Chapter 129

“Well...”

The words refused to come.

When Gyeol only fumbled with his lips in hesitation, Sun suddenly seemed to come to his senses and let go of his hand.

But there was nothing either of them could do about the fact that their knees were still touching.

Noticing it, Sun immediately tried to drag his chair backward, retreating out from beneath the canopy and into the blazing sunlight.

Gyeol caught the armrest of his chair.

“It's okay.”

“...”

“It really is.”

Only then did Sun stop moving.

“...I'm sorry. I got carried away.”

“No, Sun. I'm really okay.”

Silence settled between them.

Feeling a stab of guilt, Gyeol quietly sorted through his thoughts.

Should I tell him now?

Now that Hwang Gyujin's not-so-subtle encouragement had drawn everyone's attention to the two of them...

Now that he had come out here alone with Sun...

Was this really the right moment?

“Among everyone here, I think you're the one who's away from the group the most.”

“...I guess that's just how it's turned out. A few of those times were thanks to you, too.”

“Then that only proves what a wonderful person you are. Even now, you're saying something kind like that because you're thinking about my feelings.”

I don't know.

Somewhere deep inside, whenever he was with Sun, there was always the same weight pressing against him—

A guilty conscience.

A guilt he couldn't erase.

Every time he realized what a genuinely good person Sun was...

Every time he found himself feeling comfortable around him...

Every time he caught himself wishing that Yuli would grow up to resemble the best parts of Sun...

That inescapable guilt pricked painfully at his heart.

What does that even mean?

Can someone like me really be called a good person?

He didn't want to hide behind some tired excuse like Sun is simply too good, and I'm the selfish one.

Not for Sun's sake.

Not for someone who accepted him exactly as he was.

Maybe things could have been different if they'd simply had more time.

If they had met somewhere outside a dating show...

If chance had brought them together again and again until their relationship had grown naturally...

Perhaps what existed between them now would have become something entirely different.

“Every time you were gone... I spent the entire day thinking about you.”

“...”

“No matter how hard I tried not to, I couldn't stop.”

After everything that had happened the night before, Gyeol had, in effect, already chosen the direction he would take as Gyeol Go, contestant on R-Connect Season 10.

“What about you, Gyeol?”

“...Have you ever thought about me?”

Whatever the reasons behind it...

He had known exactly what he was doing when he provoked Yo Han.

Then he'd heard Yo Han's words...

Broken down in tears...

And spent a long time crying in his arms.

“Sun... before anything else...” Gyeol said quietly. “I don't think I can answer that question honestly right now. I'm truly sorry.”

The words felt as though he were forcing them up through his throat.

But he had to say them.

Because Sun was a good man.

Because he felt sorry.

Because he couldn't let his own selfish desire—to somehow give Sun the answer he wanted to hear—make him ignore the conclusion he had already reached.

Sun didn't deserve that.

He deserved to be treated with respect.

Not only because he was a good person...

But because he was someone Gyeol was deeply grateful to.

So he had to face it.

“...There's something I want to tell you, Sun.”

The shade that had been sheltering Gyeol now seemed to fall across Sun's eyes instead.

“...I see.”

Even as he watched the light fade from Sun's expression—as though he'd already sensed where this was going—Gyeol couldn't bring himself to look away.

Sun wasn't like Tommy.

Nor was he anything like Jun.

And of course...

He wasn't like Yo Han, either.

“But I need a little more time to sort out my thoughts.”

“My feelings are still... a little too tangled.”

“I understand, Gyeol.”

“...”

Without realizing it, Gyeol drew his lower lip between his teeth.

How could anyone not grow weak...

When faced with someone whose answer, no matter the situation, was always understanding?

A lukewarm breeze drifted over them.

A veil of pale dust rose across the sand before a wave rolled in and erased it.

Like the footprints the two of them had already left behind.

Gone without a trace.

“If it's all right with you...”

Sun spoke softly.

“Would you be willing to make some time for me tonight?”

Whether a meeting lasted minutes or hours, every encounter between two people created a relationship.

Relationships carried responsibility.

And responsibility always led to a result.

It was time to accept another one.

***

After Sun and Gyeol left to talk, the lounge naturally settled into an atmosphere where everyone began pairing off for dates.

The first to make a move was Hee Jun Kang, who cheerfully asked Tommy if they could talk, earning warm smiles from everyone watching.

While everyone's attention was on them, Isu Yoon turned to Jun.

“I'll be back in a bit.”

“Sure.”

Jun gave Yo Han a slight nod before leaving with Isu.

After watching Jun's unusually drained expression for several days, Yo Han finally looked away.

From the very beginning, he had noticed the strange tension lingering between Gyeol and Jun.

Jun's attitude toward Gyeol had irritated him from the start.

It wasn't simply because they had once belonged to the same group.

There was something between them.

Something outsiders couldn't easily intrude upon.

The longer he observed them, the stranger Gyeol's behavior toward Jun also seemed.

Maybe it was a sense of familiarity.

For some reason, the sight of the two of them standing side by side felt oddly familiar.

Even the way Jun instinctively shielded Gyeol.

But in the end, Yo Han dismissed it as nothing more than the result of paying too much attention to Gyeol.

When someone became deeply absorbed by something, strange intuitions had a way of surfacing.

Or so he'd told himself.

Because by then...

He had been thinking about Gyeol for a very long time.

It had become something he couldn't control.

Even when he'd mistakenly believed Gyeol had a spouse and a child...

Even after everything had gone wrong...

He had never truly been able to stop thinking about him.

He couldn't understand it.

No Omega's pheromones, no matter how alluring, had ever managed to stir him in the slightest.

So why...

Why couldn't Gyeol leave his mind?

He hadn't understood.

Hatred and obsession were separated by little more than a single sheet of paper.

The night he drove Gyeol home, Yo Han returned to his own house and searched Gyeol's name on the major portal sites.

Former member of the idol group SAVE ME.

The group's disbandment following scandals caused by other members.

His transition into acting.

Several minor and supporting roles.

Even his °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° work as a fitting model for an online clothing store.

Information about Gyeol appeared one entry after another.

But nowhere—

Nowhere at all—

Was there any mention of a child.

Or a spouse.

Or a marriage.

Instead, one thing caught his eye.

A long period during which Gyeol had disappeared from public activity.

An Omega celebrity in his early twenties...

Already debuted...

Spending what should have been the prime of his career completely inactive?

Unusual, but not impossible.

Except...

There was the child.

That little boy had looked about three or four years old.

His height.

His appearance.

The words he used.

The way he spoke.

And by a remarkable coincidence...

The child's age lined up almost perfectly with the period during which Gyeol had vanished from the industry.

That was where Yo Han stopped looking.

He never searched for Gyeol again.

When they met again at the start of filming for Unconventional Love Story, he treated him coldly.

During scenes that required physical intimacy, memories of the hotel VIP room slipped through his carefully maintained composure, and genuine emotion surfaced despite himself.

But beyond that...

He had never intended to interfere.

Never intended to determine who was right or wrong.

Never intended to pry into another person's deepest wounds.

Never intended to expose someone else's secret out of some shallow sense of justice.

The truth was...

For one foolish moment...

He had seen his mother in Gyeol.

And that realization made him feel no different from the countless Alphas who had drifted through her life.

The twisted workings of his mind, warped long ago, had distorted his thoughts once again.

Logically, he knew the situations had nothing to do with one another.

But he couldn't silence the fear that perhaps some buried instinct still lurked inside him.

Those men.

The ones who had sometimes even raised their hands against him.

He had hated them.

Despised them.

Found them revolting.

And now every ounce of that hatred had turned back on himself.

He felt filthy.

So filthy it made him sick.

Simply because he couldn't stop thinking about Gyeol.

After that, he deliberately tried to cut Gyeol out of his life.

Just as he'd forced himself, over and over again, to close his eyes to everything involving his mother...

He tried to close his eyes to someone else's life as well.

Three years passed that way.

He deliberately avoided looking up any news about Gyeol.

He wanted Gyeol to remain as far away from his world as possible.

He wanted there to be no reason to think about him ever again.

Fortunately...

No news of Gyeol reached him.

That was simply the reality of an actor whose résumé consisted mostly of "Friend No. 3" and a handful of lines in minor roles.

Unless a top-billed lead actor went looking first, their paths would never cross.

During those three years...

Was Yo Han truly relieved?

People often say that trying not to think about someone only carves them more deeply into your mind.

Could Yo Han honestly deny that?

Then one day...

Gyeol appeared in his world again.

Yo Han had been visiting a filming set for a special guest appearance in another drama.

After greeting the cast and crew, he waited nearby while several supporting actors and veteran performers chatted together.

Someone brought up R-Connect.

The show's tenth-anniversary special was apparently recruiting celebrities and well-known public figures.

“I got an offer to come in as a late-entry twist. I almost said yes... but come on. Out of all dating shows, R-Connect? That's a pretty big commitment.”

“So if they contacted you, you probably know who's going on?”

“The only name I remember is Isu Yoon. The others weren't familiar... Oh, wait. There was one unusual name.”

“How unusual are we talking?”

“Something... Gyeol...? Oh, right. Gyeol Go.”

Gyeol.

The instant that name was spoken, Yo Han—standing only a few feet away—felt his attention snap toward the conversation.

“Huh? Gyeol Go?”

“You know him?”

“I've heard of him.”

“We were in a drama together years ago. Same one Yo Han was in. He had a tiny role.”

Veteran actor Kim Woori turned toward Yo Han.

“Yo Han. Remember him? Gyeol Go. Wasn't he in that drama Director Lee Sanghwi did with you?”

Pretending he'd been focused on something else the entire time, Yo Han slowly turned his head and smiled politely.

“I don't remember him.”