Chapter 30: Uncomfortable Conversations

“……Yes. But not here.”

Unable to withstand the shifting glances of the people around them, Yaehyun spoke as if giving up. What was she thinking, trying to have this discussion in a hallway where everyone was passing by?

“There’s a resident cafe here. It’s not far from here.” Seoyeon spoke immediately, as if she had been waiting for him to say exactly that. A clear look of relief filled her face.

Holding his forehead with one hand to soothe a growing headache, Yaehyun quietly asked, “By the way, how old are you?”

No matter how much she had been raised like a delicate flower in a greenhouse, she acted entirely too immature. If their families were already discussing an official engagement, she couldn’t be a child. How exactly had she been raised to turn out this childish?

With that thought tracking through his mind, Yaehyun waited.

“Me? I’m twenty-three. Oh, but since I was born early in the year, I’m practically twenty-four.”

“……Twenty-three?”

Park Gyujin, you are truly a lunatic.

Even if she was born early in the year, it was only the very first month. At that age, distinguishing between twenty-three and twenty-four carried absolutely no real meaning.

He was actively dating a woman six years younger than him as a prospective marriage partner.

“Have you graduated from college yet?”

“I’m graduating soon. We agreed to hold the official engagement ceremony right after my graduation…” Seoyeon fidgeted nervously with the ring on her finger—a band that was unmistakably a couple ring—as she spoke. “We were originally introduced through family elders… but he was always so exceptionally good to me and kept telling me I was beautiful, so I genuinely thought he was a wonderful person…”

“Let me warn you in advance, everything that comes out of my mouth regarding Park Gyujin will be an insult. If you intend to keep dating him regardless, it is much better for you to just ignore me—”

“But you seem like a good person too, so it’s just weird.”

She thinks I’m a good person? What a thoroughly strange woman. Yaehyun kept the thought to himself and looked at Seoyeon with a deeply sour expression.

He wanted to ask her on the spot why she had suddenly jumped to that conclusion, but this clearly wasn’t the right situation to delve into it.

“……Let’s move somewhere else to talk first.” Yaehyun let out a heavy sigh and firmly pulled Seoyeon’s hand off his sleeve.

Shortly after, the two sat directly across from each other at a small table with two cups of coffee between them. It was a thoroughly mismatched, awkward pairing.

“Let me state this clearly before we begin, I do not harbor positive feelings for Park Gyujin whatsoever. So if you came here expecting objective or helpful information about him…”

“I know that much.” Seoyeon’s face, which had been stained with tears moments ago, had settled into a relatively composed expression. “I, well… first, I want to formally apologize for losing my temper and getting angry at you out of nowhere during our first meeting. At that time, I was just intensely curious about what kind of person you were.”

“Why didn’t you just ask Park Gyujin directly?” Yaehyun sighed, watching Seoyeon make a clumsy attempt at proper politeness.

Why was he even sitting here? What earthly good could possibly come from having a heart-to-heart with Park Gyujin’s new girlfriend? He wanted to stand up and walk straight back to the apartment, but he figured it would be far better to finish this conversation completely so she would never bother him again.

“I did ask him. But he just…” Seoyeon looked up at Yaehyun warily. Whatever Gyujin had said, it probably wasn’t a very pleasant story.

Yaehyun assumed the answer was painfully obvious and said, “Go ahead and say it. I don’t expect Park Gyujin to have said a single good thing about me.”

What could he have possibly said? That he was an annoying person who chased him around, that he was utterly sick of him, or that he was nothing special. It would be roughly along those lines. It stung to think about, but the relationship was over anyway. Nothing would change that reality.

Operating under that thought, he waited calmly for Seoyeon’s next words, but what actually left her mouth was far more painful than anything he had been imagining.

“…He said you were pitiful…”

It would have been infinitely better if she had told him Gyujin called him a worthless person, or an idiot who didn’t know his place and clung on desperately. The version of Park Gyujin that Yaehyun encountered through Seoyeon’s words was even more pathetic than he had anticipated.

Seeing Yaehyun’s expression instantly harden into stone, Seoyeon cautiously added, “He… he just said you were a lover he briefly dated back in college. Something simple like that.”

Yaehyun let out a short, hollow laugh, entirely unable to believe his ears.

To Gyujin, a chronological period spanning nearly a quarter of his entire life was reduced to nothing more than ‘briefly’. Or perhaps he simply wanted to convince himself that it amounted to nothing.

“I see. A pitiful person.” Yaehyun’s voice dropped into a subdued, quiet register.

If Gyujin had simply chosen to endlessly belittle him, Yaehyun could have easily laughed at how ugly the man had become just to escape the weight of the situation. But ‘pitiful’—a word that carried a sense of hollow sincerity—left him feeling profoundly bitter, almost entirely empty inside.

Seoyeon fidgeted noticeably with her hands, carefully tracking Yaehyun’s shifting expression. She seemed entirely flustered by his muted, unexpected reaction.

“……Then should I tell you exactly what kind of person Park Gyujin was to me?” Yaehyun forced a thin smile onto his lips.

There’s absolutely no need to be swayed by this. It’s not like I didn’t already know he was complete trash. Yaehyun comforted himself internally and slowly allowed his thoughts to drift backward.

What kind of person Park Gyujin truly was. To articulate that story properly, he had to travel back seven years, all the way to the first semester of their sophomore year of college when Yaehyun and Gyujin had crossed paths for the very first time.

“Wow! We don’t have to travel all the way down to Busan anymore! It’s not completely over yet, but let’s take a proper break tonight!” Director Kim raised his glass high into the air and shouted to the room.

Tomorrow marked the final location shoot for the entire drama. After a short afternoon session at the reserved location, the production crew wouldn’t need to make the grueling trek down to Busan ever again. At the director’s sudden suggestion to share a celebratory meal since it was their final night on location, the entire main cast and the assistant directors had gathered in the restaurant.

“Half of the filming schedule is officially wrapped. We still have a long, difficult way to go, but let’s continue to do our absolute best until the final shoot, just like we have been! For Blue Flame!”

“For it!”

The people filling the tables raised their glasses in unison, shouting back in response to Director Kim’s boisterous toast.

“Haeri and Ijeong, you’ve both worked exceptionally hard out there. Especially you, Ijeong—you’re right at the absolute peak of your youth, aren’t you?”

“We aren’t going to be separated forever anyway. It’s no big deal,” Ijeong replied with a smooth, effortless smile to Director Kim’s sly comment.

[♡: Came to work out 2:32 PM]

Ijeong silently recalled the last text message he had received from Yaehyun earlier that afternoon.

Ijeong had previously heard from Yujeong that Park Gyujin’s young fiancée, Joo Seoyeon, lived within the exact same luxury apartment complex and frequently utilized the resident facilities. From what he could gather, she was tactless, deeply impulsive, and entirely accustomed to being thoroughly pampered her whole life. Therefore, once an unexpected situation was dropped in front of her, she would undoubtedly rush straight in and violently scratch at Yaehyun’s internal boundaries.

Such deliberate actions by Joo Seoyeon would inevitably serve as the perfect catalyst, forcing Yaehyun to execute the terms of their public contract with far more passion and urgency.

“Anyway, the weekend location shoots officially conclude tomorrow. If everything resolves smoothly, our ‘dear’ won’t have any reason to feel sad about these long absences anymore.”

“‘Dear,’ oh my. This is excellent, truly excellent,” Director Kim joked broadly, thoroughly enjoying the narrative. “Do you drink much, Actor Kang?”

“If the director personally offers me a drink, I have to empty the glass even if I can’t handle my liquor.”

“Awww, look at him go! I’m really not that strict of a director~.” Director Kim chuckled warmly and immediately filled Ijeong’s glass to the brim. Ijeong held out the glassware with a perfectly practiced, dazzling grin.

“Haeri, how about one drink?”

“Just one.”

“Of course, of course. I never force anyone to drink past their limit.” Director Kim smoothly poured a portion for Haeri as well. “Everyone worked incredibly hard this week, so make sure to eat your fill. Since tomorrow’s shoot doesn’t start until late afternoon, just make sure not to drink yourselves to death! Let’s finish this wrap-up perfectly and head straight back to Seoul!”

“Yes~.”

Director Kim spoke with a buoyant, cheerful energy. The surrounding actors and assistant directors also seemed distinctly excited at the liberating thought of no longer having to travel back and forth across the country.

[The shoot is completely wrapped. I’ll be heading up to Seoul late tomorrow afternoon. 7:14 PM]

Around the exact time the dinner party was heating up and growing increasingly loud, Ijeong sent his late reply back to Yaehyun.

There had been an absolute radio silence from the boy’s end for hours after he mentioned heading down to the gym, meaning something must have occurred that required serious, heavy thought. If Ijeong had things his way, he would leave the restaurant right this second, return to the apartment, pretend to know absolutely nothing about the situation, grab Yaehyun’s drooping shoulders, and gently ask what had happened while feigning complete innocence.

Then, the naive, open Yaehyun would undoubtedly answer him in a subdued, vulnerable voice and lean slightly into his space without even realizing it.

Ijeong found himself genuinely wishing tomorrow afternoon’s scheduled shoot didn’t exist at all. With that quiet thought, he downed the contents of his glass in a single swallow.

“Is your lover really that wonderful? You’ve been grinning from ear to ear for the last ten minutes,” Haeri remarked, glancing over at Ijeong with a knowing look.

Ijeong simply told himself that this involuntary smile was nothing more than a sense of profound relief that his structural plans were unfolding exactly as intended. “It seems like it.”

Rather than focusing on Haeri, Ijeong’s attention was far more interested in Myeongah—the manager who also happened to be Yaehyun’s former college classmate. He subtly shifted his gaze away from Haeri as he formulated his response, looking past her shoulder to observe the woman.

Myeongah seemed entirely like the type of person who lacked the ability to easily refuse drinks offered by senior staff, and she was currently consuming the alcohol pushed onto her by the people sitting adjacent to her with a distinctly troubled, overwhelmed expression.

Watching her face, which was already heavily flushed as if she had officially reached her absolute physical limit, Ijeong suddenly caught a brilliant idea and stood up from his seat.

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