Chapter 108

“Thank you, junior Spades. Then which of our songs do you like best?”

“I like all of them.... Lately, I’ve been listening to the fan song ‘Congratulations’ the most.”

The more Gowon came to know Baek Hanje, the more he could find traces of Hanje’s particular brand of tenderness scattered throughout his lyrics.

Especially in the messages he wrote to the fans he loved.

“Oh, and I’ve been practicing the choreography for ‘Too Good to Waste,’ but Hansel keeps telling me not to.”

“Hm? Why?”

“I don’t know. He just keeps telling me to wait until I’m older....”

“Hahahaha!”

Cha Yensu suddenly burst into clear, hearty laughter.

“Oh, this is bad. How many times have I cracked up already when we’ve barely started? Sorry. Hanje still feels like a baby to me even now, so whenever he tries to act like an older brother, I find it way too funny.”

Apparently still unable to shake off the laughter, he took a sip of tea.

“How old are you this year, Gowon?”

“I’m twenty.”

“...Ah. Then ‘Too Good to Waste’ might be a bit much. That song is, well... about a relationship that’s already gotten fairly mature. How about waiting three years or so? Hanje sang it at that age too.”

With the original performers now unanimously trying to stop him, Gowon had no choice but to reconsider a little.

Cha Yensu leaned closer to the table.

“Actually, more than anything else, there’s something I’m genuinely grateful to you for. Ever since Young Ace went on hiatus, I’ve always felt guilty wondering whether Hanje’s genius was going to waste. But seeing him produce for you, it feels like he’s found his place again.”

“No, that’s absolutely not true. If anything, I’m the one who owes him....”

What Hanje had given him was far too great to bundle up under a single word like producing. He had given Gowon so many gifts that Gowon did not even know where to begin repaying him.

How was he supposed to explain that Baek Hanje had practically changed his entire life?

Cha Yensu quietly watched the junior who had suddenly fallen silent, then turned his head toward the filming staff.

“I hear people say all the time that Gowon and I look alike. Even our members were apparently startled by it. Do we really?”

He smoothly filled the sudden dead air.

“Yes! It feels like somebody should be adding CG flower petals around both of you.”

“The, uh, vibe is a little different, but if you mean you’re both so beautiful it’s hard to tell whether you’re looking at a dream or reality, then yes.”

“How is the vibe different?”

“Um... blooming season...? Gowon feels like winter, and Yensu feels like spring... something like that.”

Their greatest similarity was that both were beautiful enough to make a person dizzy just looking at them.

In fact, one staff member who had been gazing at the two of them with particular emotion all this time was a former Spades fan whose favorite had been Cha Yensu.

Today, the staff member finally felt like they had achieved true fan success since joining the company.

Of course, everyone already knew Cha Yensu was such a once-in-a-century beauty that there was even a joke claiming his real name had originally meant “sorrowful beauty,” only for his parents to misplace a dot when registering his birth....

Gowon, on the other hand, had possessed a strong, raw, unrefined image when he first debuted. Recently, however, that quality had shifted into something strangely precarious and not quite fully ripened.

And once the image of the lovesick prince from <DEEP> was layered over him, a similar melancholy began to settle over his features.

Whatever else happens, the current state of my eyeballs is the greatest employee benefit this company could ever offer....

The title <❀K-Dom’s Garden~202X~❀> was no exaggeration whatsoever.

“You two actually do have a subtly similar feel. Maybe that’s why Kwon Taeyoung and Hansel felt so familiar with Gowon too.”

“Really? I thought I was pretty oblivious to that kind of thing, but now I’m a little jealous.”

Then Cha Yensu snapped his fingers.

“I appreciate the compliment, but let’s edit this part out. I don’t think the implication that someone is a substitute for someone else will come across well. Especially not to Taeyoung or Hanje. Neither of them thinks that way at all.”

“Ah, yes. Understood...!”

His voice was soft and gentle, yet somehow made refusal impossible.

“Actually, I brought it up because the segment we prepared is related to Hansel.”

“Really? What is it?”

“The segment is called Friendship Test! You’ll each call Hansel, and whoever gets him to say a specific phrase first wins.”

“Ah. That sounds like I’d have a pretty big advantage as the older one.”

“Come on, Gowon is living with Hansel right now.”

“Haha. The six of us once lived crammed together in a place about the size of the guest room Hanje probably gave Gowon.”

The brutally spicy remark left everyone speechless for a moment.

“...So! Cha Yensu gets a slightly higher difficulty.”

“Hm?”

“Gowon has to get him to say ‘I like it,’ while Cha Yensu has to get him to say ‘I love you’!”

“Oh, that sounds fun.”

Cha Yensu’s eyes curved as his lips lifted into a soft smile. For a moment, it almost felt as though the temperature on set had risen with it.

Gowon, however, looked completely lost.

“Get Hanje to say something like that... how am I supposed to do that...?”

“Gowon, for example, if Hanje says something as simple as, ‘I like strawberries more than tangerines,’ that still counts.”

“Oh. Ohhh....”

So that’s how it works.

Gowon stiffly answered that he understood.

“Of course, while carrying out the mission, you’re absolutely forbidden from saying the target phrase yourself. You can only coax him into saying it.”

The rules were simple, but the game still did not feel easy to Gowon.

“Gowon, you go first.”

“Me?”

“If we call him one after another, Hanje will start getting suspicious. Going first is an advantage.”

Cha Yensu himself needed to get Hanje to say “I love you,” yet he looked completely relaxed.

“...All right.”

Gowon was in no position to refuse, so he called Baek Hanje first.

The ringback tone Hanje had set was the Young Ace fan song they had mentioned earlier, <Congratulations>.

Gowon finally realized why the song had been lingering in his ears so persistently.

He had been hearing fragments of it every time he called Hanje, which had only made him want to listen to it more.

“Congratulations on this day of mine when I came to know you—”

While they waited for the other person to answer, another of the song’s original performers quietly sang along under his breath.

The same strong bond between the members that Gowon had sensed from Yunjin was there too.

—Hello?

Just as Gowon’s fingertips began to prickle for no reason, Baek Hanje picked up.

“Hanje.”

—Yeah. Why’d you call?

“Ah, well....”

Gowon had to coax the words “I like it” out of Baek Hanje.

“...What did you think of the final <DEEP> stage?”

It had been a performance Gowon himself was proud of, one without even the smallest mistake, and fans considered it legendary.

—Which one was that? I watched all of them, but I don’t remember the order.

“The one where I wore a white veil in the first verse, then took it off in the second.”

—Ohhh. Yeah, it was pretty good. Weird concept, but you pulled it off well.

“Ah...!”

Gowon broke into a delighted smile at the praise, then quickly realized that was not the point.

“Was there any particular part you, um... especially liked?”

—I’m your producer, not your stylist. It just suited you well.

...I don’t think I’m getting anything more out of him by talking about the stage.

“Hanje, between dogs and cats, which do you like—”

—Hey, raising one of you is already more than enough. You’re not planning to bring something home, are you?

“No!”

—You’re acting kind of weird today....

After thinking for a moment, Gowon opened his mouth.

“Should I make soybean-paste stew for dinner?”

Of all the dishes Gowon cooked, it was Baek Hanje’s favorite.

He expected an immediate, “I’d like that!”

So he threw down what he thought was his strongest card.

—It’d be a waste of the shape I got into for the jazz festival. Let’s keep the sodium under control for a while.

“.......”

—And don’t let yourself go just because you’re between promotions. Keep yourself in shape too, punk.

His trump card collapsed spectacularly.

The devastated junior failed to notice the others murmuring around him.

“Good grief, is that really something to be that crushed about?”

“This is going to be hilarious. Make sure we use it well.”

At this point, Gowon had to throw out anything he could think of just to drag the words “I like it” out of him.

“Hanje, I’ve been trying to write lyrics lately. Like... if I wanted to express that feeling when your heart starts pounding... how should I do it?”

—...All of a sudden?

Baek Hanje’s voice abruptly dropped.

—Wait. Are you dating someone?!

“No! I told you I’m not.”

—Hey, I swear I won’t give you shit for it... but if you start seeing someone, you tell me first, got it?

“I’m not! You said idols who date before their fifth year deserve the death penalty!”

—Well, that part’s true. I just want to satisfy my curiosity before I cut your head off.

“You just said you wouldn’t give me shit for it...?”

—I’ll cut it off without saying anything.