“……!”
Costumes hanging in rows on dozens of hangers, scattered props. The flashlight searching the interior suddenly flinched and whipped around.
“…Shit, it was a mannequin.”
Perhaps uncomfortable examining such a place in the middle of the night, he quickly went outside.
A little while after the man left, Go Won slowly released Yusang. And he moved his steps silently.
In the corner he looked around, there was something he’d glimpsed earlier.
A freight elevator.
“Should we take this down?”
“Where to?”
“The underground parking lot. I think we can get outside from there.”
“…Okay.”
The elevator that arrived not long after opened its mouth. Perhaps because it wasn’t meant to transport people, the interior of the elevator was crude and dim.
“Hic…”
Yusang naturally grabbed Go Won’s elbow.
“……?”
Of course, he hadn’t particularly planned to send him alone, but to act as if accompanying him was so natural…
‘…No. Never mind.’
The way he sought help from his hyung so familiarly brought various thoughts to mind.
Go Won entered the freight elevator first and had Yusang follow.
“…Um.”
A hesitant voice called Go Won.
“You are helping me, right?”
“Yes.”
“But… why aren’t you scared?”
“…Who knows.”
It was a pessimistic mind that habitually assumed the worst-case scenario. But even by his own thinking, his current state was a bit strange.
As if, like Yusang earlier, he believed someone would miraculously save him…
A rumbling noise echoed inside the freight elevator.
Yusang’s frightened breathing grew rough. Go Won glanced at him and then silently shone his phone’s flashlight at their feet.
Arriving at the underground floor, this time too Go Won stepped outside first.
Yusang, who had been extremely frightened and hunched over awkwardly, straightened his back. His steps were unstable, as if the tension wouldn’t leave.
Still, he desperately followed well. However, the moment he stepped on the stairs going up to the ground floor, he gripped the railing and gritted his teeth.
“Ugh…!”
“Are you hurt?”
“…From running earlier.”
“……”
“I’m fine, so let’s go.”
Go Won moved his steps upward.
However, Jeong Yusang, whose body had stiffened from the consecutive escapes and the continuous tension, kept stopping to grit his teeth and grip his knee.
Go Won eventually stopped at a middle landing. And turned his back.
“Get on my back.”
“……?”
“It’ll be faster if I carry you and run.”
“N-no.”
“This isn’t the time to be proud, is it?”
In the direction Go Won gestured, there were trembling legs. Yusang muttered something grumblingly, but eventually clung to Go Won’s back.
Go Won carried him on his back, hoisted him up once, then picked up speed climbing the stairs.
“Aren’t, aren’t I heavy?”
“A little over 50kg.”
“…Yes.”
“I lifted that much often when working part-time.”
“…What part-time job lifts 50kg? Did you work at a gym?”
“……”
Go Won didn’t answer and just moved silently. Yusang, who had seemed uncomfortable, also gradually tried to be as still as possible to not burden the other person.
Though his mouth didn’t follow that effort.
“Um.”
“Yes.”
“Why are you helping me…?”
“Because it seemed like a bad situation.”
“…You don’t hate me?”
Even though I kept acting like that…
The muttering that burst out like a sigh was heard directly by Go Won, who was right next to his mouth. Go Won struggled to swallow a sigh.
“You resemble my youngest sibling, so not really.”
“…Your youngest sibling acts toward you, no, toward Go Won-ssi like I do?”
“No. Suhyeon listens well to me.”
For a moment, Go Won, who had been looking only forward, glanced at Yusang on his back.
“I watched Newton sunbae-nim’s self-content. The way you treated Nam Jungho sunbae-nim there… was exactly like the way my younger sibling looks at me.”
Go Won hoisted Yusang’s body up once.
“Why does he treat someone like me that way, what am I that he treats me like such an amazing person. I never understood why my younger sibling did that.”
“……”
“…Now I can somewhat empathize because I also want to show a good side to hyung.”
“……”
“Thinking that way, I also understood that I’m in an adversarial position from sunbae-nim’s situation.”
Because recently, Go Won and Newton had been fiercely compared at the company based on each other’s success or failure.
Yusang couldn’t say anything. Since Go Won hadn’t particularly expected an answer either, he just quietly moved his steps.
However, not long after, Yusang gripped Go Won’s clothes tightly.
“Then you won’t hate it if I call you hyung.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m still in high school so calling people so-and-so-ssi is awkward. If hyung doesn’t hate me either, I’ll just call you that.”
“…Ah, yes.”
“If you don’t like it, say so…”
Go Won just moved his steps silently. At that moment, Yusang suddenly thought to ask.
“But how old is your younger sibling?”
“Ten years old.”
“…Huh?”
“We’re getting close to the first floor, so try contacting the people coming to pick you up.”
“Ah!”
Yusang called Jungho again. Since their faces were positioned close, the other person’s voice beyond the call was heard better. Worry was clearly embedded in it.
“Yeah, hyung. The back door would be better. I’ll go right after exiting the emergency stairs.”
Fortunately, it seemed they’d almost arrived.
“Go Won hyung, I can run.”
“Okay.”
Go Won let Yusang down from his back, and the two ran as soon as the emergency exit door opened.
“Yusang-ah!”
“Jeong Yusang!”
Newton’s members, including Nam Jungho, hurriedly approached Yusang.
“Hyuuung, hyuuuung…!”
Yusang burst into tears.
The hyung who had been cold for days was nowhere to be found. Leader Nam Jungho looked Yusang over this way and that to see if he was hurt anywhere. In that gaze was the warm worry Yusang knew well.
But that was only for a moment—the members who’d welcomed the maknae flinched in surprise seeing the person who came with him. Yusang quickly waved his hand.
“Hyung, Go Won hyung helped me. He hid me so I could escape and carried me all the way here.”
“Ah…”
Nam Jungho, who’d put Yusang in the van, softened his wary demeanor and approached Go Won.
“Th-thank you. …Were you also called here for the same reason, Go Won-ssi?”
“No, I was in the practice room…”
Ah. Go Won groaned quietly. And glanced back.
“I’ll be going now. Sunbae-nim, please leave quickly too…”
“You bastards, what the hell are you doing!”
What cut off Go Won’s words was a middle-aged man’s angry shout.
Before they knew it, 4th Division Head Executive Director Choi Dongjin was standing in front of the van. His roughly heaving back—it was impossible to tell if it was from running all the way here or from rage reaching the sky.
Newton’s road manager, who’d come in the van with the members, suppressed his anger and struggled to produce an appeasing voice.
“Division Head, Yusang is still young, so it’s difficult for him to go to a meeting alone. So…”
“Young or whatever, this is work!”
“That… did you hear that the other side is Yusang’s school violence perpetrator?”
Another staff member also called out in the middle of the night carefully stepped forward. Though it was foolish to expect a reaction like ‘What? Really?’ and an apology even now.
“It was in first year of middle school. He’d just graduated elementary school. So Somyeong Entertainment made a good proposal.”
“…Then you’re saying you knew from the beginning and created that meeting?”
Nam Jungho asked back with a shocked face.
“Ha, Nam Jungho. I thought you at least were an adult. The bastard who’s the leader, you have no sense like this? How can you be like this?”
“How can you do this to Yusang, Division Head?”
The Executive Director beat his chest as if truly frustrated. The more he did so, the more the others’ expressions only hardened.
Realizing there was no one here who would help him, the Executive Director glared sharply at the dim interior of the car.
“Hey! You’re the one ruining the whole group! Because of you alone, Newton won’t be able to release albums or promote anymore!”
“……”
“Stop it.”
The one who blocked Newton, who had shrunk back, was Go Won.
Even knowing he was a young kid, one couldn’t help but flinch when a build well over 180cm approached.
Moreover, Executive Director Choi had experienced the same thing from Kwon Taeyoung in the conference room. That amplified his displeasure even more.
“Why, what. Are you going to rat on me to Kwon Taeyoung?”
“Yes. I’ll relay everything about today and everything the Executive Director said. Since he told me to tell him right away if there are any problems.”
Go Won looked directly into his eyes.
Executive Director Choi wasn’t a frightening opponent to Go Won. It was different from last winter when he’d been intimidated by him.
The people of the 5th Division, and Baek Hanje, had given him that level of trust.
“I saw it. The sight of 4th Division people chasing to forcibly drag Jeong Yusang sunbae-nim in front of his school violence perpetrator.”
Executive Director Choi looked around in the direction Go Won pointed with bloodshot eyes.
Soon a sneer burst out.
“Do you guys think you can even report this if you go back? Starting with the PR team leader who dotes on singers, they’ll try to shut Jeong Yusang’s mouth.”
“……”
“Do you think you can talk about this outside? And, well.”
Nauseating, dank emotions rippled in his black pupils.
“In the end, nothing happened, right?”
“…Ha.”
Go Won felt the strength leave his upper body, where he’d been desperately applying force. Because the opponent was too shameless and had not a bit of morality, his competitive spirit was actually broken.
At the same time, he couldn’t hide the contempt appearing on his face.
“This bastard…”
Executive Director Choi also noticed his emotions, clumsy at managing expressions.
“I’ll definitely ruin you.”
“……”
“Executive Director.”
One staff member who approached just then whispered something to him. Executive Director Choi nodded.
“Jeong Yusang, go and just say you were good friends. Just say that much. They say they’ll take your situation into consideration.”
“Executive Director!”
“You can’t even do this much? Selling your image is your job, isn’t it? Huh? Drag the rest of those bastards away!”
“Wow, how pathetic. I must never age like that.”
In the heated atmosphere, a leisurely, twisted voice intruded.
The owner of the voice approached into the chaos and pulled Go Won’s elbow, making him step back half a step behind him.
“10 minutes, done. You endured well.”
To Go Won’s ear, a voice exactly like the softly twisted tone in the hallucination was conveyed.
