Chapter 173

—…hey — did I, uh, just close the door?

—…yeah.

"Ahackhackk hah hackk haha hah!!!"

—Siri! Siri, can you hear me? Call Seo Taehyun. Siri! Come on — earn your keep, punk!

—What if we just…. break the door?

—…that window screen opens, right?

—Hajin. We're on the 6th floor.

"Ha-hack! A-hackhahahack! Ah! Way too funny! Ah hackhack hahaha hackk!"

This was Ju Eunchan's living room.

The Seo-Ju-Dan trio was doubled over laughing, watching my and Lee Doha's escape-room ordeal play back on the handheld cam.

"Ease up, would you…."

"Ah, my stomach hurts. Laughed so hard I feel like my cheeks are gonna burst."

"Hyung, let's watch it just one more time."

"Should we just hook it up to the TV? We should have the cable for it here somewhere."

"Now they're not even pretending to listen."

Regardless of my grumbling, Seo-Ju-Dan — having landed on prime material — were completely absorbed in annoying me and Lee Doha with the footage still on the handheld cam. With one hand I clamped down on a Ju Eunchan actually about to go grab the cable to hook the handheld up to the TV, hauled him into a headlock, and said:

"Cut it out with the teasing, punks. Can't you see Lee Doha's gone all glum?"

"…I have?"

At the nod I jerked toward Lee Doha — folded loosely into a corner of the sofa — Lee Doha asked back in a puzzled voice. This punk had gone and mounted his own cringe-history for eternity with his own hands, and on top of that he was completely unbothered!

I should have just wiped that footage right then….

But it was way too prime iTube-cut material to delete.

Damn occupational hazard!

With that loser feeling of neither having deleted the recording nor having kept it from those Seo-Ju-Dan punks, I ended up pointlessly stretching sideways at Ju Eunchan's cheek — the one I still had hold of.

At Ju Eunchan yelping in pain, Dan Haru — sitting on the sofa — grabbed his own cheek as if hit by PTSD and ducked behind Seo Taehyun.

It wasn't like Dan Haru was some Pavlovian test subject or anything, but he was suffering as though Eunchan's pain were his own.

"Ah."

"…?"

"Siwoo-hyung sent this."

"Siwoo-hyung?"

Seo Taehyun, who up till now had been busy cackling whether the two younger ones were suffering or not, snapped to attention at Lee Doha's words. Lee Doha silently tapped his phone a couple of times and showed us the ice-cream vouchers he'd been sent. Two whole pint-size vouchers, the kind where you pick three flavors.

"He said sorry he couldn't make it, told me to order some after dinner."

"Huh? Two pints though?"

Wouldn't just sending one big one have been simpler?

Lee Doha, seeing us puzzled, followed up with a helpful explanation.

"He said one of them was strictly for rainbow sherbet and mint choc."

At that, everyone except Lee Doha looked at me.

"What. Why. I pity you all for not knowing the beauty of rainbow sherbet and mint choc."

"Mint choc I could maybe work my way to understanding — but adding rainbow sherbet on top of that? That's straight-up crossing the line, in my opinion."

"Oh! I liked rainbow sherbet! The sherbet flavor."

"But Haru, you happily eat all 31 flavors."

"Mm…. that's a bit true."

"I don't care what anyone eats, so please just let go of me first, Hajin-hyung."

"No can do. Just got settled into position. It'd feel empty if I let my arm off."

"Aack! You're heavy!"

Just five people gathered, and the living room was already a war zone.

I was leaning in harder, tightening my grip on Ju Eunchan as he flailed and complained I was heavy, while over next to Lee Doha — who was going to place the ice-cream order himself — Seo Taehyun had somewhere along the way glued himself on and was in the middle of picking flavors.

Beside the two of them — picking ice-cream flavors with the gravity of a new hire choosing a lunch order on their first day — Dan Haru, lounging comfortably against the sofa, giggled and said:

"If the other hyungs had been here today too, it would've been really nice…. Kind of a shame."

Whether those "other hyungs" meant Lee Yugeon and Jung Siwoo — who couldn't make it today — or all the eliminated Miro Maze trainees, I couldn't say. Either way, I could see Dan Haru was enjoying today plenty, so I was relieved.

Might be about time to start figuring out how to draw out the Selreg personality too.

Should I try using the Regressor-tracking clue I'd gotten from completing the quest with this debut?

While I was thinking that, Ju Eunchan — slipping free of my slightly slackened arm — hurriedly fled toward the sofa where Dan Haru was, fixing his hair as he went. Eunchan, who'd even grabbed a sofa cushion to hug, let out a short whoo of breath and said:

"Siwoo-hyung's off on a trip anyway so he can't come…. but Yugeon-hyung, it'd be nice if he could make it even late. Should we at least reach out and ask?"

At Ju Eunchan's suggestion, Dan Haru's eyes lit up and he nodded hard. So Ju Eunchan poked at Seo Taehyun, who after immense deliberation had finalized the ice-cream order in the best possible combination.

"Hm? What's up, Eunchan?"

"Hyung. Could you try calling Yugeon-hyung once, please?"

"Lee Yugeon?"

"Yes. To ask if maybe he can come, even late…. I've never actually called Yugeon-hyung before, and I don't think he'd pick up if it were me."

Ju Eunchan said it in a slightly sheepish tone, scratching the back of his neck.

Jung Siwoo, Ju Eunchan — same thing. You could see everyone still found Lee Yugeon a bit awkward. It was karma from Lee Yugeon's whole life of walling himself off, so there wasn't really anything anyone could do about it, which made it a tough spot.

Come to think of it — at the wrap dinner that day too, Lee Yugeon was the first to duck out, wasn't he?

Even at the wild wrap dinner after finals, Lee Yugeon had literally just eaten and then vanished with his family.

He'd said it was because of his grandfather, but when I thought about how Lee Yugeon's grandfather had actually urged him several times to head off and enjoy himself, saying he'd go home first…

Any way you sliced it, the awkwardness and discomfort seemed to run just as much on Lee Yugeon's side as on ours.

And he's a no-show again today. If he keeps this up when we're going to have to work as one team from here on, it's kind of a problem.

It wasn't like I didn't know his situation, so I was hoping he'd at least come by late today — but Seo Taehyun, on receiving Eunchan's request, instead of pulling out his phone shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

"…he's probably going to be busy the whole vacation. Let's just leave him for today."

"Really? Aw, shame…."

"We're a team that's going to be seeing each other every day from now on anyway, like it or not. Today, let's just have more fun on our own."

Hm?

What's up with him now?

The faintest shadow flickered across Seo Taehyun's face as he talked about Lee Yugeon.

For a second I wondered did something happen between him and Lee Yugeon too? — but the two of them were way too close for that, and Seo Taehyun's expression went right back to normal, so for now I set the suspicion aside.

If he's still like that after vacation, I'll poke at it then.

While I was sorting my thoughts out, Ju Eunchan and Dan Haru had fired back up, saying if Lee Yugeon was out then let's at least try calling Jung Siwoo. Even so, somehow everyone was finding it a bit hard to just call Jung Siwoo up directly, so the "video call Jung Siwoo" mission naturally got pawned off on Lee Doha.

"I don't really do video calls either, though…."

Lee Doha was slightly thrown by the sudden mission, but couldn't hold out against Seo-Ju-Dan's pleading eyes and ended up video-calling Jung Siwoo. Fortunately, after only a few ring tones, Jung Siwoo's face appeared on Lee Doha's phone.

And the moment Jung Siwoo's face appeared, Dan Haru blurted out, dazed:

"Whoa. He really is handsome."

—Yeah. I get that a lot.

"Hgk. Hyung. Hello."

"Siwoo-hyung! Hello!"

"Hyung, we miss you~"

Us abruptly video-calling and gushing over how handsome he was the moment he picked up would fluster most people, but the guy on the other end was Jung Siwoo. At Jung Siwoo taking it in stride and volleying back with a smile, Dan Haru startled and dipped his head in a quick bow. Then Ju Eunchan and Seo Taehyun waved in turn, greeting him one after the other.

What was I doing, you ask?

Gotta film stuff like this — fans love it.

Occupational hazard flaring up again, I'd quickly grabbed the handheld cam and was busy catching the guys mid-video-call with Jung Siwoo.

The sight of the Seo-Ju-Dan trio clustered up next to Lee Doha — holding the phone stiff as a tripod — was like a swarm of cicadas on an old tree…. no — a bunch of tiny woodland-animal friends huddled around one big, lumbering bear, exactly that.

This is like a picture I've seen in some children's book.

Or was it — Pororo?

Even as I tilted my head, sitting with the déjà vu, Jung Siwoo was, surprisingly, keeping the call going with the members pretty patiently.

"Hyung, hyung. When you're at an MT, what do you guys do to hang out?"

—Well. Usually drink, then in the middle of drinking, drink some more…. and drink.

"Hgk. Did you drink too, hyung?"

—Nope. I didn't.

At Jung Siwoo firmly shaking his head and saying he hadn't drunk, Seo Taehyun quietly gushed that hyung really did have amazing self-management as an idol — and then Jung Siwoo tacked on a follow-up.

—I told them if they wanted me drinking they'd have to beat me at a game, and they all went down after just a few rounds.

"……."

—So right when it was starting to get boring, your call came in and I stepped out for a bit. Maybe I should've just hung out with you guys.

…y-yeah.

At his easy delivery, we all blinked and went quiet.

Sure, like Seo Taehyun said, in a lot of ways it was passing-grade behavior for an idol, but….

Quietly hitting the stop-record button, I made up my mind.

Better not mess around with that hyung, huh.

Mom, that hyung scares me….

---

Once the call with Jung Siwoo was wrapped and we'd cleaned out the ice cream — which arrived right on cue — we moved into getting ready for bed.

For someone who'd attacked me so hard about my ice-cream tastes, Seo Taehyun had carefully picked one of the two pints entirely in flavors I liked. Unlike Seo Taehyun — who hated mint choc with a passion — the rest, including Lee Doha, weren't picky about flavors, so we managed to get our sugar fix from the ice cream fairly peacefully.

"Hgk. Eunchan-hyung. My old toothbrush isn't here."

"Oh, it was too worn out so I chucked it. You didn't bring one?"

"Nooo."

"What do we do. There aren't any spare toothbrushes here right now, either…."

Dan Haru, who'd gone into the bathroom to wash up, came out with his eyebrows sloping down in a defeated look. The way he was mourning over a lost toothbrush — like some baby-rabbit hero who'd lost a pendant full of precious memories — swept Ju Eunchan up too. Listening to it, he jumped to his feet and was now fretting right alongside him.

"I didn't bring a toothbrush either. Let's go to the corner store together and buy some, Dan Haru."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. Corner store's right up there. We'll be back."

Watching the two maknae-punks in an uproar over a single toothbrush, I quietly shoved the toothbrush I had in my hand deep into my bag and got up. At my words, I could see Dan Haru nodding eagerly.

Then Seo Taehyun — apparently having just washed up, with a towel over his head — overheard our conversation and chimed in.

"Hyung, going to the corner store now? Just in case, wear a mask and go."

"It's right there, though."

"Kim Wonho got spotted at a neighborhood cafe 30 minutes ago, and yesterday Parang and Jaeyoung got their photo taken at a coin karaoke togeth—"

"Dan Haru, put a hat on. Mask up nice and high."

"Yep!"

Mom, he scares me too.

There was no beating a Seo Taehyun reeling off the latest intel like that. I gave up fast, and while Dan Haru put on his hood and mask, I pulled out the ball cap I'd brought from home and pulled it down on my head.

If I put a mask on too, that would end up feeling more like a "we're celebrities here" fuss, so I (privately) settled for pulling the zipper of the track jacket I was already wearing all the way up to my neck, and left it at that.

"Let's go."

"Yes. But hyung, did you really not bring a toothbrush?"

"Uh…. dunno. Thought I did, but I looked and it wasn't there."

I see — nodding earnestly like he bought it, Dan Haru, apparently thrilled about the unexpected night walk, bounced along a step or two ahead of me. Hands in my pockets, I followed behind him, watching in case he might trip.

Contrary to Seo Taehyun's worry, the road to the corner store was very quiet, very still.

On that short stretch where not even an ant went by, let alone a person, I started puzzling out what to say to draw out the Selreg personality from Dan Haru.

Just poke him for real, right out in the open? Say I actually know what he's doing?

Wasn't this exactly the timing to pull out the Regressor-tracking clue?

Watching Dan Haru walk into the corner store a step ahead of me with a ding of the door, just as I was about to pull up the system window —

label: Retty Nope, can't have that.

And along with those sickening red letters —

the world flashed white.