Love
At that same hour, inside the offices of Eight Media Entertainment, scripts lay scattered across a table. A young man sat reading one of them with a serious expression.
His features were handsome without excess—delicate and well-proportioned, giving him a clean, polished image. This was Jin Yu-han, who had built his acting range step by step since his days as a child actor and was now ranked the undisputed top among the next generation of actors.
"Manager, I want to do this one."
Jin Yu-han handed the script he had been reading to the man seated across from him.
"Hmm? This one? Yu-han, you're on a roll right now. Wouldn't a film be better?"
Yu-han swept his eyes once more over the other scripts strewn across the table. His expression made it clear none of them appealed to him.
"The story's just too good. I really want this role."
"That so? If you want it, then you should do it. With the momentum you've got right now, there's no role you couldn't land."
Having started acting as a child, Jin Yu-han already had twelve years of experience under his belt. He had moved through several agencies, and at his current company—the one he had most recently signed with—his opinions as an actor were respected more than anywhere else.
He was flying through every project as if he had finally found clothes that fit, riding a wave of success that seemed to crest higher by the day. Not long ago he had even beaten out Son Jin-uk to take the Youngest Outstanding Actor Award at the Korea Arts Awards.
Unless a role was a complete mismatch for his image, few producers or writers would turn down the current Jin Yu-han—a virtual guarantee of ratings.
Manager Han Yeong-ho confidently flipped through the script at speed and spoke.
"Alright, I'll put in a call soon. Whose project is this, let me see… Hmm? KBC Channel 1? Unexpected."
Woo Seong-sik, who had somehow become a fairly competent driver, steered the van toward a pension in Gapyeng.
When they stopped at a rest area and Yeon-woo moved to get out, his friends held him back.
"Hey, hey—if you go out there, it'll be chaos. Just stay put."
Seong-sik and Jun-su went down and came back with assorted snacks.
Su-yeon speared a whole potato with a toothpick, stuffed her cheeks like a squirrel, and turned to look at Yeon-woo.
"This is fun."
"Yeah?"
Seeing her bright and finally looking her age among peers her own age, Yeon-woo felt a quiet warmth inside.
Su-yeon seemed to have grown close already; she was chatting and laughing softly with Yuri beside her.
Yeon-woo glanced at Jun-su next to him and jabbed him in the side.
"So? How'd it go?"
"W-what?"
Jun-su asked back as if he didn't know—though he clearly did.
Yeon-woo pointed toward Yuri with his eyes.
Only then did Jun-su let out a long sigh and fumble something out of his pocket. The velvet exterior looked like a jewelry box.
A ring?
Yeon-woo mouthed the question so Yuri in front wouldn't overhear.
Jun-su shook his head and carefully opened the jewelry case. Inside lay a simple necklace.
Nice design on the necklace. I thought kids these days confessed over text, but Jun-su's going classic, huh?
Yeon-woo grinned and clapped Jun-su on the shoulder.
Before long, Seong-sik's van had entered a quiet stretch of countryside and pulled up in front of a freestanding pension with a clean exterior.
"Ahhh! We're here."
"Seong-sik, thanks for driving."
Yeon-woo kneaded Seong-sik's shoulders, which had knotted up from the long drive.
"Alright, alright—let's unload!"
At Jun-su's call, they opened the trunk and began hauling boxes up to the pension door.
"I'll go grab the key from the owner's place!"
Seong-sik sprinted across the gravel yard toward the owner's house behind them.
Kim Ju-hyeong, Ryu Yeon-woo's classmate in the Department of Economics at Hankuk University, was spending his break helping out at the pension his grandmother ran.
"Ugh, why does the signal keep dropping? Keeps cutting out."
He gave his phone—Netflix still playing—a few pointless taps.
After a lifetime of exam prep that had crushed every cultural outlet, Ju-hyeong had booked tickets starting with Ryu Yeon-woo's work and then, the very next day, Spring's Lover. From that point on he had become a full-blown film buff, devouring every genre without discrimination.
Ding-dong—
"Ah, they must be here."
Ju-hyeong took the pension key for the guests and opened the front door.
"Hello."
"Ah, yes. Woo Seong-sik, right? The barbecue fee is separate."
Ju-hyeong walked him through the house rules and handed over the key. Seong-sik took it with a promise to keep the place clean and headed off.
"At least today's guests don't seem like the nightmare type."
Yesterday a group of middle-aged men had gotten roaring drunk all night, thrown up in the corner of the small room, and simply left. Cleaning that up had nearly killed him.
"Right—I should bring them the extra bedding."
Knock-knock—
After a light knock, Ju-hyeong stepped into the pension entryway.
"Sir, the bedding provided is for four people, so I brought—ah?!"
He set the bedding down, looked up, spotted Yeon-woo, and froze with a finger pointed straight at him.
Male fans who freak out like this are pretty rare, Yeon-woo thought, offering a light greeting.
"Hello."
"What? Who's here?"
The friends who had been putting food away in the kitchen fridge came out into the living room.
"You're Ryu Yeon-woo, right?"
Seong-sik's brow furrowed as he looked at Ju-hyeong still pointing at Yeon-woo.
"Look, I get that my friend's a celebrity, but jumping straight into casual speech is a bit—"
At Seong-sik's words, Ju-hyeong flustered, waving his hands as he turned to Yeon-woo.
"N-no, that's not—Yeon-woo, it's me, Ju-hyeong. Class president."
Something clicked on Yeon-woo's face.
"Ah! University class president? The one who used to call every so often with announcements…"
"Yeah! That's me."
Seong-sik, who had been glaring at Ju-hyeong for the sudden casual tone, finally relaxed.
"What, so you're Yeon-woo's classmate?"
"Yeah. We've talked on the phone a few times."
Calls had occasionally come through Manager Min-su's phone, passing along university notices to Yeon-woo while he was on leave.
Yeon-woo stepped forward and shook Ju-hyeong's hand.
"Nice to meet you. I took leave right after enrolling, so this is our first time face-to-face?"
"Yeah, it is. Haha. Good to meet you."
Scratching the back of his head, Ju-hyeong soon opened the front door again.
"Alright, I'll get back to work. I'll have the charcoal ready for the barbecue—just give me thirty minutes' notice."
He was halfway out when something occurred to him, and he shut the door again.
"Ah, right! If you're not too busy… could I get a few autographs? My youngest aunt already gave me allowance and keeps giving me hell for not bringing any back."
"Of course. But I don't have paper or a pen on me right now…"
"I'll go get some!"
When Yeon-woo smiled and agreed, Ju-hyeong dashed off, excited, to fetch paper and a pen.
"Small world."
Yeon-woo snorted a laugh at Seong-sik's shrug.
He signed for Kim Ju-hyeong once the paper and pen arrived, then whiled away the time with the others in a simple card game. Before they knew it, the sky had grown dim.
"Should we start getting the barbecue ready?"
"I'll go tell him!"
Seong-sik slipped on slippers and headed out, while the others pulled ingredients from the fridge.
"I'll handle the prep."
Yeon-woo rolled up his sleeves and took out a cutting board and paring knife.
"Whoa—are we about to see the knife skills we only ever saw on variety shows?!"
Su-yeon and Yuri clapped, laughing.
Yeon-woo grinned, spun the knife once, and caught it. His friends nearly jumped out of their skins.
"That's dangerous, Yeon-woo. What if you cut yourself?"
"Ah—is it?"
The moment the knife was in his hand, the old habit of idly flipping a hunting knife from his agent days had slipped out on its own.
"Alright, vegetables, please."
Su-yeon rinsed the vegetables under running water and passed them over.
Thwack-thwack-thwack—
Under the rapid, rhythmic strike of the blade, the vegetables were prepped in no time.
"Whoa, that's seriously fast."
"No kidding. Even I've never seen this."
Jun-su had stuck by Yeon-woo since high school, but he had only ever watched him cook on variety shows. This was a first in person.
It was simple prep more than real cooking, but Yeon-woo scored the sausages and meat so they would cook through evenly.
"Guys, the fire's ready!"
Seong-sik's voice from the yard set everyone bustling.
"I'll take this—Jun-su, microwave some instant rice."
"Okay!"
With everyone hauling things out together, the barbecue table looked surprisingly proper in no time.
"Coming out like this is so much fun. Thank you, Yeon-woo."
She had already said it in the car on the way, but Su-yeon offered her gratitude once more.
"Ah, honestly, it's a first for us too. We should come out more often."
He had hesitated at first because of her shy nature, but the others had treated Su-yeon like a friend almost immediately. He was genuinely glad they had come.
Just then, Yeon-woo's university classmate Ju-hyeong brought more charcoal.
"The fire's going now, so I'll add a bit more charcoal and spread it out evenly."
He set the grill in place with practiced ease, distributed the charcoal, and banked it to a gentle heat. Then he sidled up to Yeon-woo and asked in a low murmur.
"Hey, Yeon-woo. What on earth were you filming with Maseok Do on that huge ship? I'm dying of curiosity."
"Whoa—how do you even know about that?"
Yeon-woo was mildly startled that such detailed production talk had already reached him.
"Well, I kind of became a film buff during college, you know? Among fans, people even share paparazzi shots of projects still in production."
"Ah. So that whole world exists among movie fans too."
But given that Master Plan was something of a twist-driven film, the information he could share before release was limited. Yeon-woo simply let it pass with a smile.
After that, Ju-hyeong kept hovering near Yeon-woo under the pretext of asking if they needed anything else. Yeon-woo couldn't help laughing at the sight.
Yeah. If I'd lived an ordinary college life in my past life, I'd have been exactly like that. I was hopeless when it came to movies too.
The charcoal burned bright, the meat cooked through, and the night deepened.
Laughing, talking, eating, and drinking with friends, Yeon-woo eventually noticed that Jun-su and Yuri had quietly slipped away from the table. Jun-su had probably suggested a walk and taken Yuri for a stroll nearby.
Before long, the two returned.
"Where'd you guys go?"
Seong-sik asked without a shred of tact, and the pair scrambled for excuses. In Yeon-woo's eyes, the necklace around Yuri's neck was plain to see.
Watching the fresh, tender love of friends who—by his past life's reckoning—were practically the age of his own children, a warm smile settled on Yeon-woo's lips.
"Congratulations."
"Uh, yeah. Hahaha."
"I—I don't know! We need to clean up. I'm going in to do the dishes!"
At Yeon-woo's congratulations, Jun-su laughed bashfully and scratched the back of his head, while Yuri's face went scarlet as she hurriedly gathered empty plates and fled into the pension.
Only then did Seong-sik catch on and grin, while Su-yeon alone tilted her head, still in the dark.
Meanwhile, not every kind of love was that tender and new.
At that same hour, Han Hae-un was pacing back and forth in front of the Pilates academy Jeong Hae-min ran.
Investigating his own death mattered, of course—but as his former team leader, no, as Ryu Yeon-woo had said, both his present life and his past life were still him. He needed to enjoy the life he had been given back, and he needed to decide what to do about the people from his past. That was why he had come to the Pilates academy.
Whether he should reveal his identity to his wife from his previous life, and how—those questions had grown so heavy that he still couldn't summon the courage. He had been pacing for hours already.
"Haa… what's the right choice here?"
Jingle—
Just then the glass door swung open, and Jeong Hae-min looked straight at Han Hae-un.