Siwoo blinked his eyes and looked around. For how sensitively Evan had reacted, nothing had happened at all. They sat side by side in the first-class middle seats, and it was a very comfortable flight with the help of kind flight attendants.
The meal was delicious too, and he thoroughly enjoyed looking at his own appearance captured in Evan’s camera that he kept telling him to keep. When did he take all those pictures? When he looked at him in surprise, he just smiled.
He was dumbfounded at the comment that he’d taken them even better than a homma would.
True to the advantage of a night flight, he’d slept soundly too.
“Ah… I want to go home and sleep comfortably.”
Though it didn’t seem like the right thing to say after sleeping so soundly while tossing and turning, Siwoo slowly rolled his stiff neck. Moving his neck, shoulders, fingers, and wrists slowly to wake his sleeping body, Siwoo stretched both arms above his head and gave a long stretch.
“I was going to wake you if you slept more, but you’re getting up well on your own.”
At Evan’s words from right next to him, Siwoo chuckled. How much he likes taking care of people. Strong sense of responsibility, excellent situational awareness, and even quick-wittedness. So probably, that’s why he’d been getting along well without major problems as the leader of such a tremendous group.
“‘I do well on my own’ is my motto.”
“Sometimes you can ask the person next to you and lean on them too.”
“Why would I do that when I can do it myself? Making various people tired. We’ll have a hard time seeing each other after we leave the airport. I wonder when we’ll be able to see each other?”
At the captain’s announcement indicating landing, Siwoo fastened the seatbelt he’d been loosening until now. Evan’s gaze looking at him with a suddenly serious expression was strange, so Siwoo looked at him steadily without avoiding his gaze.
“Seatbelt.”
It was Siwoo’s voice that broke the few seconds of continuing silence.
“Can I call if I want to hear your voice, and go to see you if I want to see you?”
Why are you saying such things with such a serious expression? Siwoo chuckled and answered to call anytime he wanted. He didn’t know how many times it would happen at first, but it was obvious that as they both got busy, contact would become infrequent. And what, asking about contact? It’s not like they don’t know each other’s contact information.
“I’m not joking.”
When Siwoo didn’t answer right away, Evan sighed and said.
“What are you joking about with things like contacting or not contacting? If you contact me, I’ll obviously answer, and if we want to meet, we’ll meet when the timing works out.”
“Keep what you said.”
“Ah. Yes, yes. I will.”
Siwoo answered halfheartedly. He already knew. After parting at the airport today, the day he’d see Evan again would probably be the day the first broadcast aired. But giving the answer the other person wants is never a difficult thing.
When the plane moving slowly on the runway stopped and the safety indicator lights went off, Siwoo organized his luggage into his backpack. He had no urgent business, and he didn’t want to rush and get mixed up with people.
Evan didn’t hurry either, perhaps having the same thought. When he took out his phone and turned it on, it rang immediately.
“Oh. Hyung.”
It was Jinwook hyung, who, though it was awkward to call him a manager, still did various things at the company.
“Hey, where are you? Did you come out?”
“No. I’m going to leave when people clear out a bit. The car is in the airport parking lot so I can go alone, but did the CEO tell you to go to the airport to pick me up? But why is it so noisy? I can’t hear you well, hyung.”
Seeing Evan had finished preparing, Siwoo slung his backpack over one shoulder.
“Don’t come out for now. Stay there.”
“Huh? Stay here? Why?”
Siwoo, who’d been walking slowly, frowned at his hyung’s urgent words. Then he looked at Evan next to him. Even though they’d suddenly changed the flight time, it seemed his fans had gathered. Then wouldn’t it be fine if he left separately from Evan?
When their eyes met, Evan pulled the hood of Siwoo’s hoodie to put it over his head. And he held out a new mask that hadn’t even been unwrapped.
“Let me take it for a moment.”
And he handed over the phone he was on a call with to him who reached out his hand, and accepted the mask without complaint.
“Hello. This is Evan.”
Since he had no idea why he’d suddenly asked for the phone, Siwoo’s gaze was on Evan as he walked matching his pace slowly.
“Our people should have come out now, so stay together with them. It looks like we’ll get swept up together.”
Me? Me? No. I want to go quietly in the back alone. You go first.
Siwoo, whose eyes widened, gestured rapidly and expressed his opinion that he wouldn’t go out together.
“Coco. You still haven’t realized it, but you need to get used to this kind of thing now too. Put on your mask right away. Even if it’s stuffy, keep your head down a bit.”
Evan, who’d ended the call, demonstratively pressed his cap deeply and wore his mask perfectly. All that was visible were his eyes. Even that was only visible because he was taller than him and he was looking up from right next to him, but if viewed from afar, it seemed his face would be almost impossible to see.
There was no problem up until finding the luggage. There were glances flickering at them, but he wasn’t even conscious of such things.
For the first time in his life, Siwoo felt scared of the door leading to the arrival gate. Even though there was still distance, he could feel the commotion happening outside with his whole body.
“Evan. Can’t you go out first? When you go and it gets quiet, I’ll go out.”
Siwoo, who stopped at a spot a little away from the automatic door, touched the hood he was wearing.
“Stick right behind me and follow. Don’t react to any sounds you hear, just look at the floor and follow right behind me. Even if someone grabs or touches your clothes, you can’t stop. Follow well.”
It was obvious that if he let him deliberate, only time would pass, so Evan adjusted Siwoo’s mask and lightly patted the hooded head.
* * *
Jinwook looked at the man standing next to him in the flustered situation. Even the agency side knew about Siwoo’s recent increase in popularity. The ‘Journey’ side had pulled strings in advance so it didn’t hit the news, but Siwoo had spread through word of mouth.
Calls wanting to recruit Siwoo came several times a day. At the words to come pick up a kid who traveled well on his own, Jinwook had come out thoughtlessly. He just had to meet and bring him.
Judging by the atmosphere, most of those here seemed to have come to see Evan, but anyway, Siwoo was also on his way out together now.
“Where is the car Kim Siwoo-ssi will ride?”
Jinwook, who’d called Siwoo but ended up talking with Evan, had to carefully approach those who appeared to be Evan’s people. Unlike himself who’d come alone carelessly, four bodyguards and one manager had come out to pick up one successful celebrity.
“Public parking lot.”
“Ha. Parking the car there.”
Jinwook asked in an irritated voice and looked at the man running his hand through his hair, not even hiding that he was in a bad mood.
“Doesn’t your agency do monitoring? Don’t you know it’s chaos right now?”
While Jinwook was thinking that a person could speak nicely, whether this was really something to say while being so irritated, looking at the people who were already gathered in excitement, no suitable answer came to mind.
Literally, if they got swept up, it seemed he wouldn’t even be able to find Siwoo. At the thought that this team would take only Evan and slip away cleanly in this situation, goosebumps rose all over his body.
“Let’s get in our car and leave for now. You do know that if our kid gets hurt because of a pathetic agency, things will get bigger, right?”
In the end, even while watching the man talk and decide on his own, Jinwook couldn’t say anything. You’d only know if you’d experienced something like this. Besides, while recruitment calls had come to the company over the past few days, the agency’s position was to discuss and decide everything with Siwoo after he returned.
* * *
When Evan, who’d walked a couple steps ahead, got close to the automatic door and the door opened, there was a barrage of flashes and cheers close to screams at the same time.
“Uwah.”
Who knew a scene he’d only seen on TV would become his own affair? At that overwhelming energy, Siwoo raised his hand to cover his mouth.
“Coco. Stay alert and stick close.”
The moment Evan went out, bodyguards attached to both his sides and naturally they covered Siwoo too. The commotion and sounds calling his name. Flashes that made his eyes dazzle.
He knew he shouldn’t fall behind and should follow well, but that wasn’t an easy thing. Since he was keeping his head down slightly as Evan had told him, all that was visible was his broad back and the end of his blue jacket.
“Heok.”
It was truly a split second. Someone pulled the strap attached to the backpack, and it didn’t take much time for Siwoo’s body to whip around in that direction.
Along with a tremendous cheer, countless cameras and phones entered the eyes of Siwoo, who’d inadvertently raised his head. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that people weren’t visible and everything that entered his eyes was cameras and phones. At the flash barrage going off frantically, countless black dots appeared before his eyes.
The force pulling his bag grew stronger and one of the hands reaching toward him sharply grabbed and pulled his hood.
It was Evan who pulled out Siwoo, whose entire thought process had stopped. A cheer suddenly bursting out meant something had happened. Evan, who turned his body slightly, immediately reached his hand toward Siwoo.
He snatched his shoulder and pulled him into his embrace. Even in that situation, because of the hand grabbing his hood, a choking “keuk―” sound came from Siwoo’s mouth.
Evan, who’d tried to embrace his shoulder with one arm and walk like that, eventually turned his body to embrace Siwoo and sharply pulled his hood.
“Don’t raise your head. Just walk.”
The more he hesitated, the more confusion would arise. Evan didn’t let go of the hand wrapped around Siwoo’s shoulder and began walking quickly. Siwoo couldn’t tell if he was walking on his own, being dragged, or being pushed.
He didn’t even have time to find Jinwook hyung whom he was supposed to meet. Since Evan had told him over the phone to stay together with this team, he was definitely somewhere.
It was only brief that he felt the cold wind before Siwoo had to be pushed into the car in front.
