# Chapter 51
You don’t know how preciously I raised the little Doha who got to live a second life. I picked up the newly born Doha seed, planted it in a sunny spot, watered it, and changed its soil. For over 10 years, I’ve been anxious about whether the Doha petals might get hurt or wither when they were out of my sight. Even though Doha came back as my same-aged lover, that time doesn’t become invalid.
Lee Jaei, Ryu Doha’s guardian, was still greatly excited about the production manager daring to raise his hand against Doha and couldn’t stop cursing throughout the drive.
“Even if someone treats me well, I can tell everything by how they treat rookies! Whether they’re a good person or a bad person! That person is a really bad person. No matter how much he misunderstood you, there’s no excuse for immediately raising a hand against a rookie. He’s like a used wooden chopstick.”
Doha had the ability to interpret Jaei’s language. It meant the guy was trash. The level of cursing that Jaei used was even more wholesome than educational broadcasting.
Though he wanted to savor the feeling of being protected by Jaei as his round baby bear after so long, he took on the job of protecting Jaei as his lover in case Jaei might encounter danger while driving. Staring intently at Jaei’s profile as they stopped at a red light, Doha caressed his soft cheek and honestly spoke his mind.
“I really like you, Jaei.”
At those words, Jaei’s anger subsided, and he blinked shyly. Doha calmly continued with what he wanted to say.
“I wish everyone in the world knew that you’re a good person.”
“I only need you to know that, Doha.”
“I don’t want to be the only one who knows. I wish there wasn’t a single person in this world who didn’t like you.”
This had been Doha’s very long-standing wish. It wasn’t just once or twice that he had clasped his hands together and wished, “Please make all the people who dislike my hyung like him in the new year!”
Jaei had been feeling happy every day from Doha’s love confessions that kept coming at any time recently. He truly felt that even if he were hated by the entire world, it would be fine as long as Doha loved him.
Soon, Jaei’s car came to a stop in the parking lot. As promised, he intended to treat Doha to ice cream. He deliberately parked quite a distance from the store. This was because he wanted to feel like he was on a date with Doha, walking together with him in the middle of a weekday afternoon.
This time too, Doha concealed Jaei’s small face. Today, instead of a hat and scarf, he made Jaei appropriately suspicious-looking with just a black mask and glasses. Doha, who didn’t hide his face and showed it completely, got out of the car and extended his hand to Jaei.
“Let’s go.”
Rookie actor Ryu Doha, who had debuted with the goal of becoming the subject of rumors with Lee Jaei, would stop and stare at Jaei’s face whenever he saw advertisements for products that Jaei was modeling while walking down the street. This was just a habit that had become ingrained in him, but unintentionally, it was like advertising “This man holding my hand right now is Lee Jaei.”
It had been a while since they had eaten ice cream together outside rather than at home. Doha ordered “Younger Brother is an Outsider,” “Appearing with the First Snow,” “Cashew Nut Vroom Vroom,” and lastly, “Peach in Love.” Jaei tilted his head questioningly about the menu selection.
“What about mint chocolate?”
“I don’t really feel like eating it today.”
This wasn’t said for Jaei’s sake. It was sincere. However, Jaei voluntarily changed the menu just as he had done in the past.
“Wait a moment! Instead of Cashew Nut Vroom Vroom, please give us mint chocolate.”
“I really don’t need to eat it.”
The preferences of his loved one were having a significant impact on Doha’s life. Having spent so much time together, he was naturally losing interest little by little in things that Jaei didn’t like due to psychological effects. Although he hadn’t come to dislike them, he didn’t readily reach for them.
After completing the order and returning to their seats, Jaei gave an unexpected response.
“I want to eat it today.”
“Jaei, are you okay? Are you sick again?”
With a worried expression, Doha reached out and checked Jaei’s forehead for fever. However, Jaei, who was stably maintaining an average body temperature, spoke with sparkling eyes like a child wanting to be praised.
“I can eat it now. It took too long, but.”
“You might be able to eat it, but if you feel like you’re going to throw up, do it on me. I’ll catch it. Should I prepare some medicine?”
“When I was waiting at Hong Duyoung’s workroom earlier, an employee brought me chocolate, and I bravely tried the flavor you gave me the day we first met. It was delicious. I think I’ll be happy every time I eat it now, remembering that day. The day I ate mint chocolate for the first time in my life, the day I met Ryu Doha for the first time in my life.”
The same was true for Jaei. Things he thought would never enter the realm of his preferences eventually invaded his territory after a long, long time. The time they spent persevering while loving each other was making two very different people similar.
If they had shared ice cream at a table at home, I think crybaby numbers 1 and 2 would definitely have shed tears, moved by their changes. Doha and Jaei, being sociable adults who could hold back their tears well, finished their ice cream date and slowly left the store.
Contrary to Ryu Doha’s deep desire, whose goal as an actor was “to suffer from dating rumors with Lee Jaei and push out Hong Duyoung and other men’s names from Jaei’s related search terms,” unfortunately, no one photographed the two of them together. This fact was greatly stimulating Doha, who had just finished one project, towards high recognition and ambition for success as an actor.
When he reached the parking lot holding Jaei’s hand, a notification arrived on Doha’s phone. It was a notification from Jaei’s SNS. Jaei had secretly uploaded a short video of them eating ice cream together. Jaei looked up at Doha and blinked his eyes cutely. Doha, blinking at the same pace as Jaei, was happily checking people’s reactions when Hong Duyoung called Jaei.
“Ah, this old man really pretends not to use SNS but sees everything.”
Ahem, ahem, after clearing his throat, Jaei answered Hong Duyoung’s call. From what he could hear, it seemed the production manager they had met in the elevator earlier had reported their ultimate display of affection to Hong Duyoung. As if that wasn’t enough, he was questioning why they had uploaded a video together in such a harmonious atmosphere. Jaei spoke with a calm face.
“It’s only natural. Since Doha is also an actor under the company, I need to protect him. And as the CEO, it’s natural for me to actively promote him. But Director… you’re the only one who cares about my feelings so delicately. When you worry about me, I somehow want to depend on you.”
This was something agreed upon between Lee Jaei and Ryu Doha. It was part of the plan to extract desired information from Hong Duyoung. Therefore, Doha wasn’t upset at all. However, wanting to kiss Jaei at this moment was a separate matter.
Standing in the middle of the road, Doha turned Jaei around, bent down, and kissed him right over the mask that was hiding Jaei’s face. With his eyes widened, Jaei turned his head and looked around with his phone in hand. But people and such didn’t register in his eyes at all. He could only see Doha’s face clearly. Hong Duyoung’s voice coming through the phone was merely noise. All his sensitive nerves were focused solely on Doha.
Hanging up the phone, Jaei, still wearing his mask, pressed his lips against his beloved as if bewitched.
* * *
Choi Jiwon, who was preparing for his idol debut, boldly requested that the child actor shooting start first, considering his own schedule. In many ways, he was a friend with very high self-esteem, and Doha and Jaei learned a lot from his attitude. Hong Duyoung accepted Choi Jiwon’s request on the grounds that there was nothing to modify in the child actor portions.
Hong Duyoung was being much stricter than usual with this work. He was delivering the script to all actors, dividing it into their respective portions. He asked that, except for actors filming scenes together, they absolutely not leak the script they received to other actors. And he casually made up the reason as “to prevent spoilers from leaking externally.” It was a really absurd excuse.
Doha, who started filming before Jaei, was given the script up to his final scene in advance. Newly revised scripts were arriving in sequence for the adult actors as well.
Hong Duyoung constantly reminded Jaei and Doha that the content related to Doha’s death was fiction and entirely his imagination. But of course, it wasn’t. Hong Duyoung’s script sometimes serves as a record revealing truths from the past, and sometimes becomes a prophecy predicting future events. They needed to obtain his scripts that had been divided among other actors.
In the script Doha received, young Yuha’s final moment appeared. Yuha was with Haeyoung in his dying moment, and Haeyoung deliberately didn’t call an ambulance, leaving Yuha to die. It was a scene that could appear because the only person who knew the truth, Ryu Doha, had died. However, the words Yuha spoke when he called Heejai were different from what Jaei knew. Hong Duyoung had deliberately changed the dialogue to prevent Jaei from noticing.
With one day left before filming, Doha suffered from a mild trauma. Jaei caressed Doha’s back and straddled his thighs. He rubbed his lips against Doha’s struggling ones and then swallowed his tongue. Doha gradually laid Jaei’s body down on the sofa.
“I can do well, Jaei. I’ll definitely do it.”
“I’ll go to the filming location that day too. Don’t do it if you think you can’t. Get up and run to me.”
Jaei and Doha rubbed their bodies against each other. They had found a different way to convey stability to each other than when they were young, covering each other’s ears with their hands and listening to each other’s heartbeats.
