Yunbeom half-listened to the CEO’s words and approached Haram, pressing both his cheeks with his palms.
“You look like a bloated goldfish. Who on earth made this tough Kang Haram cry?”
“Hyeong…… so, song, na yeo……(Hyung, let go.)”
Eden also stared intently at Haram’s face. Although he had the most emotional personality among the members, Haram didn’t show tears often. Especially not because of difficult things. Since Haram was famous for always practicing tenaciously despite his small body, he was even called a fighter.
“Jeo, gae cha na yeo.(I’m fine.)”
“Right. Don’t bother someone who’s fine, everyone sit down.”
Cheolhwan offered seats to Yunbeom and Eden. All the members had gathered.
“I thought there shouldn’t be any problems with communication going forward if you all knew, so I called you here like this.”
The CEO began explaining what had happened.
“It’s about Haram’s situation. It’s something that could happen to you guys too. I should give you a warning while we’re at it.”
The words continued, and the members listened attentively to the CEO’s words.
“……So that’s how it happened, I’ve contacted the legal team for now…… this kind of thing has happened before……”
At the continued explanation, Haram bit his lower lip hard here and there, but didn’t show tears. It was probably the effect of having poured them out refreshingly in the practice room.
Doha’s gaze kept glancing toward Haram. It wasn’t out of pity. It was just simple worry.
For a moment, their eyes met with Haram. Doha’s figure was reflected in his black pupils. Haram gave a slight smile.
The comfort that everything would be okay came from none other than Haram himself. It was truly a strange feeling.
For a moment, the words “let’s hurry home and rest” almost came out of his mouth. When did that dorm start being recognized as “our home”?
* * *
That night, Doha, who had been sleeping, suddenly felt thirsty and headed to the kitchen. And there he ran into Haram.
“Did you come out to drink water?”
“Uh, yeah.”
When Doha nodded, Haram took out a new cup and filled it with water from the water purifier. The sound of water trickling down echoed.
The atmosphere was strangely awkward. Under the dim lighting, Haram’s puffy swollen eyes were visible. His heart felt strange. Eventually, Doha opened his mouth with difficulty.
“You know.”
Did he want to comfort him?
“Even if the world turns upside down overnight, people manage to live on.”
“Yes……?”
“When I was young, my mom passed away and my dad abandoned me and disappeared. When I became an orphan with no one in the world, I thought my life was ruined. I couldn’t even feel betrayed. I was just at a loss about living. At that young age.”
As he spoke, he fell deeply into his childhood memories.
“After I grew up, I was too busy living to survive, so I lived thinking he was dead, and even while brainwashing myself like that, in one corner of my heart I just wanted him to be alive. Since I didn’t need to worry about myself, I just…… wished he was living well somewhere.”
“……”
“Family is really strange.”
While speaking, Doha picked up the cup filled with water.
“Hating is hard. Each time I do, it feels like hammering nails stuck in my chest. So you don’t need to hate too much. You don’t need to try hard to forget either. Just live busy every day…… and the day when that feeling becomes lighter will come too.”
Cool water went down his throat. While Doha drank water, Haram stared blankly at Doha’s face.
“Are you comforting me……?”
Instead of answering, Doha gulped down the water in the cup.
Silence flowed for a moment, and Haram slowly nodded as if chewing over what Doha had said.
“But didn’t both of hyung’s parents pass away when you were young?”
Oops.
He momentarily forgot about Baek Doha’s background.
“Uh, yeah. And then they passed away.”
Drunk on emotion, he carelessly rambled on about memories from before his possession. But it was a better situation than if both of Baek Doha’s parents were alive or something.
“……Thank you. Hyung.”
Haram gave thanks. Even though he hadn’t really done anything for him.
Even if he couldn’t pull Kang Haram’s life out of the swamp like Lim Sehyun, maybe he could at least apply ointment to his wounds.
“I didn’t know hyung had such a gentle personality.”
What kind of personality life did Baek Doha live? He could roughly guess.
“Sleep well.”
“Yes.”
Like that, Doha turned around while scratching his ears that had become hot from embarrassment.
* * *
The next day, Doha ended up being dragged here by Sehyun.
“Ueoeoeoeo……”
Two hours after coming to the practice room, Doha became a rag. He didn’t even have the strength to stand up, so he was lying on the practice room floor being dragged around by Sehyun’s hand.
“Hyung, did you really forget even the basics? Is this right?”
“What do you mean it can’t happen. Is there anything that makes sense here?”
This is all a novel anyway! He just wanted to throw everything away and run away.
Painful time was flowing for both Doha practicing dance that didn’t work and Sehyun teaching a person who didn’t work.
“No, but how can you even stumble over basic things. It’s like you’ve become a completely different person.”
A completely different person…….
He couldn’t just lay it all out and say it, and tears welled up.
“Hyung, do you remember Korean?”
What did he do wrong to have to hear such words. He was treating him like a complete idiot.
“How about the multiplication tables? Hyung, you know your own profession, right?”
“……Just curse at me. Curse.”
Because he spoke with a voice truly full of concern, it felt more humiliating than cursing. Doha half gave up on life. He just let his body go as Sehyun dragged him by the ankle.
He realized firsthand that escape was out of the question anyway.
When he was caught as soon as he ran down the corridor, he wondered what Sehyun’s best 100-meter dash record was. It felt like 10 seconds. No, it seemed like he flew. If it was real, he shouldn’t have become an idol but a runner.
Moreover, his intuition was so quick that even if he rolled his eyes just a little, he would grab some part of his body like a ghost.
“It’s okay. Hyung. That can all be done with effort.”
Sehyun, who noticed again that Baek Doha was lost in other thoughts, smiled a smile resembling an emotionless emoticon (^^).
Each time this happened, he got goosebumps and his hair stood on end.
“The human body is really amazing. If you do it, it’ll work out, I tell you.”
Isn’t it like that because you do it until it works……? If there was another option called ‘giving up,’ maybe it wouldn’t work?
“I’ll catch everything from 1 to 100, so just trust me.”
Both knew this was torture, but they didn’t stop. It was truly horrible.
“You…… bastard……”
“Hyung, but your ankle is really thin.”
Sehyun caressed Doha’s ankle held in his hand. Sehyun’s gaze swept past the ankle bone revealed below the pant leg.
It was a slightly eerie moment. But the sense of rebellion that was about to rise was immediately subdued by the pressure of the firm grip felt on his ankle.
Let’s think of it as dance lessons from a current idol. Right. Broadcast dance, some people pay to learn it, but free lessons? Lucky.
“What are you doing? You need to get up.”
“Just kill me.”
“I wonder if your grandfather is doing well. You haven’t been able to contact him lately, should I call him now?”
“……”
He had to pray that God had arranged ample patience so that his life as a gold spoon from a dumpling shop wouldn’t end as a murderer behind bars.
* * *
-Even though we’re incomplete right now
-Our hearts are beating hotly
-Blooming in fear
-We are the blue flame
The lyrics he’d heard and recited a hundred times over echoed in the practice room.
Sehyun, leaning against the wall, watched Doha repeating the movements he’d taught at breakneck speed. It was terrible. Even if he brought any random student passing by on the street and told them to dance, it would be better than this.
Squeak, screech, the sound of shoe rubber scraping on the floor was loud.
It was definitely strange. Could a person change this much overnight? Even if memories disappeared, could things engraved in the body vanish without a trace?
Just like how one doesn’t forget how to run even if they lose their memories, Sehyun had thought dancing was that kind of sense.
However, he also knew there was nothing in the world that wouldn’t happen even if you died. For someone like himself who reversed time, it was ridiculous to argue about what makes sense and what doesn’t.
Sehyun’s gaze persistently followed Doha’s movements. The day he saw Baek Doha when he first entered as a trainee came to mind.
‘I’m your hyung?’
‘But you’re really handsome.’
‘Want to sneak out and have a bowl of jjajangmyeon? The person who loses rock-paper-scissors pays.’
He was a person with a bright energy. A person with a cheerful atmosphere that attracted people regardless of age or gender. He had a slightly different nature from others who ran like racehorses solely for debut.
Sometimes he seemed just like a fool, but he had good innate sense, quickly learning dance or song skills, and was skilled at dealing with people, adapting quickly. Rather, his relaxed atmosphere became a unique charm.
