Chapter 86: The Growing Distance

“Why?”

Wooju questioned him.

Jitae’s gaze dropped to the ground.

Unlike before, the fact that Wooju was now holding a water bottle handed to him by someone else made his stomach churn, even though it was really nothing.

“Who was that just now?”

Jitae shifted his gaze slightly toward where Dongha had disappeared.

“Who? Dongha-ssi?”

Jitae nodded timidly.

“I have a lot of schedules booked for the time being. The office assigned him to me to help with that.”

That meant he was a manager.

“So, does that person handle all your driving and caretaking too?”

The hand Wooju was using to screw the cap back onto the water bottle faltered.

Soon, he looked up and stared at Jitae.

“If he’s your manager, he must know your home address, your passcode, and everything like that, right?”

Jitae thought of his manager hyung, who knew his home address, his car license plate number, and even his front door passcode.

It was information that managers generally knew by default.

They were the ones who had to move quickly if the celebrity they were in charge of didn’t know what might happen when or where, or if they were at risk of missing a schedule due to oversleeping or unavoidable reasons.

“Why are you asking that?”

“…Huh?”

A cold voice flowed from Wooju’s lips.

It was distinctly different from the playful, mischievous tone he used when he wanted to pick a fight in the past.

“And why on earth should I have to tell you that?”

“Wooju-ya.”

“Do you usually tell colleagues you work with about such personal things? We’re not even friends, are we?”

Jitae bit his lip tightly.

With a history of mistakes, he couldn’t even guess what he should say.

He had run countless simulations on how he should behave if he were to meet Wooju again.

Honestly, he had considered confessing everything.

Thinking that if he just openly explained the past that Wooju was so curious about, or the reasons why he had no choice but to quit volleyball, and then apologized for lying when he said they couldn’t be friends—maybe they could return to the way they were back then.

‘You know better than anyone how your father treated me, don’t you?’

‘You must never do that. Mom only has you now. If even you abandon me…….’

However, that day, Jitae was reminded once again of the deficiency he had been trying to forget, and in the end, he had no choice but to close the door Wooju had been knocking on.

He thought that approaching him as comfortably and naturally as possible was the priority.

He thought that if he apologized only for the words he had spat out—like saying he didn’t mean it when he said he didn’t want to be friends—then maybe, just maybe, things could be resolved.

“Won Jitae, I have something to ask you.”

Wooju let out a short sigh and then spoke as if he had made up his mind.

“Yeah.”

“I know we’re doing well because of our ‘real-life chemistry’ or whatever. But that’s something you only need to show when the cameras are rolling or when we’re working, right?”

Meeting Wooju’s eyes, Jitae realized what he wanted to say.

In other words, it was a warning not to act so comfortably in private settings like he used to.

Well, it was only natural; he had hurt him so much, so there was no way things would go the way he wanted.

“Yeah.”

Jitae turned his head away.

Because of that, he failed to see Wooju’s face contort in the other direction.

Soon after, a staff member announced that they would resume filming.

The two drifted apart.

Even though their bodies were in the same studio, the directions their hearts were pointed toward were entirely different.

While this project was meant to feature their story in a special edition of a famous magazine, today was the day to shoot the first round of pictorials.

That meant they just needed to strike good poses in front of the camera; there was nothing else to do beyond that.

Throughout the shoot, the only moments Wooju and Jitae were together were when they stood in front of the camera.

Jitae kept chasing Wooju with his eyes whenever he had a spare moment.

Wooju mainly spent his time with the manager named Dongha, and seeing the two of them laughing and talking comfortably—wondering what could possibly be so funny—was a form of torture and agony for Jitae.

“Cut! That’s a wrap! Good work, everyone!”

As a loud voice echoed through the quiet set, the tension that had been heightened to the max subsided.

“Athlete-nim, here’s some water.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Jitae held the water bottle handed to him by his manager and looked around.

It was when he looked toward one side, chewing on the straw stuck perfectly into the cap.

He discovered Wooju standing, leaning against a side.

Wearing casual clothes for the pictorial concept, Wooju seemed to shine with all his might today as well.

“Are you okay, Dongha-ssi?”

When an unfamiliar name left Wooju’s lips, Jitae’s footsteps toward that direction faltered.

Now that he thought about it, he had felt a strange sense of dissonance since earlier.

Whether Wooju was preparing in the waiting room or throughout the shoot, there had been someone constantly sticking to his side.

It was a man wearing large glasses.

He exuded a neat atmosphere, and his round, large eyes reminded one of a small puppy raised in the countryside.

Perhaps because of his slight physique, he looked even smaller standing next to Wooju.

“I didn’t really do anything, though.”

The man named Dongha giggled and scratched his head.

In tune, Wooju smiled and continued their conversation naturally.

Jitae gripped his hand tight without realizing it.

Just then, Park Dongha took out his phone, asked Wooju for his understanding, and walked off to one side.

It seemed he had received a call.

Jitae took that opportunity to approach Wooju.

Wooju’s face crumpled slightly as he spotted Jitae walking over.

His heart throbbed for a second, but he couldn’t stop the steps he had already taken.

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