PA 2

Yejun waved both his hands widely from side to side and smiled brightly. The moment Yejun smiled, Junhyuk didn’t move an inch and just stared at him for a long while. Yejun started to feel a little embarrassed by Junhyuk’s intense gaze.

“Is there something on my face?”

“You said you don’t have another class, right?”

“Right.”

“Then let’s go take a nap. I’m sleepy.”

Junhyuk naturally grabbed Yejun’s hand tightly and led him somewhere. Yejun twisted his body to pull his hand away from Junhyuk, but he was holding Yejun’s hand tighter than he expected.

“Is there a place to sleep at school?”

“There’s a lounge, but there’s a better place.”

“But… this is a little.” Yejun pleaded in a trailing voice, but it seemed Junhyuk couldn’t hear him. From that point on, Yejun had to walk quickly to keep up with Junhyuk’s steady pace. Junhyuk didn’t have a boisterous personality. And yet, while with Junhyuk, Yejun felt like he was losing his mind.

Junhyuk took Yejun to the lawn in front of the Central Library, where the sun was shining brightly. Yejun was looking around his surroundings when Junhyuk spoke.

“Here it is.”

Junhyuk tossed his bag anywhere on the grass and then lay down, using it as a pillow. Yejun was worried about the gazes of the many people passing by, but he carefully lay down next to Junhyuk.

The warm sunlight enveloped Yejun’s body, and the fragrant scent of grass tickled his nose. Yejun wasn’t sleepy yet, but for some reason, he felt good and chose to just lie there as he was.

“Junhyuk.”

Feeling a little bored, Yejun opened his eyes to slits and turned his head toward Junhyuk, calling his name. But Junhyuk was lying on his side, gazing intently at Yejun.

“You weren’t sleeping?”

“No.”

A little flustered, Yejun quickly tried to turn his head to face the sky directly. However, he couldn’t because of the dazzling sun high in the sky. To avoid the glare, Yejun also naturally lay on his side, and ended up face to face with Junhyuk. Junhyuk’s deep, dark eyes sparkled as if stars were embedded in a pitch-black night sky. It was in that moment that he thought his heart was surging like a wave.

“You’re pretty.”

Junhyuk whispered softly in a voice that had a deep resonance.

“Wh-What?”

Yejun was taken aback by Junhyuk’s completely unexpected words. It was only for a very brief moment, but it felt hard to breathe.

“The sunlight is too bright.”

In the end, Yejun quickly sat up cross-legged. Then he pretended to stretch for no reason. Junhyuk, who had been watching Yejun with a lingering gaze, also slowly sat up. He gently patted Yejun’s back to brush off the grass stuck to his clothes.

“Students! You’re ruining the grass. Get out of there, quickly!”

Just then, a security guard approached the two of them urgently, shouting loudly. As if this was a familiar occurrence, Junhyuk stood up completely and began to pat down his clothes.

☂︎

On the pretext that he had plenty of time since it was the first week of the semester, Junhyuk personally walked Yejun to the classroom where his next lecture was. Then he took out his phone, which he had set to silent.

[6 Missed Calls]

Junhyuk walked toward the parking lot and switched his phone to vibrate mode. He was about to shove it back into his back pocket when the large phone screen in his hand lit up and vibrated. Junhyuk answered the call with a very annoyed look on his face.

“What?”

— You know there’s a gathering today, right?

“I’m not going.”

— Hey! We’re getting together today because of Minhwan! He’s going to study abroad this time. It’s going to be hard to see him from now on, so what are we supposed to do if you don’t come?

“……”

Junhyuk pondered for a moment without a word, then nodded and replied.

“Text me the location.”

— Okay.

[Taejin Hotel VIP Lounge, Room 2801]

Junhyuk got into a gleaming white SUV and, as if familiar with it, opened the navigation address book. Then he set Taejin Hotel as the destination and started the car.

Having left earlier than rush hour, Junhyuk thankfully didn’t suffer from traffic congestion on the road. As the car carrying Junhyuk entered the hotel entrance, the hotel’s general manager came out personally to greet him.

“Young master, you’ve arrived?”

“You’ve cleared out all the rooms in the lounge, right?”

“They have all been cleared. And most of your friends have arrived as well.”

“Okay.”

“Chairman Yoon mentioned he would be stopping by the hotel briefly tonight. Would you perhaps like to see…”

“No.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Junhyuk’s father was the head of Saeil Group, one of the top 30 corporations in the country, but his mother’s side of the family, who had passed away early, was far more formidable. This was because Taejin Group, the top conglomerate in the country, stood behind them. Moreover, Junhyuk’s mother, Yoon Sunghui, was the only child, a daughter with no sons, of the Taejin Group’s head family. In other words, Junhyuk was as good as the last remaining bloodline of Taejin Group’s chairman, Yoon Geonhyuk.

Junhyuk took the VIP-only elevator and went up quickly to the hotel lounge on the twenty-eighth floor. He walked straight through the lounge’s main hall and up a heavily guarded staircase without any hindrance. The place Junhyuk went up to was lined with rooms said to be used only by VVIP clients. Junhyuk opened a large door and entered the room.

“Junhyuk, you’re here?”

“You crazy bastards.”

The room, as spacious as the main hall downstairs, was filled with hazy cigarette smoke that had an acrid smell. On top of that, they were engaged in a messy sex party in various corners of the room.

“Minhwan, did you get into trouble? What’s with studying abroad all of a sudden?”

“Ah, don’t talk about it, it’s annoying. Come over here. I brought a few guys who are your type, Junhyuk.”

At Minhwan’s exaggerated gesture, a slender man in neat attire appeared. Before Junhyuk could change his mind, Minhwan gestured for the man to come closer quickly. At this sight, Junhyuk furrowed his brow in annoyance.

“Don’t you like him? Should I bring a woman?”

“Crazy bastard.”

Junhyuk raised his hand, signaling the lithe man to wait. Then he called out to Minhwan, who was unreservedly engaging in promiscuous acts with a pretty man seated on each of his sides.

“Hey, Kim Minhwan.”

“What?”

The man sitting to Minhwan’s right moved down between his legs. Minhwan gently stroked the man’s hair as he looked at Junhyuk.

“Do you know anyone in our school’s Theater and Film department?”

“Probably.”

“Then do one thing for me before you go study abroad.”

“What?”

“Organize something like a joint MT between our department and the Theater and Film department as soon as possible.”

“What? This bastard, don’t tell me…”

“This is the reason I came here. Now that I’ve said what I needed to, I’ll pay and go. Have a good trip studying abroad.”

“Hey, hey!”

Having finished his business, Junhyuk left the room without a second thought. As he did, the general manager who had been waiting outside approached Junhyuk’s side.

“Put the bill on my card.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“And make sure nothing about those bastards’ partying gets out.”

“Of course, sir.”

Junhyuk typed the name ‘Lee Yejun’ into an internet search bar. A list of articles and posts about Yejun began to appear. As he clicked on them one by one, Junhyuk suddenly remembered that he hadn’t gotten Yejun’s phone number.

☂︎

Yejun, the youngest in the team, woke up earlier than the other members, showered, and came out. Stirred awake by Yejun’s rustling sounds, Wooju, the eldest, sat up and, like always, hit his head on the ceiling of the bunk bed.

“Ah!”

“Wooju hyung, are you awake?”

Yejun couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at Wooju’s unfailingly consistent behavior.

“Yejun, you, are you laughing?”

“Hyung, how can you never change?”

“If our next album is a big hit, let’s ask the CEO to move us to a new dorm first. When we move, we’re leaving all the bunk beds behind.”

“Okay.”

Just then, the team’s leader, Suho, who had just returned from his morning jog, looked back and forth between Wooju and Yejun and added his own comment.

“Hyung, did you stick a magnet to the bed ceiling or something? How can your head stick to it so perfectly every single day without fail?”

“Hey! You too.”

While the three of them were bickering, Taeyi and Yul, both twenty-two-year-olds of the same age, came out from the room across the hall. Then, like twins, they yawned so wide their mouths could tear and, first thing, threw open the refrigerator door.

“I’m hungry, I’m hungry!”

“Do those guys have beggars in their stomachs? Why are they always hungry?”

Even as Wooju grumbled about his same-aged members, he walked to the kitchen. Then he took out a large mixing bowl and began to take out all the side dishes from the refrigerator.

“If we don’t finish these seasoned vegetables today, they’ll all go bad. Today, it’s mixing bowl bibimbap.”

“Sounds great, sounds great.”

While Wooju opened the rice cooker and took out the rice, the same-aged members sat across from him and pretended to pant like large dogs. Suho stroked his younger members’ heads and then went into the bathroom.

After everyone gathered and ate, Yejun did the dishes. It was Yejun’s turn to do the dishes today. While Yejun was washing the dishes, Suho went into his room and came out with a wrapped box.

“Yejun.”

“Yes?”

Yul gestured wildly at Yejun as he came out of the kitchen. He tried to hide the large gift box with his whole body, but somehow, the gift box seemed even more visible to Yejun’s eyes.

“What’s this?”

“Ta-da! A university entrance gift for our youngest.”

“Ah… really?”

“We all pitched in to buy it.”

He had lived with the members of Serious through thick and thin for almost five years, ever since their trainee days. In a different sense, they were just like family. Yejun accepted the gift box, his face already showing he was touched.

“Where would you hyungs get the money?”

“That’s why the four of us bought it together. Hurry and open it.”

The team members knew each other’s personal circumstances inside and out. With the money he had earned from his activities so far, Yejun had been paying off his father’s gambling debts and also covering the treatment costs for his mother, who had been diagnosed with stage 2 stomach cancer.