Chapter 16: Soaring Schedules and Noise-Canceling Woohyeong

“Whoa, is our schedule totally packed today too?”

Eunhan said while rubbing his swollen eyes.

Even though his sleep time had been cut short due to the pouring schedules, Eunhan seemed to have slept so soundly that his eyes were puffy.

The CEO used to say yes to every single schedule that came in, but now so many offers were arriving that they actually had to be selective.

“Get ready quickly. They said we’re moving right after visiting the salon.”

“No way. It’s not even a music show broadcast, though?”

That was true.

Up until now, except for music show broadcasts, 4ever had been handling their own hair, makeup, and styling to carry out their schedules.

The CEO had saved expenses under the pretext that the fans loved their natural appearance.

“I’m so touched right now. I thought the CEO was going to pocket everything, but to invest in us directly like this….”

“Eunhan, please watch your mouth outside. You know our company is small, so it’s easy to get caught, right…?”

“Didn’t Eunhan talk trash about the CEO in the company bathroom last time and get caught by him?”

Yunbin repeatedly checked Eunhan’s behavior, perhaps worried about him.

“Still, the CEO probably maxed out loans to raise us.”

“No wonder he was walking to work at the company.”

“Wait, wait. If he’s walking to work, doesn’t that mean he has a house around here?”

At James’s sharp point, silence briefly descended.

Everyone seemed to be thinking about Seoul housing prices.

“Anyway, we need to blow up even more so the company can move to a bigger place, and we can move our dorm too.”

Currently, the dorm where the 4ever members resided was a bit away from the company.

They were enduring the noise between floors from the landlord’s kids while living in the semi-basement of a crumbling house.

The manager-hyung had left to commute from his own home rather than live in a house like this, so the five members were living together.

Five people.

Two rooms.

One bathroom.

Semi-basement.

End of explanation.

“I want to hold a fan sign event again too.”

Now he was confident that more than 20 people would show up.

Furthermore, if given the chance to hold a fan sign event again, Jemin intended to turn Jung Woohyung into someone who did fan service mechanically to seek an image shift.

Reducing even a single thing he could be criticized for was good in the long run.

“What about Woohyung-hyung?”

Yunbin deliberately included Woohyung in the conversation.

Jemin looked toward Woohyung.

Since Yunbin asked, Woohyung answered right away.

If Jemin had asked, he would have plugged earphones into his ears without a word and closed his eyes.

“I want to do a concert.”

“Oh~”

At the answer showcasing quite a bit of ambition, Jemin blurted out an “Oh~” without realizing it.

Jemin felt that Woohyung was not a guy without motivation after all.

“Because there’s someone I definitely want to invite.”

“Who?”

Jemin asked out of curiosity at what Woohyung added.

Woohyung looked at Jemin, then pulled out earphones from his pocket.

Rather than his words being ignored, Jemin cared more about who it was that Woohyung was planning to bring to the concert.

“Are you dating?”

No way.

He wouldn’t bring a girlfriend to the concert and do that “Everyone, the person I love is in this spot” bullshit, right?

The reason he thought ‘there’s no way he’d do that’ was largely because he believed ‘there’s no way Jung Woohyung is that much of a romanticist.’

“Sigh.”

Woohyung sent a look of pathetic disdain as if Jemin’s question about whether he was dating wasn’t even worth answering.

“Hey, don’t date.”

“I said I’m not.”

Watching Woohyung end up plugging in his earphones and closing his eyes, Jemin gave strict warnings to the other members.

“We need to keep a tight rein on that bastard. You never know when he’ll explode.”

On a stage properly dressed and prepared, they filmed dance performance content.

Naturally, it wasn’t the title track, but the follow-up track.

He also heard a behind-the-scenes story that the CEO had made an absurd suggestion to put marsh snails in the background with CG, but it was rejected.

“Everyone, please give a lot of love to A-One-Per, and also to our 4ever~”

“This has been Everlasting 4ever! We were 4ever!”

Without a moment to catch their breath, they had to move to the next schedule.

This time, it was a pictorial shoot.

“What the, how did they find out and come here again?”

When they were about to move, fans were gathered in the parking lot, having somehow found out.

While the manager restrained the fans, the members got into the car.

Even in that short window, Jemin greeted them and received letters.

“Please don’t follow unofficial schedules.”

“Okaay~ But that guy over there told us.”

Yunbin glared at the manager-hyung upon hearing those words.

The person leaking our commute info is manager-hyung?

Manager-hyung was flustered, even stammering his words.

“I-I told you not to come here, did I tell you to come?”

Somehow, a few fans were gathered around the salon in the morning.

Because manager-hyung had specifically said, “Please do not follow us to XX Building in XX-gu, Seoul,” posts saying [4ever is filming A-One-Per!] had already spread wide.

“Got it, so pull some Q2P money and change the kids’ car first. How is the car worse than mine, an ordinary person?”

“We need to depart, so get in quickly, hyung. We’re going to be late.”

Even inside the moving car, Jemin didn’t let go of his work.

For an idol, fan service was a type of duty.

Jemin, who made a habit of overtime and extra work, was a diligent worker.

[From. Jemin]

Nities~ It’s the weekend, what are you up to?

We’re working hard to show our Nities lots of new sides~

Thank you every time and I love you!

Shall we do a comment party while we’re moving briefly? haha

I’ll try to reply as much as possible!

#Jemin #4ever #Forever #Eternity #ETERNITY #OurLoveForever

4ever’s fan club name was decided as Eternity.

Like 4ever, it meant everlasting.

When the CEO suggested how about 0 Won (Zero Won), meaning eternity and that they could lightly love 4ever for free, everyone in the company desperately talked him out of it.

Only after persuading him by asking if he was really fine with his bank account balance being 0 Won did the fan club name become Eternity instead of 0 Won.

• Crazy, Jemin-ah, can you please stop being cute? The whole world’s cuteness is going to be depleted because of you! Aaggh Yu Jemin is so cute! No, stop being cute!

  └ 4ever Jemin: No way! All the cuteness is mine! haha

• Jem-morning~

  └ 4ever Jemin: Niti-morning~

• Yu Jemin, the master of boyfriend-pics… But there’s no boyfriend like Yu Jemin in the world…

  └ 4ever Jemin: There can’t be two boyfriends under the sun!

• Jemin-ah! You came matching Jemin-time, right! 11:29!

  └ 4ever Jemin: Ah, caught me haha

• Squishy bean-rice-cake baby rabbit Jemin-ah! Thank you for thinking of Nities in between your busy schedule and coming here. Behind you, so that you can shine, sometimes like a shadow, sometimes like the night sky, I’ll always be there like that. When it’s tough, look back. Because there will always be Eternities who can share your hardship with you. …. See more

  └ 4ever Jemin: Nities… Thank you so much for the pretty words. I’ll make you even happier. Rather than behind, let’s walk together by your side.

While Jemin was a diligent worker like this, Woohyung was guilty of dereliction of duty.

• Sigh… What is Woohyung doing… Is he alive?^^…

He could have ignored that comment and passed by, but Jemin didn’t want Woohyung’s lack of fan service and ungrateful idol image to be exposed, bringing a bad influence on the team.

• Sigh… What is Woohyung doing… Is he alive?^^…

  └ 4ever Jemin: He must have been tired~ He’s sleeping next to me right now!

Thank you for taking in this ungrateful guy who never comes no matter how much fans wait, or comes once in a blue moon only to post photos and texts acting completely full of himself.

Jemin offered an inner prayer of gratitude to Woohyung’s solo fans.

‘Ah, and please stop fighting with HanJem shippers. Those people are my fans anyway.’

Right as Jemin thought that, a brawl broke out in the comment section.

Nothing was chaotic in other replies, but the comment mentioning Woohyung turned into total madness.

• Sleeping? Crazy… HanJem shippers were talking about HanJem real couple, but brothers was real haha

• Brothers is the public ship name, Woohyung-Jemin is HyeongJem, look at him throwing fuel on the fire, I’m not fooled~

• Yu Jemin is the only one who can handle Jung Woohyung’s bullshit, that’s why he sat next to him, and you’re consuming that as RPS?

• Jung Woohyung toxic solos were cursing HanJem like crazy, but it was just a mother-in-law fight, acknowledging HyeongJem haha

• HyeongJem my ass, isn’t it DislikeJem f*ck, where are you rubbing against

• Woohyung fans wouldn’t take Yu Jemin even if given for free, so take back the returned Yu Jemin

• You shippers please stop, this is a space where all the members read too, do you want to act like this? Play in the shade f*ck, you people whose heads are filled with s*x; if two men are attached, are they all gay?

Jemin posted multiple replies on other comments intentionally to turn the topic around, then concluded the comment party.

“Hey.”

Woohyung was merely tapping on his phone, oblivious to whether he knew about this disaster or not.

Jemin spoke to Woohyung.

Because Woohyung was focused, he didn’t answer until Jemin grabbed his forearm and shook it, only then replying in an annoyed tone.

“What again.”

“Can you really focus on a phone game when fans are waiting for you?”

“Game? Who’s playing a game?”

“What! Sweet! Swept it all!”

Looking back, James-hyung was playing a Go-Stop card game.

Jemin and Woohyung turned their heads at the same time.

“This isn’t a game, I’m writing lyrics.”

Woohyung showed his phone screen.

The notepad app was filled with texts that looked like lyrics.

“Still, there are people waiting for you. Come to social media often.”

Even at Jemin’s words, Woohyung showed a lukewarm reaction.

Looking at Woohyung like that, Jemin said in horror:

“You weren’t about to say something like ‘Who told them to wait?’, right? If you really do that, you’re not human.”

While bickering with Jemin, Woohyung forgot the lyrics he was trying to write down.

As he clutched his head trying to recall them, annoyance surged because Jemin was blabbering beside him.

“Don’t talk to me.”

Woohyung plugged in his earphones again and began ignoring Jemin’s words.

Though no one knew for sure, music probably wasn’t even playing from those earphones.

They were likely just performing a noise-canceling role.

To Woohyung, the noise was Jemin.

‘Why on earth do fans like a guy like that?’

Jemin thought he would never understand for the rest of his life.