As if reading that heart, CEO Choi with a worried expression shook his head and cut firmly.
“It’s not like I’ll work with you for just a day or two, we should adjust this much.”
“Then give me a vacation too while we’re at it.”
“Why is Section Manager Kim butting in here?”
“I’m an employee here too, isn’t the treatment really too much?”
Section Manager Kim, who was entering inside, whined while picking up CEO Choi’s words. As the people who’d been on edge because of Muyoung just moments ago started bickering with each other with light words, the tightly tense atmosphere loosened. He well knew it was their own way of consideration for the apologetic Muyoung. Although the coordination was somewhat forced, Muyoung also joined between the two of them and exchanged light jokes, laughing for a long while without thinking about anything.
If he didn’t do that much, he felt like he’d cry and spill everything he was hiding in front of the two of them, apologizing. Sorry for only disappointing them. That he didn’t know himself how long he could work.
He became a little scared whether he could settle everything cleanly before all the words that kept accumulating deep inside his body festered.
As soon as he entered the house, he went straight to the bathroom. He soaked his drooping fingertips in the washbasin filled with warm water for a long time, then carefully soaped and washed them. Recently, even though the days were hot, his hands and feet had become cold and body temperature didn’t easily return. So he made sure to do this once every time he showered.
Moreover, even if he washed warmly and lay down, while sleeping, his body’s extremities easily became cold again. Each time he struggled to pull up the blanket and ended up waking, so even though he stayed in bed for long, he wasn’t at all refreshed.
‘I’ll tell you about the advertisement as soon as it’s confirmed. Better projects will come later.’
‘…Yes, I’ll work hard.’
‘You can work a little less hard. Take care of your body first.’
If it were usual, he might have looked at the projects first himself. But right now with a guilty conscience, he couldn’t boldly bring up, even as empty words, that he’d try preparing for drama auditions. It was the same with the movie.
Even if he passed the audition, it would be a problem. Although the filming period might be shorter than expected, the work density per project was never low. If he collapsed in the middle of filming rather than at the office like today, it wouldn’t end as just his own secret. He was sorry for making the two of them worry, but he thought it was rather well done that he didn’t have to make various excuses.
He slowly finished washing his body and came out to habitually sit at the dining table. He’d just sent a text to Dowon on the way home asking about the coffee truck and saying he was entering the house now. Since he’d said he was very busy with work, he didn’t think he’d contact him right away. But he thought it was a bit unexpected looking at the message window that wasn’t even checked until quite late.
After the contract was exchanged, they tried to meet right away but both their times didn’t match. The obsession that felt like they should meet counting the times right away gradually faded.
That said, he didn’t seem to have any thought of leaving Muyoung alone, as Dowon occasionally showed his face. Briefly matching his leaving work time, a cup of coffee before he went to filming. It was that level. Meetings that added up to less than a couple hours total, so it was an ambiguous meeting to even count.
But as they faced each other frequently even like that, the guard came down that much. It was still difficult to first find topics and send texts, but that said, it wasn’t avoided. The wariness he had toward others was largely lowered only with Dowon.
Even sometimes the feeling was a bit different when there was contact and when there wasn’t. Looking at the message window where he’d sent everything up to saying he’d entered the house while leaving his phone on the dining table, he scrolled up to the top that didn’t go up much either.
Han Dowon
The photo is nice but I want to see the real thing more
He had to feel embarrassment once again at his own photo along with the very first message that arrived. He couldn’t understand what he was thinking to send him this photo. It wasn’t even bragging that he’d given a gift. …No way, he didn’t really show it because he was proud, right?
Muyoung, who had let out a snicker while having frivolous thoughts, was suddenly surprised by the notification appearing right below and hastily picked up his phone and pulled down the scroll.
Han Dowon
Are you home?
You’re not sleeping yet.
And right away, as if he’d been waiting, the phone started ringing. Unable to do anything with the phone vibrating buzzingly in his palm, he just stared for a long while, then only right before it disconnected did he swipe the screen to answer the call.
“…Yes.”
─ Why did you answer so late?
His face heated up at those words that obviously knew he’d been looking at the message window. Even though he wasn’t visible to him, he fussed with his face and hesitated for a long while. The frustration of not being able to brazenly pretend not to know was pointlessly embarrassing.
“Just, you know…”
─ I guess there’s no way I’ll hear Lee Muyoung-ssi say you were thinking of me.
“……”
─ Wait, were you really thinking of me?
When his voice even rose slightly as if truly surprised, he couldn’t listen anymore. Muyoung cleared his throat and stopped the man’s thoughts on the other end of the phone.
“That… ahem, there was no reply to my text, so I was just looking at past messages for a moment.”
─ Ah, I see. By chance, when I sent the message, you happened to be looking while waiting for my reply…
“…CEO-nim.”
How did he end up giving an excuse to such a person? The other party burst into low laughter as if in a good mood even at the blunt answer. Exhaling shortly and checking the clock hanging on the wall, it was really close to midnight. To call only now, he could guess work was busier than expected.
─ Alright. If our actor Lee-ssi says so, what can I do but believe?
“Are you leaving work now?”
─ Yes, something requiring attention came up so it took long to wrap up. I’ll check what you asked about tomorrow. Since I checked the message after everyone left work, I can’t tell right away.
“Ah… that, you can tell me slowly.”
Seo Kyungju seemed urgent, but he deliberately ignored it. He thought he wouldn’t press for a day or two. Actually, what he himself needed wasn’t something like a coffee truck company name, but conversation material to text Dowon without awkwardness.
─ Then let’s check that tomorrow. This weekend, it’s definitely okay, right?
“If there’s no additional filming, it should be possible.”
─ It’s our first all-day date, so even if I can’t hear that you’re looking forward to it, it shouldn’t be pushed back by the schedule at least.
“…It won’t be.”
Even though it wasn’t a reproaching tone, Muyoung felt pointlessly guilty and his toes curled. It was true that he’d briefly pondered methods to refuse, so he thought it must have been quite obvious. Yet at the words “first date,” his insides tickled pointlessly. Was it okay to be expressed like this? It was just one time out of the decided number anyway.
─ I don’t intend to blame even the parts that can’t be helped by human power. Think of it as spending time comfortably and meet me.
“Yees…”
He nodded his head and continued his answer to the softly relaxed voice. Actually, there was no need to be so tense about everything, but since he had more than one or two things to be caught on, whether it was his trait or whatever, he came to avoid anything he hadn’t done before unconditionally. Meeting others was even more so. If Dowon hadn’t pushed him like this, it was a contract he wouldn’t have thought of at all.
He was clearly a person from a different world. Right now they were exchanging contact and making promises to meet, but the things he had to be responsible for and the people around him were completely different people from himself.
It was something he already knew even before requesting the ten meetings. Although they worked in the same industry, there was nowhere that a large company CEO and himself, a supporting actor at best, would be placed on the same level.
─ Come to think of it, are you sleeping well?
“…Pardon?”
─ Even on the day we first met, you couldn’t resist drowsiness in the car. It seemed a bit like you were sick rather than being tense.
“…Ah, no. I really didn’t sleep well the night before. Because it was my first time at such a place.”
When he fully received this natural and generous attention in looking after his surroundings, the feeling was truly strange. Because it was a kind of leisure very difficult for him to have, it seemed like Dowon’s background, felt even in brief conversations moment by moment, was solidly backing him up. Still, it wasn’t bad that they’d come to talk this much. He was too busy getting his body condition together right now to weigh and think about everything one by one.
─ Then that’s fortunate, but an actor’s body is their fortune, isn’t it?
“Speaking of which, CEO-nim talked about a checkup today…”
Muyoung, who had been responding listlessly, recalled what happened this afternoon. He realized how frightening the temperature of the nosebleed that burst out and the dizziness of the moment his vision blurred were. Come to think of it, he really did need to go to a trait hospital once. Since he tried to make time using the checkup as an excuse, he needed to check his body condition once, and he also needed to receive new suppressants that would soon run out.
Sometimes answering and sometimes just nodding, the conversation continued. Yet Dowon wasn’t uncomfortable. Rather, even though not much time had passed, the phone calls were familiar. Was it because, no matter how much he thought about it, in the past when they should have been awkward, the only relationship he had that asked about his well-being every day was Yu Jinho?
Actually, that person too was always difficult and always made him tense. Because in his eyes, he was too amazing and shining. He thought his clumsy self toward his lover whom he met every day was a special quality based on excitement, trembling, and affection caused by the other person. Now he wasn’t even sure about that.
