“Why does your face looks brighter these days?”
At the sudden question, Kyungseo turned his body and looked at her.
Kyungjin had her hair tied back in a single tight ponytail, wearing a black blouse and a long, form-fitting skirt. With a thick apron that felt out of place over the neat outfit, she was leaning diagonally against a table. When Kyungseo just looked at her sidelong, as if to say ‘what are you talking about?’.
Without replying, Kyungjin opened her mouth again.
“Guess the shoot isn’t that grueling?”
“It is. There isn’t much left until we wrap.”
When Kyungseo answered calmly, Kyungjin smiled with narrowed eyes.
“Or… did you get a girlfriend?”
At the poking question delivered as if she were dying to know, Kyungseo’s face scrunched up. A girlfriend? He was dumbfounded by his kin suddenly smearing him with a scandal.
“What the…”
“If not, then what? That little smirk of yours is annoying.”
“When did I smile?”
“You don’t really laugh big to begin with. Your expression hardly changes. But I’ve seen you all my life, so I can roughly tell. You seem oddly buoyant lately. What’s the reason?”
Kyungjin grinned. At the word “buoyant,” Kyungseo’s cheek twitched. Something flashed clearly through his mind.
The idol he had liked since childhood, the very object of his long-held adoration who had gone completely silent for ages with not a scrap of news to torture people… he had finally met him. Not only that, they kept running into each other at work. He had even gotten his contact information. Just that fact alone made him feel like he might burst several times over, wondering if this was a dream.
Avoiding Kyungjin’s curiosity-filled gaze as she looked him over, Kyungseo cleared his throat a couple of times.
Not now, but Kyungjin too had once been a fervent fan of Two Planet. Busy these days with work, she seemed not to know that Heewook was appearing in the drama Kyungseo was filming. In the first place, her “ultimate bias” hadn’t been Heewook, either.
But if he brought up Sung Heewook, the story would go on without end. A jumble of worries crowded in, making his head throb. Would his sister come to the set and make things difficult for Heewook? Would she meddle pointlessly?
Kyungseo decided this was a good point to change the subject.
“Is the restaurant prep going well?”
Kyungjin was opening a restaurant this time. It was a restaurant and wine bar called “Estrella,” the Spanish word for “star.”
Interested in cooking since childhood, Kyungjin had gone abroad at twenty to study hospitality management. It was Kyungseo who had used studying abroad as an excuse to stop offline fan activities, but the one who actually went overseas was Kyungjin.
Though Kyungseo had invested a bit in opening the place, it was a restaurant she had planned and prepared herself for a long time.
“Of course! I’m working hard so people won’t bad-mouth my little brother.”
With a confident look, Kyungjin tucked her hair behind her ear.
“Why would they bad-mouth me when you’re the owner?”
“Even if it’s my place, to people it’ll look like a restaurant run by Cheon Kyungseo’s family. I have to do well.”
“Should we keep the family connection a secret?”
“No! We need to promote it! Hey, no matter how confident I am in the taste and the concept, opening a restaurant in times like these is a gamble, you know? Even if it’s an amazing hot spot, I still need customers to spread the word that it’s a hot spot. If I’m not careful, I could really go totally bust.”
Watching her rap the table with a serious warning, Kyungseo made a rough circle with his fingers. Seeing the signal of “got it,” Kyungjin gave a snickering smile.
“Anyway! We’ve brought in everything we need for now.”
“Looks like it’s mostly in order.”
“Yeah, there’s a bit left to tidy up. I don’t think the opening will be delayed.”
Hmm. Nodding, Kyungseo slowly looked around. For a wine-bar-slash-restaurant, it had an unusual layout. Especially at the end of the empty space inside, there was a stage. The lights weren’t on, so it was dark, but it wasn’t small. Folding chairs were stacked layer upon layer against a nearby wall.
“Feels like a small theater.”
“Mm-hmm, that was the concept to begin with. We’re planning to rent it out for small-scale performances, too.”
Hands on her hips, smiling, Kyungjin answered. Kyungseo stared blankly at the pitch-black stage. In the parts faintly touched by the interior lights, you could see a pale layer of dust.
After watching the stage for a while, he glanced at his wristwatch. If he left now, he would arrive at the company with time to spare. He flicked his wrist lightly and moved.
“I’m off. Hang in there.”
“Once we open, show your face now and then. That’ll be the most direct kind of promotion.”
Not too often, though. Half joking, half serious, she added the teasing line. Hand on the doorknob, Kyungseo glanced back.
“If I have time.”
At the offhand reply, Kyungjin shot him a sharp look. He shrugged and slipped out the door.
hhwoogie_: ♥ Froms, have a great day today, too.
Leaning his head against the van window, Kyungseo stared holes into the SNS screen. A new photo had gone up on Heewook’s feed. He was wearing his usual favorite cap, and his mask was pulled down a little.
‘Burn that cap if you have to. Why on earth are you covering that handsome forehead and those eyes!”
He had pulled the mask down for him, but it was still a shame his whole face wasn’t showing.
The ivory cap Heewook had often worn since long ago had a red accent on the bill, and maybe because of that, the area around his eyes looked slightly reddish. He looked like someone who had been bawling just a moment ago, or like someone tipsily buzzed on alcohol.
“Hope the hangover wasn’t too bad.”
At the memory that suddenly surfaced, Kyungseo pressed his brow. It had been just yesterday. The day he drank with Heewook.
Having a drink face-to-face, just the two of them, with his ultimate bias. He had never imagined it. All the more because he had been a minor the entire time he’d liked Heewook.
“Then want to drink nearby with me?”
He hadn’t planned to be the one to boldly suggest a drink. But he couldn’t just leave his ultimate bias, who looked depressed, sitting there alone, waiting endlessly for a colleague’s shoot that might not end for who knew how long. All the more because he knew Heewook’s scenes had been cut.
In the end, he took Heewook to a nearby izakaya. Choosing menu items, waiting for the food and drinks to come out, clinking glasses for a toast, the whole time his mood felt strange.
‘I’m drinking with Sung Heewook.’
It didn’t feel real. His feet felt as if they were floating off the ground. With a bare, gentle face, dressed in thin, comfortable clothes, Heewook looked smaller than the person Kyungseo knew. Maybe the slumped shoulders made him seem smaller.
Looking at the face shadowed by gloom, his heart pounded uncomfortably.
“What’s got you down?”
Heewook let out a snicker and said it was because his drama portions had disappeared, something Kyungseo already knew. Hearing that didn’t make him nod and think, “I see”; instead, something in him twisted in a strange way.
“No, that’s not it.”
He suspected Heewook was glossing over the real reason for his gloom. He wondered if Heewook just didn’t want to say and he felt pointlessly hurt. He also found himself ridiculous for feeling this way.
On the other hand, if that really was the truth, then that in itself was upsetting. Since when had he wanted acting so badly? The thing he truly loved, the thing he’d truly been good at, was something else.
“You’re not even serious about acting.”
So, without meaning to, a crooked tone slipped out. Only when he saw Heewook’s face go stiff did he realize it had come off like he was picking a fight. Heewook answered that he had worked hard. Of course, Kyungseo knew that too. The person he had liked for so long was someone diligent.
“There’s something else you’re better at and that you like more. I was wondering why you’re not doing that. Your main job.”
As if seeing straight through Heewook’s heart, Kyungseo spoke. In truth, he carefully evened his breathing to hide the fact that it was his own desire.
“You still like it, right? Singing.”
He was desperate to say the single line that he hadn’t given up on singing, on standing before fans as an idol.
“Impossible.”
So when Heewook uttered a firm word, saying he was too old to be an idol, he felt a dizzy drop, as if his heart had fallen to the floor. Heewook emptied his glass quickly, like someone being chased by something.
‘What do you mean, impossible? Since when does age matter? He looks way younger than some jerk like Han Donghun.’
A flood of words swirled in his mouth. Why are you so scared, when was it that you said let’s see each other for a long time and now you’re resigning yourself and saying it’s impossible.
He wanted to call him cowardly, and yet, thinking of the countless frustrations Heewook must have gone through, his chest ached with pity.
“You can sing at any age.”
“…”
“Right?”
This time, terrified inside that Heewook might give a negative answer, Kyungseo pretended otherwise and asked carefully. When their eyes met, Heewook hesitated for a moment, then knit his brows tight and nodded.
“I will.”
He took a sip and added in an uncertain voice,
“Probably.”
After that, Heewook practically poured drinks into himself alone. Kyungseo drank too, but matching his pace, the two of them looked liable to end up totally out of it. At the very least, he had to stay sober enough to watch over Heewook until Eunseong arrived.
The drunker he got, the more unstable Heewook became. He murmured sadly that he didn’t think he could sing, then suddenly giggled for no reason.
With his forearms set on the table, Kyungseo watched Heewook grow red. The slanted way he leaned looked precarious, but he couldn’t take his eyes off him from head to toe.
His cheeks, flushed red as if he’d applied blush; his languid-looking eyes; his hair mussed as if he were intentionally going for a decadent vibe. Each and every thing was so completely different from usual that it felt fascinating.
“Is it just because he’s my ultimate bias that everything looks good?”
Repeating what he had said, then retracting it again. On the verge of tears, then smiling. Anyone could see he was a troublesome drunk. If the man sitting here right now weren’t Heewook but someone else, Kyungseo would surely have hated being in the same space. He’d have bolted out the door on the spot.
But he didn’t want to move. He felt like it wouldn’t be bad to just stay fixed in this place and look at him.
He had always thought idols liking alcohol, talking about alcohol, was a turn-off, but drinking just the two of them was an entirely different dimension. Even watching him, dead drunk and barely able to open his eyes, he secretly hoped they could drink like this again sometime.
Heewook swallowed another mouthful of liquor. His gaze fell to those moist, dewy lips. His full lower lip looked just like pudding.
“I wonder if it feels like that, too.”
He was staring thoughtlessly at the lips and absently brushing the tabletop with his fingers when…
“I want to…”
Out of nowhere, Heewook tossed the words. It felt like a long needle pricked the back of his hand.
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