By Zephyria 
Unlocking the suitcase, Yoon Joo-ho laid it flat and opened it. He placed his hands on his hips and swept back a stray strand of hair.
“Hey, are you going out like that?”
Song Hyun-soo, realizing Yoon Joo-ho’s gaze was on his hair, checked himself in the mirror.
Having left it unkempt after the shower, it looked ridiculous. He tried raking his fingers through it, but it was no use.
“I’ll just wear a hat, I guess.”
“Your first picture at the airport, and you’re wearing a hat?”
“Honestly, who’s going to come to take pictures of me?”
“Come here. I’ll fix your hair.”
Yoon Joo-ho took the lead back toward the bathroom.
With each step he took, his firm buttocks flexed beneath the towel. It was somehow more revealing than being completely naked. Admiring his lover’s firm backside anew, Song Hyun-soo followed him.
■
To Song Hyun-soo, Yoon Joo-ho’s bathroom still seemed like that of an emperor.
The sheer size, large enough to accommodate a table and chairs for several people to dine, and the elegant ivory marble that enveloped the entire bathroom, added to the luxurious atmosphere.
But Song Hyun-soo’s favorite thing about this bathroom was the sunlight.
Abundant sunlight poured in through the large window behind the bathtub.
A magic mirror. That is, a one-way mirror that allowed those inside to enjoy the outside scenery, but appeared as black glass from the outside.
So there was no need to worry about being seen, Yoon Joo-ho had assured Song Hyun-soo. As he pushed the anxious, naked Song Hyun-soo against the glass window, nibbling his earlobe and tightly forcing his penis inside him.
Why on earth would a bathroom need such a large window? Song Hyun-soo hadn’t understood it at first. But now he liked it.
Relaxing together in the bathtub while looking down at the night view, and even enjoying sex with their naked bodies exposed against the clear glass window… well, it didn’t seem so bad.
Music flowed from the Bluetooth speaker in the bathroom. It was a song called ‘Stay In Love’ by an artist named Aaron Kellim. Yoon Joo-ho hummed along to the melody as he lined up oils, waxes, combs, and sprays on the spacious sink. He seemed somehow cheerful.
Song Hyun-soo leaned against the marble sink, glancing at Yoon Joo-ho. Noticing the gaze, Yoon Joo-ho spoke without looking at Song Hyun-soo.
“If you want to touch, then touch. Don’t just steal glances.”
“I wasn’t stealing glances, okay?”
Yoon Joo-ho scoffed as he plugged in the hairdryer.
“You’re a professional at stealing glances, you. I don’t trust you.”
Song Hyun-soo, about to deny ever stealing glances, quickly closed his widely opened lips.
He remembered stealing glances at his half-naked body from the first day he came to this house.
Had he only stolen glances? Looking back, he had already been sexually aware of Yoon Joo-ho’s body at that time. So he must have unconsciously thanked God.
Picking up the wax and unnecessarily smelling it once, Song Hyun-soo retorted gruffly.
“I did look, but I didn’t steal glances.”
“What kind of sophistry is that?”
“It’s mine, why would I steal glances? I looked proudly. Okay?”
Yoon Joo-ho grabbed Song Hyun-soo’s wrist, chuckling.
“You never give in, not even for a single word.”
Then, placing him in front of himself, facing the mirror, he began to lightly touch his hair as if checking its condition.
Song Hyun-soo crossed his arms, glancing at Yoon Joo-ho’s serious expression in the mirror.
“Sunbae, you’re good at doing your own hair.”
“There are times when I can’t go to the salon. And it’s a hassle to find a salon for every personal schedule.”
Turning on the hairdryer, Yoon Joo-ho began to style his hair using a roller brush. The way he wrapped his hair around the brush, pulling it with the right amount of force while applying heat with the hairdryer, was quite skillful. The unruly strands of hair curled naturally backward.
Putting down the hairdryer after turning it off, Yoon Joo-ho said.
“After 30 years since debut, this much is nothing.”
This time, he picked up an oil designed to create a wet-looking hairstyle and poured it onto his palm. Then, he meticulously applied the oil from the roots to the ends of his dried hair.
Yoon Joo-ho’s hair, which had been cut short in the middle of filming, had grown quite a bit in the meantime. But it wasn’t as long as it had been when they first met. His hair, neatly cut to reveal his ears and meticulously styled with hair products, was far from ‘Baek Kang,’ who had lived his whole life in a fishing village, the smell of the sea permeating even under his fingernails. The current Yoon Joo-ho was, by all appearances, an extremely urban man.
He loved him either way…
Watching Yoon Joo-ho, who was touching his oiled hair again to shape it, Song Hyun-soo muttered to himself.
“Should I get a perm too?”
“An actor shouldn’t mess with his hair carelessly. You never know what kind of role you’ll get next.”
Song Hyun-soo nodded in agreement.
“I remember that time.”
“When?”
“When Sunbae tied my bow tie.”
In the mirror, Yoon Joo-ho smiled briefly with just his lips, without making a sound.
It was a face that recalled the same memory.
“You came to the suit wearing ankle-length socks.”
“And you ordered red wine with the fish dish.”
“I didn’t know where to start teaching you. It was hopeless.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why?”
“It’s not like you have an obligation to teach me just because I’m unsophisticated. But why did you think it was hopeless?”
Touching his bangs strand by strand, Yoon Joo-ho said with an indifferent face.
“I just knew, looking at you, that I would have to take care of you for the rest of my life.”
Knowing it was just something nice to say, it still felt good to hear.
“You didn’t have any feelings for me back then, though.”
“What are you talking about?”
Yoon Joo-ho, holding the hairspray in his hand, made eye contact with Song Hyun-soo with an unbelievable expression.
“The night I first kissed you and brought you to this room was that night.”
“Ah…”
Come to think of it, that’s right.
“Close your eyes.”
Cheee. While Song Hyun-soo closed his eyes and retraced his memories, Yoon Joo-ho sprayed the hair he had styled.
Yoon Joo-ho’s first kiss, their first time.
At the time, it was difficult to come to his senses, like someone being swept away by a rapid current. He couldn’t calmly assess what was happening to him from a distance. He was too busy just keeping up with the events unfolding before him.
When he came to his senses, he was already being kissed by Yoon Joo-ho at the birthday party, and then, the next moment, he had finished having sex in his bedroom.
Song Hyun-soo thought he liked Yoon Joo-ho more. Maybe not now, but he was sure that was the case at first.
He had never doubted it. Because it was Yoon Joo-ho. And in the beginning, he had always maintained a nonchalant attitude befitting a top star.
He was occasionally surprisingly kind, but he basically had the attitude of ‘I don’t need you.’ So he thought he was the only one desperate.
But looking back, it was Yoon Joo-ho who had kissed him first, who had first seduced him to have sex, and even who had asked him to date.
The spraying stopped, and Song Hyun-soo squinted, looking at Yoon Joo-ho through the mirror.
“What’s with the look you’re giving the boyfriend who even did your hair?”
“What about it?”
“It’s insolent and arrogant as can be.”
“I thought I worked hard to seduce you.”
“What again.”
“Actually, Sunbae seduced me, right?”
“Me?”
Yoon Joo-ho pointed to his chest with his index finger. As if it were something he knew nothing about, with an exaggeratedly wronged expression.
Song Hyun-soo looked at his finished hairstyle in the mirror, muttering to himself.
“It’s no use even if you say no.”
“……”
“I was fooled by your acting of pretending to be indifferent.”
Yoon Joo-ho grabbed Song Hyun-soo’s shoulders and turned him around. Then, he placed his hands on the sink on either side of Song Hyun-soo’s hips, trapping his lover in his arms. Yoon Joo-ho’s face was right in front of him.
“Yeah, you. You were incredibly dense, weren’t you?”
“……”
When Yoon Joo-ho actually acknowledged his interest and came on strong, it was Song Hyun-soo who was bewildered.
“No matter how much I touched you, smiled at you, and looked at you adoringly, you never noticed.”
“That’s…”
“That’s what.”
Looking at Song Hyun-soo’s face, who had stubbornly closed his lips, Yoon Joo-ho waited patiently for an answer.
‘Stay In Love’ was already playing for the third time.
The song he had first introduced to him on the way to Myung Hae-ri, the songs Choi Hong-seo had introduced to him after that, and now this song. When Yoon Joo-ho found a song he liked, he would obsessively listen to it on repeat.
He seemed fickle, but he was steadfast when it came to the things he liked. What he wore, what he carried, what he kept at home. He had a clear taste, and it rarely changed.
Yoon Joo-ho’s right hand reached out and broadly cupped Song Hyun-soo’s lower jaw. His gaze, lowering his eyelids and looking down at Song Hyun-soo’s lips, seemed as if he would come closer and kiss him at any moment.