LS Ch 43

“Uh…”

He was slightly taken aback since he didn’t expect Jewoo to wake up suddenly.

“Did we meet before this time?”

Jewoo asked again, his voice still a bit groggy from sleep.

“Should I get you some water?”

Yiwon asked to change the subject, but Jewoo shook his head.

“Forget it. Just answer.”

Even though he wasn’t fully awake, his desire for an answer was clear.

“I’ve been watching you since you were young.”

When Yiwon tried to gloss over it, Jewoo narrowed his eyes, looking at him.

“That didn’t seem to be what you meant… Seven years ago, that would be around when you debuted, right?”

Since Yiwon wasn’t giving a proper answer, Jewoo tried to recall on his own.

“How do you know we debuted seven years ago?”

Typically, unless you were a fan of the group, people wouldn’t know the exact debut year. Only when a song became popular would people recognize, “Oh, that group exists.”

“I looked it up.”

Jewoo answered, trying to shake off the sleep by tilting his head side to side to loosen up his muscles.

“Recently? Were you curious about me?”

Yiwon asked with a smirk. Seeing the proud reaction, Jewoo felt like he shouldn’t have said anything and pushed Yiwon’s face away with his palm.

“I even listened to all your songs. Okay? Now, stop changing the subject. Where did we meet seven years ago?”

Feeling that Yiwon was avoiding the answer, Jewoo persisted more insistently. If they had met, why not just say so?

“Did you do something wrong to me?”

As Jewoo asked with narrowed eyes, Yiwon let out a scoff and shook his head. Right. If it was something like that, he would have remembered it. Enemies are remembered for a long time, after all.

“Come to think of it, during the script reading and when we went for the poster shoot, you were staring at me so intensely. I thought you had something to say to me. Was it because you wanted to talk about us meeting before?”

Now that he said it, it sounded quite plausible.

“That was because when I saw you in person, you were better than I expected.”

Yiwon answered with a playful tone and a grin.

“Stop talking nonsense.”

“But it’s true.”

He spoke gently, even giving a slight eye-smile. It seemed like he was determined to charm Jewoo, so Jewoo turned his gaze away from Yiwon’s face.

“If you don’t tell me, I’m leaving now?”

Adding a bit of a threat, Yiwon’s smiling face stiffened.

“That’s low.”

“It is low. So, tell me.”

This time, Jewoo grabbed Yiwon’s cheeks to make him look at him and smiled. Yiwon, meeting his gaze, sighed as if conceding defeat.

“Are you that curious about it?”

“I am curious. You knew me, but I don’t remember.”

“It’s really nothing.”

“If it’s nothing, then you can just tell me.”

Jewoo urged with an eye-smile so pronounced it almost made his eyes curve, and finally, Yiwon raised his hands in surrender.

“It was not long after our debut. There was this variety show where they had multiple rookie groups and did some sort of survival game. You were there too.”

Jewoo tilted his head at Yiwon’s story. Would an actor like himself have been on a show with idol groups? That part didn’t make sense to him immediately.

“I guess you don’t remember.”

Yiwon gave a bitter smile. He felt a bit sorry for remembering one-sidedly.

“What was the name of the show?”

“…’Running Mate.'”

“Running… Ah!”

Something seemed to come to mind. Seven years ago, it was a transitional period from being a child actor to an adult actor. At twenty, he was too old to play child roles but not mature enough for adult roles, and he was struggling to shake off his child actor image. With no suitable roles coming in, the company suggested he try to establish a presence in variety shows. The reasoning was that if he could secure a regular spot, he’d keep his face in front of viewers.

That’s how he was pushed into “Running Mate,” a variety show.

🎞️✮⋆˙

Seven years ago, that was the day Jewoo first appeared on the variety show “Running Mate.” And it was his last appearance as well. The company expected Jewoo to adapt easily to variety shows because of his sociable nature and adaptability. However, reality was different. Variety shows were not like acting. It was hard to understand how much of his true self he could show, or what parts were scripted, and adapting to that was not easy.

They say you need your own solid character for variety shows. He learned this the hard way. On the first day, he realized how hard it was to find his character in just one day. After half a day, he was sure he wouldn’t secure a regular spot on this show, contrary to what the company hoped.

That day also had an unusually large number of participants. It felt like they had brought every idol group there was. Through each round of games, participants were eliminated, and the group with members surviving until the end would have their music video shown at the end.

With usually five to ten members per group, it was impossible to know who belonged to which group. Moreover, Jewoo had almost no interest in idols. He listened to various songs through music sites but couldn’t match songs to artists, making him an outsider in the idol world. Therefore, when dozens of idol group members were mixed together, he couldn’t distinguish anyone.

Not knowing the members made it hard for him to join conversations. Although he was a special guest that day, Jewoo spent the entire shoot standing idly by, just watching people like a sack of barley hung up to dry. He realized that perhaps variety shows were not his path.

During a break while changing locations, the regular cast tried to interact with the idol group members as much as possible, but they couldn’t attend to everyone, including Jewoo, who was also new. When he came back from the restroom, he saw idol members talking among themselves, and the regular cast members conversing with others.

He could have joined in if he wanted to; approaching someone first wasn’t hard. But he didn’t feel like it. He intended to rest quietly alone until the next shoot started, so he looked around for a shady spot away from people and spotted a boy.

He was definitely a member of some group but wasn’t mingling with his group; he was off to the side by himself. Jewoo wondered if he was being ostracized. After some hesitation about whether to ignore it, he decided to approach because the boy looked exhausted.

“Why are you sitting here alone?”

“Ah…”

The boy seemed surprised to be spoken to, turning around with a startled look.

“Are you being ostracized?”

“No! It’s not like that!”

The boy waved his hands frantically, worried about starting a baseless rumor. Jewoo smiled softly and sat beside him.

“I won’t spread any strange rumors, so don’t worry.”

“It’s really not like that.”

His vehement denial was kind of cute, making Jewoo chuckle. The boy looked about three to four years younger than him, maybe a third-year middle schooler or just entering high school. Seeing him so flustered by just one question made Jewoo remember his own youth. Even though the age difference wasn’t significant, in middle and high school, even a one-year gap could make a huge difference in looks and maturity.

When Jewoo fell silent, the boy also became quiet, just hanging his head and letting out long sighs, which Jewoo found somewhat pitiful.

“Did you get eliminated?”

When he asked carefully, the boy nodded almost imperceptibly. After being eliminated, he wouldn’t appear on the broadcast anymore. Jewoo thought it was quite harsh for rookie idol group members, but everyone seemed to enjoy the game aspect of the show.

“Is that why you’re down?”

Instead of answering, the boy just dropped his head lower, looking like he might burst into tears if spoken to further.

“I’ll be eliminated soon too.”

Although he had been passing each round so far, Jewoo felt he was hitting his limit and spoke honestly. The boy turned to look at him with wide eyes. When their eyes met, Jewoo smiled out of habit.

“I mean, not just from the game but from the show entirely.”

Perhaps because of Jewoo’s smiling face, the boy’s expression hardened a beat later.

“The company sent me here to secure a regular spot, but you saw today, right? I couldn’t do anything.”

Jewoo continued with a calm smile, but the boy couldn’t smile back. He even looked more troubled than Jewoo.

“But are you okay?”

The boy asked so cautiously that Jewoo couldn’t help but laugh.

“Not at all. Not one bit.”

There was no way he could be okay. Even with the strong mental fortitude built from his child actor days, Jewoo was seriously considering whether he could continue acting. Realizing he didn’t fit in variety shows at this point was far from okay.

“I’m seriously considering retirement at this age.”

At the mention of retirement, the boy’s eyes wavered. It seemed this was something he could relate to.