Chapter 142

Within the roundabout words, Gyeol could read the hidden meaning. Rather than something he understood with his head, it was a wave of emotion he could feel in an instant.

Yo Han was speaking with Yuli in mind.

He had noticed that Gyeol had thought of Yuli, and he was saying they should go somewhere together with Yuli.

Someone who liked Gyeol was willingly accepting even Yuli and suggesting they do something together with the child.

It was something Gyeol had never even vaguely imagined. No, he could not have. How could he picture something so unrealistic?

How can this person say something like that... so casually?

The other person was even Yo Han Sung. The top star South Korea admired.

The bridge of his nose faintly stung. Yes, thinking back carefully, even in the distant past, this person had been like this. He casually did unrealistic things that Gyeol could not even dare attempt. He said without hesitation that he would place in Gyeol’s hands things Gyeol could not have hoped for.

Even the rims of his eyes began to prickle, so Gyeol deliberately changed the subject as if it were nothing.

“Aren’t you getting too far ahead of yourself? I feel like your MBTI would have a J in it.”

“What’s a J? I only know blood types and star signs.”

“It means the planning type.”

“Hmm.”

Yo Han tilted his head indifferently, as if he did not really know.

“Try it later. Just for fun.”

“All right. If you say you’re curious.”

“...Do you have to say it like that?”

“Why are you changing the subject?”

Another fastball flew at him in succession. Gyeol slowly stepped back toward the terrace entrance and said,

“You’re not falling for it.”

“I’m not.”

“You’re so impatient you’re going to give yourself indigestion.”

“I’ll give you digestive medicine.”

“...I think you’re the one who never loses a single word.”

Gyeol, laughing softly at the way Yo Han caught onto every trailing word, ran a hand down the back of his neck.

“Enough. Let’s hurry up and have fun.”

Yo Han smiled and tilted his head.

At any rate, he had succeeded in changing the subject. With Yo Han’s personality, there was no way he had been swept along; he must have decided to let it pass.

“So, should we swim fir—”

“Should we eat first?”

Their voices overlapped. Gyeol had said swimming, and Yo Han had said eating.

Gyeol’s eyes blinked quickly, since he had thought they would do an activity before dinner, like the last time when they had gone into the hot tub first.

“If you’re hungry, then let’s eat fir—”

“Then we can swim first.”

Their words overlapped again.

“We get along too well, don’t we?”

Yo Han swept his hair back and gave a small laugh.

When Gyeol clamped his mouth shut, Yo Han made a gesture of zipping his own mouth and raised both hands in surrender. It seemed he was giving Gyeol the choice.

“...Let’s swim first. I’m not fully hungry yet, and after we swim, we’ll get hungry again anyway.”

“If Gyeol gets hungry, we can just eat a late-night snack then.”

“It’s bad for your body to eat late at night.”

Yo Han’s words left him momentarily speechless. In fact, it was something he often said when Yuli begged for “just one” jelly or chocolate late at night.

Gyeol saw Yo Han’s eyes tremble slightly when he noticed that subtle sign. It was such a faint vibration that only Gyeol could see it.

Is this person flustered right now?

“...I didn’t mean you were like a child. It’s just something I often say to my younger brother.”

It sounded far too much like an excuse. It might not look that way to a third party, but to Gyeol, one of the people involved, that was how it sounded.

He really is flustered. This is ridiculous. Why are you the one getting flustered?

“I didn’t say anything. I could be like a well-behaved child, you know.”

Mimicking Yo Han’s tone and playing innocent, Gyeol ended up bursting into laughter. No matter how he thought about it, it was funny.

Yo Han had made an excuse because he was trying to shield the child for Gyeol.

If someone told the Yo Han Sung and Gyeol Go from the early days of filming about this, they would recoil and grimace in horror.

“No.... It’s just.”

Yo Han touched the corner of his mouth with his large hand. Gyeol could see that the back of his neck had turned slightly red.

At the unexpected sight, a mischievous impulse quietly raised its head. Gyeol strode up to him and touched the back of his neck with his hand.

Yo Han flinched in surprise and staggered a step backward.

“What is it? Why are you doing that?”

“Wow. You touch my cheek, touch my back, and earlier you even... did that. But you react like this to something this small.”

“It’s not that. You suddenly did something you don’t usually do....”

Smiling brightly, Gyeol answered neatly.

“Because you’re cute.”

“.......”

Yo Han’s eyes narrowed at once. It was a reaction as if he had heard something he was not meant to hear.

“Should I say it again?”

“No. Wait.”

“You were cute. Your neck turned red and everything.”

A pleasure he had never felt before surged through him as he drove the wedge in. Even more so because Yo Han looked troubled, covering the corner of his mouth.

“Then I’ll go change into my swimsuit.”

Gyeol playfully drew out the end of his words and passed by Yo Han, intending to head toward the bedroom where his suitcase was.

But he did not get more than a few steps before arms came around him from behind. Before he even had time to think, Oh no, hot body heat covered him from behind as if enveloping him. Yo Han had hugged Gyeol from behind.

“......?”

Gyeol reflexively twisted his body to slip out of his arms. Then Yo Han crossed his arms and clasped both hands over Gyeol’s shoulders. He was completely restrained, buried deep in his embrace. He could not get out.

“Um... Yo Han?”

“Just a moment.”

“What?”

“Your smile is too pretty.”

He buried his face between Gyeol’s shoulder and the back of his neck and whispered.

“I’ve been holding back since earlier.”

What?

Gyeol wanted to ask, but in truth, it was not that he did not understand the meaning, and the breath brushing against the back of his neck was hot, so he could not move at all. If he moved even a little, Yo Han’s nose seemed like it would press into the tender skin, and his lips might touch.

The now-familiar scent wrapped around Gyeol’s body. It was pure natural body scent, unmixed with pheromones.

Slowly, lazily, each time his breath came and went, tickling the back of Gyeol’s neck, heat caught in his body. He could vividly feel his body temperature rising.

It felt dangerous. If he kept his mouth shut, the atmosphere seemed like it would grow more and more suggestive. Gyeol barely managed to open his mouth.

“...Are you going to stop caring about the cameras altogether now?”

“We agreed to do a business gay performance.”

“To begin with, saying that in front of the cameras is exactly what someone who doesn’t care about the cameras would do.”

He had deliberately spoken cynically, but Yo Han gave another small laugh, as if something about it was funny again. His deep breath scattered over bare skin, and Gyeol nearly hunched his shoulders.

“It already isn’t a business gay performance. It’s not like you don’t know what business gay performance means, right?”

“Business gay performance.”

The English whispered by his ear was low and mellow, so Gyeol was somewhat startled. Yo Han had said he had grown up in America.

“...Is it still business if everything is out in the open?”

“Then take off the business part.”

“So completely self-indulgent....”

Behind him, he could feel a heart beating hard. It was not his own.

The moment he became aware of it, heat rose in his body so unbearably that he could hardly stand it. Even though the air conditioner was pouring cold air down over their heads, the room felt hot.

“...So this is why you suggested the business gay performance, big brother.”

Gyeol muttered softly. Strength entered the hands gripping his rounded shoulders.

“I like hearing you call me that.”

“You have weird tastes.”

“It’s fine if they’re weird. If you say it, I like hearing it.”

This is driving me crazy.

The area around his chest tickled. Though he had been teasing Yo Han just moments ago, Gyeol himself now felt heat climb along the back of his neck as he deliberately demanded in a light tone,

“Tell me something you dislike instead of something you like.”

“Mm... when you call me actor Yo Han Sung or Yo Han and keep distance between us?”

“Huh. How is that keeping distance? It’s being respectful to my senior.”

“I don’t want you to keep distance from me or draw a line between us.”

It was absurd. At this point, on this island, who was the Alpha closest to Gyeol?

I came to Ivory Mansion with you right now, didn’t I?

Why are you acting like someone who’s anxious I might slip away at any second...?

Gyeol rolled his lips inward and chewed them. Even as his thought process about Yo Han turned in a contrary direction as if it were an already ingrained habit, his heart remained restless the whole time. Now even his cheeks were burning. And no matter how much he separated his head from his heart, Gyeol was not stupid enough not to understand the cause of his body’s signs.

First, I need to get away. Staying pressed against this person is dangerous.

“I won’t keep distance. So, for now, let’s go to the pool first.”

He grabbed Yo Han’s tangled arms and put strength into his hands. The arms that had seemed to resist a little soon slid down obediently.

Thank goodness.

Relieved, Gyeol stepped forward to leave Yo Han’s embrace.

“I’ll use the bedroom first, okay? I need to change into my swimsuit....”

No, he thought he had.

But the moment Gyeol turned around, Yo Han’s arms pulled Gyeol in by the waist.

“Don’t escape.”

His face was far too close.

“...We still have things to do.”

Avoiding his gaze, Gyeol grabbed both of Yo Han’s wrists. When he tried again to put strength into his hands and peel them off, Yo Han instead pulled his waist closer.

Unavoidably, their stomachs touched.

“They’re probably already getting plenty of footage anyway. Swimming itself isn’t the important thing.”

Yo Han lowered his head and tried to meet Gyeol’s eyes. Even when Gyeol avoided him to the left, then to the right, his gaze kept following.

Gyeol turned his about-to-burst face aside with his lips rolled inward.

“Your face is red.”

Unless someone was an idiot, there was no way they could fail to read the signal of the moment.

If there had been no cameras, Yo Han would have already kissed him.