Chapter 112
I pressed the hold button on the side to stop the vibration.
“You’re not answering?”
“Why would I answer this call right now?”
“If I wasn’t here, you would have answered?”
“……”
As if regretting what he had said, he immediately pressed his lips tightly shut. This was the first time he had so directly expressed jealousy or hostility about Yoon Juho.
With a bitter expression, he rubbed the back of his neck and turned around, looking back at me just before leaving the bedroom.
“You asked how I wanted to be unreasonable, right?”
“…Huh?”
“I want to separate you from Yoon Juho.”
Standing while gripping one handle of the double doors that could open wide on both sides, he stroked the smooth surface of the door handle.
“Even if it’s for work, I hate that bastard being with hyung. I want to be stubborn about it.”
Just as I was about to say that much was acceptable, a darker, more subdued voice continued.
“I want to cancel Yoon Juho’s casting in <Eternal Night>, and destroy everything he’s achieved as an actor so far.”
“……”
“But I can’t do that, right? So I have to endure it.”
Having dropped his gaze to the floor for a moment, perhaps to lighten the weight of his own words, he looked at me and smiled faintly.
“Sandwiches are okay, right?”
I nodded absently. With that bitter-looking smile, he completely left the bedroom. In my hand, the phone was vibrating again with Yoon Juho’s name.
■
The wine bar in Mapo-gu, run by Director Hwang Sooyoung’s college junior who had left a large corporation, was located in a deep alley in Hapjeong. Trendy cafes, bars, and restaurants were moving into every corner of Hapjeong, which had remained a residential area for a long time. It was the result of the Hongdae commercial district’s expansion.
This wine bar, located in the semi-basement of a building that had converted an old multi-family house into commercial space, was one of them.
The wine bar, which had set up a chalkboard-style sign at the entrance saying “Private rental for today,” was the second gathering place for the <Eternal Night> team.
Two hours ago, after all the staff and actors who attended the script reading had their first gathering with pork belly and soju, the main and supporting actors had moved here, gathering around the director. It was a second gathering spot prepared in advance by the production team, considering Director Hwang Sooyoung’s preference for wine.
Director Hwang, who had barely touched the soju during the first gathering, had emptied quite a large amount of wine in the two hours since moving here. Nevertheless, true to her reputation for being able to drink anyone under the table, there was hardly any hint of intoxication in her voice.
“You don’t need to be so bound by the original work. Use more imagination about what kind of person you feel Jeongseol is.”
Yoon Juho, who hadn’t been drinking but only swirling his glass, spoke to Director Hwang.
“He’s such a typical righteous hero that there’s no room for interpretation. Full of justice, good personality, positive…”
“And knows how to boldly throw himself into love too.”
“……”
Director Hwang interrupted Yoon Juho’s words by adding one more line. His eyes momentarily glanced at me sitting across from him.
“Is it that you can’t understand because he’s too different from you? Huh?”
Director Hwang, who had patted Yoon Juho’s back hard, tilted her head back and laughed heartily. He didn’t seem particularly displeased.
With laughter still not completely faded from her face, Director Hwang propped her elbows on the table and sipped her drink.
“Hey, where in the world would such a person exist? Even if he’s a vampire, he was originally human, right? There’s no human without weaknesses. If it’s not explained in the work, you have to create the story even in your imagination.”
Director Hwang, whom I had gradually gotten to know while actually working together, wasn’t the type to use actors as tools to implement her mental concepts without any deviation. I hadn’t been to the filming site yet, but I could guess to some extent just from how she led the reading.
Even when meeting the same character through a script, the character inevitably gets interpreted differently depending on the actor’s experiences and values. Hwang Sooyoung was a director who valued the unique character born from that actor, which is why actors had to agonize deeply about their characters.
I could vaguely understand why many actors who worked with her went on to become Hallyu stars.
Normally, I would have felt thrilling interest in such conversations and listened intently, but today my mind was elsewhere. I kept tensing the hand holding my phone under the table.
“Director, the role of Jeongseol is difficult. In the original work, he was popular for his overpowered aspects…”
Senior actress Park Seyeon, who played the female lead, also joined the conversation. However, Director Hwang’s attitude remained firm.
“Manga and drama are different. If you act that smoothly, viewers won’t feel attracted, you know? There needs to be some point where they can emotionally relate and empathize. What if Jeongseol gets overshadowed by Lee Su like that? Lee Su has too many narratives that will shake viewers’ hearts as it goes on. If the protagonist gets overshadowed, the drama fails.”
Buzz. Finally, the phone in my hand trembled.
I slightly lowered my head to check the screen without disturbing the conversation. As expected, it was a message from him.
《If you come out of the wine bar and turn left, walk a little and there’s a convenience store. I’ll park near there and wait. I’ll arrive in about 10 minutes.》
I quickly checked the content and then lifted my glass to drink some wine. I thought no one would notice, but I made eye contact with Yoon Juho across from me. He was looking at me with a displeased expression. I pretended not to notice and turned my eyes to look at the director.
“What do you think, Jiin-ssi?”
“Yes?”
“Wasn’t the Jeongseol that Yoon Juho acted during today’s reading too bland?”
“Ah… Since he’s such a skilled actor, I think he’ll interpret and digest it wonderfully in the future.”
It was true that I evaluated actor Yoon Juho that way. But Director Hwang didn’t seem satisfied with my answer. She set down her glass with a slightly loud sound and shook her head with a frown like someone tasting something bitter.
“Not such boring talk. Jung actor, our team needs to become people who show each other our inner selves for the work to come alive. A work doesn’t come out just because everyone recites their character’s lines correctly without mistakes. We don’t make occasions like this just to drink and gossip. Don’t just be polite and poke at this guy hard.”
Director Hwang’s face, with her arm around Yoon Juho’s shoulder while looking at me, was full of mischievous anticipation. It seemed I couldn’t escape this situation with a good model answer.
I fumblingly opened my mouth.
“Anyway… he’s a character who has lived for over 300 years without belonging anywhere, unable to reveal his true self to anyone… so no matter how strong Jeongseol is, wouldn’t he have loneliness like deep darkness?”
“Right, right.”
Director Hwang chimed in agreement. Though I wasn’t particularly inclined to, I looked at Yoon Juho’s face and continued speaking so others wouldn’t think it strange.
“Actor Yoon Juho, who has lived as a top star continuously since childhood, and Jeongseol from <Eternal Night> seem to have similarities in that aspect. He’ll be able to… act it well.”
“……”
Unlike me, who felt uncomfortable and wanted to avoid eye contact as much as possible, Yoon Juho had no hesitation in staring directly at me. His face, which had been hardening like he was angry, unusually averted his eyes first.
Looking back and forth between him, who was pouring the remaining wine into his mouth all at once, and me, Director Hwang spoke as if surprised.
“Huh? Aren’t you two close? But why ‘Actor Yoon Juho’ even in private? What did you do wrong this time?”
Director Hwang enjoyed herself while patting Yoon Juho’s shoulder several times. I could somewhat predict their friendship. Well, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to recommend an audition to a big shot like Director Hwang Sooyoung.
The 10 minutes he mentioned had already passed by quite a bit. Given the situation, he wouldn’t rush me, but I felt anxious.
Commercial filming was scheduled to take place at Knox Resort Haenam and Hongcheon over Wednesday and Thursday, two days. He and I planned to go down to Haenam tonight, Monday, in advance to spend a day together. For today’s schedule, he had to give up his weekend.
Without managers or attendants accompanying each other, without following cars to buy coffee for us, stopping at rest stops along the way… we planned to go down to Haenam like that.
Because of this plan, it had been three days since we’d seen each other’s faces. I found it strange that I was getting restless just from not seeing his face for three days, but I didn’t want to hide or deny it. Just like the phone calls we shared for over 30 minutes every night before bed—it was embarrassing like something kids would do, but I couldn’t give it up.
Now I really needed to make an excuse and slip away. Since Jaewoo had already informed the production team about my schedule, it was just a matter of timing it right.
When Director Hwang’s story about episodes where Yoon Juho’s inflexible attitude had made the filming atmosphere tense came to an end, I awkwardly pushed back my chair and stood up.
“Director, I’m sorry but… I’ll take my leave first.”
“Ah, right… Jiin-ssi, you said tomorrow was commercial filming?”
“Yes. Since it’s filming in Haenam, I need to go down early today. I’m sorry.”
“What’s there to be sorry about? You’re moving according to schedule. Go ahead.”
“Yes, then.”
I tried not to show that I was in too much of a hurry as I left the bar. Contrary to my expectation that it would be muggy, the air was quite cool. The summer that had many events, that was more intense than any other, was also coming to an end.
Just as I was about to walk quickly away from the noisy laughter of the <Eternal Night> team spilling out, someone grabbed my arm strongly from behind.
“You sent your manager away first too. He’s not even waiting nearby, right?”
It was Yoon Juho.
As if he had come out with the excuse of smoking, he approached me while putting a cigarette he held in his hand into his mouth.
“I told him to go in. There was no need to wait through the entire dinner.”
“I know. I’ll give you a ride, so get in my car. My manager is on standby nearby.”
I stopped his hand as he took out his phone while keeping the unlit cigarette in his mouth.
“It’s fine. Would I really accept a ride from you right now?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
I felt a surge of irritation at his nonchalant face, even shrugging his shoulders as if he really didn’t understand. I didn’t know he could ignore someone’s intentions by pretending not to understand to this extent. Was it so difficult to understand that one word “over”?
I snatched the cigarette from his lips as he cupped his hands to block the wind while lighting it with a lighter.
“Hyung.”
“……”
It was a voice heard almost simultaneously with Yoon Juho raising his eyebrows and looking at me at the sudden action.
When I reflexively turned around, he was standing there. Even though I had done nothing wrong, cold sweat broke out on my back the moment I saw him. The air that had felt cool suddenly became stifling. I didn’t even have the composure to see what kind of reaction Yoon Juho was showing.
“…Hyung?”
Only then did I turn to look at Yoon Juho at his voice that repeated his words as if chewing on them.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
