Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The filming schedule for <​Our Hospital> had been set three months ago.

It was supposed to be his first step back after ending his hiatus.

The problem was Park Songhu himself.

‘What if I lose my temper?’

He knew it himself, honestly.

Whenever something upset him, it showed on his face immediately, and he had a short fuse.

On top of that, <​Our Hospital> was basically a battlefield where ad-libs flew nonstop. If someone threw a joke about his scandal at him, he wasn’t confident he could keep his composure.

If he finally made his comeback and spent the whole broadcast looking pissed off, then it really would be over.

No agency could clean up a mess like that.

So at first, he’d intended to cancel the shoot.

He was about to call the CEO, then stopped.

Before he knew it, he was calculating the cancellation penalty.

His career was already in the gutter, and all his advertising deals had been cut off...

Then, on top of everything else, his body started hurting.

At first, his lower back only felt stiff, but before long, pain began stabbing into his side too.

And then, that day, while emptying his bladder in the bathroom, Park Songhu experienced hell...

-Aaaaaagh!

With tears in his eyes, he went straight to the hospital.

-You have a kidney stone. It’s rather large, so I don’t think it’ll pass naturally.

A kidney stone.

A rock was lodged in the path his urine came out through.

‘Fuck.’

He needed surgery, and he needed time to recover afterward.

The reason he’d gotten a special VIP room was also for security.

What if rumors spread that an actor whose image was everything had been hospitalized because his urethra was blocked?

Horrifying.

That was why he hadn’t even registered under his real name.

A fake name with the surname Kim.

No matter where anyone searched in the charts, the name Park Songhu wouldn’t appear.

On top of that, the VIP ward had completely separate routes from ordinary patients, from the entrance all the way to the elevators, and having the dedicated nurses sign confidentiality agreements was standard procedure.

The plan had been to get the surgery quietly, recover quietly, and leave quietly.

Fortunately, the surgery went well.

The stone was completely removed.

But the problem was the stent inserted into his side after surgery.

Every time he urinated, it felt like his bladder was being wrung out, and even lying still, there was a heavy pressure in his lower abdomen.

Add in the painkillers fogging his head, and his irritation was about ready to punch through the ceiling.

‘Go on a variety show like this? When I’m already like that normally, and now I’m extra sensitive?’

That night, soaked in irritation and painkillers as he lay in bed.

Someone suddenly came to mind.

His twin brother.

The same face.

‘...Should I ask him?’

He knew it was insane.

He knew it was shameless.

Still, it seemed better than going himself and causing a broadcast disaster.

The problem was how to ask.

‘There’s no way he’ll agree if I just ask normally.’

They had lived as strangers ever since they were separated at six.

He did occasionally send him spending money, but that was about the extent of his duties as an older brother.

And Park Songmin was the kind of guy who stayed holed up in his room.

Nine times out of ten, he would refuse.

What he came up with in the end was.

‘Should I tell him I’m terminally ill?’

And that was how it happened.

“I got discharged.”

“?”

“Also, what are you doing over there?”

Park Songmin creaked upright from behind the cat tower.

His mouth was hanging open.

“Ah, don’t tell me... you decided to stop treatment? Because there’s no point anymore...”

“No? I got cured, so they discharged me.”

“...Cured? You clearly told me you had terminal pancreatic cancer and only had a few months left...”

Park Songhu awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

Ah, where was he supposed to start?

“I don’t actually have pancreatic cancer.”

“...”

“And I’m not terminally ill. It was a kidney stone.”

“...A kidney stone?”

“Yeah.”

“Th-Then everything I did until now, the variety show and the interview and all of it...”

“I’ll explain everything.”

There was no point dragging it out.

He was about to quickly lay out the whole situation...

“Y-You crazy bastard!”

...when Park Songmin finally lost it and shouted.

“Are you even human? Huh? How could you lie about something like that!”

“...”

Park Songhu silently walked closer.

Then raised a hand.

Park Songmin went, “Eek!” and covered his face with both arms.

An instinctive defensive stance.

Tap—

But Park Songhu hadn’t been trying to hit him.

He tapped his index and middle fingers against Park Songmin’s forehead.

“Forgive me, Park Songmin.”

“...Don’t act like Itachi when you’re not even dying.”

“...”

Park Songhu cleared his throat awkwardly and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Pat, pat—

“This one, yeah. I’m sorry.”

“...”

“I mean it.”

Still holding his defensive posture, Park Songmin peeked at him through the gap between his arms.

Then slowly lowered them and said.

“...I did think it was weird that a terminal cancer patient was getting braised ribs dripping with fat.”

“Hey, I ordered that separately for you.”

“Don’t give me that! You fucking liar!”

“Wow, you lived in America and the second you get worked up, English comes flying out. But tone it down.”

“...Ah, yes.”

That was when.

“Meooow.”

Louis lightly hopped down from the cat tower.

He padded across the wooden floor and reached the sofa.

But he didn’t head toward Park Songmin.

He went to Park Songhu.

Louis sniffed around his feet, then rubbed his head against Park Songhu’s calf.

He even started purring.

“Louis...?”

Shock spread across Park Songmin’s face.

Louis was an aloof cat.

When Park Songmin first brought him home, he had once stayed under the bed for over a month without coming out.

And now he was doing this to someone he’d never met before? Why?

“L-Louis?”

Louis’s ears twitched slightly at his voice, but then he went so far as to place his front paws on Park Songhu’s knee and stretch his neck upward.

“Meow...”

...He even acted cute!

“Is he normally like this?”

“N-No, he’s usually not...”

Park Songmin felt something boiling up inside him that was even stronger than the anger he’d felt over being deceived.

You traitor!

“Louis! Come here! Louis! Want a treat?”

Still no real response.

“LOUIS!!!”

Park Songmin screamed.

Park Songhu snorted and said.

“Looks like he likes me more than you.”

“...Get out!”

“This is my house.”

“Ah...”

Right.

“Oh, then what happens from now on?...Where am I supposed to live?”

His voice abruptly became small and servile.

“Hey.”

“...Yes?”

Park Songhu lowered his eyes slightly as he stroked Louis.

“Let’s live together from now on.”

***

War broke out from the very first day of living together.

The first thing Park Songmin did was turn off every light in the house.

Living room, hallway, entrance, bathroom.

He even stared into the refrigerator for a long time trying to figure out whether there was a way to turn off the light inside before finally giving up.

“Hey.”

Park Songhu picked up the remote from the sofa.

“Why are you turning all the lights off?”

“Do you know how much the electricity bill is?”

“No.”

“...”

He was serious.

As a top star, Park Songhu had never once thought about an electricity bill.

“Do you know how much power costs in a luxury apartment in Gangnam? I used to live in a studio, okay? I wouldn’t even turn on an electric heating mat in the middle of winter because I was afraid my electricity bill would go over ten thousand won!”

“That’s your problem. This is my house.”

“Didn’t you say you were leaving it to me?!”

“That was part of completing the lie.”

“...”

“I mean, use common sense. If I’m not terminally ill, how am I supposed to leave it to you? That’s impossible.”

“You deadass said that to my face, bruh!”

Park Songmin had lived in a poor neighborhood, so his English came out with a slang-heavy accent.

“You wanna die? What the hell are you saying?”

“E-Eek! N-Nothing!”

Apparently Park Songhu hadn’t understood a word.

Beside him, Louis was curled like a doughnut on Park Songhu’s lap.

His purring filled the entire living room.

“...Louis.”

Park Songmin called him in a crawling voice.

Louis’s ears turned slightly, then returned to their original position.

“Louis, come here.”

The tip of his tail flicked once.

That was Louis-speak for, Stop bothering me.

A language only his owner could decipher.

“I’m the one who fed you, gave you treats, and cleaned up after you when you puked at dawn...”

Park Songhu scratched under Louis’s chin.

Louis tilted his head back and stretched his neck out, asking for more.

“What kind of ungrateful cat does this?”

Park Songmin’s voice drooped.

Park Songhu said nothing, simply stroked Louis and snorted.

Their daily rhythms were complete opposites.

Park Songmin went to sleep at five in the morning and woke at one in the afternoon, while Park Songhu slept at eleven at night and woke at seven in the morning.

At three in the morning, the sound of Park Songmin typing traveled down the hall all the way to Park Songhu’s room.

Clackclackclackclackclack!

Clackclack!

Clackclackclackclackclackclackclack!

The soundtrack of writing a web novel.

The next morning, Park Songhu appeared with dark circles under his eyes.

“Hey.”

“...Yes?”

“Keep the typing noise down at night. Unless you actually want to die.”

“Ah, s-sorry. But my deadline...”

“Change your keyboard. Get a silent one.”

Park Songmin’s eyes widened.

“Silent keyboards are expensive.”

“How much?”

“Like, the expensive ones are around a hundred thousand won?”

“You call that money?”

“A hundred thousand won buys four hundred packs of ramen!”

Park Songhu stared at him like he was pathetic.

But Park Songmin was completely serious.

Four hundred packs of ramen was roughly six months of food.

“I’ll buy it for you.”

“Really?”

“In exchange, no keyboard noise at night.”

“...Okay!”

About a week passed like that.

Bzzzt—

Park Songhu’s phone rang.

-Hyung, the PD from <​Hwain> contacted us! They want you to make a cameo in the last episode!

“A cameo?”

-Yeah! It’s an interrogation-room scene, only two or three lines?

Park Songhu frowned.

“A cameo...”

Honestly, his pride was hurt.

He was someone who usually got cast as a lead, and now they wanted him for a cameo.

The fact that he only had two or three lines made it worse.

Wasn’t that practically an extra?

‘Still.’

If it were any other drama, maybe not, but this was <​Hwain>.

The ratings would probably jump even higher for the finale.

Showing his face once in a project of this caliber during the early stages of his comeback didn’t seem bad.

“When’s the shoot?”

-Next Thursday.

“Send me the script.”

-Yes!

After hanging up, Park Songmin was peeking over his laptop from the other side of the sofa.

The next day, the script arrived.

Park Songhu spread the printed pages across the living-room table.

Interrogation room.

A detective opens the door and enters.

A man is sitting in the chair.

Someone everyone thought was dead.

The man raises his head.

“I’ve been waiting.”

Then the detective asks something.

“From the beginning. Everything.”

That was it.

Two lines.

“This really is only two lines.”

Park Songhu muttered as he set down the script.

“Easy.”

He had no idea that confidence would be shattered an hour later.

“I’ve been waiting.”

Park Songhu delivered the line.

He was leaning against the sofa, using Park Songmin across from him as the detective.

“...”

Park Songmin said nothing.

“Hey, you’re the detective. Say your line.”

“Ah, right!...Since when?”

“From the beginning. Everything.”

Park Songhu finished his line.

The problem was that the “finish” felt painfully empty.

There was no weight to the dialogue at all.

It was no different from simply reading the script aloud.

“One more time.”

Park Songhu cleared his throat.

“I’ve been waiting.”

He lowered his voice compared to before.

It looked like he was trying to create atmosphere, but instead he just sounded like he had a cold.

“From the beginning. Everything.”

He raised his chin slightly in an attempt to look cool, but it became that same greasy angle he always used.

The exact angle he had been mocked for in old dramas.

“...”

Park Songmin pressed his lips tightly shut.

He knew he wasn’t supposed to say anything.

The moment he commented on his brother’s acting, he might disappear from this world.

But he couldn’t hold it in.

“Hyung.”

“What.”

“Um...”

He swallowed hard.

“I seriously can’t watch this.”

“...”

The air turned cold.

Park Songmin’s survival instincts sounded an alarm.

“E-Eek! N-No, I mean! That’s just my personal impression! You’re doing well, it’s just a little...!”

“Then how am I supposed to do it?”

That was unexpected.

Park Songhu actually asked him.

“S-So... if you look at the context around ‘I’ve been waiting,’ everyone thought this guy was dead, but he was actually alive.”

“Yeah.”

“Then while he was hiding, he must’ve been preparing something. Revenge, exposing the truth, whatever. So ‘I’ve been waiting’ doesn’t mean he was just waiting for a person...”

“...”

“He was waiting for this moment. For a long time. A really long time.”

Park Songhu crossed his arms.

“But right now, hyung, you just say ‘I’ve been waiting’ and that’s it. Since there’s no emotion behind it, it just sounds like you’re reading the script.”

“Hoo...”

Park Songhu tried again.

“I’ve been waiting.”

He put strength into his eyes, apparently trying to add emotion, but his eyes were the problem.

He simply looked threatening.

The interrogation room had turned into some loan shark’s office.

“One more time.”

“I’ve been waiting.”

This time, perhaps trying to relax, his face went blank.

Now he just looked sleepy.

“...”

Park Songhu raked a hand through his hair in irritation.

“Fuck, why isn’t this working?”

It was the typical reaction of someone stubborn and prideful hitting a wall.

Apparently even he was frustrated that he couldn’t pull off two or three simple lines.

“...Hyung, wait.”

Park Songmin carefully took the script.

He began writing something on a blank sheet of paper.

“I’ll try writing out why this character was hiding. It isn’t in the script, but why he pretended to be dead, what he felt during that time.”

“What are you doing?”

“Character backstory. If you keep this in your head while you say the line, the emotion follows naturally.”

“...How would you know?”

“I-I do this all the time when I write novels.”

His pen moved quickly.

A while later, Park Songmin handed him the note.

“...You want me to think about all this while saying the line?”

“Yes. But don’t force the emotion. Just imagine you’re actually in this situation.”

Park Songhu lifted the script again.

He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them.

And just as he was about to speak, Park Songmin murmured first.

“I’ve been waiting.”

The words had come out without any thought.

The backstory he had just written was still playing in his head, and the emotion had simply risen all the way to his mouth.

“From the beginning. Everything.”

His voice fell low, almost like a murmur.

It wasn’t loud, yet somehow it pressed down on the air.

“...?”

The hand holding the script slowly lowered.

Park Songhu looked at Park Songmin.

The Genius Actor Is Hiding Twins