By Zephyria 
The moment I heard his voice, my heart fluttered again. Rubbing my stinging nose, I tried to gently pull down his arms that were tightly bound around my chest. He didn’t budge. Instead, he wrapped his arms around me with even greater force, as if to squeeze the breath out of me.
“I’ll just stay like this for a moment. Just a moment.”
He pleaded, rubbing his lips against my neck and behind my ears. Then he said,
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For getting you involved in something like this.”
“Don’t say that. It’s not your fault, Sunbae.”
“I was careless.”
“……”
“Unlike myself.”
“Now… what’s going to happen?”
“It’s nothing serious. There aren’t even any photos of us kissing, what can they do with that?”
Even during the phone call, and even now, Yoon Joo-ho was deliberately speaking with a playful tone, but unfortunately, it didn’t alleviate Song Hyun-soo’s anxiety.
“Sunbae, I’m not a child.”
I pulled his arms down again. This time, he let go easily. I turned around to face him.
“Even if there’s no decisive scene… they have too many secured photos.” If a gossip YouTube channel decides to push it, people will believe it.”
“Hyun-soo-ya.”
“People believe it because they want to, because it’s interesting. Hong-seo too…!”
I couldn’t continue speaking. I lowered my head and grabbed Yoon Joo-ho’s arms in front of me to steady myself. My whole body trembled.
The nightmare of the ‘X-boy Scandal’ was vividly resurrected, like a body ache I was suffering from at this very moment. It was instantaneous, like a fire igniting a dry mountain in autumn. Watching such intense malice spread in an instant, Song Hyun-soo had to tremble. Their ‘justice and morality’ in spreading unverified rumors and tearing someone apart was close to madness.
From that, Song Hyun-soo learned a bitter lesson. That what people want is never the truth.
Someone falling more disgracefully, or causing someone to fall.
That people prefer stories about someone hiding a secret they can’t speak of, far more than stories about someone turning out to be a really good person.
“Sun… Sunbae, if that happens to you too…”
I clutched Yoon Joo-ho’s sweatshirt tighter.
Yoon Joo-ho’s hands came up to cup Song Hyun-soo’s cheeks and gently lifted them.
“Look at me, Song Hyun-soo.”
I moved my eyes, overwhelmed by fear, to find him.
“It won’t happen like that. I’m Yoon Joo-ho. Do you think I’ll just stand by and let it happen?”
“Joo-ho-ya.”
At Director Bang’s voice, both of us turned our heads simultaneously. Director Bang, standing at the end of the corridor, held Song Hyun-soo’s phone and looked at them with a apologetic expression. Like someone bringing difficult news, he hesitated, his lips moving several times before he spoke.
“The representatives have sent a message to Hyun-soo.”
Yoon Joo-ho slowly released Song Hyun-soo’s cheek and said,
“Read it.”
“I am the person who is Joo-ho’s father. I would like to talk without such caution.”
Director Bang, looking down at the phone, raised his head to look at them again. His expression suggested there was more to come. And it seemed to be even more difficult news to deliver.
“Father…?”
Song Hyun-soo furrowed his brow and unconsciously took a step forward. Yoon Joo-ho came closer and fumbled for Song Hyun-soo’s hand, gripping it. His face was turned towards Director Bang. He seemed unaware that he was holding Song Hyun-soo’s hand.
Director Bang continued reading the rest of the message.
“We don’t want to trouble you… so we will visit you at your location.”
After hearing the message to the end, Song Hyun-soo looked back at Yoon Joo-ho standing beside him. His face showed disbelief.
“The person blackmailing me with those photos… is it your parents?”
Yoon Joo-ho avoided his gaze and nodded. Then, with an awkward smile, he turned back to Song Hyun-soo, his lips barely moving.
“It looks like it’s going to be a mudslinging match, doesn’t it?”
“Even so… how could they… their own son…”
“I have a way of making people obsessed, you know.”
He winked and continued to speak in a joking tone. Song Hyun-soo, gripping his hand tightly, shook his head several times.
“You don’t have to laugh. There’s no need. Don’t laugh.”
Then, he suddenly looked up and turned to Director Bang.
“You don’t mean they’re coming now, do you?”
“Should I tell the lobby to be on alert? To not let any outsiders in?” Director Bang asked Yoon Joo-ho. Yoon Joo-ho replied firmly,
“No, it’s fine.”
“Sunbae.”
“Let them come if they want to. I have something to say too.”
Let them come if they want to.
As if they had heard Yoon Joo-ho’s words from outside the door, the doorbell rang as soon as he finished speaking. Director Bang quickly ran to the wall-mounted pad.
“Two people have arrived together? I don’t see a lawyer.”
The sound of swallowing dry saliva and my heart pounding filled my ears. Sweat had already formed on Song Hyun-soo’s temples. Yoon Joo-ho pulled the hand he was holding and turned Song Hyun-soo around. Then he brushed the hair covering Song Hyun-soo’s forehead. It was a gesture Song Hyun-soo liked.
“Stay next to Sang-ho Hyung.”
I grabbed the sleeve of Yoon Joo-ho, who was heading towards the entrance. Yoon Joo-ho smiled as if to say it was okay and detached his hand from mine. I couldn’t guess what was about to happen. I rubbed my mouth with my palm and just watched Yoon Joo-ho’s back.
Yoon Joo-ho, who walked without hesitation and opened the door himself, leaned against the doorframe and smiled.
“You’ve arrived?”
The two people visible through the gap in the door seemed briefly surprised by Yoon Joo-ho’s appearance, but as it was a situation they had somewhat expected, their expressions quickly hardened. The father’s side clicked his tongue and spoke in a displeased voice.
“You left the filming set too. Is this all you’re doing here?”
“You seem to have planted quite a few informants everywhere.”
“Informants? Watch your mouth…”
“What could a kid who couldn’t even go to school properly because he was busy making money have learned?”
Yoon Joo-ho, retorting, stepped aside.
“Please come in. Though it’s not my house.”
His father asked as he took off his shoes.
“We didn’t get a report that you came here. How did you get here?”
“So you did plant informants.”
Yoon Joo-ho scoffed and pulled the front door shut, adding,
“I used a helicopter. They charged a lot because I called them suddenly without a reservation.”
His mother, changing into guest slippers and walking up the corridor, glared at him.
“A helicopter? You must be possessed by something.”
“But seeing you two here makes the money worth it. If I had driven, I might have missed the timing.”
His mother grabbed Yoon Joo-ho, who was walking up the corridor, and turned him around. She scanned his attire a few times and looked horrified.
“You… you go to the filming set dressed like that?”
“Even dressed like this, nothing world-shattering happens. It’s comfortable to change clothes, and comfortable while waiting.”
She, who looked perfect as if she had just come from a hair and makeup salon, walked down the corridor, shaking her head with a look of a migraine.
Should I greet them?
Song Hyun-soo, standing at the end of the corridor with Director Bang, hesitated for a moment and gave a clumsy nod. The cold, almost indifferent gazes of the two fell on Song Hyun-soo, then passed by as if he were invisible.
Yoon Joo-ho, following behind them, passed by, making eye contact with Song Hyun-soo.
“Why are you here? Surely you’re not here to throw money envelopes around, are you? In this day and age.”
“Shut your mouth.”
Yoon Joo-ho’s father, sitting on the sofa, looked up at his son and spoke sternly. Yoon Joo-ho, standing opposite, looked down at his father with a smile, his hands in his pants pockets.
“You have to make it so I can shut my mouth.”
“That’s what we have to say.”
His mother, sitting next to Yoon Joo-ho’s father, placed her handbag on the coffee table and continued in a cold voice.
“You’re ruining the value of the actor Yoon Joo-ho that we’ve built for decades. How can we just watch?”
While Director Bang went to the kitchen to get drinks, Song Hyun-soo, standing alone in a corner, couldn’t believe his ears. His face contorted at the blatant remarks that judged Yoon Joo-ho’s worth.
“What good has come of you leaving our care and succeeding now?”
It was his father’s turn.
“Wandering around looking like a neighborhood thug, causing scandals on social media, and now abandoning filming… why are you doing something you never do?!”
His father, who had shouted, pointed at Song Hyun-soo, who was watching from the edge of the living room.
“What is your relationship with that actor?”
Yoon Joo-ho, still standing instead of sitting, turned to Song Hyun-soo. Their eyes met. Yoon Joo-ho, looking at Song Hyun-soo, replied calmly,
“We are not involved.”
His father shouted in an angry voice,
“Do you think we’ll believe that…!”
“I love him alone.”
For some reason, at that moment, a groan escaped Song Hyun-soo’s lips. It was a groan like he was enduring pain. Director Bang, who was bringing the drinks, stopped, and Yoon Joo-ho’s parents also fell silent at that moment.
“What…?”
His parents, who hadn’t expected Yoon Joo-ho to admit it so readily, looked taken aback.
Yoon Joo-ho, with a hesitant expression, looked at Song Hyun-soo with the face of a man cautiously wooing him.
“I want to do well, though.”
Then, he changed his gaze to his parents and continued,
“So I need to look good. Cooperate with me.”
Song Hyun-soo’s lips, which had been stiff, twitched. He couldn’t grasp exactly what was happening, but he knew he was doing something dangerous.
He took a few steps forward and shook his head vigorously.
“Sunbae, what… what kind of unpleasant joke is that! It’s not true! It’s really not! I don’t know what happened between you and your parents, but don’t use me like that…”
“Shut up! Who asked you?”
Yoon Joo-ho’s father threw a look of contempt at Song Hyun-soo, who was desperately protesting. Yoon Joo-ho, covering his head with his clasped hands, shouted with a look of exasperation,
“You shut your mouth too!”
Then he grabbed the photo album from the coffee table and threw it between his father and mother.
“If you want to release these photos, feel free.”
“……”
“But in return, I will expose what I have.”