After playing yutnori, hospital, and watching the cute-and-adorable Pink animation that Wooyeon had hurriedly brought from home (even though Yewon had no interest in any of the three),
Wooyeon and Doha could finally breathe a sigh of relief only after Yewon exhausted herself and fell asleep.
“Yewon’s completely out.”
“Thank goodness. If we kept playing any longer, I might have collapsed from exhaustion. Matching a girl’s tastes is seriously brutal...”
“Then you shouldn’t have come.”
At Doha’s icy reply, Wooyeon’s already sharp eyes rose even more threateningly.
“Can you talk properly?”
“I am talking properly.”
“You think I came because I like you? I came because I felt sorry after hearing the kid’s situation.”
“You can stop worrying about it next time. She’s my niece, not yours.”
At Doha’s emotionless remark, Wooyeon glared at him.
“…What is wrong with you, seriously? Why are you always like this?”
“What.”
“People are being nice and making an effort, and why is your reaction always like that?”
The atmosphere between the two changed 180 degrees the moment Yewon was out of the room.
“The kid—”
“Hey, you little jerk, what?”
“…The kid shouldn’t get attached to this place.”
“!”
At Doha’s words, Wooyeon froze.
“You know as well as I do that I can’t raise her. Yewon needs to grow up in a good home, surrounded by love.”
“......”
“Realistically, there’s no answer. I almost feel like I brought her here on impulse.”
Apparently he had not considered that part.
Wooyeon was unable to answer, his face going pale as he fell silent.
“So you shouldn’t be too... nice to her either. Don’t make her think this is a place she can’t leave because she’s grown attached.”
“…Do you even have somewhere to send her?”
“I’ll have to look again. I already asked Youngoh to help me find a way.”
“Yewon might want to stay here.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You really think I want a seven-year-old living a life like ours? There are sasaengs hanging around outside this building, and reporters are dying to catch any scrap of information. It’s already a relief that nothing’s been published yet.”
“…Damn...”
At Doha’s words, Wooyeon let out a long sigh as if the bitterness in his mouth had turned sour.
“If a report about Yewon comes out, the person who’ll be hurt the most is Yewon. Not us, her. People will start asking where her father is, and then the whole mess of our family will be dragged out in front of the entire nation. You want to wreck the kid’s future?”
“......”
There was nothing in that argument that could be called wrong.
Wooyeon was one of the few people who knew about Doha’s family situation in detail.
Because he knew exactly why Doha hid his family so desperately, and why he valued privacy so much, he had nothing to say.
“In a situation where the whole country is already throwing stones at us, we can’t make the kid get hit too.”
And the situation was even worse now.
Just as Doha said, Glit was currently being stoned by the entire nation.
“…For Yewon’s sake too, this is the best option.”
“Haa. Life is so harsh and exhausting~”
Wooyeon sighed and spoke.
It was an obvious sign of surrender.
“......”
And there was someone listening to every word of that conversation from behind the door.
“So that’s why he was hesitating.”
Yewon let out a grave sigh with a serious expression.
This was bad. I need to come up with something quickly.
At this rate, I’m going to get kicked out before I even have a chance to clear the quest.
‘...But how?’
Yewon thought for a moment.
‘First, I should focus on the root of the problem.’
She turned her attention back to the conversation outside.
“Anyway, when are you going to start working on songs again? Or can you even start? It’s the first time you’ve gone this long without working.”
“......”
The reason Doha had shut himself away and stopped coming out of his room.
“…Is Ieon really coming back from England?”
“Ask him yourself, idiot. Am I the leader? You’re the leader, aren’t you?”
The reason the usually kind Wooyeon had to harden himself toward Doha.
“What about Yeonho hyung?”
“Did that guy ever say anything? If you just said, ‘Come out, hyung,’ he’d probably come out. He’s the type who’d work even if he didn’t exchange a single word with us. I seriously don’t know what’s going on in his head.”
One member was in England, and another had become so unreachable that no one even heard from him anymore—
‘The reason all four of them were deeply hurt.’
That reason was—
“…Any news about Yutae-young?”
“......”
“Is Yutae-young still blocking all of us?”
A member of Glit, Taeyoung’s departure.
Glit had originally been a five-member male idol group.
Time Entertainment, one of Korea’s three major entertainment companies and a label famous for creating the most “classic” idol groups, launched its rookie group Glit after six years.
And Glit exploded into a massive hit.
‘...They played Glit songs everywhere on the streets.’
Even Yewon, who had little interest in anything except acting, couldn’t possibly not know them.
Centered around Doha, who was both the visual center and the composition member, the other four were praised as perfectly rounded rookie talents.
Whether it was composing, writing lyrics, or producing.
Lee Doha, hailed in the composing world as a genius stolen by the K-pop scene.
Han Wooyeon, who swept dance contests and received love calls from the three major agencies.
Seo Yeonho, who became famous from childhood through hip-hop survival shows and similar programs.
Lee Ieon, a British-Korean mixed kid model who had been famous since childhood for his exotic looks and unique aura.
And then—
the main vocalist, Yutae-young, who Time Entertainment had carefully hidden away and cherished.
The five of them formed the perfect balance and instantly seized the top idol spot.
Rookie of the Year in their first year, Best Song of the Year in their second, and Daesang in their third.
It had been a road paved with success.
Everything seemed perfect.
...Until that point.
“…Why is Doha always center? And why is it always Doha who gets the most schedules?”
From the fourth year, cracks began to appear.
With Taeyoung’s sudden complaint, the other four were all thrown into confusion.
The most shocked person was, of course, Doha.
Doha, who had not become center by choice but had been made center and leader entirely under the company’s plans, found this situation bewildering beyond belief.
No, actually, it had only been the company’s plan at first. Starting with the second album, the public had already become convinced that “Lee Doha” was Glit’s core identity.
Maybe it had been inevitable. Doha planned the albums and created every single song.
Doha’s talent was praised as “unmatched” even across the entire K-pop scene, so the company had no choice but to depend on him.
Not just Glit’s fandom, but the general public too, naturally thought of Lee Doha whenever they heard “Glit’s center.”
The other members had accepted that so naturally that no one questioned it.
But then Taeyoung had raised the issue for the first time in year four.
“Huh? Why bring that up all of a sudden?”
“Seriously, Taeyoung, that’s so pathetic.”
“Did you eat something wrong?”
Wooyeon, Yeonho, and Ieon all laughed and teased Taeyoung.
But Taeyoung and Doha, the people involved, could not laugh at all.
“…Come on. As the main vocalist, I handle all the hardest parts. And every single time, all the attention goes to Lee Doha.”
“Hey, how is that Doha’s fault? And to be precise, the reason you took the hardest, most difficult parts was because you wanted to. It’s not because Doha sings worse than you—it’s because you said you wanted to be the main vocalist.”
That was true.
In fact, Doha’s vocal ability was in no way inferior to Taeyoung’s.
He had simply stepped back one pace himself so that the company’s position and character concept for Taeyoung as the “main vocalist” would be firmly established.
The members, and even Taeyoung himself, all knew that very clearly, which was why the argument sounded absurd to everyone.
And yet—
“The next album center will be you. I’ll talk to the company.”
Doha, who had never wanted to be center in the first place, stepped back from that position too easily.
“Huh? What kind of nonsense is that? Hey, why would you give that up?! Being center is for your sake?! It’s for all of us?! I don’t want it!! I’m against it!!”
Wooyeon exploded in anger at Doha’s decision.
“Lee Doha.”
Yeonho warned him.
“The group’s future is really going to hell~”
Ieon sneered.
Despite those reactions, Taeyoung, while displeased, did not refuse Doha’s offer.
However, Taeyoung’s demands did not end there.
‘Rearrange it again so it matches my vocal tone.’
‘Change this killing part so it highlights me more.’
‘This is hard to sing while dancing—lower the key.’
And so on...
Taeyoung demanded nearly to the point of a breakdown that Doha make changes so that he would stand out more.
The other members were disgusted watching him act like that, but Doha said nothing and accepted every single request.
Of course, despite all those efforts—
in the end, Taeyoung left them anyway.
On the living room floor of Doha’s house, where everything was either black or silver furniture.
“Now that we’re at it, let me ask you. Why the hell did you go along with all the nonsense Taeyoung was spouting back then?”
“......”
The two tall men, worn out from childcare, were sprawled out and staring at the ceiling while talking.
“…Because I couldn’t say I didn’t understand how he felt.”
“!”