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It seemed like this kind of thing happened because people were very interested in the celebrity Oh Hangeul himself.
At the same time, Bunhong wondered why Hangeul had made such a request.
Was it because he had shown a timid, hesitant side when he was working part-time before? Thinking about it that way, it made sense.
“……Hello.”
Bunhong, who was preparing to film a self-cam to answer fans’ questions in order, waved his hand in front of the camera.
“Do you like mint chocolate? I’m neutral.”
He read the question and faithfully continued with his answer.
“You’re asking what my hobbies are, but honestly, um, I don’t really do anything grand enough to call a hobby. But as fans might know, recently while playing games with my roommate Lucy, I thought having gaming as a hobby wouldn’t be bad either. And……”
Even after spending quite a long time answering, there were still plenty of questions about Hangeul left.
“You’re asking what kind of relationship I have with Oh Hangeul sunbae……”
Bunhong, who was touching his nape with the hand not holding the cam, pondered for a while before opening his mouth.
“In the past, even before I became a trainee? I happened to see sunbae performing on the street. He was so cool that I also developed a dream of wanting to sing confidently in front of other people.”
He racked his brain for how to answer as naturally as possible. Honestly, he was flustered because he couldn’t have imagined that Hangeul, who hadn’t even acknowledged him since BLACK’s debut, was caring this much about him behind the scenes.
“……He’s a sunbae I respect in many ways. I’m envious that he’s talented in everything. I want to be that good too.”
Bunhong then read another question.
“How many times a week do we contact each other?”
Since he didn’t know people would be curious about this, Bunhong was dumbfounded and closed his mouth.
‘I really can’t lie, so what should I do.’
Bunhong placed his finger on his lips and whispered playfully.
“Shh. That’s a secret.”
Bunhong’s answer became a small topic among fans of both sides. And thanks to that, the malicious atmosphere that had formed among OORA fans who would originally have harbored hatred toward BLACK also seemed to temporarily soften.
Bunhong, who had been staring at his phone on the table for a long time, finally reached out as if he had made up his mind.
‘I think I should contact him at least once.’
After fiddling with it and putting it down several times, he eventually put it down again without doing anything. He was so absorbed that Bunhong didn’t even know Duho was watching his behavior from the side.
“What are you doing? With your phone?”
“Oh, that’s……”
“Trying to contact someone? Don’t tell me it’s a girl?”
“No.”
Then Duho left as if he had lost interest.
“I don’t know what it is, but if you’re going to do it, just do it.”
Watching his retreating figure, Bunhong sighed and rested his forehead on the table.
‘Do these things that are so difficult for me look easy to other people?’
Contact was something you just did, but he couldn’t help hesitating.
“I don’t know.”
It was also due to his timid personality. So he only muttered the sincerity he couldn’t send as soliloquy.
“……I don’t want to be hated by anyone.”
He didn’t know why he cared so much about others’ perceptions of him. Whatever words or actions he took, he would ponder for a long time about how others might react before moving, so he had no choice but to act frustratingly.
Eventually, he was able to achieve his goal much later.
[Sunbae-nim. Hello? I don’t know if your number has changed, but I’m greeting you after a long time.]
Bunhong, who had succeeded in sending a text message to Hangeul, stretched and got up from his seat. His whole body ached stiffly from how long he had been crouched and worrying.
After that, even when he tried not to care, his gaze kept going to his phone.
‘No reply is coming.’
Even after finishing his schedule and coming back, there was still no contact. Bunhong, who was standing blankly while touching his phone in his pocket, continued to have all his nerves focused there and had to be scolded for being so scattered.
‘……Is he busy?’
Fortunately, he could find out the reason. When he searched the internet, there was an article about Hangeul’s departure. It seemed he had gone overseas for filming a few days ago.
‘Maybe when he returns to Korea, he’ll contact me.’
There were about three days left until he would re-enter the country. So after that period passed, contact would come.
Bunhong, who had unknowingly been counting the days left until D-day, laughed briefly.
He had just calculated how many days were left. By the gap of those days, his heart had been stolen.
‘Looking at it, I’m waiting.’
To get it back, the other person had to return.
And finally the day came. Articles poured out that Hangeul had entered the country. At the same time, a reply came.
[Oh Hangeul sunbae-nim: Who is this??]
“Uh……”
What was this? He was bewildered, wondering if the number had really changed.
“Then I shouldn’t send a reply? If I contact someone I don’t even know who they are, it could be awkward for both of us.”
Bunhong, who had been worrying, ultimately couldn’t reveal his identity to that text asking who it was.
* * *
And at that time, Hangeul was at a service center with his manager to replace his broken phone.
“I dropped it in water once and it completely broke. ……So it seems like the external hard drive part here was also damaged, but is it impossible to recover this?”
“Ah, this is……”
After the conversation between the manager and the service center employee ended, they had to go to the A/S center before they could get a new phone back.
The problem was that something was pressed wrong and some of the stored data, including phone numbers, had been lost. So even when checking contacts that came while he wasn’t in Korea, he couldn’t figure out who was who.
Among them, Hangeul went in to check one noticeable text message.
“What is this text? Sunbae-nim?”
Whether all the previous messages had been lost, there was only that one message. With just that, it wasn’t easy to deduce who the other person was.
“Could it be……?”
There were so many juniors in the music industry, but it was inexplicable why only one person flashed through his mind at that moment.
Hangeul, who had been pondering, ignored other contacts and replied for the first time to the person who sent that message. But seeing that there was no answer for a long time to the question of who it was, it seemed like it might have been spam. However, Hangeul, who couldn’t give up his lingering attachment, only found out that the phone number really belonged to Bunhong after checking through BLACK’s manager.
Hangeul muttered unconsciously.
“Contact really came.”
He was bewildered. Contact had come from someone he thought would never contact him first. He had imagined it several times. What he should say first if they contacted each other again. Since it was a scene he had only been drawing in his head, it felt dreamy somehow.
He couldn’t immediately act on it, and had to think about how to naturally create a point of contact first. If he approached too easily, they might become distant from each other due to awkwardness. And as they were from the same company, an opportunity easily came.
OORA and BLACK were going to perform at an outdoor stage event at the same place.
He thought it would be more natural if he contacted Bunhong using this as an excuse.
Looking at Hangeul who was grinning, the manager was disgusted.
“You, what’s with you.”
“Why are you looking at me with that expression?”
“Dating…… that can’t be it. What are you really scheming?”
The manager, who had arbitrarily decided that it couldn’t be a dating issue since it was Oh Hangeul and not other OORA members, began to suspect him.
Then Hangeul bristled and asked back.
“What do you mean it can’t be? Now that I hear it, I feel bad…… Should I really try dating?”
The manager burst into laughter as if he had heard a really funny joke.
“You? Really?”
“……”
Hangeul became curious about what kind of image he had for such a reaction to come out.
Unable to stand it, the manager even patted Hangeul’s shoulder and said this.
“Well, how many days would that last…… cheer up.”
It was a statement that completely crushed his pride.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
