The man couldn’t even make proper eye contact and spoke quickly. Hae-wan bowed his head briefly and immediately turned around. However, the man grabbed Hae-wan’s arm and persisted stubbornly.

“If you don’t have time now, can’t you just give me your number? I really like you so much.”

The man gripped his arm so hard it felt rude. Hae-wan put some force into pulling his arm free from the man’s grasp and frowned.

However, before Hae-wan could say anything, a long shadow suddenly approached. It was Kang-hyun.

“What’s going on?”

Kang-hyun stepped slightly in front of Hae-wan and asked in a low voice. His heart pounding from the sudden appearance, Hae-wan hurriedly spoke:

“It’s nothing. This person was just asking me something.”

But Kang-hyun didn’t respond to Hae-wan’s words. No, he didn’t even look at Hae-wan. Kang-hyun’s eyes were fixed solely on the man who had followed Hae-wan.

The man looked back and forth between Hae-wan and Kang-hyun with apparent confusion. Kang-hyun stared down at him and asked once more:

“I asked what’s going on.”

Though the man’s eye level was slightly higher than Hae-wan’s, so he must have been over 180cm tall, he had no choice but to look up at Kang-hyun.

Eventually, the man mumbled an apology hesitantly and disappeared somewhere with quick steps.

Kang-hyun kept his gaze on the man’s retreating figure until he completely disappeared, then slowly turned his eyes toward Hae-wan.

It was strange. Though he hadn’t done anything wrong, his heart sank like he had committed some bad deed. Hae-wan couldn’t look directly into Kang-hyun’s eyes and turned his gaze away.

“You should take it off.”

However, at Kang-hyun’s incomprehensible words that followed, Hae-wan unconsciously looked at him.

“What?”

“That outer jacket. Now that I look at it, it really does have a strange smell. I’d like you to take it off.”

His face heated up. He only had this one padded jacket, so unlike his sweater or pants, he couldn’t change into something else. He had thought it would be fine since he hung it in the staff changing room.

Hae-wan spoke almost stammering:

“But… earlier you said it was fine…”

“Padded jackets often have filling inside that absorbs odors and releases them later. I’m sorry. You know I’m sensitive to smells.”

He was so bewildered that cold sweat formed on the back of his neck. He opened his mouth to say something, but couldn’t think of anything particular to say. Hae-wan just quietly unzipped his jacket and took it off, holding it in his hand.

Then Kang-hyun snatched the padded jacket from Hae-wan’s hand and said:

“You’ll be cold standing there like that. Follow me.”

He grabbed Hae-wan’s wrist with his other hand and walked with long strides. His head went blank at the completely unpredictable behavior. Hae-wan followed behind Kang-hyun in bewilderment.

Only after Kang-hyun dragged him into a men’s clothing store right next to the cafe did Hae-wan come to his senses and stop abruptly:

“What are you doing? I don’t need clothes or anything.”

“I know. I came here to buy my clothes.”

“What?”

Without even looking at Hae-wan, he spoke indifferently and glanced around casually. Then he called over a staff member, pointed to a black long coat hanging on a mannequin, and asked them to bring one in his size.

When the clerk brought over the selected size, Kang-hyun took off the gray coat he was wearing and thrust it into Hae-wan’s arms without warning. Then he roughly checked if the shoulders and fit were right before heading straight to the register, saying he would wear it now. Hae-wan followed behind, wondering what kind of whim this was.

“Please put this in a shopping bag.”

Kang-hyun, who had paid for the coat worth over 800,000 won without a moment’s hesitation, handed the padded jacket Hae-wan had taken off earlier to the clerk. Hae-wan tried to speak to the staff to ask them to put Kang-hyun’s gray coat in his hands in the bag as well.

That’s when Kang-hyun’s hand stopped Hae-wan.

“You wear that, Mr. Yoon Bori.”

Hae-wan frowned at the still incomprehensible behavior.

“Why… should I?”

“You took off your padded jacket because of me. But if I said I’d buy you clothes, you’d hate it like before, so wear my clothes and return them when you go home.”

He didn’t understand why Kang-hyun was giving him the clothes he had been wearing instead of telling him to wear the new clothes. However, before Hae-wan could argue, Kang-hyun took back his clothes from Hae-wan’s hands and held them behind Hae-wan’s back like dressing a child:

“What are you doing? Put your arms through.”

“B-but…”

“There’s not much time left before the movie. Hurry up.”

In the end, Hae-wan gave up trying to understand Kang-hyun and just obediently put on the clothes. Kang-hyun’s coat was light and warm, but the shoulders, sleeves, and body were all too big, making him feel like he must look ridiculous.

But at the same time, Kang-hyun’s scent that had thoroughly permeated his coat made his heart flutter a little.

Kang-hyun quietly watched Hae-wan wearing his clothes, then smiled broadly and said:

“It suits you well.”

At his face that looked strangely pleased, Hae-wan just patted his hair awkwardly.

Due to the unexpected incident, they couldn’t properly drink their coffee and headed straight into the movie theater.

Though it was a movie he was seeing after a very long time, even after the theater lights went out and the movie started, Hae-wan couldn’t concentrate very well.

The theater was warmer than expected, raising his body temperature slightly, and because of that, Kang-hyun’s scent wafting from the coat felt even more intense.

Nevertheless, he didn’t want to take it off, so Hae-wan just buried himself deeper into his seat.

Fortunately, as the movie progressed, his distracting thoughts gradually faded. The movie was about protagonists who had formed a connection through a childhood accident, separated, then met again as adults, misunderstood each other and drifted apart before reconnecting. It wasn’t as cheerful as he had expected from the poster, so Hae-wan, who easily empathized emotionally, had to struggle several times to hold back his surging emotions.

Fortunately, true to a romantic comedy, it ended with a clean happy ending. However, the protagonists’ happy appearance actually stimulated his tear ducts, making him shed a few tears.

Hae-wan had the strange habit of wanting to cry more when he was happy or overwhelmed rather than when experiencing painful or difficult situations, which often put him in awkward positions.

Not wanting to show that he had cried, Hae-wan kept touching his face and trying to cover his eyes as soon as they came out of the theater into the bright area. Unfortunately, this behavior seemed to draw Kang-hyun’s attention even more, as he immediately asked:

“Did you cry?”

Feeling embarrassed, Hae-wan rubbed his already reddened eyes and hurriedly scrambled for words:

“I didn’t cry. I mean, that’s… it looks that way because I rubbed my eyes.”

Kang-hyun, who didn’t even pretend to listen to the clumsy excuse, asked back:

“Why did you cry when it wasn’t even a sad movie?”

“What?”

“The two of them became happy. So why did you cry?”

Kang-hyun’s voice sounded genuinely curious. Without any teasing tone and with a quite serious face, Hae-wan answered somewhat bewildered:

“Just… because the protagonists became happy, my heart felt overwhelmed.”

At those words, Kang-hyun’s expression twitched in an indescribable way. A subtle silence seemed to rise for a moment, then Kang-hyun smiled and said:

“I see. Should we go home now?”

Kang-hyun, who had suddenly changed the subject, said he would take Hae-wan home to near his house. Since it was already past midnight and public transportation would likely be cut off, Hae-wan had no choice but to nod.

The elevator going down to the parking garage was quiet. Hae-wan stole glances at Kang-hyun’s profile. His face was peaceful, but he couldn’t shake the impression that Kang-hyun had become silent after they shared their thoughts about the movie earlier.

Walking toward Kang-hyun’s car, Hae-wan thought again about the movie’s content. A childhood connection. Meeting again as adults after a long time, then fighting due to misunderstandings.

Hae-wan unconsciously stopped walking. It seemed exactly like the story of Hae-eon and Kang-hyun.

Kang-hyun, who had been walking a few steps ahead, realized Hae-wan had stopped and turned around. When Hae-wan just stared at him quietly, Kang-hyun asked curiously:

“What’s wrong?”

“Earlier… about the movie.”

“The movie?”

“I don’t think I heard your thoughts… how was it?”

Though it was brief, another subtle silence rose. He couldn’t read any thoughts from his pale, expressionless face.

However, breaking the frozen moment, Kang-hyun smiled.

“I was overwhelmed too. Just like you felt, Mr. Yoon Bori.”

Kang-hyun’s voice saying those words was so clean that Hae-wan couldn’t ask any other questions and just silently followed behind him.

But his face, which had seemed somehow off, remained in his heart for some reason.

Kang-hyun’s parked car wasn’t the sports car from last time but a foreign luxury sedan. Seeing Hae-wan’s momentarily puzzled expression, Kang-hyun simply explained it was “one of” his cars. At Kang-hyun’s words implying he owned other cars besides the two he had seen, Hae-wan could only laugh bitterly to himself.

Kang-hyun suddenly asked for his address, saying he would take him home, while Hae-wan was fastening his seatbelt. Looking up, Hae-wan inadvertently gave his home address.

“Thank you.”

Only after seeing Kang-hyun smile gently and enter his home address into the navigation system did Hae-wan come to his senses.

He could have asked to be dropped off at the subway station like last time, but perhaps his heart had loosened from going out together today, and he felt foolish for readily giving out his home address. Hae-wan blushed and turned his head diagonally.