Chapter 69
Cha Yoon had an incredulous expression. He thought no one would give him rice cakes, but they were doing something among themselves.
“I’ll be 25!”
“Come on, how can you be 25 when you’re not even a student? In that sense, I think Cha Yoon-ssi is 26. You must have become the youngest co-pilot because of your skills.”
“Hmm, even so, I think he’s older than 26, so I’ll bet on 27.”
Everyone was enthusiastically guessing ages with their own reasons. Except for Song Joo-ah, Shin Da-bin, and Ki Seo-jung, who already knew Cha Yoon’s age.
Watching this scene with a ‘let’s see how far this goes’ attitude, Cha Yoon soon noticed this fact. He didn’t care about Song Joo-ah and Shin Da-bin not participating, but Ki Seo-jung staying out bothered him.
“Hey.”
Cha Yoon nudged Ki Seo-jung sitting next to him. At the warmth of the fingertips touching his arm, Seo-jung, who hadn’t been looking at Cha Yoon’s side at all, turned his head.
“Why aren’t you guessing?”
Seo-jung just stared at Cha Yoon blankly at his question. Is he really asking because he doesn’t know? Unlike the other cast members, he already knew Cha Yoon’s age. It would be cheating if he participated and guessed correctly.
When Seo-jung didn’t say anything, Cha Yoon spoke again as if filling the silence.
“There’s a wish coupon at stake. You try guessing too.”
Although Cha Yoon himself was the one giving the wish coupon, he acted as if it was someone else’s business. Just as Seo-jung was about to say he’d pass, others started chiming in with Cha Yoon’s words.
“That’s right. Seo-jung-ssi, quickly say one too.”
“I feel like Seo-jung-ssi might have good intuition. Don’t you think?”
“Right! Should we say it feels like he’ll guess the correct answer right away?”
Suddenly, all eyes were on Seo-jung. In this situation, he couldn’t say he already knew the answer and wouldn’t participate.
As he was about to open his mouth to give a deliberately wrong answer, his eyes met Cha Yoon’s. He saw those unusually clear and transparent eyes staring intensely at him. No, more precisely, at his slightly parted lips.
Seo-jung read an emotion on Cha Yoon’s face. It was ‘expectation’.
“I think he’s 29 somehow.”
Was it because of that? For some reason, contrary to his intention to give a wrong answer, the words “twenty-nine years old” spilled out of his mouth. Soon after, the other cast members said things like “What do you mean 29?”, and “I take back what I said about you having good intuition.” It meant that even with a little thought, he didn’t look anywhere near 29 in others’ eyes.
But to Cha Yoon, that wasn’t important. What mattered was that Ki Seo-jung had guessed correctly.
“That’s right.”
“What?”
“Ki Seo-jung-ssi guessed correctly. I’m 29.”
When Cha Yoon answered, the living room fell silent for a moment. After about 3 seconds of silence, voices tinged with shock started to burst out, saying it was unbelievable. Despite the situation that could have been unpleasant, Cha Yoon didn’t care at all.
He called only to Ki Seo-jung, as if whatever others were saying or doing had nothing to do with him.
“That, the wish coupon. I’ll give it to you. Tell me if you have anything to wish for.”
Contrary to his earlier uncooperative attitude, Cha Yoon brought up the wish coupon first. Seo-jung also raised an eyebrow, seemingly surprised by Cha Yoon’s statement. ‘You’re not the type to keep such promises.’ It was obvious that’s what he meant, which made Cha Yoon a bit embarrassed.
“…I don’t want to give it to you, but a promise is a promise after all.”
The added words sounded forced, but Seo-jung didn’t point it out. Well, would there ever be a day when he’d wish for something from Cha Yoon? That’s all he thought.
“Now that we know everyone’s age, shall we sort out how to address each other?”
“I totally agree! Maybe because I’m still a student, calling everyone ‘ssi’ felt a bit awkward.”
Min-ha smiled sheepishly.
“Then shall we sort it out in order of age? The oldest person is… Min-wook-ssi, right? 33 years old.”
“That’s right. I suddenly became the oldest brother. But my heart is still in its 20s.”
“It’s okay, your behavior is like someone in their 20s.”
“Hey, what’s that? It sounds like you’re calling me immature. That’s not it, right, 26-year-old Seo Min-ha-ssi?”
“What? I have no idea what you’re talking about?”
The cast members sorted out their ages one by one, occasionally bickering.
“Looking at it like this, there are a lot of same-age groups.”
“But looking again, isn’t Cha Yoon hyung’s age the biggest twist? Everyone agrees, right?”
At Jung Soo-ho’s words, the cast members smiled. There wasn’t much talk, but everyone seemed to agree. Cha Yoon, who had been quietly doing his own thing, immediately frowned.
“Hyung?”
“Yes, you’re five years older than me, so you’re my hyung.”
“I’ll treat you with more respect from now on.” Soo-ho even bowed his head, adding credibility to his words. Naturally, Cha Yoon’s face crumpled even more. He had no intention of allowing such a familiar term as ‘hyung’ to someone he wasn’t even close to. He hated pretending to be close.
“What…”
He was about to say something about who was calling who hyung. Cha Yoon caught Ki Seo-jung turning his eyes towards him. He was looking back and forth between him and Jung Soo-ho with an inexplicable, strange expression.
Why is he looking at me like that? Is he giving me a look for saying something awful again? Feeling preemptively guilty, Cha Yoon closed his opened mouth and quietly turned his gaze away.
After sorting out the forms of address, the drinking party continued in a more relaxed atmosphere. What caught the interest of the cast members, who were drinking while engaging in trivial conversation, was the series of notification sounds.
“Is it 10 o’clock already? Has time passed that quickly?”
“Huh, but it’s not? It’s not 10 yet, did it open a bit early just for today?”
Strange. The cast members tilted their heads and checked their phones. Seo-jung was no exception.
But despite the alarm sound, there were no notifications on the phone. Seo-jung slowly rubbed his chin, feeling puzzled.
“That’s strange. I don’t have anything?”
Min-wook seemed to be in the same situation. What’s going on? Seo-jung waited for the reactions of the other cast members, as if observing the situation.
“Huh?”
That’s when it happened. An exclamation burst from Yeo Ji-yoon’s mouth. Starting with that, the female cast members who were looking at their phones one by one raised their heads. They all had surprised expressions. In contrast, the male cast members all looked bewildered.
“Looks like we’re having our second date.”
Da-bin opened her mouth, looking at the faces of the curious male cast members. At her words, the male cast members who had been blinking for a moment also started to open their mouths one by one.
‘Second date’.
It was enough to make the hearts of the cast members participating in the program flutter.
“But why didn’t I receive anything? Is the app malfunctioning?”
As Jung Soo-ho pretended to hit his phone, Min-wook, sitting across from him, waved his arm towards Soo-ho.
“No. Soo-ho, I didn’t get anything either.”
“I guess it’s because this date is chosen by the women. Since it seems none of the men received anything, I’ll read it out loud.”
Shin Da-bin smiled gently and slowly started reading the message aloud.
“The second official date is ‘Female Cast Member’s Designated Date’. Female cast members will be given one additional message sending right today. Try asking for a date with the person you want through a message. However, you cannot ask your X for a date. To prevent guessing who is whose X among the cast members, the date will be conducted in secret.”
Da-bin, who had read to the last sentence, lifted her eyes that had been fixed on her phone. The male cast members who had been quietly focusing on her voice started to speak one by one.
“For the first official date, the men chose, so I guess this time we’re asking for the date.”
“Seems so. I was incredibly nervous then, but this is nerve-wracking in its own way…”
Min-ha, with her hand on her chest, rolled her eyes and scanned the faces of the male cast members in turn. When her gaze turned to Min-wook, he exaggeratedly fiddled with his hair.
“I need to look good to go on a date, but I came out with my hair too messy. Can I go and fix it for a moment?”
“Why? It looks natural and good as it is, hyung.”
“It seems like Seo-jung is checking me out right now?”
“Was it that obvious? I should have been more roundabout.”
At Seo-jung’s joking words, Cha Yoon’s plump lips immediately protruded. How long have you known him to call him hyung? He didn’t like how Seo-jung was expressing intimacy by easily calling others ‘hyung’ as if he had been waiting for this day.
But what was even more ridiculous was what came next.
“But who should I share a room with?”
“Soo-ho and Min-wook hyung, you and I are already sharing rooms, so Woo-jun, you’ll probably have to use one alone. There’s an empty room next to mine.”
“Really? Ah, that’s a shame. I thought I might get a roommate after a long time.”
As Woo-jun waved his hand and brought up the topic, Ki Seo-jung responded. Woo-jun’s lips naturally curved into an arc at the kind answer. It was just as the conversation topic, which had momentarily strayed in a different direction, was about to return to its normal track.
“Huh.”
Cha Yoon found it hard to suppress a hollow laugh. Of course, the reason was Ki Seo-jung. When did he start using such unfunny titles, calling someone Soo-ho and someone else Min-wook hyung, while stubbornly sticking to calling him ‘Cha Yoon-ssi’ until the end? There had never been such a farce.
Cha Yoon’s eyebrows twitched as if dancing. He had been lecturing at length about not being emotional once you become an adult, but he himself was acting more childishly than Cha Yoon.
When did he use informal speech with me, and now why formal speech? And what’s with ‘Cha Yoon-ssi’? Shouldn’t a person be consistent?
It seemed like the same special treatment as yesterday or today, but today it strangely made him feel dirty. Unlike the day before, it felt exactly like he was being discriminated against.
Discrimination. At that word, he felt irritation rising without realizing it. Before his ruined mood could even recover, as things that grated on his nerves happened one after another, he felt an unbearable unpleasant emotion wrapping around his whole body.
Should I just overturn this? An impulse no different from usual arose. Cha Yoon puffed up his chest as if he was about to pour out something right away. It was when he opened his mouth, recalling in his mind all the words he wanted to throw at Ki Seo-jung…
