Fuck.
How could such an absurd situation happen? Yoon Haeyoung momentarily failed at managing his expression as he watched the person entering the mansion with a carrier. He was on the verge of grinding his teeth at the unexpected situation. Lee Hajin, that traitor.
However, whether Haeyoung was doing that or not, the other participants were busy welcoming the last participant who arrived latest.
“Wow, he’s really tall…”
A low exclamation flowed from Dain’s mouth as she stood in front. As if it was a word she’d unconsciously spat out, only after letting out the admiration did she belatedly raise her hand to cover her mouth and giggle.
From the moment he entered, the atmosphere inside the mansion completely changed. A person who naturally carried weight in the atmosphere even without making a domineering expression. A person who, like gravity, drew other people’s gazes to himself all at once. He was someone who was innately all of that.
Haeyoung unknowingly clenched his fist tight. The corners of his lips he’d forced up trembled. Just like when he’d liked him, just like when they’d broken up, Cha Seonwoo still looked just as outstanding. He really hadn’t changed one bit to a sickening degree.
“Hello.”
After taking off his shoes at the entrance and changing into slippers placed beside them, he completely entered the house. Greeting with a slightly smiling face by nodding his head briefly, he soon raised his chin and looked around.
His gaze, which had been dry like a traveler wandering the desert, turned to Haeyoung at once. At the look that lodged in like an arrow being shot, Haeyoung unconsciously drew in a breath. Eyes that seemed like facing a stranger. His pitch-black pupils without any foreign matter felt deeper than the deep sea. However, as soon as Haeyoung was captured in those eyes, a different light dwelled in them as if they’d gained vitality.
It was a brief moment, but Haeyoung, who had stiffened at Seonwoo’s unfamiliar gaze he was receiving for the first time, soon came to his senses at the words he drew out while slowly raising the corners of his lips.
“Work finished late.”
That wasn’t a request for understanding nor an apology. Though it was brief for an excuse about coming latest, everyone nodded as if they understood.
At the atmosphere that had coalesced around Cha Seonwoo, Haeyoung unconsciously crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned his back against the wall. However, what he touched wasn’t a solid wall but another person’s presence.
Haeyoung, who had been about to lean against the wall without any thought, opened his eyes wide at the unexpectedly warm warmth and tilted his head at an angle. What entered his vision was Jaehwi, who had come so quietly he didn’t know when he’d been there. The participant who came first to the lodging and was also the quietest participant.
Though they didn’t know each other’s ages yet, Haeyoung naturally thought Jaehwi was probably older than him. Because he gave off quite a mature atmosphere even while not saying much and being dazed.
This time too, Jaehwi just glanced at Haeyoung who suddenly leaned against him while only quietly hanging a faint smile on his face. There was no time to say “I’m sorry.” Jaehwi, as if it was okay, raised his arm and lightly placed his hand on Haeyoung’s shoulder. Perhaps because it was more like placing it there than embracing, Jaehwi was still looking ahead with a thoughtless face.
It was when Haeyoung was looking up at him for a moment. A somewhat lowered voice dug into his ear again.
“It seems… you’ve all already become quite close.”
Even knowing the owner of the voice, his gaze didn’t turn that way. No, rather because he knew, it would be correct to say he couldn’t look that way.
At the gentle voice, Soyoon’s rebuttal immediately followed.
“Uh, not at all!”
Whether she’d unconsciously raised her voice, the laughter that flowed out softly after spitting out the words was quite cute even to her own ears. It had been like that from the first time he saw her. Her bright smile without wrinkles probably occupied the largest part of Soyoon’s charms.
“We haven’t done anything yet. We were just about to prepare dinner and eat.”
Dain, who was standing beside her, also added words while lifting her heels. Though they’d only entered as far as the entrance, smiles were already prevalent on the participants’ faces.
That was probably largely because Cha Seonwoo was smiling warmly.
Perhaps due to his glamorous impression, when he wasn’t smiling, he gave off an atmosphere that was difficult to approach. However, once a smile played on his face, the atmosphere quickly warmed like melting snow. When seeing him smile like sunshine, Haeyoung also used to reflexively smile back. Though he couldn’t do that now.
‘Hah……’
Haeyoung let out a suppressed sigh. It was a quiet movement of barely moving his lips. Though he was inevitably annoyed at his loose smile, he knew it would be strange for him to show displeasure here.
Let’s not act that pathetically. Haeyoung lightly shook his head as if shaking off his thoughts and turned his gaze forward.
“Ah.”
And at that moment, his eyes met with Cha Seonwoo who was looking at him. At the persistent gaze as if it had never left, Yoon Haeyoung unconsciously opened his mouth, then closed it tight. What was fortunate was that his gaze didn’t linger on him for long.
When a male participant nearby spoke to him affectionately, Seonwoo tilted his head that way.
“By any chance, have you eaten?”
“Not yet.”
“Wow, you came at the perfect time. Let’s eat together!”
Is it really fortunate? Haeyoung had to try hard to compose his unsettled heart while chasing the gaze leaving him. In the meantime, as if the conversation had roughly ended, the participants turned their bodies in the direction where Haeyoung was standing at the very back.
While he hesitated at the suddenly received gaze, Jaehwi lightly pressed down on the hand draped over his shoulder. At the touch that seemed to tell him to get a grip, Haeyoung finally took the first step.
While heading inside along the corridor, Haeyoung whispered softly toward Jaehwi who was following behind him.
“Thank you.”
“For what…”
Jaehwi replied, stopping in the middle of a small yawn. Haeyoung, who had been glancing at his somewhat dazed face, entered the kitchen.
“Ah, would you like to put down your luggage first? We already decided on rooms.”
“……Yes.”
Minho’s voice, another male participant, was heard from behind. At his words, the other person seemed to hesitate, then drew out an answer like a sigh. That was brief too. Seonwoo’s voice soon faded away barely audibly. It seemed he was climbing the stairs following Minho.
Come to think of it, before he came, they’d decided on rooms with the other participants during the day. This house where they’d be staying for a month was a two-story residence. On the first floor, there was a dining room and a room for female participants, and on the second floor, there was a common space and rooms for male participants.
Since there were two rooms each on the second floor, they naturally divided into two people per room, and Haeyoung decided to share a room with Jaehwi. Cha Seonwoo, who came last, had no choice. Thinking of Seonwoo who would spend a month in the same room with Minho, Haeyoung unconsciously raised his hand to fiddle with his mouth.
“We just need to plate the food now, right?”
Dain asked Hyuna and headed to the kitchen.
The dining room with the kitchen and a large eight-person dining table was still in the state they’d been preparing dinner in until just now. Dinner preparation led by Hyuna, who could cook quite well, had been about to finish.
Yoon Haeyoung had helped prepare ingredients and such on the side while preparing dinner. After that, his job was wandering around looking for something to help with since there was nothing to do. It wasn’t that he couldn’t cook, but he didn’t want to show off saying he could cook. What he could do was nothing more than living-alone cooking anyway…
The eyes of Haeyoung, who was watching those busily moving around in the kitchen, met with Soyoon who was taking out water glasses. Soyoon smiled reflexively as if embarrassed, and following her, Haeyoung also raised the corners of his lips while facing her. And he grabbed a handful of utensils.
When he placed spoons and chopsticks matching the number on the eight-person table, Soyoon approached beside him and set down water glasses. Because they were doing table plating up close, their gazes inevitably met. Seeing Soyoon smile brightly every time their eyes met, he couldn’t not smile back.
Having a lot of smiles seemed similar to Cha Seonwoo. The scene of her acting affectionately toward Seonwoo suddenly came to mind again. Haeyoung slightly frowned and swallowed a scoff.
Ah, really so pathetic… You broke up. Don’t act crazy, Yoon Haeyoung.
“Should I help with anything?”
“No, we’re all done.”
Soon Minho, who returned with Cha Seonwoo, approached Soyoon’s side and asked. At his question, Soyoon smiled brightly and lightly shook her head. At the harmonious atmosphere, the people in the dining room gathered that way.
Dain, who was left alone in the kitchen, picked up a plate with salad with a slightly stiff face. As she seemed to be moving it, Haeyoung approached her and took the plate from her. He’d tried to move plates since it seemed he’d done nothing, but Dain smiled with a surprised face even at such an action.
Perhaps because it was the first day with people meeting for the first time, everyone smiled a lot. Perhaps he too might have been grinning around unable to overcome the awkwardness. However, now Seonwoo was in the same space. Since the tension was greater than the awkwardness, if he didn’t consciously smile, his mouth seemed like it would immediately stiffen.
“Shall we eat?”
When all the dishes with food came up onto the table, the burdensome meal time began. If there was something fortunate, it was that the female participants and male participants ended up sitting facing each other for the meal.
If Seonwoo were sitting across from him, he’d get indigestion before even swallowing the food.
Haeyoung quietly began his meal among the participants who were chatting about who cooked what and how the taste was. Since he wasn’t a quiet personality by nature either, he could normally join the conversation, but Seonwoo bothered him too much for that.
‘I… did wrong, Haeyoung-ah.’
The image of him hanging his head saying it was unconditionally his fault when he’d done nothing wrong was still stuck in his mind. The moisture falling on the hand he’d grabbed, his wavering gaze, the damp emotions contained in his trembling voice. That day was still vivid.
Haeyoung knew shame to show a face laughing ha ha ho ho mixed among people with a face that knew nothing, leaving him like that. And above all, he didn’t want to hurt him.
Yoon Haeyoung was always someone who couldn’t endure Cha Seonwoo’s wounds more than his own wounds. If perhaps Seonwoo had completely forgotten him. So if he came on this program nonchalantly, only he would hurt and it would end, so it was okay.
However, if that wasn’t the case, he didn’t want to scratch at his insides by showing himself doing well in front of Seonwoo. Though that didn’t mean he wanted to forcibly show himself not doing well either.
“Since we’re all gathered now, shall we do introductions again?”
“Yes. Sounds good!”
At the words heard, Haeyoung, who had been cutting roughly chopped cabbage into bite-sized pieces, flinched and raised his head. Sehee, who had spoken first, kicked off the start. Next to her, the female participants revealed their names one by one.
Kim Sehee, Lee Dain, Ha Soyoon, Go Hyuna. Though he’d already heard them once during the day, Haeyoung, who was chewing over the continuing names once more, put down the chopsticks he was holding at the gazes gathering on him. Perhaps because he was sitting at the very end of the table, it seemed the men were starting introductions from him.
“…I’m Yoon Haeyoung.”
Haeyoung received that gaze and folded the corners of his eyes. At the same time, the smile that drew a curve as his mouth slightly opened was enough to give a favorable impression.
Seeing Dain sitting across from him slowly pronounce his name, feeling somehow embarrassed, he lowered his gaze at an angle. And he was waiting for it to move on to the next participant’s introduction.
At that moment, a question no one expected flew in wearing a gentle voice.
“Haeyoung-ssi, haven’t we met before?”
It was Cha Seonwoo.
