Chapter 37

A little later, Gowon received the side dishes with a somewhat aggrieved expression.

As though perfectly timed, Gowon’s phone rang.

“Oh, I got a mission too.”

[Mission] Help your colleague under the same sky once

Time Limit: 2 hours

Help him?

There were not actually many ways a junior artist could help a senior artist.

After thinking it over, Gowon spoke with a determined expression.

“I’ll grill the meat.”

He did not know whether this would count as helping, but he took the tongs and scissors first.

Then he grilled the meat with skill so obviously poor that anyone could see it.

“Um, junior. Should I do it?”

“No. ...My mission is to help you.”

A senior’s warm smile turned toward his hardworking junior.

“Junior, was your mission perhaps to starve me?”

“.......”

“No, the production staff couldn’t possibly have planned something that terrifying, so... are you restricting my fat intake for a quick comeback? Or are you trying to make me fail my mission?”

“.......”

“Either way, you’re quite a frightening person, junior.”

Baek Hanje held out a hand toward Gowon, demanding that he hand them over. With the scissors and tongs he had seized from Gowon, he skillfully cut the meat.

“...You can’t cook, so why are you so good at grilling meat?”

“Well... we had company dinners pretty often, and I was always the youngest wherever I went.”

“.......”

“Eat. Quietly accepting the food and eating well is how you help me.”

The moment he said that, a mission-success notification appeared on Gowon’s phone. Yet the person who had somehow stumbled into completing his mission only looked more sullen.

Watching him, Baek Hanje removed the meat from the grill and placed it on his junior’s plate.

“What’s the penalty if you fail your mission?”

“Retirement.”

“What?”

“Someone’s retirement depends on me taking good care of you.”

“No, that’s a lie... You’re teasing me again, aren’t you?”

“Ha ha. Who knows? I wonder. Eat plenty.”

With an embarrassed expression, Gowon picked up the meat that had been pushed toward him and ate it. Even so, he diligently put everything his senior gave him straight into his mouth.

“But why haven’t you received a success notification? Didn’t you say the meal was your mission?”

“Hmm, it must be feeding you until you’re satisfied. Apparently, this isn’t enough food for the mission to consider it a success.”

“...I’m eating well.”

“Put your hand over your conscience. Do you honestly think this much will fill you up?”

“.......”

“Excuse me, two more servings of everything we just had, please.”

Lonely Hanzel Chat

Maybe it’s because they’re both in their prime, but they seriously eat so well lol

Even with that aggrieved face, he never stops moving his chopsticks. So freaking cute

Senior: relaxed when teasing, fast when eating

Junior: fast during missions, fucking fast when eating

“Wow, we finished all that in under fifty minutes.”

In the end, the meal only concluded after Gowon appealed directly to the camera, saying, “I’m genuinely full.”

As though it were only natural, Baek Hanje paid with his own card. Then he showed Gowon the mission-success screen.

[Mission] Have a conversation with your colleague under the same sky!

Time Limit: 2 hours

Success!

The mission-success message had arrived more than an hour earlier.

In other words, the mission had been cleared from the moment he met Gowon in the practice room.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I don’t have to retire, so I’ll work hard and live a good life, junior.”

Lonely Hanzel Chat

Ah, Gowon is literally trembling with rage lololol sob

He looks like that meme of a baby who doesn’t know any swear words lololol

Q. Why is he acting like this?

Gowon: I... I genuinely have no idea....Q. Why are you acting like this?

Hanzel: Acting like what?Q. Do you perhaps know the reason?

A new face appeared on the screen next. It was Kwon Taeyoung in the director’s office.

???: Please blur my face and alter my voice.Lonely Hanzel Chat

Fuck, my man being funniest when he’s dead serious means he’s still got it

Idol-turned-director concealing his identity: Hmm, Hanzel spent twelve years as the youngest member. He was the youngest during his trainee days too. It looks like he’s excited because he finally has a younger brother.Idol-turned-director concealing his identity: Also, Gowon tends to practice excessively and push himself too hard unless someone beside him stops him. Hanje reins him in every so often. It may look like he’s tormenting him, but in the end, he treats him well. Please enjoy watching them with that in mind.But Hanje First @howeverHeIs

Sob,,, so cute... Wait, Hanzel was pretending to be all grown-up while practically bouncing off the walls because he finally got a younger brother????

But Hanje First @howeverHeIs

Guys, do you know what’s so fucking irresistible about Hanje?? With that face, that personality, and that job, his body is completely clean without a single tattoo

⤷ (02.01–02.03) @nothingtodo123

The moment he gets a tattoo, he’ll probably have five consecutive meetings scheduled with his older members...

babamboom @qkqka

(Quote) I feel reassured because it looks like he’ll pass all that love straight down to Gowon too,, Gowon, apparently if you get carried away and get a tattoo, you’re in for a six-hour meeting

Hobby Fan Account @dkdleldjrk

But this is a little... Rather than acting like a mature senior, it seems like there’s some bullying mixed in too? It makes me a little uncomfortable to watch... #BaekHanjeGowonAbuseOfPower

Civilian One Fan A @asdfgjkll

Anyone using that hashtag and calling this bullying is not a Gowon fan! His real fans who’ve followed him since <Debut Chart> are grateful to Hanzel for bringing out the entertainment skills of our quiet boy sob

SHOOTSHOO @SHOOTSHOO

Calling it workplace abuse is going too far, but isn’t it true that Gowon looks a little uncomfortable? sob

“Ah, I’m finally done.”

After meeting his junior, Baek Hanje finished working, exercised, and arrived home.

He turned on the lights in the dark apartment and headed [N O V E L I G H T] toward the kitchen with familiar steps. At that moment, the viewers narrowed their eyes and tilted their heads.

Why did Baek Hanje’s kitchen look strangely... familiar?

When he reached the refrigerator, he gave a faint laugh and removed the sticky note attached to it.

“Ah, so this is why he said he was stopping by the convenience store on the way back.”

At that moment, the screen showed the entire kitchen.

In the center stood the exact table where Gowon had eaten breakfast that morning.

On the island counter opposite it sat the coffee machine Baek Hanje had used.

Because Baek Hanje had filmed with only the left half of the room behind him and Gowon had filmed with only the right half, no one had noticed at all.

The viewers realized it then.

Every place the two of them had moved through inside the apartment that morning—the kitchen, the living room, and the entryway—had been the same. The camera had merely framed them cleverly enough to make them appear different.

Lonely Hanzel Chat

Holy shit, Hanje’s shoes were beside him when Gowon left;;

???????????

What is this?

I’m losing my mind I’m losing my mind I’m losing my mind

Then came the sound of the front door opening.

Gowon appeared.

He was holding a one-liter carton of milk in one hand.

“I’m home.”

Gowon appeared in the exact same composition where Baek Hanje had entered earlier, and the two stood facing each other.

At last, they met once more inside the same space.

“Welcome home, junior.” 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

“...Are you going to call me that at home too?”

“You chose ‘junior’ between ‘baby’ and ‘junior.’”

“Ah...!”

Gowon looked at Baek Hanje with the expression of a younger brother who had been repeatedly tormented by his mischievous older brother.

Worse, that expression was being filmed by the camera in Baek Hanje’s hand.

As though it had been waiting for precisely that moment, an interview clip appeared.

Q. Is he your new landlord?

Gowon: No, absolutely not. There was a problem with the accommodations I normally used, and Hanzel offered to let me stay here because he had a spare room.Q. So are you living together?

Gowon: No. ...Or are we? Yes. Temporarily.Hanzel: For the time being.At the same moment, a new title appeared on the screen.

<(Special Broadcast) Twenty-Four Hours Under the Same Sky>

They were together not only at home, but at the company as well!

The program replayed the morning scenes inside the apartment.

As Baek Hanje walked down the hallway while filming his own vlog, Gowon watched him from the kitchen and murmured, “So that’s how you do it.”

After watching Baek Hanje pull an espresso shot from the coffee machine and step onto the terrace, he discreetly arranged the food on his table more neatly.

Several minutes later, Baek Hanje returned from the terrace and was on his way to wash up when he made eye contact with Gowon. He immediately turned around and returned to the camera.

“Please enjoy the program I filmed with my baby junior. Now I’m really saying goodbye.”

At those words, Gowon sprang into the air.

The instant Baek Hanje disappeared, Gowon hurriedly continued speaking to his own camera as though making an excuse.

“He... only says that to tease me. He doesn’t genuinely think of me that way.”

“Oh dear, the baby doesn’t understand my sincere feelings.”

Baek Hanje, who had heard that too, called back from a distance.