Jinha was a little surprised, but he recalled Dohee's words that he wouldn't wake up until morning and tried to regain his composure. But what was this, Doyoung's eyebrows trembled, and his closed eyes opened.
Doyoung's jet-black pupils were revealed, and his gaze met Jinha's.
Jinha flinched. He was self-aware enough to know that it would be honestly terrifying for someone to wake up to him watching them like this in the middle of the night.
What if he screams? What if he gets angry? What excuse should I make? In that brief moment, Jinha's mind raced.
But unlike all of Jinha's imaginings, Doyoung, who had made eye contact, soon gave a bright, child-like smile.
"Oh, it's Lee Jinha."
At that, Jinha's body froze solid.
"Jinha, why aren't you sleeping. Hurry and sleep. I'm... sleepy…."
And just like that, he selfishly fell back into a peaceful sleep with a comfortable expression.
Jinha, left alone and frozen in the darkness, hung his head low.
"...Ha. Cha Doyoung. Really."
Lee Jinha had absolutely no immunity to that kind of defenseless affection.
So, how could he not completely surrender to Doyoung, who smiled so prettily upon seeing his face, even while half-asleep?
"What are you trying to do to me, really."
A large ember fell into Jinha's heart, glowing as it dropped.
[WARNING] [WARNING] [WARNING] [A fatal error has occurred.] [Error Location: Lee Jinha] [A fatal error has occurred.] [Error Location: Lee Jinha] [A fatal error has occurred.] [Error Location: Lee Jinha] [A fatal error has occurred.] [Error Location: Lee Jinha] [ERROR] [Cannot be restored.] [Cannot be restored.] [Cannot be restored.] [Cannot be restored.] [WARNING] [This is seriously impacting system operation.]
Doyoung, who woke from sleep, as always, twisted his body and stretched on the bed, his eyes half-open. Then, at some point, he let out an "Eok" sound and flinched.
'My arms and legs feel like a thousand pounds, my goodness….'
There wasn't a single part of his body that wasn't screaming. He really should have covered himself in pain relief patches before sleeping. How did he even think to carry him? It was the glorious muscle pain gifted to him by the "brave" Cha Doyoung.
He thought it would be a peaceful, normal morning, aside from that. But right in front of Doyoung's eyes, there was something else that wasn't normal.
'What's this.'
[Update required.]
What is it? How do I do it?
Doyoung was flustered by the random warning window.
'Why an update all of a sudden?'
There weren't any other buttons, so he just waved his hand around the warning window, and more messages popped up.
[This task requires a considerable amount of time to prepare.] [It can only proceed once all preparations are complete.] [The system may not operate properly at this time.] [Caution required.]
"What the," Doyoung spat out, his eyes shaking with agitation.
The phrases 'Update' and 'considerable amount of time' made him feel like something huge was waiting for him. What would change after the update? It was something Doyoung couldn't easily imagine.
'Why is this happening all of a sudden? Did something happen last night?'
He quickly looked to the side, and Jinha was sleeping so sweetly on the floor that he felt a bit of his tension drain.
No, he wasn't sure if "sweetly" was the right expression. 'Why is this kid sleeping on top of the blanket, not under it?' He was sleeping peacefully, as if he'd fainted, but doing so outside the blanket, it certainly didn't seem like a peaceful sleeping habit.
'Was he hot? Was he boiling because of Lady Cha Dohee's generous boiler?'
He reached down and touched the floor, but it wasn't particularly hot. If so, he might just be a person who runs hot. But even so, he was a guest, and he couldn't let him catch a cold in his house. Doyoung, feeling overly worried, pulled his own blanket over and gently covered Jinha.
After doing so, Doyoung stood by the bed for a moment, scratching his forehead.
It was because, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember what happened last night. He couldn't figure out how he'd ended up sleeping in his bed.
'Um... uh... I was waiting for Jinha, who was washing dishes at the table.'
Unfortunately, that was the end of his memory.
He felt like he'd vaguely seen Jinha while sleeping, but he couldn't tell if it was a dream or reality.
Doyoung guessed that the atmosphere between those two must have gotten better while he was asleep. For him to think of sleeping over, for her to think of letting him. A pleased smile spread across his lips.
'I was planning to work so hard in the middle to help, but what's this. They're doing fine without me?'
He was proud of himself for falling asleep early and felt like patting himself on the head.
'See. It seems to be going well enough.'
But why?
Was it because he saw that weird update message first thing in the morning? He couldn't stop a corner of his heart from pounding with anxiety.
Just then, he heard a clattering sound from outside. Doyoung snapped to his senses and left the room with careful steps so as not to wake Jinha. He quietly closed the door and looked, and Dohee was in the kitchen. "Oh, Oppa, you're up already?" she asked.
"You're the one who's up already... I fell asleep so early, of course I should be up."
'What's wrong with me these days?'
No matter how weak the original Cha Doyoung's body was, it was flustering to just suddenly fall asleep anywhere, like a dead battery shutting off. Was he overestimating Cha Doyoung's stamina and running wild? In any case, it seemed his actions were a burden on Dohee, and Doyoung looked a little crestfallen. Dohee just smiled.
"You can be like that if you're tired. And you really overdid it yesterday."
"…That's true. When I woke up this morning, I thought my body was going to break."
Doyoung went and stood next to the busy Dohee and asked.
"But what are you doing?"
"Hm, breakfast. We ate so poorly yesterday."
"Poorly…?"
"If we were supposed to eat twice but only ate once before sleeping, that's definitely insufficient."
'Even though that one time was a meat party so big our stomachs were about to burst?'
While Doyoung looked on dubiously, Dohee, who seemed to be preparing another grand feast, bustled around. She pulled out a giant bag. It was filled with all-sorts of bread. ...Did she rob a bakery?
"Do you like bread?"
Doyoung nodded his head vigorously at Dohee's question.
'There was a lot of bread in that convenience store bag I unexpectedly donated to the streets yesterday…'
Doyoung was thinking this wistfully, then suddenly looked up and asked Dohee.
"But where did all this bread come from? We didn't have any."
"I went out for a bit yesterday. Didn't you see his clothes are normal now?"
"Huh? Oh, you're right!"
"He was pretending to be fine with the dinosaur clothes, but he was so happy when I gave him normal ones."
Doyoung burst out laughing, imagining it.
'So the atmosphere was good.' Doyoung, his mouth twitching noticeably, slid a question to Dohee.
"Did you go together? How was it? Was it fun?"
"Hm? No? I went alone."
"No, why? What? You sent a girl out alone when it was dark?"
Doyoung got angry, and his internal score for Jinha was about to drop.
"No, he was a dinosaur."
"Ah, right."
Dohee giggled, saying it was a stupid conversation. Her following words, that if he had followed her in the dinosaur clothes she would have just abandoned him in the street, sounded so genuine they were scary.
Doyoung was extremely disappointed. Originally, they were supposed to go out together for that kind of thing, for a lovey-dovey date, asking 'Should we buy this?', 'Or that?', 'Aii, no, that's too much.'
It was a scenario that couldn't be achieved this time due to unavoidable circumstances, but he secretly strengthened his resolve to make it happen next time.
As Doyoung was getting plates to help with breakfast, Dohee spoke.
"Forget that. Go wake up 'that thing I don't know if it's a bear, a dog, or a wolf' so we can eat together."
At that, Doyoung blinked his round eyes even wider and stared at Dohee.
'A bear, a dog, or a wolf...? Is she talking about Jinha right now?'
Doyoung was confused by Dohee's inscrutable words.
'How did he get that nickname? But... it's also weird that 'dinosaur' isn't in that list.'
"Did something happen yesterday?"
"I don't think I'm the one things 'happened' with."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Who knows? That's what I'd like to ask. What do I mean?"
....
'Don't I misunderstand what these kids are saying too often these days? Is this that... generation gap?'
He had no idea, so after bickering for a bit asking her to tell him, Dohee's roar of "Just go wake him up so we can eat!" finally erupted, and Doyoung tucked his tail and fled to his room.
Tak. The door closed again, and the room was so quiet it was filled only with the sound of Jinha's breathing.
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