Seonwoo Jin always lay in a corner of the dorm or on the bottom bunk with an expressionless face, just receiving care from others, but surprisingly, when it came to taking care of someone, he knew how to be quite attentive. Under Seonwoo Jin’s care, Jion intermittently came to his senses and looked at Seonwoo Jin.
“Uh… when did you get here?”
“Just now.”
“Ugh… did you come to get me?”
Drunk Jion stared intently at Seonwoo Jin, who was taking care of him at the convenience store parasol chair with a handsome face like a male protagonist with the neighborhood friend setting in a romance drama. If it weren’t for the zombie-like movements of his neck snapping back stiffly, it would have looked quite picturesque from a distance. Thinking it was regrettable that he was drunk, Jion reached out and grabbed Seonwoo Jin’s chin.
“Our handsome Seonwoo Jin!”
There was a resonance in drunk Jion’s voice like a director bragging about opening a branch. Jion gripped Seonwoo Jin’s chin and barked at him.
“Seonwoo Jin! Our group’s future! Height! Center! Center! Uh, also, and what… Right! Face! Visual!”
“What the…”
Was pouring out compliments to others his drunk habit? Seonwoo Jin felt good from Jion’s complimentary barking. He had already been slightly doubting the sincerity of it since Jion usually praised his appearance excessively. But seeing him bark like this while drunk, all those excessive compliments must have been sincere after all. Seonwoo Jin smiled and propped his chin on his hand as he looked at Jion.
“But you know you’re really pretty too, right?”
“…I know. I know. But! You!”
Even though he was drunk and couldn’t even hold his neck up properly, Jion looked at Seonwoo Jin and spoke seriously.
“You, you’re my future. My hope. I only trust you, really.”
“…”
“If you betray me, huh? Meet a girl… huh? Say you’re leaving the group… I hate singing, I’ll act instead, then really…”
Drunk Jion, with memories of the past and emotions of the future mixed together, clenched his fist with an indignant face and let out words from deep inside. However, Seonwoo Jin, whose statements and actions that might become a parallel world or the future had been spoiled, didn’t think much of those words and laughed.
“What girl would I meet?”
“Show me your phone. Let me inspect it.”
But Jion, who had already been through this experience, didn’t believe Seonwoo Jin’s words. He demanded a phone inspection like an anxious girlfriend feeling insecure about her boyfriend who has many female friends. It was somewhat crossing the line, but Seonwoo Jin was someone with attachment issues who actually felt reassured by this kind of behavior.
“Look, look. Look all you want.”
While secretly overjoyed inside, he pretended otherwise and unlocked his fingerprint to hand over his phone to Jion. Not expecting him to hand it over so readily, Jion quickly focused his eyes and checked his SNS and messages. In the dark night, his eyes gleaming from the screen’s light as he checked for traces of women, Jion soon discovered something and furiously thrust the screen forward.
“Who’s this! Who is this person, at this hour, huh? Sending so many messages!”
However, Seonwoo Jin looked at the screen Jion held out and didn’t even snort.
“There is, such a person.”
“Who! Who!”
“Someone with a pretty face who sleeps with me every day, that kind of person exists.”
“What? Sleeps together every day? Hey!”
At Seonwoo Jin’s scoundrel playboy-like statement, Jion screamed in shock, then quickly pulled himself together and strained to read the conversation content.
“Should I sleep alone? Am I sleepy? Gasp, are you really sleeping with this girl… What about Jinyeong…?”
However, as Jion read the messages line by line from the bottom up, he soon discovered a familiar name in the sentences and belatedly checked the recipient’s name.
[Seong Jion]
“Ah.”
“You see it now? You suspicious maniac?”
“No, I thought since you said you sleep together every day…”
“I sleep with you, who else would I sleep with?”
“Right. Right. That’s right. Right. We do sleep together every day.”
Once the suspicion was cleared, the drunkenness he had been holding back with mental strength rushed in and his menacing energy subsided. Watching Jion suddenly lose his strength and nod with a gentle face, Seonwoo Jin chuckled and got up from his seat.
“Anyway, how cute. You’ve rested long enough. Now let’s go home and crash?”
“Yeah…”
When he turned his back, Jion casually grabbed onto Seonwoo Jin’s neck and clung to him. And for the remaining way to the dorm—during the 10-minute walk, Seonwoo Jin practiced the breathing technique he had learned from Jion by himself.
“Hoooooo…”
“…”
“Ooooooo…”
Whether it was because he was carrying the group’s future or because Jion was on his back, his shoulders felt heavy. Seonwoo Jin focused his mind on his neck and lower abdomen as he recalled all the tips Jion had told him.
So breathe long and low… with a feeling of rolling it inside… fill it up, hold it, long and steady…
“Ooooooo…”
Making a sound like a foghorn, Seonwoo Jin walked and walked along the night road while carrying Jion on his back.
That night, Jion dreamed of the ocean on Seonwoo Jin’s broad back.
Woong, woowoong, wooowoong. The sound of the sea you hear when you put your ear to a conch shell. The sound of whale cries heard from within the ocean. The sound of a foghorn heard from afar. Whose voice could it be? When he fell asleep and woke up as if submerged in deep water to the familiar yet heart-touching comfortable and gentle sound, only Jion was lying alone in the familiar bottom bunk.
“…Woojin-ah?”
Jion fumbled and felt around but there was no warmth. The bed’s owner seemed to have been gone for a while.
How long did I sleep?
Thinking he must have overslept from drinking too much, Jion checked his phone. Contrary to his expectation, the time was 9 o’clock. Although he had woken up a bit later than usual, it wasn’t late enough to be called oversleeping. Jion yawned and left the room.
“You’re up?”
“On-i hyung, hi.”
Ryu Geon and Eungi, who had already finished breakfast, greeted Jion.
“Yeah. Where are the other guys?”
“Jinyeong came in at dawn so he’s still sleeping, and Woojin went out early in the morning to practice. Has it been about 2 hours? Or 3 hours?”
“Practice?”
Jion was shocked at the unexpected answer. Seonwoo Jin, who would usually just barely fill the time and go home if Jion wasn’t holding onto him even on days with official practice, voluntarily practicing on a day off? Seeing Jion’s eyes widen like a rabbit’s, Ryu Geon laughed.
“We were surprised too. But he said he wants to practice a bit more since we have recording tomorrow.”
“Won’t he push himself too hard and have no voice tomorrow?”
Unless he figures out how to produce sound properly on his own, just practicing blindly will only strain his voice. Worried that he might hurt his voice practicing without know-how, Jion was concerned about Seonwoo Jin’s clumsy passion.
“I should call him.”
When he dialed the number, Seonwoo Jin answered right away.
—Yeah, Jion-ah.
“What, you went to practice from early morning. You should’ve waited and gone with me.”
—Ah, you drank yesterday. Get plenty of rest. Do you have a hangover?
“Yeah, my head hurts a bit…”
—I asked Geon hyung to make you some soup that’s good for hangovers. Eat and rest.
“Should I come to the practice room after lunch?”
—No.
The voice of Seonwoo Jin laughing as he declined Jion’s suggestion was clear. As expected, saying he’s practicing must be an excuse and he must be out playing. Right, he’s been careful about his behavior recently and held back for a long time. Jion nodded.
“Okay, then. Since we have recording tomorrow, don’t push yourself too hard.”
—Yeah. You rest well for today too.
“Come home early.”
After throwing out a slight warning comment so he wouldn’t have too much fun, Jion hung up.
“What’d he say?”
“Yeah, he says he’s practicing. He says he wants to practice alone, so I said okay.”
“Our Woojin is working hard. We should work hard too.”
Not wanting to disappoint the admiring Ryu Geon, Jion awkwardly smiled and nodded.
“…Right.”
Didn’t they say the basics of married life are letting go of expectations for your partner? Once Jion let go of his expectations for Seonwoo Jin’s vocals, his heart became so peaceful.
Anyway, if you think about it carefully, it wasn’t just Seonwoo Jin—Eungi and Ryu Geon also had to have their voices refined through post-production. If you can’t use a whole phrase as is, another method is to have them sing about a hundred and fifty times and patch together sound by sound. Either way, as long as the complete song comes out, that’s all that matters.
Having let go like that, Jion decided to enjoy his rare rest like the other members.
“Eungi-ya. Shall we go to the laundromat?”
“Huh?”
“I think we’ll get busy once we make our comeback, so let’s wash all the bedding from the dorm.”
“Hmm…”
Eungi, who had been playing with his game console for a while, thought for a moment. Based on his past experience, it didn’t seem like they would be so busy that they wouldn’t even have time to wash bedding just because they made a comeback.
But just in case, really maybe, although it’s unlikely, you never know about this time, so if they really do get busy, they might not have time to wash bedding.
“Sounds good!”
“Okay, then…”
Jion smiled wickedly.
“Let’s go snatch the bedding Lee Jinyeong is covering himself with, and wake up Lee Jinyeong too.”
* * *
“Ah, you devil, I came home on the first train.”
“Who told you to come home on the first train?”
He thought he only needed to keep tabs on Seonwoo Jin, but there was an unexpected obstacle. Glaring at the bedding spinning round and round inside the washing machine, Jion scolded Jinyeong.
“Where did you go for round two yesterday? Did you go to a bar? You didn’t go to some weird bar, did you? Somewhere with table-sharing, huh? A club or something?”
“What are you talking about? We just drank so wholesomely.”
Holding the ion drink Eungi bought for him, Jinyeong protested his innocence, claiming he was wronged.
“We bought drinks at a convenience store and went to Hyundae hyung’s studio to drink. While listening to music, huh? Wholesomely! Artistically!”
“Really?”
“Of course. Hey. Think about Hyundae hyung’s personality.”
“Mm.”
Jion fell into thought for a moment. Even if he were a woman, he would show interest in the table where Jinyeong was, but seeing Hyundae sitting next to him, his interest would disappear.
Not because Hyundae was ugly, but you could feel that subtle inferiority complex peculiar to men in arts and sports who haven’t made it yet, an antisocial air, something like that. Considering he was never in the news for woman problems even after becoming a famous composer later on, he might originally be a clean person in that regard.
Well, since he was at a level close to an ordinary person as a nobody idol, he had no personal connection to that famous composer, so he couldn’t know about his private life. Still, just looking at the public facts, Contemporary wouldn’t be someone to embarrass his works with foolish behavior.
“Still, drink in moderation.”
“I know, I know. Anyway, you two are exactly the same with your nagging.”
“Did Geon hyung nag you too?”
“No. Your roommate, no, bed mate.”
“What’s with ‘bed mate’ again.”
Jion laughed, realizing Jinyeong was talking about Seonwoo Jin. However, Jinyeong looked fed up.
“Yesterday he came to get you and then kept going on and on at me about making you drink so much…”
“Yesterday?”
“Yeah, you don’t remember?”
