Chapter 854. Sequence 12

“Bitna is at your house, Maru-seonbae? Okay, I’ll go there now.”

Yuna changed her clothes and left the house. Maru-seonbae’s house was not that far away, so she only had to pay the minimum taxi fare to get there. She wondered why Bitna went to his house. After pressing the bell, she waited for a little. Ta-tap ta-tap – she could hear Woofie’s footsteps inside.

“Unni.”

The one who opened the door was Bitna. Yuna gave her a hug the moment she saw her. She could feel her sister’s unease and sadness in her clear eyes. Bitna tugged on the hem of her clothes and said that she was okay.

“Yuna, you’re here.”

“Yes.”

“Sorry for calling you over at such a late hour.”

“Don’t mention it. But what is happening? Where is Gaeul-unni?”

Maru raised his finger to point at the bedroom. She let go of Bitna’s hand and peeked inside. Gaeul was fidgeting with the phone while sitting on the bed. She was biting her thumbnail. It had been a very long time since the last time she had seen her this nervous. She knocked on the slightly open door. Gaeul raised her head and welcomed her.

“When did you come?”

“Just now. I pressed the bell.”

“I see. I’m a little out of it right now, so I can’t hear anything around me.”

Even as she said so, Gaeul was checking her phone. It seemed like she shouldn’t interfere. She said she’d be in the living room and pulled on the door. She could see Gaeul frowning through the gap of the closing door. It seemed that she wasn’t getting an important call.

“She seemed really serious.”

“Something happened, and I think you should know about it.”

Maru looked at Bitna. He seemed to be looking for her agreement. So Gaeul was being serious because of something related to Bitna after all? She sat down on the sofa and heard everything from her. Yuna hugged Bitna again. How scary must it have been for her? She was a mature girl, but there was a frail side to her as well. She heard something that even most adults could not listen to in comfort, so it must have startled her a lot. She understood the reason Gaeul called her here. If she couldn’t be by her side at a time like this, she couldn’t call herself a big sister.

“For now, Gaeul has decided to stay with Bitna whenever she’s at the set. She can’t do anything about her meeting Kang Giwoo and acting, but she should be able to prevent the two of them from being alone together,” said Maru.

Yuna grabbed her sister’s hand and asked,

“Bitna, are you okay with that? You’re going to have to be with him.”

“I can’t help it. If I don’t work because I’m scared, I will do people harm. I’ll try holding back. Gaeul-unni said she’ll be by my side too.”

“Should I go as well?”

“You should go to school, unni. School is important.”

“I can take a few days off. In college, it’s okay to do that.”

“Really?”

“You’re more important to me than any classes. Please let me act like your sister.”

Bitna nodded. Even though she said that she didn’t need to come, her eyes were trembling. This little girl was incredibly good at holding back as she had been digesting a harsh schedule before she even entered elementary school. However, enduring the stress given to her by work and enduring her fear of a malicious man were completely different areas altogether. She would usually shake her hand and say that she was okay when it came to most things, yet she sought her help. That showed how frightened she was.

“But who is unni calling right now?”

“Her stylist. There’s something she must check, but it seems like the stylist isn’t picking up.”

“She didn’t look that good.”

“When she gets a call through, she will be able to get a grasp of the situation, so there shouldn’t be a problem. But hey, it’s 11 already.”

Maru grabbed his car keys that were placed on the shoe rack.

“Your mother will be worried if you’re any later, so I’ll drive you home for now.”

“It doesn’t take long to get home from here if I grab a taxi.”

“It doesn’t take long, so let me give you a ride.”

Maru put on his shoes. It seemed like it would be rude to refuse. She spoke to Bitna, who was staring at the dog on the sofa.

“Bitna, shall we go home?”

“I’ll say goodbye to Gaeul-unni.”

Bitna knocked on the bedroom door. Gaeul was staring holes into her phone on the bed.

“Unni, we’ll get going now.”

“Already?”

“It’s already 11. We should get going.”

“Sorry. I called you all the way here, but I wasn’t able to do anything for you. Let’s go eat something good with the three of us. At that time, Bitna should decide where we should go. I’ll bring you anywhere you want.”

Yuna also said goodbye before leaving the house. She did not let go of Bitna’s hand on their way down the elevator. After going to the parking lot, she had Bitna get in the car first. She hinted to Maru who stood in front of the driver’s seat.

“We shouldn’t tell our mother about this for now, right?”

“You should decide that with Bitna. If you think it’s necessary, then don’t hesitate to tell her, but if you don’t feel the need to do so immediately, then wait. But you’ll have to tell her eventually. It’ll be better for her that way.”

“That’s true.”

“Gaeul will look out for Bitna until she finishes her shoot for Doctor’s Office, and I’ll see what I can do as well so that Bitna can finish the shoot without worries.”

“The shoot will probably last until next week. I don’t know about the details, but I’ll stay by her side when she’s at a shoot. I’ve never seen Bitna that scared before. It’s making me uneasy.”

“She experienced this after seeing that when she was young. It must have been traumatic for her.”

“I still can’t believe it. Kang Giwoo, that person looked like a really good person when I read about him through media interviews. I even heard from my seniors who work in the industry that he was a good person too.”

“But Bitna doesn’t have a reason to lie to you, right? And neither do I.”

“Yes. That’s what’s even scarier. There’s nothing more dangerous than a person who can fool others easily. I’m so worried when I think that Bitna has to act in front of someone like that.”

“He won’t do anything strange if there are a lot of eyes around him, so don’t worry too much. Rather than that, look out for Bitna when you go back home. She might look okay on the surface, but she’s still young.”

“I will.”

She looked at Bitna while getting in the car. She was staring at her phone. Yuna looked through the window to see what she was looking at on her phone and found out that she was looking at the photos she took with the dog. Bitna seemed to have felt her gaze and raised her head. When they locked eyes, she raised her phone screen and showed it to her. It was a wordless request. This was the first time she ever made an expression like that as well.

“Uhm, Maru-seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“About Woofie.”

“Woofie?”

“Can we take her home for just one day? Bitna seems to like her a lot. She always wanted to raise a dog, but mom was really strict when it came to pets. She always asked Bitna if she could take responsibility for it. She thinks deeply, so she always gave up knowing that mom asking such a question meant no.”

She probably held and petted a dog for the first time today. She was busy since she was little, so she didn’t have any time to go to pet shops either, and even when they did come across pet shops in department stores, she would only look at the dogs from afar. Bitna was the type to restrain herself so that she wouldn’t even feel disappointed when it came to things that she couldn’t have.

“Wait a bit.”

Maru went back to the apartment. Yuna told Bitna that she would get a surprise gift if she waited for a little. The girl who only smiled a little when receiving a doll as a birthday present grinned so brightly that her teeth could be seen. A while later, Maru came back with a blue dog cage and a paper bag.

“This is the dog bowl and some food. She has a good appetite, but she strangely won’t eat out of anything else but this one. I put a week’s worth of food in it.”

“I’ll give her back to you tomorrow.”

“You don’t have to. This girl seems to have taken a liking to Bitna as well. I’m sure she must like it better staying next to Bitna who dotes on her than a gloomy guy like me. If it’s just a week, your mother won’t say much about it as well. She’s usually docile even by herself, so you don’t have to worry about your furniture. Though, I can’t guarantee for sure what she might do after a change of environment.”

Maru opened the door and put the cage right next to Bitna. Bitna lowered herself and locked eyes with the dog. Yuna couldn’t believe that she liked the dog so much.

“Looks like we’ll have to talk to mom about this seriously. I’ll ask her if we can have two more members of the household because we can handle it.”

“If she ever does give you permission, then just tell me about it. I know someone who’s more than willing to have more people join as dog owners.”

“Does that person run a pet shop or something?”

“No, I’m talking about the president of my agency.”

President? Yuna blinked for a bit before getting in the car. Bitna had already taken the dog out of the cage and was playing around with her. The dog stayed on top of Yuna’s lap without barking. It seemed as though she knew that she had to stay still right now.

“She’s a quick-witted one,” Maru said while looking at the dog.

Yuna put on her seatbelt. She felt complex. She wondered if she had to tell their mother, or if she should just watch the situation for now. It was probably going to be Bitna who would decide that.

After the car departed, Yuna took out her phone and looked up Kang Giwoo. She even found his Instagram account and looked at his photos. Every single day, he uploaded photos he took with other actors, drama crews, and friends. He always had a big smile on his face. Even the comment section was clean. He was the definition of a star liked by everyone.

The moment she saw a photo of him praying while grabbing the hand of a leukemia patient, Yuna felt enraged. All of that was just for show and was fake. She despised people who smiled when in front and disdained people behind their backs. They were the kind of people she didn’t even want to associate herself with. She remembered saying that he was good at acting and had a good personality while watching Doctor’s Office too.

Yuna logged into her Instagram account and left behind a comment.

-People should live honestly.

She wanted to leave behind a barrage of insults, but she moderated herself. Not that he would ever see it. This comment she left behind would also probably get buried under the myriad of comments being added in real-time. She felt frustrated that the layers of the ‘good’ image that Kang Giwoo built up would protect him. She felt her admiration towards the industry and actors cooling down.

“There are 99 good people and only one bad person. You don’t have to feel so upset because of that one person,” Maru said while giving her a glance.

“I know. I do know about it, but I still think he went too far. There must be many people who aspire to be actors with him as a role model. Many of my peers think of him as a young, talented actor too. I wonder how disappointed they would be if they found out the truth about him.”

“You can’t do anything about it.”

“What if he keeps doing well like this? We don’t know what he’ll do behind everyone’s backs if he keeps up a good façade.”

“We don’t have anything we can do right now other than watching ourselves and avoiding him. It’s not like the media will do anything about it even if we expose him. The past is in the past, and there is no evidence either.”

When they got stopped by a traffic light. Yuna wrote down some words on her phone so that Bitna wouldn’t be able to see them and showed them to Maru.

-You don’t think that Kang Giwoo may have noticed Bitna overhearing him, right?

He nodded without a shred of hesitation. It made her relieved to see that he felt so confident.

“He’s the type of guy who would never let that be if he found out,” he said while narrowing his eyes.

He seemed to understand what Kang Giwoo was thinking better than anyone else.

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