Chapter 13: An Unexpected Reunion

“Huh.
Aren’t you Kang Sunbae who fell straight into hell?”

“Shut up.
I haven’t gone yet.”

“So you’re saying you’ll be going soon?”

The moment Wooju stepped into the café, Park Hyunjin, who had arrived earlier, immediately started teasing him with great enthusiasm.

They had stuck together for six full years, from middle school through high school, so to Wooju, this guy was practically like family.

After teasing Wooju to his heart’s content, Hyunjin noticed the camera and flinched slightly.

It seemed he suddenly realized he should be more careful with his words.

“Enough already.
Just go order something to drink.”

When Wooju took a card out of his pocket and handed it to him, Park Hyunjin happily dashed off to the counter.

Park Hyunjin was a former teammate who had played volleyball together with Wooju at Daehyun High School, and even now, as adults, he was one of the very few friends Wooju still kept in touch with.

“But why did you ask to meet earlier than our original time?”

Hyunjin placed an iced Americano in front of Wooju.

It was the cheapest item on the café menu, while he himself had ordered an expensive Frappuccino loaded with whipped cream, all paid for with someone else’s money.

“…No reason.
But hey, aren’t you going to work today?”

“Me?
I’m on leave today.
That’s why I set up this meeting.”

Unlike Wooju, Park Hyunjin did not pursue the path of a volleyball player.

From the beginning, he knew well that his skills were too mediocre to go professional, so even while training in high school, he never let go of his studies, eventually enrolling in a fairly decent university’s physical education department.

Now, after graduating, he was working at a company related to sports equipment.

“But still, this camera makes me a bit uncomfortable.”

“It can’t be helped.
You agreed to it.”

“Yeah, but seeing it like this, it really feels real.
You filming a variety show, I mean.
And that show is super famous, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Who are you filming it with?”

Doesn’t this guy even read the news articles.

The announcement that Won Jitae and Kang Wooju would appear together on Living Together, Just the Two of Us had caused a massive buzz.

The combination of a rising actor and a representative star of Korean volleyball felt extremely fresh.

On top of that, the pre-release interview video had already surpassed several million views.

“Won Jitae.”

“Won Jitae?
You mean… that ten-million-ticket actor?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s not the point.
If it’s Won Jitae… he was your rival back then!”

As expected, Park Hyunjin knew.

Back in high school, they had faced off countless times against Wonjang High School.

And Hyunjin had often been the one to step in and stop Wooju whenever he got overly fired up and clashed with Won Jitae, so there was no way he could forget.

“Wow… that’s insane.
So this kind of connection really continues like this?”

“What connection.”

“Don’t tell me the production team knew and cast you on purpose?”

Hyunjin lowered his voice.

“I don’t really know about that either.”

“If you think about it, Won Jitae quit volleyball…
So it’s been almost seven years, right.
Since you two met again.”

Park Hyunjin said this while loudly slurping his drink.

At the word “quit,” Wooju, who had been stirring his coffee with a straw, froze completely.

A reunion.

Was it really okay to describe it with a word like that.

“So it’s not awkward?
You’re living together while filming, right.
No matter how immature you guys were back in high school, you’re both fully grown adults now.”

“Well.
It’s not particularly awkward.
But……”

Wooju trailed off.

He hadn’t really felt anything strongly.

At first, he had been surprised to meet Won Jitae again, but it was more that he wasn’t used to using polite speech that didn’t suit him.

In truth, talking with him wasn’t uncomfortable, and even being together didn’t feel awkward.

“But?”

“……”

When Wooju couldn’t continue, Park Hyunjin pressed again.

“It’s just…….”

As Wooju’s lips moved hesitantly, the phone he had placed on the table vibrated briefly.

On the screen, the name Won Jitae appeared.

Inside a car entering downtown Seoul, Jitae stared blankly at his phone.

The pre-interview video for Living Together, Just the Two of Us, which had been uploaded not long ago, had drawn an explosive response, and reactions were continuing to pour in.

• Honestly, I thought this show was dragging things out until season 4, but seeing the cast changed my mind.
  Thank you, PD.
  20,000 likes.

The comment with the most likes usually reflected public opinion best.

Thankfully, the initial reaction didn’t seem all that bad.

Of course, there were people who weren’t particularly interested in sports and didn’t really know Kang Wooju, and some who also didn’t know much about an actor who was only just starting to rise, but most of the responses were filled with anticipation.

• Isn’t Kang Wooju that f*cking rude bastard?

A malicious comment.

Without any change in expression, Jitae pressed the report button.

“How’s filming going?”

At that moment, his manager Kim Suhan, who had glanced at him through the rearview mirror, spoke up.

At the production team’s request, Jitae had brought his personal car to the filming residence, but his private schedule still required him to be accompanied by his manager.

“Hmm.
I’m not sure yet.”

“The house isn’t uncomfortable, is it?
You can’t sleep well when your environment changes.”

Kim Suhan had been Jitae’s dedicated manager since his modeling days, since the very moment he stepped into the entertainment industry, so he knew his personality quite well.

“It’s not uncomfortable, but I didn’t sleep well.
I think I only fell asleep near dawn yesterday.”

“I figured as much.
I thought you’d slept well since your face looks a bit better today.”

“My face?”

“Yeah.
When you don’t sleep even a little, it shows right away on your face.”

Usually, his eyes would look noticeably sharper, or his gaze would lose its vitality altogether, but today’s Won Jitae looked relatively energetic to his manager.

Hearing that, Jitae couldn’t help but feel confused.

Because, as he’d said earlier, he hadn’t slept well at all, and on top of that, just when he had finally fallen asleep, Kang Wooju had woken him up….

“…Ah.”

Jitae let out a low sound, as if something had just occurred to him.

Not sleeping well was nothing new for him, but this time there had been one thing, just one change from usual.

‘Won Jitae, wake up.’

Come to think of it, that face had been so close in the morning that it nearly scared him to death.

Jitae lightly bit the inside of his cheek, recalling Kang Wooju’s face from earlier.

“Aren’t you hungry?
Do you want to eat something while getting your makeup done?”

“No.
My stomach isn’t great.”

“Why?
What’s wrong with it?”

“I ate something spicy yesterday, and it’s bothering me a bit.”

At that, his manager reacted in shock, asking how on earth he had eaten spicy food.

Jitae was what people called a complete lightweight when it came to spice.

He always chose mild ramen and only ever ate the gentlest version of tteokbokki, and his stomach would often flip over if he was unlucky.

“…I was kind of forced to eat it.”

Jitae turned his head to look out the window.

He had clearly recognized that the stir-fried pork Wooju handed him was bright red.

Even the smell had been spicy enough to tickle his nose.

Yet putting that food into his mouth had felt unavoidable.

‘…You can’t eat spicy food……?’

He barely held back the urge to ask why Wooju, who remembered that he got cold easily and loved sweets, had forgotten something as important as that.

“Hyung, I’ll sleep a bit until we arrive.”

“Okay.”

Jitae put on his eye mask and leaned the seat back.

Kang Wooju was always like that.

He made people feel hopeful, only to drop them just as easily.

‘Alright then.
Give me your phone.
If we’re going to keep in touch, I need your number.’

Maybe he had been secretly hoping for something.

The fact that he had searched for his own name first in Kang Wooju’s contact list might have been an action born from that expectation.

He had never once changed the number he’d used since his student days.

Was that why.

The ordinary phrase No search results found that appeared on the screen felt especially cruel.

Won Jitae deliberately called his own phone using Wooju’s, but honestly, it was a pointless thing to do, something he didn’t need to do at all.

Because his number had never once been deleted from this phone.

But even if he felt bitter about it, what could he do.

Jitae knew better than anyone that, for now, those feelings were meaningless.

After getting his makeup done at the shop, Jitae headed to the interview location.

Once he arrived, he was surrounded by staff, who finished styling his hair and had him change clothes.

This interview was for a well-known magazine, and they planned to shoot several pictorial photos along with it.

“Your expression is great.
Now turn your gaze slightly to the right… yes, just like that.”

With every expression and movement Jitae made, the photographer’s face grew brighter and brighter.

Nearby, a camera PD from Living Together, Just the Two of Us was also diligently filming him at work.

“Looks like we already have an A-cut.
As expected, Jitae.
You really have great poses.
Must be because you did modeling.”

“Thank you.
The writer took great shots, that’s all.”

It was a warm and lively set.

Jitae knew very well.

He knew how to answer, what kind of attitude to take to gain others’ favor and goodwill.

He learned things quickly, and surviving without issues in this dirty, narrow world had simply required learning what to do.

But no matter how much effort he made, only good gazes never followed him.

Especially not in this industry.

As he moved to go do the interview, three or four staff members gathered in a corner of the set were whispering while looking at him.

“Jitae, let’s go to the interview.”

“Yeah.
Hyung.”

Jitae indifferently withdrew his gaze from them.