“Wookyung?”
When the manager called out again, Kwon Wookyung snapped his head up. His expression was blank, like someone who had just woken from sleep. The way he slapped his own cheek and shook his head looked exactly like someone trying to jolt themselves out of a daze.
“Ah……”
Letting out a short breath that was somewhere between a gasp and a sigh, Kwon Wookyung suddenly strode over and snatched my wrist.
“Huh—? Hey!”
His grip was so strong it sent a jolt of pain through my wrist.
I held back a cry and instinctively tried to shake him off, but Kwon Wookyung didn’t loosen his grip — he stared straight at me and pulled me inside the house.
What’s gotten into him today?
I suppose getting hit with something strange three times in a row conditions you. I wasn’t all that flustered even after being caught off guard by Kwon Wookyung’s erratic behavior in this odd state. Every time I see him he’s acting strange……
The problem was that at this rate, I was going to be dragged inside the house with my shoes still on — so I used my free hand to struggle out of them. My green sneakers tumbled to the floor in a heap.
“What, what is it?”
The manager, eyes wide, was pushed back by the sheer force of it, retreating step by step. Kwon Wookyung turned and looked at the manager as if scrutinizing him.
“Hyung, can you see him?”
“Huh? Of course I can.”
His expression was not just flustered — he looked completely out of it. The look in his eyes as he scanned his own actor’s face was openly uneasy, his mouth hanging open.
“How does he look to you?”
“How does he look… his wrist looks like it hurts?”
Kwon Wookyung glanced between me and the manager again and made a sound that was impossible to tell apart from a laugh or a sigh.
“Finally……”
He muttered it so quietly that the rest was inaudible — but in truth, I was more drawn to his face than his words. A strange warmth had spread across features that had looked exhausted and weary enough to collapse at any moment. That glow pooled at the corners of his eyes and mouth before slowly fading, leaving behind an striking kind of atmosphere.
“Hyung, you said you were leaving. Go now.”
In complete contrast to that look, the words dismissing him were short and firm.
“Okay, okay… just answer your calls. Don’t ghost me.”
The wariness on his face had melted into curiosity. The manager glanced back a couple of times, gave me an awkward nod, and left.
“……”
Even after the door closed and we were alone, Kwon Wookyung stayed quiet for a long while. He’d stared at me like he was trying to bore a hole through me the last time too — but today it was worse.
At the same time, I found myself looking back at Kwon Wookyung too… and with every single blink, countless expressions passed over his face faster than I could catch them.
It was an unfamiliar face on someone who almost never showed his emotions. It felt like the record of the six years I didn’t know — all of it passing through at once.
On impulse, I lifted my hand and patted Kwon Wookyung’s head a couple of times. It was an instinct — I just felt like this was what he needed right now. Despite crushing my wrist in his grip, he flinched the moment I reached out toward him.
“Hey, that hurts.”
I tapped the fingers wrapped tightly around my wrist. It was past hurting — I couldn’t feel it anymore. My muscles were already weak to begin with. If my wrist snapped clean off like this, it would be entirely this bastard’s fault.
“Ah……”
The strength left his hand and it slipped from my wrist. A red handprint bloomed on my wrist along with a stinging ache. He was the one who had grabbed me hard enough to bruise — and yet he looked more shocked than I did.
“I’ll find something for it. Sorry.”
“What medicine, that’s too much trouble. Forget it. More importantly — are you going to keep me standing here?”
“…Come in.”
Kwon Wookyung kept looking down at my wrist before stepping back.
Sitting on the living room sofa, I noticed things were different from last time. The furniture was the same, but the old curtains were gone and new ones were half-hung in their place. Thanks to that, sunlight poured in deep through the less-covered window and swayed across the sofa.
I was making hand shadows in the patch of sunlight and playing around when Kwon Wookyung came in, set a cup of white milk down on the table, and sat down across from me.
He was treating me with such obvious awkwardness, and yet he remembered my preferences exactly. Back then, there had been pressure that you couldn’t land lead roles if you weren’t tall enough, so I’d made a habit of drinking milk every day hoping to grow even a little more. I wrapped both hands around the cup he’d already warmed. It’s warm.
“Why did you come looking for me?”
The first question was absurd. What kind of question is that?
“When did I ever need a reason to come see you?”
We had always been together as a matter of course, endlessly. If anything, we needed a reason when we were apart.
“Don’t tell me… are you being shy around me? Because it’s been so long since you’ve seen me?”
Both yesterday and right now, his reactions were so different from how he used to treat me.
I’d heard that some animals get shy again around people they haven’t seen in a long time. Maybe Kwon Wookyung was one of those cases.
I’ve never felt this kind of wariness from Haeyong, and now I’m feeling it from this guy. With an animal you’d let them sniff you first and approach slowly — but what are you supposed to do with a person?
“A lot of time has passed.”
“For me it stood still.”
I answered bluntly. Kwon Wookyung stared at my frowning face again.
“What are you staring at like that?”
“……I was thinking about how much you’ve changed. I couldn’t get a good look last time.”
“Ahem… is it strange?”
I touched the back of my neck in embarrassment and turned my head slightly.
Even I hadn’t been able to get used to my own face for a while — I’d avoided mirrors for some time. Shin Haechan kept teasing me that I looked ugly, which made it worse.
“No.”
Kwon Wookyung denied it quietly and smiled.
Why is he smiling like that?
It was a round, soft expression that didn’t suit someone who was so stingy with smiles. It was enough to give me goosebumps. I was at a loss for words for a moment, and then reached for something safe to say.
“That person from earlier — he said he was your manager.”
“That’s right.”
On the coffee table was a pile of documents that appeared to have been left by the manager. On top was an advertising model proposal, and below that, several thick stacks that looked like scripts for new projects.
“It’s surreal. You really did become an actor. Well — even when I saw you at the movie theater, you looked like a successful actor.”
“You… went to see my movie?”
“Yeah. You saw me there too, right? You suddenly collapsed, so I didn’t get the chance to say hi.”
“I thought I’d seen wrong.”
Kwon Wookyung murmured low, the corners of his eyes softening slightly.
“Oh right — the door was open earlier so I accidentally heard a bit. You said you were sick. What’s wrong with you?”
“You heard that?”
“Not all of it. I just caught something about medicine. What is it? You were suddenly collapsing back then too.”
He’d had the habit since childhood of enduring pain without letting on, so if you didn’t pay close attention, the people around him wouldn’t even know he was sick and he’d suffer through it alone.
When we were in elementary school, we were running around having fun together when Kwon Wookyung suddenly crumpled to the ground. The body I caught in both hands was burning up in a way that shocked me to my core. I’d frantically called out for my mom in a panic. Since it was a holiday, we’d gone to the emergency room — Kwon Wookyung unable to open his eyes, me bawling beside him…… It had been the day we nearly gave our mom a heart attack.
That memory had left a scar of fear in me, and after that I became sensitive to Kwon Wookyung’s physical condition. Partly because if not me, there was nobody else to look after him.
“My hormones got a little messed up. I’m fine normally, it’s just that sometimes it gets out of control.”
“You weren’t like that before.”
“It developed at some point.”
It was exactly like the old days — he only answered grudgingly when pressed.
“What’s the name of the condition?”
“…Secondary trait-based hormonal dysregulation syndrome.”
That’s a really long name.
I repeated the unfamiliar name to myself a few times, trying to remember it.
“Treatment?”
“There’s not really… a treatment for it.”
“So you just have to keep suffering?”
“When the symptoms spike badly, an injection calms it down. It’s nothing serious.”
“Nothing serious, you say. You’re basically telling me it’s incurable. Why did you throw up yesterday?”
He goes and develops some strange illness while I wasn’t watching and tries to act like he’s fine.
“That was… probably just because something I ate didn’t digest well. I’m really okay. Actually, I’m using feeling sick as an excuse to rest and get out of company obligations.”
“You’re sure I don’t need to worry?”
At my question, Kwon Wookyung lifted his gaze from where it had been wandering across the table and looked at me. It was an expression I couldn’t quite put into words. Was that a flash of a sneer just now, or am I imagining things? Before the confusion could form into a concrete thought, Kwon Wookyung opened his mouth.
“Yeah. Was that what you wanted to ask?”
“Not exactly, but… now that I think about it, after we said goodbye last time I realized I didn’t have your number. You didn’t even notice I didn’t have it, did you?”
I finally let slip the real reason I’d bothered coming all the way here.
Kwon Wookyung didn’t answer — he picked up his phone and pressed the screen a few times.
Buzz―.
The phone I’d had in my pocket vibrated.
I took it out and checked — an unfamiliar eight-digit number was on the screen.
Meanwhile, on the phone in Kwon Wookyung’s hand, the contact name ‘Haehyeon Shin 😆’ glowed back at me. It was a contact name I had changed myself — long ago, after stealing Kwon Wookyung’s phone, the one where he stored everyone flatly under their full three-syllable names.
“……”
Thanks to my parents keeping the account active instead of canceling it, my number was the same as before. But… why is that still there, unchanged?
For a moment I was speechless, and something churned in my stomach like I’d eaten something wrong.
I lifted the cup, still more than half full of milk, downed it in several big gulps, and shot to my feet.
