Chapter 12: A Front-Row Seat to a Love Spat

“Are you sure you’ve arrived? I’m outside, but I don’t see anyone.”

– Are you sure you’ve arrived? I’m outside, but I don’t see anyone.

The voice of one person seemed to come from two places at once. Yeon-ho slightly moved his phone away from his cheek, then looked in the direction of the live voice.

“Hello? Can you hear me—oh!”

– Hello? Can you hear me—oh!

The woman who emerged from apartment 2104 also looked around before spotting Yeon-ho. He had been unsure until that moment, but the instant their eyes met, Yeon-ho was certain she was the person he was speaking with on the phone.

One question immediately arose: the delivery request was for apartment 2103, so why was someone coming out of 2104? No, in fact, there was something even more unsettling on his mind.

‘That’s Park Se-yeon, isn’t it?’

Yeon-ho was utterly surprised that the woman emerging from Tae-young’s apartment was someone he recognized. By ‘recognized,’ he didn’t mean a personal acquaintance, but rather a face he knew.

Park Se-yeon.

She was the actress who played the female lead in *Glass Staircase*, the work that earned Tae-young the Grand Prize at the year-end awards.

‘He’s famous for dating the female lead he’s cast with in every project he does.’

Suddenly, Jung-eun’s words from Moonlight flashed through his mind.

“Are you the one who brought my *gamjatang*?”

Park Se-yeon pointed a finger at Yeon-ho.

“…Uh, yes!”

Yeon-ho fumbled to press the ‘end call’ button, then approached Park Se-yeon.

‘Don’t get distracted with idle thoughts while working. Why am I so flustered about Han Tae-young dating Park Se-yeon?’

He briefly wondered if they weren’t dating, but rather she was simply visiting a close acquaintance’s home, then paused. A more pressing issue than whether Tae-young and Park Se-yeon were dating had just occurred to him.

“Excuse me, but I just need to confirm one thing. You listed the delivery address as 2103, not 2104. Are you the person who placed the order?”

“This *is* 2103.”

Frowning as if she’d heard something absurd, Park Se-yeon checked the apartment number on the door.

“Oh, it really is 2104! My apologies. It’s been so long since I’ve been here, I must have remembered incorrectly.”

Park Se-yeon apologized with a good-natured smile.

“But where’s my *gamjatang*…?”

With a look of sudden realization, Yeon-ho glanced down at his empty hands. He had completely forgotten he’d entrusted the *gamjatang* to Tae-young.

“Um, Han Tae—”

The moment he turned to look behind him, a large hand seized Yeon-ho’s shoulder and shoved him against the wall.

“Why are you here?”

A chilling voice emanated from Tae-young, who had just pushed Yeon-ho aside. Yeon-ho observed the tense standoff between Tae-young and Park Se-yeon, both radiating a hostile aura.

He had assumed they were dating, so why was the atmosphere so fraught?

‘Is it because of me?’

An actress had been caught by an outsider, eating delivery food in her own home. While an unknown ordinary person could explain it away as family, a relative, or even staff, such excuses wouldn’t work for an actress.

However, pretending to be on bad terms to avoid a scandal seemed odd. Wasn’t Tae-young the very nuisance from apartment 2104 who had tormented Yeon-ho endlessly?

Given Tae-young’s personality, rather than pretending he wasn’t involved with his girlfriend, he would likely threaten Yeon-ho with dire consequences if he dared to speak about what he’d seen today.

“Why? Am I not allowed to be here?”

“Is that even a question? Don’t you know you can’t just barge into someone else’s home without the owner’s permission?”

“It’s an emergency. A woman problem.”

At the mention of a “woman problem,” Yeon-ho’s eyes widened like lanterns. It seemed he had stumbled upon Tae-young’s cheating, or rather, the scene of Tae-young being interrogated about cheating.

“I understand your situation. But shouldn’t you have at least called ahead to say you were coming?”

“Call? You shouldn’t say that to me, you ungrateful wretch. Who do you think caused this whole mess?”

Park Se-yeon interrogated Tae-young with a fierce demeanor.

‘An ungrateful wretch, she called him. What on earth happened between these two?’

Having gone out for a delivery, Yeon-ho suddenly found himself with a front-row seat to a dramatic love spat, and he swallowed hard.

‘Is this not just a simple affair? It feels like something more complicated is at play.’

Yeon-ho felt as if he had stumbled onto the set of a morning drama or a daily soap opera, unfolding with all its outrageous plot twists. The content of Tae-young and Park Se-yeon’s conversation, coupled with their excellent vocalization and pronunciation, made it impossible not to think of a drama shoot.

“Don’t shift the blame to me.”

A chill ran down Yeon-ho’s spine. He had a premonition that Tae-young was about to utter something truly awful, something no human should say.

‘Han Tae-young! No, no. Don’t do it. That’s really not right.’

Of course, Tae-young, unable to hear Yeon-ho’s silent plea, crossed the final line.

“We’re not even dating, are we?”

‘…Wow, what a jerk.’

As Yeon-ho clapped a hand over his mouth to prevent his internal thoughts from escaping, Park Se-yeon slapped out at Tae-young. Yeon-ho disliked violence, but he couldn’t help but think Tae-young deserved it this time.

When spouting such garbage, one should be prepared to take a few slaps to the face.

However, instead of passively taking the hit, Tae-young caught Park Se-yeon’s wrist.

“Not the face. I have a shoot tomorrow.”

“Don’t pretend to be so dedicated to your profession! Not when you can’t even sleep without a woman or pills!”

Park Se-yeon violently wrenched her hand free from Tae-young’s grasp, then stormed back into the apartment. With a resounding slam, the door closed, and the hallway that had just been filled with loud shouting fell silent.

“Damn it.”

Tae-young gripped the doorframe, grinding his teeth. As he took a deep breath, his back broadened as if his jacket would tear, then returned to its normal state.

‘Why isn’t he going after Park Se-yeon? Shouldn’t he go comfort her?’

While Yeon-ho pondered this, Tae-young spoke.

“Why are you still hanging around? Are you here for a show?”

Though Tae-young’s face was hidden, Yeon-ho could feel his immense irritation just by looking at his back.

As if he wanted to see any of this. He was going to leave anyway.

Yeon-ho got into the elevator, wondering why he was being made the scapegoat when someone else had tried to slap Tae-young.

‘Oh, right. I should have taken the visitor’s elevator.’

He considered getting off and switching to the visitor’s elevator, but ultimately just pressed the first-floor button. Tae-young might still be in the hallway.

Given Tae-young’s prickly personality, there was a hundred percent chance he’d mistake it as Yeon-ho coming to provoke him if he reappeared in the hallway.

“Hoo.”

What a difficult day. Yeon-ho closed his eyes and leaned the back of his head against the elevator wall.

“Hey, you.”

He was wondering why the elevator door wasn’t closing when Tae-young’s voice reached him.

‘Why do I hear Han Tae-young’s voice? …Surely he didn’t follow me, did he?’

As if to prove that what you least expect often happens, Yeon-ho cautiously lifted his eyelids and saw Tae-young striding purposefully straight toward him.

‘Crazy bastard! Total psycho. He told me to get lost, so why is he following me now?’

Startled, Yeon-ho reached for the control panel. However, perhaps due to his extreme tension and surprise, he couldn’t press the ‘close’ button properly, instead frantically tapping around it.

*Shhhring.*

Whether Yeon-ho had finally pressed the button correctly, or if it was simply time for the door to close, the elevator doors, which had been stubbornly still, began to slide shut toward the center.

“Hey! Delivery boy. Don’t move! Stay right there!”

Through the closing doors, Yeon-ho saw Tae-young sprinting at full speed. He was reminded of a scene from a certain horror movie where the protagonist was being chased by a killer. The feeling of certain death if caught was conveyed through the camera’s shaky movements and heavy breathing. Yeon-ho was experiencing that exact same terror now.

*Thud!*

The sound of Tae-young punching the elevator door echoed. Yeon-ho clutched his chest, focusing all his senses on the feeling of the elevator descending. His legs trembled at the thought of having narrowly escaped Tae-young’s clutches by such a narrow margin.

What would have happened if he’d been caught just now? Tae-young would have surely tried to beat him up, threatening dire consequences if he spoke a word about what he’d seen today. Given that Tae-young was the notorious nuisance of 2104, it was obvious he would have tormented Yeon-ho with a viciousness that would make a gangster proud.

‘Why did Han Tae-young torment me? From the way he just spoke, it’s as if he holds some kind of grudge against me…’

Yeon-ho racked his brain, trying to remember if he had ever met Tae-young before, then shook his head. A psycho had simply acted like a psycho; searching for a reason was a waste of time.

‘I should have seen that bastard get slapped earlier.’

Yeon-ho regretted that Park Se-yeon’s attempt to slap him had failed. A handprint might have been left on Tae-young’s handsome face, but that much redness could easily be covered with makeup.

‘Not just a handprint, but he could have been scratched by her nails or a ring. That would be a problem.’

Yeon-ho had lost all respect for the actor Han Tae-young after today’s incident, but he didn’t want any problems to arise that would interfere with the cold reading shoot.

“Let’s just stop caring. That drama isn’t putting food on my table, after all.”

He was utterly fed up with the cold reading and Han Tae-young. Not only had he almost been caught in the crossfire of a whale fight, but he’d also just endured a thriller chase scene. If he couldn’t cut ties now, he’d be the biggest fool in the world.

‘Let’s never meet again, Han Tae-young.’

Yeon-ho opened his rider app and set it to not receive call notifications from Elysium. The reason he blocked the entire Elysium complex, not just apartment 2104, was to avoid incidents like today. He never imagined he’d encounter Tae-young while delivering to a different apartment. Though, in reality, it wasn’t a different apartment but 2104 that had placed the order.

‘As long as I avoid Elysium, I won’t run into him.’

Returning home, Yeon-ho sprinkled salt on his body, hoping to ward off misfortune.

And a few days later, Yeon-ho was forcibly reminded that he had underestimated Tae-young’s level of lunacy.