[What the hell? Talking bullshit like that means Seo Hoyun’s fine.]
There was laughter laced through the grumbling voice.
After saying he’d come by when his schedule ended, Joo Woosung hung up.
I fiddled with my phone and stuffed it into the pocket of my hospital clothes.
I lay back down and blankly sorted through what I had to do next when the doctor came by and gave me a quick checkup. He said we’d talk about discharge after some tests.
After the doctor left, I was pulling a T-shirt from the cabinet to change when the hospital room door banged open with a slam!
“Hoyun!”
It was Sung Jiwon.
The skin around his eyes and cheeks was flushed red as he walked over quickly.
“...Sung Jiwon.”
It had been not even two weeks in this place, but for me it felt like I hadn’t seen him in almost a year, so his appearance felt somehow welcome.
“Hoyun, are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
I finished pulling down my top and sat on the edge of the bed.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“...A while?”
“Have you been eating properly?”
Sung Jiwon’s lowered brows shot up, and his mouth twisted.
“...Meeaal?”
As he dragged out the word with an expression I’d never seen before, Seo Hojin, who had followed him in, quickly cut in.
“Jiwon, calm down. He asked me if I’d gone to school or something. Just think of him as a patient—it’s better for your mental health.”
“...Phew. Yeah, you’re right.”
What do you mean, I’m right?
Letting out a deep sigh, Sung Jiwon nodded.
I let their conversation wash over me and looked past Jiwon’s shoulder.
“Where are the others?”
“...Uh, Sunghyun and Dajun said they were on their way back from an album meeting. We just got the call.”
Album meeting?
I tilted my head slightly, and Jiwon smiled awkwardly, looking a bit troubled.
“They said it themselves. Even if you’re sick, we have to discuss the next album and keep the schedule on track. If we just sit on our hands, we’ll get scolded when you wake up.”
When I just stared at him in mild surprise, Jiwon added quietly,
“...Well, they’re not wrong.... It’s not like anything changes by just sitting around.”
You had a thought that commendable?
But if I showed what I was thinking, even the gentle Sung Jiwon might get mad, so I just kept my mouth shut and rolled my eyes. He already seemed to have figured me out, though.
Sweeping his fine brown hair back, he let out a helpless breath.
“Haa... You really are....”
While Jiwon picked his words, the door burst open with another noisy crash.
Then a familiar voice rang out.
“Yaaah!!!”
“...Hey?”
Cheeks already wet and tears brimming as he huffed, it was Jung Dajun.
“Seo Hoyun!”
Next to him was Kim Sunghyun.
He, too, was sniffling and crying in steady streams.
“Hey, you, Seo Hoyun! You bad hyung!!”
Did he learn only the bad things from Kang Ichae?
“Don’t you go shouting my name like—”
I started to get up to scold him, but Dajun reached me first, barreling into me.
“Ack!”
A sharp pain shot through my waist. Felt like I’d pulled something.
“Hey, you little—”
“Waaah waaah waaah! You look all sturdy and your personality is nasty, so why, why are you such a flimsy weakling like this... hng waaah... making people worry... h-heuhng heuhng heuhng....”
“...Hey, hey.”
Whap! Whap! Whap!
As if he hadn’t grown heavier, the big oaf didn’t think about his own body at all and pummeled my shoulders and chest while sprawled on top of me.
“Waaah... it’s so damn frustrating.... You gobble red ginseng all the time... Where did you even buy that red ginseng. It’s not worth the money. Heuh-heuk-heuhng....”
He kept on whining after that, but I could barely understand a thing.
“...Get off for a second.”
I gave up on decoding his meaning and just went limp.
But as the whining went on without end, Sung Jiwon couldn’t take it anymore and pulled Dajun back. He ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) wiped the snot-and-tear-soaked T-shirt with his hand, and then it must have been Sunghyun’s turn.
“Seo Hoyun, you bastard. Why is your body so damn frail.”
Bas—what?
Everyone’s mouth got rougher while I wasn’t looking.
“Why were you born so weak that you put everyone around you through hell?”
“I wasn’t born weak.”
“Do you even know how many times this is now?”
Even I couldn’t deny that one, shameless as I am.
“Yeah....”
Scratching my head, I spoke awkwardly.
“...I’m sorry.”
But even though I apologized, the room only grew colder and quieter.
Even Jung Dajun, who had been honking his nose, stared at me wide-eyed.
“...Sorry?”
“......”
“......”
“S-s-sorry??”
Then he asked again and looked around wildly.
“I think hyung is sick again!!!”
Leaping to an absurd conclusion, Dajun jumped to his feet and bellowed.
“Doctor!! Get the doctor!!”
“Shut up, please....”
I shot a look at Jiwon, Sunghyun, and Hojin to rein him in since it was too loud, but they ignored my plea with cool faces, as if to say I brought this on myself.
In the end, I had to clamp a hand over Dajun’s mouth myself.
After I finally wrestled him into a seat and calmed things down, I ran my eyes over the members.
“Where’s Kang Ichae?”
Sunghyun glanced at Jiwon and hesitated.
“Kang Ichae is... uh.”
“Why? Is something up with him?”
“N-no. It’s not that.”
He looked reluctant to say it, so I shifted my gaze from Dajun to Jiwon. The answer came out flatly.
“Ichae’s got a body-ache flu.”
“...Huh?”
“He’s pretty sick. You’re not completely well yet either, so we were going to tell you slowly....”
I blinked, unable to process the input quickly.
Since becoming The Dawn, I had never once seen Kang Ichae sick.
“So he’s admitted upstairs, in a room on this floor.”
“That’s right! Ichae hyung’s burning up, like, really! He collapsed.... I think he’s conscious, but he can’t even talk properly....”
Something didn’t feel right.
“I’m going to go see Kang Ichae.”
“I’m coming too!!”
“Hey, Jung Dajun, you stay here.”
Pressing down on Dajun’s crown to stop him from getting up again, Sunghyun also grabbed my collar, as if I might bolt out the door.
“Seo Hoyun, you don’t even know which room. Go with Sung Jiwon. Meanwhile I’ll contact the company. And this time, you’re getting every test done properly.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Tsk.”
“Fine.”
I shook off Sunghyun’s hand with a halfhearted agreement and stepped out first. Jiwon hurried after me.
“Uh, we’re blocking it as best we can so nothing leaks outside, so don’t worry. We’ve got previously filmed content, too. Luckily you collapsed inside the company, so it didn’t spread much.”
“......”
“Plus, Senior Min Jiheon responded really fast, so most people in the company just think it’s a bad flu....”
“What about the trainee who was with me?”
“Trainee? There was someone else? I don’t think I’ve heard anything about that....”
So it really was the system’s doing?
Jiwon tilted his head slightly and kept talking.
“Mm, what else did I need to tell you? The manager was really shocked but is handling it okay, and the album—”
On the surface, aside from his eyes being a bit puffy, he didn’t look that different, but he seemed a little scattered. Did he lose some weight, too?
Watching him, I slowed a step and called to him.
“Sung Jiwon.”
“Mm.”
“It’s okay, so calm down first. ...You don’t look well.”
Jiwon pressed his lips together and hesitated a long moment, then thumped my shoulder.
“...Ow.”
“...Stop getting hurt.”
And he gently let out the truth he’d held down until now.
“I will.”
I let out a faint laugh and pushed open the door to the emergency stairs.
Chatting quietly, we went up to find Kang Ichae’s room.
“Ichae, Hoyun woke—”
But the room was empty.
“Huh?”
The blanket tossed aside, the bed sheet rumpled.
It looked like someone had left in a hurry.
“Where did a sick guy even go?”
“Call him.”
“Yeah.”
Jiwon took out his phone and dialed Kang Ichae.
“I’m kind of worried. He’s been having nightmares for days.”
“Nightmares?”
“Yeah. He was groaning and talking in his sleep, but I couldn’t hear clearly.”
“......”
But the call wouldn’t connect; after pressing the call button a few more times, his brow furrowed.
“Do you want to wait here a second? I’ll look around nearby for him.”
Watching Jiwon’s back as he hurried out alone, I rubbed my nape.
For some reason, my heart felt unsettled.
‘Why am I anxious?’
It might be nothing, but I decided I should go down and tell the others what was going on.
I walked while trying to reach Ichae on my phone. Jiwon must have kept calling too; the connection kept cutting off mid-way.
[The customer did not answer, so after the beep you will be connected to voicemail.]
‘Are you out of your mind.’
Rrrrrrr... rrrrrrr....
Listening to the ringtone with growing impatience, I opened the emergency stairwell door and started down. Sweat gathered in my palm.
“Why the hell won’t this bastard pick—”
I grumbled a curse, and from above, a ring tone sounded.
Dirirring.
Diririrring.
I reflexively lifted my head.
In the dim light that lit the stairs, a shadow showed.
Narrowing my eyes, I swept over the form piece by piece and ended the call.
Diririrring... diriri...—click.
At the same moment, the sounds echoing all around went silent.
I called the name of the person in front of me.
“Kang Ichae.”
Keeping his gaze fixed on me, Kang Ichae walked slowly.
“Hi.”
His voice hit my ears, rasped and rough with cracks.
“You stare right at me and still don’t pick up. Why.”
I made a point to respond more calmly.
Because of the inexplicable tension rising from my toes.
“They said you were sick. Where did you go just now?”
At times like this, I was truly glad for my acting experience. I dragged out every bit of honed technique to hide the trembling at the corner of my lips and forced the feet that wanted to step back to stop.
“...Kang Ichae?”
He didn’t react at all, standing a few steps away.
A prickling sense flared up like a lightning rod.
The billboard I wanted to confirm to the end.
The Shining Star synopsis with one person missing.
...the explanation that, except for a specific individual, no one would remember me.
I soothed myself that it was nonsense and was about to fling away that clumsy hypothesis when—
“Answer m—”
“Wooho.”
...Lightning slammed down on top of it.
“Why didn’t you contact me. You were out there shooting arrows just fine.”
Ichae’s feet left the ground for a step as he came closer. His lowered gaze stayed around my hands.
I clenched my fist, as if a callus that couldn’t possibly be there might show, and drew a breath.
Raising his eyelids again, slowly, Kang Ichae stared straight at me.
“What’s with that face.”
Then he smiled slightly.
“Are you that happy to see me?”
