Chapter 10: Spice, Distance, and the First Interview

Jitae quietly muttered to himself and nodded.

“Since when?”

Wooju, who had been habitually lost in thought, suddenly found Won Jitae, who kept hovering beside him while he cooked, irritating.

“If you’re not going to help, go over there.”

Tsk.

Jitae clicked his tongue.

Even so, he absolutely did not leave Wooju’s side.

He stubbornly stayed put, and then Wooju lightly tapped his arm before suddenly holding out cooking chopsticks with a chunk of bright red pork stir-fry clamped between them.

“Try it.

See if the seasoning’s right.”

To keep the food from falling, Wooju leaned even closer to Jitae.

At the suddenly shortened distance, Jitae braced one hand against the space beside him.

After swallowing hard, he opened his mouth, and the pork stir-fry Wooju offered settled safely inside.

“How is it?”

“…….”

Jitae avoided his gaze and focused on chewing.

In the meantime, Wooju calmly checked whether the rice was done, when suddenly Jitae’s body stiffened upright.

“…Hot.”

“Yes?”

“…It’s f*cking spicy…….”

Jitae covered his mouth with his hand, his face scrunching up tightly.

It was as if he had forgotten they were filming, swearing without even realizing it.

Wooju tilted his head in confusion, and Jitae’s face gradually began turning red, like a roasted sweet potato.

“Hey, you…….”

Before Wooju could say anything, Jitae dashed to the water purifier and repeatedly pressed the cold-water button.

As he gulped down the water, his broad shoulders and back rose and fell rapidly, like a fortress under siege.

“…You can’t eat spicy food?”

Jitae snapped his head around and began glaring fiercely at Wooju.

The area around his lips had turned a little red, and rather than looking ridiculous, it somehow suited him, perhaps because of his looks.

Wooju turned off the gas and took a bite of the pork himself.

For his own taste, it was perfectly spicy.

Of course, he was known even among his team as someone who handled spicy food well, but he had still adjusted the seasoning as much as possible with Jitae in mind.

“You… you, why…….”

“What.

What is it.”

Jitae continued to glare at Wooju with eyes full of resentment.

It wasn’t like Wooju knew he couldn’t eat spicy food, and it wasn’t like he had done it on purpose.

Then what was with that resentful look.

Just then, as if on cue, the pressure rice cooker began rattling loudly and releasing steam.

“…It’s fine.

Let’s just eat.”

Jitae sharply turned his head away and quickly composed his expression.

Wooju hurriedly added sugar to the pork stir-fry, poured in a little water, and adjusted the seasoning again with soy sauce.

“Hm.

I didn’t know you couldn’t eat spicy food.”

The awkward air wrapped itself around the table.

Rice, store-bought kimchi, rolled omelet, and pork stir-fry.

For something prepared in a rush, it was a pretty impressive spread, yet Wooju found himself carefully watching Won Jitae’s reactions for no reason.

His expression had returned to calm, but he had definitely glared at Wooju resentfully while drinking water earlier.

“Yes.

Of course you wouldn’t know.

It’s not like you did it on purpose, Wooju.”

Jitae smiled softly.

What was it this time.

What exactly did he not like enough to twist his words like that.

Everything else may have changed, but that personality seemed exactly the same.

“Hey.

There’s something I want to suggest.”

As Wooju subtly slid the rolled omelet closer to Jitae, he spoke.

Even though the seasoning had been adjusted again, Jitae still hadn’t touched the pork stir-fry.

The memory from earlier must have turned into a kind of trauma.

“What is it?”

“Let’s… drop the honorifics.

We’re the same age anyway, and we already knew each other before.

We’re going to be living together for a whole month, and I think that’d be more comfortable.”

More than that, he really didn’t want to keep mixing casual speech and awkward politeness every other sentence.

“Sure.”

Jitae immediately agreed, as if he’d been thinking the same thing.

“Alright.

Then since I cooked, you do the dishes.”

The moment they dropped formal speech, it felt unbelievably comfortable.

It was like something tightly clogged inside him suddenly cleared all at once.

“I was going to do them even if you didn’t say anything.”

The spicy pork incident had made things a little awkward, but it didn’t matter.

They had accomplished the task of dropping honorifics.

And because of that, the atmosphere seemed to loosen just a little.

After dinner, Won Jitae really did the dishes without a single complaint.

By now, it had grown dark outside, and Wooju secretly worried the production team might assign them something else.

Fortunately, that worry never came true.

After washing up, Wooju’s phone, which he had left in his room, buzzed briefly.

[Player Kang Wooju, we’ll be conducting your personal interview.

Please come to the staff lodging now.]

Wooju was about to tell Jitae he was heading out, but he heard the sound of running water from the second-floor bathroom.

It seemed Won Jitae was showering as well.

Well, he’d probably assume he went for the interview.

Wooju slipped on his slippers and headed toward the staff lodging for the interview.

The same writer who had conducted the pre-interview last time greeted Wooju and pointed to the chair in front.

Seeing the many cameras, a vague tension crept up, and his hands tightened slightly.

“Like last time, just answer comfortably when I ask questions.”

“Yes.”

The youngest writer came in and snapped the slate shut.

“Today is your first day moving into .

How do you feel?”

“Um… honestly, my head is completely full.

I think I’ll sleep really well tonight.”

“Do you like the house?”

“Yes.

It’s really nice.”

Wooju continued answering briefly.

“Then you met your roommate for the first time today.

How was that?”

At the question about Jitae, Wooju paused slightly.

“Honestly, someone I never expected showed up…

I’m still surprised.”

“Have you ever crossed paths with actor Won Jitae before?”

They were pretending not to know, but this question clearly had intent behind it.

Wooju didn’t know whether the production team had known about his relationship with Jitae from the start.

It might have been a coincidence, or it might have been a deliberately engineered reunion.

Either way, this was a gate he had to pass through.

“To be honest, I played volleyball starting in middle school, and Jitae played too.

We went to different schools, but until high school we often ran into each other at matches.

I never imagined we’d meet again here.”

“So after your school days, you didn’t stay in touch?”

“No.

Not at all.

This is the first time we’ve met since becoming adults.

That’s why it’s a bit awkward.”

“Then how do you feel about being reunited through this program?”

How did he feel.

Wooju let the silence stretch for a moment.

When that door opened and Won Jitae walked in, what had he felt then.

Seeing twenty-seven-year-old Won Jitae after last seeing the nineteen-year-old version of him.

“…I don’t really know.

I’m not sure whether to say I’m glad or just shocked.”

It was an unknown variable.

Exactly that.

After answering a few more questions, Wooju was finally freed from the microphone.

As he thanked the staff one by one and turned to head back, the writer stopped him.

“Could you let the actor know to come for his interview as well?

He’s not checking his messages…….”

“Yes.

He’s probably showering.

I’ll tell him.”

“Thank you, Wooju.”

“Ah, writer.”

Wooju scratched his head and grabbed onto the conversation just as it was about to end.

“When you cast us…

Did you already know about my relationship with Won Jitae?”

He’d been curious the entire time.

Whether the production team knew everything about their old relationship and still cast them anyway.

“Well… actually, casting is handled entirely by the PD.

The PD tells us who they have in mind, and we simply proceed with contacting them…….”

“I see.

Alright.”

The writer smiled awkwardly.

Not knowing much about how the world of filming and broadcasting worked, Wooju could only accept it as it was.

Wooju glanced around at the surroundings for no real reason as he headed home.

He entered the still-unfamiliar door code and went inside.

“Where did you go?”

Won Jitae’s voice echoed from the inner living room.

“Interview.”

Wooju replied as he took off his shoes.

“If you’re done washing up, then go and—”

As Wooju stepped into the living room to pass along the writer’s message, he froze.

Won Jitae—more precisely, Won Jitae with a towel draped over his head and his top off—was standing in the living room, looking at his phone.

His hair was still dripping wet, as if he had just finished showering.

Wooju blinked and stared straight at Jitae’s bare body.

“Interview?

Ah, I got a message.”

Jitae nodded, finally checking his phone.

“I’ll go too.”

The moment Jitae reached for the T-shirt he’d tossed on the sofa, Wooju quickly stepped right up to him.

“Hey, you.”

“…What, what are you doing.”

Startled by Wooju suddenly closing the distance, Jitae reflexively leaned back.

But Wooju, with a deadly serious expression and sharply focused eyes, began scanning Jitae’s upper body.

That persistent gaze was like that of a researcher analyzing a subject.

“Your body…

It’s good?”

“What?”