4#
After pressing the send button, he lay down on the bed. He thanked the nurse watching him with puzzled eyes, then closed his eyes. Seeing his body language expressing his desire to rest, the nurse left immediately, and the moment the door closed, his eyes opened. While waiting for Ganghyeon’s reply, he answered the messages from his acquaintances one by one.
Thank you for the congratulations. My condition is fine, so please don’t worry too much.
Most conversations ended quickly due to the extremely formulaic greetings. He took care of them instantly as if working, and from the missed calls list, he only called his parents and grandfather. While politely responding to them saying they would come to the hospital, a message vibration rang. He hurriedly finished the call and looked at the screen. The eyes that had been emotionless during the call with his parents regained vitality and sparkled brightly.
Take care of yourself.
At Ganghyeon’s message, an inexplicable expectation fizzled out with a hiss. Then, a sense of disappointment and an ineffable, profound emptiness surged in like a tide. His unfocused pupils fixed on the word “lover” in the message Ganghyeon had sent last night. The index finger holding the smartphone tapped, tapped the back. The finger tapping lightly away showed no sign of stopping.
“It’s been a month…….”
Was it because he had been busy? He hadn’t sensed anything at all. Could love start that suddenly? Hyeon was the cautious type, and yet…….
So deep a relationship that they were already at a hotel?
Trying to calm the rage that surged in an instant, he took a deep breath, then grabbed his ribs and groaned. He picked up his smartphone and pressed the number of Baek Gayeong, his university senior and the owner of the cafe where Ganghyeon worked.
“Oh~! Yun Doyeong, winner of the acting award, what brings you to actually call me? You even sent a formal reply earlier like a copy-and-paste, so why the phone call?”
“Ah, noona. Why do you have to twist the greeting like that?”
“Could it be because my favorite little brother Yun Doyeong never shows his face at the cafe that Baek Gayeong—you call noona—drained her entire fortune and took out a mountain of loans to open? And it is absolutely, absolutely not because you were busy filming a drama and only sent a wreath with your name on it. I’m just curious why you called while you’re in the middle of a car accident. Plus, my brain is so pissed that if you don’t tell me when you’re visiting, I’ll just hang up, so that’s making me say this?”
Her endlessly pouring words were filled with disappointment. At that, guilt welled up, and his already soft voice came out even more tenderly.
“Ah, noona……. I’m sorry. I was planning to visit soon anyway, but I got into an accident. As you know, I’m confined to the hospital for a few days because of a car accident.”
“That ‘I’ll visit soon’—I can record it, right?”
“Of course. I’ll drop by unexpectedly within three days of being discharged.”
“Okay, received. Are you really okay? When I cracked my ribs before, I caught a cold too and thought I was going to die.”
“Ah……. A cold. Now that I think about it, I remember you making me buy soju because you couldn’t go up on the theater stage because of that.”
“Right. I bragged about it. But why did you call? You’re not the type to call without a reason. I mean, rather than this cringeworthy call. I’d be honored if you came to the cafe I opened, showed your face, and let me take a photo. Of course, that photo will be printed on A4 paper and displayed right in the center of the cafe counter along with your signature.”
“Yes, yes! I’ll definitely take photos and sign several copies, just as you said, noona.”
When he answered firmly, Baek Gayeong’s voice suddenly went high-pitched.
“How may I help you, Dongsaeng-nim?”
To top it off, she used a friendly, kind tone like a call center agent.
“Uh……. Are there any female employees at the cafe?”
“Me! There is a female employee right here.”
“No……. Noona, you’re the owner.”
“No one sees me as the owner.”
Yun Doyeong, who didn’t want to play word games, asked in a calm and dry tone.
“Are there female employees?”
“There are. There are staff and part-timers.”
“Which part-timer works the same shift as Hyeon?”
“Why?”
“Nothing, I just thought he might be seeing someone.”
“Hyeon-ah! Do you like me?”
His whole body stiffened at her voice shouting somewhere. He let out a shallow sigh at the awkwardness. Given her personality of hating to talk behind people’s backs, she was telling him to ask Hyeon directly. Hyeon’s voice was audible over the receiver.
“What did you ask noona?”
“Just……. I was curious about your girlfriend. I was wondering if she works the same shift.”
“I’ll introduce you later. Don’t tell anyone. I told you she’s a non-celebrity.”
At the firm tone that cut off like a snap, he was at a loss for words. He wasn’t unaware of Hyeon’s cautious heart; relationships during his unknown days had sometimes unintentionally become gossip as well.
“Okay. I’ll wait until you introduce her. *Cough*.”
“Did you catch a cold?”
“I’m coughing……. Ah, my chest hurts.”
“Rest.”
“…….”
“…….”
“*Cough. Achoo!*”
“Is there anything you want to eat?”
“Street food. I want to taste a little bit of everything.”
“I’ll drop by for a bit in the evening.”
“I won’t eat dinner and wait.”
“Okay.”
Only after hearing that he would come in time for dinner did his stiffened face relax. So tense he had been that all the sharp tension drained from his body; he stared at the ceiling and fell right asleep. Even as his consciousness faded, his head was full of the thought that he needed to have a long talk with Hyeon when he came in the evening.
***
“Do you want to date?”
At Baek Gayeong’s words, Ganghyeon held out his smartphone to her, hesitated, then spoke.
“Yes.”
“Then you can do it with me.”
“Sure.”
At the insincere answer, Baek Gayeong, who had been full of playfulness, spoke in a serious voice.
“Is something wrong?”
“He came by last night, and since I didn’t want to meet him, I lied that I was with my girlfriend.”
She was the only one who knew Ganghyeon’s circumstances. She was lively and cheerful, good at joking and sociable. So she appeared lighthearted, but she was surprisingly tight-lipped and cautious. Because of camera anxiety, she had only stood on theater stages, and she was also an information broker who knew industry news well. She was quick on the uptake, so she understood exactly even without specific explanations. Baek Gayeong took back the smartphone and spoke slowly.
“Forget it. It’s common for things to fall apart before filming.”
“I know.”
“Even so, does watching him win the award make you feel bitter?”
“A little. It’s complicated. I need to clear my head for a bit.”
“Yeah. It seems like it. But don’t take too long.”
“Yes.”
He had already made up his mind, but there was no need to show it in front of her. It was already something to be grateful for that she had given him a part-time job at her cafe after quitting acting. Baek Gayeong, who treated her own people generously, would immediately inform him of movie or drama production news and pave the way for him to appear in plays. That was why, when the role he had been cast in went to Yun Doyeong, he was immediately able to take a small role in a play.
He was working even harder to repay his gratitude to her. Of course, there were plenty of days when she didn’t come in, trusting him.
“Welcome.”
Right as the cleaning was wrapping up, a customer came in, and Ganghyeon consciously greeted them pleasantly. It was a moment when his sharp-eyed impression transformed into something cute because of his smile. The cafe located in an area dense with office buildings saw people coming in one after another to buy coffee on their way to work today as well. Baek Gayeong took orders busily, and Ganghyeon hurried with the cleaning.
After a while, an employee came to work, and Ganghyeon, who had briefly caught his breath, lay on the break room sofa and closed his eyes for a moment. After finishing about an hour of short rest, he opened a shopping bag in the corner and took out a collared shirt and pants to change into. They were clothes he would put on when he had to rush to an audition in the middle of his part-time job. He put on an apron and came out to greet customers during the busy hours. As per a customer’s order, he put fresh fruit in the blender and pressed the button,
“Hyeon hyung!”
He turned around because someone called him the moment the cafe door opened. The ash-blue dyed hair on a 185cm frame caught his eyes at once. Wearing a casual jumper over a handsome face, he drew the eyes of everyone in the cafe and strode over. His eyes narrowed upon seeing Ganghyeon, holding a smile.
“I guess I’m invisible.”
When Baek Gayeong smiled thinly and tossed out the words with dissatisfaction, the ash-blue haired man feigned surprise.
“Oho! Noona was here too. You’re so petite I didn’t see you.”
“I’m 167cm tall, you know. Just how do your eyes manage to end up in that state, Mr. I Jigyeong?”
“Oh~. Noona’s taller than I thought.”
Ganghyeon tossed out words bluntly to him as he put on a shameless expression, as if he were hearing this for the first time.
“Come with an apron.”
“Whyy~, I don’t want to work.”
I Jigyeong dragged out the end of his sentence in a way unbecoming of his large build. Ganghyeon, unbothered, poured the blended drink from the blender into a cup and gestured toward the window table with his eyes.
“Then, don’t work and just sit there.”
The moment he finished speaking, he called out the order with the vibrating bell. In the meantime, I Jigyeong went inside the counter and gently wrapped his arms around Ganghyeon’s waist, who was slightly smaller than him, and rested his chin on his shoulder. At the affectionate skinship, Ganghyeon said expressionlessly,
“Heavy.”
“Whyy~, Doyeong hyung never says I’m heavy even when I do this.”
“Doyeong doesn’t put his weight on me.”
At that, I Jigyeong slightly raised his head and looked at Ganghyeon. When Yun Doyeong had rested his head on Ganghyeon’s shoulder as if lying down, he definitely hadn’t said anything, yet he always said it was heavy when I Jigyeong did it.
“You’re discriminating between people. Hyung only pretends to be nice to Doyeong hyung.”
I Jigyeong dragged out the end of his complaint-filled words and gazed at the small mole on Ganghyeon’s plump earlobe. Soon, his gaze filled with heat traveled down Ganghyeon’s long neck and reached his neatly buttoned shirt collar. After sneaking a glance at Ganghyeon’s reaction, he moved his head along Ganghyeon’s neckline and brought his lips to Ganghyeon’s ear.