Chapter 266: Aftermath
It was a familiar ceiling.
As I slowly lifted my heavy eyelids, I assessed the situation spread out before my eyes.
My entire body felt sore, as if I’d been beaten up somewhere.
“Ugh….”
Groaning, I pushed myself upright and realized I was back at the dorm.
Frowning, I hurriedly grabbed the phone lying on the table.
Checking the clock, it was already 1:30 PM.
“The sun’s already high in the sky.”
Unbelievable.
My last memory had cut off at yesterday’s company dinner.
Pressing my throbbing temples hard with my fingers, I got to my feet.
“…….”
Creeeak.
The moment I opened the door, the hyungs sprawled across the sofa came into view.
I was pretty sure they’d drunk way more than I had.
Yet somehow, they all looked perfectly fine.
“Oh? It’s Do Seohan.”
For some reason, Jin Sehyun turned his head while trying to suppress a laugh.
What was with that ominous smile?
While my eyes darted around uneasily, Kang Siwoo emerged from the kitchen holding a glass of water.
“Seohan’s awake?”
“Did I get drunk yesterday?”
“You got properly drunk…?”
At those words, Jin Sehyun started snickering again.
“Do you remember anything?”
“Nothing at all.”
At least up until around two glasses of somaek, my memories had been crystal clear.
After that, I probably got swept up in the atmosphere and started mixing random things together until I completely lost my mind….
It had simply been too long since I last drank, so I failed to pace myself.
Seo Ian let out a small laugh and quietly added,
“You seriously got drunk after barely drinking anything….”
Sure, blacking out was unfortunate, but thankfully there was at least one reassuring thing.
Scratching my head awkwardly, I smiled.
“At least I don’t have any drinking habits.”
I definitely wasn’t the type to go around causing trouble.
To begin with, alcohol made me sleepy almost immediately, so I usually fell asleep before I could even create problems.
But then—
“You think you don’t have drinking habits?”
“Wahahaha!”
What was that reaction supposed to mean?!
“Wait, now I’m nervous.”
Thankfully, it had only been the members there, so it wasn’t a huge issue, but suddenly I felt uneasy.
Before I knew it, my pupils were shaking rapidly.
“I just went to sleep, didn’t I?”
“You?”
Seo Ian, who had been quietly sitting there, grinned brightly and chimed in.
“We got a new thing to brag to Dusty about…!”
“What thing?”
“We saw your drinking habits for the first time!”
“Mhm. It was definitely excellent conversation material.”
“Why’s everyone acting so ominous?”
I frowned and turned toward Jin Sehyun.
He awkwardly cleared his throat before hurriedly waving his hands.
“No, no. You didn’t do anything weird.”
“Right, you just lightly….”
Trailing off, Jin Sehyun smirked before adding,
“Called the CEO to say hello…?”
“…Pardon?”
Are you insane?
“I did what?”
“Yep!”
“I really called the CEO?”
“Apparently…. Shouldn’t you delete the CEO’s number from your phone?”
“AAAAAAH!”
That information made my face naturally twist in horror.
Thankfully, apparently I’d only made a perfectly proper greeting call before hanging up, so the CEO had found it adorable.
Even while drunk, I’d apparently still maintained the bare minimum amount of sanity.
Good job, me…!
But that wasn’t even the biggest issue.
The real problem was that I had absolutely no memory of any of it.
“What kind of nonsense did I say….”
It almost felt like I could remember if I dug hard enough… but everything remained frustratingly blurry.
While I desperately tried pulling fragments of memory together, the hyungs continued exposing more things.
“Oh, and you called Senior Kim Woochan too.”
“…What?”
Was I the type who called random people whenever I got drunk?
I asked in a stiff voice,
“W-What exactly did I say…?”
Considering the person involved, I suddenly felt extremely uneasy.
I turned toward Seo Ian with anxious eyes.
Seo Ian slowly rolled his eyes around before speaking.
“Umm, I don’t really remember exactly. But I think you said something about surviving a long life together in this harsh world?”
“Yeah, I think that’s right.”
“You also said we could do it! Uh… you sounded really passionate!”
“Hahaha….”
This one was even worse.
No wonder my spine had felt chilly the moment I woke up.
Was it because of all the things I’d done last night?
“But why did longevity suddenly come up there?”
“Maybe you really wanted to live a long life.”
“Ahahahaha!”
“Hey, Seohan was serious. He almost sounded teary.”
“Hyung, people get emotional when they drink.”
“So Seohan wants to live a long life~.”
Listening to the hyungs laughing at me, I squeezed my eyes shut tightly.
“But was that really the ‘long life’ kind of longevity? Maybe he just meant he wants a long idol career?”
“That’s obviously what he meant.”
“Guess he’s been worrying a lot about his career….”
“Hey, we can have long careers too! Don’t worry!”
I didn’t have the energy to correct the hyungs’ misunderstanding.
Feeling conflicted, I slowly pulled my phone out of my pocket.
For some reason, I had a feeling there’d be replies waiting, so I opened my messages—
and as expected.
Kim Woochan’s messages sat right at the top.
[Kim Woochan: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[Kim Woochan: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[Kim Woochan: Did you sober up yet?]
[Kim Woochan: Got time this afternoon?]
“Ah….”
Forget longevity.
With slumped shoulders, I muttered quietly,
“I seriously want to die….”
---
A Western restaurant near the company building.
Since it was a holiday, this was the only place still open.
The moment I opened the private room door and entered, Kim Woochan greeted me with a bright smile.
“Congratulations on becoming an adult.”
“Congratulations to you too for becoming another year older, sunbae.”
“…Are you messing with me right now?”
I had struck first because I knew he was definitely going to tease me.
Clearing my throat awkwardly, I added,
“I’m sorry about yesterday.”
“Ah, the drunk phone call? Do you remember it?”
“…….”
“You sounded like you were about to cry yesterday.”
“That’s just your imagination.”
“Your voice was trembling though~.”
I pulled out a napkin and placed it on the table.
Just then, an employee brought over a water bottle, so I poured some into a glass and placed it in front of Kim Woochan.
It was my subtle way of telling him to drink cold water and shut up.
“Ahaha.”
Kim Woochan laughed briefly before tactfully changing the subject.
Stabbing the bread appetizer with his fork, he muttered indifferently,
“I’m twenty-seven now too.”
“Wow, your enlistment’s getting close.”
“You really are messing with me.”
Kim Woochan bit down on his lower lip while glaring at me.
“Ah.”
Wait, why?
Some people went there twice.
“Well, I mean. I’m planning to survive until twenty-seven too.”
You had to stay alive first for that to happen, after all.
Since what I said technically wasn’t wrong, Kim Woochan relaxed his expression and clicked his tongue briefly.
“True. I need to survive first for that to matter too.”
Munching on the appetizer bread, Kim Woochan inhaled deeply.
“Anyway, the reason I called you out today is… it’s about time I told you, isn’t it?”
Now it was finally time to get to the main topic.
Swallowing dryly, I repeated his words back to him.
“The next achievement?”
“Yep. The status window gave me another New Year’s gift….”
Double Million-seller.
It hadn’t even been that long since we completed the previous absurd achievement, yet the status window was already demanding the next one.
The difficulty seemed to be increasing exponentially, and I was already anxious.
Still, no matter what it was, I had to hear it first.
Taking a sip of cold water, I stared straight at Kim Woochan.
“This time, it’s an overseas tour.”
“Ah, an overseas tour.”
Since we were scheduled to debut in Japan at the end of this month, an overseas tour didn’t sound completely unexpected.
I simply nodded without much reaction.
But then—
“Over ten countries.”
“…What?”
“One million cumulative audience members for a single tour.”
…Huh?
The number was so massive that my brain couldn’t process it immediately.
More accurately, I simply couldn’t grasp the scale.
With my mouth hanging open, I slowly repeated Kim Woochan’s words in my head.
And the conclusion was….
“Is this thing trying to kill me?”
Once again, it was another overwhelmingly distant achievement.
---
[Stardust’s definitely going on an overseas tour, right?]
If Stardust goes on a world tour, how big do you think it’ll be?
* 300k? Maybe 500k?
└ Isn’t even that insanely huge?
└ The Way did 700k, so Stardust will probably do around 500k max since they’re still rookies.
└ Isn’t Stardust more popular overseas than The Way though? They even made Billboard??
└ Judging solely from one song’s results is kindaㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Nah, The Way does really well overseas too. They’ve got Japan completely locked down.
* They’re debuting in Japan, right?ㅇㅇ Their first overseas tour probably won’t be that massive.
└ Agreed. They’ll probably focus mostly on Asia.
└ It’ll probably depend on how their Japanese debut performs?
└ But honestly Universe Dust feels like they’d totally hit in Japanㅋㅋㅋㅋ Junseo literally has shoujo manga visualsㅠㅠ
└ They probably already have a decent fanbase over there.
* Wait, they’re holding concerts? When??
└ Nothing’s been announced yet.
└ Please come to Korea tooㅠㅠ Doubles neglecting domestic fans whenever they expand overseas is too much…
└ Nahㅋㅋㅋㅋ Doubles is actually one of the better companiesㅋㅋㅋㅋ At least they still give comebacksㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ 2222 KJ fans cryingㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
└ Sadly, once groups go overseas, domestic schedules naturally become neglected…ㅠㅠ Don’t become too famous overseas… no wait, become famous… no don’t… become famous….
.
.
.
.
“Ten countries… one million cumulative audience members….”
The moment I returned to the dorm, I immediately began estimating rough numbers.
Even by the standards of famous idols who had done overseas tours before, it was obviously a ridiculously demanding target.
“This is brutal.”
Sure, there had been signs of overseas interest lately, but our recognition was still nowhere near enough to fulfill those achievement conditions.
Besides, there was no way Doubles would make Stardust’s very first overseas tour that huge.
We’d need to tour overseas for at least several months, but Stardust was still a rookie group.
During that absence, the public could easily forget about us.
And trying to release albums, do music broadcasts, and maintain other activities during such a packed schedule would basically kill all of us.
“Can we even do this?”
It felt like the surrounding circumstances just weren’t lining up in our favor.
Still, I couldn’t just sit around doing nothing.
I had to do something.
‘Shouldn’t you delete the CEO’s number from your phone?’
Jin Sehyun’s joking comment echoed through my ears.
I’d honestly considered deleting it in case I drunkenly called again someday, but thank goodness I hadn’t.
This was exactly the kind of moment it existed for.
[Hello, CEO. This is Stardust’s Do Seohan….]
Time to use the CEO Card.