By Zephyria 
“Ugh…”
Waking up from sleep, Song Hyun-soo pressed his head into the pillow and stayed there, face down, for a while. His body was awake, but his brain still refused to function.
“How much did I drink yesterday… What the hell. Where am I?”
Pushing the pillow away and turning over, Song Hyun-soo froze.
The insulating bubble wrap covering the window was gone, and he didn’t feel the draft that should have brushed against his bare body as he kicked off the blanket. For starters, the scent that filled his nose was different from his own home.
The space he looked around, illuminated by the faint light seeping through the blackout curtains, was, fortunately or unfortunately, Yoon Joo-ho’s bedroom.
Song Hyun-soo sat up abruptly, as if sprung by a coil.
What happened? How did I end up here?
He felt like the protagonist of a movie with the absurd plot of waking up in another dimension. He was so surprised that his hangover almost completely disappeared.
Remember. Remember, Song Hyun-soo. You can do it.
Script reading. Yes, there was a company dinner after the script reading. The venue was ‘Honey’s place’, of course… The staff brought a birthday cake for Yoon Joo-ho…
Myung Do-hoon.
Myung Do-hoon was dead.
Thinking about it again made his heart pound.
He went outside the restaurant and chatted with the auntie and… Yoon Joo-ho!
“Want to go for a second round?”
As his thoughts reached that point, the fog in his mind began to clear. He remembered going to a members-only bar with Yoon Joo-ho, and talking about Choi Hong-seo there.
Clothes. Song Hyun-soo unconsciously checked his clothing first.
He was shirtless, but wearing pants. Song Hyun-soo tugged at the waistband of the unfamiliar pajama pants he was wearing.
Okay, at least the underwear is mine.
It didn’t seem like there was sex, but he couldn’t be sure.
Even straining his ears, he heard no sign of anyone. After rubbing his face with his palms a couple of times, he got out of bed.
His clothes were nowhere to be seen.
“He suddenly asked me for a drink before I left the country. He’s not usually the type to say things like that.”
He had no memory after that moment when he shed tears while saying that. How and when he ended up at Yoon Joo-ho’s house was a complete blackout. This was driving him crazy. I really don’t usually black out. Why today, and why in front of Yoon Joo-ho?
While looking for his clothes, Song Hyun-soo’s gaze suddenly fell on one spot.
Forgetting his anxiety for a moment, he slowly approached the table by the window.
“…”
The book, cat stationery set, and pen set that Song Hyun-soo had gifted were spread out on the table, just like last time. The only difference was that the corners of the book and notebook were more worn. Proof that they had been used a lot.
He’s diligently copying.
Song Hyun-soo, standing and rubbing the back of his neck, looked down at the cover of the notebook, smiled faintly, and turned away.
Then, he carefully opened the door to Master Zone, leaving the bedroom. His back naturally hunched, and his shoulders tensed.
“What are you sneaking around for? Are you a cat?”
Yoon Joo-ho, sitting on the living room sofa, glanced up at him. Song Hyun-soo, who had been peeking through the gap in the door with his hand on the doorknob, stepped into the living room, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.
“Good… morning.”
“Looks like our junior slept very well too.”
Yoon Joo-ho, with his legs crossed, looked towards Song Hyun-soo’s head. Patting his hair, he found it messy and sticking up. He hadn’t noticed the unpleasant smell of someone who had drunk the night before, so he must have showered before sleeping. That’s why his hair was like this.
Wait. Showering means… did we really do it last night?
He scanned Yoon Joo-ho’s expression for a hint, but he seemed as usual.
Shifting his gaze to the script in his hand, he said in a very casual tone.
“There’s tomato juice in the fridge, so drink some.”
“Yes. Thank you, I will.”
As he walked to the kitchen, Song Hyun-soo kept glancing back at Yoon Joo-ho. Occasionally pressing down his hair.
Did nothing happen yesterday? If I had made a mistake, he wouldn’t be this calm.
With a little relief, Song Hyun-soo opened the refrigerator and noticed a red liquid in a transparent jug. Song Hyun-soo, who assumed it was store-bought juice, searched every corner of the fridge, but the only thing that could be guessed as tomato juice was the liquid in the jug.
Did you make it yourself?
Song Hyun-soo quickly turned around. Far away, Yoon Joo-ho, sitting on the sofa, was looking at the script without moving. Even in his own living room, dressed in smart casual attire and wearing a robe, he was the very picture of a prince who looked like he’d never gotten a drop of water on his hands.
Making it himself. I was being too imaginative. Someone must have made it beforehand or left it here.
He took a glass cup from the display cabinet and poured the juice to the brim.
He gulped down the juice to quench the thirst of a hangover. Wow, this is delicious. The way it goes down so smoothly, it must be freshly squeezed juice.
“You seem quite comfortable coming and going from my kitchen?”
Are you a cat? I didn’t even hear your slippers, when did you get here?
Startled by the voice that suddenly came from behind him, Song Hyun-soo flinched. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he turned around and instinctively shrank back, unconsciously taking a couple of steps backward.
“I tried making fried rice once before, too.”
Yoon Joo-ho walked past Song Hyun-soo and deep into the kitchen, fiddling with the capsule machine.
“What about you, hyung? Did you drink the juice?”
“I did.”
The stainless steel coffee machine looked like an espresso machine, not a capsule one. He uses such pretty things for everything.
Well, he did say he preferred beautiful things, no matter what they were.
Putting a capsule into the machine, taking a mug from the display cabinet, and pressing a button. It was just a simple, everyday action. Yoon Joo-ho’s movements were pleasing to watch.
It’s no exaggeration to say he’s lived his life as an actor since birth.
Perhaps it’s a professional habit, moving as if always being filmed.
“But hyung, where are my clothes?”
Yoon Joo-ho, who had started the coffee machine, turned to look at him, a satisfied smile on his lips.
“Your attitude has suddenly become very polite.”
I guess it’s because I can’t remember anything… I feel like the weaker party for some reason.
Pretending to run his hands down his arms, Song Hyun-soo awkwardly covered his chest. Yoon Joo-ho’s gaze was fixed precisely on his nipples.
Leaning against the counter with his arms crossed, Yoon Joo-ho asked, “How much of yesterday do you remember?”
“I remember going to that bar with you, hyung.”
Yoon Joo-ho immediately furrowed his brow. “That’s all?”
“That I talked about Hong-seo…”
“A habitual runaway debtor.”
“Losing my memory has nothing to do with being a runaway debtor… I think…”
As he lost confidence in his words with each forgotten detail, his voice naturally grew quieter.
“You must be terrified because you can’t remember, right?”
Even though I’m terrified, you seem to be having the time of your life.
“Um… did I do something wrong yesterday?”
“……”
Yoon Joo-ho’s gaze, as he simply stared with his arms crossed, sent a chill down Song Hyun-soo’s spine.
Please, Song Hyun-soo, don’t tell me I blabbered nonsense like ‘I like you’ or something while drunk… Surely yesterday’s me wouldn’t do such a cruel thing to today’s me.
“Even if I said anything, it was all nonsense… You don’t need to take it seriously…”
“‘I will never betray you, hyung,’ you said, crying. Was that all nonsense too?”
“I said that?”
“You wouldn’t even let me go to the bathroom, holding onto me. And you have no memory? My sweater got all wet with your tears and snot. Ah… you clung to me and begged so much.”
“Don’t lie!”
Raising his arms to cover his suddenly flushed face, he denied it almost at a shout. While it was plausible, there was also a chance Yoon Joo-ho was just teasing him.
“What do I gain by lying to you? Why do you always accuse me of lying?”
“Ah, I don’t know about that. You could just be having fun teasing me.”
“I have plenty to tease you about, so I don’t need to resort to lies.”
“……”
As the machine stopped, Yoon Joo-ho turned and picked up the mug. Holding the steaming cup of coffee, wearing his robe, he looked like a scene from a coffee commercial he had filmed.
Following his movements, the aroma of coffee spread through the kitchen.
Yoon Joo-ho, who had narrowed the distance from Song Hyun-soo standing by the refrigerator, leaned against the island counter. Then, sipping his coffee, he said, “You said you wouldn’t go home. You cried, saying you’d follow me. Do you remember that?”
“This is a real lie. It’s a lie, right?”
“Then why do you think I brought you here?”
“……”
Because I didn’t want to be separated from you?
“You won’t even tell me your address, and I couldn’t just leave you somewhere random when you were that drunk.”
“…I’m sorry.”
By this point, it seemed unlikely that Yoon Joo-ho was lying or exaggerating. Song Hyun-soo lowered his head, rubbed the back of his neck, and apologized in a dejected voice.
He had been drinking too fast. With Myung Do-hoon dead, he couldn’t stop thinking about Hong-seo. The moment he heard the news, all the emotions he had suppressed seemed to overflow uncontrollably.
Even if Lee Seo-kyung and Myung Do-hoon were dead, Choi Hong-seo could never return… He had felt both relief and emptiness at the news of Myung Do-hoon’s death.
“You’re the victim, why would I despise you? For what reason?”
Yoon Joo-ho’s unique words of comfort, which he had casually offered, came back to him one by one.
Yoon Joo-ho’s way of speaking, which simplified complex problems into very simple ones.
Putting down the nearly empty juice glass, Song Hyun-soo leaned against the counter next to him.
“Then… did anything else happen between us yesterday?”
“What else?”
“You know…”
“What is it?”
His profile, as he held the mug handle with his long fingers and drank coffee, was calm. Finally, the frustrated Song Hyun-soo spoke first.
“We slept in the same bed, hyung, and we’ve already… done… simulated sex, so…”
Pfft, Yoon Joo-ho let out a breathy laugh and placed the mug on the counter. So he knew exactly what I meant and was playing dumb.
Then, he turned his upper body towards Song Hyun-soo, his face filling the space about a foot away. As if intending to seduce him, Yoon Joo-ho put on a look fit for a photoshoot. A face that seemed to exist in slow-motion time.
“You were quite wild, my drunken BB gun. You were so sexy I couldn’t think straight.”
“……”
“I thought I was going to be eaten alive.”