"You've lost it."
"I haven't. I'm fine. I… mean it about Dansol."
"Don't make me laugh. This time too, it started as a joke. Sincere? You even know what sincere is? Is your 'sincerity' just you doting on him because he's cute? If you really thought about Dansol… you shouldn't have been living like that in the same room. Acting like a good hyung, like, 'Let's get along since we're both omegas.' Ha. It's not even funny."
"At first, it was… but now it's different."
Daesu was right. Maybe Jisu had chosen the wrong first button from the start. Was it really irreversible?
"A confession the other person can't bear is violence."
Leaving Jisu behind, Daesu said that as he walked out of the forest.
'Pee-pants… Han Jisu…'
"Gasp!"
Startled by the faint remnants of last night's memory, Dansol jolted upright. But Jisu—who should have been hugging him in the spot beside him like a treasured doll—was nowhere to be seen. Jisu usually slept in and always woke later than Dansol. Had something happened?
"Hyung…"
When Dansol unzipped the tent and stepped out, he saw Jisu leaning back in a folding chair, dozing awkwardly. As if he'd taken the full brunt of the morning dew, Jisu's hair and windbreaker were damp.
"Hyung!"
"Mm… Sol, you're up?"
"Hyung! Don't tell me you slept out here?"
"…It was kind of hot in the tent."
There was no way. In the sudden drop in temperature at dawn, Dansol had had to pull his sleeping bag up to his neck. Worry surged—had he made some big mistake with Jisu while he was drunk?
"Hyung… did I… mess up last night or something…?"
"Is your ankle a bit better?"
"Ah… yeah, it's fine. But hyung, last night…"
"Ah! It feels so refreshing to wake up early for once. Sol, hyung's going to take a quick walk around here."
As if deliberately avoiding Dansol, Jisu changed the subject. Dansol reacted sharply to that kind of distance. Not knowing why, watching someone pull away—he was used to that.
"A—achoo!"
Fleeing into the forest to avoid Dansol's eyes, Jisu hunched his shoulders, shivering as he rubbed his arms. Refreshing, my ass—he was one step away from coming down with something.
The few tents they had were all packed with alphas. He'd left his own tent back at the lodging because all he'd cared about was sleeping with Dansol, so Dansol's tent had been his only option.
But the conscience that had only just woken up grabbed him by the ankle.
Once they returned to the lodging, he was going to move rooms.
"Ha… I'm freezing, fuck…"
Jisu didn't show his face at all through a quick breakfast and even cleanup afterward. Dansol kept fidgeting with the sandwich and drink he'd set aside for Jisu.
He walked up to Daesu, who was packing the tent. If anyone knew where Jisu was, it might be him.
"Um… sunbaenim. Do you know where Jisu hyung went?"
It was the first time since they'd come up the mountain that Daesu had been alone with Dansol. Daesu sucked in a breath. His body wasn't reacting like it had before, but it still felt like a kind of trauma. He kept tugging the top of his hiking outfit down.
"Don't know. Me neither."
He'd always been blunt, but Dansol found him strangely cold. Maybe it was just his imagination. Or maybe it was a victim complex. Maybe they were the same as always, and he was the one overreacting.
"I need to fold this. Move."
"Ah… do you want me to help?"
"No."
"…Okay."
In a corner while packing his things, Dansol replayed last night in his head. He hadn't drunk that much, but the liquor was strong.
Dansol had never tried a spirit that high-proof before. It looked pretty and tasted sweet, so he hadn't even realized he was getting drunk. Still, it felt like something he'd said to Jisu must have been the problem.
Jisu was one of Korea's top actors. Just because he was kind and friendly didn't mean Dansol could act the same way back. Dansol smacked the top of his own head—thunk, thunk.
"Is your ankle okay?"
Minhyuk was the one who spoke to him first.
"Yes…"
"On the way down, you'll go with me and Taeoh."
"What? Then Jisu hyung and… Daesu sunbaenim…"
"Jisu went down early this morning, and Daesu said he wants to go down alone."
"Ah…"
It felt like tears would push their way out at any second. It really did look like both of them were avoiding him.
"Hyung… did I mess up last night?"
"No? Other than being a little drunk? Why—did something happen?"
"No… It's nothing. I think I already messed up with Jisu hyung. I think that's why he's avoiding me. What do I do?"
"He went in to sleep right away, I thought… What did you do?"
"That…"
Dansol couldn't bring himself to say he'd called Jisu "pee-pants." Jisu had been hurt by it—spreading it to someone else felt wrong. More than that, Dansol couldn't even tell why Jisu was angry in the first place.
"It's fine. I'll talk to Jisu hyung once we're down."
But—
The moment Dansol returned to the lodging, intending to apologize to Jisu right away, what he saw as soon as he opened the gate was Jisu arguing with PD Choi.
"Why isn't there a room? Yoon Yeomin left."
"Ah, well… because the rules changed… a new member…"
"What? PD Choi, we signed contracts to be on this program. What do you mean the rules changed? You change things on your own without even telling the cast—is that your style? Fuck… Turn the camera off."
The gentle Jisu Dansol knew was nowhere to be found. The way he cursed, barely holding back his anger, was downright frightening.
"You push the schedule so hard the kids get hurt, and now you're changing the rules all of a sudden? A new member? Ha. Shouldn't you at least explain it to the cast ahead of time?"
"I was going to tell you on the mountain, but Yoo Dohyeon got hurt…!"
"Then why the hell did we do the hike in the first place…! Ha… whatever. From today on, I'm absolutely using a room alone. Make that happen."
"Han Jisu-ssi! You can't just—!"
"You knew from the start there'd be four omegas on this show. Don't tell me you only made three rooms on purpose so you could film us fighting in one room like idiots. I can't stand it. Change it now."
As Jisu was about to say more, his eyes caught Dansol. Standing at the gate, unable to come in, Dansol had heard everything. The sandwich in his hand felt humiliating.
He hadn't even known Jisu hated it enough to blow up like that. Thinking they were close made Dansol feel like an idiot.
Jisu was flustered too. He'd come down early with no cameras because he didn't want to show Dansol his ugly state with a fever coming on.
PD Choi, who had been telling Dansol to move rooms just yesterday, hurriedly tried to steer the conversation elsewhere. Jisu clutched his throbbing head, but no matter what he said, the answer stayed the same.
Let's discuss it once the other members are back.
He couldn't understand why he had to "discuss it" with the others just to move into the empty room. Only after he cursed and blew up did PD Choi finally reveal the new member was coming.
It wasn't even in the contract. And in the moment he was furious about that, Dansol had returned. The timing couldn't have been worse.
Jisu had never once felt uncomfortable sharing a room with Dansol. What he couldn't bear was how his feelings kept growing.
Dansol's eyes—hurt at words that were so easy to misunderstand—came into view. He was holding back tears, trying to endure. It wasn't what Jisu wanted Dansol to see.
Before Jisu could say anything, Dansol turned away to hide his tears.
"Sol…!"
And of all times, Jisu's body swayed—his fever finally catching up to him. As he staggered from sudden dizziness, Dansol had already left Chunmonggak.
After leaving Chunmonggak, there weren't many places on the island for Dansol to go. He ran all the way to the tree at the foot of the mountain where Minhyuk always lazed around, and only then sank down and wiped his tears.
He knew there was nothing to expect from people—so why had he expected anything? Feeling stupid, like he'd been fooled again, Dansol sobbed.
A cat approached him.
It was the mother cat of the kitten trio Minhyuk had been feeding. She was always disappearing somewhere, and this seemed to be her hideout. The cat that never let anyone near when she was nursing her kittens now rubbed her face against Dansol's foot, as if trying to soothe him.
Meow—
"Is this life going to end like this too…? I really must be beyond saving. I'm scared."
Dansol murmured as he stroked the cat's soft fur.
"You were here."
The one who appeared in front of him was Lee Yiyeon , panting hard. As if he'd been sprinting for a long time, beads of sweat dotted his forehead.
"I've been looking everywhere."
He'd been in the lodging early, and he'd ended up seeing Jisu and PD Choi's argument from start to finish. Just as the scene he'd been watching from the second floor started to get dull, Dansol opened the gate.
Before anyone could stop him, words spilled from Jisu's mouth—words that would only hurt Dansol. Lee Yiyeon 's chest ached just from seeing Dansol's fleeing back, and he couldn't stay inside.
Why was he so drawn to someone who had never once given him any space?
"Hic… Why do you even—"
Even the scolding in Dansol's resentful tone made Lee Yiyeon happy, because it meant Dansol was speaking to him. Even he knew it was serious.
"I thought you'd be crying."
Dansol, who had been forcing his jaw tight to hold the tears back, broke down at Lee Yiyeon 's words and wailed like a child.
Lee Yiyeon was one of the people Dansol least wanted to see him like this—yet even after returning to the past, nothing was going the way he wanted.
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