SRP 26

Chapter 26

It was when Bom came back to reality after spotting Giwoong’s van waiting in the distance.

Gogeon’s acting had been so good that she had forgotten everything else.

Without realizing it, she had treated him sincerely, then thought she’d crossed a line because of his joking and apologized.

She even sent a message explaining why she was apologizing.

But then, at that moment, Gogeon suddenly changed.

He said he was angry all of a sudden and left, and she couldn’t understand why.

After hearing Bom’s story, Ilju explained.

“Maybe he did it to heighten the tension. If you watch ‘Human Theater,’ there’s always something like that in the last scene. Everything’s warm and friendly, then suddenly a problem happens, or the wife gets angry.”

Bom was startled.

“Unni, you watch ‘Human Theater’ too?”
“I-I mean, I could watch it! Actors watch ‘Human Theater’ a lot to study characters.”

Ilju wasn’t an actress, but seeing how flustered she looked, Bom didn’t ask any more questions.

Why this scene? Did she notice something?

Once you have a secret, your thoughts can only flow in that direction.

With a nervous heart, Bom focused on the video.

“This part—there are people who say they don’t understand why Gogeon got angry here. We really need to make them take a dating exam or something. Unnies who say they don’t get it—do you seriously not understand this feeling?”

The YouTuber sounded extremely frustrated.

“He’s been expressing it nonstop, hasn’t he? I love you, I want to live with you, I want to marry you, I love you.”

She widened her eyes and raised her voice as if it were her own story.

“He gets jealous, he talks, he holds hands tight. You know that I love you more. You know the other person doesn’t like you as much as you like them, but you go on a nice date and on the way back they suddenly say, ‘I’m sorry.’ What kind of feeling do you think that gives you? If it were me, I’d be so hurt and miserable.”

She grabbed at her own hair as she poured her heart out.

“I was really happy, but they’re saying they’re sorry to me. They’re saying it’s not as much as me. I know, but still….”

The YouTuber, who had been slumping over the desk with her shoulders shaking, pressed a tissue to the corner of her eyes as if wiping away tears.

“Wow, sorry, unnies. It reminded me of my previous relationship. If it were me, I’d get angry and interrogate him, but Gogeon doesn’t even do that, so it’s even more heartbreaking.”

The paused video resumed.

When she said she was sorry, his mood suddenly changed.

—Try calling me oppa.
—Why?
—To Yoon Myeongjo you call me ‘my actor,’ and to staff you don’t even know you call them oppa, so why don’t you do it with me?

Because they were filming, he couldn’t ask out loud, so he tried to ask by message, but he grabbed Bom’s hand and wouldn’t let go.

It was a video she’d already seen once.

She had even heard this scene directly from him, but Bom’s stomach churned all the same.

“Why did he suddenly ask her to call him oppa? It’s confirmation. ‘Do you like me? If you like me, say it.’ That’s what it is. And Gogeon—see? He says it again.”

—Lee Bom, you’re really expensive.

“Why can’t you recognize it! He’s saying he loves you this much! And this is where it gets even sadder. I ended up crying here.”

—I’m angry, so don’t contact me until 9 a.m. tomorrow. Don’t even send a message.

“He’s saying it again! ‘Give me love!’ ‘Show me love!’ Don’t you know irony? You should keep contacting him to make up!”

—…If you’re angry at me, then tomorrow I just won’t contact you.
—I want to hear your voice, so contact me when you wake up. Your boyfriend’s angry—you should try to make it better.

“I’ll bet my channel 100% that she took that literally and didn’t contact him!”

Bom couldn’t refute it.

That day she was really tired, her battery had died, and she fell asleep, so she didn’t contact him.

The YouTuber, who had been venting furiously, took a deep breath to calm her heightened emotions.

Leaning closer to the screen, she lowered her voice.

“But I found something really creepy. No matter how much you dig through YouTube, I’m the only one who found this.”

She showed her phone and quickly skimmed through the photos that had heated up SNS that day.

“There are so many date photos uploaded on SNS from that day. It was really just the two of them on a date, and even after coming out of the bar, there’s no other filming crew around?”

The photos she’d prepared in advance appeared on the right side of the video.

It was a photo someone had taken and uploaded of the two of them standing under a streetlight after leaving the bar that night.

“Then, unnies, throughout the date the footage was filmed from the woman’s point of view, but at the bar it was edited from two different angles. That means one of the two set up the camera. So who do you think did that?”

Instinctively, Bom paused the video.

“…Oh.”

Was she found out? Were people suspecting it was a fake relationship?

She skimmed through the comments again, but just as she’d seen before watching, most of them were reactions like ‘Please love oppa a bit more.’

Thankfully, there wasn’t much suspicion.

But that sense of relief didn’t last long.

—Huh? You’re saying Gogeon did it, the one who keeps holding his girlfriend’s hand and won’t let go? No. The girlfriend—the one whose face isn’t shown and whose job is manager—did it.

The YouTuber’s anger rose in a gradient.

—No, they’re on a date! What kind of girlfriend worries about filming angles during a date! With Gogeon sitting right in front of her! How do you think it would feel watching that from the boyfriend’s perspective! Huh? Unnies, try putting yourselves in his shoes. You finally meet your boyfriend, but he doesn’t care about you at all and just keeps staring at his phone, messaging a friend! Ah, I’m crying again.

Bom hunched her shoulders.

It had really been a work-related date.

—If my own younger brother were in this kind of unrequited-love relationship, I’d try to stop him. If people’s hearts worked the way they wanted, do you think I’d be running a dating advice channel like this? Watching it, I’m frustrated wondering why someone as great as Gogeon is in a relationship like this, but at the same time I understand his feelings so well that it really messes with me.

As if the analysis was over, the YouTuber looked straight into the camera and spoke seriously.

Bom hunched her shoulders again.

—If the girlfriend unni happens to see this video, there’s something I want to say to her.

She paused, her gaze lingering as if she were looking directly at Bom through the screen, then continued.

—Unni, your boyfriend is Gogeon. Your boyfriend’s face is Gogeon’s face. He likes you this much—what more do you want? Just love him a little. Okay? This isn’t right!

Overwhelmed by the force of the video, Bom apologized without thinking.

“…S-sorry.”

The video ended, but she couldn’t put her phone down.

Her relationship with Gogeon was fake, but even knowing that, watching the analysis video made her feel awful.

As if she really were failing to understand Gogeon’s feelings.

Everyone just criticized her, saying Bom had it too good.

Haa… Bom let out a sigh that rose from deep in her belly.

“I’m craving beer.”

Was this really better than being cursed as a bad woman who approached him just to borrow money?

Either way, she was being cursed.

It was just the difference between being cursed for a long time or a short time.

But dull-witted Bom couldn’t think of anything else.

The fact that Gogeon had sent her that video.

The drama entered a decent ranking the day after its release.

Considering the small number of episodes and the promotional effect of the release, it was a ranking that made people say the future looked promising.

But after the behind-the-scenes footage of Gogeon’s date was uploaded and his love received widespread support and encouragement, even more attention poured onto the drama.

The drama Us, Right Now, Spring.

Set in a Taebaek mining village in the 1980s, with sunflower fields as the backdrop, it tells the story of a village boy and girl who grew up together, got married, and moved to Seoul as the coal mines declined.

As they live through the rapidly changing times, the husband is diagnosed with cancer.

He sees his wife, who has adapted well to life in Seoul, smiling with a man she runs a business with.

Unable to let her go through divorce despite loving her, yet also unable to tell her to return to Taebaek with him, he heads back to his hometown alone.

Believing she’s been abandoned, the wife packs her things, then discovers her husband’s diagnosis and belatedly follows him to Taebaek.

It was a drama that beautifully wove a couple’s love and a man’s pure devotion into the flow of the times.

Gogeon played the role spanning from childhood through the marriage of the young couple, and even with just the first week’s episodes, he vividly portrayed the male lead’s devoted, selfless love.

Because the emotional flow closely matched the real-life Gogeon, people began watching the drama while cheering on his love.

And so, still only in its second week, before the next episode was released—

The drama rose to number one in the rankings.

And on the day the next episode was released, Bom was standing at the island pier.

The filming crew had arrived early to set up the cameras, and they filmed from the moment the PD and writer boarded the boat from the mainland.

“Bom!”

Gogeon, who had arrived on the island first, ran toward her.

Just like the man in Us, Right Now, Spring who is overjoyed to see his wife return to Taebaek.

“Lee Bom!”