Wooyoung managed to make it back to his apartment without getting caught, which was a relief because he really didn't want to deal with Roger right now.
His mind was focused only on what he had learned about Lila. How had he not noticed she was this way? Was he that oblivious?
He sighed and shook his head. "No, she's just that good at hiding it." He muttered to himself as he pulled out his phone to see Yeosang letting him know he got home ok.
Wooyoung went to his bed and sat on the edge of it as Lila's words started to flash in his mind. One of the hardest things for him to hear was the fact that her mom told her she wished she had never been born...
That's something no child should ever have to hear from a parent.
In some ways, it made Wooyoung admire Lila even more. After everything she had been through growing up, she was still able to smile and seemed to be happy, mostly, with her life.
The entire time they had been dating, she always had the brightest smile on. And the way her eyes lit up...
Wooyoung sighed again and fell back on his bed. He wanted nothing more than to make sure she was the happiest person on earth. And really, he had felt that way ever since their first date at Hwa's.
He hoped she would open up to him more soon. The more he knew about her past, the more he thought he could help her future. Especially because there was something San had been about to tell them before they were interrupted by Nathaniel.
Wooyoung snorted when he thought about how pathetic the man sounded. Yeah, he had been eavesdropping. But he couldn't help it.
He could hear the desperation in his tone when he had asked Lila if he could stay with her, as well as how angry he sounded when he asked if San had stayed the night.
Then, as if he knew Wooyoung was thinking about him, San's name appeared on Wooyoung's phone. He answered it quickly and pressed it to his ear. "Hey San, is she ok?"
The older chuckled. "Yes, she's fine. She's still sleeping."
Wooyoung sighed with relief and closed his eyes. "Good."
"You really care for her, don't you?" San asked quietly.
"I do, San." Wooyoung's voice was just as soft. "Are you ok with that?"
"I'm going to be honest with you. Don't take this the wrong way, because I'm happy for the two of you. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried."
Wooyoung felt his heart drop at the harshness of San's tone and sat up.
"I'm worried about what will happen when you have to leave for long periods of a time for filming. I'm worried about what will run through her mind when she sees you and Rachel together in interviews. You haven't seen her at her worst yet."
"I know..." Wooyoung whispered, resting his head in his hand as he leaned on his knees.
"No, you don't. The thing I didn't get to tell you earlier, do you still want to know?"
"Of course."
San sighed. "Our senior year of high school, Li-"
Wooyoung's phone started buzzing, cutting San off in the middle of his sentence. He growled and pulled the phone away to look at the screen. "Dammit... It's the director."
"Take it. I'll talk to you later." San said coldly and hung up.
"Great timing..." Wooyoung groaned before pressing answer. "This is Wooyoung."
"Ah! My boy! I hope you've enjoyed your little break, but it's time to get started on the sequel! We have a meeting set up for Monday to go through everything and we will go through the first script reading. Sound good?"
"Yeah, Tim, that sounds great. I'll see you Monday."
"Have a good weekend kid!"
As soon as the call ended, Wooyoung tried calling San back but he didn't get an answer. Maybe he was checking on Lila. Although he had sounded rather upset when he got cut off again... But neither time had been Wooyoung's fault.
Then he started to think about the deeper meaning behind San's words.
He was worried Lila wouldn't be able to handle Wooyoung's life as an actor.
It made sense... When he was filming he had very little time to himself, let alone enough time to keep up a secret relationship.
And it wasn't fair to Lila to keep her hidden. Maybe... Maybe this wasn't going to work.
.
.
.
.
Lila was true to her pattern and ended up sleeping most of the weekend, only waking to eat and go to the bathroom.
San stayed with her the entire time, keeping himself busy by sketching hairstyles and makeup ideas for his next movie.
She texted back and forth with Wooyoung only a couple of times, each once being a quick update on how she was doing. But she never stayed awake long enough to hold a full conversation. He seemed to understand, but she still felt a little guilty.
No, it wasn't because of that. She felt guilty because of the pain she must be causing him right now with how worried he was.
She had never intended to hurt him.
Why did she have to be like this...?
Lila shook her head and crawled out of bed to start getting ready for work now that her long weekend was over. She should be feeling refreshed and ready for the day, but in all reality she still felt exhausted.
Hopefully today would go by quickly and she could come back here.
As she walked into her living room, she noticed San was already up and working. "Hey."
He looked up and beamed. "Hey! Look at you! Are you ready for work?" He stood up and walked over to her to help her straighten her shirt.
"I suppose so. I still feel..."
"Off?"
Lila hummed and looked down.
San just pulled her into a quick hug. "Come on, I'll take you to work."
"You don't need to do that Sannie. You've done so much for me already. You should go home." She pulled away and went to get her bag.
"Now we both know you aren't in the right state of mind to be alone yet, so I'm not going anywhere. I actually wanted to talk to you about moving in with me."
Lila spun around and looked at his with wide eyes. "What?"
"Yeah, I figure that way we can both save money on rent, and then you don't have to be here all by yourself."
He didn't have to finish the thought for Lila to understand what he meant. He basically wanted to become her babysitter. While the thought angered her, she also couldn't blame him for feeling that way.
"I'll think about it, ok?"
San nodded in satisfaction and grabbed his sketchpad before leaving the apartment with her.
The second Lila walked into her office, she was nearly tackled to the ground by Abigail. "You're back! I missed you so much! How are you feeling?"
Lila let out a low chuckled as she pulled her friend's arms off her. "I'm better, thanks Abby. How were things here?"
"The same." She sighed. "Although Mr. Evans wasn't too thrilled you had called out. But, then again, he is under the impression that no one is allowed to get sick, like, ever." Abigail hummed and shrugged her shoulders before skipping back to her desk. "Nate was a mess though. He looked like a lost puppy."
"Why?" Lila asked while logging in to her computer to check her emails.
"Oh puh-lease! Are you really that oblivious?" Abigail's head popped up over the wall dividing their desks. "It's so obvious that he likes you!"
Lila's forehead creased with confusion as she looked at her coworker. Sure he was always wanting to hang out, but isn't that what friends wanted to do? Then she thought about how he had come to check on her two days in a row, and brought her flowers... "Oh."
"Ding ding! And she's got it folks! So why don't you just go out with him already? I mean, I know you're seeing someone right now, but if you can't tell us who it is, or don't want to tell us, then it can't be that serious, right? Plus Nate's a nice guy."
"I know he is." Lila rubbed her forehead. "But it's... Complicated."
"Come on! I think you two would be cute together! Or is mystery man just so good that, even though he's probably made up, that he just blows everyone away?"
Lila had to work hard not to laugh at how accurate the end of that statement was. "Thanks Abby, but like I said, it's complicated."
"What's complicated?"
Lila spun around to see Nate standing at the entrance to her cubicle. "Um..."
Abigail let out an exaggerated sigh. "Lila's mystery man. I'm starting to believe he doesn't exist."
Rolling her eyes, Lila shot an embarrassed smile in Nate's direction before turning back to her computer. She had so many emails she needed to get through, and lying to her friends was not the distraction she wanted right now.
"How is the dating life going?" Nate asked. Lila looked at him to see he was concentrating a little too hard on picking at his nails.
"It's fine. How about you?" Lila asked.
"It's not. I'm waiting for my chance with someone in particular." He said, shrugging his shoulders while still staring at his hand.
Lila glanced at Abigail, who shot her an 'I told you so' look. She groaned.
"Is San the one you are dating?" Nate asked, the question throwing Lila off guard.
"What? No!" Lila started laughing, especially when Abigail joined in, making Nathaniel look like he was incredibly confused. "One, San is my best friend, I could never see him that way. And two, I've told you this before, but-"
"San's gay!" Abigail said through fits of laughter. "Come one Nate, don't tell me your jealousy has bested you that much."
Their coworker sputtered on his words for a few seconds before he straightened his tie and marched away.
Lila felt kind of bad for reacting that way, but it was just so absurd to think of her and San being together. She couldn't wait to tell him about this.
The rest of the day passed by slowly, but it wasn't too overwhelming at least.
But it was the drive home that worried her. She had told San to just meet her at the house because she wanted to take the bus and clear her mind after work after he tried to pick her up.
As they got closer and closer to her house, there were more cars than normal parked on her street. And after she got off the bus and started walking, she noticed several new cars parked in the parking lot in front of her house.
A large crowd of people had formed and there were several flashes.
Lila paused as she noticed a group of paparazzi interviewing some of her neighbors. Did they find out about her and Wooyoung? What was going on?
She walked forward quickly and noticed a discarded magazine in a trashcan. Her heart stopped. The front cover was a picture of her apartment and Wooyoung leaving it with his hood pulled over his head. But it had fallen back just enough that light illuminated his face, making it obvious that it was him.
The title was asking about a new mystery girl in his life. It didn't mention her at all, but it was obvious that it was her building.
Her hands started to shake as she pulled out her phone and tried to call him.
It went straight to voicemail.
Then she called San.
"Where are you?" He asked quickly.
"O-Out front."
"Stay there. I managed to get in before they got here. I'm packing a couple of bags for you as we speak and I'll sneak out the janitor's entrance." She could hear him opening her dresser drawers and slamming them shut.
"S-San?"
"Deep breath. Wooyoung and Yeosang are in a meeting about their movie. We will talk to them once this is done and get some answers. It's going to be ok. I'm coming down right now. Stay on the phone with me."
"Ok." Lila's heart was pounding. If they found out about this place, what if they found out about her? What would this mean for her and Wooyoung? What if he lost his job because of her?"
"Lila, everything's going to be fine. Things like this happen all the time, ok? Stop the spiral train I know you are on right now."
Lila just nodded and inhaled deeply.
"Go to your left. I'm heading to my car."
She turned and saw him waving while carrying three bags. Once she reached his car, they sped away from her apartment and to the small condo he had purchased a couple of years ago.
San got her situated in his spare bedroom and they waited on the couch for either Wooyoung or Yeosang to call them.
Meanwhile the story was now on the local entertainment news. Lila paled when she realized there was a helicopter circling over her apartment providing a live feed of everyone going in and out.
Her phone let out a loud tone and she looked down to see a text from Nate.
Nathaniel
Are you ok? Your apartment is all over the news.
What happened?
Lila
I'm fine.
I don't know.
Nathaniel
Where are you?
Lila
San's. He picked me up.
Nathaniel
Do you know anything about what happened?
Lila
No.
I'll see you at work tomorrow.
Nathaniel
Let me know if you need anything.
Lila sighed as she looked back at the tv.
What a mess this was turning in to.
She turned to see San eyeing her nervously. "Just a friend from work wanting to check up on me."
"Nate?"
"Yeah." Lila bit her lip and looked down.
"Be careful there. There's something off about him." San said quietly while taking her hand.
Lila just hummed and nodded before resting her head on his shoulder as they waited for news.