HMN C36

Chapter 36

“……”

Should he ask where they were going? Chiwoo had said he had something to talk about—so it must be about last night, right? But what had even happened last night? Was it because he cried? What was there to even say about that?

“Where… are we going?”

Without any context, his voice came out small and cautious. Did I mess up somehow yesterday? If it had been anyone else, he could’ve brushed it off shamelessly—but Go Chiwoo was the one who had seen him at his most pathetic, his most embarrassing moments. And there was a high chance that he’d seen it again.

“Welcome.”

The destination wasn’t far. It was the café directly across from his apartment building. It was early in the morning, and the place was empty enough that Daeyoung didn’t have to worry about prying eyes. Still dazed, his mind half-floating from lack of sleep, he blinked around and quietly chose the corner seat. He must’ve looked out of it, because Chiwoo immediately stood to his feet.

Clack.

“Drink.”

A few moments later, a glass of tomato juice and a hangover drink were set in front of him. Judging from how Chiwoo disappeared for a bit after ordering, he must’ve run to the convenience store next door.

At this point, Daeyoung was honestly getting scared. Chiwoo being nice to him? That wasn’t normal. If he was being considerate enough to buy something like this, then whatever had happened last night had to be really bad.

“……”

Crack.

Without a word, Chiwoo reached across the table and twisted open the cap of the hangover drink, sliding it toward him. Pop. The seal broke with a small sound, so at least it didn’t seem like poison. Daeyoung shot him a wary glance before gulping the liquid down.

“Drink the juice too.”

That curt, commanding tone made him quickly set down the empty bottle and stir his straw.

“Haa…”

The tomato juice hit his stomach with surprising relief. Slowly, his head started to clear. Not entirely—he was still hungover—but at least his thoughts were functional now. Rubbing at his eyes with the heel of his hand, he exhaled, dropped his shoulders, and turned toward Chiwoo, who was still frowning like something about him was unsatisfactory.

“So, seriously—what happened yesterday? Just tell me already. There’s nothing left to be embarrassed about with you anyway.”

He said it with false bravado, but his heart was still pounding. Ever since Chiwoo had shown up at his door, something in his expression had been off. Usually, he wore that detached, whatever face—but today, he looked… serious. Unusually so.

While Daeyoung fidgeted, tracing circles around his glass, Chiwoo’s eyes dropped to those pale fingers.

“What are you going to do now?”

The sudden question was strange. Daeyoung frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“I fell for you.”

“……”

His mouth clamped shut. The silence in the café was suffocating.

He slowly lifted his head and looked around, as if to confirm who the hell Chiwoo was talking to. But the café was empty. Even the owner who’d served them earlier had disappeared into the back.

So Daeyoung craned his neck upward, double-checking. Then, pointing at himself, he asked carefully,

“…Me? You’re talking to me?”

“Who else would I be talking to?”

At that, Daeyoung looked around again—still no one. Then the realization hit him like a slow-moving train. He’s talking to me? He said he likes me? …He’s seriously lost it, hasn’t he? Daeyoung leaned forward slightly, brow furrowed.

“Hey. Did I… do something stupid last night?”

Chiwoo’s gaze locked on his face, on how close he’d leaned. His eyelashes were long—evolutionary advantage, maybe? But with how thin his skin looked, probably not. His eyes traced over the pale curve of Daeyoung’s cheek before he swallowed hard and leaned back.

“Hypnosis.”

“What?”

“It’s because of the hypnosis. I fell for you because of it.”

Whoosh.

The heater’s warm air brushed the back of Daeyoung’s neck. He blinked slowly, scanning the room again. Still, not a soul.

“…Are you sick or something?”

Sure, he’d been serious when he’d first suggested trying hypnosis, but that had turned out to be a complete failure—no effect, no result. It had just been a silly bet, nothing to lose. And afterward, when Chiwoo hadn’t changed one bit, Daeyoung had concluded the whole thing was a bust. Yet the man now looked genuinely grave.

“I thought it didn’t work!”

“It worked as fuck.”

The bluntest, most matter-of-fact reply imaginable. Then he casually sipped his coffee. Daeyoung groaned, rubbing his face. His head already ached from the hangover—did Chiwoo have to add to it?

“…And why exactly do you think that?”

He decided to at least hear out the nonsense. Leaning back in his chair, arms crossed, Chiwoo replied without hesitation.

“Since that hypnosis, I’ve found you beautiful. Your eyes—round and pretty. Your nose—just pretty. Your lips—even when you’re not drinking anything, they’re soft and full. I’d always thought your features were well-balanced before, but now it’s like… too subjective. Too personal. Don’t you think?”

“……”

The words came so fast that Daeyoung could only gape at him.

“You—”

Is this guy out of his mind? Even as he stared in disbelief, Chiwoo continued, unstoppable, like a train with no brakes.

“Last night, I wanted to slap you. Your cheeks were so white and plump they looked like peaches, and I just wanted to crush them.”

“Hey, hey—stop. What the hell is this, some new form of harassment? Is there a hidden camera here?”

“Even now, when you sit there with your mouth stupidly open like that, it’s cute. I like it. When you opened the door earlier in that stretched-out T-shirt, I got turned on. Because you were adorable. Just—button up in front of other guys, okay? Unless you want someone else’s dick standing up.”

“HEY!”

BANG!

Face flaming red, Daeyoung shot to his feet. What had started as some bizarre confession had nosedived into sexual harassment territory. He glanced around frantically, lowering his voice once more.

“……”

Chiwoo, however, said nothing. He just looked at him, quiet but intent.

Truthfully, he didn’t understand it either. He couldn’t process it. He’d spent the entire night wrestling with himself, trying to make sense of these impossible feelings. But no matter how long he thought, it all pointed back to that moment—the hypnosis.

Ever since then, the thoughts kept coming uninvited. When they worked together at the café, his eyes would follow Daeyoung’s neck, his face, his hands. He couldn’t stand seeing the guy’s scraped wrists, and when that friend of his showed up, or when photos of Daeyoung started circulating online after his haircut, the thought of other people judging him made his blood boil.

Then it must be love, his uncle had said once, and the image of that white door from the hypnosis session had cemented the idea.

Yesterday, for the first time, he’d had no words. Nothing he wanted to say, nothing he could. He’d just kept watching Daeyoung—his restless hands, his frustrated expression, the red flush spreading across his cheeks like overripe fruit.

Unlike Daeyoung, who clearly remembered nothing, Chiwoo remembered everything. Every word, every glance. He’d even lost sleep replaying that face in his mind. If it wasn’t hypnosis, then what else could it be?

Realizing now that Chiwoo wasn’t joking, Daeyoung’s expression wavered. He downed the rest of his tomato juice in one go, ran his hand through his hair, then looked away toward the wall. A long silence. His throat bobbed once, twice, before he finally managed to speak.

“So… you’re saying this is because of that hypnosis?”

It was a cautious question—his first ever confession, and it was from a man, one who’d been his constant irritation. He was too stunned, too confused, too thrown to even form a proper sentence. Chiwoo took a sip of his iced Americano and tilted his head.

“If it’s not that, why the hell else would I like you?”

“…What?”

After all that talk about being cute and beautiful and lovable, he’d still found a way to say something so damn rude. A rollercoaster—this is a fucking rollercoaster. Daeyoung narrowed his eyes. Yeah, that’s more like him.

As the heat faded from his cheeks, his thoughts started aligning again. And slowly, the logic clicked.

In any normal situation, Go Chiwoo liking him made no sense. Every time the guy had seen him, it’d been at his worst—crying, stumbling, humiliating himself. And Chiwoo? He was popular. The kind of guy everyone whispered about, regardless of gender. There was no reason—none—for him to like someone like Daeyoung. Unless it really was the hypnosis.

“Haa…”

Thud.

He dropped his head onto the table—but instead of the cool wood, his forehead landed on something warm.

Chiwoo’s hand. The man had slid it there just in time. His palm even smelled nice.

“…What the hell?”

“My hand moved on its own.”

“……”

“See? I told you. This is a serious fucking problem.”

Blink. Blink.

Daeyoung slowly lifted his head again, staring blankly at him.

What the hell was he supposed to do with this guy? The world suddenly felt far, far away.