Chapter 430: Goodbye and Promise (5)

"Thanks for your hard work, everyone. Great job, Eden."

After the first rehearsal for Eden's concert, Reina patted my shoulder and left the practice room for her schedule. Goh Yoo-Joon stood up with the camera in his hand and approached me.

"Good job, Hyun-Woo." It had been almost five hours of practice, and Goh Yoo-Joon's voice sounded more exhausted than in the morning.

"Oh, you too, manager."

"Let's go home now. Let's go!"

"Good work!"

"Thank you!"

I stood up, following Goh Yoo-Joon's lead. We headed outside as I heard the loud cheers of the staff.

"Eden's schedule is all done now, everyone. We’re going to go eat. Hyun-Woo, is there anything you want to eat?"

"Who's paying?"

"Right! It's like I’m paying, but with a company card."

"Then let's eat something expensive."

"Yeah, expensive sounds good."

The content with Goh Yoo-Joon as my daily manager lacked footage despite being filmed for a long time because it only involved him sitting and filming me practicing while singing. I couldn't reveal this footage because it was a spoiler.

Even if at first Goh Yoo-Joon's commentary filled the time by praising me for my hard work, five hours of filming the same thing would be boring for the viewers. That was why Su-Hwan had handed him the card and told him to film more, even if it was just us eating.

After we got in the car, Goh Yoo-Joon asked, "What do you want to eat?"

"Hmm, something that's not meat."

"Why? Meat is always good, though. I like it."

I shook my head with disgust. "Let's eat something light, at least when Jin-Sung is not around."

"Well, okay. Oh, I know a place. It's specialized in finger food, want to go?"

Even though he just asked me this, Goh Yoo-Joon was already driving toward the destination. It had to be a place where he had arranged for filming in advance.

"There's a place specialized in finger food?"

"Yeah, the quality of food there is really good. They also serve simple alcoholic drinks."

"…You want to drink?"

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Goh Yoo-Joon nodded and looked at me. It was a question of whether it was okay. I shrugged without a word. I mean, he was very lightweight. Neither the Elated nor Chronos version of us handled alcohol well. Among our members, only Elated Yoon-Chan was good at drinking.

When I gave Goh Yoo-Joon a skeptical look, he seemed to quickly catch on to my thoughts and smiled sheepishly. "I didn't mean we’d drink seriously, just casually have some cocktails and champagne."

"That sounds good." I turned off the camera that Goh Yoo-Joon handed to me.

Goh Yoo-Joon glanced at me and then asked, "Today was your first time practicing alone. How was it?"

"How was it? Well, I felt more pressure than when I was with the members."

Of course, all of Eden's activities were like that, but preparing for a solo concert definitely felt different. There was a band, a setlist, and all the planning perfectly prepared just for me. It wouldn't be good if I messed it up.

Moreover, the pressure of singing all by myself still remained.

"But you did really well. The live performance was much better. I was surprised."

I smiled sheepishly. Thinking about it, Elated Goh Yoo-Joon probably hadn't seen me sing an entire song in a long time. Since my trainee days, he had not seen me sing. Back then, my self-esteem had been so low that I didn't try hard, so singing with emotion as I did earlier was probably not something he remembered.

Before I knew it, the car had arrived at the back alley parking lot of the restaurant. I turned the self-cam back on and got out of the car.

"Everyone, we’ve arrived at the restaurant. It's very quiet, and there's really no one around."

I looked around the area. It was far from the bustling spots, but it still seemed unusually deserted.

"I picked a quiet place with no people on purpose."

‘Is it because of the shoot?’

I briefly thought, but soon realized this was Goh Yoo-Joon being considerate.

In his memory, I was still someone who feared other people and receiving attention. Whether it was the Elated or Chronos version of Goh Yoo-Joon, me experiencing panic attacks during filming

Again After Rainfall

probably made him feel the need to be cautious.

"Thank you."

I caught up with Goh Yoo-Joon, who was leading the way. He looked surprised, but he smiled broadly. The smile he now wore was probably how he truly felt, but it was sad how he often returned to his usual gloomy or reserved expression.

It would have been nice if he could treat me as comfortably as he occasionally did. Have I been acting too uncomfortable around him? Perhaps, due to the uncomfortable years we’ve spent apart, I might have unconsciously done so.

Only after observing Goh Yoo-Joon's actions in front of the camera did I realize that he was acting like someone trying not to be hated for his wrongdoing more than my friend, and it was often hard to respond in such situations.

"But how did you know about this place? You really know the whole town."

"I was here before with... who was it? Ah, with Woo-Jeong hyung from Street Center."

"When did you meet Woo-Jeong hyung again?"

"Ha! Don't be jealous. Woo-Jeong hyung is closer to me now."

"Forget it. No way. You don't know about our Team D’s friendship?"

As we exchanged silly jokes and entered the restaurant, the waitress guided us to a secluded booth as if she had been waiting for us. "The menu is set up for two people. Today's recommended dishes are listed at the front. Please take a look. Let me know when you are ready to order!"

"Do you want anything specific?"

"Let's have the recommended dishes. Or order whatever you recommend."

"Okay. Just a moment!" Goh Yoo-Joon quickly called back the waitress and finished placing our order. After that, the conversation flowed smoothly.

We talked about his day as a manager, our newly started variety show, what activities we want to do in the future, and much more. The topics ranged from everyday stories that the public might not know to fairly deep conversations.

However, Goh Yoo-Joon was struggling to continue the conversation by digging up memories from his time as Chronos, and there were limits to what could be said in front of the camera. Therefore, we had run out of things to talk about by the time the food arrived. If the food had not arrived on time, an awkward silence would have suddenly set in.

We quickly shifted the topic to the food before the weird atmosphere could settle in.

"Wow, everyone! Look at this. Isn't the presentation amazing? It tastes incredible." Goh Yoo-Joon praised the food while filming it, then hesitated before firmly saying to the camera, "This is definitely not an advertisement. Hehe."

Though Goh Yoo-Joon exaggerated his praise to perhaps lessen the awkwardness, the food that arrived was really beautiful. They were three types of well-prepared dishes you’d see at a house party.

Even I, who usually wasn't greedy for food, became curious about how they tasted.

"Bon appetit!"

We briefly described the taste of the dishes we ate and refilled our conversation with thoughts that came up in the meantime.

A little while later, Goh Yoo-Joon fiddled with the camera. "We’re going to turn off the camera now and enjoy our meal! Bye!" He signaled for me to wave at the camera too.

"Bye! See you later!"

I guess this was what being an idol for nearly ten years was about. He probably thought we had filmed enough content by now. Goh Yoo-Joon turned off the camera and exhaled deeply before whispering. "Let's eat normally now."

"Hey, if you say that, the Rings might feel upset."

"Rings…? Ah, the Chronos fans."

…Ah, right. I knew that Elated's fans had a different name.

Goh Yoo-Joon glanced at me, seeming to realize something. "I’m sorry if that came off wrong."

"It's okay. Elated fans had a different name, so it's understandable."

"And about what I did when the camera was on today—"

Ah, again. Goh Yoo-Joon was the first to build walls. He was careful around me and apologized when he didn't need to. But all of his actions that were deferential to me were probably my fault.

"Wait a minute." I interrupted Goh Yoo-Joon. We couldn't resolve twisted conflicts like this.

We had finally gotten a good chance to talk, but it would be awkward if we just ate and then went back to the hotel.

Goh Yoo-Joon wouldn't have revived me just for our relationship to end up like this. I wasn’t going to apologize and lower my head to them for this either.

"Can't you just treat me normally?"

"What?" Goh Yoo-Joon looked confused and smiled faintly. "I’m treating you normally right now."

"If you are, then why are you trying to apologize when you’ve done nothing wrong?" I tried to keep the atmosphere light, almost jokingly. "We don't have much time left anyway. Didn't you want to talk more before?"

"…Because it's just the two of us, there's something I want to ask you."

Suddenly, Goh Yoo-Joon's voice became heavy. His gaze was desperate yet cautious, and it was filled with sadness. He looked at me earnestly. "Because Joo-Han hyung isn't here…"

"Why? Is there something you can't say in front of Joo-Han hyung?"

Goh Yoo-Joon looked around cautiously but nodded. Yeah, well, I was ready to listen to anything. Even if Goh Yoo-Joon expressed resentment about my actions back then, I could now handle it if we talked about it.

But then he said something I didn’t quite expect he would say.

"What would you think if I said I’m staying here?"