“Haha, work hasn’t been going well without you. It’s a shame we can only see you during vacation.”
“Aw, what are you saying? What did I even do?”
“We missed having a youngest to boss around.”
“Artist-nim, that’s why you bossed me around instead!”
“Haha, did I do that?”
A warm atmosphere quickly spread inside the studio. Jang Juwon loved this atmosphere. Perhaps because he’d spent a particularly tumultuous semester, this peaceful everyday life felt even more precious now.
“Alright, then since today’s the day we’re wrapping up indoor work, get instructions from Juhee and Jeongsuk about the equipment setup.”
“Yes.”
“Juwon-ah, come here!”
“Yes!”
Jang Juwon felt proud watching the studio gradually take shape for shooting as he set up and moved various equipment.
In the center of the studio stood a dark gray acrylic panel. Jang Juwon felt his heart flutter as he set up the lighting. He was curious what concept of work would be created today, what model would come.
When the work had progressed to a certain point, the artist called over a staff member and said.
“Juhee-ya, is the model’s makeup done? Tell them to come in soon.”
“Yes, I’ll go call them.”
She entered a small space curtained off to one side of the studio. Jang Juwon looked at the curtain with an excited heart. And a moment later, Lee Juhee pulled back the curtain and walked out with the model. The artist recognized him and spoke.
“Baek Iseon, are you all ready?”
“Yeah.”
That familiar name rang in his ears. In that moment, Jang Juwon felt as if his heart had dropped to the floor with a thud. The heart that had fallen once leapt up violently as if trying to find its place again. And it repeated falling again, leaping up again. As if it had malfunctioned, his chest pounded madly.
“Come here.”
The artist pointed with her finger to the center of the panel. Baek Iseon walked toward it. Jang Juwon hid his body behind the reflector without realizing it. His heart wouldn’t calm down. His face was burning. He never imagined he would run into him in a place like this, without any mental preparation.
“This is a test shot.”
The artist raised the camera and pressed the shutter several times. With a click, the lights in front flashed. The artist checked the monitor, then tilted her head slightly as if something wasn’t quite right. And spoke again.
“Reflector, raise it up a little.”
“……Hup.”
Jang Juwon, who had been hiding behind the reflector, gasped. He tried not to come forward as much as possible while pushing the reflector upward. But of course it wouldn’t go well. The artist’s eyebrows twitched.
“Jang Juwon! What are you doing back there!”
“……”
‘I’m fucked……’
Jang Juwon came forward hesitantly. Everyone in the studio was looking at him. And of course Baek Iseon was among them. Their eyes met. He was looking at him with quite surprised eyes. Jang Juwon hurriedly turned his gaze to the reflector. The back of his head stung.
Jang Juwon tilted the reflector upward as the artist instructed. Damn…… It would have been less embarrassing now if he’d just acted like nothing was wrong. He’d only shown that he was conscious of it and made a fool of himself.
“Yeah, that’s good now. Baek Iseon, aren’t you looking at the front?”
“……Oh, yeah.”
“What are you thinking about? Not concentrating?”
“Ah, yeah.”
The artist said sharply. Only then did the tension leave Baek Iseon’s eyes. Jang Juwon smoothly slipped away from there and squeezed himself into a corner of the studio far away. If no one was around, he wanted to punch himself in the head.
The actual shoot began. The atmosphere in the shooting location became serious in an instant. Normally Jang Juwon would have watched the shooting process with interest, but today he couldn’t. It was difficult to look at Baek Iseon right in front of him. So he kept staring at the ground and occasionally did small tasks that the staff asked him to do.
After one round of shooting, the artist finally lowered the camera from her face. The artist called Baek Iseon to monitor together and was giving him a few more instructions. It was too far from Jang Juwon to hear what the two were talking about well, but he could see Baek Iseon nodding in between.
Suddenly the artist’s head whipped around. Eyes that had been looking around as if searching for something soon met directly with Jang Juwon’s. The artist gestured for him to come over as if things had worked out well.
“Juwon-ah, can you come here for a moment?”
“……Yes.”
Jang Juwon thought he wished the earth would end at this very moment. But that didn’t happen, and his two feet eventually arrived in front of the two people.
‘Don’t acknowledge me, don’t acknowledge me, don’t acknowledge me.’
Even without turning his head, he could feel Baek Iseon looking at him. Jang Juwon deliberately pretended not to know and stared intently only at the artist’s face, but it was nothing more than meaningless struggle.
“Hello. Running into you in a place like this.”
“……Yes, hello.”
“Part-time work?”
“……Yes.”
He greeted him in his usual voice as if nothing was wrong. Jang Juwon also answered as if nothing was wrong as much as possible. Then the artist interjected into the conversation with slight surprise.
“What, you two know each other?”
“Yes. He’s my sunbae at school.”
“Baek Iseon, you go to Hankook University?”
“Ha. You know what school your part-timer goes to but you didn’t even know until now where your younger sibling goes, noona?”
Baek Iseon’s quite dumbfounded voice could be heard. Soon she laughed awkwardly and rattled off some words of excuse, but their conversation didn’t enter Jang Juwon’s ears at all.
‘Noona……?’
Jang Juwon raised his head and looked at the two people alternately. Now that he looked, they did seem to resemble each other. Especially their coolly split eyes and thick eyebrows. Once he knew, the two people had so many similarities that it felt foolish not to have noticed until now.
“Ahaha, Juwon works every vacation so of course I should know where he goes. Baek Iseon, why should I know what school you go to?”
“Who do you think I’m doing this here for right now? Isn’t that too much, Artist Baek Huiseon?”
“Who for? It’s for the allowance I give you.”
When she scolded Baek Iseon with the right words, he immediately shut his mouth.
“Ah, right. Juwon-ah.”
Baek Huiseon belatedly turned her head to look at Jang Juwon. It seemed like she’d just now remembered the reason she’d called him over.
“There, can you replace the lighting with one with higher intensity? And tell Jeongsuk to try turning off the key light.”
“Yes.”
While answering Baek Huiseon, Jang Juwon couldn’t help but glance at Baek Iseon with sidelong looks. With him standing right next to him, it was quite difficult to endure without looking. Apart from the hatred he had for him who had looked down on him and treated him rudely, it wasn’t easy to suppress the fact that he still wanted to see him and liked him.
And then, he made eye contact with Baek Iseon. Baek Iseon grinned at him as he used to. Jang Juwon hurriedly turned around and left. Because he didn’t want to be caught with his reddened face.
“Jeongsuk hyung, the artist said to try turning off the key light.”
“Okay, got it.”
He couldn’t concentrate throughout the work. His gaze kept chasing after Baek Iseon. This was troublesome. If he was going to continue being unable to even concentrate like this, he thought it might be better not to work part-time this vacation at all.
But anyway, he had to finish today’s work. Jang Juwon was waddling along carrying a light as tall as himself to replace the lighting as Baek Huiseon instructed. It wasn’t heavy, but because of its size he couldn’t see ahead well, so he walked carefully step by step. Then suddenly, the light became lighter. When he poked his head out from behind the light, Baek Iseon was standing in front of him holding the stand. He had invaded inside his boundaries again as if it were nothing.
“Sunbae, put this down……”
“Noona!”
“Huh?”
Before Jang Juwon’s words could finish, Baek Iseon interrupted him and called Baek Huiseon. When she approached, Baek Iseon put the light down on the floor and said.
“Noona, this kid doesn’t look so good.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Look at this.”
Baek Iseon suddenly approached Jang Juwon and naturally covered his face with his hand.
“His face is red and he’s sweating. He seems to have a fever too.”
“N-no. I’m fine though?”
Jang Juwon took a step back and distanced himself from Baek Iseon.
“Oh my, you’re right. Juwon-ah, are you sick?”
“Just how much have you been working this kid?”
