While Song Hyunsoo quietly glared at Yoon Jooho, who was opening a new bottle of alcohol served at the table, Han Jooyoung arrogantly pulled something out of his bag.
“Then I guess it’s my turn now.”
“Oh? Hyung, you’re giving me a gift too?”
“What do you take me for?”
“I didn’t know you’d remember my birthday.”
“I didn’t remember it on purpose. The messenger app told me.”
Hyunsoo was already used to Han Jooyoung’s subtle tsundere nature. Inside the small, slender box he handed over was a pair of black horn-rimmed glasses.
Hyunsoo couldn’t easily take the glasses out of the case.
“Hyung, this is…”
“What do you think? My sense isn’t bad, right?”
“This is…”
“I saw you wearing them in the photobook, and they looked good on you.”
They were the glasses he had worn in the photobook shot with Yoon Jooho in Paris.
In fact, a couple of cuts of him wearing these glasses had been included in the magazine.
His nose felt a bit stingy thinking about Han Jooyoung, who must have thought of a birthday gift while seeing those photos.
“Those were hard to find, you know?” Han Jooyoung continued in a boastful tone. “I heard more people are looking for them because of that photobook.”
“No way, surely not.”
“I heard it directly from the staff. I barely managed to get them by asking a close stylist Chief Manager.”
Hyunsoo, who had been lost in thought while fiddling with the glasses, shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Still, it’s probably not because of me. The glasses are pretty, so they would have sold well even without the photobook. The timing was just like that.”
Han Jooyoung shook his head as if frustrated.
“Hyunsoo, you know I’m not the type to say nice things about others for no reason, right?”
“I know.”
“Then face reality. You’re an actor with nearly 200,000 followers.”
“To be honest, I can’t even show my business card anywhere with 200,000.”
“He’s saying such frustrating things. That’s even before promotional activities. Once you go to the production report and articles start coming out, you’ll hit 500,000 or 700,000 in no time.”
He said the world was a place where you couldn’t even show a business card with 200,000 followers, but even that number was like a dream to Hyunsoo.
But 500,000 or 700,000… It felt unrealistic, like 1 trillion or 2 trillion.
Han Jooyoung urged him, asking if he wasn’t going to try them on since he received them as a gift.
Hyunsoo took the glasses out and put them on.
“Oh, seeing them in person, they suit you even better than in the photobook.”
“Really?”
At Han Jooyoung’s praise, Hyunsoo grinned and pushed the glasses up. Shin Hyojin’s reaction was also good.
“I think they fit Hyunsoo’s face shape. There will be many times when you have to go around in disguise in the future, and these would be perfect.”
A life where he had to hide his face by wearing glasses. He still couldn’t quite imagine it.
But he liked the glasses. Even though it was his own face, the most familiar thing in the world, wearing glasses made it feel somewhat new.
“What about Senior Yoon?” Shin Hyojin threw a question at Yoon Jooho, who had been quiet throughout the gift-giving ceremony.
“What about me.”
“It’s Hyunsoo’s birthday, don’t you have anything, Sunbae?”
Yoon Jooho slowly looked back at Hyunsoo with a calm gaze.
“Do I have to personally take care of the birthday of a junior who is so far behind me?”
Others might not have noticed, but his voice was subtly low.
“Hyunsoo was called to your room every day while filming, Sunbae. Just for the service he provided back then, it feels like you should give him at least one good gift. You have a reputation for being grand, Sunbae.”
“I don’t know whether he came to my room to provide service or to turn my stomach inside out.”
Listening to this, Han Jooyoung nodded his head.
“Indeed, Hyunsoo is signed with Look Planning. That in itself is a huge gift.”
“That’s right! I’ve already received so much that there’s no need for me to receive a gift from Senior Jooho. Absolutely.”
“Ah, is that so?” Yoon Jooho, who had been aimlessly poking at the pickled onions, put down his chopsticks and raised his eyebrows.
Something was clearly bothering him.
“Hyunsoo, what are you doing on your actual birthday? Do you have plans?”
Hyunsoo glanced at Yoon Jooho while answering Shin Hyojin.
“I’m just… planning to go to my parents’ house.”
“Where is your house?”
“It’s in Gyeonggi-do. Near where Chungcheong Province starts.”
“Is it the countryside?” Han Jooyoung also showed interest.
“It’s not the countryside, but it’s not a city either… There are rice fields and apartments, that kind of atmosphere.”
Looking at Han Jooyoung’s expression, it seemed he couldn’t quite imagine it.
“Movie promotion will start in earnest soon, so it would be good to visit once before then.”
At Shin Hyojin’s mention of ‘movie promotion,’ something Hyunsoo had temporarily forgotten resurfaced in his mind.
Like a child facing overdue homework on the last day of vacation, Hyunsoo had a defeated look on his face.
“Ah, promotion! Did everyone see the promotion schedule?”
“I saw it. My heart was thumping because I felt like it was finally starting.”
“Wow… As expected, Hyung, you have more guts than me. Have you ever done a variety show, Hyung?”
The fact that even Han Jooyoung, his only ally with a career no different from a rookie, was not intimidated made Hyunsoo’s shoulders droop even more.
“No, who would have invited me to a variety show? But I do want to try it! We’re even appearing on ‘Chef’s Living Room,’ right? My parents are also subscribers to that channel, so I just called them earlier to brag about it.”
“Hyung, are you really not nervous at all?”
“Well, it’s not a live broadcast. If I make a mistake, they’ll edit it for me.”
With a nonchalant face, Han Jooyoung shrugged his shoulders and downed a shot of soju with a relaxed expression.
Hyunsoo felt like he should drink more alcohol for some reason. Shin Hyojin filled Hyunsoo’s glass with a surprised expression.
“I think Hyunsoo would be good at variety shows. Are you nervous?”
“To the point of vomiting.”
“That much?”
“You saw me making so many NG on even a 1-2 minute video back then. Acting is better.”
“Variety shows aren’t much different. Scripts come out in advance based on the interviews, and the hosts are usually veterans, so they make it comfortable. Right, Sunbae?”
Yoon Jooho, who had been resting his chin on his hand at the end of the table and only poking at the green onion salad with his chopsticks, looked up.
His attitude toward the gathering had been poor for a while now. Shin Hyojin gave him a signal with her eyes to say something encouraging.
“Variety shows. There’s nothing to worry about since you just have to follow the script.”
Yoon Jooho’s gaze moved slowly from Shin Hyojin to Hyunsoo.
After looking into Hyunsoo’s eyes, which were hoping for reassurance that there was no need to worry, he put down his chopsticks and muttered indifferently.
“Hmm, variety shows are things that kids who can’t do them can’t do even if they die.”
Hyunsoo’s face darkened rapidly.
“Hyunsoo, it’s okay. Sunbae is just doing that on purpose to tease you.”
The flustered Shin Hyojin stepped in to fix the situation, but she couldn’t improve Hyunsoo’s complexion.
“Nuna… I have a feeling that the kid who can’t do variety shows even if he dies is me.”
“It’s not a solo appearance anyway. Sunbae will help you a lot by your side. Right, Sunbae?”
“I don’t know. I have my own problems to worry about.”
Yoon Jooho shrugged his shoulders and downed his share of alcohol. It was a story he seemed to have heard somewhere.
Hyunsoo’s eyes narrowed as he searched his memory. Is it deja vu?
『“As I said, I have my own problems to worry about.”』
It wasn’t deja vu. Yoon Jooho’s cold face, when he refused Hyunsoo’s request for help, came clearly to mind. It was in the empty lot of this very restaurant.
Even if that was back then when we were still strangers, he’s saying the same thing now? He keeps calling me a cute lover who wouldn’t hurt even if put in his eye, but my foot.
A dark shadow fell over Hyunsoo’s face as he secretly glared at Yoon Jooho and downed his glass.
It was because Yoon Jooho stood up from his seat.
Shin Hyojin looked up at him and scolded him.
“Where are you going after making the kid cry, Sunbae?”
Yoon Jooho, who was about to leave, stopped and leaned over to peer into Hyunsoo’s face. Hyunsoo unintentionally pulled his upper body back. His face was too close. No, this man, with everyone watching…
“What, he’s not crying?”
“O-Of course I’m not crying! Do you want me to cry?”
“Hmm, I thought I might go easy on you if you were actually crying.”
Muttering spitefully, he took a cigarette out of his suit pocket and leisurely left the restaurant.
You’ve changed, Yoon Jooho. You used to say it wasn’t good for me to cry anywhere other than the bed.
Now you want me to cry? Hyunsoo, who was staring in the direction of the entrance where he had disappeared, soon stood up hesitantly.
“Um, I’ll go have a smoke too.”
“Hyunsoo, you’re not trying to fight him, are you?”
Toward Shin Hyojin, who spoke with a serious and worried face, Hyunsoo smiled as if to reassure her.
“He’s a Sunbae of many years, how could I dare to fight?”
I’m not fighting; I’m going to scold him.
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