They barely finished one scene.
Dohyeong, sitting in a chair, was monitoring the footage while wetting his throat.
“Hey, Kim Dohyeong. Your acting improved?”
Then, Kyungdae came over with a cup of coffee and held it out to him.
Drink it. Dohyeong, who had been looking up at him shaking the cup, smiled faintly.
“Does it seem that way?”
“Yeah. You were doing pretty well.”
It would be a lie to say he wasn’t in a good mood. Dohyeong received the coffee and wrinkled his nose.
He wasn’t used to just receiving compliments, and wondered if there was something else to talk about. Then, as if something came to mind, he straightened his back and looked at Kyungdae.
“How have you been?”
“How have I been? I barely survived the rough life abroad.”
“You even went to university there?”
“That’s right. It wasn’t easy at all.”
At his appearance shaking his head while clicking his tongue, Dohyeong swallowed his laughter again.
Sipping his coffee, he looked at the staff members moving busily. Kyungdae, who had been watching people moving and installing equipment for a while, cleared his throat briefly.
“Hey, you…”
“Yeah?”
“That… ah, how do I say this.”
Kyungdae, who had been scratching and messing up his hair, sneakily gauged Dohyeong’s reaction.
His appearance, unable to grasp what to say, was strange. What is he trying to say? Dohyeong, who had been waiting, lightly hit Kyungdae’s side.
“What is it? Say it.”
“…You and Jung Haesung-ssi, it’s really completely over. Right?”
He never dreamed that Haesung’s story would suddenly come up here.
Flustered, Dohyeong lightly rubbed his coffee cup and gauged his reaction.
“No, no. Sorry. I brought up something irrelevant. I’m so tactless.”
He, who had been awkwardly rambling on, burst into an awkward laugh. Then he looked down at his coffee cup again.
Silence flowed between the two.
It wasn’t something he couldn’t answer right away. It’s just that Haesung’s name would come from Kyungdae’s mouth. Also, he never dreamed that a story related to emotions would come up.
No, was it likely to come up? Though he was a friend he met after a long time, anyway, all stories related to him and Haesung would have been encountered through the media.
“Yeah. It’s completely over.”
In the end, the only thing he said after much deliberation was that.
There was no need to add personal feelings or words. No matter what more he said, the fact that he and Haesung had put a period on their relationship wouldn’t change.
“It was two years ago. So.”
At Dohyeong’s bitterly answering voice, Kyungdae swallowed a silent sigh.
Kyungdae’s appearance was strange. Because it wasn’t the reaction he expected.
Usually, the reaction that came back whenever he talked about this was more or less the same.
Is that so, it must have been hard, are you okay now? Most were words caring for or worrying about him.
Of course, there were people who didn’t even do that much. There was also a friend like Choi Yuchan who ended it with just one word: forget it.
When he was about to ask why, Kyungdae glanced at Haesung standing far away talking with someone on the phone.
“It’s really over?”
“Why are you asking that? You should tell me the reason so I can answer.”
“Jung Haesung.”
At the voice that became serious inwardly, Dohyeong nodded.
“Yeah. Why sunbae?”
“…His eyes, those weren’t eyes that were over.”
Simultaneously with losing energy, the thought that it was nonsense settled in his head.
After hesitating for a moment, Dohyeong, who had been laughing while making a deflating sound, shook his head.
“It’s acting.”
“It’s not a role where Yehyun and Yujin fall in love.”
That’s true though.
Dohyeong, who had been nodding, turned his gaze toward Haesung.
His eyes. In fact, when immersed in acting, there are many cases where you don’t even realize such things.
Especially since right now he wanted to immerse himself in Yehyun.
He didn’t want to dig into what Haesung was thinking while looking at his eyes, or at whom he was directing that gaze.
So all the more, there’s no way he’d know with what kind of eyes Haesung acted, or how he looked at him.
“It was love.”
At Kyungdae’s continued words, he ended up bursting into an empty laugh once again.
“Hey, say something that makes sense—”
“You, what’s my job?”
“…Script supervisor.”
“Who’s the person who has to catch even subtle changes while filming a work?”
“…You?”
“Then does this make sense or not?”
Dohyeong hesitated and couldn’t continue speaking. He could feel the coffee cup in his hand gradually cooling down.
“Well… yeah, I’m not doing this to stir you up. I don’t intend to either. If you say with your own mouth that it’s over, then it must really be over.”
Kyungdae sighed and messed up his hair roughly. Then, looking back and forth between Haesung and Dohyeong, he carefully opened his mouth.
“…Be careful not to get devoured by the acting.”
“What. That person isn’t a beast.”
“Yeah, it’s good to pretend not to know with that mindset too.”
Kyungdae patted Dohyeong’s shoulder and stood up from his seat. At the words that he had to go, he gave his greetings and quietly watched him move away.
‘It was love.’
At those confident words, one corner of his heart felt stuffy.
It was love? That can’t be.
‘I’m not doing this to stir you up.’
Right, he shouldn’t become a person who gets stirred up together just because someone stirs things up. Absolutely, that shouldn’t happen.
Dohyeong, who had been sighing deeply, lowered his head and closed his eyes.
Even if he feels like he’ll be devoured, if he runs away somewhere, if he passes it over pretending not to know.
He too could avoid being swept up by him.
In the moment of mulling over various thoughts, the cold wind was filling his lungs.
***
It was a little past 2 AM when he finished filming and returned home.
He threw his bag carelessly into the living room and collapsed onto the sofa.
“Ah… I’m tired.”
Taking suppressants wasn’t as easy as expected.
Becoming languid or dizzy, the so-called ‘medicine effects,’ seemed to be a story that applied to any medicine.
When he took suppressants, his body became heavy like a sleepy person. Since he took them near the end of filming, it wasn’t strange to become a water-soaked sponge after returning home.
Hah, Dohyeong, who had been letting out a long sigh, cupped his face with both hands.
I should go wash up. Just when he was thinking that, his phone sparkled in the darkness.
Good work today.
It was Haesung’s message.
Dohyeong, who had been looking at the preview window, flipped his phone over and placed it on his body.
“Annoying.”
Even though he knew not replying wasn’t polite. Somehow he didn’t want to have a conversation with Haesung.
While he closed his eyes in fatigue, the phone vibrated again. He thought about not checking it, but it could be contact from the production team.
Choi Sunshine
Dohyeong-ah
Do you like ham or sausage?
This time it was contact from Yuchan.
What’s he suddenly asking? At the absurd question, Dohyeong, who had been laughing softly, typed out one character at a time.
Choi Sunshine
I like ham
But why?
Got it
See you at the filming site tomorrow
What was this bland answer? But he laughed even if briefly, so wasn’t that enough?
While wrapping up the brief laughter and closing the app.
Jung Haesung
Are you sleeping?
He accidentally pressed on Haesung’s message that just arrived.
Naturally, it moved to the message window he had been exchanging with Haesung, and Dohyeong burst out in a groan.
“Ah… you idiot.”
He was going to pass it off by pretending to sleep appropriately.
Since the read receipt already showed, he couldn’t pass it over like that.
After writing and erasing messages several times, he typed and sent a reply.
Jung Haesung
No. I just finished washing up. What is it?
In the end, the answer he chose was childish but a perfectly fitting excuse.
Jung Haesung
I wanted to say that your acting today was good
At the reply that came back, he bolted upright.
My acting was good? His eyes widened. Maybe it was more so because receiving praise for acting from Haesung was an extremely rare thing.
Whether this was real or not. Dohyeong, who had been rubbing his eyes several times, stared down at his phone.
Trying hard to swallow the smile that naturally formed on his lips, he tapped the screen.
Jung Haesung
Thank you. I was worried it would be awkward, but I’m relieved.
It showed that you practiced a lot. The texture of your acting changed. Kim Dohyeong-ssi.
Because it was Haesung, these words sounded joyful.
Ex-husband, long-time unrequited love. Even removing such modifiers, he was still Jung Haesung.
An undisputed skilled actor. An actor talented enough to be coveted even abroad. Wasn’t he reputed for acting, to the extent that rookie actors who take him as a role model overflowed?
He received praise from such a senior. Just that fact alone made his heart swell.
Jung Haesung
I’ll look forward to the next filming too.
Yes. I’ll work hard. Thank you, sunbae-nim.
It was a really businesslike message. Sending the last message and ending the conversation, somehow a sense of alienation came rushing in.
Was it because he had never even exchanged such messages with Haesung?
Was it bitter that he was only now exchanging messages with him?
Perhaps both?
Then he came to his senses with a start. He shook his head quickly and laid his phone face down on the sofa.
“What am I thinking?”
This was all because of Kyungdae. If he hadn’t said strange things, he wouldn’t have to mull over these incomprehensible emotions and thoughts right now.
Furthermore, this was all because of the medicine effects. His thought process stopped, so proper thoughts couldn’t continue.
He should branch out with healthy thoughts, but the medicine effects seemed to be blocking that.
“Right, so snap out of it.”
Dohyeong slapped both his cheeks hard. Smack! A loud sound circled the living room.
Mulling over the stinging pain, he slowly opened his eyes. Then he looked around the empty house for a while.
Just then, the phone vibrated again.
Why were contacts pouring in like this? The moment he checked his phone while grumbling, Dohyeong couldn’t take his eyes off due to an indescribable unease.
Im Hakyung
Sunbae
When you don’t have filming this week
If it’s okay, want to meet with me?
It was Hakyung.
A day when filming was off… He didn’t have any particular plans, but he didn’t have the heart to readily say let’s do that.
Why? Why was meeting Hakyung so reluctant?
Im Hakyung
This week… I think I have to check
Because I have plans with family
Just briefly is fine
I’m going shopping
Please come with me, okay?
Shopping. Come to think of it, he seemed to need to buy winter clothes too.
But strangely, he couldn’t give a definite answer. Even though it wasn’t difficult to answer Hakyung, let’s go together.
Im Hakyung
I’ll buy you a meal
I have to buy a gift but it’s hard to choose
I don’t really have close people either….
He had always denied the saying that having too soft a heart was also a problem.
At least in this moment, he felt he could affirm it.
His heart moved at the words about not having close people. No, more than that, those words might keep catching his eye.
Then, at Hakyung’s reply that came back, Dohyeong froze solid in place.
When would he move away from him, and when would this stuffiness disappear? The tip of his nose was stinging.
Im Hakyung
It’s Haesung sunbae-nim’s birthday soon
When I said jokingly I’d give him a gift, he readily said he’d accept it
I’m asking because I thought Dohyeong sunbae would know well
Okay? Just once
