Jealousy Wasn’t in the Contract

It was like a homeroom teacher who spots a student dozing off throughout class and then calls them to the office separately.
It probably meant there was something he wasn’t happy about….

Yoo-hyun’s steps toward the van grew slower and slower.
In fact, it might be harder to find something he was happy about.
When you got right down to it, he was practically a parachute appointment.
After his disastrous audition, the casting article that came out the next morning was called a “down payment,” so he couldn’t exactly claim he got the role entirely on his own merit.
If he was going to tell me to get plenty of rest, he shouldn’t have made my exit feel so uneasy.
Yoo-hyun grumbled inwardly.
His mood on the way home wasn’t entirely clear.

“Haah….”

Spotting the familiar van, he exhaled sharply and shoved his worries into some corner of his mind.
Anyway, filming was still on for tomorrow, and the day after that.
If he didn’t rest during his break time, he’d only exhaust himself, body and mind.

Sang-jin, inside the van, seemed to have spotted Yoo-hyun and turned on the headlights as he approached.
Yoo-hyun, reflexively raising an arm to shield his eyes from the glaring light, slowly turned to look back at where he’d been standing.
He’d walked to a spot close to the exit as instructed, to avoid the end-of-day rush, but it was actually quite far from the filming set.
No, why did he park the car here of all places?

Lately, Sang-jin had been getting overly invested in the fact that his actor had landed a lead role, going through all kinds of embarrassing phases on his own.
Sometimes it was so excessive, Yoo-hyun worried he might look ridiculous to others.
It was hard to believe that the same Sang-jin had chosen such a secluded spot.
That other spot seemed closer to the exit.
Yoo-hyun tilted his head slightly and climbed into the van.
Feeling thirsty, he immediately looked for a water bottle as soon as he got in and gulped some down.

He glanced at the driver’s seat, but it was suspiciously quiet.
Yoo-hyun swallowed the water slowly, watching cautiously, then quietly called out to Sang-jin.

“Hyung, is something wrong?”

Yoo-hyun blinked in the darkness.
For once, hyung is being quiet?

“Hyung?”

“…”

“…I think call time was eight tomorrow, right?”

Yoo-hyun deliberately gave the wrong time to gauge his reaction, but still got no response.
Maybe he’s really tired.

Sang-jin wasn’t the type to cut off communication for no reason.
The only times he’d gone silent and ignored him for more than a day were:

• Three months after debut, when youngest member Joo-young got caught trying to get a girl’s number in front of another girl group’s waiting room.

• In their first year, when Si-hyun went into hiding after dating rumors with a top-tier girl group member surfaced.

• Last year, when leader In-sung almost made the front page of entertainment news for taking a trip with an underage girl group member.
  Come to think of it, they were all dating-related.

Thinking it was nothing unusual, Yoo-hyun paused mid-sip.
Wait, hyung. You’re not misunderstanding something because of the blanket, are you?

“Sang-jin hyung.”

“…”

“Hyung. You’re not still hung up over the blanket thing, are you?”

Ever since Yoo-hyun revealed he was dating Tae-hwa, Sang-jin had been keeping him in check whenever he got the chance.
He didn’t know what grounds he had for saying this, but Sang-jin had sternly warned him that Tae-hwa seemed incredibly possessive, so he absolutely shouldn’t give him any leverage, especially regarding matters of love and jealousy.
He said that while he wished Yoo-hyun would never be entangled with someone like that again, since he already was, he should be careful not to incur his wrath.
Now that he was starting to gain some footing, he was worried that offending a chaebol heir’s son might disrupt his activities.

Considering how Sang-jin had been acting like a psychopath for the past month, getting happier the more exhausted Yoo-hyun was from his schedule, he could understand his sensitivity.

“Kuhaha, as expected, Yoo-hyun, if you want to photograph well, you need to be busy and a little haggard!”

Still, Yoo-hyun felt a bit wronged.
Being accused of playing a reckless double game just for lending someone a blanket?

“I told you earlier. Lending her the blanket was just a friendly gesture!
You saw it too, hyung.
Noona was shivering from the cold like this.
How could I just pretend not to see that while she was in front of me delivering her lines?”

“…”

“And besides, I’m telling you, no one else is on my radar except the person I’m dating right now.
You have absolutely nothing to worry about, hyung.”

“Is that so?”

Yoo-hyun, who had been rambling his excuses, blankly lifted his gaze at the unfamiliar voice.
Snapping back to reality, he wrapped his arms around the passenger seat headrest as if pouncing, leaning forward to confirm the owner of the voice from the driver’s seat.
It was who he thought it was.

“What’s this? Why are you here?”

“I kicked out Go Yoo-hyun-ssi’s manager and stylist and took over the car.”

“No, I mean, how did you get here?”

“I came by car.”

“…?”

“What’s this about a blanket?”

Yoo-hyun’s gaze was momentarily captured by the corner of Tae-hwa’s mouth as he turned to look at him.
It didn’t seem like a smirk, but there was something subtly mischievous about his slight smile.

“It’s nothing.”

“If your manager is suspicious, it doesn’t seem like nothing.”

“No, it just suddenly got cold this evening, didn’t it?
The wind was blowing hard.
The actress I’m working with looked cold, so I lent her a blanket.”

“And your manager?”

“His manager was recently replaced, and it seems they’re not getting along well.
Today, apparently, he even sent his manager home during filming, so…”

“You must be close? To know details like that.”

What’s with this guy again?

“Just wondering… am I being interrogated right now?”

“Of course not. Sit down, we need to get going.”

No, it wasn’t. It was an interrogation. Just now.
Yoo-hyun scratched his head and settled into his seat.

“But really, what brings you here?”

“I can never seem to see Go Yoo-hyun-ssi.
Looking at your schedule, I thought it’d be a miracle if we didn’t forget each other’s faces, let alone become close.”

Yoo-hyun finally remembered.
Right, there was that in the contract.

“I’d only heard about it, but drama filming is brutal.
They said just one more scene, so I thought it would end quickly.”

Having expected maybe thirty or forty minutes max before it ended, Yoo-hyun’s eyes widened in surprise at the words “just one more scene.”
They’d been filming just one single scene since sunset, so he had no idea how long Tae-hwa had been waiting.

“Since what time exactly? Were you with Sang-jin hyung and Si-hyung the whole time?”

“Don’t know the time, but they weren’t there when I came for the blanket.”

Sensing the undertone in that reply, Yoo-hyun’s eyebrows and mouth corners twitched in opposite directions, as if he’d heard something absurd.
He struggled to hold it in, but eventually burst out laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“No, just… it’s so unlike you today….”

Yoo-hyun, who had been speaking while laughing without thinking, trailed off as he realized the contradiction.
Unlike me today? Anyone overhearing would think we met every day and knew each other really well.
It was absurd, considering he knew next to nothing about this person named Joo Tae-hwa.

“Unlike you… I mean, manager hyung and Si-hyung left early, which is unlike them.
They’re not usually the type to obediently listen to others like that.
Yeah.”

He hastily finished covering up his slip.
Fortunately, Tae-hwa seemed to let it pass without much suspicion.

“Then let’s head home too.
We’ll be here until dawn at this rate.
Shall we go to your officetel?”

As if finally ready to depart, the car slowly moved forward.
Yoo-hyun’s hand, habitually reaching for his script, stopped mid-page-turn as a thought struck him.
Is it okay to just go like this?

The man in the driver’s seat and he were people who needed more perfect coordination than a two-man bobsled team, yet they hadn’t even become close.
And as Tae-hwa had said, they wouldn’t have much time to meet in the future either.

From the filming location, far from the city center, to Yoo-hyun’s officetel was at least an hour.
Finishing his quick calculation, Yoo-hyun urgently called out, “Wait a moment!”
As Tae-hwa, who had slammed on the brakes, turned to look, Yoo-hyun quickly opened the car door and jumped out.

* * * *

“…hyun-ssi.”

―I didn’t want it to turn out like this either. If I could turn back time…―Sounds like a joke? I’m serious…―I’m the one who wants to turn back time…―Well, thank you for that…―Hyun-ah, Go Yoo…….

“Go Yoo-hyun-ssi.”

Yoo-hyun, who had been dozing off in the passenger seat, woke with a start, flinching violently.

“Did you just call me?”

His face, gasping for breath as he asked if I’d called him, was drained white.
Tae-hwa quietly observed that pale complexion before calmly speaking.

“I’ve been trying to wake you for several minutes. You wouldn’t wake up.”

At that, Yoo-hyun groggily ran his hand through his hair and looked around.
Outside, he saw the familiar officetel parking lot.

“Wow, I didn’t even realize I fell asleep. When did I nod off?”

“Hmm, not long after we started? Pretty much immediately.”

So much for the effort of moving to the front seat.
Yoo-hyun smiled sheepishly, covering his face with his hand in embarrassment, and Tae-hwa let out a small chuckle as he said goodbye.

“Go on up and rest. It’s late.”

There couldn’t be a worse nightmare than this.
Finding it absurd, Yoo-hyun unbuckled his seatbelt and reached into the back to gather his things.
Dreaming about filming, even in my sleep, like a student staying up all night studying before an exam.

Having gathered everything, Yoo-hyun, about to reach for the door handle, suddenly turned to Tae-hwa and asked.

“How will you get home?”

“I asked your manager when he was leaving earlier. He said his car is here too.”

“Ah, so you need to get out here too, then. Let’s go out together.”

They got out together and walked toward Tae-hwa’s car, its exact location unknown.
Despite Tae-hwa’s urging that the car would find its own way back and he should just go home, Yoo-hyun insisted, “I do know basic manners, you know,” and stubbornly accompanied him.

The parking lot was vast, and at this late hour, most spaces near the lobby were double-parked, filled with cars.
If he can’t get out because of the double parking, I might need to catch him a taxi.
Just as Yoo-hyun was starting to feel awkward, they finally spotted Tae-hwa’s car in a far corner.

Tae-hwa, exhaling sharply like someone who’d just finished a difficult task, leaned against his car and looked at Yoo-hyun with a mischievous smile.

“Now is it my turn to see Go Yoo-hyun-ssi home to his front door?”

Finding his stubborn persistence, ignoring all suggestions to turn back, rather amusing, Yoo-hyun looked at the ground and chuckled softly before lifting his head.

“But really, aren’t you going to tell me the real reason you came today?”

“I told you. To see Go Yoo-hyun-ssi.”

“You really came just to see me?”

“Like I also said, Go Yoo-hyun-ssi is so busy.”

Yoo-hyun let out a low hum.
As expected, it’s hard to take that at face value.
The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed that he’d come all the way to the filming set just because they didn’t have time to become close.

They were far from being a real couple who missed each other when apart and made time to meet.
They were more like contractor and contractee, client and service provider.
One phone call, and Yoo-hyun would have found a way to make time somehow.