Cha Jaehyun jumping around after passing the audition.
Hanryul found that appearance very strange. The way he was happy as if he would have died if he hadn’t gotten into Youth was very bizarre, but since Jaehyun’s appearance smiling every day wasn’t bad, he didn’t say anything special.
Today as well, he approached with a beaming smile asking how he felt.
“If you’re that happy, why don’t you go to your house and throw a party or something.”
He didn’t know why such pie-in-the-sky talk came out of his mouth, but the statement itself that he wanted to visit his house was true. He couldn’t understand the reason he wanted to go to his house either, but Hanryul literally wanted to visit Jaehyun’s house.
“…I’m really sorry.”
But after some text arrived, his face changed in an instant. Then he changed his words saying it would be difficult to go home today.
Normally, not complying with his request would have been out of the question, but seeing the face that had been smiling brightly darken to a surprising degree, he had no choice but to let him go obediently.
Even after returning home, remembering his crumpled face as soon as he looked at his phone, he sent a message.
Cha Jaehyun: Don’t worry. I’ll prepare something so grand you’ll be shocked. Don’t act unsophisticated and surprised when the time comes.
Me: Who exactly is this important guest
Me: Making your celebrity go home alone?
Me: I’d like to see the guest’s face. 1
But after the response about throwing a party, the 1 never disappeared.
Except when sleeping, Jaehyun had always responded precisely to Hanryul’s messages within 10 minutes. Looking at the 1 that hadn’t disappeared for 30 minutes, Hanryul’s heart began to waver.
‘Is he ignoring my message? No… He might be busy because an important guest came. Wait, important guest?’
Suddenly the words ‘important guest’ remained in Hanryul’s mind.
He remembered when he said an important guest came before. He said he was blowing off the schedule with him from the first day to meet an important guest.
‘And after that…’
What was it like after meeting the important guest? When he barged into his house, his face was in such bad shape he couldn’t look at it.
‘Thinking about it, today too his face was strangely dark.’
Today too, when he received the text, his face showed a complexion that looked extremely fearful for someone saying an important guest was coming. That face was not the expression of someone going to see an important guest, but someone going to see the grim reaper.
‘I need to go right now.’
Hanryul, who noticed the suspicious situation, immediately got up and ran toward the parking lot.
In front of Jaehyun’s house where he arrived quickly. When he pressed the bell, the identity of the ‘important guest’ Cha Jaehyun mentioned appeared.
Though he was seeing him for the first time, he could tell he was not someone to be taken lightly. He was someone who showed the spirit of a warrior who would have made quite a name in the old days.
His fierce eyes and large build had the power to suppress people. Moreover, the man’s face was strangely familiar.
‘I’m definitely seeing him for the first time though.’
The man had an impression as if he’d seen him somewhere many times, and his face itself had corners unknowingly similar to Cha Jaehyun.
“Who are you?”
The man before his eyes smiled showing even his teeth, as if something was amusing.
Hanryul immediately noticed that the situation was turning bad. Jaehyun was definitely inside the house, but no sign of human presence could be felt from inside.
‘What happened to Cha Jaehyun?’
Hanryul wanted to immediately run into the house and check on Jaehyun’s condition.
“Hello. My name is Seo Hanryul. The owner of this house is my manager. My manager left his belongings in the car so I came to bring them, could I see the owner for a moment?”
‘Manager?’
“Ah, so the owner of this house was a manager.”
When Hanryul smoothly poured out interesting words, Taehan’s curiosity also grew. Because Woojin had never even conveyed to him that Jaehyun was doing manager work.
Did Han Woojin know this fact or not?
‘Well, I can verify that directly myself.’
“Haha, that’s right. He’s my manager.”
“But if the manager left something in the car, couldn’t you just give it to him the next day? What kind of important item is it that a celebrity personally visits the manager’s house in the middle of the night? …You must have a close relationship with your manager.”
Looking at Hanryul continuously smiling in front of him, Taehan also asked with a smile.
“Ah… It’s clothes the manager wears often, so I thought it would be inconvenient without them. You seem to be a guest, so I wonder if I’ve interrupted a good time. I’ll just ask you to deliver this. I’ll be going now.”
Hanryul thought that his visit to this house might actually cause great harm to Jaehyun, and decided to leave quickly.
“You said Seo Hanryul-ssi, right? Wait a moment.”
But Taehan had no intention of easily letting Hanryul go. Because he knew very well the fact that Hanryul was being terribly stalked by Jaehyun and despised him.
‘The stalker became a manager? Interesting.’
Taehan, who felt great interest in the nonsensical circumstances, stopped Hanryul.
“I’ll ask one thing. It doesn’t make sense that Jaehyun would be someone’s manager given his personality. And a person who was fine in America returned to Korea overnight. Could that also be related to this manager work?”
‘What?’
In the sudden interrogation atmosphere, Hanryul felt he’d gotten into serious trouble.
‘Right. It’s Cha Taehan.’
And facing Taehan’s face up close, he soon realized his identity.
A face often seen on the news or in newspapers. Daejin Electronics Executive Director Cha Taehan.
Once he realized the man’s identity, he had an instinctive intuition that he shouldn’t hand over any information.
An opportunity to easily achieve the revenge he so desired. But Hanryul didn’t want to hand over anything to the man before him. Whether it was because of the man’s terrifying impression or because of his defiance toward the man pressuring him, Hanryul himself didn’t know the reason. However, following his heart as it led, Hanryul decided to play dumb to the man.
“Haha, that’s the first time I’m hearing such a story. I don’t really understand what you’re talking about, and Cha Jaehyun is my fan so he requested to be my manager first.”
‘Look at this?’
Taehan found it amusing that Hanryul was subtly avoiding his question. It was even highly suspicious that he showed an attitude of seemingly protecting Jaehyun while despising him as much as he himself did.
‘Ah, he must not have grasped the situation yet. Celebrities are vulnerable to scandals.’
Taehan concluded that Hanryul was just showing a guarded attitude because he didn’t know his identity well, and threw him a hint.
“Seo Hanryul-ssi, you’re quite clueless. Then I’ll ask directly. Has Cha Jaehyun ever harmed you? I can help you. I can sufficiently block scandals and such, so don’t worry.”
‘That’s right, Cha Taehan.’
Finally, the man before his eyes subtly revealed his identity. Hanryul looked at Taehan’s intimidating attitude and concluded that he was definitely someone who would harm Jaehyun.
“There isn’t. If such a thing had happened, would I have made him my manager in the first place? And if it’s not rude, may I ask what relationship you have with Cha Jaehyun?”
“If you know it’s rude, wouldn’t it be right not to ask? …I truly find it pitiful when I see people who can’t grasp the opportunity before their eyes. Opportunities must be seized when they exist. I’ll ask once more. Has Cha Jaehyun ever harmed you?”
Taehan gradually felt annoyed at Hanryul avoiding the topic here and there. But Taehan’s pressure didn’t work on Hanryul, who had figured out Taehan’s existence.
“Haha, since you won’t tell me who you are, I don’t know your relationship with Cha Jaehyun, but you seem to have some misunderstanding about Cha Jaehyun. I’m sorry for the late night. I’ve interrupted your meeting with Cha Jaehyun. It looks like your pants got wet too, so I’ll leave quickly now.”
After giving Taehan a polite greeting, Hanryul quickly left Jaehyun’s house.
‘Cha Taehan, Cha Jaehyun, Cha Taehan, Cha Jaehyun…’
And Hanryul’s mind filled only with the names Cha Taehan and Cha Jaehyun.
Two people with the same surname. Then Cha Jaehyun must be a person related to Daejin. But one appears in the media frequently enough for him to know, while he wouldn’t have even thought the other was a person related to Daejin if not for today’s meeting.
A man with the surname Cha, a person with an astonishing amount of money, but a person who isn’t revealed to the world.
A man related to Daejin. Cha Taehan who questioned him with eyes as if he’d found prey after coming out of Cha Jaehyun’s house, Cha Jaehyun who somehow resembled Cha Taehan. Cha Jaehyun who tried to hide his real name using the mysterious pseudonym Seo Jiwon.
‘Cha Jaehyun is… an illegitimate child.’
Hanryul obtained the great harvest of ‘Cha Jaehyun’s identity’ he’d been curious about and leisurely returned to his house.
On the other hand, Taehan, who let his prey escape before his eyes, felt considerable disappointment.
Moreover, even though he’d extended his hand first saying he would help, he couldn’t understand Hanryul’s attitude of cunningly slipping away while feigning ignorance.
Because the fact that Hanryul hated Jaehyun to death was a well-known fact he’d heard from Woojin.
Yet he was working as a manager beside the man he’d been stalking. And this person called Seo Hanryul kept the guy he so despised by his side and performed the absurd action of bringing clothes to his house late at night. While even showing the strange attitude of avoiding questions about him and defending him.
‘Cha Jaehyun, now I see you’re skilled. What on earth did you do?’
Looking at Hanryul’s retreating figure slowly moving away, Taehan smiled hollowly.
