The shops on the streets before Christmas were each adorned with colorful decorations and ribbons. Carols flowed from speakers, filling the streets, and people were busily walking toward their respective destinations.
Though it was cold weather close to freezing, Euiju’s attire as he stood on the roadside was far too light. Because he’d come out in a rush and thrown on whatever coat his hand grabbed, his exposed nape was helplessly under attack from the cold.
Since he’d been waiting aimlessly, his body exposed directly to the cold began to tremble faintly as if pleading to enter somewhere warm. However.
“……”
Euiju, whose head felt like it would burst from complexity, seemed to have no leisure at all to care about such things.
Child actor Jin Haeseong suddenly halts activities. “Decision due to worsening panic disorder”
The time when Euiju had left for America. Five years ago, the child who had only success ahead of him suddenly stopped his activities.
And in the year he turned twenty, Jin Haeseong returned. With Director Charlie’s <Ripe>.
Jin Haeseong, who appeared as a contract killer from a special agent background, was truly a sensation itself. A blunt and cold man meets a woman and falls into a once-in-a-lifetime love that saves his life. However, he falls into despair upon learning that one of the people he cruelly killed in the past was his lover’s parent, and ultimately loses the woman and ends his life with suicide—this role met the actor Jin Haeseong to form perfect harmony.
The child actor who had once been in the spotlight for his beautiful features was nowhere to be found. His officially announced height was 193.1 cm. His small and delicate body had become thick and solid after three years, and his features that had naturally exuded elegance became more defined, revealing distinct masculinity. On top of that, his deeply rippling black eyes were fierce enough to crush a person, revealing even the rough man’s charm, so the public couldn’t help but go crazy first.
Jin Haeseong returned as a real man and met the attractive character ‘Jade.’ The role of being saved by love and crumbling miserably because of love made his wild charm stand out even more and successfully led his comeback.
Through the film <Ripe>, Jin Haeseong was able to perfectly achieve an image transformation, the chronic problem of child actors. He was recognized even overseas and received another major award at a famous film festival, clearly making the public aware that he had successfully returned.
However.
Continuous attitude controversy. Will Jin Haeseong open his mouth this time…
With Jin Haeseong’s private life controversy, the agency remains silent… What about the next work <A Trivial Reason>.
Jin Haeseong assaults civilian man. Victim requires 8 weeks of treatment.
Actor J, turns out to be a promiscuous man?
From shortly after becoming the protagonist of a ten-million-viewer film with <Ripe>, Jin Haeseong began to commit actions that couldn’t be seen as the conduct of a star actor at all. Along with profanity controversies, attitude controversies, and private life controversies, absurd rumors circulated, and not satisfied with the past civilian assault incident, another violent incident erupted, causing him to appear in the society pages twice.
-He really doesn’t want to set foot on this land again.
Jin Yeongseol, who had given the terrifying threat that if he didn’t completely cut off contact with Haeseong, she wouldn’t let him live in Korea, wasn’t in Korea. When he came across an article saying she had long since gone abroad to participate in the management rights struggle, Euiju had to experience the things he’d been barely suppressing exploding inside him, with anger rising to the top of his head.
In any case, Jin Yeongseol had been the shield that suppressed Haeseong’s controversies. Because that shield was gone, even Haeseong’s past that he’d tried to hide was dug up, and not stopping there, new controversies were revealed without reserve, so Jin Haeseong’s reputation began to walk the path of ruin.
He couldn’t sleep due to the endlessly rising anger. Despite staying up all night due to his rapidly beating heart, he didn’t feel tired at all.
‘If you were going to do that, then why?’
If she was going to give up Haeseong so easily, unable to resist her greed, if she was going to be too busy with her own affairs to protect Haeseong, why did she make such threats to him?
If she separated them so ruthlessly, she should have taken responsibility to the end. Since he had no parents, she should have protected and guarded him in place of parents so he wouldn’t go astray, so he wouldn’t be cursed at.
He was already a lonely and solitary child. Of course, giving up even acting to follow him wouldn’t do, but that was also Haeseong’s will, and if he couldn’t be persuaded, she should have gone along with it. Under the mere pretext of being a guardian, frustrating that will and cutting off contact while making absurd threats to him was nothing short of excessive measures, yet not satisfied with that, she was even neglecting him as if it wasn’t her concern.
Because of her threats, all he could do for the child was send a few secret letters. Even that was only after several months of settling in America, so in the meantime, the child would have thought he’d been abandoned. He would have inflicted an even more indelible wound on the child who already had great pain.
The sigh that flowed out from the anger rising again became white breath and scattered sporadically. As if a hot stone had been placed on his chest, Euiju felt suffocated and had to feel his lips drying up from burning inside even in weather cold enough to freeze his ears.
That’s when it happened.
“Euiju hyung!”
He was standing on the road where people came and went, lost in thought for a while. At the sound of someone calling his name, Euiju’s head slowly lifted.
“It is you, hyung, right?”
Some man had pulled his car close to the roadside and was calling out to Euiju with only the passenger window rolled down. Euiju’s eyes widened as he confirmed the man’s face.
He’d been quite handsome even when young, but the atmosphere was very different from back then. In the past, he’d had a very strong rebellious feeling, but now……
“By any chance, are you… Jang Yeonguk-ssi?”
“Ah, what? You don’t recognize me right now?”
The man with neatly swept-back hair, glowing skin, and giving off the image of an upright church youth who seemed like he’d study well was none other than Jang Yeonguk. Jang Yeonguk, who was looking at the surprised Euiju, rolled his eyes playfully.
“It’s cold, so get in quickly. Why did you come out dressed so lightly?”
The passenger door opened automatically and he got in the car, flustered. Jang Yeonguk adjusted the button to turn the heater up stronger. Warm and cozy hot air began to thaw Euiju’s frozen body. Jang Yeonguk stared intently at Euiju’s face.
“Wow, hyung, why haven’t you changed at all from 5 years ago and now? This is really too much. Anyone would think we’re the same age.”
Euiju let out a small laugh at the exaggerated, drawling words.
“Sorry for suddenly contacting you. Were you very surprised?”
“It would be a lie to say I wasn’t surprised. But thank you. I really wanted to meet you, hyung.”
“I see. Thank you for saying that.”
When Euiju smiled quietly, Jang Yeonguk also raised the corners of his mouth.
“I heard you came from California? UV rays are so fatal for skin aging. What… were you indoors all the time?”
At the increasingly serious question, laughter burst out from Euiju. Jang Yeonguk kept glancing toward Euiju while driving, as if curious.
“I want to tell you that you’re the same too, but you’ve changed so much…… If I put you and the old Yeonguk side by side, I wouldn’t know if you’re the same person.”
Jang Yeonguk burst into laughter as if he understood what he meant.
“Haha. Not just you, hyung, but everyone says that. I’ve become much cooler than back then, right?”
“Yes. You really look good.”
A small regret passed through Jang Yeonguk’s eyes as he gazed ahead as if recalling the past.
“Looking back now, it’s so embarrassing. When I was young, I became arrogant without realizing it. Our family doing well was purely my father’s power, but I thought all of that was my own power.”
“……”
“Adults would bow down to our family members one after another, flounder in front of me even though I was a kid, expensive things would pile up at home. Adolescence is originally like that, right? I was already a great person, but the people around me praised me even more, so it felt even more so? I was incredibly mean and arrogant and just plain stupid.”
“Why are you disparaging yourself so much? Don’t do that.”
Although Jang Yeonguk had been arrogant at the time, hearing him say such things with his own mouth didn’t feel good. When Euiju narrowed his brow, Jang Yeonguk grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
“Even after you disappeared, hyung, I couldn’t get my act together for a while. If it weren’t for the friend I’m meeting now, I would still be struggling and groveling without establishing myself.”
“Girlfriend?”
“Yes. We’re getting married next year.”
Jang Yeonguk’s face turned bright red. As his girlfriend’s story came up, he seemed excited and began to talk about her in detail. Even though they’d already been together for several years, he still seemed fluttered and happy about it, his flushed face looking quite joyful.
Turning the steering wheel with skilled hands while talking about the future and dreaming of children looked quite healthy, so the appearance of Jang Yeonguk from 5 years ago, full of youthful recklessness, couldn’t be seen at all. That appearance of his felt somehow newly refreshing.
“We’ve arrived.”
The place they arrived at after driving for about 20 minutes was too unfamiliar to Euiju.
Club ‘Chanté’. The visible entrance seemed to be the back door, located at the rear of the building. Jang Yeonguk parked the car in the parking lot situated behind the landscaping and got out, so Euiju followed suit. The freezing winter wind penetrated between the folds of his clothes once again.
[Haeseong, what happened?]
Last night, Euiju had called Jang Yeonguk out of the blue and asked that.
In fact, since 5 years had passed, even while calling he was half-doubtful whether he would answer. Fortunately, Jang Yeonguk’s number hadn’t changed, and he actually welcomed Euiju’s call greatly. When Euiju persistently questioned him about Haeseong, Jang Yeonguk said.
[If you’re that worried, do you want to go see him?]
He had made that proposal.
He didn’t want to refuse. Euiju just wanted to meet him and ask.
Whether he’d been well all this time, why he hadn’t replied to the letters.
Why on earth he was living while wandering like this.
“Let’s go, hyung.”
Euiju’s Adam’s apple moved up and down. As Euiju slowly stepped toward the building where Haeseong would be, a sigh filled with tension slowly flowed out from him.
