Chapter 61
“Hyung, hyung! Juha hyung!”
When Juha appeared, Eunwon waved his hand and called out to him. Next to him, Jang Chaemyeong was filming the scene with his phone. Soon Na Junho and Jo Munseok arrived, and then Yoo Youngin too, gathering all the team members.
The place they met was a franchise cafe designated by the production team. The pretext was that meeting on the street would be tiring because of fans, but it was obviously transparent PPL.
Since everyone had dressed up to their heart’s content without restrictions, the team members meeting outside had a different atmosphere.
Seo Eunwon, who said he liked skateboarding, wore quite expensive brand clothes and had a board slung next to him. The thought that he seemed like a rich family’s youngest son turned into certainty when seeing Eunwon’s casual fashion.
Jang Chaemyeong, who came wearing a striped polo shirt and cream-colored shorts, had 1 million won headphones hanging around his neck, not bothered by such ordinary clothing.
‘Were their families rich too?’
Seeing the uninhibited outfits of the guys who were still minors, Juha felt awkward for no reason.
Yoo Youngin, who liked showing off, came wearing a t-shirt with a luxury brand logo that the public could easily recognize plastered in the center of his chest and carrying a famous patterned luxury bag. He wondered why he’d dressed like that when it would all be covered anyway, but decided not to think much of it.
Jo Munseok and Na Junho, who had such good chemistry on stage, were awkward with each other again. Na Junho’s outfit, the son of a famous Busan dignitary even in the metropolitan area, also looked quite expensive, but unlike Yoo Youngin’s, the logos weren’t prominent.
Juha, who didn’t know such expensive brands to begin with, quickly lost interest. They say these days you need family money to even be a trainee, but the members showed off flashy outfits to the extent that Juha, who grew up in an ordinary household, felt intimidated.
Putting aside comparisons and turning his gaze away, Seo Eunwon suddenly grabbed Juha.
“Huh? This peach logo. Wow! Hyung! I know this. This is really hard to get—how did you buy it?”
When Seo Eunwon spoke loudly with wide eyes, even Jang Chaemyeong came over.
“Oh? Oh. I just got it as a gift.”
Feeling awkward, Juha scratched his neck unnecessarily while speaking.
“All the products here are only produced as limited editions, so once they’re released, the price doubles immediately. But hyung, did you like accessories too? Seeing you outside, it’s refreshing.”
Necklaces and rings were awkward for Juha too. Chaemyeong and Eunwon grabbed Juha on both sides and examined his outfit.
“Is this that expensive?”
“There’s a number written here. This t-shirt was made as a limited edition of 1000, and this is number 924, so it’s from the later numbers.”
Before he knew it, even Na Junho had approached and checked the number attached to his neckline collar. At the sudden hand covering his neck, Juha hurriedly shrank back.
“Don’t be surprised. Who gave you the gift? They must have really struggled to get it.”
Na Junho chuckled and withdrew his hand. He almost got caught with Taeri’s initials inside the collar.
Since they were making a fuss surrounding Juha, even Yoo Youngin, who had been pretending not to care, slowly craned his neck to gauge the atmosphere.
If he’d known these clothes were so hard to obtain, he felt unnecessarily sorry that he should have said at least one more word of thanks to Taeri.
* * *
The place the six went for lunch was a franchise mala hotpot restaurant. The restaurant owner guided them to a private room as if he’d been waiting when they arrived.
Soon the table was filled with food. There was an overwhelming amount—mala hotpot and mala xiangguo loaded with ingredients like in advertisement photos, guobaorou with excellent chewy batter, plus complimentary steamed eggs and fried rice.
‘Did Taeri get to the restaurant okay?’
Seeing that scene, Juha thought of Taeri again. Taeri had been happy when they left the house together, saying the restaurant he was going to and the one Juha was going to were close by.
What Taeri picked was a franchise Italian restaurant where you could make reservations and orders with AI. Imagining how much Taeri, who actually liked Korean food despite appearances, would force himself to eat made him laugh.
“Now, Juha hyung, please eat like a mukbang YouTuber.”
Chaemyeong hurriedly started filming before the food got cold.
“Yes. First, bok choy with Chinese glass noodles that I like, oh, there’s vermicelli here too.”
Juha lifted the food with chopsticks like he’d seen somewhere and covered the back with his palm to focus the camera.
“Now it goes into my mouth. Wow, it’s spicy. It’s spicy but deliciously spicy.”
Juha put it in his mouth, swallowed, then fanned himself with his hand while looking at the camera.
“Juha hyung eats well. Do you originally like mala hotpot?”
Jang Chaemyeong moved the camera around while asking Juha questions.
“Um, actually I don’t usually like it that much, but this one is really delicious. I think I’ll crave it again when I get home.”
Juha chewed and swallowed the chewy vermicelli.
Chaemyeong, in charge of filming, stepped up to secure Juha’s screen time. Even though he hadn’t done anything particularly nice, Chaemyeong subtly followed Juha. Probably his fondness had transferred from hanging around with Seo Eunwon.
After even Yoo Youngin filmed his mala mukbang, they finally started eating.
While Juha wasn’t particularly food-motivated and was a light eater but didn’t pick at food, he was worried about the still-young Jang Chaemyeong and Seo Eunwon. Originally mala dishes are spicy and stimulating, and the spices themselves aren’t fragrances easily accepted.
But that was just needless worry. The two said mala hotpot was their favorite menu and ate heartily enough to satisfy the advertisers. As expected, the appetites of still-growing sprouts were different.
They were so cute that even the picky Yoo Youngin smiled.
The well-built, tall Na Junho and Jo Munseok also ate without reserve. Though it wasn’t particularly a favorite menu, after a long confined life, Juha also worked his chopsticks diligently at this outside food.
Youngin, who had been slurping noodles, went back to picking at his chopsticks when the camera was put away.
Yoo Youngin’s past photos posted online kept reappearing somewhere else even after being taken down repeatedly. Youngin’s fans, tired of fighting with other fans, gave up. Rather, they turned around to an atmosphere where they themselves stepped forward saying Youngin was cute even when chubby.
Even when other fans brought Youngin’s past photos to mock and pick fights, since Youngin’s fans showed little reaction, they soon lost interest.
As the mockery weakened, Yoo Youngin also seemed to have become quite calm.
After eating mala hotpot, following Jang Chaemyeong’s suggestion, the six guys went to take instant photo booth pictures.
Since they’d be scattered from the next competition on, it seemed meaningful to leave photos, so everyone followed without objection. Squeezing into the narrow booth to take pictures, some of their faces or heads got cut off. Finding even that funny, they giggled and laughed.
Jang Chaemyeong and Seo Eunwon were genuinely excited as if they’d come out to play with close hyungs.
When six tall guys gathered and walked around the streets, people gradually began recognizing and approaching them.
“Oh my, it’s Yoo Youngin!”
“Junho! Na Junho! Damn, so handsome.”
“Lee Juha’s real appearance is no joke.”
As fans gathered with murmurs, their steps gradually slowed. Since it was everyone’s first time being recognized by fans, the team members smiled brightly and greeted them. Not missing the timing, autograph requests began from here and there, and countless phone cameras pointed at them.
So many people surrounded them in layers that it was overwhelming to take even one step forward. At this rate, Vlog filming would be impossible.
“What should we do…?”
Flustered Jo Munseok whispered to Na Junho.
“Let’s quickly go to the karaoke. You take the right side.”
The two quickly came to an agreement and positioned themselves on either side.
“Excuse us. We’re filming, so please let us pass.”
Na Junho and Jo Munseok politely spoke while clearing a path. Finding even that interesting, Jang Chaemyeong walked while filming the fans with his selfie stick.
“We’re going to karaoke last.”
“Hiiing, don’t use the word ‘last.'”
At Chaemyeong’s words, Eunwon’s eyes drooped disappointedly. While the two bickered and filmed, they arrived at a large karaoke building.
Only after entering the assigned karaoke room did Juha unconsciously let out a sigh of relief. While it had been nice looking down at many people from the stage, having countless people crowd around showing interest from the same position was both grateful and frightening.
“Now we can’t just wander around carelessly.”
As if reading his mind, Na Junho spoke to Juha.
“Right.”
“I have to catch a flight later, so I should buy a hat.”
Na Junho muttered and plopped down next to Juha. Meanwhile, Jang Chaemyeong, who had chosen a song, started singing first. Right away Eunwon grabbed the microphone and sang along. As the song burst from the powerful speakers, the atmosphere quickly became boisterous.
“Hyungs, everyone get up! Let’s play together!”
At the youngest members’ aegyo, everyone eventually got up and a party broke out.
The highlight was Metabolic’s “Butterfly Dream.” When the letters “Butterfly Dream” appeared on screen, Team 1’s real madness began.
“Waaaaah!”
Even though the atmosphere was different from the arranged version, it was chaos.
After practicing to the point of exhaustion, when it came out in karaoke, even Juha got excited along with them. Without realizing it, “Butterfly Dream” had changed from a wound to a good memory for Juha.
Team 1 members danced and sang with more effort than on stage, just in a karaoke room.
After the first verse ended and the interlude began, the parts of the Myeongwon twins and Junseok martial artists ended, and the part where Juha and Junho faced each other and embraced waists came. Na Junho habitually and familiarly pulled Juha’s waist close and held him.
Since it was a movement in the choreography that they’d practiced countless times, there was no particular feeling. Na Junho was usually someone who exuded such coolness that even when showing goodwill, it was comfortable since no special emotions mixed in.
Suddenly the karaoke room door swung open and people poured in.
“Ack!”
Seeing the people who entered the room, the team members all widened their eyes without exception.
“Choi Taeri?”
Those who had entered the room uninvited were Taeri’s team. Taeri, who entered first, widened his eyes seeing Na Junho with his arm around Juha’s waist.
Juha hurriedly escaped from Na Junho’s embrace as if caught cheating.
Choi Taeri smiled and entered the room with his arm around Andrew Son’s shoulder.
“Surprise!”
When Kim Jinhyeon, Taeri’s team’s filming person, held up the camera, Juha’s team welcomed them warmly. Members who had become close embraced each other’s shoulders in greeting.
“Lee Juha! Eunwon!”
Yeom Sangyeop smiled brightly and looked for the two. Eunwon smiled brightly and ran to Yeom Sangyeop.
“How did you come?”
Juha glanced at Taeri while asking Sangyeop.
“We were playing in the room next door and heard ‘Butterfly Dream’ so we came! Taeri said let’s go to karaoke so we came, but we didn’t know you guys were here too! Seeing you outside makes it even more exciting!”
“Ah…”
Taeri asking about today’s schedule came to mind in Juha’s head. So that’s why he’d asked so persistently—it was for the purpose of this surprise visit.
Juha’s gaze turned to Taeri again. As if sulking about seeing him holding Na Junho earlier, Taeri was turning his head away primly.
‘Cute guy…’
Juha burst into laughter.
“Hey hey, let’s sing ‘Peppermint Girl’ too!”
As soon as Kim Jinhyeon finished speaking, the intro to ‘Peppermint Girl’ flowed from the speakers. Team 2 members aligned like machines as soon as they heard the music.
“We are, in a mint chocolate relationship!”
“Choco choco mint choco relationship!”
Juha’s team sang along like extreme fans. With over 10 guys in their prime gathered in a small room, it was chaos. They jumped and played around, not even knowing they were getting drenched in sweat.
Finally, when the title song of ‘My Job is Idol’ flowed from the karaoke machine, it was complete pandemonium.
* * *
Saying this gathering was also fate, the two teams ate dinner together. Since people were crowding around so they couldn’t go far, they went to the chicken galbi restaurant right next door. When people who hadn’t left yet stuck to the restaurant’s glass windows to watch them, the owner moved them up to the second floor.
The second floor wasn’t open yet, so they were the only customers. The twelve guys let out sighs of relief and took their seats.
Taeri and Na Junho sat on either side of Juha, with Eunwon and Youngin sitting across from them. The chicken galbi sizzled as it cooked.
Even though it hadn’t been long since lunch, they were all hungry from playing too hard in karaoke. Eunwon scooped up spoonfuls with his spoon and ate deliciously as if it were his first meal of the day. Then suddenly, Eunwon’s gaze stopped on Taeri.
“But Taeri hyung is also wearing clothes with that peach picture drawn on them? They say it’s hard to get, but both Juha hyung and Taeri hyung are wearing them.”
At Eunwon’s thoughtless words, Juha almost choked.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
