“Oh my goodness, what is this?”
Hearing one commotion after another, Cheonghyeon rubbed his eyes and staggered out of his room. The strong sunlight streaming through the large living room window made him squint.
“What is it? What’s everyone making such a fuss about?”
Thanks to the concert, there wasn’t a single part of his body that didn’t ache. His entire body, from his shoulders down to his calves, was trembling.
He had thought he’d be fine since he’d taken care to manage his condition between performances, but when he woke up, his whole body hurt as though he’d gone tumbling down a flight of stairs.
Seeing Cheonghyeon staggering along, his manager hurried over and looked him up and down.
“Are you okay? Want me to get you some pain relief patches? Actually, if we’re just talking about physical exertion, practice is tougher. But after a concert, all that tension leaves your body, and that’s when you start hurting. Hurry up and go get some more sleep.”
“No, I think I’ll be fine once I get up and do a little stretching. But what’s that?”
A box almost as tall as his manager stood right in the middle of the living room. It hadn’t arrived through regular delivery but by express courier, so they’d accepted it in their confusion and dragged it into the living room.
“It came addressed to you, Cheonghyeon. I was just about to ask you about it…. Mind if hyung opens it first? It could be something dangerous. Since whoever sent it knew the dorm’s address, your phone number, and your name, I don’t think it’s from a fan. Did you order something?”
Cheonghyeon hadn’t ordered anything separately.
He looked at the enormous, mysterious box and nodded to Changsik, indicating that he could open it. His manager brought over a large box cutter and carefully sliced through the tape.
The members and their manager all peered inside with curiosity.
And the moment Cheonghyeon saw what was in the box, he was rendered speechless.
“Pfft.”
“Bwahaha! Hyung, did you want this that badly? Is that why you ordered it? No, if you wanted it so much, you should’ve said something! I would’ve given you my coins too!!”
Cheonghyeon’s face turned so red that it looked as though steam might rise from his head at any moment.
As Cheonghyeon stood there flustered, repeating nothing but things like “No…,” the members laughed so hard they could barely breathe.
Even Changsik was chuckling, and Cheonghyeon had a feeling that no matter what he said, nobody would listen.
“Wow, Cheonghyeon. You really wanted this that badly….”
The contents of the box were none other than the fox plushies Cheonghyeon had so desperately tried to win at the Happiness Concert.
Unlike the fox plushie trapped behind the cold glass wall of the claw machine alongside a bunch of other ugly stuffed animals, the box contained seven beautifully wrapped fox plushies of various sizes.
Cheonghyeon was both dumbfounded and embarrassed.
“No. No, just listen to me.”
The members grinned and nodded as if inviting him to say whatever he wanted.
Cheonghyeon sighed and turned to Changsik.
“Is there a receipt or something? We should at least find out who sent it. I really didn’t order these.”
“Huh? There wasn’t anything like a receipt. Don’t tell me those damn sasaengs sent this again?!”
Only then did Changsik grow serious and hurriedly examine the outside of the box.
At that very moment, a text message notification rang out clearly.
[ Text message · 12:38 PM
Cheonghyeon, did you get them? It looked like you really wanted the plushie, so I sent them to you. Haha. ]
At Seoan’s message, Cheonghyeon squeezed his eyes shut.
It wasn’t just his face anymore. Even the back of his neck felt hot. He didn’t need to look in a mirror to know that he was probably burning bright red.
“Hyung, actually, I ordered them. I’ll take the plushies to my room.”
As Cheonghyeon gathered the plushies wrapped in transparent packaging into his arms, the members kept teasing him, saying they’d known it all along.
Leaving behind the noisy members who clung to him and continued making fun of him, Cheonghyeon finally shut his bedroom door.
He arranged the plushies neatly on his bed and stared at them.
They came in all sorts of sizes, from one so enormous that even spreading his arms wide wouldn’t be enough to wrap them around it, to another the size of a kitten that fit snugly in both hands.
The plushies were lined up prettily on his bed, each holding a flower resembling a sunflower in its arms.
Those flowers reminded him of someone.
Cheonghyeon ran a hand down his flushed face and sighed.
Then he carefully pressed the eleven digits of a phone number he had already memorized and made a call.
“Hey, hyung.”
— Did you sleep well? You seemed to want that plushie so badly yesterday, so I sent them to you. Do you like them?
At the sound of Seoan’s low, laughing voice, Cheonghyeon’s heart began trembling helplessly again.
The yellow flowers the plushies were holding were obviously sunflowers, and their fur wasn’t just any ordinary color. It was an ash tone similar to Seoan’s hair.
Cheonghyeon couldn’t hide his embarrassment. He felt as though his feelings had been exposed.
“Thank you…. But hyung, it’s not that I particularly like that character. No, I don’t mean I dislike the plushies you sent me! It’s just that they were right in front of me, so I tried to win one… Haah….”
— Mm-hmm.
Seoan continued listening with a quiet chuckle, making Cheonghyeon feel his face grow even hotter.
Besides, saying that the plushie had been right in front of him wasn’t exactly true. It had been tucked away in a far corner.
In the end, like a defeated warrior, Cheonghyeon could only manage one last remark.
“So… I’m saying thank you….”
— All right. Make sure you hug one when you go to sleep tonight.
Seoan seemed to have wanted to hear those words too, accepting Cheonghyeon’s response with a laugh.
A hot, soundless sigh escaped Cheonghyeon.
— Do you have a little more free time now?
“Ah, yeah. The concert’s over…. And I don’t think the audition program will start for at least another month.”
— Audition?
“Ah, I was asked to be a special judge. JBS is holding a trot audition program, and I’ll probably be appearing on it.”
— Then you’ll have plenty of free time for a while. Want to go to Sokcho with me this weekend?
“Out of the blue? Is something going on?”
— Do we need a reason to see each other? You’re making hyung sad…. Of course, I’m just suggesting we go have some fun, see the ocean, and eat some delicious food.
Cheonghyeon’s eyes widened at Seoan’s words.
They wouldn’t be meeting as a teaching assistant and the son of the professor in charge, nor as a fan and a celebrity, but as two people who were comfortable enough with each other to meet without needing any particular reason.
Wasn’t this what he had wanted most of all?
Even though Seoan wasn’t standing in front of him, Cheonghyeon shook his head vigorously.
“No, that’s not what I meant…. I just thought something might have happened. It’s not like we’re the kind of people who need a reason to see each other, but still, I thought, um… there might be something I need to bring or prepare, you know?”
Despite Cheonghyeon’s rambling, Seoan laughed and went along with him.
— You don’t need to bring anything. Then I’ll see you this weekend. I’ll come pick you up in front of the dorm.
“Okay. Just send me a text before you come.”
After hanging up with Seoan, Cheonghyeon relaxed again, and the aches throughout his body returned.
He sighed and flopped onto his bed.
He’d thrown himself down hard enough to make the springs bounce with a boing, causing one of the medium-sized plushies to tip forward and tumble into his arms.
The one that had fallen into his embrace was the same size as the plushie he’d fought so desperately to win from the claw machine, with only a pane of glass separating them.
Cheonghyeon lifted the plushie and stared at it for a long while.
“It really is cute, though.”
The little superstition that had begun forming in his mind started growing bigger again.
He hadn’t bought the plushie himself. Seoan had personally given it to him.
Perhaps this plushie was some sort of green light for their relationship?
Come to think of it, ever since the plushies arrived, things between him and Seoan seemed to have gotten even better.
Hadn’t Seoan invited him on a trip to Sokcho less than five minutes after they arrived?
And apparently, the lucky number in this world was seven, and there just happened to be exactly seven plushies!
Cheonghyeon grabbed both his arms as though goosebumps had broken out at how perfectly his little superstition was coming together, then abruptly sat up.
He picked up a red pen and drew a circle on the calendar sitting on his bedside table.
It wasn’t as though he would forget his weekend date even without a red circle marking it, but he still wanted to leave some kind of reminder.
Once he’d drawn the circle, even the bright red mark on the otherwise plain calendar seemed as though it might bring him good luck.
In Cheonghyeon’s excited mind, superstitions of unknown origin began popping up from every direction.
The soft, squishy plushie was just the right size to fit snugly in his arms, and simply holding it made him feel pleasantly sleepy.
And so, with the plushie nestled in his embrace, Cheonghyeon drifted off into another comfortable afternoon nap.
Completely unaware of what was about to happen, Cheonghyeon slept soundly as several shadows approached him.
The plushies were arranged in a neat line on Cheonghyeon’s bed, with one of them occupying the spot in his arms.
The shadowy figures quietly captured the scene with a camera.
The faint click of the shutter wasn’t loud enough to disturb Cheonghyeon’s sweet dreams.
The figures then crept away again, quietly slipping out of his room without waking him.
***
“Ow… I’m so stiff.”
By the time he opened his eyes, it was already evening.
Wouldn’t this mean he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight?
As he got up and stretched his body, his phone, which was usually quiet, kept buzzing.
“Go Yeonhui? Yeonha too? What’s gotten into that guy? He hardly ever contacts me….”
When Cheonghyeon opened his conversation with Yeonha, the chat window was filled with nothing but:
“ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ”
He tilted his head in confusion at the seemingly mocking emojis and incomprehensible messages like, “ㅠㅠ Did you want it that badly??”
Then he opened his conversation with Yeonhui.
Cheonghyeon was rendered speechless.
[ Yeonhui · 4:11 PM
Our adorable little bunny >< = 2 coins
Fox = 30 coins + α ]
How did she even know about the existence of this fox plushie?
What’s more, the photo Yeonhui had sent was a picture of him sleeping in his bed.
Flustered, Cheonghyeon tapped on the next conversation.
It was Ihwa.
[ Ihwa · 5:05 PM
Cheonghyeonㅠㅠㅠㅠ Did you want this plushie that badly?? If you’d told noona, I would’ve sent you one as your next present!!!!!!ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Our Cheonghyeon is so adorableㅎㅎ You’re still such a baby~♪ ]
The picture Ihwa had sent was a screenshot from social media.
With trembling hands, Cheonghyeon enlarged the image.
EAST
E.A.S.T @east_official
(Photo)
[ He must’ve wanted this plushie so badly….ㅠㅠ Cheonghyeon got all of them delivered by express courier today!!
Now that he finally has them, it looks like he’s having sweet dreams… He’s even smiling happily in his sleepㅎㅎ ]
394K Retweets 801K Likes
The photo of him sleeping was being shared at an incredible speed.
To make matters worse, the version of himself in the photo was sleeping with such a blissfully happy smile that it was downright embarrassing.
Aside from the plushie in his arms, the sight of the other plushies standing in a neat formation like a royal guard protecting him as he slept was ridiculous.
Cheonghyeon buried his face deep in his pillow before opening the last conversation he hadn’t read yet.
[ Seoan · 7:03 PM
I told you to sleep with it in your arms, and you really did?? I’m glad you like the plushiesㅎㅎ ]
After reading even Seoan’s message, Cheonghyeon felt like banging his head against his desk instead of burying it in his pillow.
It seemed he’d somehow been struck by a peculiar kind of bad luck that brought nothing but embarrassment.
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