With eyes round as if hearing something he’d never heard or seen before in his life, Section Manager Kim asked again with a dumbfounded expression, and Muyoung burst into laughter as if crumbling. If even the people who had worked with him for a long time were like this, how could he himself possibly grasp what happened today?
“He sent it to me.”
“……What?”
“Hurry up and go. We need to clear this place out.”
Feeling like he’d be trapped here if Section Manager Kim interrogated him even a little more, Muyoung immediately picked up his things. After being urged to hurry to the car while being pushed from behind, Muyoung was finally able to escape the filming location.
Even while leaving, Section Manager Kim’s doubts seemed to grow as he watched Muyoung receiving greetings from the staff, and his movements loading the luggage into the car were swift. As soon as he planted his butt on the seat and closed the driver’s side door, he turned around and started pressing him.
“What is it, what happened? Did a coffee truck really come? For you? Did the company send it?”
“Not the company, just… someone sent it…”
“Well, if it was the company, there’s no way they wouldn’t have told me. CEO Choi didn’t say anything like that. Or wait, did someone send it without me knowing? An actor? A friend?”
With the increasing number of questions, Muyoung broke into a cold sweat trying to choose his answers. He’d never thought about hiding something from Section Manager Kim. Today’s incident couldn’t be hidden, but he couldn’t tell everything either, which was troublesome.
If he found out it was someone from the industry, he’d likely try to extract more information. Being interrogated itself didn’t matter. He could somehow brush off anything, but if he made a slip of the tongue in a hasty answer, he’d have to spill out even the facts he wanted to hide. Muyoung continued to watch Section Manager Kim’s reactions while pretending to organize his luggage in his seat calmly and answered.
“Well, it’s someone I know.”
“Someone you know? Someone you know sent a coffee truck and you didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t know they’d send it either…”
“You didn’t know? So it was a complete surprise? Why didn’t I know you had a friend like that?”
Not a friend, though. Still, it wasn’t really something to be suspicious about as much as he’d worried, and Section Manager Kim actually seemed to be in a good mood. He seemed more excited and pleased that his actor had received a gift right now.
Relieved that the situation he’d worried about didn’t happen, Muyoung gathered his luggage enough to make it easy to carry down and organized it to one side. Finally leaning back in his seat as the car started and departed, Muyoung fiddled with his phone sitting quietly in his pocket while watching the lights passing outside the window. The floral scent that had filled the waiting room was now completely filling the car.
“The flowers are really huge. It’ll be work organizing those at home too.”
“It’s okay. See you tomorrow, Section Manager-nim.”
Even as he watched Muyoung getting out with his luggage, Section Manager Kim couldn’t wipe the satisfied expression from his face, and laughter came out together. Was it his imagination that the people around him seemed to be more excited about this rare event than he was?
Watching the staff who were at the filming location with him, Section Manager Kim who hadn’t even seen the coffee truck, everyone being several times happier than himself made him think various things. From the greedy thought that if he’d been a little more famous and worked a little harder, would these things have happened often? To the cowardly fear that perhaps not knowing about these things would have made his heart more comfortable.
“Alright, rest well. I’ll come pick you up in the afternoon tomorrow.”
“Yes, go on in.”
After getting out of the car with his luggage, he stepped up onto the sidewalk. Hearing the familiar exhaust sound fading away, he walked slowly toward the entrance.
Even though he was going home after working until this hot summer night, somehow he didn’t feel tired. Just as he was thinking it would be nice if the filming finished without any problems in this leisure he was feeling for the first time in a while. The weight shifted heavily to one side as the luggage was lifted from his hand that was loosely holding the shopping bag.
“Careful.”
“Uh…”
Muyoung, who barely supported his body with large hands firmly grabbing his shoulders from behind, slowly turned his head to check the other person. The man who’d caught him let out a small laugh at Muyoung’s face, his eyes growing wider and his surprised feelings showing clearly.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“How at this hour…”
It was Dowon.
While he was too dazed to react properly, the man took all the remaining luggage he was holding with one hand and even checked Muyoung’s appearance. It happened in a flash without time to stop this brazen person’s actions.
“I thought we said we’d meet.”
“I thought it was just talk since there was no contact…”
“Check your phone.”
From what he remembered, there were no particular notifications when he habitually checked his phone after filming ended. But when he checked again at Dowon’s urging with a “no way,” there were missed call marks and text notifications. He must have fallen asleep briefly in the car and received the contact during that time.
He felt awkward as if he’d become someone who deliberately didn’t answer the phone to avoid him. Muyoung’s face quickly turned red as he alternately looked at the screen and Dowon.
“…I’m sorry. I didn’t get to check.”
“Then it’s possible for you to spare some time, right?”
Unlike his worry, Dowon didn’t seem to care at all that he hadn’t answered the phone and didn’t look that disappointed. Rather, his attitude of asking as if it were early evening even though it was quite late since filming had finished was quite bold.
Right now, Muyoung was used to doing things until late so he was fine, but was it okay for someone who was a company CEO even at this late hour? In Jinho’s case, he couldn’t easily meet on weekdays because of work. When that came to mind too, Muyoung forcibly stopped his thoughts from going deeper and just nodded in agreement.
“Yes, but I don’t really know what places around here are open at this hour.”
“Hmm… Would it be very inconvenient to stay at Muyoung-ssi’s house for a bit before leaving?”
“…Ah, that’s…”
There was no awkwardness or hesitation in the attitude of the person making the plain request. It was right to be reluctant to let this person into his house, but it was an awkward time to go far away right now. And he didn’t feel like refusing someone who’d given him various gifts for himself just because it was a bit uncomfortable, and it felt bothersome to look for another place when home was right in front of them. Plus, he had a lot of luggage right now. Wouldn’t it be a perfect excuse since the very person who gave all these gifts was right in front of him?
“Ramen is fine, I’d like a cup of tea. My throat is dry from waiting.”
At those words, Muyoung’s head nodded slowly, making the noisy worries connecting in his head seem meaningless.
“Then for now…”
He entered the security key at the entrance and led the way. Even in the elevator, Muyoung stole glances at Dowon’s silhouette reflected on the door as he quietly followed without returning the luggage.
He felt it on the weekend too, but his appearance still perfectly suited in a suit made him look more like an actor than himself. He was a man who was neat and tidy but had a sharp and well-honed fierce atmosphere to match. Whether he was still using the same perfume, the familiar scent was felt more strongly in the narrow space. Concerned about having to let such a person into his house, Muyoung kept recalling whether the house he’d left this morning was messy anywhere.
Even at the front door, he hesitated for a moment before entering the password with his back to Dowon and went inside. Feeling the stuffy air inside the house where no one had been during the summer day, he turned on the air conditioner first. Then, turning on the living room light, he hurriedly took the luggage Dowon was holding and stepped diagonally back in front of him.
“…It’s cramped, but please come in.”
It was a house he thought was a generous size for living alone, but it somehow felt shabby to suddenly show it to Dowon like this. It might have been because of the physique of the man slowly entering inside. Compared to others, the man who was much larger and broader-shouldered than himself who was by no means small, looked strong and even intimidating with his outfit and atmosphere added.
“You’ve been living alone for a while, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
Muyoung carried the gift package and bouquet he’d brought in to the kitchen, organized them, and turned around to look at Dowon who was approaching after finishing his tour. When he offered a seat at the dining table, the man who sat down watching him organize took off his jacket.
Seeing him hang it on the back of the chair he was sitting on, Muyoung was about to approach thinking he should give him a coat hanger, but Dowon lightly raised his hand to stop him, saying it was okay. Muyoung hurriedly prepared tea.
“I don’t have tea, so is it okay if we drink together what you gave me?”
“Anything is fine.”
Nodding his head, after boiling water, he put the tea steeped from tea bags into ice-filled mugs and sat across from him at the dining table. Around the time the floral and sweet fruit scent slowly filled the space between them, Dowon opened his mouth again.
“Are you living apart from your family?”
It was an unexpected question, so he missed the timing to answer right away. Was it because he thought Dowon would naturally know? Since it wasn’t particularly a fact he was hiding, Muyoung answered without much hesitation.
“Originally… I was alone. I grew up in an orphanage.”
“Mm, and you haven’t tried to find them?”
“No, there were no records to begin with…”
Since he’d been talking calmly until just now, Muyoung thought Dowon wasn’t completely unaware of this fact either, but he realized now from the other person’s expression that wasn’t the case. His slightly tilted head at an angle and his thumb rubbing the end of his eyebrow—the somewhat troubled atmosphere looked similar to regret somehow.
