“You seem to be feeling unwell, should I kiss you? …If I do, it’ll be much more effective.”
Moon Gyeonwoo’s eyes widened upon hearing those words. Yeonrok thought with a pounding heart.
‘This is like a medical treatment.’
He recalled hurriedly kissing Moon Gyeonwoo three weeks ago when he was bleeding from the head and nearly kidnapped. Of course, it wasn’t an urgent situation like that time. But he felt like he’d be too sorry if Moon Gyeonwoo caught a cold because of him. He was also quite a busy person. How hard would it be if he had to work without resting properly?
Soon the smile that had appeared on Moon Gyeonwoo’s face faded. It wasn’t an expression of refusal. Holding Yeonrok’s hand, he answered quietly.
“If you’re okay with it, will you do that?”
Pausing his breath for a moment, Yeonrok slowly leaned his body forward. He lightly pressed his lips against the other person’s dry lips. Overlapping them. Sharing breath, he layered their lips for a long time. He repeated to himself that this was a medical treatment. However, this medical treatment had an aspect that excessively shook a person’s heart…
The effect was indeed good, as Moon Gyeonwoo’s body temperature rose and he didn’t cough anymore. However, for some reason, the hand grasping his hand was trembling faintly. He had been fine when actually kissing, but the moment he became aware of that trembling, heat rushed to Yeonrok’s ears.
Yeonrok, who had separated their lips, fidgeted his fingers awkwardly. Moon Gyeonwoo spoke in a voice lower than before.
“Want to look at more stars?”
“…Yeah.”
Yeonrok, who obediently nodded, looked through the telescope at pretty things for a long while again. Passing the turn to Moon Gyeonwoo, he said:
“Can we see this from the rooftop when we get home?”
It was when Moon Gyeonwoo was nodding his head saying he’d install it on the rooftop. The sound of someone approaching while stepping on gravel was heard. Turning his head to look, it was Park Chungseong, but his face didn’t look very good.
“I’m sorry, but would you two return to Seoul as soon as day breaks?”
“Why? What happened?”
Since they always share schedules, the bodyguards knew there was still a morning schedule remaining tomorrow. Nevertheless, seeing that he came like this, something must have happened. At the words that followed, Yeonrok was very surprised and gasped, swallowing his breath.
“President Yeom Cheonho has collapsed.”
* * *
Yeonrok wanted to return right away, but the bodyguards dissuaded him. It wasn’t that urgent, and it was dangerous because it had rained and it was night. Instead, they decided to depart early in the morning, so they stopped stargazing and went to sleep.
After arriving home like that and barely eating breakfast, they moved to the hospital where Yeom Cheonho was admitted. Moon Gyeonwoo had been subtly showing displeasure due to the ruined schedule, but upon seeing Yeom Cheonho’s appearance, he was briefly at a loss for words.
“He’s unexpectedly brutish.”
It was criticism in a caustic tone, but Yeonrok understood. That’s how bad Yeom Cheonho’s appearance was. His face was pale without a trace of blood and dark under his eyes. It was surprising that stubble had started to grow roughly, as if he hadn’t shaved properly. Because he was someone perfect in self-management. His lips were chapped and it was pitiful seeing him plugging his bleeding nose with a handkerchief.
Yeonrok quickly tried to grab Yeom Cheonho’s hand to stop the nosebleed, then flinched in surprise. Even though the hospital room temperature was warm, it was cold as ice. Yeom Cheonho offered an apology first.
“Thank you both for coming like this. And I’m sorry for interrupting when you were on a trip…”
“No. I’m fine.”
Yeonrok quickly shook his head, but Moon Gyeonwoo shot him a look asking if he knew. Sighing deeply, he sat down in a chair and grabbed Yeom Cheonho’s wrist curtly. Separate from the other person not being to his liking, it seemed he couldn’t just leave the patient alone.
“Why do you grind yourself down working alone like this? You’ll die from overwork at this rate, so do it in moderation, will you?”
He didn’t know if this was worry or criticism.
“Haa, making people travel back and forth for no reason.”
…It seemed like the latter. Even though Yeom Cheonho was hospitalized, he answered while first putting away the laptop he’d been holding onto.
“I’m doing the work of two people after all. One side’s work isn’t being processed very quickly.”
In Yeonrok’s view, it seemed like he was doing not two people’s but at least three or four people’s work. After a while, Kim Jeongseong appeared holding a document folder. Sure enough, his complexion also wasn’t very good. With his boss grinding himself down like this, naturally he as a close aide couldn’t be fine either.
“Would you two like some beverages?”
“No, I’m fine. You already look busy.”
“It’s fine. I’m making subordinates do it anyway.”
As he said, perhaps because Yeom Cheonho’s workspace had changed to a hospital room, secretaries and employees were coming and going countless times. Yeonrok drank the beverage another secretary brought while firmly holding Yeom Cheonho’s hand. Even so, Yeom Cheonho showed no signs of improving at all.
“To think it could get this bad…”
Yeonrok muttered, surprised anew. When he had collapsed from lack of contact, he’d heard this explanation at the hospital.
‘Name Manifestors must be especially careful about lack of contact. Because there are several stages until the body’s condition completely collapses, and the degree of contact needed to recover at each stage increases exponentially.’
To explain simply, it was as follows.
Stage 1. Condition is poor and occasionally has nosebleeds. Can return to a normal person’s state by holding hands for a few minutes.
Stage 2. The body genuinely starts to feel unwell, and one can experience various symptoms such as chills, pain, headaches, insomnia, excessive sleep, depression, etc.
Stage 3. This is about when Yeonrok collapsed. At this level, the Name Partner must stay by their side all day for recovery to be possible. Up to here is considered mild.
After that, there were various serious medical symptoms through Stage 4, Stage 5… all the way to death at the end.
Name Partners have individual differences, but normally they can maintain their health reasonably well by holding hands or kissing diligently every day. However, if they fail to take care of even that, it means that the more the condition deteriorates, the harder recovery becomes. And in Yeonrok’s view, perhaps because overwork overlapped, Yeom Cheonho seemed to be in a much more serious state than when he himself had collapsed.
‘Come to think of it, I was also able to recover because Gyeonwoo and Choi Hwan gave me contact all night long. …And thanks to the President kissing me too.’
Yeonrok looked at Yeom Cheonho with concern. He felt like giving him a deep embrace, but he was considerably conscious of Moon Gyeonwoo. He had been continuously glancing at Yeonrok’s hand holding Yeom Cheonho’s wrist since earlier…
While just holding hands endlessly like that, Moon Gyeonwoo clicked his tongue—*tsk*. Sighing, he removed his hand that had been holding Yeom Cheonho’s wrist, not just coldly but ruthlessly. Though the two people kept holding his hand, Yeom Cheonho’s complexion didn’t improve much. As if this was very disagreeable, Moon Gyeonwoo sighed. Because it meant Yeonrok would have to stay here continuously.
Actually, if you think about it, one person was sufficient. No, since Name Partners are normally one person, this is the general case. Recovery is slow, but just Yeonrok holding his hand maintains the current state and does more than that. For instance, right now one battery is attached, and last time Yeonrok had three batteries attached, you could say. If contact intensity increases, it would be fast charging.
Nevertheless, Moon Gyeonwoo was making contact together because he wanted to minimize the time Yeonrok touched Yeom Cheonho as much as possible.
“Sorry, Yeonrok-ah. I should get going now. Actually, I pushed myself to take a day off. I wanted to spend the morning alone with you, but I didn’t know we’d waste time at the hospital like this.”
No, to openly abuse someone in front of a sick person like this… But Yeom Cheonho was no pushover either and didn’t bat an eye.
“Don’t worry about me and hurry along. Mr. Yeonrok will stay here with me.”
Yeom Cheonho’s skill at needling Moon Gyeonwoo while smiling haggardly was no joke either. Moon Gyeonwoo clenched his fist tightly, then soon smiled and turned to look at Yeonrok.
“Yeonrok-ah, I’m still feeling a bit chilly… Is it okay if I touch you a bit?”
“Why are you asking such a thing? Just hold it.”
Since he no longer even asked for permission for things like holding hands, Yeonrok nodded questioningly. Then Moon Gyeonwoo reached out his hand and suddenly cupped Yeonrok’s cheeks and kissed him with a *chu*. In front of all these people watching!
