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Being an idol is hard, and being the leader of your own idol group is even harder—Seungcheol always says to the trainees.
It’s not to discourage them or anything, but just to let them know of the harsh truths of the reality of their industry. Being a leader for him is literally being a single dad at 16 years old, raising a bunch of children who are more or less as mature as a slinky toy. Hell, even he himself thinks he’s not even as mature that time, considering he was the youngest in their family and was used to being babied by his parents and sister. Here he does everything, keep these children debut ready and camera ready always as part of their job slash dream.
So, when he finds out Wonwoo’s dating someone, it takes him an exact count of 6 seconds for him to stare at Wonwoo incredulously and then pinch the bridge of his nose.
“Does anyone else know?” is the first thing he asks, and the lanky male immediately shakes his head, to which he kind of breathes a sigh of relief into. The less people that know, the better.
And its not like Wonwoo came up to him to tell him this major piece of information, no—he literally caught him getting off her car at the back of their apartment complex (old, dingy, the kind that really belongs to a third-rate idol group). Seungcheol would have probably made an excuse, like literally any excuse, if not for the fact that Wonwoo goes as far as reaching into the open window of the driver’s seat and giving a kiss to the driver inside it. Any other angle wouldn’t have gotten as to who it is, but Seungcheol’s room’s window faces the back door (he’s their guard dog, they joke around) and he could clearly see the silhouette of a girl who even pats Wonwoo’s cheek like they’re just a normal couple who got home from a date.
That, at 3 am in the morning, is how Choi Seungcheol finds out Jeon Wonwoo is dating Kwon Soonyoung, and he knows he’s about to get more headaches than he’s ever had now than he’s got for the duration of his trainee career.
Seungcheol is an advocate of the love whoever you want and live life freely like a normal human! Movement on a regular day, but not these days when they just finally started getting their traction of popularity in the industry. His leader instincts think it’s too rash, dating whoever you want and whenever without a care in the world—when that world has nothing but cameras pointed in every direction and you might as well not move at all. All Seungcheol wants is to protect the peace of their group, he’s the more logical one among all of them—but he worries that the other members might know and start getting ideas. He’s a great leader—but he doesn’t think he can handle 5 dating scandals all at the same time.
Cloudy’s practicing for their upcoming fanmeet, and with that he pushes all of his other thoughts aside and tries to focus on the task at hand. Make sure everyone performs in the same level of caliber that is being expected from them, give the necessary fanservice, and everything else in between after that.
He tries to observe if Wonwoo ends up lacking, maybe with a girlfriend as a distraction is keeping his head lolling off to the side—but Seungcheol is surprised that there is none of that at all. Wonwoo’s even improving, showing up more motivated than ever to take extra vocal lessons or stay behind to help with practice. He’s really a good actor, he thinks—watching Wonwoo help Seungkwan with the dance steps that he’s been confused with over the last 30 minutes.
Maybe dating isn’t that bad for him after all? He thinks, but then a tiny voice at the back of his head that he calls Evil Seungcheol says not bad for him, but bad for your group if he gets found out! and then the anxieties kick in again like it’s on payola.
He promised his team that they’d make it through, that they’d be successful. Is he ready to risk Wonwoo’s happiness if it ends up backfiring towards them all?
Wonwoo says he’s careful—they’re careful—but the industry is always going to be too small for them and the walls too thin.
It’s been 4 months since Seungcheol found out about the relationship that Wonwoo tells him he’s being followed. He doesn’t see who it is specifically, but he knows there’s someone on the same trail.
Seungcheol heaves a sigh. Tries not to get an anxiety attack by putting his hands on the pocket of his jeans and playing with the lint on it.
This is it, this is our end—Wonwoo’s going to get caught and we’re going to be on the news and the people would stop supporting our group and they’d find even more stuff to talk badly about us and—
“Okay. Do you think it’s Dispatch? A sasaeng?” Seungcheol puts on the table the logical options.
“I’m not sure, I’ll let you know if I get a hunch. I told Soonyoung about it and we’ve agreed to not meet for a couple of weeks for now. She’s busy anyway.” Wonwoo says, looking crestfallen while announcing the news that he doesn’t get to meet his girlfriend in the next few days.
“Ok, I’m glad. We need to be more careful out there now Wonwoo.” He says, and he gives Wonwoo a pat on the shoulder.
“Yes, sorry for worrying you hyung.” He says, and Seungcheol shrugs.
It’s part of his job anyway, worrying, and Wonwoo is a dear friend. He just wants all of them to be happy.
For the record, Seungcheol has dated before.
When he was still a trainee, there was a girl that he liked from middle school that he continued on seeing until it became impossible for them to keep up the act. She was from Daegu, and he’s now living in Seoul. Their circles are now different, priorities not aligned, and it’s getting harder and harder to relate and empathize. Her high school struggles were not the same as Seungcheol’s, where hers is full of preparation for the CSAT and academic struggles while Seungcheol’s were more or less about monthly trainee evaluations, the dieting, and the impending doom of not knowing whether they’ll debut or not.
It’s fine, Seungcheol has already accustomed himself to the idea that while he’s an idol he’s probably never going to date anyway, considering the fact that its probably impossible for him to do so and he doesn’t want to jeopardize his team. He’s already set himself with that mindset early on.
He doesn’t openly discourage the other Cloudy members, he doesn’t forbid it even at all. His point is that as long as you keep it hidden and it doesn’t impact the team in any way whatsoever, he’s probably going to keep a silent mouth and not tattle tale about it the way Mingyu, Seokmin and Seungkwan would get overly close to their stylists for gossip.
He doesn’t worry about Wonwoo. He’s known him since he was just starting his teenage years, voice just starting to develop into the one that he has right now. He knows Wonwoo would never do anything that would deliberately ruin them, he wants this as much as any other person in their team does.
The things he worries about are the things he cannot control, like the public’s opinion of them and the repercussions of the actions that they do that can’t be revoked with a handwritten letter on Instagram—among many other things.
He thinks and thinks, until he has nothing left to overthink and be anxious about and he ends up looking at the window to see that the sun has risen and he has not in fact, gotten any sleep at all.
Seungcheol catches it one day, peeking from the post that’s across their back-door gate, quietly observing their place at around 11 at night.
They have just gotten back from a schedule, a radio show recording, and all he had planned to do was honestly get cleaned up and then go to bed after. But now he’s alarmed, there’s a tall person (probably near his height) that’s wearing a dark windbreaker jacket and cap just watching their apartment, watching straight through Seungcheol’s room if he didn’t have his curtains down.
He goes around, trying not to get caught and makes the trek to the other side of the street so he can corner the person from behind.
He’s been taking martial arts, he knows how to fight (you know, in case it happens) but his plan more or less was just to scare the person off.
From behind he can already see, and he has to recalibrate a bit on his plan because it’s actually a girl, and he’s tiptoeing so that he’s not seen—going off to the side where he’s not as visible and his shadow won’t give away either.
Definitely a sasaeng of some sort.
He’s already so close, just a couple more steps in—and when he pounces, raising his voice and saying Ya! towards the woman’s back, she does the unimaginable (at least for Seungcheol’s part) and turns around, flailing her arm smacking Seungcheol’s face and nose and then kicking him in the crotch area so he ends up falling to the ground clutching his family jewels.
It hurts like hell, and he’s out there whimpering in pain while the woman steps back to look at the damage.
“Choi Seungcheol?” she says, trying to assess the situation and crouches down to his level (lying on the ground, pathetically). A pair of doe eyes are trained on him as she leans forward, trying to check if it really was Seungcheol’s form on the ground.
“Why did you hit me!?”
“Why did you yell at me?” she answers back, tone not mad but a bit in disbelief.
He coughs up, and then tries to get up the moment he feels a bit more recovered. Miss doe eyes gets up and straightens her jeans as well, like he’s not there even and she just bent to pick up a penny.
“I’m not answering that until you answer my question.” He stands, and hopes he didn’t rip his favorite going out pants after getting kicked in the nuts.
“Well I hit by instinct!” she defends herself, and Seungcheol tries to figure out if he’d seen her before somewhere. If she’s a sasaeng, they more or less are the same people who try to follow them on airports and schedules so he would know if she is.
Her doe eyes are complementary to her whole physique, light blond hair falling up to her shoulders tucked under the black cap and slightly red lips—but its probably due to the fact that it’s cold outside and she’s just wearing nothing but a light jacket.
By the end of the day, Seungcheol will always be a guy.
“Well I was just wondering why are you being a creep and stalking our place out?” he says directly, not even trying to make it sound image appropriate wise for him. There are no cameras around them except for probably the neighborhood CCTV, and this person is in any way a threat to him and his bandmates.
“I’m from Dispatch.” She admits, quite easily. “I’m staking out because one of you are my inside scoop.”
“You’re a bad reporter.” He says, trying not to laugh.
She’s rather insulted about that, putting her hand on her waist.
“And you would know that because?”
“You didn’t even try to conceal yourself, I can see you from when I got out of the van and you’re not even keeping your identity a secret.”
She scoffs, rolling her eyes at him like he’s been pulling words out of his own ass in front of her.
“Well, I don’t need to conceal myself and who I am—usually your kind have your heads way up there in the clouds for you to even notice that people like me are always watching.”
“Your kind?” he says, raising his eyebrow at her.
“Yeah, celebrities. Idols especially. You think the world always revolves around you, it’s annoying actually but it makes my job easier.”
“Well, whatever it is you’re working on right now—this is just going to be fruitless for you because it’s probably not worth it.” He tells her, tries to check if she’s going to be taking the bait.
“Don’t lie to me, I know you know Wonwoo’s dating an idol.” She namedrops him, and Seungcheol tries not to show any emotion.
“No, he’s not.”
Miss doe eyes chuckles, reaches for her camera and flickers the buttons for a while before she shoves the screen in front of Seungcheol’s face. It’s a picture of Wonwoo outside a heavily tinted car, but you can see Soonyoung’s face vaguely from the opened window.
Hong Jisoo, as she introduces herself to him and is stated on the calling card she gave him, is the same age as Seungcheol. He would have thought she was a year or so younger, probably, but no.
After getting over the initial shock of getting kicked in the balls, he gets propositioned by her—which is why he finds himself almost 3 weeks later, trying to be discreet while sitting in on an empty café just right outside of Seoul. Jisoo wanted it to be the next day, but he’s way too busy—and she’s even busier with the amount of people and deadlines she’s chasing at the moment so it takes them that long before getting an actual date to meet.
It’s not a date! He corrects himself in the head. It’s a business meeting.
He doesn’t even know why he agreed to meet her, he claims its probably a momentary lapse of judgment. He could easily direct this to the company instead, but then he thinks about how management would definitely want Wonwoo to break up with Soonyoung to nip it in the bud, and he doesn’t know what that would do to Wonwoo. In the end, if there’s any way to keep it behind wraps that wouldn’t make Wonwoo want to kill himself out of heartbreak, Seungcheol would do it.
(The Evil Seungcheol in his head knows that this isn’t even all of the reason at all.)
Jisoo arrives a bit after he did, and he knows its her because of the tall gazelle-like figure walking its way towards him. She’s in prettier clothes this time, albeit still casual. A light blue long sleeved top paired with jeans and a light brown coat, a laptop bag on one hand. Her short hair is down, and since it’s a bright day outside he can see more of what she actually looks like beyond the doe eyes.
Too pretty to be working for a scheming company and not as a celebrity instead—his mind concludes but he doesn’t say it out loud and just nods when Jisoo smiles at him.
“Did I come too late?” she asks, a bit too nicely with the tone compared to their last encounter and he shakes his head.
“I just arrived as well.” He says as she sits on the chair across him. The café is way too empty so he doesn’t need to worry about people staring, and he’s facing the entrance but not too revealed so he would know if he needs to hide as well.
“Thanks for agreeing to meet up, its much easier to talk about it in person than over the phone.” She says and he shrugs.
“So, what’s the proposition?” he asks, a bit impatient and she laughs at him.
“Not even a hi, how have you been since the last time I scared you?” she laughs, and waves the barista to order.
“If I remember it correctly, I was the one who got off with the worst injury.”
“Like you barely felt that.”
He’s about to come up with an even smarter remark at that supposedly but the barista comes, and takes their coffee order.
“Okay so—” she pulls out her laptop from her bag and sets it in front of them. “I know you have information on Won—”
“Shh—” he shushes her, but she only raises her eyebrows at him.
“It’s not like people will hear.”
“I don’t like it either way.”
“Fine.” She resigns, a bit annoyed. “You have information on them, which is what I need right now.”
“What makes you say that I’m willing to give you information? He’s on my team.” He strengthens out, but she doesn’t even get intimidated. Just looks warm and nice as usual.
“Would you rather have me create a more heinous of a clickbait news about them, and potentially ruin your team and hers—or would you rather create the narrative yourself?” she asks him with a glint in her eyes, the way she probably does when she gets mischievous about something (Seungcheol assumes). “Also, you came all the way here, you wouldn’t if you didn’t have an inkling of interest on participating at my deal.”
“What if I came all the way here just because I’m interested in you?” he tries to catch her off-guard as a joke, but she laughs, almost snorting at the disbelief.
“You didn’t tell me you’re funny too, that should be on your wiki profile.” She says, going back to typing on her laptop instead. “I’m offering you a very good deal here Choi Seungcheol, and I usually don’t offer things.”
“What gives me the reassurance that you won’t go against my back and write something that I didn’t agree to?”
“I’m loyal, and this is my apology for kicking you in your dick. I’m sure your fangirls would hound me if they knew I hurt their precious oppa—“ she says with a mocking tone and finger quotes in the air.
“Wow, thank you for being so generous then.” He says, and she smiles, scrunching her eyes until they turn into tiny crescents.
“You’re welcome. So, how long have they been dating?” she quips and he leans in on the table.
“I don’t know actually.”
“You’re useless. I guess I’ll make up something about them and then ruin it all—”
“You’re evil…” he has the realization, and she laughs at him once again.
“Come on. You and I both know we don’t have all day for this—”
“I have actually—”
“Shut up you do not, so if you don’t cooperate I’ll basically just scrap this idea and the benefits I was supposed to offer—”
“Okay, we’re talking benefits. What does me, an idol group member, benefit from helping you, a tabloid writer?”
“First of all, I’m a journalist. Secondly, if you give me more solid information and let me release the scoop I get promoted to a Supervisory level in Dispatch. I get to choose whichever group I can push for good publicity, and bad publicity. I know you know this already, but we get idol groups from SM, Woollim, and Starship that we promote on a monthly basis on all platforms, and we are legally obligated to not release scandals about them, right? So—in favor of one scandal, I’m basically going to save you from more scandals and help boost your team’s brand image.” She says it all in one breath, and yet she never ran out of it.
Seungcheol weighs the pros and cons, and there’s so much information swimming that he doesn’t know what to say or think. His brain is too overloaded for this, he shouldn’t have come here.
“Do you need my answer now on this?”
“Preferably so, but if you delay it again I’m going to start thinking you have a crush on me and just want to keep on meeting me.” She retorts.
“You wish.” He scoffs, and then runs his fingers through his hair. “Let me—let me think about it, okay? It’s a good deal, Jisoo. It’s a really good deal. But I can’t have my decision backfire on my team and our company and more importantly, the person involved.”
“Okay, that’s fair.”
Before he can say anything, their coffee arrives—and he almost dunks it down. Suddenly he’s very thirsty.
Silence envelops them, and the only thing that can be heard every now and then is Jisoo’s fingers typing rapidly on her laptop. She’s focused on whatever work she’s doing at the moment, and Seungcheol just sits there with his coffee thinking about how he got there and what kind of life choices has Wonwoo dating led him to take.
“Is there anything that I can do, literally anything, so that you don’t get to release this news?” he caves in and tries the pleading approach, placing clasped hands on the table that makes Jisoo look up from her laptop.
“Yeah, an even bigger scoop. Although it’s very hard to kind of top off hot popular idol with rising idol dating news.”
“So, I can’t convince you to not push through with this scoop?”
“No can do, sorry.”
“Nothing?”
Jisoo acts like she’s thinking, and then frowns.
“None.”
“Not even a date with me?” Seungcheol propositions, and Jisoo laughs. She laughs so loud that it echoes in the café, and Seungcheol wants to sink on to his seat.
“I gotta hand it to you, I didn’t expect that.” She keeps on laughing, and on her stomach and head thrown back. “Wow, idols really are amazing. The level of self confidence is just so high.”
“I’m desperate here okay!” he claims, and she doesn’t even have an inch of trust in him on her face.
“If you’re desperate, you’d either say yes to me—or find a bigger scoop yourself.”
Jisoo’s phone rings before he could answer, and she motions at him to wait and accepts the call. She makes a couple of noncommittal noises, and a yeah, be right there before dropping off the call.
“Well, that sucks, because I have to go. I’ll give you a little bit more time, Seungcheol-ssi.” she says as she picks up her stuff and shove it back to her bag.
“Think about it.”
He does think about it.
(He will not admit, but he also thinks of her. But he shoves it down back to the bottom of his brain like a kid trying to wrestle a pool floatie.)
Instead of letting himself be eaten by anxiety worms, he talks to Wonwoo. He tells him that he hasn’t told the company yet because he has a feeling they will get them to break up if they find out, and if Seungcheol’s letting this scandal be one of his battles then so be it.
Wonwoo is pensive, probably thinking of what to do. Seungcheol knows he doesn’t want to break up with her, nobody would ever want to if ever he was in his situation anyway.
“Do you trust this Dispatch girl hyung?” Wonwoo asks him, and he thinks about it. Does he trust her?
Sure, she seems harmless, but there’s the nagging feeling at the back of his head that he still doesn’t know her, and the deal seems too good to be true. “Because if you trust her, then I trust your judgment hyung. I think it’s much better if we have a control on the situation than for it to be released without any consent whatsoever. No one would know anyway, except me you and her.” Wonwoo says, and Seungcheol lets himself deflate on the corner of his bed.
“If the company does get involved and they make us break up, so be it. We’ll let them believe we’ve actually broken up, but we’ll just keep it lowkey. It’s not like its out first time hiding it hyung, I think you worry too much.”
“I worry about you Wonwoo-yah. I worry about the team. I worry about everything and everyone, that’s my job.” He says, playing with the tag of one of the plushies on his bed from the fans.
“Try to worry less and enjoy life hyung. It’s too short. Go live your life out there, spend time with nature, ask that dispatch girl out on a date—”
“I tried it once, didn’t work.”
“Maybe you need to try harder hyung. I got my girlfriend through persistence.”
“Wasn’t it because you’re a weirdo dancing their songs on variety show—”
“That is persistence hyung.”
“Besides, I don’t want to date. I have you to take care of, and then what if some of the other boys are secretly dating as well and I have to think of ways to cover up for them?”
Wonwoo leans back on the bed, letting his head fall beside Seungcheol’s thigh.
“Hyung. We’re not the same old 12 and 14-year olds that would flock to you like moths to a light whenever you make us food when we were young. The boys can handle themselves, I can handle myself. If anything happens to the team, we’ll take accountability for what we did.” He says, playing with another plushie that’s beside Seungcheol. “We can’t guarantee not making reckless actions, but we try not to because we’re idols. You can’t just tell yourself you don’t want to date because you have to take care of us—sorry hyung but news flash, we will disband in the future and go on our separate ways.”
“Wow, way to not get less sentimental there Wonwoo-yah.”
“I’m just saying! I want you to be able to reach that point and have someone in your life rather than just nag at us.”
“I love you too Wonwoo-yah. Thank you for letting me know that your first agenda of action after disbandment is leaving me to rot in a ditch.”
“You know what I mean hyung.” Wonwoo says rather conclusively, and he does know what he means.
It’s been years for him since he’s taken up the role of being a leader, and its hard to unlearn things and beliefs that he had from long time ago. The thought of them disbanding in the future hasn’t even crossed his mind, but it makes him think about things.
He meets Jisoo this time in a café near their company. She says she’s just squeezing this meetup in between deadlines.
(What Seungcheol doesn’t know is that Jisoo moves all her afternoon appointments for the next day, and specifically makes time for him. What he won’t know won’t hurt him.)
He comes with caution (you can never be too sure) and spots her sitting near a big potted plant hiding the back of the café near the restrooms.
She sits facing the window, so naturally Seungcheol slides in on the booth that’s facing her.
“You better have something good for me.”
“Let’s do it.” He says, a bit too eager, and she purses her lips to a smile.
“I know you would agree.”
“Now don’t get too cocky—”
She isn’t even listening to him at this point, already typing away at her laptop a mile a minute.
“We can do it here right now, so you can review and see for yourself. While you’re too busy trying to decide, I tried to save your asses from getting outed by some random small news site.”
“Should I thank you for that?” he asks her, and she pouts a little.
He finds it cute. Internally, he punches his Evil Seungcheol persona in the jaw trying to make insinuations.
“Of course. I’m going above and beyond for you and your little bandmate.”
“We didn’t ask you though.”
“Well if I didn’t stop them there’s no use for us meeting anymore is there?” she says, and he can’t help but plaster a grin on his face.
“Oh my god, you like me.”
“I don’t mean that.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I could argue with you all day.” He says and she raises her eyebrows at him.
“Is this a kink? Are you exhibiting your kink right now?”
“Why? Does it turn you on?”
“Okay, we’re not going to get anything done today if we keep on fighting—” she doesn’t answer and just turns to scoot to the side of Seungcheol’s booth, so they’re sitting beside each other. Seungcheol can smell her perfume, probably something floral and sweet. She doesn’t pay much attention if Seungcheol’s being weird beside her, and just starts typing on her laptop to create the article.
“I’m going to keep on writing and if there’s something you want me to change, just let me know.” She says and he nods.
“By the way, why do you think I should trust that you’ll really do what you say and not betray me?” he pipes up and she looks at him incredulous.
“Are you kidding me right now? I’m not going to betray you Seungcheol.” She says with a sigh, like she’s too tired to have this conversation anymore. “You have some real trust issues.”
“I want you to swear on something, or like I don’t know. Sign a contract. So, I can sue you.” He presses, as annoying as he is, and Jisoo stops typing on her laptop.
“Fine. If and by any moment, that I start to actually betray you on this deal, I’ll let you take me out on a date.” She says.
“Aren’t you just going to use that so you can reveal a dating news about me?” he asks and she almost opens her eyes wide like a saucer at him.
“And risk a photograph of me being out there for your fans to chew on and ruin their y/n delusions? No thank you, this is a punishment for me.” She says, and then goes back to typing.
“Fine, one date—and you make Cloudy participate in a special photoshoot for our comeback promotions.”
“Are you that insistent that I’ll betray you?”
“I don’t trust women who look like angels, they’re probably devils.”
“Are you saying that I look like an angel?”
“I’m saying I don’t trust you and you’re the devil.”
Jisoo doesn’t reply any more to that, just typing away on her laptop and Seungcheol falls victim to the awkward silence syndrome. He always feels weird when he’s with her, like he wants to impress her to get amazed at him but at the same time its fun trying to piss her off and also, he’s not usually getting the reaction he wants from her so it’s all so frustrating. She’s unpredictable for him, too out of control for him to get—and he knows how to get people. Some girls like aegyo. Some girls like the cold type. Some girls like the boy next door.
“Okay, now check this.” Jisoo faces her laptop to him and he reads the article, suggesting a couple of items here and there.
“This is the best thing I could do for this scenario. Now I can’t guarantee that there are no crazies out there, but it’s probably going to be not as bad as it would be. They have a prior history in that variety show too, so that helps.” She explains, and Seungcheol nods.
“I guess that wraps up our work here.” She makes some final typing sounds, probably sending off the news to the company. “You’ll take care of your company’s side, and I’ll do the rest.”
“I don’t know whether to thank you or not because this is such a weird setup—”
“You can thank me, it’s fine.”
“—but we’ll see. I don’t believe it until I see the article up.”
“You have so little trust in me, I’m starting to get sad. I’m not so desperate for a date with you, so get ready to be disappointed that you’re wrong and I’m right.” She says, putting her laptop in her bag carefully this time before getting up, preparing to leave.
Seungcheol doesn’t know if they’ll see each other again or whatever, but before he does anything stupid Jisoo is already up and ready to leave—and puts a palm in front of his face instead of waving bye like a normal person.
He’s not a normal person either, so he puts a palm in front of her face too.
The news gets out, exactly the way Seungcheol watched Jisoo write it to the way it is.
Seungcheol doesn’t know if its because the timing is right, or the wording is right or whatever—but it doesn’t feel as bad. They don’t seem to lose fans, and no crying people on the timeline when he searched their group’s name on Twitter.
Lots of support for Wonwoo, even more for Soonyoung. There’s probably some who are sad that their idol is dating, but based on the feedback its more overwhelming than not. Seungcheol sits down with Wonwoo and the other members in their board room to discuss. Wonwoo plans on confirming, and the management doesn’t seem to like that too much. They call Soonyoung’s company, a bigger one than theirs so it probably feels right that they release a statement first.
Their CEO is mad, as he should be, but because of the good reception within the first hour he’s not as murderous as Seungcheol thought he’d be. Wonwoo did break an unspoken rule, and he’s probably going to get punished for it as well.
Both parties confirm the news after much deliberation (3 hours to be exact, and Seungcheol is already so jittery by 2nd hour that he’s already ready to confess) and Wonwoo is suspended in doing certain activities until further notice. Definitely getting lesser lines or screentime in the next comeback MV too. Seungcheol tries to talk him through it, but Wonwoo’s happier that he doesn’t have to quit the team for having an ugly dating scandal.
Once they’re all mostly settled, they go back to their schedule (which is mostly just practicing), but Seungcheol makes sure to send a quick message to Jisoo.
Okay, I trust you now.
I didn’t ask if you did.
Just kidding.
You’re welcome, by the way. You probably forgot to say thank you in your last message ^^
Now that we’re even, can I make a blind item about an idol getting kicked in the street in the crotch for being a creep?
It’s been a couple of months since the dating news was released and it quickly died down after more important and relevant news came out—and Seungcheol honestly feels quite stupid for fussing so much. He grew up watching his sunbaes get worse response when it comes to scandals, so he felt paranoid and anxious (a lot) about what was going to them and Wonwoo—but really it didn’t quite feel as bad. The fans are quick to forgive and forget, and they all go on like it never happened. Seungcheol needs to cut back on energy drinks and caffeine, it’s definitely doing something to his brain that sends him into an overdrive.
It doesn’t surprise him as well when Seungcheol gets called to the board room and he finds several employees of Dispatch looking at him expectantly on a random Tuesday. There’s no familiar face in the room, so Seungcheol actually gets to listen and talk instead of probably getting distracted to banter.
The CEO tells him about what was discussed prior to him entering, with Cloudy being offered a special promotion from Dispatch’s end. Photoshoots, news articles, exclusive interviews and video promotions on Youtube Shorts and Tiktok. It’s not too bad, he thinks—and especially with their upcoming comeback and concerts it may be a good thing to strike while the iron is hot.
He reviews the terms and conditions presented on paper, and makes necessary comments on those he needs to. He likes their CEO like that, giving him a voice when it comes to these things for his group.
The meeting is fruitful, and they plan to kick off the project in a couple of weeks after the preparing the concept and content.
He thinks on whether he wants to call or send a text to Jisoo, and actually thinks about it for quite a while. They have met multiple times already for them to be on call basis, but he can’t predict Jisoo and worries about getting chastised for calling. He shakes his head to stop overthinking and calls her, leaning on the pillar of the wall outside the board room in the hopes that she answers.
“Hey.” He tries to be casual when the line clicks and Jisoo answers.
“Let me take a guess, you’ve just met the team?” she asks, without even saying hi back or acknowledging him by name.
“Yup, we just finished the meeting. I’ll brief the boys about it and will wait for the next information on the schedule.”
“Great, I already have some ideas in mind—I’m sure your annoying ass would like it.”
“You’re going to be involved in this?” he asks, trying to hide the excitement in his voice. He hopes he didn’t fail.
“Well it was my idea after all—”
“Okay sorry that’s a stupid question, I was just thinking now that you’re probably promoted you’d step down on doing the legwork.”
“I’m too nice to be locked on a cubicle in the office, I need to be out there meeting people and spreading my kindness and angelic smiles to them.” He can hear her almost singsong it, and he thinks she’s in a rather jolly mood.
“I don’t think they’ll find you angelic or kind when they find out your evil side…”
“If I was evil, I wouldn’t help you and do my end of the bargain.”
“Then I would sue you in court, and then get that date you swore on.”
“You’re so obsessed on going on a date with me, you know?”
He laughs, and then switches his phone to his other ear.
“It’s more fun to ask when I know it’s not happening.”
“Hmm, maybe I’ll rob away your fun one of these days and go out with you so you get it out of your system. Wow, even with that I’m still being nice to you!”
He laughs at that and gets caught by Seokmin and Seungkwan passing by to probably go to the cafeteria. They give him weird looks and he takes it his cue to unfortunately drop the call.
“I’ll take a rain check on that depending on what mood you’re in when I talk to you again. Hold on, I gotta go now.”
“Okay, whatever—go do your vlive for your fans or whatever male boy group idols do in their past time.”
“Bye.”
He drops the call and catches up to Seokmin and Seungkwan with their water bottles.
“Who were you talking to hyung?” Seokmin asks.
“Nobody, just a friend.”
Jisoo is there for the interview and photoshoot for their first release.
The location is set in their company building, so it’s nothing too fancy, but they have the plain backgrounds and some clothes to wear for it. They already got a briefing for the flow, so all they just have to do after arrival is to start preparing.
She’s wearing a long-sleeved polo top tucked in on her jeans, with her hair long enough now to be tied up in a messy bun. It’s a bit hot, so Seungcheol watches her fan her face every now and then. She’s quite different from what he remembers her when they last met. He’s not sure if it’s because it was a long time ago already and his memories may be fooling him or it’s because she has this air of confidence on her now. She has it before, but right now its more prominent.
Seungcheol wipes the corner of his mouth, just in case. It did feel a bit dry.
She’s always so witty and sharp around him that it’s kind of giving him whiplash seeing her like this, kind and gentle to the staff and so, so delicate with her movement. It’s kind of like watching a ballerina move, and with those doe eyes he gives even more of a deer-like feeling.
He goes to move to another spot before someone notices him staring.
He gets busier after that, being ushered from one place to another for the shoot and the interview. It takes them a while to finish, and it’s already considered a late lunch when they decided to wrap the photoshoot and resume after lunch for the group interview.
He’s seated with Wonwoo eating their bibimbap in peace when a tray gets dropped in front of them, and Seungcheol doesn’t even need to raise his head to know it’s her. He kind of feels her presence around him all the time when she’s close (and mostly smells her perfume).
“Fancy meeting you here, Jeon Wonwoo!” she chirps, and Seungcheol swallows whatever he’s chewing.
“Wonwoo, this is Jisoo. She’s the dispatch girl I was talking to you about.” He introduces her, and she kind of gives a little pout, like a ducky.
“Dispatch girl? Out of all the things you’ve called me I’m still Dispatch girl?”
“Well are you not the Dispatch girl.”
“Considering our history, I would have expected a better name—or like I don’t know. Jisoo-ssi. Like my real name.”
“Boring. Dispatch girl is always going to sound trendy.”
“Whatever, Seungcheol.” She says, beginning to pick on her food to eat. “Anyway, I was talking to Wonwoo.” She faces him, and Wonwoo kind of gets caught by surprise like a cat.
“Um, yeah. Hi.”
They talk about some things that Seungcheol doesn’t pay attention to, mostly because he’s distracted with the way Jisoo’s lips move as she talks, and how her hands are sitting delicately on top of the table and her ring on her pinky finger, a little band with a daisy on it, glitters when the light hits it and Seungcheol can still smell that sweet, floral scent even more so that she’s in front of him.
(Evil Seungcheol’s giving him a thousand thoughts per minute, and Seungcheol doesn’t even know how to keep up)
He snaps out of his daze when he realizes Wonwoo has already left his side and he’s alone with Jisoo on the table, and she’s now focused on him.
“What?” he asks, clearly just tuning in to the world after getting lost on Jisoo land.
“I said you’re cute.” She says, and he squints his eyes at her.
“That is not what you said.”
“Well you weren’t listening, so I’m not repeating it again.”
“So mean.”
“Have you not gotten used to it yet?”
“I don’t think I ever will.”
(Seungcheol does in fact get used to it, and years later in their wedding reception Jisoo reveals that she told him they could go on a date after the shoot that day, but her dazed off husband was just not listening at all to her and missed the chance, fumbling the bag for at least 5 more years.
He tells her it’s because he got distracted by her scent, and somewhere in the guest seats Seungkwan makes a gagging sound as a joke.)