#93
Jin Woohyeon thought of connections lightly.
To be more precise, he thought they didn’t have much meaning. Isn’t there an expression like “connections of the times”? Like everything in the world, relationships between people aren’t eternal either, so his creed was that most connections would eventually come suddenly and leave futilely.
It’s foolish to insert unimportant things into life plans. So let’s treat them appropriately. It’s always been fine, so it’ll be okay this time too. That was about the extent of his thinking.
“I was complacent.”
At the coldly falling voice, Jin Woohyeon agreed.
“That’s right.”
The things he had carelessly brushed off as usual had finally caused trouble. He sighed as he calmly organized his thoughts.
“Sorry, hyung.”
“Sorry my ass? You crazy bastard.”
The manager replied with a grumbling voice.
“I thought you had gone a bit crazy. You know?”
“Mm… that’s also true.”
He definitely thought it was something he wouldn’t normally do.
Before deciding to film ‘Can Love Be Transferred Too?’, Jin Woohyeon made a simple agreement with his agency.
‘Like I said in the meeting before, you can’t get a weird image. Filming for the project is right around the corner.’
‘……’
‘It would be troublesome if you went out to raise recognition and got backlash instead. There are quite a few people who collapsed that way. Huh? Jin Woohyeon. Are you even listening?’
‘Am I the same as those people? You’re still the type to worry unnecessarily. The people appearing there are all obvious, and in a situation where I’m entering late as a catfish or whatever, as if we’d really hit it off.’
‘That’s true, right? It’s Jin Woohyeon, not some other fool.’
‘Right. I told you I have no intention of meeting anyone. You know this will be the hundredth time if you say this a few more times.’
‘I’m not saying don’t date. But let’s just not do public dating on the first try. Something like that.’
‘Yeah. I’m not interested in private dating either.’
‘…You’re really strange too. Kids your age are desperate to hook up, but why do you refuse even people who come running after you?’
‘It’s boring. It’s no fun calculating and weighing things to avoid even a speck of loss.’
Dating was absolutely disgusting to him.
The emotional push and pull was tiring. He wanted to avoid muddy romantic fights even more. Even when he carefully selected people worth meeting, it often came down to people in this industry, and the subtle vanity peculiar to entertainment industry workers always bothered him.
If he said such things, the response that would come back was obvious. You could meet ordinary people. You just haven’t met a good person yet.
Both were words of little value to Jin Woohyeon. He had no will to make an effort for dating to the extent of meeting ordinary people, and he didn’t particularly want to fix his cynical personality of thinking all people were the same.
The lukewarm six-month relationship. After breaking up with An Lei, even abstract expectations about dating had completely evaporated.
Unable to bear Jin Woohyeon’s attitude toward relationships between people, which felt not just indifferent but even skeptical, his manager had once asked first.
‘You have a really good personality for work though… Aren’t you lonely? Don’t you ever think you want to live bumping into people?’
‘Do you think I’m some kind of sociopath, hyung?’
Being human, he naturally felt loneliness and emptiness too. He also knew there was vitality that could only be received when bumping into people in crowds.
But that was all. No, rather, that’s exactly why he felt relationships were even more fleeting. If he didn’t have them from the beginning, he wouldn’t be lonely, but walking into that inevitable yoke just because he hated being left alone seemed foolish.
He definitely thought that way…
“I didn’t know.”
He came to like Yoo Sanho.
At first, it wasn’t this serious. He would put question marks after every budding favorable feeling. Then he would carelessly brush it off. Thinking it would end like this.
But at some point, he fell in. Without any particular trigger, without any great reason, his heart tilted. When he thought the lingering attachment to an ex-lover was pathetic but didn’t find it entirely strange. Being able to smile as if feeling sorry while watching such a person – he thinks now that might have been the precursor.
The more he knew, the more curious he became about Yoo Sanho. What exactly was love that made him cry tears and snot like that? For what reason exactly was he thinking about that not-so-great guy all day long?
Is the love you do somehow different from the love I knew? If I swallow your affection, would I also understand what love that pours out one’s whole heart is like?
Following behind like that, he ended up getting his nose pierced before he knew it. A strand of gaze, a handful of heart became precious, and he kept fretting. The times when he had acted superior, saying passionate love wasn’t his taste, felt like absurdly distant past events.
Yoo Sanho wasn’t particularly eye-catching, but he was someone who showed his true worth the longer you kept him by your side. His calm and warm heart didn’t change easily, so he didn’t make people anxious, and even though he had wounds, he had no twisted parts, so he was consistently kind to others.
“I never thought I’d get serious, but that’s what happened.”
The moment he saw gentleness that he felt he could never imitate in his lifetime, Jin Woohyeon felt longing, jealousy, and thirst simultaneously.
“If I were to make excuses, that’s it.”
Jin Woohyeon said while quietly staring at his manager.
“I knew that hyung, and the agency side, wouldn’t like it very much. However, there’s time between when filming ends and when the edited version is made.”
He planned to resolve it then.
Jin Woohyeon thought several prerequisites were needed. His own heart had to remain the same until the final choice, and Yoo Sanho also had to respond to that favor. There was also the condition that Lee Chan, a past and old connection, should just be left to serve as an amazing bridge that brought the two together.
Now, there’s less than a week left until the final choice. He thought it wouldn’t be too late to wait until it became certain and then respond…
“A difference of opinion?”
“Yeah. A difference of opinion.”
The manager clicked his tongue and replied.
“Rather than sincerity… what is it. I thought it was because of competitive spirit. You know, sometimes you’re like that. When you get fixated on something, you absolutely have to have it to feel satisfied.”
“I wasn’t trash enough to do that with people.”
“That’s why I said earlier. I thought you had gone a bit crazy.”
During the conversation, the manager’s complexion gradually darkened.
“If it were that kind of thing, I thought it would be easier to edit later if even the final choice went wrong. The image created from appearing on one broadcast lasts surprisingly long. It gets dug up just when you think it’s forgotten.”
Jin Woohyeon said with narrowed eyes.
“So, because the actor in charge seemed temporarily crazy and wouldn’t listen to reason, you went to the other party with an envelope of money? To ask them to nicely reject Jin Woohyeon during the final decision, thinking of the other party’s career too?”
“……”
“I was complacent, but hyung was also rude. You know?”
“……Yeah.”
“Sanho hyung wants a three-way meeting. It seems like he wants our relationship to be taken seriously. To do that, I think I need to correct my mistakes first and have another conversation with the company.”
After a moment of silence, Jin Woohyeon continued.
“I didn’t know, my heart changed. You know words like that won’t be enough. I thought lightly and judged rashly. I’m sorry.”
“……”
“If I need to arrange a meeting with the CEO, that’s fine too. I’ll try not to interfere with the <Revenge Equation> filming. I just like hyung in the first place. If necessary, I’ll try to end relationships with other people as cleanly as possible too.”
“Huh……”
The manager, who had been quietly listening to his words with a flustered face, opened and closed his mouth.
“You’re really serious?”
“Where did what I just said go?”
“No, huh, really, huh huh… huh, really.”
The manager ruffled his hair, muttered something to himself while nodding, frowned seriously, then let out a hollow laugh.
“Alright. Let’s talk again. After filming ends and you two leave, let’s meet once near the company building.”
He hesitantly added.
“I’ll think about it again too.”
“Yeah. We have time.”
Jin Woohyeon smiled with a frown.
“You’ll definitely regret barging in and starting with weird talk, hyung. Sanho hyung is a good person.”
“You can’t know someone from seeing them briefly.”
“There are things you can know even from seeing briefly. And no matter how urgent your heart is, still. What’s with the money envelope again? It’s not even an 80s drama.”
At the nagging that hyung also viewed the world too narrowly, the manager’s face contorted.
“Hey, whose fault is all this?”
“Each person’s karma, each person’s karma. Right? Who can I blame? I was short-sighted and hyung was too suspicious. Isn’t that right?”
“……Yeah, well. Got it. I got it, so arrange the meeting.”
“That’s right. When hyung is available after filming ends, let’s meet at a hotel restaurant near the company.”
Jin Woohyeon got up with a grin.
“Hyung’s treating. With your personal card.”
The manager only made groaning sounds instead of answering.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
