Chapter 23

“What’s wrong with you?” Jaewon, the drama producer, asked in a loud voice, taking off his hat and throwing it on the table. It was quite different from the usual appearance of him who laughed and joked. Jaewon was very angry. Sitting stiffly in a chair, he stared terribly at Tae-Wan, who sat face to face.

“As I said before, I can see everything. Are you 30 minutes late? High performance fee? Dirty private life? I can see all that. In the entertainment industry, on this floor where you know everything is dirty, how could you have survived this far without my patience. But you never did that. There was no lateness, no appearance fees, no privacy issues. So I wrapped you up pretty.”

“… … .”

“But, asshole. No matter how well I keep my personal life and look good, I hate it if I can’t do my job right. Especially a kid who is an actor and can’t immerse himself in acting.”

“… … .”

“How can you call it acting? Huh? No, did you even act?” Jaewon spoke with an unbelievable expression and sighed.

An hour ago, Na-yeon and Tae-wan, who came out after capturing their emotions on the set, faced each other. Unfortunately, it  was a break up scene. It needed a lot of tears, but Nayeon cried so much that it was impossible to tell whether it was a real emotion or an acting. If only Taewan was well supported, it was a situation that would result in a pretty useful scene.

However, there was no dialogue from Tae-Wan. He only looked at Nayeon, crying like a person with lips attached. His eyes were out of focus, as if looking at a person from a distant world.

“Cut! Kang Tae-wan. What are you doing!”

After Jaewon declared the cut, he approached Taewan. He repeated,

‘I’m sorry’.

But despite the apology, he didn’t get any better. He smacked his lips to spit out the lines several times, then shut his mouth. The lines weren’t long enough to forget. Okay.

Let’s break up. There were only two sentences. All he had to do was spit it out.In the end, Nayeon said she couldn’t shoot anymore. After all the filming was stopped, Jaewon forced Tae-wan to return home and headed to his office.

“So, do you want to say anything even though I’m so angry?

“Sorry.”

Tae-wan apologized embarrassingly. It was an apology without sincerity.

“You know I don’t want to hear that. What’s the problem, huh?”

Jaewon, who was feeling stuffy, opened the mini refrigerator and took out a bottle of soju.

Then he poured it halfway into his mug and swallowed it. Even then, he stared at Tae-Wan as if he couldn’t feel relieved.

Jaewon was angry that he couldn’t shoot today despite the tight schedule, but in reality, his worries were ahead. He was afraid of losing Kang Tae-wan, a good actor, without finding out the reason.

He could give a few opportunities of trust to Tae-Wang Kang, but the bottom line of the entertainment industry wasn’t as easy. Even at the top, when they shined the brightest, it was still normal to fall. He didn’t want to see an actor who was still young, and has a lot of potential fall.

“Break up scenes have a lot of emotion and they are difficult. Still, it shouldn’t be a difficult scene for you. You’ve been pretending that it was more difficult than it is. Why the hell are you doing that?” Jaewon asked in a broken voice as if trying to appease him, there was even a feeling of affection.

“I don’t know.”

Tae-Wan’s face, who answered, did not reveal any emotions. He was also a face saying that he didn’t know what was.

“What. What the hell is going on? Why? Do you have a broken heart? Did you guys break up?”

Tae-wan’s eyebrows narrowed sharply at the words he threw without much thought. It was his first reaction today. When Tae-wan’s expression, which remained unchanged no matter what harsh sound he said, changed, he was surprised.

“…Wait Is that it?”

“… … .”

“You guys broke up?” Jaewon asked, narrowing his eyebrows. He was one of the few people who knew the relationship between Tae-wan and Ha-yeon.

To be precise, he didn’t know about Ha-yeon, but he knew that Tae-Wan had a long-time lover. He knew about it through the context of a phone call he overheard by accident, and kept it a secret at the request of Tae-wan. He had been teasing him up till now. Later, when he asked Tae-Wan occasionally how he was doing with his girlfriend. Tae-Wan responded with a

‘Shhh’.

The entertainment industry was a job that seduced many people. Through this job he had met many people. So he liked Tae-wan, who loved only one woman for a long time and gave him a generous score.

“Why? Did you break up with her?” Jaewon asked in a tired tone, as if the anger had completely subsided.

“No.”

“Then why?” When Jaewon asked as if he was wondering, Taewan answered in silence.

Reaching out, he picked up a glass from the table. One third of the soju disappeared quickly without a sound. In the meantime, the puzzle pieces came together in Jaewon’s head.

Why was Tae-wan cold to Nayeon, and why did he not have an expression today? He wondered if that’s why Taewan couldn’t say that short line of ‘let’s break up’. Jaewon looked bitter