“Gi Siyoung-ssi. Can I really not go home? I’d be more comfortable going home too…”
“Im Seungun-ssi, are you a parrot? Are you going to keep making me repeat the same thing?”
At Gi Siyoung’s irritation, Seungun shut his mouth. The house, which would have had terrible traces left, had been cleaned up seamlessly before he knew it. When he looked with curious eyes, Gi Siyoung told him he’d called someone to do the cleanup. Seungun found these aspects of his life truly fascinating. To have even trivial things handled by others—these were things he couldn’t even imagine in his own life.
“Wear this to sleep, and what else was needed. Ah, a toothbrush.”
“……”
Gi Siyoung took out comfortable clothes from the dressing room that would fit Seungun and handed them over.
“You have to brush your teeth before bed too. Follow me.”
Seungun trudged after him. Perhaps the anesthesia was wearing off, his injured hand throbbed. However, it wasn’t enough to show it.
“This is the bathroom.”
“……”
The bathroom Gi Siyoung used was as large as his house. The neat tiles had a sensible pattern, and the bathtub and shower were conveniently separated. The marble floor without a single drop of water was so shiny his face could be reflected in it. Gi Siyoung placed a new toothbrush neatly next to the sink.
“As you can see, that over there is body shampoo, then shampoo and treatment in order. If you push the mirror, there’s body oil and different types of lotion inside, so apply whatever you prefer.”
“Gi Siyoung-ssi.”
“Towels are here by size. Big ones, small ones.”
“Gi Siyoung-ssi?”
“Ah, what! Why do you keep calling me?”
Gi Siyoung whipped around. Seungun lifted his throbbing hand up beside his face.
“My hand is like this so I can’t shower alone.”
“…That means.”
Gi Siyoung muttered with a face like someone had hit the back of his head with a hammer from behind.
“You’re asking me to give you a shower right now?”
“What? Of course not. What I mean is, if there’s something like plastic to cover my hand, I’d like to use it.”
“Ah, plastic.”
Gi Siyoung opened the drawer under the sink. Inside, bath supplies were orderly placed in storage dividers, and finding a hair cap at once, he tore open the packaging container and gestured for him to come in.
“This is the only thing I have to cover your hand with. But there’s no way this will work….”
Gi Siyoung gently put the hair cap on so it wouldn’t touch Seungun’s wound.
“Aah….”
However, even the slightest touch made Seungun let out a pained groan. He’d been careful in his own way, but it didn’t seem to work. Gi Siyoung, who had been pondering for a moment, irritably crumpled up the hair cap and threw it on the sink.
“Forget it. What am I going to do with this. Where are you going to wash anyway. You’re not going to ask me to wash you down to your crotch, are you. Hair? Feet? Feet are a bit much, but I’ll try washing your hair for you.”
“You, Gi Siyoung-ssi? Have you ever washed someone else’s hair before?”
“Does washing hair require a license or something? If you do it, you do it.”
“That’s true, but….”
Leaving behind Seungun’s doubtful voice, Siyoung alternately looked at the shower and bathtub. He tried to gauge which of the two would be appropriate. If they did it in the shower, both would probably get wet, and one person had to get in the bathtub, so he was calculating the range to figure out which position would splash less water.
“Which position do you want to do it in?”
“……”
“Ah, was that question a bit strange?”
Gi Siyoung muttered to himself.
“The back-of-neck position would probably be most comfortable, right? It would be better for Seungun-ssi to stand outside the bathtub, bend at the waist, and stick just your head inside the bathtub.”
“Yes.”
If they were going to get it done, it was better to get it done quickly. Seungun wanted to finish all preparations and sleep quickly before the anesthetic effect wore off completely. Taking off his top, he saw blood had splattered on his t-shirt too. It was awkward to undress in front of Gi Siyoung, but if he couldn’t wash his hair right now, it was obvious he wouldn’t be able to wash it properly for several days.
“Should I cover your shoulders with a towel?”
Rolling up the messy t-shirt and preparing the back-of-neck position, Seungun’s skin was revealed. Without even realizing it himself, Gi Siyoung looked over Seungun’s body as if scoring it. Small spots like freckles were sparsely embedded on his nape, shoulder blades, and back. Because of those brown spots, his pale skin looked even whiter.
His upper body was flat without an ounce of excess fat. His lower abdomen and pelvic area were even smooth without a trace of fat ever sticking to them in his life. Gi Siyoung had seen people’s naked bodies to the point of boredom while living in the entertainment industry. But there had never been skin that looked this soft and smooth even with body makeup.
“Gi Siyoung-ssi?”
When Seungun whipped his head around, Siyoung turned his head toward the bathtub as if he hadn’t been looking.
“Do I have to decide even that for you? Whether you wrap it or bundle it up, do as you please, and stand outside the bathtub and bow your head properly.”
“……”
This is why he said he wanted to go home. The situation became more and more uncomfortable. Still, he couldn’t repeat parrot-like words again to someone who was holding a shower head and waiting. Gi Siyoung pulled the faucet. He adjusted the temperature to the middle between the red dot and blue dot. He wet his palm first. It was just the right temperature, neither lukewarm nor hot.
“Then I’ll bend down.”
When Seungun bent his head into the bathtub, Gi Siyoung lifted the shower head and wet his dry scalp. His back, with its bumpy protruding vertebrae, flinched. Water flowed down his giraffe-like long neck.
“Stay still. Don’t move.”
“……”
When Gi Siyoung warned him, Seungun stiffened his body. He squeezed out about a coin’s worth of shampoo and rubbed his palms together. He vigorously rubbed the foam created in a consistent size on Seungun’s scalp. The awkwardly bent body swayed back and forth at Gi Siyoung’s grip strength.
“Put some proper strength in your legs. I can’t rub your scalp properly.”
“What am I supposed to do about Gi Siyoung-ssi having the strength of Hercules?”
He wanted to spray water from head to toe at Seungun who was talking back so sharply. He wanted to see the sight of him sitting down with a plop on the floor, soaking wet, looking up at him with pitiful eyes. However, he was a patient who got hurt because of him today.
“Gi Siyoung-ssi, wa, water is on my faaace, too much!”
“Ah, sorry.”
Seungun hit the bathtub wildly. While he was briefly distracted, the shower head was shooting at the wrong place. Siyoung hurriedly rinsed out the foam. After thoroughly washing deep into the scalp, when he brought his hand to the treatment container, a muffled voice leaked from below.
“Conditioner is fine. I originally only use shampoo.”
Seungun, whose eyeballs stung from shampoo getting in, said haltingly.
“That’s too bad. I was going to give you a scalp massage too.”
Gi Siyoung said sarcastically and turned off the shower water.
“I’ll do the rest. Thank you for helping.”
Gi Siyoung, who hung the shower head on the wall, took out a towel from the storage cabinet and held it out smoothly. Even the motion of receiving it with one hand, covering his head, and rubbing was awkward. Water dripping from his hair wet his shoulders. Gi Siyoung shook his head and spread out the towel neatly, placed it on top of Seungun’s head, then began drying his hair very quickly, like a spin dryer.
“No, wait, I can, do it, myself.”
Seungun’s voice broke off in chunks as his head shook. After shaking it to some extent, Gi Siyoung, who retrieved the towel, connected a light hair dryer directly to the outlet and handed it over.
“Turning on the power button and holding it while shaking is possible with one hand, right?”
“Of course.”
Gi Siyoung slammed the bathroom door and left. Left alone, Seungun let out the breath he’d been holding in tension the whole time. An actor and manager were both close and distant. But for Gi Siyoung to wash his hair directly and even dry it. Seungun slowly turned on the hair dryer power with a tingling feeling and dried his hair. Hot air covered his face.
After even changing clothes and going outside, the interior lighting had been lowered in the meantime.
“There’s only one bed in my house, so sleep downstairs. If I sleep next to someone, we bump into each other and it’s totally uncomfortable.”
“I can just sleep on the sofa.”
“You hurt your hand because of me, would I make such a person sleep on the sofa?”
“It’s not because of Gi Siyoung-ssi that I got hurt. I wasn’t careful. I don’t want to burden Gi Siyoung-ssi.”
“Making someone sleep on the sofa while I sleep alone on the bed, that really wouldn’t be a burden. Don’t you see that? I even laid out the blanket.”
Gi Siyoung pointed inside the bedroom. A thick topper was laid under the bed along with fluffy blankets and a pillow.
“……”
This time too, he had no choice. He carefully laid his body down on the bedding under the bed. Then it suddenly occurred to him that he’d skipped dinner. He also remembered the lunchbox that would be cooling in his bag. He had no intention whatsoever of putting those in the refrigerator in front of Gi Siyoung and looking pathetic.
“By the way, aren’t you hungry? You didn’t eat the food you ordered earlier either.”
“After seeing someone else’s blood, I lost my appetite.”
“……”
“If it’s bright, tell me. I’m going to read the script for a bit and then sleep.”
“Not at all. Don’t worry about me and read comfortably.”
Gi Siyoung confirmed that Seungun was lying down, then turned on the reading light next to the bed weakly. Climbing onto the bed, he leaned his back against a large pillow and opened the script. Every time he turned the script, a rustling sound was made.
Seungun closed his eyes listening to that sound. The day felt incredibly long. At the same time, his body was exhausted. It might be because he ran around here and there on set, or it might be because his finger was torn. As soon as he laid his head on the fluffy pillow, it felt like his body was sinking into the floor. However, he couldn’t sleep comfortably either.
He’d taken medicine before bed, so the pain in his hand gradually subsided. Rustle, rustle. With the sound of paper turning over regularly, the tension slowly eased. Inside his eyelids, the sandman waved its palm and gestured for him to come quickly.
