#89
While I was grasping the situation, the manager who had scanned the surroundings once spoke quickly.
“It won’t be tiring for either of us if I get straight to the point. So I’ll cut to the chase. Will you make Jin Woohyeon as your final choice?”
‘Jin Woohyeon the actor’. Though it was a familiar form of address, it sounded strange and subtle because of the nuance contained within it. Like being pricked by the edge of a stiff business card, a blunt, grating sensation arose in one corner of my chest, creating small ripples.
“I hope you won’t do that.”
I felt as if the inside of my throat was completely blocked. I couldn’t say anything and just waited for his words.
“If Yoo Sanho-ssi responds to Jin Woohyeon-ssi’s feelings, Jin Woohyeon-ssi will break his promise with the agency. Furthermore, it will have a bad influence on his future career.”
“…In detail.”
I didn’t want him to notice my finely trembling fingertips, so I quickly lowered my hands under the table to hide them.
“Could you explain in a bit more detail?”
“Of course.”
His sharp voice continued.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard this from the person himself, but Jin Woohyeon-ssi will begin full-scale acting activities starting next year. This means he’ll have a filmography that can raise his name value itself, not small web dramas or minor fashion modeling.”
It was a story I had heard in passing. He said he would enter filming for an OTT original series right after leaving the show. These days, this method of receiving investment from companies rather than specific broadcasting stations was gaining attention.
“The role he’s taken on now doesn’t have romance, but there’s no guarantee it will stay that way in the future.”
I hesitated and then nodded. I thought it would be natural for the agency to want to develop Jin Woohyeon into a leading actor. And romance was one of the most beloved genres worldwide.
He would want to take on more challenges. Both the agency and Jin Woohyeon himself.
“What we wanted from appearing on this program was an appropriate first impression. To make a moderate impression on viewers and leave a good image.”
Only then did I realize the reason for the uneasiness that remained in one corner of my heart. Even though our feelings were firm, that uncomfortable feeling hadn’t disappeared because I wasn’t certain whether this was really a good thing for Jin Woohyeon.
And now, the manager was saying it wasn’t a good thing.
“I believed his words that he had no interest in dating and felt no need to meet other people. He had always lived that way.”
“…”
“But he changed after meeting Yoo Sanho-ssi.”
Jin Woohyeon falling for me was the best thing that could happen to me, but the manager spoke as if it were an unprecedented disaster. That fact was somehow a bit bitter and painful.
“It can still be reversed.”
He let out a light sigh and continued.
“Unrequited love is quickly forgotten. So if Yoo Sanho-ssi chooses someone else and helps ensure that your two’s narrative doesn’t get too strongly imprinted on viewers, that would be good. You said you originally had lingering feelings for X.”
I didn’t have a chance to respond that I no longer had lingering feelings for Lee Chan.
“If you conclude by choosing that person, the remaining narrative can be appropriately trimmed during the editing process for broadcast.”
“Manager-nim, I…”
“I’m not saying you should never meet at all. I have no intention of controlling your private life to that extent. But at least not now. We need to be careful since we don’t know whether one small variable will be beneficial or detrimental.”
While I was briefly pondering how to respond, he pulled over the bag he had placed beside him and took out something to hand to me.
It was a quite thick paper envelope. I felt like I could clearly know what was inside without opening it.
“It would be comfortable for both of us if you think of this as a small gesture of sincerity.”
“Does Woohyeon also know that you’ve made this judgment?”
Then he pulled up his thin lips and answered.
“If he knew, we would have had a three-way meeting. Not me visiting you separately like this.”
I was somewhat confused, not knowing how to react. Should I be angry? Should I be flustered? Or should I feel humiliated?
While I was wavering without being able to reach a proper conclusion, a cold voice fell down over my head.
“Why are the two of you sitting face to face?”
“…Woohyeon.”
“And what’s all this on the table?”
Jin Woohyeon’s face, which I looked up at in confusion, was coldly hardened. His sharply cut gaze was directed at the manager, not me.
“Did you follow me all the way to Jeju Island to do this?”
“Jin Woohyeon.”
“Don’t say anything. I didn’t ask a question, and I don’t want to hear an answer.”
“…”
“I’m not unaware of what hyung is worried about and why you’re specifically sitting here.”
Jin Woohyeon stretched out his arm without even looking this way and grabbed my arm.
“I’ll handle my own affairs myself.”
“Woohyeon, wait…”
“Stand up, hyung. Why are you enduring such a ridiculous situation?”
I looked back and forth between Jin Woohyeon and the manager with anxious eyes. The manager was looking at me with a frown, as if he still had more to say.
That was exactly the problem. That he had more to say. And that he wasn’t the only one who had something to say.
But Jin Woohyeon’s strength in making me stand up was stronger than my strength trying to hold my ground.
“Let’s go. Forget what manager hyung said. It’s all useless talk.”
“It’s not useless.”
I said in a finely trembling voice.
“Did you promise the agency?”
“Hyung.”
“For the image, since it’s a program you’re going on for series promotion. You agreed with the manager-nim to just join midway and leave without choosing anyone…?”
Jin Woohyeon didn’t answer immediately. His eyes looking at me were trembling greatly.
Reading the silent affirmation, I became devastated.
The manager was right. Jin Woohyeon falling for me might be a good thing for him, but it wasn’t a welcome thing for ‘actor’ Jin Woohyeon. Wasn’t this a situation where he, who had just managed to get his name on a project worth expecting, might end up being positioned as my boyfriend before he even became famous for his own work?
“It was a promise I made before meeting hyung. It has nothing to do with hyung…”
“But you met me.”
“…”
“You chose me, and I like you. But it’s still something that has nothing to do with me?”
“Sanho hyung.”
“If you’re going to leave, leave by yourself.”
What kind of expression am I making right now? I don’t know. I just hoped for a moment that I wasn’t looking too terrible, whether I was too frightened or too flustered.
“I’m going to stay here and finish talking with your manager-nim.”
“Hyung, please.”
Jin Woohyeon said as if pleading.
“…I’ll resolve it. Okay?”
He seemed to want to get me out of this table somehow, and I stubbornly refused because I didn’t want to back down from this problem.
While struggling to pull my held arm away, I accidentally hit the teacup. The cup that contained citron tea not only spilled its hot contents but also fell instantly.
Crash!
It was just like pouring cold water. Neither I, nor Jin Woohyeon, nor the manager could say anything and froze for a moment.
When I, who came to my senses first, bent down looking at the teacup that had shattered into pieces.
“Are you alright, customer?”
The moment I crouched down and touched a large piece.
A voice that was heavily hoarse as if from severe illness, yet evoked déjà vu, pierced into my ears.
“…As I thought.”
I suddenly became curious. Why do bad things come all at once? Is it to test how much I can endure, or to make me eventually overcome it, or if not that…
“It is you, Sanho.”
Could it be fate’s cruel whisper telling me not to forget the hell you left behind?
“Uncle.”
The moment I saw his face, I completely forgot all the problems surrounding me. It wasn’t the joy of meeting family who had once been like the world to me again, nor was it the bewilderment of encountering him at such timing.
It was just because of a very bad and cruel assumption that struck my head.
“…Uncle, by any chance.”
A voice came out as if very large hands were tightly choking my neck.
“At that time… are you meeting that person again?”
The fragment of truth that the divorced Alpha was from Jeju Island was painfully piercing inside me.
“Sanho. That is.”
It stung. The strange humiliation I hadn’t completely shaken off yet, my heart pierced by fragments, the scratch that had formed from unconsciously putting strength in my grip.
All these situations surrounding me seemed to surge like waves and painfully swallow me.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
Sanho my baby 😭 he really has such horrible luck oh my. I need to protect him desperately