And not many days later, an event occurred that would bring the two closer. It wasn’t the result of Jion actively making an effort. Like the Uicheon Garlic Festival, some event from the past simply happened as scheduled.
It was an evening when, as usual, he’d sent home the members who finished practice first and was making only a certain flower-slut who sang every high note through his nose do extra training.
“They say it’s raining a lot outside.”
Seonwoo Jin, who was oddly reading his phone when told to read the sheet music again, said.
“Rain? There was a forecast for it.”
Jion picked up his phone without thinking and searched the internet. And on the news main page was a photo of several compact cars floating along in the middle of Gangnam from tremendous rain.
Ah, was it this day?
There had been a day when rain poured down like a torrential downpour and various parts of Seoul were flooded. Jion was scrolling through the article like it was someone else’s business when he screamed at a memory that suddenly came to mind.
“Ah!”
That’s right. This practice room had flooded back then!
“What’s wrong?”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
Jion forced a smile and traced through his memories.
Was it a torrential downpour after 10 years? This shitty neighborhood had many smoking assholes with dog-shit smoking manners, so it was already a low-lying area where water pooled, and on top of that it was a neighborhood where the drainage wasn’t maintained.
Fortunately, the building this practice room was in had flood barriers from several flooding experiences, but the problem was that day, someone left after opening the main door. In the end, water poured into the basement and millions of won worth of equipment was submerged, and from this point on, the CEO completely lost heart in BNCZ. With kids who couldn’t even earn money and only bad luck piling up, it was understandable that his heart would drift away.
“…This isn’t the time to only be handling this one.”
Jion clenched his fist at the sound of thunder heard from afar.
From this very moment until the water outside the main door drains, he would prevent anyone from opening that door.
Unlike Jion, who was determined on self-confinement, Seonwoo Jin, who didn’t know what would happen in the future, asked innocently.
“How are we going to get home?”
Jion pondered how to persuade this ridiculously naive young man.
He himself knew that opening the flood barrier now would result in losing close to 100 million won, but generally it seemed difficult to imagine that briefly opening the door to go home could result in damages of tens of millions of won. But he also couldn’t tell him to try opening the door a crack, like opening the front door to give enlightenment to a dog begging for a walk.
While contemplating, Jion recalled the video he saw on the news. This is it! Jion quickly made a worried expression and searched for flood damage on his phone.
“Uh, but I think it’s better not to go out right now.”
“Isn’t it better to go to the dorm before it rains more?”
“No. Look at this.”
Jion played the precautions being broadcast on the news.
『…There is a risk of electrocution, so it is best not to enter the water.』
In the background were cars being flooded and car owners with devastated expressions. Jion made a serious expression and stimulated Seonwoo Jin’s imagination with an appealing voice and eyes.
“The area here is low so it’s probably already a sea of water out front, and we came in slippers.”
“Uh…”
“What if there are glass shards or something in the pooled water and it pierces our feet, and muddy water gets in there and we get tetanus, and there just happens to be electricity flowing and we get electrocuted? Don’t we have to get our legs amputated? Will we die?”
It was a sentence on the level of scaring a kindergartener, but Jion’s voice had a persuasiveness that made even considerable bullshit sound plausible.
With this ability, Jion had already successfully activated the imagination (N) of leader Ryu Geon and instilled victim mentality and slut-phobia. One empty-headed guy like Seonwoo Jin wasn’t difficult at all.
“…Is that so? Right? It’s dark and it’s raining a lot… It seems dangerous. Let’s just stay in the studio until the rain stops.”
“Yeah, Woojin, you’re right.”
Handling a guy in his early twenties was too easy. If you roughly attach a compliment at the end, he falls into the illusion that he thought of and decided everything himself.
Jion kept shouting things like:
“Ah, it’s raining so much I’m scared. The studio won’t flood, will it? Then this equipment is really expensive, won’t it all become unusable? The president will scold us.”
He planted the possibility of the nightmare of studio flooding in Seonwoo Jin’s subconscious.
“It’s raining too much. What if this place really floods?”
Brainwashed with a sense of crisis by Jion, Seonwoo Jin looked at his phone with a serious expression. He was looking at the weather forecast and various photos of flood damage posted on SNS. Seonwoo Jin was feeling a sense of duty that he had to protect the studio and Seong Jion in the face of this serious natural disaster.
“First, since we’re hungry, should we each have a cup of ramen?”
However, the very person who instilled this sense of tragedy in Seonwoo Jin was utterly carefree. Jion knew that nothing would happen as long as they didn’t open the flood barrier. Having tied Seonwoo Jin’s feet firmly to the studio with appropriate tension and anxiety, Jion relaxed and prepared to spend the night here.
“You’re going to eat a whole big one, right?”
After putting water on the electric pot, Jion found a blanket in the corner of the studio and handed it to Seonwoo Jin.
“They say the rain won’t stop until dawn tomorrow, so you sleep on the sofa.”
“Oh, thanks…”
There was only one sofa in the studio, but Seonwoo Jin accepted the offer without even thinking of yielding once. However, Jion didn’t care at all about Seonwoo Jin’s lacking manners.
He’d lived as someone in his thirties and returned to his early twenties. His mind remembered the raggedness of his thirties, but his body was full of twenties energy. Jion was in the mood to volunteer for an all-nighter, intoxicated by this vigorous and energetic body.
Gotta work it hard while young.
In his early twenties, he’d been too careful with his body. Since he’d become young anyway, Jion intended to live enjoying things moderately as long as they didn’t damage his vocal cords.
“The water’s boiling.”
“Oh, I’ll pour it.”
“It’s hot. It’s fine.”
Jion poured water into the cup ramen and covered the lid. The stimulating and warm smell of ramen soup stimulated his sense of smell, and Jion, whose mood automatically improved, sat in front of the keyboard.
“Then while waiting 3 minutes, should I warm up my voice too?”
Singing one 3-minute song while waiting after pouring water into cup ramen was Jion’s habit. Jion thought for a moment and chose a song that fit today’s weather. Jion lightly pressed the keys while singing the first verse.
『A rainy evening, a cafe with no visitors―』
It was a song called 『A Rainy Evening, With No One』, a famous movie insert song from the 80s. The original was a blues rhythm song with saxophone and such, but Jion plainly digested the song with only a keyboard.
『Cold coffee, left before me― Waiting alone for someone who won’t come―』
Seonwoo Jin’s eyes widened at Jion’s sudden song. Seonwoo Jin, who had been leaning back on the sofa, straightened his body and sat in proper posture, listening attentively to Jion’s song.
『Did you forget the promise, you heartless person―』
When Jion sang the most famous chorus, Seonwoo Jin followed along in a small voice and bobbed his head. It wasn’t visible to Jion, whose eyes were closed concentrating on singing a song he was singing after a long time, but Seonwoo Jin’s expression was serious.
『Rain that won’t stop, a door that won’t open, a lonely rainy evening―』
When he recited the lyrics like a whisper, killing the accompaniment in the last verse, it was exactly about 3 minutes and 30 seconds. For Jion, it was the perfect time to eat ramen, and for Seonwoo Jin, it was enough time to be moved.
“Wow…”
As if you have ears to listen. Not expecting any appreciation, Jion quickly split his chopsticks in half, and Seonwoo Jin clapped.
“You really sing well.”
“…Huh? Oh, uh. Thanks…”
At the sudden compliment, Jion looked at Seonwoo Jin in bewilderment. Whether he was really moved, Seonwoo Jin’s eyes were welling up with tears. A handsome man with moist eyes—it was a dangerously handsome level. For a moment, Jion felt like he could forgive all of his empty-headedness, then quickly came to his senses.
“It’s an old song, do you know it? A Rainy Evening…”
“With No One, right? This song is my mom’s favorite, so I’ve heard it a ton since I was little.”
Jion tried to explain the song, but Seonwoo Jin already knew the song well. Seonwoo Jin stirred his ramen and smiled brightly.
“…Actually, I sang this song when I auditioned for our company.”
“Wow.”
He sang this difficult song and somehow got accepted. It must have been at an unlistenable level.
With Seonwoo Jin’s skills, singing this song listenably was impossible. Probably the president’s ears temporarily malfunctioned due to Seonwoo Jin’s good looks. Jion ate his ramen with insincere admiration. However, Seonwoo Jin, soaked in emotion, displayed sociability unlike himself.
“Since you also like this song, I guess we have surprisingly similar tastes.”
But Jion knew this song well and practiced it a lot, but didn’t necessarily like it. He’d only learned it thinking he could use it as repertoire if he got an opportunity to appear on a trot competition program or music program.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
However, he had no intention of telling the truth and distancing himself from Seonwoo Jin. Jion roughly swallowed the ramen in his mouth and nodded.
And like at the drinking table, an awkward silence continued. But this time, it was Seonwoo Jin, not Jion, who continued speaking.
“…But you really sing well.”
To think his favorability rose this sharply just from singing his mother’s favorite song. Apparently, unlike his appearance, Seonwoo Jin was a tremendous filial son.
No matter how you look at it, he seems like the type to steal money from mom’s wallet to buy tteokbokki and Coolpis for girls…
From his long career as an entrance exam lesson instructor, usually these types of kids make their fathers use golf clubs in the living room, but this one seemed to go differently from how he looked.
While Jion thought it was unexpected, he simultaneously felt that now, when Seonwoo Jin was showing him favorability, was an opportunity to get to know him.
“Ah, but… I’m asking this because it’s just the two of us left…”
“Huh? Oh. What is it?”
“It’s nothing major…”
Jion asked what he’d been curious about with an expression that tried to look casual somehow, to show that he wasn’t a total loser who would eternally hold onto something he casually said on a variety show.
“That, when we went on Sollin’s Exciting Confession? or whatever… you know what you said.”
“Sollin’s Sol’s Dating Advice?”
“Oh, yeah, that.”
Originally, once men pass their thirties, they develop a shitty habit of roughly spitting out whatever and moving on. Jion wasn’t even embarrassed about his slip of the tongue and asked shamelessly.
“Do you remember what you said there?”
“What did I say?”
“That… even if you have a lover, you want to date other people. Something like that…”
