The designer in charge of Yeonrok’s styling asked with a face full of interest while combing his hair with fingers to shape it.
“Are you a celebrity?”
“No, just a person.”
“Or perhaps a trainee?”
“Just unemployed…….”
Oh my, you speak so amusingly! Though he hadn’t said much, the designer giggled. And soon discovered traces of hair products on Yeonrok’s hair from his clumsy attempt at styling. After Yeonrok’s hair was rinsed in hot water, it was then mercilessly dried with a blow dryer.
“How should I cut it for you?”
At the designer’s question, after thinking briefly, Yeonrok said without much thought.
“Just roughly buzz it short with clippers.”
“Uh, roughly short…… buzz cut?”
Since going to the salon was work, money, and annoying, his routine was to cut it short like grass and go back when it grew to an appropriate length. When he answered habitually, the designer half-listened to Yeonrok’s words and asked Choi Hwan.
“Actor Choi Hwan, how should I do this person’s hair?”
“Why are you asking him about my hairstyle?”
Yeonrok protested, but for some reason, no one had been listening to him since earlier. The designer who consulted with Choi Hwan about the hairstyle only shaped it with hands while scolding.
“Really, the more handsome people are, the more carelessly they treat their faces!”
Even though Yeom Cheonho and Choi Hwan were accompanying him, receiving the compliment of being handsome felt good, so Yeonrok decided to endure for now. Either way, he wanted to finish quickly and go home to rest. Enduring while yawning and dozing off like that, the cut was finished before he knew it.
“Oh my, how incredibly well it suits you. Right?”
The designer scanned Yeonrok in the mirror with a very satisfied face. Yeonrok, who woke from sleep, also looked at the mirror with drowsy eyes. Separately from everything in the world being bothersome, perhaps because it was professionally done at a shop, the result was quite good.
“Well, it’s a bit better.”
When Yeonrok responded primly, Choi Hwan, who had been watching satisfactorily beside the designer, jumped up as if he couldn’t believe it.
“A little? A liiiittle? Don’t you have eyes? This is a complete status upgrade!”
Then viciously, he confiscated Yeonrok’s cap. Then after whispering something with Yeom Cheonho again, he dragged Yeonrok somewhere. This time it was a place they’d visited before.
“President Yeom Cheonho! I’m so happy to see you this often!”
As soon as they arrived at the department store, Director Park Seongho, in charge of VIP customer service, practically ran out in his socks. His eyes grew enormously when he spotted Choi Hwan.
“Oh my, Actor Choi Hwan has also stopped by! And, our customer Lee Yeonrok as well! It’s an honor to meet you again like this!”
Yeonrok found it fascinating that he memorized even his insignificant name. Meanwhile, while greeting the three with a polite attitude, Director Park’s eyes were full of question marks. He was clearly curious about Choi Hwan sticking close to Yeom Cheonho’s side quite familiarly, and also clearly curious about his relationship with Yeonrok, who had definitely come holding hands like lovers last time.
However, he was a professional. He never let his questions out of his mouth. Yeom Cheonho casually brought up the purpose.
“We came to buy some clothes again today.”
“Ah! I see. Then I’ll guide you directly to that place from last time.”
Dragged to the upper floor VIP room like that, Yeonrok went through a time of hardship again. Since he’d bought so many clothes last time, he thought they came to buy their own clothes, but the two’s purpose was Yeonrok. Yeonrok, who had sat on the sofa thinking to enjoy dessert, had to get up immediately. He protested.
“I bought a lot of clothes last time!”
“But Yeonrok-ssi. You haven’t bought spring clothes yet.”
Handing his stylish coat to Director Park, Yeom Cheonho answered with a voice tinged with laughter. The cold wind was still blowing fiercely, but buying spring clothes already? However, no one else seemed to think similarly to Yeonrok.
“Well, looking at how you went around with your hair in that state, there’s no way you’d have a single proper outfit.”
Starting with Choi Hwan’s ridicule, hangers full of clothes began coming in one after another. He was even more meticulous and merciless than Yeom Cheonho.
“Bring all the recent new releases.”
Hundreds of clothes were held up against Yeonrok’s body and then rejected. After trying on and taking off dozens of outfits, Choi Hwan’s reactions were as follows.
‘Tacky’, ‘Trashy’, ‘Ugh’, ‘Watchable’, ‘Oh, this one’s mine’, ‘Yuck’, ‘Well, it’s okay’, ‘Meh’, and various others…….
As he was putting on and taking off clothes in a state of no-mindedness, Yeonrok’s fatigue level gradually soared. While trying on some brand’s collection with some shoes, his head spun and his nose bridge became hot, then something trickled down from his nose.
“Ah, a nosebleed.”
He was about to casually ask for a tissue when Choi Hwan reacted fastest and ran over. Then he grabbed the back of his neck and made him lower his shoulders. Yeonrok was about to be slightly moved when he shouted this.
“No way! It’ll get on the clothes!”
……This bastard?
“I finally picked something decent…… This is the only one in the right size right now!”
At the character of someone worrying about clothes first when a person was having a nosebleed, Yeonrok glared. Separately from that, warmth spread hotly from the bare hand gripping his nape. The nosebleed that had been dripping onto the floor soon stopped and his fatigue also disappeared by about half.
“Customer, are you alright? Would you like to sit here for a moment?”
Rather, the staff worried more than Choi Hwan. Yeonrok graciously received a luxurious handkerchief rather than tissue and carefully wiped away the nosebleed. The nosebleed wasn’t even coming out anymore, but Choi Hwan held Yeonrok’s nape without letting go.
“Hey, let go.”
Choi Hwan didn’t even pretend to hear Yeonrok’s words. Just continuously kneading the nape to his heart’s content, he babbled like this.
“Did the nosebleed stop? Then try on a few more outfits.”
Getting gradually angry, when Yeonrok was about to get up saying to stop it already, Yeom Cheonho intervened appropriately. Until earlier he’d been resentful too, but still, now he seemed like an angel.
“Now, since it’s gotten late, let’s return home.”
With that declaration, he readily paid for the clothes that had passed Choi Hwan’s standards until now. It was double the amount from last time. After Yeom Cheonho spent money like water, he removed Choi Hwan’s hand that had been continuously kneading Yeonrok’s neck. When the bereft Yeonrok fiddled with his nape, he grabbed his hand.
While Yeonrok was flustered, this time he firmly grabbed Choi Hwan’s hand, who had been distracted by new sunglasses. Then dragging both Yeonrok and Choi Hwan by the hand, he pulled them out. A clear question mark floated on Director Park’s face as he saw off the three with a smiling face.
‘What relationship are you three exactly?’
Pretending not to see that face, Yeonrok vowed never to intrude on the two’s dates again unless they paid about ten million won per day.
* * *
After going on a date once using Yeonrok as a sacrifice, the relationship between Choi Hwan and Yeom Cheonho became quite affectionate. It seemed to be thanks to finding common ground between Yeom Cheonho who preferred luxury brands and Choi Hwan who loved fashion itself.
However, since one was a major corporation president and the other a famous actor, they didn’t have much free time, so instead of going to the department store, they would call personal shoppers to the house to shop. Each time, Yeonrok would quickly flee to his room lest he catch their eyes.
One spring day dawn while living like that.
“Ugh…….”
Yeonrok woke unpleasantly from a nightmare. His back was damp with cold sweat. Tossing and turning in the cloud-like fluffy bedding, he pulled over his comfort doll Yeondoo and put it in his arms. Then he sighed.
About once every one or two weeks, Yeom Cheonho would squeeze out time to hold his hand in between handling work on a tablet at home, but still, that alone wasn’t completely okay.
Looking at posts in the Name Manifestor community, it seemed contact was needed for a longer time than that. However, since Yeom Cheonho and Choi Hwan were in a dating relationship, Yeonrok didn’t have the shamelessness to ask to hold hands longer, so he was just living with poor condition.
The problem was that this condition issue wasn’t limited only to the body. When his condition dropped, Yeonrok became more lonely and even had nightmares. Generally, they were nightmares where it was revealed that there was an administrative error and Yeonrok alone among the four wasn’t a Name Partner so he left this house, or all three ignored Yeonrok so he died lonely and alone.
Yeonrok, who had been hugging his comfort doll tightly and groaning while trying to sleep, finally got up from his seat. It seemed he wouldn’t be able to sleep anymore. After poking the comfort plant Yeonpil with his finger, he slipped on slippers and left the room. While yawning and dragging his feet, Yeonrok habitually looked to one side. It was the white door room, still an unknown place. These days he was calling it the Bluebeard room inside.
“Absolutely won’t open it.”
Won’t even go near it in the future either. Snorting, Yeonrok withdrew his gaze. Now having become almost accustomed to this house, even with half-open eyes he was heading to the kitchen without getting lost when he stopped.
“……What’s this sound?”
He heard a faintly sobbing sound. Getting chills and freezing, he looked around. Since the house was so large, he couldn’t immediately tell where it was coming from either. Finally, he found the source of the sound. It was his destination.
Yeonrok, who peeked into the kitchen killing the sound of his footsteps, witnessed an unexpected scene. And could only freeze with wide eyes. Moon Gyeonwoo was sitting at the table without even turning on the lights, sighing. A face that was even forlorn, tears faintly glittering on his cheeks. In front of him sat a bottle and glass, one each.
Having witnessed an unexpected sight, Yeonrok held his breath and tiptoed back to return to his room. He quenched his dry throat at the second-floor water purifier. Yeonrok, whose sleep had completely fled, muttered.
“……What on earth is going on?”
