It didn’t make sense. Of course, he could dislike him. But if he hated him that much, then why on earth did he accept this casting offer?
If he’d refused, there would have been no reason to come all the way to his house like this, they wouldn’t be uncomfortable with each other, everyone would be happy…… Conscience barely put the brakes on his wildly extending thoughts.
He couldn’t blame anyone at this point. Not refusing was the same for him too. Though the reason for that was probably very different from Kwon Isoo’s.
Do Yeonjae put aside the wasteful thoughts and got straight to the point.
“So, what are we doing about the interview? You got the briefing too.”
He hadn’t received the exact question list, but he’d been told the general direction of what kind of atmosphere it would proceed in and what questions to expect. Since the topics were mainly about their relationship, they could sufficiently come up with expected questions. It would be enough if they just matched up a few that came to mind right now.
But the tissue…. As he looked around, a whole pack of wet wipes flew right at him. He caught it at the perfect timing and pulled out a sheet.
“Ah, thanks.”
“Are you done eating? You’ve only eaten four slices.”
He could read the thought ‘A guy who could easily handle a whole pizza….’ in Kwon Isoo’s gaze looking at him wiping his hands. As he said, if he set his mind to it, one whole pizza was possible, but he’d already eaten lunch and had dinner plans, so it would be troublesome if he got too full. Because Sian-hyung suggested eating chicken.
No, in the first place, he didn’t come here to eat but to talk about the interview. He stared blankly at Kwon Isoo, who was fixating on a strange point.
“What time is the interview the day after tomorrow?”
“…Two in the afternoon.”
“Ah, mine’s in the morning. Ten o’clock.”
So it’s 1:1 interviews as conveyed in advance. Then all the more reason to prepare well.
“I have a few questions I thought of. First, our first impressions of each other or trainee days stories, I think we can just tell them as they were….”
Except for how it ended badly at the end, they were generally ordinary close trainee peers. No… was it ordinary?
‘Will you two die without each other? You’re so extreme, really.’
While he hesitated as the words of an old trainee friend who’d clicked their tongue suddenly came to mind, a low voice dug into his ears.
“What do you mean as they were?”
“Huh?”
“What was your first impression of me?”
The gaze that wouldn’t drop as if determined to hear an answer was persistent. At the sudden question, Do Yeonjae blanked out. First impression? If we’re talking about Kwon Isoo’s first impression…….
It definitely wasn’t good.
The existence called Kwon Isoo, who appeared out of nowhere one day, revived the competitive structure and hierarchical culture of the male practice room that had been rolling along peacefully in its own way.
Everyone here gathered wanting to be idols, so standing out with your face among them was by no means easy. But Kwon Isoo was someone who did that effortlessly. A person who drew gazes even doing nothing among guys desperately trying to stand out to others.
With just that good-looking face alone, he had more than enough to give other trainees a sense of crisis, and even the attitude of the New Artist Development Team was different. The team leader, who was always blunt as if ready to kick out the other guys at any time, became strangely gentle only with Kwon Isoo.
When that picky person who maintained a 365-day attitude of ‘Get out if you don’t like it’, ‘There are truckloads of kids like you’ used euphemistic phrasing like ‘~How about doing it this way?’ only to Kwon Isoo, the sorrow of the trainees who sobbed looking for their moms on the emergency stairs every night transformed into hatred directed at one person.
In comparison, Do Yeonjae didn’t particularly think much. Though he desperately wanted to debut, he didn’t wastefully spend his practice energy on others, and though the busy schedule was tough, he’d never sobbed on the emergency stairs. He just stared blankly at Kwon Isoo’s decent face and thought things like this. ……He won’t leave right away.
It was a bit flustering when he gave him a water bottle because he looked thirsty and it was immediately thrown to the floor though.
‘Get lost. I don’t need it.’
‘Ah, really? Got it.’
Do Yeonjae calmly nodded and went on his way. However, that scene was enough to become prey for the other trainees.
Everyone in the practice room liked Do Yeonjae except for a few guys steeped in inferiority complex. They couldn’t help it. Because Do Yeonjae was solid yet mild, diligent yet humble.
However, such goodwill turning into a reason to attack Kwon Isoo wasn’t particularly welcome to the person in question.
Hey, did you see Kwon Isoo acting shitty to Yeonjae? The team leader was fucking groveling to him too. That bastard 100% has a backer. What an annoying prick. Well, that was right. Showing hostility toward Do Yeonjae, a veteran trainee of this place, was like making all the trainees your enemy.
Kwon Isoo, who didn’t bend easily to overt malice and walked around with his head held high, gradually became ‘public enemy number one.’
As more time passed and he showed prominence in producing, the perception that he was on another level formed and even shallow checks disappeared, but before that, there was quite a lot of childish hazing. Glaring and shoulder-checking when passing by or not letting him join at mealtimes was common.
To Do Yeonjae’s eyes, it looked like the guy who shoulder-checked actually took the hit and staggered, and the way they glanced at Kwon Isoo eating alone looked more like they wanted to join him. He thought indifferently. Why can’t they all just be honest?
Moreover, the trainees kept making Do Yeonjae, who had become one of the ‘reasons’ to hate Kwon Isoo, tired.
‘Wow, fuck. Zero manners. That spot’s the one you’ve always used…. Anyway, don’t you just hate him? Yeonjae.’
It was nothing. While he was briefly away to change to new indoor shoes, Kwon Isoo’s shoes had filled the spot, and they made a fuss over just that. He probably thought it was empty and ownerless. Who cares who uses which shoe locker anyway….
If you’re going to hate him, hate him on your own, why do you keep trying to get my agreement? Because that was tiring, they arbitrarily said even the sighs he let out were directed at Kwon Isoo.
Their true intentions were obvious. They were afraid of falling out of favor with the New Artist Development Team if they directly confronted Kwon Isoo, and Kwon Isoo wouldn’t engage with them anyway. So they put him at the forefront. It was cheap and cowardly. It was a bit funny how they cursed about him having a backer while being cautious in case it was true.
The methods of the guys desperate to somehow catch Kwon Isoo’s flaws became increasingly crafty. They deliberately didn’t clap for him during weekly evaluation stages, didn’t share the suddenly changed dance class schedule. No one woke him up when he overslept at the dorm.
They even secretly stole his umbrella on a rainy day.
‘……’
Do Yeonjae, who was about to leave after finishing late-night practice, saw Kwon Isoo at the company building entrance. A back figure standing blankly looking up at the pouring rain. He was puzzled. He definitely saw him pack an umbrella at the dorm this morning….
Then suddenly, the scene of the trainee hyungs whispering suspiciously came to mind.
Hah. I can’t watch this. He let out a sigh and tapped his shoulder. Kwon Isoo, who was wearing AirPods, turned his head. He abruptly held out an umbrella in front of him.
‘Do you need this?’
‘……’
‘Just kidding. You use it.’
He unilaterally shoved the umbrella at him and ran off into the rain without even listening to an answer. He’d thought about sharing it, but it seemed like he’d absolutely refuse.
He didn’t leave Kwon Isoo alone after that either. He casually slipped next to him during meal times, clapped hard during weekly evaluation stages, and immediately ran to tell him when any schedule changed. He seemed to sleep in a lot in the mornings, so he woke him up regularly too.
The indifferent face that just came to his side as if it were natural was so nonchalant and shameless that Kwon Isoo almost mistook this for being a natural thing for a moment. He ignored Do Yeonjae who was bothering him out of the blue, cursed at him, looked at him incredulously, then soon asked. Why the sudden bullshit?
Do Yeonjae stared at Kwon Isoo looking at him like he was crazy, then answered.
‘Because I’m sorry.’
‘About what?’
You got cursed at more because I talked to you on the first day. He didn’t say the words after. To the trainee hyungs who’d been hazing, he said just one thing.
‘Don’t act childish. Isn’t that enough even after all that?’
In a practice room where visuals and skills were power, excluding both Do Yeonjae and Kwon Isoo was virtually impossible. The guys who’d been leading the hostile atmosphere shriveled up and started talking amiably to Kwon Isoo one by one.
Kwon Isoo stuck together with Do Yeonjae somehow looked different from usual, and that strange atmosphere might have given them courage. Of course, Kwon Isoo often got angry at Do Yeonjae and sometimes spat harsh curses, but compared to the thin-ice atmosphere when he was alone, there was room to interpret it as at least human.
‘I have no intention of talking with idiots, so fuck off.’
As if telling them that was a huge misunderstanding, most fell away at the fierce tone and irritable expression.
Even in the midst of that, Do Yeonjae approached Kwon Isoo and handed him a towel to wipe sweat with an unconcerned face. Whether he was pretending not to see the cold atmosphere from just now, or whether he didn’t care if others heard such words. Do Yeonjae, indifferent to everything, now made even Kwon Isoo curious about such things.
At the obvious stare, Do Yeonjae raised an eyebrow.
‘Why?’
‘Looking at you, I think you’re the most my-way of anyone.’
He even laughed slightly at the clearly sarcastic remark.
‘That’s a compliment, right?’
‘……’
That light laugh was, how should he say it. It completely stripped away a person’s fighting spirit. It made him give up even when trying to spit out sharp words. Fuck, fine. Do whatever the fuck you want. At some point, he started leaving Do Yeonjae alone even when he approached. That repeated for one month, two months.
Even after Do Yeonjae attached himself, there were still guys who secretly checked him. Though they couldn’t do it openly, they acted childishly under the surface. What completely shut those persistent guys up was Kwon Isoo’s composing ability.
Kwon Isoo created his own place in the practice room.
By then, it was after their daily routine of sticking together had become too natural. Even if he said such cringeworthy things like let’s definitely debut together, Kwon Isoo no longer sneered.
‘If you write songs and I sing them, it’s perfect. Right?’
‘……’
‘What. You don’t like it? I’ll even specially sing the guide for you.’
‘Why are you asking now? When have you ever gotten my permission?’
