Chapter 30:

Lee Hangyeol, a member of OneSeven, headed straight to his dorm after finishing the last shoot of ‘White Tiger-ham’.

“Hey, hyung, you came early?”

“Is Lee Joon not here yet?”

He ignored Kang Junwoo, another member, and opened the door to his room.

“Maybe he’s still on schedule?”

“Really?”

It was rare to see Lee Hangyeol’s expression so distorted and unreadable. He only looked like that when they debuted and when Yoo Yeon Seo left the team.

“What’s wrong? Is something wrong?”

“I have something to talk to Lee Joon first.”

Wow, what’s going on? Did they fight? Kang Junwoo crunched on the potato chips he was holding. He meant he would talk to him later, right?

Lee Hangyeol sat on the sofa and crossed his arms. He couldn’t focus on the shoot after hearing the conversation between Lim Seunghyun and Oh Beomsu.

After Yoo Yeon Seo left and they had a brief hiatus, OneSeven had at least two comebacks a year.

They also had a lot of albums. They did music shows for three full weeks, and sometimes they went on overseas locations. They moved to this dorm before their reverse run...

‘So did he do all this with his money?’

He was roughly calculating the money that went into OneSeven when he suddenly remembered the words.

[What if, just what if.]

Kim Lee Joon, who had blurted out something absurd when he went to visit Yoo Yeon Seo’s hospital room. He must have heard something to say that.

“I’m here! Are you all here?”

“Hyung, I ran into Juwon hyung in front of the dorm.”

Lee Hangyeol got up as if he had been waiting for him and headed to the entrance.

“Lee Joon, wait a minute.”

“What, what?”

Kim Lee Joon was dragged into the room without even taking off his shoes properly. He held his shoes loosely and looked up at Lee Hangyeol.

“Did you hear anything from Yeon Seo when you went to her hospital room?”

“Uh... that time?”

Kim Lee Joon threw his shoes on the floor and sat on the bed.

“Don’t be so cheesy and live your life, he said.”

“Not that... You said something weird back then. That there might be another reason...”

Why is he bringing that up? Kim Lee Joon had been leaning towards the possibility that there was another reason for Yoo Yeon Seo’s departure.

But he didn’t say anything more after that because he felt like he had made the atmosphere weird.

“I... actually had something bothering me.”

“What is it?”

“He said that he finally admitted the reverse run, that it was worth the investment. He said that.”

Lee Hangyeol swallowed his breath.

“Is there something I don’t know? I’ve been thinking about it... but I didn’t say anything more because I felt like I made the mood weird that time.”

“...”

“Do you know something, hyung?”

Kim Lee Joon frowned as he saw Lee Hangyeol’s expression change in an instant. Was his suspicion right?

“What I heard was...”

Lee Hangyeol briefly explained the conversation between Lim Seunghyun and Oh Beomsu. Kim Lee Joon’s expression changed to horror as he listened.

“So he really...”

“I think the reason why our settlement was delayed was because of that.”

“No, what...”

Kim Lee Joon gasped as he ran his hand through his hair. It wasn’t just annoyance at the delayed settlement.

He thought they were doing well at the company. He didn’t know that and they fought whenever they met, but he felt guilty and resentful for not telling him.

“No, why didn’t he tell us?”

So he really left because of his family’s opposition, and he felt sorry for leaving suddenly, so he invested for seven years? Even if he’s a chaebol, that doesn’t make sense, does it? That Yoo Yeon Seo?

“What did you guys just say?”

Yoo Yeon Seo hesitated for a moment, then bit his lower lip with his teeth.

‘Beta. Turn on the automatic behavior mode.’

<Master, your physical condition is not good...>

‘Let’s just do it for a bit.’

<...Okay.>

Yoo Yeon Seo’s mouth moved on its own.

“For no reason?”

“What?”

“Do you need a reason to be kind to a beggar? Besides pity?”

Lee Hangeol let out a deflated sound. If it was the old Yoo Yeon Seo, he would have fallen for it, but not now. He had already figured out the situation before and after, and he knew how he had changed in the ‘White Tiger ship’.

“Yeon Seo, that doesn’t work anymore.”

Yoo Yeon Seo scowled as if he had hit the mark.

“...Just, I thought I should take responsibility for quitting suddenly.”

“You did that for seven years?”

“I was going to do it until the artist contract period. I wouldn’t have quit suddenly if I could, so I would have been active until then.”

“It was because of your grandfather that you quit, right?”

“Well, there was also the fact that I couldn’t persuade my grandfather...”

Kim Ijun had heard everything from under the hospital bed, so he didn’t bother to deny it anymore.

“Hyung, you should have told us sooner...”

“Right. Why didn’t you tell us? If you did...”

We wouldn’t have blamed you and resented you, right? As the OneSeven members added a word each, some people looked at them because of the commotion in the hallway.

“There was no reason to tell you.”

“No! Why was there no reason to tell us.”

Kim Ijun scratched his head. He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t form a proper sentence. He hated him for so long, and he was embarrassed.

‘Did you hope for this? Did you want us to find out later and apologize to you?’

“Well, it’s possible for this hyung...”

“Hey. Who would wait for seven years for that?”

“He’s crazy, right?”

This bastard? Yoo Yeon Seo glared at Kim Ijun without realizing it.

Kim Ijun shut his mouth. Actually, this was not the time to argue. He wanted to say thank you, and sorry for being angry all this time, but he couldn’t say it easily. He was ashamed of his hatred.

<Master, it would be better to stop now.>

‘Yeah, turn it off.’

He had a rough idea of the reason. The assumption that he had been happy with OneSeven and tried to keep his loyalty was correct.

‘It’s getting weirder...’

He didn’t seem to have a bad personality by nature, judging from his childhood memories. He had some sense of responsibility and pride, and he wasn’t completely stubborn. But why did he act so rudely? He got worse as he got older.

<Master, please prepare for bleeding.>

Yoo Yeon Seo lowered his head almost reflexively. Blood dripped down. OneSeven was startled and approached him.

“Hey, hey! You’re bleeding!”

“What do we do, hyung?”

“I have tissue!”

“That’s the one you wiped your sweat with.”

“No! This is a new one!”

The OneSeven members surrounded Yoo Yeon Seo and made a fuss.

Oh, this is crazy. Yoo Yeon Seo took the tissue that someone from OneSeven handed him and pressed it to his nose. His heart beat pleasantly. It wasn’t a bad feeling.

-I went to the awards ceremony as a helper today and I saw YYB and WWS fighting

They were shouting and making a sceneᄋᄋ He even had a nosebleed?

An anonymous post that was uploaded on a community after the JMA was quickly commented on.

Most of the comments were extreme attacks that didn’t believe the poster without proof, and the post was deleted by the administrator for spreading baseless rumors.