A filming studio in Cheongdam.

A profile shoot for Eden Entertainment, a subsidiary of Bando, was in full swing.

“Did you hear? Yoon Yi Seol is super sensitive these days.”

“She must feel like her future is completely blocked now that the man she tried to snag to improve her fortune married another woman. With that pride of hers, she probably wants to just die and disappear.”

The conversation between Shin Min Joo, a second-year actress just starting to gain popularity, and a staff member reached Yi Seol’s ears as she was just entering through the doorway, carried over the low partition.

“It’s your freedom to gossip, but you should be more careful about who you’re talking about.”

Surprised by Yi Seol’s unexpected appearance, Shin Min Joo’s eyes widened as she held a half-empty glass.

“…No, that’s not…!”

“This is the punishment for not even showing that much consideration.”

The glass was snatched from her hand, and in an instant, cold liquid poured over Shin Min Joo’s head.

Splash.

Yi Seol didn’t hesitate for a moment as she ruined the carefully styled hair and makeup.

“Kyaa!! What do you think you’re doing?!”

The power struggle between Shin Min Joo, whose popularity was soaring due to a recently ended drama, and Yoon Yi Seol, the number one contributor to Eden Entertainment’s current success, was well-known within the company.

They were truly like enemies meeting on a narrow bridge.

“And you should greet your senior first, Shin Min Joo.”

With her arms crossed defiantly, Yi Seol pushed the forehead of the woman who had stood up abruptly, forcing her to sit back down.

Drip, drip.

Brown liquid fell to the floor.

“You’re doing well, so nothing else matters to you? This popularity seems like it will last forever, and you think you can do anything like this, right?”

The hand patting Min Joo’s shoulder was excessively familiar.

“This popularity that will end soon… You too, you.”

Yi Seol turned away with a look of disdain and was about to put the clear glass down on the table.

Shin Min Joo, who had jumped up from her seat, raised her voice.

“What right does a senior who got here by latching onto some sucker have to say anything? I heard that sucker got married? You probably tried to improve your fortune by catching some chaebol man, but of all people, you caught a bastard from a good-for-nothing family with absolutely nothing. How pitiful…!”

A coldness not expressed in words settled on Yi Seol’s face, which had turned icy.

Although it was Shin Min Joo who was drenched in cold liquid, it was Yi Seol whose face was filled with a chilling aura.

Crash.

The glass that was roughly placed on the table shattered with a loud noise.

Bright red blood trickled down Yi Seol’s snow-white hand.

Kyaaak.

It was chaos with screams and scattered glass shards.

“You know the beeping sound before the news starts? Beep, beep, beep~”

Yi Seol’s sudden words were directed at Shin Min Joo’s pale face.

“They say a Nazi German politician named Goebbels started it to make people focus.”

“What are you talking about…!”

“Shh, you should listen to the end. That person, who was the worst propagandist and agitator in history, said this.”

[A lie told a hundred times becomes the truth.]

The woman hurt by the lie that had become truth murmured.

“…That person was raised well. He’s not someone the likes of you can carelessly talk about. More than anyone, under a good mother, very, very well!”

A sneer spread across Yi Seol’s lips as she spat out her anger.

“How scary it is for lies to become real…”

Red blood dripped from the hand that gripped the broken glass.

“…How about I show you?”

*****

[**The drive-in theater starts at 11 o’clock sharp. I’ll pick you up in time.]

When she confirmed that the message from an unknown number was from Ji Wan, even this simple line of text seemed new.

As if seeing an illusion that would soon disappear, Do Eum stared at the message for a long time.

She wrote ‘Hello’ and then deleted it, filled in ‘This is Do Eum’ and deleted that too.

It seemed foolish to introduce herself in a message where the sender clearly knew who the recipient was, and it was too early to ask about their well-being when they had seen each other just this morning.

[I’ll be a little late today helping my teaching assistant with their thesis. I’ll go straight to the theater from here in time.]

She was about to write ‘See you soon’ when she hurriedly pressed the send button upon seeing Eun Hyeok running down the tree-lined street beyond the bench where she sat.

“Do Eum!”

As Eun Hyeok ran with his dark hair fluttering, she noticed a few passing female students turning to look, as if admiring a moving work of art.

The gazes that first took in Eun Hyeok’s handsome appearance would inevitably turn towards her.

As if to confirm who this attractive man was smiling brightly at.

Sometimes she felt unjustly resentful of the hostility that was unwarranted for a relationship that was neither lovers nor just friends, but even that gradually became familiar.

“You know that ‘Family and Marriage’ elective we’re taking? We have to pair up in twos.”

It was a course that the four of them had reluctantly chosen to fulfill the one required liberal arts credit.

The illusion that they could breeze through this unpopular course with few students didn’t last long, as the professor who had been on leave returned, making the class as rigorous as a major course.

The report submitted after experiencing the roles of wife and husband through four stages – dating, love, marriage, and pregnancy – split into 4 weeks, accounted for a large portion of the midterm exam.

The professor explained that while South Korea having one of the highest divorce rates among OECD countries may not be a national disgrace, the purpose was for young people to realize the importance of the meaning of marriage and the roles of spouses.

“I’ll take the wife role. A friend who took the course last year said that in the 4th week, you even have to wear a pregnancy belly model. Apparently it’s surprisingly heavy and really hurts your back.”

To understand the preciousness of life and the hardships of pregnant women, that much was necessary.

The face of Jae Han, who had been assigned the female role by rock-paper-scissors and was pleading with Min Seung to switch, flashed through her mind.

Do Eum chuckled at the thought of the broad-shouldered Eun Hyeok waddling around with a fake pregnancy belly.

“No, I’ll do it. Pregnant women endure for ten months, while I’ll only be wearing it for a day or two at most.”

“Then let’s do it one day each. I should experience it too anyway.”

They had just reached a compromise by each giving up half when,

“Oh, right. This.”

Eun Hyeok took out a small gift box from his bag.

“What is it?”

“A birthday present.”

Inside the small box was a rose gold anklet.

“Gasp, this looks too expensive!”

“It’s not expensive compared to what you gave me.”

Eun Hyeok smiled, holding up the sneakers Do Eum had bought him for his birthday last year.

Do Eum had even tied the laces herself, telling him to only go to good places wearing these.

“Can I… put this on for you?”

At Eun Hyeok’s cautious question, which was the utmost courage he could muster, Do Eum nodded.

Eun Hyeok knelt down and fastened the anklet around Do Eum’s ankle, beneath her lavender skirt.

The anklet sparkled in the sunlight.

“Oh, right. Take a picture of me.”

When she turned on the phone in her hand, the screen flashed, indicating a dead battery.

“My phone’s out of battery, let’s use yours.”

Eun Hyeok willingly took out his phone and pointed the lens at Do Eum.

The screen was filled with a woman’s bright smile.

Under a large zelkova tree,

A woman with a clear smile and a shyly smiling man were framed like a picture.

*****

As soon as the 3-hour long meeting ended, video conferences with the Hanoi and Shanghai sites scheduled for business trips followed.

It was late at night when Ji Wan finally left his office and quickened his pace.

Even though he said he’d be a little late, if he left now, he wouldn’t be later than Do Eum at the theater.

While seeing Ji Wan off as he moved to his personal vehicle, Woo Seok couldn’t close his mouth, which had fallen open wide.

He was about to scold him for grinning, but then thought, how glad must he be about his ungainly boss’s date to be acting like that, and decided against it.

After the movie, he thought about going for a drive to a scenic spot.

Or maybe a simple glass of wine would be nice.

Just as he thought that far, the phone tucked inside his suit rang loudly.

[Oh Jung Hyuk]

It was Yi Seol’s manager.

His uneasy predictions had never been wrong.

Especially calls from this person who had never delivered good news.

His mind, which had risen as if not to answer, was plunged into darkness in an instant.

His fingertips gripping the steering wheel tightly, his gaze that had been rushing forward finally lost its will and pulled the car over to the shoulder in a daze.

He wished the phone that kept ringing as if it would cut off at any moment would just stop here.

Haa.

Ji Wan let out a deep sigh as his chin, lifted into the air, clenched tightly.

All of these actions were futile.

No matter how much he struggled, he wouldn’t be able to pretend not to see.

Even if he ran away, he would soon be back in that place.

On the road he had entered to head to the outskirts,

Darkness like that in his mind suddenly descended around the stopped car.

*****

With the customer who had rented out the entire theater not showing up, the movie screening had been delayed for 40 minutes.

“Should we just start playing it?”

Since they had received the full rental fee, it made sense for them to play it at the scheduled time and be done with it.

The screening time had long passed, and if they kept waiting endlessly, their own closing time would be delayed because of her.

“Instead of waiting like this, why don’t you try calling?”

Do Eum hesitated, holding her turned-off phone.

She wouldn’t remember the number saved in her phone, and even if she did, there must be a reason for the delay.

If he couldn’t come, he would have at least sent Woo Seok, so Do Eum chose to wait with the expectation that he would come, even if late.

“It’s okay, it seems like today’s movie is canceled, so please don’t worry about me and go ahead.”

As soon as Do Eum, who had been sitting on pins and needles, left the lounge, the theater sign lights quickly turned off.

A woman in a carefully chosen dress and sandals stood precariously on the gravel ground.

Being far from the city center, it was quiet around the large screen that had been turned off.

Under the bright clock tower, the sound of unknown insects was clear in the stillness that pervaded the surroundings.

The wind blowing over it was desolate, like her heart.

‘It’s going to rain soon.’

Do Eum muttered to herself as the premonition seeped into her nose.

Min Seung had said that being able to detect rain by smell just before it falls is similar to a shark’s ability to detect blood in water from 1km away.

It was comfort he had thrown at her when she was lamenting her unfortunate life, saying that humans have a weaker sense of smell compared to other animals, but how amazing is it to be able to detect rain before it even falls.

She knew it was something he had squeezed out after thinking and thinking about what special ability she alone possessed compared to others.

So even those nonsensical words had been comforting.

Do Eum took out her dead phone and tapped the screen.

She thought she should have charged it before the employee left, but she didn’t have the nerve to do that when she already felt bad about making them wait.

Afraid of missing each other if she left now, Do Eum stood still, leaning against the clock tower outside the lounge.

She planned to wait just 30 more minutes.

Or even an hour, it didn’t matter.

Because rain was her favorite weather, and this wait wasn’t all that bad.

*****

Walking through the dark hospital corridor as if walking through darkness, Ji Wan passed by Jung Hyuk in front of the hallway.

“It was an accident.”

For Yi Seol, who had reportedly confronted the provocations of the other actress by injuring herself, accident was the wrong word.

Unable to control her temper, she had made a decision that a normal person wouldn’t make, and then shamelessly called it an accident.

“She says it was an accident.”

A wave of nausea rose up.

“She provoked first, bringing up ridiculous rumors.”

Jung Hyuk’s excuse, which had been following closely, faltered and faded as Ji Wan suddenly stopped in his tracks.