#014
Lee Yeonwoo put on an outer garment slightly larger than his frame and quietly began muttering to himself.
“It’s fine. It’s fine. Yeah, it’s fine. …Fuck, what the hell?”
Just moments ago, he had confidently set out with Uncle Cheolsu, but the image of those two flirting without him kept flickering in his mind.
No matter how much he chanted that it was fine, his rotten mood wouldn’t improve. He couldn’t figure out what was causing it, no matter how much he thought about it.
One thing was certain – he was incredibly irritated. He felt like he needed to express even a little of this annoying feeling to ease the twisted feeling inside.
“Fuck!!”
“Why is this bastard cursing and acting up from earlier!? Is he really going through puberty or what? Want to get beaten up?”
In the end, he got smacked hard on the back of his head by Uncle Cheolsu. Lee Yeonwoo rubbed his head and said indignantly.
“…I already got beaten up.”
“I hit you once when I should’ve hit you ten times! What’s wrong? What’s bothering you? Do you hate that I dragged you to the apiary so much that you’re cursing?”
“Don’t say such hurtful things.”
Kang Dojun and Shin Gihyeon headed to Grandpa Beom’s store, while Yeonwoo headed to the apiary he couldn’t visit during his dawn walk.
He was with Uncle Cheolsu, who had been eyeing his beehives.
The man had been learning beekeeping from Yeonwoo every dawn lately. Wearing work gloves and holding a hive tool, he asked.
“So who’s the queen again?”
“I’ve told you several times. The one with a bigger ass than the others and looks weird.”
“You explain things like shit.”
At his grumbling, Yeonwoo rolled up his long sleeves covering his hands and rummaged through the hive with eagle eyes to demonstrate.
The one with a bigger ass than ordinary honeybees, and the one the honeybees make way for whenever she passes by.
“This one. This one here.”
“Let me see. This one?”
“Yes, that’s right. Do you get it now?”
Uncle Cheolsu still didn’t seem to get it clearly, so he opened the lid of a new beehive next to it and started looking for the queen bee once more.
Yeonwoo went into alert mode, checking if any hornets were coming around and if there were any abnormalities among the honeybees. As expected, working and moving his body seemed to calm his scattered thoughts.
“Yeonwoo, but listen.”
“Yes.”
“There were a crazy amount of bees over there, did you release them?”
“…Excuse me?”
Yeonwoo tilted his head.
“If you go down to the right, there were bees flying around like crazy, what was that about?”
Yeonwoo, who had paused for a moment, widened his eyes and suddenly shouted.
“It’s swarming!!”
Yeonwoo grabbed spare comb (artificial bee houses) and urgently asked.
“Uncle! Where exactly?”
“Uh, um… if you go down a bit to the right, it’s there.”
“Thank you!”
Yeonwoo ran off happily. It was an opportunity to collect a large number of honeybees without spending money.
Arriving at his destination, Yeonwoo pushed the comb with a little honey remaining among the buzzing bees.
When he checked, the queen bee was there properly too. When the queen bee folded her wings and stepped into the comb Yeonwoo brought, the other honeybees also entered the comb together.
He couldn’t help but hum at the fact that he could secure even more honey. Simple-minded Yeonwoo quickly forgot his earlier unpleasant emotions with the sudden good news.
‘Right, they have work to do there too, so I should understand.’
While watching the bees climb onto the comb, other thoughts gradually welled up.
‘Should I go see if they’re doing well without me?’
His thoughts were brief. Yeonwoo, who decided to act immediately, left the comb and ran back to the apiary to tell the uncle.
“Uncle, when all the bees stick to the comb over there, please move them to a new hive.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you don’t know, call me! I have somewhere to go, so I’ll head out first. Please take care of it!”
“Yeonwoo! That brat, where are you going!”
It was like leaving a cat in charge of a fish shop, but he didn’t particularly care right now.
Since Yeonwoo was someone who acted on his impulses, what was important to him now was going to visit Grandpa Beom’s store.
* * *
At that moment, Kang Dojun and Shin Gihyeon were watching the store.
Shin Gihyeon carefully spoke to Kang Dojun, who was sitting at the counter.
“Sunbae-nim, may I sit with you?”
After finishing his ice cream, Kang Dojun snapped to attention upon realizing he was the only one sitting and got up from his seat.
“I’m sorry. Please sit here.”
“Oh, no. We could sit together…”
“It’s fine. It seems too narrow to sit together, so I’ll organize some items.”
He gave up his seat to Shin Gihyeon and left. Shin Gihyeon couldn’t dare sit alone, so he followed Kang Dojun around.
Following Kang Dojun who was neatly organizing items, he helped with the organizing while starting a conversation.
“Sunbae-nim, how old is the house owner? He looked young.”
“Ah, Yeonwoo?”
When Kang Dojun, who had been politely adding ‘-ssi’ to his own name, called the house owner’s name familiarly as ‘Yeonwoo,’ disappointment welled up.
“He’s twenty-five.”
He casually told him Lee Yeonwoo’s age, making him wonder if he even knew his own age properly, but the following words made him happily withdraw that thought.
“He’s one year younger than Gihyeon-ssi.”
For Kang Dojun, who memorized even his co-stars’ lines when filming dramas and movies, memorizing someone’s name and age was an easy task.
“That’s impressive for such a young age.”
“He’s a beekeeper.”
Kang Dojun unknowingly spoke in a tone as if introducing a proud younger brother.
While organizing items, Kang Dojun suddenly remembered what happened before and chuckled.
‘Like a dog, really.’
It was a vivid expression that captured Yeonwoo’s personality well.
Shin Gihyeon was genuinely amazed that the person who seemed so carefree was only one year younger than him and was living earnestly in the countryside with a decided career path.
At the same time, he felt a slight regret wondering what it would have been like if he had come before their relationship formed. It was quite disappointing that his schedule, which was supposed to be a visit on the second day, got pushed to the fourth day due to delayed drama filming.
“I regret not being able to come earlier.”
“Earlier?”
“Yes. I was originally supposed to come the next day, but the drama filming schedule got delayed, so I was late.”
Only then did Kang Dojun realize why PD Han Taegu had scheduled the unreasonable task of farming on the second day.
That’s right. No matter how he thought about it, that wasn’t an amount for one person to handle. He must have scheduled it intending for Shin Gihyeon to do it together. Due to Shin Gihyeon’s unavoidable circumstances, Yeonwoo had helped with the farming instead.
“It seems like we’ve organized enough, shall we sit and rest?”
Shin Gihyeon, who had been filming until dawn before coming here, couldn’t overcome his fatigue and made another request.
“Please sit.”
Shin Gihyeon couldn’t resist the temptation from Kang Dojun’s gentle refusal and sat at the counter.
“Sunbae-nim, let’s take turns sitting.”
“Understood. Please rest.”
After sitting for only a few minutes, Shin Gihyeon hesitated and carefully requested.
“You can speak comfortably to me.”
“I’ll do that gradually.”
He was gently refused again. He could only say he understood about the invisible line drawn for him.
While speaking comfortably to Yeonwoo, whom he’d only known for a few days… Shin Gihyeon’s eyebrows drooped slightly, as he had been a fan of Kang Dojun and had idolized him all this time.
Then, drowsiness he had been holding back poured out in the cozy atmosphere of the store, and when he opened his eyes and hurriedly checked the time, more than an hour had passed. He unconsciously jumped up from his seat. A blanket that had been covering his body fell to the ground as he stood.
Kang Dojun, who had been watching the news on the old TV in the store with the volume down, turned his head at the commotion behind him. Shin Gihyeon stopped in an awkward position while picking up the fallen blanket, caught by Kang Dojun’s gaze.
“Ah, sunbae-nim. The blanket…”
“You were sleeping, so I covered you with it.”
“I’m sorry. Your legs must hurt, please sit down quickly.”
After placing the blanket on the counter, he stepped aside. When Kang Dojun turned off the TV and finally sat down, the store door opened forcefully.
A customer had visited the usually quiet store today.
And that customer was none other than Lee Yeonwoo. At the gazes directed toward him, Yeonwoo scratched his head and said.
“Hello. I came because I have something to buy briefly. Well, this is the only store in this neighborhood.”
“I see. What do you want to buy?”
Kang Dojun said with a slight smile. Yeonwoo, who had been staring at him intently, thought for a moment and said.
“I’ll look around.”
“Alright, take your time looking around.”
Kang Dojun looked at him with adoring eyes as if he knew exactly why Yeonwoo had come here.
Shin Gihyeon watched this and followed Yeonwoo who headed toward the display shelves.
“Hello. Yeonwoo-ssi.”
“…Hello.”
Yeonwoo awkwardly responded to his greeting.
“Are you looking for something? Shall I help you?”
Actually, there’s nothing he’s looking for. He just came here impulsively, curious about how they were having fun without him. Shin Gihyeon’s offer wasn’t much help to Yeonwoo.
“It’s fine. I can find it myself.”
Despite Yeonwoo’s refusal, Shin Gihyeon quietly stood next to him. Feeling slightly uncomfortable, Yeonwoo spoke without hesitation.
“I’ll choose by myself.”
While saying this, he glanced at Kang Dojun sitting at the counter. When his eyes met with Kang Dojun’s and he closed his eyes gently as if he had been waiting, Yeonwoo unconsciously turned his head away.
Shin Gihyeon, for some reason, kept annoyingly coming over and talking to him.
“Yeonwoo-ssi, we’re similar in age, shall we drop the formalities?”
There’s a saying: if you fail to win over your target, first win over that target’s friend.
Before dropping formalities with Kang Dojun, Shin Gihyeon’s plan was to first drop formalities with Yeonwoo, who was close to him, become friends, and then gradually approach Kang Dojun.
And Yeonwoo was only one year different from him in age. Though their first meeting wasn’t great, he seemed to have a somewhat simple personality and would be an easy person to befriend.
However, the problem was that the target named Yeonwoo was a person who fell outside the category of ordinary people. He suddenly grabbed a lollipop from the box without paying for it, unwrapped it, and answered.
“Sure, but Gihyeon. I want to choose by myself, so could you go somewhere else?”
“…Huh?”
Yeonwoo looked at him, who wouldn’t leave despite his efforts to speak as gently as possible, and crunched on the lollipop.
Sighing and acting magnanimous, he grabbed another lollipop from the box and held it out to Shin Gihyeon.
“Hyung will give you this, so go play somewhere else.”
It was a tone as if gently coaxing a disobedient younger brother. Shin Gihyeon couldn’t react and just blinked blankly.
It was even a candy he hadn’t paid for. He carefully asked a question.
“…Aren’t I the hyung?”
Yeonwoo, who had swallowed the candy rolling around in his mouth, habitually chewed on the finished stick part and looked at Shin Gihyeon with gentle eyes.
“How old are you?”
“…Twenty-six.”
Yeonwoo seemed displeased with the awkward situation, frowning and moving his lips around the stick he was biting. Soon he removed the stick from his pretty lips and looked up at Shin Gihyeon with bright, innocent eyes.
“I’m twenty-five but born early in the year, couldn’t you work something out?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
