Chapter 14: Somewhere Between Coincidence and Fate
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 14: Somewhere Between Coincidence and Fate
"I should be carrying that, Doctor. Really, I can do it."
As Dr. Ju picked up the bags and started walking, Yeon-ju looked utterly flustered.
She was already incredibly grateful for running into her savior in the rain and getting a comfortable ride, but him volunteering to be her porter left her feeling downright embarrassed.
"It's heavy. Please, let me take it. Alright?"
"It doesn't feel heavy to me at all. In that case, shouldn't the person who doesn't find it heavy be the one to carry it?"
Dr. Ju grinned, insisting he was fine. Yeon-ju, who had been walking beside him holding the umbrella, folded it as they stepped inside, her face filled with gratitude.
"I really don't know how to thank you enough. Thank you so much, Doctor."
"That's more than enough thanks. Which way?"
"This way."
Believing that guiding him quickly was the best way to help, Yeon-ju moved briskly.
She hung her staff ID lanyard around her neck and stopped in front of the dressing room. Dr. Ju set the bags down and dusted off his hands.
"Thank you so much. I'll buy something and stop by the clinic soon."
"Ah, when you say it like that, it makes me feel like I was just looking for a new patient, which isn't a great feeling."
"Oh... I didn't mean it like that, but..."
As Yeon-ju's voice trailed off, Dr. Ju stared at the visitor pass hanging around her neck. After reading the three characters of her name, "Go Yeon-ju," he looked up to meet her eyes again.
Since there was nothing more to say, the natural thing would have been to exchange a simple goodbye and part ways. Just as Dr. Ju's lips parted to speak, a loud voice called out from behind him.
"Geon-hui! Ju Geon-hui!"
"Hyung!"
Director Yang, whom he had promised to meet, approached while waving. Yeon-ju picked up her bags and smiled warmly.
"You should go. Thank you again, Doctor."
"Ah, yes. See you then."
Yeon-ju stepped into the dressing room and closed the door. Thud. As the door shut, Dr. Ju's heart thumped in unison.
"You got your visitor pass, I see. Why are you just standing here?"
"Oh... no reason. I was just about to call you, Hyung."
"Let's head over there first. It's too chaotic here."
As Director Yang pulled him along, Dr. Ju started walking. But he couldn't help but steal a glance back at the dressing room.
Feeling his heart pounding, Dr. Ju placed a hand over his chest. Director Yang looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"What's wrong? Nervous about being on a film set?"
"Ah, no, it's not that. Maybe it's because I drank some coffee on the way here."
"You drank coffee? You never drink coffee. What's gotten into you?"
"Well, it was raining, so I had a cup while driving. It's been a while since I had caffeine, so my heart's racing a bit."
Dr. Ju rubbed his chest in a circular motion as he followed Director Yang.
This pounding in his chest was an incredibly rare sensation.
* * *
"Yeon-ju, want some gimbap? You haven't eaten yet, right?"
Eun-seong's manager, Dong-hwan, approached Yeon-ju and offered her a roll of gimbap. Yeon-ju, who had been organizing her things since she arrived, looked up.
"They gave us lunch boxes today. If you haven't eaten, have some."
"Ah, thank you. Thank you for looking out for me. I was just getting hungry."
Taking the lunch box from Dong-hwan, Yeon-ju straightened up and smiled.
However, the sponsored clothing was more urgent than the gimbap. Yeon-ju set the lunch box down and pulled out the clothes.
It was a luxury brand famous for refusing sponsorships, but they frequently sponsored Eun-seong. Since she had to return the items in pristine condition, she hung them carefully on the rack, making sure they wouldn't get wrinkled, and gently dusted them off.
Watching her, Dong-hwan chimed in while chewing on his gimbap.
"Did you go to the store yourself, Yeon-ju?"
"Yes, I went yesterday."
"The team leader there is a total jerk. Were they decent to you?"
"Just the usual, I guess."
"I know, right? I go there to return things sometimes, and ugh, that person is just awful."
Yeon-ju smiled, recalling the store's team leader, who had been incredibly fussy when handing over the sponsored clothes. The woman, who had acted condescendingly and ordered her around like a servant, was indeed a jerk, just as Dong-hwan said.
Still, it wasn't her place to gossip about every little thing, so she figured it was best to keep her mouth shut.
"You worked hard, Yeon-ju. You have to return them again, right?"
"Yes. Today. I have to drop them off."
"Want me to return them for you? It's on my way when I drop him off."
When Dong-hwan offered to return the sponsored clothes, since it was on his route, Yeon-ju's eyes widened. Traveling back and forth to the store, which was in the complete opposite direction of her house, was no easy feat on public transit.
She swallowed hard, thinking she was running into an awful lot of helpful people today. Then, Dong-hwan turned to Eun-seong, who was reading his script, and asked:
"Hyung. Can I return those sponsored clothes on our way instead of Yeon-ju?"
"No."
"What? ...What? No?"
Dong-hwan's eyes widened in bewilderment at Eun-seong's flat refusal. He had returned clothes to that store plenty of times before, so he had no idea why it was suddenly a problem.
Perhaps annoyed that his reading had been interrupted, Eun-seong spoke up, his voice dripping with irritation.
"Why would you return them? The person who borrowed them should be the one to return them."
"But the store is on our way. And the bags are pretty heavy for Yeon-ju to carry alone..."
"If it's too heavy to carry alone, someone else will help her. That 'someone' isn't you. And it's definitely not me."
"Ah, yes. Understood, Hyung."
Dong-hwan shrugged at Yeon-ju as if to say there was nothing he could do. Yeon-ju blinked slowly, giving him a look that said she was fine.
Munching on his gimbap, Dong-hwan leaned in and whispered to Yeon-ju.
"Don't let it get to you. He's just super sensitive right now. You know how he is, right?"
"Yes, of course."
"Stop whispering. I'm not sensitive at all."
Eun-seong chimed in again, having overheard them with uncanny precision.
Startled, Dong-hwan quickly swallowed his gimbap. Eun-seong opened his eyes and glared at him. Looking at Dong-hwan standing next to Yeon-ju, Eun-seong furrowed his brow and narrowed his eyes.
"How can you stuff your face with gimbap in front of an actor who hasn't had a single drop of water since last night?"
"...I'm sorry."
Dong-hwan quietly closed the lunch box. He slowly chewed the gimbap still in his mouth, turned around, and swallowed.
Yeon-ju glanced at her unopened lunch box, while Eun-seong flipped a page of his script and needled them again.
"The smell of that gimbap."
"Sorry. I'll get rid of it right away."
As Dong-hwan hurried out with his lunch box, Yeon-ju stood up and picked up hers. Hearing that he hadn't even had a sip of water, she figured the savory smell of sesame oil must be torture for him, so she wanted to clear it out as well.
"You. Stop right there."
"Yes?"
Eun-seong, who had been half-heartedly flipping through his script, glanced at Yeon-ju as she tried to leave. He casually swung his leg and spoke.
"Why do you always follow him out? Do you hate being alone with me that much?"
"It's not that. You said it smelled like gimbap. I was going to get rid of it."
"I was talking to my manager. It has nothing to do with you."
Yeon-ju stood frozen, wondering what on earth he was talking about.
She couldn't tell if he wanted her to eat the gimbap or throw it away. As the only sound in the room was the rustling of pages being turned, Yeon-ju hesitated before speaking up.
"How can you shoot without even drinking a sip of water? You won't have any energy."
"It happens all the time. It's part of the job, what can I do?"
"Drinking a sip of water won't make that much of a difference."
"It does. So mind your own business and just eat your gimbap."
Technically, his words were considerate, but she couldn't understand why he had to sound so incredibly combative.
Yeon-ju looked down at her lunch box, then raised her head again. His words about how anyone could stuff their face in front of a starving actor kept ringing in her ears.
"I haven't eaten either, but I'm not so thoughtless that I'd eat in front of someone who's starving."
Ha. A faint chuckle escaped Eun-seong's lips at her words.
"Do you want to know what being truly thoughtless is?"
The moment he asked, she instantly tensed up.
"Hovering around with that confident act of yours, getting on my nerves. And not even realizing you're doing it—that's what's truly thoughtless."
"..."
"Am I wrong?"
Yeon-ju swallowed hard.
Stunned as if she had been slapped, she quietly chewed on his words, her brow furrowing.
"Are you saying I'm hovering? Thoughtlessly?"
"I'm saying if you're going to hover, then commit to it. Don't tiptoe around avoiding me just to get on my nerves."
Eun-seong tilted his chin up and looked at her. It was a warning not to test his patience.
"So just be thoughtless and eat your gimbap. Don't try to slip away acting like you're doing me a favor. I don't want that kind of consideration from you."
"Fine. I get it. I'll eat then."
Yeon-ju plopped down on the floor, opened her lunch box, and began stuffing gimbap into her mouth. Satisfied, Eun-seong turned his eyes back to his script.
Of course, the words on the page weren't registering. He didn't even know why he was so angry with Go Yeon-ju, but once again, an attempt to treat her decently had backfired completely.
Seeing her cramming the gimbap down without any water, it was clear she was eating out of sheer spite. His lips twitched, wanting to tell her to slow down, but he held back.
He was so furious with himself for losing his temper over every little thing, for being unable to control his own emotions, that he felt like he was going insane.
Swallowing his suffocating frustration, Eun-seong forced himself to read the script.
The savory smell of sesame oil was the least of his concerns now. Hearing her cough slightly as if she were choking, Eun-seong stared at the water bottle on the table.
Ugh, that stubborn pain in the neck. She was just as high-maintenance now as she had been in the past. Just as Eun-seong was about to hand Yeon-ju the water, the door opened and Dong-hwan walked back in.
"Hyung, the director is looking for you."
"Why?"
"It looks like there's an issue. Apparently, the child actor got hurt. You should go check it out."
At the news of the child actor's injury, Eun-seong looked up. Dong-hwan pointed outside with an exaggerated expression.
The boy was playing Eun-seong's son, and with their first filming scheduled in just a few days, an injury was a major setback for the production.
With a heavy sigh, Eun-seong closed his script and left. Yeon-ju, who felt as if every piece of gimbap she swallowed was getting stuck in her throat, finally let out a violent cough the moment he was gone.
Just then, her phone rang. It was her son, Han-byeol. Suppressing her coughs, Yeon-ju answered.
"Hello? Son?"
* * *
"Ah, this is driving me crazy. This is exactly why I warned them so many times."
Director Park Hyeong-uk scratched his head in frustration, venting his anger.
He had struggled immensely to find a child he liked, auditioning kid after kid before finally discovering this one. It had been like finding a diamond in the rough.
But perhaps they weren't meant to be; the child had only been dragged to the set by his ambitious mother in the first place.
"A broken leg?"
"Eun-seong, they say the kid fell while riding a longboard. A longboard right before filming! How can she expect to raise an actor when she manages her kid like that?"
Eun-seong recalled the child's face from their first filming a few days ago.
The kid had absolutely no interest in filming or acting. He had been that way since their very first meeting. The desire to make him an actor was purely his mother's ambition, which was precisely why Director Park had been so worried.
Even though Director Park had warned them repeatedly, knowing how difficult it was to control a child of that age, the boy had ended up breaking his leg while playing on a board anyway.
"How many kids that age play without getting hurt?"
As Eun-seong spoke up in the boy's defense, the director leaned forward.
"Then she should just raise him as a normal kid, not try to make him an actor. Filming is right around the corner, and finding another child actor is not going to be easy."
Professional child actors who had been in front of the camera a few times felt too polished and didn't fit the role. But trying to cast a complete novice came with too many risks, just like this.
On top of that, the child had to resemble Eun-seong, which made it an absolute nightmare.
"Director. Does this mean we can't shoot? Is it delayed?"
"Delayed? We don't have time for that. We have to find a replacement. But where on earth am I going to find another kid?"
Director Park let out a heavy sigh. Eun-seong, lazily swinging his leg, rested his chin on his hand and looked out the window. Just then, Yeon-ju caught his eye as she ran outside, and his gaze followed her to see where she was heading.
Yeon-ju stopped beside Hae-young, who was holding the hand of a small child.
"This is driving me crazy. Ah, I didn't like any kid besides him. Anyway, Eun-seong, don't you worry. I'll find someone else somehow."
Eun-seong stared blankly at the scene outside. Director Park, who had been talking, turned his head to follow Eun-seong's gaze.
Director Park's troubled gaze suddenly fell upon a small boy.
"Oh? Who is that kid?"
It was Han-byeol.