Semantic Error

Announcement: Semantic Error will be on hiatus in October. We will return in early November even stronger. We sincerely apologize for the lack of update and thank you so much for reading here. We promise to come back with better quality content and hopefully updates as well. Please have a wonderful day/evening.

Jaeyoung removed his glasses, placed them in his pocket, and lowered his posture. Sangwoo, who was standing still with the ball, began dribbling at some point. Jaeyoung was looking to see if he was going left or right, but he came straight towards him. “You’re going to block me anyway, right?” was written on Sangwoo’s face. He seemed to be trying to pass him on the right because he was preparing to use his arm on one side.

As expected, he went for the right side. Jaeyoung couldn’t touch the situation in which he had to stop him. There was a difference in their physiques, so he played as dirty as he wanted, not with very active movements but with feints instead. Sangwoo crouched down under Jaeyoung’s arm and made his first shot.

“What’s that? Do it properly.”

Dunk. Dunk. Dunk. The sound of his heart felt as strong as the sound of the ball bouncing on the court.

Jaeyoung caught the ball Sangwoo threw at him. The feeling of the basketball was strange. He was a forward who was good at hustle play, having grabbed the ball countless times. However, he didn’t want to win at all.

He slowly and unwillingly drove the ball forward. Sangwoo ran and blocked his front and tried to determine where the ball would go with his eager eyes. His arm moved in the air as if to embrace Jaeyoung. Jaeyoung threw the ball far away while pretending to break past him a few times. An unlikely mid-court shot that wouldn’t make it to the basket. The ball bounced off the backboard. Sangwoo bounced the ball backwards.

‘Gonna lose at this rate.’

A laugh came out. Sangwoo came dribbling towards him. This time, Sangwoo headed for the left side so Jaeyoung happily went to meet him. He tried to steal the ball from him, but he firmly held it against his body. He broke past Jaeyoung by keeping a strong post up and pushing him with his back.

As he was tenaciously holding onto the ball, he looked like a point guard. His difference from Jaeyoung, who always charged forward, was shown. Dealer and tanker. Designer and developer. The two were that different.

Sangwoo approached the free throw line, bent his knees, and fired a double-handed shot once again. The ball made a perfect arc into the net.

While Jaeyoung failed to focus whatsoever and was just limping around like a scarecrow, the score became 8:0 before he knew it.

“What happens if I win?,” Sangwoo asked.

“Dunno.”

“How about doing something the other asks for?”

“Sure.”

To Jaeyoung, both winning and losing was a win-win bet. He thought about what he would ask him to do if he won and then stopped. If it was something easy, he’d just ask for it. If it was something he wouldn’t agree to, it would only backfire on him if he tried to bet for it.

The ball soon came flying towards him. After casually receiving the ball with both hands, Jaeyoung decided to show off his skills at least once. He dribbled low. He effortlessly passed the ball between his hands and tried to show off his personal talent, but Sangwoo didn’t bat an eye.

If it wasn’t essential, that guy tended not to care. He had once thought that Sangwoo was really uncool. Now, however…

‘I like the you who values the essence.’

With a fake out motion, pretending as if he would try to pass him on the right, he went for the left. Without fail, Sangwoo fell for it. There was a time when he thought that he was frustrating. Now, however…

‘I like the you who is frank and straightforward.’

Sangwoo caught up with him again. He tried to hit the ball with his arm while wrapping it around Jaeyoung’s waist. Jaeyoung easily broke away from him again by turning the ball behind his back and grabbing it with his opposite hand, blocking his opponent with a crossover dribble. Sangwoo didn’t give up and followed him. There was a time when he thought he was silly. Now, however…

‘I like the you who try your best.’

As he dribbled and ran down the court, his bangs became tousled and parted. Jaeyoung’s heart thumped. Jaeyoung went straight up to the net  and attempted a layup that was impossible to miss. The ball went directly through the net and returned to his hand. Jaeyoung bounced the ball a couple of times and threw it to Sangwoo.

“It’s eight to two,” he said after receiving the ball. Sangwoo slowly ran to stand by the mid-court line. He bounced the ball in a typical way and pulled forward with a hard but efficient move. The sweaty T-shirt clung to his body and revealed a lean silhouette. His face was brimming with confidence.

The moment he felt that all of that was lovely, Jaeyoung realized that he had a crush on Chu Sangwoo. It had happened before he could tell in what way he was so special and different from others. The sight of Sangwoo running towards him, or no, the fact that Sangwoo was running towards him was as magnificent as the night sky itself, made Jaeyoung feel frightened.

When had it come to this? He didn’t know when he had started to fall in love with that tactless, silly, unpretentious, and unyielding person. That’s because it had come on as slowly as clothes that had gotten wet by rain. When he came to his senses, he was already in this state. Thinking that he would get tired of him after sleeping together once was such a huge pipe dream. Jaeyoung had rather become more desperate for Chu Sangwoo after spending the night with him.

Sangwoo appeared in front of his open eyes while enthusiastically dribbling the ball. Jaeyoung, who had been standing far away from him, extended his arms to block him, but he couldn’t hold back and hugged him instead.

“… That’s a foul.”

Sangwoo’s nonsense immersed him in the mood so much that he couldn’t even sneer. Even in that moment, he felt ridiculous for having fallen for someone to the same extent as one who would hog the ball, not letting go.  Filled  with emotion, Jaeyoung patted the back of Sangwoo’s head. Sangwoo stayed still for a bit and then wriggled out of his grip.

“I’m gonna do a free throw,” Sangwoo said.

Feeling unmotivated, Jaeyoung watched Sangwoo make two shots. His pose while shooting was the same as if he had copied and pasted the frame. Sangwoo approached him with a triumphant look.

“10 points.”

“Nice. What would you like me to do for you?”

He was out of breath. Sangwoo stared at the floor for a while, then raised his head when Jaeyoung asked him that. Dark eyes with a clear goal in them met Jaeyoung’s gaze.

“Kiss me.”

Jaeyoung tried to ask ‘that’s what you’re asking for?’. However, he couldn’t afford such a thing so he approached Sangwoo, caressed his cheek with his palm, and devoured his lips.

Dunk. Dunk. Dunk. The sound of the bouncing ball gradually faded away. A night of romance and sensuality. It was a beautiful and good night.

⌘W

“The work there is fine. How should I put it? It’s trendy while also being of high quality.”

“Either way, I’m going to build a lot of things until the end of the year and try to use an encoder. It’s one of the most popular studios, so many people choose it. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll have to enter a conglomerate and earn lots of money.”

Jaeyoung emptied the soju glass without saying a word. On Saturday evening, after receiving a call from his classmate to come out of hiding and go eat, it had naturally continued on to a drinking spot. Two of his unfriendly hyungs had also been invited along, but one left in the middle after getting a call from his girlfriend, leaving only three of them behind. As everyone was scheduled to graduate from the design department this year, their focus was naturally on employment.

“Will Dex only hire one person this year as well?”

“There’s just no… chance over there. It’s difficult for even experienced people to get in, so how could a recent graduate?”

“Since you took a semester off, you don’t know, hyung. The Dex representative came to the graduation exhibition last year.”

“The designer, Kim Soo-han ? Really?”

“Yeah. It was really cool. It was as if a celebrity had come. He looked at everything and gave his number to a person whose work he said he liked.”

“Wow, fuck… Who’s the Cinderella? They must be working there right now, right? I’m so jealous.”

“What do you mean, who? The dude sitting in front of you, hyung.”

Two pairs of eyes were on Jaeyoung, who was quietly drinking. His nonchalant sunbae frowned and asked him what he was doing here. When Jaeyoung just smiled without answering, his classmate explained instead.

“He turned them down, saying that he was going abroad to study.”

“Why didn’t you go then?”

“I see news has traveled slowly. This bastard took out a loan so his graduation was canceled.”

The two said it was good so they began to giggle. Jaeyoung let them chew on this as if on a snack and enjoy it. He knew this wasn’t out of the ordinary and that there wasn’t any harm in such teasing, even though some jealousy was mixed in it to some extent.

“Jaeyoung, you bastard, you’re just taking one class, but you can’t even contact me? Why do I never see you these days?”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been a little busy.”

How often had they been hanging out that he suddenly pretended they were close? Jaeyoung sneered inside, but roughly pleased the dude.

“I think he got a girlfriend?,” his classmate said with an insidious smile.

The subject changed from there on.

“I don’t see you, and you don’t pick up the phone. I did see your car in the parking lot when I walked past?”

“Oh, there must be something to it. Who is it? Show us please. Can we see a pic?”

They became excited as they recited the names of the girls whom Jaeyoung had been close to until last semester.