Projection Novel (Completed) - Chapter 61

Sejin had never seen Cheon Sejoo truly angry. As if boiling with rage, he ran a hand through his hair with a sigh, then irritably stepped out of the elevator. He looked up at Sejin’s eyes, which were now higher than his, with a murderous gaze. Staring at Sejin with a face that looked like he was truly losing his mind, he suddenly asked,

“What did that f*cking bastard say?”

“…He said if I had nowhere to go, he’d let me stay. He even told me the password.”

Sejin answered docilely. At his words, Cheon Sejoo snorted, closed his eyes tightly, then opened them. He could see his tongue slowly rolling in his mouth. Ironically, Sejin instinctively felt that an opportunity had arisen amidst the crisis. His beautiful brown eyes sparkled. Cheon Sejoo really hates that man on the 42nd floor. As soon as he realized that, a vibrant voice flowed from Sejin.

“You kicked me out. So I’m going to stay at his place. He seemed like a really nice person. He said he has lots of rooms and lots of food, and that I can stay without any burden. He seemed incredibly kind?”

And as expected, Cheon Sejoo raised his voice considerably at those words.

“Kwon Sejin. Why are you so bad at judging people? Chae Beomjun look kind? What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Do you know what happens if you go into that house? You don’t even know what he was thinking when he gave you the password, and you say he looks kind? Think about it! Why does that bastard want to drag you into his house!”

Sejin gazed blankly at Cheon Sejoo, who was sharply rebuking him. For some reason, his heart pounded. To Sejin’s eyes, he looked as if he was angry because he didn’t want to hand him over to someone he disliked. Is this just my imagination? Thinking so, Sejin cautiously asked, hiding his fluttering heart.

“You… you don’t want me to go into his house?”

“Would I be happy about it?”

Cheon Sejoo, who had asked back, running a hand through his hair as if exasperated, suddenly fell silent. He seemed to belatedly realize he had acted too emotionally. In response to his attitude, Sejin realized this was the correct answer and seized the opportunity to press on.

“But you kicked me out. I have nowhere to go. And if I’m on the 42nd floor, I can be close to you, so I’m going to stay at that guy’s place. He’s offering a free place to stay, so why would I refuse? I don’t need to spend any money…”

Sejin’s voice, unlike three minutes ago, was very triumphant.

“Since you’re here, we can go up together.”

Sejin said that with a brazen face and turned around. He gathered his trash bags, which were scattered on the floor, and pressed the up button to open the elevator door. Sejin brushed past Cheon Sejoo, who had stopped abruptly, and took his place inside. Then, he pressed the 42nd floor button and called out to him.

“Cheon Sejoo, aren’t you getting on?”

“……”

His heart thumped. Cheon Sejoo frowned and stared at Sejin with a complex gaze. Sejin expected him to grab him. This was his own gamble, in a way. If it really worked, it would prove that Cheon Sejoo didn’t just see him as a child.

And that clumsy move worked perfectly.

With a hardened face, he moved, turning his back to Sejin. Standing in front of the elevator panel, Cheon Sejoo unhesitatingly canceled the button for the 42nd floor and reset the destination to the 41st floor. Swish, the door closed, and the elevator began to ascend towards home.

Sejin realized that this moment was a turning point in their relationship. Now, Cheon Sejoo would never be able to abandon him again.

“Get in.”

The hand that pushed his back was cold. Cheon Sejoo seemed unhappy that things hadn’t gone his way. There was something he absolutely had to ask him, but Sejin tried his best not to upset Cheon Sejoo for now.

He took off his shoes, neatly arranged them, and went into the room to unpack. He hated looking dirty, so he endured his hunger and took a shower, but when he came out, Cheon Sejoo was nowhere to be seen. Seeing that the living room lights were off, as if he had gone into his room, Sejin secretly cooked and ate 5 packs of ramen in the kitchen.

Instead of doing this, Sejin wished he could cook a lavish, nine-dish meal for Cheon Sejoo. But a gut feeling told him he shouldn’t provoke Sejoo today, so Sejin firmly suppressed his desires.

After that, despite having left the house in the morning, he meticulously cleaned it, wondering if dust had accumulated. Sejin walked back and forth in the living room with a rag, glancing at Cheon Sejoo’s door. He was hoping to catch another glimpse of his face. However, the door never opened, and Sejin eventually fell asleep on the living room sofa late at night.

When he woke up the next morning, an extra blanket lay on top of him. Cheon Sejoo must have brought his own blanket and covered him with it as he left the house at dawn. With his cheeks flushing red, Sejin buried his face in the blanket that had touched Cheon Sejoo’s skin and inhaled his scent. The faint, soft scent of him was enough to drive a person crazy so early in the morning. This was truly unfair. After kicking him out for showing a little affection, Cheon Sejoo should know that acting so tenderly was a terrible thing to do…

Sejin, feeling both flustered and upset, couldn’t hide his emotions as he got up. He couldn’t just sit there with such a foolish expression, not knowing when Cheon Sejoo would return. He tidied the bedding and went into the bathroom to wash up thoroughly. Prettied up, he went to the kitchen and started preparing a meal. He even made Cheon Sejoo a protein shake, just in case he returned from a workout, and then prepared his own breakfast.

However, even after finishing his meal and until 9 AM, Cheon Sejoo did not appear. Sejin idly fiddled with his phone, which had no messages, with a sullen expression. Then he chugged the shake he’d made for Sejoo and tidied the kitchen. After that, there was nothing to do but clean. Sejin pulled out the ladder from the alpha room and wiped every inch of the tall living room’s front windows. There wasn’t much dust, but cleaning it still made it sparkle, which was satisfying.

By then, the sun was high in the sky. Sejin went back to the kitchen and prepared lunch. He lightly stir-fried green onions, garlic, chili powder, and shrimp in oil, then poured in just enough water and opened five packets of ramen. When the noodles were about half cooked, he added two packs of soft tofu, and the water level was just right. Sejin devoured the soft tofu ramen on the spot, and only finished his meal after adding two more bowls of rice to it.

To aid digestion, he went to a nearby supermarket for groceries and bought ice cream on the way back, which he ate. He had also brought back some for Cheon Sejoo, but there was no telling when he’d be able to give it to him. The ice cream bought for him was carefully put away in the refrigerator.

After that, he had nothing to do. He tried to study, sitting at his desk and opening a book, but he couldn’t even understand the questions, let alone find the answers. It seemed he had become illiterate after several months away from it. Sejin tried to read a few English sentences but gave up, leaning his cheek on the desk with a sigh. He felt like a complete idiot. An inanimate object with nothing to do but wait for Cheon Sejoo at home…

But for him now, Cheon Sejoo was the most important thing. Whether it was studying or anything else, what mattered most to Sejin was what Cheon Sejoo was thinking and how he felt about him. So, he resolved to try harder to look good for Cheon Sejoo. With that determination, Sejin got up. The place he eventually headed to was Cheon Sejoo’s workout room.

He had been told not to touch any exercise equipment except the treadmill because it was dangerous. Sejin thought that if he used them safely, it would be fine, so he looked up how to use exercise equipment online. However, after watching a few videos of people breaking their legs using a leg press machine, Sejin immediately gave up on exercising. He even thought it would be better to sell such dangerous equipment and advised Cheon Sejoo to do so.

Ultimately, what Sejin chose was the treadmill, but even that wasn’t very difficult, no matter how much he ran on it. Sejin, after more searching, discovered that there was a big difference between pushing off the ground and running on a moving surface, and decided to just go for a jog instead.

However, it was late January, when a sudden cold snap had arrived, and there was a reason why Cheon Sejoo had put an extra blanket over him. As soon as he stepped out of the apartment lobby, a biting wind, cold enough to make his ears fall off, swept past Sejin. Sejin, dressed in a padded jacket, realized he had made a wrong choice, but he didn’t bother to go back home. He thought that if he caught a cold exercising in such weather, he could finally use sickness as an excuse to cling to Cheon Sejoo.

But that day, he started running wildly, even going to Olympic Bridge and back, and his body was fine. He was just hungrier than usual. Sejin blamed his healthy body for no reason and prepared dinner. He made two servings, not knowing when Cheon Sejoo would come, and waited endlessly for him.

At 9 PM, then 10 PM, Cheon Sejoo still didn’t open the door and come in. Sejin sat at the dining table with a gloomy expression and finally picked up his chopsticks alone when the clock struck 11. In dramas, they usually threw away the food prepared for a late-returning husband, but that didn’t happen in apartment 4100. Sejin just ate everything, even Cheon Sejoo’s share, patted his full stomach, and sadly fell asleep on his bed.

Sejin’s waiting for Cheon Sejoo continued for several days. It wasn’t until February that Sejin realized Cheon Sejoo had an avoidance tendency. It was the same last time. Unable to kick him out of the house and unable to face the problem, he had once again chosen to avoid the situation.

If he was going to wander around outside when he had a perfectly good home, he might as well have just kicked me out… Though Sejin was upset and thought Cheon Sejoo was truly foolish, at the same time, he thought, ‘This is why I like Cheon Sejoo.’ Not throwing him out onto the cold streets even in this situation was truly characteristic of Cheon Sejoo.

Sejin, thinking he absolutely couldn’t be separated from such a Cheon Sejoo, stubbornly endured. He had deleted the app, so he couldn’t even snoop on Kang Doyoon’s SNS. He just spent his time exercising and waiting for Cheon Sejoo to return.

The day he finally saw Cheon Sejoo’s face again was exactly three weeks after he returned home from half a day of running away.

That day, somehow, he had good luck in the morning. When he cracked an egg for frying, there were two yolks, and he finally broke through the impossible 10-minute plank barrier. The pollock stew also turned out really delicious, and before the stew even cooled, Cheon Sejoo arrived.

Sejin, who had been sitting at the table, swallowing, and waiting for him to return, turned his head when he suddenly felt a presence. He saw a light turn on down the hallway. At that moment, his heart pounded so fast. He felt something akin to dizziness and got up. Unable to wait for that short time until Cheon Sejoo entered, he practically ran to the entrance, where Cheon Sejoo was just stepping inside, having taken off his shoes.

“…”

Their eyes met, and Sejoo frowned slightly, looking up at Sejin. It was clear he wanted Sejin to move, but Sejin, regardless, didn’t try to hide his excited voice as he greeted him.

“You’re back?”

“…”

He didn’t reply, averted his gaze, and walked past Sejin, leaving the entrance. Unfazed by such an attitude, Sejin followed him. He was sure that even if Cheon Sejoo ignored his greeting, he couldn’t ignore his meal.

Cheon Sejoo walked down the hallway and stopped abruptly as soon as he reached the kitchen. A neat dinner table was set on the island counter. A covered pot and side dishes portioned onto plates. The rice hadn’t been served yet, but there were two sets of small plates and cutlery. Recognizing this, Cheon Sejoo’s mouth twitched with displeasure as he looked up at him.

“You haven’t eaten dinner, have you? Go wash up quickly and come out.”

Meeting his gaze, Sejin said this nonchalantly. Whatever Cheon Sejoo did, the vehicle entry notification hadn’t rung for quite a while. Since it was likely his intention, Cheon Sejoo would also know that fact, and thus would have realized that Sejin had waited endlessly for him despite the lack of notification. Knowing that much, Cheon Sejoo could never ignore that meal. Sejin was confident, and his prediction was correct.

“…Wait.”

With a short sigh, Cheon Sejoo said that and went into his room. Seeing him take clothes from the dressing room and head to the living room bathroom, Sejin clenched his fists in delight.

Since all the meal preparations were finished, Sejin just put the slightly cooled pot back on the induction cooktop and rushed to his room. He went into the bathroom, washed his face thoroughly, changed his clothes that had gotten splashed, and then returned to his spot in the kitchen. Holding the rice paddle, he waited, and soon heard the sound of Cheon Sejoo opening the bathroom door. His heart pounded as if it would burst, but he tried to act as if he hadn’t been waiting, and nonchalantly served the rice. Meanwhile, Cheon Sejoo opened the refrigerator door, took out bottled water, and sat down across from Sejin.

Sejin felt like crying, finally feeling as if he had returned to his daily life. Only now did he realize how precious this seemingly ordinary dinner time was to him.

“I’ll eat well.”

“Mm.”

Cheon Sejoo picked up his chopsticks. Fatigue was etched on his face. Sejin couldn’t hide his sadness at his gaunt face, which he hadn’t seen in weeks. He had lost weight even when Sejin saw him two weeks after he was kicked out of the house, but now it was even worse. He seemed not to have eaten properly, perhaps because there was no one to take care of him. They say that leaving home brings hardship, and since Cheon Sejoo had left home to avoid him, it felt like it was all his fault.

But even so, Sejin did not say to Cheon Sejoo, ‘Why don’t you stay here, I’ll leave instead.’ The more upset he became, the greater his desire to make Cheon Sejoo return to him, no matter what.

“…Did you perhaps keep making meals like this?”

Cheon Sejoo asked that question around the time Sejin, whose appetite had returned, emptied his fourth bowl of rice. He had finished eating first and was holding a closed water bottle in his hand, clenching and unclenching his fist as if exercising. Sejin stared blankly at the scraped skin on Cheon Sejoo’s knuckles, then met his gaze and nodded.

“Yes.”

“…”

At that brief answer, Cheon Sejoo frowned, as if troubled. Then he sighed softly and rubbed his temples, saying,

“Don’t do that anymore. I can’t come home often because I’m busy, so take care of your meals on your own.”

Sejin listened to his words quietly. Cheon Sejoo seemed burdened by the situation. The excuse about being too busy to come home often was probably just that, an excuse.

Sorry, but Sejin had no intention of doing as he was told. If he did as Cheon Sejoo said, he would probably see his face only about ten times in the next ten years. That was absolutely absurd. Sejin put down his cutlery and met Cheon Sejoo’s eyes. He looked into his subdued eyes and said,

“For three weeks that you weren’t here, I made dinner every single day. I also made a shake for you in the morning and kept the bedroom tidy. And I waited for you.”

“…Kwon Sejin.”

“Even if you don’t come home for another month, I’ll keep doing the same thing. Even if you don’t come for a year, I’ll make dinner every day.”

“Don’t.”

“Cheon Sejoo.”

Sejin stared intently at Cheon Sejoo. Engraving his longed-for face in his mind, he thought that he didn’t want to be separated from him anymore.

When he missed his mother, he endured by recalling the memory of Cheon Sejoo hugging him. But when he missed Cheon Sejoo, there was no other way. So, Sejin had simply done what he could, waiting for Cheon Sejoo to return at any time.

“There’s something I really want to ask you. Just answer this one thing.”

That waiting had begun the day Cheon Sejoo let Sejin back into the house. Since that day, there had been something he desperately wanted to ask him, and now, finally, Sejin could ask the question.

His crystal-clear eyes turned towards Cheon Sejoo. Sejin looked at him with eyes full of pure longing. His heart fluttered, afraid that Cheon Sejoo would leave home again. Anxious to hear an answer from him before Cheon Sejoo disappeared somewhere again, Sejin swallowed hard and nervously asked him,

“Do you dislike that person?”

Cheon Sejoo didn’t immediately understand the question. Of course. Sejin was talking about something from three weeks ago, and unlike him, who had stayed home, Cheon Sejoo had gone through many eventful things outside, so it was a topic he couldn’t immediately grasp. So, Cheon Sejoo only understood what Sejin meant after he explained “that person.”

“The man on the 42nd floor.”

“Chae Beomjun?”

At the mention of the 42nd floor, Cheon Sejoo sharply retorted. Sejin realized he had hit the mark with that sharp reaction. That day, Cheon Sejoo’s reaction to that man was truly unusual. He had wanted to ask about it ever since he came home, but Cheon Sejoo hadn’t returned, so he had just been thinking about it. Now, finally, the opportunity had come.

“Yes. That day, when I said I was going to the 42nd floor, you got angry.”

“…”

Did he? Cheon Sejoo leaned back in his chair and frowned. He didn’t want to talk about Chae Beomjun. But Sejin was sitting there with an innocent face, waiting for an answer. Seeing that naive, childlike expression made him sigh. He felt like he had to tell him something. He fiddled with the water bottle for a moment, as if deep in thought, then slowly raised his head, looked at Sejin, and said,

“He’s a complete piece of trash. So next time you see him, don’t even greet him.”

He didn’t want to explicitly explain what kind of person Chae Beomjun was. He didn’t want to have a conversation about sexual topics with Sejin. And he thought Sejin would understand with just that much.

But as if not satisfied with Cheon Sejoo’s concise answer, Sejin asked him again,

“What kind of person is trash?”

“You don’t need to know. Just know that much.”

“…”

Sejin’s direct gaze fell on Cheon Sejoo, who shook his head as if there was nothing more to explain. The conversation couldn’t continue like this. Sejin thought deeply to elicit a meaningful reaction from Cheon Sejoo, then shrugged and replied,

“You just dislike him, don’t you? Actually, I only asked because I thought I might just stay at his place if I got kicked out again later, but after hearing your explanation, I think that might be okay. He was very kind to me.”

At that calm reply, Cheon Sejoo felt blood rush to his head for a moment. What? He raised his eyes and retorted, then chuckled hollowly, chewing on Sejin’s words. Kind? Think he might stay at his place? He thought to himself, ‘That motherfucker Chae Beomjun really sweet-talked that kid.’

Indeed, Chae Beomjun was that kind of person. His appearance was so decent that naive kids easily thought he was a good person. Cheon Sejoo was one of those “kids” too.