Chapter 64

Jun’s question alone was enough for Gyeol to fully predict what would happen next. Reflexively, he pulled his chin back, but Jun’s hand gently cupped his jaw.

“I’m sweaty and sticky.”

When Gyeol muttered quietly, Jun let out a snort of laughter.

“That just makes it better.”

“...You seriously sound insane.”

Even while grumbling, Gyeol still flinched at the fingers idly stroking the soft skin beneath his jaw. The feeling of damp skin sticking against Jun’s palm was a problem too. Unable to endure the wandering touch any longer, Gyeol lowered his gaze.

“There’s seriously not a single part of you that isn’t soft, Gyeol.”

“.......”

“Makes me want to keep touching you.”

Jun’s thumb swept beneath his jaw and brushed over his Adam’s apple before gently pressing his chin downward. Gyeol could no longer contain the pounding in his chest. He glanced around one more time to make absolutely sure nobody was nearby.

Soft rain filled the silence while pine branches occasionally swayed overhead. There wasn’t even the shadow of another person nearby.

After taking a short breath, Gyeol carefully tugged at Jun’s clothes. Closing his eyes, he parted his lips like he was giving in to the touch against his better judgment.

“Good boy, our Gyeol.”

That teasing voice was the last thing he heard before their lips met.

After waiting a full ten hours, the stage they finally stepped onto turned into a complete disaster.

By the time SAVE ME went onstage, the steadily worsening rain had become a full-blown downpour.

If it was going to rain that hard, the least it could’ve done was cool the air down. Instead, the air trapped around the beach remained unbearably humid and sticky. Even the audience members stubbornly enduring the weather in raincoats and under umbrellas looked physically and mentally exhausted enough to leave at any moment.

No matter how many people remained in the crowd, SAVE ME climbed onto the stage armed with rookie determination.

“Hello! The one and only existence that will save you—SAVE ME!”

But before they had even finished half of the first song—

Bang!

A violent explosion rang out, and smoke burst from the main speaker. A piercing screech tore across the beach immediately afterward.

Several audience members screamed.

The sound system died completely.

SAVE ME continued singing at the top of their lungs while carrying on with their powerful choreography, but the voices of five rookies had no chance of overpowering the sound of crashing waves and pouring rain.

Even so, the basic duty of idols—especially rookie idols—was to stay onstage no matter what happened. So SAVE ME stubbornly continued performing beneath the torrential rain.

But the ending waiting for them was mercilessly terrible.

The stage lights flickered once.

Twice.

Then finally went out completely.

Darkness swallowed everything.

SAVE ME finished the first song amid the chaos and stood frozen in the pitch-black darkness. The audience murmured in confusion while staff members shouted and ran around frantically. It was complete pandemonium where nobody could properly see anything.

“...We’re fucked.”

One of the members muttered under his breath.

The situation showed no signs of recovering. Because of the relentless rain, the festival staff ultimately failed to restore the power. The remaining audience members hurried away using cellphone flashlights to see. At that point, it resembled a disaster zone more than a festival.

Eventually, the entire event was canceled.

SAVE ME climbed into the van looking like drenched rats.

Just as Kisoo Yang grabbed the steering wheel to leave, he suddenly turned around and spoke to the members.

“I know you guys are upset right now, but... let’s think positively. You’ll never forget today.”

“.......”

Every member stayed silent.

Looking helpless, Kisoo slowly turned back around and grabbed the wheel again. Then, apparently deciding this wouldn’t do, he turned around one more time and raised both fists dramatically.

“The hard memories are the ones that stay with you longest. Someday this’ll all become a good memory.”

“.......”

“Fighting.”

“.......”

“.......”

Still, nobody answered.

“Jesus Christ...”

Clicking his tongue while pushing back his rain-soaked hair, Kisoo finally started the van.

A beat later, Jun muttered quietly:

“Snacks.”

“...What?”

Gyeol genuinely thought he’d misheard him.

What the hell was he saying right now?

“Fighting. Snacks. I want snacks.”

It was completely random nonsense.

Did he seriously just make a rhyme?

“...What are you, somebody’s middle-aged dad?”

Repeating the words to himself as he answered, Gyeol finally burst into laughter. At that, Choi Yoonsoo—sitting in the back seat—snorted too.

“I told you guys. We seriously need to run genetic testing on Jun Shin. He’s not in his twenties. He’s secretly forty.”

“...Feels more like fifty.”

Park Kyungwoo answered weakly.

At the youngest member’s comment, the older members all started laughing quietly one after another.

And then somehow, for absolutely no reason, the van dissolved into hysterical laughter.

“Why are we even laughing right now?”

“No idea.”

“It’s just so ridiculous. All of it.”

“No, seriously, Jun Shin suddenly bringing up snacks was fucking insane.”

“Tch. Watch your mouth when you talk to your elder.”

The atmosphere that had sunk as heavily as their rain-soaked bodies slowly floated back up again.

Only then did Kisoo finally relax and shout brightly from the driver’s seat.

“Hey! Before we get to the condo, we’re stopping by a convenience store, so buy whatever you want! Corporate card’s going down today!”

“Holy shit! Let’s order chicken too!”

“Aren’t we supposed to manage our weight?”

“Are you insane? We burned like two whole chickens’ worth of calories each today.”

“...That’s true.”

“Order everything! Everything!”

The van instantly became noisy again.

Laughing so hard his stomach hurt at the endless jokes and chatter, Gyeol occasionally glanced toward Jun.

Every time the van passed beneath scattered streetlights, streaks of light flickered across Jun’s face through the window.

Kisoo had been right.

Gyeol didn’t think he would ever forget today.

Or the Jun Shin of today.

***

“Have you ever...”

Jun’s voice shattered the memory of the past.

“...wanted to go back to that time?”

“.......”

Staring at the black waves crawling up to their feet before retreating again, Gyeol let out a weak laugh.

“You’re asking if I want to go back to the days when we suffered like hell?”

He understood perfectly well what Jun actually meant. Jun wasn’t talking about only that single day. He meant that entire period of time.

The days when SAVE ME laughed together in one place.

The days when Gyeol Go and Jun Shin belonged together as part of that.

The days when they promised each other forever.

Even knowing that, Gyeol deliberately flattened the meaning of the question.

Then he added lightly:

“If you say it like that, it sounds like you’re the one who wants to go back. Moving fans would be upset with you.”

It sounded playful, but there was weight behind the words.

Just as Jun Shin knew Gyeol well, Gyeol knew Jun equally well. He knew which words weakened him, which subjects he wanted to avoid, and what he instinctively turned his eyes away from.

If someone asked what Jun Shin’s biggest weakness was, the answer would undoubtedly be his fans.

At least in that regard, Gyeol and Jun had always been the same, so there was no way he wouldn’t know.

Even during SAVE ME’s promotions, the two of them had been unusually devoted to their fandom. Whether they had many fans during debut or only a few after becoming failed idols, they treasured every single person sincerely.

“You can’t answer a question like that. Makes it impossible to say anything.”

Just as Gyeol expected, Jun laughed weakly.

Watching him, Gyeol quietly felt relieved.

Even though SAVE ME had disbanded and Jun Shin had become a top-tier idol through Moving, it still felt like his core hadn’t changed.

The part of him Gyeol cherished most still seemed exactly the same.

“I asked like that on purpose. You seriously care about your fans too much.”

Gyeol lightly shoved Jun’s shoulder with his fist.

“Ow, ow.”

Jun exaggerated dramatically and tipped sideways before collapsing onto the sand again. The performance was ridiculous, but Gyeol knew exactly what it meant.

Jun had realized Gyeol was trying to steer the conversation elsewhere and was playing along with him.

Letting out a small sigh, Gyeol held out his hand toward him.

“Such a drama queen.”

Grinning brightly, Jun grabbed his hand and pulled himself back up.

Gyeol watched him dust the sand off before quietly speaking.

“Thank you.”

“...? Suddenly? Shouldn’t I be the one saying that?”

Jun looked at him with one eyebrow raised.

There was sand stuck to his cheek.

Gyeol’s hand twitched instinctively, but he stopped himself from reaching out.

Instead, he tapped his own cheek to indicate the spot.

“Here. You’ve got sand on you.”

“Oh.”

Jun casually brushed it away.

After a brief pause, Gyeol continued.

“I mean last night. I kept meaning to thank you, but... the timing never really worked out.”

He was talking about Jun stepping in and taking the splash of wine himself when the drunken Woo Seok Jung had been harassing Gyeol.

“It wasn’t a big deal. Thanks to that, I got to experience a wine shower. How often do you get that opportunity in life?”

Resting his chin against one bent knee, Jun grinned.

“You were wearing white. What about your clothes?”

Judging by the P-brand logo, they were probably sponsored.

If a sponsored item got ruined, they either had to pay cleaning fees or, in severe cases, compensate the brand for the full price. And even that wasn’t the real problem.

It could affect future sponsorship deals with the brand too.

Knowing Jun was one of P-brand’s ambassadors, Gyeol couldn’t stop worrying whether this might negatively affect him.

“I can just buy another set. Don’t worry about it.”

Jun answered casually.

The implication behind the words was clear: they hadn’t been sponsored clothes. They were his own.

He had accurately understood what Gyeol was worried about and answered accordingly.

Only then did Gyeol finally relax.

Pulling his knees closer, he folded his arms over them and rested his chin there.

“So that’s why you were so determined to drag me out to talk?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re seriously too kind, Gyeol.”

Gyeol looked out at the sea.

Jun Shin looked at Gyeol.

It was clearly Gyeol who had barely managed to crawl his way out of the past after remaining trapped there for years. And yet moments like this made it feel as though Gyeol had escaped alone while leaving Jun Shin behind there.

Gyeol had eventually clawed his way free of the past.

But Jun still seemed to be standing there.

Still.

Always.

Suddenly, countless words bloomed and disappeared inside Gyeol’s mouth.

There were too many things he wanted to ask.

But none of them were appropriate to say in front of cameras.

All the questions he had never been able to ask—and still couldn’t ask now.

Stories that proved the amount of time they had spent together.

Words containing how much Gyeol had cared for Jun Shin.

How much he had loved him.

“...Way more than you probably imagined.”

“Hm?”

After swallowing down everything else, Gyeol finally let out the single fragment of truth he could actually say aloud.

“The thought of wanting to go back to that time.”