Chapter 14: Words Behind Closed Doors

The interview went just as smoothly as the photoshoot.

It didn’t stray much from the basic interview questions he had received in advance.

After finishing the interview without issue, he politely greeted the staff.

“Hyung, I’m going to the restroom for a bit.”

“Yeah.
Go ahead.”

Leaving Suhan behind, Jitae headed to the building’s restroom.

In truth, there was a bigger reason he had slipped away.

“Doesn’t Won Jitae seem like he’s got a celebrity complex now?”

“Since his movie hit ten million, hasn’t he gotten a bit… full of himself?”

The restroom was located in a secluded corner of the floor, a place people usually went when they wanted to talk freely behind someone’s back.

In other words, it was exactly the kind of spot where gossip flowed most easily.

Sure enough.

In the hallway beside the restroom, the staff members who had been whispering earlier were now enthusiastically gossiping about him.

“Hey, no way.
It’s not a celebrity complex.
He was always known for having a shitty personality.
Now that he’s getting popular, he’s probably just trying to manage his image.”

“Really?”

As they spoke, one staff member exaggerated things Jitae had never even done, or freely twisted actions he was perfectly entitled to demand as an actor.

Jitae listened to his own story with interest, then caught the moment when the conversation was about to reach its peak and suddenly burst out of the restroom.

“What are you all doing here?”

When he spoke with a smile at the corner of his mouth, the faces of the staff members who had been chatting so eagerly turned pale.

“Ah, actor-nim……”

“Filming is already finished, and they’re cleaning up inside.”

“Ah, well, we were just talking briefly about work…….”

As they exchanged glances and scrambled for excuses, Jitae’s cold gaze brushed over their faces for a fleeting moment.

“Oh, did I interrupt something important without reading the room?”

“No!
Not at all.
Haha.”

“I actually wanted to thank you all for your hard work today, so I’m glad I got to see you.”

At Jitae’s words, the staff laughed awkwardly.

He wanted to lash out and ask why they were talking shit, but he couldn’t.

No matter what, the rumors would only end up circling back to him.

He knew all too well that now, as an actor, he could never act according to his true self.

“Then I’ll head out first since my manager hyung might be looking for me.”

“Yes.
You worked hard today as well, Jitae-ssi.”

The staff bowed their heads in greeting.

Jitae turned away, maintaining his smile.

He already knew that once he left, they would start flapping their mouths again with renewed enthusiasm.

They would probably mock him for managing his image with empty words and curse him all over again.

‘f*ck.
How ridiculous.’

Still, he was confident he wouldn’t crumble easily from reputations born in places like that.

As he walked down the studio corridor, sunlight shattered through the glass walls.

Unconsciously, Jitae took out his phone and opened his contacts.

[Wooju]

He hesitated, debating whether to press it or not dozens of times.

It felt unfamiliar.

And after about a hundred moments of hesitation, he slowly touched the screen.

It was when the ringtone had sounded about twice.

• H-Hello?

A voice that was familiar yet strangely distant reached his ear.

Without realizing it, Jitae clenched his fist.

• Won Jitae?
  Or not……

When there was no response, Wooju muttered absentmindedly.

“Where are you?”

• Ah, yeah, it is you.
  I’m in Gangnam right now, at a café.

“…I’m done with my schedule.”

• Really?

In truth, he hadn’t told his manager hyung that he planned to meet Wooju afterward.

He was only thinking of asking him to drop him off near where Kang Wooju was.

“If you send me your location…….”

• Then I’ll send it.

“…….”

• I’ll come pick you up.

It was strange.

How words and voices from others could make him feel like he’d been dragged through a swamp, yet with just one person’s voice, all that filth could be washed away in an instant.

“…Yeah.”

It was strange, yet he didn’t question the reason all that much.

After telling Park Hyunjin that he had to head off first, Wooju stood up from his seat.

He had been prepared to get scolded for leaving on his own, but surprisingly, Hyunjin sent him off without complaint.

‘I can’t spend my precious day off just meeting you.
I’m going home to rest too.
Take care.
If you’re still alive, we’ll talk again.’

He had no objections to that.

With Park Hyunjin, they were the kind of friends who didn’t need constant contact, yet still felt sure the other was living well somewhere.

The kind of friend who would pop up at just the right moment to tease him whenever Wooju lost a match or played terribly.

When the camera PD climbed into the back seat, Wooju tilted his head, asking why he was getting in there.

The PD replied smoothly that he had assumed Won Jitae would take the passenger seat.

To Wooju, who still couldn’t quite see that far ahead when it came to broadcasting, it felt like learning yet another thing.

As soon as he ended the call, a text from Won Jitae arrived, containing nothing but an address.

After entering it into the navigation, he drove off immediately.

Thankfully, it wasn’t far from the café.

When Wooju arrived in front of the studio building, he parked the car at a suitable spot and sent Jitae a message saying he’d arrived, along with the car number just in case.

Thinking it would take him a while to come down, he waited.

Then suddenly, the passenger door flew open.

“Ah… you startled me.”

“…….”

“W-Wow, you’re here?”

“Yeah.”

His words tangled awkwardly, unlike himself.

Seeing Won Jitae casually getting into his car felt strangely awkward all of a sudden.

“Then let’s go.”

Wooju gestured for him to put on his seatbelt.

But instead of doing that, Jitae stared straight at Wooju without saying a word.

“What.
Why.”

“…Don’t I look any different?”

What was he even saying.

Wooju scrunched up his face as if he’d heard something absurd.

And on top of that, it felt like a line he’d heard many times before.

“What’s with you all of a sudden.
You don’t look any different.
Huh?
Wait, don’t tell me…….”

Wooju stroked his chin, falling into thought.

He narrowed his eyes at Jitae, then suddenly clapped his hands as if something had occurred to him.

“Ah!”

Jitae’s expression brightened slightly.

“What mission did you get?”

“You really are an idiot…….”

“What?”

Having missed the mark so badly, Jitae’s inner thoughts slipped straight out of his mouth.

“You just called me an idiot.”

At that, Jitae sharply turned his head away.

Seeing the back of his head without any attempt to deny it, Wooju clicked his tongue.

“How would I know what’s different.”

He looked exactly the same as usual.

Why even ask something like that in the first place.

It wasn’t even a mission.

“Did anything change about me?”

Wasn’t that the kind of question lovers usually asked.

The kind of question that could bring about the collapse of a relationship if answered wrong.

Wooju had no idea why he was the one hearing it.

Ignoring Jitae, who was still turned away, Wooju drove out of the alley.

“You got makeup done.
And you styled your hair.
How could you not notice that?”

By the time the car entered the main road, Jitae finally gave him the answer.

Not that Wooju had really been curious.

“Oh, right.”

Now that he mentioned it, it was definitely different from how he’d looked in the morning.

His skin tone seemed a bit brighter, and more importantly, the hair that had been falling messily earlier was now styled up, revealing a clean, open forehead.

“With how oblivious you are, how do you even play sports.”

“Why are you picking a fight all of a sudden.
What does awareness have to do with sports.”

“It has everything to do with it.
Volleyball is a team sport.”

To be honest, Wooju was sometimes told by others that he lacked awareness.

At Baekyoung Construction, there were occasional moments when mischievous teammates staged hidden-camera pranks, and Wooju often ended up being the target.

But at least when it came to matches, on the court, he had never once heard such criticism.

There was a reason Choi Seokhyun had given him the nickname “court-outside airhead.”

“Oh yeah?
If you were so perceptive, why did you fall for my pass feints every time.”

Wooju said this with a wicked grin, the words about the past slipping out before he could stop himself.

“Stop distorting your memories.
I read them plenty of times.”

Jitae flinched.

There was clearly a sore spot being poked.

“Please.
You fell for them way more.”

“That’s not true, so stop talking about volleyball.”

Wooju stiffened slightly.

When he glanced over, Jitae was looking out the window, deliberately avoiding him.

For a moment, he wondered if bringing up volleyball had sharpened his edge like that.

The car glided smoothly down the road.

The silence didn’t last long.

Even while moving, the two of them soon started teasing each other again.

With old memories dragged back into the mix, their childish bickering showed no sign of stopping.

“Ah, enough.
This all started because you asked what changed in the first place.”

Juggling driving and arguing with Won Jitae at the same time left Wooju completely frazzled, and in the end, he was the one who waved the white flag.

On top of that, the road home was almost entirely unfamiliar, making it hard enough just to focus on the navigation screen.

If you really thought about it, this meaningless fight had broken out because Won Jitae had picked a pointless fight in the first place.