“Don’t feel pressured. It’s just featuring that’s close to narration. Since it’s just giving a short point, it won’t take much time.”
If he said this much, it became difficult to refuse any further. But it wasn’t something to judge unilaterally.
“For now, I’ll discuss it with the company. It’s not something I can decide on my own……”
“Of course. Take your time giving me an answer.”
The pasta that had been going down smoothly suddenly felt stuck in his throat.
“Drink some water too.”
Yungyeom pushed a glass of water in front of him. He should have made such a frustrating proposal after finishing the meal at least!
“Thank you.”
“It’s nice to see you eating well, Doha-ssi.”
Seo Yungyeom always smiled prettily. He seemed like someone whose facial muscles were set to smile like that.
If it’s about 15 years in the industry, does everyone become like that?
He was someone who felt strangely distant even though they seemed to have gotten closer.
Doha lowered his head to put pasta in his mouth again. At that moment, the silver necklace chain around Yungyeom’s neck glinted. He thought he’d seen it before.
Unlike his flashy face, he didn’t seem to be the type to wear a lot of accessories on his body.
Yungyeom was steadily watching Doha eat.
Oh my, I’m going to get indigestion. I’m going to get indigestion.
“Sunbae-nim, please eat quickly too.”
“Alright.”
Although his insides felt stuffy, anyway, the question of why Seo Yungyeom had been so favorable toward him all this time was resolved.
‘Hmm, what should I do?’
Doha had another worry.
* * *
When Doha arrived at the dorm, dusk had already settled thickly.
Yungyeom’s proposal was heavy, and the pasta he’d eaten until full felt slow to digest.
As he got off the elevator and trudged down the hallway, a box placed alone in front of the dorm entrance caught his eye.
“What’s this?”
It was quite a large box. Wrapped with a pretty ribbon, it looked just like a gift box.
‘Is it a delivery? No, deliveries would be left at the security office.’
Usually, gifts from fans came through the company. There were almost no cases of direct delivery to the dorm like this. No, it was something that shouldn’t happen.
A sasaeng? He felt creeped out for a moment, but Doha tried to think of it as nothing serious. It would be difficult for an outsider to enter this place with tight security.
Still, he couldn’t just leave it outside like this.
Doha bent down and picked up the box. It was heavier than expected.
Beep beep beep beep, beep-beep-beep.
As soon as he entered the door lock password and stepped inside, a figure sitting on the living room sofa sprang up.
“Hyung.”
A low voice. It was Lim Sehyun. He was glaring at Doha with his arms crossed. His eyes were gleaming fiercely.
Like a wife interrogating a husband who came home late, or someone who came to catch a cheating lover.
Why is he being like this again?
Is he angry because I went secretly? But I couldn’t take this troublemaker along, could I?
“……You scared me. What are you doing without even turning on the lights?”
“Where did you go?”
“I went to eat. Why?”
“With who? With Seo Yungyeom?”
What a perceptive bastard. Doha flinched but pretended to be calm as he took off his shoes.
“Yeah. He said he’d buy me food.”
“And you just followed along like that? Without even telling me?”
“Am I a child? Do I need permission to go eat?”
“No, hyung is…… ha, never mind.”
Sehyun ran his hand through his hair as if frustrated. His sharp hawk-like eyes scanned Doha, then stopped when they discovered the box in Doha’s hand.
“What’s that?”
“Huh? It was in front of the door.”
“In front of the door?”
Sehyun’s brow furrowed.
“Who left it there?”
“I don’t know. Looking at the wrapping, maybe it’s a gift from a fan that someone delivered? Manager hyung might have left it.”
Doha casually put the box down on the living room table. The ribbon was carefully tied. On the outside, it was just an ordinary, pretty gift box. Sehyun approached with suspicious eyes, looking at the box.
“Something like this was in front of the door? Just like that?”
“Yeah. Let’s open it. If it’s food, you eat it. I’m full.”
Doha pulled the ribbon string. Swoosh, the knot came undone. He opened the lid without any thought.
“……”
“……”
For a moment, silence flowed. A fishy smell wafted up from inside the box. Doha’s pupils trembled finely as if an earthquake had occurred.
“What is…… this……”
On white styrofoam, red blood was pooled abundantly. A kitchen knife with a sickeningly sharp blade was stuck in the middle, and next to it…… a squishy red lump. It was a heart.
It probably wasn’t human, but it was clearly animal organs. The thing dripping with blood was a horrifyingly vivid red color.
“Urk……!”
Doha reflexively dropped the box.
Thud! The box fell to the floor and the contents inside spilled out. Along with the clattering sound of the knife, the blood-stained lump rolled across the living room floor. The fishy smell of blood instantly dominated the living room.
“Ugh……”
It felt like his insides were turning over. Doha covered his mouth and ran to the bathroom.
“Hyung!”
Leaving Sehyun’s urgent cry behind, Doha collapsed in front of the toilet. The pasta he’d eaten earlier came right back up.
“Uwek! Wek……!”
Vomiting continued with the momentum to pour out even his stomach acid. His head flashed white. The red blood and hideous blade flickering before his eyes wouldn’t erase from his mind.
This is crazy! Who did something like that?
When the terrible thing he’d only heard about in rumors unfolded before his eyes, he couldn’t be as calm as he’d vaguely thought. His hands and feet trembled.
He could hear bustling sounds from the living room.
The sound of tearing plastic, the sound of wiping something down. After wrestling with the toilet for a while, Doha flushed the water, exhausted.
He rinsed his mouth and looked in the mirror to see his face had turned white as a sheet of paper.
Click. When he opened the bathroom door and went out, the living room had already been cleaned up neatly.
The hideous things that had been rolling on the floor had no trace left. Cold night air was erasing the fishy smell, probably because the window had been opened for ventilation.
“Are you okay?”
Sehyun, who spotted Doha coming out of the bathroom, asked worriedly.
“No. What was that just now?”
“I think someone played a nasty prank.”
Sehyun’s face was completely contorted. He seemed angry too.
“That’s why you shouldn’t bring in just anything. From now on, be careful with anything anyone gives you.”
“It was wrapped with a ribbon. How could I have imagined something like that would be inside……”
“Still, it’s fortunate it wasn’t something dangerous.”
“Is there something more dangerous than that?”
Doha’s face turned even whiter. Then Sehyun let out a light sigh.
“There are even worse ones. You don’t need to be hurt by such things.”
“How can I not be hurt?”
Do I need to become some kind of iron man?
“Just as there’s love without reason, there’s also malice without reason. You don’t need to understand it all.”
Dizzying. It’s dizzying.
Perhaps because he was always within the fence that safely protected the team, he had unknowingly become numb to such dangerous elements. He’d been complacent.
Suddenly grandfather’s face came to mind. He just wanted to return to that comfortable house packed with traces of the past.
Even though they were memories that weren’t his own.
“Calm down. I’ll give you a glass of water.”
Sehyun headed to the kitchen to get water. But Doha wasn’t in the mood to swallow anything right now.
His body lost strength and he flopped down on the sofa.
“Drink this.”
“Thanks.”
Doha took the water glass with trembling hands. When warm warmth was transmitted through his palm, only then did his startled heart seem to calm down a little.
“That thing…… did you throw it away?”
“Yes. It was something sold at a butcher shop. It looked like a pig’s heart.”
Sehyun said nonchalantly. It was a calm tone as if he’d just cleaned up trash, but Doha saw Sehyun’s clenched fist trembling.
“The knife……”
“I roughly covered it with a towel.”
“We should report it, right?”
“If an article comes out about something like this, it won’t be good for us either. It’s not like it becomes as big a topic as before. It’s a common thing.”
The words “common thing” flew like a dagger and stuck in his heart. How can something like this be common?
“Now is also a bad time to be the subject of gossip.”
Sehyun’s judgment was quick and accurate.
It was right before the comeback. Even if this sinister threatening incident became known, it would only be consumed as gossip saying it was ‘the work of an anti,’ and there would be no benefit. Rather, it was obvious that fans’ resentment toward the company would be loud, saying the members’ safety wasn’t being managed.
Doha took a sip of water and moistened his dry lips.
“Who could it be?”
“A crazy bastard.”
Sehyun spat out coldly. There was nothing more to add. It was just the work of some shady crazy person.
“I should have been more careful. I’m sorry for letting you see that, hyung.”
“Why are you sorry? I’m the one who brought it in.”
“From now on, even if there’s something in front of the door, absolutely don’t touch it. Got it?”
Doha stared blankly into space. Did Baek Doha in the novel also experience something like this? He couldn’t remember.
When reading it as a book, they were just sentences described as ‘suffered from malicious comments,’ ‘had many antis.’ But seeing it in print and actually experiencing it were on different dimensions.
He couldn’t easily accept that someone hated him, or the members.
Can I do well as an idol with such an ordinary heart? As expected, he had doubts at every moment.
“Hyung.”
When Doha’s pale complexion showed no signs of improving, Sehyun carefully called him. At that, Doha raised his head and looked at Sehyun.
“Should I hug you?”
Suddenly? What kind of proposal is this?
