Come Back

It was very rare for the senior manager to stay behind in the practice room. I thought it was because the company considered this single important, but then I started to wonder if it was to facilitate a meeting with Lee Seong. If it were CEO Myung, he would likely prioritize maintaining a smooth relationship with Lee Seong over making this single a hit. After all, he was the kind of person who would make such a judgment.

As I climbed the steep stairs leading to the first floor, I felt my phone, which I had been holding tightly in my pocket, buzz.

*“Yeah, come sit in the passenger seat^^”*

The cheerful reply made me smile faintly, and I quickly pulled the edge of my hoodie to cover my face, trying to hide the grin.

When I stepped outside, a group of six or seven fans immediately rushed toward me. My manager wrapped his arm around my shoulder and quickened my pace.

“Other residents are around. Keep it down, please. Got it? Otherwise, we’ll have to change the practice room again.”

Hearing the manager’s voice as he warned the fans, I lowered my head and reflexively accepted letters and gifts that were handed to me.

I saw the familiar sedan flashing its headlights, signaling me. As the manager defended me from the crowd, I quickly ran toward the passenger side and jumped into the car.

“Choi Hong-seo, I love you! Let’s get married in three years! I’ll buy a house and contact you!”

Someone shouted from outside the closed door, and I heard the manager scolding them angrily.

I practically jumped into the passenger seat and looked toward the driver’s side. Lee Seong was looking out the window, toward the fans. I couldn’t see his expression from this angle, but I noticed that his jaw and cheek muscles were tense, much more than usual.

“Proposing to someone else’s lover like that… Ah… that’s not very polite, is it?”

His hand gripping the top of the steering wheel tightened, and his knuckles turned pale yellow. His voice sounded serious. Could it be… he’s serious? No way, right? He must be joking.

I stretched my neck, trying to peek at his face, but just then, he turned toward me. Then, with his right hand, he grabbed my left hand tightly and leaned forward. His handsome face, even sharper in the dark, came closer.

“No, right? You’re gonna do it with me?”

“What… what are you talking about…”

Without realizing it, I pulled back slightly. But Lee Seong tightened his grip on my hand, pulling me closer, not letting me get away. His serious expression was urging me for an answer.

“Marriage. You heard me, right?”

“P-Please, let’s go. Quickly.”

Heat rushed to my face in an instant. It was dark, so maybe he wouldn’t see, but I felt like he could tell everything. I pushed his shoulder away and raised my arm to cover the lower half of my face. Although the fans had mostly disappeared from view, and the car windows were tinted dark, I still couldn’t stop glancing outside. Not because I was anxious, but because I was embarrassed…

“Where are we going? Didn’t you need to go back to practice?”

“It’s my day off today.”

I pushed him to grab the wheel again, and he started the car slowly, still puzzled by the idea of a day off. As the sedan passed the practice room, I could hear the loud screams of fans again. Some of them ignored the manager’s attempts to stop them and chased the car. After the car left the alley and entered a main road, he finally seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. He glanced at the side mirror and, with a guilty tone, spoke.

“Work… Is it because of me? I wasn’t trying to be a nuisance, really.”

“No, it’s just that the members haven’t been able to focus on practice because they haven’t been sleeping well lately.”

“Hm… I see, they haven’t had much sleep.”

Even though I was tired, I used to make sure to talk for at least an hour before going to bed, but lately, I couldn’t do that. After finishing my schedule and practice, by the time I got back to the dorm, took a shower, and lay down, Lee Seong would already be deep asleep. He, too, had to maintain his condition, so I couldn’t wake him up at 3 or 4 a.m. just to talk.

These days, my routine was to slowly scroll through the messages or pictures he’d sent before bed and then fall asleep. Sometimes, I didn’t even get to finish reading them before I fell asleep.

Although I was disappointed I couldn’t see him often, maybe it was a blessing to be so busy and exhausted that I would collapse into sleep. Otherwise, my mind wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

The preparations for the new song were important, but… Seo Kyung Lee, that bastard, had just made his appearance.

After stopping behind cars that were turning toward Gangnam Station, Lee Seong placed his hand on my hood and gently ruffled my hair.

“We haven’t seen each other in three days, huh?”

I nodded, then glanced at him. Gathering some courage, I made eye contact and said, “I missed you.”

“…”

His eyes widened in surprise, as though he wasn’t expecting such a confession. Then, in the next moment, a smile spread across his face. He quickly tried to hide the smile by pressing his lips together, but it was no use. His lips couldn’t suppress the smile, almost like someone was tickling him.

He had never said he missed me first, even though I always replied with “me too” when he said it… He was so happy with just this one small sentence…

Unable to take my eyes off his face as he tried to hold in his laughter, Lee Seong moved his hand from my head to the back of my neck, pulling my face toward his. A quick, light kiss brushed my lips.

“Really missed me? I thought with the busy preparations for the new song, you’d be thinking about me less, but I was trying to be understanding.”

“It’s true it’s been busy… but I still think about you all the time.”

“Ah…”

This time, he groaned in pain, as though trying to hold back a twinge in his chest while grabbing his left side. Then, he reached out and lightly pinched my cheek.

“Don’t want to let you go.”

Following the slowly moving cars ahead, his sedan made a right turn. Even though it was past 1 a.m., the lights of cars on Gangnam-daero shimmered in the night.

“I really missed you too. I know you’ve been busy, but I didn’t want to act like a brat and keep asking to see you…”

I felt his gaze turn toward me, so I looked at him too. After a brief eye contact, he turned back to face forward.

“Today, I really couldn’t take it. Three days is the limit.”

“…”

“I thought I was going to die.”

He rested his arm on the cushion of the console box, palm up, and spread his fingers wide, as if signaling me to hold his hand. I quietly slipped my fingers between his.

He looked up at me from under his lowered head and smiled. The satisfied smile without showing his teeth looked somehow sexy, so I absentmindedly moved my fingers with his.

“Then, can you take off your hoodie and show me your face properly?”

“I came straight from practice and I’m all sweaty… My face is a mess.”

“You’re saying that knowing full well I think you’re just cute, right?”

“…I don’t know.”

Even though she answered in a soft voice, Choi Hong-seo hesitated for a moment before pulling down her hoodie. She also took off her glasses and set them on her lap.

“Your hair must have gotten flattened too.”

Muttering to herself, she used her right hand to comb through her hair. As their sedan stopped at a red light at Nonhyeon Station intersection, Lee Seong turned his body to carefully observe Choi Hong-seo’s face.

Every time her head naturally dropped, his left hand reached out and gently lifted her chin.

“You’ve been busy with your schedule all day. You’ve removed all your makeup?”

“I always take it off before practicing. It gets stuffy.”

“You look even more like a little kid now. You look just like a twenty-year-old, and I suddenly feel so nervous.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m worried I’ll get arrested. If I get arrested, I won’t be able to see Hong-seo. Three days is my limit.”

At his playful joke with such a serious face, Choi Hong-seo couldn’t help but smile softly.

“Is it… really that different from the music video shoot?”

A few days ago, during the music video shoot, he had sent a snack truck, which, according to Myung, was from one of UB’s investors. But, Lee Seong probably wanted to brag that it was from ARA’s Lee Seong and itched to tell people.

They had briefly met in the car during the music video shoot, and Choi Hong-seo felt that her current, unmade-up self was so different from the perfectly styled version back then, so without realizing it, she kept trying to hide her face with her hands.

“Even in such a casual outfit, you still look stylish… Your bare face is just as beautiful with all your features so sharp… I was really admiring how my girlfriend is an idol.”

Flustered by the direct compliment, Choi Hong-seo tried to turn her face away, but Lee Seong wouldn’t let her go, tightening his grip on her chin and pulling her closer.

“I understand why fans are so obsessed, wanting to marry you like that. It’s not their fault.”

“……”

“But I’m not going to give you up.”

It was hard to tell if he was joking or being serious. With just his tone and expression, it was impossible to tell. At the end of his sentence, he suddenly kissed her cheek again, then started driving the car. He didn’t seem to care about the traffic light, as if he already knew what was happening.

“You just need me to drop you off at the dorm, right?”

If they continued straight ahead and crossed Han River Bridge, the dorm would be just around the corner.

“I brought some of your favorite snacks, the ones you liked when you came to my place last time. You can share them with the members. If it’s too late today, you can do it tomorrow. Okay?”

He gently waved their intertwined hands, then raised them to kiss the back of her hand. Watching his profile, Choi Hong-seo’s lips puckered slightly.

“I still want to stay with you a little longer…”

“Don’t test my self-control. No matter how much you charm me, I’ll still drop you off at the dorm.”

“Why?”

His voice sounded pouty, as if she couldn’t understand. Lee Seong glanced at her with a concerned expression.

“You look really tired. You’ll be on this kind of schedule for a while, so how could I ask to stay with you?”

Even though she was nodding off, wanting to stay a little longer, she knew that seeing her act like that would make him uncomfortable. Still, feeling disappointed about not being able to spend more time with him, she kissed the edge of his right shoulder more boldly than usual. That night, she really didn’t want to part from him, so she ended up doing something she wouldn’t normally do.

He took their intertwined hands and placed them over his left chest, gently rubbing her hand in a circular motion over his heart.

“No matter how much you try, it’s no use… really no use… even if you act so cute… I’m sending you back…”

He muttered to himself as if hypnotizing himself. Choi Hong-seo smiled while her lips were still pressed against his shoulder.

“I just want to kidnap you and make you retire from the entertainment industry and lock you away so I can see only you. Is that crazy?”

“You could do that.”

“Really?”

“Kidnap, retire, lock up… If it’s you doing it, I’m okay with it.”

If that were to happen, if ARA’s Lee Seong truly decided to hide her away, even Myung or Lee Seok-kyung wouldn’t be able to find her. In that moment, she thought that perhaps she could be free from everything. She briefly entertained the thought. She kept kissing the edge of his shoulder, pressing her lips on it playfully a few times, thinking that she just wanted to disappear with him like this.

The hands they had intertwined suddenly tightened with such force that it almost hurt, and he spoke in a deliberately serious tone.

“Don’t say things like that.”

“……”

“If you say things like that, I’ll take it seriously, so you should be careful.”