Chapter 354

Chapter 354

I considered the situation we were in. A member had left the dorm without their smartphone early in the morning in the middle of promotions and remained radio silent for several hours. Worse still, the same member had caused the group’s schedule to be put on hold for three whole days.

I must be out of my mind. There was no excuse for my actions. What I’d done was complete lunacy. I gritted my teeth.

At least Eugene left a note. It was obvious that there was an emergency going on at the dorm. At worst, even the agency might have heard by now.

Sh*t… I’m the f*cking problem now? I could already guess the look that would be on Ahyeon’s face. I clenched my teeth and looked at the intercom screen again. Ahyeon was standing right at the door, not just at the entrance on the first floor. I had no idea how that was even possible. It only confused me more.

“It’s one of your members. Want me to open it?” Cheongryeo said.

“Wait…” I stared at the door and slowly took a deep breath. “I want to open it.”

“Hmm? Okay.”

He did not try to hide his puzzlement over my decision. I left him behind, heading toward the door, and opening it. The same guy that I had seen on the screen appeared through the doorway.

“…!”

Ahyeon’s face was pale. I could see this even though he was wearing a facemask. The moment the door opened, however, the look on his face changed. I saw his relief. He hung his head.

“S-so you were here…”

This is driving me nuts.

I managed to say with some difficulty, “I didn’t realize that I left my phone behind… Sorry I made you worried so early in the morning.”

“D-don’t mention it. I…” He took a deep breath and spoke without raising his head. “I’m the one who is sorry…”

It seemed as though he had spent the morning running around looking for me. What was he apologizing for?

“I-I made so much of a fuss… Y-y-you might have needed some time alone… But I didn’t realize…”

“No,” I said.

I didn’t want to hear any more apologies from him. Pushing this thought aside, however, I tried to remain as calm as possible. I failed completely.

“Cut it out. It’s my fault for disappearing on you without a word.”

He clammed up immediately, and I wanted to bite my tongue clear off.

You f*cking idiot. Why did you answer him like that? You sound unstable and confrontational! I found the silence impossible to bear.

A nonchalant voice suddenly said, “Kongi is likely to think we’re taking him out on another walk. Please come in, or leave—whichever you wish.”

The dog’s barking echoed in the hallway.

Seon Ahyeon’s head shot up.

“I-I’m very sorry! In that case… M-Moondae…” He did not make eye contact. Something similar to a smile appeared on his face, even though it was covered completely by his facemask. “I-i-if you start feeling better… come back at w-whenever… Here…” He cautiously held out my phone as if encouraging me to take it. “Y-you’ll probably need that…”

I stared at the misshapen apple pattern on the phone, then balled my hands into fists. Taking the phone, I said, “I was going to leave, anyway. I’ll come with you.”

“O-okay!”

I stepped through the doorway. Ahyeon moved quickly to push the elevator button. The dog barked excitedly and ran out with a harness in its mouth.

What are you doing out here?

“It looks like he already misunderstood. And thanks to you, today’s walk did end rather early, Moondae,” Cheongryeo said.

I stared.

“Kongi, wait. Let’s put this on.”

I managed to say, “Sorry.”

“All right.”

I was talking to your dog.

The dog was the only one excited as three men entered the elevator and rode it down in silence. I was the first to speak.

“How did you know that I was here?”

Ahyeon cringed a little. “Th-the security footage.”

“…!”

The security footage? That was an extreme method that I had never considered. The natural thing to do would have been to call the police or perhaps tell the agency. Ahyeon hadn’t mentioned either, however.

Don’t tell me…

“I-I asked urgently… saying it was an emergency… So I filled out an agreement, and they showed me…”

He was speaking as if he had acted alone. Had he gone to the security office of the apartment alone to ask for such a thing? I stared at his feet. He wasn’t wearing any socks, and I could tell that his feet had been crammed into his shoes haphazardly. This situation wasn’t all that pleasant, but even so, there was an odd feeling stirring in me.

I guess it’s not completely over for me yet, then. The alarm that had been blaring loudly in my mind grew a little quieter.

I said quietly, “So that’s how you knew I followed him here?”

“Y-yes,” he said, nodding eagerly.

The mood seemed to soften between us.

“Strange… I’ve never told either of you which unit I live in,” Cheongryeo said, pointing out the obvious.

“…!”

“I don’t think I’ve ever shown you the interior of the building, either… That’s hardly enough information, is it?”

Ahyeon did not seem flustered by his questions. “N-no. I asked one of the VTIC members over the phone…”

I said nothing.

“Who?” Cheongryeo asked.

“Ch-Chaeyul. Thankfully, he told me right away…”

“Ah.”

I was witnessing a disaster unfold that was coming rapidly for the guy who was about to enlist

Too bad. Misfortune always came in batches. Sucks to be you.

Following this, Cheongryeo parted ways with us. I knew that he would take care of his dog no matter how pissed off he was, so it was likely that he would still go for a walk. He didn’t leave without a few parting muttered words, however.

“Hmm. I see why you were worried. He’s the sort that can be emotionally unstable…”

“…!”

“Haha. So this affects your group’s activities, then. No wonder you were worried.”

You… He had recognized immediately that Ahyeon’s stats were in jeopardy.

It’s his trait after all… I considered his trait once again.

[Appraisal (A)]

: That which is valuable is rare, and there’s garbage everywhere you look.

- Human resource appraisal ability +150%

I’ll have to be careful around him. His physical attractiveness had even gone up. It seemed that he wasn’t anywhere close to running out of steam anytime soon.

He raised his voice to a normal speaking volume. “My advice still stands,” he said.

“Okay.”

Whatever.

“See you,” he said.

I put a hand to my face, then finally said, “Thanks for the… tea.”

“Haha.”

He walked in the opposite direction with his dog.

Then the silence returned. Ahyeon did not ask me why I had gone to Cheongryeo, or why I had suddenly left so early in the morning. We did not speak as we walked along the path in the opposite direction.

Surprisingly, he was the first to speak, bringing up a different subject entirely. “M-m-mind if I tell them… I found you?”

“Won’t all the members be at the dorm anyway if we go back now?” I asked.

Had a few of them gone to the police station? I felt a chill go down my spine, but thankfully there was no mention of the police.

“P-probably… I-I left alone, so I’m just concerned…”

It seemed that he had also left the dorm without thinking it through fully or telling any of the members. And he seemed to have recovered his presence of mind only now. Ahyeon hung his head, apparently embarrassed.

After some hesitation, I said, “Thanks for worrying about me.”

“N-no…” He suddenly stopped short. There was a certain, stifled quality to his voice that made me wonder if he was crying.

“Seon Ahyeon.”

He wasn’t crying. Instead, he said in a trembling tone, “M-Moondae, I-I-I’m sure that you’re sick of hearing this… But can I say just one thing?”

I nodded silently.

He spoke right away, as if he had gone over the words over and over in his head. “You’re… an amazing person, and y-you’ve always been great at everything you do. Always. You’ve never failed. I mean that…”

Oh. I recalled the words he had shouted at me yesterday.

“Y-you shouldn’t be performing right now… I-i-it’s getting worse…”

He was trying to counteract all the negative meanings that I could have inferred from those words.

“I-I misspoke… You’ve always done great, Moondae…”

As we stood in front of the dorm building, with nobody around us, I listened to him speak blankly. He was not done yet.

“I-I’m the problem.”

“…!”

“I-I know… I’m always shaky, and I’m bad at managing my emotions. I-I’ve always been that way…”

It was almost as if he had overheard what Cheongryeo had said. His words had been objective to the point of cruelty.

“Th-this happened before…” He looked down at his feet as if he had already felt himself slipping into the mistake again. “I m-m-might seem a lot more awkward than usual at the moment… And that could be a bad thing for the team…” He concluded his words in the calm tone of someone who had already come to a decision. “S-so we can simply say that I’m ill.”

“…!”

“Th-this is my problem. We d-don’t need to say anything else…” He gulped. “And as for the schedules I’ll miss… I-I’ll practice. I’ll practice hard…” His voice grew more and more desperate. “Our performances… sh-shouldn’t be affected if I do that… There will be no problem in the t-team… You don’t have to deal with my problem… It’s fine. I’m the one who needs to see a doctor, not you… S-so please don’t worry about what I told you yesterday… Please forget about it…”

“But—”

Don’t say it like that.

Before I could speak, however, he hurriedly continued, “B-b-but Moondae, I’m sure this will sound offensive to you, but could you…” He asked in a quavering voice, “Could you please speak to a therapist just once?”

I turned around, and he flinched.

“S-sorry I brought it up… I’m the one who needs to see a doctor, not you… N-next time, I’ll listen properly. I promise. I really will. I’ll listen to everything you say…”

His shoulders shook, but he did not cry or shout. Though he stammered, it was clear that he had already made up his mind—he had decided this conflict was owing to his own problems, and he had decided to deal with them himself. He was telling me not to worry about it, and to look into my own condition at least once.

I tried to choose the right words to say to him, but I stopped short. My thoughts were muddled. I knew the conclusion that I was trying to reach, however.

“You say you’re ready to listen to whatever I have to say?”

He nodded rapidly. He said in a subdued tone, “I-I asked you to share, but I failed to—”

“No, that was my fault,” I said, speaking confidently.

You have reached your conclusion, and now I have reached mine.

“It’s just not something anybody could be asked to easily believe. In hindsight, I realize that it just sounded like the ravings of a lunatic.”

“M-Moondae…” He seemed to be repressing tears.

I nodded gravely, my thoughts falling into place.

Yes. This had been the source of my mistake.

“I should have told you in such a way that you had no choice but to believe me,” I said.

“H-huh?”

Let me think now. Ahyeon was not the sort of person who came up with sudden, intuitive ideas, or jumped to logical conclusions based on evidence. He was the sort of person who filtered through all the inconsistencies that needed explaining and questions that needed answering until the most suitable answer remained. Then he accepted that answer.

That’s how he contributed to our recent album. I knew this about him, which meant I should have explained in a way that best suited him from the start. Now everything seemed clear.

This is not a matter of trust or closeness, but of timing. Under the usual circumstances, I would’ve taken all of those things into account and kept control of the situation. But instead, I had misunderstood, thinking that he believed me from the start, and that had caused this fiasco.

“You said you would listen. All right. I’m going to explain to you one more time, so listen.”

“I-I…”

This time, I would pack my explanation with witnesses and evidence so that he would have no way to refute what I was saying. No matter what came of this, by doing this, I would come to a result that I would have no regrets over.