By Zephyria “You’re really late.”
Sung Se-han didn’t seem to have any intention of answering the phone; he checked the screen and then put the phone back in his back pocket. Then, he picked up the Ball Cap that had fallen on the floor, pulled it down low, and lightly raised his hand.
“I’m going.”
Sung Se-han didn’t look back even once as he turned his back and left the conference room.
I watched Sung Se-han’s receding figure until the door closed with a click, and then I took a deep breath.
“Hoo…!”
I buried my face in my hands and continued to exhale the breath I had been holding in, but the trembling didn’t stop.
“It’s a real mess.”
While I’m with Sung Se-han, my body and mind play separately, so everything is jumbled up. Since my words and actions don’t match, cognitive dissonance is inevitable.
“Haa…!”
Sung Se-han knows that I’m shaken up just by his fingertips touching me. If this continues, I might end up revealing everything with my own hands before long.
“That’s absolutely not allowed…!”
I grabbed my head, but then I heard a loud crash.
“Tae-kyung Hyung!”
“Ah, you scared me!”
I stroked my chest as I watched Jeong-min run in as if something terrible had happened.
“Whew, Jeong-min! What’s wrong….”
“Hyung, Hyung! Why did Sung Se-han come again? What did you guys talk about?”
Jeong-min, his face flushed, jumped up and down from his spot when he saw me sitting at the desk.
“When did you two get so close? You did get close, right?”
“No, it’s not that we got close….”
“Hyung, you’re really amazing! You even met Kang Robin Sunbae! Are you completely going into that line?”
I got off the desk and patted Jeong-min’s shoulder.
“I told Sung Se-han that I wanted to discuss the survival song with him, so he stopped by for a bit because of that.”
“Huh? Why… why are you only discussing it with Hyung? Shouldn’t we all do it together?”
Well, that’s true… I put my arm around Jeong-min’s shoulder to hide my awkward smile.
“And also… I had something to say personally.”
“What is it? Let’s all know together! Is Tae-kyung Hyung having fun all by himself? It’s annoying, really….”
“It’s not like that, Jeong-min. If there’s anything fun, I’ll definitely let you know too. Okay?”
I had no choice but to soothe Jeong-min, who was grumbling with dissatisfaction. After leaving the conference room, he kicked off the floor and ran.
“Gun-woo Hyung is waiting. Let’s run!”
“Huh? Hyung, let’s go together!”
When I sweat in the practice room, my mind is empty, which is really nice, but I don’t know if that will be the case today.
However, I became desperate for that thought.
I hope I don’t get tired. So that I don’t do anything foolish because I can’t control my emotions. So that I never regret anything.
When I came out of the shower at the dorm, my younger brothers were gathered at the dining table.
“Tae-kyung Hyung, come quickly. I made a salad for a late-night snack!”
I didn’t have an appetite, but I felt strangely hungry, so I shook my head and walked to the dining table. Well, I seem to be losing stamina these days, so it would be good to eat a lot of something.
“Tae-kyung Hyungnim, enjoy your meal.”
“Thank you. I’ll eat well.”
“Wow, look at that Soo-in bastard! He only put salmon on Tae-kyung Hyung’s plate?”
When I looked at the plate at Jeong-min’s sharp words, there was actually a pile of salmon. Soo-in must have been confused. Jeong-min is the one who likes salmon.
“I can’t eat all of this, so let’s eat together, Jeong-min.”
I smiled and stroked Soo-in’s head and handed the plate to Jeong-min. Still, Jeong-min kept pouting his lips, as if he didn’t like something.
“I really don’t like everyone today. I’m going to go astray.”
“Okay. You have a complaint about me, Jeong-min, right?”
I poked the salad with a fork and handed it to Jeong-min, and he took it well.
“No? I don’t?”
“Okay. Let’s eat and talk first.”
I could roughly guess Jeong-min’s complaints. He was left out of the last shoot, and lately, I’ve been hiding something from the members, so he must have been feeling left out.
Besides, knowing that he has a great interest in Sung Se-han, he must have been very upset that I kept my mouth shut about today’s events.
But this was a difficult situation because there was no way to resolve it.
“Ho-soo, wouldn’t it be better to eat first and use your phone later?”
Gun-woo Hyung, who came out of the room after showering, was also wearing a towel on his head like me.
“I’m sorry! I was just looking at the articles….”
Ho-soo, who had his nose buried in his phone, quickly lowered his phone under the table. It was a good opportunity to change the subject, so I actively leaned towards Ho-soo, who was next to me.
“What article were you looking at so intently?”
“Tae-kyung Hyung, haven’t you heard the news either? Photos from Heo Yoon-seul’s wedding have been uploaded all day today.”
I had heard that top actress Heo Yoon-seul was getting married, but I didn’t know it was today. I pretended to be interested and looked intently at the screen Ho-soo held out.
“It was a private wedding, but a lot of guests were photographed. But there are a lot of malicious comments, so I reported some of them.”
“Malicious comments? Why would they leave malicious comments at a wedding?”
When I opened my eyes wide in surprise, Jeong-min clicked his tongue.
“Doesn’t Tae-kyung Hyung read the articles? People are cursing at Heo Yoon-seul for abandoning her long-time boyfriend and marrying into a chaebol family.”
“Oh… was that so?”
Come to think of it, I remembered that Heo Yoon-seul’s wedding had been noisy before. But for me, it wasn’t something I was very interested in.
“Huh?”
Just as I was about to return the phone to Ho-soo, my eyes widened at the photo on the screen.
“Wait a minute…!”
I stared intently at the photo of a couple, who appeared to be husband and wife, entering the hotel where the wedding was being held.
What I paid particular attention to was the woman wearing a light purple dress and a dark-colored jacket.
“Ah…!”
It was taken from the side, but I was sure. There was no way I couldn’t know. I could recognize her just by her elegant figure.
Sung Se-han’s mother. It was her.
“Isn’t that person… the vice president of Myungsung Electronics?”
When I pointed to the man in the photo, Soo-ho nodded.
“That’s right? His wife is the daughter of a member of the National Assembly.”
I pursed my lips and turned my eyes back to the photo. The person Sung Se-han’s mom married was the successor of Myungsung Group.
She hid Sung Se-han and was living such a confident and beautiful life.
“I saw the picture for the first time, but she’s really beautiful! Isn’t it cheating if a chaebol is prettier than a celebrity?”
“I know, right. Everyone has no conscience!”
The dining table became noisy with the members’ conversation, but I couldn’t even force a smile. As I stirred the salad with a fork, Gun-woo Hyung nudged my arm.
“Tae-kyung? Are you worried about something?”
“Yes? No?”
Only then did Gun-woo Hyung’s expression relax when I put a mouthful of salad in my mouth. Gun-woo Hyung is sensitive to my condition, as are my younger brothers, so I shouldn’t get too caught up in my emotions. I reminded myself once again.
“Gun-woo Hyung, how about we increase the practice time by an hour starting tomorrow? I’m too tired to just fall asleep when I get to the dorm.”
My younger brothers frowned at my suggestion, but Gun-woo Hyung nodded with a serious expression.
“I also want to practice a little more. I really can’t sleep when I think about how well Perfect Puzzle will sing our song.”
“Hyungs! What if Perfect Puzzle does our choreography better than us? No, I think they’ll do it better than us?”
At Jeong-min’s words, Ho-soo raised his fork and shouted.
“No matter how well they do, it’ll be hard to keep up with the original song. Let’s just do what we have to do well!”
“Yeah. Ho-soo is right. Let’s not worry about it in advance and work harder from tomorrow.”
Gun-woo Hyung encouraged the younger brothers well, so I just diligently put the salad in my mouth.
It was a long time ago, but there was a time when I desperately wanted to join the survival show. But now, I can only smile bitterly at the situation where I’m always thinking about other things even while filming the survival show that I wanted so much.
I have nothing to say but that I’m really full of myself, but I still wanted to comfort myself.
That I’m doing well. That I just have to keep doing that in the future. That’s how I wanted to comfort myself.
It was two days.
For two days, I was locked in the practice room sweating without going out, and it was peaceful for the first time in a while.
Since Mom and Tae-min didn’t call often, my phone, which didn’t have many friends, was quiet without anyone looking for it.
Sung Se-han, who turned away and left, thankfully didn’t send a single message, so I don’t know how comfortable and good I felt.
It was a bit difficult to have trouble sleeping in the early morning, but after driving Sung Se-han out of my head and taking a cold shower, I could fall asleep somehow, so it was okay.
I wished these days would continue like this, but since there was filming, I had no choice but to see his face again.
After two peaceful days, on the third day, we met again at Garam Studio. This was because all the teams participating in the survival show were gathered to do a photoshoot.
Despite the fact that it was a pre-scheduled schedule, I was still nervous. It was because I wasn’t ready to meet Sung Se-han again.
Our team arrived at the waiting room far ahead of the scheduled time and finished preparing with ease. But the expressions of the members wearing red tracksuits were not good.