TBM Vol 2 Part 15

Knock knock.

But there was no response from beyond the door.

Knock knock knock.

The intervals between his knocks grew shorter as he became increasingly impatient. Eventually, he was practically pounding on the door with his fist, and just when he thought someone from next door might come out first, the sound of the door lock being released came from inside.

“Who…”

As the door opened, a pale face peeked out through the gap. Lee Il-seo turned his head, spotted Sa Seung-yeon, and looked up. His large eyes narrowed slightly as if trying to identify the face hidden beneath the hat brim and black mask, then his eyebrows suddenly shot upward.

“Oh, sunbae…”

Lee Il-seo opened the door wider. Not only was he not collapsed, but his complexion looked much better than at the filming site. Seeing Lee Il-seo standing there blankly in an old t-shirt and faded training pants, Sa Seung-yeon felt relief rather than disappointment.

“What brings you here…”

Because I was worried, afraid you might have collapsed alone, and that would make me extremely uncomfortable. Unable to voice any of these thoughts that lingered on the tip of his tongue, Sa Seung-yeon tilted his head to the side.

“Are you going to keep me standing here?”

“Ah, please come in.”

Lee Il-seo quickly moved aside and opened the door wide. The entryway, barely big enough for two adult men to stand in, contained just one pair of toe-insertion slippers and the sneakers Lee Il-seo often wore. Sa Seung-yeon placed his shoes next to them. When he set his shoes down, Lee Il-seo’s clean sneakers looked particularly small in comparison.

The room, like those small sneakers, was maybe six pyeong (about 215 square feet) in size. A mattress in the studio apartment, a low desk with pens, notebooks, and scripts, and a small wardrobe all looked old but were neatly arranged, making the place not particularly dirty.

While slowly surveying the room, Sa Seung-yeon’s eyes narrowed slightly when he spotted a guitar propped up in the corner. Its color and shape seemed familiar, making him feel nostalgic without realizing why, but then he remembered that most entry-level guitars were from that brand.

“I only have instant coffee… Would you like orange juice?”

Hearing the voice from behind him, Sa Seung-yeon shifted his gaze from the guitar. Lee Il-seo was holding a mug with a crude pattern and smiling awkwardly. He seemed embarrassed by the cup with a travel agency character holding a flag, but looking at the half-open cupboard, there didn’t seem to be any cups that weren’t gaudy.

“I’m fine.”

Lee Il-seo, seemingly embarrassed by the cup he’d brought out, took a sip himself to moisten his throat and carefully asked, “What brings you here? I mean, how did you know where I live and come all the way here…”

“Good question. Why would you make someone come all the way here by not answering your phone?”

At Sa Seung-yeon’s words, Lee Il-seo put down his cup and frantically rushed to his phone. His phone had been placed face down with the charger plugged in and set to silent mode, so he hadn’t known Sa Seung-yeon had tried to contact him. Lee Il-seo scratched the back of his head as he stared blankly at the screen.

“You called three times… I’m sorry.”

Sa Seung-yeon massaged his nape, his Adam’s apple bobbing at this unnecessary mention of fact. Hiding his embarrassment, he smoothly changed the subject.

“Did you go to the hospital?”

“Hospital? Ah. Yes.”

Lee Il-seo briefly showed his forearm. Seeing the round bandage attached to the inside of his elbow, it seemed he had received an IV Drip.

Sa Seung-yeon had intended to just check that Lee Il-seo hadn’t collapsed and then leave, but Lee Il-seo looked far more okay than expected, which suddenly made him unsure what to do next. He should say he’d leave now that he’d confirmed Lee Il-seo was safe, but strangely, he found it difficult to step away. Sa Seung-yeon placed one hand on his hip and let out a small sigh.

“I was worried about you.”

Lee Il-seo’s fingers twitched. Sa Seung-yeon voiced what he had intended to keep to himself to Lee Il-seo, who was staring at him as if he’d heard something unbelievable.

“I overheard your manager earlier, about your claustrophobia.”

“Ah…”

Sa Seung-yeon moistened his lips with his tongue before continuing somewhat belatedly.

“The day we went to the exhibition. Were you sick then for the same reason?”

That day, Lee Il-seo had similar struggle to today right after leaving the narrow, dark final exhibition hall. A severe panic state that looked like motion sickness. Back then, Sa Seung-yeon had thought Lee Il-seo was just overly sensitive and weak, and had greedily treated him to a meal before sending him home.

And that dawn, he learned through Lee Il-seo’s manager that Lee Il-seo had gone to the emergency room. By then, he had already plied the unwell Lee Il-seo with alcohol.

It seemed that, unintentionally, he had been cold to Lee Il-seo whenever he was sick. Though it was done unknowingly, memories imprinted during times of illness tend to last particularly long, and Sa Seung-yeon felt concerned about the harsh words he had spoken to Lee Il-seo.

“I didn’t know it was serious. I’m sorry.”

“Ah, it’s okay. Really.”

Lee Il-seo’s cheeks flushed red, and he quickly averted his gaze, as if he found it very embarrassing to receive a direct apology. With his head bowed, Lee Il-seo continued in a small voice.

“I’ll take better care of myself from now on.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Sa Seung-yeon removed his mask with a small sigh. He hadn’t brought it up to hear this kind of promise, and somehow it made him feel stifled. Sa Seung-yeon shifted his gaze to the script neatly spread out on the low desk.

“Were you reading the script?”

“Ah, yes.”

“If you’re sick, just rest.”

“There are many parts that are getting more difficult…”

Lee Il-seo scratched the back of his head with a faint smile. After staring at Lee Il-seo, Sa Seung-yeon plopped down in the empty space opposite the desk.

“Which parts are difficult?”

“Pardon?”

“Since I’m here, I’ll help you.”

The large eyes immediately brightened. Lee Il-seo picked up the script on the desk and sat opposite him. Rehearsing together before filming definitely reduced rehearsal time. And since most of Sa Seung-yeon’s suggestions perfectly matched Director Chae’s preferences, Lee Il-seo couldn’t refuse Sa Seung-yeon’s help.

Lee Il-seo opened the script and rapidly flipped through the pages to find a scene where Jang Tae-hyun and Haru were together.

“Scene number five, Haru…”

“Just start the dialogue.”

The script scene, the difficult emotion, the shared moment—all took an unexpected turn as their practice became more than just acting.

 i don’t think this is supposed to be here

Lee Il-seo, who was about to explain the scene, put down the script and slowly pronounced the lines from a part where emotional expression was somewhat difficult. Sa Seung-yeon’s expression, as he sat facing him, also gradually became serious.

It was a scene where the two characters talked after confirming their feelings following Haru’s kidnapping. With a serious expression, Sa Seung-yeon exchanged lines and offered advice on the parts Lee Il-seo found awkward, while Lee Il-seo picked up a pen and wrote down a few words in small handwriting.

The neat handwriting meticulously written in the blank spaces of the script was exactly like the tidy and orderly Lee Il-seo himself. Sa Seung-yeon chuckled and said, “You still haven’t broken that writing habit.”

“I tried to do it like you, sunbae, but maybe because I’m not that smart, I kept forgetting.”

Lee Il-seo scratched the back of his head, pushed the script forward, and moved a little closer. Lee Il-seo’s characteristic scent of ripened fruit subtly spread between them.

“For this part, would it be strange if I grabbed your hand first?”

“Grab it.”

“Like this?”

A small hand suddenly approached and firmly grasped his hand. Watching the awkward fumbling, Sa Seung-yeon interlaced his long, slender fingers with Lee Il-seo’s and replied, “Like this”. 

Lee Il-seo silently nodded and carefully withdrew his hand.

“And then… Should I stand up here?”

As if wondering what Lee Il-seo would have done if they hadn’t agreed to practice, he kept asking questions he had apparently been accumulating on his own. Sa Seung-yeon leaned toward Lee Il-seo’s side, scanned the script, and answered.

“No, here I need to be more aggressive with the kiss, so I’d rather you pull my body more definitively.”

“How do I pull you?”

“Lie down.”

Before they knew it, practice had flowed to the kiss scene. Finding it frustrating to just talk it through, they pushed aside the desk and lay on the floor to align their positions. Sa Seung-yeon told the hesitant Lee Il-seo to cling more actively.

“Wrap your arms around my neck like this.”

Sa Seung-yeon knelt down, placing his hands on the floor as if caging Lee Il-seo with his limbs. In this position, Haru wrapping arms around Jang Tae-hyun’s neck and back to pull him down would increase the intensity. Sa Seung-yeon took both of Lee Il-seo’s hands and placed them around his own neck.

Following Sa Seung-yeon’s instructions and putting his weight into it, Lee Il-seo furrowed his brows and asked quietly, “Am I not too heavy?”

“What?”

Sa Seung-yeon burst into laughter, feeling defeated. Though Lee Il-seo was practically clinging to him, he felt no weight at all.

“You worry about the strangest things. Just act.”

“Ah, yes.”

But this was a part without dialogue. So Sa Seung-yeon and Lee Il-seo stared at each other with the expressions of Jang Tae-hyun and Haru after confirming their love.

“…”

“…”

As the silence lengthened, the atmosphere became peculiar. This was the timing for Jang Tae-hyun to lower his face for a kiss. A brief deliberation crossed Sa Seung-yeon’s eyes. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t practiced kissing scenes before. However, Lee Il-seo was no longer inexperienced enough to need kiss practice.

Moreover, since this was just a casual dialogue practice, there was no real need for their lips to meet. Nevertheless, Sa Seung-yeon’s gaze had already slowly dropped from Lee Il-seo’s amber eyes, past the bridge of his nose, to his red lips.

A faint, warm breath could be felt through the slightly parted lips where white front teeth were visible. With Lee Il-seo’s lips in his gaze, Sa Seung-yeon lowered his head at an angle, and just as only a paper-thin space remained between them, he felt Lee Il-seo’s breath.

Sa Seung-yeon parted his lips to softly capture the plump, soft lips.

The moment he felt the touch of lips that were much hotter and moister than expected, he sensed Lee Il-seo’s hands around his neck and back twitched.

Beneath his lowered eyelids, Sa Seung-yeon’s eyes darkened further. Lee Il-seo’s reactions were like paper—drawing a line leaves a mark, cutting leaves a cut, crumpling leaves a crease—and he found this interesting. When he deeply overlapped with the concave part of the lips and sucked the tender flesh more forcefully, Lee Il-seo’s breathing immediately intensified.

Soon, from Lee Il-seo’s side too, as if he had been waiting, he raised his head slightly and overlapped his lips more deeply. Sa Seung-yeon took off his hat and tossed it to the floor. Through moistly parted lips, their tongues became deeply entwined, with neither taking the lead.

Jang Tae-hyun and Haru. Sa Seung-yeon and Lee Il-seo. The kiss continued, blurring the boundaries between the four characters. The way they rushed at each other as if parched made it seem like Haru and Jang Tae-hyun’s kiss, but in reality, the work had long evaporated from both their minds.

“Hmm, mmph.”

After overlapping their lips, he lowered his head to the jaw and neck. As he rubbed the white flesh with his tongue and sucked, a nasal sound finally escaped from Lee Il-seo’s mouth. But the escaping moan abruptly stopped shortly after it began.

When Sa Seung-yeon, who had his eyes closed, opened them and looked down at Lee Il-seo, the parted lips were now tightly closed.

“…Why?”

His voice flowed low and dry, his excitement had not yet subsided. Lee Il-seo slowly opened his eyes and lowered his head. With reddened eyes, he whispered in a small voice, looking troubled.

“Here, the soundproofing…”

It was a place where the building’s soundproofing was so poor that you could hear the neighbor’s phone ringing if you were quiet. And there was also someone living next door who was so sensitive to noise that they would pound on the wall in protest within minutes if you played the guitar.

Sa Seung-yeon stared at the faded wallpaper and gritted his molars. A deep shadow formed on his firm jaw.

But he disliked that Lee Il-seo couldn’t concentrate because he was trying to hold back. His usually expressionless, dry face had turned bright red with just a few kisses. His eyes, accustomed to pretending to be fine whether in pain or suffering, were now tearfully wet, driven to the limit by pleasure. When Lee Il-seo was like this, Sa Seung-yeon’s head grew hot with the satisfaction of breaking down something that had been intact.

When they were intimate, Lee Il-seo seemed awkward at first, but after a short while, he clung with expressions and gazes Sa Seung-yeon had never seen before. Though he might not know what to do at first, once he started feeling pleasure, he never withdrew and honestly showed his excitement just as it was. He wasn’t a worn-out person pretending to be shy, nor did he act vulgarly.

‘So sensual.’