Just Saw a Handsome Guy
The drama had aired. It was only the first episode, but its ripple effect was far from small.
A director and writer known for delivering at least moderate hits had teamed up. And for a sweet romance? Any viewer with even a passing interest in dramas had no choice but to pay attention.
A reliable combination. As a result, audiences didn’t just watch the live broadcast—they caught the reruns too, devouring every frame of the show.
Some might wonder what the point was in rewatching something they had already seen.
It was a perfectly reasonable thought. Rewatching familiar content usually dulled the excitement. However, if the director was Kim Ji-yeon, the story changed completely.
She was famous for the hidden details woven into her direction. That was why rewatching brought fresh delight to viewers who studied every frame.
Symbolic props, planted clues. A scene that felt like simple context on the first viewing revealed new layers on a second, careful pass—different directing choices and props shifting the entire perspective.
"Sis, let's watch it together."
"I've already seen it..."
"Well I haven't."
Lee Mi-na knew how to survive. If she hadn’t, she never would have managed to date her boyfriend in the first place.
They had clearly agreed to watch the first episode together in advance, yet here her boyfriend was, still unwatched. Episode Two was about to air soon. From her position, the situation was unbearably frustrating.
Truth be told, Mi-na had little interest in dramas. Some women did, but the interest had never applied to her. She only watched because her boyfriend was a drama fanatic. Her head throbbed, but she never complained.
Her boyfriend’s feelings mattered more than the truth. He held all the power. Reading the mood of someone above you was simply the proper thing to do.
She ought to be grateful they could lie side by side in a motel room and watch the drama together. Most women would look at Mi-na with envy and throw stones.
She started the drama. As episode one began, even Mi-na—who had felt no interest—soon found herself drawn in, rewatching content she had already seen.
The more she watched, the more surprised she became. She had believed there was no reason to rewatch a drama, yet it wasn’t bad at all.
Because she already knew the story, she could focus on the finer details. The same lines and situations could now be observed from an entirely different angle.
"What’s wrong, sis?"
"Just a second..."
Mi-na grabbed the remote and rewound ten seconds. On its own, the drama’s content was nothing special—the leads were simply talking.
But in Mi-na’s eyes the leads didn’t exist. The drama resumed. Dialogue flowed.
None of it reached her ears. Her gaze was locked on the terrace in the background. Not on the main characters, but on an extra whose name she didn’t even know.
The corner of Mi-na’s mouth twitched. She grabbed the remote again.
"Was there something just now? Why are you being like this?"
"Sorry. Let’s keep watching."
In the end she couldn’t repeat the action; his mood wouldn’t allow it. Still, she was satisfied that she had managed to do it twice.
Mi-na headed to the bathroom, her mind swirling with thoughts. With the interrupter gone, her boyfriend said nothing.
Seated on the toilet, Mi-na entered the female-oriented community and wrote down her thoughts. She was surprised to find others who felt the same way.
A question flashed through her mind. Why hadn’t she noticed him the first time she watched? Even though the focus had been on the leads and their story, it still didn’t make sense.
She was an ordinary person without professional knowledge, yet she knew that when a handsome man appeared, eyes were naturally drawn to him. Her boyfriend would undoubtedly scoff at the thought, but what could she do? It was simply a woman’s instinct.
The uneasy feeling didn’t last long. The moment she voiced it, a post with an attached clip was updated.
"Hehe..."
It was a gif less than ten seconds long. Yet its impact was enormous—cutting out the drama’s main characters and capturing only the unidentified man and woman on the terrace.
Yeah, yeah. I feasted my eyes on a handsome man. That part is true.
Until episode two aired—and even afterward—the gif circulating across the internet remained a hot topic for a while. At the same time, the fact that no one had noticed him during the first broadcast began to spread like a kind of urban legend. It got so bad that the PD herself had to step forward and clarify that he wasn’t a ghost.
Meanwhile, Woo Dan-wol, who had spent the entire day with the script, remained completely unaware of any of it as he focused on his acting.
Like a patient addicted to something, he clutched the script and repeated the lines again and again, losing count of how many times.
"Heh heh..."
Gambling addiction? Drug addiction? Gaming addiction? Script addiction—Woo Dan-wol was on the move! Of course, there was nothing wrong with his mind.
Using his ability to build proficiency was good, but the physical toll was heavy. After repeatedly fainting, he had felt his limit increasing, yet he didn’t want to push himself too far.
He planned to use the given ability, but he was not the kind of person to neglect the fundamental effort an actor should make.
That was why, after passing the casting, he had spent the past several days glued to the script. From his younger sister Woo Ri-na’s perspective, it was more than a little worrying.
And that was exactly when the incident occurred. The weather was unusually rainy. May had passed and mid-June was approaching; even though it wasn’t yet the rainy season, a sudden downpour had arrived.
The sound of raindrops had lulled Woo Ri-na to sleep. Normally she slept through the night without waking, so it was truly strange that her eyes opened now.
An ominous feeling. Woo Ri-na, awake, looked around. The spot where her older brother should have been sleeping was empty and lonely.
They weren’t sharing one bed. It was simply two beds pushed together. It was an interior solution born from Woo Dan-wol’s thoroughly efficiency-driven mindset.
—CRASH!
For a moment, lightning flashed and the room lit up brightly before plunging back into darkness.
It felt frightening and unsettling. Woo Ri-na’s eyes began to tremble more and more. The brother who should have been sound asleep was gone. Slowly she sat up.
Lightning flashed again. In the briefly illuminated studio apartment, she saw a man standing near the kitchen.
It was Woo Dan-wol. Her older brother, Woo Dan-wol. But she sensed something strange in the atmosphere.
"Oppa…?"
The pouring rain grew even heavier. The periodic lightning added to the terror. A sixteen-year-old girl in puberty—Woo Ri-na’s mind became tangled.
Her eyes adjusted to the darkness. The eerie mood kept her from even thinking to turn on the light.
She could only walk toward him. The atmosphere radiating from him was palpable even from a distance.
The closer she got, the clearer his expression became. It was Woo Dan-wol, yet it wasn’t. Sadness, fear, longing, resentment—complex emotions mixed together in a state beyond words, stirring across his face.
His eyelids trembled. Tears streamed down between tightly shut eyes. Blood trickled from between his clenched lips.
And above all else, he had drawn a kitchen knife, gripping it backwards and aiming it at himself.
"Oppa, Oppa?!"
His sister Woo Ri-na’s face twisted. The situation she faced before she could even shake off her sleep was too horrific.
He had already attempted suicide once. He was the kind of person who had taken countless pills trying to fall into eternal sleep. The family had simply thought acting was hard for him. Like everyone else. Everyone struggled, so they assumed he was struggling too.
But his pain had suddenly proven itself. In an extreme way. In a direction that had nearly been irreversible.
Woo Ri-na’s expression crumbled. Despair flooded her, making her legs tremble on their own. That trembling soon became a scream that called out her brother’s name.
"Oppa!!!!"
She felt the moisture sliding down her cheeks, but there was no time to think. She dashed straight toward him. It was a short leap, a desperate struggle to stop his action.
—Clatter!
The kitchen knife flew far away and rolled across the floor. Emotion had surged first, but her body moved even faster. Her actions remained calm, and the result was flawless. She had stopped the hand that tried to stab him with the knife.
"Oppa? Oppa?! Oppa!!"
He collapsed. The unconscious body was heavy. A girl in puberty grows quickly. At sixteen her strength and physique had developed; she now possessed a body capable of supporting someone of similar height with even greater power.
Woo Ri-na, holding up his body, broke down. Tears poured endlessly from her eyes, falling drop by drop. In all the years they had lived together, she had not only failed to understand his heart—she hadn’t even noticed. Countless regrets, worries, and guilt toward herself crashed over her.
"Oppa… Hngh, hnghhh… Oppa, hic. Oppa!!!!"
She held the brother who had collapsed into her arms and wailed. It had all happened in the middle of the night.