The crew was filming in an orderly manner, and at the same time, the broadcast date of the drama was getting closer.
What was surprising was that after Park Ji-hyo's relationship was exposed on August 5th, the very next day, August 6th, the media also exposed the relationship between Kim Heechul and Momo, stating that the two had been dating since 2017 and their relationship had been blissful until now.
This news was quickly denied by both parties, citing that they were merely good senior-junior colleagues.
Kwon Hyuk was naturally surprised when he saw the news, but he felt that there was no smoke without fire, and that rumors didn't just appear out of nowhere.
He wasn't very familiar with Park Ji-hyo yet, so he asked Kim Ro-woon.
As expected, after verifying, he learned that their relationship was indeed true.
That made sense then; the company probably thought that two consecutive relationship exposures would be too much for fans to handle, so they held back and decided to deal with it later.
Having eaten two melons in a row, Kwon Hyuk couldn't help but wonder if there would be more new melons to come.
But the intense filming temporarily made him put aside his desire for entertainment, and he fully immersed himself in the drama's production.
As the plot developed, the emotional changes of the second male lead he played became more complex, requiring more from him than in the earlier stages; it was no longer as simple as just having a cold or stern face to get through a scene in one take.
During this period, the TV station began promoting the drama, releasing posters and some stills to start the warm-up.
To a certain extent, it attracted the attention of some drama viewers.
After all, it was a drama broadcast by one of the three major TV stations, and as a webtoon adaptation, it had a certain fan base, so the promotional materials were not ignored.
Kwon Hyuk also uploaded stills for promotion on his Instagram immediately.
Everything was waiting for the official broadcast of the drama.
Meanwhile, amidst the scandal of the rigged audition show, Mnet and the agencies finally debuted the group formed from the show.
Album sales broke records, and digital music streams were also the best among all debuted groups, appearing to be flourishing, thriving, and unstoppable.
However, the better the group's performance, the more their controversies and negative points were amplified.
The police were still investigating the rigging incident, and fans continued to protest, indicating that the matter was far from being settled or resolved.
Kwon Hyuk initially thought that big things might happen, but small things that affected his life would not.
But after he heard a message from Lami, he felt that life wasn't always so smooth and calm after all.
"Don't you have anything to say? Are you just going to keep playing dead?"
This was Lami relaying Yoo Jimin's message to him.
Now he was in trouble; his playful flirtation with her had come back to haunt him.
Kwon Hyuk scratched his head, walked to a corner of the set, and called Yoo Jimin directly.
It didn't go through; he had been blocked.
"She blocked my number."
Lami understood immediately and relayed the message to Yoo Jimin.
When she finally hung up with Kwon Hyuk, she didn't forget to tease him.
"See? It's much easier if you take the initiative than if Ji Min has to come looking for you like this."
"I strongly suspect you're exaggerating."
Kwon Hyuk shifted his chair, found a comfortable position to recline, and complained.
"No, I haven't. I'm tight-lipped."
Lami hung up the phone with a smile, and shortly after, this time it was Yoo Jimin who called him.
Kwon Hyuk guessed she was probably coming to confront him angrily, so he prepared himself to let her words go in one ear and out the other.
The key was that he really hadn't dated Yoo Jimin; they had just flirted for a while, and then he stopped, but who knew she would bite onto the hook so tightly.
"Why aren't you speaking?"
Kwon Hyuk heard no sound from the other end of the phone, looked at it in confusion, and then spoke up.
"You go first. I'm listening."
After a long silence, Yoo Jimin's muffled voice came from the other end of the phone. It was hard to tell from her tone whether it was good or bad.
"Alright, if you say so, then I'll really speak."
It was true that Kwon Hyuk had initiated contact with her at first, but he had never explicitly stated that he wanted to be in a relationship.
Isn't that how young people are now? Flirt enough, and then naturally confess when the time is right.
"What do you mean?"
Her stance suggested she was genuinely about to say something, and Yoo Jimin's mood suddenly changed.
Did she not like Kwon Hyuk?
She had had a good impression of him before; it was normal for trainees to secretly date, as long as they weren't discovered.
But then Kwon Hyuk just left, and his words and implications suggested he had no intention of continuing their relationship.
What else could he be but a player?
Even if he had hinted or had a better attitude, it would have been easy to talk about, and being friends afterward would have been no problem.
But his attitude at the time implied that he didn't take her seriously!
What girl could swallow that resentment?
"How could I look for you? I'm in a difficult situation right now, and you don't understand what I'm going through."
"Aren't you doing well now? You've become an actor."
"Are there not enough struggling rookie actors? Besides, I can't go back to being a trainee. My current situation is very difficult."
"If something won't have a result, then it's better not to let it happen. If I could debut, I would continue with you, but I have nothing now, and you're about to debut soon. How can I continue with you?"
Yoo Jimin listened to Kwon Hyuk's clear and logical words from the other end of the phone and found them very reasonable, yet also felt something was off.
"But… why didn't you make it clear earlier?"
"What kind of situation was I in at the time? If you were in my shoes, would you still have the mind to think about these things?"
At first glance, it sounded very reasonable, but Yoo Jimin just felt that something wasn't right. Her brows furrowed slightly, and she bit her lower lip, a hint of struggle appearing on her delicate, small, oval face.
"So what were you doing then? Tell me in detail."
"The show had just ended, I rushed to become an actor, and then I prepared for the audition for this drama. I almost didn't get selected."
Kwon Hyuk sat casually in his chair, his gaze drifting idly around the set.
"Who were your competitors?"
Yoo Jimin sat in a corner of the practice room, holding her phone and speaking to him in a low voice. Her inner feelings and facial expressions showed that she was a little melancholic and a little conflicted.
"You want to know that much detail?"
Kwon Hyuk exhaled, speaking slowly.
"Are you going to talk or not? Otherwise, I'm hanging up."
Yoo Jimin felt an urge to curse him; Kwon Hyuk's attitude made her quite angry.
"Lee Jae-wook, but he was a bit lacking, not as good as me."
Kwon Hyuk said bluntly, his tone calm and composed.
Lee Jae-wook?
Yoo Jimin heard the name and vaguely remembered an impression of him online, but still felt very unfamiliar.