Between Us is X - Chapter 1

“I’ll do the test first.”

The camera director said loudly, eyes fixed on the monitor.

“You two, just act natural.”

Two chairs were placed side by side in the middle of ‘s showroom, where vintage furniture was harmoniously displayed. A man and woman sitting there were framed in the square screen.

The man wore a simple short-sleeved T-shirt and ripped jeans. His hair naturally covered his forehead without any signs of styling. Despite the seemingly casual style, he stood out. It was thanks to his features that were handsome separately and even more perfect together.

The woman next to him wore a silk blouse and slacks. Her careful selection was evident down to the small earrings. While her wavy brown hair and round eyes gave a somewhat soft impression, her gaze and upright posture exuded a unique aura.

PD Park Jin Won smiled with satisfaction as he watched the two-shot that somehow matched well despite their contrasting styles from appearance to fashion.

‘At least we’ll generate buzz with the visuals, right?’

The program about to start its first filming, , was a real variety show subtitled “Work and Love, Love and Work”.

They planned to interestingly capture the daily lives of four ordinary couples who were both lovers and colleagues, literally having both work and love.

One of those couples was the pair before him.

Kim Joo Han and Sun Eun Soo.

A same-age couple working together in a vintage furniture shop with a unique yet cozy atmosphere.

PD Park took his eyes off the monitor and looked at Joo Han and Eun Soo.

“No need to be nervous. Just speak and act comfortably like you normally would.”

“Okay.”

“Alright, let’s start filming now!”

The surroundings quieted down and a cheerful slate sound rang out.

PD Park, sitting across from Joo Han and Eun Soo next to the camera, said:

“Could you two please look at the camera here and give a greeting?”

When Joo Han gestured lightly as if to say ‘you go first’, Eun Soo nodded almost imperceptibly and opened her mouth.

“Hello, I’m Sun Eun Soo, manager of .”

“I’m Kim Joo Han, the CEO.”

“First, what does the name mean?”

Joo Han calmly answered, hands folded on his crossed legs.

“It means ‘life, living’ in Spanish. My father named it, as he thought furniture was an art that could be directly touched and encountered in daily life. He ran it himself until two years ago, but I suddenly inherited it when he passed away.”

A brief silence fell. The camera zoomed in on Joo Han, and PD Park asked again.

“I see. Then how did you come to work together with Eun Soo?”

“Since I was someone who had been doing a completely different job, I was very lacking in experience and preparation at first. But I didn’t want to hand it over to someone else, so I asked Eun Soo to work together somehow to keep it going. Eun Soo knew a lot from working at an interior design magazine.”

“Eun Soo, how did you feel when you received that offer?”

‘Are you out of your mind? Why would I work with you?’

Eun Soo’s lips quivered slightly as she recalled the harsh words she had hurled at Joo Han back then. But she quickly composed her expression.

“I refused at first. I’m the type who likes to separate work and personal life. But I was originally very interested in vintage furniture, and I had coincidentally quit the magazine for other reasons at the time, and above all…”

Eun Soo turned slightly to gesture at the showroom.

“As you can see, it’s so cool. I thought it wouldn’t be bad to work while seeing what I like every day.”

At that moment, Joo Han leaned slightly towards Eun Soo.

“Does that include me by any chance?”

“Huh?”

“The things you like.”

Joo Han grinned at Eun Soo.

“You see me every day too.”

Damn… coming in hot without even signaling first?

She almost blurted out harsh words at the comment that bordered on a pickup line. Eun Soo tensed her lips and lightly smacked Joo Han’s thigh.

“Ah, haha… saying such things in front of the camera…”

“Oh my, what are you saying?”

PD Park quickly interjected.

“Those are exactly the kind of things you should say in front of the camera.”

The PD laughed, the staff laughed, and Joo Han laughed. Unable to be the only one not laughing in that atmosphere, Eun Soo pretended to laugh while clenching her molars.

The PD asked again.

“So you’ve been working together for about 2 years since two years ago, right?”

“Yes.”

“Do you get along well as colleagues? How would you evaluate each other professionally?”

Eun Soo answered first.

“I think he’s a responsible and reliable CEO. As I said earlier, he struggled a lot at first, but he’s come this far through efforts that anyone would recognize.”

“Eun Soo is a person absolutely necessary for in many ways. She plays the role of balancing the overall picture and direction well. The company runs fine even if I’m away for a month on business trips, but it wouldn’t function without Eun Soo.”

Joo Han concluded with a smile and turned to look at Eun Soo. Feeling his gaze, Eun Soo also turned her head.

Their eyes met briefly, then they simultaneously looked away and back at the camera.

“We’ve talked about work, so shall we talk a little about love? How long have you two been together?”

Joo Han answered.

“We were in the same class in our second year of high school. We stayed friends for a while, then I remember we decided to see each other differently around the summer when we were 22.”

“Wow, so since you said you’re both 29 now… it’s been almost 7 years?”

“Um… there was a period when we broke up in between.”

Joo Han awkwardly rubbed between his chin and neck. Eun Soo added with an awkward laugh:

“We’ve been back together for about a year.”

“I see… I’m curious about the story behind that.”

Joo Han naturally reached out and took Eun Soo’s hand.

“If we have a chance to talk about it while filming.”

Eun Soo, who had flinched imperceptibly, silently smiled.

All her attention was focused on the held hand. It felt so awkward to have her hand casually held like this, yet she was confused by how familiar the size, temperature, and feel of this hand still was.

‘Was this a mistake after all?’

Deep regret washed over her. But what’s done was done, and the cameras were still rolling.

‘I must be crazy. What was I thinking, pretending to be a couple with a guy I broke up with 3 years ago!’

Meeting in high school, dating from age 22, and then breaking up – it was all true. Only the part about reuniting a year ago was a lie.

Their relationship had completely ended. On a certain day when they were 26.

Yet they had no choice but to put on this show because of…

Those events from 2 years ago flashed through Eun Soo’s mind.

[This is the timeline separator] [2 years ago]

Wow, yesterday’s me has done another terrible thing to today’s me…!

As soon as she woke up, Eun Soo clutched her throbbing head and was engulfed in bitter regret.

Last night, she had let loose with her best friend Sol Hee after a long time. The beer drunk as a palate cleanser, the soju drunk in earnest, and the wine drunk for dessert churned in her stomach, crashing against her head.

“I’m sorry… I won’t live like this again…”

While making repentance to no one in particular, Eun Soo fumbled for her phone and paused.

Above the clock screen showing it had just passed 10 AM, she saw a line of an unread message floating.

[Thanks for saying that. Sleep well.]

Huh? What did I say?

For a moment, it felt like all the blood drained from her body.

Eun Soo blinked rapidly and looked at the screen again. She hoped she had seen wrong due to her hangover, but the sender was definitely Kim Joo Han, the name of her ex-boyfriend she broke up with a year ago.

“What, what is this…”

Did I meet him yesterday? Did we happen to see each other and even talk but I can’t remember?

No, no. I definitely drank with just Sol Hee. I remember coming out of the wine bar, each of us taking separate taxis, and even opening my front door and coming in. That’s exactly where my memory cuts off, but.

Then maybe…

Eun Soo unlocked her phone with trembling hands and checked the call log. Then she immediately screamed.

“Ahhh! What is this!”Just a few hours ago, exactly at 2:13 AM today, there was a record of a call with Joo Han. She had even made the call herself.

What was even more frightening was that the call lasted a whole 7 minutes, and the most terrifying thing was that she had no memory of it at all.

“I must be crazy…!”

Eun Soo, who had somehow ended up on her knees, held her throbbing head with both hands and tried to recall anything.

‘Why did I call? What did I say on the phone?’

The only clue was the two sentences Joo Han had left.

Thanks for saying that. Sleep well.

‘What did I say? What is he thankful for? Wait, is this really thankful, or is he being sarcastic? Is “sleep well” just a casual remark, or is he telling me to just go to sleep? I have no idea!’

On the verge of tears, Eun Soo reached the point of blaming the innocent Joo Han.

‘Ah, why does he even answer a call from his ex-girlfriend at this hour! Why is he even talking for 7 whole minutes!’

As she was pondering how to deal with this situation, her phone buzzed and rang loudly in her hand. Eun Soo startled, thinking it might be Joo Han, but sighed in relief when she saw it was someone else.

“Hello?”

― Oh, Eun Soo. Do you have a moment to talk now?

It was Yoon Ki Woo, her senior who was the academic society president in college. He had been so well-connected that there was hardly anyone on campus who didn’t know him, and even after graduation, he was an amazing networker who maintained friendly relationships with all those people.

― I heard you quit the magazine company?

It had been just a week since she threw in her resignation letter at the interior design magazine where she had worked for a little over a year. She had barely told the whole story to her best friend Sol Hee just yesterday, and she had no idea how he already knew this news.

“How do you always know these things, senior?”

― I have my ways. Anyway, do you have somewhere else lined up right away?

“No. Got any leads?”

― Did you leave your job search to me? Why are you so shameless?

“Please call it confidence. Anyway, I didn’t leave it to you, but it seems like you have something to offer me?”

― You’re really something.

Ki Woo laughed and got to the point.

― It’s not a permanent position but a temporary part-time job. If you’re okay with that, could you help out? It should be finished within 2 weeks to a month.

“What is it?”

It was work for the movie promotion company Ki Woo ran. He had started in a small office and recently moved to a more impressive place, but he said they hadn’t yet moved the materials left in the old office.

― It’s all piled up haphazardly. I thought we should properly check and organize it this time.

After hearing the general explanation, Eun Soo readily agreed. It didn’t sound bad to just leisurely organize materials alone in an empty office after all the employees had moved.

After hanging up, Eun Soo stumbled out of bed. The overwhelming feeling that had been momentarily forgotten while talking to Ki Woo came rushing back.

‘Judging by the time, it wasn’t just a wrong number that I hung up on. What did we talk about? What did I blabber on about, self!’

But even after showering and opening a delivery app to order hangover soup, her mind was just foggy. She searched her phone records further just in case, but there was nothing helpful.

She couldn’t contact him again to ask.

What if he thought it was a ploy when she really couldn’t remember?

After glaring at Joo Han’s message for a long time, Eun Soo finally gave up on everything and pushed her phone away.

‘Forget it. Whatever it was, let’s bury it. It’s not like I’ll see him again anyway.’

But, as always.

The world was not so accommodating.