Tae-oh, who was speaking heavily with a bitter smile, remained composed, but Sol, who was listening to the story, became more emotional. Sol eventually burst into tears.
Startled by Sol’s loud sobbing, Tae-oh grabbed Sol’s shoulders and helped him sit up. Seeing Sol crying sorrowfully with big tears streaming down his face, Tae-oh was visibly flustered.
The calm expression on Tae-oh’s face broke, and he became confused, leaving Sol sitting while he fumbled around. Sol dropped his arms and cried even louder, wailing openly. The sound woke Ga-ram, who had been asleep, and he looked at the bewildered Tae-oh.
“What’s going on, Yoon Tae-oh?”
Tae-oh waved his hand at Ga-ram. From Ga-ram’s perspective, it looked like Tae-oh had done something to make Sol cry. As expected, Ga-ram’s eyebrows lowered sharply. Tae-oh waved his hand again towards Ga-ram.
Tae-oh, not knowing what to do, looked down with a troubled face at Sol, who was crying his heart out. Then he awkwardly wrapped his arms around Sol’s shaking back. It was an awkward, distant hug, with his body leaning back to avoid full contact. Tae-oh clumsily patted Sol’s trembling back. At this, Sol cried even louder.
Sol felt extremely sad. Tae-oh said he didn’t want to cry, but Sol did. Sol wanted to cry out loud like a child. Just like the irresponsible person Tae-oh mentioned, Sol wanted to cry without restraint, but he hadn’t been able to.
Unlike Tae-oh, whose reasons were realistic, Sol’s tears stemmed from the guilt of causing his parents’ deaths. But as Tae-oh said, his parents were no longer there to listen, so he couldn’t cry like this. That’s why the tears came out now. Though they weren’t his parents, Tae-oh would listen. Sol cried even louder, as if to add his own share to Tae-oh’s. Once the tears started, they couldn’t be stopped.
“Sol, what’s wrong? What did Tae-oh say?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing? Then why are you crying like this?”
“…It’s a misunderstanding.”
Ga-ram got up from the bed and approached Sol, who was crying in Tae-oh’s arms. The way Ga-ram strode over made it look like he was about to hit Tae-oh. Tae-oh clicked his tongue and shook his head, but it was no use.
“Sol, why are you crying like this? What did he say?”
Ga-ram gently stroked the back of Sol’s head, looking at him, who couldn’t respond and just cried sorrowfully. Then Ga-ram glared at Tae-oh again.
“Stop glaring and try to do something.”
“What am I supposed to do? Sol, stop crying.”
Tae-oh, awkwardly hugging and consoling Sol, urged Ga-ram to do something. But Ga-ram, equally at a loss, just patted Sol’s head awkwardly. After a moment, Ga-ram seemed to contemplate the reason for Sol’s tears and came up with his own conclusion.
“Is this because of what happened yesterday? It’s not your fault.”
Ga-ram assumed that Sol was still blaming himself for what happened the day before. Although he didn’t know what Tae-oh and Sol had talked about, he guessed that Sol had started crying again, blaming himself as he did yesterday.
“It’s not your fault. What are you doing?”
“What?”
As Ga-ram gently patted the back of Sol’s head, repeating that it wasn’t his fault, he glanced at Tae-oh, signaling him with his eyes. Tae-oh, not understanding the situation, furrowed his thick eyebrows and brusquely asked Ga-ram what he meant. Ga-ram continued signaling with his eyes to make sure Sol couldn’t see. Finally, Tae-oh understood what Ga-ram wanted and said in his deep, low voice.
“It’s not your fault.”
“It’s not Sol’s fault.”
Seemingly satisfied with Tae-oh’s words, Ga-ram nodded and gently patted Sol’s head as if it were a precious crystal. Sol’s fine, thin hair became neatly smoothed down, shining under Ga-ram’s hand. It seemed to have an effect, as Sol’s sobs gradually turned into light sniffles.
Ga-ram smiled in relief. Then, mimicking Tae-oh, he leaned forward and hugged Sol, leaving enough space to not make him uncomfortable but providing enough warmth and comfort.
“What are you guys doing?”
Yeong-ho, who had come to the hospital with a change of clothes, was baffled by the strange scene before him. Early in the morning, before the sun had even risen, two big guys were awkwardly hugging Sol in the middle.
Sol, wedged between them, had cried so much that his eyes and cheeks were swollen, his face a mess of tears. Yeong-ho looked back and forth between Ga-ram and Tae-oh with a bewildered expression. Finally, Tae-oh, feeling embarrassed, cleared his throat and moved away from Sol.
That afternoon, Sol was discharged from the hospital with Yeong-ho, but Ga-ram stayed a few more days for various tests. Needless to say, these seemed mostly related to psychiatry, and Yeong-ho seemed worried about trauma. Sol was scolded to the point where his ears were ringing, being told to always report such incidents in the future. All the members had to change their phone numbers. Although it was annoying, no one showed any signs of displeasure.
Naturally, they also changed the password for their dorm. Since they couldn’t move to a new place, they installed a security camera in front of the entrance as a last resort. Every time someone passed by the front door, an alarm went off for Yeong-ho. Deuk-yong grumbled that he couldn’t sneak off to the convenience store anymore, and Yeong-ho hit Deuk-yong on the head, saying it was for the better.
After Ga-ram was discharged, all the members except Tae-oh visited the police station several times. Ga-ram had identified the culprit, and they thought he would be caught soon, but it dragged on.
Sol found this situation ironic, but Ga-ram seemed to have had no expectations from the beginning. However, they could see a police car patrolling every evening. They would hold hands and go home together like kindergarten kids on a field trip, or Yeong-ho would accompany them on their commutes. Hats were followed by masks.
They went around with their hats pulled down low and faces covered with masks, looking like either perpetual flu patients or people planning a crime. It was incredibly awkward, but as it became routine, they got used to it, and eventually, it felt odd not to wear a mask. Time passed as if it was just a passing incident.
***
“Team leader, it’s been a while. You seem very busy these days.”
Eun-gyeom, who was sitting by the window and looking at his phone, greeted a man passing by in the hallway. The middle-aged man, who was walking quickly, seemed to have met Eun-gyeom at the right moment and turned back to approach him.
“Is everything going well?”
The man leaned against the window and lightly patted Eun-gyeom on the shoulder. After a brief greeting, he was about to continue on his way when something suddenly came to mind. He clapped his hands and turned back to Eun-gyeom.
“Oh, Eun-gyeom, make sure to keep Luca quiet.”
“We need to control his actions, not just his words. We shouldn’t have given him tasks that require communication.”
“His actions? Why his actions?”
At the man’s words, Eun-gyeom thought of his member, who always created troublesome situations. Although he was always talkative, he had recently blurted out something to Sol and was becoming increasingly bothersome. Shaking his head in frustration, Eun-gyeom responded.
“It seems like some people are even sending him DMs openly asking him about the trainees.”
“What?”
“You know, the debut group kids. Sol and….”
He was a member who always created a lot of noise, even during group activities. Whether it was because he was jealous of the ever-popular Eun-gyeom or, for some other reason, he was recently found crossing the line multiple times in his desperate bid for attention, prompting warnings to be cautious.
Exchanging DMs with foreign fans and such had been a constant occurrence, so it wasn’t surprising anymore. However, a photo that Eun-gyeom happened to glimpse caught his attention, prompting him to confront Luca, who surprisingly showed him the conversation.
In the DM sent by a Chinese fan, there were recent photos of Sol and Deuk-yong that had been circulating on SNS. Below them, there was Chinese text: “卢卡，问一下。他是 YC的练习生不？不方便就不用回答。(Luca, I have a question. Is this person a trainee at YC? If it’s inconvenient, you don’t have to answer.)” Fortunately, there was no reply yet.
When Eun-gyeom glared sharply at Luca, he stammered that he was about to block the user, then angrily insisted he would do so right away. Judging by experiences, this wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened. Before Eun-gyeom could say more, Luca loudly said, “Alright, I’ll delete it! I’ve blocked them! Okay?” and then blocked the contact. His exaggerated behavior only increased Eun-gyeom’s suspicions.
“They bring photos of the kids to Luca and ask him to confirm if they’re trainees, like YES OR NO.”
“And you just watched that?”
“I tried to stop him. I told him not to answer.”
“I’m getting a headache, a real headache. Where is Kim Luca?”
It was pointless to look for him now. Even if they did, a few reprimands wouldn’t change his behavior. Turning his gaze away from the man clutching his head in frustration, Eun-gyeom looked out the window. He saw a few people dressed inappropriately for the season, leaning against the company wall as if hiding.
Ever since Luca deliberately leaked information a few days ago, things had been like this. Knowing it would turn out this way, they had intentionally ignored it. It was a time when moderate interest and buzz wouldn’t be harmful. By now, those so-called fans’ photos were surely circulating among fans on SNS. Observing the scene, Eun-gyeom tapped his chin with his fingers and asked the man, still clutching his head.
“But, anyway, Yoon Tae-oh and Kang Ga-ram were publicly known trainees. Ji-ho came from an audition too. Is there a need to keep them hidden?”
“As you know, Ga-ram had that incident.”
“Still, the same ‘thing’ happened again, anyway.”
“You heard about it?”
Rumors within the company always spread quickly. Especially when it was something bad. The rumors spread even faster, and everyone pretended to hush up while gossiping. It was impossible not to know. Moreover, Eun-gyeom had been dealing with a similar issue because of the foolish Luca in the past few days. Ga-ram was quite an unlucky case. In fact, Eun-gyeom didn’t feel particularly sorry for him since he thought Ga-ram brought it on himself. But he was concerned about the other members who got caught up in it. Especially Sol.
