* * *
As soon as Dansol got into the car, he was surrounded by the extremely outgoing members of Zeus.
He hadn’t considered that by thinking only of Taeoh, he’d have to spend the night with the other members too.
Trying to explain how he ended up in this situation drained Dansol of energy.
“So, you’re out here because of your pride?”
Doohyun clapped his hands, summarizing Dansol’s situation in one line. Dansol nodded weakly.
“Dansol! Don’t feel too down. Our Doohyun here also ran away from home, crying and everything, because he found it hard at first…”
“Hey! Will you shut up? Dansol, this guy can’t tell the truth to save his life…”
“Oh, am I lying? You wrote a letter saying you wanted to rest and then later cried and begged the manager to come get you because you had no money…!”
To cheer up Dansol, the Zeus members shared their own stories of fights and struggles. Somehow, this made Dansol feel comforted.
“Oh my goodness! Who’s this? My favorite boy!”
When Dansol hesitantly entered the dorm following Taeoh’s lead, they were greeted by the housekeeper who managed the household chores.
“Oh dear—when guests come, you should let me know!”
“Ow, it happened so suddenly that I didn’t have a chance to say anything!”
The housekeeper smacked Taeoh and the other members on the back while keeping his eyes fixed on Dansol. To an outsider, it might look like all the Zeus members were his sons.
“Hel… hello…! Nice to meet you! I’m Joo Dansol!”
“Oh my… a doll is talking! Come on in. Oh dear, I have to show my skills since we have a guest!”
“Auntie! We have a performance tomorrow, so we can’t have a late-night snack!”
“Oh— I see everything you’re hiding. Didn’t I tell you not to eat convenience store food!”
Any worries Dansol had about inconveniencing the Zeus members with his presence vanished as soon as he saw the meal the housekeeper had prepared.
Starving almost all day, Dansol amazed the housekeeper and the Zeus members with his appetite.
Despite his small frame, he ate more than the Zeus members, prompting the housekeeper to keep offering him more food.
After stuffing himself with dinner, Dansol lay down in the guest room following Taeoh’s guidance, but he couldn’t fall asleep.
It felt like visiting a well-off relative’s house.
Even with so many members, they each had their own room and there was still a guest room.
“I wonder if the guys ate dinner… Zeus even has hotel bedding in the guest room…”
Left alone, Dansol couldn’t help but think about the members again.
Thinking about his rude and ungrateful younger brothers, even when enjoying good food and nice places, made him realize he must be seriously attached to them.
Dansol pressed the power button on his phone, which he had turned off for a while.
He had only left a message with Gilsung saying he’d sleep over at a friend’s house and hadn’t contacted the other members.
「Cute Minjae♥」
Contrary to his expectations of being bombarded with messages, only two messages from Minjae awaited him.
“Those… ungrateful brats…!”
‘Cute Minjae♥’ was a name Minjae had saved in Dansol’s phone because Dansol couldn’t stand cringy stuff like that.
He had scolded Minjae for it, but secretly, he liked the cute touch and never changed it.
[Cute Minjae♥:
hyung, are you really not coming home? There’s a pork belly dinner tonight.]
[Cute Minjae♥:
Hyung, we’re really sorry… We know you’re working harder, but we only thought about ourselves. The thing is, Woohyun hyung made a lot of mistakes today because he didn’t practice well. He was looking for that thing you left behind yesterday. We were exhausted and suggested having dinner and practicing afterwards, but Woohyun hyung kept looking for you late into the night. Please don’t turn off your phone, we’re worried… You left your wallet and bag in the car. I wonder if you’ve eaten anything. Please don’t be angry, let’s talk tomorrow. You know I love you, right? ♥]
At the end of Minjae’s long message was a 50,000 won gift certificate for a convenience store.
Despite not having received his paycheck yet, the kid managed to do something like this.
“You think I’ll be moved by this?!”
Despite his angry outburst, tears welled up in Dansol’s eyes as he read Minjae’s long KakaoTalk message.
Trying hard to hold back his tears, his lips pouted, and his chin wrinkled.
Though no one was watching, Dansol’s pride was hurt, and his nostrils flared as he tried to suppress his tears.
“Why would he run around looking for me like a fool? I’m not a kid, I can come back on my own.”
Despite his frustration, Dansol sent a sincere reply to Minjae.
Even though more than five hours had passed, Minjae might still foolishly look for him.
[I’m at a friend’s house. I’ll be back tomorrow, don’t worry. Why did you give me this when you don’t have money? I have money. You buy something tasty.]
Even after that, he waited for a long time for the ‘1’ mark to disappear, but Minjae didn’t read the message, probably because he went to bed early.
He was trying to sleep before midnight after being motivated by Jacob’s comment that he seemed to be still growing.
Thinking that he might have overreacted to his young siblings, Dansol sighed even while staying still.
Feeling suffocated in the large guest room, Dansol quietly opened the door and stepped into the living room.
“Can’t sleep?”
“Eek, you scared me.”
In the living room, Doohyun was sitting by the window, sipping wine.
The bottle was already half empty, suggesting he had been drinking for a while.
“Ah… Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“No, it’s my fault for coming out suddenly…”
“But why… are you out here instead of sleeping? You must be tired after practicing so long today.”
“Ah… I have insomnia. Seems like you can’t sleep either. Did you… get it too…?”
“Get… what? What do you mean…?”
“K-failed idol syndrome.”
“What? Is that a real thing…?”
For a moment, Dansol couldn’t believe his ears. Was Doohyun mocking him for being popular?
Despite the noisiness of the Zeus members, he didn’t expect them to humiliate someone so openly.
Recalling how Yoo Doohyun and Han Yeomin had previously mentioned ‘failed idol’ right to his face, Dansol stood dumbfounded by the sofa, clenching his fists unconsciously.
“I had it too. Now I’m suffering from celebrity syndrome… But don’t just stand there, sit down.”
Hearing this, Dansol pouted and sat on the sofa right in front of the window where Doohyun was sitting.
“How can Zeus be failed idols… If Zeus are failed idols, what does that make us, the super-failed idols?”
Hearing Dansol’s sulking voice, which sounded like a whining puppy, Doohyun couldn’t help but chuckle. Despite his neat appearance, Dansol had quite a humorous side.
Now Doohyun understood why Taeoh always talked about Dansol when he was back at the dorm.
“We were complete failures when we released our first album, didn’t you know? Oh! We even appeared on kids’ shows doing cringy stuff like ‘Fresh Fresh! Oh! Bumpy Bumpy!’…”
“Oh… So that was Zeus…!”
That was already three years ago.
It was the intro song of a children’s show that the daughter of the barbecue restaurant owner where Dansol worked part-time used to love.
“To be precise, it wasn’t Zeus, but just me. Because we messed up the concept for our first album, we were only popular with elementary school kids.”
“So… that’s how you got that K… whatever syndrome?”
“Well… you could say that. I even ran away from home like you, Dansol. As my popularity grew, my members were just struggling. That Taeoh…! He was whining about clapping competitions with seals until his palms felt like they were on fire…”
Doohyun sighed deeply, reminiscing.
“At least seals don’t talk. Have you ever filmed a show with 20 preschoolers, Dansol?!”
Sipping his wine, Doohyun seemed to get excited about his past stories, downing his glass in one go and looking at Dansol.
Intimidated by Doohyun’s fervor, Dansol slowly shook his head.
“After spending the whole day with them, my ears started ringing with sirens. Even after I went home, I could still hear their cries…! And with drama shoots, events, and more, everything blended together. I couldn’t tell if I was at an event, shooting a drama, or a variety show… Eventually, I started having blackouts, like my mind was just blank!”
“Wha…?! That sounds like hell…!”
“Exactly! And even though I was putting in so much effort, I was accused of poor acting and bad manners on shows… The hateful comments just kept piling up… How could anyone smile and act cheerful with less than five hours of sleep a week? Isn’t that more dangerous?”
With dead eyes, Doohyun forced a wide smile. Seeing the madness in his expression, Dansol subtly shifted away from him.
“Whenever the members said anything, I would bite their heads off… I thought I was the only one keeping our team afloat. I believed I had to take care of everything, and that without me, they were helpless. That’s K-failed idol syndrome. It’s the natural flow in this industry. Popular members burn out trying to carry everything alone and eventually disappear. I ran away because it was too heavy, too scary. I was terrified that if I disappeared, everyone would blame and hate me.”
Dansol recalled his past life. Struggling to survive on his own, he ended up dragging the entire team down—a failed idol in every sense.
That was another name for Dansol.
* * *
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Oof
its nice to see him make connections with other people outside of the Survival game