Can Love Be Transferred Too? 105

#105

Three months had passed since filming ‘Can Love Be Transferred Too?’

It had been a hectic summer. The first month after leaving the villa was so crazy that I didn’t even know how I got through it. The restaurant’s opening was delayed by about a month, so I helped with self-interior work, suffered all day from headaches due to signature menu development, and went to markets from dawn to source ingredients…

If there was one fortunate thing, it was that being busy wasn’t just my problem. Jin Woohyeon was also so swamped with catching up on his backlogged schedule that ten bodies wouldn’t have been enough. To the extent that barely managing to contact each other once a day before sleep was the best we could do.

Still, we were by each other’s side. After holding hands tightly and escaping the maze, unbreaking sincerity connected us firmly.

When the urgent matters were roughly finished, I met with people from Jin Woohyeon’s agency. At the end of the conversation, the manager acknowledged his rude behavior and sincerely apologized, saying he had judged and misunderstood me arbitrarily.

‘It’s an excuse, but it was something I couldn’t have imagined at all. That this tin can would like someone…’

Since I also couldn’t have imagined Jin Woohyeon, who was uninterested in romance, I could only smile awkwardly.

The agency had advised against final choices or dating to prevent images that could harm his acting career. However, since my relationship with him was far from their concerns, they concluded it would be okay not to keep our relationship secret.

Being congratulated, acknowledged, and apologized to was truly something that hadn’t happened in a long time. No, it might have been almost the first time.

Perhaps because of that, whenever I recalled those memories, a corner of my heart felt ticklish. I was sometimes caught up in the fresh sentiment that spring-like days were coming to me too.

My relationship with Lee Chan was cleanly sorted out.

Actually, it should have happened long ago. After leaving the villa, I blocked Lee Chan’s contact.

‘Sanho hyung. Are you going to remain friends with Lee Chan hyung?’

‘……Why would I?’

‘Then, how about blocking him before Can Love Be Transferred Too? airs?’

‘Can I ask why?’

‘After the broadcast, there will definitely be talk. It’s planned business. There are no secrets in the world, and seeing that person’s personality, he’ll probably get back exactly what he gives.’

‘Hmm.’

‘If his business goes wrong and he’s about to fall, I think he’ll try to grab onto hyung first, and I don’t want hyung to get hurt because of that.’

It was partly due to Jin Woohyeon’s advice, but even if it hadn’t been, it was something I would have seriously considered at least once. I readily agreed to do so, and felt relieved after blocking Lee Chan.

As the saying goes, when bodies grow distant, hearts grow distant too. After leaving the villa, my lingering feelings for Lee Chan diminished instantly, and now they were barely visible.

Was it because I had done enough, seen everything worth seeing and not worth seeing? Even things I once believed were my everything now felt like mere fragments of memory, sometimes making me feel both wistful and relieved.

Of course, not everything was cleanly resolved, but I believed that as time passed, we could solve things one by one.

“……Mmm.”

Ticklish fingers wandered over my face. They carefully caressed my forehead, nose tip, around my ears and cheeks, and even the dimpled corners of my mouth. Those fingers, full of affection, felt so good that when the slightly cooler palm cupped my cheek, I unconsciously buried my face in his hand.

“You’re here?”

Instead of an answer, there was a rustling sound. It seemed he had bought something.

Until the broadcast, the production team and agency had asked us to meet as quietly as possible to prevent spoilers, so whenever we needed to see each other’s faces, we would meet at home. Thanks to that, Jin Woohyeon even knew the passcode to the officetel where I lived.

“The convenience store in front of your building doesn’t sell fever reducers, so I went around to other places. Your fever went up more in the meantime.”

I was about to apologize for causing trouble, but Jin Woohyeon, who noticed my feelings first, gently pinched my lips with his thumb and index finger. Thanks to that, my mouth protruded like a duck’s bill.

“You’ve been feeling unwell for almost three days now?”

I stuck just my face out from under the blanket and nodded repeatedly. Jin Woohyeon, sitting by my bedside, was thinking about something intently, his brow deeply furrowed as it often did when he got serious.

‘Even his worried expression is handsome…’

Recently, Jin Woohyeon had changed his hairstyle as he started filming <Revenge Formula>. The bangs that half-revealed his forehead and the faintly blue-tinted hair suited his characteristic leisurely yet cool image so well that sometimes I could lose track of time just looking at his face.

Whenever I stared blankly at his face like that, Jin Woohyeon was very pleased. Sometimes he would even crack silly jokes.

‘I should take good care of myself and age gracefully. So our hyung can devour this face even ten years from now.’

‘Devour? When did I ever…’

‘Why? I like it. You don’t know how grateful I am to have been born like this.’

While I slowly moved my gaze along his clearly drawn eyebrows, deep eyes, prominent nose bridge, and tightly closed lips, Jin Woohyeon sighed softly.

“It seems like you got body aches from overworking, but your heat cycle is coming soon too, right? It passed once during early filming.”

I thought for a moment before answering.

“There shouldn’t be much time left…”

I wasn’t enthusiastic about it. Not only was this seasonal event that made me suffer like body aches naturally unwelcome, but it was still a busy time.

The restaurant work that had been going reasonably well became tremendously difficult starting from when the program aired. Many more people than I had imagined watched that program and were curious about the restaurant where I worked.

Because of that, we recently switched to a reservation-only system, but work only increased, never decreased. There were still no empty tables, but now we had to manage reservations too.

“There’s no time to rest.”

We were looking for more people, but hiring itself was a difficult reality. The representative even asked for understanding, saying they wanted to be more careful in selecting candidates out of consideration for me, who had been exposed on the broadcast.

They say it’s good when business goes well, but strictly speaking, these were problems caused by me, so I couldn’t just rest carelessly. An event that required taking three days off couldn’t be welcome. Even taking just today off after enduring and enduring made me feel so sorry.

“Do you need to have time to rest? You make time to rest.”

Jin Woohyeon, who had relaxed his expression, bowed his head toward me. His soft lips briefly touched my forehead and then withdrew.

“How about taking proper vacation time while you’re at it? You haven’t been able to rest even one day since opening. At this rate, you’ll get seriously ill.”

“……”

“If hyung wants it, I’ll try to match my schedule and rest too.”

It sounded somewhat unrealistic. Jin Woohyeon’s schedule was just as difficult to adjust as mine. Since filming required coordinating numerous people’s schedules, there was no way vacation time could be arranged just for his convenience.

Still, I couldn’t help but smile softly because I was grateful that he said that.

“I’ll get better if I take medicine and sleep well. For the heat cycle, I think getting IV fluids would be better like last time… Can I ask you to do that?”

“It’s not difficult at all.”

I swallowed the water and medicine he brought me. I said I could at least put things away myself, but Jin Woohyeon didn’t even pretend to listen and stepped forward to organize things himself.

“Patients should just lie down. It’s okay to be lazy for about a day.”

“I feel like I’m developing bad habits because of you.”

“Then that’s even better. Being spoiled should be somewhat precious.”

I burst into a small laugh and grabbed Jin Woohyeon’s hand. When I slipped my fingers into his large hand and interlocked them, he would unhesitatingly put strength into his hand and hold mine firmly.

I had now become accustomed to being attached to him like this. No, beyond accustomed, it had become natural. It was truly an amazing change.

“Do you feel a bit better?”

He asked back in a somewhat flustered voice.

“What?”

“When I first came in earlier, you looked really upset.”

Even though I had my eyes closed so he couldn’t see my expression, he just felt that way. He could feel the sharp pheromones that hadn’t yet settled, and I had taken several deep breaths as I usually did when I wanted to calm my emotions.

He wondered whether to ask or not, but he thought it would be better to ask after all. Since we were in a close relationship, honesty was good.

I gently shook our clasped hands and asked him,

“Did something happen? You seemed fine earlier.”

“……”

“Did you meet someone while going to the convenience store?”