“Just call me hyung. We don’t even have much of an age difference, so it’s weird to hear you say hyungnim,” Lee Hyung-Jin said with a serious look.

“Should I?”

Hyun-Min quickly nodded and accepted Lee Hyung-Jin’s suggestion.

“You would need staff members to perform in a concert hall, so it must be difficult for you to step up,” Woo-Jin said.

Preparing a concert wasn’t as simple as just renting a place. Woo-Jin quickly grasped the hardships Lee Hyung-Jin didn’t vocalize as he was also part of the industry and knew the nitty-gritty of organizing concerts.

“That’s right.”

“Why don’t you start looking into agencies? You must be receiving offers from various companies these days,” Woo-Jin asked.

“There are a few places that have reached out.”

Many agencies were contacting Lee Hyung-Jin recently, including the company that had terminated his contract the previous year. However, Hyung-Jin couldn’t trust any of them as he had experienced betrayal twice at the hands of the agencies he trusted.

“I’m going to be more careful with my choice this time,” Hyung-Jin said.

He didn’t plan on choosing a random agency in a hurry because he had difficult times right now. Hyung-Jin’s previous agency that seemed trustworthy had immediately abandoned him as soon as the bad rumors about him started spreading.

Lee Hyung-Jin knew they couldn’t protect him as they had no power. But that didn’t mean that he was used to being thrown aside and was okay with it. However, that same agency contacted him a few days ago, saying they wanted to work with him once again. But throughout their conversation, Hyung-Jin only felt disgusted.

“Hey, why don’t you recommend Hyung-Jin hyung to your boss or something? You’re always bragging about how good your agency is every day. Why don’t you recommend him like Jae-Hee noona did for you?” Hyun-Min asked Woo-Jin.

He pushed his friend to recommend Lee Hyung-Jin to CEO Jang like Song Jae-Hee had done when Woo-Jin was a rookie actor.

“Our agency should’ve already reached out to Hyung-Jin hyung.”

Woo-Jin responded as if it were the most natural thing. He knew how interested CEO Jang Soo-Hwan was in Lee Hyung-Jin; thus, he had no doubts DS would’ve called Lee Hyung-Jin.

“I didn’t get contacted, though.” Hyung-Jin shook his head in denial as he took another spoonful of ox bone soup.

“You didn’t? There’s no way. Our CEO is a huge fan of yours, hyung. He even cried when he saw a video of you singing in the streets,” Woo-Jin said.

This time around, Hyung-Jin was the one to be surprised by Woo-Jin’s statement. It was already unexpected to hear that CEO Jang Soo-Hwan was his fan, so Hyung-Jin couldn’t have ever imagined that the CEO would cry for him.

As a matter of fact, Woo-Jin was just as surprised right now. He obviously thought that DS would have reached out to Lee Hyung-Jin. When he learned that it wasn’t the case, Woo-Jin turned to Kang Ho-Soo, who was eating dinner at the table next to theirs.

He sent a questioning glance asking whether CEO Jang had truly not contacted Hyung-Jin. Kang Ho-Soo silently shrugged, insinuating that he didn’t know CEO Jang’s intentions or decisions.

“There’s no way….”

Woo-Jin couldn’t believe that CEO Jang would just sit still and do nothing while other agencies tried bringing in Lee Hyung-Jin. In fact, the CEO had cooperated with Woo-Jin’s plans since he wanted Lee Hyung-Jin to join DS.

“He might’ve had similar thoughts as you,” Hyun-Min said as he lifted another spoonful of the broth.

His tone sounded like he had achieved spiritual enlightenment and knew everything about the world.

“What do you mean by that?” Woo-Jin asked.

CEO Jang Soo-Hwan and Woo-Jin had the same intentions when helping Lee Hyung-Jin, but that didn’t mean they had shared every little detail about their plans. Since everything related to the company was being dealt with by CEO Jang, Woo-Jin had no idea how things were proceeding within the agency.

However, Woo-Jin knew that CEO Jang would not remain a mere onlooker when it came to Lee Hyung-Jin unless there was a good, profound reason.

“You wouldn’t even come to see Hyung-Jin hyung for a while out of consideration for him. You didn’t want the truth about Hyung-Jin hyung to be buried or distorted because of your presence. Wouldn’t it be a similar reason for the CEO? If he truly cared about Hyung-Jin hyung, he’d let Hyung-Jin hyung join the agency he really wanted to join and not bother him by inviting him into DS. He wants hyung to join an agency he can truly be comfortable with and rest inside after all the hardships he went through,” Hyun-Min explained.

He then wondered whether CEO Jang planned on reaching out when Lee Hyung-Jin had nowhere else to go and tried to analyze CEO Jang’s intentions.

If the CEO was as open-minded and good-natured as he had been told by Woo-Jin, Hyun-Min assumed this would be CEO Jang’s thoughts.

“You might be right….”

CEO Jang complained most about wanting to bring Lee Hyung-Jin into the agency, so it was strange that he hadn’t done anything so far.

But once Woo-Jin listened to Hyun-Min’s explanation, he could somewhat understand the CEO’s intentions. If you truly cared about someone, you wouldn’t have the foolish thoughts that you were omnipotent and were the only one who could save them from their peril.

Right now, CEO Jang simply wanted Lee Hyung-Jin to be at peace, and that was his priority.

As Woo-Jin agreed with Hyun-Min’s assumptions and showed a positive opinion of the CEO, Lee Hyung-Jin subconsciously leaned forward with a curious gaze.

Everyone knew that DS was a good agency. However, Lee Hyung-Jin thought it was out of his reach and hadn’t even considered applying there.

The fact that CEO Jang saw him in a good light was surprising, but never even in his wildest dreams could Hyung-Jin imagine that the CEO of DS greatly cared about him, according to Hyun-Min.

“Is the CEO of your agency trustworthy?”

Hyung-Jin didn’t think Woo-Jin would say bad things about his agency’s CEO while on camera, but he couldn’t contain his curiosity and asked the question.

“He can be a little inflexible at times, but he’s a good person. He doesn’t play around with human lives at the very least,” Woo-Jin replied.

“But I’ve heard that he can be quite difficult to deal with….”

In fact, the CEOs of TM and Hyung-Jin’s old agency didn’t say many good things about Jang Soo-Hwan of DS.

They said that he was born rich and didn’t adhere to the rules of this industry.

‘Those people believe they’re living in palaces way up high in the sky.’

Hyung-Jin’s former agency’s CEO saw Jang Soo-Hwan and the celebrities at DS as elitist people. Hyung-Jin had rephrased that as ‘being difficult to deal with.’

“He can be difficult to deal with indeed. He’s so worrisome and constantly tells you not to do this and that, that something’s too dangerous, etc. He has the tendency to be overprotective while trying to maintain his dignity. But the best thing about him is that he’s humane, so sometimes I find him quite cute actually…. Oh, please edit that last part out.”

Woo-Jin turned to the production crew and made a cross with his arms. He then laughed and explained that CEO Jang may be upset to be called cute as he’s always trying to appear stern.

But unsurprisingly, Woo-Jin felt like this funny scene would still be aired despite his request.

“If you don’t have any other agency in mind, consider joining ours,” Woo-Jin suggested.

“I can only join there if you invite me first.”

“It seems our CEO lacks courage right now, so try reaching out to him first, hyung. Our CEO may not be the pretty girl you want, but I assure you, he'll welcome you with open arms.”

Lee Hyung-Jin laughed out loud from the bottom of his heart for the first time in a while at Woo-Jin’s joke.

He began to ponder whether he really should take the first step instead of waiting for the other side to act first, just like how he had to muster up a lot of courage when he first left his tiny apartment.

“But I want to continue doing small performances in parks or in small stage halls for the time being,” Hyung-Jin said.

He didn’t even dare think about performing in a large concert yet. He wanted to improve his skills by performing at a small scale for now.

Above all, Hyung-Jin had to relearn how to approach people and interact with them due to his many scars. He was afraid that if he joined an agency right away, they’d make him appear on various shows and chat with people without a say in the matter.

“You don’t have to worry about that. You should know that our CEO doesn’t like sending his artistes on TV shows,” Woo-Jin reassured Lee Hyung-Jin.

“Oh right, that’s true.”

The biggest reason other agencies hated DS was that they appeared snobbish and desperate when compared to DS since they cared so much about appearing on TV.

“Please invite me as a guest to one of your gigs in the future, hyung.”

“Sure, that sounds good,” Hyung-Jin agreed to Woo-Jin’s request.

Hyung-Jin felt like he hadn’t smiled while hopeful for the future in a long time.

In a period where time only seemed to repeat on loop for him, and the future always looked sad and bleak, he had never thought a day like this would finally arrive.

Hyung-Jin grabbed his soju cup and swallowed its contents.

“You sure drink lemon soda like soju,” Woo-Jin commented.

Lee Hyung-Jin refilled his cup of soju with more soda.

“I decided to quit drinking. I realized that if I kept drinking at home and it became a habit, I’d really become an alcoholic.”

Lee Hyung-Jin now drank water or lemon soda in a cup for soju when he felt thirsty, just like how you’d suck on candies when quitting smoking.

“A warm bowl of ox bone soup with beef slices and lemon soda. Nothing else can top this in the world!” Lee Hyung-Jin exclaimed.

Moreover, he loved having a relaxed conversation with people he was comfortable around.

Lee Hyung-Jin used to drink the bitter soju and get hammered just to forget how good having company felt. He missed this sort of connection and used to drink his sorrows away.

“But right now, I’m worried about the upcoming winter. I hope the weather will be warmer this year. It was so cold last winter.”

Contrary to Lee Hyung-Jin’s words, last year’s winter was exceptionally warm. So warm that the forecast said it was extremely unusual weather conditions day after day. People were worried about a snow drought since it never snowed, but that winter was unbearably cold to a certain someone.

“Winter needs to be cold. Only then will the spring that follows feel exceptionally warm,” Woo-Jin pointed out.

After a strangely warm winter, the following spring always felt cold, regardless of the actual temperature.

The chilling breeze of the flowering season felt sharp and piercing on the skin like a cold winter gale. A warm winter essentially robbed people of a proper spring.

But Hyun-Min suddenly argued back.

“No, spring is still spring no matter how cold it is, just like how winter is still winter regardless of the temperature. The reason people wish for a cold winter is to see the snow. I wonder when the first snow[1] will fall this year.”

As the only person at this table with a romantic partner, Hyun-Min was already looking forward to the first snow.

Woo-Jin frowned as he knew how Hyun-Min had made a promise with his girlfriend to meet at a specific location on the day it started to snow, no matter where they were or what they were doing.

He told Lee Hyung-Jin the story and added how annoyed he was by Hyun-Min for constantly babbling this and that about the first snow.

“He’s always making a fuss about how he wants it to get cold for the first snow.”

“But this winter needs to be warm. I’m already concerned about my heating bills….”

Hyun-Min looked up at the sky and suggested a compromise at Hyung-Jin's realistic and financial concerns.

“Then I’ll wish that it’ll get super cold on the day of the first snow and then warm for the rest of winter for your sake, hyung.”

Hyun-Min wouldn’t give up on the first snow until the very end. The serious atmosphere soon brightened as everyone laughed.

“The first snow is quite nice. Maybe I should write a song about that.”

Lee Hyung-Jin took out a notebook and started jotting down lyrics as he had a sudden rush of inspiration. Woo-Jin quietly watched him write the lyrics until he began humming them to a melody.

“I’m not waiting for winter. I’m waiting for the first snow. I’m not waiting for you. What I’m longing for is a white warmth known as the first snow.”

The soft and friendly voice infused the song with a warm winter smell. It was a very mellow and beautiful humming tune for something he had improvised at the moment.

“Oh~! I love it. You should compose the song,” Lee Hyung-Jin commented.

The lyricist really liked the song Woo-Jin had come up with.

Although the lyrics he had written could sound very lonely, the song Woo-Jin had created was bright and warm. Hyung-Jin liked how the warmth he was looking for was perfectly imbued in the song.

The song was completed as the co-creators harmonized together, slowly complementing each other’s shortcomings.

The warm ox bone soup warmed the body, the cool lemon soda quenched the thirst, and the song they made together gave joy to the people’s hearts.

They couldn’t prepare for winter any better than this. Today, they felt like they would be warmer and cozier this winter compared to the previous year.

1. There is a romantic superstition in Korea that if one witnesses the first snowfall with someone they like, eternal love will blossom between the two. ☜