By Zephyria After teaching him a few more of the camera’s additional functions, Lee Hae-sung took the camera himself and began taking pictures of Choi Hong-seo as a demonstration. Even after several years since his debut, he felt nervous in front of the lens as if he were a rookie, and Choi Hong-seo’s poses and expressions were stiff.
“Look at this.”
He stood up, took a few shots of Choi Hong-seo, then sat down next to him again and showed him the camera’s screen. On the screen, Choi Hong-seo’s expression was rigid as he looked at the lens, then averted his gaze out the window, and then buried his face in his arm gripping the front seat. The last shot showed him peeking out and looking back at the camera.
“It’s completely different from Hong-seo in magazine photoshoots, isn’t it?”
He couldn’t take his eyes off Choi Hong-seo on the screen.
“Your demeanor is shy, yet your eyes want to approach. You seem soft and gentle, but also intense enough to capture the viewer’s gaze. There’s a provocative side that throws your emotions out there in an instant. No one has ever captured Choi Hong-seo like this before.”
“……”
“Because this is a side that only shows itself in front of me.”
His voice was flushed, as if he were an explorer who had discovered a new continent.
“The same scenery becomes a completely different world in a photograph depending on whose eyes it passes through. That’s also why I fell for photography. I want to share the world Hong-seo sees… Did you capture a lot of it here?”
Holding up his camera, his face, smiling sweetly, slowly drew closer. The moment their noses brushed, Choi Hong-seo nodded. Their breaths intertwined before their lips did.
Not just waiting passively, Choi Hong-seo tilted his head to meet her lips, thinking,
What does the world look like through Hae-seong’s eyes?
If he had asked to see the photos he’d taken so far, he would have shown them without hesitation. But wanting to see them in person at an exhibition, Choi Hong-seo had held back those words.
Now, thinking back, he wondered if he shouldn’t have. He should have asked to see them. The world he sees.
Not knowing when the exhibition would be held again, or when he could go… he felt a pang of regret.
As much as he regretted it, he burrowed into his embrace, his lips, clinging to him. He slipped his hand inside the opening of his jacket, caressing his muscular chest and lean, firm sides. As if to imprint the warmth of his body and the curves of his physique onto his sense of touch, felt through the shirt.
This kiss was as soft as a tongue licking cream.
It was poignant and careful, like the first kiss of boys. Even the act of holding each other’s tongues in their mouths felt like a warm embrace.
The time allowed was not long. Lee Hae-sung, after lightly tracing the inside of Choi Hong-seo’s upper lip with his tongue tip, finished the kiss, pressed his lips together firmly, and began to pull away. Choi Hong-seo, watching him smile as he distanced himself, urgently followed with his lips, covering his again.
Lee Hae-sung, momentarily startled, pulled Choi Hong-seo tightly into his arms and kissed him passionately. He parted his lips, biting the other’s lips through the gap. Like beasts using their muzzles to try and devour each other, they repeatedly bit and released. Pushed by the force, Choi Hong-seo wrapped his arms around his neck, and Lee Hae-sung braced himself against the car window behind Choi Hong-seo with one hand, supporting their combined weight.
They rubbed their lips until they were bruised, and held each other’s tongues until they were numb. Even after pulling their tongues apart, they couldn’t separate for a long time, continuing with small kisses while embracing.
Lee Hae-sung, checking his wristwatch behind Choi Hong-seo’s back, spoke in a low voice.
“Ah… I really have to go now.”
When he finally removed his arms from around his body and they looked at each other, Choi Hong-seo smiled faintly at his face.
“Just a moment.”
He then rummaged through the front seat pocket, pulled out tissues, and carefully wiped around his lips.
“Your tint is all smudged…”
Lee Hae-sung, passively allowing Choi Hong-seo to tend to him, gazed at him with a satisfied look from beneath his languidly lowered eyelids.
“Kissing Hong-seo-ssi with lipstick on has the thrill of a transgression.”
Returning with playful formality, he pulled out another tissue and this time wiped away the smudges around Choi Hong-seo’s mouth.
“The way the marks form according to the kissing motion is very sexy.”
As if reviving the scent on the spot where the kiss’s traces were erased, he pressed his lips to his one more time, then finally kissed Choi Hong-seo’s forehead before standing up.
Choi Hong-seo remained seated where he was. He watched his retreating back through the car window. The man walked a distance of two or three cars before suddenly stopping dead. He stood still for a moment, patting himself down as if he had forgotten something, then quickly turned and hurried back towards him.
Knock, knock.
He tapped on the window of the very back seat where Choi Hong-seo was sitting.
When the window opened, a lightly clenched fist pushed into the interior.
“I forgot to give you this.”
Choi Hong-seo instinctively extended his palm. He expected something small to fall, but his prediction was wrong. What landed on his palm was Lee Hae-sung’s index finger.
He chuckled, recalling the annoyance of a few days ago, when he had bothered his back with his finger on a day he was sick.
Lee Hae-sung began to write on Choi Hong-seo’s palm with his finger, and Choi Hong-seo’s smile didn’t last long.
S (siot), then the vowel A (a).
Even seeing just that much, he could guess what would follow. A shiver ran down his spine as his finger moved.
I love you.
His palm, as if burned, his entire body from his palm upwards, grew hot. An ecstasy so profound it was close to sorrow coursed through his blood, and his eyes grew warm. But he didn’t want to cry after his confession of love. Choi Hong-seo managed a somewhat awkward smile, and Lee Hae-sung, mirroring his smile, gently stroked the palm he held. Then, without adding any words, he stepped back.
After slowly retreating a few steps, he finally grinned sheepishly, shoved his hands into his pants pockets, and turned away.
He tightly clasped the hand that had etched the words of love onto it, cherishing it. So it wouldn’t leak out, so no one could steal a glance. He liked it more because it felt like it was etched onto his body rather than spoken, and that was why he liked it more.
I love you too. Even though I don’t really know what it is, I love you, Darling, I love you, Lee Hae-sung. Even if I don’t know what love is, I know now that this feeling is love. You loved me so I, a fool, could understand, and because of that, I could love you too.
I love you. I love you.
Haesung, who appeared like a comet in my dark world where not a single faint starlight could penetrate, illuminating the seemingly eternal darkness like fireworks.
Lee Hae-sung waved his hand, turning back, in front of the staff-only corridor from which Choi Hong-seo had just emerged. Then he disappeared from his sight. That was the last image of Lee Hae-sung that Choi Hong-seo directly saw.
■
Group ‘SATANG’ Member Go Ji-woon, Attempts Extreme Self-Harm at Home
At 5 PM today, actor Go Ji-woon was found unconscious at his residence. Manager A, who had visited his home to discuss contract termination and renewal, discovered Mr. Go collapsed in his bedroom and rushed him to the hospital.
Mr. Go, who had been consistently taking sleeping pills for insomnia, appears to have attempted extreme self-harm by taking more than thirty pills at once.
Fortunately, he has now recovered his pulse and breathing, and his life is not in danger, but he is currently in the intensive care unit at Gangnam CHA Hospital in Seoul, resting.
Mr. Go, who debuted in the idol group ‘SATANG’ but did not gain much recognition, had recently transitioned to acting and was receiving a lot of love, so fans and the industry were even more shocked.
At the time of discovery, a note resembling a suicide letter was reportedly found on the nightstand next to Mr. Go’s bed, but his family and agency have not disclosed its contents.
The industry is in a tense atmosphere following the news of a celebrity’s suicide attempt, which had been quiet for some time.
⤷ jum\ / Right now, the video-sharing sites are going crazy because of rumors that male actor X, a former idol group member, has been using his body to secure work. Isn’t that Go Ji-woon??
⤷ heb\ / I saw that too. Isn’t X the one who was a host bar player before his debut?
⤷⤷jum\ / Yeah.
⤷dm17\ / It seems like the rumors started from that channel, ‘NagariTV,’ and the comments there are all saying X is Go Ji-woon.
⤷⤷cry\ / No, no, ‘NagariTV’. ‘Entertainment News’ broke it first.
⤷did\ / If X is really Go Ji-woon, is he doing this because he’s afraid his past will be exposed? If it’s true, it’s cowardly. Does dying end everything?
⤷heb\ / I saw comments saying he recently broke up with his sponsor. Maybe that’s why he attempted self-harm.
⤷⤷jum\ / Yeah. I heard that he lost the casting for
⤷pri\ / But did he really intend to die? Honestly, how many times have we been fooled by celebrities who pretend to attempt suicide by taking a few sleeping pills without any real intention of dying? They act like a suicide attempt is a get-out-of-jail-free card.
⤷072\ / Ugh, humans. You really want to say things like this about someone who attempted extreme self-harm? Your hearts are truly wicked.
⤷⤷heb\ / Suddenly acting like a saint? You’re hearing what you want to hear and picking a fight.
⤷⤷072\ / As if you’re really concerned. You’re just excited because a sensational incident has occurred while your life is boring. People who frequent channels like ‘NagariTV’ and ‘Entertainment News’ have predictable lives.
⤷⤷pri\ / You, who are judging someone else’s life, aren’t much different from us you’re criticizing, are you?
⤷msg\ / Hey jum, aren’t you the one who’s from a host bar? Haha I think ‘팅됐다’ (got dropped/rejected) is slang from the entertainment industry.
⤷⤷fer\ / With a face like that, he can’t be a host bar player. He’s probably changing ashtrays in some room lol.
⤷⤷msg\ / fer, go to a host bar. There are tons of guys who aren’t good-looking.
⤷⤷sip\ / msg, you’re saying you go to host bars? ㅋㅋ Why do you know so much? Haha
■
Brief spring sunlight peeking through clouds. Also the Hong Kong title of Wong Kar-wai’s film