# Chapter 54
It seemed Jaei was quite shocked after checking the script. His anxiety was palpable even through his messages. Doha wanted to leave work as quickly as possible to caress Jaei’s large, fox-like ears. He wanted to touch his shoulders and chest stiff with tension, touch his stomach, touch his buttocks, and caress every corner of Jaei to relieve his tension.
[If you’re scared, stick my photo on your forehead like a talisman]
[Like this? ㅠㅠ]
Soon, Jaei sent a selfie with Doha’s Polaroid photo stuck to his forehead. Doha, who was collecting all of Jaei’s selfies, proudly saved this precious photo, deeply satisfied that his private collection of unreleased selfies had exceeded 1,000 images.
He felt apologetic toward Jaei’s fans who had supported him alongside Doha for a very long time. Someday, when the time comes, he planned to share photos that could be made public with Jaei’s permission for the public good.
The photo of Ryu Doha, who had actually died once and returned from the afterlife, was more than sufficient to use as a talisman. Ryu Doha, during his ghost days, had desperately prevented Jaei’s death by visiting him, and had persistently haunted Hong Duyoung, who lived in the same apartment, asking, “Why did you just leave me to die?”
Even in the house they currently lived in, Doha’s photos were hung all over. Though they weren’t put up to be used as talismans, they were serving virtually the same function.
Another selfie from Jaei arrived.
[I put up more. Is this how you do it? ㅠㅠ]
This time, Doha’s Polaroids were stuck to both of Jaei’s cheeks. Five more selfies arrived after that. Jaei, who had typed a question mark and two tear drops in his message, cunningly kept increasing the number of Polaroids, expanding the area where the photos were attached.
When Doha received a selfie of Jaei with Polaroids stuck to his chest, looking bewildered with wide, innocent eyes, Doha counted the number of plump fox tails that only he could see. They had recently proliferated again, now totaling 17.
Doha, who most loved foxes with around 14-16 tails, revised that number to 17-19 today. He was considering future growth potential as well.
He knew well what Jaei was afraid of.
Previously, Doha and Jaei had undergone hellish brain development training with puzzles and Sudoku, then put their heads together to establish a plan to punish Hong Duyoung. Though they came up with the same method, their desired processes and endings differed. They knew the best approach would be for the motorcycle driver to honestly confess everything, but they also knew the chances of persuading him were slim.
Jaei wanted to first convey a distorted version of his relationship with Doha to Hong Duyoung, then pretend that his relationship with Doha had completely collapsed after some time. He would pretend to be deeply hurt by “Doha, who firmly believed he had come back to life” actually hating him, leading him to no longer love Doha, acknowledging that Doha had been his poison, and becoming emotionally dependent on Hong Duyoung.
The plan was to act like he had eventually fallen in love with Hong Duyoung, making him completely let his guard down. Then he would naturally induce a confession and record it. He also planned to search his house and studio to steal evidence of his planned murder under the pretext of creating art.
However, Doha didn’t like Jaei’s plan at all. That was natural from Doha’s perspective. He agreed they needed to make Hong Duyoung completely trust Jaei, but he hated the idea of Jaei pretending to love Hong Duyoung. How could they know what dangerous things that madman might do to Jaei in the name of art once he believed Jaei loved him?
So Doha planned to give Hong Duyoung another opportunity to attack him. Wouldn’t Hong Duyoung be unable to leave Ryu Doha alone if he was “daring to try to bring down actor Lee Jaei, his muse”? Doha was confident that with just a little steering of the conversation while Hong Duyoung was trying to harm him, he would confess everything honestly. After all, he was naturally talkative and loved to boast about himself.
Doha didn’t think he would actually be in danger. He would just have people ready to protect his safety that day.
But Jaei was furious at Doha’s plan and pounded his cheeks like striking cymbals. This was natural from Jaei’s perspective. There was no way he would agree to putting Ryu Doha in danger again after already having lost him once.
And now, the ending Hong Duyoung had chosen was, of course, to harm Doha who was trying to bring down actor Lee Jaei. Doha read through the script once more.
Yuha corners Heejai physically and mentally, threatening him. He plans to record a scene where Heejai confesses his mistakes stemming from his own inferiority complex and says that he might as well have killed Yuha, then distribute it. However, Yuha’s plan to force Heejai into retirement fails. This is because Haeyoung begins to move to stop Yuha, who is trying to bring down actor Lee Jaei.
While reading this part, Doha shook like a vibrating phone, feeling intense secondhand embarrassment at Hong Duyoung’s bloated self-consciousness. He thinks Jaei probably screamed like a morning alarm in shock at the same section.
“Ah, it’s really embarrassing… I should never be like this.”
Hong Duyoung, immersed in himself, had become a good negative role model for Doha, who dreamed of being the male lead in a drama.
In the script, Haeyoung was “a man with strong philosophical and artistic temperament who wouldn’t hesitate to commit murder for someone with whom his soul connects.” Doha clicked his tongue, imagining Hong Duyoung’s face as he proudly loaded his desired characterizations onto Haeyoung.
Before killing Yuha after kidnapping him, Haeyoung confessed all his sins as if boasting.
[Even my murder is art and love, how could you and your brother, who are as ordinary as can be, understand that? How dare someone else intrude on our relationship.]
“They say when a famous person does something, others give it meaning. The difference between art and a middle school diary is really just a hair’s breadth.”
It was exactly the ending Doha had predicted. But this time, he would absolutely not die and would change the ending. However, Jaei had no intention of letting the situation develop to the point where this scene actually happened in reality. He wanted to intervene earlier and expose Hong Duyoung’s crimes.
This was something that needed to be actively agreed upon after work with Jaei, who was now rolling on the floor with Doha’s photos stuck all over his face and body.
After finishing the script reading and leaving work, Doha was on his way home in a car driven by his manager when, as always, he naturally turned on his phone and searched for Lee Jaei on a portal site. However, his face froze when he saw the new news articles.
[Kim Ilhun reveals conversation with Lee Jaei on SNS… bromance explosion]
He understood this much. There had been many celebrities linked with Jaei in these kinds of articles over the past eight years. They didn’t discriminate by gender or profession, and occasionally weren’t even human. Last year, when Jaei uploaded a photo taken with a Dol Hareubang statue during a shoot in Jeju Island, an article came out titled [Lee Jaei seducing even Dol Hareubang? Chemistry explosion].
And that article had a creative comment: [Is it okay to freely hug a Dol Hareubang installed by the state in a public place? Even if ordinary people don’t know better, celebrities should set an example. Lee Jaei seems to always cause controversy because he’s stupid.]
Fortunately, most people were appalled by this creativity, so Doha was able to avoid smashing his phone that day. If someone asked him who he disliked more between Hong Duyoung and this malicious commenter, he would probably choose this commenter.
Anyway, as Jaei’s lover, friend, younger brother, fan, and fellow actor, he understood Jaei’s life of having chemistry explosions with all creatures in the universe, but he neither enjoyed nor welcomed it.
Doha asked his manager to stop the car and got out midway, then called Jaei while walking down the street wearing a mask. Jaei, who promptly answered the phone, skipped the “hello” and immediately updated him on the talisman situation.
—Doha, the talisman I stuck on my left chest fell off. I attached it with masking tape, but the adhesion isn’t great. Come quickly and reattach it yourself.
“Alright. But is it okay for me to check this article?”
—The article saying you’re attending a script reading for your next project today? Yes, you can see it.
“No, the one flooding the portal now. The article linking you and Kim Ilhun. Honestly, just reading the title makes me somewhat want to return to the afterlife. But looking at the actual conversation might show it’s nothing. So I’m asking. Would it be better for me to see the conversation myself and confirm with my own eyes that it’s nothing, or is it better to never see it?”
Jaei suddenly fell silent. After being quietly lost in thought for a while, Jaei carefully continued.
—Doha, Doha. I thought you wouldn’t mind. It was just a joke I made while asking Kim Ilhun to show me the script.
“Then I’ll check it.”
—Wait. Seeing your reaction now, I think it’s better if you don’t see it.
“Oh, I see. Yes, understood, Senior Lee Jaei.”
—Doha’s angry. This is bad. What should I do?
