At Jion’s sudden remark, Seonwoo Jin’s brain stopped.
“……What are you talking about?”
Seonwoo Jin rarely showed Jion a stern face. The mood had been good just moments ago, but there’s a limit to throwing cold water on things—what was he supposed to make of being hugged and supported all the way here only to be told to pretend yesterday never happened? Seonwoo Jin unconsciously raised his voice at Jion.
“How can we pretend what happened didn’t happen? No, and why?”
“Just sit down for a moment…….”
Jion saw Seonwoo Jin’s coldly hardened face and knew he was very angry. But Jion had already reached his own conclusion. Jion pulled Seonwoo Jin’s hand and they sat side by side on the bed. Though he was pulled along obediently, Seonwoo Jin’s expression was still serious. His face looked like he might burst out in anger at any moment.
“……Explain it so I can understand.”
Seonwoo Jin gritted his teeth and demanded an explanation.
“What do you mean by pretending yesterday didn’t happen? What, does what we did just disappear? Did you not like it?”
“No, that’s not what I mean…….”
“If that’s not what you mean, then what do you mean? How am I supposed to take those words?”
“…….”
When the cuteness that had been excessively sweet for two days suddenly turned vicious, Jion finally realized that the words he’d blurted out had seriously provoked Seonwoo Jin. But it couldn’t be helped. Jion pressed and stroked the back of Seonwoo Jin’s hand with his thumb to soothe him.
“First, I’m really sorry for upsetting you…….”
Basically, Seonwoo Jin tended to soften somewhat when his skin touched Jion’s. Jion mobilized all the Seonwoo Jin handling techniques he’d acquired to attempt calming down the excited Seonwoo Jin.
“Yesterday, that…… that thing we did…… we were kind of drunk too…… emotionally…… I think we got caught up in the atmosphere and made a mistake.”
No matter how much he tried to calm things down with a gentle voice, since the content was what it was, he couldn’t easily soothe Seonwoo Jin. Who wouldn’t be angry at being told it was a mistake made while drunk and caught up in the atmosphere? Jion braced himself, thinking Seonwoo Jin would get very angry.
“……A mistake.”
However, instead of suddenly getting angry or reacting violently as usual, Seonwoo Jin reconfirmed Jion’s words in a deeply lowered voice. Is he not as angry as I thought? Jion carefully placed his hand on Seonwoo Jin’s thigh.
“I thought about it carefully for a whole day. Is it okay for members of the same group to do this? We’re going to keep seeing each other’s faces…… promoting together…… doing all that…….”
“…….”
“As you know, Woojin, we’re one group, family, brothers, economic…… no, a community of shared destiny.”
Jion pulled out all sorts of flowery language to persuade Seonwoo Jin. And while Jion’s words might feel bad emotionally, thinking rationally, they weren’t something to get unconditionally angry about. At first, Seonwoo Jin had been angry as if the moment they first shared emotions and bodies was being denied, but his heart began to soften bit by bit at Jion’s words.
“Of course I don’t want to say this either.”
“…….”
“But we’re idols.”
Jion leaned against Seonwoo Jin’s arm and kneaded his hand while persuading him. In fact, rather than persuading with words, it would be more accurate to say he just melted him with a honey trap and acting cute, but in any case, Seonwoo Jin’s hardened expression relaxed at Jion’s words.
“We’re going to keep promoting together, living together…… I think it won’t be uncomfortable for us going forward if we clearly sort this out…….”
The words make too much sense. While receiving Jion’s stroking and listening to his words, Seonwoo Jin understood what Jion was trying to say but simultaneously didn’t understand.
So sleeping together while doing idol business together is uncomfortable, let’s pretend nothing happened, is that it…… But even though we like each other, is that a problem? We did everything and we both like each other, so we should just date, do we really have to treat what happened as if it didn’t happen?
Wait…….
Seonwoo Jin’s thoughts went in a different direction while trying to force himself to understand Jion’s incomprehensible words.
“……Do you dislike me?”
“Huh?”
Jion, who had been preoccupied with clinging to Seonwoo Jin and making him soft, made a stupid sound at Seonwoo Jin’s sudden question. However, Seonwoo Jin was falling into despair in real-time and didn’t even register Jion’s stupid voice.
“……Do you regret sleeping with me, dislike me…… and want to pretend it didn’t happen because you have no intention of dating me?”
“No, what are you…….”
Jion was shocked at Seonwoo Jin’s suddenly activated lack of self-esteem.
“How could I dislike you?”
How could I dislike someone who looks like you? Though he’d hated him to death before, Jion hurriedly soothed Seonwoo Jin as if his pre-regression memories were from a past life. However, Seonwoo Jin’s not-so-great brain worked exceptionally only at times like this, making all sorts of extreme delusions with his lacking imagination and trudging into a pit of sadness on his own.
“No, if we like each other, we should just date. Can’t we promote while dating? You said not to do anything with female celebrities, but you never said we can’t do it among ourselves.”
“Uh…….”
It’s nonsense, yet also logical. Jion was swayed by Seonwoo Jin’s random words and hesitated for a moment. Come to think of it, he’d said not to date female idols or cause scandals, but they hadn’t promised not to do anything among members.
……Is it okay to do it between same-sex people within the same group?
No, wait. Where are opposite-sex and same-sex in love?
Jion, who almost wavered for a moment, hurriedly regained his idol self. Scandals were something that shouldn’t happen even between members of the same group. When it’s not even okay in co-ed groups, a dating scandal within a same-sex group? It’s a double dating event within one group. Shocked, Jion grabbed Seonwoo Jin’s hand.
“Woojin-ah. Don’t you understand what I’ve been saying until now? We’re idols, I said.”
“What’s that…… Do idols not have feelings?”
“……What?”
Jion’s mind grew distant at Seonwoo Jin’s tearful words.
Ah, I never thought I’d hear these words from Seonwoo Jin’s mouth again.
“What, idols can’t even date? Idols are people too.”
Though unlike the brazenly confident attitude that remained at the edge of his memory, this time he was trembling his shoulders fragilely as if about to collapse into Jion’s arms while whimpering, Jion—having heard the exact same line from his trauma—had his mind sharply honed and fire entered his eyes.
“What are you saying, Woojin-ah…….”
What feelings do idols have? Idols aren’t people. Idols can’t date.
Jion desperately held back his desire to pour out inhuman remarks and reform Seonwoo Jin’s mindset. If he said such things, Seonwoo Jin might become rebellious like in the past and run out of the group saying he won’t be an idol then.
One mistake is enough. He’d come all this way carefully soothing, embracing, teaching, and leading Seonwoo Jin—he couldn’t ruin things now with a moment of anger. Jion calmed his heart while recalling the face of pre-regression Seonwoo Jin holding a press conference with his head held high, not even knowing to be sorry.
“How could I dislike you…… of course I like you…… but…….”
Jion took a deep breath and forced a smile. Setting his mindset to when conducting individual counseling after catching pubescent exam students who broke the absolute no-dating rule between students and were caught making out in the practice room, Jion turned Seonwoo Jin’s face to make eye contact with him.
“Woojin-ah. What situation are we in right now?”
“……I don’t know…….”
“We’ve only just gotten our faces known.”
Jion steeled his heart and met Woojin’s eyes. Just moments ago, just looking at his face made his heart beat strangely and he kept thinking about last night, his lower belly tickling, but after being hit with the PTSD button, Jion’s reason suddenly returned and he felt he could even control his own heart. Jion calmly explained their situation to Seonwoo Jin.
“Look. People have exactly one energy tank. From here they draw their strength and concentration to study, take lessons, practice…… So they take practical exams, take the college entrance exam…… They have to focus on just that one point, ‘college!’ and go, that’s what we have to do.”
“College?”
“No, that, that’s just an example. That, by our standards it would be, yeah, success. Success.”
Jion hurriedly shed his entrance exam instructor self and overlaid BNCZ settings onto his persuasion.
“Look at Geon-i hyung. We have to work hard promoting and get paid so we can move Geon-i hyung’s grandmother to a better place, and let hyung live comfortably without worrying about hospital bills.”
“…….”
“Other members have families. But Geon-i hyung only has his grandmother.”
“It’s not just Geon-i hyung…….”
“Let’s let our Geon-i hyung show some filial piety before his grandmother passes away. Okay?”
At Jion bringing up Ryu Geon’s grandmother, Seonwoo Jin was at a loss for words. To Seonwoo Jin whose spirit was broken, Jion drove in the wedge.
“Let’s focus our minds on the important things, the things we must do. I think that’s our group activities.”
