Episode 67

 

That night, Haeun tossed and turned in bed, his thoughts consumed by Junwoo. 

What exactly was going through his head? Was it some fierce loyalty to the group that made him resent Park Ha, the newcomer who disrupted the old balance? Or had he somehow noticed—truly noticed—that this wasn’t the same person as before?

That was as far as Haeun could speculate. But no matter how much he turned it over in his mind, he came up with nothing. The answer, clearly, was buried somewhere Junwoo wasn’t offering to unearth. 

And after hours of stewing over it, Haeun came to a bitter realization: some people just weren’t worth the effort of understanding.

So he gave up trying to understand Junwoo altogether.

Since Haeun didn’t try to speak to him, Junwoo—unsurprisingly—didn’t make the first move either. Their relationship had never been especially talkative to begin with, so this wasn’t much of a change on the surface. 

Of course, it wasn’t ideal to let Junwoo’s favorability rating drop too low, but it wasn’t an urgent crisis either. Apart from the tension, there wasn’t a huge practical impact.

The bigger problem was that the chill between them seemed to seep into the entire dorm.

The weekend dragged by like walking on thin ice. It was almost laughable, considering the system insisted weekends were meant for rest and didn’t allow anyone to schedule outside commitments. Not that you could call this “rest”—the air was too heavy to breathe properly.

Seongjae, for one, had stormed out of their shared room on the same night he’d fought with Junwoo. He hadn’t been subtle about it either—he’d practically shouted that there was no way he could sleep in the same room with “that guy.”

Haeun couldn’t shake the feeling that the fight between Junwoo and Seongjae might have somehow been his fault. He didn’t feel full-blown guilt, but he did carry a faint sense of responsibility. 

That was why, if Seongjae had asked, Haeun would’ve been willing to let him crash in his room. But Seongjae chose to bunk with Ilhyun instead—likely because Ilhyun’s room, being the leader’s and shared with no one else, was a bit more spacious and comfortable.

Ilhyun, with his typically broad-minded nature, didn’t kick Seongjae out, even though there was only one bed in the room. 

Haeun had half-expected him to stress over mediating the fight, but instead, Ilhyun remained quietly observant, not stepping in unnecessarily. Honestly, trying to play peacemaker would’ve just worn Ilhyun down, and this hands-off approach was probably the wisest move.

Still, it was a little annoying that Junwoo now got a roomy double room all to himself, thanks to Seongjae’s dramatic exit. 

In Haeun’s eyes, Seongjae had only managed to shoot himself in the foot. And knowing Seongjae’s sky-high pride, there was no chance he’d back down first—not even while squeezing uncomfortably into Ilhyun’s room. 

He’d probably rather kick Junwoo out before swallowing his own pride. Honestly, it was a bit ridiculous.

But in the end, it wasn’t Haeun’s problem. So he tried to stay out of it for the sake of his own sanity. 

Still, it was hard to ignore completely when they were all stuck under the same roof. The tension didn’t help, especially with the filming for TheNextSuperStar just around the corner. 

The team’s atmosphere was shaky at best, and that was worrying in itself—but before they even got to that, there was another commitment Haeun had to deal with: the upcoming variety show appearance scheduled with Gyowon.

Even Park Ha hadn’t had much experience with big-name variety shows, but Haeun—until recently not even a celebrity—was in entirely new territory. His only real experience had been on God of Live, where all he had to do was sit as a panelist and react appropriately. This was a completely different playing field.

Thinking back on God of Live, he remembered how reassuring Junwoo’s presence had been beside him. That memory brought with it images of Yejoon and Gyowon’s faces from that day, and with them came a creeping, unwelcome sense of unease. Haeun pushed the thoughts aside and tried not to dwell on them, deciding that it would only weigh him down.

Anyway, it was clear that a bit of prep was necessary for the upcoming variety show. But Ilhyun—who had initially offered Haeun to help with the rehearsal—was now too busy trying not to be crushed between Junwoo and Seongjae’s ongoing feud. Even though Ilhyun tried his best to stay out of it, neither of them would leave him alone.

The two had stopped talking to each other directly and were now communicating through their group chat instead, using Ilhyun as a reluctant go-between.

[Seongjae]
Tell Yoon Junwoo if he touches anything in my room, he’s dead.

[Ilhyun]
^^… Seongjae says that, apparently.

[Junwoo]
If he’s that bothered, maybe he should grow up and say it to my face instead of acting like a grade-schooler.

[Ilhyun]
That’s what he said… ^^

This was pretty much how things went.

Ilhyun’s resigned little emoticons made Haeun’s chest twinge a bit. If it were him, he would’ve refused to get involved in something so ridiculous, told them both to sort it out on their own, and probably cursed them out in the process. But kind-hearted Ilhyun actually played along with it all.

Once again, being too nice only led to being taken advantage of. Haeun wasn’t nearly kind enough to step in and rescue Ilhyun—so he simply ignored it. He pretended not to exist in that room, pretended he saw nothing, and tried to quietly distance himself from all the mess.

Unfortunately, the system didn’t let him off that easily. It demanded that he at least look like he was trying to mediate the conflict. The command came too late to be helpful—it wasn’t like he could jump in after the fact and magically fix things. 

Still, under obligation, Haeun started sending little meaningless responses: most often, a new cat emoji he’d bought, the one nervously fidgeting and shifting from foot to foot. 

It was the emoji equivalent of “oh nooo, please don’t fight,” and it let him technically fulfill the system’s requirement without doing anything of real consequence.

Meanwhile, the shoot crept ever closer—just a day away now—and Haeun had no choice but to teach himself how to prepare. He turned on YouTube and started hunting for clips of the variety show he’d be appearing on with Gyowon.

The show’s format seemed fairly straightforward: guests usually came on to promote a new movie, drama, or album, and the content mostly consisted of light-hearted talk segments and games. 

It wasn’t too intimidating, except for the fact that everyone seemed to show up with at least one good story to tell. That part felt like pressure.

What funny story could he even share? If he thought about Park Haeun’s whole life, there were plenty of bizarre tales to choose from. Just the fact that he’d once been hospitalized after a bike accident, gotten bored enough to play a BL romance simulation game, and then gotten sucked into the game world—well, that alone was enough to fill a thousand talk segments.

But what about Park Ha? Haeun didn’t even really know what kind of life Park Ha had lived, so there was no way he could think of a story worth telling for a talk segment. 

Deep in thought, he clicked on the next video.

Maybe bizarre challenges were a trademark of this particular variety show—there was even a playlist dedicated to clips of guests completing ridiculous dares. 

One video showed a member of an idol group who had come on the show to promote a new album, attempting to blow out ten candles at once using only his nose. Watching it, Haeun fell into deep contemplation once again.

‘An actor probably can’t get away with doing something like this…’

With that thought, he decided to reach out to Gyowon. Even though Gyowon wasn’t a regular on variety shows either, he would at least have a sense of what kind of story would be appropriate to bring up.

When Haeun opened his phone, he saw that the group chat was once again filled with a ridiculous back-and-forth between Junwoo and Seongjae.

[Seongjae]
Tell Yoon Junwoo not to show his face in the living room when I come out.

[Ilhyun]
Hyung’s asleep… ^^

[Seongjae]
Tell him it’s only 9 p.m., how could he be asleep already?

[Ilhyun]
Am I supposed to deliver messages to myself now? ^^…

It was less of a back-and-forth and more of a one-man show by Seongjae at this point. As usual, Haeun sent the anxious, foot-shuffling cat emoji with a tap and then opened his chat with Gyowon.

Interestingly enough, Haeun’s chat with Gyowon hadn’t gone completely silent. Kim Gyowon’s replies came at an infamously slow pace, but they did come—at least once every 12 hours. The delays had been frustrating at first, but by now Haeun had developed a kind of resigned confidence that a reply would arrive eventually.

Still, “eventually” wasn’t going to cut it this time. The shoot was tomorrow, and if Gyowon had any advice to offer, it needed to come now.

[Haeun]

I’ll do the candle-blowing thing with my nose.

After a brief moment of consideration, Haeun sent the message just as it popped into his head. If he didn’t get an immediate reply, he could always ask Ilhyun—assuming he was still “asleep”—or just keep combing through YouTube for ideas.

He stared for a moment at the little “1” sitting next to his message, signaling it was still unread, then turned his attention back to YouTube.

But instead of a text reply, a call came in.

Startled to see Kim Gyowon on the caller ID, Haeun fumbled slightly before answering. Cautiously, he spoke.

“Hello? Sunbae?”

—“Yeah.”

“…Why’d you call all of a sudden?”

He had placed the call himself and all he said was “yeah”? Not bothering to dig into it further, Haeun jumped straight to the point. As usual, Gyowon didn’t seem to mind Haeun’s mildly rude tone and answered in his usual way.

—“You, on the other hand… what’s this about blowing out candles with your nose?”

His voice carried a chuckle, as if the idea amused him. So that’s what got him to call, huh? A nose-blowing gag? Meanwhile, he left other messages unanswered for 12 hours at a time.

It was a little absurd, but Haeun responded politely anyway.

“I was watching YouTube. I guess this show has a bit where guests try to blow out candles with their nose? But… I figured that might be a little undignified for a melodrama actor.”

—“Ah.”

Gyowon laughed again. He was always someone who laughed easily, but today his laughter seemed to linger a little longer than usual.

“I was just…”

—“Being considerate, huh?”

Haeun had been about to say, “I’m making a sacrifice here,” with a slight tone of self-praise, but their voices overlapped. “Considerate” sounded nicer than “sacrifice” anyway, so he didn’t deny it and simply went along with it.

Gyowon let out a soft “Hmm,” like a brief murmur of interest, before asking:

—“Your voice sounds kinda off. Did something happen?”