Gi-hyeon checked his watch instead of answering.
“So, later,” he repeated internally. Which probably meant Yeon-oh still had business to finish at the hospital. For a moment, Gi-hyeon considered simply going home on his own.
Yeon-oh was likely planning to speak with Beom-hee about hospital operations again.
It was always strange to watch him pour this much energy into Haeseong Rehabilitation Centre Hospital, the smallest and least profitable venture attached to his name. At a glance, Jo Yeon-oh looked exactly like a beautiful kept man who spent his days idling around someone else’s apartment. Yet when it came to work, he was unexpectedly meticulous and relentless.
“Don’t even think about sneaking off without me.”
So much for that plan.
People often complained that Gi-hyeon’s face was impossible to read, but Yeon-oh always seemed to know exactly what he was thinking. Probably because he’d spent too many years around him.
Gi-hyeon finally gave a reluctant nod. Since the locker room door was still cracked open and anyone could pass by, he flicked a dismissive hand toward the exit.
“I got it, so go already.”
“We haven’t seen each other in days, and this is the welcome I get?”
“We saw each other yesterday.”
Technically, Yeon-oh had still been away on his business trip yesterday. But Manager Yoo — his exhausted, long-suffering secretary — had sent Gi-hyeon such a desperate flood of messages that it became obvious what happened without needing to ask.
Somewhere in the middle of that business trip, Yeon-oh had abruptly canceled part of his schedule just to come back to Seoul and sleep at Gi-hyeon’s apartment.
Gi-hyeon had genuinely wanted to ask why. By the time he finished washing the dishes and entered the bedroom, though, Yeon-oh had already fallen asleep.
Meanwhile, Gi-hyeon had barely slept at all.
No matter how hard he tried to suppress those thoughts, sharing a bed with the person he loved naturally stirred desires he would rather ignore. That much was unavoidable.
It wasn’t that Gi-hyeon lacked sexual desire. He simply refused to act on it.
Which was why, around three in the morning, he had dragged himself out of bed and stood beneath freezing water until his thoughts calmed down.
Before he realized what his feelings for Yeon-oh truly were, most of the people Gi-hyeon dated had been Beta women. The relationships themselves had been ordinary enough — awkward middle school romances, brief high school relationships that never lasted particularly long.
Even so, he had cared about them in his own way.
And somehow, every single one ended the exact same way.
“I’m sorry. I think I like Jo Yeon-oh.”
At one point, Gi-hyeon had started finding the whole thing absurd. Every girl he dated eventually fell for Yeon-oh instead.
Looking back now, maybe that was when he first started seeing Yeon-oh differently too.
Yeon-oh’s relationships weren’t much different.
Though he rarely spoke about his love life in detail, it was obvious he mostly dated Omegas. Since their own relationship had started from such a completely platonic place, trying to cross the line into romance had only created a strange stiffness between them. Yeon-oh clearly disliked any overt physical tension between them, and Gi-hyeon had no intention of pushing him.
As a result, despite dating for quite a while now, they still had not shared a proper kiss.
In fact, Gi-hyeon had never even seen Jo Yeon-oh fully naked.
Back before his ankle injury, whenever the frustration became unbearable, he used to run until his lungs burned. Recently he relied more on the stationary bike at home, but exercise alone did not always help.
Today had originally been one of those days where he planned to deal with the problem himself.
Instead, Yeon-oh showed up.
After spending all night suppressing himself, the last thing Gi-hyeon wanted was to strip in front of him.
Not that he was usually embarrassed about his body. The issue was that Yeon-oh remained strangely oblivious to situations that would make most people uncomfortable. Honestly, not much had changed between them after they started dating. They still ate together, spent time at each other’s apartments, watched movies side by side.
The only real difference was the occasional kiss.
Even those were brief enough to barely count.
Usually, Yeon-oh initiated them late at night whenever his football team scored in the Europa League. Most lasted only a second or two.
Sometimes Gi-hyeon genuinely felt as though Yeon-oh was kissing him with the same excitement someone might show a trophy after a victory.
Still, he never complained.
Late at night, with the living room lights off, the glow from the television and the goldfish tank would cast shifting light across Yeon-oh’s face. Gi-hyeon would catch himself staring at the clean line of his profile, only for Yeon-oh to suddenly grab his face and press a short kiss against his lips.
Every time, Gi-hyeon ended up laughing quietly afterward.
It was ridiculous how satisfied he could be with something so small.
But if he truly hated this relationship — if the slow pace genuinely made him miserable — he never would have endured it this long.
The truth was simple.
Gi-hyeon was happiest exactly like this.
Physical frustration was manageable.
Losing Yeon-oh was not.
“You’re ignoring me again.”
“Ah.”
Sleep deprivation must have dulled his concentration. By the time he came back to himself, Yeon-oh already looked irritated.
Meanwhile, Gi-hyeon’s attention was fixed elsewhere.
If Yeon-oh kept standing in front of the door like that, he could not take off his pants.
Back when they were still only friends, they used to collapse onto the same bed in nothing but their underwear after drinking. At the time, changing clothes around each other had meant nothing.
Ironically, Yeon-oh had always been the more reserved one physically. Gi-hyeon stripped casually wherever he pleased, while Yeon-oh preferred staying dressed as much as possible.
Taking off his shirt was one thing.
His pants were another matter entirely.
And with the locker room door still slightly open, anyone walking through the hallway might catch sight of him.
Gi-hyeon stopped halfway through changing. Yeon-oh immediately noticed his hesitation and smirked.
“There’s nobody in this hospital taller than me. How exactly are they supposed to see you through my body? Finish changing.”
Instead of shutting the door like a normal person, he was really going to stand there and make things difficult on purpose.
Granted, all the basketball players had completed rehab last week, so technically Yeon-oh was correct. There genuinely was not anyone taller in the building.
That did not make the situation any less ridiculous.
Gi-hyeon stared at him for a long moment before finally asking,
“Are you acting like this because I said I didn’t want to go home with you?”
“Yeah. Why were you ignoring me?”
The sudden profanity made it obvious Yeon-oh was genuinely irritated.
Gi-hyeon honestly could not understand him sometimes. The man had gone out of his way to return from a business trip just to sleep at his apartment, and now he was angry over something this trivial.
At that moment, Gi-hyeon’s phone lit up with an incoming call.
Without thinking much of it, he answered while reaching into the lower cabinet for a spare towel.
“Yeah, Cheol-jin. Why’d you bother buying that? You should’ve just come empty-handed.”
Balancing the phone against his ear, he draped the towel over the locker handle and hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his scrub pants and underwear.
Then he felt it.
That stare.
Glancing back over his shoulder, he found Yeon-oh still standing there, watching him in complete silence.
Just as Gi-hyeon was about to tell him to either come in properly or leave, Cheol-jin’s loud voice burst through the receiver.
[They said you were busy, so I left! See? I’m considerate. You owe me dinner now!]
“With your salary? Aren’t you the one who should be buying me dinner?”
After winning gold at the Asian Games last year and filming several commercials afterward, Cheol-jin was hardly lacking money. The idea of a wealthy athlete trying to squeeze a free meal out of a physical therapist was ridiculous enough to make Gi-hyeon smile faintly.
A quiet click echoed through the room.
Gi-hyeon turned around.
The locker room door was now fully shut.
And Yeon-oh was staring at him with an expression cold enough to freeze the air.
…What now?
Suppressing a sigh, Gi-hyeon returned his attention to the phone.
“Anyway, I’ll eat with you sometime, but you’re paying. Something came up, so I’m hanging up.”
[Wait, what came up? And what do you mean I’m paying? You never let me buy you anything anyway—]
“Stop yelling. I heard you the first time. I’ll call you later, Cheol-jin.”
Ignoring the younger man’s continued complaints, Gi-hyeon ended the call.
The moment he lowered the phone, he realized Yeon-oh had already crossed the room and was standing directly in front of him.
“What now?”
“Cheol-jin?” Yeon-oh said flatly. “You say his name pretty sweetly. Did you replace me already?”
The accusation was so absurd that Gi-hyeon almost laughed.
But the moment he met Yeon-oh’s eyes, the amusement disappeared.
Whenever Yeon-oh was genuinely angry, his face lost all expression. He rarely directed that look at Gi-hyeon, which made it all the more unsettling.
What exactly is his problem now?
If Yeon-oh truly hated physical tension between them, then standing here while Gi-hyeon was half-undressed made even less sense.
Gi-hyeon studied him for a moment before coming to a conclusion.
“You couldn’t sleep again, could you?”
“Don’t change the subject. Who was that?”
“When did I change the subject?” Gi-hyeon replied calmly. “You just look exhausted.”
Normally, Yeon-oh had absurd stamina. But after several sleepless nights, his personality always soured like this.
Yeon-oh clicked his tongue.
The blankness in his expression cracked slightly.
Gi-hyeon knew immediately that he realized he was taking his irritation out on the wrong person.
“I rushed back trying to make it before you got off work,” Yeon-oh muttered.
“Do you want me to check whether your legs fell off from the effort?”
“You seriously always have something to say.”
Yeon-oh grabbed his bare shoulder irritably.
Gi-hyeon ignored him and finally pulled off his pants.
Yeon-oh’s expression darkened again.
“If you have plans tonight, cancel them. I just got back after three days. Shouldn’t you at least have dinner with me?”
“I don’t have plans.”
“…What?”
“I said I don’t.”
The tension in Yeon-oh’s face eased immediately.
His brows relaxed. The sharp corners of his eyes softened.
Every time Gi-hyeon saw that expression, he had the same thought.
How does someone actually look like this?
Yeon-oh naturally carried a cold, distant atmosphere around other people, but rarely around him. Which made it easy to forget just how beautiful he really was.
Gi-hyeon let out a small laugh.
Yeon-oh coughed awkwardly after noticing it.
“Then why did you say you didn’t want to go home together?”
“Because I was tired. I haven’t been sleeping well either.”
At that, Yeon-oh reached over and brushed a hand lightly across his forehead.
The touch was absentmindedly affectionate.
Gi-hyeon closed his eyes briefly before opening them again.
Yeon-oh was staring at him carefully.
“Why couldn’t you sleep?” he asked quietly. “Because I left in the middle of the night?”
“Who knows,” Gi-hyeon answered easily. “Anyway, get out. I need to shower.”
He had already taken off everything except his underwear.
Hooking his thumbs into the waistband, Gi-hyeon raised an eyebrow lazily.
“Or are you planning to stay and watch?”
For once, Yeon-oh looked visibly flustered.
“No, wait—”
The reaction was so immediate that Gi-hyeon almost laughed again.
Just watching him undress made Yeon-oh panic like this, so it was hardly surprising their relationship had barely progressed physically.
Whenever that happened, guilt inevitably crept in.
Sometimes Gi-hyeon felt as though he had selfishly trapped Yeon-oh in a relationship the other man did not fully want.
Yeon-oh hesitated as though struggling to say something.
Something unreadable flickered briefly through his dark eyes.
But in the end, he simply turned around and walked out of the locker room.
The moment the door shut behind him, Gi-hyeon pushed the thought aside, stripped off the last of his clothes, and stepped into the shower.