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SEOUL NEWSPAPER OFFICE — AFTER HOURS
Jeno Lee has found almost everything ever written about love to be true. Shakespeare said, "Journeys end when lovers meet." What an extraordinary thought.
Personally he has not experienced anything remotely close to that but he’s more than willing to believe Shakespeare had. He thinks about love more than anyone really should, Jeno supposes — he can’t help but be fascinated by the it’s sheer power — and the amount of masterpieces that it inspired.
It was Shakespeare who also said, "Love is blind". Now, that, is something Jeno knows to be true.
Because Jeno Lee happens to be an expert of what one may call the cruelest kind of love. The one that almost kills its victims. Unrequited love.
Most love stories are pretty much about people who fall in love… with each other. Jeno’s, however, was a different story. He’s one of those who fell in love alone — yes, you are looking at such an individual — and never quite learned how to fall out again.
He has willingly loved Lee Donghyuck for three years. Three miserable years, the worst of Jeno’s life; the worst Christmases, the worst birthdays, New Year's Eves brought in by tears and Xanax. All because he was cursed to love a guy — his colleague of all things, as if loving someone without seeing him everyday wasn’t already painful enough — who does not and will not love him back.
Over the course of the time he had spent loving Donghyuck, Jeno endured a lot. He’s been hurting, crying and enduring for years — and yet nothing, absolutely nothing could’ve prepared him for this:
Lee Donghyuck standing tall next to their boss, a proud smile displayed on his lips as he looked at the man by his side; Huang Renjun from the 19th floor.
Lee Donghyuck who has just been announced to be engaged to said male by his side.
The same Lee Donghyuck who’s been carelessly flirting with Jeno in his cubicle not even ninety seconds ago.
“May I introduce the newly engaged — Huang Renjun and Lee Donghyuck.”
Jeno feels like throwing up.
He barely hears the voice of his boss echoing far away, somewhere in the back of his head — something about an article, or a wedding, or both? His brain can’t seem to comprehend the words being said to him, too focused on biting down on his quivering bottom lip and trying to keep his eyes from watering up (he fails desperately).
It isn’t until he sits in the train back home that he finally pieces together what his boss had said to him — which results in a premature breakdown on the train that he planned to hold back until he got home.
He is to write about the wedding of the newly engaged couple.
Lee fucking Donghyuck’s wedding.
Jeno has never felt more betrayed by the universe in his life.
LIVING ROOM - BRENTWOOD, CALIFORNIA - MORNING
On the other side of the pacific, Park Jongseong is restlessly, furiously pacing through his house, his hand cramped around a single sneaker — the first of the pair has found his target when his boyfriend — no, ex-boyfriend, he corrects himself — approached his master bedroom a few moments ago.
The culprit (going by ‘Eric’) was banned to the living room couch after coming home in the middle of the night — with a suspicious mark on his neck that hadn’t been there when he left for work, and the smell of a familiar perfume sticking to the collar of his dress shirt — a scent that Jay remembers to be characteristic for a certain young receptionist, working in his boyfriend’s office.
“May I just say again that I didn’t sleep with him,” the culprit utters, and Jay has never heard a less convincing lie in his entire life. Is Eric even trying to hide it?
“Right. Okay. Because your receptionist needs to work till three in the morning,” he remarks, voice dripping with sarcasm.
“A bunch of us were working all night… he only wanted to help.”
Sure. And what a great help that must’ve been, Jay thinks.
“Okay. Then swear on your life you didn’t sleep with him,” he replies as he turns around to come to a stand right in front of Eric, arms crossed in front of his chest. “Go ahead.”
Eric opens his mouth and for a split second, seems to make an effort to speak, then stops. That’s all it takes for Jongseong to throw the other sneaker.
“Your receptionist, Eric? Really? You couldn’t just have an affair with one of your actor friends? You just had to be a tasteless clichée and do it with your fucking receptionist!”
Jay is pacing again, starting to gather any of Eric’s belongings that come to sight — that piece of shit is for sure not going to sleep in his house tonight, or ever again, really. The sooner he gets out of here the better.
“See. This is why I knew we shouldn't get married. This is why I told you never to give up your house. I knew it. Inside, somehow I knew this,” he declares as he picks up the dress shirt that lays abandoned on the couch.
“First of all, I did not sleep with him and secondly, we've had problems for over a year. You don't want to deal with that, I know, but we have ... so let's not make this about Jisung.”
That makes Jay spin around on his heels once again, anger rushing through his veins. “Oh, I'm well aware we've had problems for over a year. If I work a little too much I never stop hearing about it but if you work too much, maestro, it's for the sake of your art, your career.”
Eric raises his brows in irritation. Jongseong wishes he had another shoe to throw at him. “If you work too much? Jay, you cut 78 trailers this year. You put a cutting room in the house, you sleep with your laptop under your pillow. Look at your side of the bed ... it's like a workstation!”
Okay, so maybe there’s a little truth to that, but so what if Jay is a workaholic? That still doesn’t give the guy he’s been living with for over two years the right to sleep around his office.
“... and do you even remember when was the last time we had sex?”
“Oh, come on, no one has time for sex,” Jay bites.
“That's not true,” Eric retorts.
And that’s Jay’s last straw.
“Okay, that's it! You absolutely slept with him! It's official. We're finished!” He shouts. “You gotta get your clothes and all your crap and...” Before he knows it, he’s already shoved Eric half out the door. “Get out.”
“I thought you wanted me to get my clothes?” Eric has the audacity to ask.
“I’ll send you your things,” Jay hisses and before his now official ex-boyfriend can say anything else, he shuts the front door to his mansion, leaving Eric in his front-yard in nothing but his boxer-shorts. Jay would’ve laughed at the image if he wasn’t so fucking furious.
Cheater. He curses internally. Stupid, selfish, unfaithful bastard.
“You know you do this, right? You screw up every relationship you've ever been in. It's what you do,” he hears Eric from outside.
A new wave of fury overcomes Jay as he sprints up the stairs to his bedroom.
“Something about you doesn't really want to be a couple. Not really. You resist it ... in your own way,” Eric yells up to his bedroom window. “And it's hard to detect how you even do it 'cause nobody's quite as smart as you, so you're hard to catch at it, but it always surfaces and this is what happens.”
Jay clenches his teeth in anger before he opens the window to stare down at Eric in his front-yard, still half-naked.
“What happens?” He asks sternly.
“Things end. Just like you knew they would.”
Fuck. That hurt.
Jay bites down on his inner cheek, desperately trying to look unaffected by the things his ex-boyfriend is throwing at his head.
“I would never cheat on you,” he retorts bitterly and if Eric wasn’t the absolute idiot he is, he would’ve noticed the underlying emotion in Jay's tone.
He doesn’t.
Instead he goes back to denial. “And neither would I. Okay?” He tries to argue again. “Look at me ... I'm sweating like a God damned pig, and look at you, breaking up with me like it’s nothing! In the three years I’ve known you, you’ve never shed a tear!”
Jay shakes his head at that. “So I'm cursed because I don't need you enough?” He asks angrily. “And why does it bug you so much that I can't cry?”
“I didn't say you don't need me enough although that's probably true, too,” Eric says, sounding much quieter now as he looks down to his hands.
Jay averts his gaze as well and takes a deep breath, trying to maintain his composure. He’s tired of arguing and all the lies, but he knows he’ll never get closure if he doesn’t say what he needs to say now. He looks at Eric again, determined to give the absolute piece of shit on his property a piece of his mind.
“You know what cheating is, Eric?” He asks, trying to sound as contemptuous as possible. And then the words just start to fall out of his mouth like they often do when he’s upset.
“It's a coward's way of breaking up. And at its core, what it is ... is unkind. Because it makes everyone involved, including me, feel cheap and crazy. It's a bad way to end things because this is how I'll always think of you. Not as that guy I went to Hawaii with and went to cooking lessons with ... You will always and forever be the asshole that lied and cheated and nothing you ever say or do from this moment on will ever change my mind about you. In the world of love — not that I'm such a genius at it — but in the world of love ... cheating is simply not acceptable.
“And the fact that in this fight, you made this about me and not you makes "asshole" the nicest thing I can ever say about you.”
Jay takes one last look at his ex-boyfriend, before he finally shuts him out.
“Goodbye, asshole.”
JONGSEONG’S GUEST HOUSE
“Why don’t we take off for a few weeks?”
Jay hears himself ask later that day. He’s in the studio — former guest house — with his editor and his assistant, finalizing the trailer for some new action comedy Christmas movie called ‘Christmas Day’, a title Jay only remembers upon seeing it appear at the end of his trailer and commanding his editor to make the font twice as big (to make the name seem more dramatic than it actually was, to which his assistant responds “And that’s why they pay you the big bucks”).
“Why don’t we take off for a few weeks?” He asks them after finishing his work and is met with laughter. “Yeah, right.” His editor snorts.
From the look on their faces, he can tell that they think he’s joking, and considering his track record and the fact that the words ‘take off’ have never left his lips before, they’re right to do so.
In fact, until a few hours ago, Jay didn’t even consider the word “vacation” a part of his dictionary. But in light of the events of this morning, all the excuses and lies he’s had to deal with and all the insults he’s had traded... suddenly ‘vacation’ seems to be exactly what he needs.
Which is how he finds himself in his study instead of his studio this afternoon, googling vacation spots — not without his inner monologue providing helpful commentary such as Where do I want to go… By myself. Depressed. At Christmas. All alone on vacation. Alone, alone ... totally alone. God, sometimes he wishes his brain would shut up for a moment — until he stumbles upon a promising website called Worry free vacations.
After a few failed attempts at choosing a fitting location spot, he decides to go against his usual preference — luxury hotels, preferably close to a Caribbean beach — and finds himself looking at vacation rentals.
And before he knows it, he’s clicked on one of the suggested houses. The picture shows a small house in traditional Korean style, located right outside of Seoul. Not too far from the city, yet quiet and peaceful enough to get away from everything.
Jongseong hasn’t been in Korea since he was a kid, his whole family living in the States, no relatives left to visit. All the more reason to go now when he wants to get away from everyone and everything as soon as possible.
This is exactly what I need, Jongseong convinces himself.
It follows a series of impulsive decisions that will lead him to the home of none other than Lee Jeno — heartbroken, and just as desperate as Jongseong to get away — and into the arms of his infuriatingly handsome neighbour.
HOME EXCHANGE INSTANT MESSAGE.
I’m interested in your house. Is it still available for Christmas?
Sorry, it's only available for home exchange.
Home exchange?
We switch houses, cars, everything. I haven't done it before but friends of mine have. Supposed to be great. Where are you?
L.A.
I've never been there but always wanted to go. I'm Jeno, by the way. I'm very normal. Neat freak. Healthy. Non-smoker. Single.
I'm Jongseong.
Hi.
Hi.
Must say, your house looks idyllic. Just what I need.
Thank you. What does your place look like? I don't need much ... just love the idea of being 6000 miles from here.
I totally get that. My place is nice -- little bigger than yours.
Not hard to be.
Can I ask you one thing?
Sure.
Are there any men in your town?
Honestly?
Yes.
Zero.
When can I come?