A few days later.
As Gyeong Chanhyeon had expected, the Goodness Entertainment side moved right away.
[Kim Seunghun, past photos leaked! Completely different from now!]
[Testimony from a friend of Kim Seunghun! A gloomy kid who even dropped out! What was his school life like?]
Articles with his old photos splashed in huge type across the front pages.
He had made up his mind, but facing his past again, the part he wanted to avoid, made Kim Seunghun feel like someone was squeezing his throat so hard he could not breathe.
It had been a long time since he turned off his endlessly ringing phone.
He had kept his phone off for quite a while.
Even in voices that sounded concerned, he felt something else.
A vile sneer.
Feeling as if the past were grabbing his ankle, Kim Seunghun headed back to bed.
“Whew….”
Attacks from the press that barely knew anything.
“Victims are not at fault,” as Gyeong Chanhyeon had said. No matter how he turned it over in his mind, that was true, but the world was not so just.
The world looked more eager to point fingers.
[I never dreamed the Kim Seunghun in the movie was the same Kim Seunghun I knew. He is completely different.]
[In high school, Kim Seunghun was a quiet kid in class. Timid, hardly smiled. I think a lot of us felt he was gloomy.]
Interviews on TV with the ones who merely stood by through his pain in the past.
Even with mosaics, their faces were recognizable despite the time that had passed, and the sight of them made bile rise in his throat.
Lying in bed with his eyes closed, he remembered a post he had seen online yesterday.
[I was a classmate of Kim Seunghun in high school. He got bullied. On TV they couch it in roundabout ways like “gloomy” and “fat,” but he even smelled sour back then. Maybe because we tapped him and told him to wash up and it piled up, he dropped out? Ha, but that guy is a movie actor? I really thought it was someone else with the same name.]
The reactions to that post were even more disgusting.
[When I saw Kim Seunghun, I kind of figured he was like that. You can tell from poor social skills and such.]
┗ Me too. You can just instinctively feel something.
┗ Why is Lee Jeongu friendly with him? Does he not smell sour anymore?
┗ I used to be a fan of Kim Seunghun, but after hearing this, I dislike him. I even threw away the Night photo card I had.
All the effort he had made to brighten up somehow, the effort to forget the past and force himself toward happiness collapsed with just a few keystrokes from them.
He knew, as Gyeong Chanhyeon had said, that he only had to hold out for a while, but that was not easy.
Ding-dong.
At the sound of the intercom, Kim Seunghun barely lifted himself from the bed.
“Whew….”
Empty liquor bottles rolling on the floor caught his eye.
The only thing that let him forget this damned feeling was alcohol.
The discomfort he felt when he went outside and people looked at him.
They said nothing, but it felt like he could hear their inner thoughts in his head.
“Ugh, Kim Seunghun. The kind of punk who got bullied.”
“He lost weight and thinks he is somebody now?”
“You are still Kim Seunghun. Even if you lose weight, Kim Seunghun is still Kim Seunghun. The guy who smelled sour.”
“He put on that macho act, all of it was pretending. He really is just an actor. Your real self amounts to someone who gets bullied.”
As those words began to swirl in his head again, he lay back down, shut his eyes, and shook his head.
Ding-dong.
Whoever it was, the intercom rang again as if it were urgent.
No one was supposed to come.
He had met Lee Jeongu recently, and he had told his parents it would be better if he did not come by for a while.
He had no idea who it could be, so he forced himself up and looked at the intercom. Then he saw someone he had not expected.
Because he was too close to the camera, only Gyeong Chanhyeon’s face was floating there.
“Uh… Chanhyeon?”
—Hyung! Why is your phone off!
Gyeong Chanhyeon spoke to him like he was scolding him.
Sweat beaded on his forehead as if it were sweltering hot.
“Uh… well….”
—Never mind that. Just open the door! Let us talk face to face. There is a lot to discuss!
“Huh? Wait, let me tidy up the place a bit…”
—It is too hot outside. Please! I am going to boil alive! If you want to clean, I will clean with you! I am a great cleaner, you know! I will not even charge! Just open the door.
Seeing him act deliberately brighter than usual, Kim Seunghun felt a pang of guilt and quickly opened the door.
Gyeong Chanhyeon came in carrying several stuffed plastic bags and said,
“Ahh, it is cool. I can finally breathe. Have you been outside? If you crack an egg on the concrete it would fry on the spot.”
“Oh, really? But those are…?”
With his eyes fixed on the bags in Gyeong Chanhyeon’s hands, Kim Seunghun asked.
“I came prepared to cook you the Gyeong Chanhyeon set menu today. If you barge into someone’s home, you should at least bring ingredients.”
At that, Kim Seunghun blinked and asked,
“You suddenly came here to cook?”
“What am I, your housekeeper? Coming all the way to cook for you? I came to tell you the talk show booking is confirmed, but you were not picking up your phone. You think being a star in Japan means you can act like this? If you start acting like this already, that will be a problem…”
Wearing a playful smile, he set the bags on the table.
He pretended not to see the stack of empty bottles next to it, keeping an awkward smile.
A quick glance said there were easily a dozen or more.
“What talk show…?”
“Your Night.”
“Huh?”
The words did not land properly in Kim Seunghun’s ears.
Maybe because he had not slept properly for days, even the fact that Gyeong Chanhyeon had shown up at his place to cook did not feel real.
“Hyung, are you sleeping properly? You look really rough. Getting that talk show was seriously hard. But your reaction is way too lukewarm.”
“Ah… no… But a big talk show like that would invite me?”
He stared blankly at Gyeong Chanhyeon, as if he could not understand.
He had thought at best he would get invited to some small talk show that aired late on a weekday night, but this was much better than he had imagined.
It was unprecedented for a star embroiled in controversy to appear on a major talk show.
Talk shows aired in a prime weekend slot. Most families watched them, and putting the focus of a scandal on the screen in that slot felt like a big burden.
“Of course. When a star like you is coming, they should be the ones bowing their heads first.”
Gyeong Chanhyeon forced himself to act cheerful for his sake, but it bothered him that not even the faintest smile showed on the other man’s lips.
“Are we cleaning up? It does not look that messy.”
Looking around the place, he thought that for a bachelor’s apartment it was pretty clean.
The pile of bottles was not that strange either.
Before his return, when he lived alone, his own place had always had corners packed with empty bottles.
In fact, this felt much cleaner than his old place, and he glanced around with an expression that said he was reflecting on how sloppily he had lived.
“Ah… no. I will do it myself. You should rest a bit.”
“Come on, how can a guest rest when the owner is working? We should do it together. I did not come as a guest today. Think of me as your manager.”
Gyeong Chanhyeon grinned and cleaned together with him.
As he did, the posts that had been circling in Kim Seunghun’s head seemed to fade.
Once they were roughly done, Gyeong Chanhyeon took everything out of the bags.
“Green onions, onion, red pepper flakes, corn syrup, and… pork. Ha. You know what this is, right?”
“Pork bulgogi?”
Gyeong Chanhyeon’s pork bulgogi.
Back when they shot Night, he had eaten it with Lee Jeongu, and that taste still came to mind from time to time.
The proper balance of sweetness and saltiness. And the touch of sweetness that brought the harmony to a perfect close.
Thinking of that taste, a smile naturally rose to his lips.
“Look at that. You had not cracked a smile once, and now you finally do? Do you miss my pork bulgogi more than you miss your little brother?”
“Yeah, punk. Ha ha. I finally get to eat your pork bulgogi again.”
Gyeong Chanhyeon opened another bag.
“And the magic potion that makes that pork bulgogi taste even better! But hyung, did you drink yesterday too?”
“Huh?”
“I mean, you are an adult, so I cannot stop you if you want to drink. But I think you have been drinking a bit too much lately.”
At his words, Kim Seunghun scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed laugh.
“Just sit there and wait. I will have it ready in no time.”
“Ah… Is there nothing I can help with?”
“It is fine. Cooking is art too. It needs a professional touch. It will take a bit, so just rest.”
He took out a knife and cutting board, quickly prepped the ingredients, and kneaded them thoroughly with the meat as he spoke.
“Hyung, do you have rice at home?”
“Uh, no. I do not…”
“I figured as much, so your little brother came prepared.”
Smiling, he pulled out a bundle of instant rice packs from a bag.
Only today did he realize how hard it is to force yourself to act bright.
The flood of articles.
The level was so high that calling them jabs felt like an apology.
So-called friends hid behind mosaics and exposed Kim Seunghun’s past, and old photos and insults about him were spreading online.
A situation where the perpetrators were the ones acting proud.
I was not even the victim, and I could feel the fire boiling up inside me. How must the man in front of me feel?
I could not even begin to measure his pain.
But the gloom caked on his face only made me angrier.
I wanted to tell him I would rather he got angry, but he looked like he would topple if I poked him, so I could not say anything.
All I could do was act deliberately bright and make him feel at least a little better.
“I was going to cook bean sprout hangover soup while drinking, but… tsk, from the look of you, we had better fix your hangover now.”
I spoke to him, sitting on the sofa with a vacant expression.
“Ha ha… I would appreciate that.”
I put it together in no time and sat him at the table, and the corners of his mouth trembled and climbed with effort, as if he was forcing himself to smile.
“Thanks. Chanhyeon. You must be busy.”
“Busy, my foot. I will be working you hard soon. Be ready.”
“Ha ha. All right.”
He heaped pork bulgogi on the instant rice and shoved in a big bite. Then he nodded in satisfaction and smiled wide.
“Dindda mai dda.”
“Ugh, finish chewing before you speak. You are not Lee Junsung. Can an actor do that?”
“Gulp, hack. Ugh.”
He started coughing repeatedly, his face turning beet red like something had gone down the wrong pipe.
“Wow, doing a little of everything, huh.”
After bringing him some tissues, I took a spoonful for myself, and we polished off the meal.
Looking at the empty instant rice containers with a satisfied expression like he could finally live again, he said,
“Thanks. I feel like I can live now.”
“A film director who even cooks. Moving, right?”
“Oh, ha ha. It is moving. But…”
“Yes?”
Drawing it out as if to enjoy my response, he smiled and said,
“It would have been even more moving if you had not said that.”
Now it felt like he was coming back to the Kim Seunghun I knew.
He was even joking and smiling brightly.
“Whew… now you seem a bit like the person I remember.”
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