A tall, slender shadow fell over the small-framed Jiyul. The voice flowing from the person who blocked her path as if to protect her rumbled in her ears.
At the sudden turn of events, she who had been sniffling took this opportunity to step back a few paces to distance herself from Jang Yeonguk.
‘Honestly, this is ridiculous.’
Euiju, who had been quietly observing the situation, really didn’t like this situation. This boy who was bullying Haeseong’s partner model was Jang Yeonguk, the person who had intensively bullied Euiju at the basketball court last time.
—Fuck, you play basketball like shit despite how you look. Man, you gotta be at least decent to play together.
Despite his slippery way of speaking and sharp-edged behavior, his fairly handsome appearance and height tall for his age seemed to have planted strange confidence in his already terrible temperament.
‘Does he know one thing but not two?’
If the model cried, her face would swell up, and then not only would makeup have to be redone, but the probability of not pleasing the person directing the photoshoot would increase. He couldn’t understand what Yeonguk was thinking, causing this ruckus while trying to ruin Haeseong’s work.
While it was fine for him to bully Euiju himself, he couldn’t tolerate ruining Haeseong’s work.
“What. Ahjussi, just stay quiet and keep out of it.”
Jang Yeonguk looked up at the person blocking his way and spat out rough curses. Making his displeasure obvious, he roughly pulled his hand free from the grip.
However, Euiju didn’t back down and stood blocking Jang Yeonguk’s path. At that sight, Yeonguk let out a derisive snicker.
“Ah, this is really ridiculous.”
That day and today too. He was a spineless, insignificant manager who served Haeseong without complaint. For such a person to suddenly butt in without knowing his place was absurd.
As if to intimidate him, Jang Yeonguk approached Euiju closely and glared threateningly. Even though their lips became close enough to touch, Yeonguk didn’t back down.
“What. Want to go at it with me?”
Not a single shred of emotion was contained in Euiju’s eyes as he looked down at the heavily sarcastic Yeonguk. As a chill gradually filled the eyes of Euiju who was looking down at the boy with indifferent eyes, Yeonguk flinched for a moment.
The distance between the two, whose lips had been close enough to touch, rapidly widened. Because Euiju had indifferently turned around. Euiju thoroughly ignored him and turned back to face Jiyul who was standing there awkwardly, matching her eye level.
“Your face is swelling. It would be best to return to the waiting room quickly.”
“No, fuck. Who the hell are you to tell her where to go or not!”
Yeonguk grabbed the arm of Euiju who had turned away. He put force into the hand that grabbed him and squeezed with all his might. Although Yeonguk applied pressure with quite strong force, there was no change in Euiju’s expression. Euiju calmly opened his mouth.
“Please let go.”
“Ha. This is fucking insane. A manager shouldn’t be acting so annoyingly. What are you going to do when Jin Haeseong comes later?”
When Yeonguk sneered and openly disrespected him, Euiju knocked his hand away with strong force and pulled his arm free. From that momentum, Yeonguk was pushed back quite a ways and ended up bumping into a chair.
“Wh, what…!”
At the situation that suddenly unfolded, Yeonguk froze solid, completely dumbfounded.
As if nothing had happened, Euiju brushed off his wrinkled clothes and pulled out a few tissues to hand to Jiyul. Her tearful face looked so young. Euiju unconsciously thought of Euiseong who would be at home and drew a small smile as if to reassure her.
“Don’t cry.”
At that smile, Jiyul’s eyes widened and the tears she had been holding dropped. She carefully nodded her head and turned around to leave the waiting room.
The boy who had been thoroughly ignored by Euiju stood there with a bewildered and absurd expression.
‘…Did that bastard just hit me?’
Strictly speaking, he hadn’t hit him but had just roughly pulled his caught hand free. However, having never experienced such rough treatment from anyone, Jang Yeonguk only thought that Euiju had struck him.
“Fuck, that guy—!”
Unable to overcome the heat surging up in an instant and becoming enraged, Yeonguk strode toward Euiju. He grabbed the collar of the adult who was bigger than him and pulled with all his strength.
“The likes of you hit me? Who the hell are you, ahjussi. You think you can act up because Jin Haeseong isn’t here? Huh?”
“……”
Euiju silently looked down at him with an emotionless face. Infuriated by that face that seemed to say a kid like you isn’t even worth dealing with, Yeonguk couldn’t contain his boiling excitement and raised his fist.
That’s when it happened.
“Whew. The director must be in bad condition today. He’s incredibly sensitive……”
“That’s what I’m saying. Haeseong-gun is going to have a tough time today. I heard something happened at home today. Maybe that’s why he’s particularly sharp today.”
The waiting room door opened, and Haeseong entered with several staff members in tow. The atmosphere that had been tightly filled with tension instantly became chilly.
“Oh my. What is this……?”
At the strange spectacle of Haeseong’s friend grabbing Haeseong’s manager by the collar, the staff’s eyes widened. A flicker of unusual interest passed through the eyes of Haeseong who had been walking with a languid expression. His lips curled up as if intrigued.
“What’s wrong?”
Haeseong asked Jang Yeonguk whose face had turned bright red as he gasped for breath. As if he had no intention of hearing an answer, Haeseong sat on the sofa, leaned his head back, and watched the scene as if intrigued.
“Going to fight?”
At the voice like a boy who had found something fun, Euiju’s head, which had been looking down at Yeonguk the whole time, turned. Soon he met Haeseong’s eyes which were beautifully curved in a half-moon shape.
At Haeseong’s appearance, Yeonguk who had momentarily shrunk roughly let go of Euiju’s collar. Forcibly swallowing his anger, Yeonguk plopped down in the seat next to Haeseong with a flushed face.
“Why stop in the middle? Keep going with what you were doing.”
Haeseong grinned and leaned deeply into the sofa. Only the coordinator beside him was restless, worried that the stylish school uniform Haeseong was wearing might get damaged or wrinkled.
Having been doing a solo photoshoot before Jiyul arrived, Haeseong was in makeup, so his appearance shone more than usual, and in that state smiling round and round, he was reminiscent of a fairy playing in the water at a lake in the middle of a forest. His glowing face, contrary to the situation, made him look contradictory.
“…Fuck, you should respect adults. How embarrassing would it be to get beaten up by me.”
At Yeonguk’s words as he glared at Euiju, Haeseong’s expression instantly returned to a languid one as if deflated.
“What. That’s no fun.”
The eyes that lost interest in an instant died black again like before.
Euiju, who had roughly brushed off his wrinkled clothes, began to tidy up the messy surroundings. Yeonguk, who had been staring intently as Euiju moved, wore a derisive sneer.
“Your manager. He’s so different from those bastards before. Seems like he’s fucking good at his job.”
At those words, Haeseong slowly raised one corner of his mouth.
“He is good at it.”
Haeseong snickered and affirmed his friend’s words.
Literally, he was good at his job. Whether he had good instincts, as time passed, he did what needed to be done on his own without Haeseong having to specifically assign tasks. Moreover, no matter what he was ordered to do, he listened promptly without flushing in embarrassment, so there was no need to say things twice.
Whether he was desperately trying not to get fired or enduring everything because he was crazy about money, like Yeonguk said, he did his job quite well.
To put it in conclusion, the human named Lee Euiju worked dedicating most of his time to Haeseong without pulling any tricks, and always stuck by Haeseong’s side, working as if monitoring his every move.
As a manager, he really did his job well.
That was exactly what Haeseong didn’t like.
“So about that. Lend me your manager for a bit.”
At Yeonguk’s words filled with anger, Haeseong slowly raised his head that had been leaning back to look at his friend. Interest and amusement mixed abundantly in his eyes and rippled together.
“Why. Is he a pain in the ass for you too?”
At Haeseong’s words, Yeonguk burst into shameless laughter. Nodding his head, Yeonguk continued gleefully.
“Yeah. He’s been fucking cute since last time.”
“Fine. Take him and play.”
Even at the two teenagers’ conversation treating a person like some object, Haeseong’s staff couldn’t say anything.
Jang Yeonguk, the precious late-born child of a current National Assembly member. Jin Haeseong, a successful actor at J Entertainment and the hidden grandson of the current chairman of J Group.
Though the words were exchanged playfully in a joking atmosphere, their words carried heavy weight, and there was something that couldn’t be casually dismissed. Even though they were still young teenagers.
‘What the hell is this……!’
Only Euiju looked at them with an expression of disbelief. The farce of treating him like an inanimate object and talking about lending or not lending wasn’t even funny.
Until now, Euiju had endured whatever insults Haeseong gave without any rebuttal. But this wasn’t right. His assignment was Jin Haeseong, and Yeonguk wasn’t even an actor but a student with nothing to do. He couldn’t leave his assigned actor to serve as someone else’s servant.
“What are you talking about right now?”
Just as Euiju was about to utter words of rebuttal for the first time, saying what kind of nonsense was this.
“So. How many days do you need?”
Euiju was left speechless at Haeseong’s innocent yet mischievous question.
