Catwalk Nuisance (2/3)
{ PART I } { PART 2 } { PART 3 }
"...On another note, paparazzi has found celebrity supermodel Daehyun Jung ambling out from one of the most popular strip clubs in Los Angeles toward his Mercedes Benz earlier this morning, suspiciously during a supposed press conference of a model convention hosted by Runway magazine. Online articles has dubbed this 'The Second Strike', following after Daehyun's fall during his John Galliano fashion show walk last week, under what was rumored to be an influence of alcohol. Here are the footages of what happened-"
Youngjae aggressively turns off the TV with a scowl before hurling the remote toward his bed. There's already enough gossip to go around for a week, a month even, and Youngjae wants to block himself out from the disgrace starting now. He starts to massage his temples, he's downed a couple of Advil just two hours ago but his ongoing headache doesn't seem to cease. If he bursts a vein, Youngjae's sure he already knows who to blame.
News obviously travels faster than a bullet in the showbiz industry, because an hour and a half after the incident, Youngjae had Mr. Soo ringing up his phone.
After a quick clear-up of the situation, Mr. Soo had politely suggested Youngjae that maybe it's time for him to consider another career, but to Youngjae, it's just the sugar coated version of: you suck, we want someone else on the job, someone who doesn't have to get shit together, because the shit won't have to be divided in the first place. But it's the nicest way they can break it down to Youngjae, so he's trying not to be so offended. After all, he's actually been slightly expecting this, three years worth of daily oppression already counts as enough job experience in Youngjae's book. Now he has the contract termination papers Mr. Soo had emailed and asked him to print a few hours ago, along with a note that they can give him time to think over whether he wants to stay or not.
Youngjae wonders if he really needs the time to think, wonders why he should even think when this is the easiest way out of the stress Daehyun's giving him.
A knock on the door takes Youngjae out of his short reverie. One of his assistants steps inside the door. "Sir, Daehyun is looking for you."
"Tell him I don't want to see hi-"
"Youngjae," Daehyun barges in the room. "Where have you been? I thought you flew back to Seoul without me!"
"Great idea, I might just put that to consideration," Youngjae grumbles, turning his back on Daehyun and starting to gather all his paper files laid out on one of the large circular tables.
Daehyun exudes a lengthy whine. "Hey, I'm sorry, let's talk about this?"
Youngjae turns around and lifts up a bunch of papers next to his face. "See this, Daehyun? It's your contract discontinuance with Runway magazine." He loudly jabs the papers back on the table. "Runway, Daehyun. Runway. They don't like you anymore. Next thing you know, it's Dolce, then Valentino, then Ed Hardy cutting you off."
"I'm sorry!" Daehyun asserts. "I didn't mean it, it's my friend, he invited me to come to his party and still insisted even though I explained to him that I was busy-"
"You had a choice between completely going against his request and breaking your promise to me that you won't do anything dumb again," Youngjae says "You chose the latter."
"I know but-"
"'Trust me' featuring serious soul piercing gaze? Bullshit. Since you don't worry much about losing contract agreements-" Youngjae grabs another bundle of papers, the ones which were courtesy of Mr. Soo and pushes it toward Daehyun's chest as he passes by him on his way toward the doors, "-maybe you won't worry much about losing a manager."
Youngjae sits with a cup of hot choco in an outdoor coffee shop in the middle of a park, early the following morning (a little past the borders of the town central, where no one can possibly recognize high fashion supermodels and their managing team). He's taken advantage of the entire schedule-void day before their flight back to Seoul later tonight, trying to give himself a moment of peace and to keep away from the catwalk nuisance that is Daehyun.
He hadn't really meant to give any hint whatsoever that he wanted to quit his job, because he really doesn't anyway. He's grown attached to the everyday pattern of being a supermodel's manager, to be the reason a star gets to light up and shine. Lack of adoration didn't directly mean lack of enthusiasm. Just the thought of doing something else kind of makes him realize that adjusting again would be quite hard to do. Traveling the world instead of sitting down on your ass in an office several hours a week has its perks, too.
Youngjae's staring into the massive fountain in the middle of the park in front of the coffee shop when a silhouette blocks his sun. 'Moment of peace' crumbles down a little bit earlier than he wanted it to.
"Finding you is easier than I first assumed," a familiar voice says.
Youngjae turns his head to find Daehyun casually sitting down across the table and grabbing Youngjae's cup of hot chocolate to drink from it.
Youngjae scowls. "That's mine." He reaches out his hand in an attempt to take back the cup but Daehyun only catches his fingers from the backside and seizes it down the table.
"Wow, how come I never noticed that you have really nice hands?" Daehyun points out as he places the hot chocolate back down.
Youngjae shakes his arms to whack Daehyun off. "How did you know I'm here?"
"If you want to get away from me, you shouldn't really tell people where you will be," Daehyun says. "Especially my assistants, they've been very reliable resources."
"If you know that I want to get away from you, stay away," Youngjae counters, "Why did you have to follow me all the way here?"
Daehyun groans, leaning both his arms on the table and losing all the arrogant facades for once. "I came here to apologize, as you may have already been expecting, okay," he says. "I don't want you to sign the contract-man, I should have burned that up when I got the chance earlier."
"Apologizing to me won't get Runway back." Youngjae shifts his gaze.
"I don't freaking care about Runway, Youngjae, we've got seventy other more endorsements," Daehyun affirms. His eyes turn soft. "I shouldn't have left you during the press conference, that was a very dick move. I know you were offended and humiliated. I'm sorry."
"This is the second time you've done, and I know there'll a third strike," Youngjae says. "I figured out giving you the cold shoulder would prolong it. But here you are."
"There will be no third strikes."
Another staring contest ensues.
"Look, I don't care about losing contracts," Daehyun says, leaning back on his seat and fiddling with his thumbs on the table, "But I don't want to be the reason you have to sign yours off. I mean you're a douche sometimes, but that's not enough to make me want you to leave."
Youngjae furrows his eyebrows at Daehyun and sighs, trying to keep every detail of this conversation engraved perfectly in his memory, mostly for future blackmailing purposes, but maybe he can also think back to this time if ever he feels ungrateful about having his job again. "Okay okay, fine," he says, "You're forgiven. But only because you said you won't be doing this again." He brings his cup of hot chocolate up to his lips to take a sip. "But you've got to do something to absolve yourself to the mass before the social media convince them otherwise."
"I never wanted to be a model, you know," Daehyun confesses all of a sudden, flipping the quarter he's been holding in his hand, "Or a celebrity. Or just anything close to being someone famous."
Him and Youngjae have ended up walking toward the park fountain as they make a deal to get Daehyun to as many TV and magazine interviews as they can once they get back to Seoul. Youngjae pushes himself up to sit on top of its waist high barriers, appreciating the closer sound of the waters rushing and splashing altogether at once. Daehyun stands next to him, gaze distant.
"That's surprising," Youngjae says. "Modeling turned out to be everything you are now."
"Yeah," Daehyun says, just as he throws the quarter he's holding to the fountain. "I used prefer staying low and unnoticed, if you can remember through our younger school years. I mean, now I can admit that the attention is quite awesome and has its benefits, but, continuously trying to accomplish all the expectations from everyone can get exhausting, too. It's like I've lost myself to become a person who just lives to please people, and to heighten the attractiveness of clothing products."
Youngjae gives off a small laugh. "You're still the same idiot i knew in high school if you ask me."
Daehyun smiles down at the springs. "Guess you know me better than anyone else then." He shrugs. "Maybe I just want something typical, you know, like something someone with my age and wealth would do. Like clubbing and getting drunk off my ass every other night."
"That's a bit too far, you just need a relationship, Daehyun, a real one. It can lighten up the load, believe me."
Daehyun looks at Youngjae. "Then why don't you get one?"
Youngjae looks back. "What does that even mean, you think I need one?"
Daehyun snorts. "You're freaking uptight man, you need to loosen up."
"And you think a relationship can ease me up."
"Hell yeah it can!" Daehyun says a little too loudly for a public park that is halfway crowded. "So why don't we just put two and two together and make things less harder for the both of us?"
Youngjae gets caught in between a reaction of surprise and a laughing fit. "You mean you want us two to date?"
(They spent the next few hours bickering toward the car and inside the car and eating in a rundown pizza shack and shopping for wigs in a cheap open-air bazaar and going into a mall with long rock star hair and dark shades and choosing to play arcade instead of shopping for once and punching and hitting each other along the way and going back into the hotel looking like crashed down morons because Daehyun thought it'd be nice to do a date test trial.)
(Youngjae has only agreed because he's been gotten dragged away.)
(And he realizes he's enjoyed hanging out with Daehyun as actual friends and not as co-workers more than he thought he would.)
(And maybe that's the point when things subtly change, when their relationship gets a little bit comfortable, and when deeply hidden sentiments get a little bit more amplified. A simple wisecrack has turned itself into a bridge into something more, and Youngjae doesn't even notice.)
The arrival back in Seoul is, to say, even more chaotic than the time Daehyun got back from his first international endorsement. News reporters and fans swarmed the airport with a mix of cheers and rapid fire of questions that were quite hard to pick up. Mr. Soo has sent enough bodyguards as their entourage to keep everyone from getting too close, but Daehyun can't help but notice Youngjae's growing annoyance through the way he's rigidly walking. It must be the blitz of questions.
"Hey, you okay?" Daehyun asks once the silence from the trip seems enough and they have arrived in the hotel and Youngjae's arranging his clothes in a neat pile on the drawers.
Youngjae turns his head, wondering where Daehyun's question came from, before shrugging as he turns back to smoothening his sweaters. "Yeah."
Daehyun playfully ruffles the other's hair as he passes by him on the way to his bed. "Loosen up, we've got this all figured out, have we not?"
Youngjae doesn't show it, but he instantaneously feels better.
Mr. Soo is right, Chairman Sang isn't delighted at all to hear about Daehyun's exploits. After a heavy amount of scolding on both young men, he made sure that Daehyun's schedule for the week is packed, voluntarily submitting the model for TV, magazine and news interviews to avoid further misunderstandings of his actions, just as planned. He made public apologies and attended talk shows and answered back to false accusations, impressively smoothly, much to Youngjae's surprise.
With the promise that he's still the same Daehyun Jung the world always knew, he proceeded with a few endorsements around Seoul.
Like a Ralph Lauren billboard photoshoot for men's nightwear.
"You can't eat that!" Youngjae hisses, slapping Daehyun's hand away when he reaches for a tiny cupcake on the snack table in the midst of a twenty minute break. "Here, have a banana."
"What?" Daehyun asks scandalously, looking down at the banana Youngjae has just handed over like it just fell from the sky. "But everything here is prepared for everyone."
"Yeah, except for you. How many times have I told you to watch your calorie intake?" Youngjae grabs a little cupcake himself and mockingly bites on it while looking at Daehyun.
"Oh, so you can eat it but I can't."
"Oh, I don't model for high grossing fashion brands, Daehyun."
Daehyun narrows his currently grey-colored eyes. "You are injustice in human form," he swears. "Come on, just one bite? It won't immediately alter my hot body with sudden flabs, I promise."
Youngjae doesn't know what makes him give in, it must me the pleading gaze, or how Daehyun's presently adorned in a pair of grey cotton pants and a fully opened button-up dress shirt over a wife beater, and his brown hair is a curled mess for the bedroom effect, and he's walking around the set barefoot (and he looks unbearably hot and adorable all the same). Youngjae reaches his fingers out to feed Daehyun whatever's left of his cupcake.
Daehyun's entire face morphs into genuine happiness as he chews, looking at Youngjae as if he's his Christmas Santa. "I love you," he says before moving to pass by the other to the back of the set where he needs to get his retouch and outfit change. "You're the best manager in the world."
Long after Daehyun has left, Youngjae stares at the tray of sweets, lips stretching into a small smile.
He decides that maybe he likes cupcakes.
The rest of the photoshoot resumes with shared knowing glances across the set and Youngjae's face turning into a shade of red as he catches Daehyun's winks and chuckles between altering poses for the camera.
"You've redeemed yourself as it appears, Daehyun, congratulations," Mr. Soo says from the SUV passenger seat after Daehyun's final schedule of the night. "You guys have been doing a good job."
When the vice president receives no response, he glances up at the rear view mirror to see Daehyun huddled next to Youngjae by one side of the back seat door as the two of them talk in hushed tones. Youngjae seems to be pointing at something out the window-Mr. Soo minutely takes a look to see that it's Daehyun's latest Ralph Lauren billboard appearance. Daehyun ends up laughing at something Youngjae says. Youngjae chuckles along, minutely sharing a gaze with the other, and Mr. Soo doesn't miss the way Daehyun's eyes subtly drops on Youngjae's lips for a very short moment.
The slight twinkle in their eyes makes Mr. Soo feel like he's watching some cheesy teenage romance flick. He tilts his head, looking back at the road. "Well..."
Daehyun's hectic schedules meant Youngjae's consistent required companionship. But among everything else, it's the flashy social gatherings Youngjae hates the most.
He's left standing alone in one of the high tables yet again (just as he always is in every important intimate event) as the food gets served around by waiters in tuxes. It's a gathering for a broadcasting company's transfer of inheritance, which meant that Korea's most important national TV programme stars and the people behind it all were present. But the comfort of not being much paid attention to as to fashion-related social events, will not surpass the uneasiness of being left alone on a high table. Daehyun has waltzed away with Mr. Soo toward a table of executives for a small chat as soon as they came in.
Stupid crap. He should have just stayed in the agency to work on sorting out appointments.
"How can someone like you be alone in this table?"
The bright red hair and the stammering height screamed the owner of the voice before Youngjae can even bother to scan his memory. Junhong Choi stands with a graceful smile next to him, offering him a glass of wine.
Youngjae exerts a timid laugh as he takes the glass. "I'm fine, thank you."
"We haven't formally met, Mr. Yoo, but I've heard all about you," Junhong says, reaching a hand out. He's much much more mesmerizing up close, Youngjae can't help but make an effort not to stare. "My name is Junhong."
"I've heard all about you as well, of course." Youngjae shakes his hand. "Just call me Youngjae."
"Wanted to approach you during the press conference in LA, but, problems occurred."
Youngjae pretends to sigh. "Sadly," he says. "But I see you are here in Seoul, that's very... surprising." Youngjae's attention drifts again to Daehyun's and Mr. Soo's table behind Junhong's shoulder when a cluster of red catches his eye. An executive appears to be introducing someone to the table, gesturing to a girl who just made their way to their table, right next to Daehyun.
Youngjae recognizes her. Jeon Hyosung, one of the most beautiful actresses of the country. She's adorned in an unmistakable flurry of red; her tight knee length dress, her pumps and her lips.
"...had to get home." Junhong is saying, but Youngjae is too distracted in watching Daehyun ogle her as they get to be acquainted. "The president of my agency is good friends with the inheritor so I had to be here."
"Oh, is that so," Youngjae deadpans.
Junhong turns his head when he notices Youngjae isn't looking at him and exerts a chuckle. "She's a beauty, isn't she?"
Youngjae draws back. "What?"
"Her?" Junhong points with a thumb. "Hyosung, my cousin."
When Youngjae turns his look once more, he catches Daehyun's eyes are on him as well. He faces Junhong again, praying to whoever mighty deity that his face isn't turning red, before Daehyun's eyebrow can entirely raise questioningly.
"Oh... she's your cousin?" Youngjae stammers. He coughs into his fist. "Yes."
"Yes," Junhong echoes. "Youngjae... hyung, you know I I would love to get to know you better, would you like to join me for some coffee sometime tomorrow? Please don't say no."
"Coffee?" Daehyun suddenly appears next to them, hands inside his pockets and expression firm. "What coffee?"
Youngjae opens his mouth, glancing between Junhong and Daehyun (who's now raising a brow at him) in a moment of panic. "He... was just-"
"Youngjae hates coffee, for your information," Daehyun tells Junhong. "You don't want to make that impression."
"No no no, absolutely not, I love coffee," Youngjae chimes.
"No, you don't," Daehyun presses. "You completely loathe caffeine."
Youngjae laughs nervously. "O... KAY." He turns to Junhong. "Don't mind him, like at all, he's just... out of his mind."
Junhong looks confused now. "We can... get something else other than coffee?"
"Sure we can!"
"Mr. Soo wants you in the next table," Daehyun points out.
"No he doesn't," Youngjae counters. "You were happily chatting away without me, now go back there, because I'm sharing this table with Mr. Choi here."
"You're my manager," Daehyun insists. "And I'm asking you to come with me."
Youngjae gives Daehyun a pointed glare, emphatically reminding the other that he detests every bit of him.
Daehyun smiles.
"I'm sure we'll meet some other time, Junhong," Youngjae say, "And we can plan something out. But first I have to go."
"Yes yes yes, let's go," Daehyun says hastily, grabbing Youngjae's elbow just as he's about to shake Junhong's hand.
Youngjae tries to break free from Daehyun's grip, mouthing a brief I'm sorry to Junhong when he realizes he couldn't because he's already being dragged away.
"What are you doing?" Daehyun hisses aggressively as they stop on one corner.
"What are you doing?" Youngjae reiterates. "He was trying to make friends with me!"
"Oh hoh right," Daehyun jeers. "Believe me, asking out for coffee is not trying to make friends."
"So what do you care? I thought you said I needed a relationship."
"Yeah, but not with him!"
"Then with who?"
That shuts Daehyun up. He makes a face after a minute look of panic. "Let's just go to the other table."
Youngjae huffs, indignantly stomping ahead of Daehyun.
Even when Daehyun's schedule isn't stacked, Youngjae, in turn, always proceeds to answering e-mails, sorting out time tables so their appointments won't clash and being, as expected, Daehyun's occasional escort. Youngjae's tiredness is always a big fat ten on the exhaustion scale every evening. So when he and Daehyun are offered to clear out the proceeding week's agendas for a week-long vacation, Youngjae almost wants to rolls around the meeting table out of joy.
Daehyun soundlessly walks inside Youngjae's makeshift office on a late Friday evening as the other is arranging folders on the shelves. "So where are you spending your week off?"
"Somewhere far away from you," Youngjae replies eagerly after a short glance at the other's direction.
"Ha ha, very funny." Daehyun pouts.
Youngjae pats Daehyun's face as he passes by him on his way to his desk. "I'm serious though."
"Don't you want to go overseas with me?" Daehyun suggests. "I mean we've been to places, but never actually seen them. Greece sounds like a good idea. Or India."
"Go home, Daehyun, get rest. Don't do anything that will remind you of work," Youngjae says as he slides some files inside his shoulder bag. "Just be Jung Daehyun for awhile and take advantage of the vacation while it’s here."
Daehyun's gaze drops on the floor. "Are you going back home to Busan?"
Youngjae initially hesitates on letting him know, but there's really nowhere else he can possibly be. "Yeah."
"Can you please take me with you?"
Youngjae blinks. "What?"
{ PART I } { PART 2 } { PART 3 }