In fact, living together with his siblings meant there were countless occasions when he showed his naked body, so Euiju wasn’t particularly disturbed—he was just flustered along with Haeseong’s strange reaction. It was simply the body of another man, yet Haeseong’s expression was so bizarre that it was difficult for Euiju to describe in words. He seemed embarrassed, and also seemed to have received some kind of tremendous shock.
Haeseong’s body creaked as if he wanted to step back but his entire body was frozen and couldn’t move at all. Then he slowly began to retreat one step, two steps.
“Haeseong-ah. This is…”
When Euiju started to speak, the even more flustered Haeseong’s toes caught on the threshold. As a result, he ended up falling ridiculously.
For a moment, Euiju, who had forgotten he was naked, almost turned around. Having almost exposed his important parts, Euiju quickly picked up the towel and wrapped it tightly around his waist again before approaching him.
“Are you okay?”
Haeseong, who had frozen like someone who had forgotten how to speak for a moment, scrunched up his face when Euiju approached. His expression and gestures were as if he felt uncomfortable.
More red than a pomegranate, more than a tomato, redder than anything to the point where one might think ‘Won’t he burst like that?’ His face was at that level. Then, using all his strength, he retreated backward, and suddenly got up from his spot and ran to his room.
Only Euiju, left alone, stared blankly at his retreating figure.
“What the…”
He remembered there had been a fuss when he saw Haeseong in his underwear before as well. It wasn’t showing his own body but merely seeing someone else’s body, yet he wondered if it was really something to be so disgusted about.
Euiju quickly took out a training suit set from his bag and put it on. He roughly dried his hair with a towel and approached Haeseong’s firmly closed room.
Knock knock—.
“Haeseong-ah. Sorry. Are you very upset?”
Euiju put his ear to the door, but no sound came from inside. He knocked once more.
Knock knock knock—.
“Haeseong-ah. I’m coming in?”
Euiju grabbed the doorknob and turned it. Click click. The lock was fastened. Even when he pushed with force, it didn’t budge.
‘Is he very angry?’
With a face full of questions, Euiju took out his phone and called Haeseong. However, the call rejection screen immediately appeared and the screen flashed.
“What?”
Scratching the back of his head while looking at the firmly closed door, Euiju stood in front of the door for a long time. However, even as time passed, the door never opened.
***
Euiju finally understood through the Jeju Island filming why the public sought out the unripened Haeseong so much.
Haeseong was a professional.
The scene of getting thoroughly soaked in the rain on a forest path filled with dense trees and a thick smell, the scene of running around the entire neighborhood like crazy screaming to find the missing dog, the scene of facing alone the tyranny of adults trying to take the dog away—Haeseong finished filming all of them perfectly befitting a 9-year veteran actor.
He properly completed the forced march that even adult actors found difficult without much complaint. In just a few more days, the filming of <Basalt> would be over.
“Haeseong…”
“Euiju-ssi. Move aside!”
Euiju, who had been waiting, was beaten to it by the coordinators. Euiju had waited for the director’s cut sound to fall so he could hand Haeseong the ice water he had prepared in advance, but ultimately this time was also a failure.
Since they had to film the next scene right away, makeup corrections had to be made immediately, so the coordinators clinging to Haeseong moved their hands quickly.
‘He must be thirsty…’
Haeseong’s eyes, which had been quietly closed while receiving careful touches, slowly opened. Then, his eyes met with Euiju, who had been looking at him all along.
“……”
“……”
Swish. Haeseong’s head turned to the opposite side as if displeased.
Again.
“Haah…”
Euiju sighed while pressing his throbbing temples. He had thought they’d become quite close recently, so he never imagined they’d have a cold war period like this again.
Since that day when Euiju unintentionally showed his naked body, Haeseong had been terribly avoiding Euiju. He didn’t answer when spoken to, and all the annoying behaviors of asking to be hugged or constantly clinging disappeared. The complaints about his legs hurting and asking to be massaged, and asking to sleep together—all of it.
For close to three days.
‘At least tell me the reason.’
He wondered if showing his naked body was really something to be so serious about and avoid. During the three days when he couldn’t approach Haeseong, Euiju had to burn with anxiety.
“Alright, let’s go again. Ready, action!”
This place, where dense pine trees stood in a row along a low mountain ridge, was where the drama’s protagonist ‘Taeyang’ and his companion dog ‘Wood’ reunited after a long time. ‘Wood’, who had fallen into a dog trader’s trap, gotten lost, and ultimately left the area, wandered around without rest to find his owner again, and finally found his owner ‘Taeyang’ and shared a touching reunion.
“Wood!”
The middle of the volcanic cone where cloudy weather met fog created an atmosphere that was somehow eerie yet seemed detached from the real world. Only Haeseong walked along the wet dirt path, desperately calling for his companion dog.
“Wood…”
Taeyang, who had been crying out like that for a while, leaned his back against a tree as if exhausted and lowered his head.
“Where on earth are you? I, I can’t live without you…”
Even in the dim shadows, Haeseong’s eyes shone desolately. The sight of tears hanging on his long eyelashes dropping to the dirt ground was heartbreaking enough to make viewers feel devastating sadness instead.
It was when Taeyang was wiping away tears that flowed ceaselessly.
“Woof!”
A familiar sound strongly pierced his ear. Taeyang raised his head in surprise. He looked around, but because of the thick fog, visibility was narrow and he couldn’t distinguish whether the sound he heard was a hallucination or not.
That’s when it happened.
“Woof woof!”
“Wood…?”
Taeyang, who straightened his leaning body, started running toward where the sound came from. Long trees passed mercilessly by his side.
“Cut! Good, good! You did great, Haeseong-ssi!”
Director Lee Youngjun’s satisfied exclamation flowed out. The surrounding staff also applauded and praised Haeseong who had given a passionate performance. Haeseong gave a beautiful smile and greeted them.
“Ahem.”
Euiju cleared his throat as if clearing his voice.
Now was Euiju’s turn to step forward. He approached Haeseong, who was wiping his face with a tissue handed by the coordinator, and placed his hand on his shoulder.
“Haeseong-ah. You were really great this time…”
“Ah, fuck—!”
Haeseong’s curse word that echoed like an echo resounded through the mountain. The unexpected curse word pierced into the ears of most of the staff. In an instant, the surroundings sank into silence and the director and all the staff looked at Haeseong with dumbfounded expressions.
Since Haeseong cared about his public reputation, openly spewing curse words was rare. However, strangely, Haeseong passed by Euiju with his ears dyed bright red. As if he couldn’t care about his surroundings, he looked distracted.
Euiju, who had been blankly staring at Haeseong’s retreating figure walking toward the car parked in the distance, let out a deep sigh.
“Hah…”
Since he had to go up to Seoul this evening anyway, there wasn’t much time to see him. He couldn’t even get a sense of why he was acting like that. He sincerely wanted to at least know the reason.
The coordinator who had been standing beside him approached and patted Euiju’s shoulder a couple of times. She spoke as if comforting him.
“Euiju-ssi has been suffering too much these past few days.”
“It’s nothing…”
The coordinator clicked her tongue as if understanding and looked at Haeseong moving away.
“It’s more severe than during the Kim Yeongrok incident, so it’s puzzling. Did you do something to make Haeseong hate you?”
Kim Yeongrok. When an unfamiliar name was heard, Euiju turned his head and tilted it.
“Who is that?”
At that question, the coordinator made surprised eyes instead.
“Oh my. You don’t know? Hasn’t Euiju-ssi been working for almost half a year already?”
Euiju frowned as if he didn’t know and shook his head. She tilted her head as if puzzled.
It seemed strange to her that he had tamed Haeseong to that extent yet didn’t know what the Kim Yeongrok incident was.
“You know. The person who was with Haeseong for close to a year and then got fired for causing an accident. You don’t know?”
Since it was the first time he’d heard of it, Euiju shook his head. The coordinator with surprised eyes cleared her throat and continued speaking.
“Back then too, like now, Haeseong would be startled whenever he touched anyone.”
“That’s strange. Wasn’t he originally a child sensitive in that area?”
“He was sensitive, but not this severe. This is all because of that crazy bastard.”
Kim Yeongrok.
A male manager in his 30s who had been hired around the time when Haeseong lost An Haesu, was abandoned by Jin Yeongjin, and was neglected. Kim Yeongrok appeared when managers who couldn’t handle the sensitive and ill-mannered Haeseong were quitting one after another.
“You don’t know how well he treated Haeseong. He was really devoted. Since the kid wasn’t talking, wasn’t playing like kids his age, and was depressed, he deliberately took time off even on his days off to come see Haeseong.”
He approached Haeseong, who had closed his heart, kindly and gently. With his continuous and steady efforts, Haeseong gradually opened his heart to him.
“Then isn’t he a good person?”
He was puzzled that Haeseong had such a person, why he hadn’t known until now, and why he wasn’t by his side now. When Euiju asked as if puzzled, the coordinator shook her head with a serious expression.
“Don’t say such disastrous things anywhere. Especially in front of Haeseong.”
