Chapter 33: Under the Surface

Adorable Peach @apeach.jemin

[PREVIEW] Pure and elegant Jemin since this morning~

@4ever_members @_4ever_official

#4ever #Jemin #YooJemin #JEMIN

│

Subscription Account @qwehroqwOw

Crazy, crying.

Thank you for the picture, Peach-nim.

Rice-Soup @babpa.4everfan

Stop consuming off-schedule and private arrival or departure photos;

If you bring Peach’s photos onto my timeline, I will block you.

If it were usual, Jemin would have given a bright smile and made hand hearts for fan service, but his condition was terrible today.

Still, he couldn’t just walk past without saying a word, so he barely managed to greet them with a half-dead face.

Jemging-i @jemgingjemging

Is Jemin sick somewhere?

Although fansite masters packaged it as pure or elegant, a few fans worried about Jemin, who was forcing a smile.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry.

I’ll snap out of it soon…”

“No, I asked if I look okay.”

James turned around in front of Jemin, seemingly liking the clothes he was wearing.

Jemin’s heart, which had been touched thinking James was worried about him, instantly cooled down.

“Looking at you again, you don’t seem that okay.”

“Does that mean I looked okay at first glance?

Thanks~”

Jemin drank water through a straw and looked at Woohyung through the mirror.

Then, out of nowhere, he made eye contact with Yunbin.

“Did something happen between you two yesterday?”

Yunbin narrowed his eyes and looked back and forth between Woohyung and Jemin.

Jemin choked and spat water onto the floor.

Woohyung, who was sitting in the corner of the waiting room, unnaturally pretended to be asleep.

Having almost gotten his shoes wet, James glared at Jemin with a deep frown.

“Jemin!

Are you a spray bottle?”

“You two won’t even make eye contact.

You aren’t talking either.

It’s weirder because you’re not fighting.”

Even if they could deceive everyone else, it seemed they couldn’t fool Yunbin’s eyes.

Still, it wasn’t something he could speak honestly about.

“What do you mean, happen…

I just don’t want to mess with a guy who can’t get his senses together from a hangover.”

Woohyung answered, glancing toward Yunbin and Jemin.

The bluntly tossed-out words were still so quintessential Jung Woohyung that Jemin felt relieved on one hand.

‘Of course.

Who does Jung Woohyung think he is?

Is he the type of guy to be embarrassed over just that?

He’s probably doing that because he’s just pissed off.’

Jemin assumed on his own that Woohyung was in a bad mood, thinking, ‘He doesn’t even want to see my face.’

Apologizing felt ambiguous because it would mean admitting he remembered yesterday’s events.

“Be careful with alcohol from now on.”

Yunbin patted Jemin on the shoulder.

Woohyung turned his head upon seeing that.

Today’s pictorial was to be shot at a place notorious among idol fans.

It was a place where bizarre concepts and photos destined to be embarrassing history were produced under the name of art, so much so that it was called the graveyard of not just idols, but all celebrities.

4ever Schedule Bot @today4everschedule

10:00 Byzantium Pictorial Shoot….

Retweets 201 Quotes 5173 Likes 321

As soon as the pictorial shoot schedule was leaked, 4ever fans went into a frenzy.

Just looking at the previous month’s cover model proved it.

A rising model, he had numbers and clock hands drawn on his belly button, and his hair was styled into the shape of a bell.

Although it was said to be a homage to Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory, fans wanted to erase their own memories.

Gwak Soonbae @jjangssaennamed

f*cking agency bastards, shit.

Out of all those many pictorials, choosing f*cking Byzantium seems so much like the CEO bastard’s taste, it pisses me off.

Retweets 2654 Quotes 432 Likes 5322

James-Jaemes @james.or.you

Even if our pictorial stuff comes out, promise not to desert us…

Lots of Anger @ihavealotofhwa

Rather than being happy when a pictorial drops, does it make sense that we’re scared instead?

Buddha @imalreadyhaetal

Let’s just think of it as shooting the Ten Longevity Symbols concept photos one more time.

Therefore, it was natural for fans to be agitated by the news that 4ever was shooting this pictorial.

They were full of anxiety and worry about whether many people would leave the fandom, or whether PPP, a rival fandom, would use it as a mockery meme.

Knowing this reputation, Jemin didn’t relax until he confirmed today’s outfits with his own eyes.

“But don’t you think it’s better than expected?”

The prepared outfits were better than what they had prepared themselves for.

Even that loud pattern thought of when hearing was only present on James’ suit, while the other members were plain.

“I think James-hyung’s is a bit too flashy, though.”

“Why?

I like it?”

“Then that’s a relief.”

Usually, 4ever’s group image was power-refreshing.

Except for , which was treated as a song that existed but didn’t exist.

Because they performed intense choreography to a refreshing sound, their stage outfits were far from aiming for sexy.

“Instead of the fans, I feel like I’m the one who’ll feel awkward.”

Thanks to that, it was their first time wearing suits like this.

Yunbin scratched his head with an embarrassed expression.

On the other hand, Jemin didn’t seem awkward at all and took plenty of mirror selfies for spoilers.

“Woohyung-hyung, we could even go with sexy for our next concept.”

Eunhan spoke half-jokingly, half-seriously toward Woohyung.

Jemin turned around and made eye contact with Woohyung.

“Not really.”

Woohyung said, overtly lowering his head.

It was suspicious that a guy who didn’t even use social media that much had his nose buried in his phone.

‘What is it, is he ignoring me?’

Jemin felt annoyed by Woohyung, who didn’t even reply properly to his words.

‘Why am I keeping that on my mind over something so trivial?’

Just as hands bumping into each other was nothing, lips brushing against each other could just be considered a collision of body parts.

It was nothing to be flustered about, yet every time Woohyung saw Jemin, the image of that moment overlapped, making him feel like he was going to die.

‘Is it because I’m annoyed?’

Woohyung couldn’t shake off this unpleasant feeling.

“Manager-hyung, please take some photos of us shooting.

But don’t take them from above like last time; you have to hold the phone like this to make our legs look long.”

They were informed that group shots would be taken after the individual shots.

Before shooting his individual shots, Jemin asked his manager to take some behind-the-scenes photos to upload as spoilers.

He was worried because his manager was really bad at taking photos.

The photos taken during the last schedule had such terrible angles that they couldn’t even be used and had to be deleted.

“Jemin-ssi!

Relax a bit more~”

Since it was a concept he hadn’t done usually, Jemin looked tense.

He made facial expressions and posed according to the photographer’s direction.

The members waiting for their turn hovered around.

Eunhan made funny faces as a joke, and James imitated Jemin pretending to be fatal.

In the middle of it, Jemin burst out laughing and caused an NG.

“Ah, seriously!

You shouldn’t make me laugh!”

Still, after a few trial-and-error attempts, a much more natural expression came out.

“Next, we’ll go with Woohyung-ssi’s individual shoot~”

It was a setup where he sat on something that looked like a throne and glared at the camera.

Surprisingly, Jung Woohyung didn’t feel embarrassed about having his photo taken.

Rather, he put on a thick skin and struck various poses well.

‘It wasn’t that he couldn’t take photos, he just wasn’t taking them.’

Jemin gave a bitter smile thinking of Woohyung, who rarely came on social media.

While there were fans who attached selfies to a calendar app whenever their bias posted, Woohyung’s fandom didn’t do such things.

It was because it was no different from a regular calendar.

So much so that an account named “Deleting account if From Woohyung comes” hadn’t been able to delete the account for several weeks.

“Hyung, you’re shooting well…”

Since they were told it was okay to upload behind-the-scenes photos as spoilers, he planned to upload the photos taken by the manager.

Jemin went behind the manager to check the screen.

“Hyung…”

The person who actually couldn’t take photos was right here.

Jemin shook his head at the sigh-inducing angles.

This was precisely the kind of case people meant when they said a photo failed to capture someone’s real life appearance.

Thinking it would be better if he took them himself, Jemin snatched the camera from the manager’s hands.

“There.”

Jemin shot Woohyung from a winning social media angle.

It wasn’t just capturing the person, but a photo that also emphasized the studio where they were currently shooting the pictorial.

“Good~ Wow, nice~”

With every single cut taken, the photographer’s cheers followed.

It would be normal to laugh out of embarrassment, but Woohyung didn’t break.

Because this one-sided situation was so funny, the members doubled over laughing.

“Woohyung is cool~”

It was just words thrown out without much meaning, imitating the photographer.

At Jemin’s words, Woohyung made eye contact with Jemin beyond the camera.

‘Look at that bastard putting on a straight face again.’

Jemin felt displeased by Woohyung glaring at him even after saying something nice.

Did he take it as teasing?

It was half right, but it wasn’t a bad thing either.

Couldn’t he just take it nicely and move on?

What’s with looking like he wants to kill me just because I said he’s cool?

‘What is this?’

On the other hand, Woohyung was confused.

In this situation that was really nothing.

Thump—

Is it because the outfit is too open?

Did a temporary health abnormality like arrhythmia occur?

Other than that, there was no way to explain the signs of cardiovascular abnormality.

No way…

it can’t be that.

Woohyung closed his jacket with a confused heart.

‘What was that just now.’

Woohyung remained in confusion until the individual shoots of the other members ended.

Why was this murky and unpleasant emotion manifesting as such an unconvincing physical reaction?

While Woohyung was deep in thought, the turn for the group shoot approached.

“Yunbin-ssi and James-ssi, sit back-to-back and lean on each other’s shoulders; Jemin-ssi, lie down on the other knee of Woohyung-ssi who is sitting with one knee raised…

Eunhan-ssi, let’s lie down on the floor.”

“Aww.

My mouth is going to twist…”

To capture multiple people in the camera at once, they had no choice but to take intricate, intertwined poses.

It was a funny coincidence that Woohyung and Jemin, who had that kind of incident the previous day, were stuck with the ticklish pose of lying down with a head on a lap.

“Mmm~ Good.”

The members subtly changed their expressions every time the camera clicked.

“Woohyung-ssi, look at Jemin-ssi instead of the camera.

Okay?”

Woohyung put on a flustered expression, then nodded his head.

The shooting started again, and Woohyung looked down at Jemin on his knee.

Jemin felt burdened thinking that Woohyung was staring at him.

Fortunately, Jemin had his eyes closed, so he didn’t have to look at Woohyung.

‘…….’

Right now, Jemin’s appearance had nothing that overlapped with yesterday.

Woohyung stared intently at Jemin’s face.

“Hey~ Don’t touch the hair.”

At the photographer’s words, Woohyung hurriedly pulled his hand away.

Until he was called out, he didn’t even realize he was stroking Jemin’s hair.

“I’m sorry.”

Has he gone mad?

Why was he stroking his hair there?

For a moment, Woohyung wondered if an alien lifeform had entered his hand.

Otherwise, there was no way he would be crazy enough to stroke Yoo Jemin’s hair.

Things outside Woohyung’s common sense kept happening over and over again.