Chapter 125

“Hanje, let’s order food soon.”

“Yeah. Use mine.”

Without taking his eyes off the screen, Baek Hanje simply passed his phone behind him.

His actions radiated a firm determination to keep Kwon Taeyoung trapped in the recording booth until the food arrived.

Yunjin, who had continued looking after the juniors, returned to the sofa and held out the phone with a delivery app open.

“You should eat before you go too. Recording takes a lot out of you, so we’ll just order Korean food.”

“Ah! It’s an honor to have a meal with all of you!”

As the leader, Nam Jeongho demonstrated the very essence of impeccable social skills.

“You’re supposed to say things like that when we’re buying you something expensive. Sorry it’s only delivery. Order whatever you want.”

Baek Hanje spoke without ever turning around.

A faint hint of amusement colored what he added next.

“If you’ve got a big appetite, feel free to add several things.”

Nam Jeongho and Eden selected their food with somewhat overwhelmed expressions, then passed the phone to Gowon.

“.......”

It was an object Gowon knew well from occasionally seeing it lying around unattended at Hanje’s house.

What he did not recognize was the large crack spreading like a spiderweb across one corner.

When did he break it...?

When Gowon’s hand stopped, Nam Jeongho asked curiously,

“Gowon, you don’t really like bibimbap?”

Ah.

Gowon snapped back to himself.

“No. I like it.”

“Ooh~ You like it?”

Flinch.

Gowon’s back jerked at the sing-song voice drifting over from the other side of the room.

“It’s a wonderful thing to express what you think clearly. Right?”

“.......”

“You juniors should make music like that too.”

“Yes!”

“Yes, thank you for the advice!”

It would have been a beautiful scene if this had merely been a senior offering words of wisdom.

“Wonder when you’re going to tell me what else you like.”

“......!”

One of the juniors suddenly looked anything but grateful, his expression turning thoroughly sullen.

Since the order had been placed after the lunch rush, the food arrived quickly.

“All right, let’s eat and then get back to it!”

The suffocatingly vicious recording session finally entered a lull.

Gowon shoveled down his food much more aggressively than everyone else, then excused himself by saying he needed the bathroom. By the time everyone else had finished eating, he returned and volunteered to clean up the disposable containers.

“Ah, Gowon. I’ll help too.”

The Newton members started getting up as well.

“No. I’m the youngest. I’ll do it.”

“Come on, there’s no rule like—”

“I’m the youngest, so I really, absolutely need to do this or I won’t feel comfortable. You came here to study producing. You shouldn’t miss even a second of it.”

His words were full of consideration.

His eyes said refusal would not be accepted.

Overwhelmed by the combination, the two eventually sat back down.

And so Gowon gathered up the empty containers and hurried out of the studio.

“...Ha....”

Once he reached the recycling area, Gowon started with a deep sigh.

The bags hanging heavily from both hands clattered as chaotically as the thoughts inside his head.

Baek Hanje had always been impossible to get a read on.

But now he had gone beyond merely unpredictable.

For someone who had spent half his life as a top idol, being the object of someone’s affection might be something he was used to.

But teasing the person who liked him about it—

Ooh~ You like it?

Wasn’t taking it that casually... a little too much?

With a touch of emotion behind his movements, Gowon slammed the empty containers into the plastic recycling bin one after another.

Then he picked up an empty drink can and looked around.

“Cans go over there.”

A voice intruded.

For what felt like the hundredth time today, Gowon’s shoulders shot up as he spun around.

Baek Hanje stood there with an easygoing expression.

“Didn’t you say the ‘youngest’ had to clean up?”

“.......”

“You insisted so strongly that I somehow ended up coming out too.”

“.......”

Despite what he said, Hanje did not help with the recycling in the slightest.

He merely watched Gowon work.

Gowon desperately tried to keep his eyes fixed on the recycling bins, but eventually even the last plastic bag was gone, and the time came when he had no choice but to turn around.

He had been fuming internally just moments ago.

Yet as soon as he saw Hanje’s exhausted face, that stinging guilt welled up again.

“What are you staring at me like that for? Got something to say?”

The crooked question meant, I came all the way out here for you, so go ahead and say whatever you didn’t get to say.

By now, Gowon was familiar enough with Baek Hanje’s manner of speaking to understand.

From the countless questions piled up inside him, he picked one.

“Is the comeback really... possible?”

A short laugh slipped from Baek Hanje.

At the same time, a small breeze passed over Gowon’s now-empty hands.

The current cooled the sweat that had gathered on his palms.

“That’s probably the question with the simplest answer.”

“.......”

“Yeah. It’s possible.”

How?

The uncertainty over whether he even had the right to ask still kept the question trapped inside him.

“There was exactly one song that had already been finished in advance.”

Gowon’s gaze, which had been hovering around Baek Hanje’s chest, rose toward his chin.

“You remember how I locked Yunjin in the studio as soon as I dragged him back, right? I wasn’t actually making him practice. We were recording his part.”

“...Ah....”

“The part that had been empty for two years was finally filled, so we got the master finished pretty quickly. And once a track is finalized, company security policy says the master has to be stored on the company cloud.”

“.......”

“The most important track survived, so after that, well, during song camp I traded ideas with the members and....”

His slippers traced a path across the dirt toward Gowon.

“I started turning out one song a day, and that pretty much solved it.”

“.......”

Gowon fell silent again, but this time with his mouth hanging open.

Baek Hanje tilted his head into Gowon’s field of vision.

There was no trace on that smiling face of the miserable man who had stood in the studio that day.

He was the same Baek Hanje as ever—shamelessly, almost offensively confident.

“What? Your senior is so amazing you fell for me all over again? Starting to get ideas for some spectacular, dazzling confession yet?”

“...Damn it.”

Gowon’s breathing grew rough with frustration again.

“Aw, now that I know all this snapping is because you like me, it’s cute. This is your chance. Looks like you’ve got the rose-colored glasses on pretty firmly, so confess already.”

“No, seriously... Who even... wants to hear a confession like this?”

“I already know you like me, you lost the bet, and that means you have to confess no matter what. So why exactly wouldn’t I be allowed to hurry you up?”

Amazingly, there was not a single incorrect statement in there.

But still.

But...!

“Does none of this bother you at all?”

“What?”

“That time when you, when we...! We, uh....”

Gowon’s mouth opened and closed, unable to force out the word.

“Oh, the kiss?”

“......! ...Yes. That. You keep telling me to confess, so why did you do that?”

“Hmm. I guess you could call it a verification process....”

What?

Remembering all the sleepless nights he had spent agonizing over it ever since, Gowon could not hide his disbelief.

Baek Hanje tilted his head.

“Oh. Was that your first kiss?”

“Isn’t that obvious?!”

“Come on, think carefully. Strictly speaking, probably not. You never kissed anyone at kindergarten or something when you were little?”

“Anything before you’re old enough to know better doesn’t count!”

“Hey, by that logic I’m innocent too. I still hadn’t learned better as of yesterday.”

Gowon’s vision was beginning to go dark.

The version of him who had been unable to even look Baek Hanje in the face earlier was gone. He lifted his head sharply, breathing hard.

“So when are you confessing? Two first loves stumbling around together all innocent and fresh. Cute.”

“Oh, come on!”

Just as Gowon started trembling with pent-up fury, Baek Hanje slipped back inside the building as if fleeing the scene.

***

Even with the entire company thrown into chaos preparing for Young Ace’s comeback, Gowon’s team could not simply sit around doing nothing.

The success of <DEEP>, followed immediately by his crowning as the Splash Night Elf, made for an impressive streak of hits.

Even so, a rookie singer could not afford to slack off for even a moment if he did not want to be forgotten.

On top of that, seeing a senior artist team from the same division moving at a breathtaking pace on such a massive scale stirred something in the other employees as well.

We have to do something too...!

But until very recently, Gowon had been tearing through event stages like a car with broken brakes.

If the agency pushed him any harder, people might start accusing them of working the poor kid to death.

Fortunately, there was something fans had begun demanding at exactly the right time while also emphasizing that Gowon needed rest.

Isn’t it about time we finally got that?!

The cheat-day mukbang he had drawn as a penalty at the showcase.

“Let’s do this!”

The staff felt a particular mixture of gratitude and pride toward an artist who had kept working so diligently even immediately after suffering through his family troubles.

The period when he had needed to keep himself lean for festival after festival was over too.

Now they wanted to let Gowon eat as much delicious food as he wanted.

“To be honest, lately I’ve been thinking... maybe we worked him too hard.”

“Ah, same here. Gowon’s been zoning out a lot lately too, and, well....”

He had certainly never once taken his temper out on the staff.

But sometimes he would drift off deep in thought, only for his expression to suddenly turn aggrieved before he started huffing in frustration.

Sometimes his face would even flush bright red, as though something had been building up inside him for a long time.

“Gowon really has done so well for us.”

“Honestly, sometimes I wonder whether there’s another celebrity anywhere in the world who’s this easy to manage....”

And everyone desperately hoped he would continue being that way.

The entire staff prayed that Gowon, practically the model student of the idol industry, would never go through a rebellious phase.

Not that he seemed remotely like the type, but there was no predicting where a celebrity bursting with the energy of someone his age might suddenly shoot off to.

Today is the day we shower him with rewards and spoil him rotten!

He was simply very good at controlling himself through sheer willpower.

In truth, Gowon had quite a healthy appetite.