# Chapter 56
For quite a while, he stood shamelessly with his arms folded behind Hong Duyoung, acting like a director and monitoring Kim Ilhun’s behavior. Ryu Doha, who had not even been out of high school for half a year yet, muttered like a teenager encountering an enemy during a game when Kim Ilhun caressed Jaei’s body more than specified in the script.
“Look at that, that bastard’s hands are not behaving well.”
At that sound, Hong Duyoung turned around, noticed Doha’s presence, and looked him up and down.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m Ryu Doha.”
“I know that too. I’m asking why Ryu Doha is here right now.”
Doha didn’t bow his head, but only lowered his gaze, looking down at Hong Duyoung who was seated. Without answering the question, he smiled slyly and smoothly popped a candy into Hong Duyoung’s mouth. Hong Duyoung shuddered and spat it out. Then he raised his voice and instructed the staff.
“From tomorrow, don’t let any actors without shooting scenes enter the set.”
Doha looked at Hong Duyoung with a pitying expression, his brow twitching. According to the script, he seemed excited about the idea of killing him cruelly, but there was one thing this person was greatly overlooking.
It’s not just Hong Duyoung who can kill people. Ryu Doha also has hands and feet. No matter how much he doesn’t want to kill someone, once he makes up his mind, it can be executed at any time. So, Hong Duyoung and he were on equal footing.
Doha, whose mind was naturally a rainbow flower garden, was able to maintain his confidence and overcome the intense fear of the moment when his life was taken by keeping this fact in his heart.
Hong Duyoung has never once directly confessed to commissioning the hit-and-run with his own mouth. What Jaei heard at a drinking gathering was only a vague statement that suggested he might have been present at the time of death, and Ryu Doha, who knows about the death being condoned, is administratively dead, and it’s only Haeyoung in the script who commissioned the hit-and-run murder.
Somehow, they needed to make him confess directly so that the police would have grounds to reinvestigate the “Haesung-dong 14-year-old boy hit-and-run death case.” Until then, Doha had to work hard to raise his own profile as “the wrongfully killed Ryu Doha’s younger brother” to gather more buzz for the reinvestigation.
The resurrected Ryu Doha would raise the value of the worthless life of the dead Ryu Doha. This was all he could do. The rest would be left to the national civil servants.
Anyway, since there was no particular reason to see Hong Duyoung today, he didn’t want to exchange words with him any longer than necessary. When he shifted his gaze from glaring at the top of Hong Duyoung’s head to looking straight ahead, his eyes met Jaei’s. Jaei, who had been giving passionate performances whenever they had opportunities to be together in front of Hong Duyoung, waved his hand cautiously towards Doha with a shy face.
At that moment, Hong Duyoung shouted that it was time for a break. It seemed he wanted to watch their romance situation again. Jaei rushed over to him, his slender body fluttering, and asked happily.
“You parted your hair today? Did you stop by a salon?”
“I didn’t come to see you, hyung.”
Doha, speaking in a cold voice in front of Hong Duyoung, walked towards Kim Ilhun with his hands in his pockets. He greeted politely to Kim, who was resting with his legs crossed on a chair.
“Hello, sunbaenim. I’m Ryu Doha.”
“Oh, yes.”
Having met at the meeting, Kim Ilhun also knew his face and name. However, he had little interest in rookies with low public recognition. Doha knelt on one knee in front of the utterly indifferent Kim Ilhun. Then he suddenly grabbed the bad hand that had unnecessarily caressed Jaei’s body earlier. He stroked the back of his hand and between his fingers stickily while staring into his eyes intently.
“What are you doing?!”
He brought his lips close to Kim’s ear, who was alarmed, and whispered:
“Please be careful with your hands.”
“What the hell are you doing?”
Kim Ilhun shouted in surprise as the breath entered his ear. Doha spoke articulately at a volume that only he could hear.
“If I notice again that you’re touching Lee Jaei sunbaenim’s body more than necessary in front of the camera to increase your own popularity… I’ll come to touch you too, every chance I get.”
Kim Ilhun, who very much liked the opposite sex, recoiled and pulled his hand away. The effect was definite. Even though Jaei, who had stuck close behind Doha with his large ears perked up, was shouting “Whaat~?”
That night after returning home, Jaei declared to Doha in a loud voice.
“I’ll take responsibility for your mother’s old age, Ryu Doha.”
Doha shouted back with equal enthusiasm.
“Then I’ll become successful and take responsibility for your mother’s old age.”
Jaei gladly nodded. His mother already had more than enough wealth, but businesses can never guarantee the future. It wasn’t a bad idea to take out an insurance policy on the promising sprout that was Ryu Doha.
Doha took the opportunity to call Jaei’s parents, presenting a very detailed filial plan, and expressing his desire to meet his own mother. As Doha carefully spoke, Jaei provided supportive exclamations from the side like “Wow~”, “Oh… touching” to boost his mother and father’s emotions.
After ending the call, Jaei led Doha to his dressing room. Then he took out items he had carefully stored in a cabinet. As this was an extremely important space for Jaei, a celebrity, Doha had never entered carelessly or touched things without permission.
“Let’s take this and show it to your mom. She’ll immediately believe that you’re Doha.”
What Jaei took out were the t-shirt and pants Doha had been wearing when he returned to the world, a worn gray coat and black gloves, and sneakers. They were so neatly stored in plastic that they didn’t even smell musty. Doha’s eyes filled with tears.
When he confirmed that traces left by Ryu Doha were meticulously collected and stored in apartment 1002, he had thought that traces left in the world by Lee Doha might be stored in apartment 902. His thought was correct. One closet compartment and four drawers were all filled with traces of Lee Doha.
Jaei, who had started sniffling along with Doha, sat with his legs spread in a circle and checked each item he had collected one by one with Doha. There were quite a few letters that Doha, who became the younger brother, had left for Jaei, who became the older brother.
[Hello, hyung. I like you the most in the world. But you have so many friends and come home much later than Doha. Even when you’re playing with your friends, don’t forget Doha at home. Doha just waits for you to come home. Don’t leave Doha bored. Goodbye then.]
“Lee Doha, you’re a puppy. A puppy that talks and writes.”
For the first time in a long while, Jaei called Ryu Doha as Lee Doha. Lee Doha nuzzled his cheek against Jaei’s, then bowed his head deeply and presented his head. Jaei thoroughly tousled his fluffy hair with both hands.
* * *
On a day when both Doha and Jaei had time off, they went together to the region where Doha’s mother lived to meet her. At a time when there were few customers, in a separate room of a quiet traditional Korean restaurant, she and Doha embraced each other for a long time. She was clutching the sleeve of the small gray coat in her hand, and Jaei was crying silently beside them.
“My baby, baby. I knew it was my baby, Mom recognized you right away. I’ve been waiting for you to contact me.”
“Really? You recognized me? You believed it was me? I thought you wouldn’t believe me.”
She endlessly caressed Doha’s head and body, shedding tears, then carefully shook her head.
“To be honest, I didn’t recognize you right away. Your face and body had grown so much that it took me some time to recognize you. And at first, it was hard to believe you were Doha, but as time passed, I became convinced that a miracle could happen in the world…”
As the emotion began to fade slightly from Doha’s expression and his eyes started to dry, she stopped crying and slapped Doha’s back, saying:
“But how could you come back from the dead and go to your lover first instead of your mom? There’s really no use in raising a son.”
“Lover?”
Doha asked in surprise. Jaei, who had been crying silently beside them, was startled and exclaimed, “Aaaaah!” as he dropped his phone. Although Doha’s mother had never specifically named the “lover” as “Jaei,” Jaei’s reaction revealed the lover’s identity. Doha grabbed her arms with both hands and asked:
“You knew I was dating Jaei? Since when?”
“How could I not know when you’re living together?”
“Did you know from the past? Then why did you pretend not to know and say nothing?”
“At that time, I was too struggling… somehow, whether it was a son-in-law or daughter-in-law, I wanted you with a rich person’s child…”
Having revealed her excessively honest feelings, she reached out to stroke Jaei’s cheek, worried that Jaei might be hurt. Jaei warmly held the back of her hand that rested on his cheek. Doha continued his questioning with a serious expression, his eyes wide.
“And now?”
“My child died and came back to life. How could I have the mental space to care about that?”
Jaei swallowed hard. If Doha’s mother knew everything, his own parents might also have known about their relationship for a very long time. No matter how much they thought of Lee Doha as Ryu Seungha, they would also know that their son considered Lee Doha to be no different from Ryu Doha.
Could it be that when they said they wanted to see small, cute grandchildren, they were indirectly expressing that they wanted them to end the relationship? And by giving up on grandchildren, they were ultimately permitting the relationship?
