Siwoo’s brain, due to an accident that occurred while running only for victory, automatically logged out due to a malfunction. Even though people around laughed, teased, and joked, nothing arrived at his brain.
“Siwoo-ya?”
“Did we lose?”
If such a mistake happened while playing this kind of game, it was typical to jump up and show an extreme reaction. And as a typical action, Evan, who had stepped back a few steps, stood covering his mouth with one hand. It wasn’t particularly a big action, but his ears were burning bright red.
On the other hand, Siwoo remained still without any action. That’s why Hyunsu, who had spoken to him just in case, was dazed at the answer that came back.
“Are we going to starve tomorrow?”
Siwoo, who had been staring blankly at the paper that had fallen emptily to the floor, slowly raised his head and looked at the PD.
First kiss.
The first kiss he had unintentionally kept throughout decades of living had been done in such a ridiculous game.
But there was no compensation for it whatsoever.
“We’ll provide the basics. Now, choose your penalty.”
“Should I pick this?”
When two boxes were held out in front of the members, Ian, who quickly took both boxes, shook the two diligently. Since he didn’t know what would come out, he figured he should mix them first.
“One is the type of penalty, and the other box contains the names of members who will do the penalty, so please pick one from the penalty box and two from the box with member names.”
“Since it’s late, I’ll just pick everything.”
As Ian held the boxes, Yechan next to him spoke while looking around. Evan, who was standing crookedly with his arms crossed as if nothing had happened, caught his eye. And seeing Siwoo, who was also covering his mouth and yawning small, he shrugged his shoulders.
Well, an idol’s life wasn’t easy. There were many things they had to do even if they didn’t want to, and there were quite a few things they pretended to do to show fans what they wanted even if it was bothersome. If you gave meaning to all those things and paid attention to them, you’d only get a headache.
“Oh! The penalty is… Ah, is this really a penalty?”
Hyunsu, who was reading the paper with the penalty Yechan picked, tilted his head and turned the paper to make it clearly visible to the camera.
[Holding hands for a day]
“What time period does ‘a day’ mean here?”
“From when you open your eyes until you fall asleep.”
“What about the bathroom?”
Ian raised his hand quickly and asked.
“Of course you have to go holding hands.”
“What about meals?”
“Of course holding hands.”
“Everyone here is right-handed.”
“Feed each other.”
Each time Ian asked, answers popped out as if they had already anticipated such questions.
“Wow. Really cruel!”
Yechan spoke exaggeratedly and then quickly went in front of the box with member names written on it. Then he held it with both hands and shook it vigorously.
“I’ll just pick two at the same time.”
Yechan, who stuck his hand into the box and moved as if carefully choosing before pulling his hand out, was holding two pieces of paper.
And on those papers were written the names [Evan] [Siwoo].
* * *
How the cleanup went, what happened with tomorrow’s penalty, none of that mattered at all. When the camera lights went off and Siwoo bowed toward the staff, he entered his room with trudging steps. Since he had already washed and was wearing pajamas, he walked straight to the bed and flopped down. It was a mistake. Really, that was an accident. But…
Thump thump.
Suddenly his heart raced like crazy. It wasn’t even regular and was literally running wild on its own. The nape of his neck that Evan had grabbed felt hot, and the green eyes that had looked down at him lingered. His racing heart dropped to the floor.
It seemed he developed arrhythmia when under extreme stress. A sharp scent lingered at the tip of his nose. Siwoo rubbed vigorously under his nose with his index finger. It was a scent that seemed familiar but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.
As he sniffed around, he could smell the air freshener scent filling the room. Along with the arrhythmia, even his sense of smell seemed to have gone crazy.
At times like this, sleeping was the best. He didn’t care at all about the penalty he’d receive tomorrow. They had already kissed, so what was the big deal about holding hands?
After tossing and turning for a while, Siwoo pulled the blanket over his head. Soon feeling stuffy, he threw off the blanket and sat up abruptly.
Too many things had happened in an instant and he remembered what he had forgotten. My live stream. The live stream that ended so emptily. He couldn’t think of anything appropriate about whether to turn on the live stream again and apologize or what to do.
Unable to help it, Siwoo picked up his phone and turned on the camera. Since he felt sorry, he thought he’d at least upload one photo to SNS.
He pulled on the hood of his hoodie and took out the pink eye mask in the shape of a rabbit with closed eyes that he had placed on the table next to the bed and put it on. He couldn’t see ahead, but there was no problem taking a selfie.
All that was visible were his round nose tip and lips because of the cute eye mask that covered half of Siwoo’s small face.
He updated a photo where his lower lip, which had been chewed due to worries until just now and was parched so he moistened it with his tongue, making it red and plump, was glistening.
And below was an alcohol bottle emoticon that made it impossible to predict Siwoo’s psychology.
* * *
“Are Siwoo and Evan ready?”
After everyone woke up early in the morning and moved busily to finish travel preparations, the head writer called Siwoo and Evan. The reason was only one: penalty execution.
It was quite a huge event in life. For example, he thought he would lose sleep over an incident like the unavoidable physical contact due to last night’s sudden game, but Siwoo slept very comfortably. One of the reasons for that was this. Since the two were assigned to different cars, there wouldn’t be much facing each other today.
“We’re in different cars.”
That’s why Siwoo said it quickly.
“You both registered when renting the car.”
“Yes.”
Siwoo glanced at Evan standing next to him. After that awkward situation, the two hadn’t exchanged a single word until now. It wasn’t on purpose but that’s how it was. But why does this feel so uneasy?
“You two take turns driving. Then you can hold hands.”
“But you told us to drive.”
“We have to show the PPL properly. You know? Autonomous driving. Ocean filmed a car commercial this time too, right? On the way, you have to show the autonomous driving function in between. Rather than holding hands continuously, put in explanations about autonomous driving and continue performing the penalty, only hold hands when you mention it and turn on autonomous driving. Load Siwoo’s luggage in the sedan. You can switch with Yechan. I told Yechan a moment ago so don’t worry. That’s Siwoo’s luggage, right? Didn’t need to move it. Hurry and load it and let’s depart.”
While Siwoo was speaking, Evan stood next to him without saying anything. Finally, when the writer who had finished speaking left first, Siwoo stared blankly at his luggage bag. It’s still awkward. It wasn’t that he deliberately avoided him, but still, it was somewhat like that.
“Let’s go.”
Siwoo had to look at the back of Evan, who suddenly grabbed his hand firmly and walked ahead first while holding his carrier with the other hand. And Siwoo’s gaze following behind him reached their clasped hands. His own small white hand was firmly held in a large hand with prominent veins on the back of the hand.
The penalty had begun. Siwoo, who was thinking of letting go of his hand, swallowed a sigh seeing the camera moving with them. This program had cameras rolling from the moment they opened their eyes. The personal cams installed in the rooms had to be turned off by each person before sleeping and turned on when they woke up. And even while preparing busily like this, the cameras rolled without rest.
Still, he thought he only needed to hold hands until then since the camera installed in the car wouldn’t capture whether they were holding hands or not. He was going to get in the car and appropriately let go, but the camera near the gear shift caught his eye.
“Hand.”
They had to load luggage too, and Evan had to sit in the driver’s seat and Siwoo in the passenger seat, so they let go of hands for a moment.
Evan, who put the car in gear from the driver’s seat and started the car, held out his hand first when they got on a quiet road and said.
“You’re driving.”
Siwoo quickly answered, recalling what the writer had said.
“It’s in autonomous driving mode. Look.”
Siwoo had to make a surprised expression at Evan’s action of taking both hands off the steering wheel and even removing his foot that was on the accelerator.
“Wow. Really?”
“There’s a good function so we should use it. Now, hand.”
Evan, who faithfully introduced the PPL as the writer instructed, kept one hand on the steering wheel and held out his other hand to Siwoo again.
Siwoo placed his hand on his palm without complaint. Damn autonomous driving function, cutting-edge system. He had no choice but to hold hands all day long.
“Ruthless, ruthless. Really, to think they’d install a camera even in that position. Your hands will get sweaty.”
At the voice suddenly heard from behind, Siwoo turned his head back. And he lifted their awkwardly clasped hands so Louis could see better.
“You’re telling me. I respect that they even thought of this penalty for the autonomous driving PPL.”
Answering Louis’s words, Siwoo’s palm really seemed to be getting damp, so he gently rotated his hand within his grasp. So instead of palm to palm, he made the back of his hand touch Evan’s palm.
“Right. You said there was nothing tonight besides travel. What do you mean nothing? Honestly, we’re all group members and dance singers, so would they just let it go? When we arrive at the accommodation, they’re picking teams to prepare dinner, and they said they’ll make us sing. It’s called picking dinner preparation teams but it’s obviously showing off and playing around. Oh, the score will be with a karaoke mic that the writer brought.”
“Haa—. This PD-nim, really.”
At Evan’s irritated muttering, Siwoo silently turned his gaze outside the window. Dance and song? What song should he choose? He had no chance of winning with his own songs. First, it had to have popular appeal and be a song that could attract people’s attention.
When no one particularly led the conversation, Siwoo turned on music. In the car filled only with music, no conversation was exchanged. No matter how much he thought, no suitable song came to mind, so Siwoo leaned his head against the window. Should he just completely mess up?
There were too many things to think about. Starting with Evan who was sitting next to him holding hands.
