Chapter 162

FUNchart

<K-Content Public Attention Rankings>

[Non-Drama — Cast Members]

Yo Han Sung (R-Connect Season 10)Gyeol Go (R-Connect Season 10)...

Sun Choi (R-Connect Season 10)...

Jun Shin (R-Connect Season 10)Hee Jun Kang (R-Connect Season 10)“That's right!”

The instant Kisoo confirmed the top of the chart, he sprang out of his seat.

Gyeol’s eventful path from his trainee days until now flashed through Kisoo’s mind like a revolving lantern. Even with the chart right before his eyes, he could hardly believe it, and his hands trembled.

Kisoo hurriedly captured the screen. He took screenshots in different sizes on both his computer and phone, then carefully saved them in a folder labeled “Gyeol Go.”

“Boss! Did you see it?”

Just then, the new employee who had gone out to fetch coffee came clattering inside with a bright expression. The chart was displayed on the phone in his hand.

“Yeah, yeah. I saw it. I saw.”

It felt as though all their hard work was flashing before his eyes.

As the tension drained out of him, Kisoo dropped heavily into his chair, and the new employee quickly handed him a cacao blended drink piled high with whipped cream.

“Drink it all down.”

“Thanks.”

Even after drinking the sweet beverage, it was not easy to get a grip on himself.

Is this what winning the lottery feels like?

Amid the flood of dopamine striking hard through his frontal lobe, Kisoo had the ridiculous thought that he would not mind if today turned out to be the day of his funeral.

“Yo Han really is incredible.”

Kisoo muttered as he stared blankly at the chart.

The new employee walked over to the printer piled with printouts and replied,

“Of course. He’s on the drama chart right now too.”

At that, Kisoo clicked the drama tab. Just as the employee had said, Yo Han was ranked third.

“Wow.”

The exclamation escaped him naturally.

“Yo Han is honestly kind of insane.”

“Right. He’s a madman....”

“Whether in a good way or a bad way, he’s insane.”

“Yeah, completely insane....”

They kept placing fresh emphasis on the word insane. After all, there was no other way to describe the course Yo Han had taken on R-Connect.

People had even begun joking that actor Yo Han Sung was going to retire.

“They’re calling him the embodiment of an obsessive maniac.”

“Isn’t ‘obsessive maniac’ a meme people use for frightening characters?”

“He is frightening too.”

At the new employee’s neat conclusion, Kisoo nodded.

“That’s true.”

“But I see him as a devoted top who’s only gentle with Gyeol.”

“Hmm. I’ll take that and add a pure-love top.”

The deranged conversation continued. They were effectively high on dopamine, so normal conversation was impossible.

Click, click. Kisoo blankly clicked through one tab after another, then finally left the drama tab open and spoke in a voice swollen with dreams.

“Gyeol’s going into a drama with Yo Han. I hope it does well.”

“Right? If it succeeds, won’t the two of them end up side by side on the public-attention chart again?”

“This time on the drama tab. God, I really hope so.”

It truly sounded like a dream.

After indulging in one fantasy after another, Kisoo gathered himself and straightened in his seat.

He had to work hard and support Gyeol. He had to row while the tide was in. He could not let the opportunity Gyeol had seized with his own hands and placed in Kisoo’s arms slip away.

***

Day 13 on Pheromone Island.

The winners of the [Island Long-Distance Race] may choose the people who will accompany them on an Ivory Mansion date.Please begin with Hwang Gyujin.The winners of the [Island Long-Distance Race] were Hwang Gyujin and Hee Jun Kang.

Sun Choi and Jaekyung Park had each chased close behind by a narrow margin, but neither had been able to overturn the result.

“Isu, let’s go.”

Defying everyone’s expectations, the person Gyujin chose was Isu Yoon.

Jaekyung, who had apparently assumed Gyujin would naturally choose him, failed to manage his expression. Hanseul Ga, who had maintained an indifferent face throughout, smiled for the first time in a while.

Having guessed the nature of their relationship to some extent while staying beside Isu, Gyeol congratulated the two of them with pure happiness.

“I want to go with Tommy again. This time, to the main building.”

“Hee Jun...!”

Tommy’s voice overflowed with emotion at Hee Jun’s choice. Ignoring the teasing remarks that King Potato had hit the jackpot, he stuck tightly to Hee Jun, making everyone laugh.

***

And so, after the four of them departed for Ivory Mansion, Gyeol was left behind at the lodging with free time for the first time.

Being alone in the empty lodging felt boring and awkward.

Isu must have felt like this all the time.

Feeling slightly guilty, Gyeol opened the lodging door and stepped outside to air the place out. Jun Shin was standing on the path.

“Good timing. I was just on my way to see you.”

“...Me?”

“Were you going somewhere? Do you have time right now?”

“I was just going for a walk.”

It was a request to talk. Gyeol nodded, then followed behind Jun.

Walking two steps behind him felt strangely awkward.

In the past, there had been nothing strange about standing in front of or behind him. When arranging their positions, entering somewhere, moving from place to place—at any time.

Before long, they arrived beneath the shade canopy in front of the beach.

“Time really flies, doesn’t it?”

“...It does.”

This was the first time they had sat facing each other alone since the Golden Date.

In the meantime, Jun had become noticeably calmer and more mature. He seemed to have shaken off his sadness and gloom, though he had not yet recovered his usual energy.

Gyeol could not help worrying about that and was turning it over in his mind when, oddly enough, Jun brought up the same subject.

“You know, when filming first started, I was pushing myself really hard.”

“Pushing yourself?”

“Yeah. Knowing you were here made me nervous, and I wanted you to see me in a good light... I wanted to keep the mood pleasant somehow, so I ended up overdoing everything.”

“.......”

In the silence, a wave rolled deeply inward, then withdrew.

“I didn’t know. Not at all.”

“Of course you didn’t. There was no way you could. We were seeing each other for the first time in eight years.”

What had Jun been like before? Bright, polite, energetic... He had always seemed like that.

Gyeol could not say anything with certainty. As Jun had said, there had been an eight-year gap between them, and people could change as much as they wanted over that span of time.

Perhaps Gyeol had been mistaken in vaguely thinking Jun had not changed at all.

Or perhaps, just as Jun said, it had been the result of him trying with all his strength.

“...I feel more comfortable now.”

“.......”

“Did I get too quiet?”

“...No. You look comfortable.”

At Gyeol’s answer, Jun drew up the corners of his mouth in a smile. It was a smile that had not managed to erase all its bitterness.

“Have you made up your mind?”

“......Yeah.”

There was no need or intention to deny it. Gyeol nodded.

“I think I know who it is without you telling me....”

“.......”

“Are you thinking as far as becoming a final couple?”

It would have been a lie to say that sitting across from Jun stirred nothing in him.

Jun had once filled Gyeol’s entire world. Wherever Gyeol turned, Jun had been there. He had remained beside him from the moment Gyeol opened his eyes in the morning until he fell asleep at night.

The person who had shared the most fragile, weak, and precarious period of his life.

But Gyeol no longer intended to wish he could turn back time.

Why did you leave me that way? Did the time we spent together mean nothing to you?

He would bury here every feeling that had endlessly filled his mind over the years, and he would stop repeating them to himself.

“...I don’t know about that yet.”

“I’ve thought about it carefully, Gyeol.”

Because some stories were most beautiful when they ended with the close of a certain era.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to forget you.”

“.......”

“I’ll keep trying. I’ll look in another direction, find new affection, and do my best to move forward. But....”

“.......”

“I don’t think you’ll ever fade from my memory.”

Gyeol remained silent throughout Jun’s confession.

They had spent so much time together that Gyeol could understand what it took for Jun to say those words.

“So I’ll only hope that you become comfortable and happy. That’s all I’ll wish for.”

Words offered without asking for an answer.

“And then one day, just once... if your heart has nowhere to go and you want to come back to me, look back at me that one time.”

A hope that had grown old over many years and would continue into the future.

“I’ll be waiting there.”

He did not need an answer to the very end.

Just as Gyeol knew Jun well, Jun must have known Gyeol well too.

Jun had likely already foreseen the answer Gyeol would give.

“...Thank you, Jun.”

But Gyeol met his eyes and smiled, sensing a distant future.

For a while, whenever he saw the sea, he would think of Jun.

The boy he had left behind in the past, whom he had once loved very much.

***

By the time their conversation ended, the sun was setting.

Talking about how the weather had become much more pleasant for walking, Gyeol headed back toward the lodging with Jun.

Before long, they heard a small commotion in the distance.

“...Did you do that? Just now?”

“......! Not yet.......”

Jun and Gyeol’s eyes met automatically.

What is going on?

Without either of them taking the lead, their steps quickened. The source of the commotion was in front of the lodging.

Two people were locked in a tense confrontation in the open area outside.

“Gyeol!”

One of them spotted him, shouted his name, and came running toward him.