SWAP 19

The first thing Seoul did after finally escaping from the blanket was to grab Seo Saheon by the collar and give him a good shake. When he pressed him to explain the bizarre behavior of sneaking into someone else’s room and turning off all the alarms, Saheon, who willingly let himself be shaken, offered an excuse with a nonchalant face. “The air conditioner in my room broke.” At those words, the strength slipped from Seoul’s fingertips which had been gripping the T-shirt. Why would an air conditioner that was working perfectly until yesterday suddenly break?

If there was one thing Saheon was uniquely vulnerable to, it was the heat.

If that was true, it made sense that he would have opened Seoul’s door more than a hundred times.

Perhaps sensing the hesitation, Saheon yawned slightly and added with a face devoid of reflection, “I saw you were cold, so I wrapped you in the blanket and held you. Why?”

“…….”

Seoul’s pupils shook as if an earthquake had struck.

Unless he was crazy, he must have really suffered from heatstroke.

I should just roughly brush this off here as a mistake or a sleeping habit. He was flustered as to why Saheon was speaking that way when he clearly knew everything was being captured by the cameras. Seoul’s voice dropped an octave as he let go of the collar he had been holding merely for show. First of all, he had to stay calm.

“Are you not fully awake yet? Or did you really get heatstroke? Saheon-ah, we have to pack our bags and leave later.”

Seo Saheon, we are filming right now.

He tried to say it as indirectly as possible, but the slumping man showed no particular change in expression.

“I know.”

“You know, so why are you saying things like—like that….”

“Like what?”

“…….”

“…….”

“That… hah. Forget it.”

Judging by the atmosphere, it didn’t seem like a proper conversation would follow. Noticing Saheon’s reaction—which was subtly lethargic even if he didn’t show it—Seoul pressed the air conditioner power button again with a sigh. He’s only quiet like this when he’s hot. When Seoul said his head hurt, Saheon had already spent a good deal of time fussing over his forehead and neck to check if he had caught a cold.

It was only after an exasperated Seoul explained that his head hurt because he was flabbergasted by Saheon… that Saheon finally stopped, but even after that, he didn’t pick up the remote. Seeing him act like this despite claiming he came here because his room was too hot, Seoul didn’t know whether to call him thoughtful or a fool. Seoul, unable to get a sense of it, eventually lowered the temperature to the power-cool setting and climbed off the bed.

“I’m going to go wash up first, so wake yourself up. It’s already 9 o’clock.”

“Mmh.”

“You packed your suitcase haphazardly, didn’t you? Let’s check that first after breakfast.”

“Yeah….”

“Don’t go back to sleep.”

“…….”

“Seo Saheon.”

Even when called by name, Saheon had already closed his eyes after lying back down on the bed. He looked quite pleased with the cold wind pouring from the ceiling, so Seoul gave up on talking further and opened the bedroom door. When am I going to wake him up again? While he was rubbing his face in frustration, he suddenly came face-to-face with a camera installed in the hallway. His gaze shifted almost reflexively.

Ah, this is a variety show.

Belatedly realizing this, he awkwardly turned his head away again.

Since it was his daily routine not to look directly into a camera lens unless there was a specific direction, it felt somewhat strange. It was also his first time standing in front of a camera without a script. The cast members of the previous seasons he had studied for practice seemed to talk to the camera about all sorts of things while alone… but he didn’t have the courage to go that far, so he just moved his legs awkwardly.

But weren’t there too many cameras?

They were only filming here for half a day anyway.

He felt that the manpower that swarmed in yesterday evening to install these was a waste, but actually, from that point on, it was out of his hands. Thinking that the judgment of the production team, who had led several seasons, would be more correct than his own short insight, Seoul entered the bathroom while rubbing around his eye sockets. Soon, he fell into momentary despair upon seeing the state of his hair, which was all disheveled and frizzy.

Ah.

“Saheon-ah, now….”

It was when Seoul, who had gone ahead and finished a shower, opened the door again.

The moment he entered, he instinctively flinched at the chill hitting his skin.

Checking around the bed where Saheon appeared motionless as if he wasn’t even cold, Seoul strode toward the window without hesitation. Instead of turning on the lights, he threw open the blackout curtains that had been tightly closed.

The room, which had been pitch dark, brightened in an instant.

Unlike Seoul, who couldn’t fall asleep if it was bright, Saheon was the type who possessed the ability to sleep anywhere as long as he laid his head down. Still, Seoul chose this method because there was usually a reaction—like burying his face in a pillow—when the sunlight hit his eyes. Since the room had good lighting despite being blocked off, Seoul turned around thinking Saheon would wake up a bit, only to be left speechless.

“Hah.”

Saheon, covered by a single thin blanket, was indeed asleep without moving, just as expected.

The problem was a single T-shirt thrown off haphazardly that was half-dangling off the bed, unlike before.

Seoul had already told him a hundred times to be careful during filming. He didn’t know what on earth Saheon was doing, having turned the air conditioner on so high and then doing this. Seoul let out a deep sigh and tapped on the glass window in front of him.

“Excuse me. Mr. Seo Saheon.”

“…….”

“The sun is up, so please stop and get up.”

However, he was not the type to wake up from just this much noise.

After a few attempts, Seoul eventually got tired and moved to the bedside.

It was cute how he was lying facedown with his face half-buried in the pillow, as if the light was indeed blinding. However, as he got closer, the broad back exposed outside the blanket became clear, and Seoul fell into brief contemplation. The defined muscles, looking as if shadows had been carefully added with a brush, and the prominent shoulder blades with the hollow dip between them, were unnecessarily erotic… looking much closer to a different kind of video than a healing variety show.

Come to think of it, what was the age rating for the variety show?

Feeling a bit annoyed that even his shoulder blades were handsome, Seoul pulled up the blanket that had slid down and shook Saheon’s shoulder.

Even though the room was this cold, the skin touched beneath his palm was hot. Seoul, who flinched and pulled his hand away unconsciously, soon composed his expression as if nothing was wrong and spoke. This was because he recognized that the camera was watching, even if Seo Saheon couldn’t see.

“I told you not to go back to sleep.”

“…….”

“And why did you take your clothes off? I left after turning the air conditioner on for you.”

He probably couldn’t stand it and threw them off in his sleep. Since it was Saheon’s daily routine to walk around half-naked whenever summer came, Seoul had even warned him in advance, but it had all been for naught. When he shook the shoulder once more with an exasperated heart, a low sigh was heard. At the reaction that finally returned, Seoul sat on the edge of the bed and chattered. Get up, Seo Saheon.

“Are you awake?”

“…No.”

“You just woke up.”

“…….”

“Saheon-ah. Is hiding just your head everything? Are you a pheasant?”

Perhaps he really didn’t want to get up, as the face buried in the pillow hid even more tightly. It was funny how he was fumbling around pointlessly, even though his large frame couldn’t be fully hidden like that. Are you really a pheasant? It was when Seoul whispered in a voice now tinged with a bit of playfulness. Saheon, who hadn’t given any answer, suddenly reached out.

“You’re noisy, Seoul-ah….”

By the time Seoul, whose wrist had been pulled, regained his senses, he had already flopped down onto the spot next to Saheon.

Stunned by the situation that happened in an instant, he just blinked his eyes blankly.

What is this… just as he was about to turn his head, Saheon, who had turned toward Seoul at some point, muttered in a low voice without even opening his eyes.

“You sleep more, too.”

“…….”

“I’ll put you to sleep… let’s sleep for just one more hour….”

With that, he gently patted below Seoul’s collarbone with his large hand.

As if he were soothing a child who had been pestering to play since dawn.

Because the situation was no different from earlier, it was absurd, but on the other hand, Seoul’s head throbbed thinking that Saheon must have put him back to sleep this way. If he hadn’t set another alarm, wouldn’t they have really slept until the afternoon? No matter how much it was a shoot capturing daily life, he couldn’t just show them sleeping the whole time.

Still, unlike before, he wasn’t in a state of being rolled up in the blanket.

Just as Seoul, thinking that much was a relief, tried to hurry and get up from the bed, his expression soon became subtle. This was because Saheon’s palm, which had stopped patting and was placed on top of him, wouldn’t budge.

“…?”

Is it an illusion?

Seoul, frowning at the situation that felt like déjà vu, carefully gripped the thick wrist. He tried to push it aside slightly, but far from being moved, it didn’t even budge. Seeing him act as if he had literally frozen in place, Seoul, with a face that looked unintentionally provoked, opened his mouth.

“Hey.”

“…….”

“You’re using strength, aren’t you?”

Normally, it would have been pushed aside already. Since it was his daily routine to deal with Saheon fumbling around, there was no way he wouldn’t know. He pointed it out as if it were ridiculous, knowing Saheon was doing this on purpose, but Seo Saheon, lying on his side, just kept his eyes closed and feigned innocence.

So you’re just going to pretend to be asleep.

It was clear that his useless streak of playfulness had been triggered again, so the corners of Seoul’s normally gentle eyes grew sharp. It wasn’t like he was being ignored, and since it was just one arm anyway, he thought there was no way he couldn’t prying it off, so he put strength into the hand gripping the wrist.