“The product. I said, can’t you just find it?”
“……Do you not see that we’re in the middle of trying to find it right now?”
“I’ll find it.”
“Excuse me?”
“By tomorrow. I’ll have it found by tomorrow morning.”
At the groundless confidence, Team Leader Song moistened his dry lips and swallowed a dumbfounded breath.
“……And what if you can’t find it?”
“I’ll find it.”
“…….”
“But when I do find it.”
“…….”
“The rude things you just spat out.”
“…….”
“Apologize properly.”
He’d thought he was talking to someone reasonable — and then the out-of-nowhere condition made Team Leader Song press a hand to his forehead. They should be groveling with both hands clasped together, and yet here was someone actually expecting an apology — Team Leader Song ground his teeth.
“What? Who exactly owes who an apology here——!”
“I don’t know the details.”
“…….”
“But I do know that our actor is the face of your company.”
“……Ha. That actor really does deserve that manager. Both of them shameless in the same exact way.”
Team Leader Song decided this was someone beyond reasoning and took a deep breath, then spoke as if wrapping the situation up.
“Fine. Hah. Then if you find it, I’ll — what — get on my knees.”
Moon Heesung nodded at that. He looked almost refreshed, as though it was quite a satisfying reward. Visibly displeased at that expression, Team Leader Song squared both cheekbones and opened his mouth with an air of resolve.
“But if you can’t find it——”
“Then this side gets on its knees too.”
At the response that countered with its own condition, Team Leader Song frowned.
“Ha…… I don’t need you on your knees.”
“Naturally, not me.”
“…….”
“Actor Yoo Sinju.”
At that statement, Team Leader Song — as well as every single staff member and director who had been listening in hushed silence — widened their eyes in surprise. That included Yoo Sinju himself, the person in question.
“What?”
At Yoo Sinju’s sharp reaction, Team Leader Song looked briefly confused, as if unsure whose side they were even on.
“……Ha. What exactly are the two of you trying to pull here?”
“Isn’t that what you want?”
“Pardon?”
“You were talking about an apology.”
At the flat, unbothered reply, the corner of Team Leader Song’s eye twitched.
“Fine. Since you’ve gone that far, I suppose I have to accept.”
“Go ahead.”
“I didn’t want to go this far with our model either, but if that’s what you want.”
“I’ll contact you when I find it.”
“You know this becomes a bigger problem if you don’t, right. If you’re just pulling a move to sweep this under the rug——”
Moon Heesung cut off the provocative words and narrowed the space between his brows, as if he was starting to find this irritating.
“I said I got it.”
At the blunt reply, Team Leader Song flinched and stole a quick glance to gauge the room. He seemed displeased at the tone that left him no face to save — but sensing a quiet threat in the air, he didn’t push further. Slightly shrinking under the force of it, Team Leader Song was the first to turn sharply away. Amidst the heavy atmosphere where strange sparks were flying, only Yoo Sinju — now faced with the prospect of getting on his knees — was seething.
“Why the hell do I have to get on my knees!”
The pitiful shout that no one paid any attention to crossed through the space between them, alone.
**
The interior of the set, now that everyone had cleared out, was more than desolate — it was dead silent. With the lights off and not a sign of another human being, it felt eerie, like the setting of a horror film. The filming crew, the company staff, the stylist assigned to Yoo Sinju, the makeup staff — all had packed up and left, and now Moon Heesung alone was left combing through the place. Once the reserved time ran out, even the lights had gone off, and Moon Heesung was relying entirely on the flashlight Shim Yanggu had scrounged up for him. Yoo Sinju, watching from the side, opened his mouth in dissatisfaction.
“What’s this confidence about?”
He leaned against the wall and looked down at Moon Heesung crawling along the floor, scouring every corner, with a pitying expression.
“Don’t have any.”
Moon Heesung answered loosely, and crawled on his knees under the shelf. At the sight of him readily crawling across a dirty floor without hesitation, Yoo Sinju found himself unconsciously clenching his back teeth.
“And with no confidence, you……”
“Well……it has to be somewhere.”
“What?”
At the absurd answer, Yoo Sinju stared down at Moon Heesung with a dumbfounded expression.
“So you just said you’d find it no matter what, without any actual plan?”
“You have no more schedules after this. Go straight home.”
“Who are you to tell me what to do. Useless bastard.”
“Don’t worry.”
There it was again. The out-of-nowhere confidence made Yoo Sinju furrow his brows in puzzlement. He was still gaping down at Moon Heesung in disbelief — this person who didn’t make a single sound of complaint even when he knocked his head on the shelf — when the words that followed made it even harder for Yoo Sinju to find his voice.
“I won’t let you end up on your knees.”
Spoken exactly like a dependable hyung, like a capable manager — and the words made Yoo Sinju blink rapidly, visibly caught off guard. Not even noticing the heat creeping up to his ears, he shot back in a bewildered tone.
“……Suddenly acting like some reliable manager.”
Yoo Sinju scoffed and turned away. Hearing something like that now didn’t feel welcome at all.
Now, of all times……
Whatever ulterior motive he might have, Yoo Sinju had not the slightest intention of trusting this person who had shown up out of nowhere. There had to be some scheme behind it. Whether he was trying to win him over and leech some money off him like before, or dig up a weakness to hold over him. Yoo Sinju knew nothing about who this person really was. The only thing he knew was that back then, he had betrayed him.
“Do a half-hearted job and call it quits. You’re not going to find it anyway.”
“I’ll find it.”
“Stop forcing it.”
“What if I find it.”
“Hey.”
“Apologize.”
“What?”
At the unexpected proposition, Yoo Sinju turned back to look at him sharply.
“Apologize to those people.”
“Hey.”
“You were in the wrong.”
“……Ha. I knew it.”
“Knew what.”
“You did this to mess with me, didn’t you? Volunteering to find it.”
I knew you had some scheme.
Yoo Sinju looked at Moon Heesung with a contemptuous expression, one that said — of course, of course it was that.
“Of course. Who do you think you are.”
“…….”
“You’re not going to find it anyway. You stepped up to find it specifically to get me on my knees in front of those people, didn’t you? Didn’t you?”
“…….”
“You wanted to watch me get humiliated?”
At the furious outburst, Moon Heesung went quiet for a moment so Yoo Sinju wouldn’t get more riled up. He had no such intention whatsoever. Deliberately making things worse for him — that kind of thing. But there was no way Yoo Sinju could know what was going through Moon Heesung’s mind, and with not a trace of calm left, he asked in a low voice.
“Why did you suddenly show up and do this to me?”
Moon Heesung, who had been carrying on with his search, finally stopped moving. Yoo Sinju’s chest heaved as he struggled to contain the mounting agitation. But Moon Heesung, in contrast, was calm. As if making an effort to be even more composed, he clenched his fist tight and quietly looked back at Yoo Sinju.
“I’ll find it.”
“Bullshit, you——”
“I’ll find it.”
“…….”
“But apologize.”
“…….”
“Because you were wrong.”
Moon Heesung didn’t move. He simply spoke, upright and unwavering, in a single direction. Yoo Sinju couldn’t hide the confusion swirling in his eyes as he looked back at him, unsteadily. Everything was a mess. The sudden appearance, the inexplicable behavior that had come out of nowhere overnight. The fact that he had appointed himself his manager in the first place.
Suddenly his head began to ache, and Yoo Sinju pressed a hand to his forehead. A ringing in his ears followed, and cold sweat trickled down his spine — but he bit down hard and pretended nothing was wrong.
“……I’m not helping you.”
He said it coldly, aimed at Moon Heesung and his stubborn persistence.
“Figure it out on your own.”
And he walked out without looking back. The more he looked back, the more the old wounds felt like they were clinging to him, thick and viscous. It was the most wretched feeling he’d had in recent memory.
**
“You’re here?”
Ignoring Moon Heesung’s instruction to go home, Yoo Sinju headed, as he always did, to the gathering spot he treated like a second home. There were several gatherings. One where sports stars, actors, idols — public figures with recognizable faces — mingled away from prying eyes. Another that centered mostly around illegitimate children of chaebol families. Or there was the upper-class gathering that met purely to enjoy drugs. That one was a place where it didn’t matter if you were a chaebol, someone in the arts, or a star chef — everyone was welcome. Security was correspondingly tight, and it was more secretive than any of the other gatherings.
“I heard you shot a high-end commercial today. I’m jealous. I kept pushing for it and got rejected.”
It was an actor around a similar age. One who had recently shot to fame like a bolt of lightning and had only just been dubbed a star.
“Hyung, you’re here?!”
However much Yoo Sinju was talked about behind his back, he was also, conversely, the most welcome presence wherever he went. The moment Yoo Sinju appeared, people swarmed to him without exception. Among them was Seo Jaeha — the same one who had been there in the middle of the chaos the night before.
“Ugh, get off.”
As people crowded too close, Yoo Sinju showed his irritation and shoved Seo Jaeha away. Seo Jaeha stuck his lip out as if hurt, but Yoo Sinju looked completely uninterested and passed by, settling himself down somewhere at random. His head was spinning. It had been that way since morning. To be precise — from the moment he laid eyes on Moon Heesung.
Moon Heesung. Three characters. The fact that he was only learning it now made him angry too, and the way he had appeared so unfazed and churned up his mind with that careless attitude — that made him angry too.
“The new stuff.”
Yoo Sinju issued the order without directing it at anyone in particular. Seo Jaeha, as if he’d been waiting, held out a small case with a few pills inside.
