“Jin Haeseong. Let’s go already!”
Lee Siwoo’s resolute voice echoed through the interior. One could glimpse the desperate will of someone who wanted to get Jin Haeseong out of this space.
Lee Siwoo was always like this. His behavior, as if treating the friends around Jin Haeseong as half-filthy things, had elements that made people like Choi Won and Yoo Gangmin who were here, as well as the women they’d just met, uncomfortable.
Choi Won’s unfocused eyes glaring at Lee Siwoo and his slightly open mouth plainly showed how much alcohol was in him. He abruptly stood up from his seat and thrust his face at Lee Siwoo.
“Hey, Lee Siwoo-ssi. Our Haeseong has accumulated thiiiis much stress today and needs to let it out, you know? I’d really like it if Siwoo-ssi would stop with the gay shit and fuck off. Yeah?”
The person telling him to stop the gay shit groped Lee Siwoo’s side, fumbling around. Hot breaths reeking of alcohol as he thrust his face close while groping his body—it couldn’t help but be unpleasant.
“Get lost!”
When Lee Siwoo pushed him away resolutely, Choi Won, unable to withstand his drunkenness, staggered and collapsed weakly onto the sofa.
“Haha! Wow. A celebrity hitting people, fuck. Can I sue for this? Huh?”
“Jin Haeseong. Come out!”
Lee Siwoo’s shout blasted into the narrow room. Whether Lee Siwoo was throwing a fit or not, Jin Haeseong, who had been leisurely swirling the glass filled by the woman next to him, raised his head. Looking at Lee Siwoo glaring at him intensely from the entrance, he smiled with curved eyes.
“Don’t want to.”
“Puhahak—!”
“Pfft.”
At Jin Haeseong’s languid answer, laughter burst out here and there. Lee Siwoo’s face, which had flushed from coming into a warm place from the cold, turned even redder.
“This friend likes me too much.”
Jin Haeseong with his languid face looked down at the woman next to him and drawled. A shy pink blush bloomed fully on her face. A sticky, subtle atmosphere enveloped the two of them.
“Siwoo-ssi. Just take it easy today and go.”
Yoo Gangmin, who seemed accustomed to this situation, spoke in a calm tone. Not to be outdone, Choi Won put his arm over Lee Siwoo’s shoulder and showed him an article on his phone.
“Hey. Siwoo-ya. Look at this.”
Actor Jin Haeseong’s altercation with civilian, assault controversy. “Again?”
“Our Haeseong needs to heal right now. So don’t kill the vibe and just go. Okay?”
“Don’t touch me and let go! You know that and you’re doing this right now? Jin Haeseong! Come out quickly!”
Lee Siwoo roughly shook off Choi Won who was groping his shoulder and called for Jin Haeseong. At that desperate voice, the woman next to Yoo Gangmin threw a question at Haeseong.
“This is really funny. Haeseong, are you really gay?”
At those words, Haeseong’s head turned—he who had been swallowing his drink with a bored face as if he had not the slightest interest in the situation unfolding before him. Yoo Gangmin next to him chuckled and spoke to the woman.
“Why? Do you see it that way too, noona?”
“Well, I mean… there have been those rumors for a while. I didn’t believe them, but seeing what that person is doing today, I’m wondering if there’s really something…”
As gazes focused on her, the woman’s voice gradually grew smaller as if flustered. Jin Haeseong chuckled at the woman’s words and put down his glass on the table.
“Ah. Gay.”
The atmosphere emanating from his behavior, as if viewing all worldly affairs indifferently, had the power to make people focus.
When he turned his body slightly to sit, the head of the woman next to him naturally lifted again. Jin Haeseong’s head lowered toward her face.
Warm breath touched and scattered on the woman’s face, and her eyes naturally closed. On the face of the woman with her eyes tightly shut, things like excitement and anticipation swam. She looked almost desperate, as if she had been wanting this all along since entering this space, as if she had wished for it for so long.
Jin Haeseong’s black pupils scanned those things persistently. Would this be what the sharp, keen eyes of an experimenter dissecting a frog look like? Jin Haeseong, not missing a single facial muscle existing beneath the skin as he tore into her with his gaze, tenaciously observed the face of the woman who had become his test subject.
“……”
The woman, feeling puzzled that what she desired wasn’t coming into contact, slowly opened her eyes. As their gazes entangled again, Jin Haeseong’s two eyes drew a beautiful curve.
“Hahaha.”
Laughter burst from Jin Haeseong as he suddenly pushed the woman away. Covering his face with one hand while bursting into laughter at what was so amusing, laughing as if his lungs were full of air—it looked quite pleasant, enough to make even those watching feel cheerful.
Choi Won and Yoo Gangmin, who had seen this scene more than once or twice, shook their heads.
“Ah fuck, that nasty bastard. Fuck, ruined it again today.”
The woman whose lips had nearly touched Jin Haeseong’s blinked with a bewildered face. Soon, as if grasping the situation, she turned bright red and contorted her face.
“Ha, crazy bastard.”
The woman who openly hurled curses at Jin Haeseong jumped up from her seat. Then she grabbed a water cup and dumped it on Jin Haeseong without hesitation.
“Ah, that’s cold.”
The spilled water soaked the area around his neck and flowed inside his clothes. As the water-soaked shirt exposed his skin directly, the thick lines of his body were revealed, but Jin Haeseong just kept grinning foolishly at whatever was so funny. The woman, still fuming as if her anger wasn’t relieved, grabbed her handbag and left the room.
“Hey, let’s go together!”
Her friends also followed behind, reading the situation.
The women disappeared, and only after quite some time had passed did Jin Haeseong, barely calming his laughter, sweep back his hair. The corners of his mouth were drawing a pleasing arc as if satisfied.
“Ah, that’s really fun.”
“Isn’t that bastard really crazy?”
Choi Won grumbled as if dissatisfied. Lee Siwoo, who had been watching the situation, moved his steps. He forced his way inside the table and suddenly grabbed Jin Haeseong’s sleeve.
“I said let’s go.”
The sight of him unable to grab Jin Haeseong’s hand and instead pulling at his sleeve was utterly ridiculous. Jin Haeseong, watching that sight, chuckled.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
Jin Haeseong, who had drunk more than anyone else here but rose from his seat without wavering, tilted his head slightly and stared at Lee Siwoo. Lee Siwoo’s sigh seemed like it would cave in the ground.
“Hey. You’re gonna ditch us after sending the women away like that?”
“When someone’s so worried, I should go check.”
“Anyway, fuck, you’re all just fucking assholes.”
Choi Won, who had been glaring alternately at Jin Haeseong and Lee Siwoo, irritably threw his cigarette pack. The rapidly flying cigarette pack hit Lee Siwoo’s back and fell to the floor.
The two men who exited the room walked across the wide, flashy corridor. Jin Haeseong’s huge body being dragged by Lee Siwoo, who fell slightly short of average male height, looked less like being dragged and more like allowing himself to be dragged. The way he walked shuffling along with one hand in his pocket looked thoroughly annoyed no matter who saw him. Even with Lee Siwoo’s fast walking pace, their speeds roughly matched because of his long legs.
When they exited through the bar’s back door to the parking lot, they saw Jin Haeseong’s manager Kim Chanho waiting in advance.
“Y-you could have just lent me the entry card. Siwoo hyung-nim! Thank you so much!”
Kim Chanho let out a sigh of relief with a face that said he’d aged ten years, showing how anxiously he’d been waiting. ‘Shade’ wasn’t a place where ordinary people like Kim Chanho could freely enter, so he had no choice but to call Lee Siwoo, and Lee Siwoo had come running as always.
Seeing that Jin Haeseong’s shirt was wet, Kim Chanho quickly took out a padded jacket and tried to drape it over his shoulders. Jin Haeseong pushed it away as if annoyed and leaned his back against the van, taking out a cigarette from his pocket and putting it in his mouth.
The smoke held fully in his lungs soon flowed back out and sprayed right in Lee Siwoo’s face. Sure enough, nagging immediately began pouring from Lee Siwoo’s mouth.
“It hasn’t even been a day since the assault article came out. The uproar about you going to a club during self-reflection was earlier this year. But you’re here again, what are you doing! Do you really want to be ruined?!”
Lee Siwoo’s sharp shout filled the wide parking lot. Perhaps because it was deep into the early morning and the surroundings were quiet, it somehow felt like it echoed even louder. Kim Chanho, who had only been rolling his eyes left and right and reading the situation, quickly climbed into the driver’s seat and closed the door. He had fled the scene.
“Why didn’t you answer your phone. I told you until it was drilled into your head that this is an important time! Am I doing this because it’s good for me? Why can’t you get a grip!”
The orange streetlight illuminated Lee Siwoo’s heated face completely. Lee Siwoo glared back at Jin Haeseong who was staring at him with indifferent eyes, not backing down.
—This week you absolutely must abstain from alcohol.
Lee Siwoo wondered what on earth he should say to Jin Haeseong, who reeked of alcohol showing just how much he’d drunk, to make him listen. Since Lee Siwoo had heard Haeseong’s primary physician’s words right beside him, he opened his mouth to add more nagging.
“You…”
“Friend.”
Jin Haeseong, who casually called him friend despite being a senior two years older, seemed to have not a hint of guilt. The sight of him continuously blowing thick cigarette smoke at Lee Siwoo with a brazen face as if to block his opening mouth even looked enjoyable.
“Cough, cough!”
Lee Siwoo, who had inhaled the cigarette smoke, coughed dryly. Jin Haeseong, who had been staring at that sight indifferently, ground the cigarette out on the ground.
“How long are you going to cross the line.”
Merciless smoke terrorism and even rude words. Lee Siwoo, his expression deeply furrowed, glared fiercely with eyes reddened by the smoke.
“You know you’re a real fucking asshole, right?”
Jin Haeseong burst into laughter at those words and shrugged his shoulders. Soon he got in the car, grabbed the door frame with his large hand, and shrugged brazenly.
“I know. That’s why this fucking asshole is going to leave. You can get home alone, right?”
“Wha, what? Hey—!”
Before closing the door, Jin Haeseong gave Lee Siwoo a grin, then shut the door with a bang without hesitation.
“Let’s go.”
Bang bang!
Lee Siwoo pounded on the van’s window, but Jin Haeseong took out his phone with an indifferent face. At the sudden command, Kim Chanho, who had been breaking into a cold sweat, spoke with a trembling voice.
“B-but, Siwoo hyung-nim came all the way here without a manager because of my request… After taking hyung-nim first, I’ll just…”
“Drive.”
At the words that came out coldly, Kim Chanho’s mouth quietly closed. Even though the interior was warm from the heater, Kim Chanho, feeling goosebumps rising, deliberately ignored Lee Siwoo who was shouting outside and released the side brake.
The car slowly began to depart.
“Ha.”
Lee Siwoo, standing outside, let out an empty laugh while just watching the rear end of the van getting farther away.
This was the treatment received by the person who cared most about Jin Haeseong.
