Chapter 8.9

“I think I should head home. Aren’t you leaving?” Yuna asked.

“What time is it?”

“It’s almost 12 am.”

Jaeyoung blinked his dry eyes and looked at his wristwatch. When did it get so late? Had he left school, fed Sungjin, and returned to school by around 7 pm? After that, he worked almost nonstop. He felt tired as he stretched out. Yuna showed interest in his work.

“You’ve been working so hard lately? What is it? If it’s something good, let me know.”

‘How can I explain?…’

Jaeyoung thought about it for a while and answered in the simplest way he could.

“Mobile game.”

“You’re really into it. It seems like it’s a lot of fun?”

He nodded, since he couldn’t say he did it because he wanted the developer’s praise. The moment he thought that he should head home after grabbing a cup of coffee, he received a message.

……………

Employer: It’s five minutes before midnight. I’m sending you a reminder since I haven’t received an email yet.

11:55

……………

It was as if he had copied and pasted the most recent message since the content was the same, but Jaeyoung was already bewitched by Chu Sangwoo, so he was excited to see even such businesslike content. This time, he had worked hard and had a pile of materials to send. He opened the mailbox and stopped after attaching the image.

He suddenly had an ulterior motive, so instead of sending the email, he leaned back and crossed his arms. He looked at his cell phone for three minutes while shaking his legs. As soon as it turned 12 a.m. on the dot, his phone rang.

Jaeyoung waited for six seconds before answering the phone. He set the volume as low as possible and…

“Yeah, Sangwoo.”

– … yes?

“Why did you call?”

– Uh… deadline, 12 o’clock… it’s midnight, but I haven’t received an email so… I called.

“Hyung forgot. Thank you for calling. I’ll send it right away.

– ……….

“Did you have dinner?”

–    Yes.

“What did you eat?”

– Food at the school cafeteria. Why?

“What was the menu?”

– Cooked millet, soybean paste soup, kimchi, sausage with stirred vegetables, fried anchovies, and yogurt. Why are you asking?

“Cause I wanted to hear your voice.”

– ………..

“I like to hear people’s voices, you know.”

– You have a strange hobby. I’m hanging up.

It was cut off before he could answer. Jaeyoung tilted his head. The result of his experiment was negative. If Sangwoo was interested in him, he wouldn’t have responded like that and quickly ended the call.

‘As expected, it was a delusion.’

If so, he’d rather be relieved. Yuna was murmuring from behind.

“Crazy, what was that just now?”

“What?”

“What did you do to your voice and tone? I’m gonna throw up.”

“Fuck off.”

Knowing Sangwoo, he was probably fully aware of his own state. A symptom of love: a state where there were no obligations but free thrills instead. He enjoyed this period the most in a relationship. If his feelings developed even further at this point, the situation would become complicated, dirty, and perhaps dangerous, but as long as he maintained this ‘line,’ there was no need to worry. Jaeyoung was this confident because he’d never once lost himself in his emotions.

‘Anyway, I’m furiously wiping a fruit that I won’t even get to taste.’

Jaeyoung bitterly smiled at the images filling up the folder. If Chu Sangwoo hadn’t played tricks on his junior, he wouldn’t have been dragged around helplessly like this. He opened the mailbox and attached the file he had worked hard on.

Email sent. Task completed.

⌘W

“I checked the file you sent. It’s fine overall, but I have a few things to point out.”

The Chu Sangwoo he saw the next day looked like a robot whose parts had still been unoiled. Without even making eye contact with Jaeyoung, he opened the file he had received the previous day on his laptop. Sangwoo zoomed in on the picture and pointed at the corner with his finger.

“Do you see the broken pixel? Fix it, please.”

“Does it look like that on the phone?”

“It’s fine if you gather small details together to make it complete. Please pay attention.”

Next, two images of weapons were displayed alternately.

“This part should be like a color code, but it’s different. Fix it, please.”

He had the eyes of a hawk. It was a completely unimportant detail, but he wasn’t wrong, so he didn’t have anything to say. After pointing out a few more things in that same manner, Sangwoo sorted the folders by filename.