Chapter 6: The Quiet Idol’s Smile

#6

After the song ended, ragged breaths erupted from various corners of the room. Jaejeong, wiping the sweat from his brow, strode purposefully towards Sejin, who stood before him. Sejin, who had been observing them in the mirror, turned his head first.

“Baek Sejin.”

“What is it?”

“Get it together. You’re the only one dragging the beat.”

“Oh, was it obvious?”

Sejin, grinning brightly, rolled his eyes as if feigning innocence. Jaejeong’s face hardened at the ridiculous act, and he clicked his tongue in exasperation. He could feel the eyes of the surrounding members and staff turning towards them.

Jaejeong, seemingly unconcerned, lowered his sharp gaze.

“Focus.”

“Yes, hyung.”

Sejin addressed him as ‘hyung’ and even used polite language, which he rarely did. It was clear he was taking the situation lightly. Jaejeong let out a deep sigh and ruffled Sejin’s hair.

Though it appeared serious, the two were soon exchanging playful jabs.

“And don’t be late for practice. What kind of behavior is this, making people wait?”

“I just won’t be late anymore. Oh, you’re scaring me to death. Why are you so chatty today?”

Sejin, clearly annoyed by the nagging, stretched out his words before clinging to Jaejeong’s arm. The sensation of his sticky hand on bare skin was unpleasant, so Jaejeong ruthlessly shook him off.

Despite this, a smile still lingered on Sejin’s lips.

“Stop messing around and gather ’round! Let’s do a quick monitoring session before we go.”

Hyunjun, the leader, who had been having a serious conversation with the choreographer, called the scattered members together. Just as Jaejeong had pointed out, Sejin’s subtly delayed beat was clearly captured on screen.

“Taeyoung, straighten your arm here, don’t bend it.”

“Yes.”

However, the choreographer’s correction was directed not at Sejin, but at the youngest member, Taeyoung. Taeyoung quickly glanced around before nodding.

No mention was made of Sejin’s timing for the remainder of the video.

“Let’s try it one more time.”

After a brief monitoring session, as they headed back to their positions, Sejin sidled up to Jaejeong and tilted his head.

“Didn’t get caught.”

Sejin smiled playfully, genuinely believing that the choreographer hadn’t noticed the timing issue Jaejeong had pointed out. A chuckle escaped Jaejeong at the absurdity, and he simply walked past Sejin without a word.

“Oh, right, after practice, we’ll do a short K-Live. About an hour?”

At the mention of a live broadcast, the members’ gazes turned to the staff member who had spoken. K-Live was an internet live broadcast where celebrities interacted directly with their fans.

While some broadcasts were specifically planned, it was more common for members to simply turn one on after getting permission from the company. FACE A often hosted live streams as a form of fan service.

Several members voiced their dissatisfaction with the unexpected situation. Even if it was a casual broadcast, it still meant showing their faces to fans.

“I didn’t even shave,” Hyunjun, the leader, said, rubbing his visibly rough chin.

“Hyung, I have a razor. Want to borrow it?”

“Oh, thanks.”

“Don’t I look a bit ugly today?”

“You talk as if you’ve never been ugly before.”

“Want to die?”

Once the manager’s permission was granted, the members became restless. Practice was already an afterthought. Jaejeong merely watched the chaotic scene in the practice room as if it were none of his concern.

****

Despite seeming indifferent throughout, Jaejeong was the first to head to the shower room after practice. He changed into the clean clothes he’d brought as a spare and meticulously dried his hair. Even if it was K-Live, it was still a broadcast, so Jaejeong couldn’t help but be mindful.

He didn’t want to show a messy appearance to his fans.

Jayden, who hadn’t felt well since the start of practice, returned to the dorm early, leaving the remaining six members to start the live stream. They huddled close together to fit within the phone camera’s frame. Jaejeong, once again, took the very end spot.

It wasn’t a conscious decision, but it had become a habit, and he always gravitated to that particular spot.

“Is it on?”

At Sejin’s murmur, a staff member across from them gave an ‘okay’ sign with their fingers.

“Hello.”

“Hello.”

The members greeted the screen. Jaejeong, who had been quiet, belatedly waved his hand. Soon after the broadcast began, hearts and messages rapidly scrolled up from the bottom of the screen. The members’ eyes were drawn to the spare phone they had for checking the chat.

They waited until the viewer count had increased somewhat, then began answering the barrage of questions one by one.

“You’re asking why there are only six of us?”

“Oh, Jayden hyung went home.”

Yubin, sitting in the middle, offered a brief answer, omitting the full explanation. A momentary silence hung among the flustered members.

“He wasn’t feeling too well, so he went back first,” Jaejeong, who had been quiet until then, quickly added. Yubin, the one who had created the awkward situation, remained unperturbed.

“He’s not seriously ill, no. His condition just wasn’t great.”

The task of resolving the situation fell to Hyunjun, the leader. Unable to show his displeasure on camera, Jaejeong forced a smile. The members quickly changed the topic, shifting the atmosphere. Fortunately, there was no significant reaction in the chat window.

“We practiced our choreography. For the next album.”

“You want us to dance? We’d get in trouble if we spoiled it.”

When an awkward question appeared, the staff member sitting in front signaled them to gloss over it. Leader Hyunjun cleverly read another comment aloud.

“No, they keep telling us to look behind. Saying there’s something there.”

“Don’t mess with us. We have a mirror in front, so we can see everything.”

It was difficult to keep up with the rapidly scrolling chat, yet amidst the flood of foreign language comments, Korean characters often stood out more clearly. Jaejeong, checking the chat on the screen, fixed his gaze on his own name, which particularly caught his eye.

[TSdaddy: Jaejeong-ssi!]

[TSdaddy: Jaejeong-ssi!!]

[TSdaddy: Jaejeong-ssi!!!]

The increasing number of exclamation marks seemed to convey a sense of urgency. The honorific ‘Jaejeong-ssi’ was unfamiliar, making it even more conspicuous.

[TSdaddy: Jaejeong-ssi, please say something too]

[TSdaddy: Jaejeong-ssi, speak!!]

Jaejeong, his eyes following the comments that were helplessly swept away in the torrent of the chat, bit his lip to suppress a laugh.

****

Dohoon, checking X to see if there was any new news, was puzzled by the bustling timeline filled with similar topics. He belatedly realized that FACE A was currently on ‘K-Live.’

Fortunately, Dohoon had a general understanding of K-Live. He had previously broadcasted with actors to promote a movie. Not wanting to miss out on real-time information, Dohoon hastily installed the app.

After setting the same nickname as his X account and joining the live stream, he saw the members, casually dressed, huddled together in a small frame. Their makeup-free faces felt quite modest, unlike their stage personas.

Dohoon’s eyes naturally drifted to Jaejeong, seated at the edge. Dohoon had only recently learned that the member one felt a particular fondness and affection for was called their ‘bias.’ It seemed that Jaejeong appearing alone in his dream the other day was all for that very reason.

“But how do I send hearts on this thing?”

Dohoon, meticulously examining the screen, pressed the heart button at the bottom. After realizing he could press it multiple times, he began tapping the screen until his fingerprint felt worn away. Having learned from his previous broadcast experience that the number of hearts was recorded, he couldn’t stop his fingers, eager to help FACE A in any small way.

Meanwhile, Jaejeong was as quiet as ever. Occasionally, he would nod at a member’s words or wave at the screen, but his firmly closed lips showed no sign of opening.

“Ah, isn’t the broadcast almost over? Why isn’t he saying anything?”

Frustration naturally led to a disappointed voice. Watching Jaejeong’s face, which would sometimes get pushed out of frame as members moved, filled him with a sense of regret that bordered on sorrow.

Unable to bear it any longer, Dohoon took his hand off the heart button and began typing in the chat. He was beyond caring about the consequences.

[TSdaddy: Jaejeong-ssi!]

In the chat window, where languages from all over the world ran rampant, Dohoon’s message was helplessly swept away. His heart racing as his chat vanished from the screen in an instant, Dohoon typed again.

[TSdaddy: Jaejeong-ssi!!]

[TSdaddy: Jaejeong-ssi!!!]

Perhaps it was his imagination, but Jaejeong, who was looking at the chat, seemed to pause for a moment.

[TSdaddy: Jaejeong-ssi, please say something too]

When the message he had written with all his heart was again swept away in an instant, his stubbornness flared, and he typed once more.

[TSdaddy: Jaejeong-ssi, speak!!]

At that moment, Jaejeong, who was looking at the screen, was seen quietly curving his lips upward. ‘Did he laugh because he saw my message?’ A strange sense of anticipation swelled within him, even though he knew it would be difficult to spot his own words amidst the furiously scrolling comments.

Watching Jaejeong gaze intently at the screen, it felt as if their eyes were meeting. At that instant, Jaejeong’s lips on the screen slowly moved.

[Speak.]

Startled by the single word murmured in a low voice, Dohoon shot up from his seat. He almost dropped the phone in his hand.

[What was that all of a sudden, hyung?]

[No, someone told me to speak.]

Jaejeong replied calmly, then grinned and pressed his lips together again. Simultaneously, Dohoon clapped a hand over his mouth, letting out a silent scream. He was so overwhelmed by the thrilling sensation, unlike anything he had ever felt, that he even forgot to breathe.

[Ah, Jaejeong hyung is a bit quiet, isn’t he?]

[Not just ‘a bit quiet,’ he barely speaks at all.]

[Jaejeong is super quiet in the dorm too.]

[Yeah.]

Even as the members one by one attested to Jaejeong’s taciturn nature, Dohoon’s eyes saw only Jaejeong.