“It’s almost your birthday, and it’s also coming up on our one-year anniversary. I wanted to give you something meaningful.”
He said he had happily browsed through all sorts of rings.
He was so delighted that he could easily ignore the curious gaze of the staff, who seemed to think that Actor Yoon Jooho had come to buy a Couple Ring.
“I always thought I probably wouldn’t be able to get married. I think I sensed it from the time I started to understand things. And it never really felt sad or anything. Work was what mattered to me, not something like marriage. I never thought I could do it well or live happily that way.”
Given his relationship with his parents, it was no surprise.
Yoon Jooho hesitated, rubbing his crossed thighs, then spoke.
“But now, I feel uneasy that I can’t be legally bound to you.”
“……”
“So I wanted to give you a ring, but I thought, would anything really change if I suddenly wore one?”
Yoon Jooho paused for a moment and let out a long sigh.
“I can’t even promise never to take off this ring no matter what. That’s just how my job is. It’s not just when I’m working on an Artwork, but I’m always exposed, so I can’t wear a ring all the time, even normally.”
“I’m an Actor too. That’s the same for me now, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. That’s why I started to wonder what meaning a ring locked away in a case would have.”
The way of thinking of the Prince was still hard to keep up with sometimes.
A man who goes to buy a Couple Ring and ends up with all sorts of thoughts… But I can guarantee, he’s not the kind of man who would take Couple Rings lightly either.
Most likely, he’s never shared a ring with anyone before. He’d rather get slapped telling the truth than whisper “I love you” as an empty phrase.
Imagining Yoon Jooho getting all excited to buy a ring, only to end up downcast with all these thoughts, made me laugh. That side of him was simply adorable and lovely.
I tilted my head toward him, my face full of laughter.
“So you got all sulky? Because you couldn’t wear a Couple Ring?”
“So I got a Tattoo.”
“…What?”
I thought I’d misheard him.
“You did what?”
“A Tattoo. I got a Tattoo.”
Yoon Jooho’s body was his life.
His acting career was everything to him. His daily life, no, his entire existence revolved around acting.
His beautiful body didn’t have even a single, common little Tattoo.
After all, you never know what kind of role you might have to take.
Of course, he could go through the hassle of having one removed after, but that would trouble a lot of people.
“What about your acting? You always say an Actor has to be prepared for every role.”
Yoon Jooho sat up and guided Song Hyunsoo’s hand to his lips.
“Pull it.”
“Huh?”
“My lower lip, pull it down.”
“……”
“Be gentle, it still hurts.”
Even then, Song Hyunsoo had no idea what was happening.
In a daze, he gently pulled down Jooho’s lower lip, just as he was told.
When Yoon Jooho drew Song Hyunsoo’s wrist further down, the truth was finally revealed.
Song Hyunsoo covered his own mouth with his other hand.
Inside his lips, his own name was engraved vividly.
Song Xianshou.
“I had it put here, so it won’t be a problem when I’m working.”
Yoon Jooho spoke as if everything was solved now.
“Is this… is this why you couldn’t eat or drink today?”
“You can’t drink anything acidic. I can eat after a few hours. Something like porridge.”
He said it like it was nothing. The only one in shock was Song Hyunsoo.
“Did you go and get it during lunch earlier?”
Nod.
“It was hard to get an appointment with that famous Tattooist.”
“An appointment?”
“I made it two months ago.”
So it wasn’t something he did on a whim. And from the start, he wasn’t the kind of person to impulsively put something like that on his own body.
Song Hyunsoo couldn’t even touch his own lips, just put his hand gently on Jooho’s cheek and frowned.
“Doesn’t it hurt? It hurts, doesn’t it?”
“Not really.”
“That’s one of the most painful places to get a Tattoo, there’s no way it doesn’t hurt.”
Yoon Jooho looked at Song Hyunsoo’s face, as if he was in more pain, and broke into a playful smile.
“Now you have to take responsibility for me. Who would even look at a guy who has someone else’s name Tattooed inside his mouth?”
“Don’t say stuff like that. You’re mine.”
Yoon Jooho let out a quiet laugh. With lips that now had Song Hyunsoo’s name engraved inside.
“How could you do something like this… Sunbae, you’re really crazy.”
“Yeah. You’re the one who got tangled up with a crazy guy.”
The river breeze fluttered through Yoon Jooho’s hair. He wrapped his hand around Song Hyunsoo’s and squeezed it tight, as if to hold on.
“Sorry. Because you’ll never be able to break up with me.”
With a calm face, and yet, with feelings hidden inside that no one could guess, Yoon Jooho apologized. Instead of saying he couldn’t let go, he could just say he loves me. Such a complicated man.
I still couldn’t believe what he’d done.
Like someone suffering from a headache, I covered one eye and shook my head, then hugged him tightly.
I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my chin on his broad shoulder. Beyond his shoulder, the moon hung above the golden-lit Eiffel Tower.
The first person to ever leave a mark on Yoon Jooho’s body.
On that flawless body like a work of art, my name was engraved inside his lips. Song Hyunsoo tried to recall that fact.
If a Moonwalker landed on the moon and left a name on its surface, then from that moment on, the moon humanity looked up at would always be a moon bearing that name.
There’s no water or wind on the moon, so there’s no erosion. At least for a very, very long time, it would remain that way.
Even if no one else knows, the moon is still a moon with that name carved into it.
I liked the idea that no one else knew even more.
Romantic and extreme, a secret just for us—so perfectly Yoon Jooho.
“When we get back home, let’s go see Grandmother and Grandfather.”
“……”
“Not just to visit. Let’s introduce you as my lover. Officially.”
Yoon Jooho, holding Song Hyunsoo in his arms, flinched.
“It might not be the legal form you want, but let’s at least start by meeting them properly.”
With a clumsy gentleness, his big hand stroked the back of Song Hyunsoo’s head.
“Are you sure? What if they’re so shocked their health suffers…”
“Luckily, they’re not that fragile. They’ve been through everything life can throw at them.”
Thinking about how surprised the two would be to see Yoon Jooho made me smile.
If the other party is the Prince, maybe even if their grandson brought a man home as his lover, they might just welcome him. That was my optimistic hope.
“We’ll greet them, and from now on, let’s go to Auntie’s House for the holidays. We’ll eat Grandmother’s Kalbijjim, and Grandfather’s Mandu.”
I hugged Yoon Jooho’s waist tighter and rubbed my face into his warm neck.
“I’m your Family now.”
As if to prove we could never be parted, Yoon Jooho wrapped both arms around Song Hyunsoo, binding him close.
Family.
The warmth, the sense of reassurance, the deep connection—those common feelings people associate with the word.
But for Yoon Jooho, those images were just learned ideas.
But the moment he heard it from Song Hyunsoo’s mouth, the word suddenly took on a completely new meaning.
Family. Yes, I wanted to be Family with this guy. That unbreakable, eternal bond people talk about.
“Sunbae, it must be exactly ten o’clock.”
Song Hyunsoo, releasing the embrace, pointed behind Yoon Jooho with a smile.
Yoon Jooho took his lover’s hand and leaned on his shoulder, gazing at the sparkling Eiffel Tower.
He’d been to Paris dozens of times, but for the first time, he felt the true beauty of that tower.
A door no one had ever entered, a door even Yoon Jooho himself had locked up from the outside with chains and a padlock.
The first, and only, Moonwalker to step inside that door.
On the white snowfield built up over decades, Song Hyunsoo’s footprints stood out clearly.
The warmth and healthy laughter of his filled the space.
Now, he finally understood.
Why so many people dream of this city. Why they call it the Capital of Love.
<Dissolve Side Story: Long Take>
Complete