Chapter 72: The Name

“Did Won Ji-tae go back to the car too?”

Wooju rummaged through the pocket of the windbreaker he was wearing.

He kept rustling around, trying to find his phone that he couldn’t seem to grab.

Then, from nearby, he heard someone’s voice.

Wooju looked around.

To reach the main entrance of the building, he had to turn right.

But the voice was coming from the left side, right in the direction he had just come down from the stairs.

As if drawn by something, Wooju finished descending the stairs and turned his head toward the left hallway.

“Right?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

What came into Wooju’s view was Won Ji-tae and Baek Yoon-kwon.

The two of them were facing each other, chatting excitedly about something.

But their posture looked a bit strange.

Ji-tae was sitting lightly on the marble ledge that extended from the window frame on the wall.

And Baek Yoon-kwon stood in front of him, smiling about something.

Because Ji-tae was perched like that, their eye level matched.

And the distance between them seemed a little close.

“…….”

Wooju blinked and stared at them blankly.

Were they always that close?

But they had only met today.

“I even bought the renewed version of this!”

“Really? No wonder it smells nice.”

On top of that, Ji-tae had already started speaking casually.

And what? Smell?

Wooju’s brows slowly furrowed.

Was that not something he said only to him?

Maybe Won Ji-tae was actually the type of person who said things like that to others as naturally as breathing.

At that moment, Yoon-kwon mentioned something about a new product and raised his right hand slightly.

The inside of his wrist faced Ji-tae.

Ji-tae went a step further, lightly grabbing Yoon-kwon’s wrist.

Then he lowered his head as if about to bring his nose closer to it.

The entire sequence seemed to pass by like a slow-motion scene.

Watching Won Ji-tae casually grab the hand of someone he had practically just met and touch him so naturally made Wooju feel unpleasant.

“Hey……”

Wooju instinctively started to call him.

But he hesitated for a moment.

Then, as if making up his mind, he bit his lip tightly.

“Ji-tae.”

The unfamiliar form of address made his voice come out smaller than usual.

So it wouldn’t have been strange if no one heard it.

In fact, Yoon-kwon seemed not to notice the call at all.

But Won Ji-tae did.

Ji-tae quickly let go of Yoon-kwon’s wrist and straightened his posture.

Then he turned his head and stared straight at Wooju standing at the end of the hallway.

“Oh? It’s Wooju hyung.”

Only then did Yoon-kwon notice him and wave his hand enthusiastically.

“…Ji-tae, let’s go now.”

Wooju raised his voice slightly this time.

For some reason, he had a feeling that if he didn’t call him like that, Won Ji-tae wouldn’t move from that spot.

At the second call, Ji-tae began walking toward Wooju.

As he got closer, his steps quickened slightly.

Before long, the distance between them had closed rapidly.

“Kang Wooju…….”

Ji-tae stood beside him, his eyes sparkling like a child who had just been deeply moved.

“Ahem. Hey! Baek Yoon-kwon! Get home safely. See you at the next training session.”

“Yes, hyung! Thank you for your hard work.”

Yoon-kwon waved his hand again and disappeared in another direction.

Left alone near the first-floor lobby, an awkward silence settled between the two of them.

“What. Why.”

That staring gaze felt a little burdensome.

And Wooju knew exactly why Ji-tae was making that expression.

“You called me by my name.”

Not just that.

After calling him Ji-tae, Yoon-kwon had also addressed him with his full name earlier.

“So you didn’t like it?”

“No.”

Ji-tae shook his head repeatedly.

For a moment, Wooju thought he looked like a retriever shaking off water after a bath.

“But what were you doing there?”

“We were talking.”

“Just the two of you? Since when did you get so close?”

“Well, that’s….”

Ji-tae scratched his head as if there was something awkward about it.

Wooju stared at him as if demanding the truth.

“Yoon-kwon said he had a lot of your old photos and wanted to show them to me.

So we were talking because I wanted to see them.”

“What?”

It was an absurd reason.

And why was that Baek Yoon-kwon showing someone else’s photos around so casually?

Of course, he was the youngest on the team and adored by the older members.

So even if he pulled pranks or did things like that, no one really stopped him.

For example, even if he took embarrassing photos of others during training, no one scolded the youngest.

And that included Wooju as well.

But showing those photos to Won Ji-tae?

Wooju felt like he needed to say something to him next time.

“Then what was that smell thing about?”

“Smell?”

Ji-tae asked back, as if he didn’t even remember what had just happened.

Annoyed, Wooju suddenly raised his right wrist and pretended to sniff it.

Then he asked again if Ji-tae hadn’t just done exactly that.

“Ahh.

He said he bought the perfume I advertised and was using it well.

He even bought the newly released version.

I like that brand’s perfume, so I guess I unconsciously tried to smell it.”

Now that he thought about it, he remembered Ji-tae mentioning he liked that perfume when they once slept in the same bed before.

Still, hearing that explanation made Wooju feel a little embarrassed for reacting so strongly.

“By the way, Kang Wooju, can you call me by my name one more time?”

“No.”

“Ah, why?”

“Because you’re asking.”

“What are you, some kind of contrarian?

Seriously, your personality…”

Ji-tae narrowed his eyes as if he had expected that answer.

“Anyway, forget that.

Tell me something too.”

“What?”

Ji-tae, apparently still sulking because Wooju wouldn’t call his name again, stared at the phone Wooju held out.

“That… the perfume you said you like.

The one Baek Yoon-kwon was wearing.”

He had seen the advertisements quite a few times.

But he couldn’t remember the exact brand or the specific perfume.

Perhaps embarrassed for asking, Wooju looked away awkwardly.

“So damn cute……”

Ji-tae muttered quietly, just loud enough for himself to hear.

“What?”

“Nothing.

Give it to me. I’ll show you.”

Ji-tae took Wooju’s phone and tapped on the screen.

For some reason, his fingers moving across the display looked unusually lively today.

If someone asked Ji-tae to describe his current mood in one word, it would be excellent.

Recently, both his body and mind felt lighter than ever before.

There were quite a few reasons for why his condition had improved so much.

First, he was essentially taking a break disguised as filming.

After finishing the movie Rail, Ji-tae had been so busy with events and schedules that there were many days when he barely slept two hours.

After the movie surpassed ten million viewers, his agency insisted that this was an important moment and that he should immediately choose his next project to keep the momentum going.

But Ji-tae stubbornly insisted on doing this variety show instead.

His excuse was that if they worked him any harder, it would violate labor laws.

Of course, this was still filming and still work.

But compared to drama or movie shoots, it was far easier.

The environment was quiet, spacious, and full of fresh air.

And he didn’t really have to do much.

Naturally, the workload felt much lighter.

Of course, he couldn’t completely relax in a place where cameras ran twenty-four hours a day.

But he had already gotten used to that.

Today he woke up unusually early.

When he checked the clock, it was only eight in the morning.

He tried to fall asleep again, but once the sleep had escaped, it wouldn’t come back easily.

Even so, his body didn’t feel sore or stiff.

That was thanks to his improved condition.

Instead of trying to sleep again, Ji-tae picked up his phone and opened YouTube out of habit.

The screen filled with drama clips and volleyball videos.

The power of algorithms was truly frightening.

When he entered the subscription tab, only one channel appeared.

[Baekyoung Construction Volleyball Team]

It was Wooju’s team’s official channel.

As he casually scrolled down, a short video uploaded that very morning caught his eye.

[Off-season weight training! A familiar face appears?!]

At a glance, it was clearly from the training session Wooju had participated in yesterday.

He had seen a staff member walking around with a small camera filming the players.

It seemed like that footage had been uploaded now.

Without hesitation, Ji-tae played the video.

Sure enough, the screen showed the familiar training room and Wooju exercising with familiar movements.

The caption read:

[Player Kang joins training after a long time!]

“Wooju really doesn’t look good on camera.”

Still, he carefully watched Wooju through the lens of someone else’s perspective.

The camera filmed him lifting the barbell and moving diligently from multiple angles.

“…….”

Watching his well-defined muscles move fiercely reminded Ji-tae of the scene he had witnessed yesterday in the training room.

Seeing Wooju exercising skillfully while covered in sweat had been a kind of torture.

Among all those dark, muscular men, Wooju had been radiating charm so openly that Ji-tae had felt his insides burn with frustration.

Every time that happened, their eyes happened to meet.

That was the only reason Ji-tae managed to keep his expression under control.

But no matter how he thought about it, it wasn’t a very pleasant memory.

If he had stayed there even a little longer, he might have dried up and died.

After the short video ended, Ji-tae naturally moved to the comment section.