After letting out a deep sigh, Do Yeonjae decided to seek his hyungs’ opinions after much deliberation. Since it was pretty embarrassing, he’d beat around the bush appropriately.
“So… this absolutely isn’t about me, but a friend’s story. My friend said they think they made a careless slip of the tongue to someone.”
“Huh, what was it?”
“Tell us.”
Is it really okay to say this…. Do Yeonjae looked anxiously at the hyungs focusing on him before opening his mouth.
“What would you hyungs think if someone suddenly said they were your fan? And it was another guy.”
“……”
“……”
The RAYEON members except Do Yeonjae silently exchanged glances with each other.
It was the somewhat tactless Yeo Minsung who broke the silence.
“Ugh, not for me.”
Do Yeonjae’s hand resting on his thigh flinched and trembled. Such a direct negative evaluation.
“I see….”
His muttering voice had no strength at all. Yeo Minsung continued speaking while making a disgusted face as if the mere thought was unpleasant.
“Yeah, isn’t it kind of gross between guys? I don’t think I’d be very happy hearing it face-to-face either.”
“Why go that far. Isn’t that just because you don’t have male fans? You Yeo Min-bird.”
When Kang Ihyun delivered a killing blow, Yeo Minsung bristled.
“Ah, hyung. I told you not to call me that?”
“The fans use it for shipper purposes, don’t they? Honestly, even this hyung thinks it’s not really wrong.”
“Haah, yes. Hyung must be so thrilled to be ranked on the gay ideal type chart.”
“There’s such a thing?”
Gay ideal type chart? Do Yeonjae’s eyes widened. Then Yeo Minsung gave an evil smile.
“You’re ranked too. You’re even higher than that hyung… mmph,”
“Min, Minsung-ah. Eat this.”
It got blocked because Hayun shoved something in his mouth. Hayun broke out in a cold sweat while trying to divert Do Yeonjae’s attention elsewhere.
“Yeonjae-ya. About what you asked. Um…. In hyung’s opinion, I think you should consider how you feel when you see male fans.”
“Male fans?”
“Mm-hm. If some guy told you he was really your fan, that he likes you… how is it? How do you feel?”
Hayun’s face, asking carefully, turned a bit pale. Somehow he seemed more nervous than the person who brought up the question. Do Yeonjae, resting his chin in his hand nonchalantly, stared down at Hayun’s face.
“…It’s not particularly gross.”
And he picked up something from behind and held it out to his hyung.
“I’m just grateful. That they’re my fan.”
“……Ah.”
It was a lukewarm water bottle. Hayun blinked and looked at it. Why this… did he think there was food on it or something? Judging by how he was tapping his back with one hand while lost in thought, it seemed right.
“……”
A faint smile spread across Hayun’s clear face. A gentle voice flowed from his soft rose-pink lips.
“Then probably the person Yeonjae’s friend said they were a fan of… would feel the same way?”
Do Yeonjae narrowed his eyes. Really? Is that really true? The same as him… it didn’t seem like it would be. Not at all. Kwon Isoo being grateful because he said he was a fan? That absolutely wasn’t the face he made.
Baek Sian raised his eyebrows looking at the confused Do Yeonjae.
“Why worry so much about it? If your friend expressed it as a slip of the tongue to you, doesn’t that mean even they themselves are ambiguous about whether they’re a fan or not? Then the other person probably won’t really believe it either. Ah, they just said it out of politeness- they’d think.”
“Ah……”
Do Yeonjae’s expression brightened considerably. That seemed right. Even if he said such a thing, would Kwon Isoo actually believe it sincerely? He’d probably just think again ‘shamelessly flapping his tongue with that thick face…’ Right, that was it.
So let’s not worry about it anymore. Kwon Isoo must have forgotten all about it by now. It wasn’t like him to be distracted all day over such a trivial comment in the first place.
“Thank you, hyungs. My friend’s… mind will be at ease.”
“You’re welcome.”
The youngest normally didn’t talk much about his worries even when he had them. He’d solve things alone and only bring them up much later in a ‘this is what happened back then’ kind of way, which had been quite disappointing at times.
But to ask first like this, they were actually happy. The three members smiling at Do Yeonjae with pleased faces shared similar thoughts.
‘Yeonjae met Kwon Isoo and said he was a fan….’
‘Yeonjae did that….’
‘Why did he do that?’
Only Yeo Minsung blinked and urged Do Yeonjae on.
“So which friend of yours said it? Tell them not to do that in the future. It’s fucking hard to manage your expression on the receiving end.”
“Okay.”
Having finished his worries, Do Yeonjae nodded with his characteristically calm expression and then pointed at Yeo Minsung’s phone.
“Hyung, your girlfriend is calling.”
“Crazy, let me take this call!”
Yeo Minsung rushed out of the waiting room holding his phone. Left behind, Do Yeonjae split the disposable wooden chopsticks with an odd expression and tore off the spoon’s plastic wrapper. Considering the time to finish eating, brush his teeth, and get ready… five minutes.
He had to empty the bowl in five minutes.
Totally possible. As he busily moved his spoon and chopsticks, Baek Sian casually asked.
“But Yeonjae-ya, aren’t you going to get a girlfriend?”
“All of a sudden?”
“Why, lots of people like you.”
He said contacts always came in whenever they filmed challenges or passed by at the broadcast station. Though the person in question was busy rejecting them all and finding it annoying. Baek Sian stared intently at Do Yeonjae’s handsome and fine appearance. Even looking as another guy, he’s made in a way that would make women crazy excited….
But Do Yeonjae just answered in an unimpressed voice.
“I don’t even have enough time for vocal lessons.”
Then he focused on slurping down the kimchi stew. Baek Sian muttered in disbelief as he watched. Is that guy really going to marry singing…. Since he brought it up anyway, he should ask the other members too. Thinking that, he turned his head and suddenly paused.
“Huh? Hyung. Why are you grinning alone? Did something good happen?”
“Uh, huh? No. Something funny just came to mind…. I, I need to use the bathroom for a bit.”
Do Yeonjae, who had been demolishing the kimchi stew at a terrifying speed, suddenly looked up.
“Hyung, is your stomach okay?”
“Ah…. I’m fine, Yeonjae-ya. Actually I’m not having indigestion. Just… I’ll be right back.”
“Tell me right away if you’re not feeling well.”
Hayun left the waiting room with hurried steps. Do Yeonjae watched his retreating figure blankly before burying his face back in the disposable plastic container. Baek Sian twisted his mouth. He could have told me what was funny…. His gaze, wandering in search of dopamine, now turned toward Kang Ihyun.
But Kang Ihyun was also grinning away. What the heck is he doing? He stuck out his head to peek at the phone screen….
It was the paid communication app with the fan club RayIt.
RayIts, did you all eat dinner? What are you doing?
Me? I was craving beef tartare bibimbap so I ate that ~.~
Right now Yeonjae is eating kimchi stew lololol
Ah ah you’re sad you didn’t get into the fansign? ㅠ It’s okay I’ll go meet RayIts more and more from now on
Then we’ll definitely see each other someday, right?!
You want us to do a live later? Okay okay I’ll talk to the members about it hehe
Right?!…… Ugh. Baek Sian rubbed his goosebump-covered arms with a lukewarm expression. The leader hyung is definitely the best at loving fans but… as a fellow member, it was too hard to watch so he just turned his head away.
* * *
RAYEON’s 7th album second week activities continued smoothly.
Among them, the best news was that RAYEON had been taking home 1st place trophies on cable music shows for three consecutive days starting from Tuesday.
Thanks to their name being called multiple times at 1st place award ceremonies, members other than the leader could also hold the acceptance speech microphone. Including Do Yeonjae, who usually didn’t come forward at such occasions.
“RayIt, I sincerely thank you. I know how much effort RayIt put in for this trophy. This weight… I will never forget it. And thank you to my hyungs too. Meeting my hyungs, I think I’m truly happy.”
His weighty and sincere acceptance speech was enough to move the RAYEON members and RayIt.
Including SNS and overseas reactions, the momentum of this 7th album activities was very good. At this rate, they could even hope for a terrestrial broadcast trophy or so.
It would be difficult to get 1st place on all three terrestrial networks though…. Since it was performance-type music and showed weakness on the music charts, it would be difficult to collect trophies from all music shows.
Unlike their rookie days when they ignorantly hoped for miracles without knowing anything, now they could read the flow to some degree.
Most terrestrial music shows placed great weight on music chart scores. It was often useless to secure points here and there from album sales, video views, text voting, etc. For example, Choinkigayo, which aired on Sundays, reflected 55% of the music chart score in its 1st place criteria and was called the ‘male idol wall of tears.’ RAYEON had also never brought home a 1st place trophy from there since debut.
And probably this time would be the same.
