#32
“Uh… huh? Uhhhhh?!”
———————
[Fan Signing Event] On The Sky Fan Signing Event Winner Announcement
Congratulations on winning the On The Sky fan signing event!
[Location] 7th floor, â–¡â–¡ Building, 3 â–¡â–¡ Street, â–¡â–¡ District, Seoul
[Date & Time] 20â–¡â–¡ year, â–¡â–¡ month, â–¡â–¡ day, 6 PM
[Notice] Entrance is available from 30 minutes before start time, and entry is not permitted after 6 PM.
Only the winner may enter. Please bring your winning text message and ID on the day of the signing event.
———————
As soon as he came to his senses, Hajun threw aside the vacuum cleaner and checked the calendar first. The fan signing event was exactly three days from today.
“Why are they giving such short notice!”
“What is it? What’s going on?”
“Ma, Mari… ah, never mind.”
‘Only the winner may enter…’ He quickly read the phrase in the message again and held his forehead. He should have applied under Mari’s name. While he was flustered by the sudden situation, looking back and forth between the calendar and his phone, his grandmother narrowed her eyes.
“Did your game account get suspended again?” “No… it’s not that.” Even after answering her, he sighed heavily as if the ground would collapse and dropped his phone far away as if it were a cursed object.
Several hours later. After finishing a thorough cleaning all morning, Hajun had a late lunch.
“Junnie…”
“Huh?”
“You’ve just been eating rice this whole time.”
Looking at his grandmother who was laughing as if in disbelief, he pushed some side dishes into his mouth. Ugh, get it together. While he was busily moving his hands, she gave him another pointed look, saying, “Now you’re just eating side dishes.”
“Oh, today’s rice and side dishes are so delicious!”
Even as the words left his mouth, it was clearly a transparent lie. What was so special about that fan signing event! Even while his mind was too cluttered to properly eat, he could remember every detail of the text message without missing a single word.
As he was half-dazed, barely eating his food, his grandmother irritably struck the table as if she couldn’t bear to watch anymore.
“Is something wrong? You’ve been acting strange since morning.”
“What do you mean, something wrong…”
While mechanically chewing and swallowing his rice, he choked. Even as he coughed and hastily gulped down water, his eyes naturally turned toward his phone.
‘Hyung, Hajun hyung! You’ll come see me, right? You have to come!’
Beyond the winning message, he could see a vision of Imun beckoning to him. The empty promises he’d made, saying he’d do anything if Imun came to Korea, echoed in his ears.
Can I really meet you when I go to Korea? Just imagining himself attending Imun’s fan signing event made his whole body twist with anxiety. He grabbed his phone while trying to cool his suddenly flushed face.
Let’s just check first. Since it was only three days away, there might not be any airplane seats available. If there was no choice at all, he’d resign himself to giving up cleanly, but—
“It’s completely empty, totally empty.”
Fortunately or unfortunately, there were plenty of seats available. While watching the airline’s website and tapping the table, he felt his grandmother’s gaze and slowly lowered his hand.
They say the first step is always the hardest. Perhaps because he’d been practicing facing his past little by little, the idea of going to Korea didn’t seem as daunting as before. Instead, his heart was even racing at the thought of seeing Imun.
Meeting his grandmother’s persistent stare, Hajun grinned.
“Grandma, what if I go to Korea for a bit?”
“Why… why, all of a sudden?”
“You know, that… that Korean friend I mentioned. I thought I might go see him.”
No sooner had he spoken than his grandmother abruptly stood up from her chair, saying, “Ah, him,” belatedly nodding in understanding.
Surprised by her more intense reaction than expected, he blinked and hurriedly approached her. It was because her hand holding the chopsticks was trembling slightly.
“What’s wrong?” “Nothing, it’s nothing.” She frowned and turned her head sharply. The tears that briefly welled up in her eyes caught his attention.
“You must have had a hard time because of me all this while… I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?”
The woman who had always been his steady support now looked unusually small and fragile. He carefully embraced his grandmother and slowly stroked her back, just as she used to do for him.
“I’ll… try to be brave now. Grandma, thank you so much. I love you.”
“Stop saying embarrassing things and eat your food!”
He tightened his arms around her as she scolded him with a choked voice. Yes, let’s give it a try. He resolved not to run from his past anymore, both for her sake and his own.
***
He booked a flight ticket without any issues and reported to Imun afterward. As expected, Imun was overjoyed for quite some time, but then suddenly asked calmly about the date of the winning event.
Confused by this rather serious reaction, Hajun asked why, and Imun laughed hollowly before explaining his situation glumly.
“What should we do? I have regional shoots scheduled tightly before and after the day you’re coming. Why did it have to be this day… ah, I’m so upset…”
“It’s not like you told me in advance, so it can’t be helped. Even if you had told me beforehand, it would have been impossible for you to free up time.”
“Still, you’re coming to see me, and we can’t just meet briefly at the fan signing… if you’re okay with it, can we meet in the evening on that day? I’m not sure when my schedule will end… but I’ll contact you as soon as it’s over.”
“I’m not coming to see you! It’s just, you know, killing two birds with one stone! That’s all. Hmm, anyway, I guess I’ll see you then.”
Despite his vehement objections, Imun seemed to have ignored his words completely. While trying to comfort Imun, who was sighing repeatedly and expressing regret, Hajun suddenly wanted to see his dejected face.
He briefly considered asking for a video call but playfully kept his mouth shut. I’ll see him soon anyway. He burst into giggles thinking about meeting him in person in a few days.
***
The day before going to Korea. As soon as he started his stream, viewers dramatically clung to him, crying. Despite having announced his break in advance, they seemed greatly disappointed.
Well, I haven’t really taken breaks before. While secretly praising himself for his diligent streaming until now, questions about why he was taking a break kept popping up.
Though he desperately wanted to boast about meeting Imun, it was obvious the chat would be filled with talk about him if he mentioned it.
Unfortunately, today’s main character was someone else. With the purpose of completing a long-postponed task, he calmly smiled at the camera.
“It’s just for personal reasons… but I’ll let you know later. Instead, I’ve prepared a special broadcast today. I’ll be doing a collaboration stream with Sorit.”
“Hello everyone! This is Sorit! Everyone, nice to meet you!”
As soon as Sorit finished his greeting, viewers heated up the chat with cheers. ‘Sob sob please take care of our hyung,’ ‘Eek hahaha another collab!!!’ The speed of the chat was only slightly slower, but the reaction was not much different from when he collaborated with Imun.
These people must hate it when I stream alone. Thinking he had gained a useless realization, Hajun shook his head.
About an hour into the actual collaborative broadcast after cutting off Sorit’s smarmy comments, their duo showed no signs of ending easily.
When did we agree to ten games? After barely finishing a dragged-out match, he took a short Q&A session with Sorit to catch his breath.
Sorit was a chatterbox who would return ten words for every one of Hajun’s. Just when he was getting slightly tired of the endlessly continuing conversation, like the earlier game—
“By the way, Gangha-nim, why did you take so long to respond to me?”
“Hmm, I was busy with various things.”
“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for your contact? Anyway… are you perhaps not interested in ‘WGM’?”
It was difficult to infer the meaning of the word in the question. When he asked, “What’s that?” even more puzzling explanations followed.
“A content where you virtually get married? Why bring that up suddenly?”
“In the spirit of getting closer… would you like to do ‘We Got Married’ with me?”
“Haa…”
Marriage talk between two men. While he didn’t have prejudice in that direction, being involved himself was another story.
Though Sorit seemed a bit frivolous, he didn’t appear to be a rude person, but it seemed like he had barked up the wrong tree. Whether he was an extreme concept streamer who flirted regardless of gender or an irritating type who made inappropriate requests, both were equally awful.
He should have just not done the collab in the first place. It seemed like trouble had arisen because he’d done something out of character. With his face full of displeasure, he blatantly ignored Sorit’s words, causing the chat to fill with laughter instead.
‘What’s with this crazy guy lol’, ‘Is Sorit always like this? lol;;’ While examining the reactions that seemed to sympathize with his feelings, Hajun maintained silent.
Whatever the reason, they were currently in a collab stream together. Since Sorit hadn’t specifically done anything morally wrong, it was awkward to get angry outright. While pondering how to respond, a viewer sent a donation.
[10,000 won donation! Let’s use that “swear at someone” from the roulette last time lol]
– lol Solomon indeed lol Are you swearing at Sorit instead of us? lol Good recycling
– That’s right lol because Imun popped up that time lol
– You have to both swear and sing a song lol
– The song lol since you sang the Candy song before, let’s let that slide (whispers)
I even sang the Candy song?! While he welcomed the topic about Sorit shifting elsewhere, he didn’t want himself to become the viewers’ next target.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
