#019
“Why not?”
“Huh?”
Kang Dojun blinked in confusion when Shin Gihyeon, who he thought would give up easily, persistently asked for reasons.
“We’ll have many overlapping projects in the future and see each other often, so can’t we get along well?”
“We already get along well enough…”
“Lee Yeonwoo started calling you hyung after knowing you for less than a week.”
Why is Yeonwoo being brought up here? Kang Dojun’s thick eyebrows twitched.
Shin Gihyeon’s efforts to somehow be on the same project level as Kang Dojun weren’t in vain. Kang Dojun also thought well of Shin Gihyeon, who was someone he had some acquaintance with. However, the fact that he used Yeonwoo as an example was unbearably irritating.
Without realizing it, Kang Dojun had unconsciously come to regard Yeonwoo as an untouchable sacred territory within himself.
Just as he was about to speak, the news “We’re resuming filming” forced him to close his mouth.
And so began the awkward filming between the two.
* * *
After finishing filming at Grandma Suni’s house, they returned and arrived at Yeonwoo’s house.
He organized the blankets that hadn’t been tidied up in the morning, mopped the floor with the vacuum cleaner he’d received from Grandma Kyeong-i, did laundry, and after finishing the housework, he became curious about what Yeonwoo was doing right now.
「What are you doing?」
As soon as he sent the text message, a photo flew back. It was a picture of Yeonwoo smiling brightly in front of a beehive.
Yeonwoo
「Making money!」
‘Even looking grubby, he’s cute.’
「Come back quickly.」
Yeonwoo
「I’ll be right there.」
A reply arrived along with an emoticon of bees working hard.
After pressing the save button for the photo, he went into YouTube.
‘He said if I search “Wonseon” it would come up.’
At the beginning, there was a monologue explaining the interior of the ship and what kind of work they did.
Yeonwoo did this kind of work? It was well-known that deep-sea fishing was hard work, but actually looking up videos on YouTube made the weight of the word “hard” really hit home.
While he was watching the video with a serious expression, the video showed voices of all the crew members getting excited, saying they had caught a massive 150kg tuna.
“I’ll butcher it.”
The angle that had been fixed on the flopping tuna turned toward the owner of the voice. It was Yeonwoo, looking even more youthful than now.
“Kid, you’ll hurt your hands. Put the knife down.”
“Why? I can butcher it.”
Along with Yeonwoo’s pouty face, subtitles appeared below saying ‘Yeonwoo who had been waiting for this day!’
A YouTuber? Kim Haseon, was it? The voice presumed to be Yeonwoo’s friend Kim Haseon could also be faintly heard.
“Hey, hey, just leave it to the boss.”
“Right. Yeonu, tuna butchering. I’ll do it.”
“That’s right. The boss is doing it. Hurry up and hand over the knife. Good, that’s right? Peek-a-boo.”
“Fuck, Kim Seungseon. You’re making fun of me. You said you’d let me do it next time we caught one.”
“Ah, damn. You’re making fun of me right now!? I told you to call me Haseon when the camera’s on. And butchering is next! That’s right, neeext, let’s definitely do it next time! Got it?”
Large bold subtitles appeared below Yeonwoo’s face saying ‘If the next of the next of the next ever comes!’
After that, white text appeared on a black screen saying “What will be the tuna’s fate?” and the video ended.
He might have looked more youthful than now, but his personality definitely hadn’t changed at all. He was exactly like the current Yeonwoo.
‘Was he like this in high school too?’
For some reason, he became curious about his school life that he hadn’t seen. He left the finished video for a moment and read the comments.
○ [Wonseon-nim, are you still in contact with Yeonwoo-nim? Stop doing game broadcasts and please do just one Yeonwoo invitation broadcast ㅠㅠ]
○ [ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋKim Haseon-Kim Seungseon ㅋㅋㅋ Did Yeonwoo-nim come up with this? It’s so funny ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
○ [Aaaah! Yeonwoo-ya ㅠ Noona will catch tuna for you. Come to my house and whether you poop or butcher tuna, I don’t care, so please come to land ㅠㅠ You’re too good-looking to be at sea ㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
○ [ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Lee Yeonwoo was quite stubborn, and the sailors seemed weak to Yeonwoo too. Yeonwoo probably ended up butchering the tuna]
○ [Isn’t Lee Yeonwoo totally soft rice cake material? What’s he doing these days ㅠ Wonseon-nim, please at least tell us his current status]
○ [Please increase our Yeonwoo’s screen time ㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
○ [A kid like that went on a deep-sea fishing boat? If I were his parents, I’d be too worried to function.]
Most of the comments were calling out for Yeonwoo. As someone in a similar field, Kang Dojun thought that Kim Haseon, the YouTuber friend, must have been quite stressed seeing these comments.
Of course, that was Kang Dojun’s thinking.
A YouTuber’s popularity naturally rises when one video becomes a hit and brings in more viewers. But since videos became popular every time Yeonwoo appeared, Yeonwoo was no different from a benefactor to him.
As he carefully read through the video while liking the comments searching for Yeonwoo, his stray thoughts about Shin Gihyeon had long since disappeared.
* * *
Kang Dojun didn’t know this, but Shin Gihyeon was a year junior from the same Korea Performing Arts High School.
‘Should I try sending Kang Dojun a DM?’
‘Does he have a social media account…?’
‘Ah, then at least a text message.’
‘I don’t even know his number.’
‘I could find it if I went through the attendance records.’
‘Are you dreaming of being a criminal?’
Whether walking in the hallways, in the cafeteria, or in the classroom, anywhere he went, he could hear stories about Kang Dojun quite often. He was popular everywhere with his flashy appearance. There were occasional rumors that he was being pursued by some famous idol.
He would bet that there wasn’t a single person among all the students who didn’t know those three syllables “Kang Dojun.”
He was always first. Starting with student council president, the greatest power among students, to appearance, personality, popularity, practical skills, academics, athletic ability, and even his attendance number was 1.
Compared to him, Shin Gihyeon had an attractive appearance with a gentle impression, but such faces were a dime a dozen at Korea Performing Arts High School.
There was no connection between Kang Dojun, who always stood at the front, and Shin Gihyeon, who remained in the middle.
Sometimes when he encountered Kang Dojun in the hallway, he had a thought:
‘That kind of looks will be common in the entertainment industry.’
No, they weren’t common at all. In the entertainment industry he experienced firsthand, Kang Dojun had a face that was always in demand but never adequately supplied, and his acting skills were outstanding too, so there was nothing lacking.
Kang Dojun was Kang Dojun. Even after entering the industry, he continued to run toward first place. Top choice for casting, number 1 in brand reputation, ten-million viewer actor—all of these were words that referred to him.
Perhaps that’s why he admired him even more. After graduation, he worked hard to appear in the same projects as Kang Dojun and to be caught in the same frame.
He had simply followed Kang Dojun, who was in the lead, but before he knew it, he had become second place. Fans accumulated, the scripts coming to him gradually increased, and he received advertising casting calls quite frequently.
Among fans, the fact that he was already a die-hard fan of Kang Dojun had become almost an established fact.
‘But it’s true.’
‘Kang Dojun is appearing on a variety show.’
‘Sunbae-nim is?’
He judged this to be an opportunity to finally become close. He went crazy for a moment at the news his manager hyung brought and pestered his agency. He didn’t know about variety shows. He just followed behind Kang Dojun. If he was doing variety shows, he should naturally follow.
Then, a strange kid appeared. He didn’t match others’ pace, didn’t care about others’ eyes, and just ran wildly forward.
He didn’t seem to have set a particular destination either. He was like a bulldozer.
“Yeonwoo-ya.”
Shin Gihyeon, who had always been running while looking at Kang Dojun’s back, could tell at a glance.
The leader kept deviating from the path following him. He ran smiling toward some other strange path. To anyone’s eyes, it was the wrong way. If the leader disappeared, where should he head?
‘I’m better than that kid, so let’s run to the destination together instead.’
‘May I call you hyung?’
‘No.’
It was a completely new side he had never seen before.
Was his heart a little bitter? Why? If he deviated from the destination, wouldn’t he become first place? Not at all.
Only then did he realize it. Kang Dojun wasn’t first place for him—he was the destination. He was the arrival point, the utopia he only looked at.
It wasn’t him who had lost the destination, but himself.
‘Fuck.’
A sigh escaped. This was why he shouldn’t set moving targets as goals.
After the awkward filming ended and during break time, Shin Gihyeon leaned against a wall and lit a cigarette he’d borrowed from his manager hyung. He took a puff of the cigarette smoke he’d quit and exhaled it, and from far away he could see the source of all his troubles approaching.
“Do you want to die? Why are you smoking against someone else’s wall? Go to Seoul and smoke.”
I wonder if he knows how many hours it takes to get from here to Seoul.
Yeonwoo snatched the cigarette from Shin Gihyeon’s mouth, crushed it against the wall to put out the fire, and handed it back.
“Here, throw this away in Seoul too.”
“……”
“What, are you pissed? Still can’t smoke. I hate the smell of cigarettes.”
Looking so pale and yet saying he hates the smell of cigarettes.
“Why. Do you hate it because you’re born in the year of the tiger?”
“What kind of bullshit is that.”
When it’s convenient for him, he makes up ridiculous reasons, but when others bring up reasons, he treats them like crazy people.
‘Why does sunbae-nim…’
What’s so good about such an unreasonable kid? Shin Gihyeon, who was excellent at observing others, had already noticed through the earlier conversation that Kang Dojun’s attitude toward Yeonwoo wasn’t simply that of a hyung-dongsaeng relationship.
It wasn’t that Yeonwoo had worked hard to become close to Kang Dojun. Kang Dojun was the one working hard to become close to Yeonwoo.
Although he had no prejudice about preferences, he couldn’t understand liking such a kid.
“I’ll give you this, so hold off on cigarettes until you go to Seoul. You’re going today, right?”
Yeonwoo held out something heavy-looking wrapped in a black bag to Shin Gihyeon. When he received the bag and unwrapped it, there was honey in a glass bottle.
“It’s chestnut honey.”
He opened the lid and took a taste. Perhaps because he had just smoked, even the chestnut honey, which was supposed to have a bitter taste, only tasted sweet.
“…Sweet.”
“Right? It’s good for your health too?”
He was strange but somehow couldn’t be hated—a peculiar kid. That’s probably why he was slightly annoyed too.
“Anyway, thanks.”
After closing the lid again and wrapping up the bag, Yeonwoo casually said:
“You can send the money to my account.”
At the extremely worldly words that pierced his ears, he stared at Yeonwoo in disbelief.
“What, no refunds. You already took a bite. If you demand a refund there, you’re being unreasonable.”
He thought it was a farewell gift considering he was going up to Seoul today.
“Tsk tsk! Listen to hyung.”
He clicked his tongue as if imitating an elder’s speech pattern and pressed Shin Gihyeon. Shin Gihyeon finally had no choice but to release his tightly bound inner feelings.
“Haah-, I really fucking hate you.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
