And Yoon Haeyoung really did sleep soundly. He slept so deeply that strangely, even after opening his eyes, his eyelids weren’t heavy.
What he saw as soon as he woke up was bright sunlight seeping in through the white curtains. Looking at the strangely peaceful surroundings and the excessively sunny outside, Haeyoung bolted upright without even breathing. He urgently reached toward the bedside and grabbed his phone.
When he hurriedly turned on the screen, the time was already approaching 10 AM.
“Ha…”
I just want to die… Haeyoung, who swept his face once, quickly got up from his spot and headed to the bathroom. And it was when he came out without time to catch his breath and hurriedly pulled out clothes from the dressing room.
A voice full of puzzlement reached Haeyoung, who was too frantic to even hear approaching footsteps.
“Haeyoung-ah, what are you doing?”
“I’m late. Later, hyung.”
At the roughly given answer, the other person was silent for a moment.
It was when he had grabbed a hanging dress shirt at random, then let go as if burned by the excessively good texture. Seonwoo, who had been leaning against the doorway to the dressing room watching Haeyoung like that, opened his mouth again.
“You’re going to work today too? It’s Saturday.”
At that question, Haeyoung, who had been urgent, noticeably hesitated and froze. Then soon his lips opened slightly. His face, turning around awkwardly and staring at Seonwoo, was still disheveled.
Cha Seonwoo’s eyes, watching Haeyoung who was blinking and looking at him, narrowed in contrast. He seemed to have worked hard to press down his hair that was sticking up with water, but Seonwoo’s fingers twitched seeing the side hair that was still sticking out alone. He quietly raised both arms and crossed them.
“…Today is Saturday?”
Haeyoung asked with quite earnestness. At that question, Seonwoo gave a short nod.
“Yeah. Breakfast is all ready, so I came up to wake you.”
“Breakfast…”
“But you’re already awake.”
At those words, Haeyoung let out a sigh and plopped down. Looking at him crouching down, hugging his knees and breathing a sigh of relief, Seonwoo slowly bent his body.
Cha Seonwoo, who was looking at Haeyoung while resting his chin, asked in a gentle voice.
“Want to sleep more?”
Haeyoung smiled as if grimacing while looking at him who had bent his legs and sat down to match his eye level. Then he pressed around his eyes firmly and shook his head.
“No, I’m already fully awake.”
“Then let’s go down.”
“You said you prepared breakfast. Then everyone must be up. Ah… I should have helped.”
“The others told me not to wake you. They said you looked tired yesterday too.”
At Seonwoo’s words, Haeyoung’s movement of fiddling around his eyes stopped. He wasn’t more tired than usual, but coming in and just changing clothes before immediately preparing dinner seemed to have been viewed quite favorably. While grateful that they considered his circumstances, the embarrassment and awkwardness were greater, so Haeyoung could only let out another shallow sigh.
Still, he couldn’t reverse having already woken up late. Haeyoung straightened his bent legs and stood up.
“Thanks for coming to wake me. Let’s go down, hyung.”
Seonwoo, who had been looking up at him tilting his head toward the door, also eventually stood up from his spot. While leaving the room ahead of Seonwoo, Haeyoung was feeling a bit restless.
Because through last night’s conversation with Sehee, he had realized that he had been excessively conscious of only Seonwoo. It wasn’t that he hadn’t paid attention to others, but even that was merely a temporary measure to run away from him. That’s why he had acted carelessly without even thinking others might hear. Haeyoung reflected on his stupid mistakes until just before falling asleep and thought about the future.
Deliberately bringing a third party into a space with just the two of them was a method Yoon Haeyoung often used when it was difficult to interpret the other person’s emotions. However, even in such moments, Haeyoung wasn’t unaware of his own feelings.
Let’s acknowledge it—the fact that he became pathetic when seeing Cha Seonwoo was because he still loved him. However, since he shouldn’t do that anymore…
“Oh, Haeyoung’s up?”
Yoon Haeyoung gathered his resolve and stepped into other people’s space. Sehee, who was the first to spot him entering the dining room, stopped coming out of the kitchen and greeted him.
“Yes, noona, give me that.”
Haeyoung walked quickly and took the plate Sehee was holding and moved it to the table. Seonwoo, who followed him in, also soon entered the kitchen.
“Oppa, rest a bit. You did almost all the preparation too.”
Soyoon stopped him while watching him pick up the remaining dishes in the kitchen, but Seonwoo only readily smiled and shook his head. It’s okay, I’ll do it. At the voice that came out like a whisper, seeing Soyoon’s face slightly redden, Haeyoung turned his head.
“Ah, hyung made this?”
“Yeah. Seonwoo oppa was totally efficient, it was really unexpected. Were you always this good at cooking?”
Haeyoung reflexively opened his mouth while putting down a dish on the table. At that question, Dain, who was standing beside him placing forks and spoons, nodded and asked back.
Because they were the same age as Dain, they had become quite close, speaking informally. Though he still spoke politely to those older than him without fail, he had already become somewhat comfortable with the other cast members even though it hadn’t even been a week. Living together seemed to have played a big part in becoming close quickly.
After clearing his throat with a brief “um,” Haeyoung met her eyes and raised the corners of his mouth. The relationship with Seonwoo as seen by others was a close senior-junior relationship. That was enough.
“Yeah. Hyung originally…”
He was better at cooking than himself. He wasn’t good from the start—at some point, he suddenly started making this and that, and began creating dishes that he himself couldn’t make. Someone who didn’t particularly enjoy eating and had never had any occasion to cook until now.
Ah. At the realization that suddenly came, the smile hanging on Haeyoung’s lips faded.
“He was always good at it.”
From his reflexively moving lips came a quite plausible voice.
He tried hard to pull back up the corners of his mouth that were tilting ambiguously, then soon rolled and bit his lips. Even though his stomach was empty, it churned. Whenever he had to newly chew over how well he had treated him, Yoon Haeyoung felt excessive unworthiness.
He could give it back. He could repay it. Though he wasn’t shameless enough to stay by his side pretending not to know anything, Haeyoung was in the process of finding a way to be upright according to his own will.
Since that was Haeyoung’s only consolation, he shook off the useless feeling and raised the corners of his mouth again.
***
This time too, the dishwashing was Haeyoung’s responsibility. It wasn’t decided that way from the start. It was just that Haeyoung, who felt sorry for not being able to prepare breakfast together because he woke up late, volunteered saying he would do it. It was after he had chased away even Seonwoo, who approached saying it was okay and they should do it together, while making a scary face.
Sehee walked over to his side with a smiling face, saying she would help. Haeyoung, who had been washing dishes with a squeaky sound and rinsing them with water, half-froze looking at her.
As if asking to be let off just this once, he earnestly drooped his eyebrows. At the same time, he hesitantly stepped backward holding the plate he was holding.
“I can do it. Go up first.”
“There are a lot of dishes. If two people do it, it’ll end much faster.”
Sehee, who burst into laughter as if Haeyoung’s appearance was funny, pulled out new rubber gloves from under the drawer. And she, having inserted her hands into the gloves, wiggled her fingers telling him to come quickly.
“And it’s more fun to do it with two people than alone.”
“Not doing dishes is fun, noona…”
“That’s true. So let’s finish quickly.”
As if telling him not to argue further, Sehee lightly tapped Haeyoung’s ankle with her toes. At that playful gesture, Haeyoung also finally laughed while shaking his head with a defeated face.
Haeyoung, who had washed the last dish, put it down on the dish rack and turned to Sehee. Taking off the rubber gloves she had on her hands and stretching, Haeyoung asked her while lowering the sleeves he had pulled up to his forearms.
“By the way, noona, are you going out somewhere today?”
She had been pretty since morning. Are you going to work on a Saturday? Toward him asking with a puzzled face, Sehee smiled broadly and nodded.
“It’s Christmas Eve. Today is a girls’ date. We’ll probably eat dinner and come back.”
At her words saying let’s go up, Haeyoung also left the dining room. In the common area visible as soon as they climbed the stairs, all the female cast members were already wearing their outerwear.
Those who seemed to be conversing while sitting on the sofa waved their hands seeing Haeyoung and Sehee who came up to the second floor. The first to speak was Minho. For some reason, he had an ominous feeling at the face that brightened excessively as soon as he saw him.
“Everyone’s going out. Let’s go out too, just us guys!”
And such premonitions were never wrong. Looking at him who was recklessly bright, the corners of Haeyoung’s mouth, which had been curving, became subtly crooked.
Ah, seriously, that bastard…
