“Look over here! Roll down the window!”
“Is it true that you saved Jin Haeseong when he almost fell from the rooftop during filming? Please tell us the details of that situation!”
“I heard the facility inspection wasn’t properly conducted. Did Director Jo Yeongchun know about this fact?”
“They say Director Jo Yeongchun forced the bad practices he used on child actors in the past onto actor Jin Haeseong too—is that true? Get out and answer us!”
Thud thud. Reporters pounding hard on the driver’s side window blocked the road, preventing entry into the parking lot.
Euiju pressed the horn with a troubled face, but the reporters had no intention of moving aside.
“Hah……”
The doctor who examined Haeseong’s progress had readily processed his discharge, saying he could go home, so after receiving the remaining treatment, they had come up to Seoul. They had come to the company to report the incident, but being blocked by reporters before even entering was truly a troublesome moment.
Since an actor was also in the car, and thinking this kind of standoff shouldn’t drag on, Euiju rolled down the window slightly and shouted to the reporters.
“The actor is injured, so please calm down. Everyone, please move aside!”
…It seemed like the wrong choice.
“Hey, the window’s open!”
“How badly is Jin Haeseong injured!”
“They said he suffered fractures all over his body—is that true? Jin Haeseong, please show us your face!”
Through the slightly open window gap, reporters’ hands kept poking in. Euiju pushed them back in confusion, but he couldn’t overcome their enthusiasm for coverage.
“Just push through with the car. It’s so noisy I could die.”
Euiju, who had barely pushed back the arms thrust into the window, caught his breath. At the same time, Haeseong’s harsh words reached him, and Euiju turned his body and looked at Haeseong with a cool gaze. At that look, Haeseong turned his head sharply and shut his mouth in a straight line.
Euiju said firmly.
“Did you forget your promise? If you say bad things like that, I won’t hold you.”
“……What!”
At Euiju’s sudden words, Haeseong’s face turned bright red in an instant. He moved his lips to retort, but then closed his mouth. His expression seemed to say, ‘You think I’m desperate for something like that?’
However, it was now a clearly revealed fact. The one who was desperate for Euiju’s words was Haeseong himself.
As if knowing this fact best, Haeseong just grumbled without adding anything more. Because yesterday too, it was none other than Haeseong who had slipped into Euiju’s arms and fallen asleep, and there was a promise they had made to each other before departing from the provinces.
“…Annoying.”
Euiju, who was attempting to reverse by placing one arm on the passenger seat and looking back, said plainly.
“Complain all you want. I’ll accept as much as you give.”
Haeseong, showing off his sleek jawline while watching the annoying Euiju reverse, stuck out his lower lip sulkily. His gaze didn’t leave Euiju’s face, but when their eyes met, he turned his head sharply. He seemed quite displeased about being threatened with holding.
Euiju, who glanced at that face, smiled slightly and recalled what happened this morning.
-…Could you move aside?
-No.
Euiju, who had tried to wash up early because of rounds, wasn’t even allowed to get up from the bed. Because Haeseong was hugging his waist and burying his face in his side, refusing to let go.
-Let’s say yesterday was because you were shocked. But if you keep doing this, it’s troublesome. The doctors will be here soon, and people will find it strange.
-What does it matter?
-……
The celebrity was none other than Jin Haeseong. A young actor clinging excessively to a full-grown adult manager would look suspicious enough to raise strange rumors. Yesterday too, he wouldn’t separate from him, so how awkward it was in front of the medical staff.
Euiju looked down at Haeseong, who didn’t want to leave his arms, and asked quietly.
-Were you very scared yesterday?
At that question, Haeseong buried his face in Euiju’s abdomen without answering. Soon a muffled voice flowed from him.
-…A little.
At the small but clear answer, Euiju made a pitying face.
Even though Haeseong experienced a frightening situation, he had no adult to comfort and hold him. Since he was the only one who could hold him, it was understandable enough that he would cling like this.
-Okay, I understand. Since you’re anxious, if you want, I’ll lend you my arms as much as you need. I’m also worried about the actor in my charge, and if this can help shake off your fear, there’s nothing better than that.
In fact, it was the first time speaking informally at length like this in front of Haeseong, so Euiju was also awkward. However, he didn’t want to take back what he had said at that time.
They had reached a point of no return now.
Haeseong looked so pitiful to his eyes. He felt sorry for him enduring everything alone. He wanted to look after him, who was pursuing the difficult profession of acting without parental care during such a sensitive period. This boy, who lived lonely and solitary without parental love, kept looking like his younger siblings to him, and he couldn’t help but care.
Moreover, he no longer wanted to avoid Haeseong, who now leaned on him.
-……
Haeseong had no answer. He just buried his face in his stomach and breathed, with only his earlobes dyed bright red.
-So make one promise.
-…What promise?
Tap tap tap-.
At the sound of knocking on the window, Euiju snapped awake from his thoughts.
“Just tell us about Jin Haeseong’s condition!”
Can’t go forward, can’t go back. When Euiju sighed at the difficult situation.
“Hey! Don’t block entry and move aside!”
“We’re not doing interviews. Everyone, please move!”
“The actor’s stability is the top priority. Don’t block the road! If you don’t move, we’ll call the police!”
At this time when they could neither come nor go, Team Leader Kim Jaeho and Manager Park Hyeonju, along with staff members, came running out from inside the building in a panic. They began restraining the reporters surrounding the car and luring the car inside.
Euiju quickly changed the gear that had been in parking and began entering inside. Since the staff opened the way, they could easily enter.
***
“We were just going to release articles from our side, but rumors must have spread here and there because articles about the controversy over Director Jo Yeongchun started pouring out. Because of that, the matter has gotten too big now.”
“Right now reporters and fans are all laid out in front of Haeseong’s house too. Not just the wire incident, but there seem to have been several problems that were hushed up until now. Even Director Jo Yeongchun’s exploitation of staff and the stand-in actor abuse case have been revealed, so the controversy is no joke.”
“We should proceed with legal action too, right? They say we let the bicycle filming incident slide nicely, but this isn’t right, is it? Our actor almost had a major accident. I think we can’t let this pass quietly.”
“Right. Of course. The director also said to bury Jo Yeongchun by any means necessary. It looks like when they enter the country, they’ll properly step on them. Until then, let’s meet with the legal team and organize things.”
Kim Jaeho and Park Hyeonju had a conversation with serious faces.
However.
“Ah, that tickles! Ahjussi, you’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you?”
“Didn’t you say if I just knead here, you sleep well at night? Don’t complain and stay still.”
“Ah, the massage is done now. That’s enough, just give me some water.”
“Your left arm is fine. Here.”
“…I’m a patient, you know? If the manager doesn’t care for an injured actor, who will?”
At those words, Euiju let out a chuckle while pouring water. Soon he brought the water bottle in his hand to Haeseong’s mouth and tilted it. Haeseong gulped it down well like a baby bird.
Right now the staff were seriously conferring because the issue was serious, but the atmosphere of the actual parties involved was bright—too bright.
Should he say spring energy was flowing? Should he say sweetness was flowing?
Looking at the two, Kim Jaeho couldn’t help but truly wonder.
‘What on earth… is this atmosphere?’
Where did the two who had been giving off a frosty atmosphere until yesterday go, and only an actor and manager giving off a strange atmosphere remained? Who exactly were these people in front of him?
It was even more spectacular when they parked the car in the parking lot and got out.
-Ahjussi. Give me a piggyback ride.
Jin Haeseong stretched out one hand to Lee Euiju and said that. At Haeseong’s shocking words, Kim Jaeho, Manager Park Hyeonju, and even the surrounding staff all stiffened while doubting their ears. No, he wasn’t even injured in the leg, but asking for a piggyback ride—what nonsense was this?
What was more shocking was Euiju’s reaction.
-Promise again. Are you going to say bad words or not?
-Ahjussi, I won’t if that’s what it takes. I won’t… there are so many people, how embarrassing…….
Shouldn’t he be more embarrassed about asking his manager for a piggyback ride than that… Kim Jaeho thought so.
No matter how much he was his life savior, he had never once seen Haeseong act spoiled like that to anyone. Maybe if he threw tantrums or was stubborn. But to say with such a gentle face to please give him a piggyback ride. Wasn’t this the child who hated contact so much?
Even the director, Haeseong’s direct family member, had never received such spoiled behavior. If they had seen it with their own eyes, they might have knelt before Lee Euiju without caring about appearances.
“Ah, now that I think about it, Team Leader. How’s the house disinfection going?”
At Euiju’s question, Kim Jaeho, who had been lost in thought, was startled. Manager Park Hyeonju next to him answered instead.
“The house is so big that it’ll take two more days. No, what on earth did you pick up outside to make that big house turn out like that?”
“……”
Euiju closed his mouth as if he had nothing to say. Haeseong said with an annoyed expression.
“Forget it, just dump that house. Look for somewhere else.”
“Does that make sense? That process also takes at least a month minimum. And it’s your own property, so you can’t just move carelessly. There’s no place with security like that either.”
“Then where am I sleeping today? My arm is like this too.”
At those words, the gazes of Euiju, Kim Jaeho, and Park Hyeonju entangled in midair. In the intensely exchanged looks, their inner thoughts could be sensed.
‘If I say the wrong thing here, I might have to spend the night with that arrogant actor’…… such a blatant inner thought.
“How about the director’s house? At least you’ve lived there before, so relatively……”
“Aunt’s house? Are you crazy? I’m not going there even if I die.”
It was a firm and quick refusal. At the cold answer, a long silence wrapped the interior.
Euiju grasped the atmosphere of the staff who weren’t easily stepping forward and let out a big sigh. Since no one was willing to take him, there was only one method.
“I’ll take him. I have a room left.”
