Chapter 13

After finishing the Running with Jino.

Jino said he had other plans… and quickly headed back.

Well, we usually chatted for a bit after Running before heading home anyway.

But….

Yeah, normally I would have just thought that and moved on.

Lately, though, it’s been hard to brush it off that way. Hard to think of it as just another part of our routine.

Just yesterday, for instance.

While we were practicing acting at my place, Jino kept looking like his mind was somewhere else.

Of course, I heard that noisy vibrating sound too.

I don’t know what it was, but it kept wedging itself between us.

Then, even though we still had more Script left, he suddenly said he wanted to take a break first.

After that, he barely seemed interested in what I had to say, and just stared straight at his phone.

He’d never done that before, and I could chalk it up to that being possible. But considering how Jino has been acting lately… it’s hard not to let it nag at me.

When I brought up academies or private lessons, if it were the usual him… he wouldn’t have answered so dismissively. He would have mulled it over with me and shown more concern.

So in the end, I wondered what on earth he was looking at that all that attention was sucked into that phone. When I tried to sneak a peek, he quickly hid it in his pocket.

As if he didn’t want me to see it…. He never used to be like that.

I know it’s the Performance Evaluation Group Chat, but….

He never even properly told me who he was doing the Performance Evaluation with.

Usually… usually… well.

I guess I never really asked him about it. Then again, he’d never been that glued to his phone in front of me before either.

Haah, anyway.

The phone screen was perfectly fine, so why it suddenly ended up like that, he won’t answer even when I ask.

He always put things related to my dream, like the Audition, first, but now he suddenly says he’s busy and heads home.

The guy who would stay up all night with me at my place to calm my nerves when I was really tense.

That said, I don’t think he’s actually angry about what happened.

Right, as long as I don’t overthink it, he’s mostly acting the same as always.

So… what then?

“Ahyeona!”

Just as my head was heating up with all those thoughts, Sohee’s bright call snapped me back to reality.

Right, we had just finished Running with Sohee and were heading back together.

“Hm?”

My head was full of all sorts of stray thoughts, but I still answered with a smile.

Sohee was a really clean and pretty girl to look at.

The kind that naturally makes you want to take good care of her. So clean and transparent, like something that needed to be handled carefully. That was the impression she gave.

Like she’d be perfect for a pure, innocent female lead.

But… from that person’s mouth came something that really caught me off guard.

“Hey… is Gu Jinho like, your manager or something?”

From my perspective, that came completely out of left field.

What kind of thought process leads to a question like that?

I couldn’t keep up with Sohee as she blurted out that odd remark.

“What are you talking about…?”

“Hm? It’s just that he’s always taking care of everything around you. So I wondered if he was like a manager.”

Sohee looked at me like I was the one saying something strange.

Like I was the one who couldn’t immediately understand her question.

“Ah….“

I just let out a long drawn-out sound for a moment.

I think it was because I was flustered.

Even though she asked with such pure eyes, completely free of any malice, I couldn’t hide the embarrassment seeping into my heart.

“Of course not.”

Then I came back and answered properly.

And I thought that would be the end of that conversation.

“But seeing how he still takes good care of you even after… you know, you two having that kind of thing… don’t you think Ahyeon, he really, really liked you?”

Instead, she came back with a question that was a step, or maybe several steps, harder to handle.

I habitually lifted the corners of my mouth and let out a laugh using the vibration in my throat.

Then I opened my mouth with difficulty.

“Come on… it’s not like that. We’ve always been like this.”

I borrowed the phrase “always been like this” to get past the situation.

Yeah, that’s right. Jino has always been by my side, always cheering me on.

And that wasn’t because Jino liked me in a romantic way.

We’ve been close since we were kids. We built most of our past and memories together, so of course… this is just how he treats me.

Besides, I chose the path of acting because of Jino’s suggestion.

So our long history, our tight bond, isn’t a relationship buried under something as simple as love, some instinctual desire or primal emotion.

If it were like that, then in a world where Jino didn’t like me… we wouldn’t even be here nurturing our dreams together.

There’d be no future where we became this close over such a long time.

I don’t want to cheapen our relationship like that.

Haah, why did Sohee have to go and ask such a mischievous question.

“Really? Then I guess he’s just really nice. But then… you know.”

Sohee seemed to have more to say.

She started with that anxious preamble.

“Think I could try practicing acting with him sometime too?”

What came out of her mouth was that.

This was just as baffling.

I was genuinely curious why she’d make such a request.

“Huh…? Why? I don’t really mind, but….”

“Just curious. Jinho isn’t related to this field, right. So I want to see how he’d react to my acting.”

When Sohee put it that way, I could roughly understand what she meant.

She wanted to show it to a regular person and get their honest reaction.

Unlike me, she’s had even fewer chances to show her work to ordinary people.

“Yeah… I guess it’s fine. But there’s really nothing special about him. Honestly, I’d rather get feedback from a professional.”

“The teachers are so scary…!”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you know that feeling where you get so deflated you can’t even do what you planned?! After getting scolded hard… even the stuff you wanted to try in a different style suddenly makes you hesitate….”

“Ahh, I know what you mean!”

Still, I wanted to get feedback from a professional.

That’s not to say Jino wasn’t any help at all.

It’s just… I’ve never properly learned acting before.

What I’m like now, what I should do better. What to do in this situation, what to do in that one.

I wish someone would clearly point those things out to me.

“But just the two of you?”

Then I was the one who asked that first.

Thinking about it… they just met today, so wouldn’t it be awkward?

“Hmm… even so, it’s still a bit much for now. For now, I’ll come along when you practice and try it out.”

“Yeah, that works.”

I felt a sense of relief somewhere.

Hearing that she’d make plans with me instead of just the two of them.

I really didn’t know why that sudden relief flooded my chest, and I was flustered not knowing where it came from.

***

After finishing Running, I went home and washed up right away.

I’m busy. I need to eat breakfast and get ready.

Right, I had to talk with Yena about the Performance Evaluation soon after.

I finished getting ready in a frenzy and headed to the café around 10 AM.

“Hi.”

Yena had already arrived and was sipping on her coffee.

Her outfit today wasn’t anything weird like last time.

Thank goodness.

Honestly, I was a little worried she might show up here in that kind of outfit too.

I sat down across from Yena and immediately pulled out my laptop.

“How much time do you have?”

“Until 1 at the latest?”

“Oh, plenty of time. Okay.”

With that… I turned the laptop toward Yena to show her the ideas I’d only sketched out on my own.

Since I was proposing to cut the rap part, I needed to sell her on the alternative.

I had no choice but to be desperate here.

“Anyway… if we go for something like track 3….”

And so, I briefly explained my concept.

“So the original song feels upbeat because of the drum rhythm, but really, the mood is wistful and melancholic… right?”

“Yeah, right. That’s what I like about it.”

“So I mentioned doing a Ballad Version.”

“Yeah.”

“If we do that… instead of keeping the rap, it’d be better to go something like this.”

Next, I pulled up a Ballad Version video I’d found and put it on the screen.

I thought it’d be a good reference.

Yena looked back and forth between the laptop and me.

“What do you think? Is it good? Me playing piano for that part.”

“Yeah, it’s fine, but… do you think piano is the best?”

Well, that was a fair question.

An acoustic version definitely exists too.

But no matter how I looked at it….

“I think piano suits that emotion better than guitar accompaniment.”

That was my take.

If we’re playing the main melody, then violin would be better than guitar.

But then it’d just be an instrumental performance.

So for accompaniment, I judged that piano, with its richer expression, was the way to go.

“Okay. But… I didn’t know you were into music.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s just… well, you seem like you know your stuff.”

She was building up to a compliment, then suddenly ended with a lukewarm response.

Anyway.

“So… we’ll follow that vibe and arrange the piano accompaniment, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m good with that. Ask Yeonju too.”

***

I also met with Yeonju on Saturday afternoon and we talked it over.

She also responded positively to the approach I suggested.

With that, our group naturally kicked things into gear.

We each went home, and Yena and Yeonju came to an agreement and divided the parts, while I comfortably memorized the sheet music.

Watching the Performance Evaluation come together so smoothly, I went to sleep with a quiet sense of pride.

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Sunday morning, 7:30 AM.

I came out for a run with Choi Ahyeon as usual, but….

“Hi!”

For some reason, Choi Ahyeon was nowhere to be seen, and Lee Sohee was just standing there alone.

Honestly, I thought yesterday would be a one-off thing, so… this was a bit unexpected.

Especially since she seemed so worn out yesterday.

“Where’s Choi Ahyeon…?”

“Oh, she said she forgot to buy water… so she went to get some.”

“I see.”

Sohee already had water in her hand.

Looks like she came prepared today.

Anyway… I ended up alone with her again, unintentionally. Awkwardly.

At this rate, I’d have to be the one to start a conversation.

But as if she’d sensed my worry, Sohee’s lips wriggled for a moment before.

“Jinho, if you don’t mind… could you take a look at my acting sometime?”

She looked up at me and said that.

“Me…?”

I was so taken aback by the sudden remark that I asked back, looking down at her with wide eyes.

Then, Sohee pulled something out of her pocket and stretched her hand out toward me.

“This is my thanks for getting me water yesterday!”

Chocolate…?

In Sohee’s tiny hand was a chocolate bar.

Thanks for yesterday… thanks….

Those words kept lingering in my ears. The fact that even something so ordinary came with a thank-you.

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