Chapter 99

The second most unbearable person imaginable came to stand beside Yo Han Sung.

What the hell is this now?

A curse rose automatically in his throat.

Woo Seok Jung pulled out a cigarette, grinning as he gestured lazily.

“Got a light?”

“......”

Everything about the way he carried himself was unbearably shallow.

Yo Han Sung had no intention whatsoever of lighting it for him personally, so he simply pulled a lighter from his pocket and handed it over.

“Oh. Nice lighter.”

The way his words blurred around the cigarette hanging from his mouth made him look even more pathetic.

Clicking open the gold Zippo, Woo Seok lit the cigarette and sucked on it noisily in short drags.

I seriously can’t stand looking at this any longer.

Yo Han Sung bent down and ground his cigarette out in the sand.

Holding the extinguished cigarette between his fingers so he could throw it away properly later, he rose to leave.

Woo Seok glanced sideways at him and spoke.

“Come on, stay a little longer. Don’t be cold like that.”

Did this bastard even realize who he was provoking right now?

“Should I?”

“I wanted to talk with you privately for a bit, Yo Han.”

Yo Han Sung had roughly noticed for some time now that Woo Seok Jung was constantly up to nonsense.

Reaching the top of a field in a short period of time required more than looks, talent, and effort alone.

Yo Han Sung had been born sensitive by nature.

He quickly detected shifts in atmosphere.

He read emotional changes instantly from people’s expressions and tone of voice.

He pierced through behavioral patterns and habits with frightening speed.

It was survival instinct.

There were things one naturally learned while struggling to survive in a foreign country from a young age beneath a useless guardian who existed in name only.

Back then, Yo Han Sung had never imagined those instincts would one day become weapons in his acting career.

Regardless, he made full use of them.

He observed people sharply.

Built a flawless image.

Delivered performances so immersive they bordered on method acting.

Which meant sometimes he noticed things he would rather not see.

Things he would rather not know.

Like Woo Seok Jung drifting between Omegas like a bat, testing the waters with every one of them.

At first Yo Han Sung dismissed him as insignificant.

But at some point, the bastard had started constantly circling around Gyeol.

And on top of that, Woo Seok was the reason Gyeol injured his hand.

And then—

“I think you misunderstood something, Yo Han. Gyeol almost fell, so I caught him.”

“You caught him because he almost fell?”

“Y-yeah.”

Yo Han Sung had seen that moment perfectly clearly.

He had watched Woo Seok gripping Gyeol’s wrist and intimidating him.

It felt like fire exploding inside his chest.

Even knowing the cameras were rolling, he had nearly let the mask slip.

If Hanseul Ga hadn’t interrupted and ruined the moment, things would have escalated one way or another.

Since then, Yo Han Sung had been watching this bat-faced bastard closely.

“Hah... seriously, cigarettes taste best when you smoke them looking at the sea.”

“Yeah. They do.”

Standing there staring at that newly assembled face by Yo Han Sung’s standards became tedious quickly enough that he pulled out another cigarette.

Woo Seok stared blankly while Yo Han Sung lit it.

“Damn. Even the way you smoke looks cool. Seriously, you could pass for a model. Yo Han Sung really is Yo Han Sung.”

“You flatter me.”

Yo Han Sung was currently debating how best to shut that mouth permanently when Woo Seok suddenly began glancing around restlessly.

Apparently checking for nearby cameras.

After confirming there were none, he stepped closer and lowered his voice.

“But about Gyeol.”

Even though they were contestants on equal footing, Woo Seok casually dropped Gyeol’s name without even the bare minimum courtesy.

The veins along the back of Yo Han Sung’s hand stood out faintly around the cigarette between his fingers.

“You don’t seriously think things are going well between you and him, right?”

“...What exactly do you mean?”

“No, I mean. Ahem. It’s awkward saying this myself, but I’m only telling you because I’m thinking about your reputation here. A guy like you not getting picked by an Omega? That’s embarrassing. And it’ll stay preserved on video forever.”

Yo Han Sung lowered his chin slightly and let out a breath through his nose.

It was unmistakably mocking laughter.

But this idiot seemed to interpret it entirely differently.

Judging by the smug expression creeping across his face.

“You should switch lanes while you still can.”

“Then who do you think Gyeol has feelings for?”

Yo Han Sung asked with a bright smile curling across his face.

He already knew exactly what answer Woo Seok was going to give.

He asked on purpose.

Pretending to think while ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) darting his eyes around, Woo Seok cleared his throat and pointed at himself.

“Ah.”

Yo Han Sung let out a completely soulless reaction.

Immediately, unease flickered across Woo Seok’s face.

“No, listen carefully.”

Everything that came afterward was utter bullshit.

“That thing you saw before too. I seriously was just catching him because he almost fell, but Gyeol kept acting all difficult for no reason—”

Yo Han Sung wanted to crush the bastard’s entire face in his fist and shove him into the sea.

“Woo Seok.”

He cut the rambling off sharply.

“If you’re talking about Gyeol like this, then I assume you must have feelings for him too?”

“Huh? Ah. Yeah, well.”

Though it was a simple question, Woo Seok’s face showed obvious confusion, as though he’d never actually thought about it properly before.

“Why do you like Gyeol?”

“Uh... well...”

“Because he’s pretty?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Because he’s popular?”

“Huh? No, it’s not exactly— I mean, obviously there’s a male instinct that wants to claim the popular female...”

Female.

He really said female.

That single word finally cracked Yo Han Sung’s patience beyond repair.

A powerful gust of wind roared across the shore.

Waves crashed violently at their feet with explosive noise.

Smiling beautifully enough to seem almost gentle, Yo Han Sung quietly asked his final question.

“Or is it because you want to get that disgusting dick of yours hard over Gyeol?”

His voice was so quiet the crashing waves swallowed it whole.

Woo Seok frowned deeply and cupped a hand to his ear.

“What? I can’t hear you over the waves.”

Yo Han Sung merely smiled with fabricated warmth and said nothing further.

Woo Seok stared at his face as though entranced before finally shaking himself out of it and dragging hard on his cigarette.

Yo Han Sung knew one of Woo Seok Jung’s secrets.

One late night after finishing an interview, Yo Han Sung deliberately took a secluded path through the forest.

He wanted a breather and intentionally chose a route outside the filming zone to take the long way back.

Because it was a deserted island, there weren’t even streetlights.

At that hour, absolutely nobody should have been passing through there.

Yet as he neared the lodging, someone’s voice drifted through the trees.

“Come on, babe. You really don’t trust me that much?”

Someone stood there clutching a phone in obvious distress.

Their voice kept rising, sighing, coaxing.

Clearly they were in the middle of a fight.

At first Yo Han Sung assumed it was one of the staff members because he couldn’t see clearly.

But the voice—

The irritating tone—

Somehow felt familiar.

Then moonlight crossed the man’s face.

Woo Seok Jung.

“Of course not. Cheating? Don’t say ridiculous shit. I only came on here to get my face known a little.”

Yo Han Sung had initially thought Woo Seok was simply a pathetic phone addict who couldn’t separate himself from his phone even during filming and checked it constantly during breaks.

Turned out there was another reason.

“Babe, seriously. I’m telling you, it’s not like that.”

Once Yo Han Sung caught the scent of it, he kept noticing things even without trying.

Woo Seok hurrying away the second a call came in.

Woo Seok disappearing every free period.

Woo Seok claiming he’d gone out for a smoke, only to return with his face oddly flushed every single time.

And not only that.

Every spare moment, Woo Seok sought out blind spots beyond camera range and frantically bit down on his lips while sending desperate texts somewhere.

Sneaking away to smoke or use a phone outside camera range wasn’t unusual among the contestants.

As entertainers, they constantly had schedules and work communications to manage, so production allowed a certain amount of flexibility as long as everyone stayed discreet.

Which meant Woo Seok’s behavior didn’t stand out much on the surface.

But to Yo Han Sung, who knew the truth behind it—

—it looked very different.

The memories of the past several days dissolved like sea foam.

Yo Han Sung exhaled a long stream of smoke.

Right then, Woo Seok pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen.

Yo Han Sung caught the movement instantly.

Apparently he’d even attached a privacy screen protector so people nearby couldn’t see the contents.

The display looked pitch black from the side.

But Yo Han Sung still saw it clearly.

That fleeting trace of discomfort crossing Woo Seok’s face.

Smoothly, Yo Han Sung pulled out his own phone.

“Yes, manager.”

Then, pretending to answer a call that had never come, he nodded politely toward Woo Seok.

Woo Seok returned the greeting with a stupid look on his face.

“Right. Ah, about that matter...”

Yo Han Sung naturally began walking away from him.

Feigning concentration on the “urgent call,” he headed in the opposite direction along the beach and slipped behind a rocky outcrop large enough to completely conceal his broad frame.

Yo Han Sung extinguished his cigarette, held his breath, and waited patiently.

Before long, he spotted Woo Seok on the beach talking to someone on the phone.

Woo Seok pressed a hand to his forehead in frustration before looking around cautiously.

Apparently checking for cameras or wandering eyes.

Then Woo Seok headed uphill toward the opposite side from where Yo Han Sung had disappeared.

Exactly as expected.

That side was a camera blind spot.

Yo Han Sung took a detour instead.

He moved soundlessly through the forest where no path existed.

Eventually he reached the lower trail beneath the hill where Woo Seok stood.

Dense midsummer foliage concealed him perfectly.

Woo Seok’s agitated voice drifted down overhead.

“No. Fuck. I’m not doing this just for myself, babe.”

Apparently he was trying to keep his voice down, but every so often anger broke through loud enough to strike Yo Han Sung’s ears clearly.

“What do you mean don’t become a final couple? No, seriously. None of this matters anyway. We just do the whole ‘surprise, we became the final couple’ thing and then—”

Yo Han Sung turned away without hesitation.

There was no reason to keep listening to such trashy conversation.

By the time he emerged from the forest and reached the path toward the lounge, a camera staff member and assistant producer came rushing over.

“Yo Han Sung! We’ve been looking everywhere for you. Filming’s starting again.”

“Ah, sorry.”

Yo Han Sung lengthened his stride toward the lounge—

—but the producer stopped him with another question.

“By any chance, have you seen Woo Seok Jung? You two are the only contestants missing.”

Yo Han Sung paused briefly.

Had Woo Seok finished his phone call?

Or was he still up there arguing with his lover?

“If you mean Woo Seok...”