By Zephyria 
The Designer in charge of Yeon-rok’s beauty combed his hair with his fingers to shape it and asked with a face full of interest.
“Are you a celebrity?”
“No, just a person.”
“Or maybe an aspiring one?”
“I’m just unemployed…….”
Oh my, you’re so funny! The Designer burst out laughing, even though I hadn’t said much. Soon, she noticed the traces of hair products in Lee Yeon-rok’s hair, where he had made a clumsy attempt to style it. Lee Yeon-rok’s hair was rinsed in warm water and then mercilessly dried with a hairdryer.
“How would you like me to cut it?”
Lee Yeon-rok thought for a moment at the Designer’s question, then said without much thought, “Just buzz it short with clippers.”
“Uh-huh, just short… buzzed?”
Going to the salon was a chore, a waste of money, and a hassle, so his routine was to get it cut short like grass and then go back when it had grown out a bit. As he answered habitually, the Designer seemed to half-listen to Lee Yeon-rok and asked Choi Hwan.
“Choi Hwan, how should we do this person’s hair?”
“Why are you asking him about my hairstyle?”
Lee Yeon-rok protested, but for some reason, no one had been listening to him for a while. The Designer, after consulting with Choi Hwan about the hairstyle, only tutted while shaping it with her hands.
“Seriously, the more handsome you are, the more carelessly you treat your face!”
Lee Yeon-rok felt good to hear that he was handsome, even though Yeom Cheon-ho and Choi Hwan were with him, so he decided to put up with it for now. One way or another, he wanted to finish quickly and go home to rest. So, he yawned, dozed off a bit, and endured until the haircut was over.
“Oh my, it really suits you so well. Don’t you think?”
The Designer scanned Lee Yeon-rok in the mirror with a very satisfied expression. Lee Yeon-rok, who had woken up from his nap, also stared at the mirror with bleary eyes. Apart from the fact that he found everything in the world bothersome, the result was quite good, perhaps because he had been styled at a professional shop.
“Well, it’s a bit better.”
Lee Yeon-rok replied primly, and Choi Hwan, who had been watching with satisfaction next to the Designer, jumped up in disbelief.
“A bit? A biiit? Are you blind? This is a complete social upgrade!”
Then, cruelly, he confiscated Lee Yeon-rok’s cap. Following that, he whispered something to Yeom Cheon-ho again and dragged Lee Yeon-rok somewhere. This time, it was a place he had visited before.
“CEO Yeom Cheon-ho! I’m so happy to see you so often!”
As soon as they arrived at the department store, Park Seong-ho, the VIP customer service manager, practically ran out barefoot. His eyes widened enormously when he spotted Choi Hwan.
“Oh my, Actor Choi Hwan has joined us as well? And, our Lee Yeon-rok customer! It’s an honor to see you again like this!”
Lee Yeon-rok was amazed that he even remembered his unremarkable name. Meanwhile, while greeting the three of them with a courteous attitude, Park Seong-ho’s eyes were full of question marks. He was curious about Choi Hwan, who was so friendly and close to Yeom Cheon-ho, and also about Lee Yeon-rok, who had clearly held hands with him like a lover last time.
However, he was a professional. He never voiced his questions. Yeom Cheon-ho nonchalantly brought up the reason for their visit.
“We’ve come to buy some clothes again today.”
“Ah! I see. Then I’ll take you straight to the same place as last time.”
Dragged to the VIP room on the upper floor, Lee Yeon-rok endured another time of hardship. He thought they had come to buy their own clothes since he had bought so many last time, but the two of them were targeting Lee Yeon-rok. Lee Yeon-rok, who had been sitting on the sofa thinking of enjoying some dessert, had to get up right away. He protested.
“I bought a lot of clothes last time!”
“But Lee Yeon-rok, you haven’t bought any spring clothes yet.”
Yeom Cheon-ho took off his stylish coat and handed it to Park Seong-ho, replying with a playful voice. Buy spring clothes already when the cold wind is still blowing? But no one seemed to share Lee Yeon-rok’s thoughts.
“Well, looking at the way you do your hair, you probably don’t have any decent clothes.”
Starting with Choi Hwan’s sneer, racks full of clothes began to roll in one after another. He was even more picky and ruthless than Yeom Cheon-ho.
“Bring all the latest new arrivals.”
Hundreds of clothes were tried on Lee Yeon-rok’s body and then rejected. After trying on and taking off dozens of outfits, Choi Hwan’s reactions were as follows:
‘Tacky,’ ‘Lame,’ ‘Ew,’ ‘Not bad,’ ‘Oh, this is mine,’ ‘Yuck,’ ‘Well, it’s okay,’ ‘Meh,’ and so on…
As Lee Yeon-rok mindlessly put on and took off clothes, his fatigue grew exponentially. He was putting on shoes from some collection of such-and-such brand when his head started spinning and his nose felt hot, and then something started flowing down from his nose.
“Ah, a nosebleed.”
Just as he was about to casually ask for a tissue, Choi Hwan reacted the fastest and rushed over. Then he grabbed the back of his neck and made him bend over at the shoulders. Lee Yeon-rok was about to be slightly touched when he shouted this.
“No! It’ll get on the clothes!”
…This bastard?
“I finally picked out something decent… and this is the only one in the right size!”
Lee Yeon-rok glared at him for worrying about the clothes when someone was having a nosebleed. Apart from that, warmth spread hotly from the bare hand gripping the back of his neck. The nosebleed that had been dripping onto the floor soon stopped, and about half of his fatigue disappeared.
“Sir, are you alright? Would you like to sit down for a moment?”
The staff was even more concerned than Choi Hwan. Lee Yeon-rok gratefully accepted a luxurious handkerchief, not just a tissue, and carefully wiped his nosebleed. Even though the nosebleed had stopped, Choi Hwan didn’t let go of Lee Yeon-rok’s neck.
“Hey, let go of my hand.”
Choi Hwan didn’t even pretend to listen to Lee Yeon-rok. He just kept massaging his neck as he pleased, muttering this.
“Has the nosebleed stopped? Then try on a few more outfits.”
Lee Yeon-rok, who was starting to get angry, was about to get up, telling him to stop, when Yeom Cheon-ho intervened appropriately. Until now, he had been resentful of him too, but now he seemed like an angel.
“Well, it’s getting late, so let’s go home now.”
With that declaration, he generously paid for the clothes that had passed Choi Hwan’s standards so far. It was twice as much as last time. Yeom Cheon-ho, who spent money like water, took Choi Hwan’s hand off Lee Yeon-rok’s neck, which he had been massaging all along. As Lee Yeon-rok touched his neck, feeling empty, he grabbed his hand.
While Lee Yeon-rok was flustered, he grabbed Choi Hwan’s hand, who was now distracted by the new sunglasses. Then, holding Lee Yeon-rok and Choi Hwan in both hands, he dragged them out. A clear question mark floated on the face of Park Seong-ho, who was seeing the three of them off with a smiling face.
‘What exactly is the relationship between you three?’
Pretending not to see that face, Lee Yeon-rok vowed never to join their date again unless he was paid about ten million won a day.
After going on a date with Lee Yeon-rok as a sacrifice, the relationship between Choi Hwan and Yeom Cheon-ho became quite affectionate. It seemed to be thanks to finding a common ground between Yeom Cheon-ho, who preferred luxury goods, and Choi Hwan, who loved fashion itself.
However, since they were both a CEO of a large company and a famous actor, they didn’t have much free time, so instead of going to the department store, they would call a personal shopper to their house to shop. Whenever that happened, Lee Yeon-rok would quickly run to his room, afraid of being noticed by them.
One spring dawn, while living like that.
“Ugh…”
Lee Yeon-rok woke up unpleasantly from a nightmare. His back was wet with cold sweat. He tossed and turned in the cloud-like bedding, then pulled his Cherished doll Lime into his arms. Then he sighed.
Yeom Cheon-ho squeezed out time to hold his hand while working on his tablet at home about once every week or two, but that alone wasn’t enough to make him completely okay.
According to the posts on the Name Awakened Community, it seemed that contact was needed for a longer period of time than that. However, Lee Yeon-rok didn’t have the nerve to ask Yeom Cheon-ho and Choi Hwan, who were dating, to hold his hand for a longer time, so he was just living with a poor condition.
The problem was that this condition problem was not limited to his body. When his condition deteriorated, Lee Yeon-rok felt even more lonely and had nightmares. Most of them were nightmares in which it was revealed that Lee Yeon-rok alone was not a Name partner due to an administrative error, and he had to leave this house, or all three of them turned away from Lee Yeon-rok, and he died alone and lonely.
Lee Yeon-rok, who was hugging his Cherished doll tightly and groaning, finally got up. He didn’t think he could sleep anymore. He tapped his Cherished plant pencil with his finger, then put on his slippers and left the room. Lee Yeon-rok, who was yawning and dragging his feet, habitually looked to one side. It was still the White Door Room, an unknown place. These days, he was calling it Bluebeard’s Room in his mind.
“I’ll never open it.”
He wouldn’t go near it in the future either. Lee Yeon-rok scoffed and turned his gaze away. Now that he was almost used to this house, he didn’t get lost even with his eyes half-closed, and he was heading to the kitchen when he stopped.
“…What’s that sound?”
He heard a faint sobbing sound. Chilled and frozen, he looked around. The house was so large that he couldn’t immediately tell where it was coming from. Finally, he found the source of the sound. It was his destination.
Lee Yeon-rok, silencing his footsteps, looked into the kitchen and witnessed an unexpected sight. And he had no choice but to freeze in place with wide eyes. Moon Kyeon-woo was sitting at the table without even turning on the lights, sighing. His face was even forlorn, and tears shimmered faintly on his cheeks. A bottle of alcohol and a glass were placed in front of him.
Lee Yeon-rok, who had witnessed an unexpected sight, held his breath and tiptoed back to his room. He quenched his dry throat at the water purifier on the second floor. Lee Yeon-rok, who had completely lost his sleep, muttered.
“…What on earth is going on?”