“Let’s go.”
Whether he wanted it or not, Evan, who had put the dinosaur headband on his head, gently grabbed Siwoo’s hand.
“We’re outside.”
He could just hold it like that. Right in front, Yechan hugged Chan from behind, saying he was cold. After the two talked about something, Yechan let go of Chan he’d been hugging and soon put his arm around his shoulders. It seemed like Chan said something, but the two were walking with their arms around each other’s shoulders while joking around.
Among the members, actions like putting arms around shoulders, lightly hugging, or holding hands weren’t awkward or uncomfortable.
Siwoo, who thought he seemed to have roughly shaken off his hand enough to embarrass Evan, walked ahead with his head down.
“Coco.”
Soon Evan started walking to match his pace. At him calling his name with a voice full of worry, another sulky feeling arose. The one doing wrong right now was himself. It was Evan who should be angry or bringing up complaints about his behavior.
“I’m sorry.”
In the end, when Siwoo, who had even heard an apology, stopped walking, Evan, who had been walking side by side, also stopped. Soon after, when Siwoo turned off the microphone he was wearing, Evan also turned off his microphone.
“I’m the one who did wrong. Why are you apologizing?”
“Because it’s true that I’m excessively interfering in your life. I’ll try not to do that. But I can’t control it…….”
At his words that agreed too easily, Siwoo could only move his lips without bringing out any words.
His calm voice, that gaze looking down at him seemed to return him to that day again. The chest pain he felt for the first time during ‘Journey’ filming. It was an indescribably complex emotion. That emotion, which had been terribly difficult, shaking him in a very short time and then disappearing, was Evan’s.
The Evan from the past timeline and the current Evan kept overlapping.
Is it because it’s a similar situation? To say that……. Siwoo raised his hand and touched the headband he was wearing.
“We’ve been to an amusement park, right?”
He hadn’t decided what to say, but his mouth moved on its own.
“Yeah.”
“……Yechan too.”
Siwoo, who stuck out the tip of his tongue to wet his lips, looked at Yechan and Chan, who were now quite far away. Around them, staff were moving quickly. The only people standing still in this space were himself and Evan.
“Yechan was there too.”
“We wore headbands too.”
He said he’d switch with Chan. Siwoo’s lips, whose gaze was on the giraffe headband Yechan was wearing, moved slowly. White breath came out in puffs.
“We ate hot dogs and ice cream too.”
The weather had been really nice. There were many people too, and it was a perfect day to play at an amusement park. It wasn’t this cold, and it wasn’t this dark.
“You two hurry up! They say we need to attach heart rate monitors!”
Chan’s voice calling them from afar could be heard.
“Want to ride the carousel during break time?”
“The carousel?”
“Weren’t you looking at it like that because you wanted to ride it?”
Are we talking about the same thing? Or different things?
It was clear they were talking about different things regarding the same place, but strangely the conversation was connecting as one.
“Hurry up!”
When Chan’s voice interrupted again, Evan grabbed Siwoo’s hand and started walking. This time he couldn’t shake off his hand. His heart was pounding on its own and his head was complicated.
The carousel, which was shining with splendid lights, entered the eyes of Siwoo, who was being led by Evan’s hand. The space that should have been filled with cheerful music and children’s laughter, parents surrounding the carousel watching their children, had nothing in it.
The carousel, which only had lights on, was stopped. As if everything had ended.
His life, which he had been repeating continuously, also seemed to have stopped.
When he turned his head, he could see the back of Evan walking about a step ahead. One hand was too cold, but the hand clasped with his was endlessly warm.
Evan led himself, who was trying to permeate into the darkness, into the light. It seemed the light he had was greater than the darkness he harbored.
Knowing he would turn around if he called his name, Siwoo only moved his steps following him but couldn’t call Evan.
“Sangjun hyung should give up, right?”
“Sangjun? Today’s famous scene will be created by Sangjun. This is totally a game for Sangjun.”
“Sangjun-ah, you haven’t even ridden it yet, what do we do if it’s already 105?”
“When we all came together before debut. Don’t you remember spending 30 minutes knocked out after riding that roller coaster?”
“You were the one who passed out then? Why was I remembering it as Yechan?”
A bitter smile hung on Siwoo’s lips as he approached where the members and staff were.
We came to an amusement park. The Siwoo of this timeline who isn’t in my memory too.
When he made eye contact with Evan, who was attaching a heart rate monitor with the help of a stylist, he winked. The bitter smile soon changed naturally.
Unlike his heart that swayed dozens of times a day, from the beginning Evan had been in that spot like an old tree that had lived for thousands of years. Even when alone he was swayed by emotions that endlessly pulled him into darkness, the moment he was with Evan, the negative things that had been roughly rampaging disappeared without a trace and peace came.
“You bit your lip again? Your lips crack easily.”
Siwoo, who had put on the heart rate monitor, playfully stuck out his lips toward Hyunsuk, who looked at his face and replaced the lip gloss in her hand with lip balm.
“Oh my. You think I won’t nag just because you do this? I’ll give this to you, so apply it frequently whenever you think of it. Got it?”
“Yes! Scored an item.”
Whatever emotion he was engulfed in, this place was a filming site, and cameras were attached around them. The sight of Siwoo bouncing up and down in place exaggeratedly was being captured entirely on camera.
“Why on earth are we sitting like this?”
At Yechan’s words, Siwoo quickly nodded his head. They had all put on heart rate monitors and everyone was holding microphones. To shorten filming time, everyone agreed to finish filming at once by dividing into two or three people and sitting at the ends of the Viking.
Then it would be ideal for the smaller-built Sangjun, Chan, and Siwoo to sit on one side. On the opposite side, the well-built Evan and Yechan, the two of them, would sit.
Yechan on the right, Evan on the left. Sitting between the two well-built ones, Siwoo felt like he was surrounded by solid walls.
“This makes me look even smaller.”
Siwoo’s complaint didn’t reach the PD. Wasn’t their job to pick out scenes viewers wanted and raise viewership ratings? Prejudice was truly a scary thing.
A small beta between solid alphas. Honestly, it would be better if he were an omega, but since Siwoo was a beta, it couldn’t be helped. The picture the production team had drawn was already obvious. That sort of thing where delicate Siwoo can’t perform the game properly and relies on the alphas on both sides.
They, who had been filming together for a year, already knew clearly what kind of image they wanted from him. Since it was a job that lived off image anyway, it didn’t matter that Siwoo was actually good at sports and enjoyed riding attractions.
He was very good at riding attractions, but he just had to pretend to be scared. He could easily do around twenty jegichagi kicks at once, but kicking it once or twice and sending it to the wrong place or staggering was a piece of cake.
“We don’t know what song will come out, so focus on your earphones. Siwoo-ssi, are you okay?”
When Chan, sitting at the end across from them, spoke into the microphone, Siwoo raised both hands and shook them vigorously.
Singing while riding his favorite Viking was nothing. Right across from him, Sangjun was screaming instead of singing, yelling that he was dying and missing his part, faithfully creating his screen time.
Between Yechan and Evan, without even grabbing the safety bar, Siwoo’s face, which was shrugging his shoulders while lightly doing choreography with the microphone in hand, was full of smiles.
For Siwoo, this game was no different from starting with three free passes already in hand.
There was no way he would miss his part in a song he’d sung countless times. Whether the Viking was ascending or descending, Siwoo’s pitch while singing didn’t waver even a bit.
As expected, there was no reason for his heart rate to exceed 100 until Evan’s one arm, who had been riding the Viking laughing and chatting while watching Sangjun across from them, came behind him.
“…….”
It wouldn’t be visible behind the Viking anyway. Evan’s hand, holding the microphone with one hand and singing, touched the butt of Siwoo, who had been bobbing his body and having fun. Siwoo turned his head toward Evan, who was singing, in surprise.
The moment their eyes met and Evan’s hand, which had smiled, grasped Siwoo’s soft butt that fit perfectly in his hand, Siwoo’s heart rate hit 110.
That smile he gave while looking at him, the voice lowered from rapping, and the emotion stirred by the touch kneading his butt not just once but blatantly, were not appropriate for this situation.
Was there an X-man or something in today’s filming? Siwoo, who could have easily obtained three cards, ran his hand through his hair after receiving only one card due to Evan’s audacious action.
They said what they obtained would be distributed to fans through a lottery, so he had to somehow get even one more card, why interfere! Siwoo’s gaze at Evan was not kind.
The games that could be played while riding attractions at an amusement park were mostly predetermined. Following the Viking, missions like making exactly seven hand hearts in designated areas while riding a roller coaster continued. Each time Sangjun failed everything, but depending on the difficulty of the attraction, his heart rate was also controlled to about 80-110.
“Evan aside, what about you, Siwoo?”
After finishing the game of bursting all the balloons stuck to walls or corners within the set time while riding bumper cars, Siwoo smiled awkwardly. He couldn’t say, “I just don’t have a license, but my driving experience is tremendous,” could he? And unlike Evan, who had to ride the bumper car with his large frame all scrunched up, Siwoo, who found it easy to move, accomplished the mission in less time than Evan.
“You don’t have a driver’s license!”
“I registered at a driving school.”
At Chan’s words as he was hosting, Siwoo answered quickly. He hadn’t known when he couldn’t drive, but for Siwoo, who was accustomed to moving around freely alone, not having a car was a big stress. If he just had a driver’s license and a car, when his chest felt stuffy or he had many thoughts, he could at least go for a drive.
Now, whenever he tried to go somewhere, he always had to get help from a manager. Since he’d received a considerable amount of settlement money, he had a car in mind that he wanted to buy.
“Huh? Really? You didn’t tell us that.”
“After I get my license and buy a car, there’s a place I definitely want to go with the members.”
“And who’s driving?”
“I’m getting my license and buying my car, you know?”
“Siwoo-ssi, our lives are precious. Now, before the last mission, shall we check how much each person has collected?”
At the talk of Siwoo driving himself to go for a drive, the members made jokes, and when the conversation got long, Chan quickly checked the cue sheet in his hand.
“Evan has the most, and Sangjun is…… I won’t say much. Now we’ll do the last remaining mission. A reversal is possible here, so Sangjun-ssi, cheer up.”
“I can’t cheer up. My heart hurts too much.”
Sangjun rubbed his left chest and collapsed on the spot, and Siwoo quickly squatted down next to him and stroked Sangjun’s back. He should have said he really couldn’t ride it and asked them to edit it out, but this hyung was also mindlessly digesting all of this. Seeing him endure even though his face had turned completely pale reminded him of his old self.
“Everyone knows, right? As expected, our filming team always includes something like this. Finally, ‘the haunted house.’ Ah……! Who goes into ‘a haunted house’ these days?”
Siwoo, who had been patting Sangjun’s back, raised his head sharply at Chan’s words. We haven’t ridden the gyro drop yet. Wasn’t something like that usually the highlight? The moment he heard the words ‘haunted house,’ Siwoo’s heart rate fluctuated briefly.
