“By the way, what kind of cologne do you use, sunbae?”
“Why? Gonna copy me?”
“As if I could afford that.”
Yoon Jooho smirked at an angle.
“You landed a sweet gig. Thanks to me.”
“I am grateful for that, seriously. This job’s so cushy I almost feel guilty.”
“Just make sure you stick to the confidentiality agreement.”
“Obviously. That’s why I’m getting a hundred grand an hour.”
The express elevator shot from the 17th floor to B3 in an instant.
Pushing off the wall and adjusting the bag slung over his shoulder, Yoon Jooho walked past Song Hyunsoo toward the open doors.
“There’s a ton of people out there who get paid hundreds of thousands an hour and still stab you in the back.”
As Hyunsoo watched Jooho stride off with his hands buried deep in his coat pockets, he hurried out of the elevator.
“I know you’ve been burned by a lot of people, but still, there are some good ones out the—”
He trailed off.
His steps slowed.
The basement parking lot looked nothing like the one he was used to.
It was brightly lit with sleek, pristine lighting, and although it was technically a garage, not a single car was in sight.
Instead, on both sides, rows of shuttered garage units stretched on, each marked with labels like C01, C02, D01, D02, D03…
“Not getting in?”
Still taking in the unfamiliar space, Hyunsoo turned his head toward Jooho’s voice.
One of the garage doors had just lifted.
Yoon Jooho was standing next to an open driver’s side door of a car— no, the car.
It was like he’d gone from shooting a coat commercial to filming a car ad. A Porsche. 911. Turbo S. Cabriolet.
Hyunsoo’s mouth and eyes both gasped as he approached the car.
His back instinctively bowed in reverence.
“Holy sh*t… This is it? We’re really riding in this?”
“Keep acting like that and people’ll think I just gave it to you. Are you touched?”
“You don’t get it, sunbae. For someone like me, this isn’t just a car, it’s a lifelong dream. Like, actual dream. I never thought I’d even touch one, let alone ride in it.”
He couldn’t take his eyes off the car.
He wanted to throw his arms around it, press his cheek to the windshield and soak it all in but the flawless, fingerprint-free shine made him hesitate.
He might actually get flying-kicked for real if he laid a finger on it.
“I liked Shark Blue, but seeing Gentian Blue in person? Damn, it hits hard.”
“Can’t even dream of owning one, but you’ve already got a favorite color?”
“I’ve priced it out online hundreds of times. I mean… it doesn’t cost anything to use the build tool.”
Only then did Hyunsoo notice the two other cars parked beside the 911.
Each garage had space for about three vehicles.
The others weren’t any less impressive— a practical SUV, a stately sedan, and the sports car.
A dream team lineup.
“Wait… don’t tell me… all of this is yours?”
“You’re gonna be late for Pilates, and then I really will kill you. Get in.”
So he does have a limit to his patience.
As Jooho grumbled and moved to sit in the driver’s seat, Hyunsoo rushed to stop him.
“Sunbae! Just one sec seriously, just one can you take a picture of me in front of the car?”
He pulled out his phone from his puffer jacket pocket and offered it to Jooho over the hood.
Jooho clicked his tongue in disbelief and scowled.
His face said it all— Do I kill him now, or later?
But Hyunsoo didn’t have time to care.
If he was going to die, he’d die with a photo to remember this moment.
“Please! Who knows when I’ll ever get to be this close to one again? Just one shot, I swear.”
Jooho closed his eyes, took a couple deep breaths to rein in his temper, then licked his lower lip and snatched the phone with a sharp motion.
Watching him out of the corner of his eye, Hyunsoo allowed himself a quick, secret smile.
See? He complains like hell, but he still does it.
“Sunbae, if you don’t mind… could you take one of me sitting in the driver’s seat too?”
As Song Hyunsoo walked past the car’s bonnet toward the driver’s seat, Yoon Jooho raised an eyebrow and leaned against the car with one leg cocked.
“Don’t push it.”
“…Okay.”
Hyunsoo obediently returned to his original spot.
From the way Jooho clenched his jaw, it was clear that crossing the line any further was a bad idea.
Though grumbling the whole time, Jooho still took several photos, even adjusting the angles vertically and horizontally.
“Don’t post these anywhere.”
“I won’t.”
Checking the shots, they weren’t half bad.
“You can clearly see the license plate. Anyone would know it’s my car.”
“Got it. I won’t upload them anywhere. I’ll keep them to myself. Satisfied?”
Jooho, just about to get into the driver’s seat, rested his arm on the edge of the open door and gave a suggestive smile.
“If you do post them, it might spark a scandal between us.”
“……”
After casually dropping a line that left Hyunsoo unreasonably flustered, Jooho climbed into the car without another word.
Hyunsoo opened the passenger door with a bewildered mutter.
“A scandal… between two guys. Right, okay.”
The world looked different from inside a dream car.
It definitely wasn’t the same world he’d seen from the backseat of a city bus.
Even in Gangnam, where Mercedes E-Class sedans were as common as Sonatas, this level of luxury stood out.
Every time they slowed at a traffic light, people turned to look.
Schoolkids even took out their phones to snap pictures.
“This feels incredible. Driving around in this must make you the center of attention all day.”
Jooho scoffed from the driver’s seat.
“As if I need a car like this to get attention.”
“……”
Fair point. You’re Yoon Jooho, people stare no matter what car you’re in.
So obnoxious.
Even if it’s true, it’s still obnoxious.
“I wonder what it feels like to pull up to a trendy restaurant in this, then hand it off to the valet like it’s nothing.”
“That’s what you consider the highlight of owning this car?”
“Don’t you know the term ‘getting off’?”
“What now?”
“It’s that feeling you get stepping out of a supercar. Everyone’s glancing over, wondering who the hell the owner is. You soak up all that envy with every step. That’s getting off.”
Jooho scoffed like it wasn’t even worth a response.
Hyunsoo tapped the leather-covered dashboard and added,
“You could say it’s one of the features included in the price.”
At the far end of Dosan-daero, the car slowly turned left to merge onto Olympic-daero.
If they went toward the city center, they’d attract even more stares.
But that also meant they’d likely pass by the Look Entertainment building.
Maybe Jooho was intentionally avoiding that route.
Hyunsoo glanced sideways at Jooho.
He hadn’t said a single word about Look Entertainment, but something about the atmosphere made Hyunsoo feel pressured to keep the mood light.
“Sunbae, do you know the pedestrian overpass at Hannam Five-Way?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Could you drop me off at the bus stop in front of it? Just wanna get a taste of indirect getting off.”
Ever since he’d seen Jooho shove a whole strawberry into his mouth, this was the second time he saw that same stunned expression on his face.
“I told you I’d let you off before the Seobinggo overpass. Hannam Five-Way’s in the opposite direction.”
“Cheh.”
Clicking his tongue, Hyunsoo turned his head toward the window.
Jooho let out a small, disbelieving laugh.
“You go from grinning like an idiot to sulking in two seconds. You’re like a five-year-old.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Somewhere along the drive, the awkward tension from their practice session had completely vanished.
Feeling a bit sheepish, Hyunsoo glanced around the car and muttered a half-hearted excuse.
“I’m just… emotionally honest. That’s important for an actor, you know?”
“If only you’d shut up once in a while.”
Jooho shook his head with a wry smile, and Hyunsoo, catching sight of that profile, couldn’t help but chuckle too.
Olympic-daero, clogged with rush hour traffic, had effectively turned into a parking lot.
Even Jooho’s Porsche, which could hit 330 km/h at top speed, was crawling along like any other car.
Resting his elbow on the window frame, Jooho leaned his temple against his hand and watched the taillights ahead with a mildly bored expression.
His neatly placed right hand gripped the top of the steering wheel.
The clean, unblemished fingers pale and slender like jade and the prominent blue veins running beneath the skin created a strangely captivating contrast.
“Hey, sunbae, did you know?”
“What now?”
“You used to switch between informal and polite speech with me, but now you only speak informally.”
Keeping his eyes on the road, Jooho flexed his fingers slightly against the wheel and replied in a flat tone.
“…Yeah. I know.”