Chapter 111

Lee Sanghwi’s hands trembled where they clutched the railing.

“What the hell are you doing? Let go of me.”

He tried to bark the words, but his voice shook pathetically.

Yo Han let out a low laugh and hooked the inside of Lee Sanghwi’s ankle with his foot as the man balanced on tiptoe, then kicked lightly.

It didn’t take much force.

Lee Sanghwi lost his balance.

His upper body pitched sharply into open air.

“Hieeek!”

A terrified whimper escaped him.

“Why, why are you doing this? Out of nowhere? Don’t do this, actor Sung. If there’s a problem, we can talk...”

Servile words spilled from his mouth.

As expected of a famous director, even the lines he babbled in fear were excellent.

As though there was no need to hurry, Yo Han kept a loose grip on the back of his collar and spoke languidly.

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

“What? What question? What answer?”

“I asked if this felt good.”

Lee Sanghwi’s face, red from the blood rushing to his head, filled with confusion.

His eyes shook violently as he worked his mouth, then forced the corners of his lips up into a grin.

“It feels good. Of course.”

“Wrong.”

Yo Han hooked his leg as if he were about to kick out the man’s ankles again.

This time, both feet at once.

“Fuck, what do you want from me...! Say it clearly! Stop talking in circles!”

At the desperate burst of profanity, Yo Han stopped his foot.

“You crazy bastard. I gave you a pass because you’re famous, but you’re a total psychopath, aren’t you? You think you’ll get away with this?”

While Lee Sanghwi babbled, Yo Han merely looked down at him.

Silently.

Without the slightest movement.

Sensing something off, Lee Sanghwi felt cold sweat slide down his spine. When he rolled his eyes back toward Yo Han, Yo Han smiled brightly and exclaimed,

“Wow. Director Lee, you react exactly like one of your own works.”

“......”

That face, that expression, was so beautiful it made Lee Sanghwi’s mind go blank.

It was something Lee Sanghwi had long held in his heart. When he gave an actor the direction to “smile like an angel,” the actor would smile a blindingly white smile.

Yo Han was doing exactly that now.

Lee Sanghwi was facing his own ideal.

At the very moment that angel was strangling him and threatening his life.

“I watched all of your work, you know. From beginning to end. Five times each.”

“It’s a problem. You’re trapped in your own clichés. There’s nothing fresh at all.”

“What...”

After evaluating Lee Sanghwi with something like pity, Yo Han seemed to realize something and added,

“So that’s why you can’t make it back into film and you’re stuck directing dramas based on someone else’s original work.”

“You son of a—!”

Lee Sanghwi never finished cursing.

Because Yo Han finally kicked out both his ankles.

“Hrk...!”

Lee Sanghwi’s body toppled forward over the railing.

He was falling.

Unable even to scream properly, he let out a strangled moan and squeezed his eyes shut.

But his body did not smash against the ground below.

Instead, impact struck his back.

Yo Han had clamped a hand over his mouth, yanked him back up in one swift motion, and thrown him onto the floor.

“Ghhh...”

Unable to withstand the shock, Lee Sanghwi curled up on the ground and groaned.

“You crazy bastard... How dare you. I’ll make sure...”

What even was that pride of his?

It wasn’t even funny, the way he still tried to posture with words like how dare you after ending up in this state.

How boring.

With all humor gone from his face, Yo Han lightly stepped on one of director Lee Sanghwi’s ankles with the sole of his shoe.

“......!”

Lee Sanghwi’s eyes flew wide with pain as his body thrashed.

The sight of him struggling to get up looked less like trash than an insect.

Putting a moderate amount of weight into it, Yo Han said,

“Stay still. It’ll break.”

“Why... Why the hell...”

“Why am I doing this? I haven’t done anything wrong to Yo Han Sung. If anything, I treated him rather nicely.”

“......”

“Right?”

“......”

“You’re thinking this too, aren’t you? I won’t let this go. I’ll tell the press or whoever I have to and bury Yo Han Sung. He’s only debuted a few years ago, but he’s already pulling this shit without knowing his place.”

“No...”

“How are you going to prove it?”

At Yo Han’s question, director Lee belatedly reached toward his back pocket.

With a sigh, Yo Han dropped the man’s phone over the edge of the rooftop.

A few seconds later, a small shattering sound came from the ground below.

“There. You accidentally dropped your phone while smoking, Director Lee. It’s broken now. Not that you had any recording or anything.”

Only then did Lee Sanghwi seem to realize something had gone terribly wrong.

He had picked the wrong person.

Watching him with a dry gaze as he finally reached that very late revelation, Yo Han continued.

“There’s no CCTV on the rooftop. There is one near the first-floor entrance, but I checked—it’s a model that doesn’t record audio. There isn’t a single building within several kilometers either. You’re really benefiting from choosing a studio tucked away in the mountains of Yangpyeong, aren’t you?”

“......”

Under Yo Han’s foot, Lee Sanghwi’s body began to tremble little by little.

To Yo Han, that was as good as agreement.

“This is getting boring, so let’s talk quickly and end it.”

Yo Han took out his own phone, tapped at the screen a few times, then showed it to Lee Sanghwi.

— “Gyeol, take it off.”

— “What?”

— “Take it off. You’re still a man even if you’re an Omega. As long as nothing below shows, it’s fine.”

Lee Sanghwi’s already white face turned blue.

— “You touch yourself and finish alone... Then you use your mouth on Kwon Taehee.”

He urgently reached out to snatch the phone from Yo Han, but with his ankle pinned down, all he earned was pain.

— “Fuck, this ruined my mood. Let’s take another break. I need a cigarette.”

After the video ended, Yo Han shifted his foot lightly on Lee Sanghwi’s ankle.

“I asked you at the beginning, didn’t I? Whether it felt good.”

“Actor Sung. Let’s talk this through...”

“Go ahead and spread the story that Yo Han Sung is a psychopath and threatened you. Tell it as loudly as you want with no evidence and no witnesses.”

“......”

“There were already rumors going around that Lee Sanghwi targets rookie actors and torments them... If this video gets released, I wonder how the public will react.”

Yo Han slowly lifted his shoe.

Then he slipped his phone into his pocket and smiled.

“Will they believe Lee Sanghwi? Or will they support Yo Han Sung?”

***

The script reading was halted by Lee Sanghwi’s order.

“About filming. You don’t need to worry too much.”

“What...?”

“I’ll see you when filming starts, Gyeol.”

***

Yo Han was able to get home before midnight.

Around that time, Yo Han had already moved out of the family home and gotten a separate place in Hannam-dong. He didn’t want his uncle or Noah exposed to the media, and considering his manager would be coming and going and his schedule was getting packed, he needed to move out.

After showering, Yo Han turned on only the lamp and sat down on the recliner sofa with his script and phone.

He opened his photo album and played the video.

— “I, Lee Sanghwi, will never again behave the way I did today...”

What played was Lee Sanghwi’s confession.

— “I reflect on what I did to actor Gyeol Go, and in the future, nothing like that will ever...”

After confirming the video had been recorded clearly and was about four minutes long, Yo Han stopped it without listening to the rest.

There was no need to repeatedly watch unpleasant scenes on a good day.

After backing up the video to the cloud, Yo Han sank into the sofa. Then he tipped his head back and closed his eyes for a moment.

Like thumbnails stamped behind his eyelids, images of Gyeol passed in scene after scene.

Hello, actor Yo Han Sung. I’m rookie Gyeol Go, playing Lee Jung. I look forward to working with you.

The moment they first met and exchanged greetings.

Your acting was so good... I got completely absorbed and couldn’t take my eyes off you.

The moment Gyeol teared up after watching his acting.

I’ll love any acting you do. I always have, so I’m sure I always will.

Gyeol, turns out you were my stalker.

I-I’m really not. Don’t tease me...!

The way his face flushed during break.

Don’t wipe your tears with your clothes. You’ll hurt your skin.

...Thank you.

Even those lake-like eyes, so lovely Yo Han wanted to make them his possession.

Yo Han slowly opened his eyes.

“...How am I supposed to wait until filming starts?”

The low murmur quietly rippled through the darkness surrounding him.

The dim lamp rested on his face like a faint spotlight. Yo Han sat there for a long time, sinking into one person.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had wanted something.

No.

Other than acting, he didn’t think he had ever wanted anything at all.

And for that something to be a person, no less.

***

“Actor Yo Han Sung!”

As if mocking his belief that filming was still far away, Yo Han ran into Gyeol in the lobby of KBC, a terrestrial broadcasting station, exactly one week later.

Gyeol recognized him from a distance, called out, and ran over breathlessly. When he arrived in front of him, Yo Han found himself smiling without realizing it.

“Gyeol. Have you been well?”

“Yes, actor Sung. Have you been well too? I never imagined I’d run into you here.”

His clear face was unchanged.

The pure smile on his pale, young face, the flush in his cheeks from running, and the slightly short breath were each lovely in their own right.

“I’m glad you look well. I was worried.”

“It’s thanks to you, actor Sung. ...Really.”

As though embarrassed, Gyeol lowered his gaze and bit lightly at his lip. The corners of his mouth tightened, making his cheeks rise softly.

What would they feel like if he touched them?

Quiet strength gathered in Yo Han’s fingers.

“Oh, right. I need to return the handkerchief you lent me. I washed it. Just a second.”

Gyeol rummaged through his bag, then his eyebrows drooped.

“I guess it’s in the bag I left in the car, not this one. What should I do? Next time...”

Yo Han almost said not to worry about it. That it was fine if Gyeol didn’t return the handkerchief.

Then he changed his mind.

“Do you have time right now?”