By Zephyria 
The early May weather was fantastic.
Sunshine as bright as flower bouquets illuminated every corner of the world, and a sweet breeze, like lovers’ sighs, rustled the plump green leaves and tickled their cheeks.
In Myung Hae-ri, the shadows of winter had completely receded.
But Yoon Joo-ho and Song Hyun-soo had no leisure to enjoy such sunshine and breeze.
The two, clad in shorts with their upper bodies bare, were each sweating in the yard of a vacant house being used as a temporary waiting room today.
“Forty-four, forty-five, forty-six… forty-one…”
“Stop it! How many are you going to do?”
Yoon Joo-ho, who had been doing push-ups, turned his head and looked up.
“Isn’t pumping yourself up like that before filming cheating?”
Song Hyun-soo looked down at him sulkily with a wronged expression. Yoon Joo-ho picked up the towel beside him, wiped the sweat from his face, and stood up.
“You were just pumping your biceps with dumbbells a moment ago.”
“Well… that’s because I’m a bit lacking compared to you, Sunbae.”
Song Hyun-soo mumbled, glancing at Yoon Joo-ho’s glistening chest.
Yoon Joo-ho, who primarily trained his upper chest, was attractive not for the sheer volume of his pectoral muscles, but for how broadly and firmly they spread. One could almost play chess on Yoon Joo-ho’s chest if he were lying down. Yet, the clearly defined, split line extending to his upper chest spoke of long, rigorous self-discipline.
Yoon Joo-ho approached with an ominous, wide grin.
“Hmm, Actor Song Hyun-soo’s first nude scene.”
As his sweat-beaded body drew close, he was almost dizzy from the pheromones he exuded. His nervous system felt like it was shutting down. Was it really true that humans had no sex pheromones? Or did a select few still possess pheromone glands, allowing them to bewitch other humans at will?
Song Hyun-soo instinctively took a step back.
“What nude scene? Don’t say weird things, please.”
“Don’t worry too much.”
His voice was suspiciously gentle.
Yoon Joo-ho reached out towards Song Hyun-soo’s chest muscles. He cupped the lower part of the most prominent muscle, pressing the flesh with his fingertips as if gauging its elasticity, and smiled brightly.
“My circumference might be bigger, but your volume is more spectacular.”
Song Hyun-soo shoved him away forcefully.
Yoon Joo-ho laughed out loud and roughly wiped the sweat from his upper body.
He picked up a large tumbler from the floor, drank some water, and still glanced at Song Hyun-soo’s chest. Then, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he scowled.
“It’s not ideal that you have to show your naked body to others, though.”
“M-my naked body… Nobody thinks that! Only perverted old men like you, Sunbae!”
“Perverted old man? To your one and only precious boyfriend?”
Yoon Joo-ho strode closer and cupped Song Hyun-soo’s cheeks with one hand. Normally, he would have played along and indulged his teasing, but Song Hyun-soo’s earlobes were burning, and he subtly averted his gaze.
“Why haven’t you been looking people in the eye since yesterday?”
“W-when did I?”
“Since yesterday. And you’re doing it right now.”
“I’m not looking because I don’t want to see a perverted old man.”
“Hmm.”
Yoon Joo-ho let out a suspicious hum, his face suddenly coming even closer. Their noses were almost touching.
“Why? Nervous?”
“About what?”
“My face.”
“Wow… really… where does that confidence come from?”
He tried to sound nonchalant and spoke loudly, but he could feel his earlobes turning red. Damn it, so I was this kind of person who gets easily swayed by looks.
Yoon Joo-ho had cut his hair yesterday.
It was because he had finished filming all the scenes that required long hair. In flashbacks to the distant past, and in the scenes set furthest back in time, Baek Kang’s hair was not long.
The short cut made his features stand out even more.
He had already been growing his hair for the role since he first met Song Hyun-soo. So, he wasn’t used to seeing his face with such a refreshing cut. A face that pressed in without the shield of hair, with its features exposed, had too strong an impact. Every time he looked, it felt like his heart was being struck.
Yoon Joo-ho’s face, which held a slight smile, gained a touch of wickedness.
“Where does it come from? It’s thanks to you. You like my face, don’t you?”
“Th-that… yes… but…”
“It’s not just my face you like, so what’s wrong with that?”
Hmm, now that I think about it, that’s true too.
“Right?”
Yoon Joo-ho’s fingers, which had been holding his cheeks, lightly pressed against Song Hyun-soo’s lips. Then, tracing his neck, they slid down, sweeping from his chest to his navel.
“I like your face and body a hell of a lot too.”
“……”
“Is that wrong?”
Gulp.
The blindingly white May sunlight had an unreal quality.
For a moment, it felt as if Yoon Joo-ho and he were the only ones left in the entire world, and he was being drawn into him.
He could vividly feel the breath entering and leaving his lips, and every bead of sweat rolling on his body.
As he unconsciously tilted his chin up slightly, about to lean closer to him…
“Kang-i, Sani. Are you ready?”
The voice of a production staff member was heard from behind him.
Song Hyun-soo, rubbing the back of his neck, turned around and looked around as if searching for something, then shouted loudly.
“Ah, yes! We, we’re all set! We’ll be right out!”
He could picture his own neck, flushed bright red. It was all because the newly cut Yoon Joo-ho was unnecessarily sexy. Even as he glared with resentment and pushed him away from a distance, Yoon Joo-ho’s face only looked amused. Faced with that smile, Song Hyun-soo couldn’t help but relax and chuckle back.
Dressed in robes over their shorts, the two headed to the set.
Director Jung Joon-hee was watching the final preparations for the shoot in a clearing by the sea, a place filled with memories.
“You two are lucky. The temperature has risen to 24 degrees Celsius.”
“Hmm… but the seawater will still be cold, I think.”
Yoon Joo-ho tilted his head, speaking as if it would be a challenge.
The scene they were filming today was of Baek Kang and Lee San enjoying a swim in the sea during midsummer. Even at 24 degrees Celsius, the seawater wouldn’t feel warm enough, so the faces of the two men gazing out at the sea ahead were quite serious.
However, Director Jung Joon-hee patted Yoon Joo-ho’s shoulder with a playful, childlike smile.
“This is hardly considered hardship when filming a movie.”
The YouTuber ‘Kaiing’ had detonated a bomb, Yoon Joo-ho had immediately turned himself in for questioning, and within 24 hours of the scandal breaking, his propofol test results came back negative, yet the public still harbored doubts about Yoon Joo-ho.
Because of this, Director Bang had suggested he postpone going to film sets for a while. But Yoon Joo-ho refused. His reason was that he didn’t want to shrink back, conscious of public opinion, when he had done nothing wrong.
Separately, he had braced himself for a certain kind of reception when he returned to set. He expected to face different gazes, a different atmosphere than before.
But Yoon Joo-ho and Song Hyun-soo were taken aback when they arrived on set.
Whether the staff had reached some prior agreement among themselves, or if the director or production company had given instructions, they couldn’t tell.
Whatever the reason, the set was as it was.
The world of
The great scandal that had excited the nation seemed not to have penetrated ‘Myung Hae-ri’.
Yoon Joo-ho, who had arrived on set after firmly promising Song Hyun-soo that he would maturely handle any unpleasantness without retaliating, was puzzled.
One day, two days. Two weeks, three weeks.
Even after the ‘Yoon Joo-ho propofol incident’ erupted, and his parents were revealed to be behind it and subsequently arrested, none of the team, including Director Jeong, had ever brought it up.
They didn’t even exchange words of relief that he had been cleared of charges.
It was as if such an unpleasant scandal had never existed in the world from the beginning.
They simply continued to occupy their respective positions as before, respecting each other’s roles as their only form of encouragement.
He had always felt lonely in proportion to the attention he received. He had defined his world as one filled with people who belittled him, spread baseless rumors, and treated him as mere entertainment. It was also true that such people always hovered around him.
But Yoon Joo-ho decided to acknowledge, accept, and be grateful.
That even if such people existed, they were by no means the entirety of the world.
“The sunlight today is making the water sparkle beautifully. I think we’ll get a great shot.”
Director Jeong, with a faint smile, looked at the shimmering sea and spoke as if prophesying. Yoon Joo-ho and Song Hyun-soo, standing with him between them, exchanged silent glances.
“Alright, actors, let’s move to the set. Please board the boat!”
Following the assistant director’s lead, the two boarded the boat. This was to easily reach the rocks below the cliff, the true filming location for the day.
It was a secluded spot, far from the beach, accessible by crossing over 20 meters of jagged rocks that jutted out along the base of the cliff stretching along the coastline.
This was the place where Baek Kang and Lee San had often fished since they were young, their sanctuary.
During summer vacation, the three of them, including Lee Sol, would monopolize the sea here, away from outsiders. Even on days when Lee San was severely beaten by his father, he would hide here, shutting out the world.
The few days of peace when his father was away at sea to earn money.
In other words, it was a scene about their time of fragile peace.
196
Upon reaching the rocks, they removed their robes and took their positions.
As they moved further from the beach, the sunlight was dazzling. Gazing at the shimmering water before them, it felt as if they were being drawn into an unreal world.
“Starting filming.”
Song Hyun-soo sat on a fishing chair and looked down at Yoon Joo-ho’s bare shoulder, Baek Kang’s bare shoulder.
“Rolling.”
“Speed.”
“Scene number 32, cut 1, take 1.”
“Action.”
Two fishing rods, casting shadows on the sea, gently rising and falling.
The hazy midsummer sunlight, as if stealing all sound from the world.
Baek Kang, sitting with his legs stretched out beneath it, closed his eyes.
The two of them in a world that shimmered as if they were floating on the sea, even while standing with their feet on the rocks.
“Hyung, look. Have my muscles gotten bigger?”
Baek Kang opened his eyes slightly at Lee San’s voice, which came from above his head.
Lee San, who had stood up from his small fishing chair, bent his arm, flexing his bicep to show off.
Lee San, who admired his brother.
Lee San, who grew up wanting to be like his brother, not like his abusive father.
“Yes. Our Lee San has really become a man now.”
“Ah, stop joking and look properly. They’ve really gotten bigger, I tell you? I’m the strongest in my class. Ask Noona. I don’t even pick at my food anymore.”
“Oh, really? You don’t pick at your food and you’ve grown up so much, our Sani.”
“So you’re just going to keep looking down on me?”
Lee San, huffing, said defiantly.
“I bet I can swim faster than you now too!”
Baek Kang, changing his posture to rest his chin on his hand and gaze at the sea, merely chuckled. Lee San, growing impatient, clung to Baek Kang’s back as if to piggyback him, peeking over his shoulder.
“Let’s race to the buoy. Who gets there first?”
“If I win? You’ll cry again?”
Lee San bit Baek Kang’s bare shoulder, who was acting indifferently.
“Ah, how long are you going to bring up old stories?”
“They’re not old stories? Last year too, you lost arm wrestling and were about to cry…”
“Are you going to race or not?”
“I’m really not going to hold back?”
Baek Kang glanced back at Lee San clinging to his back and stood up.
“If I win, you have to grant me one wish!”
Lee San, shouting this with a face full of mischief, splashed and jumped into the water first.
Baek Kang laughed at Lee San’s childish foul play. He boasts about his muscles and wants to beat his brother, but he was still the same as when he was young. That reassured Baek Kang.
Baek Kang followed Lee San into the sea, tracing a gentle arc.
Stretching his arms out straight, he propelled himself forward with fluid body movements.
Lee San’s back was visible a little ahead.
Baek Kang, with a grin, began to swim in earnest.
The gap between him and Lee San rapidly closed.
Lee San, looking back at Baek Kang catching up, was smiling rather than anxious.
The pleasant sensation of the seawater.
For the two of them, the sea was as familiar as land.
It was a mother, a friend, and the safest home.
Perhaps they felt more freedom in the water than when their feet were on the ground.
Baek Kang caught up right next to Lee San.
By now, the competition was meaningless.
In the embrace of freedom, they moved forward, looking at each other.
Passing the buoy, leaping over it, they continued to swim. Towards the unknown, and therefore more anticipated, uncharted territory, what people call the future.
It felt like they could reach the other side of the sea, to a new world no one had ever discovered. If they were together.
■■■
This one’s neck is all stretched out. Discard.
This one… it’s fine, but it feels like I haven’t worn it for a year. Donate.
Song Hyun-soo sat on the floor of the walk-in closet, taking out t-shirts from the box and sorting them. This was the last box.
“Almost done?”
He looked up at the voice from above.
Yoon Joo-ho, holding Monroe, stood at the entrance of the walk-in closet.
“Just a few more t-shirts left.”
“Sang-ho Hyung and Jung-ho left.”
“Huh? Without saying goodbye?”
“I sent them away.”
“Why…”
Song Hyun-soo trailed off and pressed his lips together, about to ask why Yoon Joo-ho had sent them away when he hadn’t even said goodbye.
It was their first day living together.
He realized it was because Yoon Joo-ho wanted to be alone together as soon as possible.
Yoon Joo-ho sat down beside him and said, “There wasn’t much to do even with the move. They said they’d have a proper housewarming later.”
His words were true.
Most of Song Hyun-soo’s belongings were already in the guest room on the second floor of this house, and there wasn’t much personal property left stored at Seohae’s place.
Not only was there no need to hire movers, but Jung-ho and Director Bang, who had come to help, had nothing to do but play with Monroe and eat jjampong.
“It feels like I’m just unpacking from a trip.”
“It was more of an elopement than a trip.”
“Why would I elope?”
Yoon Joo-ho chuckled sheepishly, rubbing his newly short hair at the reprimand. He must know he did something wrong now, too?
Yoon Joo-ho gently took Song Hyun-soo’s hand as he folded t-shirts. Then, he held out Monroe, whom he had been hugging, towards Song Hyun-soo.
“Don’t run away from home anymore. We have a child, after all.”
Song Hyun-soo took Monroe and stroked him with a face full of affection.
“I’ll never run away from home.”
“Good. That’s a good decision.”
“From now on, I’ll be the one kicking you out, Sunbae.”
“……”
Even after hearing the word “kick out,” Yoon Joo-ho looked pleased. Seeing his expression, which tried to suppress a laugh but couldn’t quite hide it, Song Hyun-soo felt strangely embarrassed.
Meow.*
Monroe, having found something interesting, slipped out of his arms and dashed off somewhere. The walk-in closet, with its many hiding places, seemed like a playground to the cat.
As he reached for a t-shirt he had been folding, he grabbed Yoon Joo-ho’s hand instead of the t-shirt. Yoon Joo-ho, sitting beside him with his back hunched and chin resting on his hand, slid his fingers between Song Hyun-soo’s.
“Shall we shower together?”
“Ah… um… you go first, Sunbae. I’ll finish tidying up and then shower.”
Yoon Joo-ho looked up with a mischievous smile. His face seemed like he was about to say something like, ‘Why? Do you need to prepare your backside?’
But this time, Song Hyun-soo’s prediction was wrong.
He brought their clasped hands to his lips and kissed Song Hyun-soo’s hand, then stood up.
“I’ll use the guest bathroom, so you shower in the master bedroom.”
“I-it’s fine. I still have a little bit left to organize…”
As he looked up, making a hasty excuse, Yoon Joo-ho’s expression was serious. He looked disappointed. Did it seem like he didn’t want to?
“I tolerated you dating Jeong Seong-won. I even went to the police station voluntarily, and my parents were arrested. I waited patiently until Sang-ho Hyung and Jung-ho left.”
“……”
“Do I have to wait any longer?”
In the end, he just wanted to have sex quickly, but did he really need to look at him with such pleading, pathetic eyes?
Rubbing the back of his reddened neck, he lowered his head and muttered, trying to act as nonchalant as possible.
“Ah, alright. Come back after you’ve showered.”
It had been quite a while, so preparing himself wasn’t easy.
Not because of the hassle of the procedure, but because of the tension.
It was the first day they were truly living together.
He couldn’t help but attach great significance to it, even if he tried not to.
They had already lived together in this house, he had showered with him in this bathroom and had sex, and it wasn’t his first time on his bed.
Yet, this time felt different.
“Something about starting our married life… Sunbae saying that for no reason…”
He placed his right foot on the edge of the bathtub, spread his legs, and inserted a finger from front to back, cleaning himself. He felt his inner walls, meticulously and cleanly emptied, contract and squeeze his finger.
He thought that his inner walls would cling to Sunbae’s fingers like this too.
Like a mouth kissing, sucking on a tongue. So greedily.
“Ugh… hng.”
Thinking that, he couldn’t stand it anymore.
The moment he realized he was preparing for intimacy with him, it felt like the sex had already begun. During the process of emptying himself sufficiently, his penis had become half-erect twice.
It was a day when my sensitivity was excessively high, even by my own standards. To the point where my fingers and arms probing my rear trembled slightly.
I don’t think it was like this even the first time I slept with my senior…
Dissolve. HLCs 196 and 197 are back-to-back releases.