SS Chapter 34: After-Party (2)

TL: FoodieMonster007

When Jeong Seongjun returned home, his older brother's sneakers were, unusually, at the entrance.

What's with this guy leaving his shoes so uncivilized?

Jeong Seongjun picked up the sneakers strewn across the floor. As he neatly arranged the shoes, their heels completely worn down, he heard a small rustling sound.

"I'm home~."

He called out as he took off his shoes, but no reply came. Normally, he would have at least heard an "Are you home?"

Letting his backpack strap hang loose, Jeong Seongjun opened the closed door to their room. Jeong Seongbin, the room's co-owner, came into view.

"What are you doing?"

Jeong Seongbin stood before the large closet, holding a huge plastic bag. Jeong Seongjun wondered what his brother, who was supposed to be busy with a survival program, was doing here.

Jeong Seongbin's eyes widened in clear panic. The inside of the closet was a complete mess.

Jeong Seongjun lowered his gaze. The plastic bag was about a third full of something white. When he looked back at the closet, the shelf was, without a doubt, his own.

"Did your little brother's casual fashion become a hindrance to your idol activities? Is that why you're committing this ruthless act?"

Jeong Seongbin, who had been watching him, sighed. The plastic bag Jeong Seongbin held slid to the floor, just like the one he had already set down.

"…You also wore my clothes out and put a hole in them."

His tone was sullen. It didn't seem like something worth bringing up. Jeong Seongjun wasn't an inconsiderate person. If Jeong Seongbin had been truly upset, he would have raised the issue much sooner.

Not only was Jeong Seongbin not the type to dwell on the past, but his older brother was also too busy to pick a fight over something so trivial. Even when he heard about the hole, he had been more curious about how it happened than about how Jeong Seongjun would take responsibility.

What an excuse.

Instead of voicing his thoughts, Jeong Seongjun perched on the edge of the bed.

"You have a lot of new clothes?"

"You know I'm an expert when it comes to online shopping mall sales."

"Instead of making me pay for the pants, I'll just borrow some."

"Who rents things out so haphazardly?"

He didn't mean to grumble. He was just joking as usual.

However, Jeong Seongbin was serious. To be precise, he said something absurd with a serious face. Did it even make sense that he was here raiding a closet because they had no budget for stage outfits?

Is your company doing okay?

Jeong Seongjun held back the words about to burst out. There was no reason to ask if they were okay when it was obvious they weren't. The occasional, and never good, news he'd heard about the company also played a part.

The diligent firstborn would never tell Mom and Dad about this. Only because they were twins could Jeong Seongbin get caught in an embarrassing situation, sigh, and act as if nothing was wrong.

Jeong Seongbin was often like this in the past. While acting clueless, he would, in strange moments, not hide the signal that said, 'I can show my weak side to you.' The part so like him was that he 'didn't hide' it, rather than 'sent' it. In a way, it seemed he considered such consideration a luxury for a brother. In another, it seemed he was being honest because they were brothers.

Jeong Seongjun stopped trying to dig deeper. Instead, he recommended a mix of clothes with wide shoulders and slim-fit shirts.

"The hyungs' physiques are no joke. If you stand on stage, the eldest son of the Jeong family will be the only one who looks vertically squashed!"

At the silly joke, Jeong Seongbin chuckled just like always. He quickly regained his energy.

"What's the one with the best fit? They say Kiyeon has to wear something like that."

"You were planning to raid my closet behind my back from the start, weren't you? Shouldn't you have brought that friend along?"

"Nobody knows I came here to steal your clothes."

"So you were dreaming of a perfect crime?"

"Yep. Now, if only you disappeared…"

Jeong Seongbin grinned brightly and held the plastic bag wide open. Jeong Seongjun grinned back and, faster than lightning, stuffed a brand-new, tag-on shirt inside.

As soon as he achieved his goal, Jeong Seongbin left the room without a second thought. He tied the end of the bag tightly and slung it over his shoulder. He looked like the Santa from the picture books of his childhood.

"Gotta go."

Jeong Seongbin slipped on his sneakers. Leaning crookedly against the shoe rack, Jeong Seongjun asked.

"You're leaving without seeing Mom and Dad?"

"I have practice, so I have to get back quickly."

"They'll be really upset if they find out their eldest son left without even saying hello."

"I told you, right? As long as you keep your mouth shut…"

A chilling warning followed. Jeong Seongjun snickered and gestured for him to hurry up and leave. Jeong Seongbin made a look of contempt.

Even though they were as similar as reflections in a mirror, Jeong Seongjun always saw a shadow on Jeong Seongbin's face. It was there not just at times like now, when he looked at his younger brother with disdain, but long before.

Some days Jeong Seongjun knew the reason, and some days he didn't. As mentioned, Jeong Seongbin didn't hide the signals, he just didn't kindly explain them. You'd find out if he told you himself. Instead, if Jeong Seongjun had a guess, he would nudge his brother to spill the details. There were also times he'd ask "What's wrong?" when he had no clue, only to be told "It's nothing."

The very first worry Jeong Seongjun heard from Jeong Seongbin was, 'Can I become an idol?' Until then, Jeong Seongbin had been quite energetic.

Then he slowly sank. The frequency of him saying "It's nothing" noticeably increased. When asked to come to their parents' house for a meal, he rarely ever said okay.

His personality, quite honest right up until he became a trainee, changed slightly, perhaps due to his unstable life. He awkwardly tried to hide the anxiety he used to show without pretense. He still felt most comfortable with his twin, same as always, but he had become more cautious.

The quiet message window slowly came back to life after news of a new trainee arrived. Jeong Seongjun was also able to nudge his brother more often. Then, Jeong Seongbin would reveal his circumstances.

The last worry he heard was, 'They're telling me to be the leader over the older hyungs, will that be okay?' After that, Jeong Seongbin lived well, regardless of the leader role. There were many ups and downs that made their family anxious, but he never stopped contacting them. The face seen on TV had no shadow.

"Oh right, Jeong Seongjun!"

"……"

The brother who, before knowing the ways of the world, would have his eyes sparkle just by dreaming, had vanished into memory.

"Everyone in the family is healthy, right? No one's sick?"

Instead, he had become solid. Their eye levels had been the same their whole lives, but just because he had stepped into society first, he felt so much bigger.

The mindset of having to bring the coolest and best clothes for his hyungs and dongsaengs, and of taking care of his family even while living alone, was something Jeong Seongjun, born on the same day, did not possess. Therefore, Jeong Seongbin's character must be innate.

"Everyone's hale and hearty, and we're planning to come get you as a group if you don't show up for Chuseok."

"Shut up. I'm really leaving now."

The plastic bag of immense volume disappeared with the sound of the door lock engaging. Jeong Seongjun waved until the door closed, then left the entryway after hearing the elevator arrive.

Apocalypse.

A word meaning the great catastrophe that will bring about the end of the world.

Jeong Seongbin stared at the dictionary for a long time. On the day they filmed the music video for 『End』, one of their double title tracks, Jeong Seongbin had returned home after successfully finishing the group choreography shoot and fallen into deep agony for a reason.

『End』

was set on a desertified Earth. The main story was about Choi Jeho, who had been wandering a vacant city, meeting five survivors in a bomb shelter.

Jeong Seongbin played the role of the shelter's manager. Having checked the storyboard for the remaining scenes in advance, he found out what scenes he would be filming. A prop also appeared repeatedly. It was the manager's old notebook.

This… Iwol must have put this in on purpose, right…?

After the video revealing their personal belongings, Jeong Seongbin and the notebook became an inseparable pair. It was a magic notebook that prompted questions on variety shows like, "We heard there's an amazing notebook, what's the current progress?" and made fans burst into laughter even if only the edge of its cover was shown.

There was a fanatical side to Kim Iwol's obsession with creating character traits. He didn't waste any material, even when assigning a single role. It was his ironclad rule that the spArk in the content and the spArk in reality should not be excessively disconnected.

"No matter what concept you promote with, what the fans want to see is ultimately the real you. Even if you're selling a fantasy, there has to be a point of contact with reality. Don't forget this, even when you're making an official tweet."

The narrative with 『On A High Note』, which was filmed as a set, contained the relationship between Choi Jeho and Kang Kiyeon. Meanwhile, the detailed points of the two music videos held the personalities of Park Joowoo and Lee Cheonghyeon. They were traces of Kim Iwol's deliberation on how to show the members in different ways.

If so, shouldn't I, who only receives the setup, contribute something too?

The worry started from there. The storyboard was already complete, and the drama scene filming was starting the very next day, so there wasn't much he could do.

Still, it seemed possible to supplement some minor details. So, after racking his brain, he came up with a plausible plan.

There were many points of concern. Was he unnecessarily adding his opinion to a settled matter? Would he step up only to bring back a lackluster result, earning him comments that it would have been better not to do anything at all…

"What are you thinking about so deeply?"

Kim Iwol approached the hesitating Jeong Seongbin and asked. Despite just having finished a grueling schedule, he looked perfectly fine without a single sign of exhaustion.

His lie of "it's nothing" was seen through in an instant. He couldn't hide anything from Kim Iwol.

"If it's just a prop, we can talk to the company and change it without much difficulty. It's not asking for additional labor from others, so it won't be a problem. If someone criticizes you for being passionate about your own work, they're the weird one, but, you have to consider that even if you, Seongbin, work hard to write a diary to put in the notebook, the pages might not be shown. The notebook is a device, not the main focus. Are you still okay with that?"

Kim Iwol's words were always clear. At the same time, they were meticulous. He was worried that a member would show passion only to not be rewarded for it. This was despite the fact that, paradoxically, he rarely showed his own passion.

"Of course," Jeong Seongbin answered. After returning, while the members were asleep, he sat in the living room with a mood lamp on. He spread out some scrap paper and repeatedly wrote and erased, figuring out what content to leave behind.

Month X, Day X. It's been a month since we started living in the bomb shelter.

It doesn't rain anymore.

Month X, Day X. I helped organize the dried plant specimens.

P was depressed because the flower petals had no color left, so I gave them the crayons I found in a corner of the warehouse.

Month X, Day X. The bomb shelter's lifespan is almost over.

There's still a forest left, but is the world really going to end?

Month X, Day X. Thanks to the newcomer C, K has made a friend too.

It feels like we've become a family.

The memos, written while recalling the storyboard, resembled spArk from a few years ago. From the day he first spoke to Park Joowoo, to the period of wandering, to the moment he felt comfortable with his colleagues, these moments mixed with the fictional story and remained as sentences.

Month X, Day X. A summer of pouring rain is coming.

Jeong Seongbin, writing this, didn't realize it at the time, but in life, there would be countless hardships.

They would come unavoidably, making Jeong Seongbin cry or feel frustrated.

Month X, Day X. Tomorrow, we will go outside.

Into a world without barriers.

Nevertheless, Jeong Seongbin was a person who would not stop, even knowing how hollow a dream filled with hope could be. Therefore, the day would eventually come when he would become free from the beings that had once bound him.