Chapter 265

Chapter 265

As expected, the encore segment itself went by without any problems.

“See ya!”

Eugene raced across the stage, seeking out the cameras and the audience, as if he’d never been upset in the first place. He maintained this outwardly good mood until the moment he returned backstage.

Good. I tried to calm myself, the emotion of the concert still lingering. I would go down there and talk with Eugene before taking what I learned to the agency and the staff. While I could understand they needed to produce interesting content, they were taking it too far. Before I could do anything of the sort, however, the cameramen emerged from backstage to film us as we descended from the stage.

The bastards don’t know when to quit, do they? I got the feeling that if we got angry at them, they would secretly be pleased that we were showing more of our true selves. Eugene glanced at the production team, but said nothing as he drank some water.

He seems to have cooled down a bit. The performance had probably helped with that. I wiped my neck with a towel and mentally went over the situation. That was when it happened.

The production team quickly approached me, a camera crowding in close to me.

“Eugene has recovered very quickly… Tell me, was there anything in the accident prior—”

“Enough,” Eugene said.

“…!”

He suddenly intervened and pushed the camera away with his hand. It was completely unexpected.

“Whoa!”

“I told you, didn’t I? Why won’t you listen?” he said.

“Wait.”

What’s the matter with him? This will make it seem like we were the ones to cross the line first. The members, who’d all still been trying to catch their breath, were shocked by Eugene’s sudden actions and rushed over.

Eugene stubbornly kept his hand on the camera he was pushing down, however, for a good while, staring at the production team.

“Eugene, let go of the camera.”

“What the heck are you doing?”

“Wait. Wait a second. Mr. Director, we’re sorry, but may we have a moment to ourselves? Please. Thank you.” Big Sejin pulled the brakes on the situation with some difficulty, sending the production team away politely. Then he headed for our dressing room.

“Let’s sit,” he said.

Eugene said nothing as he took his seat on the sofa.

Chungwoo began, “Eugene, I understand you might find having them here constantly uncomfortable… but you can’t resort to using force like that. We need to use our words.”

“They didn’t listen,” Eugene said.

“One second, Chungwoo. Eugene, listen,” Big Sejin said. “You cried during Idol Incorporated, but you didn’t complain when they filmed it. You didn’t say a word when our dorm was full of cameras early on after we debuted, when we were filming for the reality show. Isn’t that right?”

Perhaps because of the urgency and seriousness of the situation, Lee Sejin didn’t sound as soothing as he usually managed.

“Do you think people are going to care if you were in the right or wrong if you act like this? They’ll just think success changed you.”

“That’s different.”

“It could be, yes. But there’s no point if the viewers can’t see that for themselves.”

Eugene remained stubbornly silent.

“Eugene, not everything can be easy and right when it comes to work. If that were possible, we’d all be gods. You need to apologize for touching the camera, and—”

Someone interrupted the conversation before he could finish. “No… They’re the ones in the wrong. They were rude.”

“…!”

It was Bae Sejin.

“That’s the truth of the matter. It’s also weird to say that we should put up with their behavior now because that’s what we did at debut.”

“S-Sejin,” Ahyeon said nervously, but Bae Sejin didn’t back down.

There was a brief flash of annoyance on Big Sejin’s face. “Listen, this is no time for… I’m not saying those people deserve an apology, am I?”

“I know. You just don’t want this to get out of hand. But is that really necessary?”

“Damn it… I mean…” Big Sejin sighed.

“Enough,” I said, raising my hand and massaging my temple. “We don’t have to discuss this at length between ourselves. We can simply talk with the production team and have that footage removed.”

This was a situation that we had differing opinions about, but there was no need to see this conversation to its end. We just needed to be careful for now. I concluded the matter with a single sentence.

“This sort of thing happens sometime in the workplace.”

Both of them kept their mouths shut. They’d been trying so hard not to be at odds, but it was clear they still weren’t compatible.

Well, that was a near disaster. I withheld a sigh. I turned to Eugene, who still had his head down.

“You should take some time to cool off.”

He gave no response.

After confirming that Raebin had hesitated but remained in the room, I placed some water in front of the three of them before leaving. I was going to have a chat talk with the production team, accompanied by Chungwoo. Another camera made a beeline for us.

Cut it the f*ck out. I chimed in only when needed as Chungwoo politely asked after the cameraman whose camera Eugene had pushed down earlier, then got to the point.

“I think the members need some rest for today. Why don’t we discuss this again tomorrow?” I said.

“Right. I’m sorry, but can we have a short interview right now? You’ll be resting tomorrow, right? We’ll keep it really short.”

“Hold on…”

They refuse to listen. Is this why Eugene was so pissed? They weren’t shoving unmanned cameras in our faces, and from the perspective of our one member who used to live in America with its countless paparazzi, I assumed their presence might be unpleasant for him.

And the production team doesn’t want to miss a chance like this. Conversations carried out when people were tired or emotionally shaken often led to more honesty. Based on the way they saw us gently guide Eugene away, they probably knew that we weren’t the sort to throw an angry fit.

Thankfully, the agency staff rushed in, speaking to the production team and sending them away. “I’m sorry, this won’t do! I hope you understand.”

They turned to us anxiously.

“Was there a… quarrel between Eugene and the documentary production team?”

“I think there is a problem, yes,” Chungwoo said, glancing back at the room. Our eyes met, and he sighed briefly.

“Let’s just leave him be for today. Let him cool down,” I said.

“Yes. That sounds like the right thing to do.”

We had nothing to do tomorrow, anyway. We were tired after the concert and would all likely stay in our hotel rooms, only really doing a few interviews for the documentary. The staff looked tense, but they nodded and decided to wait until Eugene left the room.

“I don’t think you should try to talk to him right now,” I said.

“Yes, all right. We’ll be careful.”

Our group handled problems on our own if possible, or glossed them over without comment. As a result, the staff seemed to find the current situation very alarming. They still carried out their job properly, however.

“Please go and get some rest. We’ll wait for the last two members to come out.”

Right. We would be seeing each other tomorrow morning, anyway, so I decided to just leave. The members had differing opinions at the moment—keeping them together would just cause another pointless quarrel and do us no good.

It should be fine since Raebin is with him. Eugene would probably find confiding in someone his own age more comfortable than someone older.

“Let’s go back to the hotel,” I said.

“Yeah…”

The members seemed uncertain but soon agreed to go to the van.

“Sh-should I text him, at least? In English, I mean,” Ahyeon said.

“Uh, I think it might be better for us to talk in person over breakfast tomorrow.”

“R-right…”

Trying to say something to console him was nice and all, but Eugene needed some time to think. I returned to my hotel room, thoroughly exhausted. After I showered, I went straight to bed.

“Phew…”

I’d have to work on improving Eugene’s mood tomorrow morning. I would also ask him in detail what happened between him and the production team.

The next morning, however, Eugene did not appear when all the others came down at the usual time for breakfast.

“It’s past nine-thirty, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

I said, “Raebin.”

“Yes!”

“How was Eugene yesterday?”

“He was quiet and looked put out, but he didn’t express any further anger!”

“Is that right?”

“Yes. I think he might be sleeping in, or staging some kind of protest!”

I see. I adjusted my cap.

“I’ll go and bring him. You come with me,” I said to Raebin.

“Me…? Oh, all right, then!”

I left as the other members waved, odd looks on their faces. With Raebin in tow, I headed to Eugene’s room and rang the doorbell right away. There was no response.

“Eugene? Open the door.”

Still nothing. Even though we had reserved this entire corridor, I couldn’t raise my voice any further. He had surely heard me at this point.

Is this really his way of protesting? He was taking it too far at this point. I sighed, took out my phone, and called Eugene. That didn’t work either.

“This number is not accepting calls at this time…”

I have a bad feeling about this.

“Moondae?” Raebin asked.

I tried one more time. Then I was forced to come to terms with the situation.

“Raebin.”

“Yes?”

“Call the manager.” I stared at the door. “Eugene doesn’t seem to be in the room.”

“…!”

Moments later, when we got the door open with the help of a hotel employee, we found his room empty.

“You’re right.”

Damn it. I hadn’t seen this coming.

Was that a mistake? Should I have sat down with him with a drink and soothed him right away, instead of leaving him overnight to cool down?

Even so, why would he leave his hotel room? I nearly bit through my tongue.

I asked the manager, “Did he text you or anything during the night?”

“No! Eugene never contacted me.”

The agency staff were in a panic. This was unsurprising, since none of us had ever done anything like this before. He hadn’t vanished without a trace, at least.

[I’m leaving]

He left us a memo, written in blocky Korean letters.

“E-Eugene seems really upset…” Raebin said.

“Even so, it’s strange that he would just disappear— Wait a second, this isn’t a kidnapping, is it?”

“I think the room would have looked worse for wear if that was the case. The idiot left of his own accord!” Raebin said.

“I guess you’re right.”

Raebin had a point. The room was too pristine for this to have been a kidnapping, and the hotel had good security. After calmly thinking things over, however, I began to see what might have happened.

“Hmm…” I glanced around the room, then nodded. “He didn’t go far.”

“Y-you think so?” Ahyeon asked.

“Yes. He left all his things here. He only took his wallet and phone… I wonder if leaving was a spur-of-the-moment decision?”

I guessed that he’d decided to go out after waking up and realizing his anger hadn’t cooled.

Raebin suddenly raised his hand. “If you’ll excuse the interruption, may I offer an opinion?”

“Yeah.”

He swallowed, then said hesitantly, “I think… he just went out to have a good time by himself, since we don’t have anything to do today.”

We all fell silent.

Wait a second.

“I suppose… you might be right.”

“Yes!”

Bae Sejin quickly said, “But his phone is turned off!”

“I think he just didn’t want to be interrupted.”

There was a good chance that he thought permission from the agency was unnecessary, since today was our day off.

The members were confused.

“R-right. I think that might be what happened.”

“Pretty wild…”

Chungwoo cleared the air. “That might also not be the case. Let’s look into things a little more.”

“Okay. Why don’t we check the security cameras?”

“I’ll get on that right away. Please wait here. Someone else will come for you!” the manager said, rushing off with the hotel employee. It was nice that he was working so hard, but I also understood that this must have felt like a life-or-death emergency for him.

Their search, however, probably wasn’t anything we needed to worry about.

“I think I can find him with this,” I said, producing my phone.

***

Eugene kicked at the sandy beach, feeling the sea breeze on his face. It was the first time in a while he’d been able to spend a sunny morning of his day off out and about, and he felt quite relaxed.

The weather’s nice. He wasn’t in a particularly good mood, however. Putting his hands behind his neck and leaning back a little, he tried to shake off the gloominess. They’d told him to cool off, so he’d come out here to do just that. His conclusion, however, was that he still wasn’t sure he was in the wrong.

I’m not going to apologize. He decided he would have to come up with a good explanation for his team as to why he was not going to say sorry to those idiots with their cameras. It left a bitter taste in his mouth, however.

Nobody seems to care about how I feel. He grumbled that it was unfair that nobody had even texted him during the night. Was there really no one who understood how he felt?

“Cha Eugene.”

Eugene nearly jumped out of his chair at the sound of the familiar but unexpected voice.

“Moondae?”

“Yes. Right.”

It was Moondae.

Gosh. Moondae had run down the beach to find him. It was nice to see him, but also surprising. How in the world had he been found?

“How did you find me? Were you looking for me?”

“Why does that matter?” Moondae asked. He was wearing comfortable clothes, but his pink hair was disheveled, perhaps from searching for Eugene. Instead of being angry, however, he grinned and held out a paper bag. It contained ice cream from a nearby shop. “It was obvious where you’d try to go. I looked for places near the beach that sold sweets. This cafe route was close to the hotel. I knew you’d be nearby.”

It was an accurate deduction. Eugene was more impressed than bitter or spooked.

“You’re amazing, bro,” he said.

“Yeah, I know. Eat that ice cream first. This cafe allows food from elsewhere, right?”

“If there’s enough of a tip. This isn’t Disneyland, after all,” Euguene said in English.

It was a pretty funny good joke, but Moondae didn’t seem to get it. Eugene was used to this, though, so he let it go. If he was going to nitpick about cultural differences, he would have to start all the way at the beginning with all the fancy hair dye—the pretty colors weren’t common for guys his age.

Moondae only brought up the topic of the hour when Eugene had already finished more than half of his ice cream.

“Tell me your side while you eat. Why’d you last out at the production team like that?”

“This sounds like an interrogation.”

“It’s not. I think you had your reasons.” Moondae folded his arms. “You’re a smart guy.”

Eugene was moved to hear this from his older teammate. He shrugged and began explaining.