#007
The staff member who had been dazed for a moment came to their senses and organized the situation.
“So… you mean photos? Bluetooth, photos… Yes, well, about that. Yeonwoo-ssi.”
Just as anger was about to rise at his seemingly immature behavior, it subsided due to his gentle and cute appearance that couldn’t be found anywhere else.
“Yes. Please go ahead, noona.”
The moment the staff member was about to open their mouth to say it wasn’t allowed,
“Use my phone.”
Kang Dojun approached and held out his cell phone.
“Take as many as you want and give it back.”
“Wow, is that really okay? But transferring them to my phone later…”
“Input your number. I’ll send you the photos later.”
“What?”
Lee Yeonwoo blinked his eyes wide in surprise. Was it okay to give his number to a civilian he’d only met for two days?
‘Well, if the person involved says it’s fine.’
Lee Yeonwoo, who disliked thinking deeply about things, simply nodded his head.
“Yes, I’ll use it well. Thank you.”
Then he excitedly went straight to the empty rice fields and took photos with his face showing together.
First he took one shot, then later after choosing the field, he’d take certification shots to boast about around the neighborhood – this excitement welled up in him.
“Hyung, hyung. Stand next to that cultivator over there. I’ll take a photo for you.”
“It’s fine.”
“Come on, hurry up.”
Unable to resist Yeonwoo’s urging, he reluctantly approached the cultivator and stood there awkwardly. Soon after, a click sound was heard and he came over holding the phone.
“How is it? It came out well, right?”
The clear sky occupied half of the photo, and it showed Kang Dojun standing centered around the cultivator. It was impossible to tell what the main subject of the photo was supposed to be.
“…It came out well.”
“Let’s take one of us together too.”
“Sure.”
“Is it okay if I go around bragging about taking photos with you, hyung?”
“Do whatever you want.”
Lee Yeonwoo was delighted by Kang Dojun’s casual permission. From running around excitedly, his straw hat had come off and the hat string was dangling around his neck.
When Kang Dojun grabbed the hat and put it back on him, he quickly accepted it and disappeared, saying he’d take photos with Grandpa Jongsu too.
While the camera was briefly stopped to check the filming equipment, Kang Dojun’s manager Park Daeho approached him.
“Is it okay to give him your phone?”
“He’s not a kid who’d do bad things.”
“Your number too?”
“That too.”
Park Daeho stared intently at Kang Dojun. The Kang Dojun he knew wasn’t someone who went around freely giving out his number. From the manager’s perspective of watching from the side, he’d never seen Kang Dojun personally contact anyone to the point where he wondered if he even had friends.
While Kang Dojun’s thorough self-management and clean interpersonal relationships had been convenient so far, very occasionally he worried about his lack of close friends he could open his heart to.
That’s why he had suggested this variety show, telling him to come rest in a quiet countryside rather than the city center. Whether it was the power of the location or because he liked the kid, he had readily handed over his number to someone he’d only met for two days.
Park Daeho asked him with his suspicions subtly embedded in the question.
“You must like him quite a bit?”
“Well…”
Kang Dojun gazed at Lee Yeonwoo, who was absorbed in taking photos with his phone. He could see him running around here and there, eventually getting smacked on the back of the head by Grandpa Jongsu and getting angry.
“He’s cute.”
Then, as if dissatisfied with what he’d said, he quietly added:
“Like a younger brother.”
* * *
The leveling work began, and when Lee Yeonwoo, who had been spreading fertilizer, approached Kang Dojun who was doing rotary cultivator work and asked to switch roles, he switched with him.
Of course, midway through, Yeonwoo came over saying it was too hard and asked to switch roles again.
Farming, if defined, was ‘feeling like you’re going to die.’ Rather than a variety show, it felt like filming a documentary.
Because they were so focused on working the field, there wasn’t much conversation content worth mentioning. He worried whether this could even be broadcast.
After finishing everything, the sun was already setting.
Kang Dojun thought about how he would have managed to work all these fields alone if Yeonwoo hadn’t helped, and felt absurd at Han Taegu for scheduling such an unreasonable itinerary.
Still, seeing the completed worked field, the results were clearly visible and he felt good. After a long time of using his body to the point where he couldn’t think of anything else, his stray thoughts had also disappeared.
Lee Yeonwoo had dirt all over his white face and was eating ice cream that the staff had distributed. He looked like a cute, grubby puppy commonly seen in the countryside.
“Hyung, farming is really hard, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
Kang Dojun, who had found it truly difficult, answered without hesitation. The sense of accomplishment was brief – his body, drenched in sweat and feeling sticky, was clamoring to be washed quickly.
“Today’s work was already hard, but I did seeding last year. That really kills you. You can’t straighten your back.”
Lee Yeonwoo stuck out his tongue and looked horrified, as if just thinking about it was terrible. Kang Dojun rolled his eyes to glance at Yeonwoo.
Looking at his gentle face, mischief welled up in him without realizing it. Kang Dojun gently closed his eyes and said softly:
“So you ran away last year?”
“…Ran away?”
“You said you could just buy corn to eat.”
“Ah, shit. Grandpa Jongsu told you that too? Really, the elders in this village have such loose lips.”
Lee Yeonwoo frowned and muttered. It wasn’t that they had loose lips, but rather seemed to have a lot of affection for him.
Eventually, unable to bear the embarrassment, Yeonwoo roughly tousled his hair. His black hair, darker than most people’s, deeply absorbed the sunlight.
Kang Dojun quietly gazed at his hair.
“Did you dye it?”
“What?”
“Your hair. Black.”
“Ah, this.”
Lee Yeonwoo grabbed a strand of his hair and pulled it straight.
“The original color is a bit dark.”
His eye color was also darker than most people’s, so his irises weren’t clearly visible. Sometimes others would tease him saying he had dog eyes, but he didn’t particularly care. What had they contributed anyway?
“And in a country village, you can’t dye your hair even if you want to.”
“No beauty salon? Or barbershop?”
“There is one, but…”
In the small country village, everyone knew each other within one degree of separation. Moreover, Lee Yeonwoo, the village’s only man in his twenties, was known by everyone everywhere.
He had tried going to the beauty salon once, but disliking being gossip fodder for the customers there, he’d been cutting his own hair while looking in the mirror ever since.
“I just cut it myself.”
Lee Yeonwoo answered while touching the nape of his neck. Feeling the hair at his fingertips, it seemed like it was time to cut it soon. Kang Dojun seemed to notice this too and tugged at his back hair.
“It’s gotten quite long, aren’t you going to cut it?”
“I should cut it soon.”
Kang Dojun paused for a moment before asking:
“Should I cut it for you?”
“…You, hyung?”
“Yeah.”
Although Yeonwoo wasn’t interested in grooming, he felt some fear about entrusting his hair to someone else.
“It’s okay. I can cut it myself later.”
“You cut it yourself and end up with another patch job?”
“What? A patch job?”
Lee Yeonwoo hurriedly raised his hand to touch the back of his head. Kang Dojun personally grabbed his hand and guided it to point out where the patch job was.
“Ah.”
Touching it properly, it was definitely shorter than the other hair around it.
“The elders didn’t say anything…”
Suddenly, Lee Yeonwoo’s face turned bright red.
‘Damn… the old folks were laughing behind my back.’
No wonder on days when he cut his hair, everyone would giggle and glance at him sideways. So that was why. Why hadn’t he noticed sooner?
Lee Yeonwoo, embarrassed by his patched-up back of the head, pulled the straw hat hanging around his neck down deep to hide his hair.
“Should I cut it for you?”
This time, when Kang Dojun asked again, he couldn’t bring himself to refuse.
“Haah, yes.”
* * *
Lee Yeonwoo dragged a chair to his house’s yard and sat down. Cameras surrounded him in a circle.
“Are you going to broadcast me getting my hair cut too?”
“More precisely, it’s Kang Dojun-ssi cutting Yeonwoo-ssi’s hair.”
“Ah.”
Lee Yeonwoo nodded as if he understood.
‘Well, what would the whole nation gain from watching me get my hair cut?’
Actually, he was troubled because if a broadcast of him getting his hair cut aired, it would obviously become a laughingstock in the rural village.
As he sat quietly waiting, Kang Dojun came out with kitchen scissors and asked, seeming dissatisfied:
“Really cut it with this? Don’t you have other scissors?”
“Other scissors? Office scissors? I only have kitchen scissors… should I buy some from Grandpa Beom’s store?”
It seemed he never considered cutting hair with hair scissors at all.
“Um… please use this.”
Then one of the female staff members lent him the hair scissors she used for cutting her bangs.
“Thank you.”
Kang Dojun held the hair scissors in one hand and a comb in the other, slowly combing down Lee Yeonwoo’s hair. For hair cut with kitchen scissors, the texture was good.
Using the camera lens positioned in front as a mirror, he reached the scissors toward Yeonwoo’s hair.
As an actor who had spent many years going to salons and feeling the touch of countless hair and makeup professionals, there was nothing Kang Dojun couldn’t do.
Quite confidently, he cut the back hair a little and trimmed it by matching the length as much as possible.
Each time he cut without hesitation, black hair remnants fell to the yard. His hand movements were smooth.
“Dojun-ssi, have you ever learned hairdressing?”
PD Han Taegu asked in a Q&A style.
“No. However, I did get some tips from hair directors.”
When Kang Dojun said “No,” he felt Yeonwoo’s shoulders flinch slightly, so he hurriedly added the follow-up.
“Do you usually have good manual dexterity?”
“I haven’t been told I don’t.”
While answering Han Taegu’s questions step by step, he had roughly finished cutting.
He brushed off the hair clinging to Yeonwoo’s neck and face, combed it one last time, and looked at the result.
It was a bit different from what Kang Dojun had envisioned, but it wasn’t bad. Lee Yeonwoo looked up at him with bright, sparkling eyes.
“How is it?”
He smiled with satisfaction while removing hair from around Yeonwoo’s eyes.
“It turned out well.”
When he tousled the neatly combed black hair, Yeonwoo smiled brightly and ran into the house with anticipation.
“I’m going to look in the mirror!”
And as always, the cleanup was Kang Dojun’s responsibility. He picked up the broom and dustpan placed in front of the entrance and swept up the hair that had fallen to the ground.
Then he heard Han Taegu’s laughter along with a glimpse of Yeonwoo’s voice. He should definitely be inside checking the mirror, but Kang Dojun felt puzzled and looked at Han Taegu.
Looking closely, Han Taegu was holding a portable camera. Yeonwoo’s voice seemed to be coming from there.
Kang Dojun approached out of curiosity.
“What is it?”
“Ah, Dojun-ssi. Take a look at this.”
Han Taegu was grinning as he rewound the video he’d been watching to show Kang Dojun.
“This is the self-cam I gave Yeonwoo-ssi when he went for a morning walk… focus on the sound rather than the screen.”
“That kid… calling me out at dawn just to steal eggs!”
“Shh! Grandma Suni, lower your voice. You’ll wake up Grandma Kyeong-i.”
In the video, Yeonwoo wasn’t visible, so it seemed like he was holding the camera.
Since he was just holding the camera in his hand, the angle of the recorded video was chaotic, showing everything everywhere.
Occasional chicken clucking sounds could be heard too.
“A grown man but so timid. Tsk, how many should I get?”
“4. I’ll eat 2, hyung will eat 2.”
“What about grandma’s? Now you’re not taking care of grandma?”
“Aw, you’re saying hurtful things again. I got it. Then please take out 6. I’ll give 2 to grandma.”
This was a full-scale video of stealing eggs from the chicken coop.
Listening to the conversation, it seemed like Yeonwoo was just watching from outside the chicken coop.
The important task of stealing eggs was left entirely to Grandma Suni, while he pretended to be generous by saying he’d take out 6 and give 2 to grandma – it was both funny and pathetic. It was like the bear doing the tricks while the trainer gets the money.
“Ugh, I need more hands to take out 6! Kid, come here and hold these.”
“…I have to keep watch. Don’t you have pockets in your clothes?”
“If I had them, I would have put them in already! Come here and hold them!”
A moment later, the camera screen shook a bit, seeming like Yeonwoo was walking over.
“Grandma Suni, you have to block the chickens from coming toward me.”
“You’re scarier than the chickens! What’s all this fuss about stealing eggs from dawn, such a fuss.”
“Revenge must be carried out secretly. But grandma, that one over there is gradually coming toward me… AHHHHH!”
“Where are you going! Take these! Oh my, you brat! Come back here!”
After that, whether he dropped the camera or not, the screen changed dizzily several times before showing Lee Yeonwoo’s retreating figure becoming a small dot in the distance.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
