Chapter 43

The air in the car felt stifling. Gyu-yeon, who had purposely opened the window, was heading home while watching Naru. The Naru he’d seen over the past few days looked very worn. It seemed he had suffered a lot at the farm; his cheeks had sunken and it made him feel sorry for him.

The two of them maintained an awkward atmosphere until they arrived home. Occasionally Gyu-yeon asked questions, but the answers he received were not like usual.

“Did you eat breakfast before you left?”

“No.”

“Tell me if you want something to eat.”

“…Nothing.”

Naru deliberately answered curtly. He was happy to see Gyu-yeon, but he held back, afraid that if he immediately wagged his tail he’d be taken lightly. In his heart he wanted to throw himself into Gyu-yeon’s arms and sulk.

Staring only at the window in silence, a familiar street soon came into view. Naru felt a sense of ease.

Yes, here. This is where I belong.

While inhaling and exhaling deeply, the car slowly came to a stop. They had already arrived at Gyu-yeon’s house. Before Gyu-yeon could get out, Naru opened the door first, stepped out, and looked up at the tall building.

“Come in.”

“Okay!”

“…”

“Ah, okay.”

Having answered loudly without realizing it, Naru quickly lowered his voice. It was dangerous—if he let his guard down even a little, his true feelings would burst out.

With a prim expression, Naru passed Gyu-yeon and got into the elevator. He pressed the button and waited quietly as the elevator began to rise silently.

Clunk.

Finally it was home. The home he had longed for. As Naru opened the front door and stepped inside, he smelled the scent first. Gyu-yeon’s scent from the entrance made Naru’s heart feel warm.

“Change into something comfortable first.”

“This is what I changed into this morning.”

“It’s not your clothes.”

Gyu-yeon nodded for him to change clothes and come back. There was one thing that had bothered him the whole way home: Naru’s clothes. Gyu-yeon had never bought clothes like that for Naru. Whoever he had gotten them from, the top looked twice as big as his body.

Judging by the design, it seemed like a young person around Gyu-yeon’s age had lent them, which displeased him. He felt ridiculous being jealous over a single outfit, but he couldn’t help it.

Had Naru realized Gyu-yeon was jealous too? He obediently went into the dressing room, changed, and came out.

While Naru changed, Gyu-yeon took out desserts. He neatly arranged colorful macarons and cakes on a plate and placed it on the table, and Naru came out at just the right moment.

“Sit. We need to talk.”

“…”

Naru sat silently and picked up a macaron. While several light purple macarons disappeared into his stomach, Gyu-yeon couldn’t bring himself to speak. He seemed to be worrying about where to start explaining.

Feeling frustrated, Naru furrowed his brow as if urging him to speak. Keeping him seated any longer would only wear down his patience.

“That day, I’m sorry for getting angry without thinking. There was actually a rich kid I was looking for. He’d been spreading rumors about me like trash behind my back. I intended to find him, but my research was insufficient and I ended up bringing you here by mistake.”

Gyu-yeon began to recount everything that had happened without hiding anything. Hearing this for the first time, Naru was bewildered and couldn’t understand what was going on.

A rich kid? Rumors? Insufficient research? These were all things Naru didn’t know about.

“I thought you’d been caught properly because you didn’t resist at all. Midway I realized something was off, but I assumed you hadn’t received proper basic upbringing. The reason I got mad at you that day was because I judged that you knew all of this and were using the situation.”

It was all ridiculous. Naru was hearing, for the first time, why Gyu-yeon had flown into a rage, and he had never used the situation. If he’d known from the start that he wasn’t the person he was looking for, he wouldn’t have treated Naru like a servant.

Naru’s expression went blank as if struck by a stone. He had come elated by Gyu-yeon’s words that he wanted to like him, but hearing the hidden stories made anger creep up. His inner feelings felt like they were cooling.

Just as Geon-hu had said, it had all been Gyu-yeon’s misunderstanding. That misunderstanding had hurt Naru, and he had run away from home and even come to realize how harsh the world was.

Even amid that, his heart had fluttered because he missed Gyu-yeon, but still…

“I was too surprised that day and didn’t think things through, and I hurt you. I’m sorry.”

“…You misunderstood everything? Did I do anything wrong?”

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong. It was all my fault. I’m sorry.”

Yu Gyu-yeon, you nasty lunatic.

Naru clenched his hand tight. Thinking back, he felt wronged about everything he’d endured. Gyu-yeon’s coldness had all been from misunderstandings, and he had innocently tried to open his heart.

He thought I was that rich kid and didn’t want to like me.

Sudden irritation surged. He’d been the only one excited and happy, had accepted Gyu-yeon as his master, and felt rescued—only now to face reality and feel truly abandoned.

I wasn’t what Gyu-yeon had been looking at.

“You did give me clothes, let me eat, and let me stay at your place, but I just thought you truly chose me. So for the first time I thought I was receiving things without strings.”

Receiving without a price. Yes, Naru felt happiness in receiving without strings. He thought he’d finally met a proper owner and was simply happy.

“But if what you say is true, I clung to a stranger, deluded myself into thinking he liked me, and acted like a fool?”

Gyu-yeon’s face instantly hardened. He hadn’t meant it that way, but the conversation was going badly and he was flustered. From Naru’s standpoint it was a plausible thing to say, yet it wasn’t entirely true.

At first he might have been a stranger, but not anymore, and the delusion of liking him wasn’t one now since he actually liked Naru.

Gyu-yeon shook his head at Naru’s words. He felt he had to tell him his current feelings before resentment deepened.

“Song Naru, listen to me for a moment.”

“This is all your fault. You hurt me!”

“Wait, ugh!”

“Yu Gyu-yeon, damn it, you idiot!”

In the end, Naru’s anger exploded. A dirt-covered potato flew at Gyu-yeon along with clumsy curses. Naru had used the potatoes he’d received from the farm as weapons, and he threw them hard.

Thwack!

Startled by the raw potato that hit him, Gyu-yeon’s eyes widened. What just flew by? Before he could even grasp the situation, another potato came and struck his chest and fell. Wet dirt smeared his clothes at the same time.

“Hey, Song Naru, calm down for a second…!”

“What are you gonna do about it! What are you gonna do!”

All the potatoes that had been packed in a bag were used to attack Gyu-yeon. The living room quickly turned into a mess. Potatoes rolled everywhere on the floor, and dirt had fallen and soiled the marble surface.

When Gyu-yeon grabbed Naru’s arm, the other arm came at him. His fist slammed down on his head without hesitation. After punching so that puffs of sound—thwack, thwack—were heard, Naru, exhausted by his own effort, panted.

“I was really wronged.”

“Song Naru, where are you going?”

“I’m going to meet a friend.”

“You have no friends to go meet, so don’t go out.”

“I do have friends! I’m not going to see you right now.”

With no potatoes left to throw, Naru sprang up and headed for the front door. Gyu-yeon hurried after him, but couldn’t stop his intention.

Suddenly insisting he would meet a friend, Naru put on his shoes, slammed the front door shut, and left.

Bang!

Gyu-yeon’s face went blank once more. What had happened? Gyu-yeon, putting aside making sense of the situation, opened the front door, ran out, and grabbed Naru’s hand. He couldn’t just let Naru go after he’d barely brought him home.

“Stay at home, okay?”

“I’m going to calm down and come back, let go of me!”

“Calm down in my room, there’s no need to go outside. You again, ugh!”

When Gyu-yeon tried to hold Naru, he got more than he bargained for. Since Gyu-yeon wouldn’t let him go easily, Naru bit his hand. He intentionally used his canine teeth, and a small wound remained on Gyu-yeon’s thumb.

For a moment Naru almost felt soft-hearted, but he left Gyu-yeon stunned and ran away. He even crisply told him not to worry because he’d come back home.

Gyu-yeon watched Naru’s retreating figure with complicated eyes, then gave up and went back inside. Gyu-yeon’s sigh echoed through the spacious living room.

“Where on earth did he go to meet a friend…?”

Peering out the large window in the living room, Gyu-yeon spotted Naru’s round back of his head. Showing signs of being angry with his shoulders twitching, Naru went into a secluded corner inside the apartment complex.

Next to the playground, in a tucked-away square, there was grass. Naru sat down on the grass and waved as if beckoning someone to come.

Is there really someone there?

Gyu-yeon, who had been studying Naru with curious eyes, was dumbfounded by the appearance of the friend who appeared a moment later.

The one who approached and sat next to Naru was none other than a stray dog.

“What is he doing right now…?”

Is it better that he’s in plain sight? No, setting that aside, what on earth is he doing with a stray dog?

After watching Naru for five minutes, Gyu-yeon tore his gaze away and began cleaning the living room. It seemed there was no need to worry in that state. He swept and wiped the messy floor and gathered up all the potatoes; twenty minutes had passed.

Gyu-yeon looked beyond the window at Naru again. In that short time, two more stray dogs had joined him. Surrounded by the dogs, Naru was chattering away about something.

Could he possibly be telling those stray dogs about what happened with me?

No matter how you look at it, how could a stray dog be a friend?

Naru must have really been having a hard time while Gyu-yeon was away. Or maybe he hadn’t slept. Otherwise he wouldn’t do such strange things.

Should I take him to the hospital first?

Seriously pondering it, Gyu-yeon left the house to bring Naru back.