Smooch—.
After leaving a light kiss on his cheek, when Yoonjo flinched and stiffened, he slightly turned his chin with his fingertips. When their breaths intertwined, Yoonjo closed his eyes and stuck out his lips. When he bit those lips as if eating them, Yoonjo’s eyes shot open and he pulled his body back.
“Ah, seriously hyung, even at a moment like this you’re joking….”
Smooch, smooch, smooch.
Only after touching his lips three times did Seonwoo pull away a little. Yoonjo’s face was dyed bright red, and Seonwoo had a neat expression no different from usual. However, knowingly or unknowingly, the tips of his ears were reddened.
Seonwoo, who had his elbow on the steering wheel and was leaning down as if resting, showed Yoonjo a faint smile.
“I’ll do it more often from now on.”
“Hyung….”
“I’ll reply a little faster too, and I’ll be one step ahead so you don’t always have to wait. So, don’t try to do things alone like that. Let’s do it together.”
Yoonjo kept opening and closing his mouth toward Seonwoo, then nodded his head. Then Seonwoo lightly stroked Yoonjo’s head, fastened his seatbelt for him, and started the car.
When the car entered the road, Yoonjo kept glancing at Seonwoo. It was because he wanted to hold his hand. Thinking it was dangerous because he was driving, he couldn’t even say it out loud and only sent pitiful glances. Then Seonwoo quietly extended one hand.
“I want to hold your hand right now, can you hold it for me, Yoonjo-ya?”
“Of course!”
Yoonjo answered without even breathing. He immediately gripped Seonwoo’s hand tightly. He thought it would be good to just do that much, but Seonwoo wiggled his fingers for a moment, then intertwined them joint by joint. Only after both their palms and the spaces between their fingers were pressed together without gaps did Seonwoo’s movements stop.
His palm kept getting hot. Yoonjo, wishing he would never let go of this tightly held hand for his entire life, gripped it a bit harder for no reason.
***
Days piled up and piled up to become a month. It was a mystery how time had flowed like this. The problematic philosophy liberal arts course also passed without difficulty.
Seonghyeon writhed saying it was terrible, but Yoonjo found it not as bad as he thought and was starting to enjoy the class.
When he came to his senses like that, a week had passed, and when he tried to gauge the date again, the trip with Seonwoo had approached right before his eyes. Thanks to that, his part-time job ended vaguely after going only exactly three days, but he thought good was good.
It was a mystery why there was no time even though he wasn’t particularly working hard on department or club activities. At most, all he did was take walks with Seonwoo with Dongtae, and in the remaining time, lie down together to watch movies and have various conversations.
“What are you thinking about?”
At the question asked right next to him, Yoonjo grabbed the corner of his cap and lifted it a little.
“Mm… I was thinking about why hyung’s cooking skills aren’t improving… and I was also startled that Woojin hyung suddenly appeared….”
It was exactly what happened this morning. When he was preparing to go to the filming site with Seonwoo, Woojin suddenly barged in. Even after seeing Yoonjo, he showed no sign of surprise and just threw him the position of ‘temporary manager.’
He felt restless for no reason because it seemed suspicious that he wasn’t asking anything, but fortunately, nothing else happened beyond that.
“You keep calling other men’s names. You told me not to call them… but Yoonjo keeps calling them. Why is that, hm?”
Seonwoo tilted Yoonjo’s cap a bit more. His flattened hair was fully revealed and at the same time their foreheads lightly bumped. Yoonjo looked at Seonwoo who had come right in front of his nose and briefly held his breath.
“You know this is a filming location, right?”
“Originally, celebrity cars can’t be seen at all from outside.”
“…Is that so?”
As soon as the words ended, Yoonjo stuck out his lips. Smooch. When he lightly touched and separated his lips, a short resonance spread. It was enough to make his fingertips tickle reflexively.
“Sticking out your lips any time and place.”
“Even if you say that, I’m not scared at all.”
When Yoonjo giggled, Seonwoo gripped Yoonjo’s head with one hand as if wrapping it, then pulled lightly. Bumping foreheads again, he whispered at a distance where his lips seemed like they would touch or not.
“But why is this always the same. If you stick out your lips, this side should stick out too.”
The hand that had been holding his waist moved up a little. Seonwoo, who subtly rubbed over his clothes with his thumb, let out a slight laugh. It was because of Yoonjo, whose face had turned bright red with eyes wide open. The reaction that was always like the first time only looked cute.
“Here… this is really… a filming site… and hyung, you have to board a boat soon….”
“I’m the one going, not you. I know you couldn’t sleep yesterday and are tired…. Should I put you to sleep? If you sleep in the car and wake up, it’ll all be over.”
If voices had form, Seonwoo’s words right now would be scratching the inside of Yoonjo’s ear. Yoonjo trembled, then grabbed Seonwoo’s hand.
“It’s not… sleeping…. It’s passing out!”
Yoonjo, who shouted, half-rolled over and pressed his cap down deeply. Then he grabbed the van’s door handle.
“I won’t be fooled. The day before yesterday too, you said you’d put me to slee… eup…!”
His waist was caught and he ended up sitting on Seonwoo’s thigh. Yoonjo, who had been struggling, flinched when something heavy rested on his shoulder and Seonwoo’s voice was heard right next to him.
“Mm…. Then should I never do it again as Yoonjo wants?”
As soon as the words ended, Yoonjo released Seonwoo’s arm without difficulty. Quickly reaching out to open the door, he shouted toward Seonwoo.
“I’m saying to reduce it, not to never do it again!”
Yoonjo didn’t even wait for Seonwoo’s answer and went out quickly as if fleeing. Seonwoo, left alone in the car, looked back and forth between his arm and the place Yoonjo had passed through, then laughed loudly.
Whatever he did was unexpected. That was Ji Yoonjo’s charm. Seonwoo, who kept chuckling, felt someone’s gaze and shifted his eyes.
“What?”
“Really… it’s not even a honeymoon.”
It was Woojin. After briefly looking around, he closed the car door. Plopping down in the seat next to Seonwoo, he opened his mouth.
“You said you couldn’t, but you brought Yoonjo.”
“It was also a free period, and the weekend happened to be included. Everything aligned well at the same time.”
“Well… yeah. And Seonwoo-ya, as I said, I’m not your manager in charge anymore, so I can’t be there during the entire filming. You’re the one who refused to have a temporary manager attached. You’ll have to be alone, will that be okay?”
Seonwoo listened quietly to Woojin’s words while rubbing his lips. It was a habit that came out when he had to think or worry about something. After a brief silence, Seonwoo responded quietly.
“I know. Anyway, this is just one time. Yoonjo’s here too, so there’s no need to worry about you too.”
“Just in case, I’m asking, but you’re not really quitting, right…?”
“If I’ve done enough, it’s time to come down now. I’m lucky I can sell anything while my name still has value.”
“What are you going to do after you finish?”
Seonwoo, who got up from his seat, grabbed the door handle. Then he smiled brightly toward Woojin sitting behind him.
“I’m going to return to farming.”
Seonwoo got out of the car without even listening to Woojin’s answer. Not far away was Yoonjo. As always.
The filming started smoothly. Since there weren’t many people to begin with and the majority of the population was elderly, the village was quiet and peaceful.
Thanks to that, the filming team could move with a small number of people. Seonwoo, who was squeezed in among them, approached at the call of the PD in charge.
“Today we’re planning to film you interviewing on the boat and afterward filming the process of cooking fish. The cooking cut will be filmed at the designated location. We’ll move in the afternoon.”
It was an incomparably simple explanation. Seonwoo couldn’t understand why there was a 2-night-3-day schedule for something that wouldn’t even take that long. Should he ask, or not. He briefly moved his lips as if pondering, then responded with a smile.
“Please take good care of today’s filming.”
“I should be the one saying that. Actually, when Seonwoo-ssi contacted me, I was really surprised. Anyway, I’ll do my best. Ah, the captain is over there. You can greet him and go right up.”
The PD, who smiled brightly, immediately stepped back. Seonwoo briefly greeted the captain and boarded the prepared boat. When the assistant director ran out and clapped the slate, the camera immediately started rolling.
Just before starting the interview, Seonwoo turned his head. At the end of his gaze, as always, was Yoonjo. When their eyes met, Yoonjo smiled showing his teeth, and Seonwoo also responded with a smile. At that sight, Yoonjo kept smiling proudly.
‘Ah… as expected. Hyung is really beautiful.’
Yoonjo, who had been giggling, perked up his ears at a sound heard nearby. It was from the filming team. They were talking among themselves, muttering in small voices things like ‘actor,’ ‘5 years,’ and so on.
“Actor Ki, he really rested the whole time, right? Looking at his face, it doesn’t seem like it?”
“I was a bit worried when they said he was returning after a long time, but an actor is an actor. Still the same.”
Yoonjo, who was listening while unconsciously nodding his head, sharply turned his head at the words that followed.
“He’s famous for not making NGs. If we watch today, we’ll know whether his skills died or not.”
Who were they to evaluate him at will? It wasn’t something to say about someone standing in front of a camera after a long time. From then on, Yoonjo glared with fierce eyes while slowly observing the filming team. It was because he thought he should preemptively block it if any other nonsense came out.
It was like that the whole time—getting off the boat and moving to the recruited location. Like that, Yoonjo subtly blended into the filming team. Now he was at the point of casually starting conversations.
“Where should I move this to?”
“Ah, you can give that to the assistant director over there. You really don’t have to help….”
“Hey, this kind of thing can be done by whoever has free hands. Then I’ll give it and come back.”
Yoonjo, who smiled affably, handed the box to the assistant director. Inside the small box was something like a bundle of hair. Yoonjo, who was wondering what this was, shifted his gaze to the voice he heard.
“If you think about it. All the food we eat has its own story. Various foods that started from the sea have different tastes and methods. Today….”
When the simple explanation ended, a neatly dressed woman next to him told Seonwoo various things. Yoonjo, who was watching that blankly, opened his eyes wide seeing Seonwoo holding a knife.
It was because his posture was too perfect. He’d definitely handled the knife clumsily just until yesterday, but now it was as if that never happened.
“First, like this….”
The filming continued without breaking even once. Along with smoothly connected words, Seonwoo splendidly trimmed the fish and proceeded with the cooking. Short exclamations burst out from everywhere at the perfectly completed work.
In that gap, only Yoonjo kept tilting his head repeatedly. It was because it was too different, far too different from the Seonwoo he’d seen until yesterday.
