Don't You Need an Omega Lucky Charm - Chapter 22.1
“Even if I was drunk, clung to you, Senior, and…”
Once he actually blurted it out, Ha-on became embarrassed all over again.
“Even after saying that I was coming on strong and chasing after you, you took me to your house. On top of that, sleeping in the same room, I just can’t understand any of it.”
Cha Jeongwon crossed his arms altogether. Then he looked down at Ha-on.
“Pitch-dark.”
“…Pardon?”
A single word dropped out of nowhere. It was definitely on purpose.
“Because it was pitch-dark.”
It didn’t seem like his words would get any longer. Ha-on blinked for a moment, then leaned his waist slightly forward.
“Is that… Do you mean your memory is pitch-dark, or do you mean the room was pitch-dark? Is it both?”
“That room is the darkest.”
“Ah, the room.”
An ambiguous laugh leaked out. He thought it was a joke, but he was sincere.
Perhaps because of the firm tone, it was strangely persuasive.
Ha-on lifted his chopsticks, then set them back down.
“I tend not to sleep deeply.”
“You, Senior?”
“Yeah.”
It was a short, yet strangely heavy answer. It was a weight born of experience that couldn’t be brushed off lightly.
“If it’s bright, I can’t sleep even more.”
“So, pitch-dark.”
“So, pitch-dark.”
Exchanging the same words once more, a laugh strangely burst out. The situation wasn’t funny at all, but the corners of Ha-on’s mouth moved first.
“And because it’s only in that room.”
What is in there?
Ha-on was about to open his mouth to ask, but Cha Jeongwon caught on sharply.
“I have no intention of telling you any more, so search the room yourself.”
Telling him to search someone else’s room, not even his own room.
He must mean not to dig any deeper.
“Then it would have been fine if you just laid me down in a different room, but your answer keeps veering off to the side, I must say.”
“I told you, you wouldn’t let go.”
Ha-on immediately wore a tearful face.
“You’re not just making stuff up because I don’t remember, right?”
“Eat.”
Cha Jeongwon pointed at the tteokbokki. While they were only conversing, the broth had simmered down heavily.
After quickly turning off the stove, Ha-on greedily scooped some out and ate. Then he picked up a piece of pickled radish from the small dish and chewed it. A sour flavor cut through his mouth.
He was curious as to why they slept in the same room, but he didn’t hear a refreshing answer. Still, digging in further would only be his loss anyway.
“At any rate, you slept soundly thanks to me, right Senior?”
“It wasn’t thanks to you, but I slept well even though I was with you.”
Strength entered Cha Jeongwon’s voice. He seemed to emphasize that much was real.
He put a piece of rice cake into his mouth and chewed. Slow at first, he soon began eating while maintaining a steady pace.
He can’t even sleep well, huh.
Ha-on imagined what kind of nights Cha Jeongwon must have spent. Tossing and turning every night, or waking up at a single ray of light even after barely catching some sleep, a life where fatigue only accumulated with no room to properly relieve it.
Was it that this person’s life itself had been warped by a string of bad luck for a long time? Not just ending at things tangling up due to bad luck, but to the extent of not even being able to sleep properly.
Cha Jeongwon looked pitiful once again.
“Would you like some water?”
So, out of a desire to take care of him more, he lifted the water bottle.
“Drink it yourself.”
Usually, in times like this, people hold out a cup…
Even while being pitiful, he really is a cold human being.
Cha Jeongwon scooped up a sip of the broth.
As the red broth thinly spread across his lips, Cha Jeongwon slightly stuck out the tip of his tongue with an indifferent face and licked over the spot once. A glistening lip line briefly appeared before disappearing.
Without realizing it, Ha-on couldn’t take his eyes off that sight. However, the moment his eyes met Cha Jeongwon’s, he belatedly lowered his head and crammed the remaining tteokbokki into his mouth.
This crazy instant tteokbokki.
It was spicy.
Even though the tip of his tongue was numb, his chopsticks kept going.
“…It’s delicious, right?”
“Not bad.”
“Out of a hundred points, how many points?”
At that question, Cha Jeongwon raised his head. At the gaze asking if he really needed to demand such a detailed answer, Ha-on waited while biting down gently on a rice cake.
“There’s no need to intentionally look for factors to deduct points.”
“So that means it’s a hundred points.”
Why beat around the bush like that.
“It’s even more delicious if you wrap cheese around it and eat it. Have you tried beating an egg into it and eating it, by any chance?”
At Ha-on’s enthusiastic question, Cha Jeongwon showed an expression of annoyance, but he followed along and ate every single thing as instructed.
