CRANK 24

So… the problem was that right behind Woo Dobin, there was the table we had been drinking at—the one that, as luck would have it, had sharply finished edges.

“Ugh.”

Woo Dobin fell backward without being able to put up any resistance, and his shoulder slammed into the edge of the table. I stood up abruptly, having been unable to process the situation for a moment.

“Hey, are you okay?”

I rushed over to Woo Dobin. He was sitting there clutching his shoulder. Even at a glance, his face looked clearly pained.

“Damn it….”

In an instant, the suggestive atmosphere and the excitement that had heated my body up cooled down completely. He was hurt—Woo Dobin, because of me.

What should I do? The first thought that flashed through my brain was that the crank-in for his project was tomorrow. Woo Dobin was the lead actor. Even if it wasn’t an action role, it was a part that required a lot of physical effort. I felt the blood drain from my body. I must have been out of my mind. A lead actor’s body, and I…! A headline I had seen in passing suddenly came to mind.

Woo Dobin, market value 1.5 billion won. The reason for the leap in the second half?

F*ck…. This apartment isn’t even worth 1.5 billion won.

“…Sunbae, Sunbae?”

While I was flailing in the depths of my extremely mercenary thoughts, Woo Dobin raised his waist and was staring straight at me. I shook my head roughly. This wasn’t the time for such thoughts.

“Why is your face so pale?”

“…Are, are you okay?”

“Of course. It’s nothing. Did it bruise a little?”

No matter how sturdy and fit Woo Dobin was, he couldn’t possibly be fine. Not after a sound that loud.

“You’re okay?”

I crouched down and carefully tried to feel his forearm, but Woo Dobin hurriedly hid his right arm behind his back. Perhaps because even that small movement was too much, Woo Dobin’s brow furrowed for a fleeting second.

“Hey, ‘okay’? What do you mean ‘okay’?”

He was absolutely not okay. If it were just a bruise, there’s no way he’d be reacting like this. And of all things, his right arm. Woo Dobin was right-handed. It would affect his daily life, but with the crank-in being tomorrow…. Crank-in….

“This won’t do. Let’s go to the hospital.”

When I stood up, Woo Dobin stood up to follow me.

“I’m really fine.”

Woo Dobin even gave a subtle smile.

“More than that, let’s finish what we were doing.”

He didn’t forget to be playfully slippery, either.

“You… you can say that right now?”

“You said my body was good earlier, right? That’s right. I exercise a lot, so this much is really fine… Ugh.”

I reached out and grabbed Woo Dobin’s wrist. It was very careful, the kind of force that could be described as barely touching him. Yet, Woo Dobin flinched as if he had been burned by something. And he calls this ‘okay.’

“Hey.”

Woo Dobin grabbed his right arm with his left hand. He was still awkwardly lifting the corners of his mouth, but even to the naked eye, it looked serious. I glared at Woo Dobin fixedly and then bolted from my seat.

“Sunbae!”

I went into my room, threw on my long padding coat, and came out holding the largest size of long padding I had. Woo Dobin was still standing blankly in the living room. Wearing nothing but a piece of a white towel.

“Just put this on. This is a team uniform from a movie I did last time. It’s free-size, so it should… fit.”

“You want me to wear a padding coat on my bare body?”

“Then what else! We have to go to the hospital!”

When I barked at him, Woo Dobin’s shoulders slumped.

“Put it on, hurry.”

Instead of answering, Woo Dobin looked at his arm once, then at the padding. He said he was fine, but is he in too much pain to even put it on?

“Haa…. I’ll put it on you. Give me your arm.”

I began to carefully help him into the padding. Woo Dobin stiffly straightened his right arm, his face contorting. Being in this much pain, yet he’s trying to hold on….

I managed to get his arms through the sleeves… but the buttons wouldn’t fasten. Woo Dobin’s shoulders were too broad. His chest, too. Woo Dobin suddenly looked like an exhibitionist wearing nothing but a padding coat over bare skin.

“…No, how can a free-size not fit….”

I felt like complaining to every clothing manufacturer in the world. Do you not know what ‘free-size’ means?

“I told you. I exercise…. Your clothes don’t stand a chance.”

Woo Dobin’s lips twitched. I was dumbfounded by Woo Dobin, who was teasing me even in this situation, and by myself, for getting swept up in it.

“You want to laugh while looking like that?”

I shook my head and went back into my room.

“Where are you going?”

“Wait. There should be something.”

I tore through my closet as if I were turning it upside down. And then, finally.

“Found it!”

I found the tracksuit my younger brother had worn when he came to visit last winter. It was the first time that brat, who was annoyingly huge for a high schooler, had ever been of any use.

“I told you your clothes wouldn’t fit me.”

“It’s not my clothes. It should fit.”

Woo Dobin’s eyebrows twitched upward.

“Why are there someone else’s clothes in your house?”

“Just take off the padding. Let’s see if it fits.”

“Which guy’s is it?”

“What do you mean ‘which guy’?”

It was the first time I’d heard coarse language from Woo Dobin, so I creased my brow without realizing it. I’m in a desperate rush, so why is it so important whose clothes they are?

“These clothes—which guy’s are they? Why are they in this house?”

Woo Dobin lowered his voice. Both his face and his tone were like a scene from a noir film, but the problem was that his overall appearance was far from it.

“Aren’t you taking things a bit too seriously for lines delivered while wearing nothing but a padding coat on bare skin…?”

“…”

Woo Dobin took off the padding without a word.

“Luckily, it’s a zip-up. Give me your arm.”

He’s not a child, yet I grabbed the arm of Woo Dobin, who was pouting like a brat.

“It’s not ‘some guy’s,’ it’s my younger brother’s clothes.”

“…Your biological brother?”

“Yeah.”

“A younger brother….”

Woo Dobin confirmed that the zip-up was a perfect fit for him and asked:

“Is height not hereditary?”

“Do you want to die?”

As if he hadn’t been stiff and rigid a moment ago, Woo Dobin’s face softened again. He even let out a laugh, haha.

“The pants are shorts, but it’ll be better than going around with just a towel on.”

Maybe it’s because I had already put the padding and the zip-up on him, but unconsciously, I crouched down in front of Woo Dobin and spread the shorts open.

“Put your legs in.”

“…Oh….”

I was buried in looking only at the shorts, but even as time passed, his legs didn’t seem to have any intention of moving.

“What are you doing, I told you to put your legs in. Can’t you keep your balance? Then…”

Feeling suspicious, I lifted my head to look up at Woo Dobin.

“…Hey.”

That thing of Woo Dobin’s, right in front of my face, was suddenly growing again. I threw the shorts down as if casting them away.

“You, really….”

“…It was a composition I hadn’t even anticipated… I apologize….”

Woo Dobin coughed awkwardly and put the pants on using only his left hand. It looked uncomfortable and I wanted to help, but I didn’t know what would happen if I helped again. Instead, I stood far away and glared at Woo Dobin.

“I’m all dressed.”

“Then put the padding back on. …If you can’t, I’ll help you.”

“Look, Sunbae…. Since I couldn’t just keep wearing a towel, I accepted the clothes, but I’m really fine. We don’t have to go to the hospital.”

“Wasn’t that settled already?”

I picked up the padding that had fallen to the floor and forcibly stuffed it onto Woo Dobin’s body. The front was still wide open, but since he was wearing clothes underneath, it wasn’t to the point of being unsightly.

“Let’s go, to the hospital.”

I straightened the padding roughly and brushed past Woo Dobin toward the entrance.

“Haa….”

Woo Dobin let out a slow sigh and rubbed his forehead, hair, and chin with his left hand.

“Do we really have to go?”

Woo Dobin had injured his arm, and a person who is injured must go to the hospital. It was common sense. But for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why Woo Dobin was looking at me like I was a stubborn child. I wasn’t the one being stubborn; he was.

“You know what will happen if we go to the hospital now. People will swarm us, we’ll be photographed, articles will be written…. I don’t want to let you spend your year-end like that, Sunbae.”

“I’ll just wear a hat and a mask.”

Woo Dobin looked at me with a gaze that seemed to ask if I really thought that would work. …I wanted to retort that he was overly self-conscious, but I couldn’t refute it. Even putting his face aside, Woo Dobin’s massive physique would be more than enough to draw people’s attention. It was a size not easily found in Korea.

Nevertheless, I didn’t yield.

“Tomorrow is the crank-in. Don’t you know that?”

“That’s why…. That’s exactly why the reporters will be swarming us even more.”