By Zephyria ■
By the time he finished his call with Park Dong-ha, the SUV carrying Choi Hong-seo and Lee Hae-sung was speeding along the Seoul-Yangyang Expressway, making a wide turn around Hanam City. The scenery was familiar, being close to the ancestral shrine where Choi Hong-seo’s ashes were enshrined.
Choi Hong-seo held his phone for a while, just staring blankly out the car window. A large but gently moving warm hand settled softly on his head.
“Baby, are you crying?”
Surprised that he would make a joke at a moment like this, Choi Hong-seo let out a weak laugh with reddened eyes.
“I just… feel strange.”
“What feels strange?”
As if inviting him to tell him everything. As if he could tell him anything, as long as it was to him. The low voice, resonating softly, was tender.
“Actually, I had no prior connection with Dong-ha, and even after waking up in Yoon Hye-an’s body, our relationship wasn’t good… But strangely, I’ve grown fond of him. Am I feeling like my past self?”
The former Choi Hong-seo was not someone who confided such feelings to anyone. He had rushed forward, looking only ahead, because he felt that if he started to examine his emotions, he wouldn’t be able to manage or endure them. But now, he was with Lee Hae-sung. He hadn’t known that being able to share would be such a great comfort and strength.
That was why, even more so, he wanted to go through the process of dealing with Jo Seong-hyeon together with Lee Hae-sung. He couldn’t let Lee Hae-sung carry that hard lump of darkness alone.
“Your situation is different from Hong-seo’s. You chose to be sponsored, at least. What happened afterward was a crime committed without consent.”
It wasn’t wrong. Lee Hae-sung was endlessly lenient with Choi Hong-seo, but he was unreservedly objective on other matters. Choi Hong-seo nodded, but his face still held a lingering regret as he fiddled with his phone.
“Even so… I have experience being involved in the entertainment industry, finding myself there as if pushed by circumstances. I’ve also encountered people who say that because of that mistake, all the terrible things that happened afterward are mine to bear… That’s why I want to understand. Not for Park Dong-ha, but for myself.”
“Everyone lives for themselves. The difference is whether you try to fulfill your desires by sacrificing others, or not.”
Lee Hae-sung’s hand, which had been lightly resting on his head, slid down, stroking his nape.
“And that difference is a very decisive one.”
“Like the difference between a mistake and a crime?”
His hand moved lower, gently massaging Choi Hong-seo’s neck. The tips of his fingers, slightly entering the neckline of the t-shirt, felt slightly damp with sweat.
“Yes.”
His body felt languid, as if he had cried for a long time. He wondered if it was relief that dealing with Jo Seong-hyeon at the golf course had gone as planned, but soon realized it wasn’t. It was similar to indigestion or a fever, but with a strange, floating sensation. Now that he experienced it frequently, regardless of time or place, he could keenly sense the difference.
Feeling his temperature slowly rise, Choi Hong-seo blinked his heavy eyelids slowly.
“Can I sleep a little until we get home?”
“Of course. Shall I hold you until you fall asleep?”
He laughed weakly, thinking he was joking.
“When we came down from the Gutdang, you calmed down when I held you then, remember?”
“I was sick then. Now I’m just sleepy.”
“Ah, I know. You’re not sick now. I just want to do it.”
Whenever Choi Hong-seo corrected Lee Hae-sung’s words like this, Lee Hae-sung would look at him with an expression of unbearable cuteness. If it were Myeong Do-hoon, he would have cursed him for being insolent for several minutes. It was strange and puzzling how the same words and actions were perceived so differently depending on the person.
But what Lee Hae-sung was looking at Choi Hong-seo with now was not just cuteness.
Lee Hae-sung had clearly noticed that ‘that symptom’ was occurring. Even knowing it, he was pretending not to.
Lee Hae-sung unbuckled his seatbelt and moved closer. He fastened the middle seatbelt and turned to face Choi Hong-seo. Like lying side-by-side on a bed, they rested their temples against the seatback and looked at each other. His arm crossed his lower abdomen, stroking his side.
“You’re going to America the day after tomorrow. Just hold on a little longer. Just a little. Okay?”
Choi Hong-seo nodded at the whisper-like voice. Then, closing his eyes, he rested his forehead on the edge of his shoulder.
America. He had just returned from there with Lee Hae-sung not long ago. It sounded as absurd as saying they were going to the moon.
The words “the day after tomorrow” felt the same. It was a very near future, yet it felt as distant as a promise for a hundred years later, or the next life.
He fell asleep, sweating cold, and dreamed.
He dreamed of meeting Lee Hae-sung on the moon, which looked as small as the B-612 from The Little Prince in his next life.
■
The suite at the Nox Hotel, arranged by Lee Hae-sung as the meeting place, coincidentally was the same one where ‘Yoon Hye-an’ had come for the final audition at
Choi Hong-seo stood in that spot once more. The Seoul sky, visible through the wide window, was heavily overcast. It looked like it might snow or rain, the low, gray sky seeming as if one could reach out and touch it.
“My baby.”
At the voice calling from behind him, Choi Hong-seo reflexively turned around. Lee Hae-sung, who had arrived earlier and was sorting out a few things with his lawyer in the study, walked out into the hallway and beckoned Choi Hong-seo with his index finger.
“Come over here. It’s dangerous to be too close to the window.”
Though he spoke playfully, Choi Hong-seo could feel his anxiety.
Strangely, Choi Hong-seo had no trauma left behind. Instead, Lee Hae-sung had developed a dislike for high floors. More precisely, he seemed to dislike situations where Choi Hong-seo was on a high floor. Choi Hong-seo moved away from the window and approached him.
“What is ‘Choi Baby’?”
“It’s Choi Hong-seo, but since he’s a baby, it’s Choi Baby.”
He answered with a serious face and tone, as if asking such an obvious question.
“People wouldn’t know what it means even if you didn’t call him Yoon Hye-an.”
He added, shrugging his shoulders, and then, touching the tips of Choi Hong-seo’s hair, he asked,
“I just thought of it and called you that. Do you not like it?”
Choi Hong-seo, who had been wearing a faint smile, shook his head. Lee Hae-sung smiled back, but it wasn’t a full smile either.
“How about I meet and handle the final wrap-up alone? Your complexion is quite bad.”
“You yourself don’t look well, handsome sir.”
As Lee Hae-sung stroked the back of Choi Hong-seo’s neck, who was wearing a turtleneck to hide the spots that had appeared, his smile grew darker. Choi Hong-seo put on a cheerful expression and voice with all his might, looking up at him.
“We only have to endure for one more day, right? Is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s right. Once we get the check-up, we’ll both get plenty of rest afterward.”
“We can enjoy a quiet vacation, just the two of us, like in Malibu, and go hiking like we couldn’t then.”
“Hmm, it seems like we won’t be able to go hiking this time either?”
As he spoke jokingly, with his brow furrowed and eyes narrowed, an attendant appeared behind him and announced the arrival of Jo Seong-hyeon’s party.
The Presidential Suite had a separate conference room for about twelve people. Jo Seong-hyeon and his lawyer, who were waiting there, stood up out of courtesy as Lee Hae-sung and Choi Hong-seo entered. Both sides had only one lawyer and had agreed beforehand not to bring any escorts or secretaries. After a perfunctory handshake and introductions in a stiff atmosphere, the conversation immediately got down to business once they were seated.
The conversation between the lawyers began first.
“You’ve reviewed the detailed settlement terms requested by the Vice President’s side, haven’t you?”
“Most of them seem to work unfavorably for my client.”
“I thought both parties wished for the videos not to be released. I don’t understand what you find unfavorable.”
“You hold more of my client’s weaknesses, don’t you?”
“The one who first threatened us with the release of the videos was Mr. Jo Seong-hyeon.”
“Ah… that’s enough, that’s enough. I don’t have the patience to listen to lawyers bickering as representatives.”
Jo Seong-hyeon, who had been leaning back in his chair, watching the two people opposite him with interest, shook his head and interjected.
“In the first place, someone with no backing like me trying to do anything against the Vice President is like trying to hit a rock with an egg.”
He then pressed down on a part of the document containing the previously exchanged demands with his fingertip.
“I can overlook everything else. But what is this? ‘Do not leak any form of material, such as videos or photos, of a third party other than Yoon Hye-an.’ Why is this included?”
Lee Hae-sung replied.
“If even one such piece of material were to leak, the media or broadcasters would first try to find the source of the material. If it’s revealed that Jo Seong-hyeon is the source, and if he were to be investigated, it could eventually cause harm to Hyean as well.”
“Wow… You’re going to block it that thoroughly?”
“If I intended to do things half-heartedly, I wouldn’t have arranged this meeting today.”
The calmer and more composed Lee Hae-sung became, the more strangely Jo Seong-hyeon’s face contorted, and conversely, his eyes gleamed with an ominous, mad light.
“I didn’t know the Vice President would be this serious over such a plaything. I thought you’d just settle it for a few bucks. You’re escalating things like this. Fucking hell.”
“Mr. Jo Seong-hyeon is only setting aside one video with today’s settlement, but we have more than one. I’m setting aside your video, Jo Jang-yeon’s corruption scandal in the competition, and the North African business deal with GX. It’s actually a very favorable negotiation for Mr. Jo Seong-hyeon.”
“The North African deal? How is that you setting it aside for me?”
“You saw it yesterday, didn’t you? That I can make that deal happen or fall through if I put my mind to it.”
“……”
Fuck. Though he didn’t pronounce it aloud, Jo Seong-hyeon clearly cursed with his lips.
Jo Seong-hyeon, who had lowered and then raised his head, leaned back in his chair, feigning composure. However, his fists, clenched tightly, pounded the armrests of the chair with such force that they turned white.
“Well, even if the plan went awry, this situation isn’t unpleasant. That you’re using the rag I squeezed dry and discarded. In some aspect, I’ve gotten ahead of you, haven’t I? Should I consider it an honor?”
“What are you trying to gain by provoking me like that? I don’t understand.”
“Not all humans act solely for profit. I just… want to see the true side of the Vice President, perhaps.”
Jo Seong-hyeon, who had stopped pounding the armrests, now spun his office chair left and right, revealing an anxious atmosphere.
“You and I, we do the same things with them. But only you become the Prince for saving them while calling me a pervert outside the bedroom. From my perspective, isn’t it unfair?”
Choi Hong-seo couldn’t listen any longer. His chest felt like it would burst with anger.
“As they say, you see what you are.”
“……”
Jo Seong-hyeon’s gaze, which had been fixed on Lee Hae-sung, shifted to Choi Hong-seo.
“You think everyone with money and power is like you? Who is doing the same thing as whom? Stop with the disgusting talk. I feel like I’m going to vomit.”
Anger and curiosity flickered in Jo Seong-hyeon’s eyes. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, and rested his face on his clasped hands.
Jo Seong-hyeon’s next remark was unexpected.
“Hyean, what’s wrong with your hand? Did you get a cigarette burn?”
A hypocritical expression and voice, feigning exaggerated concern.
Without realizing it, Choi Hong-seo instinctively pulled his hand, which was resting on the table, back sharply.
The cigarette burn Jo Seong-hyeon mentioned was the spots. The unexplained spots that didn’t disappear and continued to multiply.