# Chapter 15
“But don’t wait too long.” With those playful words, the door closed. Wonyoung muttered, “Cheeky brat,” as he turned around. But then he heard the door opening behind him again, and Siyeon said:
“Hyung, you really must like it, huh?”
When Wonyoung frowned and turned his head, Siyeon thrust a delivery box into his arms and left again. Wonyoung belatedly checked the shipping label on the box and sank to the floor.
[BL] Midnight Tyrant
[BL] Please Eat Me Up! Vol. 1
[BL] Please Eat Me Up! Vol. 2
[BL] It Starts With Pregnancy
…
It seemed wrong to try pursuing Siyeon after all.
* * *
‘What is this now?’
Wonyoung sighed at the crowd surrounding them while maintaining a certain distance, as if there were an invisible wall.
“What’s wrong, Rae? You don’t like the taste? I thought you liked chocolate lattes.”
“…”
Eventually, the man sitting across from the uncomfortable-looking Wonyoung spoke kindly. Wonyoung was amazed at the man’s nonchalance, as if he didn’t care one bit about the dense crowd of people surrounding them.
“If you don’t like it, should I get you something else?”
“What? No.”
Formal speech again. The laughter that slipped out as he spoke was incredibly sweet. Wonyoung corrected his speech, hoping the man’s agency would secure him a coffee commercial.
“No, you don’t need to get me anything else.”
“Okay. Got it.”
Then he smiled with his eyes again. Is this why dramas always have at least one gentle man? Wonyoung recalled the BL terms he had learned in yesterday’s crash course and looked at the man with fresh eyes.
Brown hair and even lighter eyes. The overall pale-colored man was as elegant and profound as if autumn itself had been molded into human form. Just like what one typically feels when seeing the autumn sky or fallen leaves, he was a man for whom the description “beautiful” was perfectly fitting.
Judging by his looks, he was definitely a character to be pursued. And one with much better personality and occupation than the previous two—a proper character to pursue.
The only problem was that the man seemed to know “Narae.” Of course, Wonyoung was seeing this man for the first time in his life.
No, to be precise, he was seeing him in person for the first time.
“You’re an actor?”
“Yes. You’ve never seen me before? I’ll have to work harder to catch your eye, Rae.”
“No, I have seen you. I see your face at the bus stop every time I ride the bus.”
He remembered the watch advertisement that was prominently displayed at the bus stop on the day he went to work at the hotel, and when he returned from the officetel where Kyung Taerim had dropped him off. The man before him was the model from that advertisement.
‘Was it foreshadowing by the game?’
As Wonyoung was lost in thought, the man said:
“But you didn’t contact me… Was it because you didn’t recognize me?”
“Huh? That’s right. If I had known, I would have contacted you.”
Recognize or not, the man before Wonyoung was a complete stranger to him. But for the sake of pursuing him, he vaguely nodded along.
“I guess I have changed a lot. Still, I thought you of all people would recognize me.”
“…Sorry. I don’t have very good observation skills.”
Wonyoung apologized, promising himself to find out who this guy was later, even if he had to shake down the system. Fortunately, the man seemed quite understanding.
“No, I’m the one who should be sorry. I didn’t contact you either. And then I suddenly showed up, which must have been surprising for you?”
Seeing the man’s sincerely apologetic face, Wonyoung rolled his eyes and answered, “A little?”
It was true that his heart had dropped when he opened the door to go out and found a huge guy standing right there. Especially when the first thing he said was, “Rae, I’ve been waiting for you.” If not for his neat attire and handsome appearance, Wonyoung would have reported him as a stalker immediately.
But just then, with the man’s face in the background, gentle music started playing, and suddenly flowers of various colors bloomed. In that god-awful alley, no less.
While Wonyoung hesitated to report him due to the surprising background effect, the man said:
‘Rae, it’s me, Baek Heegang. Don’t you remember?’
‘…Uh, oh, yes.’
‘It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Can we talk for a moment?’
That’s how Wonyoung realized the man was a character to be pursued and inevitably came here. And in the process, this crowd had gathered.
Seeming to understand this, the man carefully explained the situation.
“To be honest, I wanted to contact you many times. I knew where you lived. But… the situation when we broke up was a bit… So I wanted to come find you at my best. When I became more famous, more stable. While being greedy like that, time just kept passing.”
“I see.”
Although he couldn’t understand what the man was talking about, seeing how much he cared for Narae, this man clearly had good character. The game seemed to know this too, as it remained quiet without introducing any strange situations or terrible choices.
‘Did he say his name was Baek Heegang?’
Recalling the name the man had first mentioned when he appeared before Narae, Wonyoung made his decision.
‘I’ll pursue this guy.’
With him, there would be no risk of humiliation or life threats, and his gentle personality suggested the pursuit difficulty wouldn’t be too high.
If so, he needed to make the best impression on Heegang. First impressions are important, after all.
The only issue was that the things Heegang remembered weren’t in the current Narae’s memory at all. If Heegang found out that the Narae before him wasn’t the Narae he knew, it could cause problems in their relationship.
‘I have to pretend to be Narae somehow.’
Though it was an unwanted situation similar to receiving a penalty, it was voluntary rather than forced, so he could endure this much for the sake of returning to reality.
Wonyoung tried his best to maintain a dopey expression as he spoke.
“Have you been well?”
“Yes. Though there have been various issues.”
“I guess the entertainment industry is tough too?”
At Wonyoung’s question, Heegang stirred his coffee with a straw and gave an ambiguous smile.
“It’s not easy. Among industry people and fans alike, there are often troublesome cases. Dealing with them is quite a job.”
Wonyoung found the word choice rather unexpected from the Heegang he’d seen so far, but thinking he must have suffered a lot, he nodded vigorously.
Heegang chuckled at Wonyoung bobbing his head like a roly-poly toy and added:
“Most things weren’t a big deal, but since my face is well-known, the cleanup afterward was a bit challenging.”
“Ah, I see.”
Wonyoung performed a full-power empathy act. Of course, given Wonyoung’s somewhat lacking social skills, it wasn’t perfect, but unaware of this, he was satisfied with his own performance.
For a moment, he felt something off about what Heegang had just said, but Heegang changed the subject before he could think about it further.
“How have you been, Rae?”
“Fine. You know, the usual.”
Couldn’t be better. Having my pants pulled down in front of all kinds of people, having my BL books discovered by a gangster I’d never met before.
Burying his deep resentment, Wonyoung forced a smile.
“You seem the same as when I first met you. Still cute.”
“Oh, really?”
As a 30-year-old, 181cm adult male in reality, it was difficult to take “cute” as a compliment, but Wonyoung tried his best not to show his discomfort.
“Do you remember when we first met?”
“Huh?”
And suddenly, a crisis arose.
In that instant, possible scenarios flashed through Wonyoung’s mind—what might happen if he said he remembered versus if he said he didn’t. Neither option seemed particularly good.
Moreover, there wasn’t even the usual one-minute grace period given for choosing options. To avoid suspicion, he had to answer immediately. Without time to think of a decent excuse, Wonyoung opened his mouth.
“Um, it’s a bit fuzzy…”
“You don’t remember? Wasn’t it too intense to forget?”
“Uh, well…”
‘I’m screwed.’
Just as Wonyoung was considering giving up on pursuing Heegang with a miserable feeling, a sound that had never been welcome before felt incredibly welcome, and two choices appeared before his eyes.
[You mean when I was trying to fend off the bullies harassing you and accidentally hit your face, giving you a nosebleed?]
[When I ate the bell peppers you hated during lunch time?]
Honestly, both were terrible as cherished memories, but since Heegang said it was an intense memory, the clearly more intense one was the top option. Wonyoung chose it without hesitation.
“You mean when I was trying to fend off the bullies harassing you and accidentally hit your face, giving you a nosebleed?”
However, contrary to his confident choice, Heegang’s expression turned awkward.
“No? You ate the bell peppers for me.”
“What? This is BS…”
[Statement incompatible with character traits. Warning 1 time. Penalties will be imposed if warnings accumulate beyond a certain number.]
Even while seeing the warning window, Wonyoung was furious with indignation. Intense, he said, intense! How is eating bell peppers so intense…
“But actually, you had a bell pepper allergy, so you suddenly collapsed and we had to call 119, and it was a huge mess.”
‘…That is intense.’
It was indeed an extremely intense memory. Even he would feel hurt if someone forgot something like that.
In reality, an awkward atmosphere settled between Wonyoung, who had completely missed the mark, and Heegang. To pursue Heegang, he needed to somehow salvage this situation, but he couldn’t think of any excuse.
In the end, Wonyoung revealed the truth with a dejected face.
