Chapter 888. Sequence 14

“Sorry, my phone was not working for a second. I get what you mean so later.”

-If you’re angry because the shoot didn’t go well, I’ll apologize in her stead.

“It’s not even your fault. Also, the shoot went well. It looks like you’re misunderstanding something. It went so well that I couldn’t think of it as my first ever TV show. I didn’t know that I would do so well. Though, there is the fact that I’ve received help from many places.”

-Really?

“Yes, I’m telling you. I actually got along with Miss Hamin quite well, so the shoot ended quite delightfully. I’m not sure what made you worry about me, but don’t waste your energy on useless things. We aren’t close enough to do things like that. It’s about time we stop asking each other how we’re doing, don’t you think? We’re worse than strangers.”

-What got you so mad now? Aren’t we close friends? Oh yeah, are things going well with senior Suyeon? You two seemed to be in a good mood from what I saw last time.

Hamin immediately recalled Kim Suyeon when she heard the name ‘senior Suyeon.’ During the shoot, there was a phone interview with Suyeon as well. It was just her instinct, so there was a chance that she was wrong, but her instinct was on the more accurate side. Were he and Suyeon not just close but actually lovers? She wanted to pretend like she didn’t hear it because it was a very private matter, but Giwoo’s voice was way too loud.

Maybe he was fine with his romantic relationships being exposed? Or maybe he was expressing that there was no special relationship between them? Maru kept waving around the napkins in his hands and continued the talk,

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Did you see me that day?”

-Right, that was a private room, wasn’t it? I’m sorry if I annoyed you. There’s no way I mentioned it to get on your nerves, right? It was just a mistake, so please understand.

“So these days, you can smack a person and be forgiven if it’s a mistake?”

His voice was sharp to the point that it made her face prickle. Maru spoke as though he was incredibly angry, even though he was waving around napkins in the air. His face was smiling, but his voice was growling like he was about to wrestle with an opponent. Incomprehensible things were unfolding right in front of her. Why was it that Maru was pretending to be angry? And why was it that Giwoo’s voice contained more and more hints of laughter the more intense Maru’s false anger became? And also, why did Joohyun look like she was in disbelief, with her eyes twitching and everything? Everything about this brought up questions that she wanted to know the answers to.

-Let’s have a drink together some time, with Gaeul too.

“Not happening. If you wanna drink, then drink by yourself. Play a video or something. I heard that drinking alone these days isn’t as pitiful as before.”

-Don’t say that and….

Before Giwoo’s words even ended, Maru pressed the end call button. Hamin had a lot to ask. Just as she was about to ask one of the questions floating in her mind….

“You’re going out with Kim Suyeon?” Joohyun abruptly stood up from her chair and asked.

She approached Maru without hesitation. She crossed her arms and looked down at Maru, and she looked like she would not hesitate to use violence depending on his answer. Hamin swallowed the question floating around in her mouth. Joohyun’s eyes were too scary for her to speak right now.

“A man and a woman can date, yes. I hate that woman so much, but it’s between you two, so let’s say that it can happen. But what about Gaeul? You’re real trash if you make such a good girl cry like that.”

What was this now? She found out two secrets that she didn’t want to know about. She even wanted to leave the room. She felt like she would get to hear all sorts of things if she kept staying here. She had the confidence to keep secrets since she wasn’t the type to spout sensitive topics, but there would be nothing good for her to know about another person’s sensitive romantic history. She felt uncomfortable, but her head still decided to organize the situations in her head. Maru was dating a person named Gaeul, and he was two-timing her with Kim Suyeon? Or did he wrap things up with her and was dating Kim Suyeon anew? Seeing Joohyun’s response, it was likely that he was two-timing.

The situation suddenly turned dynamic like it was a morning drama. Was she supposed to stay still in a corner without saying anything? Just as she felt rather embarrassed and started fidgeting with her fork, she recalled a woman, an actress, who both Joohyun and Giwoo were acquainted with and went by that name. Coincidentally, that actress was shooting the same drama as Giwoo and Hamin herself. It wouldn’t be strange for Joohyun to know about her if she was an actress too. The pieces suddenly fell into the right positions. Hamin subconsciously blurted out,

“Are you perhaps talking about the actress Han Gaeul?”

The one who showed a response was Joohyun. She denied it immediately as though she just remembered that Hamin was here. To Hamin though, that sounded like ‘yes.’

“Is this a confession room? Sensitive topics are flying around everywhere.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows and sighed. Hamin had to become awkward without even any time to admire her own deduction skills.

“I’m sure you aren’t the type of person to blurt other people’s stories out like the absurd guy we just called, right?”

“I’ll pretend like I never heard it. I’ll even forget about what I just said.”

“You can’t pretend like you never heard it when you did hear it. Just don’t talk about it anywhere. I’m not asking your conscience for this request. If what you heard here somehow ends up in Kang Giwoo’s ears or rumors about it spread around, I will make you very uncomfortable with all the means at my disposal. I’m not joking. I hope that such a thing doesn’t happen, I truly do. If what you heard here ends up getting spread outside, a person very important to me might get into trouble. I am quite tolerant when it comes to malice that’s directed at me, but I cannot stand any form of malice towards my person.”

For a brief moment, she was reminded of the Maru that she saw during the shoot. He had the eyes of the murderer that he acted. At the same time, he had the eyes of someone who was desperately trying to protect something. He was reminiscent of a guard dog that would neither bark nor bite unless one approached the fences. If she tried putting her hand between the fences even as a joke, she would definitely get bitten.

“I will absolutely not say it anywhere,” she said in resolve.

She didn’t have any intentions of telling others about this in the first place, but she felt like there was a need to establish some trust by expressing herself loud and clear so that she didn’t get bitten by him and could get along with him in peace.

“We’re both in a position where getting exposed means trouble, so let us both be careful. First, noonim, do you think I’m crazy enough to break up with Gaeul? It’s nothing like that. I replied like that during the call just now because of some circumstances.”

Maru gave Hamin a glance while mentioning ‘circumstances.’ He meant that he would tell her the details later because Hamin was here. Hamin wished for him to do that. Her heart couldn’t tolerate any more of Maru’s secrets.

“Fine. I’ll trust you for now. But does Gaeul know about this?”

“Yes. I’ll explain it to you later.”

“You’ll have to explain it properly.”

“I don’t dare lie to you. Also, Miss Hamin, since it came down to this, allow me to tell you something. You should only involve yourself with Kang Giwoo for business needs. He might be treating you nicely now, but he will mercilessly cut you off with a smile if things go wrong. I’m sure you understand a little after that call just now.”

Maru pointed at his phone. She was once again reminded of Giwoo’s voice. Not even a minute after she ended her call with him, he called Maru and exposed everything while probing him. That was definitely not nice. Giwoo’s ever-so-nice first impression started crumbling.

“Kang Giwoo, huh. I’ve never seen him after meeting him during the shoot for the movie ‘Building,’ but he’s known to be quite a gentleman, isn’t he? Now that I think about it, Gaeul was there too,” Joohyun said.

“He’s a mood maker. He treats people nicely too.”

“They say you can never know what someone is thinking, and I can see that rumors can’t be trusted after all. I can see how worthless he is from what you showed me just now. Miss Hamin. People can lie and change their words in life, right? I mean, I’ve lived like that too. It’s actually quite hard to speak what’s on your mind. But someone who knows manners would not change their words on a whim just like that because of a phone call. I’ve experienced much dirtier things than what you can probably imagine, and the people who stand at the center of such matters change their words every second for the sole sake of their convenience.”

Hamin nodded. He turned what she clearly remembered into a simple ‘misunderstanding’ and did not hesitate to call the related person just to mock him. She could not interpret this in a good way at all. Even the most optimistic person would swear if they were put in the center of this scenario.

“But what you said to her just now was going overboard. You sounded like a typical villain,” Joohyun said while pressing Maru's forehead with her index finger.

Maru replied as though he only did what was natural,

“You know that I’m human trash. Miss Hamin. You know that likes repel, right? The reason I despise Kang Giwoo so much is because he’s also human trash. You should respond well and squeeze out the recyclable bits before throwing him away. That’s the most beneficial relationship with him.”

“I’ll put those words to memory.”

“Don’t forget what I said too. I was definitely not joking.”

“I’ll also remember that as well. I don’t want to be in an uncomfortable position either. But now, the things I told him and the things you told him are completely different.”

She told Giwoo that she had given Maru a blow during the shoot, while in reality, the two of them got along so well that they talked to each other a lot throughout the show. If Giwoo watched the show and called after that, she would not know how to respond.

“Just tell him that you told him that because you wanted to look good in front of him. Princes like being lifted onto a pedestal. Giwoo probably thinks that it’s natural for you to treat him like that. As long as you can respond to that well, there won’t be a big problem. He’s probably feeling smug right now thinking that he’s given me a blow,” Maru said.

Hamin committed those words to memory. She thought that she could make use of it later. Just what was the relationship between the two? To consider them as enemies, Giwoo sounded too nice. Maru played along with him to a certain extent as well.

“Er, can I ask one more thing?”

“What is it?”

“Are you really dating Miss Han Gaeul?”

“Yes. You heard everything, so I guess there’s nothing to hide anymore. But why are you curious about that?”

“Because a friend of mine is really close to Miss Gaeul. I’m not entirely sure because I only heard a few things from her, but I heard that she was too busy to meet up with her nowadays.”

“Someone close to Gaeul? Who is it? I think I might know her too.”

“It’s Yoojin. Lee Yoojin.”

Maru exclaimed ‘ah’ the moment he heard the name.