Don't Disappoint Me
"Mr. Lee Yeonjae?"
When a staff member hesitantly approached, Lee Yeonjae lifted his head.
"Yes?"
"I need to take off the piece attached to your shoulder with a magnet. The PD says it's catching the light."
"Sure. Would you like me to take the jacket off?"
"No, it's just the magnet on top. If you could just stay still, that'll do."
"Of course. Take your time."
The staff member was shy by nature. He avoided conversation even with his fellow crew members, and talking to someone who so obviously broadcast I'm a celebrity made him nervous.
What if I mess up?
His hands trembled at the thought of ruining the costume or offending the actor.
The magnet's on really tight.
The senior staffer had said he'd only need to pop the magnet off, but it refused to come away from the fabric as easily as promised.
Just as the stretch of silence was starting to feel awkward, Lee Yeonjae, eyes closed, spoke up.
"It's honestly fascinating."
"Sorry?"
"How you solve whatever problem comes up right on the spot. I could never do that."
Startled out of his daze by the soft voice, the staffer managed a reply.
"Oh, it's nothing, really…"
At that very moment, the magnet came free with a soft pop. Before the staffer could even collect his thoughts, Lee Yeonjae opened his eyes.
"There you go."
The eyes that met his were brimming with mischief.
"……"
"Came off cleanly. Thank you."
"Yes. Th-thank you."
The staffer mumbled something half-coherent and stumbled backward.
The moment he returned, the senior staffer clapped him on the shoulder.
"What took you so damn long? Come on, we've got boxes to move."
"Ah, right…"
"What's with the reaction? Did he say something to you?"
"No! He didn't say anything."
When the startled staffer shook his head hard, the senior snorted with laughter.
"Lee Yeonjae's got a good personality, huh? I've been on sets for over five years, and I've never seen a cast this easygoing."
"Seems like it."
"This is your first drama, right? Squeeze everything you can out of me while you're here. I'm taking it upon myself to train you up."
As the staffer answered his senior's bombastic bravado, he glanced sideways. Lee Yeonjae was chatting away with Lee Jeonghyeon and Kim Seokjun, a smile on his face.
Seeing them clustered together like that, they really do…
Look like celebrities. The kind that genuinely gleamed.
The staffer studied Lee Yeonjae for a while. The actor, years younger than him, was calm and quiet by nature.
So he's actually the quiet type. He'd felt a flicker of kinship at the thought, which made it all the funnier that the man currently talking with the two senior actors looked positively animated.
"Jeonghyeon-hyung really said that?"
"Hey, you're just the only one who doesn't know. Lee Jeonghyeon got torn apart in the press when he debuted. Everyone called him an arrogant punk."
"Haha, Seokjun. Could you maybe stop talking? Just close your mouth."
"See that? What a brat."
The three of them looked like they were having the time of their lives. And everyone was watching them do it.
He really was born for this.
Holding a conversation without a flicker of discomfort under hundreds of staring eyes was a talent all its own.
At some point, the staffer realized he'd been gawking at the trio himself. Incredible. A charisma that pulled every gaze in the room as naturally as breathing. Only moments ago, talking to him one-on-one, he'd felt like they'd gotten a little closer — and now the distance might as well never have been bridged.
Could I ever feel close to someone like that, if I worked at it long enough?
He resolved to at least stick it out until then.
But once filming began and the staffer came face to face with Lee Yeonjae's acting for the first time, he understood something: distance was a far easier thing to erase than he'd imagined. And that the space it left behind could be filled by something else entirely — awe.
In the pitch-black hours before dawn, a truck moved in silence along the road. The trailer at its back was packed with armed men, and seated among them was a white-haired boy. In a scene where everything looked dark, the boy alone seemed to glow. The white hair, the pallor of his skin, the white clothes — all of it created a sense of the uncanny. That mysteriously mystical atmosphere…
"Could you loosen my hands a little? You tied them so tight my wrists are getting shredded."
"……"
— shattered the instant the boy opened his mouth.
"My whole body aches. If you knew we'd be traveling this long, common sense says you should've brought a cushion, no? You hauled in that many guns, but one cushion was too much to ask?"
The grumbling went on. The tension that had filled the trailer frayed at the edges, and the men started glancing at one another. Someone answer him. You do it. Why are you looking at me? Not a chance.
"Hello? Can you not hear me?"
"……Quiet. Keep it up and I'll gag you."
"Hmph. I know you won't. I don't know who's calling the shots, but you were told to bring me in with as few injuries as possible, weren't you?"
Horn replied without a shred of unease to the stranger's threat. At his words, the pupils of the men — tasked with delivering the 'asset' in peak condition — wavered almost imperceptibly.
"So loosen this rope a bit, would you? It's so tight I think it's cutting off circulation."
"Don't try anything."
"Hmm? That wasn't me trying anything. Shame, though~."
And here I thought you were the soft-spoken type, since you were willing to talk.
Horn smiled brightly. Being kidnapped didn't scare him in the slightest — he didn't even seem bothered.
The men, poised for combat, stole glances at him. Wasn't he supposed to be an experiment subject? Because honestly…
He seems way too human.
The men had simply been given their usual mission: steal the 'asset' and bring it back. Confusion flickered across their faces.
Oblivious or indifferent, Horn wore an expression of pure boredom.
"My hand really hurts. When is Seok-hyung getting here?"
The reason Horn was so composed was that he knew Kang Seok was coming. Not that he trusted him, exactly. Horn simply believed it was too early for Kang Seok to throw him away.
As if to prove that belief, an earsplitting explosion tore through the air.
KA-BOOM—!
A bomb landed right beside the truck, and the whole vehicle lurched. What followed was a rain of bombardment, as if to swallow the truck whole.
"Everybody get down!!"
"What the f— is wrong with them, this is so brainless—!"
Whoever was attacking didn't care in the slightest what was inside the truck; the assault simply poured down. The relentless bombing knocked the truck off balance.
"Hey, watch where you're driving!"
"You f—ing idiot! Call the main office first!"
A bomb dropped directly in front of the truck, cutting the kidnappers' bickering short. An explosion far greater than anything before it ripped across the road, and in the same instant the truck, careening off the asphalt, flipped clean over.
CRASH—!
The massive body of the vehicle hit the ground with a sickening finality. It was the kind of sound that said don't expect survivors — but the staff of the 'H Project' knew better. They knew H did not die. Not in any situation.
"……I'm gonna die."
And Horn really had survived.
"Hah."
He held his breath and shoved aside the corpses pinning him down. Feeling around blindly for something to grip, he hauled himself up — and the world swam before his eyes.
Am I the only one who made it?
Silence pressed in around him. Something sticky was running down his forehead. Probably a gash, he thought, and wiped it away carelessly with his hand. Torn skin would knit itself back together, no need to worry. The problem was the pain.
"……So that's why it hurts."
After confirming that his right arm was broken, Horn sighed. Hundreds of experiments had established that Horn's recovery far outstripped a human's. The trouble was that while the healing was fast, the sensation of pain was exactly the same.
"Haaah…"
Horn dragged himself up with everything he had. Nausea surged as if his organs had been scrambled; a high-pitched ringing filled his ears.
Focus. First, get out of here.
Seok-hyung would be coming for him. It was his first time being kidnapped, but surely he wouldn't be punished on top of this. Seok-hyung will be waiting.
He reached his hand through the crumbled wall, and — as if they'd been waiting for exactly that — the agents came running.
You could've helped a little sooner.
He wanted to click his tongue, but strangely, it wouldn't come. Then a familiar face entered Horn's field of vision: Agent Jang Yoseok.
"Agent Jang… where's Seok-hyung?"
"……"
He asked while still sprawled on the ground, and a cold stare rained down on him. At that icy gaze, Horn's mind suddenly snapped into focus.
Ah.
"……Don't tell me this whole thing was an experiment?"
Jang Yoseok nodded slowly. At the same time, a sigh escaped Horn's lips.
"Ha. I knew something about it felt off…"
And here he'd wondered, since it was his first kidnapping. Horn recalled the lax, half-hearted security. His head swam. The correct answer would have been for Horn to kill everyone in the truck himself and escape.
It was a chance to have my usefulness acknowledged for once in a while, too.
Idiot. Horn sneered at himself. And you actually thought Seok-hyung would come rescue you?
He wasn't some princess waiting on a white horse. What kind of delusion was that?
The wretched, tangled feelings churning inside Horn bled through into his expression. Jang Yoseok watched it in silence for a long moment.
"Is Seok-hyung really angry?"
"……Aren't you angry? Kang Seok matters to you even in this state?"
"What?"
"Your arm is broken. Blood is pouring down your forehead. If you wanted, you could kill every one of us with that blood alone. Why don't you? Why do you just wait for Kang Seok every single time?"
Wow. First time I've ever seen this guy talk this much.
Jang Yoseok spat the words out, his face like stone. When Horn simply stared at him, the childish look in his eyes made the agent even angrier.
"Kang Seok planned this experiment. Your sweet, doting hyung is the one who arranged it."
"…? I know."
There wasn't a single one of Horn's experiments that Kang Seok hadn't been involved in. He answered, puzzled, as if Jang Yoseok were stating the obvious. Jang Yoseok gritted his teeth.
"And you're still not angry? What is wrong with you? Why do you keep pretending not to see it?"
Horn studied him quietly for a moment, then opened his mouth.
"Would it help if I got angry?"
"What?"
"I asked what you'd do for me if I got angry. Would you smuggle me out and raise me yourself, then? What is it — planning to play 'Seok-hyung' in his place?"
The words dripped with contempt, and Jang Yoseok had no answer. Horn gave the smile of a man who'd known exactly how it would go.
"Go do what you were doing. Do your job."
"……"
"Seok-hyung and I already play house together, so don't get in the way."
Perhaps because it wasn't the usual bright, guileless smile, the words that left Horn's mouth were bone-chillingly cold. Jang Yoseok confirmed there was not a trace of emotional turmoil on Horn's face, and swallowed a deep, bitter gloom.
"……I've done what I could. I'm leaving."
"What?"
While Horn was still trying to parse the sudden statement, someone approached from behind. He knew who it was before he even turned his head. It was a familiar scent.
"Hello, my Ppulppuri."
"Seok-hyung?"
It was Kang Seok. The eyes that had looked drained this whole time lit up in an instant. There was a bitter cast to Kang Seok's face, more somber than usual — but Horn was too overjoyed to notice it at all.
"Why are you here? My experiment failed, you know??"
Wow. It's really Seok-hyung.
He reached out to touch the face he hadn't seen in so long, then hastily pulled his hand back after noticing the blood on it. Kang Seok smiled and caught the retreating hand anyway.
"H."
"……Huh?"
Horn, mid-grin, froze like a fool. H. It was a name he had never once been called.
As Horn stared at him, bewildered, Kang Seok went on in an even, flat voice.
"I was happy for the entire run of the 'H Project.' Meeting you was one of the best things that ever happened to me. These past five years were the best of my life."
"Why are you suddenly…"
"I believe there's a great power inside you. Something far beyond what you can do now — something magnificent. ……It's in there. I'm certain of it."
Kang Seok's fingertip came to rest against Horn's chest.
"You just can't reach it yet — the limits of your consciousness. All you need is a shock strong enough to break through those mental walls. You're only missing the 'catalyst.'"
Kang Seok stroked Horn's hair, gentle as ever, and drew a gun from inside his coat. It was the gun Horn had always used. The one Kang Seok had personally taught him to handle, from firing to maintenance — his and his alone.
Kang Seok pressed the gun into Horn's hand, and smiled.
"Hyung, why are you…"
Kang Seok guided Horn's finger to the trigger, then laid his own finger on top of it. It was just before Horn, unable to comprehend what was happening, could shout "Wait—"
"I believe you can do it. I know you will."
Horn met those soft, warm eyes.
"Don't disappoint me."
The eyes, with their gentle brown depths, smiled just like that.
And the bullet fired — the muzzle still pointed at Kang Seok.