By Zephyria 
When he finally arrived home, he felt like he was going to live. Yeon-rok dragged his feet inside, and the lights in the house were dim. It was a time when he would have been asleep on a normal day. Kim Jeong-seong followed Yeon-rok around, worried.
“Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?”
“I’m really fine. I just want to sleep right now……”
Kim Jeong-seong looked at him pitifully and repeatedly told him to contact him if he felt anything was wrong. Yeon-rok first headed to the kitchen. He wanted to drink something hot, so he was going to make ramen. He yawned and opened the ramen bag, then paused.
“……Where’s the seasoning soup?”
When he shook the bag, two things came out: the ramen and the dried vegetable soup. Today is really an unlucky day. At this point, he didn’t even have the energy to make ramen, so he just went back to his room. Unfortunately, Yeon-rok’s misfortune didn’t end there.
“What?”
Yeon-rok, who had taken a shower with hot water, paused because he felt something was wrong when he opened the door.
“What……?!”
Clunk. Clunk clunk clunk clunk.
“Did I press something wrong?”
He looked around, but the conclusion was the same. The bathroom door handle was just broken. Yeon-rok’s face turned grim.
“Ah, really. Please don’t do this to me.”
Clatter clatter clatter clatter!
Lee Yeon-rok, who had been struggling for a long time, collapsed, exhausted. He hurriedly looked for his cell phone, but he had left it outside when he came in to wash. He tore at his hair. Aaaargh! Goddamn cell phone! I’m never going to leave my cell phone behind again!
The only good thing was that this bathroom was a different class from the house he lived in. It had a double structure, divided into a wet area with a shower and bathtub, and a dry area with storage and a dryer. That meant he didn’t have to sleep on the tile floor. Just as Yeon-rok was about to lay a towel on the floor and was pacing around again, wondering if there was any other way, he muttered.
“Even though several people live in the same house, it’s too big and soundproof, so there’s no way to call anyone…”
No one would know if someone died here. Just as Yeon-rok was lamenting, he heard a faint noise. Soon, his door opened and he heard someone coming in. He was overjoyed and shouted.
“Is that you, Secretary Hyung?”
There was no answer from the other person. Realizing from the reaction that it wasn’t Kim Jeong-seong, Yeon-rok raised his voice and asked.
“Choi Hwan? Is that you?”
If they let him out of the bathroom now, he was willing to reduce his anger by half. But the other person was still silent.
“Hey! If you heard me, answer me!”
He was so angry that he knocked on the door and shouted, but then he wondered why there was still no answer.
“Or maybe Moon Kyeon-woo…?”
But why would Moon Kyeon-woo come into his room in the middle of the night? It was strange to think of it as Yeom Cheon-ho. He wouldn’t be the type to not answer when he was calling so desperately. It was then. The unidentified person turned the doorknob.
Click. Click. Clunk. Clunk!
“Who the hell…”
Yeon-rok stopped talking. The movement of turning the doorknob became more and more violent. Clunk, clunk, clunk! It was too strange to be a prank, so Yeon-rok hesitated. Clunk, squeak, squeak! The movement to open the door somehow was urgent and rough. Then, in an instant, the noise stopped. It was as quiet and still as if nothing had happened.
Yeon-rok, who had goosebumps, couldn’t sit down for a long time and just swallowed hard.
It was almost lunchtime when Yeon-rok was able to get out of the bathroom. The meal that had been prepared in advance hadn’t disappeared, and Park Yeo-sa, who had been wondering why Yeon-rok hadn’t come down to eat, came to find him as soon as she returned from her health checkup.
“Oh, my. What should we do? So you’ve been trapped since last night?”
Yeon-rok nodded. His face was full of sorrow as he sipped the hot soup. He never thought he would be trapped until lunchtime the next day. It was so sad that no one was looking for him and that no one felt strange that he wasn’t there.
“I can’t live here without you, Park Yeo-sa-nim…”
When he made a crying sound, Park Yeo-sa filled the table with food, her face full of pity. Yeon-rok’s movements as he scooped up the soup were very slow. He didn’t have much of an appetite because he was in the worst condition he had been in since he came to this house. He didn’t know if it was because he was at the club with Choi Hwan until late at night and was hit by the cold wind, or because he couldn’t sleep properly in the bathroom and spent the night there. Maybe it was both.
Besides, Yeon-rok had been worried about something since yesterday.
‘Who the hell was trying to open the bathroom door yesterday?’
He wondered if he had heard things because he had been trapped all night. The most likely possibility was that Choi Hwan was drunk and playing a prank. So he tried to go and confront him as soon as he woke up, but Choi Hwan had gone to shoot before he even escaped from the bathroom.
‘Did he run away to avoid me?’
While he was having such doubts, someone appeared in the dining room. It was Moon Kyeon-woo. But he was too exhausted from last night to even pay attention to him. Yeon-rok, who was picking at his food without even turning his head, felt a gaze on him and looked up. Moon Kyeon-woo, who was sitting across from him, was staring at him with his arms crossed. Yeon-rok, unable to ignore him, asked in a weak voice.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Even though he said that, he didn’t stop glaring. Why was he being like this in the middle of the day? Yeon-rok, who was glaring back and barely managed to swallow another spoonful of rice, remembered something. He barely swallowed the rice with the hot soup and asked suspiciously.
“You’re not acting like this because I went to the club with Choi Hwan, are you?”
“No.”
No my ass! That’s exactly what it is! Of course, from the point of view of the person he was dating, he would be angry that his boyfriend went to the club with someone else. Of course, Yeon-rok had something to say.
“Choi Hwan dragged me there on his own.”
“I said no.”
“He even left me at the club!”
“I said no? And now that you mention it, should Hwan have taken you home? If you’re a grown adult, you should know how to get home on your own.”
No my ass! He’s definitely angry that I went to the club with him! Yeon-rok, who felt his appetite drop, stood up from his seat, feeling sorry for Park Yeo-sa. And he pointed his finger at Moon Kyeon-woo.
“If you’re going to discipline someone, discipline Choi Hwan, not me! He’s like a wild horse. Do you know how much fun he had at the club yesterday?”
Yeon-rok, who was angry, no, who had been angry since yesterday, blurted out what he felt. He wanted Choi Hwan and Moon Kyeon-woo to both go to hell. Whether he was angry at being compared to a wild horse or at the fact that he had a lot of fun, Moon Kyeon-woo also stood up from his seat, his face turning red.
“Wild horse? Had fun?”
Both were points that made him angry. Park Yeo-sa muttered, “Oh, my, oh, my,” and fidgeted as the two men’s relationship became strained. Moon Kyeon-woo, gritting his teeth, began to argue.
“Since we’re on the subject, why would you bother going to the club when you know you have a boyfriend?”
Did he not hear that Choi Hwan dragged me there on his own? He was even more dumbfounded by what he said next.
“And why do you extort money for just bringing water and making ramen?”
“Extort? Extort? Then you stay at home and bring water and make ramen! It would be nice to get pocket money from your boyfriend!”
Yeon-rok retorted, his face red. Moon Kyeon-woo was also angry and his breathing became rough. He stopped himself from saying anything more and clicked his tongue.
“Ha. Never mind. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Something was bubbling inside Yeon-rok’s heart. It was a mix of emotions that were hard to describe, but the clearest of them was sadness. Being left at the club and just waiting, almost getting into an accident while walking home in the cold wind, being trapped in the bathroom for so long, not having a single person on his side among all those partners…
But he held back. He was old enough not to say such things out loud. He didn’t want to deal with him anymore and he wasn’t feeling well, so Yeon-rok turned around, but then stopped. He had been feeling dizzy since earlier, but suddenly he felt a severe dizziness and his vision spun.
“Uh…”
What’s wrong? Why all of a sudden? Yeon-rok, frightened by the darkening vision, stopped. As his body swayed, Moon Kyeon-woo narrowed his eyes and closed the distance.
“Lee Yeon-rok?”
Moon Kyeon-woo called his full name for the first time, but he couldn’t hear it. He grabbed the table and gasped for breath, then collapsed. Moon Kyeon-woo threw himself forward and covered his head first. Thanks to him, Yeon-rok was able to catch him safely before he fell to the floor.
“Young Master! Oh, my, what should we do!”
Park Yeo-sa’s scream rang in his ears. Yeon-rok thought as he was losing consciousness. Come to think of it, when was my last contact…? As his consciousness gradually faded, his body went limp. With a blurry image of Moon Kyeon-woo calmly checking his pulse while giving instructions to Park Yeo-sa, his blurry consciousness completely faded away.