# Chapter 35
Doha, who unexpectedly had to use his lips in an official capacity, was completely deflated. Jaei, who learned that Doha considered his charm to be “doing everything for the first time with Hyung” and “lifelong devotion,” laughed so hard he could barely breathe. His chronic illnesses of esophagitis and gastritis seemed to be temporarily cured by the cute whining of his younger partner.
“Doha, do you want to sleep in my room tonight?”
It was quite fortunate to be able to enjoy the time of Doha who had become younger than himself.
* * *
On the day his debut drama aired, Doha spent a hectic day receiving a flood of messages. He also had a long video call with Jaei’s parents who were living abroad. As overseas sales increased, his parents’ clothing business flourished significantly and grew into a global medium-sized enterprise of a scale incomparable to 11 years ago.
Instead, they only saw each other’s faces about twice a year. Mainly, the parents came to Korea during holidays and spent time with relatives at the family home. Doha still maintained good relationships with the relatives as the youngest crybaby of the Lee family.
“I miss you so much, Mom. Dad too.”
-I’ll definitely come for Lunar New Year. I’m so sorry that Mom and Dad couldn’t be there for our son’s debut. I really didn’t expect you to debut so suddenly.
“But you know, you might be surprised when you watch the last episode. There are some scenes that are a bit, you know. It’s not a big deal, but still.”
Somehow, it felt embarrassing and awkward to show his parents the scene of him kissing someone of the opposite sex. He gave them advance notice so they could mentally prepare. But the response from his mother and father was very cool and concise.
-We’ve seen Lee Jaei crawling on the floor and mopping in a movie theater. It was in the largest IMAX theater in our country, and we watched it with over 600 audience members.
Jaei, who was sitting on the sofa next to Doha, joined the conversation with his cheek pressed firmly against Doha’s.
“What’s wrong with mopping? It looks so diligent and nice.”
-I had never seen him mopping from behind at home, so how surprised do you think I was? And I was a bit shocked by the length of the pants. I almost called Director Hong Duyoung that day.
It was true that the pants length had been shortened further under Hong Duyoung’s direction. He personally cut the hem of the shorts Jaei had brought. The scene of napping in natural light on the veranda wearing those shorts was not originally planned but was added in real-time on set.
At that time, as a rookie, he considered working with Director Hong Duyoung a great honor and filmed whatever he asked without hesitation. He was delighted by the flowery language and high praise Hong Duyoung poured on him. It truly felt like being an artist. But now, all he wanted was to overturn actor Lee Jaei’s entire filmography from beginning to end.
Ahem, ahem, he cleared his throat and waved his hand affectionately to greet his mother and father.
“Doha has a shameless personality, so he’ll do well. Actors need to be shameless. He’ll be successful soon.”
This time, his father answered.
-Okay. If anything happens, contact us right away. Don’t try to solve it yourselves. Dad will solve everything for you. If it’s urgent, contact your uncles and aunts.
This was something they always said to the point of being worn out, since leaving them in Korea. Jaei had grown enough to not need their help, but still felt very reassured when his parents said these things. Then, as if reading Jaei’s mind, his mother continued.
-Lee Jaei, you’re still just a kid, so don’t act like you’re all grown up. I’m keeping an eye on all that nonsense about short life expectancy. You ungrateful child.
“That’s just my concept, I’m telling you. I’ll stop doing that soon anyway. That dangerous image doesn’t work for male actors over their mid-20s. People don’t like it when you look immature. I’m going to go with a healthy and diligent image from the second half of the year, so don’t worry.”
-Anyway, Lee Jaei, don’t get cocky. And Lee Doha, always take care of yourself. Don’t misuse your body just because you have good athletic ability and health. Be careful of cars, fire, and water. I checked your fortune, and it says you need to be especially careful of things with wheels this year.
Next to him, overprotective Lee Jaei clapped his hands and said, “That’s right, that’s right.” Doha, who didn’t believe in pseudo-science, covered his mouth with the back of his hand, yawned, and answered.
“It was wheels last year too. And the year before, you said to be careful of bicycles or motorcycles.”
-Are you yawning right now? Are you disrespecting your mother’s words and being ungrateful?
“No, that’s why I’m using a chair without wheels, right? Because I’m a filial son. Look how filial I am. I’m telling you, filial piety is written all over my face.”
Doha, who was good at telling kind lies, hurriedly filled his face with filial devotion and smiled brightly like an angel toward his parents. They ended the call very harmoniously. After the call ended, Jaei got up from the sofa and left the seat temporarily.
In fact, Doha had many concerns about calling himself a filial son. Somehow, he had developed into someone who kissed the beloved son of his parents.
Jaei had long declared publicly that he had no thoughts of marriage. His parents, who excessively loved small and cute things, had expressed their wish to meet a cute baby grandchild resembling Jaei in the near future. But they said they had no intention of breaking his will if Jaei really didn’t want to get married.
So Doha planned not to tell his parents about his feelings even if he became Jaei’s lover in the future. But if this fact were to be found out and they became angry with him, felt betrayed, and shouted to cut ties, he planned to create an optical illusion by making his refrigerator-sized body as small as a squirrel and win them over with loveliness. If you’ve done something to make someone angry, you just have to do your best to appease that anger.
“Mother, Father. I’m sorry, but your son will soon be mine. Please forgive me for repaying your kindness with theft.”
He checked his still cute face in a hand mirror and muttered to himself quietly. Soon, he began replying to supportive messages from relatives and friends.
Jaei, who had returned from the bathroom, tucked Doha under his arm and shamelessly peeked at all of high school student Lee Doha’s messenger chats. Over a hundred supportive messages had arrived from Doha’s school friends.
There were even students who found his number and sent congratulatory messages on his debut, despite not knowing him well. Most said they would leave nice comments about Doha after the broadcast, and Doha, who had lived kindly and properly until now, expressed his gratitude to them sincerely.
Jaei’s phone was relatively quiet. All he received were official messages from company employees. But Jaei knew that more contacts would come to him once the drama started.
The title roll appeared. Finally, Doha revealed himself to the world with the name Ryu Doha. Jaei bit his lower lip and swallowed.
“Nervous?”
“No. I’m not nervous. There’s no kiss scene in episode 1.”
Jaei was more nervous than Doha. He hid his trembling hands under a cushion. Feelings of being deeply moved and faint anger crossed. If Doha hadn’t died back then and had survived, he would have already revealed himself to the world as an actor 12 years ago.
Surely he would have succeeded in one go, raised his declined family fortunes with his own abilities, and grown into a wonderful adult in a harmonious family. He would have been Lee Jaei’s reliable same-age lover…
Doha began monitoring while staring intently at the TV. Without feeling embarrassed or regretful, he noted down shortcomings on his phone.
“If it wasn’t pre-produced, I could fix deficiencies while watching reactions. That’s a bit of a shame.”
Doha muttered quite professionally. Jaei, at this moment, appreciated his appearance not as a brother or senior but fully as a lover who loved Ryu Doha. Since every moment of his living and moving was precious, there was nothing daring to add.
Each episode was divided into Part 1 and Part 2, 30 minutes each. After Part 1 ended and commercials began, Jaei’s phone started to get noisy. As expected, contacts were coming from former classmates who knew Ryu Doha. The number of elementary and middle school classmates to whom Jaei had given his contact information was about five.
[Jaei. Sorry for suddenly contacting you to talk about Doha, but didn’t you say Doha had a younger sibling? Would they be a high school student by now? I remember seeing a young child at Doha’s funeral.]
Jaei just answered what was asked without adding detailed explanations.
[Yeah, he has a sibling seven years younger. They should be in high school now.]
Soon a reply arrived.
[There’s an actor who looks like Doha in the drama right now. I don’t know if it’s his real name or stage name, but his name is also Ryu Doha, so I was wondering if Doha’s blood sibling or relative is using Doha’s name for their activities. I just thought you might know more, so I asked. He acts naturally well. If he’s really Doha’s family, I’d like to support him.]
People who had committed no sins against Doha were indeed thinking the most realistic and logical thoughts they could about seeing Doha on TV. Jaei sent a long and affectionate reply, asking about his friend’s well-being.
Soon the commercial ended and Part 2 began. Shortly after, a call came from the person Jaei had been waiting for. As it happened during a part of the story that had nothing to do with the character Doha was playing, Jaei asked for Doha’s understanding with a glance and took the call.
“Yes, Director-nim.”
At the name “Director-nim” that came out of Jaei’s mouth, Doha’s eyes flashed. Jaei got up from his seat and went to the bedroom, and Doha followed him with his gaze.
Entering the bedroom and tightly closing the door, Jaei looked down at his neatly groomed nails and listened to Hong Duyoung’s voice. Hong Duyoung was trying to act as if nothing was wrong.
