After crying for a long time until he was exhausted, Dansol didn't return to Chunmonggak until after the sun had set. The place felt strangely unsettled. Outside the gate, managers' cars waiting for their celebrities and staff vehicles were tangled together in a chaotic cluster.
Normally, the managers either waited outside Chunmongdo or, even if they were on the island, stayed at the staff lodging far from Chunmonggak. Startled by the unfamiliar scene, Lee Yiyeon and Dansol were approached by the youngest assistant director.
"Um… the production team had a meeting, and… it seems like continuing filming is going to be difficult. So the opinion came up that we should take about a week off to rest. The other sunbaenims all agreed, but…"
Hesitating, they held something out. It was the personal phone that PD Choi had collected when the broadcast began.
"If we don't agree, is there even a way to refuse?"
Lee Yiyeon snapped, sounding incredulous at the sight. They were asking, but in the end it was a notice. And the fact they were relaying this through a junior staff member was rude in itself.
Dansol was used to it, so he felt nothing. Lee Yiyeon was different.
"Where's PD Choi? Tell them I want to talk."
"Um… that is…"
"I won't get angry, so call them."
"That's not it… PD Choi just went up to Seoul."
"What? You leave people stranded on an island, delay all their schedules, and now what? Is this because you fought with Han Jisu earlier? Was PD Choi always someone with that little professionalism?"
"Ah… no! It's not that… Something happened at the station… the director's raising hell telling him to come up… I'm really sorry."
"Ha. So with no main PD, you're just going to call it quits."
They waved their hands at the furious Lee Yiyeon .
"PD Choi said if you give him just a week, he'll fix everything. Until then, please think of it as a vacation…"
"So arbitrary. Seriously."
Lee Yiyeon irritably raked a hand through his hair. Dansol looked around. Among the waiting vehicles, there was no old van that would have his manager inside.
Maybe that was only natural.
Unlike the other managers who always stayed on standby for emergencies, Gilseong—who handled both Dinosoul and a three-member girl group at the same time—couldn't remain on the island.
Even if you added up all eleven schedules, they still wouldn't be as busy as the single person on this island, but it wasn't easy to keep driving the company's only van back and forth. And since Gilseong had a terrible sense of direction, no one knew what time he'd arrive.
"…I need to contact my manager hyung, but he might not be able to come right away. Can I wait at the lodging and leave tomorrow morning?"
"Ah! Yes, of course… Um… Dansol-ssi. PD Choi said he was sorry about what happened earlier."
"An apology should come from the person themselves. Get in—I'll take you."
It was Daesu, apparently already aware of what was going on as he stepped out of the lodging. But Dansol refused firmly.
"I don't want to invite pointless misunderstandings. I'll just wait a bit, so sunbaenim should go in first."
Dansol's steps back inside looked exhausted. Daesu stared at his retreating figure for a long time, then got in his van and left the island.
Jisu, burning with fever, left the island first, and Dohyeon followed after him.
After Daesu, Minhyuk, Taeoh, and Lee Yiyeon took turns asking Dansol to go with them, but Dansol turned them all down and lay in bed without moving.
How much time passed? The noisy Chunmonggak fell into a silence like a dead mouse. Aside from the frogs croaking through the open window, there was no sound at all.
"So this is how it ends…"
He didn't know what had happened, but in his life before the regression, PD Choi had never fled the island and run to Seoul like this. So much had gone off track compared to the previous life where Dansol had been bullied.
Maybe the program ending like this was the scenario Dansol had wanted most. But when he thought about how it might not come back even after a week, tears pushed up for no reason.
"It's weird… The people who ignored me, bullied me, and… made me die—what was so good about them? Why do I feel sad?"
Overwhelmed by loneliness, he curled into himself. When he closed his eyes, everything that had happened on the island scattered like a panorama. After a long while, he drifted off—and then he heard a familiar voice from the yard. It was Gilseong.
"Dansol! Joo Dansol! Ah, fuck… I'm scared… Where did he go…?"
Dansol dragged his tired body up, picked up the suitcase he'd already packed, and went out to the yard. Gilseong, crossing the yard while shining his phone flashlight, greeted him. His huge frame made the fear on his face look ridiculous.
"Hyung, why did you come so early? You said you could come tomorrow…"
Dansol had thought Gilseong would only arrive around tomorrow morning. Thinking he'd be able to stay here until morning, Dansol felt strangely reluctant.
But without noticing Dansol's feelings, Gilseong spoke excitedly.
"Sol, we hired one more manager. After your first broadcast went out, the kids' schedules have been increasing too, and the CEO even rented a car to bring you back!"
When they opened the gate and stepped out, the foreign car the CEO always bragged about was really parked there. The CEO had bought a used car with over 100,000 kilometers on it and polished it every morning. What wind had blown for him to lend it out like this?
Dansol, who had even hidden to avoid being seen on the broadcast as much as possible, was confused.
"What kind of reaction could possibly be good?"
"What do you mean, after you played that big a role! You fox of a bastard! Get in—we're going home to party! The guys are all waiting for you!"
Dragged into the car by Gilseong, Dansol still couldn't make sense of it.
"What do you mean 'played a big role,' seriously…"
"You did an a cappella live and even danced, and you're acting like you don't know? It hit the real-time trending videos and I almost fainted too. Thanks to you, we made it into the Top 100, man. Want to see? We're 89th today!"
"…This… what…?"
Gilseong scrolled through the music chart and showed Dinosoul's "Follow me" sitting at 89.
"If you hit 'more,' 'Change Love' is at 120 too. Isn't it insane?"
"My dancing made it into the broadcast?"
While clueless Gilseong kept buzzing with excitement, Dansol grabbed at his hair.
"Yeah! That's what I'm saying! See, even if you work hard where no one sees, people recognize it! When you showed up, I thought it was an ion drink commercial!"
"Ha… seriously…"
"Man… I guess you're moved. It really worked out, huh? I told you—you're the kind who'll make it. I didn't want to turn down all the schedules piling in. And then they give us a vacation at just the right time."
"What? What are you talking about, hyung! Why are schedules piling in? We only have two schedules!"
"What do you mean! A photoshoot, commercials, even a drama. People are looking for you like crazy lately. They're trying to grab you before you blow up. Look, look."
Gilseong wasn't lying. His phone screen was filled with incoming contacts—magazine reporters, drama PDs, variety PDs, and more.
Dansol's mind went white. He'd assumed he'd end with no presence at all.
"I'm screwed…"
"Ah… my head."
Jisu only came to his senses after midnight, on the bed in his penthouse. Apparently a doctor had already visited—an IV was stuck into the back of his stiff hand.
"You're awake?"
"Ah… why am I here…"
"You almost died with how high your fever was. It was over 40 degrees. What the hell did they make you do there? I almost went and grabbed PD Choi by the collar."
"What about Dansol?"
"What? What kind of alcohol?"
"Ha… fuck. The broadcast. The shoot—what about that? Why the hell am I here!"
Jisu yanked the IV line out of his arm and used a few tissues from the bedside table to press down and stop the bleeding as he got up.
"Anyone watching would think you really care about the show…"
"Stop talking nonsense and explain what's going on."
"Ah! There's nothing to explain. You know that idol from last season? Charles or whatever—he sued PD Choi and the station, then pulled some suicide stunt. Total chaos."
"What? Then what happens?"
"PD Choi says he'll sort it out in a week, but what the hell am I supposed to do… If things go wrong, the whole show's about to get scrapped, so you should manage your stamina too. You've got a new project coming in."
After kicking his manager out—who'd been nagging him about why he was even hanging on to a doomed program—Jisu rummaged for his phone on the bedside table.
Come to think of it, he didn't even know Dansol's phone number.
With the image of Dansol's hurt eyes lingering, Jisu paced back and forth before lifting his phone and calling Daesu.
—Yeah.
"It's me."
—I know.
At Daesu's openly cold voice, Jisu pressed hard at the area around his fever-hot eyes.
"Just tell me one thing."
—What?
"Give me Dansol's number."
—I'm hanging up.
"Hey, wait! Wait—are you seriously doing this? I'm sick as it is!"
—I don't know it. And even if I did, I wouldn't give it to you.
"Hey! I'm trying to apologize—"
—Click.
Before Jisu could finish, the call ended. Had there ever been a moment he resented that narrow-minded, selective personality so much?
Ding.
As he sat clutching his spinning head, he heard the sound of a message arriving.
Crying Daesu
He doesn't have a manager, so he's staying on the island until morning. If you're going to apologize, do it in person.
The moment he saw it, Jisu grabbed his coat without hesitation. Maybe the medicine had worked, or maybe it was an alpha's recovery—either way, his sweat-cooled body felt oddly refreshed.
A chance to see Dansol with no cameras and no obstacles.
All the way to Chunmongdo, Jisu's heart pounded. He couldn't tell whether it was fear or excitement, but thinking Dansol was at the end of that road made him speed up without realizing it.
If Dansol slapped him, he'd take it. If Dansol told him to kneel, he'd kneel.
If Dansol cursed him for pretending to be an omega, spat on him—he was ready to take even that.
But when Jisu arrived, Chunmonggak was an empty house with no one inside.
In the room the two of them had shared, in the living room—there wasn't a trace of Dansol anywhere. As if he'd never existed in the first place, he'd packed up and left neatly.
Jisu sat on the empty sofa and dragged a dry hand down his face.
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