Yoon Jooho used the remote to pull the blackout curtains halfway open.
Though the sheer curtains still hung in place, having grown accustomed to the dark room, even that sliver of light was dazzling.
“Ugh.”
Song Hyunsoo, who had been lying face down with his face toward the window wall, frowned and turned his head.
Yoon Jooho, with his arms folded under his head as a pillow, was lying on his side, facing Hyunsoo.
After a night of beast-like sex, they had only managed to sleep for about four hours.
Their hair was tousled, eyes bloodshot, lips a little chapped.
And yet, even in that state, he was nothing but sexy and attractive. What an unfair world.
No, but since I have someone like him, maybe it’s fair in the end.
As he stroked Hyunsoo’s bare back, Jooho spoke.
“Looks like it’s nice outside. Want to go for a drive?”
“Right now?”
“You don’t want to?”
“Ah… I think my back’s broken. I can’t do anything.”
Jooho’s hand moved lower, gently kneading Hyunsoo’s lower back. It seemed like he was giving him a massage in his own way.
Hyunsoo looked up at Jooho from where he lay.
“I think I’ll smell like you now, sunbae.”
He meant it seriously. But Jooho, tracing down Hyunsoo’s back to his hips, looked at him with a sticky gaze.
“So you’re saying forget the drive, let’s have sex again?”
“Both are out of the question, okay?”
“Really not going? You could drive if you want.”
“……”
Hyunsoo, who had been sprawled out, lifted his head. His eyes sparkled with energy as if he’d just had a deep ten-hour sleep.
“Really?? You’ll let me take the driver’s seat??”
A wide smile spread across Jooho’s face as he played with Hyunsoo’s hair.
“If you want, I can give you even more.”
Hyunsoo sat up abruptly, bent over, and planted a quick kiss on Jooho’s lips.
The person who’d just said he couldn’t do anything because his back was broken now jumped off the bed and even started urging the still-lounging Jooho.
“What are you doing, aren’t you getting up?”
Hmm. Rubbing the corner of his mouth with his fingertips, Jooho looked Hyunsoo up and down with half-lidded eyes. He didn’t look annoyed. If anything, it was more like he was savoring something.
“What’s with that look?”
As Jooho propped himself up and got off the bed, he replied.
“Just thinking, maybe this is why people date younger guys.”
Hyunsoo was about to insist that four years wasn’t that big of an age gap, but shut his mouth.
Even if he was only four years older, Yoon Jooho’s entertainment career had started more than twenty years before Hyunsoo’s. Maybe that was why, sometimes, Jooho really did feel much older.
After showering, the two headed down to the underground garage. Their outfits were light. It’d been a long time since they needed padding or outerwear.
Walking through the parking lot lined with private garages, Hyunsoo chattered away, unable to hide his excitement.
“Let’s head toward Hanam. We can have a bowl of kalguksu there, then go all the way to Yangpyeong, what do you think?”
Hanam.
In Hanam was the columbarium where Choi Hongseo’s ashes were enshrined.
Sensing Jooho’s glance, Hyunsoo scratched the back of his neck and spoke.
“We promised to go together after the movie wrapped up. I’m still not brave enough to actually go inside, but… you know, as practice.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
Flashing a grin, Hyunsoo walked ahead a few steps.
“The weather’s nice, so we can open the top, right?”
“Do as you please.”
Jooho opened the garage shutter.
“Since it’s a weekday, Olympic-ro probably won’t be crowded, right? If we take Olympic-ro, we can open the— the—”
Hyunsoo’s words trailed off as his jaw gradually dropped. His eyes, framed by thick black lashes, widened.
Inside Jooho’s garage, two cars of the exact same model, but in different colors, were parked side by side.
“Wh— wh— what???”
Stomping his feet on the spot, Hyunsoo rushed toward the unbelievable sight.
“What is this?? Did you get a new one?? This is exactly my dream car spec!! Why are you stealing my ideas??”
“I didn’t steal anything.”
“Porsche, 911, Turbo S, Cabriolet, Shark Blue. This was my idea!”
Hyunsoo looked so wronged, as if his car had been stolen from him, that he seemed on the verge of tears.
And yet, he couldn’t take his eyes off the car.
A few steps away, Jooho ran a hand over the back of his neck, one hand in his pocket, and muttered.
“If you like it that much, you can have it.”
“……Huh?”
“It’s yours.”
Hyunsoo didn’t understand. He just stared blankly at Jooho across the car. Only then did Jooho begin to confess.
“I actually got it a few weeks ago.”
“A few weeks ago?”
“But if I’d given it to you then, you’d have gotten mad about me wasting money again and probably not come home.”
“So, y-you bought this just to give it to me?”
Unbelievable, Hyunsoo pointed at himself with his index finger, raising his eyebrows.
Jooho, sighing and scratching his forehead, hurried toward Hyunsoo.
“Hyunsoo, don’t get mad, just hear me out.”
Hyunsoo wasn’t angry—he was still just trying to process the situation, but decided to listen for now.
“I know.”
“Know what?”
“That soon, you’ll be able to buy a car like this with your own money.”
Jooho’s hands came to rest on Hyunsoo’s shoulders. Then he drew closer, wrapping his arms gently around Hyunsoo’s neck.
“I also know that you don’t expect things like this from me.”
“Then why—”
“Back then, I just felt like I had to do everything I could.”
“……”
“Because I was desperate.”
He didn’t know what to do or what to say. Meeting Jooho’s eyes, Hyunsoo bit down on his lower lip.
“It’s not like when I tried to get you an officetel before.”
“……”
“I just wanted to show you how I felt. But this is the only way I know how…”
As he cupped Hyunsoo’s neck, Jooho brushed his thumb tenderly along Hyunsoo’s jaw, giving him a faint smile.
Though he was the one giving the present, Jooho looked strangely timid, and it made Hyunsoo’s heart ache.
“Did you order it while we weren’t talking?”
“Yeah.”
“You can’t just get something like this in a few months.”
“I put my face and name out there.”
“How?”
“I said it was urgent. My whole life was riding on it.”
His earnest expression seemed to say, ‘I’m not exaggerating at all—please believe me.’
“And.”
“What else?”
“I asked you to live with me, didn’t I?”
“So?”
“I couldn’t be the kind of guy who asks that empty-handed.”
He leaned in, bringing his face closer, and added firmly.
“I’m Yoon Jooho.”
That made Hyunsoo burst out laughing.
Only after seeing Hyunsoo’s smile did Jooho finally grin, showing his teeth. Then, taking Hyunsoo’s hand, he placed something heavy in it.
Hyunsoo opened his palm.
It was a smart key shaped like the sleek curves of a Porsche.
Dangling from it was a Monroe-shaped cat keyring.
For some reason, the sight of it brought sudden tears to Hyunsoo’s eyes. Smiling through his tears, he fiddled with the keyring.
“It looks just like Monroe.”
“Took a while to find one that matched.”
“Thank you. I’ll take good care of it.”
Jooho gently lifted Hyunsoo’s face, stroking his cheek with his thumb.
“Don’t cry. I want to make you laugh now, not cry anymore.”
“These are tears of joy.”
Hyunsoo wiped away the tears with the back of his hand, then beeped open the car door.
“Tears of joy from getting a Porsche.”
The car exited the underground garage and merged onto Olympic-ro from the south end of Gyungdong Bridge.
As they passed Jamsil, the road became suddenly quiet. Nearing Cheonho Bridge, Hyunsoo slowed down and opened the top.
The sky was blue as a fairy tale, the air was fresh, and the road stretched on forever.
“It’s the perfect weather for filming today.”
Wearing sunglasses in the passenger seat, Jooho smiled proudly.
“Hearing you talk like that, you really are an actor now.”
“Sunbae, can I be honest?”
“Yeah.”
“I think this car is even more special because you gave it to me.”
“Do you really think so?”
Leaning back against the headrest, Jooho turned and removed his sunglasses.
Hyunsoo nodded.
“No matter how many of these cars I could buy with my own money one day, the one you gave me is the only one like it in the world.”
“……”
“I just suddenly thought of that.”
Up ahead, Cheonmasan loomed in the distance. They hadn’t quite left Seoul, but all it took was a turn of the head and everything around them was green.
“Can I be honest too?”
A shadow passed over Hyunsoo’s face as he glanced sideways at Jooho.
“What is it? Are you hiding some huge secret?”
Jooho continued with a light, teasing smile.
“I might not have been your first.”
“Are we talking about that again? It’s fine if I wasn’t your first. You weren’t mine either.”
Jooho’s eyebrows twitched and his cheek flinched, as if in pain. He nodded, reaching out to ruffle the back of Hyunsoo’s head.
“Yeah, let’s not talk about that now.”
Clearly, he was jealous. But even he knew there was no reason to be, so he was holding himself back. Good for him.
“Instead, I’ll give you something even better.”
“What’s that?”
“My last.”
“……”
He nearly lost his grip on the steering wheel.
Jooho quietly reached over and wrapped his left hand around the back of Hyunsoo’s right hand on the wheel.
Then, in the voice Hyunsoo liked so much, he hammered it home once more.
“You’ll be my last.”
Hyunsoo bit down hard on his lower lip, struggling for a while to compose himself.
Why do you say these things while I’m driving? He’s seriously a dangerous man.
― Instead of making a joke of it, he decided to be sincere.
Keeping his eyes on the road ahead, Hyunsoo nodded and answered him.
“That’s all I need. Being the last is a hundred times better than being the first.”
“And thankfully, it turns out I still have a first I can give you too.”
Jooho might not even realize it, but—
Hyunsoo had already been Jooho’s first in many ways.
He was the first actor Jooho had ever signed directly, and the only one to have shared his bed.
He was Jooho’s first boyfriend, the only one he’d ever asked to live together, and probably… the only one he’d ever acknowledged love for, even at the risk of facing his greatest enemy.
“There’s something I’ve never said to anyone before.”
The mountain that had seemed so distant was now right beside them.
The shimmering light on the Han River was so beautiful it left him dazed.
Jooho’s arm reached over, wrapping around Hyunsoo’s neck.
“I love you.”
“……”
“I love you, Hyunsoo.”
He realized he was ready to write the ending of their scenario together.
Even after the credit roll had finished, their story would go on.
Over the pain of each of their pasts, the future they’d chosen together dissolved in. Camera tilts up and zooms out.
<Dissolve: His Last Choice>
Complete