Practicing to Be in Love

“You said you were looking for someone to act like your lover, not to actually be your lover.”

“…”

“Hurry up. I’m really sleepy.”

As Yoo-hyun urged him on with a small yawn, Tae-hwa’s shoulders shook lightly.
“I was going to tell you next time since you looked like you’d been through enough today, but you don’t appreciate my thoughtfulness at all.”

“Next time? That’s even more tiring.
Manager hyung is a much better driver, you know.
Don’t come again.”

“You slept just fine in the car I was driving.”

“That wasn’t sleeping, that was passing out from exhaustion.
So, what was your business?”

Tae-hwa gave a faint smile, as if he had no choice.
“There’s a family gathering at the end of the year.”

“Yes.”

“You need to attend it, Go Yoo-hyun-ssi.”

Talking about the year-end schedule already? There are still three months left.
As Yoo-hyun looked at him questioningly, Tae-hwa leaned against the car hood and gestured his innocence.
“That’s why I said I’d tell you next time.”

“Really… you’re thorough.”

“Ah, speaking of thorough, that reminds me….”

Tae-hwa suddenly stood up and walked around the hood clockwise.
Wondering what he was doing, Yoo-hyun approached as Tae-hwa pulled something from the glove box and held it out to him.

“Take this.”

Taking it, Yoo-hyun saw it was a stack of papers, maybe about twenty sheets thick.
Still feeling chilly since waking from his nap, Yoo-hyun sniffled and flipped through them casually.
On each rapidly turning page, tiny letters filled the paper densely, the content not easily registering.

“What is this?”

“To bridge the gap between fake and real, we need to know each other, and we absolutely don’t have time for that―”

The next words didn’t immediately follow, so Yoo-hyun looked up.

“So we’ll have to use a shortcut.”

“A shortcut?”

“We’ll become close in an accelerated way too.”

The contract explicitly stated that to achieve their goal, there should be no awkwardness in playing lovers.
Yoo-hyun, who had been too busy with his schedule to worry about contracts or anything else, felt a faint pang of guilt, thinking he must have been worried enough to come all the way to the filming set.

“How about it? Think you can memorize it?”

Perhaps seeing his expression darken, Tae-hwa’s voice grew concerned.
Realizing the misunderstanding, Yoo-hyun let out a hollow laugh.
“Do you know how many scripts I have to memorize for a drama shoot?”

Yoo-hyun lifted his chin, puffing up with pride.

“Alright then. How about we meet regularly and have simple quizzes?”

“Quizzes over something like this?”

“It’s to minimize any gaps. If there are gaps, we’ll get caught quickly.”

“Gaps?”

“Like this,” Tae-hwa said, stepping closer to Yoo-hyun, who reflexively took two steps back.
Tae-hwa gestured with his eyes as if to say, See? and smiled softly.

“The gaps that appear.”

Following his gaze, Yoo-hyun looked back and forth between his own feet and Tae-hwa’s, flinched, and then scrambled to explain.
“Well, that’s because you’re so tall, and I don’t really like people getting too close….”

“What I mean is, even if you’re like that with others, you shouldn’t be with me. For us to look like we’re dating.”

Tae-hwa grabbed Yoo-hyun’s shoulders and turned him precisely in the opposite direction from where he’d been facing.
Yoo-hyun began walking step by step, pushed from behind by Tae-hwa.

“In that sense, we need to become closer.”

“Can we become closer by taking quizzes?”

“At least we can learn about each other.”

“…”

“Even if you don’t want to get close, you need to know about me to some extent.
No matter how well you act, Go Yoo-hyun-ssi, you don’t have the ability to pretend to know something you don’t.”

And of course, it’s even better if we get closer in the process.
At the added comment, Yoo-hyun scratched above his eyebrow.
That didn’t sound like a joke… what am I supposed to say to that?

After some thought, Yoo-hyun clumsily changed the subject.
“Ahem, so am I the only one taking these quizzes?”

“Of course.”

“…That’s not fair.”

“You don’t have time to organize things like this, Go Yoo-hyun-ssi.”

He wanted to argue, but it was true he had no time, so he kept his mouth shut.
I’m already dying from being busy, and now I have to take a test I never asked for….
He wasn’t thrilled about it, but he had no other alternatives, so he had no choice.
The one thing that absolutely couldn’t happen was getting caught playing the lover poorly in front of his family.

After crossing the parking lot for quite some time, they finally stood in front of the lobby.

“Is that all you had to say?”

“That’s all. Now go up and rest.”

Even as he said this, Tae-hwa remained standing there.
Is he planning to leave after watching me go in? Don’t tell me he’s going to see me all the way to my front door….
Suddenly realizing he’d never parted with anyone quite like this before, Yoo-hyun felt oddly embarrassed and hurriedly punched in the code, dashing into the lobby.

Before the door even closed, Yoo-hyun stood in front of the elevator and pressed the button hard.
Consciously staring only at the floor indicator, he stealthily rolled his eyes to look beyond the transparent glass door.
Tae-hwa was nowhere to be seen, apparently having finally left.

“…”

I sent him off without even saying goodbye.
Before he could dwell on it, a cheerful ding sounded and the elevator doors opened.
Yoo-hyun stepped inside.

He started to press the button, then lowered his hand.
I should have said goodbye.

The lobby’s automatic doors opened and Yoo-hyun rushed out, looking around.
From a distance, he heard the screech of tires on rubber and Tae-hwa’s car came into view.
Yoo-hyun quickly ran in front of the car and spread his arms wide; the slowly approaching vehicle stopped immediately.

Bending down, Yoo-hyun knocked on the driver’s side window, and the pitch-black glass slowly lowered.
Tae-hwa asked with concern.

“What’s wrong?”

“Drive safely.”

“Huh?”

“And I couldn’t say this earlier, but I didn’t want you to misunderstand.”

“…”

“It’s just that I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t had my head on straight, but I never meant to just let things slide or ignore you.
It’s not that I don’t want to get close or anything.”

As Yoo-hyun, fixing his gaze on a spot subtly off to the side and stammering, went on longer, the corners of Tae-hwa’s mouth lifted minutely.
Unaware of this, Yoo-hyun continued rambling whatever came to mind.

“…So from now on, I’ll at least call you whenever I have time.
Like you said, we need to become closer.”

Now that he’d said it, it wasn’t exactly urgent business.
Standing up straight, Yoo-hyun wrinkled his nose bridge in embarrassment and looked off somewhere far into the parking lot.
Maybe sending a text would have been better….

“…”

As the silence stretched with no response, Yoo-hyun’s wandering gaze eventually returned to Tae-hwa.
As if he’d been waiting for that dull stare to shift to him, Tae-hwa finally stretched his lips into a horizontal smile and spoke.

“We’ll be here until dawn.”

“Huh?”

“I’m saying I understand.”

How is ‘we’ll be here until dawn’ the same as ‘I understand’?
Yoo-hyun’s eyes squinted.

“It really is late. Go to sleep.”

Tae-hwa pulled out his phone from the console and showed him the time; Yoo-hyun’s eyes widened.
It was a number that brought back the fatigue he’d been trying to ignore—well over an hour past the date change.

Suddenly exhausted, Yoo-hyun pressed his brow bone and said goodbye.
“Anyway, I’m really going now. Drive safely.”

Taking a step back, he gave a small wave and stumbled away.
It was quite some time before the car moved.

* * * *

“Hello, hello. Yes, good morning. Hello.”

Arriving at the filming set earlier than scheduled, Yoo-hyun bowed repeatedly in various directions as he entered.
Despite being busy, the staff acknowledged his greetings, and after exchanging a few words, someone tipped him off that a coffee truck was set up on one side today.
Since it was early and he hadn’t managed to get coffee, this was quite welcome news.

The action director, who had been discussing something with Director Baek a few steps away from where the lighting was being set up, spotted Yoo-hyun and raised his hand.
Yoo-hyun immediately bent his back politely, greeting him from a distance.
The action director then beckoned him over with a friendly gesture.
Setting aside his plans to visit the coffee truck, Yoo-hyun approached them, completely tense.

“Oh, Yoo-hyun-ssi is here? You’re early.”

Director Baek’s face showed a mix of fatigue and indifference toward Yoo-hyun.

“I was worried about today’s scene. I wanted to loosen up my body beforehand.”

“Ah, that’s what they call model students. An exemplary attitude. In the morning, bodies aren’t warmed up, so injuries happen easily. If we coordinate with rehearsals like this, the chance of injury decreases, and sometimes it even cuts down filming time, so it’s good for everyone. Don’t you agree, Director?”

The action director, who had coached Yoo-hyun for weeks just before filming began, looked at him warmly, pleased with his diligence.
Yoo-hyun beamed.
Just then, “Yoo-hyun-ssi,” Director Baek called his name quietly.
His relaxed nerves instantly snapped taut.

“Yes, Director.”

“You’re confident, right?”

“Huh?”

“Honestly, I’d prefer using a stunt double, but the action director said to trust you and give it a try.”

As the director’s sharp gaze fixed directly on him, Yoo-hyun instinctively stiffened.
When Yoo-hyun couldn’t answer immediately and froze like a mouse before a cat, the action director laughed heartily and easily dispelled the tension.

“No, I was just praising Yoo-hyun-ssi up and down, but if you get that scared, what does that make me? You should say there’s nothing to worry about, that he’ll definitely do well!”

Perhaps realizing he should back off from the action director’s increasing enthusiasm now that the subject had arrived, Director Baek spoke calmly.

“Writer Yoo has been emphasizing it repeatedly from the beginning….
And I’m a bit greedy too, which is why I asked Yoo-hyun-ssi to practice beforehand….
But I’m quite worried. Whether I’m asking him to do something too dangerous.”

Yoo-hyun got the impression from his words that Director Baek found the writer’s requests somewhat annoying.
Whether the action director sensed that subtle irritation too, he persuaded him in a more subdued voice.

“It’s because I think it would be a waste.
Speaking from the position of having observed how Yoo-hyun-ssi has been doing.”

“There’s no need to take risks just because something would be a waste. We have alternatives available. There’s a stunt double, and if worse comes to worst, there’s CG….”

“I usually recommend using a double if something seems unlikely to work, but I’ve seen how hard Yoo-hyun-ssi has been working and how well he’s done, so I suggested at least giving him a rehearsal.”

Given that the scene involved actual weapons, his concern wasn’t unreasonable.
But it probably wasn’t just because he was worried.