By Zephyria “Forget that coffee.”
The voice slid towards my eardrums.
It was the voice I fell asleep to every night, using it as ASMR. There was no way I wouldn’t understand it.
Song Hyun-soo’s hands, rinsing cocktail glasses, paused. His head turned as if drawn by an invisible string. An advertisement was playing on the TV hanging from the ceiling above the bar counter.
A man with a particularly sharp profile was zoomed in on the screen. His features were flawless, even in close-up. Coupled with his husky, unique voice, the man exuded an almost mystical aura. His eyes, long and slanted, seemed cold at first glance, yet sparkled with a delicate melancholy.
After about two to three seconds of showing the man’s face from various angles, the camera slowly pulled back. The man reached out towards someone beyond the lens and said,
“From now on, only drink NUBO.”
The man’s name, whose fingers were long and neat even as they gripped the coffee can…
“Oh? It’s Yoon Joo-ho. It’s been a while.”
The manager, who had just returned from an errand, looked up at the TV and recognized him. He spoke as if he were friends with the man in the advertisement. Song Hyun-soo, who had stopped washing dishes and was staring at the TV with his mouth agape, quickly resumed his work.
“Look, Manager. Yoon Joo-ho changed his hairstyle, it’s totally insane.”
The weekend part-timer, eyes still fixed on the TV, said to the manager without looking at him.
Normally, the manager would have scolded them for slacking off and just watching TV. But Yoon Joo-ho, the national actor, and his new commercial seemed to pique the curiosity of even the fussy manager. The manager took off his jacket, placed it on the counter, and joined the staff, looking up at the TV.
“It’s not the coffee he always shoots?”
“It’s a new product called NUBO.”
“Wow… Even though he’s a man, his face is truly incredible. I’ve looked at it for 30 years and I’m still not tired of it.”
As the floor staff member, two years younger than Hyun-soo, admired him, shaking his head, the manager scoffed.
“Jeong-ho, you’re twenty-six, how could you have looked at that face for 30 years? I’m the one who’s seen him for 30 years, ever since he debuted.”
“Yoon Joo-ho’s old photos and videos pop up on my algorithm all the time.”
“Algorithm?”
“That’s right. We’ve probably seen Yoon Joo-ho’s face more than you have, Manager.”
The weekend part-timer strongly nodded in agreement with Jeong-ho. The manager still looked displeased.
“He’s handsome, sure. But isn’t he too pretty?”
“Huh? Yoon Joo-ho?”
“A man should have a strong jawline, that kind of ruggedness.”
“He’s just incredibly… no, he’s just completely handsome.”
The weekend part-timer, a student from a nearby university, protested against the manager, his face contorted.
“Yoon Joo-ho is thirty-two now. Give it a few years, and he’ll age rapidly.”
“Yoon Joo-ho will never do that!”
The part-timer pouted as if she had heard her own brother being insulted. Regardless, the manager was busy checking his own reflection in the small wall mirror behind the counter.
“Chae-young, what do you call that hairstyle you had earlier? Is it a perm? What do I ask for at the salon?”
“Manager, that’s not a matter of hairstyle.”
“Why? People don’t guess my age when they see me, do they? From this angle, from a 45-degree angle, don’t I look a bit like Yoon Joo-ho?”
“Yeeeees? No way! Manager, your looks are decent, but you can’t possibly compare yourself to Yoon Joo-ho, that’s just not fair…”
Chae-young, the weekend part-timer who had been speaking her mind so freely, suddenly noticed the manager’s gaze and quietly shut her mouth.
By then, Yoon Joo-ho had long since disappeared from the TV screen. Song Hyun-soo finished washing the last glass, untied the knot of the apron around his waist.
“I’m going on break.”
“Ah, Hyun-soo! Move three boxes of beer for me.”
“Now? I’m going on break.”
Glancing at the wall clock, the manager looked back at Song Hyun-soo as if asking if there was a problem.
“Hyun-soo, you’re the strongest. It would be perfect if you moved them and then rested. Please.”
‘Please’? If that’s a request, then anchovies are fish.
“I’ll help too, hyung.”
“No, Jeong-ho, you check the inventory inside the store.”
The manager even stopped Jeong-ho from offering help. He was about to say something, but sighed and slipped out the back door through the kitchen. Complaining wouldn’t change anything, and it would just make him look petty.
‘Jessica’ is a bar in Daehangno where Song Hyun-soo works as a bartender.
The manager, who had joined ‘Jessica’ last month claiming to be a distant relative of the owner, was all show and knew nothing about bar work. Yet, for some reason, he seemed to have a particular dislike for Song Hyun-soo and kept needling him.
‘I think the manager is just jealous because you’re handsome, oppa. He only acts like that towards handsome men. Just ignore him.’
Chae-young had once comforted Song Hyun-soo like that. And sadly, Chae-young’s guess seemed to be true.
Am I some Cinderella? Is it my fault that I’m the most handsome person at ‘Jessica’? No, forget everything else. What? He said I resemble Yoon Joo-ho from a 45-degree angle? Forty-five degrees, are you crazy? I don’t resemble him even from 45 kilometers away! Ah, it’s freezing, why is this lock acting up again.
The warehouse for ‘Jessica’ was about 4-5 meters away from the back door. The combination lock often malfunctioned, about four out of ten times. Song Hyun-soo half-heartedly wrestled with the lock.
It was dark inside the warehouse, but it wasn’t so dark that he needed to turn on the lights; he knew the layout well enough. He stacked the beer boxes conveniently for carrying on his back and lifted three boxes at once.
When he first started working at ‘Jessica’, carrying two boxes at a time made his back ache. But now, three boxes were easy. Whiskey, brandy, vodka, rum, gin, cognac, tequila… Besides beer, the bar was filled with alcohol in heavy glass bottles, and by carrying those boxes every day, he naturally learned the knack and built muscle.
Only after stacking the three boxes of beer under the bar counter and returning the empty boxes to the warehouse could Song Hyun-soo take his break.
His body heated up from the exertion. He craved a cigarette more than thirst. As soon as he slipped his arms into his jacket, he rummaged through the pockets. But the cigarette pack in his hand felt light.
Ah… The one I smoked when I came to work was the last one.
Crushing the cigarette pack, he clicked his tongue.
Counting the days left until payday and his bank balance, he ambled towards the convenience store. After paying the city gas bill, I have about 9,700 won left… 9,700 won… Ah, this month is going to be really tough, isn’t it? Well, when has my life ever been easy? He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, shrugged nonchalantly, and let out a cynical laugh.
The face-to-face audition scheduled for next week.
If he passes that, there’ll be no problem. It’s a role that pays at least five million won as a contract fee.
As if he had already secured the role, Song Hyun-soo’s steps became lighter.
There’s a saying among unknown actors: you have to send out your profile a hundred times just to get one call. After diligently distributing his profile for the past year, Song Hyun-soo realized that saying wasn’t an exaggeration at all. But as they say, after hardship comes joy. He had finally received a call for a face-to-face audition, after only playing minor roles and extras. And it was for a rather significant role.
Although it was a supporting role, it had considerable weight as the protagonist’s younger sibling, and it was a project by a director famous for his critically acclaimed, classic melodramas. If he got cast, shedding his status as an unknown actor would only be a matter of time.
“Ah, my ears are going to fall off. It’s only December, why is it so cold? How much colder will it get later?”
He pulled his hands out of his pockets, cupped them around his ears as if to block the sound, and hunched his shoulders. In that short time, his hands had grown cold. He rubbed his hands together, blew warm air between his palms, and quickened his pace.
Unlike ‘Jessica’, the convenience store was crowded with customers. The line to pay stretched long between the aisles. Song Hyun-soo took his place at the very end of the line. Right in front of him, a couple, arms linked and pressed close together, giggled with their foreheads touching.
“Oh? It’s Yoon Joo-ho!”
Song Hyun-soo, who had been looking at the toothbrushes, underwear, and cotton swabs on display, automatically turned his head at the mention of Yoon Joo-ho’s name.
The woman in the couple in front of him was pointing towards the cashier. A promotional display hung down from the ceiling. It was Yoon Joo-ho from the new coffee commercial he had seen earlier.