Why am I stranded in this shitty Island again? chapter 42

“Why are you doing this to me… .”

“Why do you think? You don’t know?”

“The final choice is yours, Senior Yiyeon. How childish… !”

Before the regression, Doohyun often took Dansol to the back hills of the set where there were no cameras or the terrace of Chunmong Pavilion.

“Childish?”

“… That’s not what I meant.”

“It must look childish to you. Me, chasing you all the way here just to win your heart. You just sat there and got it, right?”

That day too, Doohyun’s bullying continued.

“But aren’t you curious? How much Yiyeon trusts you.”

Doohyun pushed Dansol closer to the edge of the railing.

It wasn’t very high, but still high enough to possibly break a leg if he fell. Dansol felt his feet tingling as he looked over the edge at the courtyard below.

While his anxious gaze was fixed beyond the railing, Doohyun got closer to Dansol.

It all happened in an instant. With a sharp scream, Dansol curled up.

“Why… .”

“Aaah!”

But it was Doohyun who was hanging from the railing. Dansol desperately clung to him.

“Aaah! Dansol, save me!”

Despite his words, Doohyun kept trying to shake off Dansol’s hands with force. Eventually, Dansol’s hands were scratched by Doohyun’s nails, bleeding.

“Why are you doing this! Really!”

“You’re curious too, right? Whether Yiyeon will take your side. If you’re curious, let go of this hand.”

Tears blurred his vision. People who heard the noise came and pulled Doohyun back from beyond the railing. Only then could Dansol release his rough breath and let go of Doohyun.

But Doohyun didn’t stop there. He shivered like a scared puppy. Even though he was the one who crossed the railing and tried so hard to fall.

“Dansol… why… why did you push me?”

Those words made everyone look at Dansol. Among them, the first person Dansol saw was Yeon.

“Did you… really push him?”

Everyone doubted Dansol. But the most painful was Yiyeon’s doubt. Even if he said he didn’t, would they believe him? Young Dansol didn’t know what to do in the sudden situation.

“N… no… I didn’t!”

***

“Huh.”

“Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare?”

Dansol woke up sweating in the car Yiyeon was driving. The car was already parked in the parking lot, and Dansol’s seat was reclined.

“Ah… I didn’t realize we had arrived… you should have woken me up.”

“It’s okay, I was happy just watching you sleep. But… are you really okay? Your face is pale. We can do this another time.”

“No, let’s go today. Where are we? Can I get out?”

What happened in the dream was definitely before the regression. Even so, Dansol couldn’t stop the sharp tone from slipping out towards Yeon.

“You’re not feeling well. It’s okay to say so if you aren’t. We can come back another—”

“I said I’m fine!”

Dansol unknowingly shouted at Yiyeon’s seemingly caring tone.

“Oh right, the camera.”

Having reacted sensitively in his sleep, he then noticed the red light of the camera in front of him.

He indeed found it uncomfortable to look at Yiyeon, but the public preferred the respectful Joo Dansol towards his senior celebrities, so he shouldn’t show this side.

“Sorry… but I’m really fine. I always look pale after waking up.”

Dansol added a flimsy excuse to Yiyeon’s sulking face. Since Yiyeon didn’t know the situation before the regression, Dansol’s reaction must have seemed abrupt.

“Ha… you don’t want to postpone this, do you?”

It felt like his true feelings were exposed, making him bite his lip. Denying it would be a lie, and admitting it would surely hurt him.

“I don’t know why, but… it’s clear you’re trying to distance yourself from me. Anyone with a brain could see that.”

“… .”

“But I have no intention of forcing my feelings on you by hurting you. If the date is too much, let’s just take a break, without thinking about the filming.”

Before the regression, whenever they went on dates, they’d work out or learn something. Yiyeon acted like someone obsessed with spending productive time.

Dansol was not the type to enjoy being active, but he always tried to match the preferences of the person he liked.

However, this time, it was a place Dansol had never been to before. Even before his regression, he had never visited this location, making him hesitate.

“Where… is this place?” he asked.

“You’ll know when we get there.”

Following him, Dansol arrived at a premium movie theater. It was a place rented out exclusively for VVIPs, with only six large recliner bed seats. It seemed that Yiyeon had rented out the entire place, as there were no other people in the theater.

With champagne, sparkling water, and simple snacks, the service was so impeccable that Dansol was wide-eyed with amazement.

“There are beds in the movie theater…?”

“Sometimes it’s nice to come to a place like this. What’s the last movie you watched?”

“Um… Robot Warrior Tamus?”

“That’s… a movie?”

“We sang the OST for it. Our CEO booked the tickets, saying we should hear it in the theater.”

Yiyeon looked at Dansol as if he found him adorable. Dansol knew his gaze well. From the moment he woke up, or rather, Yiyeon’s eyes were always on him.

“What movie are we watching today?”

Dansol changed the topic, stirring the food with his fork without much interest.

“The Yiyeon Collection.”

Yiyeon answered playfully, and as the surroundings darkened, a movie appeared on the screen.

Yiyeon was known as the prince of independent films. The reason he was able to successfully transition to commercial films was largely due to his solid acting skills backed by his striking looks.

“Do you know the greatest strength of these movies?”

“…What is it?”

“They make you sleepy.”

Even though there were only the two of them, Yiyeon whispered softly, making Dansol stifle a laugh.

Whether his words were true or not, Dansol fell asleep just three short films into the collection. He had drunk a lot the previous day and woke up unexpectedly early.

Yiyeon’s choice of the movie theater was a considerate gesture for the unusually tired Dansol.

With cameras everywhere, it was easy to be cast as the villain in the variety show scene if you let your guard down.

Yiyeon gently brushed aside Dansol’s bangs as he slept, looking at his face for a long time before lying down beside him.

Yiyeon was also extremely tired. Recently, Yoo Doohyun’s obsession had intensified.

He had discovered that Yoo Doohyun was using not only the people around him but also himself to stay close to Yiyeon purely by chance.

On the day he came down early from a mountain hike due to an injury, Yiyeon felt responsible for Doohyun’s injury.

When he headed to the Omega dormitory to bring him some medicine out of guilt, he saw Doohyun, who had seemed like he was about to collapse, standing firmly on both feet.

When Doohyun noticed Yiyeon, he awkwardly limped on the foot opposite to the one he had claimed was injured.

The sight of Doohyun clinging to him, risking public criticism, made Yiyeon increasingly afraid of him. How far would he go?

As soon as he got off the island, Yiyeon received a call from his agency’s president.

— Are you just going to be a supporting role for Han Jisoo and Jung Daesoo? You need to find your own screen time. Do you know how many people actually date and get famous after appearing on dating shows? This is not a loss at all.

“So what?”

— I’ve already talked it over with Yoo Doohyun’s agency president, who’s a close junior of mine. Do you know how rare such an opportunity is?

“Seriously, President. Up until now, I thought it was kind of cute, but Yoo Doohyun is just my stalker. If you’re a president, act like one and handle those pests. Instead of deciding my dating partner, how about you deal with your own love life? Didn’t you say you don’t go home because you hate hearing people ask why you’re not married yet?”

— Hey, I’m not joking around here.

“Neither am I. Real dating on a dating show? Maybe. But I choose my partner. Not Yoo Doohyun. You know he used to camp outside our agency, right?”

— That’s exactly why! There’s no better storyline than dating a former fan. Are you really not interested in Yoo Doohyun? Not even 1%?

“Do you think I’m a pervert? Falling for a stalker? And stop colluding with his agency. He might be scarier than you think.”

— Ha, no matter what, he’s only been debuting for a little over three years. What’s so scary about that? Yiyeon, get a grip. This is a battlefield.

The president hung up after threatening to cut Yiyeon’s screen time if he got overshadowed by Han Jisoo and Jung Daesoo again next week.

Yiyeon pressed his temples as his head throbbed. At that moment, a scene of a young Yiyeon saying his lines appeared on the screen.

Back then, he was often praised for his good performance, but looking at it now, his voice projection and emotions were all over the place.

He had only pushed through with youthful enthusiasm and vigor.

“That…”

Some of the films hadn’t even been screened in theaters, not even once. Since Yiyeon rarely rewatched his own work, it was the first time in a long while he was seeing these scenes.

But behind Yiyeon, who was delivering lines in a café, sat a familiar figure.

“Ha…”

It was Yoo Doohyun. Although it was a long time ago, he could tell. From his earliest works to just before his commercial film debut.

Yiyeon couldn’t sleep a wink as he watched the ten films he had prepared.

No, he was searching for Doohyun in the films.

In almost every film, Doohyun left a clumsy yet clear trace, from small roles to minor speaking parts.

Since they were independent films, there weren’t many staff or actors, so how had he not noticed Doohyun’s presence back then?

Perhaps Doohyun’s obsession had started much earlier than Yiyeon had thought.

Before appearing on the survival show, Yiyeon didn’t mind Doohyun’s blatant interest that much. He liked getting attention, and since it was part of his job, sometimes it even felt amusing. But only to a point.

As he felt that the affection he dismissed as mere fandom was driving a wedge between him and Dansol, he began to feel a growing discomfort towards Doohyun’s affection.

Yiyeon furrowed his brows in deep thought for a long time in the darkened theater.