A battle of wills. There really was no other way to describe it.
Having called out Euiju, who was busy greeting the staff, Haeseong sat in a chair reserved for celebrities. Claiming his hands were occupied with gaming, he pointed at the premium lunch box on the table and said to Euiju.
“Feed me.”
“…….”
After a moment of silence, Euiju quietly sat across from him and picked up the utensils. The task of feeding him was easy enough thanks to the vegetable-heavy meal plan. While his hands were busy with the game, Haeseong kept his gaze fixed on Euiju, accepting the food with an emotionless face. The movement of his jaw was quite mechanical.
The high school drama directed by Director Jo Yeongchun was pre-produced, and filming was mostly complete. Once they finished shooting the warehouse scene and rooftop scene today, filming would be over and only the editing process would remain.
Since it centered around the successful child actor Jin Haeseong and the handsome, wholesome-looking Kim Woonjung, the drama had exceptional buzz even before airing, and with their fans generously supporting them with meal trucks and coffee trucks, the atmosphere on set was mostly pleasant.
The production crew was excited like the day before a festival begins, and the director kept the celebratory mood going by popping champagne bottles early.
“If you’re going to bully someone, just bully me. Don’t be petty and mess with innocent people. What, are you too scared to mess with me?”
Haeseong, with a scab on his lip, smirked insolently in front of a thug bigger than himself. His beautiful appearance combined with his desolate atmosphere created a strange charm. The directors who had been watching without making a sound stared unblinkingly at Haeseong captured in the camera.
“See. The more I watch, the better this kid is than the adults. The kid knows how to work the camera. Hey, go tell the lighting guy to shine more on Haeseong’s side.”
“Yes, sir.”
The filming in the rusty, old, isolated warehouse was much simpler than the rooftop filming that would follow. After a few exchanges of dialogue between Haeseong and the antagonist, the director clapped his hands loudly and shouted.
“Cut! Jin Haeseong, your face looks good today? You’ve lost so much weight in just a few days that you look even better on screen. At this rate, you’ll gain more fans. Hahaha!”
When filming ended, the coordinators who had been waiting beside Euiju rushed to Haeseong. They stuck close to him, touching up his makeup and straightening his outfit.
A coordinator who had become somewhat friendly with Euiju approached him and asked in a small voice.
“Euiju-ssi. Why is Haeseong in such a low mood? He’s so scary I could die.”
“I wonder. I’m not sure either.”
Haeseong’s gaze, which had been reading the script for the next shoot, suddenly turned this way. Euiju quickly looked elsewhere.
Two days had passed since the day Haeseong smashed the vase. During those two days, Haeseong had pushed himself hard for drama filming from morning until dawn, and thanks to that, Euiju also had to stay by his side without proper sleep.
The atmosphere between the two was once again at its worst. The time when nothing had happened between them would be better compared to now. Aside from work-related talk, there was no conversation at all, and naturally, there were no evening massages either.
However, Haeseong’s attitude was somewhat ambiguous.
After leaving like that on that day, he looked at Euiju searchingly, as if trying to figure out why he was treating him as if nothing had happened.
Each time Euiju noticed that gaze, he deliberately moved to another location or left the area to avoid making eye contact with him. Because there was something desperate and urgent about it that made him feel guilty. But the more Euiju avoided him, the more persistently Haeseong called him out. Using various errands as excuses, like asking to be fed just now.
When they happened to be alone together, Haeseong would move his lips as if he had something to say.
When Euiju noticed this and deliberately cut him off, Haeseong would bite his lips in frustration and glare fiercely. On the other hand, that face looked like it would burst into tears at the slightest touch, so as time passed, Euiju’s guilt only grew.
“Haah…….”
Whenever Euiju faced that expression, his heart grew heavy.
‘Am I being too harsh?’
He was acting firmly to prevent Haeseong from opening his heart to him further, but by nature, Euiju was weak when it came to younger siblings. With that kind of temperament, how could he not feel guilty when Haeseong looked at him with that expression?
“We’re moving!”
At the director’s voice, Euiju, who had been lost in thought, snapped back to reality.
The van carrying Haeseong and the coordinators quickly moved to the next filming location.
Unlike the warehouse shoot, the next location was a rooftop shoot, and since it was a dangerous shoot involving wires, Team Leader Kim Jaeho also came down to the site.
“Euiju-ssi. It’s been a while! I’ve only been hearing your voice over the phone lately, so it’s nice to meet you like this. Really nice.”
“Haha. Indeed. But with the weather like this… will filming be possible?”
Looking up at the sky, it was overcast as if it might rain soon. Kim Jaeho said while looking at the staff busy inspecting equipment.
“Well, we brought the crane and everything, so they’ll try to film as much as possible. Oh right. This is Haeseong’s first wire action. Didn’t he say anything about being scared or anything?”
“He didn’t say anything like that in particular.”
“Haha. With that personality, if he had acrophobia on top of it, we’d see his whole temper come out here today. Keep him in line, Euiju-ssi.”
“…Yes.”
The male protagonist Jin Haeseong falls into crisis while trying to save a female student who was filmed by a hidden camera at school. Unable to tolerate injustice and stirring up trouble everywhere, when his only friend dies in an accident, he also tries to make an extreme choice. It was the day to film the scene where his homeroom teacher Kim Woonjung, the only one who had been looking after the male lead, tries to stop him.
As the actor playing the teacher role and Haeseong went up to the rooftop, Euiju also tried to head to the rooftop, but Kim Jaeho stopped him.
“Why? Can’t I go up?”
“The director restricted foot traffic. He says we need to finish quickly because of the weather and people are in the way. Let’s watch from down here for now, Euiju-ssi and me.”
“But he’ll look for me. What if something happens during filming?”
“Come on. It’s just one scene, what could happen? And I went up earlier and the site is really cramped. If you go, you’ll just get nagged at.”
“…I understand for now.”
Euiju, who had looked around the building to be used for filming, nodded in agreement, but his uneasy feeling didn’t go away.
Filming began. A single silhouette climbed onto the rooftop railing. It was Haeseong with a black line attached to his back.
He was standing precariously on the railing. Strong lights were shining down from above, so from below it was so bright that Euiju’s eyes squinted.
Though not clearly visible, Haeseong was shouting something at someone inside. Probably acting out an argument with the homeroom teacher who came to save him.
‘Isn’t he even scared?’
Despite being so afraid of bugs, even standing on a railing 20 meters high, Haeseong showed no wavering. The black wire line extending from the hem of his clothes firmly wrapped around his body. It would probably be erased with CGI processing when it aired on broadcast.
Even knowing it was safe, somehow his heart sank heavily. Unable to take his eyes off him from anxiety, he watched, but unable to keep staring, he turned his head away.
As Euiju anxiously clenched and unclenched his hands, a vibration came from inside his jacket.
Bzzzz-.
「Noona」
“I’ll take a call for a moment.”
“Go ahead.”
After reporting to Kim Jaeho, Euiju turned and left the crowd. Since the last time he received a family call and drew attention, he only answered in places where there were no people, so he looked around to find a place with fewer people.
Walking toward the crane where there were no people, Euiju answered the continuously ringing phone.
“Yeah, Noona. Is something wrong?”
[Are you not busy? Can you talk?]
“Yeah.”
[No, it’s not really anything… it’s just that Roun can’t eat at all. This happened once before, remember? Now it’s worse.]
“That’s strange. Is he sick somewhere? Won’t he even try to eat?”
[That’s part of it, and when he does eat, it seems he can’t keep it down. He threw up everything he ate today.]
“I understand for now, Noona. When I go up to Seoul, let’s go to the hospital together…”
That was when it happened.
THUD-!
A thunderous sound as if heaven and earth were twisting rang out strongly around them. Reflexively lifting his head, Euiju looked at the rooftop. The crane had struck the rebar on the upper part of the rooftop, and the load had tilted.
[Euiju-ya. What’s that sound? Is something wrong?]
The equipment team in orange safety suits near Euiju began making a commotion. Loud shouts went back and forth, signaling the crisis situation. Among them, there was one thing that struck Euiju’s ears directly.
“You bastard! Are you calling that an explanation right now?!”
“I-I’m sorry. I only just found out…”
At the sudden commotion, Euiju looked toward where the loud noise came from. It was the equipment team.
“Does it make sense that you skipped even the connector inspection in this situation? Don’t you see the actor suspended in the air right now? Fuck, hurry up and go tell them instead of just standing there!”
The person who appeared to be the team leader shouted at his subordinate. The man who nodded took out his cell phone with an anxious face. It seemed he was trying to make contact.
“Ugh…! You frustrating bastard. Go tell them in person!”
Before those words could finish, a tearing scream was heard.
“Kyaaah-!”
A scream suddenly rang out from the upper part of the building. Dizzying shouts also burst out from the people below the building.
Slowly raising his head, Euiju felt his mind and body grow distant for a moment.
Perhaps the connector was impacted when it collided, the wire had loosened and become slack. As if they were filming the scene of jumping off the building at that very moment, he could see one person barely holding onto the railing, dangling.
It was Jin Haeseong.
“Ah…”
For a moment, it felt as if invisible lightning struck his head, squeezing his brain. His eyeballs became hot as if on fire, making his hair stand on end.
Euiju’s arm dropped, and at the same time, his cell phone fell to the ground. His fingertips, whitened with tension, curled inward a bit more.
There was nothing more to think about. Euiju’s feet instinctively kicked off the ground. With unconscious orders from his brain, strength instantly flooded into his tensed legs, increasing his running speed, and in an instant, he disappeared inside the building.
In the spot where Euiju had been, only the fallen cell phone remained.
Above it, a single raindrop fell.
