I really have to avoid him.
Hayeop had hidden his clothes and shoes carefully away. He was a master at hide-and-seek. He had always possessed a talent for staying out of sight and was confident he could avoid Young Master’s eyes as long as necessary.
Yet he couldn’t understand why this playful, sly Young Master, who knew nothing at all, kept popping up everywhere. Just look at today. Hayeop had deliberately hidden himself deep in the kitchen, but Yoonwon had sought him out anyway and startled him with a “Boo.” He must have skipped class again.
Hayeop usually locked the kitchen door while he worked, but because the owners were hardly ever home, he had started leaving it open. That had been his mistake.
“Why are you doing this?”
Hayeop was trimming the ends from some greens while Yoonwon stood beside him, needlessly flicking cold water at him.
“Ugh, that’s cold.”
Hayeop wiped the droplet from his nose with his forearm. Even as he grumbled, he merely shot Yoonwon a sideways glare before meekly returning his attention to the greens. His memory was short, and he rarely held a grudge for long, so his irritation never lasted more than two minutes.
“Ah, cold!”
Then Young Master played another prank, and Hayeop glared at him sulkily once more.
“Go away.”
“Want me to buy you ice cream?”
Hayeop’s answer was always, “No.” Those lips knew nothing of what they had done, yet they kept teasing him. It was infuriating.
“Are you bored? I’m busy.”
Being rejected like that ought to have offended him, but the problem was that this loach of a Young Master knew how to smile with the damp languor of the summer monsoon and smooth the atmosphere into silk.
“You’re mad about ice cream, aren’t you? When I offer to buy you some, you’re supposed to wag your tail like an excited puppy. All you ever say is no.”
I do like dogs better than cats.
“You parasite.”
His voice was so affectionate that he might as well have called Hayeop an adorable puppy. Every time he did that, Hayeop’s heart would start pounding for no reason.
…You don’t know anything.
The next moment, anger boiled furiously inside him. Young Master, you don’t remember a thing. Why did you do that to me just because of that stupid fox sickness?
His insides were in such turmoil, yet he could confide in no one. All he could do was suffer in silence. That damned first kiss had made him wake with his bedding soaked. Did Yoonwon have any idea how mortifying that had been?
“Young Master, please don’t speak to me anymore. I mean it.”
Uncharacteristically, Hayeop answered with considerable resolve, even forcing a stern look into his round eyes.
“Why shouldn’t I?”
“……”
“Why should I do that? It’s my mouth. I’ll speak if I want to.”
Young Master was a truly formidable opponent. He cornered Hayeop without so much as blinking.
“We shouldn’t be getting involved with each other like this.”
Hayeop was a parasite hiding in this house, while Young Master was its heir. Granted, who called the owner’s son Young Master these days? But he had been told it was required because this was a family in which tradition still lived and breathed.
“Mom worries.”
Young Master merely laughed, amused that someone so young could fret over such things.
“You’re just a kid, yet you worry about everything.”
“You’re the Young Master, and I’m practically nothing more than a servant.”
Hayeop straightened the knees he had been crouching on. Yoonwon’s eyes followed him upward.
“Don’t come into the kitchen. They say your cock will fall off.”
“If it falls off over something this trivial, can you even call its owner a man?”
Hayeop heard Young Master scoff behind him. He agreed completely but said nothing. With quick little steps, he slipped into the room adjoining the kitchen—the only place in this vast, affluent house that looked poor.
It was the room where Hayeop lived with his mother.
“…What a terribly sinful man.”
As if making women cry weren’t enough, why did he have to whip Hayeop’s heart into a storm as well? Hayeop crouched in one corner.
I mustn’t tell anyone about this. I have to keep it entirely to myself.
A first kiss probably means nothing at all to that Young Master. It was all nothing more than a midsummer night’s dream.
“Bastard.”
Muttering to himself, Hayeop cautiously lifted the lid of the laundry basket. Inside was the bedding he had hidden from his mother. He needed to wash it quickly.
“Baby.”
But then he heard his mother call softly. Hayeop shoved the bedding back into the basket and hurried inside.
“Yes, Mom!”
No. I don’t want to. I won’t.
Had Yoonwon ever been rejected so many times in his life?
It was not a particularly pleasant experience. But the more desperately Hayeop pushed him away, the more curious Yoonwon became about the truth.
…Was it really you? Were you the fairy who came to me that day?
Hayeop tried his hardest to hide in corners, but Yoonwon was an expert at hide-and-seek.
The French-style mansion lay shrouded in silence. There was no trace of human presence anywhere in the enormous house. If Yoonwon closed his eyes and listened, finding Hayeop was easy enough.
Today, the sound of water came from the rooftop. Slosh, slosh, slosh—the sound of something being repeatedly pressed and wrung out.
Yoonwon slowly opened the door. Brilliant sunlight poured through, revealing the white figure before him.
“……”
Hayeop had rolled the legs of his pants precariously high, all the way to his thighs. He was trampling the laundry beneath his feet.
His pale legs were completely exposed. His ankles were slender, but his thighs were softly rounded and plump. Their supple fullness made them look like smooth, chewy rice cakes.
“Ah! You scared me…!”
A mosquito seemed to have bitten the soft inner flesh of his thigh. The reddish mark looked strangely sensual.
“Why are you so startled while washing bedding?”
Yoonwon smiled languidly.
“Anyone would think you’d wet the bed.”
His gaze kept drifting toward the thighs exposed beneath the neatly rolled hems. Hayeop’s legs were slim as snapped chopsticks, and his waist was lithe.
Damn. Have I really gone into heat?
It had already been several days since he had last pulled anyone into his bed. That must have been why his fever had flared.
And yet a single kiss had cleared his headache completely. Yoonwon had never believed in destiny, but if he truly had a destined mate, perhaps that person was the one. It was a goddamned wretched illness.
“I told you we shouldn’t get involved with each other.”
“All right. Then I’ll stop teasing you after this.”
Hayeop’s gaze fixed squarely on him. His brown eyes trembled, and his narrow jaw tightened. Hayeop was shaken.
“Let me ask you one last time.”
Yoonwon kept his eyes on that face as he slowly parted his lips.
“Are you certain you didn’t come into my room that day?”
“……”
“I kissed someone then.”
Hayeop’s feet stopped pressing down on the bedding. A droplet of water slowly rolled down his pale calf.
“But perhaps it was a coincidence—or fate playing a trick.”
Yoonwon languidly traced his lips with one finger.
“My lips are swollen, and so are yours.”
It had only been a kiss, but it had felt good and cleared his head in an instant, Yoonwon added casually. Hayeop clenched his small fists. His slender arms trembled.
“Hana came to see you.”
“Hana…?”
Yoonwon studied Hayeop’s expression. From where I’m standing, you certainly look shaken.
Foxes, it was said, took only one mate in their entire lives. What a cursed existence. The gift one of his distant ancestors had obtained by praying to the fox god was pitifully crude.
And yet—
Yoonwon still felt compelled to make certain. His sharp gaze swept down Hayeop’s body.
The slender ankles, supple waist, pink elbows, prominent collarbones…
“Found it.”
At last, Yoonwon breathed out the words. His darkly intent gaze had settled on Hayeop’s neck, near the collarbone exposed above his T-shirt. The snowy skin there was flushed red, as though blood had gathered beneath it.
“What’s this?”
“A-a mosquito bit me.”
Startled, Hayeop quickly covered his neck with his palm. He staggered inside the wash tub, and Yoonwon caught him by the arm. He pulled Hayeop, who had fallen straight into his grasp, closer.
“Parasite, do you think I’m an idiot?”
Yoonwon gave a quiet laugh.
“Do you think I wouldn’t recognize the hickey I left?”
“A hickey…?”
Since Hayeop did not even know what that meant, Yoonwon generously explained it to him. A hickey was a mark left by a kiss.
“So the person I kissed… was you.”
Pitifully, Hayeop couldn’t even bring himself to deny it. Both cheeks turned a deep crimson.
Then he simply stood there. What was that expression supposed to mean? Was he ashamed or aggrieved?
“Ha.”
From the look on his face, it must have been his first kiss. Struck by an inexplicable thirst, Yoonwon covered his mouth with one hand.
“Crazy bastard. I must’ve been in heat.”
“……”
“Did you hate it?”
“……”
“So that’s why you pretended not to know me.”
His plump cheeks made his face rather round, yet his chin was small. Freckles dotted his pale skin, his eyes were enormous, and his ears looked almost ready to flap because they were so large compared with his face.
He looked frightened, yet his eyes were always following Yoonwon.
For a moment, Yoonwon hesitated. Hayeop was so innocent. It would not be good for someone like Yoonwon to be his first. To a boy who believed in love, wouldn’t Yoonwon be poison? It would be better to keep his distance after all.
“Hayeop, tonight…”
He wiped the suds from Hayeop’s cheek, then slowly licked them from his thumb.
“Lock your door tight.”