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That’s what he thought.
‘Back then, you pretended not to know and left coldly without looking back. Why now?’
However, Bunhong, who sensed something strange in the change that occurred between them, different from before the regression, stared at Ido with trembling eyes. Ido said to Bunhong without a moment’s hesitation.
“I’ll ask you straight.”
Kim Bunhong read the rippling emotion that settled in Jeong Ido’s eyes for a moment. A subtle excitement.
Kim Bunhong already knew the meaning of the expression Ido was making right now, at this moment. The face that he thought he could never draw out was incredibly whispering to him as sweetly as possible.
“Won’t you come up with me?”
The moment he heard those words, Bunhong trembled all over his body like a fish caught on a harpoon.
You know. There’s a really scary hyung inside the agency. His name is probably Jeong Ido, he’s an extremely stubborn principled person, but everyone was puzzled because he didn’t refuse the agency’s proposal to become an idol and accepted it right away. Ah, what he originally wanted to become was probably a producer……? He’ll probably do the music he wants to his heart’s content after debuting as an idol and succeeding.
Since he had already heard rumors about ‘Jeong Ido’ that were secretly passed around like ghost stories only within the agency from fellow trainees, Kim Bunhong was extremely nervous even before first encountering him in the studio.
‘Have you ever thought about desperately wanting to do something?’
And past Kim Bunhong’s face had turned bright red as if struck right in the heart by that small question he harbored about him.
So different from that past time, his body began trembling at just one action of him extending his hand to him.
“……”
Actually, Kim Bunhong had seen Jeong Ido make this expression exactly once before the regression, in the past.
It was when Lee Hanbit joined BLACK and sang in front of them for the first time.
‘That’s Lee Hanbit?’
Everyone whispered until they heard him sing. The BLACK members, who had seen him well on broadcasts and were looking at Hanbit somewhat coldly along with Jeong Ido’s words to sing any song he wanted to try here. It was natural mistreatment since he was joining as a new member of an already debuted group.
Even in such a cold atmosphere, Lee Hanbit didn’t hesitate at all and strode across the practice room, walking straight toward them.
And he boldly began his own song, making everyone look dazed as if they had been hit on the back of the head. Among them, only Kim Bunhong watched his lover with somehow anxious feelings.
The mirrors installed inside the practice room reflected them, and
“……”
Hyung, who are you looking at? The one next to you now isn’t that kid, it’s me.
His trembling hands couldn’t quite grab Ido’s sleeve and hesitated before scattering. Not knowing at all Kim Bunhong’s heart wanting him to look only at him, whether as a producer or as a lover, Jeong Ido just walked straight to him without hesitation as if only Lee Hanbit existed in that place. Leaving Bunhong behind.
* * *
“Think carefully, this is an opportunity.”
“……”
“You must have some thoughts since you came looking for this place again.”
At Ido’s words, Kim Bunhong was curious about what expression he would make this time if he said he actually had no plan and just came because he wanted to see him.
Clearly, everything was the same, but why had only Ido’s attitude toward him changed?
To Bunhong who was still flustered, Ido said boldly.
“Let’s start again.”
A confident face that Kim Bunhong would definitely accept his proposal. What was that baseless arrogance?
Clearly there was a hidden card. After a while, he revealed his joker.
“You need money, don’t you.”
.
.
.
Who was that kid just now? The audience who had been watching one boy’s small performance chattered frantically about their own stories and flowed out of the audition hall like a receding tide.
Even the one who had been singing left lightheartedly, and in the place that had somehow become quietly filled with silence, only Oh Hangeul remained unable to escape from the magic, unable to take a single step from that spot. With a somewhat dazed, foolish expression.
It was a huge shock as if he had been hit several times with a large hammer. Lightly tapping the table with his fingers tap, tap, he sat in his chair lost in thought for a while.
‘What is this feeling?’
Hangeul suddenly realized that it wasn’t Bunhong but himself who had been helplessly defeated, just like the lyrics, intoxicated by the lingering effect of the song. It had penetrated during a moment of carelessness and he had fallen without being able to control it.
‘What on earth is it?’
Intoxicated by the swamp of emotions that Kim Bunhong, the narrator of the song, conveyed in each syllable of the lyrics, he experienced the most painful love and separation in the world together in just a few minutes as if he had become him.
Though it was only an indirect experience, it was so bitter that his eyes became hot without realizing it and tears almost welled up.
“I’ll do it a cappella.”
When Bunhong first said that, it was natural that he didn’t expect anything at first from those words. Rather, he had been worried. Even though he had experienced all kinds of people doing all sorts of ridiculous things to stand out, it was the first time he had seen a rookie attempt such a strange gamble.
‘A cappella.’
That was a method that even active singers didn’t usually attempt, so why on earth? Hangeul was puzzled.
The presence or absence of MR made a tremendous difference in the song’s delivery power. No one dared to attempt building harmony alone on white paper and drawing notes on non-existent sheet music.
Since there weren’t any particular restrictions from the beginning, he couldn’t have imagined that someone would make such an attempt.
Therefore, he couldn’t expect at all that it would work.
However, Bunhong’s song that he heard that way moved at least Hangeul’s heart among the audience present. Not only that, but with nothing but his voice alone, he made the cold, cynical air of the audition site his own.
‘That guy is alive.’
After Kim Bunhong’s song, which was short but long, ended, Hangeul felt something boiling up from deep in his chest. That was something indefinable…… it stimulated something deep in the abyss of the unconscious and at the same time a small spark ignited in a black volcano with only ashes remaining.
Longing.
It stimulated a substanceless desire, but since the object of that stimulation didn’t exist, all of it was directed toward the small boy who had finished singing standing in front of him.
‘Am I…… alive?’
Something from the forgotten past rose up like a mirage. Or like incense lit to commemorate someone.
‘Hangeul. Please remember. Beauty is power.’
That’s right. The image of his mother who had repeatedly emphasized her own philosophy in front of young Hangeul came to mind. It was something Hangeul really didn’t want to remember.
‘What’s not beautiful is ugly. Love is exactly like that. It’s the same as being dead.’
If the dead woman appeared before his eyes again, Hangeul felt he could now say this.
‘You certainly said that, but the two pupils of that boy singing about the love you call dead sparkle like jewels. Among all the bodies and souls I’ve seen so far, he alone sings of being alive before me.’
Hangeul then thought.
‘If you’re…… real……’
Hangeul quickly dry-washed his face and stood up from his seat. Bang. Along with the sound of the chair falling over, there was a harsh sound of the marble floor being scraped by metal.
But without any time to care about such things, he kicked off from his seat and hurriedly rushed out. He urgently tried calling Kim Bunhong, but he didn’t answer.
Beep- beep- beep-.
The sound of the low signal ringing from his ear leaning against his cell phone cutting off. Along with that, he suddenly had an ominous premonition. There was a question that flashed through Hangeul’s mind momentarily.
‘But…… where did Jeong Ido go?’
That was perhaps like an intuition. So he had to run even more without stopping.
“Huff…… huff.”
Since the elevator wasn’t coming and remained stopped even after waiting a long time, Oh Hangeul quickly ran down the stairs and finally arrived at the first floor.
Since he hadn’t even covered his face, there were exclamations from people who recognized him everywhere. Murmur murmur.
‘Come to think of it, today was the day when ordinary people were supposed to come to the agency building for career exploration and tours.’
I’m a fan! Please hold my hand! Just one photo!
Along with the clicking sounds of flashes, greedy hands reached out from everywhere. In the crowd that rushed toward him as if they had been waiting, Oh Hangeul stood lost for a moment.
“Get back! Students, calm down!”
Security guards from inside the agency ran over and quickly separated them from Hangeul.
‘It hurts……’
The nail marks from the last person who had been holding onto Hangeul were clearly left on his arm as they were pulled away. Finally freed, Hangeul wiped the sweat flowing from his forehead and looked around.
He definitely wouldn’t have left the inside of the company. That bastard cares about people’s gazes. He would have chosen as secretive a place as possible.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
