Seonwoo, who had to stay at the lodging after everyone left to do an interview, arrived at the airport first. As he stood there blankly waiting, familiar faces began to approach one by one. However, the person he was waiting for still wasn’t visible.
“Seonwoo-ssi, are you sick somewhere?”
The female cast member who had checked in together next to him asked in a quite worried tone. What was her name again? His irritated mind couldn’t immediately recall what her name was. However, without showing such signs, Seonwoo smiled gently and shook his head.
“No, I’m fine.”
“Mm…”
“Thank you for worrying.”
He tried to smile as if nothing was wrong as much as possible, but the other person didn’t easily erase the worry from her eyes. Seonwoo stepped away from her gaze watching him, saying his complexion didn’t look good. At his appearance of putting an affectionate smile on his lips, Hyuna eventually nodded with an uncomfortable face.
Was it since yesterday, or the day before? A headache whose start he couldn’t even remember wasn’t disappearing persistently.
As he came out after finishing check-in, Seonwoo raised his hand and pressed his forehead. His weakly drooping head lifted when a familiar voice was heard from a distance.
“Haeyoung-ah!”
“Wow, we’re all going together like this? Isn’t this a bit cruel?”
“It seems people who were matched as couples come separately. Here are the people who weren’t chosen.”
“Dain-ah…”
When he turned his head toward where the voice came from, he saw Haeyoung entering last. He was looking down at Dain with a face that smiled as if grimacing.
Seeing his face as clear as usual made his insides burn.
Haeyoung-ah, I’m sick. With his mouth closed, he raised his hand and covered his eyes. His head was so dizzy that even a faint nausea rose. Cha Seonwoo was waiting for Yoon Haeyoung, who would come to him even without saying anything.
You know me best. So please look at me. Please come to me. Moist words kept pooling in his mouth, wanting to cling to him right away. And at that moment, Seonwoo felt a careful touch grabbing and pulling down his wrist.
“Hyung… are you sick somewhere?”
“…”
“Look at me.”
As the hand covering his eyes was pulled down, his dark vision brightened again. And what filled that bright spot was the face of the one he loved endlessly.
A light of worry was rising in Haeyoung’s gaze as he looked at him, slightly furrowing his brow.
…Ah. Seonwoo’s lips, which had been firmly closed, opened faintly. At his head nodding with a small gesture, Hyuna, who had been standing next to him, flinched and looked up at Seonwoo.
However, neither of them had the time to care about such reactions. Cha Seonwoo didn’t have the leisure to turn his gaze elsewhere in the first place, and Haeyoung, who had him looking pale before him, was the same.
“You don’t have a fever.”
Haeyoung, who had brought the back of his hand to his forehead to check if he had a fever, tilted his head.
A puzzled face as if he didn’t know what the problem was, and eyes that were still straight even though they were furrowed. When he first saw him at university, Haeyoung had this kind of face too. Recalling the scene that was vivid even after several years, Seonwoo raised his hand.
While liking me. While liking me enough to notice I’m sick by running over without even looking at me. He couldn’t understand at all why he was trying to distance himself. Seonwoo’s fingertips rose to Haeyoung’s eyes.
“…You’re not sick?”
Haeyoung reflexively hunched his shoulders at the cold fingertips that suddenly touched his eye corners. But that was only for a moment. Doubt lingered in the gaze that looked up at him with a hollow laugh.
Seonwoo swallowed the laugh he’d almost let out without realizing it. And he deliberately lowered his eyebrows and shook his head at Haeyoung.
“No. My head hurts, Haeyoung-ah.”
“Then at least this… ah wait, there’s no water.”
That wasn’t a very good choice. Seonwoo, as if he’d been waiting, took out medicine from his pocket, and urgently reached out his hand while watching him look around. But Haeyoung turned around saying he’d buy water so wait just a bit, and ran somewhere.
Oh no. Seonwoo looked down at his luggage bag left all alone and let out a low scoff. He’d thought if he said he was sick, he wouldn’t leave his side, but this way, it became like he’d pushed him away with his own hands.
When Haeyoung came running back while catching his ragged breath, it was already boarding time. After swallowing one painkiller with water, Seonwoo boarded the plane with him. Whether by coincidence, the two’s seats were next to each other. Haeyoung, who entered by the window, looked at Seonwoo sitting next to him and asked casually.
“Is your headache a bit better?”
“Yeah, I’m fine now.”
“You do look better than earlier, but still, if it keeps hurting, tell me.”
“I really got better.”
Seonwoo, who had paused his words for a moment, raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
“Maybe it’s because I’m with you.”
“Hyung, seriously, whenever you get the chance…”
He could faintly hear profanity being crushed between his teeth. Haeyoung, who had been muttering quietly, soon pulled his head back and looked around. However, the inside of the plane, where boarding hadn’t closed yet, was noisy, and there seemed to be no one who had heard the two’s quiet conversation.
Only then did Haeyoung seem relieved and buried his body deeply into the seat again. As soon as he turned his head toward the window, a humming sound was heard from somewhere inside the plane.
– Dear passengers, hello. Thank you for using Daehan Air again today. This flight is…
While listening to the captain’s announcement, Yoon Haeyoung threw his gaze out the window with his chin propped up. There was no particular movement even after the plane slowly began to move.
Seonwoo also rested his arm on the armrest of the chair and turned his body obliquely toward the window. However, his gaze was fixed not outside the window but on Haeyoung in front of the window. Tracing the outline of the static face as if immersed in other thoughts, Cha Seonwoo took in his appearance.
He’d been running here and there at his words of being sick, yet he himself looked particularly pale today. The eyelids moving slowly every time he occasionally blinked and his firmly closed lips. It was an expression as if pondering something. Sometimes his straight bridge of the nose would furrow slightly too.
While looking at his profile, Cha Seonwoo thought he wished the plane would never land. When he’d heard that he was appearing on this kind of program, it had been purely dreadful, but now he didn’t know if he would look at him even after filming completely ended.
The certainty that Yoon Haeyoung liked him was absolute for Seonwoo. However, despite that, he had no certainty that he would continue to stay by his side. He already had a history of leaving him once before.
Like starting breathing that had been stopped for a long time, Seonwoo exhaled a slow sigh.
“Cha Seonwoo! Over here!”
Seonwoo, who had been exiting through the gate, turned his head at the voice calling him. A familiar silhouette was standing where the familiar voice came from. Cha Seonwoo moved his steps without hesitation toward Hajin, who was grinning at him.
“Did you have a good trip? Was the lodging okay? Please tell me you didn’t cause any trouble?”
On one side of the beaming face was a gaze sharply examining him. It was a look that would strangle him right away if he’d caused any trouble, but Seonwoo didn’t care and held out his hand.
“Give it.”
It was when Hajin was looking at the palm he held out to her. Haeyoung, who poked his head out from behind Seonwoo, called her.
“Noona?”
It was a voice as if her being here was puzzling. However, a delighted look was clearly showing on his face.
Hajin looked at such Haeyoung, then glanced up at Seonwoo, who was stubbornly holding out his hand. A clumsy smile hung on her lips. The sentiment of being involved in a troublesome matter openly appeared on her expression.
“Ha. I don’t know either.”
Hajin stuck her hand into her black padding pocket with a short sigh. Her hand, which had been rummaging as if looking for something, soon rose above Seonwoo’s outstretched hand. What she eventually dropped was a smooth silver ring.
Cha Seonwoo, who picked up the ring that fell onto his palm, naturally put it on his ring finger. When he glanced down at Haeyoung standing next to him, a face that had stiffened while turning pale came into his eyes. It was a face that had noticed what Hajin had taken out while watching the series of processes.
“Yoon Haeyoung, did you have a good trip? I heard there was a lot of wind—weren’t you cold? The lodging was warm, right? Did you eat a lot for dinner yesterday?”
“…I had a good trip, wasn’t too cold, the lodging was warm, and I ate well too. How have you been, noona?”
“This clever kid, look at him answering everything without leaving out a single thing.”
As if trying to turn away the gaze stuck on Seonwoo’s finger, Hajin poured out questions while holding his white cheek. Haeyoung, who barely turned his eyes, answered Hajin faithfully. However, the smile hanging on his lips was quite clumsy. Eventually, his gaze turned back to Seonwoo’s finger.
The spot that hadn’t been empty even once for several years had been vacant for a whole month. Seonwoo looked down at Haeyoung’s face while fiddling with the ring on his ring finger. The ring he was wearing was originally one of a pair of two. The owner of the remaining ring was naturally Yoon Haeyoung.
On the day filming for the program started, Lee Hajin grabbed him as he was about to enter and held out her hand.
‘I’ll return it after filming ends, give me your ring.’
He didn’t want to take it off his hand, but he couldn’t help it when she glared saying she wouldn’t let him in until he gave it. Seonwoo’s gaze, which had been chewing over that time, casually fell on Haeyoung’s hand. The empty ring finger, though he’d seen it all month long, was still unfamiliar.
“Oh right, I thought you’d have a lot of luggage, so I came to pick you up. I’ll drive you home, Haeyoung-ah.”
“You brought your car, noona? Then can you lend it to me?”
At Haeyoung’s words, Hajin tilted her head with a face that found it out of the blue. Her black straight hair tied tightly up drooped to the side following that gesture. However, instead of asking anything, she nodded and rummaged through her pocket to take out car keys.
“It’s right in front of the parking lot entrance. You know what my car is, right?”
“Yeah, …thanks.”
Haeyoung, who reached out his arm to Hajin, who snorted saying he says all sorts of things, lightly pulled her into an embrace. Hajin familiarly patted his back, which was much larger than hers.
Soon, Haeyoung turned with a smiling face toward her, who had pulled away and was waving her hand. Seonwoo followed behind him as he exited the airport to go to the parking lot as if it were natural. It seemed he could also hear Hajin’s dumbfounded voice from behind.
Haeyoung, who had been walking ahead, turned his head as soon as they left the airport, as if he’d expected it.
“Hyung, let’s go too.”
A cold winter wind was blowing fiercely. Yoon Haeyoung grinned refreshingly like the cloudless sky and casually threw words toward the puzzled Seonwoo.
“On a trip.”
