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Join the ServerI thought, how badly could my eyes really be hurt just from a bit of sand wind, and looked at him with a confused expression.
When our eyes met, Seo Jun-jae seemed to realize what my face meant and cleared his throat awkwardly.
Apparently even he found it a little embarrassing.
“Just in case.”
“Your eyes are still a bit red,” he added quietly, then used the towel he was holding to lightly dab my wet eye area and the side of my hair that had gotten damp from the saline solution.
I half raised my hand to say I would do it myself, but then gave up and let him.
I figured there was no point in struggling and wasting energy when he clearly wouldn’t listen anyway.
“Aren’t you tired?”
The towel came away as if he had dried off most of the moisture, and at the same time he asked the question.
I suddenly thought of Park Seo-hu and Lee Woo-rim, who had been lying collapsed side by side on the waiting room chairs asleep.
Those two had been so consumed with perfecting the choreography details for ‘White Night’ just hours ago that they were probably more exhausted.
As for me, I was still in not too bad shape.
“I’m fine.”
“Oh, really?
That’s good.”
Despite his words, Seo Jun-jae’s face showed clear disappointment.
No, maybe it was just that he seemed to be intentionally showing it.
I furrowed my brow without meaning to, and then with a low laugh, his fingers reached out and gently smoothed my hair.
“Still, tell me if you get tired.
I can lend you my lap too.”
At his subtle remark, a fairly old memory suddenly came to mind.
Three months ago, when we were practicing ‘July Snow,’ Yeo Hyun-tae had let me use his lap as a pillow while I slept.
That scene had aired on episode 4 of Not My Idol and gotten me teased quite a bit by Ha Jin-woo and Lee Woo-rim.
I doubted he was bringing that up now, but the thing about doubts is that they tend to be right.
“Come to me, not Hyun-tae.”
“No, that was back when…!”
I was about to shout that back then neither you nor Hyun-tae had any feelings for me, but the sound of the bathroom door opening made me swallow my words.
“Jae-seo hyung!
The lunch box…”
Chae Han-ul, who had entered the bathroom looking for me, saw the two of us standing close together and trailed off.
Seeing his eyes dart nervously between me and Seo Jun-jae, just like in the practice room the other day, my head started to throb for some reason.
***
Late at night, after the group formation scene in front of a massive green screen, the first day of filming ended.
We went back to the company, ran through the choreography a few more times, then stopped by the dorm to sleep for a bit.
When I opened my eyes again, the car carrying us was already heading back to the music video set.
“Please take care of us!”
We greeted the staff, who were already busy moving around on a set slightly different from yesterday’s, then found our waiting room.
Preparation started with the members who hadn’t finished their main shoots yesterday.
Because of that, we waited a long time, got hair and makeup, changed clothes, and by the time we left the waiting room, quite some time had passed.
The set, where the first shoot seemed to have already finished, was bustling with preparations for the next.
When Lee Woo-rim saw a massive water tank being placed in the middle of it all, he quickly grabbed my arm.
“Wow!
Let’s go see!”
As we approached the front of the set, many staff members were already gathered.
From what we heard around us, the scene they were about to film was the most difficult of all the shoots over these two days.
And perhaps because it was a highly anticipated scene, the video team staff had also come close and were fixing their cameras toward the set.
“Hyun-tae hyung, fighting!”
Soon, Yeo Hyun-tae’s underwater shoot rehearsal began.
They said it would be hard to reshoot once he got completely wet, so the rehearsal continued for a long time.
After it ended, the signal for the main shoot came shortly after.
Soon, water began to fill the tank where Yeo Hyun-tae was standing.
“A little more pain in the expression!”
After a series of director’s instructions, when the water filled past half the tank, the first take ended.
After the camera settings were changed around, the shoot resumed, and soon Yeo Hyun-tae sank into the water.
The moment Yeo Hyun-tae, reflected on the monitoring display, slowly opened his eyes beneath the surface, admiring reactions came from around us.
Lee Woo-rim, standing right next to me, was the same.
“Wow, that hyung is really insane!”
I glanced at Lee Woo-rim, who was standing there with his mouth open as if in a trance, then turned my gaze back to the display.
Meeting Yeo Hyun-tae’s eyes, which were clearly staring straight ahead even underwater, I thought to myself.
This is really not going to lower the standard, it’s just going to make the gap even bigger, isn’t it?
***
After Chae Han-ul’s individual cut shoot, which was the last of the day, there were simple shoots for the members who had finished their main shoots yesterday.
Since the patterns were set – eyes closing and opening, looking up at the camera with head bowed – we finished quickly and changed into our final outfits.
After some touch-ups to hair and makeup, Manager Park Bo-sung started splitting the members into groups of three.
Having been through similar situations several times, the members familiarly pulled out their phones.
Meaning, we were to take unit selfies for photo cards that would be included in the debut album or as store benefits.
“Full circle, we’re back to this combination again.”
It was the exact same combination as the first unit photos we took as NUAVE, when we had split into groups at the SNS team staff’s suggestion while recording at Randy Kim’s studio.
The members said it was the most uncontroversial combination – three members by age.
But there was one small problem with this combination.
“What do we do about our Jae-seo…”
At Kwak Jun-sung’s voice, half teasing and half sympathetic, I turned around.
Then I saw Seo Jun-jae and Yeo Hyun-tae, who were grouped with me.
A truly uncontroversial combination – one where I alone become the odd one out.
“How come that combination got picked of all times?”
Lee Woo-rim added more teasing, but I couldn’t say anything in reply.
As Lee Woo-rim said, it was ‘of all times.’
Right, of all times when we had just changed into suits similar in form to uniforms – why did I have to be in a team with Seo Jun-jae and Yeo Hyun-tae?
“What are you doing?
Hurry up and take the photos so we can continue filming.”
Naturally, the manager, unaware of my situation, urged the members again.
After sending me looks of deep sympathy, the other members found their spots.
I watched them for a moment, then let out a deep sigh and moved.
Soon, with both arms held by Seo Jun-jae and Yeo Hyun-tae, I was dragged to one corner of the set.
“…So, how are we going to take them?”
I gave up and opened my mouth.
I turned my head to ask Seo Jun-jae, who had raised his phone first, and he curved his eyes into long crescents.
“What do you mean?
It’s just a photo, just take it.”
Then he mercilessly started pressing the shutter.
Between the two of them, who might have struck cool expressions instantly or might just naturally look that way, my flustered face kept piling up in the preview window at the bottom of the screen.
It was absolutely certain that a squid was making its presence known inside Seo Jun-jae’s phone gallery.
After finishing the ‘White Night’ music video shoot, jacket shooting schedules followed one after another.
As Team Leader Kim Shin-mi had told us – “The debut album will be released in three versions” – the jacket photos were also shot in three different concepts.
Amid traveling between a forest, a desert, and an indoor studio for the jacket shoots, we also had to learn and practice the choreography for the title track ‘Awake,’ so the days were insanely busy.
***
And before I knew it, it was July 10th.
“Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Dear Jae-seo hyung, happy birthday to you!”
We were in the middle of choreography practice, preparing for the ‘Awake’ music video shoot that was less than a week away, when Lee Woo-rim, who had suddenly run out complaining of a stomachache, came back into the practice room holding a cake.
He approached singing a unnecessarily high quality happy birthday song and shoved the cake with candles in it right in front of my face.
After I awkwardly blew out the candles, the members gathered around me burst into birthday wishes.
“Jae-seo, congratulations.”
“Hyung, happy birthday!”
Actually, this kind of birthday party wasn’t new.
When most of the NUAVE members were in the ‘July Snow’ team during practice, we had briefly celebrated Yoon Ji-heon’s birthday, and while preparing for the final competition, all twenty participants had celebrated Lee Woo-rim’s birthday together.
But now that the birthday person was me, it felt incredibly awkward.
Fortunately, the awkwardness didn’t last long.
Because we were in the middle of working on important choreography, we each had just a bite of the small cake and then went straight back to practice.
The problem started after we returned to the dorm following the late night practice.
“Jae-seo, happy birthday.”
The moment I entered the room, a shopping bag and a box neatly wrapped in pretty paper – things I had never seen while living together, as if he had hidden them somewhere – were suddenly pushed into my arms.
I was about to refuse Seo Jun-jae and Yeo Hyun-tae’s gifts, feeling burdened by them, when the door burst open with a bang and Lee Woo-rim walked in.
“Ah!
I was going to be the first to give mine!”
He came over and wedged his gift between my chest and the shopping bag.
The other members, following behind him one by one, also greeted me again with congratulations and placed their gifts in front of me.
I looked down at the pile of gifts, which had stacked up without any chance to refuse, with a troubled expression.
Then a hand suddenly reached out from beside me and subtly pushed the gifts on the floor to the side.
Then it changed direction, took the shopping bag still hanging on my arm, and placed it down where the other gifts had been just moments ago.
Those hands seemed to be telling me to open his gift first.
I eventually let out a low sigh and reached my hand down.
Inside the shopping bag Seo Jun-jae had placed there was a shoebox.
I took out the box and opened it.
Inside was a pair of shoes that looked somehow familiar.
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