The Debut Cafe

That was the message my grandfather sent out of the blue. I was still puzzling over it when Do Jaeyeon spoke up.

"Ah, so that was him. Someone said an old man showed up at the debut cafe."

"You're saying my grandfather went to the debut cafe?"

"Yep. A review went up about this really handsome old man who spent ages stroking your postcards before leaving."

It was definitely our grandfather. After all, not many men are handsome enough to generate that kind of buzz.

Anyway, I sent my reply.

I had, in fact, agreed to appear on a variety show.

Thanks to the stellar ratings, the Love in the Moon set was, quite literally, a festival. I had never once in my life seen a set with an atmosphere that good.

Miraculously, that wonderful energy carried straight over into the broadcast itself.

The invitations to stay for a home-cooked meal kept coming, too, so I ended up making the rounds of half the households in the country.

Meeting people was tiresome and draining, but my genius acting skills covered for me so completely that nobody ever noticed. Not that I was complaining—I ate plenty of good food because of it.

The show was doing so well that the network even put together a special. The cast of Love in the Moon would travel around visiting devoted fans, greeting them and watching the live broadcast together.

Considering I'd never watched a single episode of Love in the Moon live, not even once, I was genuinely looking forward to it.

Just as I was about to head out to the shoot, Seo Joongsung called.

These days he was being called "Gyeowool's dad," gradually shedding his gangster image with every passing episode.

"Heeyoon."

"We're seeing each other later—why are you calling?"

"The instantaneous rating broke thirty percent yesterday."

Thankfully it was something he could explain in one short line. I answered.

"Got it."

"Thank you."

"Yeah…… okay."

I almost asked what exactly he was thanking me for, but I figured the conversation would drag on, so I let it go.

After the call, I was on my way to the variety shoot when I realized I'd left Wooheonjeong too early and had time to kill.

I asked Gam Seongbeom, our CEO, who would be riding with me today.

"Hyung, can I stop by the debut cafe for a bit?"

"……You're not going to cause trouble, are you?"

"I won't."

What did he take me for—someone who couldn't open their mouth without courting disaster? Our seventy-something grandfather had marched in there fearlessly, so I figured I could manage the same.

……Though honestly, it also looked like decent odds that showing up uninvited would only stir the pot. I thought back to what Shin Jiwon had taught me.

'If you ever do a fan café event, or a fan meeting, remember one thing.'

'What's that?'

'Just assume you have no ego of your own, and do whatever they tell you.'

The debut cafe wasn't far from the company in Heukseok-dong. Someone had clearly picked the location on purpose.

From the entrance, I could tell this was absolutely not a place built for a grandfather to wander into. It was so blindingly sparkly that even I hesitated on the threshold—how on earth had the old man worked up the nerve to go inside? Knowing him, maybe a lifetime of being handsome made him less afraid of places crowded with women. Same here, come to think of it.

I pulled my cap down low and stepped into the cafe, which looked packed to capacity.

Even with my face nearly hidden, the fans all reacted the exact same way the moment I walked in—clapping a hand over their mouth as an involuntary shriek escaped them. They were clutching their phones and shifting around nervously, so I channeled Shin Jiwon's advice and spoke up.

"Feel free to take pictures."

At my words, every phone in the room shot up in unison.

I'd made it inside but had no idea what to do next, so I stood there dumbly for a moment before recalling my veteran event experience and getting my hands on a pen. Then I signed the photos of my face hanging on the wall. Someone handed me a postcard and told me to write something, but since my handwriting was hopeless, I just jotted down a fact I knew.

Then I turned to face the fans.

And there—impossibly, unbelievably—were faces I recognized. Including 2weeks_empty, otherwise known as Lee Joobin, three of them were faces I knew.

I couldn't believe it. I'd regressed, acted in entirely different works, and yet these people had fallen for me all over again.

I had always believed that an actor's fans loved the actor purely through the lens of the roles they played. But now I found myself wondering if that wasn't necessarily true.

Maybe it was the makeup I had on today, but they were all looking at me the way you'd look at some extremely cute animal. I was practically a grown adult now—it made no sense. And somehow, word had gotten out, because passersby were milling around outside the cafe and drifting toward the door.

"Any questions for me?"

At my invitation, the fans started asking. About plays, movies, and dramas I liked. About my favorite role, too. I could talk about that for three hours straight, so it was genuinely fun. And I fielded plenty of a different kind of question as well.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Dinner recommendation, please!"

"Well, since you met me, you should get jokbal. Our company celebrates good days with jokbal, no exceptions."

"Any TMI for us today?"

"Actually, I got a call from Joongsung sunbaenim earlier—apparently Love in the Moon posted a great instantaneous rating yesterday."

"He's so cute……"

I had never once been called cute in my life, yet everyone in this room had been saying it to me nonstop. Bizarre. I listened to questions the whole time, until finally I asked something I was curious about myself.

"But why does everyone say I look like a rabbit? My front teeth are tiny."

"You just have a rabbit vibe."

"……Not at all?"

"You're adorable!"

"I was cute back in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my Eunha days. Not so much now."

"You're cute now too."

"I'm in an awkward transition phase right now. Once I'm fully grown up, I'll get handsome."

For some reason that sent the whole room into gales of laughter. Wow. This was practically the first time in my life people had roared with laughter at my words. It seemed these people found me hilarious and adorable whether I was breathing or not. They asked me to do bunny ears with my hands, so I half-heartedly copied what everyone else was doing—and the crowd reacted like they were momentarily suffocating. Apparently if I get too cute, it's bad for the fans' hearts, so I'd better be careful.

When I finally left the cafe, I'd heard the word "cute" so many times that I briefly, dangerously, started to wonder if I actually was.

Compounding the problem, the Love in the Moon fan-visit shoot kept that delusion firmly alive.

"Oh my, it's Gyeowoolie!"

"Good heavens, how did you get so handsome?"

"Oh my, what a beauty……"

I hadn't realized I was this popular with the older crowd. We'd filmed with devoted fans quite a bit, and no exaggeration—at every stop, the whole neighborhood came out to see me.

Seo Joongsung and Kang Minha, my on-screen parents, went a step further and competed to brag about me.

"Isn't he, though? Isn't our son just gorgeous?"

"He certainly is."

"And such a good heart. He acts aloof, but he's got real warmth in him."

"That's true."

While Kang Minha held forth, the famously quiet Seo Joongsung just supplied the backing chorus.

Between everyone at every stop fawning over me far past the point of reason, I'd ended up in the state of a puppy the day after a holiday. I'm an introvert—after this many people, I normally need a full day of total silence to recover—but the shoot wasn't over yet.

Still, since I kept meeting people who wished me nothing but good things, I couldn't muster any real annoyance. One grandmother we met at a village hall on a farm, who had lost her children before her and lived alone, didn't say a word the whole time—she just kept stroking my hand. Then, when the shoot wrapped, she clasped my hand tight and asked me:

"Gyeowoolie…… you're not going to die, are you?"

That was the question I heard most today.

The shoot was now past its midpoint, and honestly, I had no way of knowing whether my character, Moon Gyeowool, lived or died. It felt a little like he might die, and a little like he wouldn't. Living on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠felt contrived—but then again, so what if it's contrived?

"I'll do my best."

I couldn't make a promise. That was all I could say.

Seeing how worried everyone was made me a little uneasy about tonight's episode. It was the scene where Moon Gyeowool formally meets the final boss of this whole mess—his paternal grandfather. In truth, the grandfather had already crossed paths ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with me a few times and shown an inexplicable fondness for me, and audiences had quietly latched onto that as well.

They both knew they were family, but the grandfather had refused to accept his grandson as a "sick grandson," and was now deep in regret over it. Unable to move forward or back, he'd been secretly helping in small ways—quietly buying the instrument Moon Gyeowool had longed for, that sort of thing.

Then time passed, and came the first formal meeting between them. Moon Gyeowool, standing before a grandfather who had always despised the idea of a sickly grandson, strains to hide every trace of his illness. And after that first family gathering ends, Moon Gyeowool goes to the hospital alone.

'That's a little sad, isn't it?'

I happened to have dinner with Seo Joongsung's family that day, so what I remember from that shoot is…… noisy, but somehow a bit warm. I had no idea how viewers would take it.

At the hospital and village hall we'd visited that day, we filmed ourselves eating the boxed lunches the network had prepared while watching the Love in the Moon broadcast live. I gathered with the rest of the cast and, for the first time since the show premiered, watched an episode live with them.

I'd always wondered what went through people's hearts as they watched a weekend drama, so I was glad to be sitting there. The broadcast began.

Frankly, I hadn't known people laughed this much and cried this much over this show. Today I watched nearly everyone I'd met cry so hard they could barely see the TV screen. Even Kang Minha, who filmed alongside me, was sobbing openly beside me.

The variety shoot drained more energy than I'd expected, yet somehow it also felt like my energy was being refilled at the same time.

Meeting fans turned out to be more enjoyable than I'd thought.

And as I headed home thinking exactly that—

Seo Joongsung, who had abruptly climbed into our car and invited himself along, asked me, oh-so-casually:

"Heeyoon, do you think…… we've gotten pretty close lately?"

Ah.

That opening line. I know exactly what this is.

"A cameo, hyung?"

"……How did you know?"

"The vibe. What's the project?"

"Ah, Exorcism Investigator. The audiences loved it, so they're greenlighting a sequel."

"I'll do it."

The one where he exorcises demons with his fists.

I answered before Seo Joongsung had even finished his sentence—and, just as predicted, the Demon flew into a rage.