Chapter 153
“There’s something special?”
Malik watched Geon-woo, who was responding confidently, with interested eyes.
“What is it? Do you touch him in a special way?”
Malik lifted his chin, spread his legs wide, and crossed his arms. It wasn’t an intentional action to intimidate Geon-woo. He was just a person accustomed to arrogant behavior.
“I mean Mitchell has a very special eye for seeing things.”
“How so?”
“Because he… recognized me.”
“…”
Malik tilted his head, not understanding Geon-woo’s meaning.
“Of course, I’m not saying Mitchell pushed for me to get the Nathan role.”
“You’re not?”
“I earned the role of Nathan on my own. I don’t know where or how you heard it, but it has nothing to do with Mitchell. You can ask Director McKenney if you’d like.”
“Hmm…”
Though still doubtful, Malik retracted his misunderstanding for now. Since he hadn’t spoken directly with the director and only exchanged opinions through his manager, there was a possibility that the information got distorted in between. Still, he couldn’t help feeling spiteful. After all, the role he had aimed for had been taken, regardless of how it happened.
Malik glanced at Geon-woo. His youthful face lacked a serious charm, and though his physique was good, Malik wondered if there was any substance to him.
Why were his eyes so long at the corners? He thought eyeliner had been applied, but it was just the shadow cast by his long eyelashes. Even his glaring gaze seemed to seduce people.
“What is it?”
Belatedly coming to his senses at Geon-woo’s words, Malik waved his hand. He had been staring at Geon-woo too intently without realizing it.
“Nothing, you just look like someone I know.”
He told a small lie as he quickly turned his head away. He thought to himself that Mitchell must have chosen someone worthy to keep by his side with his discerning eye.
The conversation stopped as Malik took out his phone. An awkward silence followed.
“Are you ready to prepare now?”
After the first shoot ended, the assistant director came to fetch Geon-woo and Malik. They moved to Logan’s house set to prepare for the next shoot.
As the two arrived, Director McKenney and Mitchell turned their heads towards them. They were in the middle of monitoring the scene they had just filmed.
“You can come this way.”
Geon-woo avoided Mitchell’s gaze while fiddling with his collar. Uncharacteristically, he muttered as if practicing his lines. As he recited the lines already perfectly memorized, pretending to be busy, Mitchell, who had been standing quietly beside Geon-woo, raised an eyebrow and then moved away.
It was when Geon-woo had taken his position first and Malik was following behind. With a crash, a glass prop fell to the floor.
“Ah, be careful!”
Malik shouted as he avoided the broken prop. He immediately blamed Geon-woo for dropping the prop. Although Geon-woo was near the prop, he hadn’t touched it, so he naturally tried to state the facts.
“I didn’t…”
“Here! Come quickly and clean this up! Mr. Geon-woo broke the prop!”
But Malik yelled loudly without giving Geon-woo a chance to explain. Geon-woo’s innocent voice was drowned out by Malik’s shout. Malik glanced at Geon-woo, who must be in a difficult situation, as he moved away under the pretext of cleaning. In fact, it was Malik who had damaged the prop.
“I’m sorry.”
However, Geon-woo didn’t make any more excuses and helped clean up the prop. He even apologized for something he hadn’t done. Although it would be normal to be upset about being falsely accused, Geon-woo acted differently than expected.
Malik raised an eyebrow as he watched Geon-woo cleaning with the staff. When Mitchell suddenly appeared to help with the cleaning, Malik finally turned away with an irritated face.
‘Look at these angels.’
He cursed inwardly while checking his own costume. Malik’s role was a character named Rich, but contrary to the name, he wore tattered clothes. Malik focused only on his appearance, forgetting about the recent incident.
***
Thanks to Logan’s efforts, they were able to identify a suspect in the 4117 Avenue murder case currently under investigation. Although they had trouble because the suspect was in hiding, they finally managed to find and arrest him. Nathan had come to inform Logan of this fact.
He was also trying to uncover all the secrets contained in Logan’s book. To ask if he really killed the mother and daughter. To ask if everything written in the book was what he had done.
He didn’t want to investigate to put Logan in jail. Whether it was sympathy for Logan, a desire to reveal the truth about the controversial book… or perhaps just simple curiosity and impulse. It could be all of these. Nathan had come to Logan’s house without an appointment.
The owner of the house was nowhere to be seen. As he was waiting alone for Logan, a man visited the house. It was Rich, Logan’s older brother. Although his outward appearance was somewhat clumsy, his eyes were alive and twitching.
Nathan sat in the living room talking with Rich until Logan arrived. Rich, 10 years older than Logan, had run away from their father early on. He said he occasionally visited this place after accidentally getting in touch with Logan later.
With nothing particular to talk about, Nathan brought up today’s newspaper article on the table as a topic. Rich then confessed sheepishly.
“I can’t read.”
He awkwardly pushed the newspaper aside. This revealed the book underneath.
It was Logan’s book.
“I don’t even look at such thick books.”
Rich pushed away even the book written by his brother. His head lowered, perhaps embarrassed that he couldn’t read.
He wouldn’t have been able to read the book Logan wrote. Nathan deliberately mentioned part of the book’s content, as if he had heard it directly from Logan.
“Did you drink all that alcohol, Mr. Rich? I heard Logan doesn’t drink after being severely punished by his father when he was young. They say his father made him drink whiskey heavily when he was little?”
He asked, pointing to the few wine bottles in the house. Although he could tell it wasn’t wine just by the color through the glass, he pretended not to know and asked.
At this, Rich’s reason, which had been barely hanging on, shattered completely.
“Th-that f-father! Don’t bring up that bastard! That’s not alcohol! Logan doesn’t drink! He doesn’t smoke either! That son of a bitch always burned our bodies… I just hate it. Hate it! We don’t like humans… We, Logan and I… Because of that murderer bastard. That murderer bastard did it. All the people… He killed them. We, we really, aah. Don’t make me remember! If that bastard shows up again…”
Rich, who had been raving frighteningly, suddenly stopped speaking. His eyes, which hadn’t closed once while speaking, were bloodshot red. Shivering as if he had a chill, he muttered with a blank face.
“He’ll kill us too…”
Then he stormed out. After Rich left, venting his resentment, Nathan was left alone in the place.
“Murderer…”
Nathan, who had suspected Logan of being a young psychopath, had his thoughts turned upside down again by Rich’s statement. Rich had referred to their father as a murderer. Perhaps the real culprit in the mother-daughter disappearance case was not young Logan, but his father.
Could it be that Logan published his father’s murder stories as a book?
Now he understood Logan’s behavior throughout the investigation, treating murder like child’s play. His attitude of taking everything lightly was nothing more than a disguised iron fortress. He was a precarious victim who had been barely breathing beside a murderer all this time.
A person who pretends to be strong and carefree on the outside, but whose inside is so scarred that there’s no place left to be torn.
Nathan’s eyes twitched.
“…What’s this?”
Just then, Logan appeared in front of the wide-open front door. Logan brushed back his unkempt blonde hair.
As their gazes met, Nathan expressed an indescribable emotion towards Logan. Logan showed a slightly confused look, then tried to smile lightly. But unable to smile, he ended up frowning. Nathan greeted Logan with a laugh that sounded like a sigh.
“Welcome, Logan.”
Logan slowly closed and opened his eyes. Then he smiled faintly, as if imitating Nathan’s laugh.
“C-cut! Um… that was good. Good…”
At Director McKenney’s voice, Geon-woo blinked his wet eyes. The final greeting scene wasn’t in the script.
McKenney became busy monitoring the recent scene with the staff. Geon-woo was still rubbing his face vigorously to calm his pounding heart, and Mitchell quietly looked down at him.
“Why did you do that?”
Geon-woo shook his head, showing a clear face.
“I don’t know… It was just spontaneous.”
He answered diligently despite saying he didn’t know. His lips twitched as if amused by his own answer. Geon-woo took a deep breath and glanced at Mitchell sitting across from him.
Suddenly, Geon-woo realized why he liked the work
This work reminded him of Mitchell.
