DOTH Volume 4 Chapter 15

Jung Heeyeon let out a shallow breath as he gazed out at the open sea. During their route from Seoul to Busan, the sky had slowly surrendered to the coming dawn, and now it was beginning to bloom with pale white light. It wasn’t the same harbor where he’d first met Director Yeon, but he was still happy as it was the same sea.

As he slowly drew in the breath he’d released, the cold wind brushed across the tip of his nose. The sharp, wintry sea breeze felt strangely sweet. It was probably because of the man embracing him from behind, shielding him from the wind.

“Director, the sea is beautiful, isn’t it?”

Jung Heeyeon asked in a little whisper.

“Yeah, it’s beautiful.”

Director Yeon answered while looking not at the sea, but at the lover in his arms. He wasn’t sentimental enough to lose himself in admiration over something as ordinary as the ocean. To begin with, the only existence capable of stirring his emotions was Jung Heeyeon.

“Come to think of it, this is my first time seeing the sea at dawn. Although, the night sea was also my first, with you…”

Murmuring softly, Jung Heeyeon rested the back of his head lightly against the man’s chest. He’d been told he’d visited this place with his parents when he was very young, so perhaps this wasn’t truly his first dawn at the sea. Still, every sea he could remember had Director Yeon beside him.

“When was your favorite?”

“Yes? I liked all of them. I think the night sea is the prettiest, but I liked all of them.”

“Mhmm, you liked all of them?”

“Yes. But it’s not that I like the sea itself. I like it because you’re here beside me.”

Resting his head against the broad chest, Jung Heeyeon lifted only his gaze. He could see Director Yeon’s face as he looked toward the distant horizon.

“Weren’t you scared when we first met?”

“I don’t think that was the case… Director, you asked me whether I was hungry. Then you bought me a triangle kimbap.”

When he’d struggled to unwrap it properly, Director Yeon had peeled the wrapper off for him himself. Director Yeon lowered his eyes to look at him. At some point he’d stopped watching the sea altogether. The moment their eyes met, Jung Heeyeon’s clear face broke into a bright smile.

“I like that day because it was the day I met you. I think I told you before, but the reason I always say the night sea is the prettiest is because that was the time we first met.”

“Yeah. I like it too.”

At the gentle reply, Jung Heeyeon turned his gaze back toward the sea. The warmth against his back felt familiar.

“Talking about you and a baby made me think about my dads. Perhaps that’s why I wanted to see the sea. I heard this was where I parted from them…”

It wasn’t that he’d recovered any lost memories. Nor was it because he wanted to honor those who had long since passed away. He had simply, all of a sudden, wanted to see the sea. Perhaps talking about the future with the man holding him had unconsciously brought back memories of the day they first met.

The pale dawn light and the quiet sound of the waves washed over his feet before retreating again and again. After standing there for a while, Jung Heeyeon turned around and wrapped both arms tightly around the man’s waist. A soft laugh drifted upward with his smile and eyes.

“Ah. Director, there’s something I need to apologize to you for.”

“Apologize?”

As he brushed aside the hair blowing in the wind, Director Yeon raised one eyebrow.

“That time… when we were apart, I secretly looked inside your wallet. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Pardon? No, I shouldn’t have looked through someone else’s things without permission….”

“It’s fine between two lovers.”

Strictly speaking, even lovers had boundaries they ought to respect. But Director Yeon shamelessly ignored them. He had no intention of keeping any distance between himself and Jung Heeyeon.

“I don’t think it’s really alright… That night, I was lying there hugging your suit, and I felt something in the pocket.”

A large hand gently brushed against his chattering lips.

“It felt hard, so I took it out. It was your wallet. I knew it was wrong, but I was curious.”

“Hmm, you did well.”

Wondering why the Director was praising something he’d considered wrong, Jung Heeyeon continued little by little.

“I even looked at your ID card….”

“Mhmm, you did?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

“I told you it’s alright.”

Smiling with narrowed eyes, Director Yeon gently stroked Jung Heeyeon’s fine eyebrows. He doubted anyone besides his lover would apologize for looking inside his wallet. The omega glanced at him cautiously, his lips parting as though he wanted to say something. Sensing it, Director Yeon pulled the warm body a little closer before speaking first.

“What is it?”

“I have something I’m curious about.”

“What are you curious about?”

The sea breeze had left his soft skin slightly cold.

“Your name has the syllable Woo in it, right? Which hanja do you use? I know the Beom is written with the character for ‘tiger’.”*

So that was it, Jung Heeyeon had been curious about the meaning of his name.

“The Woo that means ‘to meet.’”

“Ah… the Woo for ‘to meet.’ Director, your name is pretty too.”

Director Yeon let out a quiet chuckle.

Jung Heeyeon was the only person who had ever called him pretty, or said his name was. He’d never attached much meaning to his name, but it was certainly an odd one for a person. Meeting a tiger.

He vaguely remembered thinking something similar when the man who had been the head of the Yeon Beom gang had given him the surname Yeon and the name Woobeom. That bastard really loved the word ‘tiger’. Considering the gang leader’s own name had been Yeon Beom, he had, in a sense, inherited every character from it. He’d felt nothing about it. His life had never been peaceful enough to become sentimental over something as insignificant as a name.

“Mhmm, my name is pretty too?”

“Pardon? Yes…. Director, do you not like your own name?”

The gentle-faced omega leaned his head back slightly to meet his eyes. Beyond his small frame stretched blue waves beneath a white sky.

“I’ve never really thought about it.”

“I like it…. Your surname and the last character of my name use the same hanja.”

It was adorable how Jung Heeyeon found meaning in every tiny little thing. Watching his lover smile softly, Director Yeon’s lips curved upward. As he cupped the pale cheek in his hand, the cooler skin than usual mingled with the warmth of his palm.

“Which character?”

“The Yeon that means ‘to connect.’ My name uses the Hee for sunlight, and the Yeon for ‘to connect.’”

“‘Hee’ for sunlight? Your name is the pretty one, not mine.”

Director Yeon narrowed one eye slightly. The rising sun split the sky as it spilled over the sea. The scattered light was dazzling.

“I like that both my name and yours have the character Yeon for ‘to connect.’”

Unlike him, the omega stood with the sunlight behind him, seemingly undisturbed  by its glare, meeting his gaze directly. A bright smile bloomed across Jung Heeyeon’s face.

“If you put Yeon and Woo together, it means ‘meeting through a connection,’ doesn’t it?”

It was the sort of childish sentiment only someone deeply in love would say. Yet, for once, Director Yeon couldn’t laugh.

“I like thinking that maybe we were always meant to meet one day.”

As his eyes adjusted to the light, the other’s face slowly came into focus.

The instant their eyes met, Yeon Woobeom realized something.

The light that had been lingering around him for so long had always been the omega in his arms.

“Heeyeon.”

Yeon Woobeom held his cheek gently as he looked into the innocent face gazing up at him. Their eyes met, and Jung Heeyeon’s slightly swollen lips curved into an even deeper smile. Behind him, the white morning sunlight poured down.

It was a moment that was impossibly unfamiliar, impossibly beautiful, and impossibly terrifying.

At the same time, it was a world Yeon Woobeom had never seen before.

“What am I supposed to do when you’re this beautiful…”

Not even once.

As the sunlight flooded over them, Yeon Woobeom instinctively pulled the warm, pale body that looked up at him with unwavering devotion into his embrace.

“Director.”

Jung Heeyeon smiled softly and whispered a short sentence in a small but clear voice beside his ear. The echo of that word blended with the quiet rhythm of the waves.

“Mm.”

Pressing his lips to the pale nape of his lover’s neck, Yeon Woobeom whispered the same word back.

It was a moment when the two lovers resonated with each other, like the sunlight pouring endlessly over them.

<The End, to be continued in Epilogue.>

*: Hanja (chinese character), korean names usually have a surname first and a two-syllable given name, where each syllable uses a specific character with a distinct, positive wish from the giver.

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