"Don't look at me like that."
The sun barely came out yet but the sky was already bright enough. She wasn't used to early mornings and seeing herself awake around this time was already an achievement bigger than any award she won.
Seri pulled the handkerchief back up to the bridge of her nose so that only her eyes, covered in big sunglasses, showed. It wasn't enough and she still had a cap on.
"Aren't we exercising?" He asked.
"Jogging around the neighborhood, yes."
Jeong Hyeok tilted his head, trying to make sense of everything. He was dressed in his usual sports suit, sneakers, and carried a handy tumbler filled with water. The contrast of his outfit and hers confused him.
"Will you be comfortable in that? We'll be running so much."
"Yup. All good."
Five minutes into the run, Seri stopped to catch her breath. Noticing this, Jeong Hyeok jogged back and waited for her.
"It's hot." She pants.
"Anyone wearing a knitted turtleneck and a thick coat over it would say that," he logically reasoned out, not realizing he just irritated her even more.
Seri huffed and stuck her empty hand out.
With no hesitation, he opened his tumbler and gave it to her, making her drink it like a woman deprived of water for one month.
Today was the first day she agreed to her mother nagging her about pulling herself together. A month of lazing around and ruining her sleep schedule was enough, she began to agree to that. And when she learned that Jeong Hyeok does morning routines, she was quick to join him in it.
"How long have you been doing this?" Seri asks as they now walk the road, her hand swinging his half-filled tumbler.
"Two years."
"Straight?"
A car passed the road and he casually moved her to the side, switching their places with her away from the street side.
"Not really. But I try," he replies, taking his tumbler from her and drinking the remaining water from it.
"I could never."
Jeong Hyeok chuckles. "I heard celebrities have complex exercise and diet routines."
"Not me," she looked up to him, surprised. "Did you really think I can stand being in a room just stretching my body for the... whole day?"
Seri, unlike him, used to roam around their house, the house next door, and hang out at the local toy shop where there are mini arcade games placed outside that anyone can play.
She doesn't usually read books, unlike him, and prefers to play with children her age.
When they were in elementary school, Jeong Hyeok mostly took care of her essays while she made sure she was always paired with him during activities. It doesn't matter which, may it be physical ones where they have to run in the field or academic ones where they have to present something together.
Either way, they worked well and that somehow brought convenience and made their school lives much more enjoyable.
"Some things never really change, I suppose." Jeong Hyeok replies with a soft smile on his face, before increasing his pace in walking, those long legs of his making it hard for her to catch up.
They stopped by a convenience store as per Seri's request. All the running made her hungry and she began craving for instant ramen.
"My manager always scolds me whenever he sees me eating this, you know." She says, slurping a few noodles, the spicy aroma enveloping them in their table by the glass window. "Do I look like I care?"
Jeong Hyeok shook his head, holding back a laugh at the image of her manager getting stressed out and probably even whining. He knew how handful it is to handle someone like her, and he's not initially sure if some of those had changed as she matured.
Today, he learned that one of them didn't.
"I kind of feel bad though," Seri sighed. "He's the most patient one I ever worked with."
"You should."
She apologetically agreed with a nod.
Some things indeed never change and Seri is still the talkative ones between them and he is still the ever quiet and listening one.
She would talk about almost everything to Jeong Hyeok, like a human diary, even the ones she wouldn't usually mention to her parents or siblings. Over the years, Jeong Hyeok knew who she envied in their art class, who she had a happy crush on during the school festival's concert, and even knew how many rice cakes she prefers in her plate.
There was a time in high school, Seri and Jeong Hyeok were outside of the campus buying rice cakes from the old vendor. A woman came up and sweetly talked to Seri, of whom they soon found out was a casting agent.
The woman had initially eyed Seri and managed to pull her a little bit away from the stall, leaving Jeong Hyeok to deal with their order.
After the conversation, she noticed her tall friend. After giving a thought about it, she gave an extra card to Seri telling her to give it to him.
By the time she returned, Jeong Hyeok already had two small paper plates in his hand. While walking, she casually slipped the card on his uniform's pocket.
She then looked at her plate and when she counted...
"Oh, she only gave me seven."
Jeong Hyeok quietly moved his hand holding his own plate to her, close enough for her to punch her stick on one of his rice cakes.
"Thanks!" She happily ate her food.
As he now faces adult Seri, wondering how she still didn't wince from the hotness of the water after sipping on it almost continuously, Jeong Hyeok felt content nevertheless.
He made sure he bought two sausage sticks because he knew she'd ask for another one at the end. He wasn't really hungry either for he already had his early breakfast so all he could do was watch her gobble her own.
"What about you?" She asks.
"What about me?"
"Is there something you'd like to tell me?"
Jeong Hyeok's life practically revolved around his publishing company and his books. He sometimes goes on a hike or a short trip to give himself inspiration but other than that, there isn't anything much.
"I just finished my draft for the first chapter," he informs her.
"That's great! Do writers let anyone read their drafts?"
"I don't mind with you."
When it comes to Seri, he doesn't really mind.
Even when he had to carry her on his back all the way down the mountain when she sprained her leg during their school trip.
Even when he had to stay up late to study at the convenience store because she wanted to do part time jobs during her senior year in highschool.
"If I were you I'd go home," eighteen year old Seri calls out to him from her counter. It was ten in the evening and she still had two hours left on the clock.
Jeong Hyeok, still in his uniform sitting at one of the tables in the store, shook his head at that and continued to answer in his textbook.
"I already told you the cops got him."
Taking the night shift wasn't the safest idea but it was the only time available for her to part time. A week ago, a young man entered to purchase cigarettes from the store. She caught him stealing a few things from the shelf and when she called him out, he threatened her.
That was from a week ago, Seri had already slowly moved on...
But Jeong Hyeok didn't.
She frowned at his stubbornness. He should've been back at his home by now, eating dinner with his family but here he is.
He reached out for his soda on the table only to realize that it ran out. Standing up, he left his textbook and went to the refrigerator to buy another one again.
"Go home, Jeong Hyeok."
"I'm not leaving, Seri."
From that day on, he made sure they went home together, no matter what.
"They both went home?" Seri asks, now lying on his bed, flipping through his first draft. Their morning run was fun and no one recognized her. Of course no one would. Her sunglasses and coat are now hung in one of his empty chairs as she comfortably spreads herself on his bed.
Se Jun has gone off to work and her parents have decided to go on a day trip to her grandparents in Daegu, leaving Seri to spend the rest of her day with her next door neighbor.
Jeong Hyeok was sitting on his desk, typing, his mandatory coffee on the side of course. "Yes."
"Didn't the last part of the first book say they went together somewhere?"
"Yes."
She scratches her head, "I don't get it, but I trust you." Then brushes off the confusion and sets down the paper, reaching for the remote to turn his TV on, only to turn it back off when the first thing she saw was a news flash of her disappearance.
The media reported it as if she was some entity who vanished in thin air when all she did was quietly slip away from her home and return to her neighborhood that the public never knew of. It was a good idea she barely revealed personal information about her.
"Are they reporting about you again?" He asks, still typing.
"Yeah."
"It's a good thing I threw that card," he teased, sipping his coffee.
He genuinely wondered how Seri managed to coexist with a swarm of obsessive reporters continuously flashing their cameras at her whenever she walks out of her car, her door, on her way to the filming set, and at red carpets.
He had seen her dressed in designer gowns, posing for different magazines, and had also watched a few of her interviews where she's dolled up, a funny contrast to how she now rolls in her sweatshirt at his bed.
"Aish, stop reminding me of that." Seri yawns, staring at his room's ceiling.
That day back in high school when both of them received a card from the casting agent, Seri asked him as they waited at the bus stop, eating the last piece of tteokbokki on their paper plates.
They were both good looking, no one can deny that. She had her fair share of suitors and he had his own fan club. Jeong Hyeok was too shy to look at his admirers in their campus while Seri was quick to dismiss anyone who asked her out.
They were indeed best friends made for each other. Inseparable.
"Do you want to give it a go?" Seri asks, standing beside him inside the bus, holding onto the handle.
"I don't really know. You?"
"I'll ask eomma first, I think."
She did mention it to her mother when she got back home. She was supportive and was worried at first if it was a scam. Ri Jeong Hyeok on the other hand, placed his card on his drawers, left forgotten for days until Mu Hyeok discovered it when he's trying to find a pen.
He never contacted the agency and left the card to be dusted in his cabinet. Seri did call and after a few months, she started to model for a small local clothing shop.
It wasn't a grand, head turning move, but it was a great small start.
And right now, in the present, she's on the verge of going back all the way to that start.
"I sometimes regret doing this."
"I see."
"But it has already become my passion."
"It did."
"I just don't get it. Why would they drag my name to their own mess so easily? It's not my fault I'm successful. I worked my ass off to reach this."
She starts to notice how his bed is somehow more comfortable than hers. She loved hugging his duvet and his white pillow. In fact, there isn't a place in this house that Seri never stepped in. Her brothers used to hang out here with him during their highschool years and often play video games on his computer because at that time, Yoon Jeung Pyeong refused to buy his sons a more upgraded computer.
Seri would usually visit when they wanted to study together or work on a project.
Right now, with the TV turned off and his draft already done reading, Seri stands up and goes to his window.
There was a window seat complete with small pillows and she took the chance to occupy it, sitting in front of him to see because his desk is also facing the open view from the said window.
The natural light only enhanced her beautiful bare face, her hair flowing down her shoulders like heaven. He had always liked this version of Seri more than the ones he saw in televisions and photoshoots.
She looked at him, already looking back at her the moment she situated herself there. She chuckles, "Why? Are you distracted?"
"You can say that."
"Oh well. I feel like sleeping here."
He smiled at her tease. "I'll wake you up when lunch is here then."
Fifteen minutes later, her eyes fluttered open only to see his desk empty. She turned her head to look down outside and saw him giving the delivery man their order fee.
Two bowls of jajangmyeon.
Her stomach grumbled at the sight and she hopped out of the window seat, running downstairs to meet him.
Jeong Hyeok had just placed it on their dining table by the time she arrived. Seri then took the sticks and did the mixing.
"Here," she gives Jeong Hyeok his bowl she just finished mixing and proceeded to do her own. She was very occupied in what she was doing.
"Maybe I should've ordered three..." Jeong Hyeok mutters.
"Yeah, you should've. But thanks."
In the middle of their eating, there was a sauce right on the corner of Seri's lips. Without even thinking about it, his thumb instantly reaches to wipe it off.
She gave him a quick thanks before putting the pickled radish on her mouth.
"Do you do this when you're at fancy parties too?" There was a visible wrinkle in his forehead, trying to imagine the Seri he knew who's into food so much and always looked like she never cared about her surroundings.
"Oh no," she laughs, mouth full. "I only eat three bites when I'm at events. I always take etiquettes seriously, Jeong Hyeok."
"Then why-"
"I'm only like this with you." She leaned, her eyes narrowing as if in suspicion. "You're not going to expose me, aren't you?"
Jeong Hyeok chuckles, "Of course not."
"Good. Because I won't think twice in telling everyone you're behind Mountain Hawk."
"Hey."
Seri doubles laughing, taking the last piece of the pickled radish and placing it on his bowl. "Don't worry. Just eat."
Staying here for over a month now made her feel what it was like in her younger years again. The Ri's home remained the same just like the Yoon's. She even saw her drawing that she gave to Jeong Hyeok back in 6th grade still hanging in one corner of their living room.
She stopped by the kitchen to get both of them water and when she came back to his room, he was apparently already on a video call.
The voice from the laptop sounded familiar and it didn't take her a second to recognize that it was Mu Hyeok.
He was talking to Jeong Hyeok and suddenly stopped when he saw someone behind him. He squinted his eyes and smiled upon seeing Yoon Seri.
"Oh Seri! You're there? How have you been? I heard the news. I'm sorry."
"Really? That's the first thing you're saying?" Seri playfully rolls her eyes and sets down their water, standing beside Jeong Hyeok and giving herself space to fit in the camera.
"I can't help it. They really did you dirty."
"I know."
Mu Hyeok saw one of the articles including a photo of her coming out of her van dressed in all black, sunglasses, and cap. Reporters flooded their way and flashes were all over the place, asking her of her involvement and how she is related to the chairman's son. She looked like she was about to attend a funeral when all she ever wanted was to go home.
It was sad, exhausting, and everyone could see it in her face.
"What are you going to do now?" The voice from the laptop asked.
"How's work going?" Seri diverted the topic, trying to maintain the excitement in her voice.
Mu Hyeok gave her a wistful smile, nodded in understanding and began to tell how his day went.
He just came out from an eight hour surgery and even mentioned how he only had a sandwich for lunch.
The three of them had been on call for a while now, constantly updating each other about their lives and reminiscing some of their memories when they were younger.
"I still hate how you two always leave me out. This just proved that friendships of three never work," Mu Hyeok sulked and looked at the two from his screen, together and laughing at him.
"Is that our fault?" Seri laughs and slaps Jeong Hyeok's arm, who was quietly trying to take a screenshot of his face.
Mu Hyeok was still sulking and playfully rolling his eyes when in a hushed voice, Seri discreetly leaned closer to Jeong Hyeok.
"Did you get it?"
"Mm."
She chuckled again and when she saw Mu Hyeok looking at her, she beamed sweetly like nothing happened.
"This is weird..." Mu Hyeok squinted his eyes, inspecting the two.
Seri and Jeong Hyeok had always radiated that married couple vibes. Their chemistry was palpable, so much, that it was enough to bring electricity to a whole town. No one can imagine the amount of times they've been mistaken as a couple since high school.
However, they took that as an advantage and made the most out of it. Especially during Valentine's day.
Couple discounts and freebies are abundant and Seri would usually passionately link arms with Jeong Hyeok whenever they try to buy something.
And it always works like a charm.
"What's weird?"
"Hmm."
The laughter died down and even Jeong Hyeok was getting curious as well. "Is there something wrong?"
On the other side of the screen, Mu Hyeok takes his time to gaze at the two, noticing how grown they have become, and how they still look so good together. There was hardly any space between them and with just one look, they looked like they just went out of bed after cuddling for hours.
Although he knew that wasn't the case, of course, a part of him still hoped. He wanted both of them to be happy. And seeing that them being with each other makes them happy, makes him wish all the best for them.
"Nothing," he warmly smiles instead, content with what he sees. "I just realized I'm having a meeting in five minutes."
"Oh." Seri and Jeong Hyeok looked at each other.
"It was good meeting you two. I'll call again when I'm free. If that happens any sooner."
When the call ended, she went back to his bed and lied down, still feeling full from the lunch they had. She hears him giggling and rushes back, seeing all the screenshots he took of his older brother.
"Oh you're cruel." She laughs.
Time passed, the longer the days she stayed here, the more she felt like herself, and she didn't even realize how much she missed her old life until now.
It's been long since she was smiling genuinely and not just for the cameras or just because the script said so. Seri had been so used in faking her happiness for everyone that she almost forgot how it truly felt.
She sometimes wondered what could've been if Jeong Hyeok went with the same path as her. They could've been in both projects together, sitting side by side in awards shows or even winning one together. There would be countless rumors about them but that she couldn't care less. The thought of this sometimes entertained her when she was feeling lonely or just finished reading wave after wave of hate comments online.
Seri would imagine Jeong Hyeok, with furrowed brows, going through the website and trying to comprehend how some online users have so much audacity to speak about things.
But of course, her good old best friend would rather stay in his comfy cave and write stories instead and not deal with drama and lawsuits.
"What are you thinking?" Jeong Hyeok asks as he now opens the gate, the sun almost setting as it's time for Seri to return to her house.
"Nothing." She smiles, reaching for his shirt and tugging it.
He knows this.
"Alright, tell me."
"Well," she ponders for a bit, then flutters her eyelashes to him. "I was wondering..."
"Mm?"
"If I happen to be the main lead for your film, are you okay with it?"
Absolutely.
But of course, he didn't say that. Instead, he lifts a teasing brow and decides to humor her. "What makes you say that?"
"I am Yoon Seri. I can get any role I want if I put my best into it."
A small smile was on his lips as he gazed at her, proud. There is always an overwhelming urge to brag to the world how his Seri had become today, and how she is strong and confident like how she had always been.
"Alright. If you say so." He gently nudges her out of their gate, closing it and walking her to her place.
As they walked, taking slow, comfortable steps and enjoying each other's presence, she asked something that sounded quite rueful.
"Do you think I can still go back?"
There was always that doubt in her mind that she can still salvage what's left in the aftermath of everything. Damage has already been done, commercials already removed her from their business and there weren't any new projects being offered to her as of the moment.
He looks at her and for a moment, imagines her wearing that natural makeup her stylists put on her, donning that white dress she wore in an award show that once hit the headlines, and the smile she always flashes that catches the hearts of many.
In a sure tone that sent her heart fluttering,
"You will."
In a crowd of people, he will always have his eyes on her. When everyone turns their backs, she knows he will always stay.
Because that's just how Ri Jeong Hyeok is.