By Zephyria As the plane fully settled on the runway and began to accelerate, his body lurched and tilted for a moment. Lee Hae-sung’s arm, slipping between his lower back and the sofa, tightly held Choi Hong-seo’s waist. With his lips buried near his ear, at the point where his chin ended, he whispered.
“I know. Me too.”
“I know you’re teasing me on purpose. I don’t know why I can’t control my expression for a moment.”
“Because I’m special to Hong-seo.”
“……”
Only then did he gather the courage to turn and look at him. The smiling face was very close. Choi Hong-seo smiled back and nodded in agreement.
“That’s right. My emotional responses are usually very dull… but they react differently to you, Ajussi.”
“You react differently only to me… That’s a pleasant thing to hear?”
Lee Hae-sung nuzzled his nose against Choi Hong-seo’s nose with a languid expression, as if savoring a scent.
“I know Hong-seo is like that. Your boiling point is high and your freezing point is low, so you’re even nicknamed Glycol.”
Choi Hong-seo burst into a light laugh at his level of information, catching even details known only to a very small, passionate minority of fans.
“So, you’re coming to Bundang, right?”
Lee Hae-sung’s whisper, accompanied by Choi Hong-seo’s answering laugh, was like a kiss on his hearing. To his question, which sought to confirm their cohabitation, Choi Hong-seo nodded with a smile still lingering on his face.
With a feeling of lightness as his body was lifted, the plane had successfully taken off. After briefly glancing out the window at the tilting LA, Choi Hong-seo tentatively took Lee Hae-sung’s fingertips and began to speak with difficulty.
“Still, my agency… I’ll keep it for now.”
Lee Hae-sung had also made an offer, suggesting he set up a one-person agency and work independently from his current company. Choi Hong-seo’s statement was a response to that offer.
A fleeting look of slight disappointment crossed Lee Hae-sung’s face. But he quickly composed himself, met Choi Hong-seo’s eyes, and waited for him to continue.
“When Yoon Hye-an left the ‘Titan’ group, I think it caused a lot of damage to the members and the company.”
“……”
“Since I’m borrowing this body, I want to clean up at least some of the mess Yoon Hye-an left behind.”
He didn’t know if that was a way to repay Yoon Hye-an. Until now, he hadn’t even had the leisure to think about Yoon Hye-an, busy accepting and adapting to this absurd situation. Even now, he wasn’t at leisure. He was still unstable and uncertain.
Even so, by borrowing Yoon Hye-an’s body, he had achieved at least one thing clearly.
He had met Lee Hae-sung again, conveyed his feelings, and heard his words of forgiveness directly. No, he had told him he didn’t even need to ask for forgiveness. For that alone, he was indebted beyond words to this body.
What he once felt was a punishment and a judgment, this reincarnation, he now considered a stroke of luck. And even if he didn’t know how long this luck would last, he wanted to do what he could for the name Yoon Hye-an.
Whether he liked it or not, it was also for himself, living under Yoon Hye-an’s guise. He had to brush off the dirt and dust clinging to that name.
Lee Hae-sung said in a cautious tone.
“Yoon Hye-an actually had sponsors. It seems he went through several.”
“I had a vague suspicion about that too.”
“It wasn’t due to company pressure; he wanted it himself. As someone who caused quite a stir and disrupted things, he must have made enemies, and his relationships were complicated.”
Listening to Lee Hae-sung’s worried voice, Choi Hong-seo met his eyes.
“If anything happens, I’ll tell you everything, Ajussi.”
“I won’t object to you keeping the company as it is, but personally, I can’t concede on providing security and transportation. If it’s difficult for Hong-seo to say, I’ll arrange for Manager Kang to speak with the company.”
“I’ll do whatever you want if it will put your mind at ease.”
Only then did the worry and tension on Lee Hae-sung’s face slightly ease. The hand around Choi Hong-seo’s waist gently stroked his side. His voice and touch, now soft and gentle again, tickled Choi Hong-seo’s hearing and touch.
“You won’t make me anxious, will you?”
He was so close that the fine hairs on Choi Hong-seo’s cheek trembled with his breath. His lips, as if about to kiss him, made Choi Hong-seo’s exhale thin and long. Lowering his eyelids, Choi Hong-seo nodded.
The hand that had been on his side moved up, fiddling with the neckline of his t-shirt.
“When we get to Seoul, I’ll have to wear only shirts or turtlenecks for a while.”
Lee Hae-sung’s voice, slightly flushed, touched the kiss mark visible above the neckline with his fingertip. It wasn’t just his neck. The traces of sex he had left during their stay in Malibu were overflowing within his clothes, all over his body, and in his most private places.
Tilting his head to meet his lips halfway, he whispered once more.
“It’s a good thing it’s winter.”
Click.
The sound of him unbuckling his seatbelt at 8km altitude was so stimulating it made his shoulders hunch. California, where their dreamlike reunion had taken place, was receding into the distance.
■
“Mistakes are wrongs that can be forgiven and undone, but wrongs that cannot are sins.”
The dozen or so people gathered around the table, including Director Kang Woo-hyun, the PD, and the main actors, listened intently to Park Dong-ha’s voice.
“What you did to me! That… that wasn’t a mistake.”
Continuing the lines with a slightly exaggerated tone, Park Dong-ha licked his lips, his eyes darting around nervously. He could sense from the atmosphere swirling among the people that his part wasn’t going well, but he couldn’t just skip the remaining dialogue.
“It’s a sin! So you have to pay the price!”
Park Dong-ha reluctantly delivered the final line with an uncertain tone, as if shouting. That was the last scene of the day’s script study.
“Hmm…”
Director Kang’s ambiguous reaction followed. Park Dong-ha bit his lower lip hard and gripped the script in his hand with a somber expression. His gesture of running his hand through his unstyled hair was rough.
“Everyone, you’ve worked hard today. But Dong-ha doesn’t seem very focused today, does he? Is it because it’s been a while since our last study session?”
“I apologize.”
Though the director’s tone was as gentle as usual, Park Dong-ha lowered his head so far his chin touched his collarbone.
“No, I’m not looking for an apology. I know Dong-ha’s fundamentals are solid. I was just wondering if you weren’t feeling well.”
“No, I’m fine. It’s just that I’m having trouble grasping the character’s psychology in this part… But I promise to come prepared with a satisfactory interpretation for the reading!”
“Yes, I understand it’s an important scene with complex emotions. Think about it a bit more. There’s no need to be so dramatic. Ideas often come up spontaneously on set. That’s what makes filming movies fun, isn’t it?”
Despite Director Kang’s gentle encouragement, Park Dong-ha’s expression didn’t improve. On the contrary, it grew grayer and more crumpled. Choi Hong-seo, sitting diagonally across from him, could clearly see his expression and the emotions contained within it.
Dong-ha, you had such high expectations for your first leading role in a major production… It’s such a shameㅠㅠ
He couldn’t help but be reminded of the news about Park Dong-ha that Yong-jae the manager had told him. Dong-ha, who always diligently attended script studies, wouldn’t have prepared this scene, one of the most crucial in the film, carelessly. It was likely that incident had affected Park Dong-ha.
“We’ll be starting the full script reading soon, and principal photography begins next month, right? All our actors are doing well, so let’s just focus on maintaining our condition.”
With Director Kang’s energetic voice, the actors finally broke free from the somber atmosphere and began to buzz with anticipation for the start of filming.
“Ah, and before the wrap-up party today, there’s one announcement. It’s something outside the work, so it’s not something to worry too much about.”
All eyes turned to Director Kang once more.
“Regarding the message that investor Lee Hae-sung proposed last time. The one about inserting a tribute to Choi Hong-seo in the ending credits. We’ve decided to cancel that, so please be aware of it.”
Director Kang announced it as if it were a minor matter, something already decided and just for them to know. Then, as usual, he left to arrange the wrap-up party.
Most people didn’t show much interest in the matter. As Director Kang said, it was an external element unrelated to the actors’ performances. They were excited about the imminent start of filming.
“Why did they suddenly change their minds after making such a grand announcement in front of everyone?”
Only a very small number of actors wondered about this. To the young actor’s question, Jo Won-tae stepped forward and shook his head, answering calmly.
“How can we know what people in those positions are thinking?”
Choi Hong-seo knew the reason.
It was a message prepared to mourn Choi Hong-seo’s death, but now, for Lee Hae-sung, Choi Hong-seo was not a dead person. Mourning someone who was alive and by his side would now be a terrible thing for him.
Seo Jun-yeong, who had been listening, snorted.
“Maybe he finally came to his senses. To suggest putting a tribute to a dead person for something so unpleasant, it’s like wishing the movie to fail… Honestly, it was a foolish idea from the start.”
“The Vice President graduated from a prestigious university with excellent grades and completed a Ph.D. program in Business Administration at Stanford.”
Before Seo Jun-yeong’s sarcastic remark could finish, Choi Hong-seo’s rebuttal cut him off.
“Yes, completed. Not graduated with a Ph.D., but completed. Is that so great? If I had been born as Lee Kang-moon’s grandson in Hanseo Group, I would have completed a Ph.D. at Stanford or Harvard too. With money.”
“It seems like everything others achieve looks ridiculous in Seonbae’s eyes. I could tell the Vice President was a smart person after just a few words.”
“Didn’t Yoon Hye-an drop out of high school in the US? Does someone whose final educational attainment is dropping out of high school have the intellectual capacity to judge whether someone else is smart or not?”
“I have enough intellectual capacity to recognize that Seonbae tends to have poor judgment of the situation.”