#073
Lee Yeonwoo put his toothbrush in his mouth and wiggled the toothbrush he held out to Kang Dojun. It was a gesture asking what he was doing not taking it.
“Uh… okay.”
Kang Dojun awkwardly took the toothbrush and stood next to Yeonwoo. He approached the mirror, touched his bangs a few times, then asked Kang Dojun.
“Hyung, my hair got really long, didn’t it?”
“It did.”
“Could you cut it for me?”
After just two variety show recordings, he naturally delivered lines to induce a transition for filming the next scene.
The elderly villagers used to praise Yeonwoo to Kang Dojun, saying things like “The kid has good work sense” and “He learns fast,” but back then he just laughed it off, thinking blood is thicker than water.
Despite living alone for 2-3 years straight after deep-sea fishing boats and the military, he was absolutely terrible at cooking and housework, so who could think he had good work sense?
With deep realization, Kang Dojun could finally empathize with the elders’ words.
It meant his ‘work sense’ and ‘learning’ were good and fast, but he just didn’t put them to use.
“Hyung?”
Yeonwoo’s call snapped him back to attention.
“Yeah. But is it okay if I cut it?”
“Yes, it’s fine. I’ll go get scissors.”
Despite Kang Dojun’s incredibly awkward words, Yeonwoo bubbled through brushing his teeth and washing his face before leaving the bathroom.
Shortly after, Yeonwoo appeared holding professional hair scissors that the staff had prepared.
He dampened his hair to weigh it down, then pressed it down with his hand. He pointed below his eyebrows to show Kang Dojun how long to cut.
“Please cut it to below my eyebrows. It’s okay if it’s barely visible or not.”
If he cut to below the eyebrows while pressing the hair down with his hand, the bangs would be shorter than the designated spot after he let go. Kang Dojun had no manual skills, but he had some knowledge from listening to the head stylist.
“Take your hand away.”
When Yeonwoo removed his hand, he gulped and started cutting.
Snip, snip. Cut hair fell to his feet. Yeonwoo probably wouldn’t care much if Kang Dojun ruined his hair, but Kang Dojun was different.
‘As pretty as possible.’
Since it would be broadcast, he needed to make it look good somehow. Also, he couldn’t let it be so pretty that bugs would swarm, but there was no parent who would refuse to praise their child for being pretty. That was exactly his feeling.
If one side seemed different in length, he’d cut the other side a little, then cut the other side again. Cut and cut and cut…
He couldn’t match it to below the eyebrows, but he somehow managed to even out the length. No… was it a bit short? Still, it was much better than when he first cut it on “Rural Conquest.” He felt like he was breaking out in cold sweat from concentrating.
Since there was no sponge, he brushed off Yeonwoo’s face with his hands.
“Open your eyes.”
Yeonwoo immediately opened his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror.
“How is it?”
He measured his hair length and nodded to Kang Dojun reflected in the mirror.
“It’s fine.”
Encouraged by Yeonwoo’s words, Kang Dojun gained confidence.
“I’ll touch up the back too.”
His hand movements were much more relaxed. When it was roughly finished, Yeonwoo flapped his shirt. The cut hair had gotten inside his clothes and was tickling him.
Kang Dojun noticed this too and put his hand behind his back to brush off the hair. His hand touched Yeonwoo’s bare skin.
Suddenly remembering the camera he’d forgotten about, he froze.
Rather than awkwardly pulling his hand away, he should act nonchalant, calm, natural.
“I think it’s all brushed off. How’s the hair?”
“Yes, I like it.”
‘This is uncomfortable.’
They both had the same thought. They hadn’t realized it during “Rural Conquest.” Even their usual actions felt restricted and creaky. The change in their relationship probably played a part too.
Before leaving the bathroom, Yeonwoo ruffled his hair. Cut hair that hadn’t been brushed off fell to the floor.
“I’ll clean up, so please rest.”
Yeonwoo, who used to never lift a finger for housework, was changing. He seemed to have realized that role division would be important to avoid disappointing Kang Dojun while living together.
Kang Dojun smiled warmly at this not-bad change.
“Okay.”
Yeonwoo brought the broom from the entrance and swept the bathroom floor. He gathered the black hair in one place and put it in the dustpan.
“……”
He could see hair that hadn’t made it into the dustpan, caught on the edge.
He backed up a little and swept it in, then backed up again and swept it in. Frustration built up, but he endured patiently, and after backing up about four times, the bathroom was clean.
‘The final step of bathroom cleaning is spraying water.’
When Kang Dojun inputs coding into the Yeonwoo program, Yeonwoo executes it.
He picked up the shower hose and sprayed water on the floor.
‘The mirror gets streaky, so you can’t get water on it. If you do, you have to wipe it right away before it dries.’
He wiped the water droplets on the mirror with his thumb.
“…fingerprints.”
Hyung hated water marks, so wouldn’t he hate fingerprints even more?
Yeonwoo slightly dampened a hand towel from the bathroom cabinet and squeakily wiped the mirror clean.
‘Having a neat boyfriend is really troublesome.’
While grumbling inwardly, he unconsciously put effort into suppressing his rising lips.
The camera lens in front of the mirror caught his eye.
‘Might as well be generous.’
While cleaning the mirror, Yeonwoo also thoroughly wiped the camera lens clean.
Having successfully finished cleaning the bathroom, he wiped his hands on his clothes and came out to the living room.
“I’m done.”
Kang Dojun was standing up from the sofa, holding Yeonwoo’s phone. The phone had rung and he’d moved to hand it to Yeonwoo when he encountered him.
“You got a call.”
Yeonwoo took the phone and looked at the name on the screen.
[ShinGiShinGiHyeon]
“Hello.”
– Crazy, want to play arcade?
“There’s no computer here.”
– Then want to play Inside Us?
Yeonwoo lay down on the sofa and said to Shin Gihyeon.
“I’m filming right now.”
– Filming? You can talk while filming? Is it on speaker mode?
“Variety show filming. With Dojun hyung.”
Surprised by news he hadn’t known at all, Shin Gihyeon quickly composed his tone.
– Ah, ahem. I’m with Grace right now, so we’ll play games among ourselves.
“Why? With Grace?”
– Yeah. They’re moving to a new dorm today, so I came to help and check it out.
Even though they originally met through Yeonwoo, they seemed to have become close through games, and now they met quite often even without Yeonwoo necessarily being there.
Jaihan had been bragging to Yeonwoo for the past few days that they’d be moving soon.
‘So today is that day.’
If there hadn’t been filming, he would have gone to hang out. He felt a bit disappointed.
“Alright. Have fun. Don’t cry because I’m not there.”
– Hanging up.
“Okay.”
When the call ended, Kang Dojun spoke.
“Gihyeon-ssi?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He was asking to play games together. If just the two of us join, the number of people would be perfect…”
Yeonwoo surrendered his body to the coolness rising from the leather sofa, becoming one with it.
Kang Dojun checked the time. 10 o’clock. He casually brought up the topic.
“Want to go for a walk?”
Yeonwoo bolted upright.
“A walk? Where to?”
“A nearby park?”
There was a famous lake park 10 minutes away by car.
“Yeah, let’s pack lunch and eat there.”
Kang Dojun faithfully said what was written on the schedule. It was an artificial schedule completely different from the purpose of filming an actor’s daily routine, but since there wasn’t much to do at home anyway, he followed the PD’s instructions.
Of course, packing lunch was also part of the broadcast.
When it comes to lunch boxes, kimbap is essential. They busily moved to the kitchen to make kimbap.
They took out ingredients that had been prepared in advance and processed them one by one.
Kang Dojun washed rice and cracked eggs to make egg sheets.
“Hyung, I’ll make the egg sheets.”
Yeonwoo took the bowl from Kang Dojun’s hands. It was to redeem himself for ruining the pajeon during “Rural Conquest.”
For Kang Dojun too, it was more comfortable to have Yeonwoo handle the dangerous knife work, so he easily handed over the bowl and watched what he was doing.
As if he’d seen it somewhere, he tried to demonstrate the advanced skill of hitting two eggs together and cracking only one. Naturally, it was a complete failure.
Yeonwoo hit too hard, causing both eggs to crack, and he hesitated for a moment holding them in his hands.
Other people did it fine, so why doesn’t it work for me?
They must be holding stones disguised as eggs. Yeonwoo eventually cracked them one by one slowly.
If this situation had happened during “Rural Conquest” filming, he would have started with swearing first. But now he just calmly focused on cracking eggs without saying anything.
Kang Dojun noticed this subtle change and smiled quietly.
In the past, even the slightest panic would result in swearing first, but now this level of incident didn’t even count as panic. It was a difference that arose because Yeonwoo’s emotional anchor was beside him.
The Yeonwoo who wanted to be loved but didn’t know how to express it and acted somewhat roughly was no longer there. Thanks to Kang Dojun who loved him completely, he could react calmly to any stimulus. The psychological counseling he’d received probably played a part too.
Kang Dojun checked the flame level of the gas range Yeonwoo had turned on.
Remembering his failure with pajeon last time when he turned the flame up too high, this time it was set to low.
Indeed, he learned quickly. He looked at Yeonwoo concentrating on cooking with proud eyes, then cut the ingredients for the kimbap into long strips. His knife skills were professional level.
“Hyung, be careful with your hands.”
‘Who’s worrying about whom.’
When Yeonwoo, who should be worrying about his own cooking, cautioned someone else, Kang Dojun chuckled and turned his eyes to the egg sheet Yeonwoo was making.
“Why are you making rolled omelet?”
“Huh? Oh, this? You just roll it up and then unfold it again.”
Yeonwoo answered nonchalantly to Kang Dojun’s question.
‘…That’s not called an egg sheet.’
Maybe he was pretending to be nonchalant. Yeonwoo’s pupils were trembling quite a bit. His eyes clearly knew he was being forced.
‘He failed at flipping it.’
It was obvious without looking. He probably tried to flip it, half of it folded over, so he just rolled it up as is.
Even if he wasn’t panicking, he seemed to feel pressure to look good in front of the camera.
Yeonwoo placed the completed rolled omelet on the cutting board and looked around at the cooking utensils, apparently embarrassed.
“Cooking is all about equipment. Isn’t there a bigger spatula?”
Then he kept glancing sideways at Kang Dojun. At his look that seemed to be asking for help, Kang Dojun’s eyes curved into crescents with a gentle smile.
He pointed to what had accidentally become a rolled omelet instead of an egg sheet and said.
“You can keep making it as a rolled omelet.”
I’ll unfold it well for you.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
