# Chapter 29
“Phew…”
He exhaled deeply with a sigh, releasing the smoke he had inhaled. Just as he discarded the shortened cigarette butt in the ashtray and lit a new cigarette, Tae Hyunseok called. He seemed to be calling back after seeing the missed call notification.
“Yes, Father.”
“Well, what a day to be alive. Seeing my eldest son’s scandal. The lady is quite to Dad’s liking too.”
Tae Igyeol’s expression soured as much as Tae Hyunseok’s laughter sounded cheerful.
“You know it’s not true.”
“That’s why it’s disappointing. If only Dael didn’t have a boyfriend, she’d be perfect as my daughter-in-law. These days in this industry, it’s rare to find someone as talented and popular as Dael who also has a good personality. And how pretty she is! How diligent she is! Ah, now that I think about it, she might be too good for you.”
“Father.”
Tae Igyeol’s voice was ominous. Though his father clearly knew why he had called, he insisted on teasing him. Someone who didn’t know better might think he was Shin Dael’s father rather than the head of her agency. Anyone who met Tae Hyunseok would understand why his mother, Song Yeonhwa, would sometimes fly into a rage.
“Please proceed with charges against the original poster for spreading false information and defamation. No leniency or settlements. Oh, and add invasion of privacy rights for the secretly taken photos. And the reporters who spread it without fact-checking too.”
“The company’s legal team will handle it for the protection of the actress.”
“No, please handle it separately. You’ll probably settle it appropriately for Shin Dael’s image, right? For my name, please include every possible charge you can.”
Tae Igyeol could hear Tae Hyunseok explaining something over the phone, but he listened indifferently. The conclusion was that, unlike Shin Dael who was a public figure, he was just an ordinary person, so why be so harsh? Since it wasn’t even true, it could just be treated as a laughable incident to be dismissed with a smile.
But it was irritating that Mo Eunje seemed to have strange misconceptions, making it hard to dismiss as just a laughable incident. Even though he had said they weren’t dating, that they weren’t anything, Mo Eunje had such a unique brain structure that it was impossible to predict how he might misunderstand. So he was skipping all the middle steps and talking about staying out overnight.
“Then I’ll look for a personal lawyer myself.”
“Why go that far… You’re just like your mother with that personality. Fine. I’ll talk to the legal team. I’ll bill you separately for the costs.”
“Go ahead.”
Tae Igyeol saw Mo Eunje opening the terrace glass door and coming out onto the rooftop. He was approaching with a piece of castella in his hand, munching away. In middle school, Mo Eunje ate that fluffy bread so much that Tae Igyeol became curious about how delicious it must be to never let it go, and wanting to create one more common interest, he ate it together with him.
But not only was it too sweet for Tae Igyeol’s taste, more problematically, though the bread was soft and fluffy, it felt choking when he ate it. He endured it and lived on castella with Mo Eunje for several months, but perhaps due to forcing himself to eat it, he eventually had a bad reaction. After going to the emergency room with severe indigestion, sweating cold and nearly blacking out, he never put even a crumb of castella in his mouth again.
“By the way, Sunday is your birthday. Come home with Eunje. Iden is constantly bugging me about wanting to see his brother, so let’s all have a meal together.”
“We’ll see. I’m hanging up now.”
He answered halfheartedly and hung up. Mo Eunje, who had come right up to him, immediately opened his mouth as if he had been waiting for the call to end. He had already neatly finished the castella in his hand.
“Was that Uncle? I also got a call from him.”
“Why you?”
It seemed like his father had spoken to Mo Eunje first, since the line was busy when he called.
“Remember at the chicken feet restaurant when we met Miss Shin? We all took photos together, and I took some separately with her too. He asked if he could use those photos. I thought he would be worried, but instead, he found it really amusing. He said he lived to see you involved in a scandal. That’s Uncle for you. He never fails to disappoint.”
“…”
Just thinking about what conversation his father and Mo Eunje might have had seemed to raise his stress levels. His father had teased even him, the person directly involved, so how animated must he have been chatting with Mo Eunje, with whom he got along so well?
“I asked Gye Minho too, and he said he’d even do interviews with the PR team, so I gave them his contact information. He said something about doing anything for his goddess, Dael noona.”
“Haah…”
A sigh escaped, but it wasn’t a problem he could blame on anyone. It was his own fault for being so immersed in his one-sided love that he met with ‘fandom mates,’ as Shin Dael had called them, without any caution. Honestly, as long as Mo Eunje didn’t misunderstand, he wouldn’t care if the entire world did.
“I’m really not anything with Shin Dael.”
“I know. How many times are you going to say it?”
“I keep saying it because you don’t seem to believe me.”
“I believe you. I believe you’re not dating.”
“…Do you really believe me?”
“I mean, whether I believe it or not, what does it matter… Oh? Hey, a rebuttal article has been published.”
Mo Eunje showed him his phone screen. Skimming through it, Tae Igyeol saw it was an article distributed by Ila Actors stating that the scandal was groundless. It included the group photo taken at the chicken feet restaurant and a commemorative photo of Mo Eunje and Shin Dael with books stacked between them.
It explained that Shin Dael was a fan of novelist Mo Eunje and they occasionally held reading gatherings. The man mentioned as her boyfriend was just one of the members of the reading group. According to Mr. Gye, who led the gathering (to the right of Shin Dael in the group photo)…
“Crazy, a reading group… There’s a limit to how much you can underestimate people’s intelligence.”
“Why? Since I’m in it, a reading group seems quite plausible. It’s convincing.”
“What’s convincing about it? Do you think people will believe this nonsense?”
“Hmm… seems like they do believe it.”
Amazingly, perhaps because Shin Dael had a good image and she had uploaded a photo of the signed book on SNS right after they parted yesterday, plus there was a voice interview transcript from Gye Minho—the comments seemed to be leaning toward believing the rebuttal article. Tae Igyeol thought that the psychology of netizens who believed this flimsy rebuttal article was as difficult to understand as Mo Eunje’s brain structure.
“Anyway… how does it feel to have a scandal with a celebrity?”
“…It fucking sucks.”
Mo Eunje burst into a loud, inexplicable laugh at Tae Igyeol’s words, which he had ground out like he was chewing them.
&
After laughing for a while, Mo Eunje patted Tae Igyeol’s back. Having a scandal article come out before even officially dating would inevitably make him more cautious. In the worst case, things might become awkward between them before he could even confess. So Mo Eunje completely understood why Tae Igyeol said it fucking sucked. It was so sincere that he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Ah, the weather’s nice. It’s spring, spring!”
The mid-April sunshine was warm. Mo Eunje held the rooftop railing and looked down. There was a row of cherry trees with lush, fully bloomed flowers. Tae Igyeol, who had been watching Mo Eunje looking at the flowers, spoke.
“Want to go see the ocean?”
“Isn’t it flowers you’re supposed to see in spring, not the ocean? The ocean is for summer.”
“Look at this novelist with such clichéd thinking. How trite.”
“…Did my mom contact you about coming to visit Busan?”
Instead of answering, Tae Igyeol took out a new cigarette. Even without an answer, Mo Eunje already knew. Since next week was his birthday, his mom must have contacted Tae Igyeol when Mo Eunje ignored her suggestion to come around then. The thought of going all the way to Busan was daunting because of the distance, but it wouldn’t be boring if he went with Tae Igyeol.
“Then shall we have dinner at your house on Sunday and go to Busan on Monday?”
“Did my mom call you too?”
“No, not your mom. It came up during my conversation with your dad earlier.”
Unsurprisingly, since their birthdays were just one day apart, both families used to gather for a meal each year to celebrate. But this year, since Mo Eunje’s parents had moved to Busan, each family had sent separate invitations.
“Can you really drink with the guys on Saturday, come to our house on Sunday, and then go all the way to Busan the next day?”
Tae Igyeol raised a pretty reasonable concern. It was an extremely tight schedule no matter how you looked at it. Mo Eunje had a very objective assessment of his own poor physical stamina.
“Let’s go to your house on Sunday first, and then head to Busan after resting for three or four days. What’s on your birthday wish list?”
“Training pants, watch strap, skincare set.”
“When will you post it?”
“Why?”
“I want to claim the watch strap.”
Without even searching for price comparisons, he could tell what was the cheapest this time. Among Tae Igyeol’s birthday gifts, whoever took the skincare set would be stuck with the burden. Last year, the list also included a skincare set, and Mo Eunje had been stuck with it then. So whenever he stayed at Tae Igyeol’s house, he diligently applied it after washing his face in the morning and evening.
“I already posted it.”
As soon as Tae Igyeol spoke, Mo Eunje’s phone rang. Mo Eunje quickly entered the group chat and sent a message saying [I’ll take the watch strap]. Everyone must have been on their phones because replies came in immediately. Gye Minho, who was about two seconds faster, claimed the training pants, and Ban Hajun got stuck with the skincare set. Anyway, Tae Igyeol had taken the burden for Ban Hajun’s birthday, so they were even.
Mo Eunje stared at the cigarette that Tae Igyeol had placed between his fingers but hadn’t lit yet. Knowing that Mo Eunje disliked the smell of cigarettes, he would probably tell him to go in first and then smoke. Despite not looking that way, he was intensely considerate.
