Finally arriving home, he felt like he could live again. As Yeonrok dragged his feet inside, the lights in the house were dim. It was well past the time he’d normally be asleep. Kim Jeongseong followed him around worriedly.
“Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?”
“I’m really fine. I just want to sleep for now…”
Kim Jeongseong left after earnestly asking him to contact them if anything felt wrong with his body. Yeonrok headed to the kitchen first. He wanted to drink some hot soup, so he thought he’d at least boil some ramen. Yawning as he opened the ramen package, he paused.
“…Where’s the seasoning packet?”
When he shook out the bag, only the ramen and two vegetable packets came out. What a truly unlucky day. At this point, he didn’t even have the energy to boil ramen, so he just returned to his room. Unfortunately, Yeonrok’s misfortune didn’t end there.
“What?”
After coming out from showering with hot water, Yeonrok stopped while opening the door, feeling something was off.
“What the…?!”
Clunk. Clunk clunk clunk.
“Did I press something wrong?”
He looked around this way and that, but the conclusion was the same. The bathroom door handle had simply broken. Yeonrok’s face became deathly pale.
“Ah, seriously. Please, for humanity’s sake, let’s not do this.”
Rattle rattle clatter clatter!
After struggling for a while, Yeonrok slumped down exhausted. He hurriedly looked for his phone, but he’d left it outside when he came in to wash. He grabbed his hair. Aaah! Damn phone! From now on, I’ll never go anywhere without my phone!
At least one fortunate thing was that this bathroom was on a different level from the house he used to live in. It had a double structure, divided into wet areas like the shower and bathtub, and dry areas with storage cabinets and a hair dryer. It meant he didn’t have to sleep on the tile floor. He was about to lay towels on the floor when Yeonrok paced around again, wondering if there was another way.
“Even though several people live in one house, it’s so spacious and soundproofed that there’s no way to call anyone…”
Someone could die here and no one would know. As Yeonrok was lamenting, he heard a faint noise. Soon his bedroom door opened and there was the presence of someone entering. He brightened up and called out.
“Is that you, Secretary hyung?”
There was no answer from the other person. Realizing from that response that it wasn’t Kim Jeongseong, Yeonrok raised his voice a bit more and asked.
“Choi Hwan? Is that you?”
If they got him out of the bathroom right now, he was willing to reduce his anger by half. But the other person remained silent.
“Hey! If you heard me, answer!”
Annoyed, he pounded on the door and shouted, but it was still strange that there was no answer, so Yeonrok tilted his head.
“Or could it be Moon Gyeonwoo…?”
But why would Moon Gyeonwoo enter his room in the middle of the night? It would be strange to think it was Yeom Cheonho either. He wasn’t the type of person who wouldn’t answer when being called so desperately. That’s when it happened. The unidentified person turned the doorknob.
Click. Click. Clatter. Clunk!
“Who on earth…”
Yeonrok stopped mid-sentence. The movement of turning the door handle gradually became more intense. Clunk clunk clunk! It seemed strange for it to be a prank, so Yeonrok hesitated. Clatter, creak, creeeak! The movement trying to open the door somehow was both urgent and rough. Then suddenly the noise stopped. It was quiet and silent as if nothing had happened.
With goosebumps rising, Yeonrok couldn’t even sit down for a long while and just swallowed his dry saliva.
* * *
Yeonrok was able to get out of the bathroom only when it was almost lunchtime. It was thanks to Ms. Park, who found it strange that the meal she’d prepared in advance hadn’t been touched and that Yeonrok hadn’t come down to eat, coming to find him as soon as she returned from her health checkup.
“Oh my. What should we do? So you’ve been trapped since last night?”
Yeonrok nodded his head. His face, sipping hot soup, was full of grievance. Even he hadn’t expected to be trapped until lunchtime the next day. He felt so wronged that no one looked for him, that no one felt anything was amiss even though he wasn’t there.
“I can’t survive here without you, Ms. Park…”
When he whined, Ms. Park filled a table full of food with a face full of pity. Yeonrok’s movements as he sipped the soup were very slow. His condition had been the worst since coming to this house, so he had no appetite. Whether it was because he’d been at the club until late at night because of Choi Hwan and gotten hit by the cold wind, or because he couldn’t sleep properly and stayed up all night in the bathroom, he didn’t know. Maybe it was both.
Moreover, there had been something bothering Yeonrok since yesterday.
‘Who on earth was the person trying to open the bathroom door yesterday?’
Having been trapped all night, he wondered if he’d even heard things. The most likely possibility was the guess that Choi Hwan had come to play a prank while drunk and then left. So he tried to go confront him as soon as he woke up, but Choi Hwan had gone to filming before Yeonrok could even escape from the bathroom.
‘Don’t tell me he ran away to avoid me?’
He was having such suspicions when someone appeared in the dining room. It was Moon Gyeonwoo. However, exhausted from last night’s events, he didn’t even have the capacity to pay attention to him. Yeonrok was picking at his food without even turning his eyes when he felt a gaze on him and lifted his head. Moon Gyeonwoo, sitting across from him, was glaring at him with his arms crossed. Unable to ignore it, Yeonrok asked in a lifeless voice.
“Why?”
“Nothing.”
Though he answered like that, he didn’t stop glaring. Why is he like this in broad daylight? Yeonrok glared back and barely managed to force down one more spoonful of rice when something occurred to him. After barely swallowing the rice with hot soup, he asked suspiciously.
“You’re not doing this because I went to the club with Choi Hwan, are you?”
“No.”
Like hell it’s not! It is! Well, from the perspective of someone in a relationship, it would be annoying that their lover went to a club and played with someone else. Of course, naturally Yeonrok had something to say.
“Choi Hwan dragged me there on his own first.”
“I said no.”
“He even abandoned me at the club!”
“I said no? And while we’re on the subject, should Hwan have escorted you all the way home then? If you’re a full-grown adult, you should know how to get home on your own.”
Like hell it’s not! He is angry about going to the club together! Though he felt sorry to Ms. Park, Yeonrok, who’d completely lost his appetite, sprang up from his seat. And he pointed his finger at Moon Gyeonwoo.
“If you’re going to keep someone in check, go keep Choi Hwan in check instead of me! He’s a complete wild colt. Do you know how excitedly he was playing around at the club yesterday?”
Equally angry—no, angry since yesterday—Yeonrok lashed out with a ‘what do I care’ attitude. He felt like both Choi Hwan and Moon Gyeonwoo could go to hell. Whether he was angry at being compared to a wild colt or angry about playing around excitedly, Moon Gyeonwoo also sprang up from his seat with a flushed face.
“Wild colt? Playing around?”
Both seemed to be points of anger. As the atmosphere between the two became hostile, Ms. Park muttered “Oh my, oh my” and couldn’t sit still. Moon Gyeonwoo, grinding his teeth, started to retort.
“While we’re on the subject. Why would you follow him to a club knowing he has a lover?”
Did he listen with deaf ears when I said Choi Hwan dragged me there on his own? The following words were even more absurd.
“And for just bringing water and boiling ramen, why are you extorting money?”
“Extorting? Extorting? Then you stay at the house and bring water and boil ramen! Must be nice getting an allowance from your lover!”
Yeonrok retorted with a reddened face. Moon Gyeonwoo’s breathing also grew rough with anger. About to snap back with something more, he stopped and clicked his tongue.
“Ha. Fine. Forget it.”
Something bubbled up inside Yeonrok’s heart. It was various emotions difficult to describe, but even among them, what was clear was grievance. Being abandoned at the club and just having to keep waiting, almost getting in big trouble while walking home in the cold wind, being trapped in the bathroom for so long, having not one ally among all those partners…
But he held it in. He was adult enough not to let such things out of his mouth. Not wanting to deal with him anymore and his physical condition being poor, Yeonrok turned around abruptly and paused. He’d been feeling dizzy for a while, but suddenly severe dizziness rushed over him and his vision spun.
“Uh…”
What? Why suddenly? As his vision darkened, frightened Yeonrok stopped. As his body swayed, Moon Gyeonwoo closed the distance while sharply observing.
“Lee Yeonrok?”
Moon Gyeonwoo called his full name for the first time, but he didn’t even hear it. As he gasped for breath while holding onto the table and then collapsed, Moon Gyeonwoo practically threw his body to wrap around his head first. Thanks to that, he was able to safely catch Yeonrok before he fell straight to the floor.
“Young master! Oh my, what should we do!”
Ms. Park’s scream rang sharply in his ears. Yeonrok thought as he was half losing consciousness. Come to think of it, when was my last contact…? As his consciousness gradually sank, his body went limp. With the blurry image of Moon Gyeonwoo calmly checking his pulse while giving Ms. Park some kind of instructions as the last thing he saw, his hazy consciousness completely went out.
