand, forcefully dragging him. Ha-min, flustered by his mother’s actions, tried to stop her.

“Uh, mom. Hyung is busy now…”

“Shall I?”

The soft voice that cut off Ha-min’s attempt to intervene was Tae-rim’s. Tae-rim smiled brightly as he was pulled along by Ha-min’s mother without protest. More precisely, he smiled at Ha-min. Ha-min’s body froze at that sight. Ha-min’s mother, delighted by the ready acceptance, chatted away as she led Tae-rim up the stairs. Tae-rim’s height and build made the old villa’s ceiling look very low. Ha-min sighed deeply as he watched the two figures ascending the stairs amicably.

“…”

He felt grateful that Tae-rim casually called his mother “ma’am” and readily accepted what could have been seen as a rude invitation, but on the other hand, he felt heavy inside. It was because of the unexpected turn of events.