From there, everything flowed without a single NG, all the way through the beat where Jihan parts from Cha Jua, dumps his coat whole into a trash can, and gets into the car that’s come to pick him up. After finishing the bits that had to be shot inside the car and returning to set, a startled Ahn Sujin sidled up and went, Did you start going to acting classes in the meantime? Not sure what she meant, he looked down at her; “Mm,” she stalled a moment, then scratched her cheek and gave an awkward smile. I watched your previous drama….I haven’t seen it, but apparently the former Lee Sihyeon made a complete mess of that drama.When Ahn Sujin, watching for cues, asked, Did I say something I shouldn’t have?, he told a bald-faced lie that he had in fact taken intensive acting lessons, and her eyes lit. I knew it, right!? She nodded-nodded like she agreed, knew it, knew it.“……….”Without bothering to answer further, he let himself be led by the staff that had hurried up; he changed wardrobe, corrected his makeup, and moved on to the next scene.Jihan reaches out first so they meet again; asked whether she told Inhu, Jua shakes her head and smiles mischievously, and Jihan mirrors her smile. The two enter a café; when the gaze of the room naturally slides toward Jihan and Jua hesitates, Jihan—unconcerned with other people’s eyes—looks at her like what’s wrong and asks what she likes to drink.You said before—you’d tell me stories from Inhu’s high school days.Sitting a bit awkwardly, Jua brightened at the words with an “Ah!” Wearing a gentle face, Jihan began to unwind stories about Inhu and himself in high school. Transferring schools, P.E., basketball, competitiveness. And… weaving lies and truths together just so, he had Cha Jua laughing out loud like she was genuinely delighted.Idiot, Jihan thought with a smile, and Cha Jua asked, You two must have been close since school days?After a short pause, the man’s lips slid open like a ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) snake’s.“…We’re still very close.”A brazen, blood-red lie. He swallowed the words that wanted to continue past his tongue; when he smiled with a kindly face, Cha Jua smiled back. The accustomed glint of trusting someone. Jihan lifted the macchiato in front of him. The sweetness was so cloying it was nauseating.“Cut!” With the call, the camera light went off, and Good work sounded here and there. This was Sihyeon’s last bit for the day. He returned the greetings of those who greeted him and stepped down; the Manager came scurrying over and held out a warm thermos. It’s barley tea—it’s cold. He must have been doing something in the kitchen last night; so that’s what it was.Sihyeon gave a small smile and a thanks, took a sip of barley tea, and swept a look around. Among the people moving to and fro, he easily picked out the foxlike face and asked the Manager—who was chattering excitedly beside him—“Was I close with him?”“Huh? Who? Ah, Heejoon? …Gasp! Right, he’s filming with us too…! Did he—did he say something to you? What did he say? What did you say!”“…Nothing much.”He said he’d stopped by the hospital but was disappointed he couldn’t see me.The Manager didn’t have a speck of doubt about the calm-faced lie. Really? That’s all? he asked back, then exhaled in relief.“To be honest… I don’t really know if you two were close or anything. You never really talked about yourself.”“……….”“But you two did chat from time to time. Heejoon was always warm to you—he’d say hi first, act familiar? Since you’re both in idol groups, you ran into each other a lot on music programs, and even though he’s a year your senior he took good care of you.”Maybe because you’re the same age? Out of everyone, he especially looked after you the most.Listening to the Manager speak with that guileless face, Sihyeon worked fast. That face—the one that had snickered you really go cheap—had been nothing but malice; he’d wondered if they were enemies from the start, but it was the opposite. Hearing even the closest-by Manager say so, the only conclusion was that that fox had deliberately been two-faced.Did the former Lee Sihyeon just sit there and take it? He clicked his tongue lightly and took another sip of the warm barley tea.With a swell of murmurs, the squealing sound that signaled someone’s arrival grew louder.Sihyeon, uninterested, simply turned his head to look for the director, thinking he’d go say goodbye and leave. The Manager, of course, was the one in a tizzy. He tugged Sihyeon’s arm, and when the thermos lid nearly spilled he caught it in his other hand and murmured, Careful. “Oh, sorry!” he answered, then quickly whispered like that wasn’t the point.“Sihyeon, Sihyeon! Go say hello—don’t get caught on camera…!”“To whom?”“Over there, the guy who just got here! That’s Yoon Isu, he’s playing Inhu this time. He’s a huge top star with a wild fanbase, and if you rub him the wrong way it’s a headache.”Indeed, his looks were unreal. Even if someone said a sculptor had carefully chiseled him, there’d be no grounds to object. Taller than Sihyeon, broad-shouldered—so perfect you could see at a glance it came from steady conditioning. Lightly tanned skin and sharp eyes gave him the provocative air of a carnivore. This Yoon Isu made no attempt to hide his masculinity.Ugh. No.Registering at once that he wasn’t an easy opponent—and that he’d be acting opposite this opponent from now on—Sihyeon’s mood sank further. From experience, getting entangled with this kind always ended badly. Even when it wasn’t the intent, there had always been people who went off the rails or got obsessively clingy in response to Lee Hajin’s lazy, slightly sharp edge. Whatever he’d been triggering, they were generally that type. Overt, unhidden.While he was committing the discourtesy of judging someone by looks without a shred of guilt, the man abruptly snapped his head, and his eyes met Sihyeon’s head-on. The keen gaze flickered, brief. He’d recognized him.Can’t be helped.Knowing it wouldn’t be good to dodge the eyes here or play it awkward, Sihyeon swallowed a sigh, walked slowly toward Yoon Isu, and spoke.“Hello.”Adding miscellaneous fluff would be sillier. He didn’t seem like someone who’d take it well, either. Sihyeon kept it short, bowed his head—and got no answer. The air around them tightened, watching only the two of them. After a short silence he lifted his head; their eyes met again. The look, like it was assessing something, was dark.Even after their eyes met again, still no answer.Sihyeon hadn’t come expecting one anyway; he was about to execute his plan—give a short self-introduction and go find the director—when the man’s mouth opened first, quicker than Sihyeon’s, which had seemed like it might never open.“…Do it right.”It was a distinctive low voice. Before Sihyeon could wince at the odd feeling of it scraping at the ear, he understood the words at once, even if they could read as rude for a first meeting. Whether acting, relationships, or the press—carry yourself properly so you don’t cause trouble on our side. It could have been offensive, but to him it wasn’t. It was obvious, and he liked that it was simple.“Okay.”So he answered without the slightest pushback. At that voice, people who’d frozen stiff—bracing for the all-out war that was surely about to begin—stared at Sihyeon in shock, like did I hear that wrong? To spit that out on a first meeting, at the hellcat Lee Sihyeon no less, looked like a naked attempt to pick a fight. Even if the man was Yoon Isu, who was known for saying everything bluntly without pretense, and even if Lee Sihyeon had seemed to change drastically lately, the expectation of a clash hadn’t changed.But that calm face.At a point where even a twisted look would have been too little, he answered like it was only natural—far too composed.No way, everyone thought, getting sucked back into the whirlpool of confusion—when Yoon Isu’s brow twitched once; he gave a short nod and strode off, heels thudding. Seemed he hadn’t been picking a fight—he really had just said what he wanted to say. Having gotten his answer, he headed for the director like it was no big deal and offered a simple greeting, and from a distance Ahn Sujin came running up to say something. Before Sihyeon could hear what it was, the next moment something fast wrapped around his waist.“You did great, Sihyeon…!”I thought you’d flip out and we’d have an all-out brawl—seriously, you did so well, Sihyeon. I was so scared of what you might say my heart almost stopped—really…!Judging by the Manager’s blue-white face, it wasn’t just a light joke. Sihyeon clicked his tongue and pressed the Manager’s cheek with his fingertips as the man hugged his waist. The Manager had a lot of skinship; easily excited, easily scared, easily happy, he’d hug or cling to the members—and Sihyeon—whenever something happened. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it was a hassle. With an indifferent face, Sihyeon said, “Let go,” and the Manager seemed to come to his senses and slid his arms away from Sihyeon’s waist. He looked like a dog watching for cues.Around the time they were bickering like that, the director’s We’re rolling cut across the set.With nothing else on his schedule after this anyway, Sihyeon turned his head, unhurried, and saw Yoon Isu enter the café and sit in the chair Sihyeon had occupied earlier. In a green flight jacket, in a posture that read free and easy—he was Inhu to a T. Why are you grinning like that? Speaking in a tone utterly different from a moment ago, Yoon Isu had Sihyeon thinking, Actors really are different, huh. His lines and eyelines flowed smooth as water.“It’s nothing.” Still with that clear bright smile, Ahn Sujin said so, and Yoon Isu gave a soft huff of a laugh and slowly leaned his upper body over the table. The angle of his reaching hand; a hand not rough but masculine slid gently to sweep Ahn Sujin’s hair behind her ear, and he smiled slow enough to entrance.“…Well… you look pretty when you smile.”That’s definitely the face of a man in love. The female staff gazing at Yoon Isu like they were enraptured were funny enough that Sihyeon turned his head—and felt a light buzz in his pocket. His smartphone, which hadn’t rung once since changing the number. Huh? I haven’t given the number to anyone.He took it out as it buzzed short and whiny; it was an unknown number. He hesitated over whether to pick up, but for some reason it felt like he should. Slipping quietly out of the set, Sihyeon accepted the call and lifted it to his ear—and a voice he’d heard before poured out, urgent.It was the hospital.

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