They Decided for Me

“Yoonseo brother?”

Yoonseo’s hand reached toward Hanbyeol.

At the gesture, as if to lift him up and carry him, Hanbyeol’s eyes widened.

“Hey, we’ve got a problem.”

Just then, Danyoung grabbed Yoonseo’s hand.

Danyoung made a stern face at Yoonseo as if lightly scolding him, then waved at Hanbyeol.

“Even if he’s your brother, he’s not a member.

The fans will get angry.

And, Hanbyeol-ah.

It’s better to get out now.

We’ll move the car later to make it easier to leave after it’s over.”

In that case, rather than suffering from motion sickness, maybe it was better to just get photographed a bit now.

Hanbyeol nodded and got out of the car.

Yooseong, standing right next to him, checked Hanbyeol’s complexion.

Worried his worried face might get captured on camera, Hanbyeol met Yooseong’s eyes as if to say he was fine.

“Since I’m out of the car, I’m okay now.”

Hanbyeol gave Yooseong’s back a little push, and they entered the tent.

****

The festival’s opening ceremony was spectacular.

Since it wasn’t yet time to go on stage, the members did light stretches to ward off the cool weather.

Hanbyeol watched his stretching brothers, then plugged in earphones to block the booming noise and picked up his phone.

Thinking he might do some English listening practice, Hanbyeol opened the chat room immediately upon seeing the red notification circle on the app.

[Ji Taeha

Hanbyeol-ah.

Are you moving around with your brother by any chance?]

‘How did he know?’

Belatedly replying ‘yes’ to the message that arrived while he was asleep from motion sickness, Hanbyeol pressed the screen as soon as he sent his reply at the ringing phone call.

“Hello?”

―Hanbyeol-ah. Did you go to the festival with Cha.N?

“How did you know?”

―Ah… I’m here too.

‘I came because of Yooseong brother, but why are YOU here?’

When a flustered Hanbyeol retorted, a gentle voice with a hint of laughter answered through the earphones.

―I came with my parents.

“We were supposed to meet today, right? But how…”

―Of course, I planned to study with you. I wasn’t going to come, but when I heard our appointment was cancelled, they suggested coming along to clear my head a bit. And when I heard the performers today were Cha.N, I thought maybe…

Since Hanbyeol had been using studying as an excuse to go to his brother’s dorm lately, it was pretty obvious.

Especially since he had cancelled their Saturday plans, it was even easier to guess.

“Sorry. I had to move with my brother because of something…”

―It’s okay. You told me in advance. But, Hanbyeol-ah. Are you okay with motion sickness? You must have come by car with your brother.

“That’s true, but I’m okay now.”

Hanbyeol’s car sickness was already famous among his friends.

Answering Taeha’s question that he didn’t need to worry, Hanbyeol’s eyes widened at the words coming through the receiver.

“Huh? Uh. It’s on the right side of the stage, but…”

Glancing at Yooseong, who was loosening up, Hanbyeol slipped out of the tent.

There were fences installed to keep the audience out, but even so, people were craning their necks, seemingly trying to see Cha.N.

Pulling his cap down low and looking around, he saw Taeha, a head taller than most, waving with the phone still to his ear.

‘I can’t bring him in here.’

No matter how close a friend, he was only there as someone connected to Cha.N, so he couldn’t very well wave back.

While others who saw Hanbyeol get out with the members just thought ‘Is he a trainee?’ and didn’t pay much attention, a few fans who realized Hanbyeol had come with Cha.N started calling out to him, and the situation got strangely tangled.

“Excuse me!”

“Can you give this to the oppas!”

“Hey! Are you a manager? Excuse me!”

‘…Shouldn’t have come out.’

Taeha, who had been waving at Hanbyeol, checked his surroundings and disappeared into the crowd.

Hanbyeol also turned and headed back to the waiting area.

―Sorry. I was going to ask if you might want to go back to Seoul with me, if it’s okay. We didn’t come by car; we’re taking the train back.

“No, it’s fine. I came with my brother anyway, so I can’t really go anywhere else. And I don’t plan to.”

“Hanbyeol-ah!”

As he was answering Taeha and nearing the waiting area, he heard someone urgently calling his name.

It was Yooseong.

He looked as if he had been searching for a while, even sweating, making Hanbyeol look at him curiously.

‘Why is someone who has to go on stage soon acting like this?’

Ending the call with Taeha, saying they’d talk later, Hanbyeol looked at Yooseong and spoke.

“Why?”

“Where were you? You weren’t in the waiting area, I looked everywhere.”

“Ah, Taeha is here.”

“Huh?”

“Taeha. My friend.”

“How did Taeha know to come here?”

“He said he came to the festival with his parents. He said he heard Cha.N was here.”

At the mention of a friend being there, the Cha.N members, who were checking their mics, burst out laughing.

“Hanbyeol-ah’s friends seem similar too.”

“Huh?”

“His parents probably dragged him here to clear his head since they were too focused on their son studying before the exam?”

“Hanbyeol-ah. Your brother worries about you so much. Such deep brotherly love, so deep.”

‘That’s not it. Brother is just doing this because he’s in trouble without me.’

‘As if I can’t handle myself. I even endured car sickness to come here. How much like a child do they see me that they couldn’t last two minutes without looking for me?’

“If I went to the bathroom, you’d have thought I fell in?”

“No. It’s not that, I was just worried…”

“What do you mean ‘it’s not that’? I’m not a child, and the stage is right there, it’s not like I could get lost. Besides, I even turned down Taeha’s offer to take the train back together.”

“Why?”

Danyoung, who was checking if the mics were on, instead asked Hanbyeol curiously.

“Wouldn’t it be better to go with a friend? The fact that he asked suggests he probably didn’t come by bus or car. Or, maybe your friend doesn’t know you get motion sick badly?”

‘How should I answer this?’

To say he came in the same car to closely monitor Yooseong’s condition would be difficult, as Hanbyeol had been nearly dead from car sickness.

Moreover, since his stamina was already depleted, it was certain he would become a corpse again during the car ride back and would 100% need to be carried out upon arrival.

“By any chance, is it not just motion sickness? Yooseong-ah said earlier that boats or trains are okay… I heard there’s a station here, wouldn’t taking the KTX be fine?”

It seemed Yooseong had even made unnecessary comments, making it even harder to refuse.

‘Brother, you bastard, while I was suffering through car sickness hell, why did you have to say that?’

Hanbyeol’s pupils shook violently.

‘Should I just say I’ll go with my friend now? If I call Taeha, he’d answer right away. Or, should I just blurt out now, ‘It’s because of this guy’s pheromones!’?’

Various thoughts swirled in Hanbyeol’s head.

Meanwhile, Yooseong just smiled, who knows what he was thinking.

‘I’m going through all this complexity, how can you be so nonchalant about your own situation!’

Just as Hanbyeol gritted his teeth and was about to say he’d go with his friend, Yooseong spoke.

“The KTX is expensive.”

“Was it a money issue?”

“Well, I could pay… But getting to the station would be more difficult. Hanbyeol-ah would suffer more.”

“…Huh?”

“It’s not like there’s a subway here like Seoul; to get to the station, you’d have to take a car anyway. I checked because I felt bad about bringing him here, but they said you need to take a bus for another 40-50 minutes to get to the station. In that case, it’s better to just stop at rest areas every 30 minutes on the way back.”

‘Brother… where on earth did you research all this and prepare your excuses? No matter how many events you’ve been to, people don’t usually know where train stations are in every region, do they?’

As Hanbyeol blinked, Yooseong finished his excuse on his own.

“If you come with us by car, it won’t cost anything, and you can rest whenever you want. But if you take the train, you can’t rest when you need to, and it costs money anyway, right?”

“Well, you could get off the bus in the middle too, couldn’t you?”

“There aren’t many buses going to the train station. If you get off, you’d have to wait hours, and it’s already late. If the bus service ends, it’s an even bigger problem.”

“Ah…”

“Then, that means Hanbyeol-ah would have to stay here overnight… As a brother, I can’t allow that. Absolutely no overnight stays allowed.”

“No, what does my brother’s position have to do with me going with a friend…”

Danyoung, who had been listening to the conversation with a chuckle, grew serious along with Yooseong’s earnest expression.

As Hanbyeol wondered why on earth the brothers were acting like this, Yoonseo, who had been standing nearby, spoke.

“Hanbyeol-ah.”

“Yes?”

“By any chance, that friend who came.”

“Yes.”

“Is he an alpha?”

‘Well, Taeha is an alpha, isn’t he?’

When Hanbyeol nodded, the hardened expressions of the Cha.N members grew even more serious, and they nodded gravely at each other.

“That won’t do.”

“Hanbyeol-ah. We’ll stop the car along the way. We’ll stop at every rest area on the way back and buy snacks. The brothers will buy them for you. Ask for anything you want to eat. Let’s go with the brothers.”

“Should we buy more motion sickness medicine?”

“Let’s ask the manager brother. To buy some medicine.”

‘Brothers, please don’t go around saying you’re overly protective of our brother…’

Hanbyeol had to spend a while persuading his brother and the Cha.N members that he was fine, didn’t need more motion sickness medicine, and that he would just sleep on the way back.