Chapter 70.
“Damn it.”
Juha glared at Yunha, who couldn’t keep her mouth shut from their very first meeting.
“It’s okay.”
Taeri smiled brightly and soothed Juha.
“This is Choi Taeri. You know him, right? This is my sister Lee Yunha.”
Juha introduced his sister with a completely insincere voice.
“H-hello.”
Yunha smiled awkwardly and greeted Taeri. Juha was dumbfounded by Yunha’s polite smile, which was unimaginable from her usual thunderbolt-like behavior.
“Hello. I could tell you’re Lee Juha’s sister even from a kilometer away.”
“Huh?”
At Taeri’s words, Juha and Yunha reflexively frowned and looked at each other.
“You look alike.”
“Ugh…”
“Tch…”
At Taeri’s final comment, Juha and Yunha looked away from each other and swallowed their anger. Yunha, who couldn’t bring herself to say harsh words in front of Taeri, swallowed her curses.
When Taeri handed over Bbureobbakkon, Segyecon, and a pile of snacks, Yunha happily accepted them.
“For dinner, ah, you said you ate with your family, right?”
Juha was looking at Taeri fondly when he suddenly remembered and asked. Even if they had dinner, it was past 1 AM now, so it was about time to get hungry.
“I’m a bit hungry. Maybe I should have bought some cup ramen?”
Taeri casually placed his hand on his stomach. Even Taeri, who usually ate well no matter what he heard, couldn’t get food down today, and he was hungry after walking down the mountain road for quite a while.
“Ma, malatang! There’s malatang! I’ll heat it up for you!”
Juha burst into laughter at Lee Yunha’s proactive attitude as she jumped up. It was the first time he’d ever seen Yunha being so voluntary and proactive toward someone.
“It’s okay. Juha ate a lot of malatang a few days ago, so I don’t think he’d like it much.”
“But Lee Juha, I mean oppa, isn’t going to eat it, so why?”
Yunha asked with her eyes wide open, looking puzzled.
*Because he’d hate it when we kiss.*
Swallowing that answer, Taeri repeated that it was okay. Having no choice, they spread out the snacks Taeri had bought on the living room table.
Juha and Taeri sat on the floor leaning against the sofa drinking beer, while Yunha sat demurely on the sofa as they all watched the rerun of My Idol episode 6 together.
Juha’s team had already passed, and Taeri’s team’s stage preparation was being shown. Yunha kept looking back and forth between the screen and reality, confirming Taeri’s existence.
“So which one did your sister pick? Lee Juha?”
Taeri asked playfully while receiving Yunha’s gaze.
“She picked Junho hyung… mmph!”
“Uh, Eoltae! I picked Eoltae, Eoltae!”
As Juha covered her mouth and Yunha hurriedly answered, Taeri burst out laughing with a “pfft.”
* * *
“Look at that. Choi Musin really overflows with sense.”
“Still, isn’t Namhong the best in that team? Namhong has been in the upper ranks the whole time.”
“Ah, really! Kim Namhong is Kim Namhong, but I picked Choi Musin. I guarantee he’ll skyrocket! So oppa, you should pick Choi Musin too.”
When Kim Namhong’s team appeared, Yunha passionately recommended Choi Musin to Taeri just like she had told Juha.
“I thought it was Eoltae.”
Taeri, who had been responding well to Yunha’s words, suddenly looked at Yunha with a playful eye-smile.
For a moment, Yunha lost her words and stared at Taeri.
“E-Eoltae is Eoltae…”
Lee Yunha’s voice shrank at Taeri’s sudden smile attack.
*Well, she can’t speak loudly after seeing that smug smile.*
Even though Juha found his little sister’s behavior ridiculous, seeing Yunha getting along with Taeri made him feel strangely pleased. Lee Yunha was prickly and secretly shy, so she didn’t usually mix well with others, but it was amazing how she could chat so comfortably within 10 minutes of meeting Taeri.
When part 1 ended and commercials briefly came on, Yunha poked Juha hard. Juha, who had been blankly watching the screen, was startled and looked at Yunha.
“Hey, autograph.”
Yunha whispered to Juha in a small voice.
“Ah, right. Taeri, Yunha wants an autograph.”
“Ah, how can you say it so directly!”
Yunha glared at Juha with her eyes raised.
“Then should I ask for an autograph?”
Juha grinned and teased Yunha. It was a boring moment with no material to torment his sister.
“If you need my autograph, I’ll do it for you. How many?”
Taeri said while looking at the two fondly.
Because Taeri spoke so sweetly, Juha’s heart fluttered for a moment. Even though it was his own sister, whenever Taeri was kind to others like that, Juha would feel jealous.
“Ah, what? Yes. T-ten. Is that okay?”
“What do you mean ten? Hey, just five. Taeri’s arm will hurt.”
“No, it’s the same whether it’s ten or five.”
While Juha and Taeri were bickering, Yunha hurriedly brought paper and a pen.
“H-here!”
Yunha politely held out the paper and pen with both hands.
While Taeri was signing autographs, Yunha kept staring at Taeri with eyes like she was looking at an amazing doll.
“Hey, stop staring.”
“Ah, why?”
“It’s okay. It’s not like anything will wear out.”
When Juha squabbled with Yunha, Taeri stopped them. By the time Taeri finished a generous 20 autographs, part 2 of My Idol episode 6 had started.
The beer Juha and Taeri had been drinking was all gone, and Yunha, exhausted from fatigue, eventually dozed off and went to her room. Juha and Taeri watched the broadcast to the end while subtly touching each other’s hands, keeping an eye out in case Yunha came back out. The rerun didn’t end until 3 AM.
When My Idol episode 6 ended and commercials started, Juha and Taeri held hands and watched each other’s reactions.
“Should we sleep?”
At Taeri’s question, Juha nodded while looking down. He felt quite embarrassed thinking about Taeri sleeping in his room.
Juha’s room bed was a 1.5-person size, woefully inadequate for two grown men to lie on.
“I’ll bring blankets. Let’s sleep on the floor together.”
“Okay.”
Although he tried to let Taeri sleep on the bed, Taeri showed a firm attitude that absolutely wouldn’t allow that, so Juha brought blankets from the master bedroom. After laying thick blankets on the floor and placing two pillows, when they lay down side by side, Juha felt strangely like it was the first time sleeping with Taeri. In the darkness with the lights off, they lay facing each other.
“This feels weird.”
“Right.”
Taeri carefully wrapped both of Juha’s hands tightly. Neither the wide bed of the penthouse nor the neat bed at Taeri’s house, but lying on blankets on the floor of an old apartment – yet being with Taeri made everything wonderful.
Whether Taeri felt the same way, his raised lips were clear even in the darkness.
“Why are you in such a good mood?”
As if he’d never been gloomy, Taeri’s expression was genuinely bright.
“Because I’m with you.”
Like a dog that only looks at its owner, Taeri only looked at Juha. During filming, they were separated into different teams and the atmosphere was so tense they couldn’t even make eye contact often, but whenever Juha looked at him, Taeri’s eyes were always directed toward Juha.
As if he was just waiting for Juha to look at him.
“Why do you like me?”
Juha asked calmly. Taeri fidgeted with Juha’s clasped hands and hesitated for a long time.
“Is that such a difficult question?”
At Taeri’s serious face, Juha unconsciously let out a snort. He’d asked similar questions a few times before, but Taeri had never pondered this much.
Taeri seemed to make up his mind as he met Juha’s eyes and opened his mouth.
“Lee Juha, you are my closest friend, my lover, my colleague, and my idol.”
“…Huh?”
Juha felt like he’d heard a more excessive answer than expected.
“When I have you, it feels like I have all of that, and when you’re not here, it feels like I have no one.”
“…”
“You are the person I love most in the world. Because you are my dream.”
Taeri finished speaking and smiled awkwardly.
From those words, Juha could feel how many things Taeri had kept locked in his heart.
“Then tell me. What happened today.”
Juha asked calmly. This time Taeri’s hesitation lasted much longer than before. He briefly wondered if he shouldn’t have asked, but it felt like if not today, he’d never have the chance to hear it.
Taeri, having steeled his resolve, began his story in a low voice.
He said he was called to the company president’s office. To not be made a fool of and embarrassed like during the first competition. Juha was slightly surprised to hear this, but Taeri was rather calm about it. He said it was a usual thing so there was no problem, and he didn’t even feel bad about it. Juha felt bitter thinking that he had completely forgotten about that ruthless entertainment industry after leaving his company.
After finishing the company story and starting the family story, Taeri’s face quickly darkened.
“As far as I can remember, my parents were never by my side while I was growing up, and the aunts who raised me would change whenever I got attached to them. Because I had to be with the best nanny suited for my age group.”
A sneer spread behind Taeri’s meaningless smile. That was it. Starting from the first impression and the cold faces Taeri occasionally showed. Taeri, who was called a diamond spoon for having everything, had to give up his parents from the moment he was born.
Taeri calmly talked about how much he was treated like trash by his father when entering arts high school, what happened at today’s family dinner, what was said, and even what he heard from his father.
Finally, when he heard that Taeri’s father had left Taeri on a mountain road and that relatives had mocked him as they passed by, Juha unconsciously hugged him tightly. He couldn’t bear to listen comfortably.
Imagining Taeri walking down that road alone and lonely made his heart hurt as if it had been thrown off a cliff. Taeri wasn’t someone who should be thrown away like that. He was a really good person who could be loved anywhere. Yet the fact that the people who abandoned Taeri so miserably were his parents made Juha feel as pained as if it had happened to him.
“Are you really… okay?”
Even as he asked Taeri while hiding his emotions tightly, Juha felt like he might cry.
Juha’s parents had once been cold to him to make him give up his dream. But it was within reasonable limits, and now they were pretending not to know and letting it slide. Strictly speaking, until last year Juha was a minor, so there wasn’t much he could do, but from this year he could choose his own life. And adult Juha’s first choice was to challenge My Idol.
Of course, he was still in a position of receiving allowance and would have nowhere to go if he left home, so he needed his parents’ help. No matter how harshly they acted, in Juha’s common sense, parents were still people who worried about and supported their children.
But Taeri’s family, far from being his shelter, was like leaving him in a house without a roof and pouring down storms.
“But I’m okay because I have you.”
Taeri smiled clearly and stroked Juha’s cheek.
“You grew up well, Choi Taeri.”
“It’s not Choi Taeri, it’s Choi Jeongnam.”
Taeri smiled awkwardly and finished speaking, then pulled Juha in and kissed him. After making out for a while, just as the real Jeongnam was about to emerge, Juha barely managed to pull Taeri away.
“But how did you come to like me so much?”
At Juha’s question, Jeongnam’s eyes that had been glistening with lust returned to being Taeri’s. Taeri smiled and caressed Juha’s face.
“Lee Juha, do you know what you answered every time I said I missed you?”
“Well? ‘Me too’?”
Juha tilted his head.
“No.”
“Then what did I say?”
“…’I’ll come.'”
Taeri gave the answer while looking at Juha with a much warmer gaze.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
