“Now, with this we conclude all filming for the 3-month epic journey, <Battle Crown>. The brilliant flight of the five teams who laughed and cried together starts from now on!”
Yungyeom waved his hand toward the camera.
“Thank you to everyone who watched! This has been MC Seo Yungyeom.”
The ending signal music rang out loudly. The members waved their hands toward the camera one last time. Brightly smiling faces, faces filled with regret, faces feeling both refreshed and wistful. It was an ending where countless emotions crossed.
“Good work, everyone!”
With the PD’s shout, the camera’s red light went off. Only then did the tightly pulled string of tension snap.
“Oof, my legs……”
“Good work, good work!”
Staff members rushed onto the stage and began organizing equipment. The studio, freed from the magic of broadcasting, instantly returned to reality. Bustling noise and the smell of dust, and people’s heat.
“Sunbae-nim, congratulations!”
“Ah, thank you. You guys did really well too.”
The stage was chaos as the participating teams exchanged greetings with each other. Crash was busy taking commemorative photos holding the trophy. The D.N.X members glanced toward OnX, then descended from the stage with sour expressions after giving a perfunctory bow. Unpleasant bastards to the end.
“Phew, I finally feel relaxed. My insides feel refreshed.”
Yunbeom said while stretching. The members were busy greeting people constantly passing by.
“It was so tiresome.”
“It’s a shame.”
Unlike Eden who seemed relieved, Haram looked somewhat sad.
“Disappointed we didn’t get first place?”
“Of course…… After all that hard work.”
“What does ranking matter.”
OnX regrettably ended up in second place. Everyone felt liberated but couldn’t help the disappointment somewhere inside. Doha felt the same.
‘What a waste.’
Clearly this kind of program was something he’d been reluctantly dragged into, but at some point when did he become so sincere about this role-playing? Strangely, he felt frustrated and deeply regretful.
This really is losing my initial resolve.
“I’m sorry, everyone. I boasted about winning.”
Sehyun said to the members. At his words, the members exchanged glances with each other and tilted their heads.
“What are you sorry for?”
Yunbeom crossed his arms listlessly and answered. As if it was ridiculous.
“And honestly, our song was better.”
Yunbeom’s voice, buried in the commotion, reached only the members’ ears. Everyone burst into laughter.
“Your confidence, really.”
Like that, the members quickly shook off their disappointment. Actually, they didn’t have time to be disappointed. After this broadcast ended, there was a mountain of things to do.
It was a tight schedule where they had to release a new album timed with the final broadcast day.
“Let’s finish greetings and leave right away.”
“Mmm.”
It was a bit scary how he was now meekly adapting even to this ruthless hectic schedule.
He’d thought they’d completely reverse the situation with Battle Crown as the finale, but that direction felt a bit different. I should quit, right? Can I…… quit?
When he heard D.N.X’s gossip, he got angry. When they didn’t get first place, he felt frustrated.
This, this, don’t tell me…… if you get attached it’s over!
Standing in the center of the studio still illuminated by brilliant lights and watching the members laughing pleasantly, his heart stirred.
Somehow it felt like a somewhat troublesome future was waiting for him.
“Good work. Doha-ssi.”
While his mind was complicated, Yungyeom approached and greeted him. Doha looked at him in surprise.
“Ah, you worked hard. Sunbae-nim.”
When he greeted him politely, Yungyeom showed his usual gentle smile.
“You seem to get stiffer every time we meet. Are you a robot?”
His tone teasing Doha’s reaction was affectionate.
“Ah…… I must have been nervous today.”
While the two were conversing like that, the members who’d been noisily joking around among themselves soon noticed Yungyeom too.
“You worked hard!”
“Yes, everyone worked hard. Congratulations on second place.”
The members bowed in greeting. Yungyeom made eye contact with each member and encouraged them.
“Sehyun-ssi worked hard too. You have a lot of abilities.”
“……You’re too kind.”
Sehyun replied stiffly. Yungyeom didn’t mind and shrugged his shoulders.
“Now that it’s over, rest a bit. Take care of yourself. Your face is half gone.”
“Yes. Please go home safely, sunbae-nim.”
Yungyeom made final eye contact with Doha.
“I’ll contact you.”
It meant he’d contact him for work, but saying it without the context made it sound somehow like they had deep personal ties.
Yungyeom waved to Doha and then moved to greet the production staff. Watching his retreating figure, Sehyun snorted softly.
“When is that project ending?”
“I haven’t even recorded yet.”
“Really dragging it out. Does he think you have all the time in the world?”
Sehyun showed a particularly prickly attitude toward Yungyeom. He’s not that kind of kid though.
For a moment, he was a bit surprised at himself for asserting that Sehyun wasn’t ‘that kind of person.’ He felt strange seeing himself act naturally as if he knew Lim Sehyun quite well.
“Let’s go.”
When Sehyun held out his hand, Doha found himself automatically placing his hand on top of it. Am I brainwashed? Why does my hand move on its own?
“Let’s go together!”
“Where are we doing our live broadcast? The dorm?”
The members crowded around Doha in a swarm. Sometimes he had such thoughts. Having these beings who move as one body nearby might be a bit reassuring.
It was strange. Is this like comradeship? Can you really get attached this terrifyingly just from working together? Dangerous. Really dangerous.
Like that, Battle Crown, which had both tormented Doha and forced him to rapidly adapt to idol life with tears, truly came to an end.
* * *
“Ugh, he’s heavy. Put some strength in your body!”
The celebration party scene in the living room was chaos. What started as lightly celebrating with drinks ended with members passing out completely drunk.
Doha was dragging the drunk and sleeping Yunbeom to his room.
“What kind of idol drinks themselves into unconsciousness?!”
How ridiculous that the person saying this was none other than Baek Doha. But anyway, Doha was picking up the drunk and sprawled members one by one and storing them in their rooms.
Do fans know that if you peel off one layer of the mask, the appearance in front of cameras completely disappears and these sloppy humans appear? No, they should never know.
After grunting and moving Yunbeom, next was Haram’s turn. In his drunk state, Haram was tightly hugging a bag of snacks and swaying his body left and right like a roly-poly toy. That kid’s not in his right mind either.
Doha walked over efficiently and slipped his hands between Haram’s arms. Soon Haram’s body was pulled up easily.
“Mm, ah, heng?”
Heng? Heng? Making sounds like ‘heng’. Did he cut off his tongue and eat it as a snack?
Doha clicked his tongue and dragged Haram along too. Doing this reminded him of the serial killer he’d seen in a detective drama before. Cleaning up the scene……
‘Am I drunk too?’
His habit of not particularly enjoying alcohol remained valid even after the possession. Thanks to that, he’d only sipped about one and a half cans of beer to match the mood, but this body seemed to not have much tolerance for alcohol either.
“Heng, why aren’t you sleeping?”
“I’ll sleep after I clean you guys up.”
Even if it was the dorm, he felt bad about just leaving these guys on the living room floor. What if they sleep wrong on the floor and get a stiff neck?
They have schedules as soon as they wake up! If even one person has a problem, the rest suffer twice as much!
“Ugh…… Doha hyung, you’re choking meee……”
Dragging his large body along, his clothes rode up and cut off his breath, making Haram’s face turn red. Realizing his mistake, when he let go of his arm, Haram crawled on all fours from there into his room.
“I’ll gooo.”
Watching Haram crawl away on all fours made his heart heavy. Yeah, that kid’s not normal either.
Just as he was catching his breath, Eden leisurely passed by. At least Eden was fortunate enough to be able to control his body.
“Sleep well. Hyung. You worked hard today.”
Eden waved while rubbing his drooping eyelids. Doha waved back at him. Cold sweat ran down. Doing this really makes it feel like I’m playing the leader role.
He’d safely sent three people to their rooms. Then what remains now is……
It was when Doha was wiping the sweat from his forehead and backing toward the direction of his room. When the sensor light in the hallway clicked off, a hand appeared from somewhere and suddenly grabbed and pulled Doha’s arm.
“Oh.”
With the suddenly transmitted force, Doha’s body swayed and tilted to the side.
In an instant, Doha was dragged into his room. Soft indirect lighting brightened his vision, and soon Sehyun’s face came into his view.
Click.
The door closed. And Doha was trapped between Sehyun’s arms while standing with his back to the door.
‘What’s this?’
He was bewildered since it happened so suddenly. It felt like he’d been hunted……
Doha glanced to the side. Both left and right were blocked by Sehyun’s solid arms.
“Uh.”
I’m trapped.
The power of one and a half cans of beer was enough to make his thoughts sluggish, but even with that, Doha was currently in a very dangerous situation.
He saw black eyes staring down at him intently from the front.
