“Okay, we’re starting recording. One, two, three!”
An idol manager’s duties are very extensive. From schedule management to pickup, meals, communication with broadcasting stations, on-site management, and so on. Though it includes even trivial chores that occur at filming sites, one cannot say their work is unimportant.
Even calling it a ‘manager experience,’ what could be shown would only be a very small part. Even so, Kwon Isoo personally coming to pick up an artist really felt strange.
Do Yeonjae looked up at the elevator number panel in the dorm with an unfamiliar feeling. They said Kwon Isoo would be waiting when he went to the parking lot.
From the moment he left the dorm, the filming of <My Favorite! Chemistry> had already begun. The PD-nim said it was a prologue so think of it comfortably, but he couldn’t help but be conscious of the camera filming him now and the mic attached to his clothes.
Today Do Yeonjae’s schedule was to get makeup done at the shop, go to the live clip filming studio to shoot a cover video, have a meal, and if he did a radio special DJ with Hayun hyung in the evening, that would be the end.
“Did you eat?”
As he made small talk with the staff who got on the elevator together, a ding sounded indicating they’d arrived.
Do Yeonjae, who entered the parking lot and looked around, soon found Kwon Isoo.
“Kwon Isoo.”
The voice calling his name came out awkwardly without him realizing it. Even seeing it with his own eyes, it was an unbelievable sight. Manager Kwon Isoo waiting for him in front of the company vehicle.
Even wearing a comfortable hoodie zip-up, he has such a celebrity aura.
When he approached Kwon Isoo in natural attire, what was visible was a face somehow full of dissatisfaction. Why does he have that expression again…
Kwon Isoo, who had been staring intently at Do Yeonjae, asked as if he’d been waiting. His tone as he spoke was quite cold.
“What did you do yesterday?”
“Yesterday?”
Yesterday… Do Yeonjae blinked his eyes several times while thinking and said.
“Nothing special happened.”
It wasn’t particularly busy. Ah, come to think of it, I haven’t sent horoscopes to Kwon Isoo since yesterday. Even on the day Gemini was in 1st place he failed, so thinking there was no more possibility, he hadn’t contacted him yesterday. The first filming was also right around the corner.
“But why—”
Just as Kwon Isoo, who frowned at Do Yeonjae’s answer, was about to say something, the PD spoke to the two.
“Now, you two, just a moment. Before full-scale recording, Yeonjae-ssi. We have one thing to check, right?”
“…Yes.”
Do Yeonjae lowered his eyebrows as if sensing the situation to come. He’d told PD-nim the result of the ‘thank you mission’ this morning.
PD-nim.. I’m sorry.
LOL
Ah Yeonjae-ssi it’s okay hehe It’s fun so it’s good rather
Looking at the reaction, it seemed they’d anticipated failure. The PD spoke with a face full of laughter.
“The mission to hear ‘thank you’ from Isoo-ssi via messenger before the first filming, I wonder if you succeeded?”
“What?”
As soon as the PD’s words ended, Kwon Isoo sharply turned his head. Seeing how much strength went into his eyes, it seemed he hadn’t expected it to be a mission at all.
Do Yeonjae deliberately ignored the glaring gaze from the side and answered.
“I tried my best in my own way, but it wasn’t easy.”
“Hey, Do Yeonjae. Look at me.”
“…Why.”
Then, unable to withstand the sharp gaze any longer, he looked up at Kwon Isoo. His pupils were boiling hotly, as if wondering what on earth he was thinking with his expression completely crumpled.
“Say it properly with your own mouth. It was a mission?”
Kwon Isoo’s jaw muscles bulged prominently as he asked back viciously as if chewing. The reddish energy around his eyes deepening somehow made him look angry too.
Heated Kwon Isoo couldn’t hide his seething breath and heaved his chest.
Why is he so pissed off?
Do Yeonjae’s hateful words saying he wanted to become close. He’d never believed those words from the start.
But recently, Do Yeonjae suddenly sent horoscopes.
There was a time when he’d been interested in that superstition. However, on the day Do Yeonjae left the practice room in an instant, the moment he defined their time together as a memory that was ‘disgusting and just that.’
‘Don’t act like a child, Kwon Isoo… I’m tired.’
From the day he showed a tired face telling him not to act like a kid, Kwon Isoo’s tastes changed quite a lot. Just one thing, he couldn’t get used to coffee that tasted like fucking terrible herbal medicine.
That’s why when he saw the horoscope Do Yeonjae sent out of the blue recently, Kwon Isoo recalled for the first time in a while that guy’s face smiling brightly in the practice room hallway. Do Yeonjae’s face from which he somehow couldn’t take his eyes off. The memory of forcing him to check horoscopes every week because he kept wanting to see it again was vivid.
It seems Do Yeonjae hasn’t completely forgotten that time either. Well, unless he’s an idiot, there’s no way he’d forget. But now, what. What does he want to do with me?
“…Ha.”
The doubt was brief. Kwon Isoo, who quickly caught on to Do Yeonjae’s intention, wore a fishy smile on his lips. It was Do Yeonjae who cut ties first, then after 4 years nonchalantly mentioned being close with him on the radio. The inner thoughts of such a thick-faced bastard were obvious.
Did he finally feel regretful about becoming distant from a successful friend? Since variety filming was starting anyway, he must have decided to stick close in earnest. So he’s trying to stimulate my emotions by selling these unsuccessful memories like this.
After figuring out his inner thoughts, it felt like his sharply honed nerves softened a bit. Yeah, well, if you’re going to flap your mouth saying you want to become close or whatever, you should at least show this much sincerity. You should have done this from the start, but you realized the situation too late, Do Yeonjae.
Even though he acted indifferent saying he didn’t believe in that stuff, Do Yeonjae kept contacting him consistently, which seemed like he was trying quite hard and was funny, but his mood wasn’t particularly bad. After receiving the Daesang with a NEOS song, the bastards who were being annoying around him were so shitty he wanted to kill them all, but he thought Do Yeonjae was tolerable enough.
The first messages from Do Yeonjae that came every day were quite welcome, so he went in and out of the message room several times.
Right. That effort was commendable, so I specially taught you driving, but fuck. Why did contact suddenly cut off?
Until then, he kept sending horoscopes in the morning time to be annoying, but today there was no contact even until lunch. Fuck, did he forget? It’s only been a few days and he forgets it.
If you want to stick close, you should do it properly. The first filming is literally tomorrow.
He waited thinking he’d send it in the afternoon, but no matter how much time passed, no new message appeared in the message room with Do Yeonjae. The mood that had been quite okay for several days plummeted in an instant. At the feeling of being suddenly abandoned, Kwon Isoo ground his molars. Could he be protesting because I taught him irritably during driving lessons?
No, how much did I get irritated?
[Why are you so impatient? If you’re dissatisfied about something, either talk about it refreshingly or if you suddenly ghost me, what am I supposed to do about it fuck]
Shit… After typing in anger and about to press the send button, Kwon Isoo, who roughly messed up his bangs, deleted all the messages. If he sent something this verbose, it seemed like he was the desperate one, which really hurt his pride. Since tomorrow was filming day anyway, he planned to properly confront him when they met. If you’re going to act like that, just don’t even think about sticking close.
But, fuck.
It was all a misunderstanding from the start. Every single thing without exception. Kwon Isoo heard something like the sound of something distantly crumbling deep in his heart.
“All those days of annoying me sending horoscopes or whatever, it was all because of a mission.”
It wasn’t that you wanted to contact me… Do Yeonjae calmly observed Kwon Isoo ruminating with an ominously hardened expression.
“Was it very annoying?”
“…”
Looking at Do Yeonjae asking in confusion, Kwon Isoo felt genuinely enraged.
As expected, there’s no way Do Yeonjae would be like that.
The expectations that had surged for several days crashed to the floor in an instant.
No, what expectations? Fuck, as if. He never had expectations from Do Yeonjae from the beginning.
Kwon Isoo, who clenched his fist until it could crumble, clicked his tongue and turned around.
“We’re late, so just get in quickly.”
“Oh okay…”
Do Yeonjae had no idea at all how the fact that his several days of consistent contact was because of a mission would feel to Kwon Isoo. That’s why Kwon Isoo’s cold back was only bewildering.
His emotional steps heavily echoed on the parking lot floor. Do Yeonjae bowed in greeting to the PD-nim who was somehow smiling faintly, then quickly followed Kwon Isoo to the car door. After briefly pondering which seat to take, he just got in the passenger seat. No matter how much it was a manager experience, they were friends before that… sitting in the back seat was a bit much.
The manager and filming staff would move separately in the staff vehicle, and only Kwon Isoo and himself got in this car.
Kwon Isoo tapped the navigation and departed without a word. Do Yeonjae, who was looking at the cameras installed throughout the vehicle, moistened his dry lips with his tongue and sneakily observed Kwon Isoo’s hardened face.
Even so… shouldn’t we exchange a few words of conversation? If it’s silent the entire time we’re moving, PD-nim will think it’s strange. Hmm. Do Yeonjae, who was thinking deeply, spoke in a friendly tone.
“Did you eat breakfast? I didn’t.”
“…”
“You really drive well. Who did you learn from?”
“…”
“…Kwon Isoo.”
Even when called by name several times, Kwon Isoo only watched the front with an irritable face. The veins on the back of his hand gripping the steering wheel were taut. As if he was thoroughly angry. Even in the midst of that, watching him skillfully turn the handle with one hand, Do Yeonjae opened his mouth.
Wow, I’m being blatantly ignored…
It had been really long since he experienced this. Do Yeonjae, who had been staring at Kwon Isoo, rolled his eyes as if pondering for a moment. Then.
“Isoo-ya.”
He carefully called his name.
At that moment, Kwon Isoo’s eyebrows flinched slightly.
