In just the first month, I watched three dramas. It was the result of cutting my sleep by two hours every day.
Three months after I first became interested in ‘stories,’ I started reading screenwriting textbooks. That was the beginning. Exactly three more months after that, I started writing my own work bit by bit. When I saw competitions, I submitted my writing.
I submitted to twenty competitions and was rejected by nineteen. And one place contacted me. That was my first stepping stone to starting as a broadcast writer. The work was hard, but it was okay. My life felt like a story for the first time. Of course, not to the extent that it could be used as a scenario.
I told Jung Yoonseo my long story with appropriate omissions. Since Jung Yoonseo already knew the story, omitting parts wasn’t a problem. Jung Yoonseo listened to my story calmly without showing signs of boredom. Then after thinking for a moment, he asked.
“Is it okay to tell me all this?”
To Jung Yoonseo? I never thought about telling anyone this story. …Because it wasn’t interesting. I laughed briefly out loud and said.
“Because hyung was curious…”
Jung Yoonseo was silent for quite a while, then asked in a playful voice.
“But in the end, this was also a scenario, so there must have been omissions. There’s no story about getting scolded or anything? Didn’t you ever cause trouble?”
At Jung Yoonseo’s words, I thought carefully. Times I was scolded… Of course there were.
“There were. Times I was scolded.”
“Tell me about those.”
“Well, in high school, a friend… caused an accident that wasn’t quite an accident, and I got scolded for covering it up.”
“Ah, you were class president, right?”
“Yes. But it wasn’t a classmate.”
“Hmm… And?”
I thoroughly recalled the past, and suddenly remembered a time I was really severely scolded. It was when I was in kindergarten.
“In kindergarten…”
“Do we have to go back that far?”
“I got scolded incredibly hard for the first time in my life back then.”
“Tell me.”
Back then I must have been terrified, but recalling it now, it wasn’t such a scary story. I said in a voice tinged with laughter.
“Ah… I was planning to take this to the grave.”
“That’s Kang Seojin’s story.”
“In kindergarten, a friend was crying.”
“Kids that age cry often anyway.”
“That’s true. But the friend had an accident in his pants. It was a boy…”
“So?”
Jung Yoonseo, as if interested, raised his body from his languid leaning position and listened to my story. I looked at Jung Yoonseo and fumbled through my memory to tell the story.
“But kids that age also have a sense of shame. It’s embarrassing to tell the teacher you peed in your pants. So he couldn’t say anything. Because he’d have to change pants and get scolded again. But he got caught by me.”
“So you teased him?”
Jung Yoonseo, with a mischievous expression, whispered as if asking about something secret. I chuckled at the absurdity and continued the story.
“No. I didn’t tease him. He was crying when he saw me, so I was thinking about what to do, and it was in the kindergarten garden, and at that time, what should I call it? There was something like a hose that water came out of. Maybe the principal liked growing plants or something, anyway that’s how it was. So I turned on that hose and sprayed it at him. And sprayed myself too.”
Jung Yoonseo didn’t even answer and listened to my story intently. I thought Jung Yoonseo looking at me intently over such a trivial story was a bit cute.
“So we became completely like drowned rats and went to the teacher. I said I stubbornly turned on the water because I wanted to play with it, so I got completely scolded. What about him? He probably didn’t get scolded. Because I did it. I really got scolded back then, but still, we both had to change clothes so no one knew he had an accident. The next day during snack time, he gave me his snack. Though I caught a cold…”
I finished speaking and laughed while making eye contact with Jung Yoonseo. Since it’s a memory I’d half-forgotten, recalling it on an occasion like this feels quite different. It was kind of cute too.
However, Jung Yoonseo just kept looking at me silently for a long while even after I finished speaking, then said in a low voice.
“…You were born with it.”
At Jung Yoonseo’s words, I tilted my head to the side. I was asking what he meant, but Jung Yoonseo turned his body, grabbed my chin, and fixed my face in place.
“But I have a bit of a bad personality…”
Was Jung Yoonseo’s voice always this low? I suddenly thought the distance was too close. Jung Yoonseo continued speaking regardless.
“I’m turned on by stuff like this.”
For a moment, Jung Yoonseo’s bright-colored eyes seemed to glitter as they reflected the fluorescent light.
I reflexively tried to pull my held face back, but I couldn’t because Jung Yoonseo was holding me so firmly. I swallowed my saliva and stammered.
“…Hyung, your taste is a bit strange.”
Jung Yoonseo didn’t avoid my eyes at all. Seen up close, Jung Yoonseo had a miraculously handsome face. Among those features, the bright-colored eyes that glittered even under fluorescent lights and the equally bright, dense eyelashes were especially striking.
“You don’t know how attractive you are to people, do you?”
I was at a loss for words at Jung Yoonseo’s sudden compliment-like question. Honestly, I knew I wasn’t completely unpopular. I’d dated girlfriends consistently too. Of course, back then I’d never thought about dating a man…
Feeling overwhelmed by Jung Yoonseo’s eyes staring at me, I lowered my eyes to avoid them. Shortly after, Jung Yoonseo released the hand firmly holding my chin and moved that hand to caress near my ear. I couldn’t not notice the blatant tension mixed in that touch.
“…Hyung.”
“Tell me.”
“That… why suddenly.”
At my stammering question, Jung Yoonseo chuckled, then moved his hand to stroke my hair and the back of my neck. Jung Yoonseo’s touch made goosebumps rise on my back involuntarily. Jung Yoonseo said in a languid voice.
“Suddenly?”
“Yes?”
At my counter-question, Jung Yoonseo slowly repeated stroking down the back of my neck and said.
“I’ve liked you since the first day we ate together, Hyun-ssi. Do you think people who are this naturally kind as breathing are common?”
“Me?”
“Back then it was just… I simply wanted to meet a few more times to an appropriate degree.”
Jung Yoonseo lowered his hand to stroke my earlobe once, then withdrew his hand. Only then did I raise my eyes to face Jung Yoonseo. Jung Yoonseo had turned completely toward me, propping his chin on one hand and looking at me.
“But if it was just going to be like that, you shouldn’t have told me everything like this. You shouldn’t have allowed me to know all about Hyun-ssi’s life.”
I turned my gaze to look at the script that summarized Kang Seojin’s life. In that book, Kang Seojin’s life was described with omissions here and there. So did Jung Yoonseo perfectly understand my life?
“You said you wanted to become good friends.”
Jung Yoonseo’s voice was heard again.
How much of that book did Jung Yoonseo read? I originally read the book and understood Jung Yoonseo’s past and the deficiencies he had.
Was it the same for Jung Yoonseo?
“How was it when you read that book?”
At my question, Jung Yoonseo’s expression hardened for a moment. I asked a bit more specifically.
“Now you know it’s not just book content but my life. You must have guessed that while reading it too. Of course, you weren’t certain…”
“Mm…”
“Did it feel like meeting a character from a book in real life? How did it feel to look into my life?”
Jung Yoonseo was silent for quite a while. Then he said in a cracked-sounding voice.
“I don’t know how much of your life you don’t want to reveal, but I… honestly wanted to know more about Hyun-ssi. So I was a bit happy. I think you could feel bad about it.”
Of course I didn’t feel bad. First of all, I knew about Jung Yoonseo’s life too. Of course, how much that book omitted about Jung Yoonseo’s life was something I couldn’t know. Honestly speaking, since I hadn’t told Jung Yoonseo that I knew about his life, the person who should be reproached here was me too.
“But Hyun-ssi was the one who showed me the book. Are you angry?”
Jung Yoonseo’s voice sounding anxious was a bit funny. Just a moment ago he was blatantly showing sexual tension, then suddenly became anxious,
“Of course I’m not angry. I was the one who showed it to you…”
And then seeming happy again at one word, smiling like this was also a bit… I don’t know how to explain it, but anyway I did owe Jung Yoonseo a debt…
Ah, this is an excuse.
