Chapter 10 -

Damn it..! I keep getting calls from Daehyun the moment I start doing something outside my phone. 

I had been boiling some delicious noodles that were in the fridge, Eliam made those yesterday, and they absolutely cannot go to waste.

I was busy stirring the pot when Eliam tapped on my shoulder. 

I turned around, to see him, my phone in hand.

"Uh.. I'll take that.."

I lightly tried gripping the phone out of his hands, his stare making me shudder.

Was he jealous of me..? That I was meeting with Daehyun? 

(No you idiot, he's jealous of Daehyun!! D:<)

I don't get it. Then the only explanation was that he didn't remember what we did last night. 

I sighed as I stared at the calling screen. What do you call a feeling of relief, disappointment, and a little bit of dread at the same time? That was pretty much what I was going through.

"Hello?"

Through the call, Daehyun's voice echoed.

"12pm. At the restaurant near the mall. Meet me there. I've got something important to ask."

"Hm.. Okay then. Are you buying food?"

"Whatever. Just come."

"Fine. See you there I guess!"

I looked at the screen for a while, the call not ending yet.

"Okay! I'll end the call- What the hell?! My noodle pot is overboiling! Goodbye!"

"Haha, sure. See you soon."

I sat down and ate my bowl quietly, Eliam's gaze boring into me with concern.

I broke the silence between us.

"So.. Eliam, If you want.. You can come with me, I can buy you stuff or something else, and I can leave early, So you and Jaehwa can catch up on things I'm not aware about?"

He stared at me curiously, seemingly thinking about it.

"What do you mean 'catch up'? There's nothing to catch up on with him, Leon."

He responded.

"Oh, Um, right! Nevermind! I'll just-"

"You can go, Leon. I'm not stopping you. Don't get that idea."

Eliam said, leaning in closer.

I stared back at him, our faces now a few inches away.

Man, what the hell. How does he always make me nervous like this? Does personal space not exist for him? The Eliam I read about never liked getting close with people… 

I backed off, before he could touch my face, grabbing my empty bowl to place in the sink. 

As I washed, I nervously asked Eliam behind me, still observing me do the most mundane things for some reason.

"I still have a couple hours before I leave. What do you wanna do?"

Eliam's bright eyes gazed at the living room in the distance, then he spoke.

"Hm? I know."

He slowly turned off the lights.

Sometimes I tell myself, there's literally no need to worry about anything. I didn't do anything wrong. No need to worry. Just meeting up with a scary person who started talking to me more after I caught him fucking in public. Nothing to worry about at all! Honestly no big deal. 

I spent the last hours at the dorm comfortably cuddling with Eliam while watching a series on the TV that I was so thankful also existed in this world. Don't know why Eliam lets me get away with having contact with him, but I hope that he just trusts me, the most I could ask for from Eliam. And for a moment, when he turned off the lights, I thought we were gonna have sex again.. Embarrassing myself, we just watched movies. 

I looked down on myself, sitting inside the busy restaurant. Wonder what he's gonna talk to me about. How to have sex with your girlfriend without getting

caught or something? I swear this world wouldn't just leave me alone. But I'm not one to refuse giving someone help. Even if it's something as bizarre as that, I probably could come up with a couple solutions, hopefully.

I suddenly felt a looming tall figure above me.

"Boo."

"What?!" I looked up, surprised to see him a full 15 minutes early. I was planning to play on my phone at least… but hello, Daehyun.

Daehyun smiled with a positive look plastered on his flawless face, his dark, tidy hair and expensive appearance shining. At this point, these characters should be famous just for their looks.

The initially loud and crowded restaurant went silent as he pulled a chair to sit in front of me. Everyone was looking our way. I guess I had gotten so used to seeing someone like Eliam that their attractiveness didn't even make me want to collapse beside them anymore.

"So… you came, huh?"

"Well, does it look like I didn't? Am I made of air?"

"Pfft, no. And I can clearly spot an adorable nervous kitten around here."

"What? Where? Where is it?" I looked around for this nervous kitten. Did they allow pets in this restaurant?

He placed his hand under my chin, suddenly stopping me from looking around and forcing me to face him only. "Right here."

I immediately backed off, away from him in disbelief. "That's… so dumb!" I scolded, unable to look at him after that move.

"Really, Leon?" Daehyun questioned, looking at me all huddled up in embarrassment on a chair.

"Yes, really! Now tell me why I'm here, why you're here, and why everything!"

"That's a lot of 'why' questions."

"Just tell me what we're doing."

He paused for a moment, then answered bluntly, "Let's go on a date."

"Huh? What? Are we going to the calendar…?"

"Okay, don't be stupid. You heard me clearly."

Oh right. Let's go on a date. While you have a girlfriend, let's go on a date with some random guy who randomly confessed to you about two business weeks ago! How normal.

I didn't expect it, but this guy was decent to talk to. Although he avoided my questions about his girlfriend. For the next couple of hours, he took me to the movies, even though I had already watched one with Eliam that morning. I offered to pay, but he said he was worth more than my dad's 'tiny' company since he was part of one of the largest chaebols—whatever that meant. I didn't grow up here enough to feel offended by that, so that was that.

I chose the horror movie. Horror is good, but maybe not this one.

"Hey… don't be angry like that, Leon."

"You didn't need to scare me every time there was silence! Everyone looked at me!" I scowled at him, trying to dodge Daehyun's advances.

"Well, it was kinda funny. But I'm sorry, okay?"

"Whatever. You… owe me ice cream."

"Deal. I'll get you anything you want."

"The whole country?"

"I meant not anything."

"See, you're a big liar!" I ran away jokingly, letting him chase after me to the ice cream store.

I happily licked my ice cream. It was only after I looked at him that I started to feel a strange sense of him observing me carefully as I enjoyed the cold dessert. That's… okay.

"So, I've been wanting to ask something, but I've been way too busy doing stuff until now. Why did you bring me here?"

Daehyun hesitated, then locked eyes with me, making me nervous about what was going to come out of his mouth. "I was just curious. You were with that Eliam guy, then with Jaehwa."

"Oh right… What do you know about Eliam?" I asked curiously. From what I've read, Daehyun didn't know anything about Eliam until Jaehwa made Eliam sign some papers. I don't remember it clearly.

"I know he and Jaehwa were fuckbuddies."

He said, like it was the most normal thing to say at that moment.

"You knew..?"

"Well, were, past tense, fuckbuddies. Until you came."

"Hey, I did not do anything special. They probably had a really bad argument, I hope they'll solve it and get back together as buddies, maybe not necessarily with the 'fuck' in front."

Daehyun started staring even deeper into me, I couldn't tell what his thoughts were.

"You did. That's what I wanted to find out."

"Okay fine, give me an example."

"I treat you differently than I should."

He smirked, making me feel uneasy about his next response.

"What are you talking about?"

"I despise being around gays. When you had confessed, I was contemplating beating you up. I'm not 100% sure why I'm even doing all this for you. I wanted to find out why."

He inched in closer and, in a low voice, spoke, "What makes you special?"

First, I'm not from this world. That's why I'm special in terms of physical matter. And now, a lot of memories from the story are coming back to me. There was a reason why he fell in love with Eliam. Daehyun was incredibly homophobic, and at first, I hated him when I read it. I hated all homophobes. Why hate on love? I asked that over and over. It's stupid.

But slowly, as he saw Eliam's difference from the others, he began to change, although he hated gays until he realized he fell in love with Eliam. Why did I forget such a crucial piece of information until it was right in front of me? Just when I started thinking of him as the second closest friend after Eliam.

Then what was the reason behind why he treated me so nicely after I confessed to him before? Even the other students didn't dare to sit with me or talk to me, except for Eliam, Jaehwa, and Daehyun, despite his homophobic tendencies. Eliam was in love with Daehyun, so he never stood up for himself, and he let Daehyun's homophobic and confusing behavior affect his feelings. It was a sad scenario I saw everywhere—not just in manhwas, but in real life. This was just unacceptable to me.

I got up from the table, pissed off. "If there are things in the universe I don't understand, it's black holes, racism, and homophobia."

"But I told you, you're different from all the others."

"The others? You mean the others whose only 'sin' is loving? Have some empathy." I sighed, sitting back down. I still had to finish my ice cream. I couldn't just walk out without paying.

"Right. I'm sorry, Leon."

"Don't be. Not to me, anyway. I'm sorry; this flavor is really good..." I gazed out the window, the noon sun warming up the outside.

With that, his smile returned. "You know, I'm even more impressed now."

"Oh? Yeah, this flavor is impressive."

"Sure… say what you want."

"Why—"

The door suddenly opened, and a familiar figure entered. He approached us, looking worried.

"Leon?" Eliam asked.