At the thunderous roar from behind him, Jion was startled and turned around. There stood Seonwoo Jin walking toward him with a frightening expression.
“Jion!”
“Woojin!”
Seeing Jion happily call his name, Seonwoo Jin clenched his fist tightly. His purity was already burning at the sight of Jion acting like a pure, pitiful, delicate junior idol while drawing out even the strength he’d used while nursing. Unable to contain his anger, Seonwoo Jin approached with stomping steps and grabbed the wrist of Park Homin, who had grabbed Jion by the collar.
“Let go.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“I’m a member of the same group. Let go of that hand. What do you think you’re doing right now?”
“Ha, they say anyone and everyone does idol work these days, why are there so many nobodies?”
Dog Homin sneered, seemingly unaware that compared to Seonwoo Jin, he was the one who looked like a dog or cow. However, Seonwoo Jin was not fazed by words like “nobody” that Cow Homin brought up to scratch at his pride. He was entirely focused on rescuing Jion, who was being bullied by Park Dogcow, and had no time to be surprised that a beast was speaking human words. Seonwoo Jin grew stern and shouted at Park Homin.
“If you’re a senior, act like one. What are you doing grabbing a junior by the collar in the broadcasting station hallway?”
Park Homin was also 183cm on his profile, but that was his height including insoles. In front of the physique of Seonwoo Jin, who was an honest 185cm, Park Homin’s inferiority complex sensor activated, but instead of obediently letting go of Jion and apologizing, he twisted things maliciously.
“No, fuck, you juniors should act like juniors. You bump into a senior’s shoulder and just carelessly throw out an apology and pass by and that’s it? Anyway, kids these days have no manners.”
“Even so, I don’t think a senior who grabs someone by the collar in front of everyone has the courtesy to talk about manners.”
“What? This bastard!”
While Park Homin, who had nothing to say, flapped about and just yelled loudly, Seonwoo Jin, who lowered his voice while arguing right and wrong with Park Homin, radiated charisma. Jion forgot even the discomfort of his tightly squeezed throat and stared blankly at Seonwoo Jin, who had stepped up for him. Where did the usual whiny, clingy attachment-deficient person go, showing such a reliable appearance?
Was he always that handsome?
He had always said he was handsome, but an angry Seonwoo Jin looked 100 times more handsome than usual.
Is it because his eyebrows were drawn a bit darker today? When he saw him at the salon, he thought it was too dark for the refreshing concept, but seeing his features come to life so much more distinctly when his eyebrows went up in anger, he seemed even more handsome.
Moreover, the moment veins bulged in Seonwoo Jin’s forearm as he tried to pry Park Homin off, Jion felt something like an electric tingle running down his back.
“I said let go!”
“Argh!”
When Seonwoo Jin applied force to the hand gripping the wrist, Park Homin screamed and let go of Jion’s collar. Suddenly freed, Jion swayed backward, and Seonwoo Jin quickly released Park Homin and wrapped his arm around Jion’s waist, pulling him to his side.
“Are you okay?”
For a moment, with his face buried in Seonwoo Jin’s embrace, Jion smelled a cool and refreshing scent. It was the smell of Seonwoo Jin’s cologne.
A man’s smell.
The moment that word came to mind, Jion’s heart suddenly dropped with a thump and then started beating rapidly. It was also thrilling how Seonwoo Jin naturally moved him behind himself to protect him. Jion carefully placed his hand on those shoulders that stood reliably in front, leaning on them as if clinging.
Were his shoulders always this broad?
Beyond his shoulders, Seonwoo Jin’s neck had his Adam’s apple protruding prominently. The moment he saw that round outline, the voice of Seonwoo Jin angrily scolding Park Homin echoed in his head.
A handsome man who appears in a moment of crisis and saves you. A woman couldn’t help but fall for him, and a man… even a man… Jion’s heart pounded fiercely.
Huh? Why am I like this?
Jion was flustered by his suddenly quickened heartbeat. It wasn’t just his heart that became strange. Jion thought the fingers he’d placed on Seonwoo Jin’s shoulder felt too hot. Even the back of Seonwoo Jin’s neck, his hair cut short and looking stiff, seemed excessively sexy. And the hand that had just grabbed Park Homin’s dirty pig’s trotter—why did those knuckled joints look so rough and manly?
It couldn’t be that he was now entranced by Seonwoo Jin’s handsomeness…
While Jion tried to calm his pounding heart, he unconsciously subtly pressed his body against Seonwoo Jin’s back. Warm body heat, a firm body. Though it was the body of the same sex, it suddenly felt like a completely different living being. Jion gently placed his palm on Seonwoo Jin’s shoulder blade and leaned against his back.
“Are you okay?”
As Jion leaned on him, Seonwoo Jin reflexively stretched his hand back to embrace Jion while keeping his eyes on Park Homin standing in front. This was because Park Homin, who had been humiliated in front of everyone, wasn’t trying to back down.
“Hey! You bastards, really using violence?”
Peculiarly, Park Homin didn’t categorize grabbing someone else by the collar as violence. He rolled up his sleeves and waved his wrist with Seonwoo Jin’s handprint on it, shouting.
“Hey, fuck, I have to go on stage soon, what am I going to do about this? Huh?”
At the sound of Park Homin yelling and raging in the hallway, Jion could see the waiting room doors opening stealthily. Jion quickly pressed down on Seonwoo Jin’s back, bowed his head, and shouted loudly.
“We’re sorry, sunbae-nim! From now on, we’ll stick to the corners when walking down the hallway!”
It was a shout meant to be heard clearly in every waiting room. With this, Park Homin became ‘the person who abused his power by telling junior idols to walk in the corners of the hallway’ to those listening to the situation from inside the waiting rooms. But Park Homin didn’t even know what situation he was in, huffed alone, then turned sharply and went to Venom’s waiting room.
“Ah, really, what kind of person is that?”
And as soon as Park Homin left, people who had been watching from the side gathered around Jion. They were all young female staff members wearing ID badges around their necks. They had been unable to intervene during Park Homin’s rampage, but as soon as he disappeared, they rushed over to comfort Jion.
Especially among them, a woman wearing glasses with her hair tied back tightly felt very sorry for not stepping forward first to stop Park Homin and fixed Jion’s clothes.
“Oh my, what to do. You were shocked, right? That bastard Park Homin’s reputation has always been rock bottom. He’s a trash human being, so just think you stepped in shit. Okay?”
“Thank you for comforting me. I should have watched where I was going better.”
“No, you bumped into him and apologized. Your name is…”
She lowered her gaze to check the name tag hanging around Jion’s neck. Jion, who was still wearing the name tag from the camera rehearsal, slightly lifted it and smiled.
“I’m Jion from BNCZ! Please take care of us.”
“Oh my, yes, yes. BNCZ! I know you.”
As befitting someone working in the industry, she immediately recognized that the boy group starting to appear in her algorithm was BNCZ. And also that the tall, handsome man who had just charismatically subdued Park Homin and rescued his member was the “let’s go together” member who had been heating up various idol-related communities recently.
“You’re getting good reactions these days! Work hard. I’ll support you.”
“Thank you!”
Jion smiled brightly and bowed to each of the audience members who had witnessed the commotion, then dragged the sullen-faced Seonwoo Jin back to the waiting room. And he told the members in detail about what happened with Venom’s Park Homin and warned them.
“He’s famous for being petty and vindictive… so be careful not to run into him, and even if you do, just think he’s disgusting and avoid him, say hello and pass by. Got it?”
“Can’t we just beat him up somewhere without CCTV?”
Though Jinyeong said that half-seriously, half-jokingly, everyone roughly agreed. Except for Seonwoo Jin. Seonwoo Jin, who had a sullen expression since Park Homin ran away, was still dissatisfied that Jion had bowed and apologized to him.
“Why did you apologize to a bastard like that?”
“It’s okay. It’s right to just avoid him.”
Jion didn’t bother mentioning that he had sent his reputation to rock bottom while pretending to apologize, and coaxed Seonwoo Jin.
Originally in Korean society, no matter how correct the words or actions were, if a junior, weak person, or younger person strongly protested to a senior, strong person, or older person, they would be cursed at for being ‘right in words but talking back sharply to an adult and being impudent.’ Rather than getting entangled with such a person and hearing that ‘those BNCZ kids have quite the attitude,’ it was better to just endure once.
And if Jion’s memory was correct, Park Homin would soon be arrested as a drunk driving offender and then test positive in a drug test, leading to his expulsion from the entertainment industry.
“…Anyway, that bastard will hit rock bottom soon.”
“Hm?”
“Nothing, never mind.”
Jion shook his head with a smile. Right now, it was more important to focus on today’s stage. Jion slightly leaned his head on Seonwoo Jin’s shoulder.
“…And thank you for today.”
At the attitude mixed with subtle aegyo, it was now Seonwoo Jin’s heart’s turn to flutter. Seonwoo Jin subtly wrapped his arm around Jion’s shoulder and pulled him toward himself.
“So from now on, don’t go anywhere alone…”
“Okay.”
“If you go around with me, things like this won’t happen…”
“I know.”
“Next time, let’s go to the bathroom together too.”
“Ah, that’s a bit much.”
And BNCZ’s second music show also received good reactions. People who had been entranced by Seonwoo Jin’s beauty during the first music show and waited for Seonwoo Jin’s close-up shots for the entire 3 minutes and 20 seconds now had enough leisure to pay attention to the handsome faces appearing in line besides Seonwoo Jin.
Especially, the one getting good reactions after Seonwoo Jin was Eungi, who had the killing part, and it was largely thanks to people who became interested in BNCZ after the first music show becoming familiar with and feeling affection for Eungi’s vlogs and selfies uploaded several times a day.
Berry who loves Eungi @berry_homin
Eungi you’re my baby
Frozen until midterms @cinamonmon
Who put those pants on Eungi I’m grateful to death
If you hoha I’ll cry @def_del_dede
I liked younger men
At the attention gradually spreading to other members, Ryu Geon and Jinyeong also began to be stimulated. They subtly lingered in front of Eungi’s camera or tried to secure their screen time next to Eungi while he was editing. It was difficult to maintain composure with the music chart rankings rising steeply day by day.
“Finally 98th place!”
Before the last music broadcast, the agency was very happy about the achievement of ranking within the top 100. Though not confirmed yet, they said casting requests for YouTube variety shows were coming in. At this point, there was an event that had to occur for an idol group. Jion confidently extended his hand to the CEO on behalf of the members.
“Please give us the corporate card.”
It was time for a company dinner!
