Chapter 12 : The First Audience

“Before we go in, should we drop the formalities?”

Ijeong’s sudden casual speech caught Yehyun off guard. He blinked dumbly.

“Ah, right.”

But soon understanding what Ijeong meant, Yehyun nodded. If they were supposed to be lovers who spoke to each other casually, using formal speech would definitely look strange.

“What should we call each other? Hyung? Or honey?”

“I don’t care what you call me in front of others, but calling me honey in front of my sister… She’ll definitely tease me all night.” Yehyun shook his head as if the mere thought were dreadful.

“Yehyun… you drop the formalities too. We need to practice now so it’s not awkward when we’re in front of her.”

Yehyun awkwardly called Ijeong’s name. Honestly, Ijeong thought, you’re so easygoing about other things, but calling my name is this hard?

“Well, titles aren’t that important. What matters is how we treat each other. In front of your sister, I’ll just call you hyung.”

“Casual speech.” Ijeong looked at Yehyun with a deliberately serious face.

“Don’t get mad. You look scary.” Yehyun lightly deflected Ijeong’s sharp gaze.

“If you slip up in front of her, I won’t let it slide.” Yehyun glared at Ijeong, who seemed endlessly carefree.

But to Ijeong, it wasn’t threatening at all. It looked like a squirrel with a mouthful of acorns glaring at a beast, worried its food would be stolen.

“You should worry more about your eyes,” Ijeong tapped near his own eyes.

Only then did Yehyun realize his eyes were a bit swollen from crying while dealing with Gyujin. He hurriedly opened the van door. “I need to do a cold compress or something.”

“Uh, Yehyun-ssi? Where are you going?” Juseok, who had been waiting outside the van for their conversation to end in the tense atmosphere, spoke with a flustered face.

“Our Yehyun hyung is going to his place. Do you want to come too, hyung?” Ijeong said with a brazen smile.

We came because you said we’d drop by for a bit, Ijeong-ah. The manager couldn’t bring himself to say that out loud and just sighed, looking at Ijeong.

“Wait, just wait outside for a sec…!”

“Is this your place?”

Realizing too late that the house wasn’t properly tidied, Yehyun quickly tried to block Ijeong, but Ijeong easily dodged and stepped inside. The sink was piled with dishes. The blanket was strewn about. And pajamas were sprawling on the floor like shed skin.

“I told you to wait…” Yehyun rushed to close the bedroom door first, his face turning red.

Even when talking about his painful past, even when they had kissed, his face hadn’t gotten this red. What an interesting person. Ijeong looked at Yehyun.

“What’s the big deal? Everyone lives in a house. Considering I dropped by without notice, this is pretty clean.”

“…I had to leave urgently this morning…” Yehyun said with his head bowed, his face still red. If he had known this would happen, he would have at least thrown the clothes in the closet and straightened the blanket before leaving.

Showing all sorts of embarrassing sides of myself to a guy I’ve known for less than a week. Shin Yehyun…

“Didn’t you say you were going to do a cold compress?”

“Ah, right.”

Ijeong thought the cheeks needed more urgent attention than the eyes, but saying that would only make the already red face redder, so he kept his mouth shut.

Yehyun opened the fridge, took out a cold water bottle, and rubbed it against his eyes. It would be at least thirty minutes before Yeseo came back. His talkative and nosy sister wouldn’t let his swollen eyes slide quietly, so he had to reduce the swelling somehow.

“What’s your sister like?”

“Yeseo?”

Since they were supposed to have just started dating, he didn’t need to know everything, but basic info was necessary. When Ijeong asked, Yehyun fell into thought about what kind of person his sister was.

“Just give me the gist. Enough for conversation.”

“Um… She’s sixteen. We’re twelve years apart.”

Yeseo was Yehyun’s younger sister, born in the same zodiac year as him. She had just started elementary school when their parents passed away. Yehyun cherished her more than himself.

“I didn’t raise her to be spoiled, but she’s still immature. Talks a lot, causes a lot of trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Well, getting caught using her phone during class, faking sick to leave early then posting photos on social media…”

“That’s just a normal middle schooler. When else are you going to skip class?” Ijeong chuckled.

“I never did that when I was in middle school.” It was visible that his eyes, pressed under the water bottle, were frowning.

Ijeong struggled to suppress a laugh. “She’s sixteen. That’s the age to be immature.”

At Ijeong’s words, Yehyun thought back to when he was sixteen. Of course, he was much younger and whinier back then, but… “Still, not as much as Shin Yeseo.” Yehyun shook his head.

“What were you like at sixteen?”

“Oh, you’re interested in me?”

“Of course I have to be interested. We’re supposed to be lovers, at least on the surface,” Yehyun said, continuing to roll the water bottle.

Ijeong looked at Yehyun with surprise, noticing how quickly he had switched to a comfortable, informal tone. “Hmm, the sixteen-year-old me.”

Ijeong recalled his sixteen-year-old self. Sixteen. Back then, he had no interest in acting at all. He had worked desperately just to stand out among his maternal grandfather’s grandsons. “I was a pretty boring kid. Talking about the present is more interesting than the past,” Ijeong said with a bright smile.

He doesn’t want to talk about it. Yehyun easily caught on and stopped rolling the bottle. “People are usually curious about celebrities, but you’re not?”

“Celebrities are just people. We’re all the same,” Yehyun said nonchalantly. “Other things are more important. What you like, what you dislike. Shouldn’t I know those?”

“What are you most curious about? I’ll tell you everything,” Ijeong said with a sly smile.

Wondering what to ask first, Yehyun thought for a moment then asked, “…Your schedule for tomorrow?”

The question was incredibly practical. Ijeong blinked stupidly, having expected something like hobbies or favorite foods.

“…Is it not okay to tell?”

“Ah, no, it’s not that… Tomorrow? Hmm, I have a shoot at dawn, then some rest at lunch, then another shoot around sunset.”

Yehyun asked about Ijeong’s schedule for a simple reason: to know when they could contact each other.

“Why? Are you going to text me?”

“Yeah.”

He also needed to make up for being scolded about having Ijeong saved as ‘Kang Ijeong’ in his phone. And if people at work asked, ‘What’s Kang Ijeong doing today?’, he should be able to answer right away to look like a real lover. “Of course I should. We’re lovers,” Yehyun said, checking his eyes in the mirror.

The swelling had gone down considerably. “You should act like it in front of people too, so they won’t get suspicious.”

It had been less than thirty minutes since he was holding back tears in the van. How could he be so calm now? Ijeong thought the most cold-headed person he knew regarding work was Chaeryeon, but this squirrel-like man in front of him seemed just as meticulous and thorough.

Ijeong stared curiously at Yehyun’s eyes, now free of swelling, and replied, “Don’t worry about that. In this relationship, I’m the one who’s more desperate and reluctant to let go.” Ijeong’s eyes sparkled as if he were looking at a real lover.

“Right, that’s true.” At that display of an actor’s prowess, Yehyun let out a short laugh.

“I’m a bit busy with filming, but I’ve cleared most of my other schedules. Unless the shooting time is as extreme as tomorrow, I’ll probably come see you. You can come see me too.” Ijeong looked at Yehyun. “My place isn’t that far from here. Hmm… Not tomorrow, but maybe the day after or the day after that, you could come over?”

Yehyun fell into thought as he watched Ijeong spontaneously making plans. Would it be okay to leave Yeseo home alone on a weekday? A bit uneasy…

“What do you think?”

But pressed by Ijeong’s urging, Yehyun couldn’t think long and nodded. “It should be fine.”

Right, she’s sixteen, not six. And if I’m really worried, I can send her to a friend’s house to sleep. It’s fine. It’s only three months, not forever.

“Then it’s a promise. I’ll be looking forward to it, so no backing out.” Ijeong smiled, his eyes curving prettily.

Yehyun wasn’t particularly interested in people’s appearances, but even he felt a strange sensation seeing Ijeong’s radiant smile. “…You really are handsome.”

“Huh?”

Ijeong blinked at the unexpected comment. Yehyun, who had accidentally blurted out his inner thoughts, hurriedly tried to cover it up, but the words had already reached Ijeong’s ears.

“Ahaha, you noticed just now?” Ijeong laughed loudly. He thought he had been subtly showing off, but Yehyun had acted as if he had no interest in his face at all, until suddenly saying something like that.

Yehyun was equally flustered. Was he just relaxing too much? What a stupid thing to say. Yehyun tried to look away and pretend nothing happened, but Ijeong didn’t let him escape. Mischief rising, Ijeong followed Yehyun.

“What? You should get a closer look at this handsome face.”

Yehyun falling for him and clinging to him was a no-go, but it wouldn’t hurt for him to have some favorable feelings. After all, you need some fondness to get natural chemistry, Ijeong thought as he pushed his face toward Yehyun.

“Hm?”

“Let go and back off…”

Ijeong grabbed Yehyun’s chin and one wrist, trapping him between himself and the wall. He looked straight into Yehyun’s eyes with a smirk.

Yehyun considered kicking him off, but then he froze at the sound of a familiar voice.

“…What is this?”

The other owner of the house, Yeseo, stood in the living room, looking down at the entangled men with a shocked expression.

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