The faces of the two people sitting on the sofa suddenly took on a wary, sensitive look.
“What is it… that you have?”
At his mother’s sharp gaze, Yoon Jooho smiled.
“Do you still think I sent that proof of content just to test the waters? To get your attention? Like I’m still a ten-year-old child, throwing a tantrum because I’m starved for your affection?”
Bang Manager, who had been standing holding a tray of drinks, let out a sigh and took it back to the kitchen. Yoon Jooho continued.
“I’m ready to take this as far as it goes, and I’m not backing down.”
“So you’re determined to scalp your own parents, is that it?”
Hearing Yoon Jooho’s father’s words, Song Hyunsoo clenched his fists tightly. Damn it, who are you to say that?
Yoon Jooho seemed to be thinking the same, a dry, bitter laugh leaking through his lips. He shrugged his shoulders in a deliberately relaxed manner.
“If you want, go ahead and release the photos. I’ll just acknowledge everything publicly.”
His mother scoffed, as if the idea was absurd, as if he could never possibly do such a thing.
“Acknowledge? Do you think you could keep acting if you admit you’re gay?”
“Gay, Mother? You shouldn’t dismiss all the women I’ve dated like that. I’m bisexual. Bisexual.”
“You… you filthy bastard…”
With a trembling fist, his father hit his own thigh repeatedly. But Yoon Jooho remained calm.
With gleaming eyes and a twisted smile at his lips, he taunted them.
“I already have more money than I could ever spend rotting away somewhere. I’ll just live working with directors who want me for my acting.”
He didn’t look like he was just saying it. Somehow, he seemed to have prepared himself for it—even to the point of letting go of the name Yoon Jooho entirely.
“Do you think audiences could ever immerse themselves in a melodrama if the lead actor is branded as gay?”
“I’m not just a handsome actor who can only shoot melodramas.”
“So what? You’ll keep scraping by, acting in independent films, low-budget films? You’ve only ever lived as a popular star since you were a child, so you have no idea how miserable that is.”
At his mother’s words, Yoon Jooho dropped his head and let out a laugh, his broad shoulders shaking.
“Miserable, you say?”
Then, with his fist lightly curled to his lips, he looked up and glared at his mother.
“I did everything that kid wanted, just because I wanted my parents’ affection. For thirty years, I couldn’t even do the projects I wanted. I was treated like a money-printing machine.”
“……”
“My own parents turned me into a male prostitute!”
“……”
“You don’t think that’s miserable?”
Bang Manager, standing by the kitchen, glanced diagonally at Song Hyunsoo.
It was concern—that an outsider like Song Hyunsoo had heard such a deep secret.
“Jooho.”
Bang Manager immediately stepped in, trying to stop Yoon Jooho.
But Yoon Jooho, regaining his composure in an instant, raised a palm to Bang Manager.
“It’s alright, hyung. Hyunsoo already knows.”
“…He knows?”
“I told him.”
Yoon Jooho’s gaze slowly swept around and landed on Song Hyunsoo this time.
The man who’d been screaming at his parents now looked at Song Hyunsoo with earnest, gentle eyes.
“For sympathy.”
“……”
“Because I liked it when you pitied me.”
Without realizing it, Song Hyunsoo clasped his hands tightly in front of his stomach.
He felt like he needed to hold onto something, just to endure. Watching Yoon Jooho standing alone, facing his parents, he looked unbearably lonely.
Instinctively, Hyunsoo moved to step toward him—but at that moment, Jooho’s father slammed the sofa table.
“You crazy bastard… Who do you think you’re telling this to?”
Realizing that Song Hyunsoo now knew the secret that could destroy not only Yoon Jooho’s acting career, but their own positions as well, his father seemed to have finally snapped, losing even the thin thread of rationality he’d been holding onto.
His mother, however, was more collected and rational than his father.
“So you want to expose this? Even if that gets out, you do know it won’t do you any good, right?”
She continued.
“You weren’t even a minor back then. Legally, you can’t pin all the blame on us.”
“That’s right. I was an adult at the time. But if this goes to court, I’ll focus on proving that I was abused continuously since I was three years old.”
“Abuse? Abuse? After all we’ve done to get you to this point, you call that abuse? You son of a bitch!”
Searching for something to throw, his father glanced about wildly.
He grabbed the photo album lying on the sofa and hurled it with all his might at Yoon Jooho’s face.
Song Hyunsoo gasped.
Fortunately, Yoon Jooho raised his arm and blocked it, swatting it away with force. The album tumbled loudly into a corner of the living room.
“Stop it!”
Standing at the entrance to the living room, Song Hyunsoo rushed to Yoon Jooho. Grabbing his arm and pulling him back, he shouted at Jooho’s father.
To me, he was so precious, always someone I wanted to see shining in a high place.
I thought he’d always lived like a prince, from childhood to now.
“I told you not to interfere! How dare a no-name rookie actor, who’s not even worth mentioning, get involved…”
Ignoring the foul words his father spewed, dropping all pretense of civility, Song Hyunsoo fumbled over Jooho’s arm and face.
“Sunbae, are you alright?”
Yoon Jooho, looking briefly dazed, pulled up the right sleeve of his sweatshirt.
“Uh… It looks like I got hit pretty hard here…”
Song Hyunsoo closely examined where Jooho had rolled up his sleeve.
It seemed the photo album’s corner had scraped him as it hit, the skin slightly peeled back.
“You’re scraped here! Does it hurt? It hurts, doesn’t it?”
“It stings, kind of…”
As Song Hyunsoo rubbed Jooho’s arm, he shouted at his father.
“Who do you think you are, using violence? Are you insane?”
He was afraid Yoon Jooho would become a target of rumors and malicious comments.
He was terrified that the same awful things that happened to Hongseo might happen again.
The anger he felt toward these people, called parents, was enough to override his fear.
“Oh, is it you? Are you the one egging Jooho on? What, are you after his money?”
“Of course that’s what you’d think. Do you think everyone in the world is like you?”
“You people? I can make sure scum like you never set foot in the entertainment industry again. Watch your mouth.”
Jooho’s mother, who had been sitting calmly and watching Hyunsoo closely, grabbed her husband’s arm to stop him.
Then, with lips thin like her son’s, she spoke in a cold, quiet voice.
“How long do you think Jooho’s interest in you, a man, will last?”
“……”
“No matter who he dates, he never lasts a month. That’s our Jooho.”
“Yes, watching you two, I can clearly see why he turned out that way.”
Unable to contain himself again, Jooho’s father jumped up, pointing at Song Hyunsoo.
“What’s Bang Manager doing? Drag that bastard out of here!”
“What do you people know about him? All you care about is taking his money. You don’t know a thing!”
Song Hyunsoo and Jooho’s father looked ready to go at each other any second.
Just then, suddenly, Jooho’s arm wrapped around Hyunsoo’s shoulder from behind.
[You know Executive Vice President Lee Seokyung of Hanseo Group, right? Owner’s eldest son.]
And somewhere, a recorded voice began to play.
Yoon Jooho’s right arm, holding a cellphone, appeared in Hyunsoo’s field of vision.
[I know. The rumors are so filthy, there’s no way not to know.]
[Filthy? Watch your mouth. He’s not that kind of person.]
Jooho’s father’s stern, almost solemn voice.
[What if he isn’t?]
[He’s a very decent man, precise in his calculations.]
[How do you know that, Dad?]
[Jooho, he said he’s interested in you.]
This time it was his mother, her voice cautious and coaxing.
[Interested?]
[He’d like to meet you.]
[Are you telling me to sell my body?]
[Do you have to use such vulgar words?]
Shameless. His father even scolded him.
[Then what should I call it? Prostitution?]
[It’s not like you haven’t slept around before. The only difference is, this time it’s a man. Are you going to pretend to be chaste now?]
[Do you hear yourself right now?]
[It’s not like your lower half, which you’ve dipped all over the place, is going to rot just because you use it one more time.]
Song Hyunsoo gripped Jooho’s arm tightly across his shoulders. It was exactly as Jooho had once told him about his parents.
『“It’s not like your lower half, which you’ve dipped all over the place, is going to rot just because you use it one more time.”』
He’d wondered, listening to those words, why Jooho spoke like that—it had felt like his heart was being ripped out.
Now, he understood why. His parents had treated him that way.
[No. That person can save you, now that you’re useless. So, in fact, this is even nobler than those one-month flings you used to have.]
It was the biggest load of bullshit Song Hyunsoo had ever heard in his life.
“What are you so shocked about?”
Stopping the recording, Yoon Jooho spoke.
“Mistrust, putting every agreement in writing, recording everything. I learned it all from you.”
Not just his father—even his mother, who’d remained calm until now, was turning stiff and cold.
“Recordings, messages, call logs—I’ve been collecting them since the moment I realized my parents were no longer on my side. How many do you think I have?”
His mother was the first to grab her handbag and hurriedly stood up.
Facing Jooho squarely, her expression cold as ice and sharp as a needle, she shook her head.
“Really… I never thought you’d disappoint me like this.”
“Likewise.”
His father also stood up.
“To think you’d turn on your own parents… you crazy bastard.”
The two of them left in a hurry, like fugitives fleeing a press corps, faces hard as stone.
Letting go of Hyunsoo’s shoulder, Yoon Jooho followed close behind, shouting venomously at their ears.
“You’re the ones who made me into this lunatic! I hope you’re proud of your work!”
As soon as the front door closed, he slumped against the wall, letting out a heavy, painful groan.
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