Chapter 27: Dressing up for someone who shouldn’t matter…

Yoojun stood before the mirror in his dressing room after picking out an outfit.
Something felt off.

He picked out clothes again.
Changing everything from shirt to pants, he stood before the mirror once more.
Even though it was a combination he usually enjoyed, it looked awkward and strange.

Yoojun turned around and picked out clothes yet again.

“…What am I doing?”

Then, realizing how truly ridiculous his behavior was, Yoojun let out a hollow laugh.
Literally, he couldn’t understand what he was doing.

Although Yoojun was an actor who took more pride in his acting skills than his face, that didn’t mean he lacked pride in his appearance.

Some actors felt ashamed or hurt their pride when receiving compliments on their looks rather than their acting, but Yoojun was different.

Yoojun took as much pride in his appearance as his acting skills, recognized it as an absolutely beneficial asset for an actor, and was someone who knew better than anyone how charming and handsome his face was.

So, Kim Yoojun thought this situation right now was truly strange.
This situation where he wasn’t satisfied with his reflection every time he dressed and stood before the mirror.

Considering that Yoojun was currently getting ready to go meet Sayoung, it was even more incomprehensible.

‘Why am I caring this much for a meeting where it wouldn’t matter if I went wearing rags?’

Yoojun stopped his movement to change clothes once more, buttoned up the shirt he had unbuttoned, and looked in the mirror again.
However, what reflected in Yoojun’s eyes wasn’t himself in the mirror, but the image of Sayoung in his memory.

To be more precise, Yoon Sayoung’s ‘face.’

Considering he had taken a break from entertainment activities for a long time, Sayoung maintained an appearance that was excessively ‘celebrity-like.’

This wasn’t just Yoojun’s personal assessment.
Even among the countless malicious comments on the hospital photo Yoojun intentionally released today, posts admiring Yoon Sayoung’s appearance could be found quite often.

Comments like admitting his face was top-tier regardless of him being unlikable, or saying that’s why Han Jaewoo fell in love at first sight without knowing what kind of person he was—those were exactly it.

He had lost a lot of weight compared to before, and his pale skin carried a haggard feeling, but thanks to that, Sayoung’s face, which had added a sorrowful atmosphere absent before, exuded a feeling that he had somehow deepened as a person, which was actually more advantageous for an actor.

No matter how unhappy his marriage life was, he would have had plenty of money, so he might have received consistent care, but whatever the reason, one couldn’t help but agree that Sayoung was a very attractive beauty.

Just like one malicious commenter said, ‘regardless of him being unlikable.’

Yoojun fiddled meaninglessly with the button at the end of his shirt.
He felt quite uncomfortable wondering if the reason he was making such a fuss right now was ultimately because he was conscious of Sayoung’s appearance.

At the same time, he was curious about how people would react when Sayoung stood in front of the camera again.

‘Could he really turn around the reputation that had fallen to the bottom?
Could he make a comeback?’

‘How would he do in the audition?
Would his acting skills remain the same?
Or would they have regressed?’

Once the thoughts started flowing, they continued endlessly, one biting the tail of another.

He became curious about Sayoung’s acting.
In any case, an actor must prove themselves with acting.
Bringing Han Jaewoo to his knees with ‘love’ would surely have meaning for him, but Yoojun thought it might actually be more gratifying to completely crush Han Jaewoo with acting and career.

‘Wasn’t he the one who used Sayoung to gain an acting career and popularity in the first place?
If Sayoung could completely overturn his and Han Jaewoo’s positions at that very point….’

Once his thoughts reached there, he felt a thrilling sensation as if he were planning his own revenge.
Having chewed over Sayoung’s story so much, it seemed he was empathizing as if he were the protagonist of a movie.

Yoojun put away the useless and pathetic assumptions and hurriedly left the room.
It seemed better to distance himself a bit from Sayoung’s absurd stories about regression and whatnot.

****

Sayoung put aside the world that had become noisy due to the photo of him and Yoojun being released, stood by the window, and opened it.
The cold winter air rushed in with his breath, instantly clearing his mind.

When Yoojun suggested taking a photo together, saying it would be better to do it properly if they were going to do it, he had anticipated this kind of situation to some extent.
But seeing his and Yoojun’s names being mentioned together by people actually made him feel strange.

He couldn’t even remember the last time his name was mentioned with someone other than Han Jaewoo.

Whether getting cursed at or whatever, Sayoung found it fascinating and looked again and again at the words ‘Kim Yoojun and Yoon Sayoung’ contained in a few lines of articles without a word for a long time.

It really felt real that he was stepping out into the world one step at a time.
Whether positive or negative, the recoil coming from it was all Sayoung’s share to endure.
Anyway, the words people were babbling now were words he had heard before he died, so there was no big blow.

There was a time when he felt suffocated by people’s words.

It was hard to understand why people misunderstood so much, and he felt pessimistic about his situation of not being able to step up and explain, but what made Sayoung saddest above all was Han Jaewoo’s attitude of doing nothing.

Even knowing that Sayoung was walking on eggshells around him.
Even knowing clearly that he couldn’t readily agree to interviews because of that.
Even knowing everything that Sayoung was hurt by such words despite pretending not to be, Han Jaewoo did nothing.

He offered no explanation for Sayoung and simply remained silent.
That silence was actually making the rumors look like facts, but he just stood by.

Only when it was already too late did Sayoung learn that Han Jaewoo hadn’t just been a bystander but had actively encouraged and spread those rumors behind his back.
He learned it too late.

If he had just come to his senses a little and looked, he would definitely have been able to recognize it.
The evidence was so clearly right there.

Sayoung honestly didn’t think he was in a normal state even now.
Let alone back then—he couldn’t even guess how broken he had been.
He really couldn’t help but be a pitiful and pathetic human being.

How long had he been standing by the window like that?

While his thoughts were deepening to the point where he didn’t even realize the winter wind was slowly dropping his body temperature, the doorbell rang.

Sayoung flinched his shoulders greatly in surprise.
Even knowing Yoojun was coming, the fact that someone knocked on the door of this space felt excessively unfamiliar.

His body stiffened as if the space where he was hiding had been invaded, to the point where he couldn’t move for a moment.

Eventually, Sayoung barely moved his body only after the doorbell rang once more and hurriedly opened the front door.
Yoojun, already wearing an unpleasant expression, stood there.

Yoojun, who strode past Sayoung inside without a greeting, soon looked back at Sayoung and spoke.

“What is this?”

Sayoung reflexively shrank his shoulders slightly and answered.

“I’m sorry. I was thinking about something else for a moment and didn’t hear the sou….”

“Are you trying to catch a cold and lie sick in bed?
Do you know how cold it is today?”

“…Pardon?”

“Leaving the windows wide open…!”

Yoojun, having spoken up to there with a voice full of all kinds of irritation, clicked his tongue at the wide-open window, walked over, and closed it himself.

Sayoung was just staring blankly at Yoojun’s actions, blinking his eyes.

He thought Yoojun was angry because he hadn’t opened the door immediately and left him standing in front of the entrance, so he couldn’t understand why Yoojun was talking about the weather and closing the window.

Yoojun, having closed the window, was looking at Sayoung’s blank face with an expression that truly said he didn’t like it.

Sayoung’s face, looking completely clueless about what the problem was, made him feel frustrated inside.

He didn’t even want to guess what a person who looked so skinny that he would end up in the hospital if he caught a cold was thinking in this cold wind.

As if too lazy to explain further, Yoojun shook his head briefly and changed the subject.

“Are you ready to go?”

“Ah, yes….
Thank you for coming all the way here to pick me up.”

“As I said, with the atmosphere between us right now, we can’t fool anyone, let alone Han Jaewoo.
So please, stop turning people’s insides upside down.”

“…Yes.”

If his mere existence was giving the other person displeasure, what should he do to be less annoying in their eyes?

It was a part he hadn’t succeeded in until the end even in his previous life, so no suitable countermeasure came to mind, but asking that seemed likely to provoke Yoojun’s anger again, so Sayoung just answered quietly.

Yoojun’s meal proposal wasn’t particularly surprising.
Didn’t Yoojun say last time that they needed to get a little closer and more natural with each other for this plan?

Thinking of it as an extension of that, it wasn’t incomprehensible.

However, there was something else weighing on Sayoung’s mind.

While putting on the coat he had taken out beforehand and wrapping a muffler around his neck, Sayoung asked cautiously.

“By the way….”

“What is it?”

“If we go out together today… will articles be published again?”

Sayoung habitually rubbed his palm on his coat.