NUTMEG 14

“What are you talking about.”

“He ran off because you glared at him. That guy couldn’t even go to the restroom.”

“That’s not it.”

Wonoh chuckled, stroking the area where the back of Minje’s head met his nape, then gently squeezed and released it. The man’s sharp attitude had been uncomfortable, and thanks to Wonoh, he had avoided having to force out an answer he didn’t want to give, so Minje had no intention of asking for more details.

Standing side by side at the sink, Wonoh used his long fingers to casually tousle his short bangs. Standing next to him, it was clear that Wonoh was a good bit taller than him. How tall was he? Since he was still in his early twenties, he might grow even taller. Minje, too, was on the very tall side for an Omega. That’s why in his past life, he had lost an extreme amount of weight to look more like an Omega, and his agency had even registered his profile height as shorter.

Only after he finished fixing his hair did Wonoh nonchalantly continue.

“It’s him. The one who was acting like an Omega last time.”

“……”

“Hyung. The lighting director said there’s a problem, so we’re going to eat lunch first and then shoot. Let’s eat something other than the food truck today.”

He felt a bit resentful for some reason. It was because the man he had found uncomfortable overlapped with his past self. The words that had been swirling only in his throat finally managed to escape his lips when they had passed through the entire set hallway and Wonoh was looking for an umbrella in front of the exit.

“…He might not have done it on purpose.”

“Done what?”

“That Omega from before.”

A large black umbrella popped open with a whoosh, and Wonoh naturally took Minje’s elbow to pull him close to his side. As he followed him, taking a step forward, the sound of the coolly pouring streams of water hit his ears. Thud-dudududu. The sound of the rain hitting the surface of the umbrella was fierce.

“When I went to the smoking area, he released his pheromones mixed with the smoke. How is that not on purpose? Just now, he didn’t get any pheromones on you. It’s because you’re a Beta, so you don’t know.”

“……”

“Are you on my side, or his side?”

Wonoh got a little angry, as if he was upset that he hadn’t taken his side. Minje said nothing more, and Wonoh walked in silence with the silent Minje before stopping in front of a white van and opening the door.

Inside the van were two paper bags from a porridge specialty shop. Minje’s eyes widened at the unexpected menu. Wonoh, saying he was sick of the set’s food truck, would often call Minje to eat franchise pizza or food from a famous restaurant together, so he had naturally assumed it would be the same today. Why porridge? Is Wonoh’s throat sore too?

Minje, feeling a bit self-conscious, opened his bag. Inside was warm vegetable porridge. When he put a spoonful in his mouth, he could feel his scratchy throat gradually easing.

Come to think of it, Wonoh had every right to be angry. He hadn’t believed his friend and had suddenly taken the side of an Omega whose name he didn’t even know. Minje stirred the vegetable porridge with his spoon, glancing at Wonoh, who was sitting across from him eating red porridge. Would it be too much to say he was sorry? Just then, Wonoh spoke first.

“I have a schedule tomorrow morning, so I’m going to Seoul. I think I’ll be going back and forth for a while.”

“Ah… really?”

“Yeah. So sleep comfortably.”

“Huh?”

“Isn’t it because you’re not sleeping properly that you’re sick?”

Minje was at a loss for words, just staring blankly. It was true that his condition had worsened because he hadn’t been sleeping well, but he hadn’t expected him to be this concerned. Just as he felt that the sound of his foolishly pounding heart was too loud, Wonoh continued in a serious voice.

“If you’re sick, hyung, it’ll affect the filming. When I said before that you don’t take care of yourself, this is what I was talking about. I think taking care of your condition is also part of a professional’s job.”

At those words, his cheeks flushed as if a fever had risen. Wonoh was giving him serious advice as a senior in the entertainment industry, and yet again, he had deluded himself into thinking he was worried because he was sick. Really, what’s wrong with me these days? Minje mumbled a small, “Sorry,” then buried his head and focused on finishing his porridge. From the seat across from him, Wonoh watched his face intently before picking up his own spoon a beat later.

🍊

It must have been one of those days where nothing went right, as delays continued one after another. Just when they finished setting up and shot one scene, a lighting fixture would go out in the middle, and then the microphone would be the problem. As the waiting time dragged on, fatigue began to show on the faces of the energetic extras.

And Minje’s condition was even worse. Due to the continuous rain, the humidity was high, and the set’s air conditioning had been running at full blast since morning. He had thrown on a cardigan he found lying around in the costume room, but with the fatigue that had piled up over the past few days and the beginnings of a cold, the thin summer cardigan wasn’t much help. His body had warmed up for a moment thanks to the porridge, but the effect had long since worn off.

“Damn it, what’s with today? Is this place really haunted?!”

Director Lim, who was killing time while waiting for the microphone to be replaced, was nervously bouncing his leg. The days for shooting with the student extras were few. Unlike other extras, they were ‘Jaeho’ and ‘Eunsung’s’ classmates, so the cast couldn’t change, and for that reason, they had to finish the scheduled filming within the set dates. Director Lim seemed on the verge of going crazy with anxiety over the situation, which had already been delayed for over four hours.

“What should we do, assistant director? Should we perform an exorcism??”

The assistant director, who had been running back and forth to check on the setup, was caught by Director Lim and was being shaken left, right, forward, and back. Minje chuckled at the sight of them. They had been perfectly fine until the youngest member of the sound team, who claimed to see ghosts, had said something pointless to him earlier.

When Director Lim had jokingly asked if there was a ghost sitting on the lighting fixture, that kid had said in an eerie voice, “There isn’t one ‘on the lighting fixture’.” Needless to say, Director Lim, with his large frame, had let out a shrill scream. No matter how you looked at it, it just seemed like the kid enjoyed teasing Director Lim.

It looked like this setup would also take a while. Minje pushed his heavy body up and went to find the script he had left in the dressing room. Just sitting there blankly because he felt unwell seemed to make him feel worse. He always had his script with him during waiting times, but today, even looking at the letters seemed to make his head ache, so he had put it back in his bag.

But the script he took out of his bag was very strange. It was significantly thinner, as if parts of it had been torn out in the middle. And the parts that were torn out were where his own lines were, the sections he had especially put effort into memorizing and highlighting.

“……”

He was already feeling unwell, and having to deal with this kind of crap made him instantly annoyed. Of all days, there were a lot of extras today, so many unspecified people were on set, and since everyone used the dressing room, anyone could have come and gone. He would have been more careful usually, but anyway, it was because he wasn’t feeling well and his head wasn’t working properly.

“What’s wrong with the script.”

He had just brought the script in that state to the set and was flipping through it when Wonoh approached, drinking an iced Americano. Instead of answering, Minje just gave a small shrug. He was angry at himself first for foolishly failing to take care of his script, and he was also too tired to retort.

Wonoh tucked the iced Americano he was drinking under his arm and snatched Minje’s tattered script, flipping through it. He, too, must have realized at once which pages had been torn out. Wonoh’s expression twisted fiercely.

“Isn’t this the work of that Omega bastard?”

“……”

It wasn’t that Minje hadn’t thought of it. It was the first time someone on set had been sharp with him, and it happened this morning, and of all days, his script, which had been perfectly fine all this time, was torn.

But Minje didn’t want to admit with his own mouth that it was the ‘Omega’s’ doing. He didn’t want to keep giving Wonoh the impression that Omegas do bad things just because they are Omegas. In reality, there was no physical evidence, only a strong suspicion, so when Minje said it was okay, Wonoh only raised his handsome eyebrows once and didn’t add anything else.

In the end, filming for the day was wrapped up just like that. It was already 2 a.m., and with the equipment malfunctioning one after another, Director Lim had judged that it wasn’t a day to stubbornly push through filming.

Choi Wonoh, who had to go to Seoul, left first with his manager, and Minje returned to the dorm with Im Kihwan after finishing the cleanup.

“Ah, Minje. Here.”

Just as they were about to go to their respective rooms after saying their goodbyes, Director Lim handed him a few small paper boxes.

“I heard you’re sick. Wonoh told me to give you these.”

They were medicines. Candies for sore throats, cold medicine, fever reducers, and headache pills. Minje stared blankly at the medicines for a moment before belatedly adding a thank you to Kihwan. Kihwan smiled and said, “You should thank Choi Wonoh,” before going into his room.

Minje washed up thoroughly with warm water and took the medicine Wonoh had given him. Then he picked up his phone and hesitated for a long time. A simple thank you via KakaoTalk would do, but he had never sent him a message before, so he was confused about whether it was okay for him to do so. In the end, after long deliberation, he put his phone down. He could just tell him in person tomorrow. For some reason, sending a message first felt much more difficult than talking face-to-face.

The bed felt soft after not having laid on it for a long time. It felt like a night where he could fall asleep without even dreaming for a change.

🍊

The next day’s shoot was at a boxing gym set.

He arrived earlier than his call time and was greeting the staff when he saw a familiar face in the corner. In terms of time, not even ten hours had passed, but he was so happy to see him, as if it had been a long time, that Minje quickly moved to where he would be in his line of sight.

“Wonoh. Thanks for the medicine yesterday.”

At his greeting, the squatting Wonoh looked up and smiled brightly. He had said he was coming after a morning schedule, and he was already in makeup and costume. He was wearing a baggy plaid shirt in a mix of refreshing blue and purple over a white t-shirt, which made his shoulders look even broader than usual. Wonoh was squatting and filming a video, chuckling continuously.

“What are you doing?”

“Look at Kihwan hyung. He’s been at it like that for a while.”

Following his gaze, he saw Director Lim sprinkling white powder in every corner of the set. To be precise, he was piling it up like little mountains. When the assistant director stepped on the powder without seeing it, he immediately got angry. Seeing that, Wonoh started laughing out loud. At the sound, Director Lim whipped his head around and spoke as if possessed.

“I looked it up online yesterday. They say salt is the best for chasing away ghosts!”

The identity of the white powder was coarse salt. He had thought he’d left early in the morning, but it turned out Director Lim had bought salt on his way here. After piling salt in every corner the camera couldn’t reach, Director Lim satisfyingly straightened up and called for the youngest member of the sound team. That kid glanced over and said, “Oh, how did you know about this?” then smiled mysteriously again and disappeared to do his work.

“Argh. That brat won’t tell me properly whether it’s effective or not. I’m going crazy, Minje.”

Seeing Director Lim ruffling his shaggy hair in agony, Minje finally burst out laughing too. Director Lim, who was watching him and Wonoh laugh together for a good while with a disgruntled look, chased them out to the dressing room, saying, “You two, hurry up and get ready!”

“Looks like you slept well today.”

Wonoh, who was walking ahead down the hallway to the dressing room, said as he looked back at Minje.

“Your voice isn’t hoarse anymore either. Today’s an important shoot, so that’s a relief.”

“Yeah. I’m all better after taking the medicine.”

“I’m going to Seoul again after we finish today. I have a variety show taping tomorrow, so I’ll probably be back the day after.”

Minje silently nodded his head. It meant he could sleep alone like today. He had said he had a regular variety show taping once every two weeks, so it probably wasn’t that he was intentionally making way for him. But before, even when he had a schedule in Seoul, he would always come back to Paju, so maybe he was being a little considerate after all. Minje needlessly scratched the back of his neck.

“Did you talk to the production team about getting a new script?”

Wonoh asked as he wiped off his nicely done makeup with a cleansing wipe, since he was filming the movie almost bare-faced. Minje said while buttoning up his uniform shirt.

“No, I don’t think I need to get one.”

“Why?”

“I’ve already memorized the script anyway.”

It was a bit upsetting that all his notes were gone, but he didn’t feel the need to get a new one.

“Ooh.”

Wonoh, sitting down in front of the makeup vanity, gave a thumbs-up for no reason. Seeing the makeup team start to work on Wonoh’s hair, Minje left the dressing room and looked for Director Lim. Director Lim, who was leaning against his director’s chair with his name embroidered on it, greeted Minje with a bright smile. Looking at him today, his shaggy hair looked like it was about to cover the back of his neck completely.

“Director, could I possibly try the scene in various ways today?”

“Oh, of course. Why so suddenly? You always have it all planned out.”

“But you might not like it… If so, I’ll do it the way I usually do.”

“Sure, sure. Anything Minje does is completely, everything okay~.”

Usually, Im Kihwan acted like a bit of a simpleton, trembling at ghost stories and acting as gentle as a cow, but when he was directing, he was more serious and sharp than anyone.

When he had cast Minje, his words, ‘You just need the basics of acting. I can pull out the rest on set,’ were not just empty talk. He fundamentally enjoyed pushing actors to their limits. It seemed some actors shook their heads, calling it a crude method, but on this set, everyone, including the veteran Ms. Yeonja, was receptive to it.