# Chapter 8. Nothing Is Certain (3)
What was that dream? As he was trying to recall it even in his half-asleep state, he slowly opened his eyes at the cold sensation touching his head.
Beyond his blurry vision, he saw Seonghyeok letting out a deep sigh.
“…Hyung.”
“Hey, you idiot, if you were feeling this bad, you should have said something before coming home yesterday.”
He wanted to say something, but his throbbing head made it impossible to speak.
It felt like an inflated balloon about to burst at any moment. He sighed deeply and squeezed his eyes shut before opening them again.
So I did manage to make a proper phone call yesterday. A sigh of relief escaped him involuntarily.
Just as he tried to part his lips to say thank you, Seonghyeok’s next words stopped his thought process entirely.
“If you’re sick, you should call me, why did you call Dohyeong and scare the kid?”
“…Huh?”
The name Dohyeong made his head feel light. His already fading consciousness was becoming increasingly hazy.
“Dohyeong called me in a panic. Said he barely managed to contact me after asking Wootae. He said you seemed sick, but you weren’t talking and didn’t hang up, so he thought you’d fallen asleep. The kid was completely pale telling me to go check on you right away, and I was even more surprised.”
How strange. His foggy mind had suddenly become crystal clear, contrary to just moments ago. He fumbled around and picked up his phone from beside his pillow to check the call history.
There was no way he could have dialed the wrong number. Perhaps this was more of a wish than a certainty.
Please, let it not be true, please let me see it wasn’t true as he scanned the list.
It was there clearly. Recipient: Kim Dohyeong. As soon as he saw those three characters, he felt as if all the blood had drained from his body.
“I won’t ask how this happened, but for now, stay put. I’ll heat up some porridge.”
As Seonghyeok got up and left the room, Haesung glared at his phone as if to bore through it.
‘I’m sure I pressed Seonghyeok hyung’s number…’
In an instant, goosebumps erupted all over his body.
He had intended to call someone familiar, and that someone happened to be Dohyeong.
In a way it made sense, but from another perspective, it was absolutely something that shouldn’t have happened.
The person he should think of when sick should be Do Seonghyeok, not Kim Dohyeong.
And the person he turns to when sick should no longer be Dohyeong.
He didn’t want to appear as someone who only relies on him at times like this.
He was embarrassed. For no other reason than being sick, he had called him and said to Dohyeong what he should have said to Seonghyeok.
He thought about explaining himself, but then wondered if he really needed to go that far.
He already knew from experience that misunderstandings could be avoided if things were communicated verbally, but that didn’t make it any less difficult.
Haesung lightly rubbed the screen where Dohyeong’s number was displayed.
“…By speaking up, will anything actually change?”
Perhaps nothing would change. He might even come across as even stranger.
But he clearly knew what needed to be conveyed, and avoiding it like this also seemed odd.
“Right, I should at least apologize. He might have been surprised.”
The one who was most surprised wasn’t Seonghyeok or Wootae. It would be Dohyeong, who directly heard his voice and faced this situation.
After contemplating for a while, he opened the message window. And slowly, very slowly, he typed out a message.
Dodaengdaeng
I didn’t mean to call you, I’m sorry.|
He couldn’t press the send button. This seemed too cold.
It’s true that he hadn’t intended to call, but given the situation had already happened, the apology of “I’m sorry” might seem shallow.
In the end, he deleted everything and typed a new message.
Dodaengdaeng
I heard you passed the message to Seonghyeok hyung. Thank you. It seems I called without realizing. This won’t happen again. I’m sorry.|
Is this enough? He stared at the text for a long time, still not feeling satisfied.
While he had made a mistake, he didn’t like the conclusion that made it seem like he was the one at fault.
This isn’t right either. Shaking his head, he deleted all the text he had written once more.
Dodaengdaeng
I didn’t realize I had called. Thank you for telling Seonghyeok hyung. I’ll be more careful from now on, I’m sorry.|
This finally seemed a bit better.
He thought it was a message filled with genuine sincerity. In fact, nothing was more foolish than assuring that such a thing wouldn’t happen again.
When no one knows what might happen in life, making the same excuse again would be as irresponsible as could be.
Saying he would be more careful from now on was also a reminder to himself. Yes, this would be better, he thought as he pressed the send button.
“…This is difficult, so difficult.”
He couldn’t remember the last time he had contemplated a message to send to Dohyeong this much.
No, had he ever contemplated at all? In fact, such occasions seemed even rarer.
He had simply responded to what Dohyeong wrote.
There were numerous times when he didn’t reply at all if he felt bothered.
If there was something he wanted to hear, he would provide it even without emotions.
A person with whom he could be comfortable without having to think too much. Someone whose greatest strength simultaneously became their weakness—that was Kim Dohyeong.
Even after sending the message, Haesung still held onto his phone. He slightly turned on the screen to check once more if it had been properly sent.
He closed his eyes, then opened them wide again, staring at the screen. Hoping that a reply might come immediately.
But that wouldn’t happen, would it? He let out a brief sigh and put down his phone.
The fact that he was having such thoughts felt extremely awkward and unfamiliar to him.
***
Meanwhile, Dohyeong was lying on the sofa reading the script.
Normally, he should have continued with activities for the drama, but under the judgment of the agency’s CEO that he absolutely shouldn’t overexert himself, he was given the day off.
This was because of the photo shoot the previous day.
‘Dohyeong, you don’t have to work yourself to death like that.’
Recalling the CEO’s admonishing voice, he couldn’t help but smile.
‘First, practice taking care of yourself. That’s the priority right now. Understand?’
That’s right, that’s correct. He also remembered Wootae nodding beside him.
“They say even resting is something you learn by experience… I’ve never had that experience.”
After muttering this, he laughed dejectedly.
As the current Dohyeong, he had no idea what to do to rest.
Just sleeping without doing anything was boring, but there weren’t suitable places to go outside.
It was natural that he didn’t know how to rest since even brief moments of emptiness had never been restful for him.
Today, he also wanted to take a break from reviewing his past works to find areas to improve, like writing a mistake note. In the end, what Dohyeong chose was to skim through the script of “Glass Holding Stars.”
Although he doesn’t appear as frequently as the leads Haesung and Soyeon, his role still carried considerable weight.
In an attempt to overcome the pain of being rejected by Hyea, Yehyun goes on a journey where he meets Onyoung.
As the youngest son of a moderately wealthy family, Onyoung makes and sells special snow globes. Living his peaceful days as usual, one day, Onyoung falls in love at first sight with Yehyun, who has visited the country to study stars.
However, since it’s a world without alphas and omegas, it’s only natural that Yehyun pushes Onyoung away. He refused saying it was difficult because they were both men, but Onyoung persistently follows him.
Leaving behind their ambiguous relationship that seemed like love but wasn’t, Yehyun returns to Korea and coincidentally takes charge of astronomy classes for adults.
There, he encounters Onyoung again. The story of the two flows more calmly than expected, but the emotion of love between them ultimately becomes their hardship and adversity.
It required a more intense emotional line than expected.
‘Something that can’t become reality… a world without alphas and omegas.’
That’s why he needed to put more effort into expressing delicate emotions.
As he was wondering if he should discuss this with the director…
Dohyeong’s gaze slightly shifted towards the phone on the table.
It would be a lie to say he hadn’t been paying attention to it until now. He was deliberately focusing all his attention on the script just to keep his thoughts away from it.
“You really are something. Looking at your phone the moment you get distracted.”
He clicked his tongue and shook his head.
Last night, how surprised he had been by Haesung’s sudden call. The fragments of that night, with countless thoughts racing through his mind, had confused Dohyeong’s head.
He had considered not answering, but it seemed all his nerves were still directed towards Haesung. He had answered the call naturally, but didn’t respond. Fearing the call might end the moment his voice went out.
He thought he had let go of all lingering feelings, but there are always moments of weakness like this. He should have hung up, should have coldly asked why he called.
‘Hyung… are you home?’
His whole body felt like it was crumbling at the sound of Haesung’s dying voice.
He’s sick, he realized at once. After all, it had been him who had always stayed by Haesung’s side whenever he fell ill.
‘Sorry if you were sleeping. But… I have a bit of a fever, could you come to my place?’
So it was a call meant for Seonghyeok. He should have hung up quickly and contacted Wootae to get Seonghyeok’s number.
Strangely, his body wouldn’t move. He wanted to hear his voice for just a little longer, even if just for a moment.
A selfish desire only possible because he was alone. If Wootae or Yuchan had been by his side, he would have gritted his teeth and let go of this desire.
‘Manager Do Seonghyeok.’
After that call, silence continued through the phone. He must have fallen asleep.
Feeling unnecessarily disappointed, Dohyeong sighed, contained his greed, and hung up. Then he called Wootae to get Seonghyeok’s number.
‘Why should you care if Jung Haesung is sick or dying?’
‘Hyung, if this person collapses and causes problems with the drama, that’s an issue for me too.’
It was truly a ridiculous excuse, but he knew it was compelling enough to be persuasive.
In the end, Wootae passed Seonghyeok’s number to Dohyeong. This was because Dohyeong had flatly refused when Wootae said he would do it himself.
‘You, you really have to just give me that information and hang up. Don’t do anything unnecessary. Okay? It’s a promise with hyung.’
Wootae’s voice, emphasizing this over and over, came to mind, but that too was fleeting.
Maybe Seonghyeok hadn’t told him? Even if he hadn’t said anything, it would still be in the call history.
Knowing Haesung wasn’t the kind of person to contact him and say thank you, he still found himself hoping like this.
Even after declaring that he had folded away all lingering feelings and emotions.
After staring at his phone for a long time, he shook his head quickly. To borrow Wootae’s words a bit, whether Jung Haesung got better or not.
It wasn’t something for him to worry about.
“Forget it. Don’t think about anything. Turn off your concern. It was just a favor. What are you expecting?”
Idiot, he muttered, turning his attention back to the script. At that moment, his phone caused a heavy vibration, making the glass table rumble loudly. He jumped up from his seat and hastily grabbed the phone.
He checks the screen. At the clearly marked “Jung Haesung,” he takes several deep breaths to compose himself.
Don’t be nervous, absolutely don’t be nervous. Don’t expect anything either.
He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them as he unlocked his phone. And the moment he saw the message that had arrived, Dohyeong had to put all his strength into the corners of his mouth.
Jung Haesung:
I didn’t realize I had called. Thank you for telling Seonghyeok hyung. I’ll be more careful from now on, I’m sorry.
You pathetic bastard.
He bows his head while gripping his phone tightly. In the end, it was just this much, but the fact that he had become someone to be “careful” around was a story from a very long time ago.
Once again, he locks the doors of his heart tightly. Let’s never expect anything again. Resolving and resolving again, he exhaled an empty breath.
