"Sol! Are you hurt?"
"Ah… it's nothing."
"It looks like something? Shouldn't we go down?"
"Oh no…! I'll carry you!"
While Dansol was receiving first aid, Jisu's group also made it up to base camp. As everyone worried over Dansol in turn, PD Choi added,
"If we go down now, the sun will set. It's safer to sleep here tonight."
At the rather cold tone, Jisu shot her a look.
They often—no, frequently—seemed to forget that celebrities were people too.
Using "the viewers" as an excuse, they treated the cast like objects. Like lights or microphones—celebrities were just very expensive tools that existed solely for the broadcast.
Jisu was sick of this life. He was used to that world, but it still bothered him. It was full of traps cruel enough for Dansol, who still had eyes that didn't know anything yet.
"Where's Jeong Daesu? Didn't he come with you?"
Jisu dropped down beside where Dansol was perched. He naturally lifted Dansol's foot—still visibly swollen even over the bandage—and rested it on his own thigh as he asked.
When Dansol tried to pull it away in embarrassment, Jisu pressed it down lightly, picked up a spray analgesic, and applied it carefully over the ankle. His touch was so delicate that Dansol's shoulders, tense with pain, began to loosen.
"He left the luggage behind. Since he carried me up… He went back down to get it, Jeong Daesu-sunbaenim."
"He carried you up? On the mountain trail?"
But at Jisu's question, Dansol shrank again.
He'd insisted on coming up because he was afraid of getting cursed out. Was he going to ruin the broadcast again because of himself? Would he get branded as a nuisance again?
Even Jisu's expression hardened, and fear surged up—Dansol bit his lip without realizing.
"Yes… I'm sorry…"
But Jisu wasn't upset about that. He was furious because Daesu had been physically close with Dansol. So much so that he didn't even notice Dansol digging into himself with his head down.
'Pointlessly strong bastard…'
Jisu vowed that on the way down, he'd be the one to carry Dansol. He got up to go find PD Choi—
"What? Ha… Then what am I supposed to do about the shoot? Everyone's waiting up here…"
PD Choi, on a call, raised her voice. The atmosphere turned sharp in an instant, and everyone looked toward her.
That was when Taeoh—who'd gotten noticeably close with the writers—came over to Jisu and Dansol and told them,
"Senior Yoo Dohyeon got hurt and went down mid-way."
"Did Lee Yiyeon too?"
"Looks like it. Even Dansol-ssi got hurt and still came up…"
Taeoh's tone made it sound like he was blaming Dohyeon, and Dansol's face burned. Back before the regression, when Dansol couldn't make it up the mountain, had they talked like this too?
"It seems like the staff prepared all this stuff, but the writers said this week's footage is totally ruined. We climbed all the way up here and for what…"
Taeoh, unaware of what was going on in Dansol's head, kept talking. The staff's frustration at Dohyeon's sudden descent seemed real—some assistant directors were even swearing.
It could have been Dansol instead of Dohyeon.
Dansol felt ashamed of the relief that rose in him. He hated himself for it. The one who deserved their blame might have been him.
He'd gotten lucky—he'd regressed, and that let him avoid a mess. But his ankle didn't look like something that would be fine tomorrow.
Like a criminal, Dansol lowered his head. Above the crown of his head, Jisu's voice fell.
"You should worry about the injured person first… Taeoh."
Dansol flinched and looked up. Jisu's face as he spoke to Taeoh was harder than he'd ever seen it.
"Huh? Ah… hyung, I—"
"This whole hike was too much. I'll tell PD Choi to cut this kind of shitty planning as much as possible, so let's not blame each other."
Taeoh seemed to realize his mistake, his expression going slack with "ah."
Jisu patted Taeoh's stiff shoulder a couple of times, then returned to his usual gentle face.
"Sol. You too."
"Huh?"
"You didn't get hurt because you wanted to, so stop sitting there like you're guilty."
"Ah…"
"Want to go into the tent with hyung and rest?"
"I—!"
It didn't matter what Dansol said. Jisu simply scooped him up and lifted him in his arms.
In the middle of the chaotic staff, Dansol was mortified to be grabbed like that by another omega. He buried his face in Jisu's chest and struggled, but to Jisu it just felt like cute resistance.
In truth, Jisu was just worried because Dansol—injured—was still watching the staff's faces. He made Dansol rest inside the tent, then stepped outside.
As soon as he did, Taeoh—still hovering and watching the mood—shuffled over.
"Um… hyung—no, sunbaenim. I'm sorry. Earlier I…"
"I know what you meant. You have nothing to apologize to me for."
"Still…!"
"Taeoh, yeah, we make a living off broadcasts, but we don't have to let them eat us alive."
"Yes…"
As if to change the mood, Jisu spoke to Taeoh like usual, even though Taeoh was visibly deflated.
"Why the hell aren't Jegal Minhyuk and Jeong Daesu showing their faces? They didn't get lost, did they?"
"Senior Daesu came up with the luggage earlier, then said he was going out to exercise again… Minhyuk-hyung said he had a song he wanted to play for Dansol-ssi, so he went into the woods to practice."
"Heh. It's a party of lunatics…"
Wondering if something had happened between Daesu and Dansol on the way up, Jisu went to look for Daesu himself—since Daesu kept coming up with excuses and not showing his face.
But Daesu was right there, sitting on a rock along a nearby forest path.
Jisu didn't have to go far to spot his broad back. Daesu had run around so much that steam was rising off him like smoke.
"You crazy bastard… Did you secretly dig up wild ginseng or something? What the hell have you been doing? And earlier—did something happen with Dansol or—"
What entered Jisu's eyes as he approached the unguarded Daesu was the center of Daesu's body, looking like it might tear right through his gray sweatpants.
"Y-you… fuck… You perverted psycho!"
"Keep your voice down!"
"You…! You—!"
"It's not that! No. I know what you're thinking, but no—none of that. It's not that kind of thing!"
Caught exposed, Daesu hugged his knees and curled up, trying to hide himself as much as possible. But with his size, there was no hiding anything.
"What am I thinking, then?"
"I don't know—what are you thinking?"
"You're telling me you got hard looking at me?"
"Fuck…! Ha—no! It's not that!"
"You filthy alpha bastard…"
"I said it's not!"
While Daesu and Jisu yelled only what they wanted to say, echoing off each other—
"Jisu-hyung? Jeong Daesu-sunbaenim…? What are you all doing here? Um… They said to gather for dinner now…"
Dansol had followed to look for the two of them.
"Ack!"
"Sol! Don't come here! There's something filthy here!"
"Huh? Something hard?"
He was too far to hear clearly, and he was limping closer on his bad leg.
"Please don't say it. Please, I'm begging you… Jisu-hyung, please…"
Daesu curled up even tighter, practically a ball, clutching Jisu's pant leg and chanting like a prayer for him not to say anything.
In that moment, countless thoughts flashed through Jisu's head: eliminate Jeong Daesu in one hit, or grab this weakness and keep using it.
The choice was obviously the latter.
For his own advantage, Jisu couldn't bear to let Dansol see that brutal sight.
Jisu hurried down off the rock and quickly supported Dansol.
"Did something happen—"
"Sol should go in with hyung. He says he wants to be alone for a bit. Maybe the mountain made him sentimental."
"Ah… sunbaenim, are you okay?"
"Uh… I'm fine."
Dansol felt something strange in Daesu's voice, damp with moisture, but it felt like there was something between the two of them that only he didn't know. So he moved his feet and went.
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