Chapter 95
Two eyes glaring upward from below crossed over from the man to me. This time I didn’t avoid his gaze either. I quietly stared at his face that looked quite drunk.
Not to find relief in seeing traces left by the time he suffered from being unable to accept our separation. Not to confirm that his feelings for me hadn’t changed. I just wanted to see him. Without being able to think other additional thoughts, I just wanted to capture him with my eyes.
Even knowing he was someone I shouldn’t seek out for such reasons anymore.
A hollow laugh came from beside me.
“Lee Han, are you a child?”
“What you’re doing right now isn’t very adult-like either.”
As soon as the man finished speaking, he shot back like that and emptied the drink in his glass in one gulp. After swallowing a large amount of whiskey without even ice mixed in, he immediately filled his glass again. I hoped someone would stop him, but no one stepped forward.
Yoon Juho spoke with a good-natured laugh mixed in.
“He got hurt because of me. So I applied it as an apology to score some points… but Jiin disliked it even more.”
I felt the affectionate gaze of that guy looking at my left cheek. I was amazed by the deep look that seemed like he would stroke my cheek with the back of his hand any moment. I was about to admire the top actor’s acting skills.
“That’s even more suspicious though? How did you make him hurt his lip? Didn’t you have a rough kiss or something?”
“Haha… it’s not like that. We were just fooling around a bit too much, that’s all.”
Even though he was laughing on the outside, Yoon Juho’s voice was also becoming increasingly sharp with irritation.
The man pulled up one corner of his mouth and openly sneered. The meaning was who would be fooled by such clumsy lies.
The man who had been tilting his head crookedly while spinning the glass in his hand reached out his other hand toward my lips.
“Interesting. What kind of fooling around would tear grown men’s lips like this?”
It was an unexpected approach from someone I barely knew. Without realizing it, I pulled my upper body back and grabbed the approaching wrist, slamming it down on the table. As if my reflexive defense was unexpected, the man’s eyes widened.
My siblings and I practiced Krav Maga once a week during our teenage years. Though it was quite aggressive martial arts for self-defense purposes, mother’s reason for choosing Krav Maga was that defense alone wasn’t enough as preparation for dangerous moments.
Though not expert-level skill, I had acquired basic techniques to protect my body and methods of handling strength.
I let go of his wrist immediately, but I didn’t want to apologize for my previous action. People who had been drinking inside also watched this way due to the minor commotion.
Yoon Juho broke the silence and stepped forward.
With a short curse, he roughly put his glass down on the table.
“You’re just as interesting, what. Why are you so interested in other people’s business? Living as a parasite attached to chaebols… are you mistaken that you’re also that level?”
I thought he was being more patient than usual for his personality.
The smile pretending to be relaxed disappeared from the man’s face after hearing Yoon Juho’s provocation. His cheek flesh convulsed with anger.
It seemed like that guy knew more information about the man named Yujun than I did.
Clank.
He who had put down his glass on the table from across stood up.
“Yujun, get up.”
“……”
“Let’s go. Can’t you hear me?”
His voice was so full of anger that it sounded sad. His tightly clenched jaw muscles were twitching.
The man answered him without taking his eyes off Yoon Juho.
“If it’s because there are third parties here, then send everyone else out.”
Suddenly this situation seemed ridiculous. Among them, I myself was the most ridiculous.
I got up from my seat, leaving Yoon Juho and the man confronting each other with me in between.
“There’s no need for that, I’ll get up. I was very rude.”
The moment I stood up, our eyes met, but that was all. Without any delay, I left the room with quick steps. I almost ran across the long corridor-like hall.
“Jung Jiin, Jung Jiin!”
After quick shoe sounds, the one who grabbed and turned me around was… Yoon Juho.
“Let’s go together. I’ll give you a ride.”
“Knock it off. It’s not like someone has no temper…!”
When I roughly brushed off the arm holding my shoulder and raised my voice, I could see his figure in the distance over Yoon Juho’s shoulder.
He was leaning against the room’s entrance looking this way.
It was my fault, my greed.
It was because I acted ambiguously after saying it was over.
Coming to the event venue was for work, and encountering him there was unavoidable… but coming down to this basement was clearly my will and my choice. It was selfish lingering attachment because I wanted to find him, wanted to see him.
Since the relationship was over, unnecessarily appearing and disturbing the other person’s heart wasn’t good manners. I… had been too ill-mannered toward him.
“You wouldn’t understand, but.”
“……”
“All the people who put up with you… they don’t stay silent because they’re afraid of you or because they understand your behavior.”
I swept up the hair that had fallen over my forehead and met Yoon Juho’s eyes.
“Because it seems like I’ll go beyond being annoyed to feeling contempt… your recent strange behaviors, please really stop them.”
I turned around, leaving behind Yoon Juho who was silently looking at me. While climbing the dim stairs where I might misstep if I let my guard down even a little, I searched my jacket pocket to call Manager Yoon.
“……”
In the pocket that should only contain my phone without a wallet, I felt an unfamiliar presence in my hand. My steps climbing the stairs stopped. With a heavy sigh, I leaned my shoulder against the wall. I don’t know when it was put in, but the lip gloss Yoon Juho had told me to take was in my pocket.
I hadn’t intended for this to happen. I felt firmly trapped in a tangle that had become complexly intertwined and twisted and hardened as is.
I pulled down the knot of my tie. I couldn’t breathe without doing so.
■
“Jiin-ssi, why does it feel like it’s been so long? I saw the <Eternal Night> casting article. Congratulations so much. Even after becoming a Hallyu star, you can’t change shops, okay?”
The reason it had been a while since coming to the shop was because there hadn’t been any special schedules recently. I answered with a bland smile instead.
“Actor Jung Jiin-nim, please go up.”
The shop manager then announced through the microphone that I had arrived.
“Please guide the actor. Room 203.”
A staff member who had been waiting nearby stepped forward as soon as the manager finished speaking. Seeing an unfamiliar face with a very nervous expression, it seemed like they hadn’t been working long.
Several customers who were receiving styling in the inner part of the first floor, which was configured as a hall rather than individual rooms, came out to the corridor in their gowns and whispered my name. From their excited voices, they seemed to think well of me today at least. I smiled and bowed briefly toward them, then followed the staff with Jaewoo.
The shop I’d been using since debut through the company’s introduction had individual rooms throughout the entire second floor. As soon as I entered the room of about 1.5 pyeong surrounded by temporary walls, I was startled and stopped walking at the sound of firecrackers.
“Oppa, congratulations!”
“Hyung, congratulations!”
“……”
The makeup and hair staff who had been taking care of me for a long time were holding a lit cake in the dark room.
“But… it’s not my birthday?”
“The kids prepared this to celebrate your <Eternal Night> casting.”
The one who appeared from behind and explained while placing a hand on my shoulder was my makeup artist. When I first started coming to this shop, she had similarly just joined as staff, and she had somehow become a proper makeup artist and had been taking care of me for two years.
“You even paid attention to something like that? Thank you…”
“Hyung, you’ll soon become a Hallyu star, so of course we have to celebrate!”
“Blow out the candles quickly!”
The excited urging of the staff, mostly in their early twenties, was cute. Though this kind of event was embarrassing, I didn’t show it and chuckled while diligently blowing on the candles densely stuck in the cake.
Firecrackers went off again here and there, and curly colorful ribbons fell on my head and shoulders.
“I should give Manager Jang’s team some dinner money. Jaewoo, can you get me some cash?”
“Yes, hyung. I’ll go get some right away. Oh, and please have this. Our hyung is buying.”
Jaewoo put down coffee and simple snacks he had prepared in advance on the table.
“Wow, thank you every time. I’ll eat well.”
The atmosphere of the shop I’d visited after quite a while was still lively. I knew that even such warm hospitality and responses were extensions of work for them, but I was grateful for it since I had been depressed for several days.
“Teacher, our hyung is going to sign an advertising contract today, so please make him look even more handsome than usual.”
“Oh, really? What advertisement?”
The face of the person in charge brightened with color when she heard the word advertisement from Jaewoo.
“Our hyung has been selected as the TV commercial model for Knox Hotel & Resort’s first-ever production!”
“Knox is doing TV commercials? It suits oppa so well. Knox chose their model well. Then is oppa going to meet the advertiser today?”
“Ah… they’re specifically asking him to come to Hongcheon. There’s a Knox resort there, and they’re going to film there. They say they’ll show him the filming location atmosphere in advance, and while signing the contract, they’ll also entertain at the resort as a company dinner. They could just do it in Seoul, but why make him come all the way to Hongcheon…”
Though he was speaking as if it had become bothersome due to the unnecessary trouble, subtle pride seeped through Jaewoo’s tone.
“Sometimes there are advertisers who bother people like that.”
The person in charge nodded while selecting several items from the makeup products displayed on the shelf.
“Gyuwon oppa went golf rounds with the advertiser when filming an apartment commercial.”
“Who was it? Someone even officiated at the wedding of the advertiser’s cousin’s son.”
The staff also agreed with the person in charge’s words, adding stories they had heard.
Yesterday, which was Monday, a proposal came from Knox to conclude the advertising contract. The filming would be about two weeks later, but it came with a suggestion to have a meeting at Knox’s Hongcheon resort to celebrate the contract’s conclusion.
Such requests weren’t particularly special. In fact, most work in the entertainment industry could be said to start with company dinners or entertainment and end with company dinners or entertainment.
However, I could only let out a bitter smile at the situation of visiting Hongcheon resort this way, when the plans to go there with him had been canceled every time.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
