Chapter 187: Chapter 187

Why was he here again?

I stepped outside and folded my arms as I looked at Joo Woosung.

“What brings you here?”

“Aren’t you even going to apologize?? Aren’t you??”

“Oh, sorry?”

When I said it, trying to appease him, Joo Woosung rubbed his forehead in frustration and lightly shoved my shoulder.

“Well, why are you here? You could’ve just called.”

“I came to get the watch.”

“Didn’t you say you were too busy to come, even when I offered to give it to you?”

Now, of all times?

I thought it, but I didn’t say it out loud because I knew he was trying to be nice to me in his own way.

Instead, I just alternated my gaze between the dark night sky and Joo Woosung’s stubborn face.

“You have that “why now?’ look on your face.”

“Ahaha?”

“You’re not even denying it, you punk! Move!”

Joo Woosung dragged me out of the way and confidently walked into the house as if it were his own.

Jeong Dajun poked his head out timidly, nodding when he made eye contact with Woosung.

“Hello, sunbae…?”

“…??”

“That, um…?”

Looking around as if he was checking for something, Jeong Dajun seemed a bit flustered.

After locking the door behind me, I raised an eyebrow at Joo Woosung standing next to me.

When Kim Seonghyeon, who had been eating chicken, saw Woosung, he jumped up, startled.

“Oh! Sunbae!”

“Seonghyeon, hi.”

Joo Woosung shamelessly plopped himself down in the middle of the living room as if it was his own place.

Seeing him exchange cheerful greetings with the members made me realize that he did have basic social skills, which was surprisingly impressive.

Jeong Dajun, still awkwardly standing around, cautiously asked Woosung.

“…Sunbae, did you come alone?”

“Dajun, are you trying to flirt with me?”

“Excuse me. Do you think our maknae would ever flirt with someone like you?”

Did he think our maknae was into him?

Even when there was a mission on our variety show to seduce someone with charm, the pure-hearted Jeong Dajun could only go as far as do a kabedon.

What nonsense was Woosung spouting?

I covered Woosung’s mouth with one hand and handed him the drink I had made earlier with the other.

Just drink and shut up.

Jeong Dajun just rolled his eyes and then buried his face in his phone.

I watched him as I sipped my drink, and Joo Woosung poked me in the side.

“What?”

He leaned toward me, and I caught a whiff of alcohol.

“Well, actually, I came after hanging out with the noonas from the group that like to bash you. They were making a fuss, asking me to check on you since they couldn’t come to your dorm themselves.”

“Just say you wanted to see me.”

“Hey! What kind of creepy shit is that?”

Fine, don’t then.

There was no need to get so worked up.

To shut him up again, I graciously poured the freshly made warm drink straight into his mouth.

Joo Woosung grimaced but finished the glass nonetheless, smacking his lips as if he enjoyed it.

Suddenly, he spoke up as if something had occurred to him.

“Oh~, you guys had a concert today?”

“Yes!! It would’ve been great if Woosung-hyung could’ve come. It was really fun!”

“What did you do?”

Kim Seonghyeon, already tipsy and with a flushed face, sat close to Woosung, acting all friendly.

It seemed like he didn’t notice the other members at all.

“Sunbae! We covered ‘Get Over’ by Black Call!”

“Oh, really? Thanks.”

“Seo Hoyun complained so much about how hard it was! But he did pretty well.”

“…Oh, Seo Hoyun?”

Maybe it was because I was getting old, but sitting on the floor drinking made my back and tailbone ache.

I thought lying down while drinking was best, so I sprawled on the sofa, sipping soju through a straw.

Joo Woosung glanced at me and shook his head.

“Can he really do well? Well… Seonghyeon, maybe you, but Hoyun’s a klutz.”

“We managed to make it at least rhythm-level.”

“Hey, it wasn’t that bad?!”

No one listened to my protest.

Jeong Dajun, who had been glued to his phone, suddenly looked up and chimed in.

“Oh! Then, sunbae, do you know what ‘Mang-mang-mang’ is?!”

“What’s ‘Mang-mang-mang’?”

“Guess, hyung. It’s related to Hoyun-hyung.”

“What, is it some kind of acrostic poem?”

“An acrostic poem? Hahaha, okay then, ‘doom’!”

Kang Ichae suddenly prompted, and Joo Woosung furrowed his brow slightly.

“Why all of a sudden? Doom, doom….”

After tapping his glass lightly with his fingertips for a moment in thought, the guy shifted his gaze to me.

I waved my hands frantically, signaling him not to spew nonsense and corrupt the other members.

But then, with a sly grin, he started speaking immediately.

“Doomed to become a failed idol, one I barely saved…”

“Do you want to die?”

I tried to grab him by the scruff and cover his mouth, but the strong guy resisted, gesturing to Ichae to continue the poem.

“Doom!”

“Doomed rascal Seo Hoyun, this brat is…”

“Doom!”

“Doomed to spend his life banging away with a hammer…”[1]

Don’t ever go on broadcast with your acrostic poems.

Seeing the members giggle and praise Woosung as the best, I sighed and headed to the kitchen area.

Experience really was everything.

Even when he did things like that, they just fawned over him.

“Sunbae, that was a perfect acrostic poem!!”

“Didn’t it capture all my past grievances?!”

“Haha~. Yes! I feel like you’d be great at rapping too~.”

I pulled out some ice cream from the fridge, sat at the dining table, and downed tequila along with it.

I caught Seong Jiwon and Ichae exchanging looks.

“Hyung, you know I really like you, right??”

“…Huh?? Huh??”

Then, suddenly, Kang Ichae blurted out nonsense to Joo Woosung, who laughed despite the awkwardness and filled another glass.

He wasn’t even drinking himself.

“So, I look forward to working with you, sunbae! Please drink this one~.”

“…This is the second shameless hoobae I’ve met.”

“Is the first one Hoyun-hyung?”

“Do I even need to say it?”

Even as the night deepened, everyone was still boisterous.

Joo Woosung seemed to drink at his own pace, but he got caught up with Kang Ichae, who kept refilling his glass, and Seong Jiwon, the heavy drinker.

Before long, he appeared quite tipsy.

Woosung, how do you manage to get caught up like that and live…?

I checked the time on my phone.

It had only been 35 minutes since we arrived at the dorm.

“Wow…”

The esteemed Joo Woosung-sunbae, who had nothing to show for himself except a silly acrostic poem, sat there blankly, his hand on his forehead as if he’d lost the ability to speak

Unable to watch any longer, I put down my glass and stood up.

“Let’s stop drinking. I’ll take him… I mean, I’ll take sunbae back.”

“Okay~.”

I was about to refer to Joo Woosung as “him,” but under the intense glare of Kim Seonghyeon, I quickly changed my words and helped Joo Woosung to his feet.

Kang Ichae waved his hand with a mischievous smile.

Kang Ichae seems to have done this to Joo Woosung on purpose.

Why, though?

Sorting through the actions of Kang Ichae, Seong Jiwon, and Jeong Dajun, I stepped outside.

A drunken troublemaker staggered and nearly tripped over his own feet.

“Hey!”

I quickly grabbed his arm to steady him.

Joo Woosung, with his half-glazed eyes, seemed unaware of the near-mishap.

“You’ve already hit your forehead on the door earlier. Do you want to hit it twice?”

“Damn it…”

Come to think of it, I wasn’t even sure why this guy came.

He said it was to find his watch and because Kim Heeyeon and Lim Hyeonsu asked him to check on me, but he seemed more interested in chatting with the members than actually looking for the watch or checking on my well-being.

“So why did you really come?”

“I don’t have any friends…”

I know, you idiot.

Kang Ichae, once he’d had a few drinks, tended to become a chatterbox, and it seemed Joo Woosung was no different.

“Just, you know, I was a bit concerned…”

“About what?”

“Well, just wondering if you were okay…”

“Really?”

I played the fool and ended up being fooled for real.

It was a wonder he hadn’t been scammed yet.

With so many people in the world to worry about, you chose to worry about me.

“What, why?! What now?!”

Joo Woosung, realizing I was looking at him with a pitiful expression, yelled out in frustration.

It was late at night, so I covered his mouth as I spoke.

“Thanks to you, I didn’t become a fallen star, and I’m perfectly healthy, so don’t worry anymore, okay?”

“…”

Then I led Joo Woosung toward the main road where taxis were likely to pass by, ignoring his grumbling from behind.

Suddenly, I remembered the favor.

“Joo Woosung, are you busy these days?”

“Yeah, fucking busy.”

“Do you have time to help me?”

“No.”

“Ah, so you do. Thanks in advance.”

“I said no, didn’t I?!”

I wasn’t planning to ask for a favor immediately, but having observed Joo Woosung, it seemed that, aside from active periods, his schedule was relatively free since he was a top-tier idol who had passed his transitional phase.

Well, I can use it later.

I saw a taxi with a “vacant” sign in red from afar and flagged it down.

I then asked Joo Woosung if he had his phone and wallet with him.

“…I think I left them at your place.”

“Ha…”

Joo Woosung clumsily patted his chest, backside, and thighs where pockets would be, only to pull out his phone and give a sheepish smile.

As I debated whether to send the taxi away and return to the dorm to find his wallet, I turned my head and saw a figure standing under a nearby streetlight.

“…Huh?”

We locked eyes.

“…Seo Hojin?”

“…Hyung, hey.”

Seo Hojin approached me as I stood stiffly.

My dongsaeng glanced at the drunk leaning on me and looked slightly awkward.

It was probably because he recognized the famous face.

“Hello, Joo Woosung.”

“Oh… Wow.”

“Nice to meet you, even though it’s our first time and you seem a bit drunk.”

“Wow, yes.”

I stepped in front of Joo Woosung, who was scanning Seo Hojin’s face with wide eyes, and opened the door of the taxi that had stopped nearby.

“Huh, huh?”

“Get in.”

And I shoved him inside.

Slamming the door shut, I handed the taxi driver two 50,000 won bills and urged him to hurry.

Joo Woosung was about to say something as he opened the window, but fortunately, the taxi took off.

“What… What are you doing here? How did you find this place?”

“Dajun called me over, um…”

I quickly turned around to look at Seo Hojin.

“Why would Jeong Dajun….”

Then, like pieces of a puzzle falling into place, the situation started to make sense.

Jeong Dajun had been looking around when Joo Woosung arrived, and there was him exchanging glances with Seong Jiwon and Kang Ichae.

Kim Seonghyeon was happy to see Kim Seonghyeon—no, Kim Seonghyeon was always like that.

So, when there was a need to get rid of Joo Woosung quickly, I was more likely to handle it than Kim Seonghyeon, who couldn’t hold his liquor.

And in the process, they managed to have me run into Seo Hojin, who was waiting outside.

Kang Ichae, that bastard…!

Feeling inexplicably tricked, I ran my hand through my hair in irritation and quickly looked around.

Just because we changed dorms didn’t mean I could relax.

I hastily led Seo Hojin into the dorm’s parking lot.

“What are you doing here? What if someone sees you? Aren’t you busy with school?”

“What are you talking about? I’m on vacation.”

“Oh…”

Now that I thought about it, it was already summer.

I scratched my cheek for no reason.

“Were you here long? You should’ve called.”

“I didn’t wait long. I was just thinking about how severe global warming is these days.”

He joked nonchalantly, but my dongsaeng was drenched in sweat.

I placed a hand on his forehead and turned him around, checking him over.

No injuries, no signs of illness.

Seo Hojin frowned deeply, but it seemed awkward for him, so he cracked a joke.

“Why are you staring at me for so long? Did I grow up well?”

“No. You’ve always been a bit of an airhead.”

Come to think of it, the most airheaded person around me had always been Seo Hojin.

“Let’s not spit on your own face. I look like you, hyung.”

“What are you talking about?”

I slapped him lightly on the forehead.

Unlike me, his eyes had a gentle downward slant, giving him a mild expression, which momentarily scrunched up before he let out a playful laugh.

Compared to the last time I saw him, he seemed to be in a much better mood.

“Do you want to go up to the dorm?”

It felt awkward to keep talking like this, and since he came because Jeong Dajun called him, it seemed better to move to the dorm.

But Seo Hojin shook his head.

“No, it’s fine.”

“…”

“I’m still sulking.”

What a grudge-holder.

“Then at least say goodbye. Didn’t you say Jeong Dajun was cute?”

“Right. He kind of looks like me.”

Seo Hojin shamelessly claimed to be handsome and cute, but he snickered and took out his wallet when I gave him a stern look.

“Well, enough with the jokes. I actually came to give you this.”

When he pulled something out of his wallet, I thought I was finally getting an envelope of filial money.

But what came out was about the size of two fingernails put together.

“Take this.”

When I held it in my hand, it was a bumpy family photo carefully taped together.

“…Oh.”

As I became 10 years younger, traces of me disappeared from most photos unless I took them alone.

So, it was impossible to find a photo with all four family members.

“It was tough finding these photos, hyung.”

In the small rectangular shape, there was me at 20, my parents at that time, and a slightly awkward 10-year-old Seo Hojin.

In this world, we couldn’t exist like this all together.

Perhaps my fiddling with the family photos during one of my visits home had stuck with him.

“It’s a gift. I was going to give it with flowers when your show ended, but I got annoyed and thought about not giving it…”

“…”

“But it felt like a waste not to.”

Damn it.

“It is a waste not to,”

“Right?”

“Yeah, missing out on our airhead’s chubby cheeks at age 10 would be a pity.”

“Hey, they’re completely gone now, okay?!”

I suddenly felt a lump in my throat.

To prevent Seo Hojin from noticing, I deliberately spoke in short bursts.

I thought I had kept my emotions in check, but they nearly overflowed.

I placed the family photo deep inside my wallet.

“…Thanks.”

When I spoke hesitantly, Seo Hojin gave a small smile.

“Then, give me a ride home in a fancy deluxe taxi.”

“…Sure, you brat. Just say the word. I can even give you a ride on a horse.”

“Oh, really? Then take me to the campus on a horse. I want to maintain my dignity as the class president.”

“Wow, being a class president in Korea is fucking tough.”

“Sorry, but that’s a tradition at our school.”

Hey, that tradition didn’t exist back when I was at that school, okay?

[1] An acrostic poem is a popular Korean wordplay where each syllable of a chosen word serves as the starting point for a sentence or phrase. In this example, the chosen word was 망망망 (“mang-mang-mang”). Woosung’s acrostic poem is as follows:

망돌 될 뻔한 거 내가 겨우 살린,

망나니 서호윤 이 새끼는,

망치나 들고 평생을 뚝딱거릴 팔자다.

In the first line, 망돌 (“mangdol”) is a slang term meaning “failed idol group,” combining 망 (failure) and 아이돌 (idol). In the second line, 망나니 (“mangnani”) refers to a “scoundrel” or “rascal.” The third line uses 망치 (“mangchi”), which means “hammer.”

Since creating a good acrostic poem with “mang” in English is challenging, I went for “doomed” instead.