after a scandal, wooyoung, a defunct k-pop idol, runs away to his sister's hometown. he craves anonymity, yet his quiet routine is disrupted by a chance encounter- a local with a warm presence, who offers him a glimpse of a life beyond the spotlight...
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"dear... dear? is dear the right word to use?" wooyoung mumbled to himself, licking his lips and rethinking the words he'd written on the small yellow notepad.
"give it here," seonghwa aggressively snatched the notepad from his grasp. he remained silent for a few seconds as he read the words, his face drawn into a frown, while wooyoung looked hopeful.
"this is good!" jongho, who was leaning over seonghwa's shoulder to look at the scribbles on the paper, said with a cheerful smile. "so when—"
"no," said seonghwa, shaking his head. "no, no, and no." he slammed the notepad down on the table, and wooyoung scrambled to retrieve it. meanwhile, seonghwa kept his stern and serious gaze fixed on wooyoung. "you're being too nice, man. are you really going to let people walk over you like that? huh," he huffed, crossing his arms and one leg over the other. "how embarrassing for you."
with a pout, wooyoung picked up the fountain pen on the table and resumed scribbling words on the page at the rate of a turtle because he was never good with words. "how about this?" he asked. "hey everyone. so there was this thing about me, and it was totally untrue. some people said some uncool things, but now there's proof that it's all fake, which is cool. yay—"
"enough. just stop talking." this time, it was jongho's turn to shake his head.
wooyoung slumped back in his chair, glaring at the notepad like it was the source of all his problems. "well, then why don't one of you write it?" he grumbled, tossing the pen aside.
seonghwa sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "wooyoung, you need to be assertive!" he exclaimed, "be professional, but at the same time, the words need to come from your heart. but also, don't be so nice to people who don't deserve it."
jongho clicked his tongue. "not everyone turned against him, you know?!" he glared at seonghwa before returning his gaze to wooyoung. "just don't make it sound like you're trying too hard."
wooyoung groaned, rubbing his temples. "alright, alright. let's try this again." he took a deep breath, picked up the pen, and started scribbling again.
"how about some hashtags at the end?" jongho spoke up, taking off his red cap with the logo of his chicken shop and placing it on the table. "like, hashtag wooyoung-is-not-cancelled, hashtag career-suicide-who?, hashtag deep-regret—"
"were you always this stupid?" seonghwa looked at him, his face contorted with disgust.
before the two could get into a full-fledged argument, yeonjin entered the shop through the front door. she was still in her pyjamas, rubbing her tired eyes and clearly unconcerned about fixing her messy blue-black hair.
"seonghwa, jongho? what are you guys doing here?" she spoke through a yawn, dragging her feet to the beanbags in the store's corner.
"what about you? why aren't you taking care of your own shop?" seonghwa responded, "are you really going to keep making wooyoung watch your shop so you can sleep for an extra hour or two?"
