A Wish and a Premonition
"Ack—what do I do!"
Shin cried out the moment a bite of the savory seasoned spinach hit his tongue.
"What, what? What's wrong?"
Ji Hae-soo rushed back from the kitchen, where he'd been making side dishes, and hurried to the table.
Shin's eyes went wide as saucers as he shouted.
"This is so good too!!"
"……Well, good for you, then. Eat up."
Ji Hae-soo answered with a distinctly unimpressed face.
The second Shin had laid eyes on the meal Ji Hae-soo set out, he'd pounced, and now he was putting on a whole theatrics with every single bite.
"Wow, humans really eat so many different things! Every taste is different! It's amazing! What's this one? Yoo-young, have you tried this one too?"
"Hey—hey. Eat your food first. Calm down."
Reining in the hyperactive Shin was entirely Ji Hae-soo's job.
―…….
Do Yoo-young, trapped in a dog's body, sat quietly in the chair beside them, lounging with lazy, half-lidded eyes—an air that was exactly, down to the last detail, the aura the real Do Yoo-young always gave off.
What on earth is happening.
Ji Hae-soo was still in a daze. The kid had said he was hungry, so he'd made him food, but he still couldn't wrap his head around the situation. He'd been sitting there staring blankly into space for a good while when someone beside him nudged him, and he snapped back to his senses.
"Huh?"
The one poking him was the dog—no, Do Yoo-young. Yoo-young tapped Ji Hae-soo with a paw, then bobbed his head as if to say, look forward.
Ji Hae-soo turned his gaze automatically—and nearly had a heart attack at the scene before him.
"Hey! What are you doing?!"
"Mmf?"
Shin tilted his head, a spoon halfway to his mouth. His cheeks were swollen to the point of bursting.
He's not even a hamster….
Clicking his tongue at the sight of Shin with both cheeks stuffed like a hamster stockpiling winter food, Ji Hae-soo scolded him.
"What are you eating so fast for? Nobody's chasing you. Slow down."
"Mmf!"
"Talk after you swallow."
At the scolding, Shin's mouth worked away, munching and smacking. Only after he'd diligently chewed and gulped down the very last morsel did he answer.
"Sorry! It's just too good!"
Shin beamed, hehe.
"Hae-soo, you're seriously good at cooking! Yoo-young would love this too! When his body comes back, can't you make it for him?"
The voice was so bright and guileless.
Hearing an unfamiliar tone, an unfamiliar way of speaking, from his friend of many years, Ji Hae-soo felt goosebumps break out across his whole body. He hastily smoothed over the expression that had started to freeze on his face.
"Fine, fine, just finish eating first. And don't shovel it in like that. You—I mean… the real Do Yoo-young barely eats anything, remember? If that body suddenly packs it away like this, something'll go wrong."
"Oh no, right! Yoo-young can't get sick!"
Face lit with sudden enlightenment, Shin slowed the pace of his spoon a little.
Not that it made the slightest difference to the amount of food going into his mouth.
Ji Hae-soo watched Shin, still busy cramming food into those puffed-out cheeks, then murmured dazedly to the dog beside him.
"Do Yoo-young. Is this real? Or have I lost my mind? I haven't, right? This is just a dream, isn't it?"
―……Haaah.
Do Yoo-young let out a long, slow breath, like a sigh.
A gesture that said, louder than anyone else present, God, I hope it's a dream too.
After they'd fed Do Yoo-young as well, the three of them gathered in a huddle on the wooden porch.
"All right, let's get this straight."
Ji Hae-soo, seized by some inexplicable sense of responsibility, spoke first.
"You woke up yesterday and your bodies were swapped, right? Nothing unusual happened the day before?"
Do Yoo-young shook his head in denial.
"Shin?"
"Well…"
At Ji Hae-soo's question, Shin fidgeted like a kid caught doing something wrong.
"I did do something yesterday, but it's something I do all the time, so…"
"What? Just tell me."
"I made a wish yesterday. With Yoo-young, looking at the moon…!"
A wish?
Ji Hae-soo's eyes lit up.
"That's it! That's the cause!"
"R-really?"
"Yeah. In like every movie, things go sideways because the protagonist makes some wish and it backfires. No—wait, that's not me saying it's your fault!"
The moment Shin's face began to crumple at rapid speed, Ji Hae-soo flapped his hands in a panic. But Shin's eyes were already welling up.
Ji Hae-soo was at a complete loss.
"Hey, why are you about to cry?"
"Sob—what if it really is because of me?"
Do Yoo-young of all people—well, okay, not the real Do Yoo-young, but still. Watching that Do Yoo-young's face go wobbly and teary was unbearably awkward.
"Like that'd actually happen, huh? So just—don't cry. Please."
Ji Hae-soo awkwardly patted Shin on the back. The problem was that Shin, sniffling, then flung himself at Ji Hae-soo.
"Hae-soo!"
"Gah—what are you doing, get off!"
As if he'd forgotten he was currently a human being, Shin clung to Ji Hae-soo with desperate fervor.
"What if it's really my fault? Help me!"
"Just—for a second, oof—hey! Are you insane, where do you think you're putting your hands—!"
Shin clung on looking utterly miserable, while Ji Hae-soo scrambled to peel him off in horror.
Watching all this in silence, Do Yoo-young felt his mood darken further.
What are you two even doing….
Seeing Shin cling to Ji Hae-soo in his body was a fairly devastating psychological attack in its own right.
It got even worse when Ji Hae-soo recoiled with a face that read get this thing off me.
Out of options, Do Yoo-young spoke up.
―Woof!!
Both of you, knock it off.
Thankfully, the ruckus subsided at that bark, which carried exactly that meaning.
"Whew."
Wiping the sweat off his brow, Ji Hae-soo hastily scooted his body away and settled down as far from Shin as he could manage, then asked again.
"So. What exactly did you wish for?"
"The same thing I always do. That Yoo-young could be happy…"
"That's it? That's the whole thing?"
Just that?
Perplexity filled Ji Hae-soo's eyes. He mulled it over for a long while, then carefully asked the dog sitting obediently before him.
"Do Yoo-young. Are you… happy? Right now?"
―…….
Do Yoo-young regarded Ji Hae-soo with a frosty stare.
A look that plainly asked, and you call that a question?
"No, I was just asking in case."
Having just received the coldest look he'd ever gotten from a dog, Ji Hae-soo scratched his head sheepishly.
"Then the wish doesn't matter either way. Ugh, what the hell is going on."
"What if we go see a doctor?"
"And what hospital on earth fixes this? They'd chase us out going, what lunatics."
The pointless back-and-forth carried on for hours. Much later, three completely exhausted bodies lay sprawled side by side on the porch.
"For now… let's just sleep on it. We might wake up tomorrow and everything's back to normal."
At Ji Hae-soo's words, Do Yoo-young and Shin both nodded.
And so—three people, no, two people and one dog—waited quietly for tomorrow.
Hoping with all their hearts that everything would return to the way it was.
And then, the next day.
"……"
"……"
―……
The three of them, gathered on the porch just like the day before, sat in a silence longer than any before it.
Ji Hae-soo quietly closed his eyes.
F—ing hell….
Before him still sat a sniffling human and a dog that had now given up all hope.
"Cut!"
The director's shout rang out, and I stopped shoveling food. Jinbae hurried over and held out a bottle of water.
"Here you go, sir."
I wanted to thank him, but I couldn't. I'd crammed food into my mouth right up to the brink of my cheeks bursting, so all I could do was keep chewing, and chewing, and chewing.
After a good while of that, a mutter drifted over from beside me.
"Seriously amazing…"
"…?"
It was Seong Ijun. With food still in my own mouth, I asked with my eyes: what is?
"How do your eyes change the instant you hear cut?"
Ijun was staring at me, riveted.
"A second ago you had this look like you'd give me your own share of food, but now you…"
His voice trailed off. I had a pretty good idea what he was about to say, so I just smiled.
Because right now, I was, in all honesty—
I want to stop eating.
—thoroughly sick of food.
I'd heard about this from Junghyun, so I'd braced myself, but still. Eating shoots were truly on another level.
It's not like I'm a picky eater like Ijun.
Thanks to Jinbae, I ate three square meals a day like clockwork, and I was a growing teenager besides—I didn't exactly eat tiny portions. But I'd never been someone who found great joy in eating, so with food arriving nonstop with barely a breath between bites, there was no way not to tire of it.
Ha. Finally done.
I rinsed out my mouth with water at last.
"You okay, sir?"
"Yeah. Just full."
"You know you can spit it out midway if it gets to be too much, right?"
"That'd be a waste, though."
It wasn't like food grew out of the ground if you dug a hole somewhere. I had no desire to spit out perfectly good food just because I was tired of it.
"Still, it's better than making yourself sick. Don't overdo it."
"I'm fine, really. The director's pacing me too."
Right on cue, the director's voice rang out.
"Okay, cut! That's all the close-ups! Great work, everyone!"
At the announcement that today's shooting was wrapped, the staff moved briskly to pack up the equipment. The director came bounding over, face glowing with excitement.
"Yeonjae, Ijun! How are you both this good? My little lucky charms!"
He went on that the footage had come out even better than he'd imagined, that we could seriously aim for a ten-million-viewer blockbuster. I had no idea what a "ten-million-viewer blockbuster" was even supposed to be, but since the director was the one saying it, I just laughed.
Still, I couldn't leave one name out of the credits.
"Honestly, it's all thanks to Happy. Nothing to worry about there."
"Ah, of course, of course! Happy's the best!"
At my words, the director thrust a thumbs-up toward Happy.
"Great work today, Happy. You were magnificent! Take a nice, looong rest tomorrow and the day after, and eat lots of treats!"
―Woof!
At the word treats, Happy's tail whipped back and forth. He spun in circles showing off, and a few of the staff burst out laughing at the display.
I chuckled and stroked Happy's forehead.
"See you in two days. Don't get sick, okay?"
―Hah, hah.
Happy went to town licking my hand. It was soaking wet afterward.
"Happy, let go of Yeonjae's hand now. Time for us to go home too."
With a playful all aboard, Happy's trainer scooped him up in his arms.
"See you in two days!"
"Yes. Get home safe."
―Woof!
Even as they receded into the distance, Happy squirmed and struggled to twist his body around toward me. I was gazing blankly after him when Seong Ijun murmured softly.
"Why do you look like that?"
"Just… I don't know. It feels kind of sad."
The village that served as the main filming location for Shin Yoo-young was quiet and secluded. It had only been two days, but knowing I'd be heading back to the bustle of Seoul made the parting hard to shrug off.
"I'll miss it too…. Hey, if you're free, want to meet up sometime in the middle?"
At Ijun's shy question, I gave a small shrug.
"I'll have to check my schedule first. The awards ceremony comes first, for one thing."
"Oh, right. The awards."
Tomorrow night, one of Korea's major year-end awards ceremonies was being held—an event spanning everything broadcast over the past year, from dramas to films to variety shows. I'd heard I'd been nominated in several categories for February 3rd and Killing Horn.
"Did you prepare an acceptance speech?"
"Stop teasing me."
I shot Ijun a light sidelong glance.
"…? I'm not teasing you."
"……Fine, I get it."
I gave the cheek of Ijun—blinking away with pure, guileless eyes—a light tap.
Hmm.
Should I actually prepare one after all? Just in case? But no matter how I turned it over, the thought of it felt like drinking kimchi broth before the rice was even served—embarrassingly presumptuous.
"Well, good luck at the ceremony. Text me if you have time…!"
"Yeah."
We were seeing each other again in two days anyway. I found it odd that Ijun was acting like we'd be apart for a week or more, but I answered obediently and we said our goodbyes.
"Seatbelt on, sir?"
"Yes."
And so I headed home for the first time in a while. On the dark night, the highway into Seoul stretched open and clear.
I should text Bi-hyuk and see if we can meet up. I should have Han Haram over too. No wait—is he already there?
I was mulling it over alone in the car as it sped along without a hitch.
―Ring.
Jinbae's phone rang.
And at the exact same moment, the phone in my pocket buzzed too.
"……"
My eyes met Jinbae's through the rearview mirror.
An ominous premonition swept cold across my back.