other peoples problems

Part 4

Sometimes, Kim Rok Soo really wished he didn't notice things. He did his best to turn a blind eye to his surroundings and keep his head down and away from other peoples business. He didn't pry and he didn't ask and really, he'd like not to notice.

Because noticing came with a certain responsibility to it.

If he didn't know that being able to eat the only egg bagel that catering provided brought his fellow background actor Glenn Poeff endless amounts of joy then he would have absolutely no responsibility to the matter. Should he want to eat an egg bagel, he could do so with ease and there would be absolutely no reason to care about Glenn.

But since he'd noticed that Glenn was notably happier or sadder depending on whether he got to eat that egg bagel, he had a certain responsibility not to. In fact, Kim Rok Soo had hidden it under other bagels a few times when he noticed Glenn running late. Just so no one else got to it first.

He didn't know Glenn. He didn't care about Glenn. But if he knowingly did something that would trample over his happiness, it would leave an unpleasant feeling in his gut and Kim Rok Soo just wanted to live comfortably.

His current frustration had nothing to do with Glenn but the bagel conundrum was a good example of how noticing things caused him trouble.

Right now he noticed the tired slump to Cale's shoulders as he retreated to his trailer, looking a whole lot more defeated than normal. Cale normally walked around with a slump that made him look half drunk but the more he noticed about Cale, the more he was able to notice when he was acting and when he was sincere.

By his estimate, Cale was acting the vast majority of the time. He didn't think anyone else had noticed either.

And that was the second responsibility that came with noticing things. Since he was the only one who noticed, that meant he was the only one who could save the bagel for Glenn unless he decided to make an embarrassing big deal of it.

No one else noticed that Cale's glum trail was full of sincere distress.

He should ignore it. Cale was a giant obnoxious asshole. The fact that he was only acting like one made him even worse. He inconvenienced everyone, made them all uncomfortable, and acted like a giant piece of shit and he didn't have to? Kim Rok Soo didn't owe Cale jackshit.

Like his character from the damn drama, Cale was just a spoiled rich bastard who made everyone's lives a little bit worse through his endless bullshit.

And yet...

Well, Kim Rok Soo noticed things.

Cale never crossed the line. He was careful never to actually injure anyone, he avoided throwing fits around people who were weak and meek, and his most volatile behavior happened around actual scumbags. Like the time he'd damn near destroyed the set when the director tried to work the cast beyond their limits and requested a dangerous stunt.

He probably wouldn't have noticed it at all if he hadn't noticed that Cale was acting but once you noticed his behavior was calculated it was only natural to search for the calculation behind it.

While he still didn't have the slightest clue what motivated Cale to act like a twit, he noticed the other things. He was a person who didn't actually want to hurt anyone or cause real damage. He was a person who lashed out against bigger assholes than him.

And Kim Rok Soo really wouldn't be able to sleep at night if something happened to him and he was the only one who noticed that Cale looked deeply upset.

Turning his stoic gaze away from where Glenn was cheerfully describing how delighted he was that he'd been able to get his treasured bagel so much recently, Kim Rok Soo made his way towards the trailer that most people went out of their way to avoid.