“Don’t pick it up! I’ll pick it up, I will!”
Seungun quickly bent his upper body first before Gi Siyoung could bend down to pick it up. Then he dusted it off and hurriedly put it in his pocket. Gi Siyoung was looking at him with narrowed eyes. He’d almost gotten caught. Seungun pointed to the letters on the desk without even having time to calm his startled heart.
“It’s nothing else. I was inspecting fan letters.”
“If you tore your hand reading those things, I’d think you’d never want to read such things again.”
“Do I not work just because I’m injured? By the way, what brings you to the company at this hour?”
He quickly changed the subject.
“I heard a few scenarios came in for me, so I came to get them. I heard there was a company dinner, so I just came to get them myself, but the lights were on here so I came in.”
“Ah, I see.”
“What does it say?”
Gi Siyoung stretched out his long arm and took the fan letter placed on the desk. His jet-black pupils moved from left to right, from top to bottom over quite a long time.
Seungun quickly gulped down ice water intending to sober up from the alcohol. The tumbler’s insulation effect was completely useless. The ice had already melted halfway.
Gi Siyoung, who had finished reading the fan letter, neatly folded the cute fan letter that wasn’t even half the size of his palm and slipped it into his pants pocket.
“By the way, why are your cheeks red?”
“My ch-cheeks? Ah, that.”
“……”
Im Seungun rubbed his still burning cheeks.
“Myeongwoo sunbae kept pinching my cheeks.”
“Is getting your cheeks pinched something to be shy about when talking?”
“When did I act shy?”
“You’re doing it right now.”
“No way. I only answered because you asked why my cheeks are red.”
“Then why are you twisting your body all around.”
Gi Siyoung arrogantly tapped Seungun’s well-worn shoes. Seungun turned his chair to look at himself reflected in the dark glass window. He was just sitting in a chair, and there was no part twisted anywhere. Suddenly, Gi Siyoung grabbed the chair head and turned it toward himself.
“Ah, I get it.”
At Gi Siyoung’s face that had gotten closer, Seungun buried his back deeply.
“What do you get?”
“Your taste is for older people?”
“My taste isn’t like that. But why do you keep saying strange things…”
“What strange things did I say.”
“If you’re bored, just go home.”
“……”
Gi Siyoung’s soft eyelashes lowered as if they would brush his cheeks, then rose again. Today, Im Seungun’s speech was somehow longer than usual and his pronunciation was slurred, perhaps because he had some alcohol in him. The urge to tease him suddenly welled up.
“How’s your hand?”
Gi Siyoung asked as smoothly as if he’d buttered his tongue.
“It’s fine.”
“I’m sorry it’s because of me for no reason.”
“…It’s fine. It’s already in the past.”
“No. It’s all my fault.”
“…I said it’s fine. Why are you suddenly like this?”
“Saying sorry doesn’t cost money, so I’m willing to do it as much as you want.”
“No. It’s fine.”
“You don’t know this?”
“Know what?”
Gi Siyoung’s expression was strange. His eyes became pitiful as if looking at a distant mountain filled with melancholy.
“When Seungun-ssi gets hurt, I get a bigger wound. My heart hurts as if cut by a knife. How can someone who’s in pain and taking medicine drink alcohol like this… Foolishly.”
“What?”
“……”
“What are you saying right now?”
Im Seungun looked around bewildered. He even suspected whether a hidden camera was filming this place without his knowledge. Looking around and then at Gi Siyoung, he was pulling up the corners of his mouth in a grin.
“How was it. That was just from <Affair>. It was a scene where the female lead complains to Mukho who always gets hurt.”
“Not funny.”
Im Seungun said grumpily.
“Since we met like this, it worked out well. Be my script practice partner. I have no enthusiasm trying to do it alone.”
“Script practice with me? I’ve been drinking too.”
Gi Siyoung made a face like that’s nothing.
“Myeongwoo hyung also often matched lines with me as my partner.”
“……”
If that’s the case, there was nothing to say. Seungun got up from his seat reluctantly.
The two soon got into a sleekly streamlined car. The late night streets were still bustling with crowds. The neon signs of buildings colorfully illuminated the roof of passing cars. Seungun held like an egg the script that Gi Siyoung had brought from the company the entire time he was driving.
Seungun carefully put down the scenario on the floor above the entrance, then took off his shoes first. Standing wobbling, he took off his socks, pulled out washed socks, and put them on his feet. Then he rolled up the socks he’d been wearing and put them in his pants pocket again this time too. The thin summer pants pocket bulged ridiculously.
“Are you practicing other works besides the one you’re currently filming?”
Seungun put down the bundle of scenarios on the living room sofa table. The title wasn’t <Affair>.
“If I keep looking at only one work, my head doesn’t get ventilated.”
“Ah.”
“I look at other things too and change my mood a bit.”
Gi Siyoung handed him a beer he took out from the refrigerator. Click, pssh. As soon as the cap was opened, beer foam bubbled up. Seungun gulped it down before the foam could flow down the can.
He was thirsty from drinking alcohol. The beer fresh from the refrigerator was so cool that one corner of his chest felt tight.
“I pray my manager isn’t an alcoholic.”
“I drank it because I was thirsty. You get thirstier after drinking alcohol. I would have drunk it like this even if you’d given me water.”
“With alcohol in you, your words are longer than usual.”
“……”
Gi Siyoung chuckled and passed by him. Then he sat on the sofa, crossed his legs that were longer than a model’s, and patted the seat next to him with his palm. Seungun sat down with his butt in that spot. Then he neatly placed the scenario Gi Siyoung handed him on his thighs.
“Ah, wait a moment. Let me gargle. I overate a bit.”
“……”
Seungun pulled open the zipper of the crossbody bag that crossed his chest diagonally. From inside, he took out bad breath remover, opened his mouth, and sprayed it several times. Siyoung, who had been watching that curiously, casually glanced over the inside of the bag.
“Seungun-ssi, that small bag of yours has everything. You’re like a peddler. Can I take a look?”
Gi Siyoung showed interest and suddenly lowered his head. Seungun, who had been buried in food smells and alcohol smells, stiffened like a stone when a sweet body scent that wasn’t the scent he’d been smelling came in without warning. Gi Siyoung’s hair was close enough to tickle Seungun’s cheek. Seungun pulled his upper body to the side and hurriedly closed the bag opening.
“Th-there’s nothing to see.”
“……”
“Let’s hurry and practice together.”
Seungun changed the subject and opened the scenario. But whether it was because he drank alcohol or because he was startled by Gi Siyoung suddenly approaching, his vision spun around a bit. Gi Siyoung, who immediately straightened his body, pointed to a certain point in the script with his finger.
“From the second paragraph of the fifth page.”
“The second paragraph of the fifth page…”
“Seungun-ssi, turn to face me too. We have to look at each other’s eyes and act.”
“Ah, I understand.”
Gi Siyoung bent his index and middle fingers to point at his own eyes. Seungun turned his body slightly to the side. The living room had only lighting with brightness that allowed seeing the letters written in the script. Siyoung’s crown where the light settled looked soft like silk.
Seungun stared at his partner as if entranced. It was like a doll he wanted so much but was too expensive to touch or have, so he could only look at it endlessly.
“I’ll start.”
“Yes.”
“You know. Today I have to say it.”
The voice of Gi Siyoung, who immediately fell into acting, felt unfamiliar, so he blankly asked back.
“…What?”
“It’s a line, a line. Seungun-ssi should say the next line.”
Gi Siyoung whispered while tapping a part of the white paper with his index finger. Seungun, whose gaze had been stolen by Siyoung’s peach-colored lips, hurriedly scanned the script. It was the second paragraph of the fifth page he mentioned. The line that had just become reality in Gi Siyoung’s voice was clearly written there.
“Wh-what? What?”
It was speech that couldn’t be more awkward.
“I’ve been looking forward to only this moment for a long time. I love you.”
“Uh, um… I love you too. But later. Now isn’t the time.”
“If now isn’t the time, when is the opportunity?”
It seemed the two weren’t in a state to whisper love given the situation.
Seungun acted as if reading a textbook.
“Look at us. I stepped in dog poop passing by and you got drenched in sewage water in front of the store. Our bodies stink. We should hurry and wash and spray perfume and it still wouldn’t be enough, but suddenly love? You love me? Are you in your right mind? Such words should be said in a more splendid place wearing splendid clothes.”
“I would love you even if you were the dog that pooped that dog poop. I would hug and roll around with that body even if you bathed in water used to wring out rags and stink.”
What kind of lines are these?
Even while reciting the lines, his face scrunched up. He became curious whether the director who wrote such a thing as a scenario or Gi Siyoung who chose such a thing as one of his next work candidates were really in their right minds.
But even childish lines that wouldn’t appear in third-rate novels had a corner that touched the heartstrings like a great tragedy when they came from Gi Siyoung’s mouth.
“Oh, you’re really stupid. How can a person be made like this? I can’t get a handle on you at all.”
“I love you. I’ve wanted to say these words since a very long time ago…”
Because there was a man right in front of him anxious because he couldn’t confess his love to his lover. Gi Siyoung was emitting the form of love with his whole body. Even though it was brief, he became a completely different person and acted. And the only person watching his acting at this moment was Im Seungun alone.
Gi Siyoung was concentrating on the partner in front of him, and Seungun, who received that concentration in full, could hardly find a place to rest his eyes.
“Then I have no choice but to love you too. Because I was born to love you…”
“Really?”
Gi Siyoung asked with sparkling eyes.
“Yes, with sincerity.”
Seungun avoided his gaze.
“Then I’ll kiss you right here and now.”
What? Seungun hurriedly read the next line.
