Chapter 63
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 63
Please watch over her closely.
Hae-young slowly raised her eyelids to look at Eun-seong. His eyes, a deep persimmon hue, seemed empty, as if haunted by a deeply etched memory.
She smoothed a twitching eyebrow and asked, “I don’t understand what you mean by ‘watch over her closely.’”
Eun-seong lowered his gaze. In an industry where one’s attitude dictated their market value, it had been a long time since he had humbled himself. Yet now, he lowered his voice with a calm, deliberate restraint.
“If I hadn’t approached you like this, Yeon-ju would never have told you anything. No matter what happened, she would have tried to handle it all on her own.”
There was no arguing that.
“But now that my feelings have gone this far, I felt someone else needed to know.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t guarantee what lies ahead.”
He couldn’t see even a glimpse of their future, wherever it might be.
Eun-seong continued, “I know that no matter how careful we are, our relationship will eventually be exposed by someone else—unexpectedly, and in some form.”
“……”
“I thought we needed to prepare, so that Yeon-ju won’t have to face it alone when that time comes.”
“Ah…”
He needs an ally.
A low sigh escaped Hae-young’s lips.
“I’ll do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen, of course. But as you know, in our line of work, the things you want to hide the most are always the first to be exposed.”
When he’d said he needed an ally, she had assumed he wanted her help to facilitate their relationship. She’d thought he was making an unreasonable demand, asking her to serve as their alibi so they could date in peace.
But he was talking about something else entirely.
“Yeon-ju is a private citizen. She has no one to turn to for advice, nor does she have an agency to step in and take the heat for her. I’m worried she’ll be overwhelmed and helpless. If that day comes… I’m begging you.”
Eun-seong bowed his head in a silent plea. The cold, arrogant demeanor he usually wore was gone. His voice, heavy with sincere politeness, carried an almost reverent tone.
It seemed there was nothing he wouldn’t do for Yeon-ju.
A heavy silence fell between them.
Sigh. Only after a long moment did Hae-young refill her glass. She didn’t know how to respond to the quiet confession he had laid bare before her.
The anger that had been boiling inside her just moments ago settled into a quiet calm. Watch over her. Look after Yeon-ju’s heart.
To prepare for the worst, just in case Yeon-ju found herself in trouble. Her chest ached with a burning tightness. What was she supposed to do with a devotion this deep?
“I understand what you’re saying.”
“Thank you, Director.”
Hae-young picked up a piece of sashimi for the first time. Shedding her sharp, icy tone, she spoke in a much softer voice.
“So, what you’re saying is… even if it all blows up, you have no intention of letting her go?”
“As of right now, yes.”
Don’t believe him.
Don’t believe him. Don’t believe him. The man sitting in front of me is not to be trusted. He was a brilliant actor, and no one who survived this industry for as long as he had was completely sane or possessed ordinary values.
He was a master of self-preservation, a man who had maintained a spotless reputation for over a decade. A scandal of this magnitude wasn’t something he could easily weather.
He could never make Yeon-ju happy. In the end, he would only leave her in far greater pain than she was in now.
“But, Eun-seong… Yeon-ju won’t go to you.”
Yet, no matter how many times she told herself not to be fooled—
“No, she probably can’t go to you.”
—could anyone really act with such raw sincerity, controlling even the depths of their gaze?
A wave of conflicting, frustrating emotions washed over her. Hae-young looked straight into Eun-seong’s eyes and added, “Yeon-ju has no intention of fully embedding herself in your life. She has a child. It’s not just her own life on the line.”
This was a man with more social media followers than the entire population of South Korea. A man who had lived his life under a microscope.
A man for whom privacy simply didn’t exist. To be his woman meant accepting that her entire life would be picked apart and laid bare for the world to see.
“If Yeon-ju wants to treat this as a passing fling and move on, please let her go. That would be the best ending for both of you, Eun-seong.”
“I don’t know how to pull away.”
“……”
“My head knows what to do, but my heart won’t listen. So I keep thinking… maybe if I just wait.”
His words echoed with a hollow, weary resignation.
“She’ll hold out as long as she can, but eventually, when she realizes I’m the only one left by her side, she’ll come to me. She won’t have any other choice. Well… that’s how I comfort myself, anyway.”
Eun-seong let out a self-deprecating laugh, his expression turning distant. How terrified must he have been when his past love suddenly reappeared? How miserable must it feel to know she would eventually burn him to ashes, yet be unable to extinguish the flame himself?
Hae-young quietly refilled her glass.
“Yeon-ju has a full name. ‘Our Yeon-ju.’ To me, that is her full name. You understand what I mean, right?”
She downed her drink in one shot.
“I’ll watch over her, and if anything happens, I’ll protect her even if it costs me everything. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to support this relationship. I’m going to rain on her parade, talk about worst-case scenarios, and nag her every single day. And… it might be hard for me to ever go back to being an Im Eun-seong fan.”
“……”
“I only hope you make the choice that is best for everyone.”
Hae-young looked at Eun-seong. She raised her glass toward him as he let out a dry laugh, looking as though he were humbly accepting his sentence.
Was it just the alcohol making her feel pity for him? He seemed to have everything, yet his hands and feet were bound by the eyes of the world. She had resented him, hated him so deeply, but looking at him now, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy. He, too, was just another victim of his own fame.
How had this man ended up like this? A man who once shone so brilliantly—how had his eyes become so hollow and dry?
She realized it was futile to ask him any more questions about the future. Though a mountain of questions piled up in her mind, she swallowed them down with the cold alcohol.
After all, it wasn’t as if Eun-seong knew how this story would end either.
*
“I’m telling you, this is never going to work. Whose future are you trying to ruin, huh? Does this make any sense to you, Eun-seong?”
Hae-young swayed, her body tilting to the side. No matter how much she usually boasted about her high alcohol tolerance, tonight’s drinks were easily among the heaviest in her life.
“God, I’m so pissed. Seriously pissed off. Are you two completely brainless? Huh? Before you go giving away your hearts, you’re supposed to use your heads! Calculate the risks! You’re both usually so good at that. Why the hell can’t you do it now?”
Eun-seong took a quiet sip of his drink.
“If you’re going to talk like that, you might as well drop the honorifics. We’re the same age, after all.”
“Oh, heavens no. How could I possibly dare to swear at your face, Your Majesty?”
“I only suggested we speak casually. You’re taking it a bit far.”
“……”
“Just adding a polite ending to your sentences doesn’t make it respectful. It’s fine. Let’s just speak casually.”
He was tired of her mocking him through a thin veil of formal speech. As Eun-seong repeatedly urged her to drop the formalities, a heavily intoxicated Hae-young swallowed hard.
“But…”
“Just speak casually, Jin Hae-young.”
Eun-seong dropped the formalities first.
“……Should I? I mean, we are the same age, so we’re basically friends. Then I’m dropping them too, okay? Im Eun-seong? Our dear Silver Star?”
The nickname Silver Star suddenly made him think of Han-byeol. One Star and Silver Star. It would have been better if his name had been Geum-seong—Gold Star, he thought to himself.
“I told you to speak casually, not to make up nicknames.”
“If I don’t use a nickname, a torrent of curse words is going to fly out of my mouth.”
“Don’t go easy on me. I won’t pull my punches just because you’re a woman.”
“I’d hate it if you did. Who wants special treatment for being a woman?”
“……”
“But I am completely wasted, so maybe you can cut me some slack for that?”
Sigh. Hae-young let out a short breath, wondering what on earth she was babbling about. Her drunken body was slow to react, and nothing seemed to move as quickly as her mind wanted.
“Ugh… this is exhausting. Seriously, fucking exhausting.”
Hae-young let out another long sigh, her heavy, alcohol-laden eyelids slowly blinking. What was love anyway, that it had to make things this difficult? The more she thought about it, the more her heart broke for Yeon-ju.
When she reached for the bottle with a limp hand, Eun-seong took it and poured her a drink. Resting her chin in her hand, Hae-young stared at her glass with a hazy gaze.
“How nice it would have been if you were just… moderately successful.”
It was impossible to take as a compliment.
Eun-seong’s face went blank.
“There are so many actors who make a decent, quiet living. No one bats an eye when they get married, and whether they get divorced or remarried, nobody cares. There are so many of them. Why couldn’t you be one of them?”
Hae-young muttered as if to herself, then looked up at Eun-seong. The more she spoke, the more her anger flared. Should she just spill everything right now? Who cared if Im Eun-seong’s life was ruined? It was because of him that our Yeon-ju’s life had been shattered in the first place.
“If you have more to say, then say it. Don’t just glare at me like that.”
“Don’t rush me. I’m only holding back because once the words are out, there’s no taking them back.”
“What kind of person is the child’s father?”
The question hit her like a bucket of cold water, instantly clearing her drunken haze. Hae-young’s blurry eyes snapped into sharp focus.
“Why are you asking me? You should ask Yeon-ju.”
“How did they end up parting ways?”
“I told you, why are you asking me?”
“Because I don’t want to hear about her ex-husband from her own mouth.”
Her heart suddenly hammered against her ribs. Hae-young stared down at her hand clutching the glass and let out a shaky breath.
Sigh. This is driving me crazy.
“When did they split up?”
“Ask Yeon-ju. I’m not telling you a thing without her permission.”
Their gazes locked. Hae-young, who had been swaying drunkenly just moments ago, sat bolt upright, her posture rigid with tension.
A silent war of nerves played out between them. After a long, quiet standoff, Eun-seong finally broke the silence.
“Forget it. Don’t tell me.”
He cut the topic short. Wondering if he was really going to let it drop, Hae-young stared at the empty bottle before speaking again.
She sensed it was time to wrap things up.
“Don’t make Yeon-ju sad. She’s already had a hard enough life raising her child alone. She isn’t someone you can just breeze in and mess with, Im Eun-seong. Don’t hurt her.”
Eun-seong drained his glass.
“I’ll handle that myself.”
It was their final drink.