Chapter 39: The Thing He Wasn’t Supposed to See

And then what happened after that.

Woo-joo rubbed his chin and frowned.

His memory was coming back in fragments.

After thinking hard for a while, he remembered that he had definitely felt suffocated from drinking and had gone out alone to get some air.

Inside, the smell of meat and the loud voices had mixed together, making it unbearable.

He had walked somewhere alone to catch some air…

But from the moment he left the restaurant, his memory wasn’t very clear.

‘Oh! It’s that bastard Won Ji-tae.’

Then one single scene suddenly came back to him.

More precisely, he only remembered Ji-tae’s face approaching him.

Unlike the time they drank alone, he had pushed himself harder at the company dinner, so it was only natural that his memory had blacked out.

Woo-joo washed his face in the bathroom first before coming out.

It was just past 10 a.m.

A familiar smell drifted from the kitchen, so he leaned his head out and saw a broad back.

Ji-tae was sitting on a chair, staring seriously at something.

Unconsciously, Woo-joo quieted his footsteps and sneaked up behind him.

“Hey!”

He lightly smacked Ji-tae’s back in a playful attempt to startle him.

“Ah, f*ck!”

Startled out of his mind, Ji-tae let out a curse without thinking.

Both Woo-joo, who had startled him, and Ji-tae, who had reflexively sworn, froze on the spot.

“The production staff must have a hard time because of you.”

“It’s your fault for suddenly sneaking up from behind. Don’t you know that a frog can die from a stone thrown as a joke?”

“Not everyone curses just because they’re startled. Like you do.”

Replying indifferently, Woo-joo tilted his head slightly and shifted his gaze to the phone Ji-tae had been so focused on.

There was a photo on the screen.

They were pictures taken on a phone during yesterday’s photoshoot.

“Why are you looking at someone else’s phone.”

Ji-tae awkwardly pulled it away.

“Where did you get those photos?”

“From the youngest writer.”

Ji-tae turned his head sharply.

Now that he thought about it, the youngest writer had been busy snapping pictures of them on her phone during the shoot.

When he had asked out of curiosity, she said they might use them for the official account or something similar.

“But why do you have them?”

“I just asked her to send them. I looked pretty good in the photos.”

“Oh, did you now?”

Woo-joo smirked and sat across from him.

“Let me see too.”

Ji-tae slowly held out the phone.

Following the polite instruction to swipe sideways, Woo-joo started looking through the pictures.

It didn’t seem like Won Ji-tae was bluffing.

In the photos, he looked tall and radiant.

Most of the pictures had the two of them together, but strangely, Woo-joo’s eyes kept being drawn to Ji-tae alone.

“Kang Woo-joo.”

“What.”

“Is your stomach okay?”

“Yeah, my stomach’s fine. My head hurts a bit, but it’s not too bad.”

Woo-joo answered while continuing to browse through the photos.

“Then why did you drink so much? You’re not even good at drinking.”

“Everyone else was drinking, how could I be the only one not drinking. I was just going to moderately…”

He trailed off.

He had been about to add that he planned to match the mood and then pull out at the right timing.

But when he lifted his gaze from the phone, he saw Ji-tae wearing that sulky expression again.

“What?”

“But you… how did you know I can’t drink well?”

“Huh?”

“Come to think of it, didn’t you say something like that last time when we drank wine? That I’m bad at drinking.”

He didn’t remember clearly, but he was sure he had heard something like that.

And yet, he had never told Won Ji-tae that he couldn’t drink well.

But Ji-tae had said it so naturally, without the slightest doubt.

There was something strange about the certainty in his tone.

“I heard it from the writer. I asked casually before. And you said you’re bad at drinking in your pre-interview video too. That’s when I became sure.”

“Oh, right. That.”

Woo-joo clapped his hands as if everything finally made sense.

If not for that, how would Won Ji-tae have known something like that about him.

“Now that we’re on the topic, what happened to me yesterday?”

“You don’t remember?”

“I remember bits and pieces… but not clearly. I remember going to the park alone. And you showing up. But that’s about it.”

“Nothing special. I also went to the nearby park to get some air, and you happened to be there too, so I just took care of you.”

For a brief moment, Woo-joo’s face brightened.

“Really? Thanks.”

“Then… you don’t remember any conversations or anything?”

“Conversation?”

Woo-joo tilted his head, clearly clueless.

His face practically said, I have no idea what you’re talking about.

“Never mind.”

“Did I… make some kind of mistake?”

Ji-tae shook his head.

Only after hearing that Seon-hyeok had messaged saying they were wrapping up and that they had gone back together did Woo-joo let out a long sigh of relief.

Seemingly satisfied after clearing his doubts, he lowered his head again to look at the photos.

As he tried to swipe to the next one, something must have gone wrong with the screen recognition because it suddenly switched to a different folder.

A captured image from some video flashed onto the screen.

Ji-tae, who had been watching everything from across the table, widened his eyes in shock.

“Wait!”

With terrifying reflex speed, Ji-tae smacked the phone away.

The expensive phone traced a smooth arc through the air before crashing loudly onto the floor.

The heavy sound of something breaking echoed throughout the house.

“……”

“……”

They both stared at the phone with its cracked screen, the poor thing that had clearly met its end.

At the same time, they turned their heads and looked at each other.

A brief silence passed between them.

“What did you just do…?”

Woo-joo asked, brows tightly furrowed, clearly flustered.

“Did you see it?”

“See what?”

“The photo that popped up just now.”

“I didn’t. You flung the phone before I could even look. How would I have seen it?”

“Then that’s fine.”

Ji-tae let out a deep sigh of relief and picked up the phone.

Woo-joo couldn’t understand it at all.

What exactly was he relieved about?

The phone was completely shattered, so why did he look like everything was okay?

“Let’s eat.”

And just like that, Ji-tae calmly walked to the refrigerator as if nothing had happened.

It was impossible to understand.

Something major had clearly just happened, but Woo-joo had no idea where to even start questioning it.

He stared blankly at Ji-tae’s back.

The more he looked, the more he felt that this guy was impossible to figure out.

Unaware of Woo-joo’s gaze, Ji-tae calmly began setting the table.

Perhaps considering it was the day after drinking, he placed dried pollock soup on the table.

Woo-joo looked pitifully at Ji-tae’s phone with its shattered screen before taking a spoonful of soup.

He hadn’t expected much, but it was good.

It felt like his alcohol-soaked stomach was clearing up refreshingly.

Naturally, he was reminded of the bean sprout soup from last time.

Won Ji-tae had said he wasn’t good at cooking, and Woo-joo had even witnessed that himself.

But when it came to soups like this, he seemed surprisingly capable.

“You’re actually pretty good at making soup.”

“I’ve made it a lot.”

“You’ve made soup a lot?”

“Yeah. More precisely, soups that are good for hangovers.”

“What’s that supposed to mean.”

The answer sounded oddly specific.

If you’re good at soup, you’re just good at soup.

What did it mean to be good specifically at hangover soups.

“What, did you use to drink like crazy or something?”

Woo-joo teased with a grin.

Of course, it was a joke.

He had only meant to lightly poke fun at the comment about hangover soups.

But strangely, the person across from him had gone quiet.

“……”

Ji-tae’s hand holding the spoon slowed noticeably.

“I was just joking… was I right?”

“It was just for a while. I don’t drink like that anymore.”

That explained it.

The way Ji-tae had downed alcohol without his expression changing at all suddenly made sense.

It was a tolerance built from past experience.

“Why did you drink like that?”

Curiosity stirred within him.

But instead of answering immediately, Ji-tae simply stared at Woo-joo.

Sometimes it was like this.

Whenever they talked, an odd silence would settle between them.

And each time, Ji-tae would look at him with those unreadable eyes.

It always made Woo-joo feel something strange.

“…When I first started in the entertainment industry. It was just hard to adjust.”

Without realizing it, Woo-joo nodded.

He didn’t know much about the entertainment world, but as someone who had gained public attention, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say he had one foot in it.

He knew how brutal that world could be, how hard it was to succeed.

And what he had experienced was probably just the tip of the iceberg.

Then had Won Ji-tae also suffered a lot?

Now people called him a ten-million actor, a rising star.

But he must have gone through countless things to reach that position.

Had he relied on alcohol whenever it became too hard?

After finishing his answer, Ji-tae buried his face in his rice bowl and resumed eating.

For some reason, his fluffy hair looked especially lonely today.

Unconsciously, Woo-joo reached out his hand.

He didn’t really know why.

He just suddenly felt like patting Won Ji-tae’s head right now.