Then Sehyun answered.
“Yes.”
It was an excessively short one-word answer. And there was even a subtly sharp air about it.
“What, are you already being wary and all that?”
The yellow-haired man laughed loudly and tapped Sehyun’s arm. Then Sehyun’s brow furrowed.
Wait a minute…… why is he being so prickly?
These days, the person Doha unintentionally gets closest to is Lim Sehyun. Perhaps because of that, Doha had been equipped with a radar that keenly detected Sehyun’s mood. He’d gained the ability to sense even subtle changes that others didn’t notice.
Right now, Lim Sehyun is in a bad mood. This was the same Lim Sehyun who had been like a bodhisattva even while fixing the messy rehearsal. There must definitely be a reason for this change.
“Eden, why can’t I reach you?”
At the yellow-haired man’s words, Doha’s gaze turned to Eden. Were the two close?
But before Eden could answer anything, Sehyun lightly wrapped his arm around Eden’s shoulder and said.
“We’re a bit busy. We’ll be going first.”
Sehyun quite rudely intercepted the answer. Then the yellow-haired man blinked. He seemed at a loss for words.
Even seeing the man’s reaction, Sehyun didn’t care and turned around. He left the set with Eden in tow.
‘Why is he acting like that……’
Doha also hurriedly bobbed his head roughly and chased after the two. The other members did the same.
‘Are his nerves on edge because it’s right before the competition?’
This really gave off the feeling that they were truly competing.
* * *
Lim Sehyun’s mood remained low even in the car on the way back after finishing a light interview. Doha was nervous thinking it might be because he’d messed up the rehearsal, but in the end the atmosphere hadn’t seemed too bad, so he dismissed his own suspicion.
It wasn’t until they arrived at the dorm that Sehyun returned to his usual energy level. After diligently chewing through two chicken breasts, Sehyun sat next to Doha, who was watching the rehearsal stage they’d recorded on TV on the sofa.
“Hyung, you need to dye your hair.”
Sehyun said while fiddling with Doha’s hair. The roots of his brown-dyed hair were showing. Like a monkey picking out mites, Sehyun rummaged through Doha’s hair.
Seeing Sehyun’s behavior completely relaxed as usual, it seemed absurd that he’d been worried.
“Who were those guys earlier?”
Doha asked what he’d been curious about.
“Who?”
“The people who came when our rehearsal ended.”
“Ah, AVN?”
“Is that the group name?”
“Don’t worry about them. They’re nothing special.”
Sehyun shrugged as if it was no big deal. Even so, isn’t saying another team is ‘nothing special’ a bit harsh?
“Is now the time to worry about other teams?”
It was definitely the right thing to say.
“Hyung, you’re not at a level to be looking elsewhere right now. Empty your head, I’m telling you. Your head.”
“……”
The carrot he’d given during the day must have been false advertising. This is actually his true feelings.
Sehyun, who had been playing with his hair for a while, laid his head on Doha’s lap. He stretched out long on the sofa and turned his gaze to the screen Doha had been watching. The screen happened to have a close-up of Doha.
“Your profile is pretty.”
The expression ‘pretty’ that he occasionally encountered after living as Baek Doha was awkward. Shouldn’t you say ‘handsome’ to a man?
“Can’t you see the camera there?”
Sehyun, who had regrets about the eye direction they’d talked about repeatedly, looked up at Doha and asked. Doha nodded.
Actually, finding the camera wasn’t the problem. It was burdensome to stare at it piercingly, what they commonly call looking like you’d devour it.
“Try thinking of the camera as me. You stare at me intensely.”
Giggling laughter followed. Certainly, if he thought of it as Lim Sehyun, he could look at it fiercely.
“This stage is going somewhat similarly to the original choreography, but from the next stage onward, we’ll focus more on performance.”
“Mm.”
“Just comfortably think of it as doing circus acts from now on, not dancing.”
How is that comfortable? Isn’t it more difficult?
“But hyung.”
“Yeah.”
“You look like you’re having fun.”
Wondering what he meant by such a random comment, he glanced down at Sehyun. His gaze was glued to the TV screen. Following Sehyun’s gaze, Doha’s eyes also turned to the TV.
Having fun?
Doha watched himself moving frantically inside the screen. Even watching the video, he just found it fascinating how he’d done it. But he thought he knew what Sehyun meant by those words.
‘He’s really working hard.’
His eyes seemed to sparkle. His chest constantly rising and falling because he couldn’t manage his breathing as well as the other members also felt somewhat overwhelming.
“It reminds me of our debut days.”
Sehyun wistfully immersed himself in past recollections. This was Sehyun’s recent habit and hobby. Whenever something happens, it’s ‘back in the day this,’ ‘that time that.’
“I want to watch too.”
Haram, who had finished showering and come out to the living room, sat next to Doha. A sweet scent wafted over.
“I’m tired. Sleepy.”
Following Haram, Eden came out of the room. Upon discovering the three sitting in a row, he naturally claimed the spot next to them.
“What? Are you monitoring?”
Last was Yunbeom. When bustling sounds came from the living room, Yunbeom also sauntered out. All the members had gathered on the sofa.
The snacks Yunbeom had grabbed on his way over were placed on the table. This was like a family spending a harmonious evening together.
“Look, Doha hyung’s eyes got big from being flustered there.”
Sehyun giggled and pointed out Doha’s mistake. It was a part he thought had been smoothly covered without others knowing, but watching the video, it showed.
Doha slyly pressed Sehyun’s temple with his elbow.
“Ah, it hurts, hyung.”
Lim Sehyun couldn’t give up laughing even under physical pressure.
“Oh, someone’s knee cracking sound came out here.”
“That’s me.”
When he remembered the thud sound that pierced through the heavily dropped beat in the motion where everyone knelt together, Doha unknowingly laughed.
“Oh my. Is this the time for hyung to be laughing?”
As Doha’s body shook from laughing, Sehyun chided him.
“But Doha hyung is in big trouble.”
“What?”
Why are you being scary all of a sudden? If something big was going to happen, you should have given hints in advance.
“You’re the leader.”
“So, what?”
“When filming starts, you’ll have a lot of interviews as the leader.”
“……Should we change leaders now? Anyone interested?”
“But originally it’s better to overcome camera phobia head-on.”
Sehyun brushed it off casually. If you’re going to do this, don’t scare me.
“You have a tendency to overestimate me.”
“How can I not have expectations? Hyung is a student worth teaching.”
“Am I your student?”
“Just do it confidently no matter what. Whatever hyung blurts out, we’ll clean it all up.”
Now he felt like he’d be sick of Lim Sehyun’s confidence. He wanted to knock down the arrogant nose of the regressor who expected everything to go smoothly just because he’d regressed.
Did the novel’s content flow that smoothly? Shouldn’t there be a crisis section where things go wrong at least once?
“We already know the second competition song, what will the third be?”
Eden, who had been focused on the screen, threw out a question. Then Sehyun answered.
“Taking another group’s song and doing it.”
“How do you know that?”
“There are ways to obtain information.”
Shameless while it’s a regressor buff.
“How will it be decided? Which team’s song should we take?”
“Whatever we take, we just need to edit it intensely, so we can pick any team.”
“They won’t decide the song for us, will they?”
The members started seriously talking about the competition. Doha emptied his head and focused on the screen. Lim Sehyun said so. Don’t think about anything. Just move according to the settings someone inputs.
Crunch.
He ate the potato chips Yunbeom had brought. The salty taste was good. He grabbed one more and was bringing it to his mouth when Sehyun’s hand pulled Doha’s arm.
Sehyun intercepted the potato chip that should have entered Doha’s mouth.
“You pick it up and eat it.”
Why intercept what’s in someone else’s hand?
“I said I hate getting it on my hands.”
Doha once again pressed Sehyun’s temple firmly with his elbow. Then a groaning sound leaked out.
The members replayed the rehearsal video again.
At first, his appearance in the screen felt awkward like a complete stranger, but as he watched, it didn’t feel like someone else as he recalled all the hard work of repeating one movement hundreds of times.
How much sweat had they shed for that roughly 100-second stage?
‘Still, after about 5 competitions…… the program ends, right?’
While practicing, he couldn’t help but feel how much effort the members put in, how desperate they were, even if he didn’t want to.
Just this once. Let’s finish just this program and cleanly wash my hands of it. Let’s think of it as final courtesy to the people I’ve been with all this time.
“Hyung.”
When he was having commendable thoughts for the first time in a while, Sehyun called Doha.
“Huh?”
“Potato chip.”
Should I just change my mind even now?
“Hurry.”
Doha pressed Sehyun’s temple firmly again.
“Anyone want orange?”
“I’ll peel an apple.”
When Yunbeom stood up to take out fruit, Haram also stood up along with him.
The faint TV sounds, the bustling warmth, the fruit eaten while sitting in a circle.
This is maximum coziness.
Like that, the members were wrapping up a warm day before the storm.
