While Onseol was giving his acceptance speech, Ma Doun and Seon Hobeom standing beside him couldn’t control their emotions and were busy wiping away tears, and while Park Eden at least waved his hands, his face looked like he would cry if you poked him.
[…I’m also so grateful to my beloved family.]
Onseol’s voice also trembled slightly, as if he was choked up toward the end.
[Our maknae should say something too.]
After speaking, Onseol looked around for a moment and passed the closing remarks to Ka Jerim, who seemed the most normal. Ka Jerim, who had been keeping his place with an expressionless face until now, seemed the least shaken among them.
Seeing Ka Jerim receive the microphone calmly without any disturbance, Kang Juno and Go Yoon expected Cha Hohyeon, who always spoke clearly and articulately. However.
[…Uh, I…]
At Ka Jerim’s following remarks, both their expressions instantly stiffened.
Ka Jerim just kept saying “uh” and created dead air, then tears dripped down as he didn’t know what to do. Seeing that, Kang Juno and Go Yoon were so surprised they had no choice but to jump up from their seats once again.
[Uh, …uh.]
Ka Jerim also couldn’t hide his bewilderment at himself crying, holding the microphone in one hand and fumbling with the other hand as if trying to wipe the flowing tears.
[—Yes. That’s all. Congratulations on Abyss’s first win. Next week we…]
Eventually, due to time constraints, the MCs wrapped up the situation, but Kang Juno and Go Yoon persistently stared at Ka Jerim.
They watched like a faithful wife turned to stone until the broadcast ended—Ka Jerim being hidden deeply among the members, sobbing while being held by members on the encore stage unable to control his emotions.
Thud.
When the broadcast ended and a commercial came on, Kang Juno sat back down.
“……”
“……”
Despite having been shouting about getting first place just moments ago, silence arrived. The two stared meaninglessly at the flowing commercials with thoughtful faces, as if recalling something.
“Hey.”
Kang Juno, who had been lost in thought for a moment, called Go Yoon, who was still sitting still, as if he had finished thinking first. Go Yoon looked at him at Kang Juno’s call, and Kang Juno said something out of the blue.
“Even thinking about it now, it’s so absurd—how did you steadfastly sing the encore song without crying back then?”
To a third party who knew nothing, it was a really random thing to say. But nevertheless, Go Yoon seemed to immediately understand what Kang Juno was trying to say and answered obediently while scolding him, “You’re bringing that up in this situation?”
“You guys didn’t sing, so I sang. Who else would sing?”
The two recalled Fort’s first win moment simultaneously while watching Abyss’s first win acceptance speech.
It had been so long that they had briefly forgotten, but seeing Ka Jerim crying among the members like that, it came back vividly as if it were yesterday, and both were briefly lost in reminiscence.
“We all cried back then, but only you, Go Yoon, were fine and the broadcast kept going, so there were even rumors about you being a mannequin.”
“Was there?”
The voices that had been filling the silence with giggles soon faded away. And Go Yoon and Kang Juno, who had been wearing faint smiles until just now, were no longer smiling.
Go Yoon was watching TV with a complex expression, and Kang Juno irritably glared at the noisy TV before quickly turning it off and cursing under his breath.
“I’m so happy and glad they got first place, really glad, but why am I… so jealous?”
It was a good day.
For 4 weeks, Abyss struggled to climb up from the very bottom of the charts, making their presence known bit by bit, and Kang Juno and Go Yoon had truly desperately hoped Abyss would get first place.
But actually seeing them get first place was annoying. Kang Juno pressed his forehead, saying he couldn’t understand himself at all.
“Me too. I feel empty.”
What came to them was emptiness and jealousy. Because there would never again be an award that Fort received together with Cha Hohyeon.
“Wasn’t comforting Cha Hohyeon when he was overwhelmed and choked up after getting first place something only we could do?”
At those words, Go Yoon didn’t say much else and just sighed, then stood up from his seat and led Kang Juno out, saying,
“Now it’s Abyss and Jerim. Let’s go. Hamoon-hyung and Robi are waiting.”
* * *
After getting first place, as soon as they arrived at the waiting room, they did a V Live with fans while covered in tears.
Fans who had been running with them since their debut cried together watching the crying members and kept commenting saying let’s be happy now. The engagement was the best among all the broadcasts they’d done so far.
The day passed by so quickly that all the Abyss members couldn’t believe if this was reality or a dream. Even though they kept getting contacted by family and received calls from all sorts of acquaintances, they still couldn’t believe it and smiled throughout as if walking on clouds from pure joy.
“This is hard.”
Normally they should have an after-party, but since no one had expected them to win today, they had to handle schedules that had already been booked.
“I’m dying, I’m dying.”
“Ugh.”
Eventually, before the members could fully enjoy the joy of first place, they were dragged around to finish their schedules and as soon as they came back to the dorm, they sprawled out groaning. And Director Gye, who had been watching the members pitifully, also seemed quite exhausted from continuously taking the members around and waved his hands wearily with a tired face.
“We’re done for now. You have to sleep for three hours and then go back to the shop…”
“Please, I just want to stay home.”
Seon Hobeom said pleadingly while rubbing his face on the sofa.
But as rookies, rather than having an empty schedule, they needed to show their faces as much as possible even for small appearance fees or on unknown broadcasts.
“Jerim-ah, are you okay?”
“I feel nauseous.”
Ka Jerim, who hadn’t slept properly in the car, looked pale as if about to vomit, as if he had severe motion sickness. Beside him, Park Eden slipped his hand under the deeply bowed Ka Jerim’s head with a pitiful face to relieve the weight, saying,
“That posture hurts your neck. I’ll also look into herbal medicine that’s good for motion sickness.”
“It’s okay.”
Ka Jerim spoke firmly, which was rare, but Park Eden laughed “hehe” and said affectionately,
“Why are you being like that over something like this?”
“I really don’t need to take it.”
“Let’s try taking it for about a month first, then increase it.”
Knowing it was a good intention, Ka Jerim couldn’t properly refuse and couldn’t give a firm refusal, so seeing Ka Jerim’s teary face, Park Eden playfully ruffled his hair with a dad laugh.
“I’m joking. Go sleep quickly.”
“Yes. Hyung should sleep too.”
“Mm. I have things to do.”
“Aren’t you tired?”
“I slept a lot in the car, so I’m fine. It looks like Seol already crashed.”
Since Onseol was the leader, he led most of the interviews on broadcasts. But no matter how good Onseol’s stamina was, even he had gone into his room to catch up on sleep in a completely exhausted state today.
“See you in three hours.”
“Yes. You too, hyung.”
Ka Jerim, who parted with Park Eden while lightly waving hands, also entered his room. He dragged his barely moving body to barely look in the mirror, and his face was full of fatigue.
“Let’s do this.”
After changing into comfortable clothes, Ka Jerim lay down on the bed and blinked blankly. He thought he would fall asleep as soon as he lay down because he was so tired, but now that he was told to sleep with the mat laid out for him, even though his eyes closed slowly, sleep didn’t come easily.
Ka Jerim, who had been tossing and turning, eventually gave up on sleeping and picked up his phone.
Just looking at the KakaoTalk previews, there were many congratulatory messages. It was somehow amazing that even though it hadn’t been long since he entered this body, he had already built this many connections.
<Juno sunbae-nim(6)>
“Why did he send so many?”
But what Ka Jerim checked first was Kang Juno’s messenger, which was at the very top with many notifications.
<Juno sunbae-nim> – [(Photo)] >
[Voting proof shot #1121] >
[(Photo)] >
[Go Yoon’s back waiting for your turn] >
[Killing point, Go Yoon’s messy hair] >
Ka Jerim burst into laughter seeing the photo taken of Go Yoon’s back, who had slightly sticking-up hair and was concentrating on the TV without noticing that hair. And when Ka Jerim pressed the next chat window, he paused.
[Congrats on 1st place ㅋ I knew you’d do it.] >
“What. I didn’t think hyung would say something like this…”
Ka Jerim felt somehow shy and embarrassed, agonizing for a while over what to send before barely managing to send a reply.
< [ㅠㅠㅠ Thank you for voting]
< [(Emoticon of a rabbit sending hearts)]
< [By the way, Yoon-hyung’s hair ㅋㅋㅋㅠㅠ]
After sending a reply to Kang Juno, Ka Jerim also replied with greetings to the producers who had sent congratulatory messages.
Of course, while receiving contact from all sorts of people, seeing no contact from Ka Jerim’s parents made him wonder what kind of people they were, but he soon forgot about it while tilting his head at the message that came from Go Yoon.
<Yoon-hyung> – [We also a lot.] >
“Huh?”
What does this mean? We also?
With just that message sitting there alone with no other words, Ka Jerim stared at the text with a puzzled face, then asked what it meant.
< [Huh? What do you mean?]
Go Yoon hadn’t checked the message.
“What could it mean?”
As if something came to mind in Ka Jerim’s head as he pondered for a moment, he opened his mouth and went “Ah,” and just then the 1 disappeared as if Go Yoon had read Ka Jerim’s message.
“No way. No way!”
After hastily exiting the chat window, Ka Jerim threw his phone far onto the bed as if tossing it. And he jumped up from his seat and kept muttering “What do I do!” then had a fit at the buzzing message notification sound.
[??] >
Seeing the screen that appeared as a preview, Ka Jerim pondered how to reply before eventually flipping his phone over.
