#Side Story, Estrus - 2

'Jealousy...'

They say there's nothing as unsightly as one-sided jealousy towards a friend expressed by just one person.

Seung-jo himself thought such jealousy was utterly ridiculous. But when he saw Mu-heon so absorbed in conversations with other boys as if he had forgotten he was talking to Seung-jo, he felt strangely lonely and disappointed.

Until now, just being by Mu-heon's side had felt fulfilling and only brought happy emotions, but this feeling that had started recently was one of the most difficult things for Seung-jo to endure, even if he couldn't express it.

Seung-jo looked up again at Mu-heon, who was talking in the center of the children. With his uniform loosely worn and his face turned to the side, his nape reflected in the sunlight appeared white.

Considering the enormous amount of exercise Mu-heon did daily, he surprisingly didn't build muscle easily, and his skin didn't tan well either, which he was very conscious about. So sometimes when Seung-jo and Mu-heon bickered and fought, Seung-jo would tease him about these points.

Every time he saw Mu-heon's eyes trembling with stimulated complexes, he felt extremely pleased. In truth, he didn't think those aspects were bad at all and rather liked them, but he had never once said so in order to keep seeing that face.

Even while thinking it was a bit strange that he couldn't take his eyes off Mu-heon's nape, Seung-jo kept looking and looking, like iron filings unable to stop being drawn to a magnet, until the bus arrived and everyone ran to load their luggage.

"Seung-jo. We need to load the luggage. Aren't you coming?"

At that moment, Seung-jo was startled when Mu-heon suddenly turned his face towards him, but Mu-heon didn't seem to notice anything strange and called out, extending his hand.

"Come quickly."

"...Yeah."

Seung-jo walked towards Mu-heon, feeling relieved.

He could see the seniors who had boarded the bus first and the supervising teacher shouting something at the children. Seung-jo lined up to load his luggage in the bottom of the bus, then went in first and sat in an empty seat.

A moment later, when Mu-heon came in and looked around, ignoring the voices of children calling him and sitting right next to Seung-jo, Seung-jo felt strangely excited even while thinking it was natural.

The arm touching his side felt hot, and his heart beat faintly faster.

But beneath all of that was also a faint, inexplicable sense of guilt towards Mu-heon.

It was the beginning of the training camp retreat in the spring of 15 years old, full of truly incomprehensible things.

The bus that had been jolting enough to cause motion sickness as it wound around mountains finally stopped halfway up a mountain. Though that wasn't the final destination, they had to get off because the bus couldn't go any further to the real destination.

"Everyone get off! From here, we carry our luggage and walk! Wake up those who are sleeping."

Hearing the supervising teacher in the front seat shouting, Seung-jo looked to the side with a troubled expression. Mu-heon was sleeping, leaning on his shoulder.

After the bus had departed, Mu-heon had chatted about various things for a while, but then, as if his earlier claim of being sleepy wasn't a lie, the unnecessary talk disappeared and he started nodding off, his dropped head ending up resting on Seung-jo's shoulder.

As a result, Seung-jo had to remain stiff for the entire three-hour drive, unable to move freely. Now his shoulder was aching, but even though he knew he should wake Mu-heon quickly, seeing his peacefully sleeping face made it difficult to do so.

Seung-jo didn't know how Mu-heon felt, but at least for him, whenever Mu-heon acted like this, he felt good thinking that Mu-heon was comfortable only with him.

He didn't want to leave this pleasant warmth.

"Hey, Jeong Seung-jo! Is that Mu-heon sleeping next to you? What are you doing not waking him up?"

But it seemed he would have to wake him up after all.

Seung-jo looked down at Mu-heon, who was sleeping soundly without moving once despite all this noise, then sighed deeply and slowly reached out to pat his shoulder.

"...Kang Mu-heon."

"..."

"Mu-heon. Wake up. We've arrived at our destination."

At that moment, as if by magic, Mu-heon's eyes snapped open. He seemed to have reacted to the words that they had arrived.

After opening his eyes, Mu-heon looked around the empty bus for a moment as if unable to grasp the situation, then stood up abruptly with a surprised expression.

"What? We're already here? Why are we the only ones still here?"

Seung-jo looked down at his now-lightened shoulder for a moment, then slowly rotated his arm to loosen his muscles as he stood up.

"Because you wouldn't wake up. I thought I was going to die from the weight."

"Uh... Did I sleep on top of you?"

"Yeah. Can't you tell by looking?"

"Sorry. It wasn't intentional. I was just so sleepy..."

"It's fine. Let's just hurry and get out."

"Ah, right. We need to go."

As he followed Mu-heon, who was rushing out in a fluster, Seung-jo removed his hand from his shoulder, which he had been pretending to massage as if in pain.

Somehow, a chilly coldness touched his shoulder, making him feel very cold.

It was strange, as no other part of him felt cold at all.

It took another hour and a half to walk from where the bus stopped to the training camp lodgings. The unfamiliar mountain climbing tired even the vigorous young boys, but what started immediately after arriving and unpacking was hellish training.

"Is this all the basic physical strength you have? Come on, breathe in the clear mountain air lightly and wake up! Prepare for jogging!"

"Yes!"

After running another lap around the mountain and returning, they had to do duck walks and bunny hops for lower body training, followed by basic posture training and striking practice. They said this place had been used for quite a long time, and indeed, on one side of the wide front yard, there were well-maintained used tires set up.

Seung-jo wiped away the streaming sweat and looked to the side, seeing Mu-heon doing striking practice. His gaze stopped completely for a moment.

"Hah! Hah! Ha!"

When charging forward for an attack, one shouldn't tense the upper body. This is because the center of gravity might shift incorrectly, causing stumbling, or the body might become excessively stiff. Therefore, the area that should be tensed the most is around the navel, waist, and pelvis, but since this area doesn't move forward just by mindlessly tensing it, if one focuses on it incorrectly, it could result in an extremely ridiculous posture with only the buttocks sticking out.