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The bus buzzes with chatter, filled with actors and staff of the military musical, Return. Jeong Riu peeks out from his seat next to the aisle, which he had picked strategically just moments ago.
A few of his fellow ensemble actors in front of him move to their seats, and Riu finally spots his target rows away, deep in conversation with whoever is with him in his row. Yoon Jisung, that is, buzz cut and all, laughing away at a joke he can’t hear from the distance he’s at.
Jisung’s wearing his jacket, hood down and scarf loosely wrapped around his neck, and Riu spots the glasses Jisung’s wearing the moment he turns towards another actor seated on the other side of his aisle. Seeing his round specs stirs up a wave of cute aggression, and Riu imagines himself running up to Jisung and acting upon his urge to go and squeeze the daylight out of Jisung’s face.
The moment passes, and Riu turns his gaze towards the windows of the bus as Jisung turns around to listen to the person seated behind him. Internally, he scolds the actor for bothering Jisung so early in the morning, but deep down he knows he wishes to be the person Jisung laughs along with instead.
Shortly afterwards, the bus pulls up to the Woori Art Hall, and the rest of the actors quickly file out. Riu makes his way toward the front like the rest of them, closer to where Jisung is putting his hood up and grabbing his backpack from the floor of the bus.
In a rush to wear his backpack, Jisung manages to dislodge the scarf around his neck, and it falls to the floor as Riu comes up to him. Before he can make sense of what’s happening, Riu finds himself picking up the scarf and dusting it off in his hands, making eye contact with Jisung for the first time since they had boarded the bus this morning.
“You’re even adorable when you’re being clumsy, hyung,” Riu blurts out without thought, quickly tying Jisung’s scarf for him and chiding himself for being so blunt.
“No way,” Jisung laughs, before smiling up at Riu. “Thanks, Riu,” Jisung says as he scooches them over to clear the aisle for the actors waiting behind them.
Riu doesn’t have the capacity to wonder whether he was being thanked for the scarf or his sudden compliment, mind wiped clean by the way Jisung’s smile reaches his eyes in the most beautiful way.
With Jisung’s scarf back in place and backpack thrown on his back, the two make their way off the bus, Riu hurriedly rushing off first before turning back towards Jisung and waiting for him to make his way towards him.
Feeling a need to fill the silence between them, Riu immediately starts chatting away about the chilly weather and the conversation he had with his fellow actors on the way that he himself had no recollection of paying any attention to. Jisung only smiles along and nods, and Riu briefly feels like a golden retriever barking away trying to gain the attention of its owner.
Jisung walks ahead of Riu as they make their way inside the hall, and Riu is left to watch as the distance between them grows larger, trailing behind the older. The gap between them feels stronger than ever, and Riu wonders if it’ll always be this way, with him as an extra simply passing by in Jisung’s life.
The Yoon Jisung and a Jeong Riu, from two totally different worlds, forever destined to simply be one-time costars of a military musical, slowly drifting apart once they find themselves back in the real world.
Before the daunting thought could consume him, Riu forces himself to focus on the now, and on the musical later in the afternoon, leaving tomorrow’s Riu to have a breakdown over his relationship with Jisung, fragile enough to dissipate into thin air if it so wanted.
Riu takes his seat behind Jisung, watching his head bob about as he waves to fans outside their bus, fans who had come to welcome them to China for Thundercloud Rainstorm’s fan signing event. They had just arrived at Hangzhou after a two hour flight, and they would be meeting fans in Shaoxing and Changsha before heading back to Korea.
As the bus pulls out of its parking space, Riu suddenly finds himself back to his days in the military, traveling by bus to perform Return, always seated rows behind a certain someone, inching himself closer every time they rode to the hall.
Then, he had longed to find a way to stay in Jisung’s radar for as long as he could in any way possible, and here he was now, seven years later, in the seat behind Jisung in a fairly empty bus filled with a few staff here and there.
“Hey, Jisung hyung,” Riu called out, and Jisung hummed in response before turning around to face him. “Do you remember how we would always ride the bus to the hall back during Return?”
Jisung paused, seemingly trying to recall before clapping his hands together in agreement. “That’s right! Sure reminds me of that time being in this bus with you.”
Riu nodded before continuing. “I would always try to talk to you a lot back then.”
“Did you?”
“Yeah, but you would always run off first and leave me behind, hyung.”
“Did I..?”
“You did, hyung!” Riu whined jokingly, “I can’t believe you don’t remember!”
“There were too many of you, it gets all jumbled up in my memory,” Jisung teased, laughing as Riu started to pout at being forgotten. “But now it’s just you, just the two of us all to ourselves.”
Riu found himself pleased at Jisung’s response, no matter how serious or not his Jisung hyung was being.
His Yoon Jisung.
Their drama’s fan sign event.
Much had changed since their first work together, and this time, Riu felt confident that he would remain as an unforgettable role in Jisung’s life, far from where he had first started as a mere extra.