Fiancé (1)

Arriving at Basel Station about thirty minutes early, the two bought a cup of coffee each from a café inside the station and made their way to the platform.

Basel Station was quite large, as it was where the Swiss rail line (SBB) and the French high-speed train (TGV) converged. Yeehyeon held Liu's hand the entire time they moved through the station. This was because the day after Changing, Liu's eyes would go hazy — his vision dropping sharply.

It wasn't to the point of being unable to move around carefully, but Liu quietly held Yeehyeon's hand and followed. He didn't mind — Yeehyeon's unusual overprotectiveness was rather nice to experience. And in truth, he could barely read the letters on the departure boards showing platform numbers.

They first had to take the TGV to Dijon. Only there could they change trains to reach Paris Gare de Lyon.

Arriving at the platform, they set down their backpacks on a bench and looked around. The atmosphere created by the parallel tracks, the roof overhead, and the connected station building had a certain charm.

"Yuni nuna, is this a good time to talk?"

Yeehyeon was on the phone with Yuni as soon as his backpack hit the bench.

"Yeah, we're waiting for the TGV right now... We should arrive at Gare de Lyon around 3 PM... No, we have to transfer once. At Dijon station."

Perhaps because it was the day they were coming home from the trip, Yuni seemed to be firing questions from the other end without pause. Liu chuckled to himself, and Yeehyeon caught it and smiled back.

"Nuna, about tonight's gathering — it looks like we won't be able to make it."

Finally finding the right opening, Yeehyeon brought up the main point in a careful, apologetic voice.

They had originally planned to attend a small drinking party with some colleagues from The Hands that evening. But with Liu's eyes in this state, attending an evening event was out of the question. He couldn't keep wearing sunglasses indefinitely.

Sipping his surprisingly decent coffee, Liu absentmindedly shifted his gaze. On the bench beside them, a family of four was waiting for the train. He couldn't make out their features clearly, but he could sense their general vibe well enough.

An easygoing-looking couple, a boy who appeared to be in the younger years of elementary school, and a girl who looked around middle school age. Liu watched them from behind his sunglasses — particularly the girl. Her gaze kept drifting toward Yeehyeon.

She would pretend to talk to her mother sitting beside her, but her entire attention was directed at Yeehyeon. He could feel it from across the platform.

She probably thought she was hiding it well. As most kids her age mistakenly believed — that they were clever enough to fool adults. But to Liu, her gaze was entirely transparent. Which made her seem all the more endearing.

He let out a quiet chuckle as he brought the coffee cup to his lips.

"No, it's not like that! If it were, I wouldn't have agreed to come in the first place.... Don't say weird things for no reason."

Completely unaware of the girl's stolen glances, Yeehyeon was already flustered, his face reddening as he hurried to make excuses. It was obvious without even looking. Yuni must have teased him again — something like, What? Did you suddenly want tonight to yourselves since Liu is leaving tomorrow?

"It's not that, it's just that Kun isn't feeling well at all. And he has a long flight tomorrow, so... I-I don't know. It's not that he's sick... maybe it's just fatigue built up from such a long trip..."

The truth — that because Yeehyeon had insisted the night before, they had ended up knotting and Changing three times after forty days of restraint, which was why Liu's eyes had gone white as snowballs and they couldn't make it out — was not something Yeehyeon could say. He struggled to navigate his way through the explanation, all while the girl's attention remained fixed entirely on him.

Yeehyeon's clean, neat face. His simple clothes made distinctive by how well they suited him. His long, elegant fingers holding the phone. His calm, pleasant voice speaking in a foreign language she couldn't understand. Everything about Yeehyeon was probably making her heart flutter. Liu could fully imagine how Yeehyeon must look to her.

He really is the type to be especially popular with people around that age.

Liu smiled quietly, feeling more proud than jealous. There was no malice in her shy, curious gaze. Though of course, if she tried to actually approach Yeehyeon, that would be a different matter.

"You've gotten even more mischievous while I haven't seen you, nuna."

Yeehyeon finally ended the call, looking exhausted.

"She couldn't tease you for forty days. You'll have to be prepared when we get back."

Yeehyeon agreed with Liu's joking remark. But as he nodded and smiled, he was missing her — Liu could tell. Yeehyeon knew there were precious people in Yeehyeon's life besides him. And Liu was glad to have matured enough to feel gratitude for that, rather than jealousy.

The train arrived on schedule. The two tossed their empty cups and boarded.

Their first-class seats were on the second floor, so they climbed the stairs wearing their bulky backpacks. They had packed as lightly as possible, but forty days' worth of luggage was inherently hard to make sleek.

The first-class cabin was nearly empty — only four or five passengers scattered throughout. After securing their backpacks on the overhead shelf, they kept only their tablet PCs and headed deeper inside to find their seats. Even though there was nothing in the way, Yeehyeon — walking ahead — reached back for Liu's hand and led him slowly.

A group of passengers was just entering from the opposite end. The girl's family. Again, she seemed pleased the moment she spotted Yeehyeon. Even from this distance, Liu could tell her face kept turning this way.

"Kun, it's here."

Just as they were about to sit, Yeehyeon looked around while still standing.

"What is it? Looking for the restroom?"

"I'll be right back. Kun, sit down."

"I saw when we came in — there doesn't seem to be a restroom this way. Go around."

"It's alright if I leave my seat, right?"

"Hm?"

Yeehyeon, already starting to move, looked up at Liu with a worried face.

"I can see well enough — you know that. I'll sit here and wait, so go."

It had been so long since they had stopped knotting and Changing that Yeehyeon's overprotectiveness was something Liu hadn't experienced in a while. He stroked Yeehyeon's cheek fondly to reassure him.

Over Yeehyeon's shoulder, the girl came into view again. Her family had chosen the four-seat table arrangement directly facing theirs — very close. Close enough that Liu could make out the general shape of her expression. Even seated, she kept looking up toward them.

"Yeehyeon-ah."

"Yeah?"

Liu called out to Yeehyeon as he turned to go. He drew him back by the waist and gave him a short, easy kiss. Yeehyeon's eyes went wide. He smiled in surprised delight, then burst out laughing.

"What was that all of a sudden?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to kiss you."

Perhaps taken slightly off guard, Yeehyeon didn't glance around or scold Liu. He just kept laughing, as if he couldn't stop himself. Liu smiled back as Yeehyeon pushed lightly at his chest, and held onto his hand until the very last moment as he walked away — finally letting go with a trace of reluctance. Yeehyeon shook his head, still smiling, and left the cabin.

The girl had watched the entire exchange. She didn't appear disappointed that Yeehyeon had a partner. Only the quality of her curiosity had shifted slightly.

Liu was certain. Because of the kiss just now — and the atmosphere that had settled between them — Yeehyeon had become an even more mysterious presence in her eyes.

An exotic, attractive young man encountered on a dull autumn train ride with her family, and the playful yet tender kiss he shared with his same-sex partner. For her, this scene would remain like a single vivid, beautiful photograph — perhaps even more beautiful than the reality itself had been.

Liu watched Yeehyeon's retreating back before settling into his seat with a sense of quiet satisfaction. He opened the fold-down table and took out his tablet.

Back in Seoul, a backlog of work awaited him. Preparations for moving to Bali — establishing a new gallery and organization there — also had to begin in earnest. But none of it felt burdensome. On the contrary, he felt more motivated than ever. Because this was the new life he had been waiting for so long — the one he would start with Yeehyeon.

"Don't go. Stay by my side."

Liu's expression stiffened slightly as he skimmed through the work emails Kwon Juhan had sent. However saturated by pheromones, however far gone from the knotting — Yeehyeon last night had been genuinely unlike himself. Was he perhaps missing some significant change happening deep inside Yeehyeon?

Rustle.

A pink object was thrust directly in front of his eyes. Liu looked up reflexively. Yeehyeon was standing beside the seat with a sheepish expression. Liu's gaze returned to the pink object.

It was a mouse-shaped gummy.

"What... is this?"

Accepting it somewhat involuntarily, Liu rose from his seat in a daze. He continued to look bewildered as he moved aside so Yeehyeon could take the window seat.

"I felt bad that you couldn't try one because of me."

"......"

"I saw them selling them at the shop on the platform."

Yeehyeon dropped into the window seat, rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, and wouldn't look over. Liu had assumed he was going to the restroom — but it seemed he had slipped into the platform shop instead.

Whirr, hum.

The train began to move.

"If you can't eat it, leave it. I'll eat it for you. I'm really not picky."

"Ah... Seo Yeehyeon, really. How many times are you going to make me fall for you again?"

"Don't make such a big deal out of a single jelly."

The reddened tips of his ears were adorable. Liu wrapped an arm around Yeehyeon's shoulder and pulled him close. Liu rested his chin on Yeehyeon's shoulder, brought his lips close to his ear, and whispered almost like an involuntary sigh.

"I want to run away with you like this."

"Why run away? No one is chasing us."

Liu chuckled softly against his shoulder.

"Just because. I don't want to send you back to Paris."

"......"

Yeehyeon was quiet for a moment. Liu knew what this silence meant. Yeehyeon was a person who conveyed his emotions through silence as much as through words. There was the awkward silence, the protesting silence, the blank silence of a mind gone empty, the silence of deep thought — and then the silence for holding complicated emotions back from spilling over. Like now.

Yeehyeon gently placed his hand on Liu's back. Then, slowly stroking the breadth of it, he said,

"We're going to Bali soon anyway, so let's hold on a little longer."

"Right. That's true."

"Before this winter ends, I'll have sorted out my life in Paris — and after that... we'll be together so long you'll be sick of it."

Liu pulled Yeehyeon out of his arms and playfully bumped their foreheads together.

"I can't agree with that last part."

Seo Yeehyeon, comforting Liu's reluctance to part with calm, measured words — undoubtedly himself again. Because of that, Liu had absolutely no way of knowing what would happen the following afternoon.

The train slowly pulled away from the station.

Liu tore open the bag of gummies and picked up a mouse by its tail. The pink and white mouse jelly was as sweet and refreshing as its colors suggested.

"Hmm, not bad? As expected... you really can't judge a person or a jelly by their appearance."

At Liu's perfectly serious assessment, Yeehyeon shook his head and laughed as if he couldn't help it.

The Swiss autumn flashed past outside the window. It was time to return to Paris. Back to daily life.

ALDI: A large multinational supermarket chain based in Germany.

Monoprix: A large supermarket chain in France.

Monsieur: The French equivalent of the English "Mr."

Joyeux Noël: The French Christmas greeting, equivalent to the English "Merry Christmas."

Bistro: A French term referring to a casual, informal restaurant.