But when I thought about it carefully, he was right. If Jung Inhyuk no longer controlled me, I wouldn’t need to keep being an actor. Thoughts rushed in all at once, and my head grew complicated. Since I had stepped into this world, I’d never imagined doing anything other than acting, and the feeling was truly strange.

“I took Monday through Wednesday off, so keep that in mind.”

Ah… I let out a sigh that was almost a groan and nodded. I knew what Jung Inhyuk’s leave meant. Just as I was wondering when I should take the medicine Kang Jigyu had prescribed, Jung Inhyuk seemed to read my mind and gave me the answer.

“Take the medicine around 9 p.m. on Friday.”

“…That soon?”

“You’ll be worth looking at by morning.”

The place Jung Inhyuk took me to was the Chinese restaurant in Luwon Hotel. Run by a famous Chinese chef, it was said to be one of those places where you could only get a meal if you reserved months in advance. My mouth was already watering. But Jung Inhyuk didn’t especially like Chinese food.

I grabbed the arm of his jacket just as he was about to enter the restaurant and stopped him.

“Executive Director, this is a Chinese restaurant.”

“So?”

“You don’t like Chinese food.”

Instead of answering, Jung Inhyuk put an arm around my shoulders and opened the restaurant door. Maybe he had made a reservation in advance, because it was the restaurant manager, not a server, waiting at the entrance. After a brief greeting, the manager led us to a private room.

Unlike the noisy main hall, the private room was quiet and still.

The spicy-sweet smell made my stomach twist. I took Jung Inhyuk’s coat as if by habit and hung it on the rack before sitting down.

I glanced at Jung Inhyuk and quickly scanned the menu. When I saw jjajangmyeon at the top, a faint smile rose to my lips.

My mother always made jjajangmyeon on my birthday. That black-sauced noodles, smeared all over my mouth while I stuffed them down in a hurry, had been so delicious that even now, jjajangmyeon was still my favorite.

I usually had a small appetite and often left food unfinished, but jjajangmyeon was an exception. I had to finish the whole bowl, or it didn’t feel like I’d really eaten, so even if I was full, I kept forcing it down.

But after I became an adult, I didn’t get many chances to eat it. It was common enough, but Jung Inhyuk disliked delivery food, and he didn’t really like Chinese food itself, so there were even fewer opportunities.

“Course,”

“I want jjajangmyeon.”

“The only thing you want is jjajangmyeon?”

“…Yes. One bowl is enough for me.”

“Still the same as when you were a kid. That tasteless, provincial palate of yours.”

Jung Inhyuk called the server over and ordered. He ordered the course menu, then added that he wanted jjajangmyeon as the meal. I let out a huge sigh of relief and fiddled with the utensils in front of me.

I was already hungry, and smelling the food only made my stomach ache from hunger.

Suddenly there was a stir outside. Several voices overlapped, as if an argument had broken out. Jung Inhyuk looked toward the door, clearly bothered too. Soon the private room door flew open, and Noh Jiwook, dressed in a formal suit, came in. Right behind him, Seo Jimin peeked in, wearing a neat, elegant skirt suit.

I quickly got up and bowed. Jung Inhyuk was frowning furiously, as if he had a headache.

“What the hell, it really is Jung Inhyuk?”

“If you’re here to eat, then eat quietly and get the hell out. Don’t disturb us.”

“Can’t we join you?”

Seo Jimin’s gaze landed on me, not Jung Inhyuk. I quickly lowered my eyes and rubbed at my forehead with my fingertips for no reason. This wasn’t my decision to make. Jung Inhyuk said nothing.

Noh Jiwook must have taken the silence as permission, because he called the server over, explained the situation, and asked for their ordered food to be brought to this room.

Seo Jimin set her bag on the empty seat and sat down next to it. Jung Inhyuk crossed his legs with a bored expression and just stared out the window.

“My older sister had her recital today. The bastard who’s going to be my brother-in-law showed up dragging along the minister’s son and the mayor’s son, one after another, and tried to make people feel small. I almost died from how pissed off I was.”

“The youngest son of the Shinju Group has been chasing after you for twenty years, saying you’re the only one he likes. What do you have to feel inferior about in front of guys like that?”

Noh Jiwook, who had been drinking water after sitting down, choked and coughed. Wiping his mouth with a napkin, he raised a fist toward Jung Inhyuk. But Seo Jimin herself didn’t react much and just kept talking.

“Do you know how it feels to be the daughter of a family that’s gone under? When they had backing, everyone clung to me and bothered me. The moment we collapsed, they stopped even treating me like a person.”

Seo Jimin smiled bitterly. She was the youngest daughter of Seo Ga Foods, a food company. More than a decade ago, Seo Ga Foods had faced a massive crisis when a hygiene scandal erupted, one that was especially fatal for a food company. With a consumer boycott, a tax investigation, and even an employee’s suicide, the company was thrown into chaos and eventually collapsed.

No one said a word in the suddenly heavy atmosphere.

“Oh right, Lee Shinjae.”

“Yes?”

“What were you thinking, going straight to Jung Inhyuk and tattling about your problem with O Jaehyun that day?”

“What do you mean?”

Seo Jimin narrowed her eyes and looked at me. I scratched my cheek with a fingernail, looking utterly clueless.

“…What, you really didn’t know? O Jaehyun got kicked out. There’ll be an article about the actor replacement.”

“O Jaehyun? Why?”

“Seriously, you don’t know? I thought you told Jung Inhyuk and that’s why he got cut. Because he was rude to you on the day of the ritual.”

At Seo Jimin’s words, Jung Inhyuk gave a low snort. He probably thought the same thing I did. I had never told Jung Inhyuk about what happened on set.

Even when a senior actor caused trouble by accusing me of being a parachute cast member, and when a director who disliked me made me film the scene where I fell into water in the dead of winter over and over until I caught a terrible cold, I said nothing, which drove Jung Inhyuk crazy.

“You’ve got it all wrong. Lee Shinjae thinks of me as a folding screen, not a shield.”

“What? You idiot. What good is keeping someone like that around?”

“I’m fine.”

“Fine? Go ahead and ask me to bury a bastard like O Giju alive.”

I gave an awkward smile and scratched my head. Jung Inhyuk said nothing more and leaned his body slightly toward Noh Jiwook.

“Among the Shinju Group affiliates, is there a media line?”

“There’s DK Studio. Lee Kyung hyung is the president, isn’t he?”

“Is that so?”

“Why ask all of a sudden? Planning to invest?”

“Not something to discuss here. I’ll set up a meeting soon, so let’s talk in detail then.”

Just then the door opened and the server came in pushing a tray. Large dishes were placed on the table one after another. I stretched my neck and looked at the jjajangmyeon sitting on the bottom tray. The server started explaining the dishes, what they were called, and what sauce you should eat them with to bring out the best flavor.

I half-listened, half-didn’t, keeping my eyes fixed on the jjajangmyeon. I wanted it fast… My leg was even bouncing, and I waited for the server to just set the noodles on the table. But the explanation dragged on longer than I expected, and all I could do was let my mouth fill with saliva.

Then Jung Inhyuk pushed back his chair and stood, reached down to the bottom tray, took out the jjajangmyeon, and set it in front of me.

The server stopped speaking in surprise, and Seo Jimin and Noh Jiwook also looked at me with startled eyes. Jung Inhyuk, the one who had handed me the jjajangmyeon, sat back down with a blank face.

“You can stop now and go out.”

At his words, the server left the room, saying to enjoy the meal. I smiled awkwardly, tore open the packet with the spoon and chopsticks, and quickly pulled out the chopsticks first. I mixed the sauce thoroughly and brought it to my mouth. The smell of jjajangmyeon rose under my nose before it even touched my tongue, and endorphins rushed through me all at once.

“Do you starve the kid?”

“Shinjae must have been really hungry. Try some of this too.”

Seo Jimin piled some dishes onto a plate and placed it in front of me. I nodded with noodles in my mouth. When I lifted my eyes, Jung Inhyuk across from me was looking at me with a faint smile. Embarrassed, I moved my lips quietly and swallowed the noodles.

It had been an uncomfortable situation, but with Seo Jimin and Noh Jiwook joining us, I could eat comfortably.

I wasn’t eating it the way I did as a child, with sauce smeared all over my mouth, but there was no helping that jjajangmyeon always made me think of my mother. I scraped the sauce clean with my spoon and put it in my mouth. To someone else it was just a bowl of noodles worth a few thousand won, but to me it was food tied to memories of my mother, so it tasted even better.

Jung Inhyuk barely touched his food. The three of them kept talking while they ate, and I tried to listen with a spoon in my mouth now and then. But it was all talk I didn’t know anything about, so it went in one ear and out the other. After finishing, Noh Jiwook wiped his mouth with a napkin and said,

“Wanna go have a drink at the lounge?”

“I’ve got an early round tomorrow morning.”

“Damn, I don’t think I’ll ever live like Jung Inhyuk, not even in my next life. Go on, then.”

As Jung Inhyuk stood, I also pushed back my chair and got up. I put on the coat I’d taken off and was about to leave the room after him when Seo Jimin called me to stop. She clicked over in her high heels and came to stand right in front of me. Just as our eyes met, she suddenly bent her head and buried her face against the nape of my neck. The breath spilling over my skin made goosebumps rise.

“Seo Jimin.”

“Jimin!”

Jung Inhyuk instantly grabbed my wrist and pulled me into his arms. I covered the nape of my neck where her breath had touched and shrank my shoulders. A thick rose scent lingered at the tip of my nose. That rose scent was Seo Jimin’s pheromone.

“Have you lost your mind? What are you doing?”

“Why, why does Lee Shinjae smell like this?”

“Seo Jimin.”

“You stay out of this. You tell me, Lee Shinjae. Why does your body smell like pheromones?”

“……”

“I filmed the same movie as you. We bumped into each other for months, and I’ve never once smelled an omega pheromone from you,”

“Shut your mouth.”

Jung Inhyuk warned her in a voice so low it was almost eerie. I couldn’t say anything and just lowered my head. I had let my guard down because I’d been taking medicine to suppress pheromones, and I hadn’t even realized pheromones were leaking from my body.