The air inside tensed up in an instant, becoming as sharp as a blade. Flustered, Euiju checked the watch on his wrist and made a face mixed with dismay. He soon bowed deeply at the waist.
“I’m truly sorry. I have no excuse.”
At Haeseong’s appearance, the atmosphere grew heavy, and Jiyul’s eyes trembled aimlessly. She was already surprised by her sunbae’s appearance, but with the atmosphere frozen over as well, she seemed at a loss for what to do.
Euiju straightened from his bow. He clenched his fists to brace himself for the abuse and curses that would rain down on him. However, even as time passed, no words flowed from Haeseong at all.
Euiju raised his head to look at Haeseong. Their gazes collided in midair.
“……”
Haeseong’s reaction was strange. Normally, he would make an openly displeased expression toward him and hurl verbal abuse or even vulgar curses, but Haeseong had frighteningly little reaction to speak of.
He merely stared at Euiju with a dry, cold face.
A period of silence circled round and round between the three of them. Then Haeseong, as if resigning himself to something, lowered his head slightly and—wasn’t he smirking?
“All adults are the same.”
The languidly flowing voice pierced into Euiju’s ears. At words so utterly out of the blue and different from the situation, Jiyul tilted her head questioningly.
“I’ll become an adult too in a few years.”
“……What do you mean by that?”
When Euiju asked back, unable to grasp the meaning, Haeseong’s face, which had been wearing a subtle smile, hardened in an instant. Any expression worth mentioning disappeared.
“Ah. I really don’t look forward to it.”
Having left behind incomprehensible words, Haeseong turned without hesitation. He vanished from Euiju’s sight in an instant.
***
[Euiju-ssi. Tomorrow I’ll take him to the Asan filming location myself. Haeseong… I just can’t persuade him. You just need to come on time on your own, Euiju-ssi.]
“…Yes. I’m truly sorry, Team Leader Kim.”
[Yeah. Still, you’ve done well up until now. Haeseong’s just being like this for a bit, so don’t worry too much. He’s still young, after all.]
“……”
[Hey. I’m telling you not to be so down, okay? Compared to when that bastard Kim Yeongrok was around, this is completely gentlemanly…]
“Excuse me? Who?”
[Oh my. I misspoke. It’s nothing. Anyway, don’t be late tomorrow.]
Before he could even wonder about the unfamiliar name that appeared, the call disconnected. Euiju, who had set down his phone, dry-washed his face with both hands.
For the drama filming starting this time, he had to go down to the provinces early tomorrow morning. However, due to Haeseong’s firm refusal, the team leader would be taking him instead of Euiju.
“Haah… Why is he acting like this?”
It started on that day when, for the first time, he had forgotten about Haeseong’s existence while comforting Seo Jiyul. That was when Haeseong began treating Euiju like a transparent person.
Though it was partly because he had grown accustomed to the work and was now doing things on his own before Haeseong even asked, the tasks he used to assign him intermittently as if to provoke him had completely disappeared. Although Haeseong hadn’t been particularly talkative to begin with, now that his mouth was firmly shut, a cold atmosphere like midwinter frost enveloped the two of them.
Unable to even grasp what the reason might be, only Euiju’s insides burned with anxiety.
“What are you worried about?”
“Ah, noona. When did you get here?”
Lost in thought and unaware that someone had entered the room, Euiju smiled brightly as he greeted Euiyeon.
“This bruise, I mean. Don’t people say anything? How on earth did you get this?”
Euiyeon carefully stroked the blue bruise covering one side of Euiju’s cheek as she spoke. As if she thought it was no ordinary matter that her younger sibling had come home with such a large bruise not long after starting work, her face looked quite upset.
“I’m wearing a mask when I go around, so no one knows. I just fell while helping Jin Haeseong’s friend.”
Fell, he said. It looked exactly like a mark from being hit by someone. Euiyeon didn’t believe her younger brother’s words.
Thinking there must be a good reason for receiving such a large sum of money, she persistently observed him, always watching for a chance to learn what was truly on Euiju’s mind. Up until now, he seemed to be managing well enough, but these past few days he clearly looked troubled about something.
“Euiju-ya. If something’s happened, even now you can…”
“Noona. Did Roun eat well today? Since yesterday he hasn’t been digesting well again and has had no appetite.”
Before Euiyeon could properly open her mouth, Euiju sat her down on the bed and brought up the topic.
“Oh, yeah. Today he ate everything without leaving any, you know? He’s always gone crazy for the omurice you make. That aside, about you—”
Euiju once again cut off her words and held out his phone.
“Oh right. That prosthetic arm we looked into before. There’s a place where we can get it made with similar performance to that company but a bit cheaper. I think we should talk to them in advance.”
“Oh my, really?!”
“Yeah. When I talked to them, they said we could get it made for three million won less.”
When Euiju showed her the link, Euiyeon’s face brightened instantly like a child’s. At that sight, Euiju raised one corner of his mouth in a slow smile.
He had succeeded in drawing Euiyeon’s attention elsewhere.
When Euiju first suggested getting a prosthetic arm, Euiyeon had shown interest while pretending otherwise. However, she strongly opposed it, aghast at the expensive price tag reaching thousands. Though they had no debt, they also had nothing to their name, so she thought it would be better to use that money to generously feed her siblings whatever they wanted to eat.
But Euiju’s thoughts were different.
—Noona. I don’t know about other things, but I absolutely won’t compromise on this.
Even if finances were tight, he wanted to get at least one proper prosthetic arm fitted for Euiyeon. Because the pain of losing a body part doesn’t end with just the pain of the amputation itself.
Probably, even without saying it, the sense of loss from losing a body part would have grown enormously and overwhelmed her. He didn’t want her to live her whole life crushed under that sense of loss. That’s why Euiju had barely persuaded her over several days.
Fortunately having diverted Euiyeon’s attention, Euiju headed to the master bedroom to bathe Roun, who was playing with the twins. When the voices of his younger siblings laughing gleefully could be heard beyond the door, Euiju also reflexively burst into laughter.
Euiju’s face, which had been gloomy over Haeseong’s matter, was now filled with bright, cheerful laughter.
***
“Our Haeseong-gun is going to have a hard time today. But where else would you find someone who’d do it himself? These days, even perfectly fine male actors older than him are busy avoiding it to protect their bodies. Anyway, guys who were dying to do anything you threw at them all become disrespectful once they get popular. Those bastards should learn from Haeseong-gun. Hahaha.”
“This much is basic. I can do it well.”
When Director Jo Yeongchun patted the bicycle and burst into hearty laughter, Haeseong smiled prettily and spoke confidently. Euiju looked at Haeseong’s beautifully curved eye-smile directed at the director and let out a small sigh.
A greenhorn who doesn’t know how the world works. It seemed he’d have to retract those words now.
—Ahjumma. When you can’t even do such a trivial thing properly, how did you even get into our company? I’m really curious.
Who would know that Haeseong, with that pretty and clear face, had been throwing all kinds of tantrums at the coordinators just moments ago? Originally, it was Euiju’s role to receive his temper, but since Haeseong hadn’t even glanced at Euiju for the past few days, those poor women had become the targets instead.
He knew that Haeseong didn’t treat badly anyone outside the company people, but to think he was this good at socializing.
The drama staff were looking fondly at Haeseong as he went around greeting people here and there with his pretty face. Euiju was staring blankly at such a Haeseong when he approached Kim Jaeho, who had just finished talking with a coordinator, and expressed his doubt.
“Wouldn’t it be better to use a stuntman? The slope is steeper than I thought.”
“How are we supposed to stop that stubborn mule? Even if he looks like that, he has good athletic ability, so he’ll do well. The Director said he’s been good at riding bicycles since he was little, so what problem could there be? By the way, Euiju-ssi, your cold must be lasting a really long time.”
Kim Jaeho tapped Euiju’s mask as he asked. Euiju shrugged his shoulders awkwardly and stepped back. Since the bluish area was gradually turning yellow, he’d be able to take off the mask within a week.
“Alright everyone, let’s go! Standby!”
At the director’s shout, people took their positions in unison. Haeseong also began heading up to where filming would start.
A protagonist who becomes the target of jealousy from male students due to having too dazzling an appearance and turns dark after being bullied. Haeseong, who had taken on such a role, had to film a scene today where he snatches the phones of the villains who filmed a nasty video and runs away.
It was a scene of riding a bicycle down a slope at high speed. Though the slope was long, the incline was relatively gentle except for the end portion, so Haeseong stubbornly insisted on doing it himself until the very end.
—I’m saying I can do it. What, you think I can’t even do something like this because I’m short?
In fact, Haeseong’s short height made it somewhat awkward to use a substitute actor. Euiju thought that perhaps he was being stubborn because finding a stuntman with a similar height would itself be a blow to his pride.
“…He’ll do well.”
Hadn’t he seen his basketball skills before? With his exceptional athletic ability, he should be able to do it well. Somehow, a strange sense of déjà vu kept poking at Euiju.
