“Yeah.”
It wasn’t a deep wound, and it was only bothersome when washing hands – not really a problem. But Sehyun seemed quite concerned.
“Want to go to the hospital together?”
“Nobody goes to the hospital for something like this.”
What hospital for a grown adult over some scratches? Doha snorted.
“But it’ll probably hurt a lot when we go to the practice room.”
A learned fear suddenly rushed in that if he suddenly said his body was fine, he’d be dragged to the practice room. Because Lim Sehyun was someone who couldn’t stand to see him rest even a day.
“Don’t you have a schedule today? Does everyone not have one?”
Thinking about it, they were all at the dorm together for once. Usually they’d be scattered everywhere, busy with their respective scheduled tasks.
“I have radio later. Yunbeom hyung too.”
“I have to go to the studio because of a featuring.”
At Haram’s answer, Eden also spoke up.
Sehyun had said there was no other time as leisurely as this, and if that was true, Doha thought he really needed to escape from here.
Even now they were practicing by cutting into sleep time, and this was when his body was most comfortable? He recalled seeing on TV that idol schedules were so packed there was no time to sleep.
Was that even a way for people to live?
“Only you and I are free, hyung.”
Sehyun said, raising the corners of his lips. At that, Doha got goosebumps. He didn’t know why.
Just then.
Ding-.
A phone notification rang. Doha took out his phone and checked.
How about coffee today?
It was Yungyeom.
“I have a schedule too.”
He said while sending a reply saying he understood. Then Sehyun looked at Doha with a frown.
“Ah. A personal appointment.”
If it was coffee he had to buy someday anyway, it would be good to do it on a free day, right? Doha answered without much thought.
Not knowing how much that one statement shook Sehyun’s heart.
* * *
‘Personal appointment.’
Lim Sehyun pressed hard on his throbbing temples. The one statement from Baek Doha that he had just heard at the dorm kept sticking in his mind and wouldn’t leave. Personal appointment? At this time? What kind of accident is he trying to cause now?
Sehyun’s trust in Doha was somewhere around 0, give or take. He didn’t want to hear anyone ask why he was like this when the child wasn’t left by the water’s edge.
Just roughly listing Baek Doha’s atrocities from his past life was a minefield. It was practically a demilitarized zone.
So in the end, Sehyun made this choice.
He ended up doing the shameless act of tagging along to Doha’s ‘personal’ schedule. This wasn’t a matter of worrying about shame.
“Why the hell did you even come?”
Doha’s eyes looking at Sehyun sitting on the sofa next to him were sharp. They were eyes sick to death of him.
“Because it’s boring to be alone.”
“You have a lot of work to do.”
A lot. Fucking a lot. But among Sehyun’s ‘work to do’, the top priority was regulating Baek Doha’s private life.
“If hyung goes around meeting weird bastards, the team is in danger.”
Doha, who was about to retort, closed his mouth with a sigh. It seemed he knew what kind of treatment he was receiving. Sehyun didn’t bat an eye at such a reaction from Doha. Why would he be sorry? Rather, he was fixing his life. This was something close to a sense of mission.
“Ruthless bastard.”
Doha muttered ‘ruthless bastard’ with a fed-up expression.
The place the two arrived at was a cafe with private rooms in the suburbs. An entire panoramic window displayed a mountain full of greenery.
‘Why is the location choice like this?’
Why specifically meet in a remote place in the outskirts of Seoul, and in an isolated space with ‘private’ attached at that?
Sehyun blatantly showed his unpleasant mood with his chin propped up. A 15-year top star senior drinking coffee alone with a junior, and in such an enclosed space at that? The ulterior motive was obvious. That old geezer.
Then, Yungyeom, who arrived late, opened the door and came in.
“Sorry. My schedule finished late…… Sehyun-ssi is here too.”
Yungyeom, who had been coming in urgently, seemed a bit surprised to see Sehyun sitting next to Doha. But he quickly showed a smile as if it never happened.
Sly bastard.
He definitely saw him flustered, but the way he immediately greeted with his eyes as if pleased.
Even if he was a senior he respected until yesterday, he decided to classify anyone who clung to Doha hyung as a dangerous element from that day on. To Sehyun, Yungyeom was now nothing more than a hyena lurking around a minefield.
What the hell does he have to be spreading around to seduce even someone like this?
“I wanted to see Sehyun-ssi too, so this worked out well.”
Yungyeom sat across from them. A neatly dressed server took their orders.
“Coffee?”
“I’ll have tomato juice.”
Sehyun answered first.
“I’ll have the same……”
“The coffee here is delicious. They roast the beans themselves.”
“Ah, then coffee.”
Sehyun was annoyed again at Doha’s wishy-washiness. It was irritating how he quickly switched to coffee at one word from Seo Yungyeom. So much for having principles.
“The 2nd round competition stage was really impressive.”
“Was it?”
At Yungyeom’s words, Sehyun answered instead. Doha was breaking out in a cold sweat at Sehyun’s somehow sharp answer, and Sehyun felt such tension from Doha.
“Did the ink painted on your faces come off well?”
“Cleansing products are good these days.”
“I heard there was a problem with the props.”
“Rather, thanks to that we changed the finale and the reaction was better.”
Through Sehyun’s tinted glasses, Doha looked like a puppy wagging its tail wanting to be praised.
When I praised him for doing well, he was only indifferent.
The two continued exchanging conversation he wasn’t particularly curious about. What team was cool, where they almost made a mistake, whether the scores came out well or not – honestly, setting aside Doha’s matters, it was definitely content Sehyun would have excitedly talked about together too.
Sunlight poured through the panoramic window. Aren’t they worried about UV rays? With their faces all exposed, smiling brightly.
While Sehyun blankly watched the two, the drinks they ordered came out.
When he slurped the tomato juice full of ice, his insides seemed to cool down a bit. Swish swish, the innocent tomato juice was being stirred in Sehyun’s hand.
“I’m totally a Doha-ssi fan these days.”
Crunch.
Sehyun chewed hard on his straw. Fan? What ordinary fan calls someone to drink coffee one-on-one? If you’re a fan, buy albums and vote.
“Haha, thank you. I’m learning a lot watching you host, sunbae-nim.”
“Aw, I’m just a machine that reads scripts. These days when I see OnX, I think I want to stand on the same stage.”
What about your own team, coming here saying you want to compete? What a strange person.
The more Sehyun looked, the more he disliked Yungyeom. But he didn’t want to make Doha uncomfortable anymore. He can’t be hated.
While the two were chatting haha hoho, Sehyun briefly recalled memories of the past.
News articles plastered all over with Baek Doha, the necklace he held until he died, the depression medication bottles and photos rolling around.
They were things that squeezed his heart every time he recalled them.
Right, just having him alive and sitting next to me already feels like receiving a huge gift…… Maybe I’m trying to kill someone with my own impatience…….
“Do you like sashimi?”
“I’m more craving soju.”
Kill what? I need to control him more. He still hasn’t come to his senses. Drinking with someone? Even bringing it up first? As expected, his true nature doesn’t go anywhere.
Slurp. Slurrrrrp-.
Sehyun noisily sucked up the tomato juice that wasn’t much left. Then the two people’s gazes touched on Sehyun.
“Why? I have an alcohol allergy.”
“No you don’t.”
“I do. I got it starting today.”
At Sehyun’s stubborn-seeming words, Doha pressed his brow bridge hard with his hand as if his head was throbbing. Then Yungyeom interjected into the two’s conversation.
“But you two really seem close. I can see that Sehyun-ssi cherishes Doha-ssi.”
Large if you call it large, small if you call it small – the age difference, but somehow Yungyeom’s smile held an adult-like aspect. At that, Sehyun was dumbfounded once again.
Compared to before regression, it’s about the same. But even before regression, he wasn’t this snake-like. Strangely, this person had composure ingrained in his body.
“The maknae seems to follow his hyung well.”
He didn’t like the attitude of subtly treating him like a child. The gaze looking at him as if he’s cute from earlier too.
Cherish?
Sehyun looked straight at Seo Yungyeom with his chin propped up. Then he raised the corners of his lips.
“Of course I cherish him.”
Sehyun continued while putting his arm around Doha’s shoulder.
“Our hyung requires so much attention. He can’t do without me.”
“……”
Doha looked at him as if dumbfounded, but Sehyun ignored it.
“Especially, weird old geezers keep getting tangled up.”
Sehyun’s gaze pinned exactly on Seo Yungyeom’s smiling face.
“I have to watch carefully. Otherwise he might cause an accident.”
For a moment, the temperature in the room seemed to drop by 2 or 3 degrees. A minute crack passed through Seo Yungyeom’s smile.
Whether Doha noticed this ominous current or not, he just made a stupid expression saying ‘who?’ at the words ‘old geezer’.
“The relationship between you two is more unique than I thought.”
Yungyeom lowered his eyelids and picked up his coffee cup. Sehyun clicked his tongue once more inwardly.
There’s definitely a black heart. It’s not some baseless speculation. Why didn’t I know earlier? Surely in the past life too, this human must have been tangled up with Baek Doha. The naive(?) hyung must have obviously been swayed by this fox-like person.
Sehyun was gradually distorting memories of Baek Doha’s promiscuous private life and arbitrarily framing him as a pitiful hyung.
Covet where? I’ll protect him like he’s gold and jade, like a flower in a greenhouse.
Lim Sehyun raised the cup containing bright red juice and smiled very prettily. Lim Sehyun and Seo Yungyeom’s gazes interlocked.
If you touch what’s mine, whoever you are, you’re fucked.
Sehyun didn’t know why he thought ‘what’s mine’, but anyway, he decided to regard anything coveting OnX members as corruption.
“I can drink one more cup, right? The tomatoes at this place are substantial.”
