Chapter 63
Even though it was a meeting between team members, it was part of filming. Only after finishing the schedule did Juha feel like the second competition was truly over.
When he arrived home, extreme fatigue hit him. Juha fell asleep while talking on the phone with Taeri for a long time, drowsy. Listening to each other’s languid voices until right before sleep, he slept soundly as if he’d had good dreams.
The next day, Juha woke up close to noon.
Since Taeri said he was going to the company today, Juha was planning to go to Jaewan’s practice room. When Juha got up late, all his family members had gone out. As usual, his mother had left a 50,000 won bill and a memo on the dining table.
[Go to Aunt Miyoung’s.
I made cold dishes, so make sure to eat them.
Keep tomorrow free.]
‘Why does she want me to keep tomorrow free?’
Juha thought to himself while taking out the cold dishes from the refrigerator.
Juha, who found it bothersome to cool down hot food before eating, liked cold dishes. His mother had made them just as he was starting to crave cold dishes with summer approaching.
Juha found it troublesome to scoop rice, so he ate only a plate of cold dishes and headed to Han Jaewan’s practice room.
Since practice rooms are usually quiet during weekday afternoons, he’d been able to practice comfortably on his days off.
However, when Juha arrived, someone was taking lessons in the practice room. From the way they were dancing, it seemed like they were practicing for a b-boying competition. Seeing the student still struggling, it didn’t seem like it would end soon.
Since he hadn’t rented it exclusively or made a reservation, Juha quietly withdrew.
‘Where should I practice?’
Hot summer sunlight poured outside. Because of the mask pulled up to under his eyes and the cap pressed down low in case people might recognize him, sweat beaded on Juha’s forehead.
Apartments weren’t suitable for practicing dance or singing because of noise between floors.
In the past, he used to practice at quiet parks or karaoke rooms, but now if he was spotted by people, photos would definitely go up and it would be troublesome.
Moreover, since he had no agency, if anything happened while practicing and wandering around anywhere, there was no one to handle it for him. It was a moment when he newly felt how inconvenient it was to have no sense of belonging.
“Sigh…”
Juha trudged back home. He thought about calling Taeri but gave up since he’d be practicing and unable to talk anyway.
After giving up on all the options, there was nothing to do.
‘Let me rest a bit.’
Without thinking about being overworked until yesterday, he habitually tried to live diligently. Coming to his senses, his body that had been tense from dorms, filming, and competition stages was aching here and there.
He took watermelon cut into cubes from the refrigerator and ate to his heart’s content, then turned on the air conditioner to a cool setting and fell asleep while watching TV alone in the living room.
* * *
Not even knowing his mother had come home, he slept the whole time until his father, who had returned from work, woke him up saying it was time for dinner. Lee Yunha had also come home from academy and was helping mother set the dinner table. Even though it was summer with long days, it was already dark outside with the sun set.
“Why is there beef?”
Juha asked while sitting in a chair with puffy eyes. On the dining table were a gas burner and grill, with beautifully arranged beef that had white fat marbled through the red meat like snow.
“Your maternal grandmother sent it for you to eat. She made a fuss after seeing you on TV, saying you looked thin. You should receive deliveries when you’re home—the good meat almost spoiled. It’s only because there were plenty of ice packs.”
“I couldn’t hear because I was sleeping.”
“What, you sleep in the living room instead of your room and can’t hear the doorbell?”
Yunha chimed in from the side, but Juha easily ignored her.
Though he had lost a lot of weight due to mental stress from being dropped from the debut group last year and leaving Serona, to grandmother’s eyes, her grandson looked pitifully about to collapse. Thanks to that, there was so much expensive beef that the four family members could eat their fill and it still wouldn’t diminish. After a hearty dinner, Juha spent time with his family while eating fruit.
Just as the family was getting ready for bed, a call came from Taeri. Juha grabbed his phone and hurried into his room.
“You said you were going to the company, but you couldn’t be reached all day?”
Juha grumbled as soon as he answered the phone.
-Sorry. The manager packed the practice schedule tight. I think I have to go to the company tomorrow too.
“Rest a bit on your day off. Is your ankle okay?”
-Yeah. My ankle’s fine. What did you do today?
“I slept. I was a bit tired after the tension was released.”
To Taeri at least, he didn’t want to say that he had nowhere to go practice and stayed home all day.
-Good job.
The two fell silent for a moment. Only their faint breathing leaked through the phone.
Unusually, Taeri’s voice lacked energy. He must be tired from being worked hard at the company all day. Juha looked for a topic to change the direction of conversation.
“Tomorrow is the day episode 6 airs.”
Juha spoke first.
-Yeah. You’ll watch it with your family… right?
Taeri asked carefully.
From what he heard during dinner, it seemed Juha’s family planned to watch the live broadcast together tomorrow.
But Juha’s stage this time was ‘Butterfly Dream.’ It wasn’t a song selection that would be comfortable to watch with family. Perhaps because he was such a taciturn son, Juha felt quite awkward about watching such a story-laden song with his parents.
“Want to watch together?”
-Is that okay?
At Juha’s suggestion, Taeri’s voice immediately brightened. Hearing that voice, he couldn’t bear to let Taeri watch alone.
“Let’s watch together.”
-Yeah, yeah. I’ll contact you after checking my company schedule tomorrow!
Taeri answered excitedly, forgetting about practicing all day.
“Got it. Rest since it’s late today.”
-I love you.
“Me too. I love you.”
After ending the call with their confessions, Juha’s whole body tingled.
On a night when he couldn’t sleep because of the long nap, it seemed like he’d stay up all night thinking about Taeri.
* * *
Contact came from Taeri early the next day. The content was that he had many company practice schedules so he could only contact him in the evening. Juha, who had been excited thinking he could see Taeri from early morning, suddenly lost his enthusiasm.
‘I wonder if Jaewan hyung is using the practice room today too?’
From what he saw yesterday, it didn’t seem like it would end in one day. If someone else was using the practice room today too, Juha would have nowhere to go again.
Thinking that on a rest day, while others were all busy receiving care from their companies, he alone had no practice space was quite bitter.
Sighing and sitting at his desk, Juha familiarly took out Japanese and English textbooks. Even to himself, it was ridiculous to be studying out of nowhere before a competition.
Thanks to the company consistently making him study English and Japanese during his trainee days, Juha had developed a habit of studying English and Japanese daily. Moreover, since the current environment didn’t allow him to use his body, foreign language study was all he could do. While blankly staring at books, a knock sounded on his door.
“Yes.”
“Juha, come to the beauty salon with mom.”
His mother was already waiting in front of Juha’s room, fully prepared to go out.
“Why the beauty salon?”
“Watching TV, everyone put effort into their style. Only you look ordinary.”
Even so, a beauty salon was too sudden. Then suddenly, his mother’s memo that said ‘Keep tomorrow free’ came to mind.
‘Don’t tell me that was about going to the beauty salon?’
Juha hesitantly got up from his chair.
“I’m fine as I am.”
“Hurry up. Mom has to go to Aunt Miyoung’s later too.”
His mother grabbed Juha’s wrist and dragged him to the living room. Juha pretended to be defeated and followed his mother out.
He thought they were just going to the neighborhood beauty salon, but his mother took a car and crossed the Han River.
‘Where are we going?’
Though he did go to cut his hair when the time came, it had been a while since properly going to get his hair done.
It was too expensive to go to a hair salon with intention when he wasn’t even earning money yet. He couldn’t bring himself to ask his parents for money either.
Let’s do all the grooming stuff after debuting until we’re sick of it. He could only comfort himself with that thought.
The place his mother’s car stopped was a famous hair salon that even Juha knew well.
“Oh, mom. This place is too expensive…”
Juha was genuinely flustered. The hair salon his mother brought him to was a place that trainee Lee Juha couldn’t even dream of—a place patronized by top-tier idols.
“Let’s go in.”
His mother pulled the hesitant Juha’s hand and entered.
“Welcome, Mr. Lee Juha. You made a reservation with Teacher Julie, right?”
A young staff member with a bright expression recognized Juha as soon as he entered.
“Huh?”
“Yes. That’s right. Teacher Julie.”
His mother answered instead of the bewildered Juha.
After being guided to a second-floor seat, ‘Teacher Julie’ came to Juha’s spot. When he sat in the salon chair, Juha’s mother stood behind him, watching Juha as if monitoring him.
“Please look at this color chart and hairstyles and choose.”
Teacher Julie handed Juha a tablet and hair color samples.
Though they were all the latest trendy styles, he was still concerned about the price. When Juha glanced at his mother through the mirror, his mother approached with big steps as if she’d been waiting.
“Don’t worry about anything and definitely choose whatever you want to do. Mom will go take care of business outside and come back.”
His cool-natured mother left the room as soon as she finished speaking.
“…”
Even so, Juha couldn’t readily speak up.
Just as Juha couldn’t choose and was pondering for a while, Teacher Julie approached.
“Juha-ssi has a typical cool tone with long, attractive eyes, so how about a bright color? This kind of ash blonde. If we add a side part and slight perm here, it would be good. If you want to completely change your image, baby perm would be good too.”
“Please do the side part. Ash blonde sounds good too.”
Since this opportunity wouldn’t come easily, Juha decided to enjoy this situation. Moreover, ash blonde with a faded blonde feel was a color Juha had definitely wanted to try at least once.
“Okay. I have a close friend called Teacher Sandra, and she’s a member of ‘Fall for Juha.’ So I’ve also watched Juha-ssi with interest several times on TV. When I watched the ‘Mine’ stage last time, I thought it would have been perfect if only the hair had been bright with that outfit. Then the reservation came in perfectly.”
Teacher Julie poured out chatter while gauging Juha’s part with a tail comb.
“Thank you for your interest.”
“Oh right. Teacher Sandra is close with stylist Lee Yeong unnie over there. You know Lee Yeong unnie, right?”
“Ah, Teacher Jung Iyeong?”
Juha immediately brightened when a name he knew came up. Jung Iyeong was the stylist when Juha chose Yeonsangun for his first concept photo.
“Right, right. That unnie did the styling for Juha-ssi’s profile photo. That unnie said Juha-ssi is quiet and calm.”
“I’m still a bit…”
“Oh my, come to think of it, I made you talk too much. You must have been tired from filming, I got excited and…”
“No, it’s okay.”
“I’ll make your hair pretty. When you debut, don’t forget Teacher Sandra and me. Hoho.”
“Of course.”
Juha answered awkwardly.
Teacher Julie sprayed his hair with a spray bottle and then quickly concentrated on the work. Juha’s mind became much more at ease, but inwardly he still resented his introverted personality. Still, it couldn’t be helped. Rather than acting friendly and making mistakes, it was better to quietly maintain the status quo.
When you debut, going to salons becomes daily routine. Will the life where you change hairstyles several times a day, change clothes, and staff take care of you from head to toe really come? By then, will I be able to chat friendly with these people too?
Juha harbored doubts alone, then suddenly felt awkward as if he was counting chickens before they hatched when episode 6 hadn’t even aired yet.
Since his appearance with his hair in curlers was funny, Juha decided to close his eyes and try to sleep instead.
He thought it would take an hour or two, but working on hair took longer than expected. The feeling of gently caressing his hair was nice, so Juha dozed off slightly, then suddenly opened his drowsy eyes at the sound of a ringing phone.
The caller was someone completely unexpected.
‘Seo Eunwon?’
The person who suddenly called was Eunwon.
Though he’d exchanged contact with Yeom Sangyeop several times on previous rest days, this was the first time Seo Eunwon had called.
“Oh, Eunwon. Why?”
-Hyung, what are you doing?
Eunwon’s voice sounded deflated, which seemed ominous. He’d never heard such a depressed voice before, so he was suddenly scared.
“I’m getting my hair done. Why? Is something wrong?”
-Are you changing your style?
“Well, you could say that. What’s going on?”
-Hyung… did you happen to see the watermelon chart?
Eunwon hesitated then asked carefully.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
