Chapter 45: The Smell of Perfume

It was even before Woo-joo could ask for something to catch it with.

Terrified at the sight of the cockroach, Ji-tae shoved Woo-joo into the room and slammed the door shut.

Woo-joo turned the handle, but the door only rattled and wouldn’t open.

That meant someone was holding the handle from the outside.

“…….”

Left alone in the room with the cockroach, Woo-joo blinked slowly.

“That guy is dead once I get out of here.”

Woo-joo’s eyebrows twitched as he glared toward the wall where the cockroach was clinging.

Late at night, that was how the cockroach met its end.

***

“What are you doing? Why aren’t you going in? I told you I caught it.”

Woo-joo barked at Ji-tae, who was rubbing the back of his head in front of the door.

The moment Woo-joo had finished the job and stepped out, he had delivered a blow to the back of Won Ji-tae’s head for trapping him in a room with a monster.

He hadn’t even put much strength into it, but Ji-tae was making such a fuss about the pain that Woo-joo’s ears were ringing.

“…I don’t want to go in.”

“Do you have mysophobia or something?”

“No. But you know that saying. If a cockroach is out in the open and visible to humans, the inside is already infested with….”

“Does that even make sense? The writer even said there are a lot of bugs here because we’re near the mountains.”

“What if it laid eggs…?”

“If you ever find yourself out of work, try being a novelist. Your imagination isn’t just flying; it’s overflowing.”

“You can only say that because it’s not your room.”

It was already well past 11:00 PM.

Woo-joo had no idea what they were doing, staying awake because of a cockroach commotion.

He was starting to get tired of shouting at him to go in and sleep for the past ten minutes.

“Fine then, sleep in the living room. Do whatever you want. I’m going in.”

Woo-joo irritably ruffled his hair and headed down the stairs.

Then, he heard the sound of someone following behind him.

“Are you really going to sleep in the living room?”

Ji-tae nodded.

He expressed a firm stance that he could not, under any circumstances, sleep in that room today.

His reason was that every time he closed his eyes, he’d remember making eye contact with the cockroach.

“Have it your way.”

Woo-joo let out a long sigh as he watched Ji-tae clumsily spread out a blanket on the sofa.

Like a cold-hearted parent leaving a child throwing a tantrum on the floor of a supermarket for a toy, Woo-joo entered his room without a hint of regret.

What was he even planning to do with a body that big?

Woo-joo shook his head and pulled back his covers.

Then, it suddenly occurred to him how wide this bed was.

Since it was a residence for filming, the production crew seemed to have put quite a bit of effort into it, as all the furniture was of high quality.

Of course, this bed in each room was large enough for two adults to lie down comfortably.

So, on the first day, he had even wondered if he really needed such a huge bed while sleeping alone.

“Ah, seriously.”

In the end, Woo-joo flung his door open and grabbed the arm of the guy who was just about to lie down on the sofa.

“Why?”

Ji-tae followed Woo-joo’s lead in a daze, unable to take his eyes off the large, white hand gripping his wrist.

Woo-joo, having led Ji-tae into his room, pointed abruptly at his bed.

“If you really can’t sleep in your room tonight, sleep here.”

“What does that mean? Then are you going to sleep on the sofa?”

“This is my room, so why would I sleep on the sofa?”

Then what?

Ji-tae tilted his head as if he didn’t understand the situation.

Thinking it would be faster to show him than to explain in words, Woo-joo crawled toward the inner side of the bed.

“You said you have insomnia. A guy like you is really going to sleep well on that uncomfortable sofa? So, let’s just sleep here together for today.”

“Huh?”

As if finally understanding Woo-joo’s words, Ji-tae reacted a beat late.

Why was he acting so startled when he had simply suggested they sleep together?

“It—It’s fine. I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep because I’ll be worried about you tossing and turning out there, so just sleep here.”

“No……”

Ji-tae’s lips parted.

Yet, for some reason, the firm words saying he would sleep outside got stuck in his throat.

In that moment, Seon-hyeok’s warning not to use the broadcast to satisfy his personal desires flickered through his mind.

“I won’t ask a third time. Are you really not lying down?”

Woo-joo patted the spot next to him with his palm.

“…Then, just for today.”

At the mention of not asking again, Ji-tae abruptly sat down on the bed.

Then, he completely erased Seon-hyeok’s voice from his head.

The elders were right when they said one can never predict what will happen in life.

Ji-tae never thought he would live to see the day he’d feel grateful even to a cockroach.

He had only come out because he truly felt he couldn’t sleep in a room where a giant bug had appeared, but to think it would bring about such luck.

In the dark room where the lights were out, Ji-tae swallowed hard.

Woo-joo was lying on the inner side, and Ji-tae was on the outer side.

His five senses, acclimated to the darkness, were more than developed—they were wide open.

He wanted to turn his body toward Woo-joo, but strangely, his body had gone stiff.

“Won Ji-tae.”

Startled by Woo-joo’s sudden voice, Ji-tae flinched.

“Yeah?”

Turning his head slightly, the sight of Woo-joo’s face lying on the pillow entered his view.

He never imagined he would get to see such a sight in his life.

“You’re going to fall off in your sleep. Move closer to this side. There’s plenty of room.”

It was true; currently, Ji-tae was precariously hanging off the edge of the bed.

One wrong move and he might roll onto the floor.

“Or… are you uncomfortable sleeping with someone else?”

“No. No, it’s not that.”

Ji-tae moved his body quickly, fearing Woo-joo might tell him to leave.

With a reasonable distance between them, the two men lay side by side, facing the ceiling.

Ji-tae glanced to the side.

Woo-joo had his eyes closed.

The moonlight leaking through the window illuminated Woo-joo’s face.

No matter when he looked, it was a neat and clean face.

Had he become a celebrity instead of a volleyball player with that face, he surely would have been successful.

Lowering his gaze slightly, a small mole on the outer curve of his left ear caught his eye.

It was a mole Ji-tae knew well.

Back in high school, while resting during a practice match, he had discovered that small mole and thought it was quite cute.

Eventually, when his thoughts crossed the line and he imagined putting that ear in his mouth and rolling it around until the area with the mole swelled, Ji-tae had experienced his first nocturnal emission.

After that, he had fallen into intense self-loathing and couldn’t look Kang Woo-joo in the eye for quite a while.

“Don’t you have any schedules lately?”

At that moment, Woo-joo slowly opened his eyes and spoke up.

Ji-tae quickly turned his head away by a split second.

“Suddenly?”

“No, just because. It felt like you’ve only been at home lately.”

“Actually, I’ll have quite a few starting next week. There are commercial shoots and a pictorial shoot scheduled.”

He heard the rustling of the pillow.

It was the sound of Woo-joo nodding.

“Speaking of commercials, I’ve seen your perfume ad before.”

“The one for that foreign brand?”

“Yeah.”

Perhaps unable to fall asleep, Woo-joo had properly opened the door for conversation.

In fact, Ji-tae preferred it this way.

He loved hearing Woo-joo’s voice, which echoed softly through the low night air.

This moment of sharing a conversation with him was incredibly precious and comfortable.

“Watching the commercial, your expression was so greasy that I couldn’t watch it to the end.”

“Hey, there are plenty of fans who became my ‘stans’ because of that commercial, you know?”

When Ji-tae got defensive, Woo-joo laughed out loud.

He was clearly planning to tease him again.

Ji-tae couldn’t help but feel slighted.

It was already a famous luxury brand, but after the model changed to Ji-tae, sales had nearly doubled, and the commercial had been a huge success.

And yet, he called it greasy.

“It seemed like a very famous perfume.”

“That’s right. The scent is subtle and lasts a very long time, so I use it too.”

“Really?”

Woo-joo turned his head.

His heart stung a little as their eyes met.

“Yeah. I sprayed it every time I went out. You never smelled it?”

“No.”

For some reason, he felt deflated.

He had sprayed it diligently every time they went out together because he wanted to look good to someone.

He had even sprayed it when going to a mart just 10 minutes away by car, but it seemed it was all for nothing.

“You… how can a person be so dense……?”

“Is my sense of smell a bit dull? So, did you spray it today too?”

“Yeah. On my hands and neck. But I showered, so…….”

He was about to say the scent would be gone when Woo-joo suddenly grabbed Ji-tae’s hand and lifted it toward his face.

He placed his nose exactly on the wrist and began to sniff.

Ji-tae’s pupils wavered at the sight of Woo-joo closing his eyes and struggling to find the scent that had already faded.

The skin touched by his breath tingled.

When he couldn’t smell anything, Woo-joo instinctively pressed his face closer.

His lips lightly brushed against the thick wrist.

Ji-tae bit the inside of his cheek.

“I can’t really smell anything? Is my sense of smell really that bad? I’ve never heard that before. Hey, you said you sprayed it on your neck too?”

Why on earth was it so important whether he could smell it or not?

It seemed like he wanted to be proven right about his poor sense of smell no matter what.

Or perhaps he really wanted to smell the perfume.

Woo-joo’s competitive streak was burning in a strange place.

“No, but I showered……”