At that dizzying scene, Euiju had no time to think any further. Reflexively, he stepped forward quickly. His body, which had been stiff with tension, loosened flexibly and shot out at lightning speed.
Moving his body instinctively, Euiju kicked off the ground with all his might. He ran toward Haeseong, who was floating in midair. It was a fleeting moment, but to Euiju’s extraordinary dynamic vision, Haeseong’s body rising into the air seemed to flow slowly, as if a video had been stretched out. Thanks to that, even in a situation where every second counted, Euiju was barely able to catch Haeseong falling into his arms.
“Urgh!”
Euiju quickly wrapped Haeseong in his embrace, but the recoil was too severe. The actor and manager’s bodies tangled together and rolled here and there on the ground, and the bicycle, which had already lost its balance and tipped to the side, scraped against the asphalt floor, producing distinct sparks.
The staff, their faces drained of color, came running with panicked expressions. In an instant, many people surrounded the two, but Euiju remained holding Haeseong in his arms. The sound of his violently beating heart could be felt clearly through their pressed-together bodies. Euiju slowly pulled away and lowered his head to look at the person in his arms. Haeseong, his soul somehow gone, was staring intently at Euiju’s bluish cheek even in the midst of all this.
“A-Are you alright?”
“What are you doing? Hurry up and call an ambulance!”
Euiju got up while still holding Haeseong. Though he had rolled on the ground and gotten scratches here and there, there were no major injuries.
“Haeseong-ah! Are you okay?”
Kim Jaeho, the director, and various staff members, their faces drained of color, pushed Euiju aside with soul-lost expressions. They began urgently checking on the young actor’s condition.
Even in the midst of this, as if he couldn’t dare touch Haeseong’s body, Team Leader Kim Jaeho stomped his feet while examining Haeseong’s body here and there. Surprisingly, Haeseong had only slightly scraped the area around his arm and was otherwise unharmed.
“Move.”
Haeseong pushed aside Kim Jaeho, who was looking at him worriedly, and approached Euiju with fierce eyes, walking steadily.
Euiju, who had been brushing off dust, and Haeseong’s gazes became strangely entangled.
Haeseong’s expression was truly subtle. It seemed somehow twisted in displeasure, yet also confused. As if he had absolutely no idea why Euiju had saved him.
It was a face that seemed to have lost its sense of direction. Seeing how his gaze looking at Euiju was shaking like that.
Euiju, who had been silently looking down at Haeseong and meeting his gaze, spoke sharply in a low voice.
“I’ll take him to the hospital.”
“Okay. Let’s do that for now. Director Jo. Let’s call off filming for today.”
“R-Right. The manager, you say? Wow. That was a close one, a close one. It’s thanks to the manager that Haeseong-gun wasn’t seriously hurt. Hey, Team Leader Kim. About this incident. You’re going to make sure it doesn’t get in the news, right? Ah. We all need things to work out well, don’t we? Isn’t that right?”
If an article came out saying he had nearly injured an actor who wasn’t even an adult yet due to his own greed, it would be quite a blow. At the selfish director’s flattery, Euiju felt like cursing would slip out for the first time in a while, so he held it in tightly, turned around first, and started walking ahead.
Haeseong followed behind Euiju without a word.
Haeseong got into the parked van first, and Euiju followed, getting into the driver’s seat. An employee who had followed them said he would drive himself, but Euiju adamantly refused and sent them away.
However, Euiju only started the car’s engine but didn’t depart. He just hung his arms over the steering wheel and fell into deep thought. Haeseong also didn’t rush Euiju, as if he was thinking about something himself.
A suffocating silence flowed. Thanks to the engine being on, only faint vibrations enveloped the two of them.
Euiju, who always managed his expressions in front of Haeseong, didn’t seem to have any intention of hiding his hardened face now. Exuding coldness, he glanced at Haeseong through the rearview mirror.
Before long, Euiju suddenly got out of the car, then opened the door on Haeseong’s opposite side, entered, and sat next to him.
Thud.
At the car’s faint vibration, Haeseong raised his head. Seeing Euiju sitting in the seat next to him, he made a momentarily surprised face.
“…What.”
Despite it being a situation where curses should have come out given his usual temperament, Haeseong ended his words simply. Even though Euiju was staring at him intently, he had no intention of meeting his eyes. Rather, as if that gaze was uncomfortable, he turned his head to the opposite side.
As if, like someone who felt sorry toward Euiju.
“Are you sorry to me?”
It was Euiju’s cold voice that Haeseong was hearing for the first time. At his chilling question, Haeseong bit his lips without answering and only glared out the window.
“I know you tried to hit me. Whether it was planned or impulsive, I don’t know, but were you angry enough at me to pull such a dangerous stunt? It’s not just my body that would be ruined, but Jin Haeseong-ssi would get hurt too.”
Euiju was just curious. Why Haeseong, who valued his appearance so much and cherished his own body, had gone that far. Not only Euiju, but if things had gone wrong, Haeseong could have been really seriously injured too.
“……”
Since Haeseong didn’t answer, silence flowed between the two again. The atmosphere grew taut with tension in the heavy air, and a sharp silence flowed where even the sound of saliva going down one’s throat could be heard.
How much time had passed? Haeseong broke the heavy air and spoke.
“You hate me.”
“……What?”
Euiju asked back, doubting his own ears. Haeseong continued with a trembling voice.
“When you hate me that much, I have to give you a reason. Otherwise, wouldn’t I be too wronged?”
His expression as he spoke with a voice cracked with emotion was utterly desperate. It looked somehow empty and lonely, like a despair he had experienced before.
***
In the past, when Haeseong was even younger than now. At the same time his father abandoned him, Haeseong’s mother died of illness. A man appeared before Haeseong, who was floundering in grief. He cautiously knocked on and approached the heart of Haeseong, who was sensitive, impulsive, and prickly.
—Haeseong-ah. Want to try eating this? I heard you like it, so I made it myself and brought it.
—Haeseong-ah. How about this? My nephews really love this, so I brought it. I hope Haeseong likes it too.
He tried. Though Haeseong, who had closed the door to his heart, didn’t even glance at him, the man continued to show interest despite Haeseong’s cold rejection, and approached warmly.
Haeseong was young. Since there had been no adult who had shown warmth to a child even his parents had turned away from, the deeply wounded child had no way not to waver.
A thick lock won’t open no matter how much you try without a key. However, if that lock is actually starving for affection and love, and if a wrong key bundled tightly with kindness and tenderness appears before it…
Even if the key doesn’t fit the lock… wouldn’t it want to open the bolt that had been firmly locked?
The man melted even a little of Haeseong’s frozen heart and was the first to open the door to Haeseong’s heart.
But that was only for a while. The man desperately betrayed Haeseong.
—Haeseong-ah. That, Kim Yeongrok-ssi……
And in a very cruel way at that.
Haeseong knew well the worry implied in Euiju’s words about giving him a massage. Because even to young Haeseong’s eyes, there wasn’t a trace of falsehood in the gaze looking at his pain.
That’s why he couldn’t help but despair when he heard Euiju say he hated him to death. It couldn’t help but come at him more painfully.
That’s why he wanted to ruin him to the extent that he could even consider getting hurt himself.
A young child who has already experienced betrayal once becomes defensive to protect himself. Let’s crush the bud so he can’t betray me. Let me hurt him first before he hurts me first.
Not slowing down the bicycle’s speed was an impulsive decision. At a place less than 10 meters from Euiju, Haeseong thought such things.
That at this speed, the person who gets hit will be seriously hurt.
Then suddenly, Euiju lowered the white mask he was wearing. A bluish bruise covering one whole side of Euiju’s cheek came into Haeseong’s field of vision.
At that moment, he suddenly remembered Jang Yeonguk’s words that he had casually passed over in his head.
—Because of me, there was a fight… Because of that, Euiju-hyung got hurt too.
Before he could even organize the thought that suddenly arose, Haeseong crashed into an unexpected obstacle. Without time to do anything, he felt his body rise into the air. Haeseong squeezed his eyes shut, thinking of the pain to come.
But there was no pain. Because someone had strongly embraced him and rolled on the ground instead.
Even in a situation where his vision was dizzy and chaotic, who was this person covering his head, embracing his body with all their might? Haeseong was curious. Since he was ten years old, no—even before that, there had been no one who had embraced Haeseong this desperately. He wanted to confirm who it was. Who had such a warm embrace? Who was embracing his body so desperately?
Haeseong, with his eyes closed in that peaceful embrace, felt like tears that hadn’t come even when his mother died would come out.
“I heard everything that day. Don’t think about making excuses that it wasn’t true. You hate me enough for me to appear in your nightmares, and I’m the only famous person Seo Jiyul knows! I thought I was enduring well, but you went around cursing me like that to relieve stress? How did you curse me behind my back? While I did everything you told me to do every day as if it was nothing. The truth is you hated it all, right? You loathed me enough to want to kill me, right!”
The person who threw their body to embrace him for the first time was none other than a human who extremely loathed and hated him.
That fact made Haeseong feel so wronged and sad.
“Everyone’s the same. Not just that ahjussi, everyone’s all the same. Why did you save me? When you hate me so much, why did you save me? Did you think I’d be grateful? Did you think this kid whose head hasn’t even dried yet would be so grateful that they’d cling to you sobbing and bawling their eyes out!”
Haeseong couldn’t control his emotions and lowered his head. Unable to do anything about the bursting emotions, tears gushed up from his eyes.
Plop, plop, droplets fell and wetly stained his pants in round circles.
“Why did I try to hit you? It’s nothing special. Since you hate me, I have to give you a reason. When you hate and loathe me to death, I was trying to create a reason that matches that—!”
Haeseong’s excited chest heaved roughly. He let out rough breaths as if a growling sound could be heard from inside his throat. His appearance, as if adrenaline was being excessively secreted, was dizzying as if he would explode at any moment.
Euiju said nothing. He just silently watched such a Haeseong.
As time passed, Haeseong’s wheezing breaths gradually subsided, and heavy silence began to settle inside the car.
A strange standoff continued. Euiju was silent, and Haeseong, having barely calmed his emotions, only made intermittent panting sounds.
How much time passed like that?
Pfft—.
A small laugh suddenly burst from Euiju. At that sound, Haeseong, doubting his own ears, jerked up his tear-soaked face.
Really and truly out of the blue, wasn’t Euiju covering his mouth with one hand and laughing?
‘How, dare he……’
The moment he saw that, Haeseong felt for the first time what it meant for one’s vision to grow distant from anger.
Haeseong raised his clenched fist, genuinely intending to hit his manager. The moment he impulsively tried to strike his shoulder, a large, long hand instantly caught Haeseong’s fist.
“Tsk. Where do you think you’re raising your hand to an adult?”
Euiju, who had wiped the laughter from his face in an instant, said.
