#025
“…Why are you lying so far away?”
They were already close enough. Even so, Lee Yeonwoo rolled over once and moved closer to Kang Dojun’s side, who had moved away, sticking to him.
Because Yeonwoo kept clinging to his side, he was already pressed against the wall.
“Yeonwoo, are you afraid of ghosts?”
At that question, he flinched and then buried his head completely under the blanket.
Tiring-.
At a sound different from the camera shutter, he peeked just his face out from under the blanket to check the situation.
“What are you doing?”
Not satisfied with photos, this time it was a video. Yeonwoo’s thoroughly sullen face soon filled the phone screen.
Kang Dojun laughed mischievously and said again.
“Yeonwoo, are you afraid of ghosts?”
“…What are you trying to do?”
“I’ll keep it to myself. Are you scared?”
“It’s just annoying when you suddenly startle me like that.”
‘He’s scared.’
Yeonwoo seemed fed up with Kang Dojun’s continued teasing and hid himself by covering up with the blanket again. He wriggled under the blanket and spoke in a tiny voice.
“You can’t fall asleep first.”
The immature younger brother Yeonwoo was also very timid. Fear was probably one of the reasons he had developed the habit of sleeping early and waking up early.
“Sleep first. I’ll sleep a bit later.”
Then, moving as one with the blanket, he leaned his body against Kang Dojun’s side.
‘…It’s cramped.’
There was nowhere left to retreat, yet he kept coming closer. Having given up, Kang Dojun fiddled with his phone and entered StarStar, where he had safely uploaded a post to his feed earlier with Jaihan’s help.
Quite a few comments had accumulated. Among the countless comments, there were surely good ones, but there were also reactions with malicious intent. For that reason, he usually didn’t check them carefully, but there were so many comments about Yeonwoo that he couldn’t avoid seeing them. He read through them one by one, at least with the excuse of deleting any bothersome comments.
[Face covered again. Is this trending these days?]
[Did Kang Dojun’s account get hacked?]
[Is this the same person Shin Gihyeon posted? Can’t tell since the face is covered…]
[Dojun oppa, please post your photos tooã… ã… ã… Are you doing well?]
[Looking at the tags, it’s the same person]
[Hehehe it’s fan service content. I’ll enjoy this.]
[Isn’t this the person who often appeared on Wonseon’s YouTube? …Can’t be sure since the face is covered… just saying.]
[Why did you tag Shin Gihyeon? Is this some trend. Don’t leave me out again. Tell me tell me~whine.]
[Come to my feed if you want to see this person’s face~]
He was reading the comments calmly when he paused at the last comment. He checked the account, but fortunately it was just full of promotional posts and seemed to have nothing to do with Yeonwoo.
Then, seeing the comment asking why Shin Gihyeon was tagged, he checked his own feed again.
Even so, he knew what tags meant.
[#KangDojun #ShinGihyeon #actor #idol #Grace #countryside #RuralConquest]
When Jaihan asked for confirmation whether it was okay to post it like this, maybe he should have stopped him…
‘More than that, isn’t this a broadcast spoiler?’
However, since Han Taegu had said in advance that a little promotion would be fine, this much probably wouldn’t be a problem.
Glancing to the side, Yeonwoo was already leaning his face against Kang Dojun’s shoulder, breathing softly in his sleep.
‘…It’s cramped.’
Perhaps because it felt stuffy somewhere, sleep wouldn’t come.
When filming ended, would Yeonwoo and he become strangers? If that happened, he thought he’d be a little sad.
* * *
“It was fun even though it was a short time!”
Unlike when Shin Gihyeon came, Grace had another afternoon schedule, so they prepared to leave from early morning.
“Yeonwoo-ssi, can I post the photo of me cutting your hair on StarStar? Of course, if you don’t want me to, I won’t!”
“Go ahead and post it.”
Yeonwoo had turned off his phone last night because of the constant notifications. When he briefly turned it on to check, his friends’ messages had already piled up. They were curious about what was going on, saying that not only was there a photo on Shin Gihyeon’s feed, but also on Kang Dojun’s feed.
Thinking that one more photo wouldn’t change anything at this point, he nodded readily to Hail’s words.
He was now at the level of half giving up. Even looking at Kang Dojun clicking away beside him, he felt only peaceful, wondering if he should at least make a V sign.
“I’ll treasure it as a memory just between us two! The courage test was fun. Hyung-nim!”
‘Fuck, why would you treasure that.’
Yesterday, he had run blindly without knowing what was what, and when he came to his senses, he was in first place. All he remembered was running while looking only ahead and accidentally making eye contact with a staff member in ghost makeup right in front of him.
His body automatically shuddered at the terrifying scene he experienced last night.
If you don’t experience it, it doesn’t come to mind. If it doesn’t come to mind, it’s not scary either.
Yeonwoo, who hated scary things and therefore hated even experiencing them, considered yesterday’s incident the worst event caused by petty pride.
“Forget it.”
Jinhyeong, ignoring Yeonwoo’s words, took out the prize money from yesterday again and showed it off.
“I won’t use this either, and when the program airs, I’ll brag on StarStar that I won it thanks to Yeonwoo hyung-nim!”
“Just spend it.”
“Dojun sunbae-nim, thank you for kindly welcoming us even though we barged in suddenly!”
Whether he was intentionally ignoring Yeonwoo’s words or what, Jinhyeong didn’t answer and bowed 90 degrees to Kang Dojun, greeting him warmly.
“Yes, have a safe trip.”
“Shall we take a group photo as a memento?”
“Oh, then I’ll take it for you!”
Taking advantage of the touching emotion of farewell despite the short time, Biyu mentioned photos. It was for the purpose of posting on Grace’s official account or StarStar for promotional purposes.
He dragged along the youngest Hanjin, who tactlessly said he would take the photo. After asking the manager to take the photo, they positioned themselves. They thought it would be too location-specific if they used Yeonwoo’s house as the background, so they used the stone wall as the backdrop.
Biyu didn’t stop at just the group photo and also took a selfie with Yeonwoo. Last night at the accommodation, while browsing StarStar feeds, he had checked the post Kang Dojun uploaded.
The currently popular actor Shin Gihyeon, and Kang Dojun, who was running first in terms of market value – it was a cute idea to post a photo taken with Yeonwoo to slightly ride on their recognition by adding his own spoon.
Yeonwoo resignedly made a lifeless V sign.
“Thank you! Can I post this on SNS for program promotion? Of course, I’ll cover the face like Dojun sunbae-nim and actor Shin Gihyeon did.”
“Yes, post away to your heart’s content.”
Though he thought ‘Can posting my photo really help with promotion?’, Yeonwoo, who had reached the level of giving up and found everything bothersome, easily agreed.
After taking several photos with the Grace members, he felt drained. He approached Kang Dojun and quietly supported his tired body by pressing the top of his head against his solid back. He was unrestrained with physical contact.
Since Kang Dojun showed no particular reaction, Yeonwoo glanced to see what he was doing. Having become Yeonwoo’s dedicated photo journalist, he was even adjusting the saturation of photos, showing his sincerity.
Feeling resentful that Kang Dojun was only focusing on his image on the screen while having the real him right in front of him, he poked his back with his finger.
It was a clumsy expression of wanting attention. Kang Dojun took his eyes off the screen and turned around to look at Yeonwoo, who was making a sullen expression.
“What.”
His tone was sulky, as if he was thoroughly upset about something.
Last night, he had clung so close while sleeping that he had barely slept all night because of this damn puppy. If anyone should be angry, it was him.
‘If you’re scared, just say you’re scared.’
Looking at how he wouldn’t even open his mouth over such petty pride, it was hard to say whether he should call him foolish or stubborn.
On one hand, he felt sorry that he couldn’t see Yeonwoo being scared because they were on different teams.
‘When was the broadcast date again…’
Unaware of Kang Dojun’s thoughts, who had somehow become one with the village people, Yeonwoo shook him off for not paying attention to him and approached the Grace members.
“Have a safe trip up.”
“Yes, it was fun!”
Kang Dojun casually approached and patted Yeonwoo’s shoulder, but he didn’t even pretend to notice Kang Dojun. From Yeonwoo’s perspective, it seemed understandable why he was angry.
Did he dislike that he looked at his phone with him right in front? Still, he had been concentrating on decorating Yeonwoo’s photos.
Whatever it was, he had been focusing on him just the same, but his sulking and not even answering felt somehow just cute.
Indeed, when filming ended, he thought he might feel a little regretful.
* * *
“Biyu, what are you doing?”
“I’m posting on the official account.”
“Promotion is good, but don’t spoil too much. Before posting, get it checked by me and manager hyung.”
“Yes.”
Biyu gave a brief answer to Jaihan’s words and skillfully wrote a post. He uploaded one group photo and posted a selfie taken with Yeonwoo.
[Hello~ This is Grace Be (with) U!
How are our Gracestars doing? We just finished filming a variety show with Dojun sunbae-nim! The program is scheduled to air in early July, so please show lots of interest! Spring seems to have come as our outfits are gradually getting lighter~ If Gracestars catch colds, we Grace members would be too sad ???? ????
#Grace #Gracestar #RuralConquest]
As it was an official account, likes and comments came up quickly. Even though they were rookies, being from a major agency, they already had a decent fandom formed.
[Haha, Biyu. Just know this. Grandma loves you a lot.]
[Be with U. Me too!!!!!!!!!!!]
[BU oppa, who is that person in the last photo?ã… ã… ]
[Person above. You even got Biyu’s spelling wrong^~^ It’s Be U.]
[Huh, why did they write it like that;;;]
â””It’s the heart that loves fans^^ You probably can’t understand.
[Who is that in the last photo? The 6th member? Instead of that person, please post more photos of our Hail too~]
[Shin Gihyeon, Kang Dojun, then Grace. What is it, who’s the next celebrity to post that person’s photo. Just tell me, I’ll find out who it is.]
[Come to my feed if you want to see this person’s photo~]
[Will that person also appear in the variety show? There are rumors he’s the landlord, does he appear often? More than that, which episodes will the oppas appear in? I’ll watch the live broadcast!]
* * *
While Yeonwoo briefly went to his workplace to check the apiary, Kang Dojun was cleaning.
‘What should we eat for lunch…’
What he had bought at the market last time had already been finished long ago. Today’s schedule was to help Uncle Cheolsu’s wife at her side dish shop, so he thought about having a meal there.
While naturally adapting to life here and running the vacuum cleaner, he discovered a white piece of paper sticking out from under the living room drawer.
‘What’s this?’
When he pulled out the protruding part, a pile of dust also appeared. After roughly brushing off the dust and slowly reading the writing on the paper, Kang Dojun’s expression turned menacingly sour.
‘Fuck.’
It was a contract filled with poison clauses.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
