Doha looked up at the ceiling. Sehyun’s nonchalant face came to mind. Because he doesn’t react like that, the other person keeps coming at him. Was it jipaljjikkun or something?
Doha picked up his phone again. He deleted his Knowledge-iN search history and instead found Cheolhwan’s number. Even if he couldn’t report it right away, at least Manager-hyung needed to know. That way, he could at least deal with it if something happened.
Hyung, I have something to tell you. Do you have some time tomorrow?
Less than a second after pressing the send button, a reply came.
Cheolhwan-hyung
Oh, sure! I was actually going to talk to you about the featuring thing anyway. Good thinking!
“……Ah.”
Right. The featuring. He had completely forgotten about it. Doha held his head in his hands. They say it’s one mountain after another. Who knew that trying to catch the blackmailer would end up with him walking right into the tiger’s den with his own feet.
Whatever, forget it.
Ah, hyung, that’s not it……
Just as he was writing a reply to Cheolhwan, suddenly the screen turned blue. A call was coming in. The caller was Seo Yungyeom. Was he really incapable of being a gentleman?
“Hello?”
* * *
Seo Yungyeom came to visit in front of the dorm. Were they close enough for him to show up this suddenly? Us?
From what he could guess, Yungyeom was very serious about this featuring. What on earth had caught his interest? Of course, he did think this body’s voice was quite listenable.
But the featuring part he’d received through the company was, as Yungyeom had said, just a short narration and doubling over the chorus. It was just overlapping voices, so was there really a need to insist on a specific person?
‘Wow, he really came.’
Doha didn’t know how to react when he saw Yungyeom’s car parked in front of the dorm. He must have definitely come to settle things.
He had made up his mind to refuse, but actually talking face-to-face wasn’t easy. Moreover, the other person was a huge senior? Why does this world give me such trials?
Doha pulled his hood down low and went stealthily toward Yungyeom’s car like a cat burglar.
Before Doha could get close to the car, the driver’s seat door swung open. Long legs touched the ground first, then Yungyeom came out. A tall height exceeding 185cm, full makeup as if he’d just finished filming, styled hair and all. Standing under the streetlight, he was the very embodiment of a celebrity.
It’s fascinating every time I see him. Even though the members are so handsome that his eyes should be adapted to beauty, handsome people are always newly handsome.
“Sunbae-nim.”
Doha bowed politely at the waist.
“You must be tired, I’m sorry.”
Yungyeom approached Doha with a bright smile. The night air was cold, but from him came a subtle, warm scent of perfume.
“Not at all. But what brings you all the way here…….”
He asked what it was about, but he could obviously predict it was an extension of the previous request. Having gotten scared in advance, Doha opened his mouth again.
“Ah, if you came about that featuring, I’m sorry. I’m still talking with the company…….”
Doha made the first move and started making excuses. Perhaps because he looked quite pitiful rolling his eyes around with a troubled expression, Yungyeom burst into laughter.
“Doha-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“I’m not that rigid of a person. I didn’t come to press you for an answer.”
Yungyeom took another step closer.
“I just had filming nearby, you know. After it ended, I was passing by and thought of Doha-ssi.”
“……You thought of me?”
“Yes. Because I know where your dorm is.”
He tossed it out casually. In a light tone as if saying ‘I stopped by a convenience store.’ But Doha’s suspicions weren’t easily dispelled. Lies. You came to pressure me, didn’t you?
“Here, take this.”
Yungyeom opened the back seat door and took out a pretty pastel-toned shopping bag and held it out.
“What’s this?”
“Macarons.”
Doha took the shopping bag in bewilderment. It was heavy. A famous dessert brand’s logo was embossed in gold foil.
“This place is a really famous restaurant. I heard it’s a place where you have to wait in line to eat, and it came in as support to the filming site.”
“Ah…….”
“But as you know, I’m managing my weight these days.”
Yungyeom playfully laughed while pretending to tap his stomach.
“They were eye candy. It’s a waste to throw them away, so I was wondering who to give them to…… and I thought of Doha-ssi.”
“…….”
Doha blankly looked at what was in his hands. What is this? This feeling is strange.
“I don’t know if I should accept this…….”
“Of course you should. If I eat them, they’ll just turn to fat, but if Doha-ssi eats them, they’ll turn to fat and be a mood booster. That’s killing two birds with one stone.”
“Thank you.”
Yungyeom’s way with words was smooth. He didn’t give him a chance to refuse. Anyway, since he’d thought of him, when Doha expressed his thanks, Yungyeom nodded as if satisfied.
“And don’t feel too pressured about the featuring. Whenever Doha-ssi is comfortable, if you want to do it, then do it.”
Did he show that he felt burdened too much? He definitely seemed to have shown it.
“Yes. Eat them deliciously. As for a proof shot, it’d be nice if you sent one.”
“A proof shot?”
If I’m giving them, I’m giving them, but a photo too? What is he really doing……?
“Go inside. It’s chilly.”
“Ah, yes. Drive safely.”
Yungyeom seemed to really just hand over the macarons plainly and leave. Even after getting in the car, he waved his hand lightly. Doha also ended up hugging the macarons to his chest and waving his hand. Soon the black sedan smoothly exited the parking lot.
“…….”
Doha felt dazed about why he ended up hugging macarons in the parking lot on this night. When he sneaked a peek inside the shopping bag, through the transparent part of the box he could see macarons in flashy colors.
They’ll taste good, at least.
In the end, Doha gave up on thinking and headed back to the dorm, shuffling his slippers again.
* * *
The second-floor veranda. Sehyun’s eyes, who had been watching that entire scene from there, narrowed.
‘……Good grief.’
The black sedan disappeared around the corner, and the sight of Doha hugging the shopping bag and trotting back to the dorm was truly a spectacle.
“Does that hyung have no fear?”
What if some controversy breaks out from doing that? Where does he think this is, exchanging gifts and all? This is already a neighborhood with lots of watching eyes and lots of talk. What if someone takes a picture and posts it? A title like ‘OnX’s Baek Doha, Secret Late-Night Meeting with a Certain Senior’ would be only a matter of time.
Lim Sehyun’s perspective had a lot of distortion. Exchanging macarons between idol seniors and juniors wasn’t particularly problematic. Moreover, the fact that they were the same sex made it even harder for an issue to arise if others saw. But right now, Sehyun had a gay filter firmly in place.
Sehyun tilted his head crookedly. Thinking about it, Baek Doha’s scandals had completely stopped recently. Clubs? Stopped. Women? Couldn’t even see their shadows. Men? ……This one was a bit ambiguous, but anyway. Whose doing was it that his chaotic private life had become this clean?
‘Isn’t it all because I defended him like an iron wall?’
Chasing after him, monitoring him, thoroughly managing him from the start of the day to the end. It’s maintained at this level because of that.
‘It’s the product of my blood, sweat, and obsession.’
But why does some fly keep buzzing around? Seo Yungyeom’s warm smile was stuck in his mind and wouldn’t erase. No, who looks at their junior with those kinds of eyes?
His insides twisted. It wasn’t simply risk management worrying that the group’s leader might be embroiled in controversy. It felt stuffy as if his solar plexus was blocked tight, and like a hot lump of fire was surging up from inside.
This is annoying.
Really, he just got incredibly annoyed. How dare he touch someone else’s property without permission?
But Sehyun knew he was in a situation where he couldn’t make any demands of Doha regarding this matter.
To put it bluntly, what if he stirred things up for nothing and a fire started? If it’s a hyung who’s weak to affection and pleasure, he might fall head over heels and not care about the group. This was a reasonable suspicion based on data accumulated from his previous life.
His heart was unsettled. He clearly thought all his feelings toward Baek Doha originated from a sense of duty to protect the group. If he had to compare this regression to chess, hyung was just one chess piece. But could he really treat him that way?
Right here, the voice that comforted him, the glances, the gestures, the warm warmth came to mind.
“Ah…….”
When was it? When he was pleased by the sight of him obediently following his words and working hard? When he observed hyung’s childhood? When he learned about hyung’s free sexual orientation? Or was it not that…….
Did this heart start moving from when he faced his death?
It’s not just that OnX’s Baek Doha is needed. It’s just that the Baek Doha by my side is needed.
‘I don’t want to lose him.’
That one thought filled his head. Baek Doha smiling with another guy, eating what another guy gives him, unable to sleep thinking about another guy? Just imagining it was so terrible it made him nauseous.
No matter how much he thought about it, hyung seemed too pretty to give to someone else.
He didn’t regress through that hellish time just to lose him to that bastard. The reason he got another chance was to save him, not to make someone else happy.
Lim Sehyun thought he had the advantage in this game. No, that was right. If it wasn’t, he would make it so.
