If they had clearly apologized and made up, could they have returned to just being friends who were momentarily flustered? It seems the atmosphere became even stranger because they awkwardly avoided eye contact, couldn’t speak honestly, and only bumped bodies.
Feeling awkward for no reason, Seonwoo Jin, who had been sitting in the living room for a while before trying to return to the room, saw Jion sleeping in his bed and backed out, closing the door. Jinyeong, who was watching TV, saw that strange backstep and asked.
“Why did you stop going into the room?”
“Um…… I suddenly wanted to sit in the living room.”
“Weren’t you just sitting in the entrance, not the living room?”
“Just……”
At Seonwoo Jin’s mumbling and awkward appearance, Jinyeong clicked his tongue.
“Are you guys flirting or something? Between guys, just cool it off with ‘Hey, sorry,’ ‘It’s fine,’ ‘We’re friends,’ and be done with it. Why keep dragging it out…… Not fighting but not not fighting, awkwardly……”
“Ah, we didn’t fight.”
“Right, you didn’t fight. You got unilaterally beaten down.”
Jinyeong made a pathetic expression and tapped the shoulder of Eungi, who was leaning back.
“Giraffe, give some advice to these pathetic hyungs.”
“If it’s hard to make up sober, have a drink and sort it out.”
“Alcohol? Hey. That’s a good idea.”
At Eungi’s thoughtless suggestion to drink, the face of alcohol-loving Jinyeong brightened.
Ryu Geon, who had hesitated at Jinyeong’s proposal to have a drinking session at the dorm, eventually nodded when he added the reason that this was all for Jion and Woojin’s reconciliation and also to celebrate hitting a career high with Hyundae and to do well together for the next single.
“Wow, your dorm is really nice!”
“Hyung, should we give you a room? We have an empty pantry.”
“Should I really move in?”
“Give me what you bought. It must be heavy.”
Hyundae, who came running at Jinyeong’s call, was so absorbed in looking around the house that he forgot to put down the alcohol and snacks he was holding in both hands. While Jinyeong took the load from Hyundae’s hands and Eungi showed him around the house, he began spreading out the alcohol and snacks in the living room. Seeing Seonwoo Jin fiddling with snack bags next to him, doing something unhelpful, Ryu Geon laughed.
“We’ll prepare things here, so you go to the room and wake up Jion.”
“Huh? Me?”
“If not you, then who should go?”
Jinyeong shot back playfully and acted ridiculously.
“Jion-aaang, Jion-aaaang, you have to wake uuuup. Eeing no no I want to sleep mooore-ing.”
“Waah!”
Eungi, who had come to show the living room at just that moment, shuddered and hated hearing Jinyeong’s exaggerated voice impersonation. It was a sincere reaction as if he might vomit coolly on the living room floor. The embarrassed Seonwoo Jin got unnecessarily angry.
“When did we do that!”
“You do it all the time. Just not the past few days. Ah. Now that I think about it, you guys just don’t make up. It seems more normal to keep awkwardly keeping your distance.”
“What, did you two fight?”
“Ah…… No, kind of……”
When Hyundae, belatedly hearing news of the members’ discord, asked with a bewildered face, Seonwoo Jin awkwardly waved his hand and got up. In times like this, the best strategy was to avoid the situation. Behind the quickly escaping Seonwoo Jin, he could hear Jinyeong tattling to Hyundae with a somewhat distorted story.
“They had a love quarrel.”
“Huh? What, over a woman?”
“No, over each other.”
“What does that mean?”
Rather than fighting, it was more like being unilaterally beaten, and he wasn’t even sure why he got cursed at, but a love quarrel? While thinking it was unfair but having nothing to say, Seonwoo Jin quietly entered the room.
“……Jion-ah.”
Jion, who had startled him earlier and made him leave the room again, was still curled up asleep on his bed. How small his body looked, sleeping with the blanket properly covered. He didn’t know why he was sleeping on someone else’s bed when he had his own perfectly good bed, but the sight of Jion lying on the bed where he always slept was quite stimulating.
“Jion-ah……”
Seonwoo Jin deliberately approached while calling in a small voice so as not to wake Jion right away. When he lowered his body and got close to his face, Jion’s sleeping features became clearly visible and his heart pounded. His nicely closed eyes, pretty eyelashes…… Like mom. Seonwoo Jin newly realized that he liked Jion’s eyes and felt strange.
Can they resemble each other this much even though they’re different genders?
He had told Jion before, but Jion’s features resembled his mom. For a while, he had forgotten because he felt the urge to kiss and touch this face. Thinking of it as mom’s face, his libido seemed to settle down a bit…… Seonwoo Jin carefully examined the face of the sleeping Jion.
“Jion-ah……”
Seonwoo Jin whispered in a small voice as if blowing breath into Jion’s ear and put his hand inside the blanket. And he gently lifted Jion into his arms as if waking a young child.
“Let’s wake up…… They said we’re having a party……”
“Mmm……”
At the low voice that made it unclear whether he was trying to wake him or just hold him to sleep, Jion couldn’t come to his senses. Being embraced around the shoulders and patted on the back while being whispered to, even the sleep he was about to wake from seemed to come back. Jion whined with his face buried in Seonwoo Jin’s chest.
“Mmm…… I want to sleep……”
“But Hyundae hyung is here now too…… Let’s wake up……”
Not even knowing he was doing exactly what Jinyeong had shown in his voice impersonation, Seonwoo Jin carefully cradled Jion to wake him. If it were up to him, he’d like to carry him out in a princess carry like before…… Seonwoo Jin restrained himself and only carried Jion out of the bed, carefully made him stand on his own two feet, then wrapped his arm around his waist to make him lean on him before taking him outside.
“……So they’ve been awkward lately……”
“They don’t seem awkward.”
“Right. They’re at it again.”
Jinyeong, who was still talking about the two, covered his eyes seeing them come out half-embracing. Hyundae laughed seeing Jion leaning on Seonwoo Jin with his eyes barely open.
“I was worried because I heard they fought, but there’s nothing to worry about.”
“……We didn’t fight.”
“Jion-ah, hello.”
“Uh…… Hyundae hyung…… Huh?”
Jion, who was about to unconsciously sit on Seonwoo Jin’s lap and lean on his shoulder, was startled awake at Hyundae’s greeting. Only then did the members sitting together and Hyundae become visible in his hazy vision, and the drinking table set before them also came into view. It was also then that he realized he was sitting on Seonwoo Jin’s lap.
“Uh, uh! Huh?”
Jion, who hurriedly got off his lap, looked at the drinking table seriously.
“Alcohol?”
“Yeah, we have things to celebrate!”
“Mm……”
At Eungi’s cheerful voice, Jion frowned. Park Homin’s fall into hell was something to celebrate and commemorate, but that guy fell into hell because of alcohol, so we’re also having alcohol? An alcohol party? Are they in their right minds? Seeing Jion’s ambiguous expression, Jinyeong quickly added.
“Hyundae hyung said he took the subway here.”
“Right. And we had good activity results but never celebrated together with Hyundae hyung.”
At Ryu Geon’s quick addition, Jion’s expression relaxed. Hyundae didn’t know about the incident with Park Homin, and as Ryu Geon said, they did need to make time with Hyundae, who was a great contributor to this performance. When Jion’s expression relaxed, the members who had been holding their breath and watching nervously also looked comfortable.
“Come on, everyone take a glass.”
Excited Hyundae opened the pitcher of beer.
“I’ll buy everything today. Thanks to you guys, I really……”
Excluding Jion, who couldn’t drink alcohol due to his injury, the alcohol went around quickly. One pitcher and two bottles of soju were emptied in an instant, and as the alcohol went in, the atmosphere began to become somewhat emotional. Hyundae, whose self-esteem had hit rock bottom from his long life as an unknown composer, confessed about breaking up with the senior who had been gaslighting him after BNCZ’s success.
“When I succeeded with the song I gave you guys, he said didn’t I get inspiration from him, so my feelings completely cooled.”
“That’s the one he said was trash and you were going to throw away, but I discovered in the trash can.”
“Yeah, but when it succeeded, he said it was similar to a song he originally wrote……”
“Really pathetic.”
Ryu Geon, who was listening, clicked his tongue. Hyundae nodded until his neck would break.
“I pushed myself a bit, but I thought it would be better for me to become independent quickly……”
“You did well, hyung! We’ll make the next single a huge hit too, and that deficit you have, uh, we’ll help you pay it all back!”
Jinyeong confidently pounded his chest. At Jinyeong’s bold words, the other members also began to overflow with confidence.
“Right! We’re going on vacation this time and then preparing for the next single right away, so if that succeeds, hyung could become rich too, right?”
He didn’t know what kind of rich the truly born-rich Eungi meant when he said rich. Are we going to Billboard? Jion, who was listening to the conversation in a daze because he wasn’t fully awake, caught something strange.
“Vacation?”
