Romantic Gangster

#37

“…”

“It seemed like you were sleeping, but I thought maybe you had gone out somewhere. Fuck, I wondered if there was another problem with your pheromones, or if someone had taken you. I had all sorts of thoughts.”

“I’m really sorry. I just laid down for a moment, but I didn’t know I’d fall into such a deep sleep. I’m sorry… You must have waited a long time.”

“Waiting isn’t the problem.”

“…I’m sorry for making you worry. I won’t do it again. If I hadn’t heard from you at the time we were supposed to contact each other, I would have worried a lot too.”

Hyun-joon let out a long sigh, ran his hand through his hair once, and looked at Ji-woo again.

“Hey, release some pheromones.”

“Huh?”

“So I can calm down too.”

“Ah…”

Understanding what he meant, Ji-woo slightly released his pheromones and held out his hand. Hyun-joon’s gaze touched the hand that came forward, then fell away.

“I don’t think that’ll be enough.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t think that level of contact will be enough to stabilize me.”

Ji-woo, who had been quietly looking at Hyun-joon, slightly opened his arms. He had been told that releasing pheromones while holding hands or lightly hugging was better, and since Hyun-joon said hands wouldn’t be enough, the only option left was hugging.

“…Should I hug you then?”

“…Yeah.”

Ji-woo, with his arms slightly open, moved a bit closer and gently wrapped his arms around Hyun-joon’s waist first. Hyun-joon’s body crumpled down in response, embracing Ji-woo’s small body.

In truth, there was a bit of mischief in wanting to touch, but after hugging Ji-woo, Hyun-joon could feel his anxious and nervous heart, which had been churning for hours without contact, truly settling down.

The castella scent that excited him beyond calming his heart was nice, and Ji-woo’s body, warm from just waking up, melted away his anxiety and quickly warmed his heart. It felt so good that even the fatigue accumulated from chasing debtors disappeared completely.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Yeah.”

Suppressing the urge to hug tighter until he could crush Ji-woo, Hyun-joon separated their bodies and took in Ji-woo’s slightly reddened cheeks and ears. Whether it was from releasing pheromones or from hugging him, he didn’t know, but he decided to think it was the latter.

“Hey, hugging is more effective. More than holding hands.”

“…Really? Is it different?”

“Yeah. If just releasing pheromones without touching is about 70%, and holding hands is 100%, then hugging feels like 300%? I get why the teacher mentioned hugging and stuff besides just holding hands.”

Hyun-joon, casually mentioning the school nurse’s words, slowly inhaled the castella scent that was still wafting. Regretfully, he felt he should tell Ji-woo to contain it now. If he inhaled the pheromones just a bit more, another unfortunate incident of getting an erection on the street might occur. He had barely overcome the crisis when Ji-woo’s arms first wrapped around his waist, and he couldn’t collapse now.

“…That’s enough now. You can contain it.”

“Ah, okay.”

Ji-woo nodded and contained his pheromones. He was already slightly feverish from just waking up, and releasing pheromones on top of that made various parts of his body that had touched Hyun-joon feel hot.

“Ah, you must be hungry. Let’s go eat. What do you want to eat?”

“I saw a pizza place on the way here, and now I want pizza.”

“I like pizza too. Let’s go eat pizza. But I don’t really know where’s good… I’ve only had delivered pizza, never eaten at a restaurant. Do you know any good places?”

Although places he saw on the way and a few near the station came to mind, Hyun-joon tilted his head as if he didn’t know. It was an opportunity to have a quiet dinner alone, without any customers or distractions.

“I don’t really know either. I always get it delivered.”

“Then I’ll look it up. Just a moment.”

Watching Ji-woo take out his phone, Hyun-joon subtly leaned towards him. And he gently rubbed his arm against Ji-woo’s shoulder.

“Want to order and eat at my place?”

“Your house?”

“Yeah. On the outdoor deck. It’s cool and nice. The weather’s good too.”

“Isn’t it dark?”

“We can turn on the lamp. If you really don’t like it, we can go inside.”

Watching Ji-woo’s face as he fell into thought for a moment, Hyun-joon felt a bit anxious. He didn’t think Ji-woo would refuse, but there was always tension when waiting for Ji-woo’s answer. He didn’t dislike it. Because when he got the answer he wanted after breaking through that tension, it was several times more thrilling.

“Okay. Let’s do that. I wanted to go to your place again too. The atmosphere on the deck was really nice last time.”

Just like now.

Hyun-joon grinned and gently pressed his palm against Ji-woo’s back, guiding him towards the alley entrance. Although he hadn’t planned for this to happen, he wanted to pat himself on the back for vacuuming this morning and cleaning up fallen leaves and dust on the rooftop. He didn’t particularly like living in a messy place, so it was really fortunate.

“Which pizza place do you like?”

At the voice suddenly breaking into his thoughts, Hyun-joon shifted his gaze sideways. He saw the screen where Ji-woo had accessed the delivery app and searched for “pizza”. It wasn’t cute at all, and anyone in the world would do the same when trying to order pizza through a delivery app, but for some reason, that screen looked insanely cute to him.

“That place won’t be on your phone.”

“…Why? Doesn’t it show up the same for everyone?”

“Anyway, it’s not there.”

Hyun-joon took out his own phone, opened the app, and went to his favorite pizza place. He added the largest size of a half-and-half pizza that he liked and that everyone found delicious without controversy to the cart. He didn’t forget to add extra toppings and a large zero-calorie cola. Although there was plenty of cola at home, for some reason, ordering drinks with delivery food always made it taste better.

“You’re not ordering, are you?”

“I am.”

“No way. I’m going to do it. Quickly tell me where to order from.”

“I told you, it’s not on your phone.”

“Stop talking nonsense and tell me quickly, quickly. I really want to treat you today.”

“Okay, okay. Try typing ‘Seo Ji-woo Pizza’.”

Ji-woo, who had obediently started typing “Seo Ji-woo Pi” into the search bar, realized he was being teased and punched Hyun-joon’s solid arm. It was more of a gesture to stop teasing than an actual punch, so there was no force behind it and of course, it didn’t hurt at all, but Hyun-joon wrapped his hand around where Ji-woo had touched him and pretended to be in pain.

“You’re really beating people up.”

“Then quickly tell me properly.”

“Alright. Lee Young-hee Pizza.”

Hyun-joon laughed as he watched Ji-woo obediently type it into the search bar again, but then frowned when something actually came up in the search results.

“Okay, what should I order from here?”

“What the hell? Why is that actually there? Isn’t Lee Young-hee the homeroom teacher’s name?”

“It’s Jung Hee-young.”

“…Crazy.”

Hyun-joon clicked his tongue and met Ji-woo’s eyes as he looked up asking what to order, then exhaled.

“Then I’ll order the pizza, and if you really want to order something, get ice cream or something like that. I’m ordering the pizza because I eat a lot. One pizza isn’t enough for me. I’ll order as much as I want to eat, so you order dessert. Whatever you want.”

“I can just order as much as you want to eat.”

“I won’t feel comfortable. And I made a lot of money today too. So let me buy it. I’m really hungry. I’m going to order a ton.”

“…Okay. Then next time, let me buy for real.”

“Yeah. Got it.”

“Then I’ll order ice cream. Do you eat yogurt?”

“I can’t eat it. Don’t have any.”

Ji-woo smiled softly at the joking tone and exited Lee Young-hee Pizza to search for the yogurt ice cream he had tried once with Choi Young-jae and found delicious. He remembered each delicious topping from that time and added various things, and although it became quite expensive for ice cream, he ordered it wanting to eat something delicious today without thinking about such things. He didn’t forget to change the delivery address to Hyun-joon’s house.

“Go up first.”

Hyun-joon opened the entrance in front of the stairs leading to the rooftop room. Ji-woo climbed the stairs first. Soon he could feel Hyun-joon following him up. He felt like looking back once, but he didn’t. He couldn’t understand why he didn’t look back.

“Come inside first. It’s not good to stay outside all the time.”

“Okay. Excuse me for intruding.”

“Intrude a lot.”

Hyun-joon opened the rooftop room door and went in first to turn on the lights. He quickly scanned the room with his eyes, wondering if there was any mess he didn’t remember, but of course, there wasn’t. There was nothing to worry about, as there was no chance of Ji-woo finding tissues he had used while masturbating thinking about him.

“Your house is really clean.”

“I cleaned up a bit after a while. How perfect that I cleaned just before you came. Ah, sit on that mattress over there. You can make yourself comfortable.”

“Okay. Can I look around your house a bit more?”

“Sure. There’s not much to see though.”

Ji-woo carefully looked around Hyun-joon’s house. Although it wasn’t decorated in a cute style so there wasn’t much to see, it was just fun to look at things like the comic books packed in the narrow, long bookshelf next to the TV or exercise equipment. It was a completely different atmosphere from his own house, and it was his first time coming to a friend’s house who lived alone like this, so he felt a bit excited somehow.