Chapter 010

✥ Kyujong and his aunt made it to the street, Kyujong carrying his uncle’s weight through one arm around his neck, meanwhile his aunt fetched for a taxi. As she waved her small hands out beside passing cars, the ringing of her phone suddenly drew her away from it. Kyujong waited patiently as she dug her purse to answer the call. After taking the call, her motive changed and she ordered Kyujong to bring his uncle back with him, to the hotel. After taking care of her business she’ll come for the old man she had commented.

The lady quickly flee afterwards and ignored any objections Kyujong had. When he said there were no more rooms, he meant it. Kyujong could only sigh as he was out of any other options and decided to return with his uncle.

Before the clock struck midnight, Kyujong had carried his uncle up the few floor with the help of his male employee. Once they fully made their way into his office, he heads toward the couches immediately and let his uncle down there. While making sure the drunk older man was comfortable in his sleep, Kyujong was a stranger to what was happening across the room. Youngsaeng had fallen asleep at his desk.

Kyujong sighed and was panting from having to carry the old man who weighed over 150 pounds. As he used one of the throw pillow to hold his uncle’s head, he got up to find a sheet to cover the lad. It was then when the top of Youngsaeng’s head caught his attention from the corner of his eyes. As Kyujong’s breathing quickly recover, he made his way toward Youngsaeng—careful not to wake him. He sighed after scanning the state of Youngsaeng’s sleeping position. He assumed it wasn’t comfortable and Youngsaeng could easily sprained his neck sleeping with the side of his side resting against the table.

To assure Youngsaeng’s comfort, Kyujong gathered all of his strength to take Youngsaeng into the storage room where the single person bed was. As he set Youngsaeng down gentle, he gazed toward the footing and found his nicely folded up blue blanket. Slowly Kyujong unfolded the sheet and laid it over Youngsaeng’s body before lowering the end against Youngsaeng’s normal pacing chest. In the dim room, Kyujong stared at Youngsaeng’s sleeping face. It had been a while since he had seen the lad slept.

“It would have been better if you didn’t lose your memories, Youngsaeng,” Kyujong whispered softly to himself, “you wouldn’t be pitiful that way…. It would have been better if you just yelled at me for cutting ties, but why did you have to lose your memories?” Without another word, Kyujong stood near the door and watch Youngsaeng for a long time.

When morning rose it was peaceful throughout the whole hotel. Customers came and go and employees grabbed their cups of coffees to began their day. On the other hand, Kyujong who had fallen asleep in his seat was woken by the screams of two people. Thinking something had happened, Kyujong got out of his chair and sprint over to the storage room, where he found his uncle, shirtless, under the sheets with Youngsaeng. The two had woken up and realized they were in the same bed, as strangers they had freaked out upon eye contact. Youngsaeng who was supposed to be closest to the walls were now hanging off the bed while the elder glued his to the wall.

Youngsaeng’s eyes were so wide open that Kyujong thought they would pop out from his head, meanwhile his uncle was the one responsible for the loudest scream and was hugging his own unclothed body with his raggy arms.

Kyujong sighed and brushed a hand over his hair when he was relieved that it wasn’t anything major. Though his uncle and Youngsaeng thought differently. Without knowing what was going to happen, Mr. Jung kicked Youngsaeng out from under the bed, causing the younger to stumbled off and nearly fell after trying to find his balance.

Once Mr. Jung was fully dressed and Youngsaeng had washed up, the two stood side by side in front of Kyujong’s desk. Kyujong noticed the awkward air and atmosphere around his two guests but decided not to do anything about it. “Mr. Jung, you should go home before Mrs. Jung gets even angrier at you. I’ll call and explain it to her so by the time you get home she won’t ask you too many questions,”

“Kyujong,”

“There should be a car ready and waiting out front for you. I had it set up when you were getting dress,”

Mr. Jung could only let out a nervous chuckle before swallowing his own saliva down his dried throat. The old man was still shivering and couldn’t shake off the image he saw earlier. Him waking up in the same bed and under the same sheets, half , with another man who’s a stranger was a scary thought. “Oh, thank you Kyujong….But,” the older male made sure he caught a glimpse of Kyujong’s eyes before continuing, “this isn’t what it looks like,”

“I know,” Kyujong answered without batting an eye, “I’ll keep this a secret from Mrs. Jung too. Don’t worry and just go home, I’ll take care of everything,”

Mr. Jung tried to control his shaking hands by rubbing it down his thighs shielded by his black dress pants. Youngsaeng stood still with his eyes fixed on the window and scene past Kyujong’s shoulders. Mr. Jung took another look at Youngsaeng, now curious what his identity was and how he got into Kyujong’s room. But instead of asking, he soon fled the room without further question and comments. Once he had shut the door to the office, Kyujong spoke up to clear the silence in the room. “How come you didn’t even feel him climbing over you?” Kyujong striked, catching Youngsaeng off guard.

“What do you mean?” The lad could only asked with a blank expression.

“You were the only one who was supposed to use that bed last night, but how couldn’t you have felt him climb over you and getting into bed with you?” Kyujong’s voice was rather harsh, compare to his tone from before, when speaking to his uncle.

“Why does it matter? We didn’t do anything inappropriate and also we’re both guys. Even you and I used to do that—”

“That was only one time and it wasn’t supposed to happen,” Kyujong swiftly cut Youngsaeng off, putting a frown onto Youngsaeng’s face.

“Why are you acting like this towards me? Are you angry because I can’t remember what happened or are you embarrassed to have me around?” Youngsaeng’s question came off as someone ready to burst into tears for being a burden. “If you hated me so much then why do I have to be here?”

A wave of guilt wash over Kyujong and he realized he didn’t mean to be spoke so cold toward his friend. Slowly Kyujong stood up from his seat. Afterall Youngsaeng still had the mindset of a junior in high school. Back then, they were so close they weren’t ashamed of hiding their affection as friends for one another. But now Kyujong can’t stand for those affectionate actions, because if it was coming from Youngsaeng now, he knew his feelings would only deepen. “Sorry, it’s just…. I’m not the same Kyujong you know from seven years ago. Things have changed Youngsaeng, I have changed,” Kyujong said softly, leaving the room dead silent for a good second. “I’m not angry at you… I’m not embarrassed to have you here. I just…. I just don’t want you to be too nice around me,”

“But why?” Youngsaeng asked, sincerely confused by the reason behind Kyujong’s words.

“Because I’m afraid I’ll have to steal you away from your wife,” Kyujong replied, looking directly into Youngsaeng’s wet eyes, “and I know the you, if the you hadn’t lost your memories, that you wouldn’t want it to be that way,” Youngsaeng couldn’t say a word to confront or comfort Kyujong as he was just as confused. To him Junghwa was no one special. She was supposedly his wife but how can he love her when he had no memories of her. “I know how much you loved and cherished Junghwa,”

Youngsaeng flatten his eyes a bit, “If I was really that good to her then how come any memories I’ve had with her are all gone? If I loved her that much and cherished her more than I did you then why? Why Kyujong?”

“I wouldn’t know why,” Kyujong mumbled but the sudden stern look on Youngsaeng face showed that he wasn’t convinced.

“Liar,”

It was Kyujong’s turn to become confused, “What?”

Without knowing what was to come next, Youngsaeng reached into his pants pocket and quickly pulled out a necklace. One that had a globe on it. Kyujong recognize the accessory right away and couldn’t think of what was going through Youngsaeng’s head. Why would Youngsaeng have his necklace? Why was he holding it up at their eye levels? Especially when it was certainly a memory Youngsaeng had no recollection of. “In the seven years that I can’t remember, you had this made and showed it to me, didn’t you?”

“When did you get that?” Kyujong asked but the answer came to him immediately. Remembering how Youngsaeng was given a whole afternoon to be up in his office, there were no doubts that Youngsaeng hadn’t tried to entertain himself by searching for something to do the job.

“Vividly I remember you having a drawing similar to the looks of his necklace in your diary, the diary you carried everywhere with you. On the paper and you once said you wanted to give the world on a necklace to the one you liked, but why do you have it? Or did you make a lot of these?”

Kyujong looked from the necklace to Youngsaeng, uncertain of what Youngsaeng was trying to get at. A Youngsaeng who wasn’t supposed to remember events from seven years ago is bringing up a more recent event. “Why are you curious?”

“Answer me Kyujong, you’ve told me about the girls you liked back then, so why do you still have this?”

Kyujong heaved a sharp sigh before speaking, “I made multiple copies of those necklaces, happy?” Without waiting further for Youngsaeng to question him, Kyujong made his escape walking out of the room and ignored any words that came out from Youngsaeng’s mouth when he was trying to keep him in.

In the halls Kyujong made the call to Mrs. Jung, explaining the details of last night. Then once the call was over, he was confronted by Sungyeol about today’s schedule. Though they were in the same building, Youngsaeng couldn’t find Kyujong at all throughout the day as he toured the hotel. Until he caught Sungyeol at the elevator alone.

“How are the tourists doing?” Youngsaeng asked the tall  man first before jumping on Kyujong’s case. Sungyeol who was holding onto a clipboard and pen nodded to begin with.

“Surprisingly they haven’t caused any more trouble. Also they were very thankful for what Kyu-I mean for what President had done yesterday. You know, with the kid,”  As the two entered the elevator together, their conversation didn’t stop there.

“I’m only asking because I’m curious,”

“Yeah?” Sungyeol hummed right away.

“Last time when I asked you what kind of a president he was, you said he was lazy but a good president,”

“I did,” Sungyeol answered.

“Then, for the past two years has all he been doing is managing the hotel?”

“Yeah, but why are you asking me that?” Sungyeol asked, confused by Youngsaeng’s question.

“Do you know where he is right now?” Youngsaeng sudden change of question left Sungyeol quiet to think for a moment before answering.

“Yeah, he said he didn’t get much rest last night so I believe he went back to the office,”

Sungyeol words ring true when Youngsaeng arrived at the office alone. On one of the couch Kyujong was seen sleeping on his side, facing away from the couch’s cushion. In front of him, Youngsaeng  got himself comfortable on the floor as he observed Kyujong’s sleeping face. “Idiot, if you have stopped me then, I would have accepted the necklace,” Youngsaeng whispered before gently brushing Kyujong’s hair away from his face, “It’s been two years, but you haven’t changed at all. I hope when you find out, you won’t hate me for pretending to have lost my memories. I’m only doing this for you Kyujong,”

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