“I’m drowning, drowning, drowning……”
“Okay, cut!”
The director, megaphone in hand, sprang from his seat and shouted the command.
Simultaneously, Seunghyun, who had been holding his breath underwater, broke the surface and let out a ragged gasp.
The director grinned with satisfaction at the footage, but his face suddenly drained of color as he realized something.
“Quick! Someone get Seunghyun-ssi a towel and a blanket!”
But Yijeong was already there, rushing toward Seunghyun—who had just been pulled from the water—clutching an armful of towels and blankets.
“Hyung, are you okay?”
Clad in only a thin shirt, Seunghyun’s lips were a bruised shade of blue.
Water dripped heavily from his soaked hair.
Yijeong moved fast, rubbing the water off Seunghyun’s body with a towel, throwing a blanket over him, and finally pulling him into a tight embrace to share his body heat.
They were filming the VCR—the video interlude—to be broadcast during the stage.
This was their final schedule in Korea.
While all the members participated in the underwater shoot, Seunghyun had the most screen time.
Regardless of Yooju being the official center, Seunghyun was the identity of the group.
He had always handled the intros and narrations, so it was only natural he took the lead in the VCR.
Of course, everyone had initially opposed it out of concern for the long shooting hours, but they eventually yielded to the company’s argument that a spectacular return was necessary.
The concept for their third full-length album revolved around “water.”
Befitting the title ‘Drowning 7OVE’, the album divided love into seven stages, depicting emotions that grew deeper with each track. Unusually, the title track was placed last in the tracklist.
The title track, ‘Drowning L*VE’, was a heavy-beat dance song that translated the rapture and overwhelming thrill for a lover into an explosive performance, like a burst of energy from the deepest trenches of the sea.
They had rearranged the intro to highlight the beat and overlaid it with Seunghyun’s narration.
For Seunghyun, hearing his own recorded voice—sounding entirely too “cool”—throughout the shoot was the most painful part.
The original Joo Seunghyun, a consummate professional, wouldn’t have batted an eye, but…
‘This is the first time I’ve ever heard my own recorded voice.’
Even if the voice technically belonged to Joo Seunghyun’s vocal cords, it was definitely this Seunghyun who had stood pretentiously in front of the microphone to record it.
He couldn’t tell if the goosebumps on his skin were from the freezing water or the sound of his own voice.
Seunghyun wiped the water from his forehead with a rough swipe of his hand.
Even with the studio heaters on full blast, soaking in cold water in winter-like weather had left him shivering uncontrollably.
‘I might have some nasty dreams tonight.’
He was trying to ignore it, but water… specifically cold, dark water, wasn’t exactly a pleasant association for him.
‘I’ll push through with pure grit.’
He dragged his trembling body down and out of the tank area.
“Joo Seunghyun, over here.”
Chiyoon beckoned, having pulled a chair directly in front of an electric heater.
Seunghyun felt utterly drained, but he couldn’t afford to show such weakness.
He gently pushed away Yijeong’s supporting arm and forced his shaky legs forward.
The members were huddled in front of the heater, monitoring the footage.
They were currently reviewing Seunghyun’s cut.
As soon as Seunghyun locked eyes with his own image on the screen, he looked away.
His face flushed. In his entire life, he had rarely felt this embarrassed.
“It turned out well, right?”
“Yeah. Hyung, you look amazing. Look at this…”
Eunwoo was practically pressing his nose against the screen, admiring Seunghyun.
His eyes sparkled as if he were looking at something divine.
Seunghyun’s hair, which had only been roughly dried, was now long enough to cover the back of his neck. He absentmindedly toyed with his wet bangs.
He had finally gone to the salon yesterday to tidy up his neglected hair.
While the other members had added extensions or gone through bleaching and dyeing, Seunghyun had settled for a simple trim.
He was relieved; adapting to being an idol was hard enough—if his hair had been some neon color he’d never imagined, he might not have been able to look in a mirror.
Seunghyun’s gaze lingered briefly on Yooju’s nearly white-bleached hair before dropping.
“Wow, Seunghyun hyung looks incredible. This is insane. Look at the way he opens his eyes underwater. Those droplets on his eyelashes are no joke.”
He could avoid looking at the screen, but he couldn’t block his ears.
Seunghyun felt like he was losing his mind from Eunwoo’s non-stop praise.
And the camera caught it all—the way the back of Seunghyun’s neck turned a deep crimson at Eunwoo’s words.
Seunghyun buried himself in his airplane seat, clutching his pounding chest. He felt terrible.
“Hyung, shall we try breathing a bit slower?”
Facing his first-ever flight, Seunghyun was curled up, frozen to the point where he couldn’t even move a finger.
He was aware of Yooju stroking his cheek, but he was too far gone to react.
Beside him, Chiyoon was muttering a string of curses.
“Fuck, this is seriously insane.”
He looked completely fed up with the crowds that had swarmed them at the airport.
Yooju, who had been wearing a beanie and a hoodie to protect their comeback concept, had even had his clothes torn by a fan trying to pull his hood off.
Though fan etiquette had generally improved, it seemed everyone had lost their reason over this long-awaited return.
Furthermore…
‘Ugh… I still haven’t gotten over the sound of shutters.’
The flashbulbs and shutter clicks firing off randomly in the unexpected chaos had Seunghyun’s heart racing.
“Are you okay, Hyung?”
Yooju, who hadn’t even had a chance to change his torn clothes, checked on Seunghyun first.
‘Worry about yourself first,’ Seunghyun thought.
He wondered why they were making such a fuss, yet Yooju’s kindness didn’t feel bad.
Out of awkwardness, Seunghyun turned his head and gave a short, blunt reply.
“Yeah. You?”
“I’m fine.”
“Your clothes are ripped.”
“Ah, well, this is nothing.”
Yooju shrugged.
—We will be departing shortly.
An announcement signaled an earlier-than-expected takeoff.
Due to the crowds pushing into the lounge, they had boarded the private jet immediately after check-in.
He’d expected a long wait, but the flight schedule had somehow been adjusted in their favor.
Between the salon visit for hair and makeup, the all-night underwater shoot, and now this airport chaos, he was completely spent.
As the plane lifted off, he felt a floating sensation and his ears popped.
As the members’ excitement settled into their seats, a calm silence descended upon the cabin.
Seunghyun held his throbbing head and closed his eyes.
This was just the beginning. He had to keep his wits about him.
When Seunghyun’s sleeping head lolled to the side, Eunwoo, sitting next to him, gently adjusted his head.
Closing his eyes and sitting motionless, Seunghyun looked like a statue.
Without makeup, his face still bore the heavy signs of illness.
His once clear, bright skin was now a ghostly, translucent white, with dark shadows under his eyes.
While the alarming weight loss had stopped, returning to his former self seemed like a distant goal.
Perhaps because of that, his sharpened jawline and cheekbones made his delicate features stand out even more.
Eunwoo draped an arm around Seunghyun’s shoulder, pulling him closer, and tucked a blanket around him.
As Seunghyun relaxed in sleep, a faint pheromone began to drift from his body. It was still a somewhat unfamiliar scent.
In the unstable early stages of manifestation, it wasn’t rare for a pheromone scent to change.
When he first manifested, he had that sweet scent commonly associated with Omegas.
Eunwoo remembered him smelling like that until quite recently.
But now…
‘The smell of rain.’
A scent that was unique even for an Alpha wafted from him.
Moreover, Eunwoo felt that Seunghyun’s personality had changed significantly at some point.
Seunghyun, who used to be excessively guarded about showing his true self, had become startlingly honest.
It wasn’t just that he lacked the energy to pretend because he was sick; the shift had happened three months after the manifestation.
“……”
Come to think of it, it seemed to coincide with when his scent changed.
There were many puzzling things, but Eunwoo was simply satisfied that he had decided to live again.
That was the reason Eunwoo had insisted he wouldn’t perform without him—he knew Seunghyun could only truly live on stage.
‘His pheromone levels have stabilized to a surprising degree. It’s unprecedented. Since the pheromones are stable, his body will gradually recover. Though it will take a very long time.’
That alone was incredibly hopeful.
For an Omega who experienced late manifestation, if the pheromones continued to react abnormally, they could die at any moment.
Eunwoo adjusted Seunghyun’s slipping body, pulling him into a tight embrace.
He buried his face in Seunghyun’s hair, inhaling the faint pheromone deep into his lungs.
“I miss you, Hyung. Even when I’m looking at you, I miss you. Even when I’m touching you…”
I want to touch you.
