By Zephyria “Who is it?”
The voice of the person asking from inside the door seemed unexpected, and the visitor outside hesitated to answer. After a moment of hesitation, a concise answer came a moment later.
“It’s Lee Hae-sung.”
Ga-yoon looked back at Choi Hong-seo and shrugged. Then, she leaned towards the door again and raised her voice.
“I think you’ve come to the wrong place. This is the 5th floor.”
“Noona.”
“Huh?”
“You haven’t come to the wrong place. It’s… someone I know.”
“Someone you know?”
Ga-yoon, though puzzled, opened the door for the visitor. Lee Hae-sung, wearing a long autumn coat and with a large height and build, slowly revealed himself through the gap in the door. Ga-yoon, startled, took a step back, and her gaze automatically turned towards the visitor’s face. She had to tilt her head back considerably to see Lee Hae-sung’s face.
Lee Hae-sung, who had expected Choi Hong-seo to be alone, also looked down at Ga-yoon, an unexpected presence.
“I wanted to meet Choi Hong-seo…”
Seeing Choi Hong-seo over Ga-yoon’s shoulder, he stopped mid-sentence. Then, he spoke directly to Choi Hong-seo.
“You said you were very sick.”
His expression looked even more pained as he said it.
Lee Hae-sung, passing Ga-yoon, strode into the entrance and approached Choi Hong-seo, who was standing by the inner door connecting the entrance to the living space. He put down his black bag and, without hesitation, placed his hands on Choi Hong-seo’s face.
“You have such a high fever, you should be lying down.”
He moved his hands between Choi Hong-seo’s cheeks, forehead, and neck, gauging his temperature. Ga-yoon was there, but he seemed not to care at all. It was clear he would have acted the same way no matter who was there instead of Ga-yoon. Meanwhile, Ga-yoon stood to the side in the entrance, staring intently at Lee Hae-sung’s profile.
“The hospital?”
“I went… hmm, I went. I got a shot and took the prescribed medicine.”
Clearing his hoarse throat, he answered and gently pulled down Lee Hae-sung’s hand gripping his wrist.
Ga-yoon couldn’t possibly not recognize ARA’s Lee Hae-sung. Not only was she interested in stock investments and economic news, but it would be difficult for any Korean, unless they had absolutely no interest in the business world, to not know Lee Hae-sung. It just took a moment to recognize the person in front of her as the same Lee Hae-sung from the news.
I’ve seen him somewhere before… who is it? He definitely looks familiar… Ga-yoon’s expression, as she closely examined Lee Hae-sung’s profile with narrowed brows, gradually shifted to shock.
“I heard you were alone, so I brought some porridge…”
Lee Hae-sung, whose touch on his face had been stopped, said that and turned to Ga-yoon, giving a slight nod.
“She’s my stylist Noona. She had some outfits to check… and Noona was just about to leave anyway.”
Ga-yoon’s eyes darted back and forth between Lee Hae-sung and Choi Hong-seo.
“Noona… uh, well, goodbye then.”
“Oh? Uh… yes. Rest well.”
Ga-yoon, exchanging a silent glance with Lee Hae-sung, hurried out the entrance. Her face was full of surprise and bewilderment, but Ga-yoon would never spread strange rumors. Moreover, even if rumors spread, not all rumors become gossip or news. The entertainment and business worlds were full of untold stories.
It wasn’t awkward that Lee Hae-sung appeared while Ga-yoon was there. While the attention focused on ARA’s Lee Hae-sung, and the interest in how he became so close with ARA’s Lee Hae-sung, was burdensome, it was a same-sex relationship, so people didn’t immediately connect it to a romantic relationship.
It was just embarrassing and awkward. I didn’t know how to present my boyfriend, Lee Hae-sung, not ARA’s Lee Hae-sung, to people.
After the front door closed, Lee Hae-sung gently grasped Choi Hong-seo’s fingertips. Even though Choi Hong-seo was standing on a step, Lee Hae-sung’s eye level was still higher. Still, the eye level, which was a little closer than usual, was so novel that he kept looking into his eyes. His face was pale. He looked sicker.
“Can I come in for a moment?”
Choi Hong-seo nodded and gently tugged their clasped hands. Lee Hae-sung, slinging his bag over his shoulder, followed Choi Hong-seo, looking around as if it were his first time in the mansion, despite it being his own property.
“My room… it’s messy.”
As Choi Hong-seo hesitated in front of the bedroom, he immediately came up behind him and placed his hand over Choi Hong-seo’s hand on the doorknob.
“Whatever scene unfolds inside, I promise I won’t criticize it. So, let’s go in and lie down quickly. Okay? Baby, you’re burning up.”
As he whispered, kissing his temples and the tips of his ears, Choi Hong-seo felt a slight tremor, a sexual shiver. His shoulders twitched. Even at a time like this, he found himself feeling a thrill from their physical contact, which felt foreign. His body had been unable to feel arousal no matter what.
He pushed the doorknob down, inviting him into the room.
“Come here. Let’s lie down first.”
Before even looking around the room, he pulled back the covers and laid Choi Hong-seo on the bed. He had wanted to entertain his guest and talk, now that he was alone in his accommodation, but he had already been completely drained while Ga-yoon was there. As he slowly lay down on the bed, Lee Hae-sung covered him with the blanket and brushed his hair aside.
Lee Hae-sung looked down at him with an expression that said there was no more pitiable being in the world. The touch of his hand, gently stroking from his forehead to the crown of his head, felt good.
“How are you feeling?”
“It’s just a body ache. I took medicine after getting a shot, so I should be fine after sleeping.”
“With a fever this high, resting for a day won’t cure it.”
Lee Hae-sung, still wearing his outer clothes, sat down carefully on the edge of the mattress. His hand, which had been touching his hair, slid down and gently stroked his cheek with his thumb. It was a soft touch, like a brush against his skin.
“I heard you were alone at the accommodation, so I came straight up, not wanting to bother you. I didn’t know someone would be here.”
“Noona is fine. She’s not the type to spread rumors or ask a lot of questions.”
Lee Hae-sung nodded and gave a faint smile.
“If I asked if I could leave, Hong-seo would tell me not to, wouldn’t you? That’s why I came without asking for permission.”
“……”
“Hearing that you were alone and sick in your accommodation… I couldn’t focus on work after that. I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.”
Looking at Lee Hae-sung, he simply felt good. Perhaps he was such a monumental presence that he obscured all other problems from view. Even knowing that this was not a solution but merely numbness, oblivion, he couldn’t see Lee Seo-kyung or the past seven years; they were all hidden behind his broad shoulders. He felt a strange sense of relief, and his anxiety faded.
Choi Hong-seo could now understand more than anyone the cliché expression that when you’re in love, it feels like you’re the only two people in the world.
“When I was young, like everyone else, I wanted to raise a dog.”
While gently feeling the touch on his face, Choi Hong-seo listened to his words.
“I know people think I’ve lived a life where I get whatever I want, but my parents absolutely forbade keeping pets indoors.”
Wikipedia provided quite detailed information about Chairman Lee Woo-yeol’s children, who were Lee Hae-sung’s cousins. In contrast, Lee Hae-sung and his siblings were relatively less exposed. There weren’t many scattered rumors about them either. That’s why the stories Lee Hae-sung shared about himself were so precious to Choi Hong-seo.
“I finally got permission to raise a medium to large dog in the garden, so I brought home a beagle puppy, but coming inside the house was strictly forbidden, of course.”
“……”
“But this little guy just lay in his corner all day, trembling. The staff said it wasn’t a big deal, that he was just anxious because the environment was unfamiliar, not because he was cold, and that it would get better on its own, but to my young eyes, it was a serious matter. Even when I brought him a cozy cashmere sweater and wrapped him up, I couldn’t just leave him trembling. In the end, without my parents’ knowledge, and without the staff knowing, I brought him into the house. It was almost impossible for me at that age to do something inside the house without the staff knowing.”
He could easily imagine a young Lee Hae-sung secretly sneaking into the large mansion, holding a puppy wrapped snugly in a sweater. The scene was heartwarming and lovely even just to imagine, but for some reason, his eyes welled up. Choi Hong-seo blinked several times to prevent moisture from gathering.
“Even in my room, he just trembled in the corner for a long time, but by staying close, constantly touching him, hugging him, and petting him, after a few hours, he started sniffing around and moving around quite actively, licking my face as I lay on the floor.”
A smile spread across his face as he recalled the memory. It was a smile as gentle as the touch on his face.
“I was so happy, as if I had saved a dying creature. Although, I was found out after half a day and he had to be returned to his kennel.”
“Am I… like that puppy from back then?”
“Yes, similar. I feel like I have to do something for you, and I can’t stand the thought of you getting hurt.”
No one had ever looked at Choi Hong-seo that way. He had always been the one who had to take responsibility, the one who had to endure strongly, the one who was not allowed to cry. No one had seen him as a pitiable puppy like Lee Hae-sung did. He was truly… a strange and special man.
“What happened to that puppy?”
If it was a dog he had raised since he was young, it wouldn’t still be alive even if it had lived a healthy lifespan. Choi Hong-seo asked cautiously, and his smile deepened. Meeting his gaze warmly, Lee Hae-sung stroked above Choi Hong-seo’s eyebrows.
“……He lived a healthy life and passed away peacefully.”
Perhaps he couldn’t bring himself to say something bad to someone who was sick. For some reason, Choi Hong-seo instinctively knew. He was telling a lie right now. However, he had no intention of pressing him. If he was telling a small lie to protect something, Choi Hong-seo also wanted to protect whatever it was that he wanted to protect.
Lee Hae-sung lightly patted Choi Hong-seo’s cheek and stood up, taking off his outer clothes and hanging them on the chair in front of the desk.
“I brought some porridge. It’s homemade, so it should be edible.”
“A few kinds?”
“I didn’t make it myself, though.”
With an apologetic expression for not having made it himself, he picked up the bag he had placed on the floor. Come to think of it, the bag looked like an insulated bag.
“There’s plain porridge, vegetable porridge, and if you want something savory, shrimp porridge. Do you want to eat it after you wake up?”
“I’ll eat a little now.”
He didn’t have an appetite, but thinking of his thoughtfulness in preparing several kinds of porridge, he wanted to have at least a few spoonfuls. He felt that if he showed himself eating, Lee Hae-sung would be a little more at ease. Choi Hong-seo slowly sat up.
While Lee Hae-sung left the room to get water, Jeong Ji-in called. He must have heard from his manager that he had to cancel their appointment because he wasn’t feeling well, and he was probably calling out of concern.