Knowing Brother-Chapter 66

I didn’t know that Won Dae-young had feelings that he was suppressing and hiding. Could it be the stress of the Olympics or the sadness related to his family affairs that were so painful?

There was something he hadn’t told Choi Seol-woo. Or there was something Choi Seol-woo hadn’t noticed until now. It wasn’t a feeling of resentment, but rather a feeling of hurt pride. ... ... It seems his heart is still steeped in habit.

If it were before, he would have blurted out what he hadn’t told her. But Choi Seol-woo pulled himself together and kept his mouth shut.

Finally, the counselor worried about Won Dae-young, who was pouring everything into his work.

“And these days... I think Won Dae-young is really tired. You must be feeling a lot of pressure with the Olympics coming up next year. You have the World Championships coming up soon.”

“Not at all. There’s no tension or pressure from the competition at all.”

“You might even be completely controlling all of that...!”

The subtitles will be displayed saying, ‘This is the mental strength of Asia’s top!’ Won Dae-young ran without rest. The Won Dae-young Seol-woo remembers was always running. Even during the long rehabilitation, he never saw him frustrated for even a second. Maybe he didn’t realize how heavy it was because he had to overcome past controversies and prove his skills while going through long rehabilitation. Like the counselor said, even if he sensed it, it was just useless distracting thoughts, so he might have controlled himself to feel only the necessary emotions.

“People who are good at running forward often feel empty after achieving their goals. In that case, it would be good to find a hobby or something fun to do outside of work. No, you should! What do you like besides track and field?”

“Um... nothing.”

Won Dae-young mumbled with his eyebrows furrowed. That was the unvarnished truth. Choi Seol-woo knew it too. That kid is a corpse without track and field. Without work, all he does is love and sex, so he has nothing to say.

Won Dae-young finished the counseling session with a sad smile.

“Anyway, yeah. I’m going to find out. What on earth am I holding back? This won’t do.”

It was before the filming of the Mind Center ended and they moved to a different location. Won Dae-young picked up Choi Seol-woo’s collar, who was standing there blankly. He lifted Choi Seol-woo up like a claw machine. It was something he always did at school, a cafe, or a bar.

Unable to show his displeasure because of the eyes watching him, he followed him into the staff’s office, where Won Dae-young had pointed out a lunch box for dinner.

“Eat. I said I’ll eat here. The staff will eat somewhere else.”

Rather than considering Choi Seol-woo’s discomfort, he thought that Won Dae-young himself wanted to be comfortable, so he sat down in front of the lunch box. Won Dae-young suddenly took off all of his top. Choi Seol-woo’s pupils briefly shook at the copper-colored half-naked body that had been revealed without her knowing. His eyes almost went to her areolas, which were tanned like chocolate.

He looked for something to say, maintaining a natural head angle as if he wasn’t too turned away.

“Hey. Why do you keep bringing up your ex-girlfriend? My love story was in episode 1. It’s not like we’re filming to advertise my private life.”

“It would be good if more people spread the word that you’re straight.”

“...Why are you judging that? There’s nothing good or bad about it. Do you know what’s best? Not filming that video that already got 700,000 views.”

“Why? Are you having a hard time?”

Won Dae-young, who let out a blank laugh, took off his shorts this time. Choi Seol-woo barely managed to maintain his composure as he casually exposed his black underwear covering his hips and buttocks, as well as his bare thighs.

While he was scooping up rice with chopsticks, he heard the sound of someone picking up his slacks from behind.

“That’s why I provided a taxi for commuting, but if you’re still stressed... If it’s stressful for you, then it shouldn’t be. If it’s that much, then you don’t have to film it.”

“What? You don’t have to film it, you set the table like this....”

“Instead, talk to me for the duration of the filming. Let’s talk about breaking up.”

“No, I’ll film this.”

Won Dae-young sighed and told her the sudden situation.

“What should I do? I have to go and record a commercial in a hurry.”

When he turned around, he was zipping up his underwear, with his waistband and front almost completely exposed. Choi Seol-woo looked up at his face. Won Dae-young kept talking to him without putting his top on, like a baby animal. He even came close to her with his upper body exposed and asked her to put food in his mouth, ah, open it.

Although he had many memories of being in a relationship, it was the first time his naked body was close, so he felt a strong stimulation. At that moment, Won Dae-young grabbed Choi Seol-woo’s chin and turned it towards me. What he held out was a text message from an underwear brand representative about the location of the post-recording.

“It’ll be hard for you to cancel your dinner appointment. Let’s just throw away the bullying story.”

Choi Seol-woo, who had been mumbling, shook his head with a frown.

“Why throw that story away? You can do it during the next shoot. When I have the chance, I should explain that Kang Jong-hyeok was a jerk who filed a lawsuit against the court.”

“There’s a context. It was a plan to connect after psychological counseling, so let’s just do it.”

“Episode 5 is a friendship trip or something. At that time....”

“Then we’ll talk about injuries and rehabilitation.”

“.......”

In Seol-woo’s memory, episode 3 was about visiting the physical education department, and episode 4 was about attending an evaluation match. It was impossible to connect them with honest stories. But if we didn’t cover his past story that was easily forgotten, suspicions would remain. Choi Seol-woo hated ambiguity the most. After much thought, he decided to prioritize it here.

“You go and finish filming and finish. Can we finish recording in an hour or two?”

“I don’t want to force you or me to film. We’ve already finished our footage.”

“No, this is my last duty. I’ll cancel the appointment, so do as planned.”

“Then do it.”

Won Dae-young responded with an indifferent expression. The thick skin moved on Won Dae-young’s shoulders and chest, who was wearing a light shirt.

Seol-woo had no choice but to cancel the appointment with Director Yoon.

[Director, can we postpone our meeting until tomorrow?]

[What should I do, I'm sorryㅠㅠWon Dae-young, this kid, /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ I have to do some urgent post-recording, so we'll resume filming later tonight.] 6:35 PM

Director Yoon Ji-hwan: [Then contact me when you're done. I'll come pick you up.]

Director Yoon Ji-hwan: [Isn't it hard for you, Dae-young?] 6:42 PM

Choi Seol-woo tapped the keypad, not knowing that he was trying to convince himself and Director Yoon at the same time, and that he was making even more extreme denials.

[Whether it's hard or not... I don't need him anymore. Don't worry.]

[When I was organizing the reasons for our breakup, I even wrote a profit and loss statement. It's right to cut ties, for various reasons.] 6:55 PM

In the meantime, Won Dae-young sent a thank you message to the engineer who had urgently asked him to do the post-recording earlier. The schedule change request was first made by Won Dae-young, and the reason was, of course, to take away time with Yoon Ji-hwan.

The apparent purpose was to prevent the staff from witnessing Choi Seol-woo getting into Yoon Sang-moo’s car, but the real reason was largely unconscious.

Won Dae-young had to do this.

When he heard about the date that was sure to last until the middle of the night, the momentary discomfort he felt was so fucking bad... ... .

* * *

‘... ... I’m tired.’

After visiting a recording studio near Mapo, we filmed for about an hour at a cafe. Regarding the matter with Kang Jong-hyuk, we finished talking about it based on facts, neither hot nor cold. When it was ten o’clock, my body suddenly became sluggish. It was because I had been working and working overtime all week after playing poker with Yoon Sang-moo until late last weekend.

“Let’s wrap up our second episode here.”

“Yes, player! You worked hard!”

When Won Dae-young opens his mouth, the filming crew moves in unison. This is the power that a gold medalist athlete has.

I want to rest and do nothing tomorrow. It’s not because I hate Yoon Ji-hwan, but because I desperately need rest and recovery. When I finished greeting him and escaped the crowd around the cafe, Won Dae-young asked.

“Did you postpone the appointment until tomorrow?”

“Oh, we’re going on a date tomorrow.”

“Choi Seol-woo looks really tired right now. Should I tell him? Should I let you rest tomorrow?”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll play the villain. You can lie and say that there’s an emergency meeting because of a problem with filming and just roll around.”

Honestly, I wanted to rest because I was afraid of my physical strength deteriorating and malfunctioning. However, I postponed the appointment because of Won Dae-young, so I thought it would be irresponsible to cancel it again because I wanted to rest. When I shook my head, Won Dae-young muttered indifferently.

“No, if you feel sorry for not meeting up, but you have to meet up out of a sense of duty, aren’t you being dragged around too much...? Otherwise, don’t.”

“.......”

Won Dae-young, who had finished his words in a flowing manner, pointed to the back of the car. He remembered her saying that she wanted to drink at his house, and was about to refuse, but he lowered his voice with an indifferent expression and sat down in the driver’s seat first.

“I’m tired too, and I’m responsible for not being able to take public transportation, so I’m going to carpool with you. Just get in, I won’t say anything.”

Won Dae-young’s expression, as he roughly rubbed his forehead and eyes, was his usual dirty expression. None of it seemed like he had intentionally put on an attitude to pick up Choi Seol-woo. His rebelliousness subsided in front of her very natural behavior.

If he had wanted to pick up Choi Seol-woo, he would have rushed to get in a taxi or called Yoon Ji-hwan, but seeing her expression so annoyed actually made him feel better. I was going to meet Director Yoon tomorrow anyway, so I thought there was no point in waiting for twenty or thirty minutes, so I got in the back seat.

“I’m done with the front of the house. Just get off at the subway station.”

I blurted it out because I had to keep my last bit of pride, but Won Dae-young didn’t answer or nod. ... That rascal. I sent a message to Yoon Ji-hwan that I was on my way home in Won Dae-young’s car. Yoon Ji-hwan looked reluctant, but he seemed relieved that I told him the truth.