“Did you work with the president longer than I did? Unlike me, he must have taught you a lot.”

President Jang only laughed in response to those words. His lips trembled noticeably, but Joo Han pretended not to see.

Soon after, President Jang rose from his seat.

“I have someone else to meet in Seoul. Let’s set another date and meet again.”

Joo Han silently bowed his head in greeting, and writer Hwang lightly saw him off.

Then Joo Han also got up.

“I’ll be going now too. Good luck with the exhibition preparations.”

“Yeah. See you then if nothing comes up.”

Leaving writer Hwang’s studio, Joo Han drove towards .

But when he was about halfway there, the steering wheel started shaking unusually. Joo Han immediately pulled over to the side of the road. He turned off the engine and tried to start it again, but it wouldn’t start.

“What’s wrong with this thing?”

After looking around to no avail, Joo Han gave up, opened the door and got out. He was about to open the hood when he noticed an unusual burning smell. He immediately called the insurance company and leaned against the car.

‘They said they’ll be here within an hour, so let’s just endure a little. I should be able to go today.’

He was airing out to calm his bubbling irritation when a call came. Hoping it might be the insurance company saying they could come a bit faster, Joo Han froze for a moment when he saw the caller.

She seemed to have finally checked the message he had left after trying to call her to talk about the broadcast. Joo Han took a small deep breath and answered the phone.

“Yes.”

– A broadcast. What won’t you do these days? Are you trying to become a celebrity now?

Her hoarse voice was laden with sharp fatigue. Joo Han, who would have normally brushed it off, stared at the far end of the road and replied.

“You’re the same as always. Nothing’s wrong, right?”

– I won’t say much. Stop adding work and wrap things up appropriately and come back.

“You seem busy, so I won’t say much either and hang up now.”

It was too short to be a call, and ended with each of them just saying what they wanted to say. It wasn’t anything new as it was always like this, but a throbbing headache came over as usual.

A stifling sigh escaped from Joo Han’s mouth as he was left alone in the middle of the road.

After work, Eun Soo went home, changed into light workout clothes, and went out again.

‘I should be able to lose a little within 3 weeks, right? They say you look puffier on camera than in real life.’

Eun Soo became desperate as she suddenly realized the first filming was less than a month away. It was going to be on TV after all, and once a video is made, you can’t get rid of it even if you want to, so she wanted to look decent if possible.

After a rough stretch, Eun Soo started jogging lightly towards a nearby park. But before her body could even warm up, she spotted Joo Han walking towards her from up ahead.

‘Oh shoot, this neighborhood resident…!’

Eun Soo tried to make a quick U-turn, but Joo Han called out to her first.

“Where are you going?”

She had clearly seen him driving off earlier saying he had an appointment, so why on earth was he walking over here now of all times? Eun Soo grumbled inwardly and replied with a purposely nonchalant face.

“Exercise.”

“Exercise?”

Joo Han, who knew Eun Soo only did breathing and walking as exercise, narrowed his eyes.

“From now on, I’ve decided to run for an hour after work. I think my stamina has gotten too low.”

“So you’re going to quit drinking from now on, exercise, and live a long and healthy life.”

“Of course.”

“But isn’t it too early to overdo it?”

“What do you mean too early? I’m turning thirty next year.”

“That’s not what I mean. Why are you already setting things up like that when there’s no camera?”

“Hey, what do you mean setting…”

Eun Soo, who felt needlessly stung, flared up. Joo Han, who seemed to be thinking about something, lightly cracked his neck from side to side.

“Let’s go together.”

“Go together where?”

“I’ll exercise a bit too after a long time.”

“All of a sudden?”

Eun Soo looked Joo Han up and down. He was wearing a neat shirt with well-fitting jeans and canvas shoes that came up to his ankles. It didn’t look uncomfortable, but it didn’t look comfortable enough to exercise in either.

As if reading Eun Soo’s thoughts, Joo Han said:

“Let’s just run.”

And he started running first. Eun Soo also quickly followed after him, saying “Uh, wait.”

Joo Han headed to the park on his own. It wasn’t the atmosphere to chat while running side by side, so Eun Soo focused on running in silence. But unexpectedly, trying to keep up with Joo Han’s pace, she was out of breath after barely one lap.

‘I wasn’t planning on doing it this intensely, but because of that long-legged guy…!’

Still, a needless sense of pride kicked in, not wanting to fall behind, so she managed to run a couple more laps somehow. Eun Soo stopped first near the entrance, and Joo Han stopped almost at the same time.

“Huff, huff… Ugh, huu…”

Eun Soo, hands on her thighs and bent over at the waist, let out all sorts of colorful breathing sounds. On the other hand, Joo Han only had a slight sweat on his forehead and looked calm.

“Do you have water?”

Joo Han asked, flapping the front of his shirt with one hand. Eun Soo, who had barely caught her breath and straightened up, shook her head.

“You came empty-handed even though you said you were going to exercise?”

“The exercise I had in mind wasn’t… No. Forget it.”

Eun Soo sat down on a nearby bench as if deflated. Joo Han silently laughed at her and turned his body.

“Wait a minute.”

Whether he did or not, Eun Soo leaned back and finished catching her breath.

After a while, something cold tapped Eun Soo’s cheek and fell off as she was sitting with her eyes half closed. She looked back, startled, and Joo Han handed her a beer can he was holding in one hand.

“I accidentally grabbed the wrong thing while trying to buy water.”

“Yeah, well… It’s a common mistake.”

Joo Han sat at the end of the bench, keeping some distance from Eun Soo, with a bottle of water and his own beer in his other hand. Eun Soo, momentarily captivated by the coolness of the damp can, frowned.

“But isn’t it pointless to drink beer after working out so hard?”

“Give it to me if you’re not going to drink it.”

“On second thought, if I drink it and run back home, it might be useful. I’ll drink it well.”

Joo Han couldn’t help but laugh.

“Come to think of it, didn’t you say you were quitting drinking?”

“Beer isn’t alcohol. It’s a grain tea made from barley. It only has a measly 5% alcohol.”

“You’re talking nonsense about grain tea. 5% is more than your conscience.”

Eun Soo took a sip of beer without even pretending to listen. Then she added in a roundabout way:

“But you can’t tell Lee Jae Rim that I drank beer. The stakes are quite high.”

“Let me calculate which side will give me more first.”

“You’ve become quite the businessman.”

Eun Soo carefully observed Joo Han’s profile as he sat with one arm casually draped over the bench, bringing the beer can to his mouth.

She had brushed it off earlier because she was in a daze, but the more she thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed. Suddenly appearing and unexpectedly running, then chugging beer on the street even though he didn’t lose. It was unlike Joo Han’s usual self.

‘Something must have happened.’

She could tell just by looking at his expression. It was something that naturally showed through, having known each other for a while, but she didn’t really want to act as if she knew. They weren’t in that kind of relationship anymore.

But…

“What happened?”

Damn curiosity gently pushed down her pride in the end.

Joo Han, slightly taken aback by the point-blank question, turned to Eun Soo. After briefly reflecting on the ‘things that happened’ today, he opened his mouth.

“I met President Jang Hyun Man at writer Hwang’s house.”

“Must have been quite a mood killer. What did he say when he saw you?”

“He congratulated me on getting the contract. Said the young man has better skills than it seems.”

“Better than it seems? Well, he did see you as quite a pushover at first. He’s finally admitting he misjudged you.”

“Then on the way back, my car suddenly broke down.”

“Since you’re here like this, it doesn’t seem like you got into an accident. Did you have it towed for repair?”

“Yeah. I took a taxi back. And when I said I’m going to be on a TV show, I got scolded for doing all sorts of pointless things and asked if I’m going to become a celebrity.”

“Whether the president does a broadcast, promotes, or debuts, there are always people who have to say twisted things first. What a tangled mess.”

Joo Han fake coughed.

“It was my mother who… said that.”

“Jeez.”

Eun Soo almost spilled the beer she was about to drink.

She thought it was President Jang who said that!

Why didn’t he put the fact that it was his mother who said it at the very beginning instead of adding it at the end, making her look like a jerk?

Eun Soo gently put down the beer can and calmly added:

“It seems she was trying to warn you in advance to be careful and not get carried away, keeping in mind that many people catch celebrity disease after being on TV once. I twisted her good advice to be humble.”

“What are you…”

Joo Han, who was about to say there’s no way that’s the case, burst out laughing as soon as he saw the subtle proud expression on Eun Soo’s face. It clearly showed she thought she handled it well.

“Why are you laughing? Are you mocking me right now? Oh no, look. My ears have become so twisted like this.”

Joo Han’s laughter finally erupted at Eun Soo’s second attempt at smoothing things over. He laughed for a while, bending over at the waist. Eun Soo, who was watching him blankly, muttered:

“Has he gone crazy? I hope it’s not contagious.”

Joo Han, who had barely stopped laughing, faced Eun Soo.

“Thank you.”

“All of a sudden? For what?”

“Just because.”

It wasn’t just because, but Joo Han himself couldn’t properly explain it either.

That what seemed like the worst day melted away with a few words from Eun Soo. All the irritation, anger, frustration, and despair that had piled up all day and risen to his throat.

He definitely couldn’t say things like you always did that in the past too, that you easily untangled and melted things without even knowing.

“In return, I won’t tell Jae Rim that you drank beer today.”

“What? So you were seriously considering telling him until now?”

Joo Han silently gathered the empty cans and stood up. Eun Soo stared intently at Joo Han’s broad back as he strode towards the trash can, then scratched her cheek.

“Whatever it was, it seems to be all resolved now.”

A few days later, on ‘s day off.

Eun Soo woke up to the sound of an alarm ringing even earlier than when she goes to work.

“Ugh… I barely slept…”

They had successfully wrapped up the previously planned sale event, and a shipping container had arrived in the middle, so everyone stayed up almost all night sorting it out together. Thanks to Yoon Bin, the number of customers had noticeably increased and every day was busy. So after finally getting a day off, sleeping all day would be insufficient, but that was impossible.

– Send me some photos. They’ll be used as materials. You know, boyfriend/girlfriend shots? Ones that feel like you took them for each other work too, and you definitely need some photos of you two together looking affectionate. Make up a setting like you went somewhere and did something, or it was some special day. Take them as naturally as possible.

After hearing Sol Hee rattle off those instructions, Joo Han and Eun Soo pondered and finally decided to set aside a day to fulfill all those requests.

They planned to fabricate a year’s worth of dating records by changing locations and outfits.

Sol Hee told them to send as many as possible, but they didn’t have the energy for that. They decided to go with the setting that they don’t have many left since neither of them uses SNS much or likes taking photos.

It was a story based on reality. Even when they were actually dating, they didn’t have much captured in photos or videos, so a fleeting memory passed by of thinking there wasn’t much to delete or erase after breaking up.

A fake date to prove a fake relationship.

It definitely wasn’t exciting, but it made her unnecessarily nervous and tense, causing her to lose sleep. She repeated like a mantra that it was nothing to be thrilled or look forward to, but her nerves that had become sensitive for no reason didn’t easily calm down.

Just then, Eun Soo’s cell phone rang. Thinking it was the alarm, Eun Soo was about to turn it off right away, but she hesitated when she saw Joo Han’s name.