Let Them Talk

Since he had taken his last suppressant last night, his physical condition had mostly recovered.

Worried that Taeha might be uncomfortable with any faint lingering pheromones, Hanbyeol unconsciously shook his body.

Now?

Ji Taeha
Yeah, now.

I’m fine, but… you’re on the opposite side of town from my house.

Ji Taeha
It’s fine.
If something happens, I promised I’d be there for you.

That was true, but.
Hanbyeol sent Taeha a reply saying to go ahead then and calculated the time it would take to get from school to his house.

‘About 10 minutes…’

Checking the time, Hanbyeol was startled by his own reflection on the phone screen and rushed to the bathroom.

A short while later, Taeha, who had arrived earlier than expected, wore a flustered expression at the sight of Hanbyeol hurrying over and quickly reached out a hand.

“You’ll trip…!”

“I’m not a patient, Taeha-ya.”

“Even so… the suppressant side effects are still quite noticeable, aren’t they?”

Come to think of it, this guy’s a dominant too, so he must take suppressants.

About to say ‘No, I’m fine,’ as he habitually did to his family, Hanbyeol awkwardly nodded when the person he couldn’t hide anything from was staring right at him.

“But I’m okay now. I’ve been feeling much better since this afternoon.”
“I was actually planning to go to school starting today…”

“You should rest properly when you need to, Hanbyeol-ah.”

Taeha was firm.
Hanbyeol, who had been bowing his head and nodding, suddenly raised his head as if remembering something.

“Was there a lot of talk at school? That baseless rumor?”

“Uh… a little?”

As if unable to bring himself to say ‘no,’ Taeha nodded slowly.

It was too absurd for debut rumors about him, who couldn’t even properly sing the national anthem, let alone a children’s song, much less be an idol.
So his classmates, or those who had been in the same class, would have immediately realized it was nonsense.

However, in school, there were more students from other classes who didn’t know him than friends who had been in his class.
Taeha also wasn’t the type to mingle with many friends, and he was the same.
Especially since Yuseong debuted, he had distanced himself even more from people.

Taeha must have been more flustered than him.
Knowing all too well that debuting as an idol wasn’t easy, with his quiet personality, he must have worked hard to explain to people.

Having been close for so long, Hanbyeol could picture Taeha’s situation, filling him with guilt.

“What did your brother say?”

“Well… I’ve been trying to call him, but I can’t reach him.”

It was frustrating.

He needed to talk to his brother about what was happening and how to resolve it, but for some reason, there had been no contact from Yuseong.

Yuseong had been messaging him throughout the period he was home with suppressant side effects, so now Hanbyeol was starting to feel a bit anxious.
Contact from Yuseong had abruptly stopped last night at 11 PM.

“By any chance, have you thought of any other reasons while I was coming over?”

Hanbyeol shook his head.

Nothing still came to mind.
He didn’t want to be the subject of gossip and had already seen firsthand all sorts of ups and downs Yuseong experienced after becoming famous.

Hanbyeol also had a one-dimensional desire, in a good sense, to make his name known.
However, that was wishing to become famous as a composer.

A composer standing one step behind the singer who performed the song, applauding the singer who achieved first place.
That was Hanbyeol’s dream.
He never wanted his own face to spread in this manner.

“You know I asked my brother not to talk about me because I dislike being known.”

But then, why has this situation occurred?
As Hanbyeol’s expression hardened, seemingly unable to comprehend it, Taeha opened his mouth.

“There’s something I thought of.”

“What is it?”

“You’ve been taking composition lessons, and you’ve been interacting frequently to see your brother too.”

“That’s true…”

Hanbyeol readily nodded.

At first, he had reluctantly visited the dorm and company because of Yuseong’s condition, but later, Hanbyeol also visited diligently for his own dream and ambition.

So he did contribute to this situation himself.

Feeling a bit sheepish, Hanbyeol closed his mouth, and Taeha spoke again.

“Videos and photos have surfaced. Did you happen to check them?”

“No…”

“Then you don’t really need to see them.”

As Hanbyeol reached for his phone to check, Taeha stopped him.
Shaking his head, saying he had already checked, he continued the story.

“It seems the rumor started spreading quietly at first.”

The fact that Hanbyeol frequented Cha.N’s dorm was actually quietly discussed among sasaengs.
At first, the story was that he was a new resident who had moved into the apartment building.

Back then, it was a rumor circulating under the surface—just a handsome male student who seemed to have moved into the same building as Cha.N’s dorm—so neither the company nor Yuseong could respond.

However, Hanbyeol’s story began to spread properly starting from the local festival he attended with Cha.N.

The mysterious boy who appeared after getting out of Cha.N members’ car.
Being too young to be a manager and thanks to his noticeable looks, he briefly became a topic among Cha.N’s fan accounts.

‘Yuseong said he gets along well with his younger brother…’

Moreover, because there were fans who heard Yuseong call Hanbyeol’s name at the event venue, the fans who realized Hanbyeol was Yuseong’s younger brother initially kept their mouths shut.

It was just that the siblings seemed similar yet not similar in appearance, with only a slight mention that their ‘art styles were different.’
Along with the story that they had a good sibling relationship, fans’ smiles grew fondly pleased.

But as Hanbyeol’s visits to the dorm and company gradually increased, the rumors began to twist in a strange direction.

‘Even if he’s a younger brother, why does he come so often?’
‘The dorm, maybe, but the company…?’

The first time the story emerged was with a photo of Hanbyeol entering the company.
It was the day Danyeong personally picked him up in front of his school, so the photo from his first day going to the company spread.

‘Doesn’t it feel a bit off?’
‘It’s not common for a younger brother to come to the agency.’
‘It doesn’t seem like he’s just looking after his younger brother. Right?’

From then on, the trainee theory about Hanbyeol spread.

The agency Cha.N belonged to originally had no trainees.
That’s because all their debuted teams were idol groups from [Pick, My Dol!].

Since not even a recruitment notice for trainees, which naturally starts once a certain level of stability is reached, had ever been posted, people naturally thought it was an agency exclusively for idols from [Pick, My Dol!].

However, [Pick, My Dol!] had been on a decline since Season 4.
Because of that, the company had to accept trainees to maintain the agency’s viability and had actually posted recruitment notices for trainees.

Because of the agency’s such actions, Hanbyeol’s story became even more inflated into one related to a debut.

“……Sorry. I had a feeling, but I didn’t think the story would spread that far.”

‘Hanbyeol, you… you’re not thinking of becoming a celebrity, are you?’

Remembering when Taeha had asked him if he had any thoughts of debuting, Hanbyeol’s mouth fell open.

“Taeha-ya. When you asked me before if I was thinking of becoming a celebrity… did you ask because you anticipated this?”

“……A little?”

This is why smart people are scary.
For Hanbyeol, it was something he couldn’t even imagine, but just how far ahead had Taeha seen?

Seeing Hanbyeol’s expression, Taeha shook his head as if that wasn’t important right now.

“The fact that you can’t reach Yuseong hyung probably means there’s some problem.”
“Since it’s such an absurd article to begin with, the company should be able to block it.”

Unlike Taeha, who was from a small agency, Cha.N’s agency was under the wing of one of Korea’s top conglomerates.

Despite being an article that’s little more than a baseless rumor, the fact that it’s still up even now at night means the company’s response was severely delayed, or they didn’t respond properly.

“……My brother isn’t fighting with the company, is he?”

Half-thinking that might be the case while desperately hoping it wasn’t, Hanbyeol clenched his phone tightly.

“He’s just softened, his original personality isn’t gentle, you know…”

And if he’s going to respond, he should talk to me, the person involved too.
Why is he doing it alone again?

Hanbyeol raised a hand, rubbing his stiff, heated neck, and let out a sigh.

Seeing Hanbyeol like that, Taeha spoke again.

“Hanbyeol-ah. We need to think about how to respond.”

“Do we… really have to?”

“Rumors inflate when they inflate; they don’t just die out.”
“In the process, all sorts of things will definitely be said…”

“I never had any intention to begin with.”
“I can’t sing or dance, and I can’t act. You know that well.”

Normally, Taeha would disagree, but this time he couldn’t bring himself to say no.
That’s because Hanbyeol was the first one to be cut from the elementary school talent show lineup.

But the entertainment industry is no talent show.
Even if he were a trainee, Hanbyeol, who had Taeha nearby and an idol brother, knew this well.

The entertainment industry is a place where people become famous despite lacking skill, and others remain completely unknown to the public despite having outstanding talent.

Yet, Hanbyeol’s name, who isn’t even a trainee, let alone debuting, is being tossed around among people.
It’s a situation that would make any entertainment agency’s eyes gleam.

After being lost in thought for a moment, Hanbyeol opened his mouth.

“Wait… maybe we should just leave it.”

“What?”

Even if the attention is on him and not his brother, Hanbyeol thought he could endure it for a while.

At those words, Taeha’s eyes widened and he blinked rapidly.