It's Just A Picture (BL)
Chapter 245: The dinner dates were enough

Chapter 245: The dinner dates were enough

"HE SAID WHAT?!" Minwoo flared, after hearing Shinwoo had indirectly told Dongwoo that he was ugly and shouldn’t smile or laugh in front of others. "That bastard said that to you and you believed it?"

Dongwoo bowed his head. He wasn’t comfortable speaking about it and thinking back to it, now that he heard a lot of people compliment him and had the assurance that he really was good-looking, he felt he had been so dumb back then.

An idiot. A blind fool.

He was blinded by his insecurities and even let a lowlife like Shinwoo affirm these insecurities.

Minwoo was right to react like that.

Minwoo saw that Dongwoo had humbled himself and realized he had overreacted. He cleared his throat and said,

"Anyway, we’ll settle the scores later. Continue please."

Dongwoo, who had a lot of insecurities, couldn’t help but take Shinwoo’s words as the truth. After all, he was the only one showing care to him at that time. And he had no reason to lie to him too.

But his actions started getting even more bold and blunt.

"Dongwoo, why do you work so hard?" Shinwoo asked.

They were at Shinwoo’s place. It was not too far from Dongwoo’s and they were both seated on the couch, watching a movie on his TV.

"Huh?" Dongwoo looked at him.

"You know, if you’re short on money, I could always..."

"Shinwoo." Dongwoo cut him short. "We talked about this. I don’t want to rely on you for anything. Most especially money." He said. ’And most especially when I know I may not be able to give you what you want later.’

"Hm," Shinwoo’s eyes turned glazed with disinterest and a bit of disappointment and he turned to the TV screen, acting like he was watching what was showing.

Dongwoo sighed, relieved that he had dropped the topic there.

The last time they had that conversation, Shinwoo started listing out all the things he could do for him and how it would benefit their relationship since they hardly got enough time to spend with one another.

The topic made Dongwoo uncomfortable since he knew that their relationship was not a long-lasting one. So, he refused to accept such favors or help or get used to Shinwoo treating him well it would end soon and he may just be filled with longing for such things again.

The dinner dates were enough.

"Dongwoo," Shinwoo called again. "...do the people in your workplace know that you’re gay?" He had asked and Dongwoo turned to him, shocked.

"N-no. How would they?" Dongwoo asked. "I don’t..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I don’t really like talking about my sexuality."

"Is that so?" Shinwoo had this look in his eyes that made Dongwoo feel uncomfortable. He had been giving off that vibe for quite a while. "Well, you have to be careful so that they’ll never know, right?" He smirked and that sent chills down Dongwoo’s spine.

"Uh... Yeah, I guess."

"If they happen to find out, would you quit your job?" He asked and Dongwoo’s eyebrows furrowed.

What was he talking about? ’Why’ was he talking like that?

What did he mean if they found out? How could they?

"Well, I... I haven’t thought of it yet." Dongwoo said.

Aside from the job he had as a photography assistant, he also had two more part-time jobs.

"Haha, did I scare you?" Shinwoo asked. "I’m just trying to prepare you for the future. You never know what would happen. So it’s best to be prepared."

Dongwoo clutched his hand. Yeah, that was a reasonable reasoning.

"Well, I hope it doesn’t come to that."

"Yeah," Shinwoo said, staring with dark and mischievous eyes that Dongwoo did not see. "I hope so too."

It didn’t take long before Dongwoo was fired from both his part-time jobs and his managers did not say why. They only looked at him strangely, as if judging him.

He looked disgusted too. And without much of an explanation, he sent him off with his paycheck and an exclamation of good riddance to bad rubbish.

Dongwoo was confused.

In his second part-time, he didn’t get such harsh exclamations but the disappointment and disgust in his boss’ eyes were evident.

On his way out, he met the girl who usually worked shifts with him.

"Oh, Dongwoo-ssi. You got fired?" She asked, and Dongwoo nodded. "I feel so bad for you. But oh well, the boss doesn’t want to chase his customers." He said and a confused Dongwoo requested that she rewound her statement.

"Wait, please, explain it to me. Do you know why I was fired? I didn’t do anything, did I?"

"Well, no." The girl said and looked at Dongwoo’s hand on her arm. It was the first time that he was being so active. He was always so calm. Well, he just lost his job and probably didn’t know why, so it was understandable.

Noticing this, Dongwoo took his hand back.

"So sorry." He apologized. "So, um, can you please tell me what you know?"

"Well, a guy came to the cafe when you weren’t here and met the boss. He was very friendly at first but then he started saying things like, he appreciated that the boss took in a homo like you."

Dongwoo flinched.

"He probably did it on purpose to make you lose your job." She added. "It’s mean."

"Did the person call my name?" Dongwoo asked and she nodded.

"Yeah, but a person shouldn’t be fired because of their sexuality but I guess it can’t be helped." She shrugged. "The boss must be homophobic."

Dongwoo couldn’t understand what was going on. He clenched his fists and pursed his lips. Who was it?

Who was trying to ruin his life? Who did he offend?

He thought back to his boss that almost forced his dick down his throat but shook it off. It had been quite a while. He certainly wouldn’t have waited this long just to get his revenge.

Then... Who?

"Oh, there." The girl said, and Dongwoo raised his head. "I recognized him from that day."

Dongwoo followed where she was pointing with a pounding heart.

What if it was someone he really offended?

But his heartbeat got a lot wilder when he saw that it was none other than Shinwoo. He was waving and smiling.

"Is he a friend of yours?" The girl asked.

Dongwoo was confused and as Shinwoo approached him, a lot of questions played in his head. But the only thing he could ask as Shinwoo stopped in front of him was,

"Why?"

Shinwoo stared at his eyes which were growing teary. He reached out to swipe his hair back and asked,

"What did I do, Dongwoo? Did I do something wrong?"