All Love Begins at the Beginning 12

Chapter 12

Tae Iden had debuted as a child actor at six, evolving from the “nation’s grandson” to the “nation’s son,” and by middle school, he was the “nation’s little brother”—unmatched in popularity among his peers. His secret? Solid acting chops and those hypnotic, enigmatic eyes.

The Tae brothers’ grandmother was a tall, fair-haired, blue-eyed American man, standing at 172 cm. While Tae Hyunseok bore the most striking mixed-race features, Tae Igyeol and Tae Iden had inherited some of those genes too. Tae Igyeol had an unusually Western build and ashy-gray eyes, while Tae Iden’s were deep, double-lidded, and a dark grayish-blue—less chilling than his brother’s, but subtly, irresistibly alluring, like a whispered spell.

Now eighteen, Tae Iden had suddenly shed his boyish charm. His features had sharpened, grown more mature, and he bore an uncanny resemblance to his brother. He’d even earned the title of “nation’s boyfriend.” But to Mo Eunje, who’d once seen him as nothing more than a cute, doll-like kid, he’d just become another annoying, testosterone-fueled teenager.

***

Tae Iden: [How long are you gonna freeload at hyung Tae Igyeol’s place?]

Tae Iden: [Can I come over?]

5:41 PM

Tae Iden never dared to move a muscle when Tae Igyeol was around, but the second his brother was gone, he dropped the formalities and acted like they were equals. It was the desperate rebellion of someone hopelessly in love with his own brother.

5:41 PM [You always have a free pass.]

Tae Iden: [I seriously wanna switch places with Tae Igyeol.]

5:41 PM

[LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL]

5:41 PM [Looks like Tae Igyeol’s on a date with Shin Dael.]

Tae Iden: [With Dael noona? Right now?]

5:42 PM

5:42 PM [Yeah, they posted a pic together on SNS.]

“Damn, this little brat must’ve said something to my Dael-nim.”

Gye Minho’s voice was thick with disbelief. Mo Eunje glanced up from his phone, shooting him a questioning look.

“Dael-nim just deleted that photo from her SNS.”

“With that personality? She’s not gonna let it slide. She makes her own brother delete any pics of her from his SNS.”

“But I already screenshotted it.”

Mo Eunje ignored Gye Minho’s smugness and scrolled through the messages he’d missed. Then, a piece of information caught his eye.

Tae Iden: [They’ve been meeting a lot lately.]

Tae Iden: [Dael noona said she wanted Eunje hyung’s signature on her book.]

Tae Iden: [I gave her Tae Igyeol’s number at the start of the year.]

Tae Iden: [Wasn’t that smart of me? LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL]

5:42 PM

5:43 PM [My book??? WTF???]

Tae Iden: [You didn’t know?]

Tae Iden: [She even said on some reading variety show that she’s a fan of novelist Mo Eunje.]

5:43 PM

5:43 PM [Shin Dael???]

Tae Iden: [Yep.]

Tae Iden: [She recognized Tae Igyeol first at last year’s end-of-year party.]

5:43 PM

Tae Iden: [She knew him just by his face, so I thought Tae Igyeol was a celebrity LOL.]

Tae Iden: [That’s when I introduced them, remember?]

Tae Iden: [You don’t remember?]

5:44 PM

Now that he thought about it, Shin Dael had been there when he first started talking to her. But he’d been so focused on Tae Igyeol after their brief fight before the party that he’d forgotten who introduced them. He couldn’t even remember what they’d fought about—something so trivial it didn’t matter.

5:44 PM [I think that might’ve happened.]

Tae Iden: [But it’s weird that Tae Igyeol’s meeting her alone.]

5:44 PM

[Yeah, totally weird.]

[He didn’t even tell me he was meeting Shin Dael.]

5:44 PM [Or that Shin Dael likes my books.]

Tae Iden: [LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL]

Tae Iden: [Dael noona is totally Tae Igyeol’s type.]

Tae Iden: [She’s a fan, so he’s probably blocking me from stealing her LOL LOL LOL LOL.]

5:45 PM

5:45 PM [????]

5:45 PM [Shin Dael is Tae Igyeol’s type???]

Tae Iden: [You didn’t know? She’s got that clean, elegant look.]

Tae Iden: [What else did he say?]

Tae Iden: [Something about her eyes being dark and alluring.]

Tae Iden: [Or maybe that she looks like she’s got a story?]

Tae Iden: [Anyway, he likes that super polished, classy vibe.]

5:45 PM

5:46 PM [How do you even know that?]

Tae Iden: [Dael noona was recruited by our company last year.]

Tae Iden: [Apparently, Tae Igyeol recommended her.]

Tae Iden: [But this is confidential, so keep it a secret.]

5:46 PM

5:46 PM [Really?]

Tae Iden: [If Dael noona becomes my sister-in-law, I’m all for it.]

Tae Iden: [She’s the nicest person I’ve met in this industry.]

5:46 PM

Mo Eunje had no idea. He knew Tae Hyunseok occasionally called Tae Igyeol to the office for work discussions, but he never imagined Tae Igyeol would be involved in recommending actors. Then again, Tae Igyeol had an uncanny knack for spotting talent—every time he casually pointed out a minor character or a rookie actor and said, “That one’s gonna blow up,” he was always right.

But Shin Dael’s case was different. This heartless bastard was using business as an excuse to satisfy his personal desires.

Tae Iden: [Hyung, when can I come over?]

5:47 PM

5:47 PM [Whenever you feel like it.]

Tae Iden: [Really?]

5:47 PM

5:47 PM [Just get Tae Igyeol’s permission first.^^]

Tae Iden: [But my hyung won’t allow it. :(]

Tae Iden: [You said I had a free pass!! :(]

5:48 PM

[Now that I think about it, I’m just a freeloader too…]

[Incoming call.]

5:48 PM [Let’s talk later.]

Mo Eunje abruptly ended the conversation and closed the messaging app, ignoring the flood of notifications that followed. They were probably just Tae Iden whining. After a moment’s thought, he sent Tae Igyeol a brief personal message.

5:50 PM [You coming over after dinner?]

Tae Igyeol: [Yeah.]

5:50 PM

So, the secret dates were going well. Shin Dael had reached out because she wanted a signed copy of his book, but Tae Igyeol hadn’t even bothered to mention it—just told him he was meeting a friend.

The betrayal stung. Mo Eunje suddenly craved something spicy—the kind of food that would numb his taste buds and leave his stomach in knots. Spicy tteokbokki, fiery dakbal, searing galbijjim, hell-level jjambbong, and buldak chicken—all the dishes Tae Igyeol couldn’t even touch.

“Tae Igyeol doesn’t even read anymore. My Dael-nim is slipping away…”

Gye Minho slumped over the table, utterly heartbroken. He must’ve really liked Shin Dael.

Thinking back to the end-of-year party where he’d met her, she’d just been a fair-skinned actress with striking dark eyes—pretty, sure, but no more so than any other actress. If he had to pick one standout trait, it was her acting—she was easily in the top five in Korea.

Mo Eunje opened the group chat and found Gye Minho’s desperate pleas piled up.

Gye Minho: [The Regressor’s Mnemonics—go break the bank with this one!]

Gye Minho: [Forget everything else, just beg her for this one line.]

Gye Minho: [If Dael-nim cheers me on, I swear I’ll write like a god.]

Gye Minho: [Please, I’m begging you. Please???]

5:46 PM

Mo Eunje barely skimmed the rest, his eyes locking onto the title The Regressor’s Mnemonics. He’d started reading Gye Minho’s fantasy novel out of support when he first began serializing it, but he’d gotten busy and dropped it for months. He’d only picked it back up a few months ago. And now, the new work he’d started was The Regressor’s Mnemonics.

“Hey. Hey, get up.”

Mo Eunje kicked Gye Minho’s foot under the table.

“Don’t touch me. I’m a dangerous beast right now.”

“Cut the crap and get up.”

“Why are you being such a pain? I’m depressed right now!”

Gye Minho snapped, lifting his head. Mo Eunje ignored his dramatics and locked eyes with him.

“You’re the author of The Regressor’s Mnemonics? GyeBokChi?”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Damn. I never thought my friend would be a big name in fantasy…”

Mo Eunje’s genuine admiration slipped out. He’d only read one of Gye Minho’s early works, but even so, it was hard to believe. The two stories were so different in style and execution that it was hard to imagine they came from the same person. But the sheer amount of practice and study Gye Minho must’ve put in to write The Regressor’s Mnemonics made Mo Eunje’s chest tighten with something like pride.

“Buy me coffee. You can’t just mooch off a poor novelist.”

“Wow… You’ve won every award out there and raked in the prize money. How are you poor? If you’d taken all those ad deals and TV appearances, you’d be rolling in cash.”

“I’m not a celebrity. If I keep showing my face, people will think my work only sells because I’m good-looking. I want to get rich off royalties.”

“Write a new hit, then.”

“Why do you always have to be so brutal?”

“I’ll buy you dinner. My royalties just came in—best payout ever.”

Gye Minho rarely offered to pay, so this was a chance to splurge on something expensive and delicious. But Mo Eunje’s mind was still stuck on the spicy food that would burn away his stress: nuclear-level tteokbokki, scorching dakbal, fiery galbijjim, hellfire jjambbong, and buldak chicken.

“Hey, have you read Mnemonics?”

“What’s with your face?”

Gye Minho suddenly cupped his chin, widening his eyes in a sickeningly cute pose. Mo Eunje’s stress levels spiked. But Gye Minho, who’d suffered through Mo Eunje’s antics countless times, had his own grievances.

“You’re the one who taught me this! Why do you get to make flower-hand gestures and talk all cutesy when you need something?”

“Because I’m handsome. When I do it, it’s adorable. When you do it, it’s creepy.”

“……Sometimes I wonder how Tae Igyeol puts up with you. He’s practically a sage.”

Gye Minho dropped the act and reverted to his usual gruff voice—the same voice that had made his high school judo coach salivate over his potential as a judo champion.

“How the hell does someone like you write something like The Regressor’s Mnemonics?”

Mo Eunje mimicked Gye Minho’s bewildered tone perfectly. He genuinely couldn’t comprehend it. Gye Minho seized the moment.

“So? What’d you think?”

“About what?”

“Mnemonics. Tell me. Is it good? Fun? Worth reading?”

“……Are you fishing for compliments? It’s been glued to the top of the real-time rankings every time a new chapter drops. Do you really need me to validate it?”

“I’m curious. What does a literary novelist think of it?”

Mo Eunje had been automatically paying and reading each new chapter out of habit, but now that he knew it was Gye Minho’s work, he was itching to ask about the rest of the story. He hated spoilers, but the ending of yesterday’s chapter had been so cruelly cliffhangered—with zero consideration for the reader—that he wasn’t sure he could wait until Monday.

But as a mature literary figure, Mo Eunje chose to answer Gye Minho’s question rather than demand spoilers.

“Hmm…… Honestly? Or should I sugarcoat it?”

“Honestly.”

“It’s good.”

“What part?”

“The protagonist knows he’s regressed, so he should know when everything’s gonna happen, right? But the fun part is how he keeps screwing up the timeline and flailing like an idiot every single time.”

“Hey, calling it flailing like an idiot—…… That’s the setting I worked hardest on.”

Gye Minho pouted, but Mo Eunje just grinned proudly.

“Exactly. That’s why I picked it as the best part. How’s that for an eye that can spot an author’s hard work?”

“……Why do I always end up exhausted after talking to you?”

“Because you can’t keep up with my intellectual wit. Anyway, it’s good. And your royalties must be insane, right?”

“Gonna buy a car.”

“You don’t even have a license.”

“Registered for driving school the day before yesterday.”

Gye Minho shoved his phone in Mo Eunje’s face, showing off a few car models he’d shortlisted. Mo Eunje had assumed he’d go for something big, like Tae Igyeol’s SUV, but surprisingly, they were all tiny, cute compact cars.

“Aren’t these a little small for you? They’re all compacts.”

“Anything bigger scares me. I feel like I’d crash into everything.”

“……Minho, you’re not buying a bus.”

Mo Eunje gave him sincere advice, but Gye Minho ignored him.

Mo Eunje reopened the group chat and took another look at the screenshot Gye Minho had sent of Shin Dael. The room’s interior was a separated lounge style, with a beige-painted wall that could double as an interview backdrop, and the vintage antique chair Tae Igyeol was sitting in gave away the location. Even without spatial clues, it would’ve been easy to guess—Shin Dael was holding a cup with the café’s name on the sleeve.

Café Isla.

It was Café Ilra, located on the first floor of the Ilra Actors building. Run by Ilra Actors, the café was open to the public but offered free use to employees and affiliated actors. The menu included simple meals like pasta, pilaf, and risotto, and Mo Eunje had visited a few times with Tae Igyeol for the kimchi-bacon pilaf.

“Minho. You really want Shin Dael’s autograph?”

Mo Eunje’s intense gaze made Gye Minho nod solemnly, his expression turning serious.

“I want to shake her hand, too.”

With a comrade by his side, it was time to take action. Tae Igyeol’s love life was his own business, but Mo Eunje, who needed to write his next work, wanted to meet his celebrity reader and hear her praise in person. He closed the empty document where the cursor had been blinking mockingly—he hadn’t written a single word, too distracted by everything else. He shut down his laptop, packed his glasses into their case, and grabbed his bag.

“Then let’s go. I’ll even take a photo for you.”

“Seriously? I’m gonna meet my goddess Dael-nim in person?”

“If we’re lucky, thanks to Tae Igyeol, you might even get to have dinner with her.”

Mo Eunje slung an arm around Gye Minho’s shoulder as they left the café. Tae Igyeol and Shin Dael were just a five-minute taxi ride away.