By Zephyria 
Haa. Song Hyun-soo exhaled, puffing out his breath. Then, he paused at the door for a moment, pretending to search his pockets and bag, buying time.
It was around the time the full winter was about to begin.
It was in this very spot that he had said goodbye to Jung Ji-in. It was their last meeting before he left for Paris.
While it was lonely and sad, at the time, he was also excited by the prospect of potentially appearing in the same movie as Yoon Joo-ho. He had dreamed big, even without knowing if he would pass the audition.
Back then, Yoon Joo-ho was still just a distant superstar to Song Hyun-soo, no different from when he only watched him through the media.
That distant star was waiting for him here, late at night, to go to the west coast together. The surprising change felt surreal.
Jung-ho and Chae-young were convinced it was a ‘sum’, but there was one thing he hadn’t told them.
“It’s a bit funny for guys, isn’t it? We’re not dating.”
This statement perhaps held a crucial point.
It significantly implied the possibility that their current relationship was not a ‘sum’ or ‘managing options’, but merely partners for sex.
But at the same time, it was also something that posed no problem for Song Hyun-soo.
The car’s hazard lights blinked, sending a signal.
Yoon Joo-ho was waving a carrot right in front of him.
Whether that carrot was underripe, rotten, or if some other guy was eating it besides me, none of that was the important issue.
All that mattered was to pounce and devour it.
Pressing his lips together to suppress a laugh threatening to escape, Song Hyun-soo quickened his steps toward the car. As the distance closed, the passenger-side window slowly rolled down. Glancing inside, he saw Yoon Joo-ho himself at the wheel.
As soon as he scrambled into the passenger seat, the window closed again.
“You came really fast?”
“There’s no traffic at this hour on a Sunday.”
Yoon Joo-ho replied casually, then looked back at Song Hyun-soo as if seeing him anew and chuckled.
“Do you wear anything else?”
“Why? It’s so warm and nice.”
It was the orange down jumper Yoon Joo-ho had gifted him.
Brushing his hand over the jumper’s sleeve, Song Hyun-soo launched into a spiel about the clothing as if he were a show host.
“You might think the color is too flashy, right? But winter clothes are generally monochrome. So, surprisingly, it matches well with other outfits. Just throw anything on and put this on, and you’re ready to go.”
“If you keep wearing it like this, it’ll end up with holes, won’t it?”
“Of course! Who gave it to me… how much did this cost.”
Song Hyun-soo, about to blurt out his true feelings unconsciously, deflected by making an excuse about the price. He felt awkward for a moment and rolled his eyes.
It was also because he sensed Yoon Joo-ho’s steady gaze as he leaned his upper body over the steering wheel.
“Why aren’t you starting soon? We’ll get there tomorrow at this rate.”
“Treating me like a chauffeur, are we?”
Yoon Joo-ho snickered as he started the car.
The Escalade, having left ‘Jessica,’ merged onto the road and began cruising down the quiet university street.
“It says 1 hour and 58 minutes remaining.”
As he spoke, looking at the navigation, Yoon Joo-ho glanced over.
“Are you hungry?”
“Why?”
“If you’re hungry, we can buy something.”
“I ate dinner at the place around 8. If you’re hungry, Sunbae, buy something.”
Yoon Joo-ho shook his head and gestured with his chin toward the center console’s audio system.
“Connect your phone and play some music.”
“Yes, sir.”
Song Hyun-soo connected his phone to the Escalade via Bluetooth and carefully selected a song. He didn’t want to seem like he was trying too hard to set a mood, but he also didn’t want to play something that would kill the vibe.
Soon, the car left the university street and began driving down Jangchungdan-ro, with Dongdaemun Design Plaza to its left.
Yoon Joo-ho, resting his elbow on the window frame, chuckled lightly after listening to the music.
“You’re listening to an unexpected song.”
“What song suits me then?”
He asked back with a pout, and Yoon Joo-ho turned to look at him. Then, he reached out and casually swept Song Hyun-soo’s bangs upward, across his forehead. His long, neat fingers always felt slightly cool.
“Why are you sulking? I just meant it’s unexpected.”
His earlobes flared up.
His face flushed, and a suffocating feeling rose in his chest, like an aggrieved boy. No, it wasn’t suffocation. It was an urge to run wildly somewhere.
Unable to keep his hands still, Song Hyun-soo took off the jumper he was wearing.
“The song is nice,” Yoon Joo-ho said.
He liked Yoon Joo-ho’s voice even more.
Yoon Joo-ho’s voice, his fingers, his lips, the mature man’s scent he liked that he could even smell in this car. Each and every one of those things made him feel ticklish. Like hair getting inside the back of his t-shirt, it made him writhe every time he thought about it.
Recalling Chae-young and Jung-ho’s words that this was definitely a ‘thing,’ Song Hyun-soo stole a glance at Yoon Joo-ho’s profile.
Picking him up by car after his part-time job ended, impulsively going to see the night sea together… Even I have to admit this is a date.
“Did you check the draft contract?”
“…What?”
“The draft contract.”
“Ah, yes, I did.”
“Then why are you so quiet?”
“The director said it’s fine to talk about it by Monday…”
“Do you need more time to think? I think the conditions are quite good.”
“That’s right. They are good conditions. So good they’re practically unprecedented…”
“Does it seem like a scam?”
“Of course, it’s not a scam, but…”
Yoon Joo-ho rummaged through the center console, looking for a cigarette pack. He rolled down the window about a third of the way and lit a cigarette.
“Shall I guess?”
“…”
“Why are they offering me such good terms? Do I have this much value? You must be thinking something like that.”
“How did you know??”
He let out a disbelieving, hollow laugh at Song Hyun-soo’s immediate, affirmative, honest reaction.
“Jung Ji-in told you, didn’t she? That I’m serious about acting.”
“She did.”
“It’s true. I’m not the kind of guy who’s so easily swayed by affection. But bringing that affection into my work, my company, is impossible. I’m investing based on your potential, not your current value. So don’t dig around for charity work.”
Yoon Joo-ho, flicking ash off his cigarette, turned to look at him.
“You said you’d become a top star.”
“I will. I have to.”
“I’ll support you.”
“…”
“No matter how much I support you, if you don’t have the ability to back it up, you’ll slip and fall quickly. It’s not that easy.”
“Yes, I know.”
“At least, I can support you so that you don’t slip even when you’re working hard.”
Song Hyun-soo lowered his head, speechless.
This time, it wasn’t Yoon Joo-ho’s hand touching him, but his face flushed, and a suffocating feeling rose in his chest.
From the moment he came up to Seoul, his life had been a continuous game of reading people. The world Song Hyun-soo had encountered was one that tried to take even his body, all he had, away from him. Everyone was an enemy to be suspected and guarded against. The only ones he could feel safe with, even for a moment, were guys like Choi Hong-seo, who were in the same boat.
He had never thought a day would come when a big shot like Yoon Joo-ho would offer to support him from behind.
The words ‘I’ll support you,’ the fact that the person offering to support me was none other than my longtime hero, Yoon Joo-ho, made Song Hyun-soo’s throat tighten.
Yoon Joo-ho, shifting the cigarette to his left hand, gently placed his right hand on the back of Song Hyun-soo’s bowed head.
“What if I can’t even earn back the contract deposit?”
Even after clearing his throat, Song Hyun-soo couldn’t completely erase the moisture in his voice.
“That’s why I set the contract period at 10 years.”
Yoon Joo-ho added, as if joking, that he would exploit him until he recovered all the investment and paid back several times over. His hand, which had been ruffling the back of his head, moved down to his nape. The touch, stroking upwards against the direction his hair was growing and then down again, was playful.
“What if I’m so hopeless that even 10 years isn’t enough?”
“Then I guess my judgment was off.”
Song Hyun-soo looked up at Yoon Joo-ho’s voice, which sounded resigned. But contrary to his voice, his face was smiling relaxedly. And he declared,
“But that won’t happen.”
As he moved the cigarette from his left hand to his right and brought it to his lips, he said with a hint of playfulness,
“Think carefully. The moment you sign, you’re tied to me for 10 years.”
Can I be tied for 20 years if I sign twice? 30 years if I sign three times?
He bit back the urge to ask that.
After that, they talked a lot.
About how he started working part-time at Lotteria in high school to help with living expenses. Then, to earn more per hour, he started working at a karaoke bar from his third year of high school. Before he even received his diploma, he came up to Seoul and got a job at a bar.
“So you didn’t attend your high school graduation?”
“It was a school where I just attended diligently. More importantly, earning money even a day sooner was more crucial.”
“…”
“My guardians age twice as fast as other kids’ parents.”
Song Hyun-soo had just turned twenty, but his grandparents were already past sixty. They weren’t young anymore, and their bodies, worn down by hardship, were starting to break down frequently. His grandmother’s flyer delivery job and his grandfather’s earnings from odd jobs at the market weren’t enough to make ends meet.
So he put on a show of being more successful, of being boastful. That there was nothing to worry about. That he was earning good money and doing well in Seoul. He wanted to reassure them like that.
After his grandfather was fired for low productivity, around the time he turned twenty-one, he borrowed money to set up a snack bar for them, as Myung Do-hoon had suggested.
He regretted it now. Except for the moment he saw his grandparents’ happy faces, there wasn’t a day he didn’t regret it. He had to learn that there were no shortcuts in life without pitfalls. If there were such shortcuts, everyone would have taken them.
“What do you want to do when you get the contract deposit?”
At Yoon Joo-ho’s question, Song Hyun-soo’s expression became dreamy and excited.
The contract deposit Yoon Joo-ho offered was fifty million won. No agency would offer such a sum to an unknown actor with no credible experience. If it hadn’t been Yoon Joo-ho, Song Hyun-soo would have dismissed it as a scam and deleted the email.
“Won’t that be enough to escape the rooftop room?”
Looking up at the moon that tirelessly followed him in the sky outside the car window, Song Hyun-soo said with a smile that seemed happy just imagining it.
“I’ll get you a two-story apartment with good sunlight on a jeonse deposit.”
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