“Cheonghyeon! How can you say you’re just going somewhere for a bit and then stay out overnight? Even so, you should have contacted hyung. I couldn’t reach you, so I kept wondering over and over whether I should report this to the police or not. Did you go sleep over at your friend’s house again? If Yeonha’s manager hadn’t contacted me this morning, I really was going to report it to the police!”
“Hyung…. My head hurts… Don’t shout….”
His body, still faintly hung over, automatically searched for water.
When he opened his eyes, he was at Seoan’s house, and his phone was powered off.
With an anxious heart, he carefully turned it on and saw dozens of missed calls from his manager.
His KakaoTalk chats and messages had piled up so heavily they were hard to even read.
Feeling dizzy, Cheonghyeon squeezed his eyes shut.
Just then, Seoan came in with honey water and asked if something had happened, so Cheonghyeon hurriedly begged him to take him to the dorm.
Holding his spinning head and gulping down honey water in the car, he arrived at the dorm, only for the manager to start nagging him with a face that looked like he was about to cry. His head throbbed.
“If you’re going to ignore hyung like this, go live on your own!”
When Cheonghyeon quietly looked back with an expression that said, ‘Oh, can I?’ the manager coughed a few times, then disappeared into the kitchen.
Seeing that, Cheonghyeon gave a small laugh.
“Yeonha said he handed you over to ‘Mr. Anhyeong’. Do you know how shocked I was because it was a name I’d never heard before? I thought hyung’s heart was going to drop! Why are you so careless when you’re an entertainer? There are sasaeng fans too, and do you know how many scary people there are in the world?”
“Mr. Anhyeong? Who’s that? I slept at Seoan hyung’s house.”
A moment of silence flowed, then Cheonghyeon burst into laughter.
“He’s Seoan hyung, but Yeonha thought his name was Seoan Hyeong? Ah, this is too funny. I have to tell Seoan hyung. Euhahak.”
Seeing Cheonghyeon laugh excitedly, then grab his forehead and groan as if his head was ringing, the manager exploded.
“So who the hell is that Seoan hyung or Anhyeong bastard!!!”
“So that person is Hyeonbaragi?”
“Yeah. You saw his face too, hyung.”
“Cheonghyeon-ah. Contacting a fan privately like this isn’t good. Have you been going over to that person’s house all this time? Leaving aside what the fans might think, this isn’t okay.”
“He’s not a fan. He’s my father’s assistant, so what’s the problem? His boss at work is my dad, and he’s the guardian my dad assigned to me. No matter how little interest he has in his child, if something happens because of this, he’d probably take his child’s side. If he doesn’t, then there’s nothing I can do about that.”
At Cheonghyeon’s words, Changsik was left speechless.
Cheonghyeon sometimes had a tendency to toss out things about himself lightly, as though he were talking about someone else.
Since Changsik could not tell whether this was self-deprecating humor or something he said because he had truly given up, he only hesitated and could not easily scold Cheonghyeon.
“Anyway. You should have told hyung about something like this. Hyung was really worried.”
“I know you were worried. That’s why I came here as soon as I opened my eyes. And now that I think about it, Seoan hyung must have brought drunk me back and taken care of me, but I came out without even thanking him.”
Changsik wanted to say more, but Cheonghyeon waved his hand around as if he did not want to hear any more nagging and staggered into his room.
In the end, Changsik only let out a deep sigh. From the way he darted into his room whenever he was nagged, to the way he drank and became unreachable, it felt as though he were raising an immature son who had just entered college.
| “Hyung, I’m sorryㅠㅠ Did you have a hard time bringing me back?” 1:24 PM “No. Did you get there safely? I wanted to let you rest a little more… Is your head okay?” 1:25 PM “Yeahㅠ But I don’t remember anything.. What was I like when I was drunk?” 1:25 PM “There wasn’t any particular drunken nonsense. Still, from now on, let’s not drink somewhere hyung isn’t aroundㅎㅎ” 1:31 PM |
He remembered the conversation ending well and drinking beer refreshingly, but everything after that was dark, as if the screen had gone black.
The only thing he remembered was a dream he had briefly had in the middle, where he was running through the sky.
Since that could not possibly have been reality, it seemed he had experienced what people called “blacking out” from alcohol.
‘I didn’t make some mistake, did I? Surely I didn’t say something like my soul had changed.’
The part that said, “let’s not drink somewhere hyung isn’t around,” bothered him especially.
It could also be read to mean that he had said or done something he himself could laugh off, but that other people would not understand.
The fact that Seoan had been replying immediately, yet that reply alone had come unusually late, also made it feel as if there had been some reason.
‘Ah, whatever. My head hurts.’
With his head still not fully sober, he could not think any deeper.
It seemed he would have to sleep for a while, then wake up and try thinking again.
And at the time Cheonghyeon fell into another nap, Seoan was quietly lost in thought in his study.
‘Ah, it’s hard to live as Gi Cheonghyeon. Seriously.’
Last night, the moment Seoan carefully laid Cheonghyeon down on the bed and tried to leave, the voice that suddenly slipped out had caught his ankle.
After that, he had stared at the sleeping Cheonghyeon for a while, but no more drunken rambling came out.
While Cheonghyeon slept soundly, Seoan spent the entire dawn in the study, thinking about the meaning of the words Cheonghyeon had said without realizing it.
What could that possibly mean? If “Gi Cheonghyeon” had been a stage name, he would have thought Cheonghyeon found living as an entertainer difficult, but “Gi Cheonghyeon” was his real name.
Even after Cheonghyeon left for the dorm, Cheonghyeon’s words about how it was hard to live as Gi Cheonghyeon did not leave Seoan’s mind.
It was the moment the observation journal he had kept closed until now opened again.
And after the broadcast, East’s fandom began flowing in a strange direction. It was not the ordinary fandom, but the so-called RPS fandom that slowly began to move. RPS was short for Real Person Slash, and it usually referred to the act of pairing celebrities one liked as a couple.
However, among East’s members, Sikyung’s fandom had many fans who loved his unique artistic side more than RPS moments, so the BL fandom there was not large.
And since the old Gi Cheonghyeon had had no presence, there was effectively only one option left for the fans.
Because of that, East had a stronger pseudo-romance fandom than an RPS fandom, and Hando and Yoonwoo’s fandoms clashed especially often.
If you’re an old-timer who used to read internet novels back in the day, you’ll probably know this.-_-^^ = male lead^_^ = male lead’s friend 1>-< = male lead’s friend 2, who has a crush on the female lead but doesn’t end up with herThis is the truth. That’s why Seo Hando is the male lead. ↳ Fr, this is so real. ↳ But isn’t this from like 20 years ago?? The world has changed. The wind cannot beat the sunlight. ↳ I second the comment above 222 lololol. Now Yeonha Puppy is more popular than a guy who always has a sour expression. ↳ Don’t you know the classics are eternal? No matter how many times someone makes her laugh, she ends up going to the guy who originally made her cryㅎ ↳ Fr fr. Why would he cry, anyway…? It’s because he fucking loves her and can’t control his feelings. |
Fans struggled fiercely to prove that their own favorite was the cooler man.
While they had been subtly keeping one another in check over who ranked first in “pseudo-romance,” this trend gradually escalated, and even in the RPS fandom, the culture of making one’s favorite the top became established.
And that was the starting point of this long and tedious fight.
Their eyes lit up as they insisted their own favorite was the absolute top and tried to push him to the left side.
For the past six years, and even this year, the seventh, they had continued this exhausting fight.
And then Cheonghyeon appeared as their savior.
Cheonghyeon was also tall, but from his strangely awkward behavior and the way he naturally received the members’ care, they found in him the qualifications to be on the “right” side.
Also, Cheonghyeon merely lacked a little expressiveness. Fundamentally, he was closer to beautiful than handsome.
To fans who were looking for someone to place on the right side of their favorite, this Cheonghyeon was truly a mouthwatering member.
They had been fighting for years anyway.
In truth, Hando’s fans did not welcome Yoonwoo, and Yoonwoo’s fans did not welcome Hando, as daughter-in-law material.
They had simply been stubbornly creating fanworks that put the other party on the right because they wanted their own favorite on the left.
Most fans would rather do crossovers and pair them with someone from another group.
In Hando’s case especially, since he appeared in dramas and films, it was often more mainstream to pair him with an actor who appeared in the same work.
In East’s RPS fandom, a new fight for dominance was beginning. And once the reality show aired, the ceaseless under-the-surface fight became even fiercer.
| How Do You New @yoooonwoooo Seriously, what are we going to do with this puppy??? How do you know he goes back to sleep if you pet him;;; You’re the one who wakes Cheonghyeon up every day, right? You are, right? You can’t fool auntie’s eyes. Retweets 881 Likes 2,305 |
And Cheonghyeon’s fandom, watching this unfold, also quietly grasped the situation and waited for the right time.
If anyone thought a few episodes of a reality show would be enough to dissolve old grudges, they were greatly mistaken.
| Hyeon Puppy🔒 @hyundog Huh? Hyeonbaragi?ㅎㅎ ↳ Aepsak🔒 @father__ Fuck lolololol, what are you trying to do nowㅜ Ah, I misspoke. |
| Hyeon Puppy🔒 @hyundog Should we really ship him with Hyeonbaragi on our public accounts…???ㅜㅎ Also, those kids are obsessed with left/top-selling, so if we leave Cheonghyeon to them, I feel like the only character interpretation we’ll get is airheaded virgin naive-bottom prince Cheonghyeon lololol. They’re all losing their minds going on about how their own fave is the deranged top. ↳ Yeonsangon🔒 @babyjot Right lolololol. Hando/Yoonwoo and Yoonwoo/Hando are super famous over there. They make Yoonwoo into a puppy-like naive bottom, and what was Hando again… some royal-family beefcake bottom? Either way, both have tons of dirty playㅠ Even before I started stanning East, I remember thinking that fandom really goes hard with the homo shipping. ↳ Aepsak🔒 @father__ If we all rush out at once, it’ll look weird, so let’s have one person start gushing over Hyeonbaragi and then move over naturally. ↳ Hyeon Puppy🔒 @hyundog Okay, I’ll go first. |
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