A pained moan mixed with agony flowed out even in his sleep. His voice, which had been beautiful, was hoarse and cracked from however long he’d been groaning in pain, and his lips were swollen white. When Euiju pulled back the blanket covering his legs, his eyes widened as much as they could—Haeseong’s entire body was soaked with sweat.
“Hae, Haeseong-ssi. Wake up. Are you okay?”
In his panic, Euiju broke the unspoken rule of not touching his body and grabbed Haeseong’s shoulders and shook him. Haeseong couldn’t get up right away and tossed and turned, then felt the unfamiliar hand touching his body and jerked awake in alarm, sitting up.
After looking around the bedroom for a moment as if assessing the situation, he eventually glared at Euiju.
“Ah, fuck, where the hell are you putting your hands right now…”
When Euiju’s eyes caught sight of Haeseong’s flushed cheeks, he unconsciously reached out his hand. He placed the back of his hand against Haeseong’s neck and forehead to check his temperature and see if something was wrong.
It was an action he habitually did with his younger siblings, so it flowed as naturally as water, and Haeseong was dumbfounded for a moment, unable to grasp what was happening.
Soon Haeseong roughly knocked Euiju’s hand away.
Smack—!
“Fuck. Don’t overdo it!”
“Where does it hurt?”
“It’s just my knee hurting a bit, so mind your own business.”
Thwack, thwack.
Haeseong brushed roughly at the area Euiju had touched as if contaminated material had stuck to it. Watching this, Euiju realized what he had done.
—It’s best not to carelessly touch Haeseong’s body. The previous manager got fired for acting on his own. You said you wanted to work here long, right? I trust you’ll conduct yourself well, Euiju-ssi.
“There’s nothing for you to gain from me by putting on an act like this, so knock it off. You think I haven’t seen people like you once or twice before?”
“……”
“Fuck. This is so shitty, seriously.”
Muttering curses openly as if for Euiju to hear, Haeseong got down from the bed and headed straight to the bathroom. The back of his white t-shirt was drenched with cold sweat. Euiju gazed at his retreating figure.
‘Was it growing pains?’
Just experiencing simple pain wouldn’t make someone’s face turn that pale or cause them to sweat enough cold sweat to soak their clothes. His growing pains clearly accompanied severe agony. As if showing the suffering of the previous night, Haeseong’s complexion was pale as a corpse, and his under-eyes were hollow as if he hadn’t slept properly. The signs of having suffered from intense pain were evident.
While Haeseong was washing up, Euiju removed the wet blanket and replaced it with a new blanket and sheets. Since the housekeeper visited once every two days, if he didn’t do it, Haeseong would obviously abandon this room and go sleep in another one.
From roughly looking around, this room at least had signs of life and warmth that felt lived-in. Although he had no favorable feelings toward Haeseong, Euiju thought he didn’t want him sleeping alone in an empty room.
Having taken the blanket to the laundry room, Euiju let out a deep sigh.
‘No matter how I think about it, this is strange.’
At such a young age, just becoming a high school student, staying alone in this vast house with no one to complain to about being sick. Euiju couldn’t understand Haeseong’s parents for neglecting their young child.
***
“Last year was a particularly busy year for Haeseong-gun, wasn’t it? Following ‘How to Run Backwards,’ you also received a good response in ‘The Man from the West.’ Although both dramas had you as a child actor, you appeared in roles with significant weight. Since your debut, every work you appear in becomes successful. Because of this, nicknames like ‘legendary child actor’ or ‘walking good luck charm’ follow Haeseong-gun around. Do you feel any pressure when taking on projects?”
“Haha. I don’t feel much pressure yet. Rather, it gives me great motivation, thinking I want to do even better in this work. And the success of the projects is entirely due to the hard work of the senior actors and production staff—I just added my spoon to the table.”
“Just added your spoon? Despite your young age, your humility and ambition are impressive. For the role of ‘Prince Wonho’ you played in ‘The Man from the West,’ there was no one who could replace you if not Haeseong-gun, right? The serious acting you displayed among renowned veteran actors is still being talked about even though it’s been two months since the drama ended. Aren’t you being too modest?”
Haeseong smiled shyly at the reporter’s banter as if embarrassed. As Haeseong naturally swept back his bangs, his smooth skin sparkled under the lighting. With his prominent nose bridge, long eyelashes for a man, and a pretty smile drawn beneath his flushed cheeks, the reporter looked at Haeseong with sparkling eyes.
The photographer waiting in the back didn’t miss the chance and photographed Haeseong’s face.
‘Ha, honestly.’
For the first time since joining the company, Euiju’s brow furrowed ever so slightly. Euiju, who was seeing Haeseong in front of a camera for the first time, was simply dumbfounded.
Until just before the reporter entered, Haeseong had made Euiju run all sorts of errands for every imaginable little task—telling him to adjust the temperature because the meeting room was cold, to go get different clothes from the car because he didn’t like what he was wearing, that his appetite was ruined by the milk so to prepare lunch from a famous restaurant in the provinces—working him to the bone.
While Euiju could endure everything, seeing Haeseong’s front and back change in an instant right before his eyes couldn’t help but put him in a strangely foul mood.
“You’re turning seventeen this year and are of age to enter high school. I heard you gave up on attending high school in order to devote yourself even more to acting. You’re missing the chance to normally attend school with friends—aren’t you disappointed?”
“I do feel quite disappointed. Even when I attended middle school, I missed a lot of days due to filming so I couldn’t wear my uniform often. But the more I act year after year, the more I really feel my shortcomings, so I judged that by giving up on advancing to high school, I’ll be able to gain much more on the acting side.”
Haeseong’s appearance as he answered the interviewer’s questions sincerely with a light and fresh smile was far from the haggard him Euiju had seen this morning. A lively face, a bright smile, youthful and healthy energy bursting forth.
The reporter, unaware that all of this was completely planned and fabricated, looked at the young actor with a pleased expression. Only Euiju, watching the scene from a distance, could see the sweat trickling down Haeseong’s forehead.
“Water.”
As soon as the interviewer left, Haeseong’s command fell. Euiju’s body moved reflexively.
After the interview ended and the reporter left, Haeseong sat sprawled on the sofa and picked up his phone. The coordinator’s touch as they removed his makeup was extremely careful. For some reason, Haeseong was docilely accepting the coordinator’s touch.
When Euiju brought out a 500ml bottle of water from the mini-fridge, Haeseong glanced up at Euiju, who was standing much higher than him.
“I don’t have hands.”
Haeseong sneered openly. Euiju lightly opened the cap and brought the bottle to his lips, slowly pouring water into his mouth. He was tensely careful not to let his hands touch Haeseong’s body. Without taking his eyes off his phone, Haeseong indifferently gulped down the water.
Because Haeseong turned his face away mid-drink as if annoyed, some water spilled. In an instant, Haeseong’s face crumpled up.
“Ah, shit.”
Euiju pulled out a tissue and brought his hand over to wipe Haeseong’s face, but Haeseong furrowed his brow and roughly knocked away Euiju’s hand.
Smack.
The hand that was hit stung hotly. Euiju withdrew his embarrassed hand as it was.
“Right. There’s no more schedule today, right?”
“Yes. I’ll take you straight home.”
Having gone out briefly to have a conversation with Team Leader Kim Jaeho before re-entering the waiting room, Euiju discovered Haeseong lying curled up on the sofa and approached with surprised eyes.
Whether the leg pain had flared up again, Haeseong was biting his lips and enduring the pain.
“Ugh, fuck……”
Clutching his left knee and moaning, Haeseong was suffering painfully enough to look pitiful to anyone watching. His already pale skin became even whiter, reminiscent of a corpse’s skin color, and his body trembling while holding his knee reminded one of a young child.
Just like the young siblings at Euiju’s home.
Seeing Haeseong like this, Euiju could understand at least a little why the previous manager had been fired for forcibly trying to touch him to give him a massage.
Because there was no particular prescription even when going to the hospital, this pain that had to be endured alone could be somewhat alleviated if he at least received a massage. Even though he had a bad and nasty personality normally, Haeseong was young, and his appearance drenched in cold sweat while trapped in pain was desperate enough to look pitiful even to someone with low empathy.
Euiju too had experienced severe growing pains when he was young, so he knew this pain well. He knew where to rub to make it a bit better, where to touch and how to make it okay, but he couldn’t step forward. He knew how the previous manager had been fired, and he himself had to endure here no matter what.
He knew very well in his head. That he should quietly keep his mouth shut.
“…Should I at least give you a massage?”
The words that momentarily spilled out were not Euiju’s own will. Because the childlike appearance distorted with pain reminded him of his own siblings, it really just popped out on its own.
‘…I’m screwed.’
Words cannot be taken back.
