“What’s this?”
Siwoo stared blankly at the single plum placed on his palm. They had eaten sushi without any major trouble, and now he had just asked where he could buy plums.
Evan had told him to wait a moment, left, and came back to place a single plum on Siwoo’s hand.
“A plum.”
“No. You shouldn’t be giving me a plum, you should be telling me where they sell them.”
“I’ll give them to you. You can contact me anytime you want to eat them.”
Watching Evan speak with a slight smile, Siwoo let out a snort without realizing it. Telling him to contact him whenever he wants to eat plums! Then does that mean he can contact him at 2 AM in the dead of winter, just like that? Right now there might still be plums left at the end of the season, but once the season changed, it would be a fruit he couldn’t eat even if he wanted to.
“Why just one?”
“Do you want more?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
Pouting his lips, Siwoo took a small bite of the end of the plum. That familiar taste. That imagined taste. As that already-known taste spread throughout his mouth, a smile naturally formed on his lips. Literally in the blink of an eye, the small plum disappeared into his mouth.
Wiping his hands with a wet tissue, Siwoo stood up from his seat. Even if he asked, it didn’t seem like Evan would tell him. Even if he did tell him, it was obvious that finding more plums at the end of the season wouldn’t be easy.
He had clearly intended to pay for the sushi himself, but when Siwoo went to the register, he only heard that it had already been paid for. So this time, since they had moved in his car, he tried to give Evan a ride home.
“Don’t save them, eat them all and make sure to tell me.”
Coming out to the parking lot, Siwoo received the small box Evan held out to him. A small box containing plums, neatly packaged to prevent damage. Behind Evan was his manager, looking at Siwoo disapprovingly.
“You just need to tell me where they sell them.”
“I have to leave first because of my schedule. I’m sorry I can’t go with you.”
Watching Evan’s broad back as he said sorry, patted his head once, and left, Siwoo lowered his head. The plums he had given him came into view.
Placing the box on the passenger seat, Siwoo sat in the driver’s seat and his hand reached for the plum box again.
He took out one small, glossy plum and put it whole into his mouth. His cheek bulged, but that wasn’t important. While driving home like that, Siwoo ate six more plums.
* * *
“Ah. This is really embarrassing.”
They said today’s commentary filming would be short. It wasn’t going to air on the main broadcast, but would be released on the broadcasting site—it was about the pre-interview content and the footage of each of them arriving at the meeting point.
Why does it start with me?
I really should have gone to the salon. I didn’t know they’d release it like this.
“Siwoo, you’re so cute.”
With his calm bob cut covering his eyebrows and wearing a sky blue shirt, Siwoo’s round eyes looked like black beans stuck in white rice cakes.
[Hello. I’m Kim Siwoo.]
Yechan hugged him from behind as he watched Siwoo on the monitor bowing and calmly introducing himself. He ended up being held by Yechan, but Siwoo didn’t particularly try to escape from his embrace.
“I should have gone to the salon.”
Unable to watch his own image flowing on the screen any longer, Siwoo covered his face with both hands. He wanted to crawl into a mouse hole if there was one. Why would they bother releasing something like this on the site?
“No, you’re really cute. The era of Coco will now unfold. Really, our Siwoo did such great work during this filming!”
When even Hyunsu chimed in from the side, Siwoo’s ears turned red. When the not-so-long pre-interview ended, Siwoo let out a sigh of relief and drank the juice in front of him through a straw.
He picked up a snack from the front while watching the other members’ pre-interviews.
“Huh.”
No sooner had he done that than a scene of Siwoo toddling around the airport appeared.
“Right. Siwoo-hyung. Your outfit that day was really cute. Where did you buy that aviation jumper?”
“Siwoo, you really have incredibly long and pretty legs compared to your height. Is that why you always wear skinny jeans with oversized tops? But it suits you so perfectly.”
Everyone made comments while watching the screen, but only Siwoo couldn’t say anything. He had thought everything filmed of him would be edited out, but he hadn’t expected it all to be broadcast like this.
“Was traveling alone a hobby of yours, Siwoo?”
“Yes. When I travel quietly alone, I have a lot of time to think.”
Just as he answered Hyunsu’s question, it switched to Evan’s screen. He tensed up whenever he appeared, but when the screen changed to other members, the tension naturally released from Siwoo’s body.
“Wow. As expected of Evan. Isn’t this just a walking pictorial?”
Everyone burst into laughter at Luca’s fawning. And for good reason—Evan preferred wearing achromatic colors. Just filming him walking from a distance in black jeans, a black jacket, a black ball cap, and a black mask, he turned the crowded airport into a runway.
“Evan. Learn from Siwoo a bit. Siwoo’s sound is full, but why do you only go straight? Are you a straight-ahead guy?”
It must have been bad enough that the editing team was directing Evan’s journey from ticketing to the plane with fast-forward.
The caption [He moved silently.] was attached below.
“Oh! What? Is this why you two came together? Your seats were both first class, and right next to each other? How did this happen? Weren’t we all supposed to come on our own?”
“That time, this…”
As soon as the scene of Evan and Siwoo meeting appeared, Yechan shouted loudly. Because of that, Evan’s voice trying to explain this situation overlapped in one audio.
“Ah! Both Yechan and Evan. It’s not like you’re amateurs, the audio is clashing.”
Siwoo, who was about to say he had changed his ticket, just moved his lips and kept them firmly shut.
So really, that was unexpected. But since the others didn’t know the detailed situation, even Louis and Ian chimed in about just the two of them riding first class.
Siwoo had definitely also been assigned an economy seat. He had upgraded to first class with the mindset of spending all his remaining money before his regression.
“Evan-hyung. You did fan-claiming as soon as you met.”
“Evan really is a successful fan, a successful fan.”
“Of course. I’m a first-generation Coco-mom.”
Everyone kept making comments about the scenes shown, so the audio frequently clashed, but later everyone stopped caring about such things.
“Louis and Ian came straight from America? Amazing.”
“The flight was really long and hard then, but as soon as we met, Evan-hyung’s pheromones. Ah, really!”
“Okay! We’ve watched it! Now that you’ve seen it, how do you all feel?”
Just like during filming, Hyunsu, who was in charge of the commentary, organized the chaotic situation.
When the approximately 40-minute video ended, everyone was making a fuss again, pouring out what they each wanted to say.
“Definitely. The main broadcast will be more interesting than this.”
“Siwoo was a lucky icon throughout the trip.”
“I thought the first broadcast would start with us meeting, but the main broadcast starts from the accommodation where we gathered?”
Ian threw a question toward the production staff who were filming.
Everyone focused in that direction to hear the explanation from the production staff who weren’t wearing microphones.
“So because it’s a total of 10 episodes, the main story progresses in the main broadcast, and behind-the-scenes stories are also released on the site together?”
“What kind of behind-the-scenes will be released?”
Unlike the members who were actively participating in the filming, Siwoo was a bit left out. It wasn’t easy to find a gap to jump in since the audio might clash. Suddenly his shoulder felt heavy, and Siwoo looked to the side.
Yechan and Ian had definitely been sitting next to him just a moment ago, but Evan was there instead of Yechan.
“Why?”
At his sudden appearance and action of putting his arm around him, Siwoo threw out a question in a small voice, wondering what was going on.
“Just because.”
“What won’t make it to the main broadcast? What could there be?”
Curious about what scenes would go into the behind-the-scenes, Ian kept asking the production staff questions.
“There is! Evan-hyung and Siwoo-hyung’s kiss.”
When Yechan suddenly said that with a laugh, everyone roared with laughter. As people’s attention suddenly focused on them, Siwoo quickly shook his shoulder to remove his hand.
“No. That can proudly air on the main broadcast.”
That was really just a small happening that occurred during the game. It didn’t even properly touch, it just grazed past like that, but saying it so openly like this made it seem like they really kissed.
“You need to clarify this for us. Is it the main broadcast? Is it behind-the-scenes? Don’t tell me it’s saved in the editing room?”
Hyunsu asked in a serious voice as if it were a really serious and important matter.
“Wow! As expected, amazing! Everyone, it’s the main broadcast. You’ll be able to see it on the main broadcast.”
Since it was a scene from the game, it was naturally a part that should air without being cut. It was such an interesting scene that they could talk about it jokingly like this. And that scene had to air to explain why Siwoo and Evan held hands and walked around.
“What kind of kiss is that?”
While everyone was making merry, Evan bluntly spat out a comment.
“If it’s not a kiss, what is it?”
“No. Wait, even if we make a fuss like this, if the production staff edits this all out, us doing this is pointless.”
At the suddenly ignited situation, Siwoo covered his lips with his hand out of habit. What’s so important about that? In a situation where the audio was clashing as it pleased, Luca approached Siwoo with a playful expression.
“Come on, tell hyung quietly. Did it touch? Didn’t it touch? Should we whisper if you’re embarrassed?”
“What kind of question is that? That happened while playing a game! If this airs without being edited, the viewers will misunderstand.”
It was even more awkward because this topic came up when the two of them happened to be sitting side by side.
“That’s why I’m telling you to just tell me.”
“It touched.”
“It didn’t touch.”
Because Luca kept asking and Yechan kept joking around, Siwoo closed his eyes tightly and shouted. That it didn’t touch. But his sound clashed with Evan, who said it did touch as if they had coordinated it.
“What? What did you say? Evan-hyung said something at the same time too.”
It became a mess for a moment with the kiss incident, but when the atmosphere settled down, everyone focused on the commentary.
