A Well-Deserved Rest
The drama filming had finally wrapped. To be precise, Woo Dan-wol’s role had ended with episode eleven. The final image was the sight of Kang Min-hyuk’s back as he entered the detention center, eyes wide with disbelief. After that, he did not appear again.
Once the police arrived and every corpse had been accounted for, the story of Jin Da-yeon—the sole survivor and detective—finally reached the outside world. Further investigation uncovered certain facts, yet she denied them all.
The man she had lived with, the only pillar she had left, was in truth the mastermind behind everything. The criminal who had murdered her family. She could not bring herself to believe it. That Kang Min-hyuk, the one who had kept her human until the very end, had done such a thing? Yet Detective Jin Da-yeon knew the truth in her bones.
In the end, she returned to being a flower. The tale of Detective Jin Da-yeon, who had gone from human being to a mere part of nature, concluded on that note—after she gathered the evidence herself and put him behind bars.
“Good work, Dan-wol.”
“You too, noona.”
Lee Hye-ri and Woo Dan-wol headed back toward the company. With every filming schedule now complete, they had earned a sweet, honey-like break.
They had been so busy that they hadn’t even managed a proper company dinner. So the three of them—Woo Dan-wol, Lee Hye-ri, and stylist Seong Ji-hoon—arrived together at a barbecue restaurant.
“Hyung, is there any project you’re dying to do?”
“Mmm…?”
Woo Dan-wol, who lived by the iron rule that a real man never puts just one piece of meat in his ssam, tilted his head in confusion. He wanted to answer, but he had already crammed three thick slices into an enormous lettuce wrap and was busy chewing. A proper reply was currently impossible.
His cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk as he munched away. Watching him, Lee Hye-ri smiled before she could stop herself. Seong Ji-hoon caught the expression and flinched.
“Whoa, CEO, you looked like a total pervert just now.”
“W-what did I—!”
“You’re not quite an auntie yet, right…? Tsk…”
“You little—”
The woman who signed his paychecks was essentially a goddess and his master. But Seong Ji-hoon was no ordinary servant. He was an eccentric among eccentrics—and a close one at that.
People who knew their own worth were frightening. How many stylists could not only apply makeup but also choose exactly the right look for someone without going overboard? It went beyond experience; it was pure talent.
As the CEO and Seong Ji-hoon bickered, the one who stepped in to stop the fight was Woo Dan-wol, fresh from completing his acting duties.
“I’d like to look at some scripts…”
“No.”
“You need to rest.”
Amazingly, the argument died instantly. He had thrown his own body into the fray like a hero halting a war. That was how seriously the two of them worried about Woo Dan-wol’s health.
It was understandable. He had been worked like a dog throughout the entire schedule, sacrificing sleep to keep analyzing scripts and even using his ability until he slammed straight into his physical limit.
Of course, Seong Ji-hoon’s makeup had contributed. The decadent, fragile atmosphere it created still clung to his face because it hadn’t been removed yet. Even knowing that, it was difficult to simply let him rest.
A marathon runner who has just crossed the finish line looks exhausted at a glance. Who would tell that athlete to run another lap?
“But I just want to read the scripts…”
“Still no.”
“You need at least a few days off, hyung.”
They were completely serious. His body was honestly fine, so Woo Dan-wol felt a little wronged, but under the democratic rule of two votes to one, he accepted the mandatory rest.
After the dinner party ended, Woo Dan-wol finally arrived home around evening. No matter how busy the filming schedule made him, he always prepared side dishes and proper meals so his little sister would never have to skip a single one.
Through a text message, Woo Ri-na had said she was going out to play with friends. He breathed a small sigh of relief—so she does have friends after all.
Anyway, he started cooking. It was just past six, but Woo Ri-na preferred to eat at home whenever possible. So Woo Dan-wol began preparing dinner.
His recent hobby was cooking. Although he lived and breathed acting, he refused to become the kind of person who neglected everything else for a single obsession.
Tonight’s menu was tonkatsu. Not the frozen kind—he was making it from scratch. He minced pork loin, coated it carefully in breadcrumbs, and fried it himself. Homemade tonkatsu.
With his skills rising sharply lately, Woo Dan-wol felt confident. He prepared a generous amount of ingredients just in case and made a firm promise to himself: he would definitely put some weight on his little sister.
Meanwhile, Woo Ri-na was heading home with her friends. Her expression, however, was rather dark. It stemmed from worry for her brother.
It wasn’t that she harbored any strange feelings toward him. She was simply anxious about what her mischievous friends might do to her amnesia-stricken older brother.
Of course, since they were her friends, they wouldn’t cross any real lines. But she knew his face wasn’t exactly plain. She could only imagine what thoughts might bloom in their hearts the moment they saw him…
Woo Ri-na wasn’t without sin in this matter. She never bragged openly, but rumors had a way of spreading naturally among friends. The fact that she had an older brother—and that she suspiciously kept him hidden—had only fueled their teasing more each day.
Recently Woo Dan-wol’s packed schedule sometimes kept him out overnight. She had actually hoped he would be away today of all days.
Yet of course—because the universe had a sense of humor—he had come home early and was already cooking.
Woo Ri-na opened the front door and stepped inside. She had planned to order food with her allowance or play on the game console her friend had brought.
Her eyes trembled. Her face flooded with panic as her friends filed in behind her.
The two girls stood beside Woo Ri-na and politely greeted Woo Dan-wol. On the surface it looked like nothing more than a cough. Or perhaps he had simply swallowed wrong.
The situation was this: once the tonkatsu was fried, dinner would be ready. He had already cooked rice and even attempted a soup.
With his acting schedule over, he had been happily investing his leftover energy elsewhere. While drinking water, he had choked.
And at that exact moment, Woo Ri-na walked in. His eyes widened mid-cough. Not only had his sister entered, but her two friends in school uniforms had come with her.
If he had received a call beforehand, it might have been different. The silver lining was that he had prepared plenty of tonkatsu.
“Cough, cough. Ri-Ri-na’s friends? Cough…”
“Hello. Yes, that’s right.”
“Hello!”
Ri-na’s friends let out soft gasps of admiration at his appearance. At the same time, the longer Woo Dan-wol’s coughing continued, the more their gazes toward Woo Ri-na began to shift.
Cold sweat trickled down behind Ri-na’s ear. The excuses she had made in the past had come back to haunt her.
Can’t we come over? It’s fine even if your brother isn’t home.
She should have at least wet her lips before lying. The intention had been obvious. To block the eager curiosity of pubescent girls desperate to see her brother, Woo Ri-na had told them he was sick and couldn’t have visitors right now.
It hadn’t been a complete lie. Woo Dan-wol really had been in the middle of adjusting after his amnesia. Technically it was his mind that was unwell rather than his body, but that was how she had framed it.
Who could have known it would backfire so spectacularly? Of all times, Woo Dan-wol’s makeup still hadn’t been removed. He had planned to wash it off after cooking and a bath—an extremely efficient-obsessed decision.
Because of that, his friends’ eyes changed by the second. He looked decadent, like a terminally ill patient quietly waiting for death. Perhaps it was the overactive imaginations of teenage girls, but the aura he gave off really did resemble that of someone frail and fading.
A beautiful man coughing into his sleeve. Woo Dan-wol’s naturally slender frame had been deliberately maintained to portray a killer far removed from ordinary people. The sight of him in an apron, pausing his housework to greet them, was almost too much to describe.
The looks directed at Woo Ri-na, however, burned with intense emotion. Cursing with their eyes—that phrase fit perfectly.
Even in front of their friend’s older brother, the girls were the type who spoke their minds.
“He’s seriously trash.”
“It’s not like that…”
“How can you make a sick person do housework?”
“Does he have no hands or feet?”
“I said it’s not—”
“He looks so ill. Why aren’t you helping with the chores?”
“It’s not like that, you idiots…”
Woo Ri-na stared at her brother with a deeply wronged expression, silently begging for rescue. Her gaze was so desperate that she clearly had no confidence she could endure her friends’ judgment alone. So he decided to help his little sister.
“It’s not what you think, kids. Cough, I just swallowed water the wrong way for a second… Hack. So it’s fine. Don’t scold her too much, okay?”
Because he had choked, the corners of Woo Dan-wol’s eyes were moist. With that faint sheen of tears and a gentle smile blooming on his lips, the image of an older brother shielding his sister was more than enough to tug at their hearts.
“We’re not okay with it.”
The friends rose up in righteous anger even though it was their first meeting. They had become an enraged mob.
“It’s really not like thaaat!!”
With Woo Ri-na’s desperate scream as the finale, they say the group spent the evening happily playing while devouring delicious tonkatsu. What a relief, what a joyous relief indeed.