“Ya. Say that again……”
As Haeseong, provoked, tried to get up from his seat, Euiju urgently covered Haeseong’s mouth. He blocked him with his body so Haeseong wouldn’t be visible and asked Jiyul.
“By any chance, are you also scared of the dark, Jiyul? Should I go ask them to turn on the lights?”
“Ah, no… It’s not that.”
“Okay. If you’re scared, tell me. I’ll ask them to turn on the lights right away.”
Euiju, who had roundaboutly expressed his refusal, let out a deep sigh and sat up straight. Jiyul kept glancing at his hand regretfully, but he had no choice but to pretend not to notice.
Holding hands with a female idol. That was absolutely something that couldn’t happen. Haeseong and Euiju had the connection of actor and manager, but Euiju and Jiyul did not. It was serious enough that if someone saw, they might think strange things.
“Fuck……”
In the end, even though Jiyul’s wish had been crushed, Haeseong, unable to calm his excitement, muttered a curse quietly.
Euiju grabbed Haeseong’s hand again.
At Haeseong’s action of tightly gripping Euiju’s hand with a touch full of dissatisfaction, Euiju applied slight pressure as if telling him to calm down. After having a battle of wills with their hands for a while, Haeseong could be seen gradually calming his excitement at those hand gestures.
“……”
“……”
The actors on screen were performing passionately and rushing toward a dramatic atmosphere, but Euiju couldn’t focus on that screen and only broke out in a cold sweat.
He was in a very difficult situation right now.
On the right, Haeseong was glaring at him with a face full of rage. On the left, Jiyul was openly glancing at him with shy eyes.
How did he end up stuck between these teenagers and suffering like this? What kind of date was this supposed to be? The energy consumption was more severe than when he took his younger siblings to an amusement park.
With gazes of different temperatures coming from both sides, he absolutely couldn’t focus on the movie. Two hours that passed by without him knowing how flowed as slowly as one moment feeling like three autumns.
After the movie ended, the place they arrived at was a Han River cruise restaurant. Following the staff member guiding them to a private room, the three people walked down the corridor side by side.
“Um, Jiyul-ah.”
“Yes?”
“Can you let go of this…?”
As they were walking down the luxurious corridor, Jiyul suddenly grabbed Euiju’s sleeve out of nowhere.
“Why?”
“……”
At least Haeseong now knew to restrain physical contact in places where others’ gazes could reach. Euiju had told him to restrain himself several times, and knowing that the behavior of clinging to his manager was embarrassing, there hadn’t been such awkward situations lately.
It seemed… the physical contact carried out freely with Haeseong had struck Jiyul as something novel.
With Jiyul suddenly clinging to him, Euiju was extremely uncomfortable. Jiyul didn’t seem to care about his request to let go and followed along with a beaming smile. Though Euiju, conscious of the nearby staff member, pushed Jiyul away as if troubled, Jiyul rather clung to Euiju even more.
He wanted to check Haeseong’s reaction from behind, but he couldn’t turn around. He could only vividly feel the gaze hotly piercing his back.
“Haa……”
Euiju truly wanted to escape from this situation.
The window-side private room with a clear view of the Han River had just the right amount of sunlight pouring in, and was a seat equipped with luxurious decorations and interior. After settling into a room enclosed on all sides and sitting around a circular table, the three were maintaining an awkward silence.
“……”
“……”
Even though they had ordered, no one was speaking, so Euiju cleared his throat awkwardly.
‘Geez. Say something……’
At Haeseong’s attitude of just fiddling with his phone with a face that said everything was bothersome, Euiju secretly sighed.
If he was going to be like this, why did he say he would go on a date?
Even when Euiju, who had some social experience, tried to lighten the mood, at such times he wondered if it was right for him to step forward. This occasion was arranged for Haeseong and Jiyul to get closer, so he wanted to give Haeseong, who was male, the opportunity.
“Haeseong-ah.”
Even at being called, he remained silent. Realizing that even if he wanted to give him an opportunity, Haeseong needed to be proactive for it to work, Euiju opened his mouth to break the awkward atmosphere.
“Jiyul, don’t you have anything you’re curious about regarding Haeseong?”
Jiyul, who had been blankly looking only out the window, was startled at Euiju’s question.
“Uh… Something I’m curious about?”
“Yeah. Isn’t there something you’ve wanted to ask normally?”
“Ah, there is! Sunbae-nim, how are you so good at acting? I’ve always wanted to ask about methods and such whenever I see you. Even though I receive lessons every day, I don’t improve that much……”
Haeseong, who had been indifferently looking at his phone, only raised his eyes to look at Jiyul. Soon he withdrew his gaze again as if uninterested.
It was thorough disregard.
‘That guy, really.’
At Haeseong’s outrageous attitude, a crack formed in Euiju’s brow. Euiju, who had been glaring at Haeseong, answered instead.
“Haeseong receives acting lessons more than three times a week. And he also invests a lot of time in appreciating works. Enough to set up a separate theater room at home… Right now, Jiyul, you’re also doing singer work in parallel so you can’t invest that much time. If you continue to invest time in practice, you’ll definitely be able to do as well as Haeseong.”
As soon as Euiju’s words ended, Haeseong glared at Euiju. With a look that seemed to say ‘as if that kid could ever follow even my toes,’ Euiju turned his head pretending not to notice.
“Ha.”
Haeseong let out an incredulous laugh.
At this level, for Haeseong, he had truly, truly suppressed his temper a lot. Euiju made an effort to draw Jiyul’s attention and spoke to her.
“Come to think of it, did you resolve that matter well?”
“That matter?”
“Yeah. Those things you were worried about before. I was wondering how it is now.”
Jiyul, understanding the intent of the question, smiled brightly and nodded. She began reporting to Euiju in detail about what had happened in the meantime.
“As oppa said, talking to my parents was the answer. As soon as my parents heard, they got really angry and went to see the president with a lawyer. After that, there was more company intervention so the situation improved a lot. And I made up with the member I’d grown distant from in the middle.”
“I see. I’m really glad.”
A sweet and harmonious atmosphere enveloped the two. Haeseong, who had been watching that sight disagreeably, abruptly stood up from his seat.
“Where are you going?”
“Why are you asking? When you have no interest in me anyway.”
Saying only that, he turned around and left the room just like that. Euiju and Jiyul stared blankly at the door Haeseong had exited.
“……”
“……”
As Euiju was contemplating whether he should follow or not, Jiyul, who had been glancing at him, suddenly spoke up.
“Um, I have something I’m curious about regarding Euiju oppa, can I ask a question?”
“Sure. Go ahead.”
As if happy to have received permission, Jiyul suddenly got up from her seat, pulled her chair over, and sat very close to Euiju. Because it was a circular table, the distance between the two became very close without Euiju having any way to do anything about it.
“No, why the chair……”
That’s when it happened.
Two staff members entered the room carrying appetizers and drinks. The staff member placing appetizer plates in front of each of them had an indifferent yet kind face.
“The Caprese salad is out. Please enjoy.”
The male staff member’s gaze as he bowed strangely scanned Euiju and Jiyul. It was the staff member who had been in charge of guiding them to this room earlier, and in his suspicious-looking glance, there seemed to be a mix of disgust somehow.
Euiju noticed at once. It was a gaze as if he had misunderstood something.
At that moment, Jiyul grabbed Euiju’s sleeve.
“By any chance, what’s your ideal type? How many times have you dated? Are you not interested in younger people?”
Jiyul didn’t seem to think at all about the fact that the staff member was there together. Euiju’s face became soaked with difficulty.
‘Oh no……’
It seemed things were going to escalate a bit.
***
Bang—!
Haeseong, who had kicked the bathroom stall door right away, entered the stall, put down the lid, and sat down roughly. Just looking at his actions, he had a frightening expression as if he would stick a cigarette in his mouth and spew curses at any moment.
“Fuck……”
As if trying to suppress his anger, Haeseong’s chest swelled greatly and then deflated. Unable to bear his temper, he kicked the door fiercely once more.
—By any chance… can I call you oppa?
—Can I hold your hand too?
Every time Seo Jiyul said something, he felt extremely bad. It was filthy disgusting.
That fucking date-thing or whatever, he’d come out enduring it even though it was shitty because they said it would help with the emotional acting he couldn’t do no matter what, but he was watching all sorts of pathetic scenes.
He had no interest whatsoever in Seo Jiyul, so he didn’t care that she wasn’t showing interest in him. However, wasn’t she blatantly showing interest in his manager since earlier?
Why was that? His mood had crashed all the way down. If he stayed there any longer, it seemed all sorts of temper would burst out in front of Seo Jiyul, so he had escaped to this place, but he was anxious. The deeper his thoughts went, the more it seemed like leaving the two alone was the wrong choice.
Haeseong, who had spat out the saliva that had formed in the unpleasant space, grabbed the door handle to go back out.
At that moment, as the bathroom door opened, Haeseong’s body froze at the voices that were heard simultaneously.
“Isn’t it sugar daddy arrangement? Just looking at it, it’s way too suspicious.”
“It does feel a bit strange, right? The girl’s liking is too obvious. But who the hell is that man? If he goes around with Seo Jiyul and Jin Haeseong, isn’t that man famous too? He was quite good-looking though.”
“What do we care? Anyway, working here, you see all kinds of things. Anyone can see he’s an adult. Isn’t this going to blow up in an article soon and cause a ruckus?”
“It’ll be no ordinary ruckus. Anyway, watch your mouth. If they find out the rumor leaked from our establishment, it won’t end with just our necks.”
“Of course, dude. You be careful. It was you guys who got screwed because Yun sunbae ran his mouth wrong about Kim Yeongwon meeting a married woman.”
“Ah, you bastard. When was that, and you’re still milking it?”
The staff members who had been laughing among themselves finished their business, washed their hands, and left.
Their footsteps gradually became quieter.
Haeseong was just frozen like a stone statue waiting for her husband without moving.
