Chapter 36: Dissolve: His Last Choice

S#78. Lee Sol’s Room (Late Night)

The day Baek Kang was finally released after serving eight years in prison.

Lee Sol, Lee San, and Baek Kang share dinner together.

As if there had never been an eight-year gap between them, the table is full of laughter and conversation.

Lee Sol apologizes for not being able to go with Lee San to greet him at the prison. 

She says she feels bad about it.

Baek Kang doesn’t mind. 

Telling her not to worry, he gently wraps his hand around the back of hers resting on the table.

But the warmth is only surface-deep. 

The laughter and liveliness are manufactured solely by Lee San, Lee Sol’s younger brother. 

He’s thrilled by Baek Kang’s return and keeps dredging up old memories, making the other two laugh.

But once they’re alone in Lee Sol’s room, the mood changes sharply. 

The eight years that passed begin to show their weight— what they have changed starts to become clear.

Song Hyunsoo had memorized the entire script, including everyone else’s lines. 

He wasn’t sure if that would actually help his performance, but he wanted to do whatever he could for the film. 

Because of that, he could instantly recall entire scenes just by reading the scene number and brief description.

Scene 78— Baek Kang and Lee Sol alone together for the first time since his release. 

Hyunsoo thought it seemed like a particularly tricky scene to act in.

“So, I’ll be playing Lee Sol, right?”

Yoon Jooho gave a short nod without taking his eyes off the script. 

The mischievous energy he had in the living room was nowhere to be seen.

Jooho, silently focused as he fiddled with his lower lip, slowly raised his head to look at Hyunsoo. 

His expression, his gaze— completely different. 

Not the Jooho who always picked childish fights at cast dinners. 

Not the one who snarled at the lawyers.

“You’re an actor. You’re not gonna get all awkward and giggly, are you?”

“I won’t. But honestly… are you going to be able to stay in character looking at my face?”

“When you’re acting, it’s not really about seeing the other person. You’re just talking to a mannequin that happens to speak.”

Hyunsoo didn’t fully understand what that meant. 

Not until Jooho started acting.

Jooho slowly opened and closed his eyes in deep, steady breaths. 

Hyunsoo found himself mesmerized by the sunlight catching on Jooho’s long lashes.

And when Jooho finally looked at him again, Hyunsoo felt like he was sitting next to a complete stranger.

A barely-there, tender smile hovered at his lips. 

A soft gaze that said he was hopelessly in love. 

A look that left no room for doubt— this man was utterly smitten.

So Jooho can look like this too.

Is this how he treats someone when he’s really in love?

“Lee San’s still the same. He hasn’t grown up at all.”

A voice laced with warmth and amusement— Baek Kang’s first line after the two are alone in Lee Sol’s room.

Hyunsoo was so stunned by how completely Jooho had transformed into a gentle, affectionate man that he forgot to say his own line. 

He just stared, caught up in that smile, those eyes.

“What are you doing? Your line.”

Only when he saw Jooho’s brows knit did Hyunsoo snap back to reality.

“Lee San’s been waiting for you a long time. You could’ve spent more time with him.”

Lee Sol says this while unclasping her necklace in front of the mirror. 

Across the bed, Baek Kang watches her. 

Then, like he used to eight years ago, he walks up behind her and gently wraps his arms around her waist.

“What about you? You didn’t wait for me?”

He whispers it into her ear— just for her, so soft it barely needs to be heard.

Jooho didn’t actually move behind Hyunsoo or place his hands on him. 

But he held the expression. 

He leaned forward ever so slightly, his smiling eyes dripping with sweetness— almost intoxicating.

Just a moment ago, they were teasing each other like usual. 

How can he look at me like this now? 

Isn’t he even tempted to laugh?

Hyunsoo knew it was because Jooho had thirty years of experience. 

Still, he felt shaken.

It was like watching twins with the same face but completely different souls. 

He couldn’t look away.

In the script, Baek Kang’s lips trail down Lee Sol’s neck and shoulder. 

A kiss that starts soft but deepens into something more intense. 

They fall onto the bed together, and Baek Kang re-acquaints himself with the skin he had longed for every day over those eight years. 

Just like they used to, ever since their first time.

But that night, Lee Sol turns him away.

Or rather, Baek Kang senses her hesitation and withdraws first.

While receiving the tender kiss warmed by his breath, Lee Sol— who had looked unsettled the whole time— finally pushed Baek Kang’s hand away as it crept up her thigh beneath her skirt.

Startled, Baek Kang hesitated, then withdrew his hand and pulled back from her.

“It’s been too long… I rushed things, didn’t I?”

Lee Sol sat up, unable to meet his gaze.

“…I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s been eight years. It makes sense that this still feels strange.”

He told himself and her that the only reason she was rejecting him was because it had been too long. 

That the awkwardness was natural. 

Baek Kang lied, both to her and to himself.

As he tried to soothe her apology, Baek Kang couldn’t completely hide his disappointment.

Yoon Jooho expressed it through subtle shifts in his smile and breathing, and a hollow gesture as he brushed his hair back. 

Though he still looked at Lee Sol warmly, doubt and unease were beginning to creep into the truth he believed— that she was his.

When exactly Baek Kang realized Lee Sol’s heart had changed is never specified in the script. 

Films rarely explain emotions or situations so kindly.

Song Hyunsoo, who had watched and rewatched the script until he practically had it memorized, had interpreted that Baek Kang didn’t fully grasp her change of heart until much later. 

When he met the film director who had become her new love, when he was introduced to the man, when he saw how happy she looked by his side. 

Even then, Baek Kang suspected nothing. 

That was how Song Hyunsoo had always understood it.

But the Baek Kang portrayed by Yoon Jooho was different.

Seeing the faint shadow cast across his smile, the sorrow in eyes trying to suppress their emotion, Song Hyunsoo thought: Maybe Baek Kang already sensed it back then— that her heart was no longer the same.

“Then… is it okay if I just lie next to you?”

Baek Kang pleaded, his voice barely audible.

His world was crumbling behind his eyes, because of Lee Sol’s rejection. 

It was hard to bear the look in those eyes— it didn’t feel like acting on screen but like a real person’s genuine emotion, right in front of her.

“Wouldn’t that be hard for you? Maybe you should just… sleep at your place tonight.”

Lee Sol’s line, which inflicted yet another wound on Baek Kang, weighed heavily on Song Hyunsoo. 

She didn’t want to say something like that to the man standing in front of her.

“I’m not here because I have to sleep with you.”

Yoon Jooho’s graceful hand gently touched Song Hyunsoo’s— no, Lee Sol’s— hair and cheek. 

He barely grazed the surface, as though even touching her was something he didn’t feel worthy of.

“I just want to fall asleep watching you like this. I’m scared it’ll turn out to be a dream.”

That infinitely delicate touch, as if to say nothing in the world was more fragile or precious.

He was merely playing Baek Kang, using Song Hyunsoo as Lee Sol’s stand-in, imagining the woman who wasn’t really there. 

And yet, Baek Kang’s emotions seeped into Hyunsoo’s heart.

Baek Kang’s monstrous devotion— so fierce he had been willing to kill to rescue her from hell.

Even after spending eight years in prison with blood on his hands for her, Baek Kang never demanded loyalty in return.

His unrequited loyalty and love were heartbreaking. 

It felt unjust, infuriating. She wanted to scream that it wasn’t fair. 

Her nose stung and her eyes burned with tears.

Yoon Jooho’s thumb gently brushed her cheek.

“I’ll sneak out through the window before Sani barges in tomorrow morning. Like we used to, when we were kids.”

Faced with Baek Kang’s painful smile— pretending not to know, though he knew everything— Song Hyunsoo finally cried.

“……”

And in that moment, Yoon Jooho broke character.

He had been acting opposite the imaginary Lee Sol in his mind. 

Now he looked at the real Song Hyunsoo, surprised.

Hyunsoo herself was just as taken aback. 

She quickly wiped her tears and tried to cover it up with a casual tone.

“Wow… I actually teared up. I never cry, no matter how sad something is.”

She braced herself to be scolded. 

They’d told her not to break immersion, and she couldn’t even manage that. 

But surprisingly, Yoon Jooho didn’t say much. 

He simply looked at her for a moment, then stood up and walked behind the couch with a light remark:

“You sure you’re not the type who cries at the drop of a hat?”

Well, it’s hard to criticize someone who teared up watching your performance.