Chapter 88

Gyeol glanced subtly toward the entrance on the opposite side of the pool.

A shallow staircase descended there, complete with silver handrails.

Reading the meaning behind that °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° glance instantly, Sun let out a low laugh.

“Are you nervous?”

“No, it’s just... there’s a perfectly functional entrance right there. I can’t exactly leap out like you do, Sun.”

The water reached all the way to his chest.

The pool wall dropped straight down without any slope.

Maybe it would’ve been different for someone used to pools and water, but even back when Gyeol had briefly tried learning to swim, he’d stubbornly insisted on using only ladder entrances.

Honestly, he was scared he might accidentally fall back into the water.

Seeing his hesitation, Sun set the towel down on a nearby lounge chair.

Then, as casually as breathing, he jumped back into the pool.

Water splashed upward, and while Gyeol instinctively raised a hand to shield his face, Sun approached him through the water.

“Then let me do this instead.”

Sun raised one knee underwater.

“...What?”

Gyeol genuinely couldn’t understand the logic connecting one thing to another.

Calmly, Sun patted his own thigh.

“You can step on this and climb up.”

“You want me to step on you?”

“Ah... when you phrase it like that, it sounds strange, but that’s not what I mean. Swim instructors do this all the time, so you don’t need to worry about it. Here.”

Watching Sun innocently pat his thigh again with that completely harmless expression, Gyeol found himself overwhelmed by an emotion he couldn’t quite describe.

The more he looked at this man, the more obvious it became that Sun wasn’t exactly normal either.

No, Gyeol had known from the beginning that he was extraordinary, but every now and then Sun would abruptly skip straight past ordinary behavior and reveal some bizarre side of himself like this.

Gyeol truly could not understand why he was supposed to step on Sun instead of simply using the perfectly good entrance nearby.

He cast one last longing glance toward the silver handrail.

But he also couldn’t exactly ignore the man in front of him who had apparently volunteered his thigh as a sacrifice.

“Then... excuse me for a second.”

I’m seriously losing my mind.

Deciding to shut his eyes and endure this just once, Gyeol braced both hands against the deck, took a deep breath, and used Sun’s thigh as leverage to quickly haul himself upward.

Thanks to the buoyancy of the water, getting onto land was far easier than he’d expected.

At some point, the temperature had dropped slightly. Cool air brushed against his wet skin.

But before Gyeol even had time to feel cold, Sun emerged from the water and unfolded the large towel from the lounge chair, draping it over Gyeol’s body.

“You did well.”

Sun looked down at him with unmistakably proud eyes.

Pulling the towel closed around himself, Gyeol finally realized why Sun had insisted on getting out on the deck side first.

He’d wanted to wrap him in the towel the moment he came out of the water.

“Thank you, Sun.”

Something stung faintly around Gyeol’s chest.

***

“Yo Han?”

At Jaekyung Park’s voice, Yo Han Sung turned back with an effortless smile already in place.

“Yes, Jaekyung.”

“What are you looking at?”

After circling the pool once, Jaekyung approached the far edge of the infinity pool where Yo Han stood.

The view opened wide before them.

Under the moonlight, the distant sea shimmered softly, but everything nearby was swallowed in darkness.

Except for one place.

The annex pool.

“I was wondering if you could see the sea at night from here.”

The annex pool now sat completely empty.

Judging by the inner tube left on the deck, someone had clearly been there moments ago, but from what Jaekyung could see, nobody remained now.

“The night sea? Isn’t it too dark to see anything?”

Was he looking at the annex pool?

The thought crossed Jaekyung’s mind, though he responded casually.

“Yeah. Looks like you can’t really see it.”

Yo Han curled the corner of his mouth faintly and let his gaze drift into the distance.

Bathed in the underwater glow, he looked stunning enough to belong in a photoshoot, but the awkward atmosphere and strangely detached conversation left Jaekyung increasingly uncomfortable.

It wasn’t that anything was wrong with Yo Han himself.

He was always kind. Always gentlemanly.

But somehow, he had a way of making people uncomfortable.

An invisible wall.

Distance.

An unspoken feeling that nobody could ever truly get close to him.

“Shall we head inside now, Jaekyung?”

“Ah, yes.”

At last, Yo Han withdrew his gaze and turned toward the interior, cutting through the water.

Following behind him, Jaekyung deeply regretted choosing Yo Han despite carefully watching Hanseul’s reaction the entire time.

***

After filling himself with delicious food and finally draining the last wine left in his glass, Gyeol declared defeat.

“Wow, I seriously can’t eat another bite.”

A faint flush colored his face from the mild buzz of alcohol.

Sun had been staring blankly at him, and only responded a beat late.

“...Neither can I. I can’t eat anymore either.”

His tongue sounded slightly loose.

Huh?

Blinking rapidly, Gyeol studied Sun’s face.

His eyes were slightly unfocused. His face was flushed. Heat had spread all the way down his neck in uneven patches.

“Sun... are you drunk?”

“Mmm. Mm. No, I’m not.”

Gyeol burst out laughing.

“You absolutely are.”

“I’m not drunk. I’m not someone who gets drunk off half a bottle of wine.”

Mumbling his words together, Sun smiled weakly.

The way he laughed so defenselessly made him resemble an enormous harmless dog, and Gyeol kept finding himself laughing too.

Gyeol himself was slightly tipsy as well.

But he’d been hungry, so he’d eaten plenty of food, and he’d deliberately limited himself to one glass of wine in case anything unexpected happened.

Sun, meanwhile, had barely eaten at all while steadily drinking wine.

He claimed it was only half a bottle, but excluding the little Gyeol drank, he’d practically finished an entire bottle alone.

“That’s why I told you to slow down... honestly, what are we supposed to do with you?”

“...I couldn’t help it. I kept getting nervous.”

“Nervous?”

“Because I’m alone with you, Gyeol.”

Drunk Sun Choi was extremely dangerous.

If Gyeol had encountered him like this somewhere outside the cameras — if they’d met one-on-one for actual romantic reasons, like on a blind date—

then maybe Gyeol would’ve become weak to him too.

Sun stared at him blankly with flushed cheeks before suddenly pushing himself to his feet and wobbling toward the intercom installed on the living room wall.

“Sun, what are you—”

“Hello. Thank you for your hard work. This is the annex. We’d like one more bottle of Pio Cesare red wine—”

“No.”

Gyeol hurried over and snatched the receiver away from him.

Then he apologized to the staff member on the other end and explained that they didn’t actually need another bottle before quickly hanging up.

“Why not?”

The huge man staring down at him with a sulky expression looked absurdly cute.

But considering what had happened at the pool earlier, provoking him further probably wasn’t wise.

“You’ve already had too much.”

Gently patting his back, Gyeol steadied him.

“But... I can’t look at you without alcohol. I get nervous. Looking at your face.”

Sun muttered fragmented sentences under his breath.

Guiding him toward the bedroom, Gyeol let out a small laugh.

“You still get nervous around me?”

“Of course I do.”

Sun stumbled after him.

“Sometimes... I can’t even breathe properly. Earlier at the sea too. And in the pool. And right now too......”

Opening the bedroom door, Gyeol stepped inside.

Trying to maneuver the large body sagging heavily from alcohol wasn’t easy.

After barely managing to guide him to the bed, Gyeol sat Sun carefully on the edge of the mattress.

“I’m comfortable around you now.”

“......”

Only the mood lights were on in the bedroom, leaving the room dim.

And with Sun sitting against the light, Gyeol couldn’t clearly make out his expression.

Still, he could tell Sun was looking up at him.

“...You’re comfortable with me?”

“Yes. Ah, don’t misunderstand. I mean that in a good way.”

“But......”

Sun swallowed the rest of his sentence.

Gyeol asked what he meant, but Sun didn’t answer.

Since continuing a conversation with a drunk person felt pointless anyway, Gyeol lightly patted his shoulder.

“Go to sleep, Sun.”

“...What about you?”

“I should clean up a little first. And change into pajamas.”

“No. Where are you sleeping?”

Out of all the slurred, muddled words Sun had spoken so far, that single question came out perfectly clear.

Unable to dodge something asked so directly, Gyeol answered carefully.

“I was planning to sleep in the living room.”

“No.”

Sun shot to his feet immediately.

Startled, Gyeol tried to calm him down.

“It’s really okay. You worked hard today.”

“Then I’ll sleep in the living room. You sleep in the bedroom.”

“This bed is nice. You should sleep comfortably in a big bed for at least one night—”

“When you came here with Yo Han, where did you sleep?”

The words caught in Gyeol’s throat.

Unable to answer immediately, he parted his lips silently.

Sun continued.

“So you slept in the bed.”

“Yes, but......”

“Together?”

It wasn’t like that.

But there was no way to explain all of that in detail.

Gyeol’s lips pressed shut.

More accurately—

he couldn’t react at all.

Because Sun had suddenly pulled him onto the bed.

“Sun?”

Startled, Gyeol reflexively tried to sit back up.

But Sun grabbed his shoulders, pressing him down while pulling him into his arms.

“...I don’t like it.”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Gyeol had thought his own heart was pounding wildly, only to realize the heartbeat was coming from Sun’s chest against him.

“I don’t like that you only feel comfortable around me, Gyeol.”