By Zephyria His mother intervened.
“Your father isn’t asking with any ulterior motive. It’s just that, since you have experience with men, he’s worried.”
At some point, Yoon Joo-ho had started hiding his private life from his parents. It was because they no longer felt like allies. Therefore, they were unaware of the men Yoon Joo-ho had slept with. They didn’t know about Jung Ji-in, and of course, not about Song Hyun-soo either.
Yoon Joo-ho tilted his head.
“Experience with men?”
“Have you forgotten your relationship with Lee Seo-kyung?”
Khhuk. Before his father could finish speaking, Yoon Joo-ho burst into laughter.
“You’re laughing?”
Despite his father’s indignant voice, Yoon Joo-ho’s laughter didn’t stop. He dropped his head between his broad shoulders, shaking with laughter, then looked up.
“Are you bringing that up in front of me right now?”
The laughter in his eyes faded, turning a cold, blue with anger.
“I think you’ve forgotten, Father. Who was it that persuaded, no, drove me to the brink of madness to have a ‘relationship’ with Lee Seo-kyung?”
“You… you dare to speak!”
Yoon Joo-ho cut off his father, who was about to retort.
“But it’s funny when you call it a ‘relationship’ between Lee Seo-kyung and me. It was a night spent betting the male lead role in a drama for a popular writer and a popular PD. I was just selling my body.”
“Joo-ho, you punk.”
Ignoring Director Bang, who tried to intervene, Yoon Joo-ho continued with pent-up rage.
“You two were right. My lower half wasn’t exactly chaste to begin with, so whether the partner was a woman or a man, it didn’t make much difference. My penis doesn’t wear out, you know.”
“Watch your mouth…!”
“It’s just that, according to you two, it was ‘business.’ So it’s funny to call me gay for that.”
His father, trembling and glaring at Yoon Joo-ho, finally spoke.
“Don’t be so sarcastic.”
“I’m not being sarcastic; I’m just repeating what you said back then.”
“That was the only path back then. You agreed to it, didn’t you?”
“The only path?”
The skin under Yoon Joo-ho’s eyes twitched. It was as if he had returned to that moment in the past, his blood boiling.
“I told you clearly. I wanted to start over from the beginning. I said it might be a chance to start as actor Yoon Joo-ho, not star Yoon Joo-ho.”
“My life, which I’ve lived betting everything on you, and your father’s life? Are you telling us to throw away everything we’ve built?”
Yoon Joo-ho shot a glare at his mother.
“Then what about me?”
“…”
“You treated me like a useless, leftover product and acted like the world had ended. What about the pain I suffered because of you? Did my unhappiness not matter?”
His gaze shifted to his father.
“You don’t like me if I’m not a star? You don’t need me?”
His father, who had been staring at Yoon Joo-ho with his lips tightly shut, averted his gaze for a moment.
“You’re still young and don’t know what true values are. Living in your position comes with sacrifices…”
“Fuck, just stop!”
Thwack. The bottle of water Yoon Joo-ho slammed down flew under the desk opposite him and lodged itself there.
His jaw muscles, clenched tight, twitched.
He knew he would never hear what he wanted to hear, so why was he sitting here, repeating these same conversations? He couldn’t understand himself. Parents, children, that damned blood.
“Whether you like it or not, we are your parents, and for 30 years, we’ve been your managers. Do you understand what that means?”
“That if you make money and become famous too young, your parents can become monsters?”
His father clicked his tongue at Yoon Joo-ho’s sarcastic provocation.
“Insolent brat. It means we have your weaknesses in our hands. Keep that in mind and act accordingly.”
Director Bang, who had been silently listening to them until then, could no longer stand it and interjected.
“Representatives, are you threatening Joo-ho now… your son?”
“Threatening? Don’t you think you’re overstepping, Director Bang?”
“I saw the entire process of why Joo-ho accepted that offer, no, that was a threat. Joo-ho never once wanted to be a star. He just stood in front of the camera because he hated seeing his mom and dad fight over him, wanting to be a happy family. And you never even gave Joo-ho the right to decide on a single project.”
“We brought you up from a road manager and took care of you for over a decade… Now that you have the title of director, you think you’re someone important?”
His mother looked at Director Bang with contempt.
“Those past ten-plus years. I endured them because I saw Joo-ho’s talent, Joo-ho’s future. Not because of you two, who treated your son as a tool just so you wouldn’t lose the title of parents of top actor Yoon Joo-ho.”
“Do you have proof?”
“What?”
“Joo-ho wasn’t a minor back then. If he hated going to Lee Seo-kyung that much, he could have just refused. Did we hold a knife to his throat?”
“You disgusting people.”
Director Bang shook his head in disbelief at his father’s shameless statement.
“They fought endlessly, never tiring of blaming each other for how things turned out. Treating their own son like a troublesome, washed-up piece of scrap. In the end, he thought that if he just endured it once, you two would stop fighting. Don’t you understand that? You knew and you exploited it.”
“So, do you have proof that we pushed him like that?”
As if anticipating this conversation, his father’s voice and expression remained unshaken. His mother then delivered the final blow.
“Joo-ho, you and Director Bang, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Weren’t you also anxious about your declining popularity before enlisting and coveting that role?”
“Who wanted to take it in that way…!”
This time, Yoon Joo-ho grabbed Director Bang’s arm as he raised his voice.
Looking at the legs of the two people standing up, something inside Yoon Joo-ho completely collapsed. Parents, children, blood, all of it.
He looked up at them and smiled.
“Did I say I never went there? At the very least, we, the representatives and I, are accomplices.”
His mother’s expression hardened, as cold as it could possibly be.
“We could dismiss the certified letter as your tantrum. If you insist on pursuing a lawsuit, I will be truly disappointed in you.”
“Do you still think that threat will work on me? Feel free to be disappointed. When have I ever satisfied you two?”
“This is why you’re still a naive child.”
His father clicked his tongue at Yoon Joo-ho, then continued.
“We won’t just stand by and let the company be taken. A company isn’t something someone like you, who’s only ever acted, can handle. You ungrateful punk.”
Even after they left the meeting room, Yoon Joo-ho remained seated.
He was no longer a child who needed their care and approval. The backs of their figures, who always left him alone and turned away coldly when they didn’t like something, remained like a brand seared by an iron behind his eyelids.
“Amicable resolution? Don’t bother with that, Joo-ho. There’s no need.”
Director Bang, unable to contain his anger, paced anxiously around the sofa, then suddenly stopped.
“No matter what, surely… you’re not thinking of revealing that?”
Hearing Director Bang’s worried voice, Yoon Joo-ho replied with surprising calmness.
“Don’t worry about that. At least I have proof that we are accomplices.”
“Proof? What is it?”
“It’s because of them that I developed the habit of recording everything.”
Yoon Joo-ho stood up from the sofa, put his hands in his jumper pockets, and left the meeting room. Director Bang followed.
“Joo-ho, don’t drive now.”
“Are you worried I might be too shocked? This isn’t the first time they’ve done this.”
He smiled as if it were nothing, but Director Bang’s face looked even more worried.
“Hyung, I’m really okay. No, I think it’s for the better. I have no regrets left now.”
“I know you, I know you’re not okay.”
Yoon Joo-ho just smiled in response and walked past Director Bang.
“Joo-ho, take my car. I’ll drive you home.”
Director Bang grabbed Yoon Joo-ho’s arm forcefully as he started down the stairs leading directly to the piloti parking lot below.
“No, I have somewhere to go.”
A place he had to go immediately, Yoon Joo-ho shook his head as if it were an urgent matter and hurried his steps.
He firmly shook off Director Bang’s hand and descended a few steps, then suddenly stopped and looked up.
“Ah, hyung. Stay at our place tonight too. You’re still too young. I’m a bit worried about leaving you alone all night.”
“That’s fine… but punk, where are you going? You said you were going home earlier. Are you going to Seohae’s place to drink?”
Joo-ho, hey, Yoon Joo-ho!
Despite the earnest calls, Yoon Joo-ho didn’t stop this time. He descended the stairs, almost running, as if fleeing from something.
A short while later, Yoon Joo-ho’s 911 sped out of the road with the sharp screech of tires.
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