Lim Sehyun paid for the new phone. He complained about the injustice, but Doha pointed out his past actions of suppressing one person’s free will and made him pay for it eventually.
Getting a new item felt good. Moreover, buying it with someone else’s money was even better.
Anyway, he had no particular attachment to the contacts on his old phone, so it didn’t really bother him. Rather, it felt like being liberated from the real Baek Doha’s complicated human relationships, so he even thought he should have done this sooner.
“Are you happy?”
“Yeah.”
“Of course you’d be happy with an expensive phone bought with the maknae’s money.”
“Yeah. I’m happy.”
Even though Sehyun earned good money from copyrights, his complaints didn’t reach Doha’s ears at all. While waiting for the ordered coffee to come out, Doha sat in the waiting chair looking at his phone and doing various settings.
Sehyun, who had been watching Doha with his arms folded, took the phone from Doha’s hands. Doha, whose phone was suddenly snatched from his hands, raised his head.
“You really have bad hand habits. No, not just your hands—all your habits are bad.”
“You know that 100% of this device’s equity came from my pocket, right?”
“Just a moment.”
Still, he had to humor the person who spent money. Doha waited obediently.
Sehyun took Doha’s phone and pressed buttons without hesitation. Beeping sounds continued for a while. A little later, Sehyun returned the phone to Doha.
“What did you do?”
Doha looked at the screen of the returned phone. A strange name appeared in the address book that had been blank as white paper.
“You didn’t have my number.”
[Universe’s Strongest Cutie Sehyun💗]
“Cutie… pie?”
Doha’s lips twisted crookedly.
“Our maknae doesn’t seem to objectify himself well.”
“I do it too well, that’s the problem? For someone like me, I’m being excessively modest.”
“The heart is so cringeworthy.”
“Don’t modify it. I’ll check every day.”
Lim Sehyun, a man who does what he says. It seemed certain he would keep his word, so Doha didn’t dare to rebel.
It was somehow strange that the first person saved in his new life’s first phone was Lim Sehyun. As expected of a protagonist. He wondered if the world was revolving too much around Lim Sehyun.
“Customer number 225, your ordered beverages are ready.”
Just then, the drinks came out, and Doha stood up from his seat without even having a chance to mess with Sehyun’s name. The two people, each holding drinks, headed back to the studio.
As Doha passed the sewer where the unfortunate incident had occurred, he resolved to definitely file a complaint about the iron sewer with large holes.
That day when he got his new phone, Doha returned to the studio and directly entered the members’ numbers. As he entered the members’ names character by character, he felt a ticklish sensation.
Like the feeling of saving the number of a newly made friend during school days? It was a bit different, but anyway, it felt like the members were pushing their way into his private domain.
Cheolhwan, who arrived late at the studio after handling work at the company, was shocked when he heard about Doha’s phone incident.
In the middle of the night, he went to the sewer and managed to fish out Baek Doha’s phone with a long pole. This was because he was worried that the phone might fall into someone’s hands.
Doha, who lent his strength to open the sewer lid to help Cheolhwan, grumbled about whether they really had to go this far, but after hearing about how if the contents of that Pandora’s phone fell into someone’s hands and Baek Doha’s life was exposed, the team would collapse, the company would collapse, the company’s stock price would fluctuate wildly, employees would be fired, a household would crumble, and society would collapse…… he quietly shut his mouth.
Though it was utterly difficult to understand why society and households would collapse just because one phone was exposed, not even the group or company.
* * *
The next day, cameras invaded the practice room again. This was to film video planning the choreography team and stage performance. Seeing them every day, he was getting used to the broadcasting station people too.
“Who’s coming?”
Doha, who had changed into practice clothes and entered the practice room, heard people murmuring. It seemed like a story about a special guest coming. Curious about who was coming to cause such a commotion, Doha asked Cheolhwan.
“Ah. That……”
“Doha hyung! Come quickly!”
Just as Cheolhwan was about to answer, Sehyun waved his hand in the air looking for Doha. Unavoidably, Doha headed toward the members without hearing the answer. He’d find out when they arrived anyway.
“Isn’t that my pants?”
“No, it’s not.”
Yunbeom asked, looking at Doha’s training pants. Honestly, Doha had no way to confirm if the clothes were his, but since they were hanging on his clothes rack, he decided to think they were his.
“I think it’s mine.”
“If you’re going to get that confused, you should have written your name on your clothes.”
“Yeah. I did.”
Oh, didn’t expect that. Who would have thought he actually wrote his name on his clothes? Doha slyly flipped the waistband part to look for Yunbeom’s name that might be somewhere.
“You believe that? It’s mine after all.”
He got fooled.
“We’re starting filming!”
With an energetic voice, filming started, and Yunbeom and Doha’s small quarrel stopped. The camera captured Sehyun, Haram, Eden, the performance director, and the dance team who had been discussing choreography from earlier.
“Here, for the performance, wouldn’t sword dance be better than fans?”
“Isn’t that a bit too common?”
“How about masks? At first just wearing masks, then later going full mask dance vibe with even lion masks appearing.”
“That seems like it went too far.”
Haram’s eyes were sparkling as he shared his opinions.
“Haram really dances well.”
At Doha’s words murmured like talking to himself, Yunbeom put his elbow on Doha’s shoulder and answered.
“He used to do ballet.”
“Ah. That’s why his dance lines are so good.”
Haram’s dancing definitely had depth even to an untrained eye. The amazing ability to add his own atmosphere even while doing the same group dance. It was impressive.
“He seems to be in his element with competitions. He’s completely on fire.”
At Yunbeom’s words, Doha nodded. The last competition, he got through by memorizing Sparta-style without using his brain, but he started to worry whether he could do well this time too. He wondered what he’d do if those people full of enthusiasm demanded something very difficult.
Haram and the dance team moved a bit away to check the movement lines. Eden and Sehyun were exchanging various opinions while looking at the movement lines drawn on paper. It strangely felt like only the two eldest hyungs were watching a fire from across the river……
“Hyung! Come here.”
Sehyun interrupted what had been such an enjoyable spectacle for Doha. He was securing broadcast screen time for the two hyungs.
“Hyungs, have you ever held fans?”
Suddenly Sehyun asked Doha and Yunbeom. First, Doha opened his mouth.
“Fans? No.”
“Doesn’t everyone do fan dance at least once at elementary school talent shows?”
“Did we?”
He definitely had such memories.
“Don’t they not do that kind of thing these days?”
When Yunbeom tilted his head quizzically, Sehyun nodded.
“Then Doha hyung can do this.”
What, what is, why. This is what happens when you watch a fire from across the river. But it seemed like a situation where complaining would make him look shameless.
“Yunbeom hyung doesn’t have a fear of heights. Okay.”
Doha ended up seeing it. The stick figure drawing jumping down from a high platform on the paper in Lim Sehyun’s hands. Refuse the fan and it’s diving…… It was the moment when his lips that were about to whine shut tight like an iron fortress.
“The set is a bit complicated so it seems we need to move quickly quickly…… Can you play the song? I think we need to check if there’s time to run from here to where Haram is.”
Sehyun had a subtly meticulous personality. At Sehyun’s words, just as Doha was moving his steps to find the remote control.
The filming staff exchanged some eye signals and then turned the camera toward the practice room door. Accordingly, Doha’s gaze also followed toward the door.
“Wow!”
Someone’s surprised voice was heard, and soon applause burst out. It was because of the special guest who entered opening the door.
‘Seo Yungyeom?’
It was Seo Yungyeom. Receiving people’s attention, Seo Yungyeom showed a pleasant smile and lightly waved his hand.
“Nice to meet you.”
He greeted everyone in the practice room one by one. Doha, who had just been about to grab the remote control, was a little surprised by his appearance.
“Wow, sunbae-nim, welcome.”
“How did you come all the way to this humble place……”
The members and dancers flocked to welcome him.
“I came to visit for support and encouragement. If there’s anything I can help with, please feel free to tell me.”
Yungyeom’s gaze, which had been making eye contact with people, swept around the practice room once. Finally, his eyes reached Doha who was in the corner of the practice room. The moment their eyes met, his long eye shape curved and the corners of his mouth were pulled up.
‘The broadcasting station makes people do all sorts of things.’
Sending busy people around to help this team and that team. I wonder how much they pay for appearances.
Having such trivial thoughts, Doha headed toward where everyone had gathered with the remote control. The briefly entangled gazes each found their proper places.
