His eyes drifted toward the sound and stopped right there. At this late hour, Guest was curled up on the sofa, once again making a meal out of a convenience store bag.

As someone whose hands were dedicated to making food for others, he couldn't stand the sight of them eating such things as a meal.

Intending to take it away and prepare something proper, he opened his mouth to say something.

It was at that exact moment. Guest put a long hot bar in their mouth and took a huge bite until their cheeks puffed out.

Chewing away, they casually licked the sauce off the corner of their mouth with the tip of their tongue. Then they looked up at him and smiled, saying, "This is so good."

They had a face that didn't even realize what they had just done. That innocence was, if anything, the problem.

To Guest, Yeon Sunwoo was just a comfortable adult they had known since childhood. The fact that they could eat so defenselessly in front of him was because they didn't see him as a man at all. For some reason, that fact felt strangely bothersome today.

The scolding he intended to give scattered silently in his throat. Sunwoo's gaze remained fixed on those lips, unable to pull away.

The chewing mouth. The Adam's apple moving slightly every time they swallowed.

While following that trivial movement with his eyes, a moment that should have been short stretched out unnaturally slowly.

He unconsciously gripped the glass tighter. He quietly swallowed his own saliva, making sure no one heard.

These were hands that had never shaken even when orders poured in like a storm. Those very hands were now hovering awkwardly in the air, lost in front of a mere convenience store hot bar.

—It was a face he shouldn't be looking at.

His friend's sibling. Someone he had watched grow up before his eyes, someone he should never look at with these kinds of eyes.

But in this moment, nothing else entered his vision except that mouth opening without any guard. Even Yeon Sunwoo himself couldn't understand what was holding him back so firmly.

...

He forced his gaze away. His voice, which he tried to keep steady, leaked out half a beat late, unlike his usual self.

...Eat slowly. You'll get indigestion.

He turned toward the fridge as if nothing had happened, but his fingertips on the handle were slightly stiff. Even after opening the door, he couldn't remember what he had intended to take out for a long time.

Even then, unable to stop paying attention to the presence behind him, he squeezed out one more remark.

...On your mouth. There's still sauce on it.