Chapter 16

Mugyeol’s eyelid twitched slightly.

“Honestly, I still don’t get why you suddenly got mad on your own and blocked me.”

“If you don’t even know, what do you think you have to say?”

“Just listen for a second. That day, I sent you the message, you didn’t reply, and I went to sleep. The next morning, I had no idea what the hell had happened. Anyway, if you’ve got some trauma from an ex-girlfriend ghosting you or dumping you or whatever, then I really am sorry…”

“Fuck, I never got dumped!”

“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is—”

Yi-seon let out a long breath through his nose. Then he finally said what he had been wanting to tell Mugyeol for some time.

“I’ve never once forgotten your name, Yeon Mugyeol. And there hasn’t been a single moment I didn’t care about you.”

“…”

Mugyeol went utterly still, his dark gaze unreadable.

Yi-seon remembered what Mugyeol had said back at the park, when Yi-seon had played the danso.

“Still, don’t be too grateful. Give it a year, and he won’t give a damn. Give it a few more, and he’ll even forget your name.”

It was ridiculous. Not once had Yi-seon stopped thinking of Mugyeol as his friend. Of course, his feelings had never been entirely platonic, but Mugyeol didn’t know that, so it hardly mattered.

It was true that he had called Mugyeol by a different name when they first reunited, but that was merely out of childish spite.

“Heard you transferred.”

“Yeah. That’s how it turned out.”

“Long time no see, Ryu Yi-jeong.”

“Right. Long time no see, Yugyeol-ah. How have you been?”

“…It’s Mugyeol.”

Besides, wasn’t Mugyeol the one who mixed up their names first? He had merely paid him back in a slightly petty way.

“And you forgot my name too. So we’re even.”

Mugyeol stared down at Yi-seon in silence, then pulled his hands from his pockets and swept back his hair. His brow furrowed as he gripped the pushed-back strands, lost in thought, before finally dropping down beside Yi-seon.

“Why didn’t you contact me?”

“You blocked me. Did you suffer memory loss or something?”

Mugyeol leaned comfortably against the stone wall. Yi-seon shifted out of his squat and settled beside him.

“Not that.”

“Then what?”

“When I couldn’t make it to Jeju, why didn’t you contact me?”

“…Huh?”

“Why didn’t you ask if I was coming? Because it didn’t matter to you whether you saw me or not?”

Yi-seon blinked, at a loss. He had never expected Mugyeol to bring up something from so long ago here, of all places.

“I’m asking if you didn’t wait for me.”

Only when Mugyeol pressed him again, expressionless, did Yi-seon snap back to his senses.

“What are you talking about? Of course I waited. I waited at the airport from morning all the way until your flight was supposed to land.”

In truth, he had waited until the sun set and darkness covered the sky.

And even after that, he had kept waiting.

I was waiting for your message—no, I was just waiting for you, all along.

“…Really?”

“Yeah. Why do you keep asking if I mean it?”

A faint trace of disbelief still lingered in Mugyeol’s eyes as he stared at Yi-seon.

“Then why weren’t you curious? I didn’t go, so why didn’t you tell me to come again? Why didn’t you ask why I didn’t show up? Why did you cut off contact? Were you so busy hanging out with the new friends you made on Jeju that you didn’t even think of me? Did you like them that much? More than me?”

The barrage of whys sounded like an interrogation. Mugyeol’s voice was low, his gaze sharp enough to be intimidating. Yi-seon recoiled inwardly but refused to let it show.

“No. I was dying to know why you didn’t come. I wanted to tell you to come, too. But…”

“But what.”

Um…

Trailing off there, Yi-seon couldn’t finish the sentence.

To explain how he had felt back then, he would have had to lay out everything: what had driven him to Jeju, what he had endured there, even the phone calls with his father.

But he hesitated. He had always believed that hurts of the heart were something you patched up on your own. After years of bottling things up, the thought of laying all of it bare made him uneasy. More than anything, he was reluctant to expose the fractures in his family. Wasn’t that the sort of secret you were supposed to be ashamed of?

When Yi-seon fell silent, Mugyeol did not press him. “Ah, fuck.” He raked a hand through his hair, leaving it a mess, then abruptly looked up. “Anyway, it means you had your reasons, right? You waited for me too, you didn’t forget my name, and all that.”

Mugyeol’s question sounded as if he had already decided on the answer and was merely waiting for confirmation. Yi-seon nodded at once. “Of course. As for your name, I only did that because I was pissed that you got mine wrong. You were the one who asked if I was Yi-jeong.”

“…”

“Ever since the old days, I’ve always considered you my best friend. Even while I was in Jeju, the whole time.”

“…Hmph.”

With his hair thoroughly disheveled, Mugyeol let out a low sound in his throat. The last answer seemed to please him; the prickliness had all but drained from his face. Yi-seon seized the opening and pushed for a full reconciliation.

“Are you gonna unblock my number?”

“Already did, back then.”

“Really? Didn’t know that. Can I text you?”

“Do whatever.”

“Can you play games with me too? And study together like we used to?”

“Suit yourself.”

With that much secured, Yi-seon pressed the point, his heart brimming.

“You’re being my friend again, right?”

“…Guess so.”

Friends…!

Finally, friends.

I’m friends with Mugyeol again!

It felt as though countless feathers had taken flight inside his chest. A tingling warmth spread from his fingertips through his whole body. The moment he had wanted for so long had finally come.

Yi-seon smiled so brightly his eyes curved into crescents. Even in the middle of his joy, he was baffled. Mugyeol’s anger had melted far more easily than expected, and their relationship seemed to have mended almost too simply.

Why is he this easy?

Is this a dream?

Their conversation had not even been especially profound. Yi-seon had simply told him the truth: Mugyeol had always been his best friend, he had waited for him too, and he had never stopped caring. Yet Mugyeol had changed completely. It was as though years of accumulated bitterness had drained out of the air all at once. It was strange.

Giving him a bicycle ride had definitely been the right call. Even if his thighs felt on the verge of exploding.

They could have grown close this easily all along. Why had they bickered and fought every single time they met until now?

His chest felt buoyant, as though someone had filled it with air, and laughter kept escaping him. As he sat there grinning like an idiot, Mugyeol eventually gave a soft chuckle, as if the mood were contagious. “You that happy?”

“Yeah. I feel really great.”

“…”

“I think this is the first time in years I’ve felt this good.”

Yi-seon answered without hiding how he felt. As he laughed, the tips of Mugyeol’s ears slowly reddened in the dark.

As his laughter faded, Yi-seon looked at Mugyeol. Mugyeol, apparently embarrassed, glanced away. His hair was still tousled from all the tugging earlier, as though he had just rolled out of bed. It looked kind of cute. Apparently, pedaling that bicycle had scrambled Yi-seon’s brain.

Gathering strength in his legs, Yi-seon pushed himself up. He needed to leave before the rose-colored filter over his eyes got any worse.

“You’re leaving?”

“Yeah. If I go back too late, they’ll worry.”

Yi-seon extended a hand toward Mugyeol, who was still sitting at his feet. Mugyeol took it without hesitation. Mugyeol gripped Yi-seon’s hand as he rose and pulled him forward before Yi-seon had found his balance.

Yi-seon lost his balance and pitched straight into Mugyeol.

“Whoa…!”

Yi-seon’s face collided with Mugyeol’s chest. As he flailed for balance, Mugyeol wrapped both arms around his waist and held him fast. Yi-seon froze with his hands suspended in midair. Through the chest pressed firmly against his own came a heavy, resonant thump, thump, thump.

“What… is this.”

“Something I couldn’t do back then.”

Mugyeol’s arms tightened their hold even further. Held tightly against him, Yi-seon clenched his hovering fists. He could not bring himself to return the hug.

The strength in Mugyeol’s arms was just as he remembered from the day they parted in elementary school: a hold that seemed determined not to let him go. The difference was that Mugyeol, who had once been slightly shorter than him, now towered over him.

The solid collarbone and broad chest against Yi-seon’s cheek were different too. So was the sheer warmth of Mugyeol’s much larger body—and the heat steadily rising in Yi-seon himself.

With his face buried near Mugyeol’s shoulder, Yi-seon could manage only shallow breaths. He shut his eyes against the soft texture of freshly laundered cotton. Whether it was Mugyeol’s warmth or the faint scent of soap drifting from his collar, dizziness kept washing over him.

He had smelled this scent once before in front of the chalkboard. It was strange—completely different from the pheromones Mugyeol had released around him before.

Buried in Mugyeol’s embrace, Yi-seon eventually mumbled in a thin voice. “I get that you’re glad to see me, but isn’t it getting a bit hot?”

“It’s summer, of course it’s hot.”

Mugyeol did not loosen his grip. Instead, he squeezed tighter, lifted Yi-seon off the ground, and spun him around. He looked like a father roughhousing with a son he had not seen in ages.

With his toes dangling off the ground, Yi-seon protested sharply, “Are you out of your mind, seriously…?!”

Pinned against Mugyeol’s chest, Yi-seon could barely move. Even when he squirmed and shoved with both arms, Mugyeol did not budge, making it painfully clear how much stronger he had become.

For all its closeness, Mugyeol’s hug felt utterly innocent—nothing but uncomplicated affection between old friends. The only thing running wild was Yi-seon’s own heartbeat.

It felt as though someone were pounding a drum inside his chest, the vibrations rattling all the way to his skull. When Yi-seon finally tried to headbutt Mugyeol under the chin, Mugyeol released him.

Yi-seon scrambled backward into the shadows where the streetlight couldn’t reach. He wanted to hide in the darkness and conceal his flushed cheeks.

Mugyeol, meanwhile, remained in the light, still grinning beneath the streetlamp. He tilted his head slightly, shifting the shadows across his face. “Have you been well?”

“All of a sudden?”

“I missed you.”

“…”

His breath catching in his throat, Yi-seon couldn’t muster a proper reply. There was no mockery in Mugyeol’s gaze as he looked straight at him.

“That’s what I wanted to say when I met you at Jeju Airport. Guess I’m a bit late.”

Behind Mugyeol, Seoul sprawled in a dazzling field of lights. They scattered like the Milky Way around his silhouette, tracing him in a faint halo. Watching him stand there in the tranquil darkness, Yi-seon felt as though the rest of the world had fallen away.

A warm breeze ruffled Mugyeol’s white T-shirt, then swept past Yi-seon. As it stirred his hair, it carried Mugyeol’s scent with it.

Ah…

Yi-seon shut his eyes tightly.

Even with his eyes closed, the image of Mugyeol looking at him remained vivid: eyes sparkling as though they reflected moonlight, a fresh smile that seemed to carry the wind. Every detail drifted through Yi-seon like fine grains of sand, leaving a faint, restless tickle behind.

Yi-seon opened his eyes again. If Mugyeol appeared even behind his closed eyelids, it hardly mattered whether Yi-seon kept his eyes open or shut. Mugyeol was still there in front of him, smiling with an affection so guileless it could only be called friendship.

Yi-seon barely parted his lips.

“Me too. I missed you like crazy, too. Have you been well?”

He prayed his playful reply did not betray the slightest tremor.

He clasped his hands behind his back, his palms scorching hot.

He was simply dizzy.

Even more than when Mugyeol’s pheromones had washed over him.

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