However, unlike the awkwardness and strange tension Jion was feeling, Seonwoo Jin acted as if nothing was wrong, burying his face in Jion’s nape and rubbing against it affectionately.
“Far away in the blue sky, the world we saw—.”
Seonwoo Jin, singing playfully with a childlike giggling voice, seemed to have no thoughts whatsoever.
Then again, Seonwoo Jin wasn’t the type to live with deep thoughts anyway. He must mean well. He really likes me a lot. As Jion tried to think this way, Jinyeong’s words with a click of his tongue came to mind.
“Anyway, no matter how preciously Seonwoo Jin treats you, it’s all useless.”
……It’s just an expression of friendliness, and between guys if I react sensitively, I’ll be the only one looking ridiculous.
Jion considered this excessive skinship from Seonwoo Jin as an extension of his usual affection deficiency and childish behavior, and took a breath to calm his flushed face. However, once he became conscious of the skinship, it was difficult to shake off easily. As long as those hands and knees were still touching sensitive places, there was nothing he could do.
Ah, whatever.
Jion simply closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep to escape this situation. It wasn’t like there was any other way to break through it anyway.
And just as Jion thought, Seonwoo Jin really touched him because he liked him. It was just that he still thought his feelings were somewhere between friendship and attachment, not love yet.
“Jion-ah, you asleep?”
Seonwoo Jin, clinging to Jion’s back like a caterpillar, lifted his head slightly to check Jion’s face with his eyes closed.
As expected, he’s not uncomfortable at all being like this with me, and rather feels comfortable so he’s already fallen asleep!
Seonwoo Jin felt proud at this futile misconception and closed his eyes with his head against Jion’s nape. And as he listened to Jion’s peaceful breathing, he kept thinking of how Jion had been so delighted when he came out after finishing his recording, even showering him with kisses.
“Aigoo, my baby!”
Just as it was Jion’s first time being cared for and obsessed over by someone, it was also Seonwoo Jin’s first time receiving this kind of attention, affection, and worry from someone. As mentioned before, Seonwoo Jin was very vulnerable to tangible love. Not to mention love where bodies were currently touching. Seonwoo Jin had already become so vulnerable to Seong Jion that he had no immunity left.
“Why is our Woojin so pretty? Hm?”
At the thought that Jion cherished and liked him, Seonwoo Jin’s heart suddenly fluttered, and he carefully pressed his lips to Jion’s cheek, who was in his arms. He didn’t have any particular intention. Jion had also kissed his cheek, and it hadn’t felt bad at that time. Rather, he’d even felt proud at receiving such raw praise. So he’d kissed Jion’s cheek without much thought, but,
—Smooch…….
The moment his lips touched and left the soft cheek, Seonwoo Jin felt something like a sharp pain in his lower abdomen. It was a tension that tightened all the way to his thighs. Startled, he quickly pulled his waist back and discovered that his front had swelled up strangely.
“……Uh, shit.”
Flustered, Seonwoo Jin removed the hand that had been kneading Jion. However, making his effort to put some distance futile, Seonwoo Jin’s knee accidentally rubbed against Jion’s sensitive area as he hurriedly pulled back.
“Ngh……!”
A small moan burst from Jion’s mouth as his sensitive area was stimulated in his sleep. And the moment he heard that low moan, Seonwoo Jin’s face turned bright red.
“Ah…… shit?”
That’s when Seonwoo Jin realized. Ah. This is what love within reach is. Tangible love. Touchable love.
What was the tangible love that Seonwoo Jin spoke of?
It was a kind of “attachment blanket” love that existed close to him and would offer warmth whenever Seonwoo Jin felt deficient, that he could knead when he wanted to knead and hug when he wanted to hug. Someone like a mother who had no demands of him, would never grow distant, and would accept everything.
However, the healthy romance that normal adult women thought of wasn’t such a screwy, spineless romance.
At first, many women liked Seonwoo Jin’s handsome appearance and impressive physique, his bratty temperament, and yet how he was somewhat weak and clingy toward them, calling it a charm gap. Moreover, since Seonwoo Jin was the type who didn’t turn away women who liked him, relationships would form quickly.
But just as flower songs last only a season and there are no filial children at a long sickbed, Seonwoo Jin’s personality with its uncapped deficiency and numerous mental vulnerabilities made women tire of him quickly. The women’s cooled affection would press Seonwoo Jin’s buttons, making him go looking for another mother, and Seonwoo Jin’s relationships would thus conclude once again with either transferring or two-timing.
Left alone, all adult women in South Korea—Note: Only has a lower limit. Even if you baked a whole kiln of layer cakes and rice cakes, there wouldn’t be enough room to stick them all in—would become Seonwoo Jin’s ex-girlfriends in this chain of tragedy that was Seonwoo Jin’s romance before Jion’s regression. And if Jion didn’t hold Seonwoo Jin’s reins and manage him properly, it was a tragedy that could start again at any time.
Though he hadn’t caused a disaster yet, Seonwoo Jin vaguely knew that he was a considerably mentally vulnerable person, and so he really hated when something he’d formed an attachment to left his side. He couldn’t tolerate even a brief absence.
Simply put, Seong Jion was Seonwoo Jin’s deficiency cap. A deficiency cap that made him a normal person when together and when apart the cap would come off and his sanity would leak out constantly. Seonwoo Jin focused on his new attachment object like a ghost, and this was somewhat bothersome for Seong Jion.
“Jion-ah, where are you going?”
“Jion-ah, let’s go together.”
“Jion-ah.”
“Jion-ah.”
“Jion-ah.”
It was the long-awaited comeback day and the day of their first music show. He was exhausted to death from going to the salon since dawn, and this mountain-sized Seonwoo Jin kept following him around calling his name, so much so that he was developing a neurosis about his own name.
Mother, why is my name Seong Jion? You should have named me something like SeongSeonwooJinPleaseStopCallingMyName.
When Jion sighed, Seonwoo Jin asked with a worried face.
“Jion-ah, are you tired?”
“Yeah.”
“Want to go rest in the car?”
I’d be fine if only you weren’t here. Jion suppressed his true feelings that were about to burst out and smiled.
“No, I’m fine.”
“Still, wouldn’t it be better if you lay down for a bit? The waiting time is long too.”
At Seonwoo Jin’s words, Jion looked around the cramped waiting room. Naturally, even if it was idol empty house season, there was no way there’d be a private waiting room for nobodies like BNCZ. BNCZ was sharing a large waiting room with partitions set up, using it together with a group in a similar situation to theirs, and since that side also had quite a few members, the space wasn’t exactly roomy.
“Hyung, you should lie down too.”
Eungi, who was reliably lying down on a mat spread on the floor, suggested. But since Ryu Geon and Jinyeong were already lying there, if Jion and Seonwoo Jin were to lie down, they’d have to overlap their bodies with each other to some extent. Though Eungi was cute, he didn’t want to lie down with bodies overlapping between grown adult men, so Jion shook his head.
“Woojin and I will just go rest in the car.”
“You will? I’ll call if anything comes up.”
Perhaps Ryu Geon also thought the space was cramped, as he made a very apologetic expression at Jion’s concession but didn’t urge further. It would’ve been difficult to refuse even if he had urged, so this worked out well.
“Woojin-ah, let’s go.”
“Okay.”
He would’ve liked to leave Seonwoo Jin behind, but it didn’t seem like he’d let him go alone, and if he ditched him and left, he’d probably search for him like a child who lost his mother, which would make him feel uncomfortable. Unable to help it, Jion grabbed Seonwoo Jin’s hand and pulled him outside.
However, as soon as he opened the waiting room door and came out, Jion regretted it.
Ah, shit. Should’ve just pressed flesh together with the guys.
“Hello!”
“Ah, yes……”
It wasn’t the thought he had about the brightly smiling and greeting rookie girl group beauties. At least if Jion had been alone, he would have happily received the juniors’ greetings. But the moment he recognized their faces, Jion could no longer smile.
“We’re Sugar Pink, who debuted this time!”
Because one of them who kept smiling brightly and trying to introduce themselves was precisely Seonwoo Jin’s second scandal partner. And the protagonist of a two-timing or transferring scandal at that. Smiling with her eyes crinkling cutely and full of aegyo…… what was her name again. Hyeeun? Hyeyun? Hyeyul? Jion busily wracked his brain trying to remember her name.
“Please take care of us, sunbae-nim!”
That woman he could barely remember had several more scandals even after breaking up with Seonwoo Jin, then before her group activities even ended, she had a premarital pregnancy with a non-celebrity working in finance and ruined the group before retiring. A female version of Seonwoo Jin with birds of a feather flocking together, surely the reason she first met Seonwoo Jin was after he debuted as an actor…….
“……Ah!”
Jion realized the reason for this sudden encounter. After the regression, unlike the original comeback timing, the schedule had been moved up, causing BNCZ’s promotion period and Sugar Pink’s debut period to overlap. Having gained this realization, Jion unconsciously let out a loud sound and quickly covered his mouth.
“Uh, what’s wrong?”
Eyes focused on the scream of realization that burst from Jion’s mouth. Flustered by Seonwoo Jin’s and the juniors’ gazes concentrated on him, Jion quickly made an excuse.
“Oh no, uh, seeing you junior-nim made me think of someone…… I suddenly felt like I knew who it was. Haven’t you heard a lot that you resemble actress Yoon Myeongha?”
That she resembled Yoon Myeongha was media play that Sugar Pink’s agency mainly did, and honestly Jion had never thought the two resembled each other. But his hastily made excuse worked well.
“Ah! I’ve really heard that a lot!”
At Jion’s words, Hye…… whoever-ssi was greatly pleased. Having overcome the crisis, Jion gave a relieved smile.
“That’s a relief. Haha. If you’d said you’d never heard that, I would’ve been very rude. Well then, fighting on your debut stage. We’ll see you next time. Fighting!”
Jion finished with closing remarks without giving them room to breathe so they couldn’t give excessive greetings or strike up additional conversation, then pulled Seonwoo Jin’s wrist and headed for the emergency stairs. With fierce eyes monitoring Seonwoo Jin in case he and Sugar Pink exchanged glances.
But the one who expressed dissatisfaction as soon as the emergency stairwell door closed was actually Seonwoo Jin.
“What was that just now?”
He shook off Jion’s hand holding his wrist and got angry.
“She looks like Yoon Myeongha? They don’t look alike at all though? Do you like that style?”
At the echo of jealousy ringing loudly in the stairwell, Jion was shocked.
