How difficult had it been since he had been straight up rejected? He had fully mobilized each and every dating skill he knew with the determination to sleep with Chu Sangwoo. At the same time though, had he endured with superhuman patience without touching him. He  deserved to feel light and refreshed since he had gotten what he wanted, but somewhere behind his satisfaction was an unknown feeling of discomfort. Jaeyoung didn’t like feelings of  uncertainty.

‘Is it because, like he said, I couldn’t ejaculate?’

He stubbed out his half-finished cigarette in the trash can in the midst of chuckling.

⌘W

The following day, he arrived at the work studio at the same time as Sangwoo, who showed up with an indifferent expression and attitude. He had left his cap in the car, so Jaeyoung had expected him not to wear one when he appeared, but he came wearing an even older black snapback with a similar design. He didn’t know that there was a spare.

“Long time no see.”

Yuna greeted Sangwoo and made eye-contact with Jaeyoung.

“Yes.”

Sangwoo strode in, put his backpack in an empty seat,  unzipped it, and took out his laptop. When it was time for him to connect the mouse and sit down on the chair, he took something out and threw it to Jaeyoung. In a white plastic bag with the logo of a pharmacy printed on it, lay Jaeyoung’s belt, black pants, and socks all folded. It seemed like they had been washed.

“I brought the things you left behind. Please give me my cap. And…”

He casually spoke and came up to Jaeyoung after confirming that Yuna’s back was turned. He cupped his palm around his mouth and whispered in his ear.

“You left wearing my underwear, didn’t you? Please bring them tomorrow.”

“Huh? Uh…”

Jaeyoung stammered like a fool.

“And I did what you asked me to do.”

Sangwoo held out his cell phone. When he accepted it and unlocked it, the contact list immediately appeared. Jaeyoung scrolled down the list while his heart pounded a little quicker.

Where did the word that originally began with ‘F’ go?

He was excited so he scrolled, scrolled, scrolled down, and then it finally appeared.

…………

Jaeyoung M F ♨

…………

“…”

He hadn’t expected that ‘Jaeyoung hyung ♥’ would appear after giving just a hint, but no matter what, this was too much. Also, perhaps the initials for sunbae were blocked by the swear word, but it did seem like he meant a different word.

“That’s fine, right?”

Sangwoo grabbed his cell phone out of Jaeyoung’s hand, who was staring at the screen, and put it in his backpack.

“Hey, what does that special character mean?”

“Do I have to tell you?”

“Yeah.”

“I checked out all the special characters and that was the one that matched you the best, sunbae.”

“It’s not a star☆, and it’s not for important※, it’s not pleasure♬ either, but you’re saying a bathhouse♨. Are you kidding me?”

“It’s because I always get hot…  when I’m with you, sunbae.”

“…”

As soon as he lets his guard down, he gets surprised. It went right into his determined and incorruptible heart that was going to make a fuss.  The gap between ‘Jaeyoung hyung ♥‘ and ‘Jaeyoung M F ♨’ wasn’t all that nice, but when he listened to his explanation, there was a part he liked.

Anyway, he had gotten rid of ‘Freeloader 3’,’ which was encouraging, and he was wondering why he hadn’t made it like ‘Visual Design Department Jang Jaeyoung sunbae’ like he did with other people.

Upon seeing Jaeyoung’s expression, Sangwoo blurted out, “Don’t obsess over a few bytes of data, please.”

“Who’s obsessing?”

“My father and you sunbae as well. It’s just like you turn a few words into something.”

“Then if I still had you saved as Asshole, would you feel good about it?”

“I don’t care. Since I’m not an asshole,” Sangwoo casually said. He then extended his hand as if he had thought of something.

“I want to see. What does it say?”

“… It’s a secret.”

Soon, there was the sound of typing and a mouse clicking from his right side. Yet, Jaeyoung’s hand, which had stopped moving since Sangwoo appeared, didn’t show any signs of moving again. Jaeyoung snuck a look at Sangwoo, took a sip of coffee, snuck a look at Sangwoo, checked his cell phone for some reason, snuck a look at Sangwoo, and then scratched his neck.

‘How have I been able to work with that being next to me up until now?’

He was itching to touch him, kiss him, and hug him from behind. It was absurd that he needed to find a justification for minor touch at a point where they had already done the deed. At least it was for Jaeyoung. He knew that if he gave him a peck, then hands would become banned, and if they kissed, he would have a free pass to anything below the level of a kiss, and if they had sex, they would be able access to each other’s bodies. However, as much as his opponent is his opponent, he has been hesitating to grab the ball.

‘I’ve never been successful when I’ve forced him into something.’

It was Chu Sangwoo who held this relationship in his hands. If Jaeyoung were an elevator, then Chu Sangwoo would be a staircase, so if he tried to do anything, Sangwoo would  still lag behind on a lower floor. Although they were currently in a situation like this, he had started meeting Sangwoo halfway at some point.  However, when Sangwoo didn’t move things forward, Jaeyoung didn’t have any choice but to hit the pause button and wait.

This relationship had worked that way.

“What are you doing right now?”

The sudden sounds woke Jaeyoung up from his daydreaming. Sangwoo dragged his chair next up to him.  The light from the monitor spread across his eager eyes.

“What’s this?”

When Sangwoo reduced the rate, the pink circle filling the screen decreased in size. When Jaeyoung reduced the angle of lighting and maximized the shading, the pink circle just looked like a dot. Sangwoo just looked at the character wearing a swimsuit and a tube around his waist for a while.

“I asked you to fix the buttons first. In-app purchases are not a priority.”

“I’m going to start with this, though.”

The names of the two characters in <VeVen> were Chuchu and Jeje. The first names that Sangwoo proposed were ‘Chulsoo & Jaeyoung,’ but after an argument, he changed them into that instead. When you start playing the game, both of them are wearing basic clothing, but they designed a feature that would upgrade their skill when cash items were purchased and installed.

“How much did you do?”

Jaeyoung saved the work and showed Sangwoo what he had completed so far.

Rock star Chuchu, Teacher Chuchu , Confucian Scholar Chuchu, Ghost Chuchu, Mafia Chuchu, Mechanic Chuchu, Nomadic Chuchu, Barista Chuchu, Roma Chuchu, Martial Artist Chuchu.

He had completed ten concepts, and he was currently in the process of creating a Chuchu that works at the swimming pool.

“When did you get this much done?”

“Look. You can change the eye and hair color.”

“You never mentioned that.”

“I’m telling you now.”

Whenever Jaeyoung tapped the keyboard, Chuchu’s hairstyle, which looked like a carrot top, changed. Baby perm, two-block, asymmetric undercut, foil perm, high ponytail, sports cut, braids.

All of them were actually hairstyles he wanted to try on Sangwoo. He thought the asymmetric undercut would be amazing in particular, since his head had a pretty shape. Sangwoo looked at the character that had his arms folded, green eyes, and an ash-brown ponytail for a while.

“The quality is good, but this isn’t a priority like I said. What about Jeje?”

“I did him as well.”

Jaeyoung also showed a cache item for a female character while half-heartedly flipping through the image files. Sangwoo, who looked through the whole thing, narrowed his eyes and tapped the desk with his fingertips.

“That’s gender discrimination. Make it properly.”

“Why? It’s the same amount.”

“Did you think you wouldn’t get caught copying and pasting the skirt while just changing the color?”

He had honestly thought he wouldn’t find out.

“This isn’t right. Match the quality of the two characters. And before that, modify the button, please.”

“Wait. I’ll just finish this.”

Jaeyoung opened the file he was working on again to enlarge Swimming Pool Chuchu’s right pecs. Based on the mumbling sound of “what the hell are you doing?” in the background, he devoted his heart and soul into giving it a three-dimensional effect.

“Sunbae, right now, you seem very…”

“Sexy?”

“Much like a pervert.”

“How did you know I was thinking dirty thoughts?”

At least he had an excuse to touch him now. Jaeyoung wrapped his arm around Sangwoo’s waist and pulled him towards himself. Stretching his fingers towards his hips, he said, “That’s pretty good. You’re a mind reader as well.”

“How can you act like this in the work studio? We’re not alone either.”

Sangwoo pushed his hand off and quietly whispered. Jaeyoung burst out into laughter, moving his head forward . When he tapped his lips with his finger a couple of times, Sangwoo shook his head and escaped.

Footnotes:

1. The M F stands for Motherfucker. In Korean, it says ㅅ ㅂ, which stands for 씨발, which means fucker or motherfucker.

2. The initials for sunbae are ㅅㅂ, which is the same as the initials for motherfucker.