Chapter - 48화 (48/150)
Minhyeok, left alone at Chunmonggak, stood blankly staring at the place where Dansol had disappeared. When he heard the sound of Dansol's group van quickly leaving the front yard, he let out a hollow smile.
"It's been a while since it was just the two of us... what a shame. Right?"
After mindlessly petting the innocent Dantanzi, Minhyeok finally dusted himself off and stood up, then called his manager, who had already been waiting for him since two hours ago. Maybe he'd dozed off in the car—his voice sounded like he'd just woken up.
"Uh... hyung!"
"Were you sleeping? Let's head out too."
"Uh... huh⁈ Joo Dansol left?"
"Yeah, he left."
"Don't be shocked, Sola. We... got booked for the Asian Games opening ceremony stage!"
"Hyung... is that real? Did you maybe get scammed...? Was it a phone call? Wasn't it voice phishing?"
Dansol couldn't believe what Gilseong said. Of course, there was no way they'd secured something this big without checking and without even going through the CEO, but Dino Soul standing on such a huge stage—honestly, a more believable scenario was that naïve Gilseong had fallen for a sloppy voice-phishing scam. At Dansol's reaction, Gilseong snapped.
"Hey! You seriously! What do you take me for!"
"No... we were at the gizzard shad festival until yesterday... and now suddenly it's the Asian Games opening ceremony... it's hard to believe..."
"We worked hard too. We went to the gizzard shad festival, the fall foliage festival, the bullfighting event."
"Huh?"
At Dansol's words, Woo Hyun—who Dansol thought was asleep in the very back—spoke up.
"It's not like you were the only one working, hyung. We worked hard too."
"Ah... that's not what I meant..."
At Woo Hyun's sharp reaction, the air inside the van turned cold in an instant. Not just Woo Hyun—there was something oddly slanted in the other members' gazes toward Dansol too. Before the regression, they were the younger ones who'd been happy about Dansol's schedules like they were their own.
If things were going the way they originally did, it was about time for the voices blaming Dansol to start coming out. Had the group already started getting hate because of him?
"Ah! What's with you, Woo Hyun. Dansol worked hard, and you guys worked hard too. Honestly, we're basically standing on stage like extras for Zeus, but hey—who knows? If we practice harder than Zeus and stand out, maybe we'll blow up again?"
Gilseong tried to change the chilled mood, but his words only made the members feel worse.
"What, so that's what it is? Hyung! Zeus is, like, ten centimeters taller than us on average... if we want to stand out dancing next to them, I could tear my arms and legs off and it still wouldn't be enough."
Minjae, who always had a clear sense of reality, made a self-deprecating remark. Dansol could only bite his lip and stay silent. Seeing that, Gilseong spoke up.
"Ah... why! Woo Hyun's tall! Hey... isn't our Woo Hyun a little taller than Ma Taeohh, Dansol?"
"I don't know..."
Even at a glance, Taeohh was much taller than Woo Hyun. Dansol knew it was Gilseong's way of trying to push them to make up, but right now he didn't want to respond first.
When Woo Hyun suddenly snapped, Dansol saw Woo Hyun from before the regression—the one he'd forgotten about. Minjae beside him had his eyes shining, but Dansol had no mood to match their banter.
Why hadn't Taeohh told him there would be a joint performance with Zeus?
"Why? You're close with Ma Taeohh! On the last broadcast you were glued to him the whole time."
"Hyung, when do we get there? We're going to the practice room, right? Then I'm gonna sleep a bit."
Even though he'd slept in, Dansol wasn't sleepy anymore, but he pretended to sleep because he didn't want to talk anymore. Gilseong seemed to give up too, only smacking his lips.
"This is the draft the choreographer sent. The part wearing orange vests is your segment. First, we'll practice by ourselves, then tomorrow or the day after, we'll practice together with the Zeus kids."
"It's partner choreography—how are we supposed to practice by ourselves."
When they arrived at the practice room, thick with a musty mold smell, Dansol finally felt it—he'd left Chunmongdo. Woo Hyun kept grumbling as if something had been bothering him since earlier.
"Zeus is busy, you idiot. It's not like we're going to put our heads together with them to build choreography. If we at least learn it in advance, it'll be less embarrassing."
"Right! Hyung, did you see that? They say Ma Taeohh can just watch choreography and copy it on the spot. Is he a genius or what..."
It didn't seem like Dansol was the only one uncomfortable with Woo Hyun. While Jiwoong and Minjae chatted and changed the subject, Dansol opened his old phone to check the R-Match Survival community.
Right then, the vibration timed perfectly and startled him—he almost dropped the phone.
The caller was Jisu.
Dansol glanced at the members, who still didn't look ready to start practicing, then went to a corner and answered.
"Hello?"
—Yeah, Sola, you doing okay?
"Hyung... we saw each other this morning."
—It's already lunchtime. Did you eat lunch?
"Uh... no. I came to practice dancing...."
—What⁈ You're practicing dancing without eating⁈
Jisu shouted like something terrible had happened. It was so loud that the members who'd been talking all turned to look at Dansol.
"No... I usually don't eat much when I practice dancing... I feel heavy. Hyung! I'll call you back later. Sorry!"
—W-wait, Dansol!
Click.
Even though Jisu called out desperately on the other end, Dansol coldly hung up because he could feel the members' eyes on him.
But sharp-eyed Minjae somehow recognized the voice and came up to Dansol.
"Ooh... wasn't that the nation's actor Han Jisu's voice? Hyung, you're in personal contact with him? That's insane... you even shared a dorm with him, so of course... I'm seriously curious—what was it like inside? Can't you tell me in advance?"
"Hey... it's not like that. Let's practice already!"
"Huh, you didn't even pick up our calls."
At Woo Hyun's sneering voice, Dansol's hand—about to play the choreography video—stopped cold.
On the island, they hadn't been able to use their phones, so he couldn't contact the members. Of course, before the regression, he would've asked the PD in the middle and left even a quick message that he was doing fine, but after regressing, he'd started keeping his distance from the members, so he hadn't even tried.
"I'm playing the choreography video, okay?"
Dansol acted like he hadn't heard Woo Hyun. They were going to fall out anyway. There was no need to step in and waste emotions. In the end, they were the kind of people who would split while cursing at each other.
At Dansol's attitude, Woo Hyun looked more flustered instead. But he had no choice, and soon he started focusing on the choreography video.
Traditional instruments, including a gayageum, began to play, and the choreographer playing the role of Zeus started dancing flamboyantly—high kicks, tumbling. The intense moves fit the role of a Goguryeo general and were closer to action than dance.
Dino Soul's role was a gumiho. The gumiho seduced the warrior, but in the end, the warrior met the true love, a fairy, and came to his senses.
"Who's taking center?"
"Obviously Yoonseong-hyung!"
If they were singing, of course Dansol would take center, but since it was just a celebratory dance performance, Dansol nodded like it was obvious. Yoonseong came from a dance team that had been famous enough to have a fan club even before debut.
"Ah... well...."
In the corner on a chair, Gilseong scratched his head like he was in trouble.
"The organizers... asked for Dansol to take center...."
"Huh? Ah... okay. Well...."
"Maybe it's because this is a stage that... needs some acting? If it were purely dance skill, then absolutely! Our Yoonseong would be center, right?"
Worried he might've hurt Yoonseong's pride as someone proud of his dancing, Gilseong spoke in an exaggerated way. As Yoonseong warmed up, he forced himself to act casual.
"Hyung's been center every time anyway. I don't care."
Embarrassed, Dansol bit his lip and spoke.
"Hey... Yoonseong, I..."
"It's fine. It's okay. Why are you acting unlike yourself and watching everyone's mood? Let's just practice."
He knew the bond would break no matter what, but it still felt like things were going off from what he expected. Woo Hyun's sharp gaze at him, which he pretended not to notice, and Yoonseong's awkward smile—everything felt uncomfortable.
"I want to go back to Chunmongdo...."
The members—more familiar than home, people he'd never doubted were family—now felt unbearably uncomfortable to Dansol.
The choreography practice was led by Yoonseong. After watching the video about three times, Yoonseong stood up and said, "That's enough—everyone's memorized it, right?"
At those words, Dansol's eyes shook with anxiety. He met Gilseong's eyes in the mirror, but Gilseong pretended not to see Dansol's pleading look. The truth was, Dansol was slow at picking up choreography.
"The dance is too hard... the atmosphere's already cold, and now I'm screwed."
He'd become leader and main vocalist thanks to his natural singing ability, but dance was purely the result of effort. He had to practice twice, three times more than others just to barely keep up. And now, with one ear partially deaf, he got dizzy even just sitting down and standing up, and the leg he'd hurt during filming still hadn't fully recovered.
"One, two, three, four. No, no, Dansol-hyung! It's not just a turn—step, then turn."
"Left, right—no, damn, Dansol-hyung, you're half a beat slow each time."
"Match the angles! Hyung! Your angle's off!"
You said you didn't care if center got taken!
Yoonseong had always been ambitious about performance, but with how harsh he was being on Dansol today, Dansol screamed silently inside.
Dansol hadn't even fully memorized the choreography—there was no way he could worry about the details. But Yoonseong pressed him harder, like a fish in water.
"No, not like that. It's supposed to be blowing in the wind—that. Like cherry blossoms scattering in the wind, huh? You can't do it? You really can't do it!"
In the end, Dansol, who had tried to endure, finally pouted.
"Isn't 'blowing' and 'scattering'... the same thing?"
"Ah! Hyung! How is that the same—like this! Like this! Look—are these the same?"
In Dansol's eyes, filled with tears, Yoonseong's movements looked blurry. No matter how he looked at it, it all looked the same to him.
"That's not...."
As Dansol tried to explain through a sniffle, Woo Hyun's biting voice reached his ear.
"You were fine when you were seducing alphas...."
"...What... what did you say?"
At that, the tears that had been pooling in Dansol's eyes spilled out with a plop.
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