# Chapter 20
When Song Ju asked “What?” with a face that seemed to be checking if he’d heard correctly, Juhyun answered, “Lee Hwiseo is in the storage shed and I locked the door from the outside,” while spinning the key in his hand. With an expression that seemed almost gleeful, he couldn’t keep his hand still as he twirled the key.
“You’ve locked Hwiseo in the storage shed?”
“Don’t say it like that. I just locked the door from outside. We used to do it a lot in the old days. Like when Hwiseo was alone in the practice room, we’d lock it and open it the next day.”
“That was the practice room. This is outdoors. Wait, in the storage shed, really?”
As he was speaking, Song Ju lowered his voice, perhaps realizing he was getting too loud. Juhyun, wiping the gleeful expression from his face as if this wasn’t the reaction he wanted, went outside the tent. Song Ju jumped up from his seat, messing up his hair frantically before following him out.
This glamping site was set up on relatively flat ground with a parking lot, barbecue area, communal kitchen, shower, toilet, large tent, and a decorative pond, while a few other tents, rest areas, and facilities like the storage shed were embedded in the hillside. Song Ju looked up toward the storage shed. It was the small shed he had visited once with the owner to get charcoal and butane gas. He approached Juhyun from behind and asked quietly:
“He just went in when you told him to?”
“I asked him to get some toilet paper for me and he went in.”
Juhyun was the shortest in the team. He claimed to be 173cm, but in reality, he wasn’t even 170cm. He probably asked Hwiseo to get something from a high shelf. Song Ju bit his lower lip.
“He doesn’t know it’s locked from outside. When I told him to wait a moment while I get the key, he said okay.”
Juhyun kept twirling the key, then approached the manager and said they should just go home. The manager, who had been packing things up, nodded in agreement and started loading luggage into the car. Then he suddenly noticed Hwiseo was missing and asked Juhyun.
“Weren’t you two together earlier? Where’s Hwiseo?”
“I think he got a call from home. He told us to go ahead. Seems like someone’s coming to pick him up from Yangjae-dong.”
Song Ju watched Juhyun tell this blatant lie, then pulled him aside to a corner. There was a small pond there with a thin stream of water trickling from the fountain in the center. Juhyun shook off Song Ju’s hand and said:
“Hwiseo was asking why I made up things about him during the livestream.”
Juhyun had been wondering how to lure Hwiseo to the storage shed. But Hwiseo had approached him first, saying he had something to ask. Juhyun, seeing his opportunity, took him up to a bench on the hill to talk.
<Aren’t you being overly self-conscious? You’re acting guilty, but I never mentioned you by name.>
<Then who else around you is a male Omega idol who married a chaebol, besides me?>
<Why should I have to explain that to you?>
<You may never have said it was me, but when people asked if it was me, you never denied it either. Am I wrong?>
Juhyun clenched his fist as he silently stared into Hwiseo’s deep brown eyes, which contrasted sharply with the whites of his eyes that were so pale they almost had a bluish tint. For a moment, he wanted to blurt out whatever came to mind, but he held back. It was one of the few skills Juhyun had developed during his entertainment career. No matter what he might say behind someone’s back, he would hold his tongue in front of them.
<I’m sorry. You’re right, people could have misunderstood. I didn’t think you’d take it that way. Really. I didn’t know what I was doing, so please cut me some slack.>
The way Hwiseo spoke so clearly and decisively was unfamiliar. It seemed like he wouldn’t suffer or struggle according to Juhyun’s whims anymore. The thought that Juhyun might become a nobody to him was infuriating. On top of that, he expected Song Ju to laugh along like before, but when he said things like “The joke is too much. Open the door,” it made him angry.
“Are you afraid of Lee Hwiseo?”
Song Ju was struck speechless when Juhyun glared at him, like the guilty party acting indignant. He almost shouted that this wasn’t about being afraid. Instead, he spoke calmly, as if trying to soothe Juhyun.
“Hyung. Honestly, we’re too old for these kinds of pranks. I don’t like Hwiseo either, he’s annoying. But this is going too far. We’re on a mountain, and it’s November. Just open the door. This joke is too extreme.”
“You were having fun with me before. Now you’re suddenly pretending to be nice?”
“When did I? When did I ever say locking him in that shed was fun? Get your facts straight. You’re the one who locked him in there. Don’t try to make me an accomplice when you did this alone.”
Juhyun felt his anger rising to the top of his head as Song Ju used terms like “accomplice” and “framing,” as if he had committed some major crime. After all, they’d brought him along when he was just hanging out, let him work on a unit album, and he wasn’t even grateful. Grinding his teeth, Juhyun threw the key he was holding into the pond with all his might. The heavy metal quickly sank to the bottom.
“Since you’re so nice, you can open it.”
Juhyun headed toward the parking lot where the car was waiting, acting as if it had nothing to do with him. Song Ju looked back and forth between the pond and Juhyun, trying to process what had just happened, then looked up at the storage shed. “Aish,” he sighed before following Juhyun.
***
When Wooseung, who had stopped by in the evening to bathe Woojoo before going to the company, returned home, it was well past midnight. Seeing the light on in the kitchen, he went there to find Manager Oh and one of the helpers sitting at the table. Wooseung responded to their greetings with a nod and took a bottle of water from the refrigerator.
“You haven’t gone home yet.”
“I’m on Woojoo’s milk duty today. As for Manager Oh…”
“Hwiseo-nim said he’d be back by 9 PM at the latest. When he contacted us earlier saying he’d come home after dinner, that’s what he said, but we haven’t heard from him since.”
Wooseung was opening the water bottle when he looked down at Manager Oh’s worried face. It had been only about three weeks since the amnesiac Lee Hwiseo had come to this house. He knew they got along well, but he didn’t realize they were close enough to have each other’s contact information and share return schedules.
“Hwiseo-nim was injured and hasn’t fully recovered. So I’m worried that again…”
She didn’t finish her sentence, but Wooseung could guess the unspoken words. If no one else, Manager Oh knew the general circumstances about Hwiseo.
“You know too, sir. He’s been much better recently, but…”
She was worried that Hwiseo, who had been despondent about life, might be doing something harmful again. The helper sitting across from Manager Oh was also clutching her phone tightly.
Je Wooseung took out his phone and called Hwiseo. Click—contrary to Manager Oh’s statement, someone answered immediately. Je Wooseung put the phone on speaker, placed it on the table, and pulled out a chair to sit. The two women huddled close around the phone.
– Hello? Um, I’m Lee Hwiseo’s manager. Hello?
“Put Lee Hwiseo-ssi on the phone.”
– What? Aren’t you with Hwiseo?
“What are you talking about?”
– He said someone was coming to pick him up from the Yangjae-dong house, and he’d go on his own.
When Wooseung looked at Manager Oh, she shook her head from side to side. There was no household matter she wasn’t involved in. With her confident denial, Je Wooseung picked up his phone.
“No one from the house went to pick him up. I’m calling because he hasn’t returned home yet. Why do you have his phone?”
– He left it in the car, so I’m keeping it.
“Who told you someone from Hwiseo-ssi’s home was coming to pick him up? Find out and call me back immediately.”
The person on the other end hurriedly said, “Yes, yes,” and hung up. An alarm sounded, and the helper stood up saying, “It’s time for milk.” Wooseung also got up and headed to the dressing room. After finishing his shower and coming out, he checked his phone, but there were no missed calls.
Wooseung went to Woojoo’s room. Woojoo’s eyes were puffy as he drank milk in the helper’s arms. It seemed he had cried for a long time with sleep tantrums again. He was struggling as he dozed off and woke up while drinking milk. After briefly breathing in the sweet milk-scented breath, Wooseung went outside.
Manager Oh, assuming Wooseung would handle the situation, had left the living room empty. It had been over 30 minutes since the phone call with the manager. Sighing, Wooseung called again.
“You still haven’t been able to contact him?”
Wooseung listened to the rambling voice on the other end of the phone as he headed to the dressing room. He grabbed a thin padded jumper and his car keys.
“Hang up and send me the camping site address by message right away. Understood?”
His face was calm and expressionless, but his low voice murmuring to the other person was as cold as if it would cut them.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
