Chapter 136

After arriving at Gyeol’s lodging, Yo Han headed straight for the bathroom without the slightest hesitation.

Every movement he made was careful and deliberate. He opened the bathroom door and walked all the way inside without closing it. Then he lowered one knee to the floor and slowly set Gyeol down inside the shower stall.

Only after leaving Yo Han’s arms did Gyeol lift his head. Before looking at him, however, he glanced toward the open bathroom door.

The Yo Han Sung that Gyeol knew was far more calculating than he was. A man like him would never leave the door clumsily open without a reason. It was likely meant as proof that he intended to let some of their conversation carry outside and expose at least a hint of their relationship.

Unable to look up at his face, Gyeol kept his gaze lowered to the floor. His pants were damp, but Yo Han’s shirt was still covering him, sparing him from exposing the humiliating sight.

Even in summer, the bathroom tiles felt cold beneath him.

“...Thank you.”

Had the door been closed, he might have asked why Yo Han was going this far to help him. Under the circumstances, though, this seemed like the appropriate thing to say.

Yo Han lowered his head and vaguely met Gyeol’s eyes. His gaze searched Gyeol’s face with caution.

“Should I turn on the water? Warm water?”

“...Your shirt will get wet. It’s yours.”

“Don’t worry about my clothes. What matters is what you want to do.”

At his words, Gyeol briefly looked inward and realized anew just how out of his mind he had been until moments ago.

“Turn it on, please.”

The instant the words left his mouth, Yo Han took Gyeol’s bandaged hand and pulled it out of the way while reaching toward the faucet.

Water poured down with a rush.

Startled, Gyeol looked up at him. He had naturally assumed Yo Han would step back before turning on the water, but Yo Han had simply opened the faucet where he stood.

“You’re getting... wet....”

The trivial words caught in his throat in his confusion.

Ignoring him, Yo Han released Gyeol’s hand somewhere the water could not reach. Then he roughly swept back the front of his hair, already soaked through, and studied Gyeol’s face again.

“Will you be okay if I leave you alone?”

His voice was low and quiet. The sound of the water would likely keep it from carrying outside.

“...I’ll be fine.”

“Should I close the bathroom door and wait right outside?”

“I’m not a child....”

Yo Han frowned as though wrestling with something, then muttered quietly, “Fuck. They designed this system like absolute shit.”

Afterward, he added carefully, “I want to stay here until you finish washing and come out. I don’t want to leave you alone.”

“...Aren’t you being a little overprotective?”

It felt almost like the way Gyeol treated Yuli. Of course, he could not say that here.

“I’ll close the bathroom door, go out, and sit quietly on the living room sofa.”

“......”

“Is that okay?”

“......”

Gyeol’s gaze slowly dropped.

“If you don’t want me here, I’ll go back to the set—”

Before Yo Han could finish, Gyeol’s hand caught the hem of his pants.

He still did not meet Yo Han’s eyes.

“...All right, then. I’ll be in the living room.”

Yo Han gently stroked Gyeol’s wet hair and rose to his feet.

The hand that had clung to his pant leg until the moment he moved finally slipped away.

“What about clothes? Which suitcase is yours?”

“The one in the back. The brown one.”

“What do you want to wear? Can I just pick something suitable?”

“Yes.”

“And your underwear...”

“...It’s at the very top of the pocket inside the lid. Any of them are fine.”

“...You’re sure it’s okay for me to touch them?”

“Stop asking.”

“...Sorry.”

The man looked as though he had probably handled Omega underwear hundreds of times, yet he was asking permission over every little thing. Even in this situation, Gyeol found it both embarrassing and absurd.

At last, the bathroom door closed completely.

Bracing one hand against the wall, Gyeol stood and slowly removed his clothes beneath the falling water.

...And he’s the owner of the pheromones that did this to me in the first place.

Even though he was alone in the bathroom, knowing there was someone outside waiting for him made him feel strangely less hollow.

***

It took Gyeol less than thirty minutes to shower, make himself presentable, and leave the bathroom.

Since he had completed the pheromone matching so early in the order, he had effectively been given free time from this point onward.

But the matching was still in full swing, and the fact that he had left the filming location under rather unfortunate circumstances continued to weigh on him.

He thought he had gotten ready in a hurry, and yet...

“...Yo Han?”

When he entered the living room, he found Yo Han shirtless, sunk into the sofa with his eyes closed. Leaning diagonally against the backrest with his head tipped to one side, he looked remarkably defenseless.

“Are you asleep?”

Gyeol’s voice lowered on its own.

“...You could’ve covered yourself with something.”

He murmured the words quietly.

He could not know for certain, but Yo Han had unquestionably returned to the lodging later than Gyeol the previous night.

Unlike Gyeol, who had gone directly back after casting his interest vote as soon as they returned to the island, Yo Han would have completed an interview and then cast his vote after Gyeol before finally returning.

I should wake him...

Yo Han had also done all the driving in Seoul yesterday. Gyeol could not bring himself to wake him easily.

He roughly calculated how much time remained before the final contestant’s turn in the pheromone matching.

Each person spent about twenty minutes in the Pheromone Booth.

Three people per hour.

Gyeol had gone second, so perhaps two or three people had gone after him by now.

That meant there had to be at least a full hour left.

Looking down at Yo Han’s sleeping face, Gyeol made a choice unlike himself. Rather than waking him in accordance with rules and procedure, he chose to let him sleep for a while.

He did not know anymore. He wanted to set aside the painful thoughts for a little while.

Gyeol carefully spread Yo Han’s wet shirt over a dining chair to dry, then brought over the blanket he had slept beneath and draped it over Yo Han.

“......Mm.”

Seeming to feel the weight settle over him, Yo Han let out a low sound and tightened the corners of his eyes. But he merely buried his face toward the back of the sofa and did not wake.

“Haa....”

Gyeol exhaled and paced around the living room for a moment, hesitating. Eventually, he lowered himself onto the sofa, at the far end opposite Yo Han.

Drawing his knees to his chest and resting his head against the backrest, Gyeol quietly watched Yo Han’s sleeping face.

Wrapped in the white blanket, his face looked unusually gentle.

It did not suit him at all.

Why did people look so innocent when they slept? Was sleep the only moment when a living, breathing person returned to their true nature?

The quietest and most comfortable stretch of Gyeol’s entire time on the island passed peacefully.

The faint sound of Yo Han’s breathing reached his ears. As Gyeol listened, he noticed that Yo Han’s lashes occasionally fluttered in time with each breath.

They were exceptionally long and beautiful.

Maybe it was exhaustion. With his thoughts somewhat dulled, Gyeol found himself wanting to touch those lashes.

As though entranced, he seemed to lean forward. His knee pressed down on the edge of the blanket spread over the sofa, and he crawled closer.

Yo Han was near enough that Gyeol could reach him simply by lifting a hand.

If he wanted, he could touch Yo Han’s eyelashes and hair, his cheek, even his lips.

A man no one else would dare touch even with the tip of a finger. A man countless people around the world longed merely to see in person just once. Gyeol could touch him as much as he pleased, almost as though he had been given permission by Yo Han himself.

It was a kind of secret desire Gyeol had never experienced before.

“......”

His lips went dry.

His hand tightened.

“......”

But in the end, Gyeol did not reach out. He merely clenched the hand braced against the sofa into a fist. It never lifted even slightly into the air.

Get a grip.

Repeating the familiar words, Gyeol drew back.

Instead of sitting here like this, I should go to Yo Han’s lodging and bring him something to wear.

Thinking about how to wake him, Gyeol rose from the sofa.

But before he could fully step away, his center of gravity suddenly pitched backward.

“......!”

It happened in an instant.

Only afterward did he realize that his wrist had been caught.

His back struck the backrest. His body sank into the sofa.

The blanket slid down to the floor.

Gyeol squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again in alarm.

Yo Han was looking down at him, both hands braced against the backrest in a posture that seemed to cage him in.

“...Where are you going?”

His voice, low and roughened by sleep, fell beside Gyeol’s head.

“To get you something to wear.”

Did this man even realize that he was shirtless?

With nowhere safe to look, Gyeol lowered his gaze.

“You don’t need to.”

“You’re planning to walk around like that?”

“It’s scorching outside. My shirt will dry soon enough.”

“If I’d said that, you never would’ve let it slide.”

“Of course not.”

“...Move. I’ll be right back.”

Gyeol caught one of Yo Han’s forearms.

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

There could hardly be any profound reason for not waking a sleeping person. He had looked tired. That was all.

The simple answer surfaced in Gyeol’s mind, but it did not come easily to his lips.

“First, move aside.”

Assuming the position was why he could not speak properly, Gyeol tried to reason with him.

“I want to know why you didn’t wake me.”

“...Because you looked tired, obviously.”

He finally answered with a short sigh.

“Then ask me what I dreamed about.”

“What?”

Frowning, Gyeol looked up at him.

With his eyes still half unfocused from sleep, Yo Han somehow looked precarious.

Dangerous.

“Aren’t you curious?”

“......Am I supposed to be curious about what you dreamed?”

“I want you to be.”

There was no reason to waste emotional energy arguing with someone who was still half asleep. Gyeol obediently asked the question.

“What did you dream ab—”

But he never finished.

“I dreamed about you.”

Because Yo Han pulled him into his arms.