LS Ch 83

Surprised by Yiwon’s unexpected answer, his mother’s eyes widened before she scoffed, as if it were absurd.

“How? How can you take responsibility?”

She asked, challenging him to answer. Despite her sharp reaction, Yiwon was calmer than expected.

“Please tell me how you would like me to take responsibility.”

He asked in return, and his mother furrowed her brows, as if unsure how to respond. Seeing her hesitate, Yiwon spoke again.

“Would taking responsibility for Han Jewoo’s life be enough?”

Depending on how it was interpreted, it was a rather ambiguous statement. Not only Jewoo but also Jiho looked back and forth between Jewoo’s mother and Yiwon, wondering how those words would be understood.

“What do you mean by taking responsibility for Jewoo’s life?”

His mother also asked, unsure how to take it.

“In every sense. Taking care of him when he’s sick, sharing drinks and listening to his troubles when things are tough, laughing together when there’s good news, celebrating special occasions, eating delicious food together when he’s hungry…”

At the unexpectedly mundane and everyday answer, Jewoo let out a small chuckle. Kang Yiwon would sometimes go beyond expectations. It was an answer he couldn’t have imagined in this situation. But he quite liked it. It was the small, trivial, but precious everyday life he wanted with Kang Yiwon, as his lover.

Of course, his mother wouldn’t like it at all.

“Are you kidding me? Anyone can do that!”

His mother replied irritably.

“Anyone… It’s not as easy as you think. Especially for people like me and Jewoo-hyung.”

While remaining polite, he said what needed to be said. Kang Yiwon’s attitude made Jewoo, who had been on edge, laugh briefly.

“Ha, this is ridiculous. It’s not like he’s saying he’ll support him financially for life, is he joking?”

His mother fanned herself with her hand as if getting heated, muttering something that was unclear whether it was to herself or for them to hear.

Why would Kang Yiwon have to support me? I have perfectly functioning limbs and earn my own money.

He was about to retort to his mother’s words out of frustration when Yiwon gently grabbed his arm. He looked back and saw Yiwon subtly shaking his head. It was a sign not to engage with his mother any further.

“Are you playing house? Fine, let’s say you two live like that. Then what about me? If Jewoo’s acting career gets ruined, it will affect me too, won’t it?”

At his mother’s words, Jewoo’s face crumpled. At the same time, Yiwon finally understood what she was aiming for with this commotion.

What was important to her wasn’t Han Jewoo himself. It was the money and fame he would earn. Now that it was clear, he almost wanted to laugh.

“Do you need money, by any chance?”

Yiwon asked the question that Jewoo had been aware of but had suppressed, unable to bring himself to say it. Jiho, seemingly having given up, covered his face with his hands and turned away.

“Isn’t it natural for a child to support their parents? Just like when he was young, I took care of him and looked after everything.”

At her answer, Yiwon couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

“Are you laughing now? Why are you laughing?”

“No. It’s nothing, nothing at all.”

He cleared his throat and composed his expression before facing her. At the same time, he heard Jewoo sigh beside him.

“All she wants is… ha.”

As if truly dumbfounded, Jewoo couldn’t finish his sentence.

“How much do you need?”

“Hey! Why are you asking that?”

Jewoo snapped at Yiwon’s question. Yiwon patted Jewoo’s shoulder, calming him down and suggesting they hear his mother out a little longer. Jewoo reluctantly closed his mouth.

“You’re making a fool out of me. You think I’m doing this to Jewoo because I need money right now?”

His mother looked at Jewoo.

“I don’t know if you realize how bright our Jewoo’s future is, and that you just need to get through this moment. What if that bright future is ruined because of Mr. Kang Yiwon, because of you? For Jewoo to see you means he’s taking on that much risk, so if you’re going to compensate with money, you should at least calculate all the risks involved, don’t you understand?”

She spoke in circles, confusing everyone, but it boiled down to demanding a hazard pay equivalent to what Han Jewoo would earn in the future. In other words, it wouldn’t end with just giving her money once.

“Ha!”

A sigh-like exclamation escaped from beside him. He looked back and saw Jewoo glaring fiercely at his mother.

“Jewoo-hyung…”

“Stop it. Stop it, Kang Yiwon.”

Jewoo’s voice was cold. He didn’t even look at Yiwon.

“Get out. I don’t think it’s worth seeing you anymore.”

Jewoo directed his coldness toward his mother.

“‘Our Jewoo’… Since when was I ‘our Jewoo’ to you? Didn’t you give up on being a mother? You were the one who abandoned me when you thought I was worthless. Now, what right do you have to talk about qualifications? Regardless of Yiwon, whether I earn money or not, there’s no share for you in it. I held back because you’re my mother, because I thought you were the one who gave birth to me and raised me, but how can you say such things to him… ha.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Jewoo strode over and grabbed her arm.

“Hey! Let go of me! Han Jewoo, let go!”

Ignoring her struggles, he dragged her by force, opened the door, and pushed her out into the hallway.

“Don’t ever come back. The day you abandoned me, that’s the day you died to me.”

After his chilling words, he slammed the door shut.

“Uh…”

Jiho looked back and forth between Jewoo and the closed door in bewilderment.

“Han Jewoo! Open this door right now! Open the door!”

His mother banged on the door and caused a scene outside. Jiho, unsure what to do, just looked at Jewoo. Jewoo took a deep breath and picked up the intercom on the dresser, connecting it to the lobby.

“There’s someone causing a disturbance in front of my door. I don’t know who she is, but she’s making a fuss, demanding that I open the door. Please do something about it.”

Jiho groaned as he watched Jewoo report his mother to the lobby. Yiwon watched silently, then covered Jewoo’s hand as he put down the intercom receiver. When Jewoo looked back, he pulled him into a hug.

He didn’t ask if he was okay. It was obvious he wasn’t. Knowing Han Jewoo’s personality, Yiwon figured there must be a good reason for him to treat his mother so coldly. And that he must be hurting just as much. So he just wanted to hold him. Until the storm within him calmed down, even a little.

🎞️✮⋆˙

After a hotel employee came and took his mother away, Yiwon and Jewoo moved to Jewoo’s room. Jewoo, who had been sitting silently at the table on the veranda, looking out at the sea, turned his head at the presence beside him. Yiwon placed a bottle of water on the table and pulled out a chair to sit down.

“It’s nice.”

Yiwon’s gaze was directed towards the distant ocean.

“It’s cold.”

Jewoo replied indifferently. Being January, even in Jeju Island, the sea breeze was biting.

“Says the one who was sitting out here for a long time.”

Yiwon lightly scolded him. Feeling suffocated, Jewoo had come out to the veranda as soon as he returned to his room and stared blankly at the ocean for a while. A chuckle escaped Yiwon’s lips, realizing this was his way of expressing his worry.

“Sorry. For showing you that ugly side of me. Forget everything my mother said earlier. Don’t dwell on it.”

“There wasn’t anything to dwell on. I don’t care.”

Yiwon replied as if it were truly nothing. Thanks to him, Jewoo’s heavy heart felt a little lighter.

“This kind of thing happens often.”

Wondering what he meant, Jewoo blinked at him.

“Last year, or the year before. I can’t say who it was, but someone came to our company and caused a scene. That person was a father. He had cheated and left his family almost 20 years ago, but he came back because his child became popular, saying that the child should fulfill their filial duty to their birth father.”

Jewoo sighed deeply, unable to see it as someone else’s problem.

“Since he’s a celebrity, and it wouldn’t be good for his name or reputation to have this get out, they gave him some money a few times, I think. That’s why it got worse. He started making demands, threatening to call reporters and hold a press conference if they didn’t comply.”

He smiled bitterly at the words that being a celebrity was disadvantageous in such situations, and that they were easily blamed even when they had done nothing wrong.

“My mother… is a little different.”

When Jewoo spoke, Yiwon looked at him. Sensing his gaze, Jewoo kept his eyes fixed on the distant ocean.

“Those people don’t know what it’s like to be a celebrity. Because they don’t know, they can be more brazen without feeling guilty. But my mother knows very well what it’s like for a celebrity to be caught up in rumors.”

Instead of explaining further, Jewoo took out his phone and typed his mother’s name into the search bar. A very old article popped up. A short article about a rookie actress, Lee Hyun-hee, having a scandal with her agency’s CEO. That was the only article. Looking