Reward Vacation
The moment Yeon-woo dropped a message into the group chat, replies and smiley emoticons from his friends poured in one after another.
The wrap party had stretched deep into the night before splitting into those heading to a second round and those heading home. Being a minor, Yeon-woo slipped out early.
"Min-su hyung, you've been waiting a long time, haven't you?"
"Not at all. I just got back after dropping Stylist Ye-eun off near her place."
Min-su drove him straight to the officetel the agency kept and then clocked out for the night.
"Whew. So that's the end of my first drama."
He finished his debut work with a bittersweet mix of relief and emptiness. Even now, it still didn't feel real that he had actually appeared in a drama. In his previous life, the most he had ever done was walk-on extra work as a passing pedestrian.
If I do two or three more projects, will I get used to this feeling too?
Despite the late hour, a nameless hollowness kept him from settling. He lay in bed scrolling through searches for Summer's Closet until sleep finally took him.
Around noon the next day, Manager Kim Min-su came to pick him up again.
"Have you eaten, Actor?"
"No. What about you, Min-su hyung?"
"Not yet either. Then let's grab a hangover cure and head down."
"Hey, I'm still a student. I didn't even touch a single drink. Still, I do love hangover soup."
His actor was so mature that Kim Min-su often forgot he was dealing with a minor. He nodded at Yeon-woo's words and led the way to the restaurant he usually frequented.
After settling breakfast-slash-lunch at a nearby place, they set off for Daejeon. Before long, Min-su's car pulled up in front of his parents' apartment.
"Mm, want to come in, Min-su hyung? I can at least offer you a drink."
"No need. I'll wait by the elevator. Take your time."
Yeon-woo unlocked the door and went inside to find his passport—needed for the company paperwork for the reward vacation trip. Fortunately, he had one: it had been issued last year along with his resident registration card when he turned seventeen.
He had called his parents the day before, so his mother had already set the passport out on the dining table. He picked up the newly made document and headed back out.
"Here—my passport. Sorry for making you come all the way down to Daejeon today."
"I used to do Seoul–Busan round trips for a living. Daejeon's practically next door."
Yeon-woo handed the passport over with a bright smile and a polite bow.
"They'll probably process the travel visa online through the company, so you shouldn't have anything extra to do. See you on the 7th, then."
"Yes. Drive carefully on the way back up."
Min-su left with a promise to come on departure day. Yeon-woo spent the rest of the day the way he always did—preparing for school and working out.
The next morning, he arrived at school in his father Cheol-ung's car. The moment he stepped through the main gate, shrieks erupted from every direction and a swarm of girls came rushing toward him.
"Holy crap, it's Ryu Yeon-woo."
"Kyaaah! What do I do?!"
More than half the faces crowding around him were unfamiliar—freshmen, by the look of it.
"Hello. Yes, hello."
Yeon-woo shook hands, met eyes, and greeted them one by one. The flood of underclassmen turned the front gate into pure chaos in seconds.
"I'm dying. I just made eye contact."
"No you didn't. He looked at me."
A third girl shoved triumphantly between the two bickering ones.
"He held my hand too."
"No way."
Everyone had their phones out, cameras already rolling, frantically snapping pictures of him. At a regional high school, a celebrity senior was an irresistible force of nature to the freshmen.
Tweet—!
"What's all this racket?!"
Seeing the kids piled up at the entrance, the student affairs teacher assumed a fight had broken out. He blew his whistle and came running, only to find the crowd surrounding Yeon-woo. He pushed through the students and approached.
"Um, hello, Teacher."
The slightly awkward smile on Yeon-woo's face told the teacher everything. He immediately threw an arm around Yeon-woo's shoulders like a manager and carved a path back through the throng toward the main building.
"You little brats, move! What are you doing, not even letting your senior into school?"
Once they safely reached the main building, Yeon-woo headed for his newly assigned third-year classroom and reunited with familiar faces.
"Yeon-woo, why does it feel like forever since we last saw you?"
"Oh, same class as Yeon-woo. Hell yeah!"
Unlike the friends who had kept coming in for self-study over the break, these were people he hadn't seen in nearly three months.
"Yeah. It's already been three months."
Jun-su came over and slung an arm around his shoulders.
"Yeon-woo, only Seong-sik got put in the next class over."
"Ah, must suck being the only one left out."
Jun-su shook his head at that.
"Come on, you know him. Like he'd ever care."
True enough—Seong-sik was the ultimate social butterfly who was friends with everyone in the school.
"Yeon-woo, is Han So-hyun super pretty in person?"
"You ever meet any girl groups? Who'd you hang out with?"
More and more friends crowded around him, firing off the exact questions a red-blooded high school boy would ask. Yeon-woo answered them all with a gentle smile, and the classroom filled with intermittent choruses of "Whoa!"
"Quiet! Let's start class. Class president."
The teacher walked in and class began. Because the reward vacation meant he would have to miss a few more days, Yeon-woo threw himself into studying whenever he was at school.
"Yeon-woo, why are you studying so hard? You're a celebrity now."
"Hmm? There's nothing else to do at school anyway. You should study too. A student's job is studying—you'll regret it later."
"Ugh, sometimes talking to this guy feels exactly like talking to my dad."
Jun-su shook his head at Yeon-woo.
"Son, did you pack the gochujang?"
"Haha, foreign food sits fine with me. I'm good."
A few days of school life passed, and departure day arrived. Yeon-woo gently stopped his mother from stuffing gochujang, cup ramen, and every other Korean staple into his bag, then left the house at the crack of dawn.
A van was already waiting in the still-dim light outside the front door.
"Min-su hyung, sorry for making you work this early on my account."
Min-su smiled at that.
"Work? Thanks to you I'm going to Hawaii. My mouth's stretched ear to ear. Haha."
He was a born field manager—sitting in an office doing paperwork bored him to death.
"All right, then. We're off."
With his usual smooth driving, Min-su headed for Seoul and picked up Stylist Ye-eun, who was waiting in Gangnam with an armful of clothes.
"Ye-eun noona, hello. That must've been heavy, standing there holding all of it."
The apologetic smile Yeon-woo gave her wiped away every trace of the fatigue she had built up since dawn.
"Ah, no! It wasn't hard at all!"
"Please speak comfortably. We're going to be seeing each other for a long time."
A soft flush rose in Ye-eun's cheeks as she nodded.
"Th-then, Yeon-woo. Want to put this on first? Better to do hair after you're dressed."
He took the clothes she held out and stripped right there in the van, peeling off layers without a second thought. Ye-eun let out a tiny squeak, covered her eyes, and peeked through her fingers at the defined muscles of his upper body.
"All done?"
"Yes, all changed. Noona, what's a stylist supposed to do if she gets embarrassed watching her actor change clothes?"
Ye-eun fidgeted with her fingers at that.
"Well, until now I've only handled mid-tier actors and actresses…"
Embarrassment was one thing; professionalism was another. She quickly got to work on his hair.
"I'm not a hair specialist, so I'll just keep it clean and simple. You look good no matter what, Yeon-woo."
"Makeup's fine to skip—long flight ahead."
Looking at skin as soft as a baby's, Ye-eun simply nodded and applied basic moisturizer.
"Those the press over there? Looks like a crowd. Hmm, I'll pull up right in front."
The van had already reached Incheon Airport and stopped near Gate 8, where the reporters were clustered. Min-su hopped out first and unloaded Yeon-woo's suitcase along with his own.
"Ye-eun-ssi, if you wait a bit, someone from the company will come collect the car."
Yeon-woo climbed out after him, took his suitcase, thanked Ye-eun, and promised to have a good trip.
The second he stepped onto the small crosswalk in front of the gate, camera flashes exploded. Passing travelers spotted him too and raised their phones. When the light turned green, Yeon-woo crossed while greeting the reporters and fans.
"Hello. I'll be back safe and sound."
With Min-su supporting him, he entered the terminal.
"Watch the pillar behind you. The pillar."
Min-su called out warnings to the fans who kept walking backward while filming Yeon-woo on their phones, steering them straight toward the departure hall.
"Here, I'll check us in. Actor, fans over that way."
Min-su took Yeon-woo's passport and suitcase and pointed to the fans waving from beyond the glass. Yeon-woo made finger hearts for the ones who had waited until the very end, then completed boarding procedures.
"Actor, the company said to go to Lounge B, but I don't come to the airport often. Give me a second."
"Min-su hyung. This way."
During his NIS days in the overseas division, Yeon-woo had treated airports like his own living room and knew most of the world's terminals inside out. He led the way, and when they reached the lounge, the others were already there.
"Hey, Yeon-woo, over here."
An Jun-ho waved. Min-su headed to the next table to greet the managers of the other actors who would be traveling with them.
"Yeon-woo, you're here?"
"Yes. Noona, are you not feeling well?"
Han So-hyun looked uncharacteristically wilted, nothing like her usual bright energy.
"Ugh… I'm scared of planes."
Ever since she had hit severe turbulence as a child, she had been terrified of flying and rarely left the country.
Yeon-woo reassured her that everything would be fine. Before long it was time; they left the lounge and went through boarding.