Chapter 265 : The Film Cut Off
Chapter 265: The Film Cut Off
“There’s one minute left until the New Year of the Year of the Pig. It looks like the countdown will begin soon.”
Ha Junseo lifted his head and stared ahead.
Even though the weather was chilly, there were so many people gathered here that the biting cold barely felt noticeable.
He had stood in this same place on December 31st last year too, and this year was also ending on the stage of a year-end music awards show.
After getting dragged around nonstop to award ceremonies over the past few days, he had grown fairly accustomed to the sight of artists packed shoulder-to-shoulder on a cramped stage.
Every single person was busy greeting others with subtle eye contact.
It was a strange place where friendly gazes and competitive tension coexisted.
Of course, because there were so many eyes watching, everyone still kept smiles on their faces.
Last year, Ha Junseo had found that impressive.
After all, when you spent hours standing around backstage and getting shoved around between people, even whatever smile you originally had tended to disappear.
Still, maybe because he had adapted over this short year, he was enduring it pretty well now.
Meanwhile, Seo Haim, who was experiencing his first year-end stage ever, rolled his eyes around before poking Ha Junseo’s side repeatedly.
“Is this the final order?”
“Probably.”
Ha Junseo answered the mouthed question with his own mouthed reply.
Seo Haim nodded before swallowing dryly.
The MC stared directly at the camera while waiting briefly.
By now, footage announcing the countdown to the New Year’s bell-ringing ceremony was probably airing at the bottom of the TV screen.
Moments before the countdown.
At last, numbers appeared across the left screen.
The MC smiled while gripping the microphone.
There were less than thirty seconds left until 2019.
“Alright, we’ll begin the countdown now.”
Feeling slightly excited, Ha Junseo inhaled deeply.
Every year, whenever this moment arrived, people naturally ended up thinking about all sorts of things.
Ha Junseo slowly closed his eyes as he recalled the past year that had flown by in the blink of an eye.
‘Seriously, it was absolute chaos.’
There had been so many things that he couldn’t even begin to count them all.
From the beginning of the year when they cried after receiving the Rookie Award,
to worrying over the maknae after the accident during the music video shoot….
Even the moment they finally placed their names on Billboard.
For things experienced in merely their second year after debut, every memory had been absurdly dramatic.
Still….
Looking back on it now, it had been good.
The atmosphere of the practice room where they stayed up all night together with tired eyes had been good too.
Even the commute where they nodded off while still chattering nonstop had been good.
It had only been two years.
But maybe because they had gone through so much together, the members now felt like family.
There were countless things he wanted to achieve in the coming year, but in the end, there was only one thing Ha Junseo truly wished for.
‘I like things the way they are now.’
Just like always, he wished this could last forever.
Sometimes bickering.
Sometimes sticking close together.
He simply wished they could stay happy exactly like this.
Ha Junseo turned his gaze toward the members and grinned.
“10.”
“9.”
“8.”
The stage floor vibrated faintly from the crowd’s roaring cheers.
Before they knew it, the members had become one, shouting the numbers loudly together.
“3!”
“2!”
“1!”
And then—
Bang-!
Along with the sound of fireworks, the words <Happy New Year> filled the entire screen.
“Waaaaaaaah!”
At the same time, thunderous cheers filled the entire studio.
“…This is nice.”
Ha Junseo muttered quietly with a smile on his face.
Happy New Year.
---
“Wow! Everyone worked hard this year too!”
“Yes!!! You too, hyung!”
Manager Lee Jaeyoon shouted energetically.
The hyungs entered the corner of the restaurant with faces overflowing with excitement and took their seats.
A long-awaited full Stardust company dinner.
Usually after year-end music festivals, exhaustion hit them immediately, and they would collapse the moment they returned to the dorm.
But this year, the members insisted they couldn’t just let it pass quietly and gathered together.
Because this year had been especially meaningful.
Only after ordering food and placing alcohol on the table to set the mood did Kang Siwoo finally speak with a solemn expression.
“This is a historic day.”
“Right, right.”
“Finally! Our maknae…! Has become an adult!”
“Waaaaaaah!”
Seo Haim suddenly screamed dramatically in excitement.
Jin Sehyun repeatedly let out emotional exclamations too.
“Wow, that means we’re all adults now.”
“Remember during Starf? Other than Seongbin hyung and Junseo hyung, everyone else was underage.”
“You were all babies back then.”
Manager Lee Jaeyoon burst into hearty laughter as he added on.
“But in my eyes, you’re still all young.”
Still, at least everyone was an adult now.
Kang Siwoo glanced sideways before looking toward me.
“Seohan-ah, how does it feel?”
“Does yesterday’s me feel different from today’s me??”
I let out a small laugh at Seo Haim’s nonsense.
How did it feel to become an adult for the second time in my life….
“Honestly, I don’t really have many thoughts about it.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s more like… now I can finally do things I couldn’t before?”
More accurately, it felt like reclaiming things that had been taken away from me.
Cha Seongbin noticed my gaze drifting toward the beer on the table and immediately burst into laughter.
“Don’t tell me Seohan endured twenty years of life solely for the dream of drinking alcohol?”
“Honestly, I kind of am craving it today.”
“If you’re craving it, then you should drink!”
“Exactly! Now you can finally drink legally too…!”
At company dinners, I had always sat quietly at the corner table drinking soda.
Thankfully, I wasn’t originally someone who particularly loved alcohol, so enduring it wasn’t difficult….
Even so, whenever I saw chicken, I still craved beer with it.
Finally!
Starting today, I could legally enjoy somaek.
“So Seohan doesn’t have to disappear after 10 PM anymore?”
“Now I can stay proudly.”
“Wow, and you can drink alcohol too.”
“You’ll finally be able to stand on year-end stages too!”
“First, try drinking.”
Kang Siwoo patted my back while bringing over a glass.
After that came all sorts of dramatic nonsense about how your first drink should be had in front of adults.
Seo Haim gnawed on a dried squid leg from the side dishes as he spoke.
“You learn alcohol directly from your hyungs!”
“Hyung, you can barely drink yourself.”
“…Anyway, that’s how it works.”
Those didn’t exactly sound like the kinds of things a group whose average age was barely 21.7 should be saying.
Regardless, Seo Haim enthusiastically started choosing my first (official) drink.
“Seohan-ah, wanna try soju? Or beer?”
“I think somaek is more my style….”
…Huh.
“Hm?”
“What?”
The words had slipped out so naturally that the hyungs’ eyes widened instantly.
It wasn’t even cold in here, but my tongue had slipped anyway.
Kang Siwoo stammered in shock.
“S-Seohan-ah?”
“It’s a misunderstanding.”
I frantically waved my hands and shook my head.
“That doesn’t sound like a misunderstanding!”
“It is!”
Well, technically it wasn’t a misunderstanding!
No, but it still counted as one!
At least it was fortunate that only the members were here.
“I just mean… I feel like it’d probably suit my taste or something.”
“Hmmm…?”
“That sounded way too natural though?”
Kang Siwoo placed a hand on his waist and stared at me suspiciously for a long while.
I hurriedly defended myself like I was wronged.
“Hyung, you’ve never actually seen me drink.”
“…….”
“We lived together 24 hours a day in the dorm!”
“He probably drank when he was little. Around five years old.”
Jin Sehyun calmly interrupted and took my side.
Seo Haim frowned and asked him,
“…Did you drink at five?”
“I stole my dad’s drink because I thought it was barley tea. Well, I immediately burst into tears afterward.”
“Oh dear….”
“Honestly, it was way too bitter for a five-year-old.”
Meanwhile, Cha Seongbin was simply excited at the idea of getting me drunk.
With a sly grin, he spoke.
“Should we let Seohan try the beer he likes~?”
“Do Seohan said somaek is his preference?”
“I’ve never actually had anything like that before, so I wouldn’t know!”
At this point, I had no choice but to pretend I was drinking for the very first time in my life.
Tilting my head innocently like I truly had no idea what they were talking about, I added,
“I’m also! Very curious about beer.”
“…Hey, your acting’s obvious.”
“It’s your imagination.”
Cha Seongbin tilted the empty glass and poured draft beer into it.
Kang Siwoo shook the soju bottle lightly and asked,
“Want to mix them together?”
“Sure, why not.”
“I’m seriously curious about Do Seohan’s alcohol tolerance.”
“I’m curious about his drinking habits too!!”
I already knew my drinking habits.
The moment I got even slightly drunk, I just fell asleep.
I was the type whose head hit the nearest surface and immediately treated it like a bed.
Usually I never drank enough for that to become a problem though….
“What do you think your tolerance is?”
At Jin Sehyun’s casual question, I couldn’t answer right away.
Because honestly speaking….
My alcohol tolerance was kind of terrible.
“Uh….”
And considering this vigorous twenty-year-old Do Seohan body probably hadn’t fully developed alcohol-processing enzymes yet, I had even less idea what would happen.
“Who knows.”
Swallowing dryly, I finally answered.
“Should I start with just three light glasses?”
“Somaek is basically a soft drink, a soft drink.”
“-Said Kang Siwoo, who passes out after half a bottle of soju.”
“When did I ever!”
The somaek glass Jin Sehyun mixed at the perfect ratio landed in my hand.
“Drink it.”
The hyungs’ gazes focused on me so intensely it felt burdensome.
“Do you all really need to be this nervous together?”
“I’ve never seen Do Seohan drink before.”
“It feels like we finally raised our child.”
“…Pardon?”
Laughing in disbelief, I took a sip.
The sharp scent of alcohol tickled the tip of my nose.
“What do you think?”
“It tastes like something I’ve never had before in my life.”
“Wow, shameless….”
Alcohol always started going down easily once you got drunk on the atmosphere.
“He drinks well, he drinks well.”
“Want another glass?”
“The hyungs will carry you back to the dorm anyway.”
Clink-.
Clink-.
The cheerful sounds of glasses clashing echoed repeatedly.
Following the rhythm of everyone else around me, the pace of the drinking gathering gradually sped up.
It was around the point where I had barely finished two glasses of somaek.
“Uh… mm.”
“What’s wrong?”
Maybe because it had been way too long since I last drank.
My mind slowly began growing hazy.
“…I’m sleepy.”
Cooling my cheeks, now much hotter than before, with one hand, I looked up at the hyungs.
Seo Haim had become wildly energetic and was dancing in place.
“Mmm! Mmm! This pork belly is so delicious!!!”
“Haim-ah, you’re eating chicken.”
“AAAAH! Chicken, I’m sorry!!!”
“…….”
“Mr. Chicken! I’m sorry for calling you pork!!!”
That nonsense gradually started fading farther and farther away.
At some point without realizing it, my head had already begun bobbing repeatedly.
Before I knew it, my lower lip moved faintly.
“I think I need to sleep.”
And with those words—
my memory finally cut off.