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Young-min has never been this bored to death before. When Seung-tak passes by, he grabs the opportunity to grab his arm and pull him to the side. “Yah, aren’t you too old for a birthday party like this?”
The handsome resident pouts in reply.
It’s irresistibly cute - Go Seung-tak always is, and so is his every expression, but this is not an answer to Young-min’s question. “What?”
Seung-tak’s reply, this time, is a heavy sigh. “My mother,” he grumbles. “I couldn’t say no to it.”
Young-min cranes his neck to survey the room and finds Seung-tak’s mother chatting animatedly with a young lady who’s Seung-tak’s age.
“Matchmaking,” Seung-tak explains, following his gaze. “My birthday is just an excuse. She’s invited all the young ladies from all over Seoul—” He pauses to take a swig of his drink. “I’m supposed to—”
“A marriage meet?” Young-min chuckles, picturing Go Seung-tak around women trying hard to catch his attention. “Like they used to have in some cultures more than a century ago—”
“There’s no need to make fun.” Seung-tak looks disapproving of it. “I’m not at all interested in engaging in artificial conversations with these young ladies, trying to talk to them about our likes and dislikes.”
“Why not?” While Young-min found the idea of Seung-tak surrounded by ladies hilarious a moment ago, now it’s a little unsettling. And it leads him to another conclusion that leaves him rather displeased: the young man will eventually marry and settle down with a young woman of his status. “You’re a natural flirt,” he points out, recollecting how he used to be all charming around the ladies in the hospital reception. “You have the charisma—”
“But I’m not interested.”
Young-min studies his face. Why would he not be interested? The question perks him up, but the answer deflates him again. “Because you’re in love with someone else?”
Seung-tak sighs what’s clearly a yes.
And Young-min feels all the more like a flat tire. “Who is it?” He wants to know, yet, he doesn’t.
The handsome resident looks flustered. “I can’t tell you.”
“So there is someone.” Young-min grips his glass tighter. Any more pressure would crack it. “Tell me—”
“I told you I can’t,” Seung-tak turns him down, agitated. “And now, if you’ll excuse me—” he quickly turns his face away “—I must go back. Omma will be waiting for me.”
He’s about to get away, but Young-min grabs his wrist and pulls him back. “You’re not leaving unless you tell me who it is.” And he’s pissed off for a different reason. “And if this is a bloody marriage meet, why the hell have I been invited?”
“Because I wanted you here,” Seung-tak says. “Those women there—” he looks around at the horde of guests gathered “—are strangers, people I don’t care about, so I wanted to invite those I do care for and—”
“It’s her, isn’t it?” Young-min demands, when he spots Intern Oh at a distance. “You care for her.”
Seung-tak looks at him for a moment. “Of course I do. Why is that even surprising?”
Not surprising. And the way Seung-tak expects him to take his affection for his classmate to be obvious is… disappointing. Far more than that, actually. “Tell me, Go Seung-tak,” Young-min goes on, glaring at the pretty intern, “why bother going through this when you’ve already decided on who you want?”
“Because I—” Seung-tak looks distressed “—I can’t have what my heart asks for because—”
“Because?”
Seung-tak takes a deep breath to compose himself. “I can’t have the one my heart yearns for.”
Young-min turns back to Intern Oh. “And why?”
“Because nothing will ever happen between us,” Seung-tak quietly laments. “Because he doesn’t think of me like that—”
“Oh, he will—” Young-min halts when something hits him like a bolt of lightning. “Wait—” He goes back to what he just heard. “He? What do you mean, he?”
“Nothing.” Seung-tak blinks hard. “I should go back—”
“You weren’t talking about Intern Oh?”
“You thought I’m in love with Intern Oh?”
Young-min stares at him. “You’re not?”
Seung-tak shakes his head. “She’s a friend. A dear friend. Nothing more. There’s someone else. Someone I—”
But he stops abruptly, causing a pang of something inexplicable in Young-min’s chest. Unless he’s entirely mistaken or a complete idiot, if it’s not Intern Oh, it has to be… But no, he can’t assume. He has to be completely certain. And for that, he has to hear it from the man himself. And for that, he has to poke and prod him until he comes clean.
“Go Seung-tak—”
“You should mingle with the guests,” Seung-tak dismisses him before he can continue. “There’s Dr. Jang there. She’ll welcome your company.”
“She’s had my company for years,” Young-min dismisses in return.
“Then I’m sure she’ll enjoy more of it.” There’s a touch of jealousy in the resident’s voice.
And that springs up a fresh sprout of hope in Young-min’s heart.
“Not interested,” Young-min softly assures him. Sidling up to his companion, he peers into Seung-tak’s eyes. “There’s only one person here I’m interested in, Go Seung-tak.”
That brings down Seung-tak’s restlessness. Those warm brown eyes probe his. “What do you mean?”
“I’ll tell you if you tell me who is the one you like.”
Seung-tak goes back to looking disturbed. “There’s no point. He doesn’t—”
“What if I tell you he does, Takie?”
Seung-tak’s lips part. “Professor—”
Young-min reaches between them, behind the table hiding them from the view of the crowd to take the young man’s hand.
“Professor,” Seung-tak whispers.
Young-min can feel the blood pulse through his veins. This can’t be happening. Yet… yet it felt real. He can’t be making a move like this, and yet, it feels like the only thing he should be doing, because it feels right.
“Your mother intended this party as a means for you to find someone,” Young-min says, his voice so low that only the two of them can hear him. “So why don’t you do that, Go Seung-tak?” Young-min slides closer, his eyes on Seung-tak’s, his thumb, caressing Seung-tak’s knuckles. “Why don’t you—”
“Let go of my hand,” Seung-tak panics, his eyes flitting across the hall. “Let me—”
“On one condition.” Nudging his face to his companion’s, Young-min breathes into his ear, “Meet me at the pub. You know which one—”
“I know,” Seung-tak cuts him off.
“There’s so much we need to talk about.” Young-min can feel the goosebumps at the back of his neck when he looks forward to how this night will unfold “Promise me you’ll come—”
“But I can’t just—” Seung-tak looks helpless, yet, there’s a gleam in his eyes. As if he wants to get out of there and get on with him at some place, cozy. “I can’t abscond from my own party.”
Young-min gives it a thought. “My place later tonight.”
A streak of red rushes up Go Seung-tak’s neck. “You mean—”
“Yes.” This is even better than meeting at the pub. “We’ll talk, have a drink or two, one thing at a time and then—” Young-min smiles. “We’ll see where that leads us.”
For the first time since they’d begun this conversation, Seung-tak smiles back at him.
“So you’ll come?” Young-min eagerly asks.
“Yes.” Those gorgeous dimples deepen, tempting Young-min to stick out his fingers and poke them. “On one condition, professor.”
“Yes?”
Seung-tak looks down. “Let go of my hand.”
Young-min releases him.
“I should go now,” Seung-tak says, an edge of excitement to his voice. “Else people might wonder what’s up.”
“Nei, you should,’ Young-min agrees. “See you in a while, Takie. And don’t be late like you always are. It’s not right for a man to keep his boyfriend waiting.”
Seung-tak nods and turns away, but after a few paces, retraces his steps and comes back to Young-min’s corner. “Wait—” He turns around. “Did you say… boyfriend?”
“Of course. Didn’t you just confess—”
“Aniyo.” Seung-tak touches his ear. It’s red as a beet, like it always is when the young man is flustered or excited. “I was just—”
Young-min steps forward, silencing him.
“I didn’t confess, professor,” Seung-tak hoarsely denies, taking a step backwards when Young-min advances. “You asked me to come and meet you later tonight, and I agreed.”
“That’s the first step, jagiya.” He closes in on Seung-tak again, leaving him with nowhere to go. He wants to stay like this, trapped in the seductive imprisonment of Seung-tak’s intense gaze. The young man may deny all he wants, but eyes are truly the windows to one’s heart and soul. In Seung-tak’s, Young-min can see a thirst for love and affection and more. He can see himself, a future that’s both rosy and muttered with its share of thorns. “Now that we’ve sailed past the first hurdle—” He glances down at Seung-tak’s lush lips, that broad chest rising and falling at a frantic pace “—I’m sure we’ll get to the ‘I love yous’ when the time is right, Seung-tak ah.”
A second more of lingering, then a slight nod, and Young-min steps back. He turns to leave, when Seung-tak stops him with a soft, “Professor.”
Young-min wheels around to face him.
“There’s no such thing as the right time. Because it is now.” Seung-tak’s eyes are no longer a storm. It’s as if he has made peace with something inside him when he says, “I love you.”
Young-min is tongue-tied for a while. But it doesn’t take him long to recover. “I told you so.”
“Here I am, pouring my heart out and—” Seung-tak frowns. “Is that all you have in reply to my—”
“I love you, too,” Young-min confesses. “I have, for a long time now.”
Their eyes converse for a brief moment. Young-min has an unbearable urge to grab the young man and kiss him hard, but - he sighs - that will, unfortunately, have to wait a while.
“Later,” Seung-tak promises him, reading his mind.
“Later,” Young-min says.
When Seung-tak is gone, he’s left staring after him for a while, trying to come to terms with what had just happened. Then, smiling to himself, Young-min follows him into the crowd.
He can’t wait for later tonight.