The Reading Room
“What did you two talk about?”
“Just that I look forward to working with him.”
Kang Sehyun answered the woman with a smile and took his seat. On the surface, he wore a business smile, but inside he was seething.
This is more annoying than I expected….
Of course, it was nothing. She had asked for an autograph, and he had simply agreed. The flustered feeling of getting an unexpected reaction was Kang Sehyun's to deal with.
Lee Yeonjae bowed several times in greeting before settling into his own seat. The quiet way he turned the pages of his script made no sound at all, yet it drew everyone's eyes. The woman who had been chatting him up earlier kept sneaking glances at him too. The strangely desolate air about him settled the entire reading room into calm.
“Then, before we begin the reading in earnest, let me introduce myself. Nice to meet you. I'm PD Lee Soohyun, in charge of producing Hello, My Summer.”
Starting with the PD's introduction, the writers and actors introduced themselves in turn. The actress playing the female lead had a fair amount of recognition in the web drama scene, and Lee Yeonjae, cast as her younger brother, had reportedly been working with Director Yoon Kang-yeon until just recently.
Even with actors like these, the fact that he had to stand up first because of seniority left a sour taste in Kang Sehyun's mouth.
“Hello, everyone. I'm Kang Sehyun of SPACE. This is my first time acting, and I'm so happy to be working with such a wonderful director and colleagues. I'll do my very best for a great production!”
Applause answered the cheerful words that ran so contrary to his inner thoughts.
And so, after a few more actors, it was Lee Yeonjae's turn.
“Hello. I'm Lee Yeonjae. I'll be playing ‘Kim Hoyun.’ I'll do my best not to be a burden. I look forward to working with you all.”
The applause came a beat late after his flat introduction. Everyone had clearly been too busy staring at his face to catch the timing.
So as long as the face is interesting, it doesn't matter if the talking is boring.
The world really was unfair. But even as he blamed the tyranny of looks, Kang Sehyun was sneaking glances at Lee Yeonjae himself. And with that, a worry crept in naturally.
Shouldn't the supporting actor be drawing the eye like that?
He's going to bury the lead because of that kid.
If that happened, the balance of the drama would collapse in no time. Of course, it wouldn't matter much if the drama flopped. Kang Sehyun simply hoped it wouldn't go down as another stain on his history.
And a few minutes later, he realized what garbage that worry had been.
“This is driving me insane! Where did Kim Hyeyun go!”
“Watch your mouth! Don't you dare call your noona's name like that!”
“Ah, she took my hoodie again and walked out in it! She's worse than a beggar, honestly.”
Lee Yeonjae transformed in an instant. In the blink of an eye, the quietly present celebrity vanished, and in his place sat a childish younger brother venting his frustration at his sister.
“Hey, where are you? Haa…. I have plans in an hour, you know? Come back before then while I'm being nice. If you don't, I'm tearing every single thing in your closet. What, you'll curse at me? You think I won't do it?”
People stared open-mouthed at the boy's low, simmering voice. He was clearly just looking down at his script and muttering to himself, yet the performance was so vivid it felt like he was genuinely on the phone with someone. No—not like. It was real. He could almost hear the person on the other end of the phone mumbling in reply.
He's insane. That kid….
Only now did Kang Sehyun understand why Injun had made such a fuss raving about Lee Yeonjae. It wasn't even a particularly dramatic scene, but the acting was so natural he couldn't tear his eyes away. Watching Lee Yeonjae perform, the script's stage direction—disgusted tone—looked downright lazy by comparison.
“Great work, everyone!”
So the moment the reading ended, Kang Sehyun headed straight for Lee Yeonjae without hesitation. The dark eyes that had been blinking slowly watched him stride over.
“You're really good at acting. Wow…, how are you that good?”
“Thank you. You were great too, hyung.”
“Huh? Oh, come on, I wasn't…. Thanks, even if it's not true.”
Already so smooth at social graces, this kid.
Kang Sehyun grinned. The sting from the autograph incident earlier was long forgotten. On a whim, he held out his notebook, and Lee Yeonjae wrote his three-syllable name with an indifferent expression. Perhaps because his mood was so pleasant, even the clumsy signature looked rather cute.
“Thanks. Injun's going to love this.”
Kang Sehyun kept smiling. It was true he'd never dreamed of performing himself, but he was an artist. Watching great acting was every bit as delightful as hearing great music.
Feeling his mood lift even higher, he reached to take the notebook back—but Lee Yeonjae didn't hand it over.
“Hyung. Could I tear out just two pages?”
“Huh? Oh…. Sure, go ahead.”
With neat, precise hands, Lee Yeonjae cleanly tore out two sheets and offered them to Kang Sehyun.
“Please sign them for me.”
“…?”
Kang Sehyun just stood there holding the paper, wondering what was going on, before the calm face spoke again.
“I have a friend who's training to be an idol, and he's a huge fan of yours. If it's not too much trouble, could you sign it for him?”
“Oh…, then whose is the other one?”
At the blunt follow-up question, Lee Yeonjae frowned slightly, as if to say, why ask something so obvious?
“You have to do one for me too. I've listened to your songs plenty, sitting right next to him.”
“…….”
Kang Sehyun signed both sheets with a dazed expression. His brain had frozen, but his hands moved with practiced ease. When asked for his friend's name, Lee Yeonjae answered, “Noh…, just write Bihyuk.”
Lee Yeonjae tucked the papers carefully into his bag, bowed politely, and left his seat.
What is with that kid….
Kang Sehyun stood at his seat, blank, for a long while.
He was still turning over what had happened, long after returning to the dorm, when the youngest member, Injun, came bounding into the dorm, chattering away.
“I heard from my manager hyung! We're filming with our Bambi this time! Ugh, I'm so freaking jealous. It should've been me.”
“…….”
“Hyung? Is something wrong?”
He handed the autograph to the hyperactive Injun like a snack to a dog. Injun was over the moon, thrilled beyond words. Ignoring the dog now zooming around the room in even greater excitement, Kang Sehyun returned to his room and lay on his bed, quietly staring at the ceiling.
He acted like he didn't even know my name….
He'd thought the kid was insufferable—and he really was insufferable. Every word out of his mouth carried a gravity that made their age difference vanish entirely, which somehow made it worse.
“Seriously insufferable….”
But the mouth muttering those words was curved upward to its fullest.
“Yeonjae, what are you doing over summer break?”
“Filming, probably. The whole time.”
“Ah… I see. That sounds busy!”
The principal's address droned from the TV, but as usual, no one was listening. Apparently moving up to middle school didn't suddenly make kids mature.
“If you have time, want to hang out during the break?”
“I don't know if I'll have time because of filming. Sorry.”
“……Not even one day?”
He swallowed a sigh at the voice drenched in disappointment. Quite a long time had passed since Baek Seojin's confession. He'd thought things would ease up after a while, but somehow they only seemed to get worse as time went on.
“Seojin, do you have anything planned after the closing ceremony today?”
“……Huh? No! Nothing! Totally free!”
“Then give me a little of it. Let's talk.”
“Okay!”
Her face brightened in an instant, and his mouth turned bitter. Still, it was a conversation he had to have. Filming started tomorrow, and he needed to clear away anything that might weigh on his mind.
Unlike most web dramas, which were shot pre-produced, Hello, My Summer was set to race forward as a live broadcast. Shooting at a leisurely pace would suit everyone, but to preserve the sentiment carried in the title, episode one was urgent. And with poster shooting starting tomorrow, there was no more room to put it off.
“It's been forever since I've been to this cafe~!”
Walking into the cafe beside Baek Seojin's flushed face, he'd still thought, as long as we talk it out, it'll be fine. They sat down and traded small talk, and the moment the drinks arrived, he got to the point.
“Seojin, thank you for liking me. But I'll say it again—I really have no intention of dating you.”
“…….”
“The way you act makes me really uncomfortable. I'd like it to stop. If you can't treat me as a friend, then maybe we shouldn't see each other's faces for a while.”
His mouth felt rough as he spoke. The words came out sounding like something from a third-rate drama, which put him in a poor mood—and more than anything, he wondered what right he had to wreck someone's feelings like this.
“I'm really sorry! I guess I got too carried away. It's my first time liking someone, so… it must have been really uncomfortable for you. I'm so sorry.”
Baek Seojin forced a smile as she spoke, but she couldn't manage more than a few words before dropping her head. Watching the tears fall one by one, his own feelings slowly settled. He quietly handed her a tissue, and she cried for a long while after that.
“Whew…, picking this cafe was the best call. If there'd been no dividers, people would've been taking pictures already.”
“No kidding.”
He smiled back at her red-nosed joke. Her reddened, drooping eyes made her look like a deflated little rabbit.
“I knew it made you uncomfortable, but I held on hoping your feelings might change someday…. I'll apologize again. I'm really sorry. It won't happen again.”
“It's okay.”
When he asked if she wanted him to do anything else, she just shook her head. In the awkward silence that lingered, he was thinking it might be better to get up first when Baek Seojin asked hesitantly.
“I know this sounds pathetic… but am I really that unappealing? Is there someone else you like?”
“Don't think that way. I didn't turn you down because you're unappealing. I'm sure there's someone out there secretly liking you.”
“…….”
As he chose his words carefully, Baek Seojin's chin trembled, as if she were fighting back tears. Sensing it hadn't been the right answer, he hurried on.
“For now, I turned you down because I'm not in a place to have a girlfriend. And….”
“……And what?”
“I've never liked anyone. Not once, even now.”
“What, that can happen. Why are you saying it like it's embarrassing?”
He should have just said it casually, but something about it felt awkward. He kept feeling like he was reciting drama lines. To think words like these were being used not in a drama, but in his actual life. His hands and feet curled up on their own.
“Anyway, I don't like anyone else, and I didn't reject you because you're lacking, so don't misunderstand.”
“Okay…. Then can I ask just one more thing?”
He nodded, and Baek Seojin looked at him with eyes that had cleared in the meantime.
“If you've never liked anyone, how do you act in love scenes? You were great in Zelkova Tree.”
“I avoid imagining as much as I can. I reference books or movies sometimes… but I don't even know if I'm actually good at it. I don't know how close it comes to real emotion.”
“That's fascinating. I always thought you'd know everything about yourself with total clarity….”
What image of me did she build all this around?
She didn't actually know much about him, and yet she could like him even so—that was what amazed him. No, the amazing thing was that she could believe she liked him. How could anyone guarantee a thing like that?
The sentence I like you felt like it was drifting further and further away.