Chapter - 61화 (61/150)
"I could've come. Sorry."
The place Dansol arrived at after following Daesu was the same apartment complex Jisu lived in.
He'd thought the last time would be the first and last time he ever set foot in a luxury penthouse like that, but here he was again two weeks later. Really, you never know how life's going to go.
"It's okay… I took a taxi, so it wasn't that far."
Dansol answered with a faint smile. Inviting someone as huge as Daesu into a basement dorm that already felt cramped with just the members somehow made him feel more uncomfortable.
And meeting Daesu at some other restaurant or café in the neighborhood didn't seem possible either. Ever since that commotion at the chicken place, Dansol had to be on high alert even just to go to the convenience store in front of his building.
"C-come in."
They'd spent quite a while together at Chunmonggak, but Daesu still seemed awkward with Dansol inside his own place. He kept running a hand over the short hair at the back of his head.
Unlike Jisu's place, which felt oddly empty—like a model house—Daesu's home felt like a cute little gallery.
"Wow…"
A modular shelf that filled an entire wall gleamed with plastic models and figures, spotless and sparkling.
"I… I like collecting little junk like this, so… It's messy, right?"
"No… it's really cool."
"Uh… I'll… I'll make you tea. Can you sit and wait a bit?"
"Can I look around?"
"Uh… uh! Of course."
Still stiff and awkward, Daesu nodded, then as he started toward the kitchen, he suddenly called out—
"Hey! Don't go into the study!"
"Ah… w-which one is the study…?"
"The room at the end of the hall…"
Only after Dansol nodded did Daesu head into the kitchen with a relieved look.
Truthfully, Dansol didn't feel calm enough to leisurely tour the place. He just didn't want to sit there feeling painfully awkward.
Still, the way his eyes kept getting pulled to framed photos, paintings, and little sculptures—even in this state—made it clear Daesu had great taste.
Tap tap tap.
As Dansol wandered the hallway, he heard tiny footsteps from somewhere.
Too small to be a person's… too heavy to be dust.
"Woof!"
A small dog suddenly appeared at his feet and started chomping on his sock.
"Wow… you're so cute. Hi?"
The dog tilted its head at him, then trotted off. When Dansol stared blankly at its back, it turned and barked like it was telling him to follow.
And where it was heading was the room Daesu had specifically told him not to go into.
"H-hey… you can't go in there!"
The dog slipped through the half-open door. Dansol panicked.
Daesu had said he liked collecting things, so maybe the study was filled with expensive books that matched his status. If a dog that young wasn't properly trained and chewed something up—or worse, peed in there—he was screwed.
"Um… s-sunbae… I'll just go in and bring the dog back out, okay…"
Even though he knew his tiny voice wouldn't reach the kitchen, he still felt obligated to ask permission before opening the door.
"…What… what is all this?"
Instead of old, hard-to-read books lining the walls, Daesu's study was packed wall-to-wall with Dansol's merchandise.
DinoSoul eco-bags the company had pushed hard and failed with so badly they were probably still rotting in the agency warehouse. Photo cards and bromides of Dansol making an awkward face. Griptoks. Mugs. Hoodies. Tattoo stickers…
And even unofficial goods Dansol had never seen in his life.
It was, without exaggeration, a Joo Dansol museum.
"My dream was always you… Joo Dansol?!"
As Dansol read the painfully embarrassing slogan hanging in the room, he felt a murderous aura behind him and slowly turned his head.
"…Ha. I told you not to go in…"
"I really got it by coincidence…"
On the coffee table in front of Dansol was a mountain of desserts.
It looked like Daesu had raided a famous bakery. After staring at a macaron tower and an eclair graveyard, Dansol could only sip his coffee in small, tired gulps.
"Yes…"
"I'm serious. Someone gave it to me by chance. It had your face on it, and I couldn't just throw it away, so I kept it. If you want it, you can take it."
"Okay. But… we have stacks of those in our company warehouse…"
"Where? Which warehouse? I'll call your CEO right now and buy it. I don't care if it's resale—"
Like a true fan with a wallet always ready, Daesu grabbed his phone and jacket and half-stood—then seemed to realize what he was doing and sat back down.
"Guess it wasn't… coincidence."
"…Ha."
Daesu pressed his temple like his head hurt. Had anything in his life ever been this difficult?
"I… sorry."
"It's okay. What do you have to apologize for? I should be grateful. We're not popular, so we don't even have much merch… I've never seen this much gathered in one place. Not even me."
Even in his past life, as soon as the agency confirmed Dansol's casting on R-Match Survival, the CEO—who couldn't even clear existing inventory—still went all in on producing even more kinds of merch.
They'd made dozens of types, betting on DinoSoul's rise.
But then Dansol became the nation's punching bag, and none of it got thrown out or bought. It just piled up in the warehouse, collecting dust.
That image was still vivid. Seeing Daesu display that same junk like it was priceless art… Dansol couldn't help feeling moved.
"But… why did you ask to see me today?"
Daesu, who'd been biting his lip in embarrassment, froze again like stone.
Truthfully, he didn't have a real reason.
If he had to give one, it was that he'd been annoyed—and jealous—that Dansol had been to Jisu's place but not his.
And on the day of the Zeus performance, he'd had to leave because of a schedule he'd booked. He didn't even get to tell Dansol "good job," and he'd left Jisu behind with him. It had bothered him more than he wanted to admit.
Like he'd made up his mind, Daesu opened his mouth.
"Just…"
Daesu couldn't give an answer, his face turning red as he hesitated.
The one who got flustered was Dansol too.
He'd never seen Daesu like this before, and even though Dansol had basically zero real experience in romance both before and after his regression, he could tell.
This was… definitely the timing for a confession.
No matter how much he hated being alone, he hadn't come all the way to Daesu's place without thinking. The problem was that living together at Chunmonggak had dulled his senses about this stuff.
"Sunbae, actually I… I'm not ready yet…"
"I'm feeding you."
"Huh?"
"Eat."
So it wasn't a confession timing?
Maybe he'd misunderstood.
Mortified, Dansol scratched the back of his head and fled toward the bathroom under the excuse of washing his hands, trying to hide his burning face.
Watching him leave, Daesu let out a quiet sigh and headed to the kitchen.
It almost looked like relief.
After washing up, Dansol came to the dining table and looked around.
No matter how he looked at it, it wasn't enough food for just two people, so he wondered if another guest was coming without him knowing.
"Um, sunbae… we're eating all this… just the two of us, right?"
"Yeah. It's late, so I kept it simple. Why? Not enough?"
No way.
Even if he dragged in the members—who were always starving no matter how much they ate—there would still be leftovers.
What was with Jisu and Daesu? Every time they saw him, they acted like they were desperate to feed him.
"No! It's definitely enough! Sunbae… but I have something I'm curious about."
"What?"
"Jisu-hyung too… and you too… why do you keep trying to feed me every time you see me…?"
Maybe it wasn't something he'd ever thought about. Daesu took a long moment, then answered—while his hands kept diligently peeling soy-marinated shrimp and placing them onto Dansol's small plate like it was happy labor.
"Dunno. Seeing you reminds me of the old days. When I struggled as a rookie."
"Y-you had a time like that too?"
Of course, Daesu's unknown period had been shorter than most people's. He'd picked projects well, and he'd had skill and looks from the start.
But that didn't mean he'd never struggled.
"I didn't struggle as much as you, but it wasn't nothing. When I first came to Korea, it took a while to settle in. Even if my parents didn't oppose it, I couldn't just come here on a whim saying I wanted to be an actor and then hold my hand out for money."
The first film that made Daesu known had taken almost a full year to shoot. There were more days of silent waiting than actual filming—so it was only natural there wasn't much income.
So he'd worked part-time at a language academy, and he'd also taken extra roles in other films more than once.
And as for Jisu, who'd debuted as a model first—he probably suffered even more, not less.
"No sleep, no showers, no food. Waiting without being able to do anything—that's our job. You can endure the other stuff with youth and stubbornness… but not being able to eat feels like… suffering on another level."
If it had been that hard even for him—with his stamina and athleticism—how had Dansol endured years of it?
With a body that looked like it had no fat on it at all, Daesu honestly wondered if everything he ate just disappeared somewhere.
"I saw somewhere that idols starve to diet. Are you like that too?"
"No… I eat a lot! It's just my constitution. The other members sometimes don't eat because they're dieting… so they're all jealous of me."
"Good. Eat."
Daesu's cooking was, honestly, easily one of the best meals Dansol had ever had in his life.
He'd said it was too much for two people, but he was demolishing plates without even thinking when—
Beep beep beep… beep.
Someone started typing the door code.
Then a warning tone sounded, like they'd gotten it wrong.
"You petty bastard, you changed the password?! Hey! Jeong Daesu!"
The person pounding the door like it was about to break down had a voice Dansol knew immediately.
"...Isn't that Jisu-hyung's voice?"
With their precious two-person time suddenly invaded, Daesu rubbed his aching forehead.
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