#029
Four months later.
-At least wear work clothes.
“I’m a professional, so it’s fine.”
Yeonwoo held a phone in one hand and a net in the other, conversing with the person on the other side of the screen.
Kang Dojun frowned, recalling Yeonwoo from a few months ago who had confidently claimed to be a professional and then got stung twice by bees.
‘Where does that bluff even come from.’
Suddenly the screen shook as Yeonwoo quickly caught a wasp.
“Did you see my body movement just now? Totally fast, right.”
-…Yeah.
Yeonwoo proudly showed the wasp caught neatly in his net.
“This one is called a black-bellied hornet.”
Now it seemed like he could identify types of bees just by hearing the sound of their wings. According to Yeonwoo’s lecture, if it was a bee but made a drone sound, then it was 100% certainly a wasp.
“Right, hyung, did you watch last week’s broadcast?”
Even for Yeonwoo, seeing himself appear on TV was interesting. And he was worried that Han Taegu might edit it strangely, so he was making sure to watch every live broadcast.
-I’ve been too busy lately to watch.
“Not even one episode?”
-Yeah, I’m planning to binge-watch them.
Yeonwoo glanced at the screen. He was dressed neatly as if he needed to go into filming soon, and there was a bit of makeup visible on his face.
It was actually fortunate that he hadn’t watched. In last week’s broadcast, the scene of him stealing eggs from the chicken coop and running away had been shown completely.
Fine, he could forgive that scene. But afterward, the scene where he sheepishly returned and got scolded by Grandma Suni could have been edited out…
“If you’re busy, you don’t have to watch today’s episode.”
Kang Dojun seemed very busy lately, having started filming a new movie. He seemed to barely be getting any sleep, but he was still grateful and happy that he made time to contact him regularly.
-No, I should watch when I have time. Haven’t any weird people come to the village looking for you?
At his words, Yeonwoo flinched. It was right on target.
“A few people have come, but it’s not bothersome enough.”
Actually, it was very bothersome. The stress he was receiving because of it was considerable.
-Bothersome or not, if you think it’s dangerous, definitely report it. Keep your house locked up well, and make sure to tell the elderly people too.
“Okay.”
-And tell Uncle Cheolsu’s wife not to leave the key under the flower pot and to definitely carry it with her.
“Got it.”
Just listening to the conversation, he was almost like one of the village residents.
Yeonwoo walked with a smoker in one hand and his phone close to his face for the lens. Worried he might fall, he spoke up.
-You should look ahead.
“I am looking ahead.”
It’s just that there was a phone in front of him. Yeonwoo had stubbornly inflexible aspects in meaningless places. While shamelessly continuing to talk and walk, he eventually tripped over a stone.
He barely managed to maintain his balance and didn’t fall, but the feeling of embarrassment made his earlobes burn hot. Kang Dojun, who witnessed the screen shaking, also grasped the situation and pressed his lips shut. He seemed to be holding back laughter.
‘…Annoying.’
“I have to work, so I’ll hang up now.”
-Okay. Don’t fall.
Yeonwoo hung up without answering.
He pursed his lips. Nothing was going right these days.
The puppies that Kkamie gave birth to were growing day by day and would run at him happily, causing holes to appear in his clothes, and sometimes he would even bleed when it was severe.
It was prime honey harvesting season, so he got stung by sensitive bees, and he also got roughed up by the dogs. The dogs were even smart enough to know their wrongdoing. When he saw them with their ears and tails drooping, whimpering at him, it was hard to get angry easily.
And the inside of the house was a complete mess. Usually, seeing his messy house wouldn’t have affected him at all, but after seeing the after-effects of Kang Dojun’s magic hands, there was no house corner like this house corner.
His pinky toe, which he had bumped against the drawer while doing a big cleaning, was still complaining of pain.
‘This is all hyung’s fault.’
Becoming conscious of patches he wouldn’t have cared about, doing a big cleaning in a fit of anger, separating clothes for laundry when he used to not care whether white clothes got stained or not, wiping the surrounding moisture clean when doing dishes – all of it.
Everything was because of Kang Dojun. It felt like he had been tamed.
‘I’m not even a honeybee.’
Why did you do housework for me, why did you cook for me, why did you cut my hair, why did you give me affection…
“Sigh.”
After grandma passed away, he thought he had gotten used to being alone, but the traces where Kang Dojun had passed were like a giant meteorite that had fallen, digging deep holes in the ground and showing off its existence.
Yeonwoo didn’t have enough soil to fill that hole.
“Let’s just drink.”
Yeonwoo picked up a large quantity of packaged soju that he had stocked in the corner of the apiary.
His thorough preparedness of keeping it at the apiary instead of inside the house shone through, since Grandma Kyeong-i would steal it constantly if he left it inside. He stuck in a straw and sucked it like drinking water.
Tiring.
As soon as the video call with Kang Dojun ended, his phone rang again. It was Shin Gihyeon.
Yeonwoo preferred calls over texts, and video calls over regular calls. Having learned this tendency through consistent contact, his acquaintances’ calls were mostly video calls whenever possible.
-What are you doing?
He sucked through the straw at the soju pack he had hidden behind him during the call with Kang Dojun and said.
“Working.”
-Drinking is work?
“Hyung-a is working. You should work too.”
Shin Gihyeon made an expression of disbelief. Last week, he had finished filming the final episode of his drama and was finally getting some rest after a long time.
More than that, seeing Yeonwoo drinking every time they talked was becoming a bit worrying.
-You’re not an alcoholic, are you?
“Probably.”
Along with his nonchalant words came the slurping sound from the soju pack he sucked hard through the straw.
-You weren’t drinking during the variety show filming.
Variety show filming… Yeonwoo thought back to events from four months ago. Certainly, he hadn’t thought about alcohol then. No, maybe he had thought about it but held back.
Even though it was just four months ago, his memory was hazy.
-Are you getting treatment?
“Treatment for what?”
-For the addiction.
“I’ll just live like this and die early.”
-…Come up to Seoul. Let’s get mental treatment together.
At Shin Gihyeon’s words, Yeonwoo pursed his lips.
“I don’t have money.”
-Your appearance fee came in.
Although Han Taegu hadn’t scammed him with money or broadcast, so there was a large sum in his bank account that he normally wouldn’t encounter, it seemed wasteful to spend that money on a hospital.
“I’m going to save it.”
-Miser.
“Give me royal jelly.”
-I already ate it all.
Last time, he had received royal jelly as a gift through Kang Dojun. When the words about transferring honey money to his account came to mind, he wondered ‘Is this also?’ and suspected it might be forced selling, but he was a bit surprised when told it was a gift.
Come to think of it, the honey money from last time was also just something said casually and ended up being received as a gift.
-Does sunbae-nim know?
“Hyung? Know what?”
-That you’re drinking like crazy.
What do you mean ‘like crazy’. Yeonwoo muttered quietly and chewed on the straw of the soju pack.
“Why would I tell him that.”
Somehow, he was certain that if it were Kang Dojun, he would drop whatever he was doing and come running. While it was nice to be worried about, he didn’t want to cause trouble for his work.
“Did you call to say this?”
-That too, and I’m appearing in today’s broadcast.
“Ah, I saw the preview.”
Shin Gihyeon was looking at Yeonwoo on the other side of the screen, but he was looking somewhere else rather than at the screen. Then he put down the soju pack on the ground, picked up his net, and suddenly got up and ran somewhere.
Soon he returned with a triumphant smile like someone who had sounded a victory cry and showed the wasp corpse on screen.
“Charismatic Yeonwoo who doesn’t miss the sign of wasps even from afar.”
With commentary-like speech along with the disgusting wasp corpse, Shin Gihyeon frowned.
-Get that away.
Soon the wasp disappeared and the screen shook. It seemed like he was moving while holding the phone.
He wondered if the concept of video calls was understood. Shin Gihyeon waited for the screen to stop, but for some reason, the call ended.
‘Is something wrong?’ The worry was brief, but thinking ‘It’s Yeonwoo…’ made it understandable. He’ll call again later, he thought casually and moved on.
“Wow, it’s really Yeonwoo…! Everyone, it’s Yeonwoo! There really was an apiary around here! Thank you for letting me know!”
Yeonwoo quickly ended the call and stared at the man holding a selfie stick in front of him.
“Who are you?”
“Hello! I’m BJ Ber. Could I film for a moment?”
Without even answering the question, he suddenly pointed the lens at Yeonwoo.
Yeonwoo’s figure appeared on screen and real-time streaming comments could be seen.
>>See, I told you the apiary was in the mountains.
>>Amazing, it’s really Yeonwoo. So fucking cute, my heart calm down.
>>No, Ber-nim; this is being a nuisance.
>>BJ pulls this off.
>>Too good-looking to be in the fucking countryside. Come to Seoul, puppy.
>>Please ask Yeonwoo for his account number. Ah, it’s nothing much, just want to send some support^^
“Please turn this off. I don’t want to be filmed.”
“What? Everyone came to see Yeonwoo-ssi, so I can’t turn it off. Please say a word to the viewers!”
‘What bullshit.’
He moved away as if to escape to ignore him, but Ber persistently followed and spoke to him.
“Yeonwoo-ssi! Where are you going? Let’s have a chat!”
>>Ber. The kid’s going to cry, stop filming. This really isn’t right;;
>>sjh*** sent 1000 chocolates. What do you mean stop lol Keep going!
>>Yeonwoo, didn’t you get stung by bees today?^_^
>>Hey you devil lololololololol
“Thank you for the support, sjh-nim! Then I’ll ask Yeonwoo-ssi a few questions.”
The man called BJ Ber took out what appeared to be a question sheet from his pocket and asked.
“First, what were your feelings when actor Kang Dojun cut your hair? Ah, and did you watch the broadcast? The subtitle said ‘Kang Dojun using tips learned from the hair salon director!’ but compared to that, what did you think while watching your hair being cut messily?”
“Fuck.”
“Yes! Everyone, he says fuck! He felt very bad. Then the next question…, are you usually afraid of chickens too? When did you realize you were afraid of chickens? What was the trigger?”
>>lololol my way of proceeding lol so funny lol
>>Ah;;;; this really isn’t right.
>>Yeonwoo, books are for sleeping, right? Having something in common with our Kongddeok, grandma is happy.
“Turn it off while I’m asking nicely.”
“Oh my, how scary! Yeonwoo-ssi is cute even when angry!”
Ber exaggeratedly acted surprised and laughed it off.
>>lolol the kid is cute ã… ã… cute ã… ã… growling lol
>>Aww, is that so? Ber, hurry up and turn it off lol ah, he looks like someone I want to beat up so badly
>>Ah please turn it off; he’s asking you to turn it off. What the fuck are you doing.
>>Ber-nim, why are you sniffing? It’s disgusting!
Ber, who was reading the real-time comments, paused.
“Ah, I smell alcohol from somewhere! Yeonwoo-ssi, did you drink by any chance?”
Ber approached Yeonwoo closer and sniffed at his clothes with his nose.
Yeonwoo, who got goosebumps instantly, pushed him away and stepped back.
“Ugh, that’s dangerous.”
‘What is this fucker.’
He was so flustered that words wouldn’t come out properly. His mind went blank. It felt like cold sweat was flowing all over his body.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
