“I’m sorry.”

The words of apology flowed out again. The solemn voice gently caressed his fallen heart.

“I didn’t know Ryu Seo-ha would dislike it so much.”

Eyes as black as the night sea were quietly speaking.

“I must have mistakenly thought this much would be okay without realizing it.”

Softly like gentle waves, comfortingly as if saying not to be afraid of anything.

“Because Ryu Seo-ha has always received my selfish actions so well.”

Yet he doesn’t touch a single finger to Ryu Seo-ha’s body. As if worried that if he touched him wrongly, he would disappear like a bubble.

“Thank you, and I’m sorry.”

The sight of a man who doesn’t usually talk much continuing to speak while maintaining eye contact slowly calmed his heart that had plummeted into an abyss for unknown reasons.

He tried to relax his pale fingers while slowly inhaling and exhaling. The hem of his shirt was severely wrinkled from how tightly he had been gripping it.

“No. I reacted too sensitively.”

As he slowly straightened his knees that had been tightly curled almost to his upper body, he felt a tingling sensation like an electric current flowing through his toes as they entered the warm water. His hands and feet seemed to have become very cold.

“…Have you been enduring it all this time even though you found my touching unpleasant?”

Choi Gang-hu, who had been staring blankly at his pale face from an even lower position, asked back in an uncharacteristically hesitant tone. It was a tone that seemed to be trying hard not to give a feeling of prying.

Ryu Seo-ha hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. Though he had certainly felt uncomfortable in the past, at least not in the situation just now. If that were the case, he would have skillfully pretended to be fine instead.

“Just… it was too ticklish…”

His explanatory voice kept fading. Because he was embarrassed that he had made such a fuss just because of ticklishness. Even in retrospect, it was an action he couldn’t understand himself.

Then suddenly, he realized that at some point he had come to take physical contact with Choi Gang-hu for granted. The fact that he had been accepting everything he gave so easily.

Not only that, but he didn’t hesitate to directly ask for things to be done. Even though it was something he had been careful about even with his family. Was it because the lock on his heart had loosened? Even so, to go as far as kicking…

He was surprised and bewildered by his own action of expressing negative emotions raw. It seems his subconscious was feeling closer to Choi Gang-hu than he thought.

“I’m sorry.”

But the closer you become, the more you shouldn’t treat them with a completely comfortable mindset. Self-blame wrapped around his racing heart. Ryu Seo-ha wiggled his feet in the water and lowered his gaze.

“May I ask why you keep apologizing?”

Deep doubt and incomprehensible pity were evident in the voice that added, “You didn’t do anything wrong.” As if looking at a child afraid of being hated by the world.

“…I startled you, didn’t I?”

His toes curled as he recalled Choi Gang-hu’s expression of surprise revealed by the awkward silence.

“That’s because it was a side I’d never seen before. But that’s my problem. It’s not something Ryu Seo-ha needs to apologize for.”

“It wasn’t a situation that warranted such a sensitive reaction…”

Choi Gang-hu, who had been maintaining eye contact all along, slightly frowned upon hearing the inevitably fading answer.

“I was the one being rude.”

“…”

“You should scold me for continuing to hold on when told to let go, why are you tormenting yourself when you’ve done nothing wrong?”

The man, who had roughly pushed up his hair that had become darker from being wet, let out a faint sigh.

“I know too. How generously Ryu Seo-ha has been accepting my rude actions every time.”

“…”

“I’m trying to correct it in my own way… Sigh, it’s not going as well as I thought. Having lived selfishly like this all my life.”

It was unfamiliar to see him pouring out his inner thoughts so calmly, as if making a confession. Listening to his soft and affectionate voice, the chilling tension remaining at his fingertips melted away.

“As I’ve said before, I want Ryu Seo-ha to live properly protesting against rude attitudes.”

He remembered the content of the questions and answers about life attitudes they had exchanged under the pretext of a truth game during the hunter exam.

“So I’m rather glad.”

Ryu Seo-ha quietly looked at Choi Gang-hu’s face as he spoke as if defending his attitude of getting angry over nothing. The pure expression without a hint of falsehood filled his chest with emotion.

“I hope you express everything honestly like earlier. Don’t be sorry, just say it refreshingly.”

The black eyes shining under even darker eyebrows sent a heavy gaze.

“Of course it won’t be easy, but if needed, I’ll help you.”

It was amazing. How different Choi Gang-hu was from the self-centered character seen in the original work. Changing a life attitude maintained for a lifetime was by no means an easy matter.

“Don’t feel too burdened. It’s not that you absolutely have to, it’s just my wish.”

The words that he knew his own rudeness and had been trying to correct it in his own way kept echoing in his ears. Like him who had been striving in unseen places, he wanted to try to make an effort for change.

“…Then help me.”

Where did such courage come from? Ryu Seo-ha slowly lifted one foot and gently placed it on Choi Gang-hu’s thigh.

“You said you’d give me a massage.”

Was it the exotic scenery he encountered for the first time, the brief sense of liberation tasted by escaping from daily life, that encouraged him to do things much more easily than usual, which would have required a much bigger decision?

“I’ll practice saying honestly if I dislike something or like something. If you help me, Mr. Choi.”

The heel touching the other’s knee trembled slightly from embarrassment. A smile slowly spread across Choi Gang-hu’s lips, who had been frozen unable to make any movement, seemingly surprised by the unexpected situation.

“Gladly.”

Choi Gang-hu rolled up the hem of his pants and gently stroked the exposed white calf. His large hand grasped the slender ankle as if tying it up softly.

As he massaged from the sole to the heel, pressing firmly with his thumbs while holding the foot with both hands, the wet sounds tickled his ears. His toes curled from an inexplicably embarrassed feeling.

“Does it hurt?”

“…It feels good.”

He was about to just shake his head slightly but deliberately put into words the sensation he was currently feeling honestly. Choi Gang-hu, who smiled attractively, stimulated the big toe for a while before carefully rubbing between each toe.

“…Ugh. That’s…”

“Do you dislike it?”

Ryu Seo-ha, who had unknowingly tried to pull his leg back and bend his knee before stopping, bit his lip. Why was this making him feel so strange over something like this?

“It’s too ticklish.”

“Your body is sensitive to stimulation.”

“…”

“Shall we stop here for today?”

Choi Gang-hu, who asked back with a grin, looked somehow annoying. Ryu Seo-ha looked down at him with slightly furrowed brows and shook his head. Choi Gang-hu, with an even deeper smile, continued the massage.

His touch was surprisingly delicate as he stimulated around the ankle bone and ankle in circles, then pulled each toe and tapped the sole to loosen the tense muscles. For someone with such ridiculously high strength stats.

As he was receiving the masterfully controlled caress, his consciousness suddenly turned to reflection on how the situation had come to this. He had clearly intended to question the issue of unfair intervention in the competition, but got caught up in his eloquence…

“…What.”

This time too, his thoughts couldn’t continue for long. It was because Choi Gang-hu carefully held his sole with both hands and lowered his lips to the top of his foot. It was a kiss that felt almost reverent.

His thigh flinched reflexively. The attempt to withdraw his foot was stopped by lips settling back on his toes. The grip on his ankle was gentle but by no means loose.

“What are you doing?”

“Do you dislike it?”

“Of course…”

“It’s not just that it feels strange because it’s unfamiliar?”

His words were stopped short. It feels strange because it’s unfamiliar. Could there be a sentence that more accurately expresses Ryu Seo-ha’s current emotions than that? But don’t people usually say they dislike such things?

“If it’s difficult to distinguish between disliking and unfamiliarity, how about reflecting on things that were once unfamiliar?”

He looked unfamiliar anew. Was Choi Gang-hu originally someone who spoke so specifically?

“Do you dislike me hugging you?”

For a moment, he felt as if he’d been hit on the back of the head. Something that was once unfamiliar. Ryu Seo-ha’s expression subtly crumbled as he recalled Choi Gang-hu wrapping his arm around his waist at every opportunity.

At first, he had only tried to avoid it because it was awkward and uncomfortable. Then after getting used to it, he had been accepting it comfortably and naturally. It was probably because it was discomfort from unfamiliarity, not unpleasantness from dislike.

“…But feet are dirty.”

Unable to bring himself to falsely say he disliked it, he protested about the hygienic issue, and Choi Gang-hu’s face smiling as if finding him cute felt vexing. This too was an unfamiliar emotion.

“It’s only clean and pretty.”

Small and white and soft and. At the embarrassing descriptions that followed, Ryu Seo-ha finally raised the side of his hand and splashed water over that face.