“You must be sore, why don’t you go wait at the table? It’ll be ready soon.”
“Why do you keep trying to stay away from me?”
There was a dull ache low in his waist, and the skin between his legs stung slightly. But it wasn’t so bad that he couldn’t move around the small room.
Yeehyeon gently wrapped his arms around Liu’s waist as Liu needlessly pressed down on the surface of the perfectly cooking pancake with a silicone spatula.
“Is it because of your eyes? I like them. They’re so pretty I want to keep looking at them.”
Liu turned the dial on the induction cooktop to lower the heat, then looked back.
“I get stimulated.”
“……”
“Like I’m a teenager again. Just having you come near me…”
Stopping there, Liu sighed and swept his bangs up, feeling pathetic. Then, with a what-the-hell attitude, he pulled Yeehyeon’s hand to the space between his legs.
“This is what happens.”
“Ah…”
Feeling the distinct shape and warmth even through the robe, the soft yet firm texture within, Yeehyeon understood his awkward behavior. And the reason he’d kept the front of his robe tightly closed, unlike usual.
Gazing up at Liu’s white eyes, Yeehyeon suddenly posed a question.
“This is because I’m Diamond Dust, isn’t it?”
“Because you’re Diamond Dust, and because you’re Seo Yeehyeon.”
He recalled someone at the drinking party with ‘The Hands’ colleagues last night grumbling that Liu only ever said the correct thing. Yeehyeon felt he had to agree.
“There’s something I want to ask…”
Yeehyeon began hesitantly.
Liu quickly flipped the three pancakes cooking simultaneously in the wide-diameter frying pan before turning back to Yeehyeon.
“The person you Changed with… no, the people you’ve at least tried to Change with—there haven’t been any until now, have there?”
“……”
Biting his lower lip gently, Liu slowly nodded.
Staring intently into Liu’s hazy eyes, Yeehyeon caressed his cheek and placed a kiss on the spot. Then, without a word, he obediently went to the table and began clearing away the laptop, tablet PC, and art books to make room for the food.
Liu, who had been blankly stroking the spot where he’d been kissed while watching Yeehyeon, slowly turned back and hurried to finish preparing the meal.
The breakfast spread was quite lavish, featuring pancakes with thick, grilled Scottish salmon, orange juice from a nearby organic shop, and an avocado salad.
As Yeehyeon expressed his admiration and thanks, Liu said modestly.
“They may look impressive, but they’re all things that don’t take much effort to make.”
Sitting down across the corner of the table from Yeehyeon, he poured orange juice into two glasses.
“If you’re feeling up to it, shall we go for a walk in the nearby park after breakfast? I can just wear sunglasses for my eyes.”
Pausing his hand that was cutting a piece of pancake, Yeehyeon stared at Liu for a moment, then nodded.
Yeehyeon thought he knew the reason for Liu’s suggestion. It was likely an attempt to restrain himself, as he felt he would pounce on Yeehyeon for sex the moment they were alone in the room.
Since it was a Sunday and Liu had come to Paris for him, he had decided to take the morning off from work. Yeehyeon thought it would be nice to just laze around in the room together until his afternoon work session, but he didn’t want to ignore Liu’s effort.
About an hour passed as they ate at a leisurely pace, rambling on about this and that: the artworks revealed at the party, the personalities of the colleagues they’d hung out with last night, and even their impressions of the sex they’d had—how they’d torn each other’s clothes off like starving people the moment they returned to Room 601, becoming instantly hot without any warm-up.
When the plates were mostly empty, Liu used the excuse of it being Sunday to open a bottle of dessert wine. Pushing the plates to one side, Liu poured the yellowish wine into new glasses and offered one to Yeehyeon.
“When I spoke with Yuni for a bit yesterday, she seemed to be under the vague impression that we clashed because of the issue of you coming to ‘The Hands’.”
Having finished his meal completely and wiped his mouth with a napkin, Yeehyeon took the wine Liu offered to his lips and nodded.
Yeehyeon, too, had a faint inkling of what Yuni was thinking. From an outsider’s perspective, there seemed to be no other potential problems between them, so it wasn’t unreasonable for her speculation to lean that way.
“Living without telling Yuni or anyone else about what happened between us… it must be uncomfortable for you. Once the Changing is complete, we’ll have to at least let them know you’ve become an Omega, and if we say it was a natural presentation, that would be… a lie.”
Let’s tell the people around us, at least those who wouldn’t go blabbing if they found out Liu was a Ghost. Liu had been consistently suggesting this to Yeehyeon.
The scope of the confession included the fact that Liu had proceeded with the Changing without telling Yeehyeon. Yeehyeon had been putting off the decision, not quite feeling up to it.
“But then we’d have to reveal that Kun is a Ghost. Will that be okay?”
“What’s more important is clarifying the wrong I did to you.”
Liu’s expression was calm, as he had steeled his resolve long ago. He had said that the people around him had a right to know his true nature. It wasn’t that Yeehyeon didn’t know what kind of guilt he felt toward himself and those around him, but Yeehyeon’s opinion on the matter was a little different.
He didn’t even consider the initial, unilateral Changing to be Liu’s true nature. If such insidiousness were his essence, he would never have been able to decide to try again with him. Rather, it was more like an exceptional derailment, a major departure from the track that was Liu Wikhun.
“I’m not very keen on other people, besides me, the one directly involved, seeing A-Wei differently because of this.”
Stroking the soft, diamond-shaped dessert wine glass, Yeehyeon glanced down at Liu’s left hand resting on the table.
“Of course, the people around us are all good people and will judge wisely… but we don’t have an obligation to tell everyone around us about a wrong committed in a romantic relationship. If I had intended to resolve this issue in a public way, I wouldn’t have taken A-Wei back in the first place.”
Liu’s desire to pay the price, one way or another, could also be seen as a form of self-satisfaction. If what he truly prioritized was Yeehyeon’s happiness, then Yeehyeon’s sincere wish was that he wouldn’t escalate the problem any further.
Yeehyeon mechanically swallowed a sip of wine, but he couldn’t really taste it.
“If telling people about this causes it to spawn other problems, then never mind A-Wei, I myself will be in pain again… and that’s not for my sake. That’s just… suffering twice because of the Changing.”
Liu, who had been listening patiently to Yeehyeon with a serious expression, let out a low groan and nodded. It was less an expression of complete agreement and more one of understanding Yeehyeon’s feelings. He downed the half-full glass of wine in one go.
“Who is it that I least want to know about this Changing? I’ve tried many times to figure out my own honest feelings.”
“……”
“Because telling the person I least want to know would be my punishment.”
Liu reached out and gently covered the back of Yeehyeon’s hand on the table.
“I understand what you’re thinking. It’s absurd to make you suffer just to alleviate my own guilt. But… for the sake of our future, I was thinking, how about we tell just two people?”
Yeehyeon met Liu’s face head-on. In the late morning sunlight pouring through the long window that took up the entire street-facing wall, his two white eyes glittered, reminiscent of a snowy field.
“I’m guessing one is the Director, but the other one is…”
“My mother… I plan to tell Suki Kim. If you’re okay with it, I’m planning to stop by Hong Kong on my way back to Seoul this time.”
Liu spoke cautiously, watching Yeehyeon’s expression. Yeehyeon’s face contorted with unconcealed shock and concern. His gaze wavered, and a thin moan escaped his parted lips.
Yeehyeon knew the effort and sacrifice Suki Kim had made to prevent her Ghost son from committing this very wrong. So he could well imagine the disappointment she would feel for her son when she learned of the situation.
Liu gripped Yeehyeon’s hand tightly.
“The person I least wanted to find out, and at the same time, the person I most wanted to confess to, has found out. Now… I’m not afraid of anyone else. Whatever consequences I face, it’s just me paying the price for the sin I committed.”
The person he least wanted to find out, and at the same time, the person he most wanted to confess to.
From his deeply searching gaze alone, Yeehyeon knew he was talking about him. Weaving his own fingers with Liu’s, which were layered over the back of his hand, Yeehyeon gave a heavy nod.
Leave a Reply