Unseong shook his head as if pitying him and asked Inhan,
“Are you angry at Yuho right now, or at me?”
“Both.”
“Will you give me Yuho’s number?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re being dirty about it.”
“Will you give it to me if I promise to be gentle?”
“No.”
Inhan said firmly. Unseong judged that Inhan’s consistent attitude was hopeless and said as if complaining,
“Is it the number you don’t want taken, a close hyung, or someone you like?”
“No matter what you say, hyung, I won’t give you Yuho hyung’s number.”
“I don’t need it, you punk.”
Unseong said curtly and clicked his tongue. And he says it’s just friendship. It was absurd.
“I’m not joking. Don’t even think about touching Yuho hyung.”
Look at this guy? Unseong was dumbfounded at Inhan’s words that followed in a threatening tone.
And as mentioned earlier, Unseong wasn’t the type to let an opponent’s attack slide.
“So Yuho can’t date anyone for the rest of his life because of you? Who are you? Are you his lover?”
“……”
“Even if it’s not me, he’ll end up meeting someone else eventually. Are you going to be like this every time?”
Once Unseong got going, he poured out what he wanted to say sharply. Inhan, who was far behind in life experience, had no choice but to be helplessly attacked by Unseong’s continuous assault.
“I’m asking if you’re okay with Yuho meeting other men. Jung Inhan.”
Inhan didn’t answer in the end.
He couldn’t answer because it wasn’t okay, but Inhan refused to admit it even if it killed him.
Unseong was starting to get pissed off.
“Hey. Call Seo Domyeong back. You’re not a size I can handle alone.”
“What happened between you and that person, hyung?”
In the midst of all this, Inhan threw an out-of-the-blue question at Yuho. Unseong, who was about to call Domyeong, stopped what he was doing and asked Inhan,
“Who?”
“The person you were about to like but didn’t.”
“Why are you asking about that? How annoying.”
“Are you still in contact?”
“Yeah. We drink together and sleep in the same room and stuff.”
Unseong said to Inhan with a smile. Inhan showed a momentarily flustered look before continuing with his questions.
“You’re not bothered by it now? But he was someone you almost liked at one point.”
“Yeah. Because I didn’t actually like him.”
“What if you had liked him? Would it have been hard to be by his side?”
Looking at Inhan’s serious expression, Unseong finally found the answer to the problem.
“Why? Did Yuho say it’s hard to be by your side?”
Inhan was at a loss for words at Unseong’s follow-up question. Is this what experience is? He got goosebumps at Unseong’s insight.
But once again, Inhan denied Unseong’s words.
“It’s not like that.”
“But what kind of obvious thing are you saying? Of course it would be hard.”
Unseong asked Inhan back in disbelief. Inhan continued to spout nonsensical things.
“Still, isn’t it better to be together? If you can see them for your whole life, that’s the better choice.”
“Then you’d have to watch them meet other guys right next to you for your whole life. Would you like watching that?”
At Unseong’s question, Inhan seemed to ponder for a moment. Then he soon gave a firm answer.
“Yes. I don’t care.”
“What?”
“As long as I can be by his side, I don’t care about anything.”
Unseong caught a glimpse of madness in Inhan’s eyes for a moment. He knew the kid was a bit twisted, but he didn’t know it was to this extent.
Still, since he was still young, Unseong thought there was room for improvement. Unseong spoke to Inhan in a much softened voice.
“That’s not love. It’s obsession, you crazy bastard.”
“What’s the difference?”
“It’s not beautiful. It’s rotten.”
Inhan was at a loss for words and closed his mouth. He knew well that Unseong was an opponent he couldn’t beat with words. Unseong continued to deliver pointed remarks to Inhan as if he had no intention of going easy on him anymore.
“The end of love is parting, but the end of obsession is destruction. You need to keep that in mind.”
Inhan thought he didn’t care even if the end was destruction.
Consistently, it was a dangerous thought.
* * *
Inhan couldn’t remember how he had spent the last 3 days.
The only sleep he got was napping in the car while waiting. All together, it wasn’t even 4 hours.
These days, nothing was going his way.
As soon as he returned to the dorm, he was dragged to the filming site and was shooting backed-up filming portions consecutively.
He was in a state where he couldn’t even think, let alone face Yuho.
“Hyung. Am I doing an all-night shoot again today?”
Inhan asked Suhyung with an exhausted face. Suhyung checked Inhan’s condition and answered,
“No. They said it’ll end before 10. Get some good sleep today. You’re really going to ruin your health at this rate.”
“Can I go sleep at the Seoul dorm today?”
“I don’t mind, but will you be okay? You’ll just sleep and have to leave right away anyway, right?”
“Still.”
“Alright.”
“Thank you.”
Suhyung nodded. Looking at Inhan’s face that seemed like it would collapse at any moment, he wanted to take him to the dorm even if it meant pushing it.
The filming that was supposed to end before 10 kept getting delayed, and the time Inhan arrived at the dorm was 3 AM.
Inhan headed straight to the shared bathroom so as not to wake Taylor, finished showering, and changed into the pajamas he had packed in his bag beforehand.
Then, muffling his footsteps, he moved toward his room at the end of the hallway.
Yuho hyung won’t be there. Even though he realized it in his head, Inhan’s gaze naturally turned toward Yuho’s room. After much deliberation, Inhan passed the kitchen and headed to Yuho’s room.
In the room shrouded in darkness, only Yeomin, the owner of the top bunk, was sleeping soundly.
Inhan stared for a long time at the empty bottom bunk that had lost its owner.
It was like this just a week ago.
When Inhan would open the door and peek in late at night like this, Yuho would invariably have his sleep light on and be sleeping soundly with his body curled toward the wall. Yuho’s habit of sleeping stuck to the corner with plenty of space left in front was a new sleeping habit that had formed because of Inhan.
Every time Inhan confirmed that sight with his eyes, he was happy. Because it felt like his trace remained in Yuho.
Inhan closed the door again, thinking that it wasn’t just the bed that had lost its owner.
The dorm looked excessively empty today.
* * *
It was 5 days since Yuho had declared his withdrawal and left the dorm.
Inhan was waiting briefly in the vehicle in the middle of drama filming.
Unseong – [My new song MV is finally out, check it out]
[https://nu.tube/dlsjfk000]
[METEOR – 좋은 시(時) (A good time) Official Music Video]
Inhan received Unseong’s message and accessed NuTube to check out Unseong’s new song music video.
It was finally the day the music video he had made a special appearance in at Unseong’s request a month ago was being released.
When he checked the video, Inhan had quite a lot of screen time. He had squeezed his schedule and filmed for just four hours, but it was obvious they had used it all without throwing away any cuts.
Now all he had to do was press the ‘like’ button on the music video once and send a feedback message to Unseong, but Inhan couldn’t take his eyes off the recommended video exposed thanks to the damn algorithm.
‘Inhan with center disease, his attention-seeking that’s been consistent since debut’
It was the moment when Inhan’s already depressed mood sank to the depths of the sea.
Ah. This channel is still alive.
The channel name of the malicious video that kept catching Inhan’s eye even when he tried to look at it with blurry eyes was ‘Jung Inhan Behind.’ It was a channel Inhan had asked the company to sue several times.
Was the company doing their job sloppily, or was it originally this hard to get rid of one anti channel? Far from being deleted, the channel was increasing its number of videos and subscribers.
‘7SPOT Inhan’s older brother’s cafe rip-off fan business controversy’
‘Self-conscious idol with actor disease despite his terrible acting’
‘Group on the verge of disintegration from pushing only one member’
The content of the videos wasn’t even worth checking.
Inhan clicked on the channel name and pressed the report button. It seemed like a useless thing to do, but he felt like he had to do at least this to feel better.
The problem was that these kinds of videos were easily exposed just by searching the name ‘Inhan.’
Even so, he was surprised that the channel had been operating fine for nearly a year, but in the end, ignoring it was the biggest solution.
‘The awkward atmosphere felt between 7SPOT’s JangDanz Yuho & Inhan’
But there were bound to be videos with content that was impossible to ignore.
What’s this now? The channel name was ‘K-pop Issue.’ It was a famous channel that raised view counts through all kinds of speculative fabrications and trolling related to K-pop stars.
Now Inhan had several options. Ignore, report, sue, and click.
Why would an algorithm be an algorithm? It must be showing these results because I keep watching similar videos. Inhan knew but couldn’t resist his curiosity and clicked on the video.
‘7SPOT member Inhan, who became known by word of mouth for his handsome face despite being from a small-to-medium agency, started his acting career as a supporting role in a drama 3 years ago and has now established himself as a lead actor with two hit works.
It is said that rumors have been circulating among netizens that this Inhan has had a falling out with fellow group member Yuho for several years now. Today on K-pop Issue, we will find out if these discord rumors are true and what caused these rumors to circulate.’
He thought they were really dragging up something from years ago. At the time of the fight, various things were said thanks to people who liked to nitpick, but it was quickly smoothed over when the relationship between the two improved.
Inhan continued watching the video with the mindset of seeing what they would blabber about.
