Chapter Text
Sung Hyunje’s career kickstarted sometime in his early thirties, and while there are theories that he’s been in television for much longer than that, his first professional appearance was nothing short of legendary. In his first role, he was meant to play the conniving second male lead that would lead the protagonist to a man with a more defined moral compass, but the response was so unprecedented the studio scraped earlier plans so he ended the drama with getting the girl and — effectively — the hearts of ‘women everywhere.’ (This is not wholly accurate; Han Yoojin is sure that there are some teenage girls out there who heavily scorn him, in some backward towns… somewhere.)
His career after that has been nothing but explosive, and his name soon became synonymous with success; although as time went on, people grew to realize that he is not just a pretty face with an excellent smile. Sure , he can act (but how well does one need to act with those looks really) and speculation on where he must be from has made for quite a few interesting skits, but he has more than balanced out his fame with his equally — if not more, even — explosive scandals.
To quote Moon Hyuna’s words post-Gatorade collaboration incident he’s, “off his shits insane”, which may not be the nicest way to put it but it’s certainly the best way to. And even though prior to this year, Han Yoojin hasn’t had the misfortune of working with him personally, he’s more than familiar with the horror stories that most of his celebrities haven’t managed to run out of.
Despite not being a celebrity himself —unless you count the underground fansites and being a microcelebrity in the microcosm that was Instagram pets accounts — Han Yoojin is well versed with the entertainment industry. Thanks to his baby brother who’s grabbed the attention and heartstrings of everybody in South Korea ever since he was the loveable younger brother on 10 Days Before Graduation , he’s spent his teenage and adult years surrounded by people one would normally only see on TV.
So while he has not experienced the legendary ass-kissing or backstabbing his brother or coworkers have, he’s witnessed most of it firsthand. There was that short embarrassing phase where he went completely off the radar post-enlistment, but he thinks he’s more than made up for that now.
He’s not phased anymore. Honest. The first few months or so felt like a dream — until he realized that nobody else felt responsible for Han Yoohyun when the money started rolling in. So he took it upon himself to make sure his brother wouldn’t turn out to be a grade-A brat.
And well… he is his little brother after all. Han Yoohyun, to everybody’s pleasure, acts much more docile when he’s around his brother. Being stone-faced and apathetic works wonders for his image, but behind the scenes, it’s more trouble than it's worth for most PDs.
For example, a couple weeks ago Han Yoohyun and Bak Yerim — an idol that debuted through the survival show, Queen of Idols, and survived evil editing with a close to pristine record — were caught in a ‘dispute.’ This is putting it lightly, but who is he to argue with the euphemisms at journalists’ disposal? They were recorded by some innocent passerby in the middle of a passionate argument about whose plan for Han Yoojin’s birthday party was better (they were somehow less embarrassed of the reasoning for their fight than the fight itself). The recording caught her dumping a cup of iced coffee over his head and him responding, as the mature twenty year old he was, by doing the same but with mint lemonade.
His sole saving grace was that their sibling-like rivalry was well-known and even played up on several television programs; however, that didn’t help the social media storm that arose afterwards as people discussed the possibility of them actually hating each other.
And if he wasn’t such a good smoothtalker — or at the very least, didn’t have money prepared for situations like this — it would’ve gone out of control and both would have been badly humiliated just weeks before her first appearance as MC on a broadcast program. He likes to think that he’s not a glorified babysitter with expertise in blackmail, but situations like that make him realize otherwise. At least they treated that in all good fun, having her and her fellow MC mimic dumping drinks over each other before announcing the winning song.
And Sung Hyunje, who returned from overseas once he “got bored” of good ol' French hospitality reveled in the art of acting like a lovesick teenager whenever Han Yoojin posted anything online. It was all deeply embarrassing seeing a man who was hailed as the greatest actor in South Korea with rumors of prodigious foreign directors begging for him to feature in their films to be reduced into the victim of a parasocial relationship with an account that’s greatest feat was a cat balancing a bird on its head. Somehow, his fans managed to make it out to be a quirky thing, and twisted it into some narrative about him really liking cats.
But when Han Yoohyun ‘miraculously’ landed a collaboration with him on a variety show, Sung Hyunje frivolously decided he’d announce this on social media and tag Han Yoojin in it as well, with a sweet message that wouldn’t have been out of place in wedding vows. There were a few well-placed passive aggressive remarks that would’ve gone over better people’s heads as well. Against his better judgement, he greenlit the appearance because despite him and his brother's grievances against the man aside, it really was a good opportunity to rub shoulders with the current top actor.
He struggles not to bring it up too much, chalking it up to a genius’ eccentricity. All geniuses have their own little quirks, and a part of the job is not just looking the other way but enabling it. Much to his own misfortune. Anyways — overanalyzing his intention too much in front of other people would lead them to be suspicious of him instead, and he dreads having them reach any conclusion of their relationship outside of a professional capacity.
But Moon Hyuna does that precisely, with a shitface grin on her face that has taught him so much patience over the years, telling him he could use this newfound attention to his advantage. And well, he could but he doesn’t know what “it” is. For all he knows, he’s a cat being taunted by a string Sung Hyunje is pulling. This is the consensus he’s reached after weeks of cross-analyzing every single one of his posts, attitude he had with previous costars and Han Yoojin. Unfortunately, all that research was proven to be useless and did nothing more than make his YouTube think he was interested in compilations of Sung Hyunje quoting The Princess Bride.
He doesn’t tell her that. He probably is being overdramatic, and he convinced himself so well he went to work the next day genuinely believing it was a one-off, a cheap mind game that he wouldn’t have to entertain any longer. Before Sung Hyunje meets him with a smile, a cup of coffee, and a “Must be fate seeing you here.”
It’s his favorite flavor — he takes it in stride and convinces the other employees that it's just a coincidence (because iced chocolate mochas with extra whipped cream must be a popular drink amongst managers), offering him a professional smile and a “It’ll be a pleasure working with you.” He’s far too used to working with uncooperative idols who let their arrogance go unchecked, or celebrities that assumed if they gained his affections they’d get on his brother’s good side. Most don’t bother with ass kissing to this extent, but he doesn't want to entertain the alternate possibility.
Han Yoohyun looks far too bewildered for his liking and he’s tempted to remind him that scrunching up his eyebrows while the makeup artist does her finishing touches will ruin it. (It's common knowledge that Han Yoohyun has hated him ever since they both appeared on that camping show together.) But before he can, he catches Kang Soyoung’s eye, whose expression reminds him of a long tortured mother, her eyes following the cup of coffee in his hands. For a second he thinks it’s because she wants one of her own, but that couldn’t be right. No — as Sung Hyunje’s manager, it must be something else.
Maybe in the midst of getting coffee, he decided to call over Dispatch and give them a full rundown of what really went down in that convenience store last April. Yes, that must be it. They'd love to hear all about how convenience store coffee and samgak-gimbap wrapping confuse him. He gives her a sympathetic smile, hoping she gets the support telepathically. But instead, she takes that as an opportunity to speak with him, offering him a smile of her own and quickly introducing herself before gesturing to the emotionally loaded coffee.
“I hope he didn’t… say anything. I’m sure you know how Hyunje-nim is.”
“Of course I do,” he says graciously, not willing to expand on how much. “If he wasn’t an actor, I’m sure that he would be in jail or, at the very least, be sent away to some faraway northern European country where they send him off to the fields.”
“ Exactly . I haven’t been his manager for long, but ever since Ms. Miller went on ‘sabbatical’, I’ve been her replacement. And… I was just wondering if he said anything because of what happened earlier,” she explains.
He gestures for her to go on, wincing at the reminder of Evelyn Miller. Sabbatical indeed.
She weakly smiles, showing him pictures posted online ten minutes ago with Sung Hyunje winking at the camera, mask pulled below his face. It must be difficult being his manager, he thinks to himself as he pats her shoulder, suddenly feeling relieved at how little Han Yoohyun goes out — or gets into scandals, now that he thinks about it. Really, his little brother is too well behaved for his own good; he wouldn’t mind if he got into a relationship, after all, but he seems intent on giving everybody with any romantic intent the evil eye.
But he doesn’t feel like dragging her into his tangent so he sighs. Acting with conscience or awareness of consequence is typical for most seasoned actors, who had any sort of foolishness shamed out of them by the media. That or they’d fall into the ‘Sung Hyunje’ category, where they have enough money to pay themselves out of or into any situation. If not that, then the prestige to make everybody forget about it the next media cycle.
“Typical of him, huh,” Han Yoojin muses, scrolling through the photos as he grudgingly admits to himself that they did capture his smug look very well and it’s enough to make him pause mid-thought. Despite being up so early, his face doesn't look puffy at all and instead appears as if God sculpted him himself that morning — even with the grainy quality of the phone camera. “This is the sort of guy that acts without conscience. I wouldn’t worry about it, Soyoung-ssi. At least he didn’t anything stupid.”
But Fate must’ve laughed at him at that very moment because Kang Soyoung hesitates before saying, “That’s the thing… He said he was buying coffee for his—”
“His princess ?” he finishes, incredulous as he reads the name written on the coffee cup with a small phone number tacked onto it. He’s suddenly reminded of the fairy tales book he read to his younger brother years ago and shoots a look of disdain at the coffee. And if he’s not hallucinating, he’s sure that it dilutes the taste — it must be the expectation, he decides.
Kang Soyoung, who’s thinking more about the scandal that could arise instead of how eccentric her actor is, looks like a college student run ragged and Han Yoojin is reminded of how blood pressure rates are skyrocketing amongst young people nowadays. Poor her. Wasn’t there something about how more and more young people are getting stress ulcers and hypertension nowadays? Surely Sung Hyunje contributed to at least sixty percent of those statistics.
Pitying her — damn his soft heart and inability to mind his own business — he says, “Working for that guy sounds pretty troublesome. But you know... this is the sort of eccentric people expect from him. Showing up to awards ceremonies on a horse, gifting self-knit scarves during Christmas, and the such... I'm sure nobody will think anything of it,” he finishes lamely, sure that Kang Soyoung wouldn’t mind him beating any sense to him but not having the heart to say it upfront out of fear of losing her beloved paycheck. (Surely people at Seseong are paid a hefty one, having to deal with much more than they should.)
Despite being in his forties, he still hasn’t gotten rid of that devil may care attitude most teenagers have; although, now that he thinks about it, he’s rich enough to so seeing that no consequences stops him from yanking strings.
She shoots one last look at the culprit in his hands, and the drink looks less appetizing by the second as he thinks about the photos. Later he’ll throw it out — preferably in Sung Hyunje’s vicinity out of pure pettiness. It would be even more preferable to dump it all over him, but even Han Yoojin has his limits and he’s unfortunately too far down the hierarchy that the ramifications won’t even stop at him losing his job.
That doesn’t stop him from fantasizing about it though as he instead opts for throwing it away. It's unfortunate that he’s blessed with such good looks, seeing as how an iced drink thrown at him would nothing but elevate his sensuality. There must be a special place in hell for people like him who use gifts such as that for nothing other than cheap mischief and luxury brand ambassadorships. He tchs at the thought, deciding that he will deal with this later. It was only seven in the morning after all — surely people could congregate and speculate about the state of Sung Hyunje’s love life after breakfast.
In the meantime, he would what he does best: mediate all of Han Yoohyun’s interactions outside of set and convince Kim Sunghan to buy him a little something extra for lunch.
And the variety show recording itself went well; despite a few issues — some lights stopped working, he had to stop his brother from looking a bit too murderous at times, and some jokes just landed flat — it all ended smoothly. There were times Sung Hyunje would look at him with a trademark smile and mimic drinking, but that was easily ignored. He would just busy himself with his phone and pretend as if he just received an important message instead of comparing Peace with other cats online.
Ping.
Seok Simyeong (CEO) 16:13 Read
Change of plans. After the recording, come back to the company for a meeting about a new project offered to Yoohyun-ssi. We received the offer this morning and after thorough review, we believe that it would be a great opportunity.
Seok Simyeong (HR) 16:17 Read
confidentalinformationnewmovie2024contractdocument.pdf
Seok Simyeong (HR) 16:20 Read
Review the contract right now if there is anything you would like to add and direct it to HR. This role was an offer made by the casting director directly, and are looking to start auditions for secondary roles later.
Yoojin 16:32 Read
Secondary roles? you know who else is in the movie? Or who they’re trying to reel in?
Seok Simyeong (HR) 16:34 Read
They did say that Sung Hyunjae is in it; as a matter of fact, he’s an executive producer.
Fucker. He unconsciously ends up tch ing out loud, and turns to see trouble incarnate himself, who flashes him an even shinier grin as the makeup artist touches up on his already immaculate hair. Praying to himself that they accidentally end up cutting it all off and his hair never grows back, he looks back at his phone as he receives another message.
Seok Simyeong (HR) 16:35 Read
Would you happen to know anything about that?
Yoojin 16:35 Delivered
Not a thing. We’ll be there right after the recording.
As if the HR director of all people needs to know about how he hooked up with Sung Hyunje several times while he was persona non grata before he swiftly — as swift as one could be , at least — returned to Haeyeon and prostrated in front of Seok Simyeong himself, begging for forgiveness and, if he would be so kind, a job.
Really — it wasn’t his fault. His one claim to dignity was that he put an end to their ill-minded tryst himself, and while that may not be an example of restraint that he can proudly declare on job resumes, it’s certainly something . Because everything prior to that was a domino effect of mistakes that demonstrated nothing other than humans’ ability to regress back to the neolithic period.
Some part of him was sure that it would bite him back in the ass later, how he ended things with a ‘this isn’t working out. If we ever see each other in a professional capacity, i hope you can find it in yourself to be professional. (btw I donated the stuff that you left at my apartment to goodwill. Hope you don’t mind.) ’ over KakaoTalk before swiftly blocking his number. A bit petty? Passive aggressive? Somebody less familiar with Sung Hyunje may think so, but he did — and still does, really — think that was a beautifully put message that would even leave Seok Simyeong proud. (But only if he never knew of the context.)
It’s just that the recipient did not appreciate the message as much as he did. Obviously — he very well knew that, but was it too much to hope for some maturity? Grace even? No emotionally charged coffees with princess written on them?
And speak of the devil himself, who already left his manager on standby with a lost expression on her face, as he makes his way towards him. It really is quite unlucky how eye-catching he is, how people’s gazes gravitate towards him like he is the second coming of Christ, if he was blonde and had the unfortunate habit of using kaomojis while texting.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
“How cheap of you. You’d have to pay a much higher toll than that.”
And with the face of somebody who’s not hurt at all, he says, “Indeed. I’m quite hurt, you know. I already paid quite a bit for that drink of yours. Have your tastes changed while I was gone?”
He pales, checking the perimeter. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” And his lie doesn’t come off as poised as it normally would, with all the guilty cadence of an awkward teenager. So he clears his throat and adds on, with a far more clip tone, “But I would prefer if you were more professional. As a lowly manager, I can hardly accept such special treatment from an esteemed actor such as yourself.”
“I merely wanted to get along with you in a professional capacity, seeing as we’d be seeing each other much more from now on. I apologize if I’ve given you the wrong impression.”
“Yes, it’s a bit easy, seeing how you wrote princess on the cup.”
“Is that what led you to throwing it away? My… first your taste in coffee and now this. It appears as if old age has worsened my memory. forgive me for that slip-up too.”
His grin indicates the exact opposite, and Han Yoojin is suddenly reminded of a smug cat. The resemblance really is uncanny, and he’s tempted to ask him to wear a pair of cat ears to complete the ensemble; but knowing the sicko, he probably has a pair lying around.
And before he can say anything else, his brother comes in between them, ever the picture of angelic siblings everywhere and curtly says, “What the fuck. ” with all the grace and dignity of a man that underwent public appearance training.
“Yoohyun-ah, are you already well acquainted with…” he pauses, not sure how to address Sung Hyunje. Old man? Three time Baeksang Award winner? A pain in the ass? “Hyunje-ssi?” he finally settles on, smiling thinly at the person in question.
“Unfortunately. But how you know him? And has he been bothering you? He’s been doing that, finding some poor soul to harass just to see how long it takes for them to crack.”
And before he can say anything else, he cuts in quickly. “We were actually just discussing future projects. Speaking of which, if you’re not too tired, why don’t we stop at Haeyeon before going home?”
“Future projects,” his brother echoes. “With this guy. I’d rather kill myself.”
How eloquently put. He nods in agreement before quickly saying goodbye to Sung Hyunje as he rushed him out. And if he were to ever find out what transpired between them, then he would be doing exactly what his loving brother threatened to do.