Chapter 56: A Toast to Coming Back!

Yoojun, who had been sprawled on his stomach for a long time, this time turned his body over and lay straight looking at the ceiling.

He had just made a phone call, so he didn’t know why his body and mind were so exhausted.

It wasn’t even a long conversation.

After lying blankly for a long time, Yoojun lifted his hand and quietly pressed his palm against his heart.

The thumping beat pushing against his hand was definitely different from usual.

“Hah, seriously. Isn’t this Stockholm Syndrome or something?”

Not wanting to attach great meaning to that beat, Yoojun muttered nonsense trying to dismiss it.

Perhaps he was a warmer-hearted man who felt deeper compassion for others than he thought.

Yoojun stopped thinking there and got up from the bed.

There was still plenty of time until the appointment, but he wanted to choose what to wear in advance.

It wasn’t that he was waiting for that time or anything; Yoojun was originally the style to prepare everything in advance.

****

“Thank you.”

Sayoung greeted the waiter pouring wine.

The waiter spoke to Sayoung with a smile.

“If you need anything else, please tell me anytime.”

“Yes.”

At Sayoung’s answer, the waiter bowed his head with a gentle smile still on his face.

Although curious inwardly about why the two were here together, he couldn’t show it.

Yoojun was a regular, so seeing his face was quite familiar, but it wasn’t the case for Yoon Sayoung.

When he first saw Sayoung entering with Yoojun, he was so surprised his heart pounded.

However, no matter how curious he was about their conversation, he couldn’t just drag out time uselessly beside them, so the waiter had to withdraw from the table with neat movements.

In the space where only the two were left again, Sayoung looked around with his hands gathered on his knees as if somewhat tense.

It wasn’t a completely sealed space, but it was far from other tables and blocked by partitions on all sides, so other guests were not visible.

Perhaps because of the feeling of being in an isolated space, he felt an inexplicable tension.

“Can you handle alcohol well?”

Just then, Yoojun asked, calling Sayoung’s attention.

Sayoung turned his head to meet Yoojun’s gaze again and answered.

“One or two glasses are okay.”

“Do you like drinking?”

“Hmm… I tried not to drink if possible before.”

“Why?”

While answering Yoojun’s question, Sayoung kept rolling his eyes due to the awkward feeling.

Having someone listen to his personal story wasn’t a familiar thing to Sayoung.

Sayoung continued speaking calmly.

“Just… I thought I shouldn’t rely on alcohol.”

“…You thought well.”

At Sayoung’s answer, Yoojun, momentarily choked up, suppressed his emotion by swallowing once and nodded.

When he first heard Sayoung’s past story, he couldn’t understand ruining one’s own life so much just because of a single emotion called love, and it even looked pathetic.

But the more time he spent with Sayoung, and the more he heard stories like now, the more he thought that perhaps he too had been making his best efforts to protect his life in his own way.

“But….”

Just as Yoojun was unknowingly sinking into deep contemplation, this time Sayoung carefully opened his mouth first.

“What is the reason you asked to have dinner….”

Sayoung had been struggling with curiosity about the reason ever since Yoojun came to pick him up at home, no, actually since receiving Yoojun’s call.

He wanted to ask continuously while coming in the car, but worried it might be bad news, he couldn’t easily open his mouth.

“First, have a drink.”

Yoojun said, lifting his glass instead of answering.

In fact, Yoojun didn’t intend to drink alcohol because he brought his car, but since it was a celebratory occasion, he wanted wine to be present.

One might call it a useless formality, but since they came this far, he wanted to direct a slightly more dramatic scene.

Sayoung looked like he wanted to hear the answer first regardless of wine or whatever, but Yoojun just smiled brightly pretending not to know.

When Sayoung eventually had no choice but to lift his glass, Yoojun lightly clinked his glass against Sayoung’s and spat out the words he had been waiting to say.

“Congratulations, Mr. Yoon Sayoung.”

“……?”

“Mr. Yoon Sayoung, you got the role of Seo Danwoo.”

Having finished speaking, Yoojun stared at him piercingly as if not to miss a single expression of Sayoung.

Sayoung just blinked his eyes holding the glass as it was.

It was a face uncertain of what he had just heard.

Liking that very reaction, Yoojun appreciated Sayoung leisurely.

“W-What….”

“Should I say it again? You won the role of Seo Danwoo, Mr. Yoon Sayoung. We ended up working together eventually.”

“Ah… that… I haven’t received any contact….”

Sayoung put down the glass he had even toasted with and hurriedly searched for his phone in his bosom.

Yoojun likewise put down his glass and just watched Sayoung’s actions.

Even though Sayoung hadn’t shown a happy appearance yet, he felt better than what he had vaguely imagined.

After carefully checking his phone to see if there were any unread messages or missed calls, Sayoung eventually found no trace and looked at Yoojun again with eyes full of questions.

Yoojun answered shrugging his shoulders naturally.

“Maybe because I’m the most important actor? The director contacted me first.”

“…….”

“Asking if it would be okay since he wants to cast Yoon Sayoung.”

Sayoung started blinking his eyes rapidly.

It seemed he was realizing this situation little by little.

Yoojun continued.

“Well… anyway, since I decided to help, what can I do. I said it doesn’t matter to me.”

“Really… then really….”

“Yes. So eventually, it was decided that you would join, Mr. Yoon Sayoung. I wondered if there was a need to increase work unnecessarily, so I said I would deliver it personally.”

“Ah… ah….”

Yoojun didn’t blabber about the fact that he had asked the director to tell him first even before the casting was confirmed, or the reason for it.

Anyway, it wasn’t an important part, so there was no need for Sayoung to know everything.

Sayoung, letting out an ambiguous exclamation like someone sick somewhere, gripped the napkin placed on his thigh tightly with both hands.

His heart beat so fast that his vision blurred momentarily.

He even felt nauseous.

“Thank you… thank you….”

Sayoung reflexively bowed his head to Yoojun and expressed gratitude.

Even if the person who decided Sayoung’s casting was the director, if Yoojun had actively opposed it, it would have been difficult to achieve.

Didn’t he even say the director asked for his opinion?

Sayoung was genuinely grateful to Yoojun who didn’t oppose the director’s opinion.

“Thank you, really… I will really do… do well.”

This achievement was the most important step in Sayoung’s revenge.

It was natural to be happy.

But Sayoung could tell that the joy he was feeling right now had a slightly more fundamental reason than that.

What made Sayoung happier now than the fact that he could properly take revenge on Han Jaewoo was the fact that he could finally start acting again.

Only after this moment arrived did Sayoung realize he had been missing acting much more than he had thought himself.

It seemed Sayoung actually wanted to act again as much as he wanted to take revenge on Jaewoo.

And Yoojun, watching Sayoung’s reaction right in front of him, lost the mindset to appreciate it ‘leisurely’ before he knew it.

Seeing Sayoung bowing repeatedly saying thank you even with tears welling up to him who honestly hadn’t helped much, he couldn’t afford to be leisurely alone anymore.

“Ms. Sayoung.”

Like a possessed person, Yoojun suddenly spoke up.

Sayoung couldn’t even answer and just looked at Yoojun with moist eyes.

Yoojun continued.

“At the audition that day… the one who acted the role of Seo Danwoo best was by far you, Mr. Yoon Sayoung.”

“…….”

“This work is one I truly cherish and look forward to. Even though I agreed to help, if you hadn’t shown the ability suitable for my movie, Ms. Sayoung, I would have absolutely never welcomed this casting.”

Sayoung’s two hands on the table holding the napkin tightly were trembling so much it was visible to the eye.

He wanted to hold them.

Not just the hands, he wanted to embrace his trembling shoulders and comfort him.

Yoojun continued pretending not to know that emotion.

“If so, the director wouldn’t have chosen you in the first place either, Ms. Sayoung.”

“Ah….”

“It means you did well enough, Ms. Sayoung, to be worth enduring the rumors or commotions that will inevitably follow when you join. Not only the director but I also thought so. As soon as the audition ended, that this role must be Mr. Yoon Sayoung.”

Eventually, a single teardrop fell ‘tok’ from Sayoung’s eye.

Before Yoojun could be flustered, Sayoung was rather more startled and raised his hand to wipe his eyes.

It seemed he himself hadn’t expected to burst into tears like this.

An incomparably satisfied feeling bloomed inside Yoojun’s chest.

Sayoung looked clearly happy and joyful.

Yoojun had arranged this occasion imagining exactly this kind of scene.