Today was finally the day of the first official date, and it was Christmas. The winter-themed props decorated throughout the house and the tree with sparkling lights had been giving off a strong Christmas atmosphere since morning.
Though it was an exciting day just from the fact that it was Christmas, those going on their first official date seemed even more so. Those assigned to distant date locations had left the house quite early, so the only ones still remaining on the second floor were Seonwoo and Haeyoung.
“Hyung, when are you leaving?”
And Haeyoung asked toward the bathroom inside the dressing room. Seonwoo’s answer also came calmly. It seemed he would leave around lunchtime. His attitude was quite casual.
It wasn’t that he had shaken off his lingering attachment overnight or become unbothered. However, the time spent having conversations until late at night with the other cast members who returned after dinner, after coming back from yesterday’s outing and studying at home to catch up, had considerably relaxed Haeyoung’s tension.
Haeyoung, who came out after washing up before Seonwoo, lowered his hand in the middle of drying his hair.
“Mm…”
While glaring at the mirror, pondering whether to put his hair up or down, he eventually put down the dryer without deciding. Then he left the room and stepped down the stairs heading to the first floor.
Haeyoung, standing in front of the room the female cast members used, knocked on the door briefly.
“Haeyoung oppa?”
The one who opened the door was Soyoon. She, with round curlers in her bangs, poked her head out through the open doorway. And at Haeyoung’s words asking her to call Sehee, she immediately turned her body and shouted while looking inside the room.
“Unnie! Haeyoung oppa is calling for you.”
As he requested, Soyoon called Sehee and went back inside. And in that empty spot, Sehee approached and stood. She, whose preparation was almost finished, made a welcoming face seeing Haeyoung.
“What’s up?”
She, who had been asking what business he came for, soon discovered the clothes Haeyoung was wearing and widened her eyes.
“You’re wearing the clothes I gave you?”
A voice containing a pleased air reached Haeyoung.
“Since I received it as a gift. Do I look okay?”
“What are you asking. What do I do, it suits you so well. As expected, I… have an eye for this.”
Sehee looked Haeyoung up and down with her hand on her chin, then nodded proudly. She was so funny stroking her own head that Haeyoung also couldn’t help but let out an empty laugh.
Looking down at her who seemed happy, Haeyoung fiddled with his hair. It was time to bring up his business.
“Noona, should I put my hair up or down?”
At the unexpected question, Sehee, who had been blinking for a moment wondering if he came to ask that, this time burst into laughter. The sound of laughter flowing from her mouth was so cheerful that even Soyoon, who was inside, glanced over wondering what was happening.
After laughing for a while, she scanned Haeyoung with a quite serious face and gave various instructions. Put your hair up. Put it down again. No, put it up. She seemed to be thinking carefully, then finally spoke as if blurting it out.
“You’re handsome either way though?”
For making him touch his hair several times, it was a deflating conclusion. At the answer containing playfulness unlike her serious expression, Haeyoung slightly frowned.
However, at Sehee strongly expressing her sincerity saying “Really,” Haeyoung soon smiled broadly as if there was nothing to be done.
“I know that, but I’m curious about noona’s taste.”
The words that came from his mouth were similarly playful. Sehee, who hesitated at Haeyoung’s answer, looked up at him with narrowed eyes. Yoon Haeyoung was certain that if there hadn’t been a camera here, words like “oh my” would have popped out of her mouth. He could tell just by looking at her expression.
“Then put it up.”
At the decision made by Sehee, who had been examining his face closely, he nodded. Got it, see you later. Haeyoung, who turned his body, headed back to the second floor.
Thanks to fixing his hair every morning while commuting to his internship, he had now become quite skilled at doing his own hair. While Haeyoung was holding the dryer and drying the parts that were slightly less dry, Seonwoo, who had finished preparing, entered the dressing room again.
As if trying to show he had time to spare, he stood at the entrance in a leisurely posture. Haeyoung, who had been holding spray and shaking it lightly, made eye contact with Seonwoo through the mirror and awkwardly stopped his arm. At the persistent gaze touching his face, Haeyoung reluctantly trailed off and asked.
“Why…”
Seonwoo, who had been quietly watching him grooming his hair to expose his forehead, spoke calmly.
“Your hair looks prettier down.”
“Yeah?”
Haeyoung turned his head with an interested face. Cha Seonwoo made eye contact with such Haeyoung and drew a faint smile.
“When you put it up, your whole face shows.”
“…So?”
“So I don’t like it.”
“……”
At the words that flowed out as if it were natural, Haeyoung hesitated. When he briefly glanced down inside his clothes, he saw the microphone still attached in place. Haeyoung realized that the things he would have to beg Hajin for had increased.
He didn’t ask why. Because he felt like he knew the reason a little even without asking.
Seonwoo’s voice was soft, but somewhere it was firmly suppressed as if pressed down. Unlike his gentle tone, his expression also wasn’t very good. Is he smiling or not right now… Haeyoung, who was trying to read his expression, combed down with a brush the hair he was about to put up.
He would understand if he told Sehee that he had no choice because he messed up while doing his hair. Haeyoung, who finished grooming his hair while sighing, stood up from his spot. Then he entered the clothes room opposite the mirror and took out the coat hanging inside.
It was when Haeyoung, who had put on his outerwear, was about to leave the dressing room. What Seonwoo was holding approached before his eyes.
“Haeyoung-ah, it’s cold outside, so wear this.”
What he held out was a familiar scarf. A dark-toned navy blue scarf. Yoon Haeyoung couldn’t not recognize what it was. Because it was something he had directly given him as a gift.
At the item he hadn’t even thought he would see here, Haeyoung’s heart momentarily rattled. He, who unconsciously swallowed dry saliva, brought out a voice pretending to be calm.
“No, it’s okay.”
“You’re wearing a coat. It’s cold today.”
Seonwoo said while pointing to the nape exposed above the coat. Then he extended his arm and wrapped the long unfolded scarf around Haeyoung’s neck. It happened in an instant before he could say anything.
Haeyoung could only make a strange face at his action of hanging the gift he had given back around his own neck. He should say he would do it himself, but his mouth wouldn’t open easily, and he should pass it off playfully, but playful words wouldn’t come to mind at all.
Seonwoo, who made eye contact with Haeyoung whose blank mind was spinning, smiled with his eyes folded. The familiar gentle eye smile brought an inexplicable sense of relief while making his insides churn. It seemed like his mind was gradually becoming organized.
Seonwoo spoke gently to such Haeyoung.
“This is precious, so make sure to return it.”
“Must be expensive. I should sell it outside and come back. Ugh.”
“Just try doing that.”
He put strength in his hands in the middle of tying the scarf’s knot, tightening his neck uncomfortably. Even though it wasn’t painful, Haeyoung, who exaggeratedly shrank his body, looked up at Seonwoo making a firm expression with a smiling face.
Then he naturally lowered his gaze down following the white hands that were slowly falling away. What he then saw was a lump of cloth hanging on his neck. He could only describe it as a lump.
Yoon Haeyoung, who discovered the state of the scarf Seonwoo had tied, suddenly frowned heavily.
“Hyung, are you kidding? Who ties a scarf like a ribbon?”
It was a voice clearly showing he was dumbfounded, but Cha Seonwoo still shook his head with a smiling face, saying he wasn’t joking.
“I wish you were a bit less cool today, Yoon Haeyoung. But why are you so cute like this…”
A short sigh leaked from his lips.
“I’m really going crazy.”
Cha Seonwoo, who had said it was fine to date but just not to be in a relationship, was making a dying face at the fact that he was going on a date. Haeyoung stuck out his lips and raised his hand to the scarf.
“I’ll do it again.”
“It’s fine. I can do it.”
“You don’t trust me, Haeyoung-ah?”
Ha. At his question, Haeyoung finally let out an empty laugh.
Normally he would have answered that he trusted him, but Haeyoung still remembered how many times he had been fooled by Cha Seonwoo’s innocent face while living in this house. Looking at him who shamelessly brought up the words “don’t you trust me” after doing that, Haeyoung loosened the scarf tied in a ribbon shape. …Precisely, he tried to.
Even though it was a haphazardly tied knot, his fingertips kept slipping, not knowing why it wouldn’t come undone right away. It felt like a leash was hanging on his neck. When Haeyoung’s face slightly frowned, Seonwoo, who had been quietly watching, extended his arm and easily untied the knot.
“Hyung, don’t work at a company and try running for office once. Looking at your credibility, you’re politician material.”
“Trustworthy?”
“Ah, shit. Yeah, that’s enough.”
Even though you understood. While wrapping the scarf around his neck again, Haeyoung grumbled quietly.
After arranging his collar and raising his head, Cha Seonwoo looking at him was captured in his eyes.
“Haeyoung-ah, have a good time.”
At those words, Yoon Haeyoung could only leave the room with a strange feeling to the end.
Though it wasn’t just entirely sad like before, the subtle emotions whose names he couldn’t identify were mixed and made his heart noisy in the same way. Going on a date with someone else while receiving a farewell from his ex-lover. The situation he had never imagined until now evoked indescribable feelings.
It seemed uncomfortable, somehow seemed funny, and guilt briefly raised its head.
“Hyung too… have a good time.”
Looking at Seonwoo’s white face waving his hand slightly at him, Haeyoung also answered quietly. Then Sehee’s voice calling him from outside was heard. He, who hurriedly passed Seonwoo, grabbed the doorknob.
The last expression of Seonwoo seen the moment the door closed was blurry, but it stuck vividly in Haeyoung’s eyes. Those black eyes seemed like they wouldn’t leave his mind all day.
