Episode 25

At Seung-hyun’s words, the two people looked at him with surprised faces. Seung-hyun tilted his head and spoke.

“They said they’ll come within 5 minutes, so it would be better to leave right away before the police are called.”

“Isn’t it too much before we even brought up the topic?”

“The one who’s too much is you for invading my rest time like a stalker without an invitation.”

Seung-hyun said calmly. He was curious how they found out and came, but more than that, he wanted to chase away those uninvited guests right away.

“I’m not trying to make a bothersome suggestion. It’s nothing much.”

“If it’s nothing much, you expect me to believe you chased me all the way here?”

Seung-hyun said with a snort. He didn’t know, but it was a nonsensical thing to say.

People as free as Ju Jae-young weren’t that common in this world setting. They must also be struggling to solidify their position in the company, so if they took time out of their busy schedule to come down here, it couldn’t be for a simple reason.

“I thought it would be polite to talk face to face, and while I was at it…”

“It’s amazing someone so well-mannered like you came all the way here.”

Seung-hyun sneered at Hyeokjae who spoke in a flustered voice and wrung out the water from his shirt. He was having fun, but it completely ruined his mood.

“And you.”

He immediately turned his gaze to Seok-hyung. He had a face that seemed to be a bit wary but didn’t think his judgment was wrong.

“The suggestion you made before, consider it never happened. Let’s not just avoid seeing each other for work, but not see each other at all.”

“Director.”

“And please stop calling me Director.”

“What are you doing there! This is private property!”

The caretaker could be seen shouting and running from afar. Hyeokjae and Seok-hyung tried to calm the caretaker.

“We know each other.”

“I don’t know them.”

“Di…”

When Seung-hyun glared at Seok-hyung who was about to call him Director again, he shut his mouth. The caretaker looked at the three people alternately with slightly confused eyes.

‘They say they don’t, but they do seem to know each other… no.’

“Whether you know each other or not, this place is currently rented by this guest, so it’s right for the guest to do as he pleases. Get out.”

The caretaker shooed the two away, waving his hand. Hyeokjae said something and tried to persuade the caretaker, but the more he did so, the caretaker’s voice only got louder.

Seung-hyun, who was watching that, fiddled with his cell phone for a moment and then asked Seok-hyung.

“Seeing how quickly you ran here, I guess you did something to the phone.”

“…It was a safety measure. Director, you previously agreed…”

“I’m sure I didn’t agree for it to be used like this.”

Indeed, Seok-hyung was too burdensome. Seung-hyun looked at his phone for a moment and then walked back to the pool. Then he threw the phone into the water. At the unexplained action, the caretaker and Hyeokjae, who were raising their voices and arguing, also looked at Seung-hyun.

Splash-!

“What are you doing?”

“Oh my, I’ll fish it out right away…”

“There’s no need for that.”

Seung-hyun stopped the caretaker who was about to go into the pool to retrieve the phone. There was no need to retrieve it since he didn’t drop it by mistake.

“What are you doing? Even if I don’t know the details, it’s obvious how much important data is in there…!”

“Is that any of my business?”

Seung-hyun snorted at Hyeokjae who looked angry as if it was his phone that was thrown. How much important data there was, what kind of important story was contained in it, was none of Seung-hyun’s business.

“No, rather, it’s a good thing. I don’t need any room to get involved in bothersome things anyway.”

“…Don’t do something you’ll regret. There’s no need to act in front of us, right?”

With what kind of confidence did he think that way? Seung-hyun looked at Hyeokjae pathetically. More than that, standing with a wet body for a long time made him cold even while wrapped in a towel.

“Sigh… I won’t talk anymore. Just go. Before I call the police.”

“Are you confident you won’t regret it?”

“Yes. I am.”

Seung-hyun said, waving his hand as if it was a bother. The feeling of having his precious vacation interrupted was really the worst.

‘I should’ve thrown away the phone from the beginning. What am I trying to enjoy wealth and honor for…’

He brought a portable tablet anyway, so he could replace most things except for phone and messenger contact.

There was one person he was a bit concerned about… but he could somehow find their contact information, right? It would be fine since he’d buy a new phone as soon as he returned to Seoul anyway.

“Now, now. The guest says he doesn’t like it. If you don’t leave this time, I’ll really call the police.”

The caretaker growled and threatened Hyeokjae. It wasn’t a very threatening face, but Hyeokjae reluctantly nodded, thinking he might get caught up in a troublesome situation if he unnecessarily called the police.

“…I understand. Let’s go for today.”

‘Please get lost forever, not just ‘for today’…’

When one mountain is over, there’s another. Clearing one away, another appears. Seung-hyun grabbed his slightly throbbing head and shook it. The two who finally turned to leave returned to their parked car and started the engine.

“Will you really be okay without your phone? It will be inconvenient…”

“I have a tablet, and there’s nowhere important to contact anyway, so it’s fine. Now that it’s come to this, let’s just quietly focus on the environment.”

Seung-hyun reassured the caretaker who had a worried face. The caretaker, who seemed to be around Seung-hyun’s father’s age, seemed to worry about Seung-hyun more than his real father.

‘He’s a kind person.’

“If you look inside the entrance here, there’s a phone. It’s connected to the management office. Press this and then 101 to connect. Oh my, this is the first time something like this happened… I’m sorry. I should have guarded it well.”

“No. How could you have anticipated a strange person doing a strange thing? Thank you for your concern.”

Seung-hyun rather reassured the caretaker. Before long, the caretaker left again, and only then could Seung-hyun enter the building again. 

“The water activities… I’ll continue tomorrow. It’s not like I’m only staying for a day.”

He entered, shivering, and headed to the bathroom. It felt good while in the water, but perhaps because the air was cold, it felt twice as cold coming out of the water.

“At times like this, I should eat something delicious and forget about it.”

While showering with warm water, he thought about the ingredients he had bought from the mart a little while ago. What should he make to be delicious? He was going to sloppily get by with pork belly and ramyeon today because it was bothersome, but Seung-hyun, who got stressed out from getting unnecessarily involved, decided to cook using the most expensive ingredients.

Even so, it wasn’t much since it was all bought from a neighborhood mart, but there was still the feeling.

“I didn’t expect to be caught by annoying people even after coming all the way here. Sigh… I wish they’d give up on me.”

Seung-hyun muttered while cleaning the shrimp. He thought he wouldn’t even meet Hyeokjae, who appeared from the middle of the novel, but he ended up meeting him at a much earlier point than when he appeared in the actual novel.

Moreover, wasn’t it originally a relationship where Han Seung-hyun was subtly swayed? But he was struggling like that. Seung-hyun was lost in thought as he removed the shrimp heads.

‘He was handsome though…’

Perhaps because they were main and supporting characters in a BL novel, they were all handsome. And they were all handsome in different types.

If Han Tae-sung was a classic handsome man with a slightly irritable feeling, Ju Jae-young had a face that was prettily handsome with a sense of leisure.

Lee Seok-hyung, whose actions made him want to die of frustration, had a steadfast face that suited his personality. Short hair and a stubbornly closed mouth. A face that still showed signs of youth when you looked closely.

‘…Does the face follow the personality?’

Seung-hyun shuddered at the slightly creepy thought and shook his shoulders. What was Jeong Hyeokjae like again? Seung-hyun recalled Hyeokjae’s face, which he hadn’t properly looked at because he was annoyed.

A face that didn’t seem like a young master preciously raised in a chaebol family, but rather looked sharp. If Lee Seok-hyung had the image of a rigid model student, this side had the image of someone who probably played around a lot during his school days.

Should I say he had the image of someone who would cling to something but mercilessly throw it away if things went wrong?

“…Well, they probably designed the image with the personality in mind…”

Seung-hyun muttered, lightly rubbing his ill-tempered looking face. It wasn’t strange that the main and supporting characters were all good-looking, as it was a BL novel buff.

“It’s really amazing that you get annoyed seeing those faces, amazing.”

He shook his head. Honestly, if it wasn’t a terminal illness, he might have hoped, ‘If I do well, maybe I can get along with these handsome men.’ But he knew it was an impossible thing in this situation.

“I’m going to get a handsome face neurosis.”

He was about to get a neurosis on a point he never even thought about in his life. Seung-hyun put the cleaned shrimp aside and immersed himself in the next task.

***

“How can a person change like that? Is he really terminally ill or something?”

“Please don’t say such things lightly.”

“I can’t even joke now. I’m your boss now, you know.”

Seok-hyung glared at Hyeokjae with scary eyes. It was a joke to him, but to Seok-hyung, it was a remark he absolutely couldn’t laugh off.

“Did he really lose interest? But you’re still okay with that?”

“It’s fine. It’s my personal matter.”

Seok-hyung spoke with determined eyes. He had already anticipated that Seung-hyun’s reaction would not be good. But that didn’t mean he had any intention of abandoning his plan.