Chapter 155: Chapter 123

[Shit, is this for real?]

The commotion started when an SNS user shared a community link.

[For the year-end collab stage, they say the partner is seriously PP.]

[???? Huh??]

Everyone was baffled. There had been some speculation about a collab stage, but Lea Purple was a group with no prior connection to The Dawn whatsoever.

[Wow, honestly… I totally, totally love it, Lea Purple is so likable.]

[Right? I like them too. They got so much hate because of the scandal, their members went through a lot…]

Even as they said this, the Noeuls were worried. They were aware that this collab would draw insane amounts of negative attention their way.

A newly created account with no profile picture made it clear.

[The fuck, who are you to match up with our precious Lea Purple babies? Ugh protect themㅠ]

The message was sanitized but filled with enough swearwords to get the gist. Some people quietly blocked and moved on with a “Here we go again” expression, but, as expected, not everyone could let it slide and fights broke out.

[ㅋㅋDoes Lea Purple even have any songs? Besides that one viral hit?

└Then what do you guys have besides riding on the fame of Shining Star and Kabu, huh? Let’s talk about thatㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Oh~~ Did they have Today too? Lucky group, fuckㅋㅋ

└Yep, the scandal~]

While not the majority, the seeds of controversy were being sown. Consequently, the majority of Noeuls and Lea Purple’s fans clutched their hearts in distress.

[Guys, please let’s ignore the trolls…. It’s clear as day that account isn’t a Lea Purple fan…..]

[Noeuls… It’s not us… It isn’t… ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ We’re really looking forward to the year-end stageㅠㅜ]

[Let’s be real, a true fan wouldn’t act like this fuckㅋㅋ… Everyone, let’s be sensible.]

The Noeuls and Lea Purple’s fans quickly realized they needed to control the atmosphere. They knew that saying something like “Noeuls supports Lea Purple ♡” would only lead to further criticism and an actual scandal.

So, the Noeuls clenched their eyes shut and decided to quickly shift the attention by pushing the maknae to the forefront.

[Our maknae has college entrance exams the day after tomorrow!! We’re doing an event to support him, more details in the link.]

The conversation shifted to Jeong Dajun’s college entrance exam.

[OMG, right, the CSAT exam is the day after tomorrow??? shit shit]

[Please understand, granny here… It’s been a while since I took the exam.]

[Dajun, show us the skills you honed while being nagged by Hoyun, and make sure to impress!]

As the Noeuls started to show interest in Jeong Dajun’s exams, his personal fans came through with perfect timing, cooking up various memes.

They edited scenes of Seo Hoyun giving Jeong Dajun crash tutoring, which had been sporadically released through V-Live or YouTube.

[Part 1 “One-shot Tutor Seo Hoyun’s Kind Lecture”

– Hoyun: (Explaining in a secretly kind way) “You got it, right? Try it.”

– Dajun: “Yes!!!”

~A while later~

– Dajun: (Rolling his eraser) “It’s number 4” ㅎ

– Hoyun: “…”

– Others: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ (badly laughing from behind)

└Oh Seo Hoyunㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋswearing with his eyesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Part 2 “Finally, Jeong Dajun”

– Dajun: (Jumps up) “Hyung!!! I got it, the answer is number 2!!”

– Hoyun: “Right!! Ah, right! Wow! How did you know?”

(I’ve never seen Seo Hoyun this excited, oh so cute, he’s calmly solving everything for him, and Dajun gets one right and he’s like this)

– Hoyun: “See, you can do it if you tryㅠ;; How did you solve it?”

– Dajun: “Your eyes were on number 2, hyung.”

– Hoyun: “Get out. “

– Dajun: “Eh?”

– Hoyun: “Get out of the dorm right now.”

– Others: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ(Sobbing on the floor)

└Our maknae is catching a rabbit

└└Dajun… you’re not good at lying.]

[Part 3 “True First-Class”

– Dajun: “Hyungs, ㅠㅠ Hoyun-hyung is scaryㅠ.” (Aren’t you coming here right now?!!)

– Ichae: “Hey, I, sunbae, will tell you the winning strategy for the college entrance examㅋㅋ.”

– Dajun: “OMG!!!!! What is it??”

– Ichae: “Fill in the scantron card with hearts and voilà ♡.”

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└└No, Kang Ichae, drawing finger hearts while pretending not to be bad

└└In the midst of this, Jeong Dajun’s answer was “Should I do that?” Seo Hoyun is furiously angry, just forget about taking the exam, he says fuck it]

Those short clips spread more than expected, even garnering interest from people in the private education sector.

[I’m a 28-year-old part-time lecturer and this triggers my PTSD (sobs)]

[Is he really an idol?? The person on the left really teaches well, right? You can tell they’ve tutored a lot. Why couldn’t he do this after so much tutoring? But he just sighs and continues teaching…]

As the fans tried to quell the controversy over the collab and put on a bitter smile, hoping everything would just pass peacefully, Seo Hoyun was spending a warm vacation with his family for the first time in a while.

“You look even uglier now that I haven’t seen you in a while….”

“Well, you and I look alike, you know?”

Seo Hojin retorted with a sullen face.

***

I deliberately chose a beef bone soup restaurant with no people around and ordered some food haphazardly.

“How’s school?”

“It’s the same old, same old. Sometimes I feel like throwing all my group project members into the Han River, you know?”

“Wouldn’t the mountain behind be better?”

I replied nonchalantly and then asked again,

“Do you have any friends?”

“I guess so…”

I pushed some side dishes toward Seo Hojin. I wasn’t particularly hungry, but I did want to see Hojin eat.

He seemed a bit more haggard than usual, probably because I hadn’t been paying much attention to him for a few months.

“Are you eating well? Ah, okay, I get it. I’ll stop.”

“The triple-combo really kills me. School, friends, and whether or not you’re eating properly. It’s the first time I’ve seen someone ask that outside of the holidays.”

Hojin grumbled as he mixed his rice into the soup filled with solid chunks. Realizing I might be overdoing it, I shut my mouth feeling a bit embarrassed.

That kid, even though he pretended not to care, started to pick up my knack for sarcasm. And he was good at it too.

“But why are you on leave? Hyung, you’ve been so busy with your members that I haven’t even seen a glimpse of you lately.”

“Jeong Dajun is taking the CSAT.”

“What?! Then why are you here?”

What now?

“Shouldn’t you be there? Isn’t it normal to wait all day in front of the school gate?”

“Why would I?”

“…Hm?”

If I did that now, it would be a nuisance. Anyway, plenty of people would flock to Dajun’s test site without me adding to the crowd.

Hojin blinked his eyes and tilted his head in confusion when I frowned slightly.

“The CSAT is a big event for you, isn’t it? …Or not?”

“What are you talking about? Who doesn’t find the CSAT important?”

It was important, which is why a few days ago, I even filmed a message of support for those taking the CSAT with the other members.

When Dajun, who had been rigorously preparing for both practice and the test, released a video cheering on all the students (including himself) with a fighting pose, it caused a bit of laughter among the Noeuls.

“No, what I meant was when I was taking the CSAT, you… Ah.”

Hojin was stuttering when he seemed to realize something and hung his head.

“…Ah, I see.”

His suspicious reaction made me look at him with narrowed eyes, but Hojin just quietly ate his rice and abruptly changed the subject.

“Today is our Dajun’s CSAT day…”

“…Since when was he ‘our Dajun’? And why are you laughing?”

Back in my unruly PD days (not that it’s much different now), I always told him not to acknowledge me for fear that his personal details might be dug up by getting involved with weird people. Maybe because I emphasized it every time we met, Hojin didn’t pay much attention to my workplace.

Actually, it was better to say he didn’t know much about it.

Hojin dropped his spoon on the table with a clack.

“I hope our Dajun did well. He seemed to have prepared hard, right?”

“Just a minute ago, you didn’t even know Dajun was taking the CSAT, so stop pretending. And don’t you dare contact Dajun or any of my members after meeting them just once…”

“Hm?”

I was about to say not to get too friendly with the guys from my workplace but then I hesitated.

…Wait, maybe it’s okay with the members?

Compared to my PD days, my reputation was now like an angel’s, and the company was surprisingly taking care of the overzealous fans (though it did sound like a lie).

After the incident with Seong Jiwon’s invasion of privacy, I gave the company a piece of my mind, and they seemed even more cautious about such matters.

…Now that I think about it, isn’t this kid the same age as Seong Jiwon or Kim Seonghyeon?

I always thought of him as a kid because he was ten years younger, but after rejuvenating and spending time with the younger members, I realized he wasn’t that much of a kid.

At 23, you could already pick up on social cues, dabble in petty politics, and somewhat manage people.

No, first of all, “that” Kang Ichae was only twenty-one.

Thinking about it this way, really… But?

I watched Hojin skillfully pile a piece of kkakdugi on his spoonful of rice and chew thoughtfully.

He looked so clueless.

…Or is that not it?? Is this kid still mentally ten years old?

To me, Hojin and Dajun were pretty much the same.

Though I hadn’t said it out loud, Hojin seemed to catch on and furrowed his eyebrows sharply.

“What’s wrong? Why are you so annoyed?”

“Watch your language, will you?”

“Ouch!”

I smacked his head with the spoon that hadn’t yet scooped up any rice, and Hojin gently rubbed the spot, murmuring three times in a row, “I can’t even say a word.” He then glared at me as if he was wronged.

“So what, what now?”

“…”

“If you’re jealous, you should have been born as the hyung.”

“Mom… why did you give birth to him first…?”

I hit him once more, and as I was about to scoop up some rice with the spoon I was holding, the voice of a lady who seemed to be an employee reached my ears.

“Wow~, isn’t that the PD over there~? And is that your friend next to you?”

“Ah, hello.”

I gave Seo Hojin a look to stay quiet and quickly switched up my expression to a business-like smile.

The drama was a hit after all. Occasionally, there were people who recognized me and struck up a conversation like this.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop nagging Yu Jeonghwa? And because of that, Jeonghwa ended up going to Min Seungtae!”

“Hahaha… I want to keep nagging Ms. Yu Jeonghwa for the rest of my life.”

“Don’t keep her around just to nag her…”

“Ah, what a waste~.”

I tossed out a service comment, a play on “What a waste, really,” and the ajumma seemed to really like it, laughing heartily. With the promise of more service (food) coming our way, I nodded and went back to my meal when I noticed Seo Hojin looking at me with a strangely pleased expression. The impure look in his eyes gave me goosebumps, and I rubbed my arms.

“Why are you staring at me like that? It’s creepy.”

“Watch your words, will you?”

“I am watching them.”

“You’re really the epitome of ‘do as I say, not as I do’…”

The grumbling brat scratched his head.

“I just think it’s nice to see you doing so well, hyung.”

“Got a long tongue. What do you want to eat now?”

“You could just say ‘Thanks, I got it.’ Why do you always have to twist your words?”

“…Hmm.”

I felt awkward and dropped the subject. It wasn’t like me to be so sarcastic in front of my younger brother. It had just become a habit I couldn’t help.

Living with the underage Jeong Dajun recently made me realize that kids really soaked up everything like sponges. That’s why I had been holding back on swearing in front of Dajun.

Speaking of which, Seo Hojin turned out pretty decent.

I couldn’t help but admire how well Hojin had grown up into a relatively normal adult, considering he withstood all of my outrageous teenage years.

He didn’t swear, studied a bit, and had a good head on his shoulders.

“What a waste, really… Ms. Yu Jeonghwa, do you want to work with me again tomorrow?”

“…”

Or maybe he still hadn’t gotten his act together…

I kicked Seo Hojin’s knee under the table as he was teasing me and continued to wolf down my beef soup. But Hojin kept chattering away resiliently.

“Hyung, your acting in the slice-of-life scenes was amazing. I got so scared while watching the drama that I had to turn it off midway.”

“Did you finish watching it?”

“I took a deep breath and hit the space bar. Seriously, why is Lee Jeonghun so popular as a romantic lead? I really don’t get it.”

“Neither do I, so keep it down.”

I chuckled as I ladled up some of the soup with my spoon. Hojin was fishing for pieces of meat in his bowl as he said,

“But it was really natural. How did you… play a PD role when you’re not even the right age…”

“…?”

“…Play…”

Hojin hesitated for a moment, then rolled his eyes, trying to lighten the mood with a weak laugh.

“…Of course, you did well, right? You drew on your real experience as a PD when you acted.”

“…?”

What?

Suddenly, I felt an ambiguous discomfort, as if my intuition radar had beeped. I promptly put down my spoon with a clatter.

“What is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Something feels off?”

“…So, what is it?”

My appetite suddenly vanished, and I gave Hojin a once-over, but he deliberately avoided my gaze. Just then, the timing was perfect as the service arrived.

“Eat lots~.”

“Oh! Thank you!”

Hojin received the service with a bow, and I nodded along with him. We then moved on to talk about Hojin’s college life, but throughout the conversation, the little rascal kept sneakily looking in my direction.

I was about to retort something when my phone rang, and checking the caller ID, it was Seong Jiwon.

“Hey, just a sec.”

I raised a hand to Seo Hojin and answered the phone.

– “Hoyun, Dajun is finished! Come to the company.”

“Alright, I’ll be there.”

“Ah, you’re going now? Send my regards to Dajun while you’re there.”

“…Sure.”

Seo Hojin, having overheard my response, coolly set his spoon down. Then he got up and reached for his wallet, but I stepped in front of him and handed my card to the cashier.

I hadn’t hung up yet, so I could still hear Seong Jiwon’s voice coming through the phone, but to be honest, I couldn’t really catch what he was saying.

No wonder.

“Oops, I got a call too. I’m heading out~.”

Seo Hojin hurriedly moved away as if the timing couldn’t have been better.

…Fuck, what the hell?

After watching Hojin for a moment, I pressed my cap down firmly and began walking towards the direction of the company, all the while feeling as if someone had grabbed me by the scruff of the neck.

It felt wrong just letting things be.

“…”

– “Hoyun?”

“…Hey, hold on. Hang up.”

– “Huh? Okay.”

“I’ll be there soon.”

This was seriously unsettling.

I couldn’t place where this unpleasant feeling was coming from, and it bothered me even more. Finally, I quickly hung up the phone and turned around. Striding forward, I saw Seo Hojin on the phone with someone.

“Are you kidding me?”

Seo Hojin seemed to be arguing with the person on the other end about a group project or something… but that wasn’t important.

“If you don’t have that, what the hell am I supposed to do now?”

“…”

“I’ll give you 10 seconds to send it over—What?!”

I grabbed his arm and spun him around. My brother, who was suddenly seized and turned to face me with his eyes wide open. The bigger he grew…

“Seo Hojin….”

“What, what?”

“…Yeah.”

…the more he resembled our mother.

“…Bro, I might not make it for Mom and Dad’s memorial.”

So, I held back the words that were really weighing on my mind… and instead uttered something else.

Seo Hojin, still awkwardly holding his phone, blinked for a moment before laughing uncomfortably.

“Ah, you startled me….”

“…”

“I was wondering why you rushed over. Hey, hang on a sec.”

– “–!!”

“I said hang up.”

Despite the voice on the other end saying something, Seo Hojin, unfazed, ended the call and looked at his arm that I had grabbed.

“The memorial? You came all this way just to talk about that?”

“It’s coming up soon.”

“Yeah, well. I’ll go by myself. It’s been over ten years; they’ll understand if you don’t make it on the exact day.”

Ten years.

I… felt relieved at that number.

Only then did I let go of the arm I had been holding, and as I stepped back, Seo Hojin rubbed his arm, examining me. Embarrassed for no reason, I rubbed the back of my neck and looked away.

What am I even doing right now?

“Buy flowers.”

“Of course. I’ll send them your regards.”

Seo Hojin just shrugged his shoulders and pointed at the phone with his finger. It meant he was going to make another call, and it was a gesture for the “hyung” who was acknowledged by the members as a troublemaker to disappear now.

Seo Hojin turned his back first.

I lingered in that spot for a long while, and when Seo Hojin’s figure was no longer visible, I slowly began to move.