By Zephyria His cold eyes were now unable to hide his embarrassment.
“What’s wrong with your hair. And why are your clothes like this.”
The hood must have been messed up, leaning to one side like Se-han’s cardigan. The guy who straightened my clothes ran his fingers through my hair.
“I told you never to handle me roughly.”
Tsk. Se-han’s face, clicking his tongue, was full of annoyance.
“Isn’t there a Lee Tae-kyung user manual or something? I really don’t know how to handle you.”
What do you mean, how to handle me. You’re always doing whatever you want while pretending to worry.
“Why are you looking at me like that.”
He must feel burdened because I’m just staring at him blankly. He squints slightly at me.
“So what.”
Sung Se-han shrugged his shoulders and took out a cigarette and lighter from his pocket. My gaze shifted to the cigarette in his hand.
“Okay. Is this how it should be done?”
His large hand crushed the cigarette pack. My brow furrowed along with it.
“Lee Tae-kyung wants it that badly, so why not? From now on, I’ll stop… ack!”
My hand covered his mouth, causing Sung Se-han’s upper body to sway in surprise.
[Time remaining: 5 minutes!]
“Forget what I said earlier.”
Sung Se-han’s brown eyes widened slightly.
He’s already suffering from all sorts of pressure, and this is just me adding more stress.
The mission is important, but I didn’t want to torment him further when he couldn’t even hide his low mood like today.
“Isn’t it more of a loss if you get stressed from holding back on cigarettes? Just do what you want.”
I pulled up his fallen cardigan and patted his angular shoulders, which the fans were so proud of, a couple of times.
“Just know that this Hyung was just thinking about Se-han.”
“Who’s the Hyung? Don’t you know my birthday is earlier?”
“I’m talking about mental age.”
“Ha, crazy.”
[Time remaining: 3 minutes!]
I took a step or two away from Sung Se-han.
“I’m going now.”
Even as I said I was leaving, I couldn’t easily turn around. Sung Se-han was staring at me with a strange look.
“Then is today’s mission over?”
“I told you there’s no such thing.”
I spread my arms out to him, showing a relaxed demeanor.
“I was just thinking that it’s not right to torment you while saying I’m doing it for your sake. So I decided to try harder.”
In fact, when you think about it, it wasn’t something that required a lot of time.
If I just get rid of my Inferiority Score, everything could be over within a month. Sung Se-han safely, without any consumption.
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about at all.”
Not knowing my deep thoughts, he frowned again, dissatisfied.
“Well, what can I do? I guess I have to do what Lee Tae-kyung tells me to do.”
Sung Se-han followed me down the stairs, so we exited the emergency exit side by side.
“I wanted to take you to the company, but I have work to finish today….”
“Don’t worry. Go up quickly.”
[The time limit for the quest to prevent the penalty has expired!]
I pushed Sung Se-han’s firm back towards the elevator.
He stumbled back a step or two and then looked back at me. With a lighter heart, I made a fist.
“Sung Se-han, fighting!”
“What is it.”
Sung Se-han chuckled as if he was dumbfounded. Anyway, I’m glad I could see his smiling face today.
[Therefore, we inform you that the penalty has been applied!]
“Tae-kyung.”
Sung Se-han continued without approaching me.
“I actually had a really shitty day today.”
“Ah….”
What on earth happened! Who did you… I closed my mouth, which I was about to ask hastily. It was because Sung Se-han had an even more carefree expression than me.
“But thanks to Lee Tae-kyung, I’m all better.”
“That’s a relief.”
When I nodded, he gave me a pretty eye smile. This time, it was a smile from the heart.
“I don’t know how I lived without you.”
Ugh. I barely managed to hold back a sigh that was about to come out. It’s all because of you, you brat.
“You said you were busy. Aren’t you going?”
“I’ll contact you.”
Sung Se-han, who turned around immediately, walked quickly to the elevator.
[Sung Se-han’s death accident has been moved forward from January 8th next year to December 8th this year!]
I watched Sung Se-han get on the elevator before turning my feet.
I want to tell the Status Window not to waste energy on useless things.
“Don’t talk nonsense. Sung Se-han’s death accident will never happen.”
[Inferiority Score decreased by -1.]
[Inferiority Score decreased by -1.]
[Inferiority Score decreased by -1.]
…
…
[We inform you of Lee Tae-kyung’s current Inferiority Score.]
[Congratulations! 70 points!]
There was nothing to be surprised about. The score drop is natural.
70 points is nothing to celebrate. If the Status Window doesn’t interfere, it will be 0 points soon.
I walked out of the entrance of Baeknyeon Entertainment with a good momentum, but stopped abruptly.
“Oh!”
“Lee Tae-kyung-ssi.”
Vice Manager… was leaning against the glass door, waiting for me.
“Oh… Vice Manager…!”
Only after seeing the Vice Manager’s face, which was beyond unpleasant and quite grim, did I remember the violence I had committed earlier.
“Lee Tae-kyung-ssi, are you done with your business now?”
Now that I see it, the Vice Manager’s physiognomy is unusual. I felt an extraordinary energy as if there was a dragon on his back.
I wanted to run away into the building as it was, but I couldn’t do that again. Because I’ll be caught anyway.
“I, I’m sorry!”
“Let’s not do that again next time. Huh? Lee Tae-kyung-ssi might get hurt.”
“Yes. I will definitely… be careful!”
“Then let’s go quickly.”
I hurriedly followed the Vice Manager, who was heading to the ground parking lot.
“Vice Manager, I can take a taxi.”
“Let’s go comfortably, huh?”
Suddenly, as the situation where my words were not working at all was repeated, my temper rose abruptly.
“Vice Manager, I’m honestly uncomfortable. It’s much better to go alone.”
“It’s not good for celebrities to walk around alone.”
“I’m not a celebrity yet.”
Whether I said that or not, the Vice Manager opened the front seat door of the sedan and waited for me. I didn’t have the strength to argue any longer at this late hour, so I got into the car quietly.
Well, I saved on taxi fare, so that’s good.
I thought positively, but when I saw the Vice Manager sitting in the driver’s seat, good words didn’t come out.
“But Vice Manager, in the future, I hope you’ll be careful about picking me up and throwing me around like that… To be honest, I was very unpleasant.”
“I’ll apologize for that. But Lee Tae-kyung-ssi also needs to be aware that protecting Se-han is a priority, so I might act a little rough.”
The hand fastening the seat belt stopped abruptly.
“Protect Se-han…? Uh… does Se-han have a dangerous stalker attached to him?”
“It’s not like that. Anyway, if you were unpleasant, shake it off.”
The car started smoothly, but my head became more and more complicated.
What on earth is going on. It can’t be that Se-han is in a dangerous situation that he needs to be protected…?
I took out my cell phone from my hoodie pocket, but that was it. I couldn’t call Sung Se-han either.
The reason he’s having a hard time might not just be because of his solo album or the fans’ resentment. Then what could it be….
Just as Sung Se-han can’t know all my thoughts, I can’t know everything about him either. But even so, I felt a stuffy and frustrated feeling as if my chest was blocked.
“Sigh….”
It’s all useless thoughts. Right now, nothing is more important than saving Sung Se-han.
Don’t think about anything else, just focus on that now.
“Ha… I’m going crazy.”
I was exhausted from hunger after sweating profusely from learning the changed choreography since morning. In the midst of that, I completely lost my appetite for entertainment articles that I habitually checked.
“No, is it necessary to release this many articles? Are there that few news stories?”
The truck protest sent by ‘Summer’, the Perfect Puzzle fandom, to Baeknyeon Entertainment was filling the entertainment news pages.
<'Puzzle Breaker' Sung Se-han!>
The anger spewing out from the red and blue sentences on both sides of the black truck felt so intense that it seemed to jump out of the photo.
“Haa…!”
It was so painful to read the articles that I closed my eyes.
“Tae-kyung, let’s eat first.”
Gun-woo Hyung, who was checking the articles with me, got up from his seat.
“Se-han won’t care much about this. What’s important now is our debut. Right?”
“Yes….”
Gun-woo Hyung is right. I have to do my best with the given opportunity. I gave strength to my body, which was lying on the floor, and jumped up.
“But Hyungs….”
The youngest members, who were huddled together and putting their heads together, looked at us.
“I really don’t think this is right.”
“What is it?”
Jeong-min put his cell phone in my hand and pointed with his finger.
“This is spreading all over the communities now. I think the subject is Se-han Hyung….”
My hand holding the cell phone tightened.