JKA 74

What a load of crap. Hanbyeol had said that and pulled the blanket completely over his head. After that, Egi did not appear before Hanbyeol. It didn’t seem like it was because he had given up; it seemed he was plotting some other evil deed.

“He just spouted some nonsense I couldn’t understand and left. Said he’d get revenge, said he didn’t do it knowingly.”

“Ah, he said he didn’t do it knowingly?”

“I don’t know how much you can believe what a demon bastard says, but that’s what he said. He didn’t know who the owner of that face was from the beginning, and he didn’t approach you knowing that owner was your brother, Jiwoon.”

“…”

“It might not have been at first. After all, I met the bastard first. But not after that. Just thinking about that confident expression he had when he walked into the chicken restaurant makes me burn up inside. It was written all over his face, ‘go fuck yourself’.”

“Wh-why would he do that?”

“Who, that bastard?”

Hanbyeol said, glaring at Egi. Egi laughed teasingly at Hanbyeol’s fierce gaze, then turned his head away with a prim expression. At that, Hanbyeol clenched his fists tightly.

“I-I’m curious. Wh-why he wants to put himself out there in front of us like that.”

“I think he’s planning to do something to me using you. That’s why I said I thought it was my fault…”

“No, no. I d-don’t think it’s like that.”

“Why?”

“I h-heard from 17. He said that’s not even just a shell. He said he was wearing a hide, or s-something like that. But he just b-bought the rights. M-my brother’s soul is already… gone.”

“…”

“So that’s n-not my brother, and he c-can’t do anything by pretending to be my brother in front of me, can he? It s-seems like he’s teasing, but I don’t think he’s trying to tease you or me…”

It was a natural course of events for Myeong Jiwoon to be shocked when he appeared with Myeong Seonwoo’s face. Whether it was intentional or not, it was true that Hanbyeol had hidden the story about that face. But even if Jiwoon found out about it, what would change besides the two of them becoming a little awkward?

Besides, there were so many ways to restore such a relationship, and it was unlikely that Hanbyeol would sell his soul to a demon for such a trivial reason. Hanbyeol would rather choose to keep visiting Jiwoon to apologize and beg for forgiveness than make such a choice.

Jiwoon also thought that there was no need for Hanbyeol to go that far. He couldn’t completely accept his choice, but he could fully understand it in his head. That he was worried about him had already been proven by time.

If that was the case, then there must be another reason why Egi appeared with Seonwoo’s face. If he said he wanted to tease someone who would get furious just by looking at that sight, it would make more sense. But no matter how much he thought about it, there was no one like that.

There was not a single person around him who would have a grudge against Egi. It was the same even if he excluded humans. Was there some connection between 17 and Egi? He thought about it carefully, but nothing particular came to mind.

“I think there was someone else.”

As soon as Jiwoon muttered quietly, Hanbyeol, who heard it, was startled, but he tried to hide it and deliberately pointed to the script Jiwoon was holding and said.

“Well, whatever, let’s just practice that script a bit. It seems like it would be better for my peace of mind to get it over with as quickly as possible and never see him again.”

“A-are you okay?”

At Jiwoon’s question, Hanbyeol felt a pang of conscience. He wondered who was worrying about whom right now. It was annoying and irritating that Egi kept making a fuss next to him, but he had the opportunity he’d gotten in exchange for Jiwoon’s memory. In any case, as long as he didn’t touch his mom or his younger sibling, he was confident that he wouldn’t fall for whatever that demon said.

The one who should be worried was not himself, but Jiwoon, who had to keep facing Egi’s face. At this, Hanbyeol let out a sigh and patted Jiwoon’s shoulder.

“What’s there to not be okay about? It’s a face I’ve seen every day.”

It would be annoying if Egi was loitering in front of him, but that was all.

“You worry about yourself. You really are stubborn when I look at you. What’s so good about playing along with that bastard…”

“I-I’m not playing along. I-I liked this script too, and I l-like the club members.”

“…”

“And if s-someone’s going to quit, he should be the one to quit. Wh-why should I? I-I got the offer first, and he’s the one who barged in.”

Jiwoon did not avoid Egi, who kept trying to make eye contact with him in an obnoxious way. Funnily enough, the more Egi acted like that, the more he was getting used to it rather than getting angry. What should I say? Because he was making expressions that the brother he knew would not make, he didn’t remind him of him.

He was grateful that he was choosing to do things that Seonwoo, that his brother, would never do. The reason he was thrown into a state of shock and floundered the moment he ran into Egi was because he had seen again a face that was already dead and he could never see again. At that moment, the guilt he had hidden deep inside him had raised its head, and he had run away because he couldn’t bear it.

That guilt had not completely disappeared yet. His heart still ached and sorrow washed over him when he thought of Seonwoo. But that was an emotion he felt for Seonwoo, not an emotion he felt for Egi. The start was to clearly distinguish this.

To do that, it was better to keep seeing that face, whether he liked it or not. Above all, Jiwoon still had questions. It was because he thought that Egi might have met Seonwoo. If there was a trace of his brother, who was now annihilated and couldn’t even be met in death, left in that demon, he wanted to hear it, whatever it was.

“I r-really liked it that day.”

“…”

“E-everyone gathering together and talking about what they l-like. L-laughing and chatting. T-to other people, it might not be a big deal, b-but. To me, that was a really sp-special and good experience, you know?”

“…Yeah. You looked like you were having fun.”

“S-so that I don’t get that taken away.”

Jiwoon’s expression was even resolute. Hanbyeol looked at Jiwoon, who was clutching the script tightly.

“O-originally, I w-wasn’t envious at all when I saw things l-like that? But today, I’m really envious.”

“Them gathering together?”

At Hanbyeol’s question, Jiwoon nodded his head. If there was one thing that was making him furious right now, it was the sight of Egi laughing and chatting among the film club members without any sense of incongruity.

“I know that even if I j-joined that group right now, I wouldn’t be able to act like that. In the past, I would have just said I wouldn’t do it, I w-would have said that.”

“…”

“But n-now, I don’t think I should do that.”

Jiwoon recalled a faint memory. The moment when the hair that had been completely covering his vision was suddenly snip, cut off, and he unwillingly saw the brightened world. He had sat on the rooftop of a small one-room apartment and filled his eyes with the buildings lined up like tightly packed dominoes and the blue sky.

‘What are you going to do getting comfortable with someone like me? Are you going to live with only me forever?’

He heard an unfamiliar voice, but he couldn’t remember who the owner was. Was it 17? No. 17 didn’t speak to him in that tone. Jiwoon, enveloped in a feeling of knowing yet not knowing something, muttered to himself without realizing it.

“When you t-talk to people, you look them in the eye. And words aren’t the only language. Gaze, actions, things like that are all in-included too.”

“…”

“So keeping your head down, n-not making eye contact, and just rattling off what I have to say isn’t a conversation… it’s a notification.”

“…”

“Was it you who told me that?”

Jiwoon asked Hanbyeol. Hanbyeol had a strangely subtle expression on his face. His lips, which twitched as if he were about to speak, ultimately did not open. Jiwoon looked at him as if he were puzzled. Wasn’t it Hanbyeol? Then who had said that to him?

“He also said something like… are you going to live with only me forever.”

“There’s no way I would have said that.”

“W-well, that’s true.”

Hanbyeol said with an awkward laugh after a short silence. Jiwoon felt embarrassed by his words and scratched the back of his neck for no reason, laughing along with him. Then who was it? Jiwoon tried to remember, but he couldn’t figure out who it was.

Instead of clinging to the memory that felt like it was within his grasp but wasn’t, Jiwoon opened the script in his hand. This wasn’t the time to be leisurely lost in other thoughts. Unlike when he had received it as a scenario, the script’s content had changed considerably.

This was because in the scenario, Jiwoon had practically no lines, but in the final script he received, there were quite a few. Fortunately, they were at most about two lines long, so memorizing them didn’t seem to be a big problem, but the problem was with speaking them.

If he spoke very slowly and clearly, he could manage somehow, but it was a different story if he had to speak while acting. He stuttered this much even in his daily life, and it was severe when he was nervous. He had taken on the role with bravado, but at this rate, he would be lucky if he didn’t just get in the way.

With a worried face, Jiwoon practically buried his face in the script and muttered, memorizing the lines over and over again. Hanbyeol stood next to Jiwoon as if he were his manager, watching the film club members who were busy preparing for the outdoor shoot.

But then, the club president, Huichan, and Yeongeun, who were talking with Egi, simultaneously looked at Hanbyeol and Jiwoon. Jiwoon was so focused on the script that he didn’t notice, and Hanbyeol, whose eyes met theirs, hurriedly patted Jiwoon’s back.

“H-huh?”

When Jiwoon looked up in surprise, Hanbyeol pointed ahead with his chin. Then, Huichan, Yeongeun, and Egi had strode up and were right in front of them. Huichan, with his usual good-natured face, gestured slightly towards Egi as if introducing him and said.

“Did we greet each other at the chicken restaurant that day? I must have had too much to drink then, my memory is hazy. I asked Yeongeun too, and she said she doesn’t remember.”

“I drank a ton that day too, sunbae.”

Yeongeun shuddered as if she were still suffering from a hangover. In Hanbyeol’s memory, Yeongeun had certainly acted like a person drowning in a cask of liquor, urging everyone to drink up, but both Yeongeun and Huichan had definitely been sober. It was probably the work of 17 or Egi that their memories were hazy.

Egi had a faint smile on his lips with a strange, knowing expression. He was looking only at Jiwoon, and Hanbyeol, displeased by this, offered a handshake to Egi first.

“I’m Im Hanbyeol. Nice to meet you.”

Nice to meet him, my ass. This was the guy who had been chasing him around for months until he was sick of it. But Hanbyeol even put on a natural-looking smile. Egi, who responded to it, was the same.

“Yes, nice to meet you. My name is Kim Seonwoo.”

At the name Seonwoo, Jiwoon flinched in surprise. Hanbyeol, while shaking Egi’s hand naturally, cursed inwardly, ‘fuck’. To choose Jiwoon’s brother’s name of all things—there was no scumbag like this scumbag.

“This friend is Myeong Jiwoon, twenty-one years old. He’s the same age as Hanbyeol. All three of you are the same age.”

Huichan naturally introduced Jiwoon on his behalf. Egi nodded his head as if he had met Jiwoon for the first time today.

“The dead brother in the script is you, right, Mr. Myeong Jiwoon? When I just heard about it, I thought, maybe, but seeing you in person, you really do look like me. I’d believe it if someone said you were my real younger brother.”

Egi let go of Hanbyeol’s hand and this time extended it to Jiwoon. Jiwoon hesitated, unable to readily take his hand. Seonwoo, dead brother, real younger brother. Those three words were stirring up a storm in his head.