He finally extracted himself and headed for the parking garage, and there was Sinjun, leaning against the car, waiting. Maybe he was imagining it, but the staff passing by seemed to be sneaking an unusual number of glances that way. So other people didn’t see an ordinary manager either. Wearing an irritated expression, Dohyeon walked over to the car first.
Sinjun opened the door for him as though he’d been waiting to, and once Dohyeon was seated he set a soft cushion on his lap along with a bag of cashews. Dohyeon’s usual snack of choice. Byeongsik had known that perfectly well too, and Dohyeon had never received service this thorough from him. Sinjun reached past him to adjust the seat to a comfortable angle, and only then got into the driver’s seat.
What is this...
He’d fully intended to snap at the man, to demand why he’d come down alone, where he’d been and what he’d been doing. The bag of cashews, opened neatly for him, robbed him of all will to fight. Dohyeon crunched through the nuts while Sinjun pulled the car smoothly out.
“Coming down early and getting snacks ready is all well and good, but how about coming down with me first?”
“There were circumstances. Did something happen?”
Dohyeon spilled everything as if he’d been waiting for the opening. Eunseo asking for his number, and the strange back and forth Yeongu had just cornered him into.
At Dohyeon’s remark that he couldn’t figure out what kind of guy Cha Yeongu was, Sinjun glanced back at the rear seat in the mirror. He looked like he had something he wanted to say, and what came out of his mouth was a rundown on Cha Yeongu that sounded a long way from the point.
“He is in his late twenties this year. Former model, listed at 188 centimeters. The gap between you is not large, but if you would rather not look shorter, it would be advisable to pay attention to your shoes. He debuted as an actor the year before last, and this is the first time he has taken a role this size...”
“Hold on, who asked you for any of that?”
“You seemed curious about what kind of guy he was.”
Sinjun answered shamelessly. He wasn’t a man who missed things that badly, so presumably it was a joke, and the problem was that his face looked entirely serious.
“...Anyway, my point is that he was a pain. First time another alpha’s come at me like that... makes me think he’s trying to start some kind of contest.”
Sinjun checked his face again. Dohyeon raised his eyes as if to say what, what is it, and the man spoke, slowly.
“It appears you have not heard the rumor.”
“What rumor?”
“Cha Yeongu. They say he only ever goes for alphas.”
Dohyeon’s face screwed up. An unpleasant crawl of gooseflesh went up his whole body. Sinjun took his eyes off him and went on, the wheel gliding under his hands.
“So... he wasn’t picking a fight, he was trying to get somewhere with me? I didn’t really get that sense...”
“What a naive thing to say. Since you have never been on the receiving end, perhaps you cannot tell when someone is making a move.”
As he said it Sinjun might have been smiling and might not have been. Nobody had applied a word like naive to Dohyeon in a very long time, and he did not care for it. He tossed the cushion he’d been holding onto the seat beside him and crossed his legs.
“Just watch me never speak to him again...”
While he grumbled, Sinjun only let out a short laugh with an odd look on his face and said nothing.
[Three Hearts’ Seongho shares a heartwarming story about Jeong Dohyeon... ‘First to arrive on set, carried the staff’s things too... So much to learn from him’]
Seongho, leader of the boy group Three Hearts, has shared a heartwarming story about actor Jeong Dohyeon. Seongho appeared as a guest on ‘Running Singer’, which aired on the 17th.
...
Seongho also spoke about Jeong Dohyeon, with whom he became acquainted through a commercial shoot. “Unlike me, a rookie, he’s a top star, and yet he arrived on set before I did,” he said. “What left an impression was watching him carry a struggling staff member’s things for her when he was busy himself. He’s someone I have a great deal to learn from.”
Netizens have responded with a range of comments, including ‘Jeong Dohyeon, as expected, his character shines as much as his face’ and ‘Nothing like the rumors, did he turn over a new leaf?’
“Nothing like the rumors, sure...”
If they were going to run a positive article they could have stuck to the nice parts. Dohyeon let out a dry laugh at the screen and hit the back button.
Filming on Up Tempo began in earnest today. He’d poured his attention into preparing the role of Yeonghwan in the meantime, and his other commitments hadn’t amounted to much. A couple of scheduled commercial shoots and a few radio appearances.
And an article like that had already run. Dohyeon could barely remember what Three Hearts’ Seongho even looked like, which made the whole thing faintly ridiculous.
The moment he hit back, a stream of other entertainment headlines filled the screen. One of them caught his eye, and his finger moved on its own.
[Cha Yeongu confirmed for ‘Up Tempo’... Will he show ‘bromance chemistry’ with Jeong Dohyeon?]
A somewhat uncomfortable headline.
He was curious how Cha Yeongu was being assessed in the piece, though, and curious what other people thought about the casting.
The article gave a brief introduction. A promising model, the first Korean to win some award or other, an actor whose performances were being well received... Nothing about him only going for alphas, the way Sinjun had put it. Naturally.
For that kind of talk you had to look at the fans rather than the press. Dohyeon typed the address of a social media site he knew straight into the bar, and into the search field he typed his own name. Even though he had definitely set out to look into Cha Yeongu.
🍑🚬 @myheldou
whats up with jeong dohyeon lately...? been like a month since his last scandal already... nothing but these wholesome puff pieces ㅠㅠ is he trying to change his image ㅠ its nice n all but kinda sad... the bad boy edge was part of what made him good ㅠㅠ
RT 12 ┃ Quotes 315 ┃ ♡ 20
The quote count was far higher, which made him curious enough to tap it. It claimed 315 people had quoted the post, and fewer than twenty were actually visible. Most of those twenty had flattering photos of Dohyeon as their profile pictures. ‘The fan-cos is showing, don’t pretend you ever liked him’, or ‘Search-block, please’, or ‘It’s always the ones who know nothing writing tweets like this, Dohyeon has always been good to his own people and he thinks things through’... They rated him so much more generously than he deserved that it left him faintly embarrassed.
While Dohyeon was lost in the search, Sinjun finished starting the engine and setting the car up and came around to the back seat. He opened the rear door, slid a hand behind Dohyeon’s neck to lift his head, and fitted a plush neck pillow between the headrest and Dohyeon’s head.
“What’s fan-cos?”
“Fan cosplay. It means someone who is not a fan pretending to be one.”
“Then what about search-block? Am I supposed to be the one getting blocked?”
“Search blocking. It means using something other than a celebrity’s real name when you mention him. Putting a number in the middle of the name, or using a nickname only fans know.”
“Why?”
Even as he answered, Sinjun set the soft cushion back on Dohyeon’s lap and put a sweet drink into his hand. Apparently he had Dohyeon’s upkeep in mind on top of everything else, because the packaging had ‘LOW CALORIE!’ stamped across it in large letters. Only once all of that was done did the answer come.
“They are worried that a clueless celebrity like you will search his own name and run into something unpleasant, Mr. Jeong Dohyeon.”
“What are you, Wikipedia?”
Going by looks alone you’d expect him to be even more ignorant of fan culture than Dohyeon, so the way the answers came out one after another was impressive. In short, all of it was evidence that Dohyeon’s fans were working hard to shield him.
Dohyeon nodded and brought the straw to his mouth, then flinched and spoke.
“Hold on, you’re being awfully smooth about all this.”
He had come to his senses and found himself in this: propped against a comfortable neck pillow, sipping something sweet. It felt like being a kindergartner handled by a very practiced teacher. Sinjun’s face was as dry as could be, as if to ask what on earth he was talking about.
“Why go this far? You’re not here to wait on me hand and foot.”
And here he’d been worried the man wasn’t the type who could wait on anyone. The service was so good it was disconcerting instead. Without so much as glancing back, Sinjun spoke.
“Because you have a problem with your character, Mr. Jeong Dohyeon...”
“Excuse me?”
“This much has to be done for you to settle, does it not?”
The sheer absurdity pulled a dry laugh out of him. To wait on a man without being asked, then confess it was a method for pacifying his foul temper. Dohyeon muttered,
“What am I, a dog?”
Was Kang Sinjun approaching this job in the spirit of a kindergarten teacher, or a dog trainer? It was absurd and it put him in a foul mood, and apparently the man wasn’t entirely wrong. The neck pillow cradling his nape felt as comfortable as a top of the line mattress, and his anger subsided almost at once.
Dohyeon gave up on picking a fight. He set down the phone and let himself settle back. Only then did Sinjun glance around at him.
“Be careful on set. In front of Cha Yeongu in particular, it would be best if you refrained from breathing as much as possible.”
“You’re telling me not to breathe?”
He asked back, incredulous, and Sinjun nodded, unbothered.
