NUTMEG 5

“He went to take a call.”

Just then, Department Head Shin came in and sat in the seat next to Choi Wonoh.

“Ah. Then we’ll have to wait a bit. Wonoh, this is Cheon Minje, the friend I brought in the other day.”

“Ah.”

“I think you said you were twenty-three, Mr. Minje?”

“…Yes.”

“He’s a year older than you. It’s his first time acting, but the teacher for Class A was praising him, saying he’s gotten so much better lately.”

“Ah… haha.”

Despite Department Head Shin’s efforts, there was no sign of the frozen expression on Minje’s face thawing. It felt as though Choi Wonoh might knit his brows at any moment and say, ‘Stop acting like an omega and get out.’ Seeing Minje so stiff, the two men seemed to decide to just kill time with idle chatter and began talking about this and that in their lives.

“Come to think of it, they said you have to shave your head for the movie.”

“Not shave, just cut it short.”

“The fans are going to cry. Doesn’t Department Head Eunyoung do your hair? I’ll have to have a meeting with her.”

“We’re meeting tomorrow, as a matter of fact.”

“Ah. Mr. Minje, if you happen to do this movie, you’ll have to shave your head too.”

Your long bangs look pretty right now, what a shame, Department Head Shin said, seemingly trying to include the dazed Minje in the conversation. Shave my head? Cut it short? Hearing that, Cheon Minje momentarily had a foolish thought.

“……Wouldn’t I look too ugly then?”

“…Huh?”

What is he talking about, Department Head Shin seemed to mutter, and at the same time, Choi Wonoh brought a loosely clenched fist to his mouth.

“Pfft!”

Minje stared, mesmerized, at Choi Wonoh’s face as he laughed out loud. It was only after that that his face turned red. It was a face he had only ever seen on screen. When he laughed, the features filling his small face were instantly suffused with life, shining radiantly. After laughing like that for a while, Choi Wonoh caught his breath for a moment and then said, his face still tinged with amusement.

“Ah, what the hell. This kid is funny.”

Choi Wonoh was looking at Minje and smiling.

“What do you mean, ‘kid.’ I told you he’s older.”

“Minje? Min-je? How do you write it?”

With Department Head Shin telling him it was written with the character ‘je,’ and Choi Wonoh nodding in front of him, Minje could only blink his eyes, unable to believe what he was seeing.

“Ah, I’m sorry. The call took a while. What were you all doing?”

Director Im, who had returned after finishing his call, saw the strangely relaxed atmosphere and looked around at the three men’s faces, unable to guess what had happened. Department Head Shin spoke to Director Im.

“Director Im, I think Wonoh has taken a bit of a liking to Mr. Minje.”

“Really? That’s great. Then should we just sign the contract right away?”

I’m so tired, Choi Wonoh cut off the director, who was whining in a way that didn’t suit his large frame.

“We have to see his acting. He’ll be acting with me.”

“As if you wouldn’t. Do you know how many times you’ve rejected the guys I’ve brought in after going through so much trouble? I just hope he’s to Choi Wonoh’s liking, please.”

Muttering, Director Im sat down and took notes with a pen while listening to Department Head Shin give him Minje’s basic personal information. Watching the situation unfold before him like a sitcom, Minje realized that his tension was gradually easing. Just as his awareness of it being an audition was starting to fade, Choi Wonoh reached across the table and, in an instant, was standing beside Minje.

“There are no assigned lines and no stage directions. Shall we just talk comfortably, like we’re talking to a friend? I’m sure you have the fundamentals of acting, so I can help bring that out on set, and I think the most important things are the chemistry and look of the two of you together.”

The director’s following words scattered lightly past his ears. He couldn’t hear Department Head Shin saying they were starting the recording either. Minje’s eyes were completely filled with the profile of Choi Wonoh, who stood so close their shoulders could touch.

His brown hair, set lightly with just a bit of wax, rustled below his eyebrows. Choi Wonoh, who seemed to have no other schedules, was wearing no makeup, and even the fine hairs on his transparent skin were visible. Following the line of his high-bridged nose and well-shaped eyebrows, his long eyelashes blinked beneath a sharply defined brow bone.

Minje’s eyes greedily traced his face, like a person feeling hunger. The next moment, when the light-colored eyes turned toward him, he was startled and quickly lowered his gaze. A small drop earring glittered in Wonoh’s ear as he looked down at Cheon Minje.

“You can start when you’re ready.”

After a small, dry cough, Minje looked at Im Kihwan across the table and spoke.

“Um… could you give me a simple scenario?”

“Go ahead.”

“Wonoh… Mr. Wonoh and I have fought, and we haven’t made eye contact all day at school, but on the way home, I’ll try to get Mr. Wonoh to stop being angry with me.”

Im Kihwan looked at Minje with a strange expression.

It was a setup he had pieced together from his memory of a short sequence in the movie that revealed the relationship between the two. The one thing completely different from the movie scene was that, in reality, the one who was angry was Choi Wonoh’s friend character, and the lines he was about to say were Choi Wonoh’s lines. In other words, Cheon Minje intended to imitate the acting of Choi Wonoh, which he had seen dozens of times and remembered down to every last syllable.

Thud. Minje nudged Choi Wonoh in the side with his elbow.

“Hey, Choi Wonoh. Are you still sulking?”

After spitting out the first line, he realized he had started without even saying he was going to begin. Cold sweat trickled down his back, but Choi Wonoh retorted as if nothing was wrong.

“About what?”

“It’s because I didn’t take your side earlier, that’s what this is about. Are you protesting?”

Wonoh’s eyes rounded with a peculiar glint.

“I don’t remember.”

“You’re messing with me.”

As he said this line, Minje wrapped his arm around Choi Wonoh’s shoulder. In the movie, it was an arm-around-the-shoulders gesture, but trying to put his arm around the shoulder of Wonoh, who was bigger than him, made the posture awkward. At the unexpected physical contact, Wonoh’s large upper body swayed toward Minje. At the same time, a look that seemed to say, ‘Look at this guy,’ was directed at Minje.

“Let’s go to a PC bang for the first time in a while. I’ll treat you to cheese ramen.”

“You’re messing with me.”

Choi Wonoh mimicked the line Minje had said earlier.

“So you’re not going?”

“I’m going.”

A hint of a smile was in Choi Wonoh’s eyes as he brushed off the hand on his shoulder.

The next scene is at the PC bang… how far should I go? He thought, glancing at the table, and his eyes met Director Im’s, who was staring with his mouth open.

“Ah, sorry. I was just so surprised. There’s a scene similar to this in the movie. Well, it’s not a particularly unique scene or anything, but…”

It was natural for the director to be surprised. He had followed the lines from the movie almost exactly. It seemed that Choi Wonoh’s completely different retorts, perhaps because the script wasn’t finished yet, had actually made it look more natural.

“No, but this is really strange. How did Mr. Cheon Minje say the exact lines I was thinking of?”

“So, Director, are we watching more or not?”

Seeing the confused Director Im, Department Head Shin stepped in to direct traffic. Meanwhile, Choi Wonoh stood beside Minje, grinning and looking at him.

The guilt of having cheated on a test that should have been conducted fair and square, the anxiety that he might reveal his pheromones to Choi Wonoh who was standing right next to him, and the nervousness of his first audition all mixed together chaotically. Minje secretly wiped the sweat from his palm on his pants and waited for the director’s next words.

“This is just something I want to see. Mr. Minje, could you do an improv, maybe a setup where you were training with a friend, but only the friend gets an offer to go pro, and you give him a congratulatory speech mixed with jealousy?”

This was also a scene from the movie. Minje quietly recalled the scene and mentally altered the lines so they wouldn’t be too identical.

“I’ll try.”

And so, under the director’s orders, they exchanged lines for nearly two hours. At some point, Minje too began to feel that the Choi Wonoh in front of him was like the character he’d seen in the movie, so by the time they were finishing, he was able to deliver a few natural lines that weren’t in the movie.

“Sorry for keeping you both so late. Watching you two exchange lines just sparked so much inspiration. I deliberately threw out some of the parts I was stuck on. Wow… it actually works.”

Director Im scratched the back of his scruffy hair with his ballpoint pen, letting out exclamations of admiration one after another. Then, his eyes gleaming from behind his horn-rimmed glasses, he looked at the three of them.

“If you all have time, would you like to have a drink? To commemorate our meeting today.”

🍊

“Cheers!”

“Cheers, cheers~!”

Draft beer glasses and sake cups clinked together in a tangle. Minje was sitting with the three men in a pub in Cheongdam-dong, near the office. It was a high-end izakaya where the private rooms were spaced far apart.

Minje was so conscious of Choi Wonoh sitting next to him that he was tense to the point of not being able to turn his head even 1mm in his direction. After staring blankly at the three men lost in chatter, he felt thirsty and wet his throat slightly with the draft beer.

“I’ve never seen anyone not get nervous in front of Wonoh before.”

“It’s not the first time. The first kid was swearing and hitting him, remember?”

“He was just overdoing it because he was so nervous.”

“…I was nervous too.”

Feeling he had something to correct, he interjected in a small voice, and a silence fell over the table. Ah, I must have said something to kill the mood. Feeling dejected, Minje resolved not to say anything more and clamped his lips shut. And at that same moment, a burst of laughter erupted.

“That was you being nervous?”

Choi Wonoh’s long fingers lightly tapped Minje’s chin as he passed by. It happened so fast that Minje stared at him with wide-open eyes. Choi Wonoh, looking to be in a good mood from the alcohol, had a constant smile on his face. It was the same for Director Im sitting across from him, who grinned foolishly and took Minje’s side.

“I think Mr. Minje seems funny in a subtle way because he speaks so sternly and seriously.”

“Oh, that’s right. Mr. Minje, you were really stern when I first scouted you in Haebangchon, too. Remember?”

“What did he say?”

“You’re being blunt, Choi Wonoh. I asked, ‘Have you ever thought about being an actor?’ and you said, ‘No, I have not.’”

He shouldn’t have answered. As the topic of conversation unexpectedly shifted to him, Minje could feel his face gradually getting hot.

“Then why did you join?”

Choi Wonoh asked, propping his chin on his hand at an angle and looking at Minje. The spot where his gaze landed felt like it was on fire.

“He said he’d come when I told him it was One Entertainment, where Choi Wonoh is.”

Ugh.

With nowhere to hide, he ducked his head low, and Department Head Shin giggled, “Why, are you shy because he’s right here? Don’t worry. There are a lot of people like you, Mr. Minje.” He was curious what kind of expression Choi Wonoh had while hearing this, but on the bench-style seat with no armrests, he couldn’t do anything, afraid that even turning his head would make their shoulders touch. The four of them clinked their glasses again. Feeling that he wouldn’t be able to endure this gathering without alcohol, Minje gulped the beer down his throat.

“Anyway, I’m so excited because you both seem like funny guys. The chemistry when you two stand together is so good too. Wow, the number of people Choi Wonoh has rejected until now…”

“You’ve worked hard, Director Im.”

“What hard work did you do, hyung. I’m the one who worked hard. Juggling my official activities, reading lines with the guys you picked out, looking over profiles.”

“That’s Choi Wonoh for you. Never lets you get the last word.”

“……Excuse me, but have I been cast in the movie?”

As expected, his words made the table go quiet again. Ah, let’s really not say anything from now on… He had been secretly curious, so he had presumptuously interjected again. Feeling embarrassed, he lowered his eyes again, when suddenly a large hand reached across the table.