LS Ch 38

While Choi Jiyoo was doing her makeup and hair, she picked up her phone and browsed through SNS. She scrolled through trending posts without following them, and stopped at a photo. The image of a man wearing a black t-shirt and a black cap was familiar. As expected, the post was tagged with #KangYiwon, #KangYiwonCommute. It was unclear whether it was taken by a fan or published in an article.

After her phone call with Jewoo a few days ago, posts from Kang Yiwon expressing longing or missing him had stopped. Fans were wondering what it meant, and some even speculated that a new ad was coming out, but of course, there was nothing like that. It was all just a stunt for Jewoo to see.

Thankfully, that strange behavior of Kang Yiwon had stopped. If it had continued any longer, obsessive fans might have started digging into who Kang Yiwon was missing. There was no telling when the internet detective squad would pick up on it. Although it could be brushed off as a promotion for a BL drama, it was always hard to predict where things would go.

She casually scrolled up and checked the comments. Most were praising the post with comments like, “Our Yiwon oppa is so cool.” She quickly skimmed through but paused halfway through.

└ Yiwon oppa must really like that shirt. He wears it every day but with different colors. Maybe he’s matching it to the days of the week?

What was this all about? Even if he was wearing clothes from a brand’s ad, it was rare to see someone wear different colors of the same design every day. She returned to the photo and examined Yiwon’s shirt—it was from a brand he was an ambassador for. It was a simple design with a short phrase near the chest in black.

Maybe because of his strange behavior with his SNS profile picture lately, she started to wonder if there was some deeper meaning behind him wearing the same shirt in different colors. She searched “Kang Yiwon Commute Look” and found several photos from the past few days. As fans had commented, he had been wearing the same design in different colors: white, black, blue, yellow.

The design wasn’t anything special—it was just a basic, simple t-shirt. But why was he so obsessed with it? It seemed unlikely that the brand asked him to wear different colors.

As she pondered this, she noticed a phrase written in the middle of the shirt. At first, she had brushed it off, but when she looked closer, she realized it wasn’t the brand name.

“Tu me manques…?”

It didn’t look like English. Since it was from a French brand, she assumed it was French, so she pulled out her phone and translated it.

“Ha, Kang Yiwon…”

Choi Jiyoo let out a laugh and shook her head. At this point, she thought it was commendable how much effort he was putting in.

What now, Jewoo? Looks like you’ll have to give in.

She wondered if Jewoo had seen these photos. If he had, she thought he would have reacted somehow. She considered downloading the photos to send them to him but decided against it. Jewoo was probably already deep in thought, and she assumed he would make a move when he figured things out.

However, from a third-party perspective, she couldn’t help but feel a little sympathetic toward Yiwon. He was trying so hard, and if Jewoo gave in, she would understand.

“Are you ready to go?”

Her manager came to find her. She nodded and picked up her phone. On the translation app, the phrase “Tu me manques” was translated to “I miss you” in Korean.

🎞️✮⋆˙

After arriving in Rome via Venice and Florence, Jewoo stood in front of the Trevi Fountain, throwing coins just like the other tourists. His phone vibrated in his pocket, once and then twice, indicating that someone had sent him a message. After throwing the last coin, he took out his phone to check.

What a pain. Just accept it before anything worse happens.

It was a message from Sihyeon. He tilted his head in confusion, wondering what it meant, and then saw a picture attached. It looked like a photo of Yiwon taken on his way to work. It seemed like an ordinary photo, so he wondered what was wrong. Then, more photos came through, one after another. They were all photos of Yiwon’s commute.

As Jewoo kept looking at the photos, something seemed off. The pants and hats were different every day, but the shirt remained the same design. The only thing that changed was the color. Was he just wearing it because it was comfortable? It was a basic t-shirt, so there was nothing particularly eye-catching about it.

“Check the phrase on his t-shirt using the translator.”

Another message came from Sihyeon. It was only then that Jewoo noticed the phrase on the t-shirt. At first, he wondered why Sihyeon was asking him to use the translator. It wasn’t English, and he couldn’t understand it either.

Eventually, he memorized the spelling and typed it into the internet search bar, pressing search.

“Je me manque?”

The phrase was corrected to “Tu me manques” in the French dictionary that automatically appeared, showing the translated phrase. Jewoo mumbled it aloud, then stared blankly at the screen before bursting into laughter. He had told him not to post anything strange on SNS, and now this was the result. His quirky behavior was beyond surprising—it made him laugh out loud.

Feeling a bit hopeful, he logged into SNS and searched “Kang Yiwon commute look.” Numerous posts with similar photos popped up. He opened the one with the most views and checked the comments. Since the t-shirt’s phrase was in French, no one seemed to pay attention to it. Instead, everyone was focused on the fact that the shirt color was changing by the day, with fans asking if he was doing a promotional stunt.

“Well, at least that’s a relief.”

He muttered to himself, a smile spreading across his face. He couldn’t help but think that Kang Yiwon was putting some thought into it, and the idea made him laugh even more.

Jewoo took a photo of the Trevi Fountain with his phone and posted it on his SNS with the short caption, “Traveling in Europe.” He hesitated for a moment before almost clicking the post button. He added one more line at the bottom: “Good-bye, Haeyul,” then pressed send.

The drama hadn’t aired yet, and there was still a lot of promotional work to be done before the release. But at least he had cleared Haeyul from his mind. Now, he felt like he could return to being just “HanJewoo.”

When he opened his messenger app, he was overwhelmed by the number of unread messages. He hadn’t checked them intentionally while traveling. If there was something urgent, Jiho would call, so there was no need to check the messages.

After recently unblocking Yiwon to check his profile picture, there were over 100 unread messages from him.

“Stalker.”

He muttered in frustration, but a smile lingered on his lips. He opened the chat with Yiwon and began reading through the messages one by one.

He had been complaining about missing him, asking when he would come. There were also messages wondering if he had unblocked him, but why wasn’t he replying, and expressing concern that something might have happened to him. Despite not checking his messages for over a week, the messages kept coming every day, steadily and without fatigue. Now, there were messages about the filming he was doing, and casual updates about meeting up with members and having meals.

“I wanted to eat something delicious with you.”

The last message was a photo of food he had eaten with his members. He mentioned that whenever he ate something delicious or saw something nice, he always thought of Jewoo first.

“Indeed.”

He chuckled softly and closed the messenger app. He felt the same way. When he saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or walked by the Seine River, he wondered if Yiwon had walked down the same path and seen the same things. In Switzerland, he thought of showing Yiwon the picturesque scenery. In Venice and Florence, every time something caught his eye, Yiwon was the first person he thought of.

But that had nothing to do with Haeyul’s feelings. Even though he had forgotten he was an actor and was mingling freely among tourists, it was still Kang Yiwon he thought about.

Jewoo pulled up Yiwon’s contact on his phone and took a deep breath. His mind was made up. He pressed the call button, waited briefly, and heard Yiwon’s voice saying, “Hello.” He must have seen his name on the screen, but his response wasn’t as excited as he expected. If anything, he sounded a little subdued.

“Did you take care of everything?”

He asked lightly, and there was a silence on the other end.

“Are you mad?”

This time, a long sigh followed.

“Is your mind made up?”

The voice was a bit gruff, but it made Jewoo smile again.

“Yeah.”

He answered coolly and looked up at the Trevi Fountain.

“So, what’s the conclusion?”

Yiwon asked. Jewoo pulled out a coin he had kept in his pocket for emergencies.

“I’m at the Trevi Fountain right now.”

Yiwon must have thought it was a random comment, as there was silence on the other end.

“It’s more beautiful than I thought.”

“I saw the photo you just posted.”

Jewoo smiled again when he heard that Yiwon had seen the photo he just uploaded. It was clear that he was paying close attention to everything about him.

“If you throw a coin in and get it right on the first try, I’ll answer you.”

“What’s that?”

Yiwon’s voice was filled with dissatisfaction. Of course, he couldn’t know whether the coin went in or not, so it made sense that he was skeptical. However, Jewoo didn’t care and tossed the coin high into the air. The coin soared in an arc before splashing into the water below.

He hadn’t really planned where the coin should land. He didn’t care where it fell.

“Did it go in?”

Even though he was complaining, Yiwon asked.

“I miss you.”

“Huh?”

“I miss you. Kang Yiwon.”

He answered brightly. Just saying those words felt like a weight had been lifted from his chest.