“PD-nim, are you seriously saying this?”
Siwoo bowed his head and playfully tapped the tips of his loafers together. As expected, Evan was a superstar receiving special treatment. Unlike Siwoo, who was told to find his way to the destination on his own with an assistant writer and assistant camera director attached to him, it was different from the start.
When they first met, he also had one writer-nim and one camera director-nim with him. But at the local airport, the main PD-nim and many cameras were waiting for him.
“Then would I be joking right now? It’s already been discussed with the other cast members too. Oh, Siwoo knows too, right? Make appropriate skinship and all.”
“You put Alphas and Omegas together and call it bromance?”
Thinking it was a story unrelated to himself, he briefly turned his gaze away, but at the director-nim’s words specifically pointing at him, Siwoo made an awkward smile.
Bromance. Why wouldn’t he know?
Though he was a solo singer now, he had been in idol groups three times.
Bromance with Betas would be possible, but what kind of bromance could he have in a group with Alphas and Omegas?
“It’s not like we’ve done broadcasts together just once or twice, so please take care of it. And since you two already met on the plane, we’ll put that in as an episode, so let’s have you two find the accommodation together.”
The PD’s action of tapping Evan’s arm, which seemed slightly sharp, was imbued with familiarity. Since he had no choice, Siwoo grabbed and pulled up the strap of his sliding backpack.
“PD-nim definitely said bromance.”
As if thinking about something, Evan slightly raised one eyebrow and spoke to PD Lee as if getting confirmation.
“Right. Since we do the editing, everyone be friendly, okay? Plus, you, Luca, Hyunsu, and Yechan are famous for being personally close anyway. Also keep in mind that you need to take good care of Louis and Ian.”
Siwoo was still standing tapping his shoe tips together, and when their conversation ended, he raised his head. And full-scale filming began.
“Coco. Have you been here before?”
“No.”
Siwoo tilted his head at Evan’s action of taking the backpack that had been hanging on his shoulder while speaking affectionately.
“This is my third time coming, so follow me well.”
“You’ve been here three times?”
“Twice for concerts, once for travel. The weather here is nice too, especially the night is good.”
The gazes directed at them surrounded by several cameramen increased one by one. It was a gaze mixed with curiosity about what they were filming and interest in who they were.
When Evan pressed down his black ball cap more and quickened his pace, Siwoo also had to hurry to follow him.
Siwoo’s gaze, following him as he suddenly stopped talking and walked quickly, kept going to his own backpack hanging on his shoulder. He needed to get that back, but he’d taken it so naturally that he’d missed the timing to ask for it.
It was quite heavy with the laptop and various things inside, which made him worry more. Coming outside the airport, Siwoo’s eyes sparkled as he took off his flight jacket. They said the weather was calm and nice, but the bright weather without a single cloud was hot. So the excuse of taking off his jacket to put it in his bag seemed good.
“We can just take the bus, right?”
When he naturally struck up a conversation and took his backpack from his shoulder, Evan stopped walking.
“You’re waiting for me? Thanks.”
At Evan’s action of waiting while he put his backpack on top of his carrier and organized and put away his jacket, Siwoo smiled brightly and threw out pleasant words.
“Let’s not take the bus. It’s hot, we have luggage, and it’s annoying, so let’s just take a taxi.”
Evan, who had somehow snatched the backpack that had swollen up with his flight jacket inside and slung it over his shoulder, walked ahead first.
“Hey! Give me my bag.”
He’d even taken off his jacket using the weather as an excuse to naturally get his backpack back, but the heavier bag had gone to him.
“It’s fine. Just hurry up and come.”
“But isn’t taking a taxi cheating?”
“What’s cheating? Does the paper you received have the transportation you need to use written on it? It just had an address and said to come by 2 PM.”
The expression of the PD-nim moving with them at a distance not captured by the camera wasn’t very good, but Evan was already loading his carrier into the taxi trunk.
“Still, usually you take public transportation.”
Though he tried to stop him with words, Siwoo, who stood next to him a bit late, didn’t prevent Evan from putting his carrier in the trunk.
“Can we really go this comfortably?”
The camera director-nim who got in the passenger seat turned around to film them, but Siwoo asked Evan in a small voice.
“Rather than being surrounded by people at the airport unable to move, it’s better to leave before the crowd gathers. If you get swept up, it’s just a headache. And you can do as you please. If it was really not allowed, when I brought up the word taxi, they would have somehow expressed that it wasn’t okay.”
Since he wasn’t wrong, Siwoo pursed his lips and turned his gaze to the window. He recalled his entry and exit photos that were frequently exposed at the top of search results. Compared to the image of barely escaping that place with the help of security guards, just moments ago there were only a few people glancing around unable to properly recognize who he was.
If a huge crowd gathered now, he would probably be left behind as trash. Superstar Evan was important, but there was no way he would be important—someone people wouldn’t know even after revealing his name and thinking for a long time.
As Evan’s advice to do as he pleased even in broadcasts came to mind, Siwoo made a bitter expression. Is that really possible? Though he’d rolled around in this industry for quite a long time, the case Evan mentioned was unrelated to him.
He’d never received excessive attention from people, and he’d never done broadcasts as he pleased. He did as they told him, to the extent of being called a puppet. Even when they told him to drink a beverage diluted with fish sauce on broadcast, even if he spat it back out, he had to keep it in his mouth.
Even with a fear of heights, he had to jump, and even while screaming in fear and collapsing, he had to go to the end.
“It’s pretty.”
As a tranquil scenery completely different from Seoul’s complicated Han River unfolded, Siwoo muttered quietly. His head was still complicated and full of worries, but he opened the car window at the beautiful scenery. His hair fluttered wildly in the cool breeze.
Siwoo liked the night. Past midnight, the world that had been spinning frantically gradually became quiet. And the night that had been endlessly darkening brightened dimly starting at dawn.
He liked that very brief moment between that darkness and twilight.
Late summer night.
He liked that darkness, silence, and coolness right before daybreak.
This place seemed to perfectly have that atmosphere he wanted. If he couldn’t have such time on this trip, he wanted to come again even alone.
People were leisurely riding bicycles along the quietly flowing river. The low grass and wildflowers with unknown names swaying beside them were like a painting. The antique bridge that was gradually getting closer—he wanted to walk on it with his own two feet rather than just passing by looking at it like this.
“Evan. I think this place would be prettier at night. Lights would come on that bridge too, right?”
What returned to his question wasn’t his voice but the clicking sound of photos being taken.
“Let’s go see it later.”
After the sound of photos being taken a few more times, the words “let’s go see it” naturally flowed from his mouth.
Siwoo closed the car window and looked at Evan while organizing his hair that had blown wildly.
A truly unknowable person. He couldn’t get a sense of whether it was because of the broadcast or if his personality was originally like this. He spoke affectionately enough with a stable mid-low voice that it wouldn’t be strange to fall in love right away.
From the voice calling his name for the first time, it was too sweet. His bright smile too, and even now he was looking at him with eyes that could literally drip honey, enough to cause misunderstanding.
“Will we have time?”
As if to say he really was a 3-second man.
If he were an Omega, he would have fallen into tremendous misunderstanding or love in an instant, but Siwoo was an extremely ordinary Beta.
“If we don’t have time, we can just come together next time.”
Siwoo almost said “Why would I?” for a moment. But instead of those words, his breathing got tangled and he only coughed lightly.
“Do you know today’s schedule?”
In awkward or somewhat difficult situations, it was good to say the most mainstream things. That was what Siwoo, who had hovered around this world eating humble pie, had learned.
“Since the arrival location seems to be the accommodation, we’ll greet everyone together and decide on rooms, so it’ll be evening. And at night they’ll probably have us play games while saying something about building friendship, right? That’s what most of PD Lee-nim’s broadcasts are like. By the way, is Coco good at cooking?”
That gaze that had been burdening Siwoo had disappeared. The ordinary conversation he wanted continued.
How many years had he lived alone—Siwoo had lived on his own since he was eighteen. He’d lived with members as a group, and he’d lived alone like now. In any case, one of the things that had improved remarkably as much as the time he’d lived alone was cooking.
“I can make food that people can eat.”
Standing out anywhere was not the right behavior. Carelessly saying you were good at something was also not good. Siwoo had set only one goal for this filming. Not standing out and not falling out of favor. Just assisting the brilliant Alphas and Omegas and finishing the filming safely.
“Help me.”
“Huh?”
“I’m bad at cooking. The members chase me out just for entering the kitchen. So if I get cooking duty, help me out a bit.”
“This is your third time here. Where do you want to go again? Is there a place you really want to go?”
Siwoo threw out a really random question and avoided answering.
“I think anywhere would be good if I go with you.”
Siwoo glanced at the camera still filming them and raised his hand to brush his face.
