#004
In the strangely unfolding situation, PD Han Taegu finally stepped in.
“But Yeonwoo-ssi, just now some grandmother came and took all the alcohol. We naturally thought she was your grandmother… Then who was that person?”
“Haa, that’s Grandma Kyeong-i from the house in front. She always comes to my house and takes things because she finds it bothersome to go to the mart.”
Kang Dojun, Han Taegu, and the other staff members made indescribably ambiguous expressions.
‘Is this what rural… stealing is like?’
“Damn it, I’m going to end up donating alcohol to the village hall again.”
Yeonwoo grumbled with an irritated tone and sat back down at the dining table.
Kang Dojun also made a displeased expression and followed Yeonwoo back to his seat. Even while eating with his spoon, he watched Yeonwoo’s actions.
Yeonwoo seemed to have completely lost his appetite and was just counting rice grains.
A sense of guilt washed over Kang Dojun for just standing there and watching the grandmother boldly steal alcohol from the house without stopping her.
“Sorry, I’ll buy back the alcohol that went missing.”
“What? You, hyung?”
“Yeah. I have some fault too for just watching.”
He should have asked more carefully about the relationship between the grandmother and Yeonwoo.
Yeonwoo stared at Kang Dojun quietly.
Handsome, humble, well-mannered, good personality, and he’d even done the dishes cleanly while Yeonwoo was away.
‘Is there anything lacking in this man?’
Coming to his senses, Yeonwoo shook his head and declined.
“No. It’s natural that you didn’t know. Hyung did nothing wrong.”
“…Should I clear this if you’re not eating more?”
“Ah, I’ll clear it. Please stay seated.”
Yeonwoo got up, gathering his rice bowl with only a few spoonfuls taken and Kang Dojun’s empty rice bowl, and began clearing.
After moving around two or three times, Yeonwoo said he was done and lay down spread-eagle on the living room floor without even digesting. He seemed to prefer lying down to sitting.
He’d only roughly moved the dishes from the dining table and hadn’t even wiped the table. Kang Dojun had no choice but to get up and head to the kitchen to rinse a dishrag.
Then he witnessed the dishes they’d just used piled up intact in the sink.
‘…I should do the dishes, right?’
He glanced once at Yeonwoo, who was lying in the living room with his eyes gradually closing, then silently put detergent on the sponge.
* * *
PD Han Taegu approached the half-asleep Yeonwoo and carefully shook him awake.
“Yeonwoo-ssi, Yeonwoo-ssi.”
“Mmm, yes?”
“Come outside for a moment.”
Yeonwoo rubbed his sleepy eyes with his hands and dutifully followed Han Taegu outside.
Han Taegu dragged Yeonwoo to the back where there were no cameras and told him what needed to be conveyed.
“In the afternoon, please introduce the village geography to Dojun-ssi. And… I heard you’re a beekeeper, would beekeeping experience be possible too?”
It was definitely content that had been written on the schedule he’d briefly read.
Yeonwoo, who had only planned difficult experiences like catching hornets and finding the queen bee, thought of Kang Dojun.
‘Right, he prepared food and did the dishes too. Let’s not overwork him.’
Yeonwoo nodded, planning to just let Kang Dojun taste some honey and call it done.
“I’ll do that.”
Yeonwoo went back into the house and looked for Kang Dojun. After finishing the dishes, he was folding the dining table legs. Yeonwoo hurried over to stop him.
“Just leave it, I can clear it.”
Kang Dojun, who was skilled at examining scripts and understanding characters’ personalities and traits, had already figured out Yeonwoo’s personality despite meeting him only a few hours ago.
‘I can clear it.’
This was probably a verbal habit. Kang Dojun finished folding the table legs and put it back in place while responding casually to Yeonwoo’s words.
“It’s fine, I was getting bored just sitting still.”
“Should I show you around the village?”
Kang Dojun thought for a moment, then said yes and began preparing to go out.
It was written in the schedule too, and if they stayed inside all day, there wouldn’t be any footage to use, so PD Han Taegu had probably given Yeonwoo a hint to suggest this.
“This is the clinic, there’s only one in this village. If you get sick, you can come here. If you go that way, there’s a police box. And for a big mart, you have to go out to the next village.”
It was a rural village where all buildings except apartments were houses. Actually, Kang Dojun was a bit surprised.
‘You don’t lock it?’
‘Hey, there’s nothing to steal anyway.’
Instead of entering a password, they used keys to lock, and they didn’t even properly lock those.
There’s nothing to steal, yet just earlier, the person called Grandma Kyeong-i had stolen alcohol and he’d been furious about it.
“This is the village hall. Everyone should be gathered here by now, want to go in?”
Yeonwoo boldly walked over and opened the door to the village hall.
“I’m here.”
“Oh my, isn’t it time for our fool to take a nap? What’s the occasion?”
“What nap? When did I ever do that?”
There were cameras in front, and Kang Dojun, whose favorability was skyrocketing in real-time in Yeonwoo’s mind, was there too. He naturally passed over conversations that wouldn’t save face.
He stepped back and put Kang Dojun forward, introducing him to everyone.
“This is actor Kang Dojun, who will be staying at our house for a while.”
Cheolsu’s aunt made a fuss and approached.
“Oh my! I was going to call Yeonwoo for dinner today, but this was the reason he couldn’t come. I’ve been watching your dramas, could I ask for an autograph?”
“Thank you. Of course…”
“Aunt, you can’t make hyung uncomfortable. Ow!”
“Yeonwoo, really, when did I ever make him uncomfortable? Hoho, right?”
Yeonwoo, who had finally gotten hit on the back, grumbled.
“Then you’d have to give autographs to everyone here.”
Everyone in the village hall was looking at Kang Dojun with curiosity.
“I’m fine with it. I’ll give you autographs.”
“Oh, how embarrassing. Then just one here, please.”
When Cheolsu’s aunt blushed and held out paper, the other people sitting in the hall quietly got up, gathered paper, and formed a line.
Kang Dojun diligently moved his hand at the impromptu autograph session that had begun.
The variety show he was currently filming was 《Rural Conquest》. It wouldn’t be bad to show some kindness and quickly become friends with the village residents.
Still, gratitude bloomed for Yeonwoo, who had tried to stop the residents. He seemed like he wouldn’t care what people around him did, but he knew how to be more considerate of others than expected.
As he focused on signing autographs, Yeonwoo beside him was nowhere to be seen. Kang Dojun looked up and scanned the surroundings to find Yeonwoo.
Then he witnessed bad hands sneaking toward the snack packages placed in the village hall.
One grandfather who was sitting hit Yeonwoo’s hand.
“You brat! The snacks here are going to be ruined because of you. Stop stealing them!”
“It’s for the alcohol, the alcohol. You drank here, didn’t you, grandpa? That was all my alcohol.”
“Hey! Why is that your alcohol? It’s the village hall’s alcohol!”
“Ask Grandma Kyeong-i. Anyway, I’m taking payment for the alcohol.”
Yeonwoo stuffed snacks into his pocket until it seemed ready to burst, then approached Kang Dojun, snatched the paper he was holding, returned it to its owner, and urgently rushed him.
“Hyung, stop signing and let’s go quickly.”
Lightly ignoring the shouting from behind, he grabbed Kang Dojun’s wrist and led him away.
The two left the village hall and walked down a quiet road. Yeonwoo took out the stolen snacks and popped them into his mouth.
“Want some too, hyung?”
“I’m fine.”
He didn’t offer twice. Actually, he was getting a bit hungry since he’d left his rice earlier due to lack of appetite.
Eating snacks one or two at a time while humming, they arrived at none other than the apiary. Perhaps excited about doing his main job, Yeonwoo seemed more lively than before.
“Hyung, this is honey I harvested directly, want to try it? It’s acacia honey with a good fragrance. Directly harvested.”
Yeonwoo scooped up a spoonful of honey and held it out.
‘I don’t like sweet things…’
Kang Dojun hesitated a bit, but it was hard to refuse those sparkling eyes, so he took a bite.
“How is it?”
“It’s delicious.”
Excited by his words, Yeonwoo gave spoonfuls of honey to everyone – PD Han Taegu, the cameraman, VJ, and all the staff without exception.
“This is honey I harvested directly. Directly.”
He’d been overly emphasizing that he’d harvested it directly since earlier.
“Yes, maybe that’s why it tastes even better.”
“It’s 30,000 won per kilogram, but if you buy 2kg, I’ll give it to you for 55,000 won.”
…Now that he looked at it, it seemed he’d been handing it out with the purpose of selling it. Maybe he looked more lively than before because he was thinking about making money?
Kang Dojun, who caught onto Yeonwoo’s cute purpose, soon burst into laughter. He found this Yeonwoo – innocent, free-spirited, and more considerate than he appeared – a bit endearing.
He thought that ten days of such leisurely rural life might not be so bad.
While Yeonwoo was doing hard selling, Kang Dojun quietly approached and tapped his shoulder.
“I’ll buy it.”
At Kang Dojun’s words, irises that were darker black than most people’s turned their gaze toward him.
“What? You, hyung? How much?”
Kang Dojun pulled up the corner of his mouth in a diagonal smile and said.
“How much do you have?”
As an epilogue, it’s said that when filming ended, each staff member going home had honey in their hands.
* * *
At PD Han Taegu’s words that while tasting honey was good, he wanted to capture what beekeeping was like on camera, Kang Dojun and Yeonwoo eventually set out for the honeybee experience.
Before going, Yeonwoo handed over his only pest hat and rubber gloves to Kang Dojun. He was his precious big-shot guest. He had to treat him with kindness, kindness, and more kindness.
“The gloves are a bit small.”
“You still have to wear them. Otherwise you’ll get stung by bees.”
“Don’t you need any?”
Yeonwoo held up a smoker made from burning mugwort (used to calm bees) and said triumphantly.
“This is enough for me. I’m a professional.”
While several cameras filmed them from a distance, Yeonwoo walked while checking behind him to see if Kang Dojun was following him well.
Yeonwoo resolved that no matter what happened, he had to protect his big-shot guest, Kang Dojun, at least.
He lifted the beehive lid to show the inside and kindly explained.
“Hyung, look at this. This is the bee frame, and all these guys here are honeybees… ah, shit.”
A honeybee suddenly flew over, stung Yeonwoo’s hand, and died gloriously.
Yeonwoo, who was about to curse out of habit, noticed the camera that had come close to him and held back his words. He’d claimed to be a professional and acted important in front of Kang Dojun and the camera, but now ‘how embarrassing…’
“Are you okay?”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you just get stung?”
“Not at all? More importantly, hyung, it’s dangerous so please stand back there.”
Kang Dojun tilted his head. He was sure he’d just been stung, but the person himself claimed he wasn’t stung, so he wondered if he’d seen wrong.
Around that time, Yeonwoo was shooting the smoker wildly while checking the home of the honeybee that had stung him with bulging eyes.
‘Good, third beehive, you guys are on the purge list for later. I’ll strip every bit of honey from the bee frame.’
Did they sense those thoughts? Another honeybee flew over and stung Yeonwoo’s hand while giving up its life.
That scene was captured completely in the camera that had zoomed in to film the honeybees in detail.
He could endure it once, but not twice. Yeonwoo muttered lowly. But the high-performance microphone recorded his words completely without missing a single syllable.
“Fucking hell, really.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
