On Sehyun’s phone screen, unread messages sent to Doha were piled up in heaps. From last night, when Doha was peacefully enjoying late-night snacks, until this morning. Even at a rough glance, Sehyun had sent over twenty messages.
Hyung, are you sleeping?
1
I don’t think I can come back today.
1
Did you eat?
1
Are you busy?
1
Why did you turn off your phone
1
I talked to Cheolhwan hyung, why would you turn off your phone while going to meet Seo Yungyeom?????????
1
Hyung
1
Hyung@@@!!!!
1
Hey Baek Doha!!!
1
ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠYou’re really mean
1
Doha’s pupils shook as if an earthquake had struck as he read through to the last message.
Why is this kid acting like this? Getting mad by himself, then crying—is he bipolar? What stream of consciousness existed between [Hyung@@@!!!!] and [Hey Baek Doha!!!] that made him jump between honorifics?
It was true that he’d turned off his phone yesterday in case it interfered with the meeting. After that, he’d come back to the dorm, plugged it in to charge, and left it alone.
Sehyun kindly pressed the call log to also show him the 7 missed call notifications.
Why is he being so thorough and making such a fuss?
When Doha looked at the screen indifferently, Sehyun put the phone back in his pocket.
“Was there something urgent?”
“Something urgent?”
At Doha’s question, Sehyun repeated his words as if dumbfounded.
“A matter that absolutely had to be conveyed…?”
When he shrank back a bit, intimidated by Sehyun’s prickly tone like a hedgehog, Lim Sehyun glared at Doha before striding toward the waiting sofa in the back.
His stomping footsteps clearly showed how angry he was.
Sehyun, who went to the sofa, plopped down heavily, crossed his legs, folded his arms, and stared intently at Doha with a crooked, tilted gaze. It was a pressure that felt like it would bore a hole through the back of his head.
‘So burdensome.’
For now, Doha was flustered by Sehyun’s current state of anger over not receiving contact, but he was also bothered by the matter from the night before last that hadn’t been resolved yet. In many ways, having Lim Sehyun nearby made him break out in a cold sweat.
“Are you hot?”
Then the makeup director, who had been delicately refining his skin texture, asked Doha. She said it was getting chilly now, which was strange—should she have a staff member lower the air conditioning temperature? She didn’t know this sweat wasn’t because of the weather.
‘I really can’t look at the mirror.’
Doha rolled his eyes to steal a glance at Sehyun in the mirror. The kid still had his arms crossed, legs firmly crossed as he sat, shooting lasers at the back of Doha’s head. His lips were pouting out several feet, and his brow was deeply furrowed.
Is he really bipolar? I’m sure he was fresh and cheerful when greeting earlier.
Is turning off the phone something to get that angry about? And isn’t this a situation that should be just as awkward for him as it is for me? Why does he look completely unbothered?
His feelings were complicated in many ways. Meanwhile, Sehyun started skimming through the script in preparation for today’s filming. Just moments ago he looked like he’d throw a tantrum, but it was fascinating how quickly he focused on work.
“I always feel this way, but Doha-ssi really seems to have great skin.”
“Ah, really?”
“Yes. Usually when you do such heavy makeup every day and have tiring schedules, it’s hard to have perfect skin barrier. Look at this glow.”
The makeup director tapped with her puff in admiration. Each time her touch landed, Baek Doha’s face in the mirror shone glossily.
“Ah, yes. Well… thank you.”
This was a fantasy sodium collaboration created by the late-night snacks he’d indulged in after escaping from Sehyun’s grasp last night. A normal person would have been so swollen they couldn’t open their eyes, but this body had the fascinating talent of sublimating that swelling into a dewy glow. Is this what they call a natural idol constitution?
Doha clicked his tongue inwardly. He saw his flawlessly clear face in the mirror.
Doha stealthily rolled his eyes to steal a glance at the corner of the mirror. Sehyun was still leaning diagonally against the sofa. Pages turned regularly, and Sehyun was reading the text seriously.
“Doha-ssi, please lift your chin a bit more.”
“Yes.”
At the director’s request, Doha lifted his head slightly. As his lower field of vision in the mirror opened up, Sehyun’s figure sitting on the sofa in the back came into clearer view.
Doha stared intently at Sehyun’s profile through the mirror. His slightly lowered eyelashes from concentrating, his prominent nose, and his firmly closed lips. It struck him anew, but it was truly a handsome face.
As he always felt, Lim Sehyun’s impression was 180 degrees different when his mouth was open versus closed. When he just kept his mouth shut, his excessively orderly features could give off a cold atmosphere, but when he actually opened his mouth, there was a playfulness that created a reversal.
‘Really, that kid is amazing too.’
To get so fiercely angry just moments ago, then quickly sit calmly and switch to work mode. Is this the maturity of a regressor? Or is it an innate professional consciousness? An attitude that clearly distinguished between public and private matters was evident.
But in the current situation, he was even grateful for that aspect. If things could just naturally pass by because they’re so busy… would that work? You have to avoid what you can avoid.
‘But isn’t it a national loss that a kid like that is gay?’
Let’s study Lim Sehyun.
Lim Sehyun is a regressor, and a new setting has been added. Possible (?) with men. What’s the reason his tastes suddenly became open-minded? What brought about his change?
‘Is it me?’
There definitely wasn’t anything like Boys’ Love in the keywords. It was already maddening enough, but goosebumps rose at the thought that the culprit might be none other than himself. Where on earth did I go around spilling things? No, wait, first of all, I’ve never liked men in my entire life!
Just looking at that face for no reason only complicated his mind. Where on earth did the traces of the original work disappear to?
That’s when he was blankly staring at Sehyun.
Slowly.
Sehyun’s eyes, which had been buried in the script, slid smoothly upward while his head remained in place. As if he’d known all along that Doha was watching him. It was a very natural and smooth shift of gaze.
The indifferent eyes that had been reading text just moments ago instantly changed to a different texture. He could feel viscosity in that gaze.
‘Why are his eyes so sticky?’
Even Lim Sehyun’s ordinary gaze felt unpleasant for no reason. People get captivated because he makes eyes like that all the time.
What a pity. Because he’s not being mature enough, he ends up blaming the other side. But blaming oneself isn’t good for health. If there must be guilt, let’s think it’s on that side.
While having a brief staring contest with Lim Sehyun like that, the corners of his mouth lifted.
‘See, see, he’s spilling it all over.’
Isn’t he obviously bewitching?
With this, the organization was complete. If that day’s incident is brought up, let’s unconditionally blame Lim Sehyun.
“Please look downward.”
“Yes.”
Like that, his eyelids lowered gently and Lim Sehyun was no longer visible. But thoughts of Lim Sehyun continued endlessly.
I wonder if he’s thinking about me this much too.
* * *
It was the day of the Battle Crown results announcement filming. Since it was the result of the final competition, it seemed more tense than other episodes.
“…I’m nervous.”
Haram swallowed dry saliva and stroked his chest.
“Hey, don’t be a wimp. You won’t grow taller.”
Yunbeom smacked Haram’s back hard. The members exchanged trivial stories to ventilate the tense atmosphere.
“It’s more about proportions than height.”
“I’m already complete in both height and proportions though?”
For some reason, Sehyun was calm today too. Even after leaving the makeup shop, he hadn’t said anything particularly strange and was in a mood focused on today’s filming. It seemed even the great regressor was concerned about the results.
He’d said lightly that he just needed to promote the new song anyway, but did he secretly have expectations?
While observing the members like that, the phone that Sehyun had warned—not warned—him to keep on vibrate and hold onto rang in his pocket. When he checked the screen, it was his grandfather.
“I’ll take a call for a moment.”
Doha got up from the waiting room and went out to the hallway.
But the hallway was also noisy with people passing by. An emergency exit caught his eye.
Hmm, not a place with particularly good memories.
For now, he urgently entered the emergency exit. Just as he was about to press the answer button in that place where bright light had disappeared.
“So who won? Didn’t you hear anything?”
“Everyone had their lips sealed, didn’t they? Since AVN, the strong championship candidate, went down like that, who really knows what’ll happen.”
Someone was having a conversation on the floor below the emergency exit.
“Isn’t that satisfying?”
“Hey, I knew that guy would be like that someday. Even when I saw him last time, he was playing around disgustingly.”
“He was annoying going around with his nose stuck up in the air, so good riddance. I felt refreshed.”
The owners of the voices being heard were badmouthing Jo Taejin, who was a hot topic these days.
“Is he withdrawing?”
“It doesn’t seem like a problem that’ll end with just him withdrawing. The other members are also in an uproar from getting dug up. Hey, look, look at this.”
He didn’t know what they were looking at, but he wanted to see it together. The vibration in his hand was still ringing.
It was a short time, but the two people were talking so much that he couldn’t press the call button, worried he’d become someone who eavesdropped if he answered the phone now.
“Hey, isn’t OnX also a bit precarious?”
At that moment, when the name OnX flowed from their mouths, Doha’s eyes, which had been absently staring at the screen, suddenly opened wide.
