Chapter 39: The Rooftop Apartment’s Unwelcome Guest

Coming out completely naked after a shower was a habit Yeon-ho had developed since living alone.

When he lived in the dorms with the other members, he would always put on everything from his underwear to his shirt and pants. Although it was an environment shared by men, cameras were often installed in the dorms for content creation.

However, since living alone, there was no need to worry about cameras or roommates. More importantly, the rooftop apartment’s bathroom was simply too cramped for an adult man to dress in. Whenever he moved to pull on his underwear, he’d inevitably bump his elbows or head against something.

The dresser where he kept his clothes was also right next to the bathroom, making it far more convenient to step out and dress rather than try to bring his clothes inside.

Unaware of these circumstances, Tae-young stared intently at Yeon-ho, who was drenched from head to toe. The intense gaze, as if he were looking at an uncouth individual, instantly provoked Yeon-ho.

“Why are you staring like that? Can’t I walk around naked in my own home?”

Drips of water trailing onto the floor, Yeon-ho opened his dresser. Though he needed to quickly grab any pair of underwear, for some reason, he kept unfolding them only to shove them back in, as if choosing an outfit for a party.

‘Why are they all so old and shabby?’

Yeon-ho hadn’t paid any attention to his underwear since retiring as an idol. There was no need to show his underwear to anyone else, except perhaps when going to a public bathhouse.

Yeon-ho meticulously searched through every drawer, from the first to the fifth, in pursuit of a usable pair. Each time he sat and stood, the towel, which precariously covered his backside, stretched taut.

Just like the deepening slits of dolphin shorts, the area the towel failed to cover expanded. Lost in his search for underwear, Yeon-ho remained utterly oblivious to this fact.

‘This should do it.’

His thorough search to the bottom of the drawer proved fruitful. Finding a pair of underwear he had received as a sponsorship long ago and then neglected, Yeon-ho hastily tore open the packaging.

The fact that they were red bothered him slightly, but he rationalized that if others wore leopard print, this was perfectly acceptable.

After pulling on the red boxer briefs, he retrieved a shirt and shorts from the drawer. As he slipped his arms into the shirt, he felt something akin to a breath brush against his backside.

‘It must be the wind, right?’

Yeon-ho assumed the heat of the day was making the breeze warm. However, just as the shirt passed over his head, a sharp sting erupted on his rear.

Puzzled, he turned around, only to see Tae-young biting his backside with a firm grip.

“…You crazy bastard!”

Yeon-ho recoiled in horror, pushing Tae-young’s forehead. Yet, Tae-young clung to Yeon-ho’s bottom like a dog unwilling to relinquish its favorite toy.

“If you’re going to get drunk, do it gracefully! Are you a pervert?”

Yeon-ho couldn’t bring himself to grab Tae-young’s hair, so instead, he tugged on his ear. Only then did Tae-young grimace and release Yeon-ho’s backside.

“Ow. Your hands are so harsh. I thought my ear was going to fall off.”

Tae-young rubbed his ear with his palm, grumbling.

Yeon-ho was dumbfounded, having been bitten on the rear out of nowhere. He was the one who had suffered an indignity, so why was Tae-young acting as if he were the wronged party?

“Are you a dog?”

“What can I do if it looked like an apple? I like apples.”

Yeon-ho despaired at Tae-young’s nonsensical rambling.

‘It’s my fault for trying to reason with a guy who’s turned into a dog from drinking.’

His pronunciation was quite clear, which had led Yeon-ho to believe he had sobered up a bit, but that was clearly not the case. If anything, he seemed even less coherent than before he’d passed out.

“Huh?”

Tae-young, who had been sitting with a blank expression, suddenly adopted a serious look.

“Why? Feeling unwell?”

“There’s something hanging in front.”

“Front?”

Realizing where Tae-young’s gaze was directed, Yeon-ho’s face flushed crimson.

“Of course there is! What, did you expect nothing?”

“Ha.”

Yeon-ho felt offended by Tae-young’s disgusted expression, as if he had seen something appalling. Still, judging by his current reaction, it seemed he hadn’t properly seen it when Yeon-ho first emerged from the bathroom.

“Call someone to come pick you up.”

Yeon-ho finished dressing in his shirt and pants, then extended his phone to Tae-young. However, Tae-young ignored it and abruptly pulled off his own shirt.

“Why are you taking that off?”

Yeon-ho picked up the shirt Tae-young had discarded and tossed it back at him. The shirt hit Tae-young’s face, then bounced off his chest and fell to the floor.

Tae-young’s chest was broad and muscular, like a swimmer’s. Yeon-ho knew he had a good physique, but seeing his bare torso with his own eyes for the first time made him feel oddly nervous.

‘That mark on his side, it looks like a stitched wound.’

Yeon-ho glanced at Tae-young’s body and noticed the scar. It appeared to be from surgery or perhaps a long, sharp object like a knife or a metal pipe.

As Yeon-ho tilted his head in thought, Tae-young stripped off his pants and tossed them. Yeon-ho gasped, throwing the pants back at Tae-young.

“Hey, put those back on!”

“No. It’s hot and stuffy.”

Tae-young replied in a sleepy tone and lay down on the floor. Even when Yeon-ho urged him to get dressed again, Tae-young remained motionless, with both hands placed near his solar plexus. His eyes, of course, were closed.

“Is he really going back to sleep?”

Yeon-ho was utterly flabbergasted, seeing Tae-young asleep in a pharaoh-like pose. His steady breathing suggested he wasn’t faking it.

“His drinking habits are truly awful.”

After causing all sorts of trouble, he was now soundly asleep. Yeon-ho wondered what kind of nerve he had.

Yeon-ho sat on the floor, his face etched with exhaustion. It hadn’t been long since his shower, yet he was already sweating again. Attributing it all to Tae-young, he switched on the fan.

A powerful gust of wind swept through the cramped rooftop room with a *whoosh*. But with two adult men in such a small space, a single fan couldn’t adequately lower the temperature.

To cool himself, Yeon-ho retrieved an ice pack from the freezer. Initially, he intended to take only one for himself, but then he decided to share an ice pack with Tae-young. Of course, it wasn’t out of affection.

‘If that guy gets heatstroke in his sleep, I’ll have to deal with the consequences.’

Tae-young would undoubtedly blame Yeon-ho, disregarding all circumstances, much like someone who, after being rescued from drowning, demands their belongings with a furious shout.

‘I should have just left him at the barbecue restaurant.’

Yeon-ho, regretting his decision for what felt like the hundredth time, placed an ice pack near Tae-young’s ankle. He had once heard that cool feet made one feel less hot.

‘His feet are enormous.’

Were they nearly two hand spans long? It was natural for a tall person to have large feet, but Yeon-ho didn’t know anyone with feet quite this big. Since Yeon-ho himself had relatively small feet for his height, it struck him as even more peculiar.

Yeon-ho subtly extended his own foot to compare its size with Tae-young’s. The sight of an adult’s foot alongside a child’s left Yeon-ho flustered. He knew there would be a difference, but seeing it firsthand made the impact entirely different.

‘How many centimeters are his feet? Is he even Korean?’

Yeon-ho searched for Tae-young’s shoe size online. He found an interview article stating that Tae-young’s shoe size was 295mm, and his stylist often struggled to find shoes for him.

“295? They look even bigger than that.”

Yeon-ho gazed at Tae-young’s bare feet with skepticism. Objectively, 295mm was an enormous size. However, to his naked eye, the difference between his feet and Tae-young’s seemed greater than 5cm, making him doubt the article’s accuracy.

Could he have understated his shoe size, just like his height?

Tae-young was over 190cm tall, but at his debut, his official profile listed him as 188cm. His agency had reduced it due to the perception that actors over 190cm were less preferred for casting.

‘Whether he lies about his shoe size or not.’

Yeon-ho decided to stop wasting time and clean up Tae-young’s clothes.

As he kneeled to pick up the clothes Tae-young had thrown off, Yeon-ho’s gaze accidentally fell upon Tae-young’s center. A gasp escaped him, and he doubted his own eyes at the sheer presence there. He had thought Tae-young’s foot size seemed beyond Korean standards earlier, but now he realized his feet were merely child’s play.

*Ding.*

Tae-young’s phone chimed with a message notification. The sound jolted Yeon-ho back to reality. A wave of embarrassment washed over him as he realized what he had been staring at so intently.

“…I really shouldn’t drink so much.”

Yeon-ho blamed the alcohol unnecessarily, turning to face the wall. But he couldn’t keep staring at the wall in this cramped room. He carefully folded the shirt he held and used it to cover Tae-young’s lower abdomen. The sight was a bit comical, but he thought it was better to be funny than to feel awkward every time he turned his head.

‘Should I check the message?’

The thought that it might be Kim Jin-woo’s contact crossed his mind, but he was too sleepy and tired. Instead of checking Tae-young’s phone, Yeon-ho unceremoniously pushed Tae-young, who was hogging the middle of the room, to the side. He needed to make space for himself to sleep.

*Click.*

He pulled out his blanket and pillow, then switched off the light. Yeon-ho initially lay on his back, then turned onto his side. The room was so small that even a slight toss or turn made his body brush against Tae-young’s, which was uncomfortable.

*Hiss, hiss.*

Perhaps because of the darkness, Tae-young’s breathing was excessively clear. He wondered if he might even hear Tae-young’s heartbeat. But if he could hear Tae-young’s heartbeat, the reverse would also be possible. Realizing this abruptly, Yeon-ho crossed his arms, as if to conceal his own heart’s rhythm.

He had been incredibly sleepy, but once he lay down, his drowsiness vanished. Even when he forced his eyes shut, he would find them open again before he knew it.

‘It’s already 4:30. I need to get some sleep if I’m going to work later.’

He even counted numbers, desperately trying to fall asleep. But Yeon-ho’s consciousness, like flowing rainwater, drifted towards the man lying beside him. Every time he heard a minor sound that a person couldn’t help but make—Tae-young shifting, or swallowing—Yeon-ho flinched.

‘Was I always this sensitive to sound?’

During his dorm life, he had considered himself immune to noise. He had slept soundly, regardless of whether his roommate snored, ground their teeth, or talked on the phone with their girlfriend all night. Why couldn’t he do the same today?

Come to think of it, it had been an incredibly long time since he’d shared a room with someone. He had lived alone ever since being kicked out of the dorms, so it had been almost two years since someone had slept beside him.

‘It’s just unfamiliar to have someone else here.’

Yeon-ho felt a rush of emotions, realizing how accustomed he had become to living alone. Until late last year, living alone had been profoundly lonely, but now, having someone beside him was so uncomfortable that he couldn’t sleep.

‘It wasn’t Han Tae-young who was making me uncomfortable.’

With the source of his unease identified, his mind relaxed. The drowsiness, which had been darting away like an elusive cat, returned to Yeon-ho’s embrace.

Just as Yeon-ho was on the verge of sleep, Tae-young’s hand lightly tapped his back.

‘He must have hit me in his sleep, right?’

He was a little surprised, but everyone tossed and turned a bit while sleeping. Yeon-ho brushed away Tae-young’s hand from his back and tried to sleep again.

However, it wasn’t long before Tae-young disturbed his sleep once more. The hand that had tapped Yeon-ho’s back earlier now groped along it, as if searching for something.

‘This guy has surprisingly bad sleeping habits.’

Indeed, given Han Tae-young’s personality, it would have been stranger if his sleeping habits were gentle. Yeon-ho thought this would pass quickly and left Tae-young’s hand alone.

But Tae-young didn’t just stop; he turned fully onto his side, then pulled Yeon-ho into his embrace. It was a decisive and swift movement, like an alligator dragging its prey into a swamp.