The wet shirt stuck transparently to his skin, nakedly revealing his firm back muscles. But what captured Doha’s gaze wasn’t that physical beauty.
‘……Eyes.’
Sehyun stopped. Then he raised his head and stared at the distant sea. Empty eyes. The eyes of someone who had lost everything in the world.
He reached his hand toward the air, then floundered as if trying to grab something. Wind and spray slipped futilely through his fingers.
Sehyun staggered. It was impossible to tell whether he was acting like he was pushed by the waves or if he really had lost strength. He wandered through the water, looking around. He was searching for someone.
‘Hmm. As expected, his expressiveness is good since he’s someone who did acting.’
As expected, watching other people’s business from across the river was nice. He already seemed to be doing well, but he wanted to give unnecessary advice too.
He was thinking about how to tease him when he came out, but the longer the acting went on, the more idle thoughts disappeared.
He became focused on Lim Sehyun’s acting. It seemed to be the same for the other people around.
Just then, Sehyun, who had been floundering in the water, sharply turned his head.
His gaze pierced precisely toward the members beyond the camera.
At that moment, Doha’s heart jolted.
What kind of acting is he doing so fiercely? This is supposed to be a youth story. Anyone watching would think it’s a thriller.
“Cut! Okay! Perfect!”
The director’s cheer burst out. Only then, as if the tightly pulled string had snapped, strength left Sehyun’s body.
“Ahhh! Cold! I’m freezing to death!”
The man who had been the tragic protagonist just moments ago was nowhere to be found, and Sehyun came running out of the water shivering.
“Hyung! Towel! Towel please!”
Sehyun shouted with lips turned blue. Doha quickly spread out the large towel he was holding and wrapped Sehyun’s body.
“You did well.”
“My acting was awesome, right?”
Such confidence, really.
Doha chuckled. Lim Sehyun is funny no matter what he does.
“They say there’s one more group dance. Let’s go eat raw fish right after this ends.”
Looking at it, Eden seemed to like taking care of meals. He was always on delivery apps too.
“Raw fish sounds good.”
As he chatted and got tangled up with the members like that, they safely finished filming the music video and concept video.
He seemed to be gradually adapting even to the grueling schedule. They say humans are animals of adaptation.
Time passed like that, and when it was getting dark, he checked his phone.
“Did the next episode come out?”
His secret hobby these days. Just the desire to see the ending since he’d started it once.
After opening Pandora’s box that shouldn’t have been opened, he was very curious about the continuation of that fanfic.
To be clear, there was no other impure intention.
As soon as he turned on his phone screen, a notification window popped up. But the moment he checked the text that appeared in the preview, Doha’s fingers stiffened rigidly.
Die
Two short and intense characters. Wondering if he’d seen wrong, he rubbed his eyes and checked again, but the letters didn’t disappear. Doha opened the message box as if entranced. At that moment, a feast of text filling the screen stabbed at his vision.
Die die die die
Know your place
I’m going to kill you
Disappear please
Watch your back at night before I really stab you
I’m going to gouge out your eyes
Endless curses and threats. With each scroll down, chilling murderous intent dripped heavily. His breath caught in his throat.
The bloody box that had been placed in front of the dorm last time came to mind, making his stomach churn. But what made Doha truly terrified wasn’t the content.
Lim Sehyun I’ll make you fall into hell
“……Lim Sehyun?”
Doha muttered the name blankly. Instantly, his mind spun rapidly. Why would texts cursing Lim Sehyun come to this phone? Was it sent by mistake? Or did they get the number wrong?
Only then did Doha check the phone in his hand again. The edge of the screen protector was slightly cracked.
This wasn’t Doha’s.
Similar model, similar case. Among the belongings mixed together frantically during filming, he’d mistaken it for his own and picked up Sehyun’s.
‘……All of this, came to Lim Sehyun?’
Doha raised his head and looked ahead in the distance. Sehyun was surrounded by staff, shaking his wet hair and smiling brightly.
“Who on earth would do such a thing……”
He scrolled up. The threatening texts hadn’t just come today. For several days steadily, words close to curses had been endlessly pouring in.
This isn’t just a day or two.
His spine chilling wasn’t because of the sea breeze. Murderous intent pouring out most viciously from the closest place. That’s what made him shudder.
He couldn’t believe that while carrying that in his pocket, he could laugh and chat so nonchalantly like that.
Doha bit his lip hard. It felt cruel to approach Sehyun who was laughing over there and say, ‘Hey, you got a text telling you to die.’
But he couldn’t pretend not to know either. The content was too specific and dangerous.
There was even a post with an address written.
I wish you’d drown in that sea and die
They even seemed to know where he was right now.
“I think I need to report this to the police……”
Doha looked around searching for Cheolhwan. He felt like he needed to tell him at least.
No matter how brave this guy is, how can he hide something like this?
He could see Cheolhwan in the distance. Just as Doha was about to get up from his seat.
“Why are you looking at someone else’s phone so seriously?”
Sehyun, who had been with the staff just moments ago, had somehow approached right in front of him and took his phone.
“Why’s your expression like that? Like you’ve seen a ghost.”
The phone was in Sehyun’s hand. The screen he couldn’t turn off was reflected in Sehyun’s eyes.
Doha thought Sehyun would be very surprised.
“……Ah, what timing.”
Sehyun was expressionless. No, rather he was dry like someone who had checked annoying spam texts. He swiped down the screen a few times with his thumb, then let out a scoffing laugh.
“The devotion is admirable. Doesn’t their thumb hurt?”
“Are you okay? That, since when……”
Doha stammered as he opened his mouth.
“You’re not surprised? Can’t you see the content?”
“I can see it. Telling me to die.”
“But why’s your reaction like that! Shouldn’t you report it?”
Doha shouted in frustration. Rather, the one who was angry was Doha. But Sehyun, as if it was nothing, deleted the messages with familiar hand movements and pressed the block button.
“Even if I report it, it’ll be a burner phone. I could catch them if I tried, but it takes time and is annoying.”
“Annoying, you right now……!”
“And it’s not like this is the first or second time.”
Sehyun turned off the screen and shoved the phone into his pocket.
“Don’t worry about it. Just think of it as a dog barking.”
“How can I not worry? When the content is like that.”
“If they really wanted to kill me, they would’ve come with a knife instead of a text.”
“How can you say such things so calmly? Has your liver really come out of your stomach?”
“If your liver comes out of your stomach, you die……”
“I’m not trying to joke around.”
He looked at Doha’s stiff expression, then smiled and patted his shoulder.
“It feels good that hyung is worried about me.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Wow, that hurts.”
The guy who didn’t bat an eye at threatening messages telling him to die gets hurt by just this kind of talk? At least lick your lips before lying.
“But seriously, it’s not a big deal. They’re just upset because I’m doing well. Malicious comments are better than indifference, right?”
Sehyun’s logic was far-fetched.
“Let’s go. To eat raw fish. Yunbeom hyung already looks like he’s going to clean out the whole sushi restaurant.”
Sehyun pushed Doha’s back and moved his steps as if nothing had happened.
“Hey! Baek Doha, Lim Sehyun! Aren’t you coming quickly? The flounder’s all dying!”
Yunbeom’s shout echoed across the beach.
Even while following Sehyun’s steps, he couldn’t help feeling uneasy the whole time.
* * *
Doha, who returned to the dorm, half-showered and holed up in his room. Lying face down on the bed, strength entered the hand gripping his phone. He consecutively entered fierce words like ‘threat crime,’ ‘murder threat,’ ‘text stalking’ into the search bar.
“……Can I make them eat prison food?”
That Lim Sehyun guy said it was a burner phone so it wouldn’t be easy to catch, but you shouldn’t underestimate the Republic of Korea police’s cyber investigation capabilities.
He had to catch them somehow and teach them a lesson. Doha scrolled down the Knowledge Talk-Talk page with a determined face.
[Question: I keep receiving threatening texts saying they’ll kill me. Can I sue?]
Answer: This can constitute a violation of the Information and Communications Network Act and criminal threat charges. If the content is specific and repetitive, it can also be punished under the Stalking Punishment Act……
Right, this is it. Doha nodded and carefully read the content. How many years in prison, how much fine. Just looking at the words seemed to cool his insides a bit. But the more he scrolled, the more the abyss of the internet world began to reveal itself.
[Question: Urgent ㅠㅠ My friend says they’ll kill me.]
Content: Today my friend texted ‘You’re dead today’ because I ate two sausages from the school lunch, can I send them to jail for threat charges? I’m only in 6th grade, should I write a will? 100 internal points search.
Answer: [Adoption King] Seems like reconciliation is possible if you give one more sausage.
“……Ha.”
Doha held his forehead. How serious am I right now, and these elementary schoolers are intruding. Still, he stubbornly clicked the next post.
[Question: I texted that I can kill people with telekinesis.]
Content: Actually, I’m raising a dark black flame dragon…… In anger, I texted my ex-girlfriend that I’ll curse and kill you with my darkness. My ex says she’ll report me to the police, will I get arrested? In this case, is it threat charges?
Answer: [Passerby] I think you should go to a hospital before the police station. Wishing you a speedy recovery.
“……What are these crazy people?”
Why are there so many crazy people in the world?
With his serious concern post mixed among these absurd posts, somehow even those horrible texts Lim Sehyun received felt like they weren’t a big deal, just pranks.
