Chapter 156: Savior (4)

After dinner, Seo Yi-Seo and Han Ga-Ae were occupied with washing the dishes.

Creak.

Just then, the door of the room at the right end of the hallway opened. It was Kang Ra-Eun’s room. Yi-Seo and Ga-Ae both turned their heads in that direction, and were surprised due to Ra-Eun’s attire.

“What are you gonna do in that, Ra-Eun?”

She was wearing a rashguard instead of normal clothes. She had also tied her hair up in a bun.

“I’m gonna go for a swim,” Ra-Eun replied.

“At the beach?”

“No, in the pool.”

There was a private small swimming pool right in front of the cottage.

Splash!

Ra-Eun dived into the pool with water droplets splashing in all directions. Ga-Ae tilted her head in wonder.

“Why is she swimming in the middle of the night...?”

Unlike Ga-Ae, Yi-Seo had a vague idea.

“She must have a lot on her mind.”

“Why?” Ga-Ae asked.

“Because of what happened this morning, and well... maybe also about something else that we don’t know about.”

Even Yi-Seo, Ra-Eun’s best friend, couldn’t tell exactly what was on her mind.

***

“...”

Ra-Eun completely relaxed her body and floated around the pool. She was deep in thought as she looked up at the night sky. She did not have any worries, but...

‘I’m pissed off for some reason.’

She knew exactly who she was pissed off at. It was Seo Yi-Jun. However, she was not exactly sure why she was pissed off. As she was deep in unknown thought, Yi-Jun, the source of her annoyance, approached the swimming pool.

“Aren’t you cold, noona?” he asked.

Ra-Eun answered, “No.”

Yi-Jun smiled bitterly at her short and concise answer. He took a seat on the sunlounger next to the pool and glanced inside the cottage. The inner layout of the cottage was clearly visible because one of its walls was completely made of glass.

Kang Ra-Hyuk, Choi Ro-Mi and Na Gyu-Rin were chatting while watching TV. Yi-Seo and Ga-Ae were sitting together while going through the pictures that they had taken today.

Yi-Jun coughed to clear his throat and spoke first to break the awkward mood.

“Noona. Thank you for saving me this morning.”

Come to think of it, he had not even properly thanked her yet, so he had wondered if she had been mad about that.

“I wanted to tell you earlier, but I couldn’t find the right time to. I had to go straight to the hospital after, and you’d been busy dealing with that flock of reporters. It just kept getting pushed back more and more, and here we are now.”

Ra-Eun only listened in silence.

“I probably would’ve died before my discharge from the army if it hadn’t been for you.”

Yi-Jun couldn’t even imagine how much regret he would have felt if he had died as a soldier. If he died, he at least wanted to die after he was discharged and as a functioning member of society. However, Ra-Eun was still apathetic despite Yi-Jun laying out everything he had wanted to tell her.

Rather...

“Is that it?” Ra-Eun responded even more bluntly than before.

Yi-Jun hesitated, but then forced himself to speak with a face as red as a tomato.

“Umm... I heard from my sister that you performed... CPR on me.”

It was technically nothing more than a first aid measure, but Yi-Jun couldn’t help but feel embarrassed that their lips had touched since he liked Ra-Eun as a woman. As soon as CPR was mentioned, Ra-Eun felt her temperature rising despite being in the water.

“B-But don’t worry, noona! I won’t give it any deep meaning. Just because our lips touched doesn’t mean it was a kiss, and you only did it to save my life, nothing more, nothing less. So... I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing out of the blue?” Ra-Eun asked.

It was as if she was forcing him to tell her.

“Because it feels like I stole a kiss from you without permission,” Yi-Jun answered.

It had definitely not been intentional; it couldn’t have been helped, considering the situation. But even despite that, Yi-Jun wanted to apologize no matter what, because he knew very well what a kiss meant to a woman.

Ra-Eun’s expression relaxed a little, possibly because Yi-Jun’s feelings reached her somewhat.

The reason why Ra-Eun had treated Yi-Jun so curtly had something to do with that. She had never randomly kissed anyone before, not even in films or dramas. She had found the act of kissing a man extremely disgusting, so she had saved her first kiss up until now, and probably would have for the rest of her life.

Despite all that, Ra-Eun had been forced to give that first kiss to Yi-Jun. The kiss had absolutely zero affection behind it; it was nothing more than a first aid measure. However, she found it somewhat detestable that Yi-Jun was trying to make light of the fact that they had kissed, when it had been a very difficult decision for her.

“To tell you the truth, I was trying not to make a big deal out of it. I thought you would hate it if I did when it was nothing more than CPR, so that’s why I’ve been keeping quiet about it,” Yi-Jun expressed.

“...Really?”

“Yes. I know very well that you’d made a really difficult decision for me. If that was what you’d been sad about, then... I hope you'll cheer up.”

Ra-Eun suddenly moved in the water and splashed water on Yi-Jun.

“Whoa! N-Noona! This is my sleepwear...!”

“That’s what you get for pissing me off.”

Yi-Jun was completely bewildered by Ra-Eun’s water attack at first, but he immediately cheered up once he saw her blindingly radiant smile. That smile had been why Yi-Jun fell for her at first sight.

“Noona.”

Yi-Jun suddenly turned serious. Ra-Eun was dumbfounded by his sudden change in demeanor.

“What is it now?” she asked.

“You see, I actually...”

Just as he was about to confess to her, he hesitated for a moment and shook his head. He did not want his confession to be a product of being swept by the moment. He couldn’t let his determination of proudly confessing his love to Ra-Eun only after becoming a man befitting her, crumble.

Meanwhile, Ra-Eun sulked while pressing Yi-Jun. “What, you son of a bitch? Why didn’t you finish your sentence? You’re making me uncomfortable.”

Yi-Jun smiled awkwardly and changed the subject.

“I just had something I wanted to ask you, noona.”

“What is it?” Ra-Eun asked.

“I was wondering if you added your feelings for me into your breaths during the CPR,” Yi-Jun said jokingly.

Ra-Eun splashed water on him again.

“I guess you’re not all together yet after drowning. C’mere! I’ll plunge you in the cold water so you can come back to your senses!”

“I was just joking, noona.”

“You call that a joke?!”

Yi-Jun, in the process of brightening Ra-Eun’s mood, had brought about even greater anger instead.

***

Ra-Eun had gone to the beach to enjoy herself, but had returned as a hero who had rescued drowning boys, raising her reputation one level higher. Chief Jung couldn’t help but feel proud as Ra-Eun’s fame rose higher and higher.

“Your film shoots resume next week, right?” Chief Jung asked.

Ra-Eun, who had come to the agency, nodded with a deep sigh. Chief Jung couldn’t understand why she was sighing.

“Are the film shoots really that hard on you?”

It was his first time seeing her sigh over a shoot. He had seen her requiring time to adapt to an awkward or unfamiliar environment, but it had never seemed like she was having a painstaking time.

“It’s not that, but... it’s just for several reasons,” Ra-Eun answered.

There was actually only one reason: that the genre of the film was horror. Ra-Eun, having zero horror tolerance, couldn’t help but be afraid of the Shuttered?shoots. She was already trembling from the thought of having to face those ghosts again.

However, she couldn’t just declare that she would quit after coming this far. The shoot had been delayed for two weeks from the removal of a supporting actor, so it was highly likely that the film would be canceled altogether if Ra-Eun declared her departure from the production.

‘I have no choice but to suffer through it.’

Ra-Eun once again recalled Je-Woon saying that the more that one found something to be difficult, the more that they should tackle it head on.

Chief Jung asked while checking Ra-Eun’s schedule with Shin Yu-Bin, “You still have a few days left on your break. Do you have any plans?”

“No, nothing. I’m going to stay home for the rest of the break.” n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Ra-Eun had unintentionally gone through an ordeal during her trip, so she was planning on just shutting herself in her home without going anywhere.

“Okay. It’s starting to get pretty hot, so stay home with the air conditioner on,” Chief Jung remarked.

“That’s exactly what I’m planning on doing.”

Even today, Ra-Eun was planning on going straight home once she had finished everything she needed to do at GNF. However, her plans had been ruined due to a sudden phone call. She froze slightly as soon as she checked who it was.

Park Hee-Woo.

.

‘Why would noona...’

She wouldn’t know until she picked up the call. Ra-Eun got up from her seat and told Chief Jung and Yu-Bin that she would go take a quick call.

“Hello?”

- Ra-Eun? I’m sorry for calling you so out of the blue. Are you free to talk right now?

“Yes, I am. Go ahead.”

It was very rare for Hee-Woo herself to call Ra-Eun like this. They had called each other from time to time during the One of a Kind of Girl shoots since she had been the one to push for its production, but they no longer had points of contact. TP Entertainment that Hee-Woo was the vice president of, had absolutely nothing to do with the film Shuttered, hence her call felt even more out of the blue.

- Do you have time this evening?

“By evening, around what time do you have in mind?”

- Around 9 PM.

Based on the time, it felt more like an invitation to drink than for dinner.

- I know you’re not good with alcohol. I just... need someone to talk to.

It was the first time Ra-Eun had heard her flawless sister say something so vulnerable.

“Did something bad happen?”

- Bad... I guess you could say that.

“I understand. I’m free until the end of next week anyway, so I have plenty of time. But may I ask what it’s about?”

Ra-Eun asked just in case. It didn’t matter if Hee-Woo didn’t mention it on the phone, since she could just hear it this evening. Hee-Woo’s answer had been extremely unexpected for Ra-Eun.

- It’s about my little brother.