He’d pat my shoulders or back, and habitually stroke my head. And like today, if someone was rude to me, he’d step forward without a moment’s hesitation and protect me.
People found the protection Cha Jeonghan showed me puzzling at times. They seemed unable to understand how someone could embrace and protect a mere manager like that, no matter how close they were. I too sometimes felt his protection was overprotective, but knowing what kind of existence I was to Cha Jeonghan, I didn’t stop his protection or expressions and embraced them all. Whatever Cha Jeonghan gave, I just liked it all.
“How much do I receive from you to say you’ve given me everything with just that much? Later I’m going to buy you an even better house than where we live now, and I’ll make it so you can travel first class around the world.”
“Just me going?”
“Should we go together? Come to think of it, we’ve never traveled together, the two of us.”
“…If you can go, let’s go together.”
“I’d cancel all my schedule right now and go with you. Should we go to the airport right now?”
Words were enough. And Cha Jeonghan was someone who would really cancel everything, paying all the penalty fees, and go if I said let’s leave tomorrow. My friend was always like that—I was his top priority. Though different from the feelings I had, in the end, the heart we had for caring about and thinking of each other was the same. Just the name was different, that’s all.
“Let’s go together later. For sure.”
Whether his mood had completely cleared or he’d forgotten for a moment, Cha Jeonghan grinned. Whatever it was, I was happy that he smiled. That was simply all.
* * *
While getting ready to leave in the morning, I got a call from Dongyun hyung. Thinking he might have already arrived even though it wasn’t time yet, I answered the phone to hear a voice mixed with sighs. Along with telling me to quickly go to a portal site, he said I needed to come to the company right away, so come down to the parking lot in 10 minutes.
I hadn’t even gone to the site yet, but I roughly knew what this was about. Considering how small scandals had come up over several years, it would probably be that kind of thing this time too. I took a deep breath for a moment and went to the site. I saw Cha Jeonghan’s name in the real-time search rankings, and then seeing Yoo Ajeong’s name next gave me a headache. In an article with the word “exclusive” in front, there was a photo of Yoo Ajeong leaving this apartment building and getting in a car. I went into Cha Jeonghan’s room and held out my phone to him. Cha Jeonghan looked at my face once and just tilted his head to glance at the phone screen.
“It finally came out.”
“You knew?”
“A few days ago, the Department Head said they were going to break this and asked what I was going to do, so I said it had nothing to do with me.”
“…Well, it’s not like you met her, and you were at the filming site, so strictly speaking, it has nothing to do with you.”
“It’s not like I called her. I didn’t tell her to stay at the house or anything. That’s why I said why does she act on her own and only create annoying situations? So annoying.”
“Dongyun hyung is on his way now. Looks like the Department Head is calling you in.”
“I said everything last time and there’s nothing else to say.”
“Still, explain it well. We need to handle this.”
“Okay. You’re coming with me, right?”
“…Of course.”
Seeing Manager Dongyun hyung’s message that he’d arrived, Cha Jeonghan and I went down to the parking lot. Fortunately, since it was a place with tight security, reporters hadn’t come into the parking lot, but just in case, I carefully watched the surroundings and didn’t relax my tension until Cha Jeonghan completely got in the car.
As we exited the parking lot, cars that had been parked on the street started following the van. Even if we shook them off, there would be reporters from another team in front of the agency anyway. I watched the cars following us, then accessed the portal again to check the newly uploaded articles.
“Yoo Ajeong-ssi’s agency put out a rebuttal article. She briefly stopped by because a friend lives there, and it has nothing to do with you.”
“They wrapped it up nicely.”
“Our article is up too. It says you were filming at that time that day, and since meeting at the filming site for work, you’ve never contacted each other once.”
“Why upload it so long-windedly like that? It sounds like making excuses. Just say it’s groundless and that if false information is spread, we’ll hold them legally responsible.”
“That statement is below too.”
“Everything’s good, but they’re always too long-winded when responding like this.”
“They have to deny it specifically like this so people think ‘ah, they’re really denying it with all their alibis, so it must not be true.'”
Cha Jeonghan, who had pulled down his mask below his chin, took the phone I was looking at and roughly skimmed through the article. Then he returned the phone to me.
“It seems all sorted out, but do we need to meet with the Department Head?”
“He’ll have a word to say.”
Knowing he’d get an earful, Cha Jeonghan leaned his body deep back into the seat and closed his eyes. I kept checking and rechecking the romance denial articles with firm wording that I didn’t want to be associated with at all, newly appearing every time I refreshed.
As expected, reporters were gathered in front of the agency. As soon as the car stopped so we could enter right away, I got out first and opened the door. Cha Jeonghan went straight inside without properly showing his face to the reporters and disappeared. A barrage of shutters poured behind us, but that wasn’t something we needed to worry about beyond that point.
When they said to go into the Department Head’s office alone, Cha Jeonghan asked me to go in together and appropriately interrupt the Department Head’s words and get him out, so I had no choice but to go in together. The Department Head, who had been on the phone with a reporter answering noisily ringing calls saying it was ridiculous, put down the phone with a tired face and approached the sofa. Then he placed several photos on the table. The photos on the table were of Yoo Ajeong that had been in today’s article.
“What’s going on? Last time when this talk came up, you said it wasn’t true.”
“Yes. It’s not.”
“But she’s going in and out of the house?”
“She said she went to a friend’s house.”
“Who doesn’t know she went to your house? She even met your friend at that house. Who would that friend be? It’s you, Yuhyeon.”
At the gaze turning toward me, when I answered yes, the Department Head let out a deep sigh and turned his body completely toward me.
“Explain. What happened?”
“Why are you asking Yuhyeon? I’ll explain.”
“Because you don’t explain properly. Tell me honestly. We’ve denied it for now, but are you meeting Yoo Ajeong?”
“We met a few times because we had filming work together, and when she said she came near where I was filming elsewhere, we had a meal together once with her manager accompanying her. That’s all. She had her manager find out my address, came for a surprise visit thinking I was home, but I happened to have suddenly gone out for a schedule, and she ran into Yuhyeon.”
At Cha Jeonghan’s answer, the Department Head looked at me again. There wasn’t particularly anything detailed to say, but thinking it would be better to honestly say what happened, I looked at the photos sprawled on the table and spoke.
“Yes. She suddenly came and… ran into me. Yoo Ajeong-ssi called Jeonghan, and when she asked if she could wait inside and see him before leaving, I thought everything had been discussed with Jeonghan. I left the house right away, so I don’t know well what happened after that.”
“After that, she called again so I told her to leave immediately, and I got a response that she understood. I told her never to contact me again, and after that, we’ve never met or contacted each other. And I’m not the only one living in that apartment building. We didn’t even meet that day, and how many people saw me filming at that time? Bring all the staff to ask them.”
Having heard the story, the Department Head nodded as if he understood what kind of situation this was. Until now, he’d experienced situations like this enough times because of Cha Jeonghan, who had relationships that weren’t deep at all but just brushed past people, yet didn’t touch those people at all and let them do as they pleased, so his expression said there was no need to hear more.
“Jeonghan-ah. How many times have I told you? Just date someone steadily instead? That’s better. Idols can’t, but actors are fine. It actually helps. It creates a romantic image, you know? Why do you always create situations that only smell of something when you’re not even properly dating?”
“Even when I try to date, they do things that make it impossible to date right away.”
“Then if you have no intention of dating, why do you keep accepting them?”
“I’ve never accepted anyone. I just didn’t respond.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“Because it’s nice that someone likes me. I speak when I like them.”
At Cha Jeonghan’s answer with quite firm convictions, the Department Head shook his head while leaning his body back into the sofa as if his head hurt. Then he waved his hand dismissively as if he didn’t want to talk anymore, telling us to leave. I quickly took Cha Jeonghan out of the Department Head’s office.
“Am I weird?”
“About what?”
“Being loved is a good thing.”
“…That’s right.”
“Is there a need to reject them?”
“If you don’t speak clearly, the other person will misunderstand. They might think you have the same feelings, so you need to tell them.”
Cha Jeonghan, who got on the elevator, slowly pulled up the mask he’d lowered to his chin and tilted his head. Cha Jeonghan had quite negative and somewhat twisted thoughts about emotions related to love.
“I only want to express it when I like someone.”
“……”
“To you, Yuhyeon, I say everything. I want to take care of you, when I see good things I think of you first, happy things, sad things—I think of you first for everything….”
“……”
