Chapter 97: No Teaming Up!

After quickly changing clothes and getting hair and makeup touch-ups, I came out to find that Seo Jun-jae’s shoot on the second set had already finished.

I immediately headed to the third set, where they were busily preparing for the next shoot.

The interior of an airplane, which I had seen in photos before, was recreated quite convincingly.

“To that place!

Let’s go on a trip!”

I walked into the set, hearing a song that felt both familiar and unfamiliar.

The members were singing and messing around in front of the behind-the-scenes camera.

I quietly slipped in beside them and added occasional reactions while other members, having finished their preparations, joined one by one.

After exchanging small talk about travel for a while, the signal to start shooting came, and soon the group shoot began.

After a short shoot pretending to board a plane and go on a trip, we left the set and got into the waiting car.

The car sped down the road, now dark again after a full day had passed, and soon arrived at a place that looked like a pension.

Following the manager inside, I saw that preparations for the next shoot were already in full swing.

“Aren’t you tired?”

As usual, I waited for my turn and went to get my makeup done.

The staff member placed a cotton pad on my face and spoke.

Following her gaze as she asked the question, I turned my head.

Unfortunately, Park Seo-hu and Lee Woo-rim, the two with the weakest stamina on the team, were sitting on either side of me, nodding off.

“Ah, I’m fine.”

We had been shooting nonstop since early yesterday, so it would be a lie to say I wasn’t sleepy, but I wasn’t that exhausted or tired.

Thanks to my stamina stat, which was still high even if it had dropped a bit compared to before.

Actually, I had recently discovered something about my stamina stat.

On days when I didn’t sleep well or ate poorly, like today, the stamina stat points dropped somewhat.

Indeed, since preparing for debut, there had been consecutive days with insufficient sleep and food intake, so my stamina stat had decreased considerably.

Fortunately, on days when I moved my body a lot, including dancing, it increased again little by little, so overall it hadn’t decreased that much.

Remembering that my stamina stat had barely passed 900 points the last time I checked, I looked at my face in the mirror in front of me.

There I sat, looking not much different than usual.

***

“Wow!”

Lee Woo-rim, who had been sprawled on the sofa with a dazed expression just moments ago, sprang up at the staff’s news that shooting was ready, let out a cheer, and ran to the back of the building.

Following him outside, I saw that by one corner of the pool where cameras were set up, there were water guns, beach balls, and colorful floats, apparently shoot props.

Woo-rim, having regained his energy as if he had never been tired, picked up the largest water gun, his eyes sparkling.

After each member picked up a water gun, the beach balls and floats were also moved to the poolside.

The instructions for the next shoot felt easier than ever.

That was because they simply said to have fun playing together.

Though they did add one condition: “but make it pretty.”

“Jae-seo-ssi, over here!”

Amid the commotion, a staff member called me over.

I sat on the float they were holding.

They also had my water gun in hand.

Since this was my first time playing in the water with such things, I felt awkward as always and moved to the center of the pool.

Once all the members, including me, were in position, the shooting signal came down.

“Aack!”

At the same time, Lee Woo-rim and Lee Chan-seo raised their large water guns and sprayed powerful streams wildly.

The other members, who had been trying to fight back with their small water guns, soon seemed frustrated by the weak streams and started splashing water with their hands.

As the float I was on rocked violently, nearly tipping over from the water currents created from all directions, various thoughts flashed through my mind.

The hair and makeup that had taken time to fix, the short shooting time remaining, and the instruction given just before the shoot: “make it pretty.”

I was already quite wet from being hit by water sprayed from all over, but getting completely soaked was another matter.

I grabbed the neck of the flamingo-shaped float to try to keep my balance, and then –

…Oh?

The float stopped moving entirely.

Water was still being churned up with tremendous force all around, so just grabbing part of the float shouldn’t have calmed the rocking this much.

Thinking it was strange, I turned my head.

Seo Jun-jae was standing there, holding the handle of my float.

I wasn’t sure when he had arrived.

I quietly watched his light brown hair darken as it got wet, then raised my hand without thinking.

“Hey, no teaming up!”

The moment my hand blocked the stream of water heading for Seo Jun-jae, Lee Woo-rim shouted loudly and turned his gun toward me.

Soon a long stream of water poured over my face.

Startled by the strong attack, I reflexively jerked my body back.

The float tilted sharply, and I began to fall backward.

As the world spun rapidly, I belatedly thought “Oh no” and squeezed my eyes shut.

The moment I felt the water surface touch my back –

“Jae-seo, are you okay?”

My back and thighs were scooped up by solid arms.

Contrary to the completely unexpected situation, the sensation felt so familiar.

I hesitantly lifted my heavy eyelids, and sure enough, Yeo Hyun-tae’s face filled my vision.

I had already been through similar situations multiple times, enough to immediately recognize the familiarity, yet my head still thought the word “embarrassed” and momentarily stopped functioning.

I was just lying in Yeo Hyun-tae’s arms with a stupid expression when a huge stream of water and jeers of “Woo woo!” began raining down on me.

“Ah, stop flirting over there!”

Through my vision, blurred from being instantly soaked, I saw the members spraying water guns at us.

Yeo Hyun-tae immediately grabbed my waist and helped me stand, then positioned himself in front of me as if protecting me.

The jeers grew louder, and another stream of water poured down.

I was blankly watching the water droplets break against Yeo Hyun-tae’s back, which was shielding me, when something suddenly flew toward my face.

I caught it reflexively and looked – it was my water gun, the one I had been holding the whole time on the float.

The only person who could have thrown it… As I thought that, I looked up.

Over Yeo Hyun-tae’s shoulder, I saw Seo Jun-jae standing next to the float I had been riding, wearing a radiant smile.

The sharp emotion subtly embedded in that smile felt so heavy that I ended up letting out another low sigh.

…I was increasingly unsure how to handle the feelings of these two.

At first, I had definitely thought something selfish and cowardly and trashy – just ignore them appropriately and enjoy what I could.

But for some reason, it wasn’t easy.

Times like this, even when I didn’t want to, my heart kept lurching.

“Wait!

I’ll move the lights a little to the right!”

A staff member’s shout suddenly reached my ears and cleared my complicated mind.

Come to think of it, we were still filming…

I needed to focus more than usual, not space out.

I shook my head slightly to pull myself together, gripped my water gun properly, and stepped forward.

The moment I stepped out from behind Yeo Hyun-tae, a strong spray of water hit me.

I raised my water gun and shot back.

The long stream of water soon broke into droplets and scattered messily.

…Even in the midst of this, it looked just like my heart that I had just shaken off.

That silly thought crossed my mind, so I shook my head again.

“Ah, I want to play more!”

After finishing the water play disguised as a shoot and preparing for the next one, Lee Woo-rim suddenly expressed his regret.

Unexpectedly, Yoon Ji-heon nodded and laughed.

“I agree.

It’s been a while since I played like this, it’s fun.”

“Wow, really?

I thought you would be thinking, ‘Let’s finish quickly and move on to the next scene!’”

“Haha, I used to enjoy playing outside too.”

Yoon Ji-heon’s answer, clearly referring to his past self, naturally brought that incident to mind.

The incident where his team members, who had trained and shared hardships together for years, caused personal scandals one after another, and the entire team collapsed in just a few months.

According to something he mentioned in passing at a company dinner before, that caused him to develop a habit of being overly cautious.

He was overly careful even when choosing a simple place to eat out, and he couldn’t enjoy outdoor activities he used to love unless it was for a shoot.

Moreover, according to Lee Chan-seo’s added comment, since Chan-seo was a fan, the company he originally belonged to treated Yoon Ji-heon, who had caused no problems at all, as a troublemaker overnight and didn’t support any of his activities.

He eventually switched companies as if being expelled and joined Please Take Care of My Idol.

So his own description of his behavior as “excessive” seemed understandable.

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