# Chapter 79.
During elementary school, Doha had enjoyed playing Omok (Five in a Row) online and achieved pretty good results. He brazenly responded to Jaei’s nonsensical words without even blinking:
“Well, to be honest, it’s true that such an intelligent play is irritating to me since it’s the first time I’ve seen it. Meeting you as an opponent after so long, I can only express admiration.”
Jaei, who had followed Doha like a puppy since he was very small, had of course stuck closely to Doha when he played Omok. He would peek over Doha’s shoulder and offer unsolicited advice. Back then, by combining their two brains, they could powerfully boost Doha’s ranking.
In response to Doha’s high praise, Jaei calmly nodded and answered:
“This is a play that can only happen because I know your attack tactics well. I’m judging where I should place my stone two moves ahead. So it’s natural that you find it irritating.”
“I truly respect you, Jaei.”
Doha said with sincerity. Today, after finishing drama filming, Jaei had shot a coffee advertisement and then responded to a reporter’s interview to promote the drama at the advertising shoot. Despite being tired, he was still playing with Doha earnestly after work, making time for him. So Doha decided to temporarily stop thinking about Seo Eunho and focus on his match with Jaei. Giving his all in the game was showing respect to the one he loved.
After playing a nail-biting match with a score of 4-4, Doha and Jaei finished the 8th round and were momentarily immersed in the afterglow, admiring their breathtaking mental battle.
“Doha. What are you going to do being this smart too? You’re only twenty, what kind of amazing potential do you have?”
“I’m still far behind you. I’m just starting, at the chick stage.”
Judging that there were no worthy opponents left in the Omok world, Doha and Jaei mutually agreed to graduate from Omok on their own. And to move on to the next stage, they played baduk basic education videos on TV.
The two, whose eyes were shining with intelligence as they focused on this new world, were found sound asleep on the living room floor after 5 minutes, hugging each other’s bodies. They didn’t wake up even once until the next day. The two positive-minded young men found great significance in having found a good sleep aid.
* * *
Doha wanted all living beings on Earth, and further, all existing life in the universe, to find Jaei pretty and to love him. People who liked Jaei were definitely better than those who disliked him. Even if that person might potentially become his love rival, it was okay as long as they loved Jaei with a healthy and upright heart.
Among the countless people who loved Lee Jaei, couldn’t he just work hard to maintain his position as Jaei’s lover until the day he died? If it happened that way, he could develop his romantic relationship with Jaei in an even better direction.
The problem was that the emotion of “liking” could manifest in various forms. Doha had observed many types of people who loved Jaei for a very long time, and had classified them in his mind accordingly.
There were those with bizarre affection like Hong Duyoung, and countless fans who expressed their misguided affection by forcibly criticizing Jaei’s actions and degrading his value. There were colleagues who confessed to Jaei, got rejected, and then wished for Jaei to meet a bad person and fall into ruin, and many who didn’t find Jaei’s happy appearance attractive but felt affection when he showed a depressed face.
There were many ordinary people and juniors who admired Jaei, copying his styling and speech patterns, wanting to hear that they resembled Lee Jaei. Of course, it was natural for a celebrity to become someone’s object of admiration whom they wanted to resemble.
Among the actions explained by the two characters “affection,” there are many dangerous emotions that one couldn’t even dare to imagine. That’s why Doha always had an obligation to tightly embrace Jaei and safely protect him from dangerous affection.
What shape would Seo Eunho’s affection for Lee Jaei take? It would probably be closest to admiration among those. The desire to be someone like Lee Jaei. A life with Lee Jaei’s appearance, acting like Lee Jaei, becoming the muse of directors, and being loved by many people. But could his admiration for Jaei be normal? The various behaviors he had already shown them were outside the normal range.
So Doha could only hope that Seo Eunho would healthily nurture the emotions he currently had. If he truly wanted to have the person called Lee Jaei, it would be fine for him to love Jaei admirably enough to become his rival. Such a competitor would be more than welcome.
Doha was confident that he could win against anyone who appeared as a love rival. The more handsome and cool the person who could be a match for Ryu Doha, the more welcome they were. It would be an opportunity for Ryu Doha to improve himself into an even better person.
Belatedly, Doha told Jaei about the conversation he had with Seo Eunho.
“Really? You genuinely feel like he has feelings for me? I felt like he liked you during our conversation. He’s a very difficult person to figure out.”
Although it was completely unexpected, Jaei, who had been receiving all kinds of abnormal love confessions from around the world for eight years, wasn’t particularly surprised. No matter how much Seo Eunho had mischievously stimulated his guilty conscience by placing a virtual soul on his head, if he found Jaei attractive as an actor, couldn’t he have mixed feelings of love and hate?
And there were many people in the world who loved both Ryu Doha and Lee Jaei simultaneously. That’s possible. No, perhaps it’s natural. If one is a normal human being, they can’t help but do so.
In fact, Jaei had received a love confession from a famous foreign actor through DMs on SNS this morning too. It seemed they had fallen for him after watching his movie. Of course, he didn’t tell Doha. Anyway, Doha was also receiving messages like “want to meet you personally” or “want to get in touch and become close” more than a dozen times a day from senior actors through SNS and his work phone.
The number of people who had asked Jaei for Doha’s contact information had exceeded 52 today. Even if Jaei didn’t share it, Ryu Doha’s phone number was already being shared as the hottest popular item among colleagues.
But he didn’t think Doha and he were the type to monitor and worry about each other by sharing such trivial things. They both made a living by “being loved by others,” and they were always aware that they were worthy of being loved as they dated.
Therefore, Doha’s insistence on conveying Seo Eunho’s emotions was because he had his reasons.
“It seems like he does like you, but I still feel uncomfortable. Even if Seo Eunho treats you well, never let your guard down, and be careful not to spend time alone with him. And tell me everything that happens with him. I’m preparing for the worst-case scenario just in case.”
“Yes, yes, I will. I’m good at listening to Doha anyway.”
Only then did Jaei take time to recall memories of meeting Seo Eunho in the past. With a three-year age difference, and since he died at seventeen, they must have met before Jaei turned fourteen. Considering the age gap, it’s unlikely they met in middle school, but there’s a possibility he was a senior in elementary school.
But it’s more likely they met at a hagwon (academy) rather than school. Jaei attended many hagwons: piano, English, dance, and acting, among countless others. The probability that they met at an acting academy was by far the highest. He had heard that Seo Eunho learned acting from Hong Duyoung and consistently appeared as an extra or in minor roles in his works since childhood. So almost 99% likely, he was a hyung who learned acting together with him at an acting academy.
Jaei attended an acting academy when he was five years old. Seo Eunho would have been eight, so it makes sense that he isn’t in Jaei’s memory, but Jaei remains in his. Memories at eight would be much clearer than those at five. And at that academy, Lee Jaei was a shining gem selected by Hong Duyoung. Seo Eunho would have been one of many older boys who were scolded while being compared to Lee Jaei.
However, among the other students excluding Lee Jaei, there was one who received attention from Hong Duyoung. If Jaei was the undisputed number one, he would have been number two. If he could continuously appear briefly in Hong Duyoung’s films, wouldn’t that be Seo Eunho?
Jaei briefly closed his eyes tightly and made a painful expression. He wanted to punish Hong Duyoung with everything he could do, and if his power wasn’t enough, even by borrowing his parents’ power. He would make sure that crazy murderer received the maximum sentence.
Jaei opened his eyes sadly and tilted his head to the side, smiling faintly. The more he thought about it, the weaker the grounds for Seo Eunho to be attracted to him seemed. Does it mean he’s attractive enough to offset such long-accumulated ill feelings at once? Of course, he is attractive. Yes, but…
“Doha, is there really no one sitting on my head?”
Jaei asked, pointing to his crown with his finger. Doha, who had opened the lid of the delivered lunch box and placed it in front of Jaei, putting a spoon in his hand, retied the sky-blue packaging ribbon he had just removed from the lunch box and placed it on top of Jaei’s head. Then he took out his phone, silently took a photo, and uploaded it to his own SNS without Jaei’s permission.
#ribbon #present #angel
After uploading, he held his phone for a moment to check the reactions. Checking comments from foreign fans, Doha felt curious about his SNS becoming more global than usual, then bent down to lightly kiss the lips of Jaei sitting in front of him and asked in a tender voice against his mouth:
“But Jaei.”
“Hmm, hmm.”
“Why are people tagging Sean Alex on your picture that I uploaded and saying ‘Present for you’?”
Jaei swallowed his saliva and rolled his eyes left and right. It seemed that the famous foreign actor who had confessed his love to him via DM today had publicly spread rumors that he had developed an interest in Korean actor Lee Jaei. Doha, who kissed Jaei’s eyelids as he just blinked quietly, smiled with a slightly unpleasant expression, then languidly whispered into Jaei’s ear:
“…I’ll become more famous than him.”
