Siwoo, feeling stuffy, lifted his head and blinked his eyes that wouldn’t stay open as he looked around. Just lifting his head made him feel a different, cooler temperature than before.
Siwoo looked around at where the dim light was coming in, then curled up his body that had been lying down before sitting up. He could see Evan sleeping with one arm offered to him.
Of course it would be stuffy since they’d slept pressed together in a two-person sleeping bag. A small yawn escaped from Siwoo’s mouth as he confirmed he was alone with Evan inside the tent.
Siwoo rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand while kneeling. With his head still foggy, he recalled what he needed to do today. When he remembered they said they’d leave around noon and that they had free time until then, he suddenly felt wronged. I could have slept more… But now that I’m awake, going back to sleep would be weird too.
Should I make some strong coffee and take a morning walk? Siwoo moved the hand he’d been rubbing his eyes with to now pat down his messy bedhead hair.
“It’s only 8 o’clock. Why did you wake up so early?”
Evan, who had awkwardly woken up from Siwoo’s movements beside him, checked his wristwatch and muttered. He couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Siwoo kneeling, washing his face like a cat and touching his hair.
“I didn’t finish the movie.”
“We can watch it again when we have time after promotions end.”
Evan’s body moved toward Siwoo, who was mumbling in a hoarse voice. To think the first thing he’d complain about upon opening his eyes was not finishing the movie. Rather than pulling the seemingly fully-awake Siwoo into his arms and laying him down, Evan chose to bend his body toward him, resting his head on his thigh and wrapping both arms around his waist.
“Mm. Let go. I want to go out.”
Siwoo, who had been stroking Evan’s head with the hand he’d been touching his own hair with, took a deep breath in and out.
“It’s cold outside.”
A small smile bloomed on Siwoo’s lips at Evan’s action of burrowing further into his embrace.
“They say there are squirrels here. I want to go out and see them.”
“Wear my clothes.”
“Okay.”
Unlike usual, when Evan easily let him go, Siwoo scratched his head and swung both legs out of the cot. Since he was only wearing training pants and a hoodie, his whole body shivered. So he put on Evan’s padding that was on one side as Evan had told him to, opened the tent zipper, and went outside.
“Ah…! It’s cold but nice.”
Siwoo breathed in deeply the fresh morning air of the forest that held a chill but was refreshing, and smiled with satisfaction. Every movement of him stumbling as he headed to the lodging, still not fully awake, was captured completely by the outdoor cameras.
And though Siwoo didn’t notice, there was also a camera installed inside the tent.
“Everyone’s up.”
When Siwoo entered the lodging, changed into his own clothes, and returned after leisurely enjoying a morning walk alone along the walking trail around the camping site, the lodging was bustling with the members who had woken up.
Yechan and Chan were playing console games in the living room, and Evan was rolling up both sleeves saying he’d prepare breakfast himself. Sangjun, who had claimed the rocking chair in the sunny living room, was wearing a headset and touching his laptop with a serious expression.
“Coco. You came back right on time. Strawberry jam? We also have milk jam.”
“Oh! There’s milk jam? I’ll have milk jam.”
Siwoo, who had taken off his padding, went straight to the island table in the middle of the spacious kitchen.
As well-toasted bread popped up from the toaster with a clear alarm sound, Evan picked them up with tongs, moved them to a plate, and filled it with new bread again.
“Got it. Go wash up quickly.”
Seeing the eggs and bacon laid out beside him, it looked like it would take time to make scrambled eggs and grill bacon. After answering okay to Evan’s words, two acorns were left in the spot where Siwoo had passed by.
Did he pick them up during his morning walk? Evan picked up the two cute acorns on the island table with his fingertips and slipped them into his clothes pocket.
“Did everyone rest comfortably?”
The PD approached and spoke to the members sitting around the table eating breakfast according to their tastes. The lodging had already been filled with camera directors from the moment they woke up and started moving.
“Is it time to leave already?”
Yechan looked at the clock while holding a piece of toast and spreading strawberry jam on it.
“You can pack up and leave as soon as you finish eating, but the thing is, we need to decide who will do the penalty.”
At the sudden mention of deciding the penalty performer, Siwoo looked at the PD with a piece of apple in his mouth. Do we have to play a game in the middle of breakfast?
“How will we decide?”
Evan spoke as if reading Siwoo’s mind.
“We told you to live comfortably as usual, right? Evan-ssi, what did you eat first for breakfast this morning?”
At the PD’s question, Evan shrugged. How would he remember that? Wouldn’t he have just eaten whatever was close by?
“Oh! Me! Me! I know! Evan hyung ate bacon first, and Siwoo hyung drank coffee.”
When everyone was looking at each other with expressions wondering how anyone would know that, Yechan raised his hand high and waved it while speaking quickly. To Chan’s question of why he’d remember such a thing, Yechan added that Chan hyung ate plain bread with nothing on it, and Sangjun hyung drank orange juice first.
“No way, you’re not deciding based on who ate what first, right? Like Siwoo does it because Siwoo drank coffee first… No. Our PD-nim wouldn’t decide like that. Right?”
At Chan’s words hitting the nail on the head, embarrassment appeared on the PD’s face. When they could even see the writers murmuring behind him, all the members burst into laughter. Every time they proposed something too clichéd, but this time they said to just rest comfortably. In the end, it seemed they’d chosen something obvious that could be done naturally without making them do anything.
“No way. Our PD-nim and writers are so amazing, would they decide with something so anticlimactic? You’ll do something from now on, right?”
As if teasing the production team, Sangjun gulped down the rest of his orange juice and said.
“Well, the goal was for you all to rest comfortably somehow. Then let’s decide with a very simple game.”
Evan stood up from his seat and took the magazine the PD held out. Yechan burst into loud laughter when he saw the magazine. Well, where would there be a game more convenient and accurate than this?
“Got it. We’ll do it by number of people?”
Evan, standing crookedly with one leg bent, quickly flipped through the magazine with his fingertips, roughly skimming the contents. But why a fishing magazine out of nowhere instead of a fashion magazine?
“As you can see, it’s a fishing magazine. So we’ll do it by number of fish. When you open the magazine randomly without looking, whoever has the most fish wins.”
“Can I go first?”
When Evan, holding the magazine at the PD’s words, asked Siwoo, Siwoo nodded his head widely instead of answering. A penalty, what’s the big deal? The penalties on ‘Ocean Story’ were obvious.
They’d have to go abroad soon for a music award, and if so, whether at departure or arrival, it would be penalty clothing. Since it’s winter, they’d probably make him wear a hat or something.
Raising his eyebrows slightly at Siwoo’s action and answering that he’d go first, Evan playfully grabbed the magazine with one hand and fluttered it around.
“Okay, here I go.”
Though it wasn’t much, everyone was smiling and watching him because Evan deliberately created an atmosphere. Evan, who opened the magazine facing the camera rather than the side he was looking at, first examined the expressions of the production team in front. And the gazes of the members who didn’t know the result were also directed at the production team.
Then the camera filming the page Evan had opened shook. Starting with the camera director, all the staff burst into laughter.
“Why? What? Did no fish come out?”
Evan, suddenly anxious, turned the magazine toward himself, and the members all rushed over near him.
“I don’t know.”
Siwoo, who checked the page Evan had opened over his shoulder, covered his face with both hands and squatted down right there. The title of the page he’d opened was [Anchovies, Their Journey] and there was a tremendous school of anchovies impossible to count spread across two pages.
“Our Siwoo, what should we do?”
Sangjun, who took over the magazine from Evan’s hands, spoke in a tone that was completely not worried despite using words that were clearly a combination of worried terms. Then he flipped through it page by page making crisp sounds at a fast speed. Laughter burst out from the mouths of everyone who watched him flip to the last page.
On any page, they couldn’t find more fish than the school of anchovies photo that Evan had opened.
And naturally the penalty performer became Siwoo, and at the very obvious and predictable time of entry or exit whenever the production team wanted, Siwoo agreed to wear the penalty costume they desired.
* * *
“Aren’t you enjoying this too much?”
Siwoo gave a bitter smile as he looked at the stylists who seemed much more excited than usual. Right now at this moment, they were really putting their whole hearts into this work.
Some time before, when was it? Couldn’t they do something easy like wearing Tinkerbell wings like Yechan, or wearing a hat with rabbit ears like the one Sangjun hyung wore?
“It’s absolutely not because we’re enjoying it, but if we do it half-heartedly, that’s also weird. If we’re going to do it, we should do it well.”
At the words of Hyunsuk, who was usually kind and meticulously took care of him and was like an aunt to him, Siwoo couldn’t object further. But looking at the clothes hanging on the hanger next to him or what was in the hands of the youngest coordinator behind, he felt queasy.
“But you don’t know how lucky it is that it’s you. If it was Yechan or Evan, really… it’s unimaginable.”
“Can’t you give up on me too?”
“If it was Evan, wouldn’t it be kind of okay?”
Siwoo’s words asking them to give up on him were buried in their conversation. At the words wondering if Evan would be okay, Siwoo imagined various looks in his head and nodded his head slightly. But when another coordinator immediately asked back how they’d get the size, he also agreed with her words.
“But this is unnecessarily high quality.”
“It’s the end of the year so there are many celebrities using the airport, so most things get buried. Even today alone, how many celebrities are overlapping with you guys for departure? I can’t stand to see our Siwoo get buried awkwardly.”
“…Does really no one know about this?”
Siwoo looked at the clothes the coordinator was holding, hesitated for a long time, then covered his face with both hands and mumbled. And seeing him like that, a deep smile appeared on Hyunsuk’s face. The fact that he showed this behavior meant Siwoo had already made up his mind to do it.
“Members, manager, no one knows. That’s why you’re going separately.”
“Evanie too?”
“How would Evan know?”
Having received definite confirmation that absolutely everyone didn’t know, Siwoo clenched both fists tightly. Though it would remain and circulate as clips or photos, he also wanted to surprise Evan at least once. Honestly, he was most curious about his reaction more than anyone else’s.
