Between Us is X - Chapter 36

‘I won’t say it was a mistake. I won’t lie and say I don’t remember. Although it’s a bit fragmented, I… remember.’

At that time, Ki Woo had an expression I’d never seen before. It was a different face from the unfamiliar one in the fragmented memories I saw last night.

‘But I want to act like it never happened. Let’s do that. I think that would be better for you too, senior.’

After standing still for a long time, Ki Woo said:

‘We can’t pretend something that clearly happened didn’t, so let’s just say I made a mistake. Since it’s my mistake, as you said, there’s nothing you need to take responsibility for. Alright?’

Amusingly, just a few days ago, Ki Woo and I had talked about whether it was possible to make a ‘mistake’ because of alcohol.

Our opinions were mostly similar. Mistakes are things like dropping something or falling, how can coming in on your own two feet and taking off your clothes with your own hands be a mistake? There’s a reason for the saying “in vino veritas”.

You might not remember, but even when you can’t remember, you still moved according to your will.

[…That’s how it was. I thought, human affairs are truly unpredictable.]

Over Ki Woo’s voice on the screen, the sound of knocking overlapped. Sol Hee turned around with a start.

“Jang writer, you were watching our footage.”

PD Park pulled up an empty chair and sat next to Sol Hee.

“I just snuck a peek at another team’s footage too. How’s ours?”

“It’s tough.”

“Really? What? Why?”

“Having to watch a friend’s love life… Ah, I really don’t want to know.”

“Oh, so that’s why it’s hard? You surprised me.”

PD Park lightly hit Sol Hee. Sol Hee also grinned.

“It’s good though. I think we should give the comedic bits to this side. It feels the most natural.”

“That’s true. But Jang writer. Our team is all good, but there’s one problem.”

“A problem? What is it?”

PD Park’s expression became somewhat serious.

“It’s about Joo Han and Eun Soo…”

[This is the timeline separator]

The next day, there was the first shoot where all four couples gathered together.

They said each team would take turns being the host, and the first hosts were a couple who ran a clothing shopping mall called together.

The four couples, a total of eight cast members, gathered at the building where the office was located.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Nam Mi Rae.”

“I’m Choi Hyun.”

Mi Rae and Hyun, co-CEOs of the shopping mall and fashion influencers, were both tall with bodies that seemed to need no photoshop, and their hip and flashy style suited them perfectly.

‘Ah, so this was the team that had a lot of couple items.’

Eun Soo thought this while looking at the unique necklaces they were wearing, the large rings and bracelets, and shoes from the same brand.

“We’re all on the same program but we’re just meeting for the first time. Please sit over here.”

“The office is a bit chaotic, right? It’s usually even more chaotic, but we cleaned up a bit because special guests were coming. Haha.”

Their first impression was so strong it was a bit scary, but Mi Rae and Hyun’s tone and behavior were bright and gentle. Thanks to that, the awkward atmosphere typical of strangers meeting for the first time quickly dissipated.

Today all the staff were here too, so there were many cameras. Even the writers, including Sol Hee, were all out. While it wasn’t a secret that she and Sol Hee were friends, it didn’t seem like something to make a fuss about either, so they had just exchanged eye greetings earlier.

Mi Rae looked at Joo Han and Eun Soo with an interested gaze.

“This must be the vintage furniture shop owner and manager couple. Right?”

“Yes. Nice to meet you.”

“I couldn’t see a single photo of you two. You both don’t use personal SNS and only have the store account. And even there, there are only furniture photos.”

Eun Soo nodded.

“That’s right. We both don’t use SNS. We don’t really like taking photos either…”

“Really? Mi Rae and I love both taking photos and being photographed, so we’re always taking pictures and playing around. We post several times a day too. Right?”

Hyun, the tallest but youngest boyfriend who was a year younger than even Mi Rae, nodded with a bright smile. It was such a gentle smile that it seemed a bit mismatched with the tattoos covering both his arms.

Eun Soo looked at Mi Rae and Hyun sitting side by side. They were sitting separately, but the chairs were right next to each other, and Mi Rae was linking arms with Hyun, so their upper bodies were in close contact.

As if that wasn’t enough, their legs were also intertwined towards each other up to their calves. This posture that made them look like one body seemed so natural, as if it were a habit, that it didn’t look awkward at all.

Eun Soo’s eyes shifted surreptitiously to the side. Next to Mi Rae and Hyun sat the patissier and barista couple who ran a dessert cafe together.

The two, who used formal speech with each other despite the “oppa” title, had their interlocked hands resting on the woman’s thigh.

Next to them was the veterinarian couple who ran an animal hospital. They gave off an intelligent and stable impression, and the man’s hand was resting on the woman’s shoulder, sometimes playing with her hair or lightly massaging the back of her neck.

It seems like this guy and I are the only ones not even touching fingertips?

Having made this unnecessary realization, Eun Soo tensed up.

She remembered what Sol Hee had said earlier when they met briefly outside just before joining here.

‘Hey. They say your couple lacks skinship too much. PD Park said so. Of course not all couples can be passionate, but if you’re holding back because of the cameras, he hopes you won’t be conscious of them.’

Sol Hee, who knew the reason better than anyone, had a troubled expression while relaying this. She also grumbled that PD Park’s eye for detail was unnecessarily sharp.

When Eun Soo, feeling embarrassed and a bit wronged, protested that surely they were at least average, Sol Hee heaved a deep sigh.

‘You might think you’re average out of 100, but for others, it’s above average out of 500 right now.’

Seeing it with her own eyes, she understood exactly what that meant.

Apart from deliberate acts, there’s no unconscious, everyday skinship.

Of course, it didn’t seem like anyone here would deliberately measure who was doing skinship and who wasn’t. Even if they were conscious of it, no one would go as far as to think, they don’t seem like a real couple because of that.

Still, if they saw a scene with all four couples filmed together, there might be a sense of incongruity. Thinking that far, she started to become extremely conscious of it.

Swallowing dry saliva, Eun Soo leaned towards Joo Han. As Joo Han turned around feeling her presence, Eun Soo lightly touched his thigh with one hand. She could feel the already firm muscles tensing like stone under her palm.

Eun Soo leaned in close and whispered softly in his ear.

“Hey, touch me a bit.”

“What?”

“Look. Right now, the wind’s only blowing between you and me.”

Eun Soo removed her hand from his ear and thigh and moved away. Joo Han, who had frozen to the point of holding his breath, understood Eun Soo’s words after a long delay.

Joo Han shifted his hips slightly towards Eun Soo while keeping his chair in place. Then, just as Eun Soo had done earlier, he raised one hand to his ear and whispered.

“How far are you hoping to go?”

“What?”

“I’m asking how well you want to rank among the teams. Just avoid last place? Go for the middle? Or since we’re doing this anyway…”

“You two over there, aren’t you in too much of your own world?”

One of the cast members jokingly called out. Joo Han and Eun Soo separated with awkward smiles. Inwardly, they were thinking something like, we pulled that off.

Only on Sol Hee’s face, watching from afar, did the words ‘Whatever that was, that’s not it, you idiots’ appear and disappear.

Mi Rae naturally led the atmosphere.

“By the way, I’m curious about everyone’s reason for deciding to appear on the show. Other than for promotion purposes, which is too obvious.”

After some light laughter, everyone gave their answers. Finally, Joo Han opened his mouth.

“I thought there wouldn’t be many chances to leave a record like this.”

Joo Han continued speaking with one arm on the chair backrest instead of Eun Soo’s shoulder.

“As I mentioned briefly earlier, Eun Soo and I don’t really like taking photos. But… there are times when I regret not leaving something behind.”

“Right, I know what you mean. There’s a saying that photos are what remain, isn’t there?”

The other cast members nodded and actively agreed. In the brief moment of chatter, Eun Soo alone remained silent, thinking slightly different thoughts.

When she broke up with Joo Han.

After passing through the so-called aftermath, when she opened her photo album with the resolve to sort things out, there wasn’t much left. They had been together for over 3 years since she was eighteen, but it was still like that.

She tried to think it was fortunate since she was going to throw everything away anyway. But she only realized that while things left on film or memory could be easily erased with a delete button, things left in the heart couldn’t be erased at will. And then the repetition of days of falling apart again.

But to think this fake relationship would be preserved on a platform that’s not just nationwide but global. She almost let out a hollow laugh.

“Then shall we help with our work a bit first, and then all eat something delicious together?”

Everyone stood up at Hyun’s words. They passed through the office where quite a number of employees seemed to be busily working and entered a large space.

“This is our photo studio, and we have a difficult request for you all today.”

Mi Rae and Hyun, standing side by side, smiled meaningfully.

“We’ve prepared outfits in here? They’re probably styles you’ve never worn before, but trying them out at times like this will surely become a good memory.”

The cast members simultaneously turned pale seeing Mi Rae’s fashion that skimped on fabric but generously revealed her figure, and Hyun’s fashion that immediately made one think not just anyone could pull it off.

There were three makeshift booths with curtains on one side, and Mi Rae and Hyun pushed the cast members into them.

“If the size doesn’t fit, please say so right away. Okay, Min Jae oppa and Mi Soo unnie here. Yeon Seop oppa and Jena unnie here. And…”

“W-wait a moment.”

Joo Han, who was being pushed in, raised one hand.

“Why… why is there only one changing room?”

“It’s not just one. There are three. One for each couple.”

That’s exactly what I mean by one!

Joo Han only shouted inwardly. Hyun’s eyes showed he didn’t even understand the point of this question from the start. It was clear he had never even thought about the need for couples to undress separately.

“Is this… really helping with Mi Rae and Hyun’s work…?”

At Eun Soo’s somewhat desperate words, Mi Rae smiled brightly.

“Of course! Where else could we find such one-day models? There’s no better help than this.”

This won’t do. Let’s give up. Let’s go in.

With a brief exchange of glances, Joo Han and Eun Soo silently agreed and entered the booth, closing the curtain. The inside was wider than expected, but the suffocating atmosphere was unavoidable.

“Wait a minute. This…!”

Eun Soo trailed off, mouth agape, after checking the clothes on the hanger. It was the smallest and shortest dress she had ever held in her life.

Joo Han looked down at the clothes in Eun Soo’s hands with clearly displeased eyes.

“Is this a slip or a dress?”

“A slip dress.”

“Ah.”

What do you mean, ‘Ah’. Eun Soo glared at Joo Han and held out the dress towards him, knowing it was a futile gesture.

“Want to be my white knight for once?”

Joo Han’s already furrowed brow furrowed even more.

“What. Do you have some occasion to go out covering just one thigh?”

“I’ll grant you a wish.”

Joo Han’s gaze, which had been on the clothes, shifted to Eun Soo. His lowered eyes suddenly became strangely intense.

“As if you know what my wish is.”