Chapter 140

Pheromone Island was not a place where anyone could hold on to melancholy for long.

Feelings like sadness or gloom were emotions one could only harbor when alone, or with someone close enough to bare one’s heart to.

But here, once a conversation with one person ended, another person had to be faced; right after saying goodbye to one person, one had to meet someone else face-to-face. Because of that, it was difficult for any single emotion to last long.

That was why it definitely felt like his mental strength was being heavily drained.

Once filming ends, I might be suffering from the aftershock for a while.

Thinking that, Gyeol entered the lodging.

Isu Yoon, who usually welcomed Gyeol familiarly, spoke in a startled voice.

“Gyeol, did you cry? What happened to your face?”

He came closer, examined Gyeol, and clicked his tongue.

“Your eyes are completely swollen. Wait. I brought something for when my face gets puffy.”

He quickly ran to the refrigerator and returned with a silicone cooling pack filled with pale-green gel. It was shaped like an eye mask, with Velcro in the back to fasten it.

“I’m fine....”

“You get a lot of close-up shots at Ivory Mansion. Sit down.”

Gyeol awkwardly perched on a dining chair.

Saying it was a relief that Gyeol was wearing almost no makeup, Isu wrapped the cooling pack around his eyes. The cool sensation immediately seeped into the thin skin. Once his vision was blocked, sounds became clearer.

“Some people don’t even get to go to Ivory Mansion once, and you keep going again and again.”

Isu spoke as if {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} scolding him, then giggled at his own words. Gyeol followed him with an awkward laugh, paused briefly, then asked casually.

“Have there ever been times when you hated me?”

Clatter. As if Isu had sat down across the dining table, the chair gave a faint lingering sound.

“What?”

He let out a dry laugh and asked why Gyeol was asking something like that.

“It’s just... you know. Alpha votes gathering around one person, well... I don’t think you’d care about that, but it’s something anyone could feel upset about. I think I would have, too.”

“Gyeol. At that point, it’s not kindness. It’s being a pushover. You worry about the strangest things.”

Tap, tap. The sound of fingers meaninglessly tapping on the table came through.

After hesitating for a moment, Gyeol confessed.

“There was Jun Shin between you and me. And when you asked me to help you, I couldn’t openly say that I would. It’s not exactly something to say outright, but now that the end is slowly approaching... I wanted to ask at least once.”

Because another chance may not come.

He swallowed those words without saying them.

“Hmm.” Isu made a thoughtful sound and stopped his fingers. Then he answered readily.

“Jun... no, Jun told me I wouldn’t work.”

It seemed to run along the same line as the question, yet also sounded like an answer to something else entirely.

So that’s how it ended up.

Gyeol quietly waited for what would follow.

“To be exact, he said he already had someone in his heart. I didn’t ask who. It was too obvious... well. There was no need to ask.”

“.......”

“But the strange thing is, once it got settled somehow, I actually felt relieved. The hatred I felt toward you... mm, no, that’s not it. It didn’t go as far as hatred. If I had to define it, it was probably something like envy or jealousy. Those feelings just dropped away completely.”

“...Really?”

“Yeah. So the answer to your question isn’t yes or no. Because I’ve never hated you.”

Then Isu said that Jun Shin had actually been his “favorite.” He said he had been a fan of Jun since Jun’s days as a trainee at LM.

Thanks to that, Isu had naturally become a SAVE ME fan. Back then, he had apparently still been an aspiring actor, before becoming an actor. Then he abruptly confessed that he had gotten plastic surgery. Gyeol was fairly flustered, but Isu did not seem to think it was a big deal.

“My old photos are already all over the internet anyway. People who know, know.”

“...R-right.”

“I’m completely fine with it, so why are you the one panicking?”

“No, it just came at such an unexpected moment....”

“To be honest, I brought it up because I wanted to shock you a little.”

Isu laughed easily.

“Just laugh, Gyeol. I said it to make you laugh.”

How am I supposed to laugh?

Weak against black humor, Gyeol could not tell whether he should laugh or cry.

He simply reflected on his own preconception. When Isu had first told him he was a SAVE ME fan and had even gone to a fan meeting, Gyeol had thought he had never seen Isu’s face before.

But years had passed since then. It was about time for even rivers and mountains to change once, and Gyeol himself had become completely different from his SAVE ME days, from skin tone to styling.

It was enough time for a person to change several times over. Whether in appearance, mind, or heart.

“Anyway, because of that, when I decided to appear on R-Connect and received the cast lineup, I was really surprised. My former favorite, appearing proudly.”

As Gyeol listened to Isu, the cooling pack had already absorbed his body heat and turned lukewarm. Gyeol tore open the Velcro and pulled the cooling pack down.

Isu’s face looked rather relaxed. The cautious, careful air he had before was nowhere to be seen; he looked comfortable.

“And then, the main bias Gyeol who used to be inseparable from that former favorite also appeared.”

“...Did you always talk like that?”

Unable to ignore the strangeness, Gyeol asked, and Isu burst into a small laugh.

“I think I understand why people on dating shows reveal their true colors toward the end, change personalities, suddenly hit the accelerator, grow, and all that. I’m doing it too.”

Gyeol nodded. He was similar himself.

“Since I knew better than anyone how special Jun Shin and Gyeol Go were to each other... at first, you felt a little unfair to me. Jun was looking only at you so openly.”

“.......”

“But of all people, Gyeol Go was the kindest one in SAVE ME too. You hadn’t changed at all. During the game, you just came running to help me... and you treated me well. So I think I went back and forth too. I felt like Jekyll and Hyde. I’d think, how can he be good at everything and so popular too, how annoying. But then you were just such a good person that I’d simply like you. Back and forth like that.”

“...Thanks.”

Gyeol let out a breath of laughter.

“In the end, I lost, that’s all. Instead of clumsily trying to keep you in check, it was a million times easier on my heart to just say, Gyeol is a good person. I should get along with him.”

“You’re the one who’s truly a good person, Isu.”

That was why he had asked something he would never dare ask anyone else. Whether Isu had ever hated him.

“I should have been as smart as I was good, but my eyes kept going only to my favorite. Once I thought there might be a chance I could end up with my favorite if things went well, I couldn’t control my feelings.”

“I would’ve been the same.”

“Do you have something like a favorite too?”

When Isu asked, only one person swiftly flashed through Gyeol’s mind.

Yo Han Sung.

“Of course, I did.”

“That’s past tense?”

Gyeol let out a low laugh.

“Don’t pry too much.”

Isu smiled back and rose from his seat.

“Anyway, Gyeol Go really is Gyeol Go. You just threw a fastball straight at me, asking if I’d ever hated you.”

“Sorry. I wanted to clear things up properly with you, Isu.”

“......That, even if it’s just lip service, is kind of moving.”

“It’s true.”

Isu pursed his lips into a pout. Even so, emotion that looked like being touched showed plainly in his eyes.

“Anyway... is there anything else you want to ask? Are all your curiosities satisfied?”

“No. Yeah.”

“Then hurry up and pack. Once you leave, I’m going to rent this whole place out again and roll around while I sleep.”

“Isu. Thank you.”

“Ah, stop saying things like that....”

As Isu took the cooling pack and put it back into the refrigerator, his ears were bright red. Gyeol added one more sentence toward his back.

“Let’s spend the remaining time well too, and let’s keep in touch even after we leave here.”

“Ah, Gyeol. Stop. I’m weak to stuff like this....”

He fanned himself with his hand and made a gesture as if chasing Gyeol out. Watching that, Gyeol laughed again.

“But do you really have signed albums?”

“......? Of course I do.”

“Aha....”

“What. Did you think I was just saying that? It’s true. I really have them. I bought dozens of copies back then, even though I didn’t have money.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Wow, Gyeol Go, your attitude is weird. It kind of feels like you’re teasing me.”

“I never did that.”

“You keep ending your sentences like that, though.”

“I have to pack.”

“Excuse me. Gyeol?”

“I’m really busy.”

“Producer! Please change my lodging!”

“You can’t go anywhere.”

“Producer!”

***

To leave for their Ivory Mansion dates, the two couples stood side by side in front of the lounge.

Tommy and Hee Jun Kang had matched palm-tree patterns with flowers scattered across them, while Yo Han Sung and Gyeol Go had paired neat-toned tops and bottoms in what was called the “old money look.” Even at a glance, the two couples had completely opposite atmospheres.

“I’m so, so excited.... I think I’m shaking right now. What do I do?”

“Don’t be like that, giant potato. You’re going to make me nervous too.”

“I’m a P, but I made plans like a J. First, as soon as we get there, we swim, and then we order and eat everything we want, and then the hot tub, and then drinks....”

“Wow, swimming and a hot tub. What a completely obscene potato.”

“Ah, no! What?”

“Did you get my consent? Are you going to swim and use the hot tub alone?”

“No. Well. Since we’re going, I was just trying to do everything! I wasn’t thinking anything weird. I really didn’t have any lewd thoughts!”

“I never said you were lewd, but you’re over here confessing all by yourself.”

“Hee Jun...!”

Tommy and Hee Jun Kang were responsible for ninety-nine percent of the sound.

Standing beside them, Yo Han Sung and Gyeol Go only smiled occasionally at their conversation and did not say much else.

Before they officially departed, the production staff were doing a final equipment check.

“S-so you won’t swim with me?”

“Well. We’ll see how you do, giant potato.”

“Awwww. I really want to swim in the pool at Ivory Mansion, and I want to try the hot tub too.”

“Then you should have chosen me steadily from the beginning. You would’ve gone to Ivory Mansion several times by now.”

“Ah!”

Tommy let out a small scream as he covered Hee Jun Kang’s mouth.

It was tremendous vitality. Those two did not seem to get tired at all.

Standing quietly and feeling as if his energy were being drained, Gyeol thought he wished they would hurry and leave for Ivory Mansion.

“Gyeol.”

Suddenly, Yo Han leaned toward Gyeol.

What is it?

Gyeol blinked quickly and slowly drew his back away.

Tap. Yo Han touched the area around Gyeol’s eye with his hand and whispered low.

“Did you cry?”

“.......”

When Gyeol pressed his lips shut instead of answering, Yo Han lightly rubbed the corner of Gyeol’s eye with his thumb.

“Why would you cry somewhere I’m not around?”